太阳每4000万年弹跳一次 招致彗星炮轰地球
http://tech.qq.com/ 2008年05月16日08:31
太阳每4千万年弹跳 招致彗星炮轰地球
腾讯科技讯 据美国太空网站报道,目前,一项最新研究显示,当太阳漫游银河系时,它会每间隔4000万年“弹跳”一下,这样的摇摆动作却招致大量的彗星冲入太阳系内部,撞击地球等行星,并导致了地球远古时期大量物种灭绝,其中包括了导致恐龙灭绝的彗星碰撞事件。
科学家们猜测类似这种的彗星碰撞事件同时也促使生命在外星球上的传播。然而,现已有人对此项猜测提出了置疑。为了获得彗星炮轰太阳系行星的数据资料,天文学家计算出了太阳系环绕银河系内核时穿越银河系的路径。研究人员指出,当太阳穿过银河系平面最密集区域时,周边的气体和灰尘的重力牵引作用排斥了太阳系外部奥尔特星云(Oort Cloud)中的彗星,导致这些冰状太空结构冲入了太阳系。
依据计算结果,太阳每隔3500-4000万年前穿越一次该银河系密集区域,彗星碰撞太阳系内部的概率会增大10倍。这样的“弹跳”循环正好与地球大量物种灭绝和陨石坑迹象相一致,暗示着每隔3600万年地球会遭受更严重的彗星碰撞。
英国威尔士加迪夫天体生物学中心天文学家威廉?纳皮尔说,“通过这项最新研究,我们在地面上的观测发现与银河系的天文观测记录能够完美地相吻合。”他与研究同事加纳基?维克拉马辛赫将这项研究报告将发表在近期出版的《皇家天文学会每月通报》上.
虽然这样的周期性太阳“弹跳”杀死了6500万年前非鸟类恐龙、翼龙、蛇颈龙、沧龙以及许多无脊椎动物和植物,但同时这也促进了生命在其他星体上的传播。这些彗星可能将地球上的微生物携载到其他能够孕育生命的星体上。纳皮尔在接受太空网采访时说,“通过彗星炮轰碰撞太阳系内部,将使太阳系内的微生物穿越进入云翳中恒星-行星形成区域,并在途中不会被宇宙射线杀菌消灭。这一观点是非常富有挑战性和兴趣性的,暗示着生命体不仅可能在太阳系内部彼此传播,还有可能向太阳系外的星系进行传播。”
然而,一些研究人员对这项研究提出了置疑。未参与此项研究的美国宇航局喷气推进实验室天文学家保罗?维斯曼说,“整个这项研究理论是错误不正确的,当太阳穿越银河系平面,太阳不会经历快速的撞击,任何多样性的弹坑都会显得很温和,并不像突然冲击碰撞形成。”
之前许多研究人员猜测大约3000万年前地球上发生了大规模物种灭绝事件,宇宙碰撞也差不多在同一时期频繁发生,两者之间可能存在着一定的相连性。但是维斯曼强调称,关于大量物种灭绝和宇宙碰撞事件频繁之间的关联性存在着“相当大程度的疑惑”。
其他研究人员猜测导致彗星炮轰太阳系的原因包括:1颗红矮星或处于远轨道范围的太阳第“10颗行星”撞向奥尔特星云。维斯曼说,“包括我在内的许多研究人员对此进行了深入分析,并指出了其中的逻辑错误。遥远的红矮星在一个非常不稳定的轨道上,很容易会从该星际空间逃离出来。此外,太阳系第10颗行星存在的理论站不住脚,尽管天文学家对太阳系搜寻了无数次,迄今都未找到除海王星之外大行星存在的迹象。”
译文:
The Sun's Bounce Every 40 Million Years Leads The Comets To Bombard The Earth

Reported by American Aeronautics and Space website, a latest study shows that the sun bounces every 40 million years when it ranges through the Milky Way Galaxy, which would make a lot of comets rush to the interior of the solar system and bombard the planets like the earth. And such comet collisions resulted in the extinction of abundant ancient species including the dinosaurs.
The scientists guess that such comet collisions maybe promote the life spread on the alien planets at the same time. However, this guess is questioned now. In order to get the data information of comets' bombarding the planets in the solar system, the astronomers have computed the path with which the solar system passes through the Milky Way Galaxy when it circles the core of the Milky Way Galaxy. The researchers point that when the sun passes the most dense area of the Milky Way Galaxy surface, the power of both the surrounding gas and the dust gravity rejects the comets of Oort Cloud outside the solar system and makes these space structures of ice rush to the solar system.
According to the computed results, the sun passes the dense region of the Milky Way Galaxy at intervals ranging from 35 to 40 million years , and the rate of comets' bombarding the internal solar system at this time could be 10 times bigger than that of other time. This bounce circle is in accordance with the phenomena of abundant species extinction and meteorite craters on the earth, which hints that the earth would suffer from more serious comet collision every 36 million years.
William Napier, an astronomer in English Wales Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology,said,"Through this latest research, we have found that the observation results perfectly accord with the astronomical observation records. " And he will issue this research report on recent Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society with his colleague.
Although it killed many dinasours, invertebrates and plants, this periodical bounce of the sun could also promote the life spread on other celestial bodies. These comets could bring the microbes to other celestial bodies where life could be created. Napier said during the website interview,"When the comets bombard the interior of the solar system, the microbes enter the area formed by stars and planets though the clouds without worrying about the harm from cosmic rays . This viewpoint is very challenging and interesting, and it hints that the life could spread not only in the interior of the solar system, but also in the other galaxies. "
However, some researches questioned this research. Paul Wishman, an astronomer in NASA-JPL,said,"The theory base of the whole research is incorrect. When the sun passes through the Milky Way Galaxy surface, the fast collision would not happen. And any diverse crater would be mild and differ with those caused by the sudden collision. "
Before that, many researchers guess that since the extinction of abundant species happened 30 million years ago and the universe collisions appeared frequently at the same period, there must be a link between them. But Wishman emphasizes that there are quite some doubts about the relation between them.
Other researchers think one of the reasons about the comets' bombard the solar system is that one red dwarf or the tenth planet in the far orbit of the solar system crashed to the Oort Cloud. Wishman said,"Many researchers including me have analyzed this and pointed out the logic errors. Remote red dwarfs are in an unstable orbit and easy to escape from this interstellar space. Besides, it can't be proved that the tenth planet exists in the solar system. The astronomers have searched the solar system so many times, and found no sign of big planets except Neptune."