Nemesis (hypothetical star)

Not to be confused with the hypothetical planet Tyche.

Artist's conception of Nemesis as a red dwarf seen from a nearby debris field with the Sun visible in the center.

Nemesis is a hypothetical hard-to-detect red dwarf star,^[1] white dwarf star^[2] or brown dwarf,^[3] originally postulated in 1984 to be orbiting the Sun at a distance of about 95,000 AU (1.5 light-years),^[3] somewhat beyond the Oort cloud, to explain a perceived cycle of mass extinctions in the geological record, which seem to occur once per 26 million years.^[3] As of 2011^[update], over 1300 brown dwarfs have been identified and none of them are inside the Solar System.^[4]

More recent theories suggest that other forces, like close passings of other stars, or the angular effect of the galactic gravity plane working against the outer solar orbital plane, may be the cause of orbital perturbations of some outer solar system objects.^[5] In 2010, two astronomers, Melott and Bambach analysed earlier data on outer solar system object orbital patterns and announced that their findings suggest Nemesis couldn't possibly exist.^[2] In 2011, Coryn Bailer-Jones did an analysis of craters on the surface of the Earth and reached the conclusion that the earlier findings of simple periodic patterns (implying periodic comet showers dislodged by a hypothetical Nemesis star) to be statistical artifacts, and found that the crater record shows no evidence for Nemesis.^[6] The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) failed to discover Nemesis in the 1980s. The 2MASS astronomical survey, which ran from 1997 to 2001, failed to detect a star, or brown dwarf, in the solar system.^[7]

Using newer and more powerful infrared telescope technology, able to detect brown dwarfs as cool as 150 Kelvin out to a distance of 10 light-years from the sun,^[8] preliminary results from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE survey) have not, to date, detected Nemesis, although the analysis of the full survey is not yet complete.^[9] Confidence in the existence of an object like Nemesis has drastically diminished, since it is expected it should have been detected in infrared sky surveys before now.^[10][11]

Claimed periodicity of mass extinctions

In 1984, paleontologists David Raup and Jack Sepkoski published a paper claiming that they had identified a statistical periodicity in extinction rates over the last 250 million years using various forms of time series analysis.^[12] They focused on the extinction intensity of fossil families of marine vertebrates, invertebrates, and protozoans, identifying 12 extinction events over the time period in question. The average time interval between extinction events was determined as 26 million years. At the time, two of the identified extinction events (Cretaceous-Tertiary and Late Eocene) could be shown to coincide with large impact events. Although Raup and Sepkoski could not identify the cause of their supposed periodicity, they suggested a possible non-terrestrial connection. The challenge to propose a mechanism was quickly addressed by several teams of astronomers.

Development of the Nemesis hypotheses

Two teams of astronomers, Whitmire and Jackson, and Davis, Hut, and Muller, independently published similar hypotheses to explain Raup and Sepkoski's extinction periodicity in the same issue of the journal Nature.^[13][14] This hypothesis proposes that the Sun may have an undetected companion star in a highly elliptical orbit that periodically disturbs comets in the Oort cloud, causing a large increase of the number of comets visiting the inner Solar System with a consequential increase of impact events on Earth. This became known as the "Nemesis" or "Death Star" hypothesis.

If it does exist, the exact nature of Nemesis is uncertain. Richard A. Muller suggests that the most likely object is a red dwarf with an apparent magnitude between 7 and 12,^[15] while Daniel P. Whitmire and Albert A. Jackson argue for a brown dwarf.^[13] If a red dwarf, it would exist in star catalogs, but its true nature would only be detectable by measuring its parallax; due to orbiting the Sun it would have a very low proper motion and would escape detection by proper motion surveys that have found stars like the 9th-magnitude Barnard's star.

Muller, referring to the date of a recent extinction at 5 million years before the present day, posits that Nemesis has a semi-major axis of about 1.5 light-years (95,000 AU)^[15] and suggests it is located (supported by Yarris, 1987) near Hydra, based on a hypothetical orbit derived from original apogees of a number of atypical long-period comets that describe an orbital arc meeting the specifications of Muller's hypothesis. Richard Muller's most recent paper relevant to the Nemesis theory was published in 2002.^[15] In 2002, Muller speculated that Nemesis was perturbed 400 million years ago by a passing star from a circular orbit into an orbit with an eccentricity of 0.7.^[16]

Orbit of Sedna

The planetoid Sedna has an extra-long and unusual elliptical orbit around the Sun,^[3] ranging between 76 and 975 AU. Sedna’s orbit is estimated to last between 10.5 and 12 thousand years. Its discoverer, Michael Brown of Caltech, noted in a Discover magazine article that Sedna’s location seemed to defy reasoning:^[17] "Sedna shouldn't be there," said Brown. "There's no way to put Sedna where it is. It never comes close enough to be affected by the Sun, but it never goes far enough away from the Sun to be affected by other stars."^[17] Brown therefore postulated that a massive unseen object may be responsible for Sedna’s anomalous orbit.^[3]

Brown has stated that it is more likely that one or more non-companion stars, passing near the Sun billions of years ago, could have pulled Sedna out into its current orbit.^[17] In 2004, Kenyon forwarded this explanation after analysis of Sedna's orbital data and computer modeling of possible ancient non-companion star passes.^[5]

Past, current and pending searches for Nemesis

The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) failed to discover Nemesis in the 1980s. The 2MASS astronomical survey, which ran from 1997 to 2001, failed to detect a star, or brown dwarf, in the solar system.^[3] If Nemesis exists, it may be detected by Pan-STARRS or the planned LSST astronomical surveys.

In particular, if Nemesis is a red dwarf star or a brown dwarf, the WISE mission (an infrared sky survey that covered most of our solar neighborhood in movement-verifying parallax measurements) is expected able to find it.^[3] WISE can detect 150 Kelvin brown dwarfs out to 10 light-years.^[8] But the closer a brown dwarf is the easier it is to detect.^[8] Preliminary results of the WISE survey were released on 14 April 2011.^[18] The final release of analyzed results is to be released in March 2012.^[19] Recent scientific analysis no longer supports the idea that extinctions on Earth happen at regular, repeating intervals.^[19] Thus, the Nemesis hypothesis is no longer needed.^[19]

Cultural references

• Nemesis, a book about a civilization affected by an unknown additional star, by Isaac Asimov.

See also

• Malmquist bias
• Shiva Hypothesis
• Tyche (hypothetical planet)

References

1. ^ Leader-Post, "Scientists claim killer star exists", 22 Feb 1984, Page B6, Associated Press
2. ^ ^{a b} Space.com, "Sun's Rumored Hidden Companion May Not Exist After All", 20 July 2010, Clara Moskowitz
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Leslie Mullen (03/11/10). "Getting WISE About Nemesis". Astrobiology Magazine (Cosmic Evolution). http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/3427/getting-wise-about-nemesis. Retrieved 2010-05-15. 
4. ^ Chris Gelino, Davy Kirkpatrick, Adam Burgasser. "DwarfArchives.org: Photometry, spectroscopy, and astrometry of M, L, and T dwarfs". caltech.edu. http://spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/davy/ARCHIVE/index.shtml. Retrieved 2011-10-23.  (M=536, L=602, T=207)
5. ^ ^{a b} Kenyon, Scott J.; Benjamin C. Bromley (2004). "Stellar encounters as the origin of distant Solar System objects in highly eccentric orbits". Nature 432 (7017): 598–602. arXiv:astro-ph/0412030. Bibcode 2004Natur.432..598K. doi:10.1038/nature03136. PMID 15577903. 
6. ^ "Nemesis is a myth". Max Planck. August 1, 2011. http://www.mpg.de/4372308/nemsis_myth?filter_order=L. Retrieved 2011-10-07. 
7. ^ Leslie Mullen (Astrobiology Magazine) (11 March 2010). "Sun's Nemesis Pelted Earth with Comets, Study Suggests". Space.com. http://www.space.com/8028-sun-nemesis-pelted-earth-comets-study-suggests.html. Retrieved 2010-08-22. 
8. ^ ^{a b c} "Science: Brown Dwarfs". WISE/NASA. http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/science_browndwarfs.html. Retrieved 2007-12-28. 
9. ^ Kirkpatrick, J. Davy; Cushing; Gelino; Griffith; Skrutskie; Marsh; Wright; Mainzer; Eisenhardt; McLean; Thompson; Bauer; Benford; Bridge; Lake; Petty; Stanford; Tsai; Bailey; Beichman; Bochanski; Burgasser; Capak; Cruz; Hinz; Kartaltepe; Knox; Manohar; Masters; Morales-Calderуnn; Prato; Rodigas; Salvato; Schurr; Scoville; Simcoe; Stapelfeldt; Stern; Stock; Vacca (2011). "The First Hundred Brown Dwarfs Discovered by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)". arXiv:1108.4677v1 [astro-ph.SR]. 
10. ^ David Morrison (August 2, 2011). "Scientists today no longer think an object like Nemesis could exist". NASA Ask An Astrobiologist. http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/question/?id=16790. Retrieved 2011-10-22. 
11. ^ David Morrison (November 25, 2010). "this hypothetical Nemesis does not exist". NASA Ask An Astrobiologist. http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/question/?id=13040. Retrieved 2011-11-09. 
12. ^ Raup, D.M.; Sepkoski, J.J. (1 February 1984). "Periodicity of Extinctions in the Geologic Past". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 81 (3): 801–805. Bibcode 1984PNAS...81..801R. doi:10.1073/pnas.81.3.801. PMC 344925. PMID 6583680. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/81/3/801.pdf. Retrieved 30 April 2007. 
13. ^ ^{a b} Whitmire, D.P.; Jackson, A.A. (1984). "Are periodic mass extinctions driven by a distant solar companion?". Nature 308 (5961): 713–715. Bibcode 1984Natur.308..713W. doi:10.1038/308713a0. 
14. ^ Davis, M.; Hut, P., Muller, R.A. (1984). "Extinction of species by periodic comet showers". Nature 308 (5961): 715–717. Bibcode 1984Natur.308..715D. doi:10.1038/308715a0. 
15. ^ ^{a b c} Richard A. Muller. "Nemesis". Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. http://muller.lbl.gov/pages/lbl-nem.htm. Retrieved 2007-05-19. 
16. ^ Richard A. Muller (2002). "Measurement of the lunar impact record for the past 3.5 billion years, and implications for the Nemesis theory". Geol. Soc. of America Special Paper 356, pp 659-665 (2002).. http://muller.lbl.gov/papers/Lunar_impacts_Nemesis.pdf. Retrieved 2011-11-11. 
17. ^ ^{a b c} Cal Fussman (May 27, 2006). "The Man Who Finds Planets". Discover magazine. http://discovermagazine.com/2006/may/cover/article_view?b_start:int=1. Retrieved 2011-10-20. 
18. ^ "NASA - WISE Delivers Millions of Galaxies, Stars, Asteroids". Nasa.gov. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/news/wise20110414.html. Retrieved 2011-06-15. 
19. ^ ^{a b c} "Can WISE Find the Hypothetical 'Tyche'?". NASA/JPL. February 18, 2011. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-060. Retrieved 2011-06-15. 

External links

• "Astrobiology Magazine", "Cosmic Evolution" Section, "Getting WISE about Nemesis" 03/11/10, Author: Leslie Mullen, Article about Nemesis and Tyche theory, and how the WISE Sky Survey Mission may prove or disprove the theories.
• Robert Roy Britt, Nemesis: Does the Sun Have a 'Companion'?, Space.com, 3 April 2001.
• R. Foot, Z. K. Silagadze, Do mirror planets exist in our solar system? Acta Physica Polononica B32 (2001) pp. 2271–2278.
• Richard A. Muller, Measurement of the lunar impact record for the past 3.5 billion years, and implications for the Nemesis theory, Geological Society of America Special Paper 356, pp 659–665 (2002).I
• Richard A. Muller, Nemesis (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1988, OP)
• Richard A. Muller, lecture where he describes Nemesis Theory
• Z.K. Silagadze, TeV scale gravity, mirror universe, and ... dinosaurs, Acta Physica Polonica B32 (2001) 99-128. (Provides a very entertaining and readable review of the Nemesis extinction hypothesis, including dozens of references to scientific articles on the topic.)
• SpaceDaily. Evidence Mounts For Companion Star To Our Sun. Apr 25, 2006
• Lynn Yarris. "Does a Companion Star to the Sun Cause Earth's Periodic Mass Extinctions?" Science Beat. Spring 1987
• Nemesis is a myth (Max Planck August 1, 2011)