The Nemesis Conjecture: Is an Unseen Binary Companion of the Sun Sending Comets Towards Earth?

Some scientists believe that something could be hidden beyond the edge of our solar system a distance of about 50,000 to 100,000 AU (about 1-2 light years), somewhat beyond the Oort cloud. Named “Nemesis” or “The Death Star,” this undetected object could be a red or brown dwarf star, or an even darker presence several times the mass of Jupiter. If our Sun were part of a binary system in which two gravitationally-bound stars orbit a common center of mass, their interaction could disturb the Oort Cloud on a periodic basis, sending comets whizzing towards us. Binary star systems are common in the Milky Way. It is estimated that one-third of the stars in the galaxy are either binary or part of a multiple-star system.

Originally, Nemesis was suggested as a way to explain a cycle of mass extinctions on Earth. Astronomers think that brown dwarfs may be as numerous as stars like our Sun, but brown dwarfs are often too cool (dark) to find using visible light. Using infrared light, the WISE mission could find many brown dwarfs within 25 light years of the Sun. These cool stellar objects are nearly impossible to see in visible light, but stand out when viewed in infrared. Their diameters are about the same as Jupiter's, but they can have up to 80 times more mass and are thought to have planetary systems of their own. 

The paleontologists David Raup and Jack Sepkoski claim that, over the last 250 million years, life on Earth has faced extinction in a 26-million-year cycle. Astronomers proposed comet impacts as a possible cause for these catastrophes. Our solar system is surrounded by a vast collection of icy bodies called the Oort Cloud.

But there is no evidence that comets have periodically caused mass extinctions on Earth. The theory of periodic extinctions itself is still debated, with many insisting that more proof is needed. Even if the scientific consensus is that extinction events don’t occur in a predictable cycle, there are now other reasons to suspect a dark companion to the Sun.

A new object, Sedna, a dwarf planet, has a 12,000-year orbit around the Sun. It’s a mystery why Sedna has such an elongated orbit.The Oort Cloud is thought to extend about 1 light year from the Sun. is one of the most distant objects yet observed, with an orbit ranging between 76 and 975 AU (where 1 AU is the distance between the Earth and the Sun). Sedna’s discoverer, Mike Brown of Caltech, noted in a Discover magazine article that Sedna’s location doesn’t make sense. 

"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.”  Leading Brown and others to theorize that a massive unseen object may be  responsible for Sedna’s mystifying orbit, its gravitational influence keeping Sedna fixed in that far-distant portion of space. 

“My surveys have always looked for objects closer and thus moving faster,” Brown told Astrobiology Magazine. “I would have easily overlooked something so distant and slow moving as Nemesis.” 

John Matese, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, suspects Nemesis exists because comets in the inner solar system seem to mostly come from the same region of the Oort Cloud. Leading Matese to conclude that the gravitational influence of a solar companion is disrupting that part of the cloud, scattering comets in its wake. His calculations suggest Nemesis is between 3 to 5 times the mass of Jupiter, rather than the 13 Jupiter masses or greater that some scientists think is a necessary quality of a brown dwarf. Even at this smaller mass, however, many astronomers would still classify it as a low mass star rather than a planet, since the circumstances of birth for stars and planets differ. 

Matese estimates Nemesis is 25,000 AU away (or about one-third of a light year). The next-closest known star to the Sun is Proxima Centauri, located 4.2 light years away. 

Richard Muller of the University of California Berkeley first suggested the Nemesis theory, believes Nemesis is a red dwarf star 1.5 light years away. Many scientists counter that such a wide orbit is inherently unstable and could not have lasted long – certainly not long enough to have caused the extinctions seen in Earth’s fossil record. But Muller says this instability has resulted in an orbit that has changed greatly over billions of years, and in the next billion years Nemesis will be thrown free of the solar system.

Red dwarfs are also common – in fact, astronomers say they are the most common type of star in the galaxy. Brown dwarfs are also thought to be common, but there are only a few hundred known at this time because they are so difficult to see. Red and brown dwarfs are smaller and cooler than our Sun, and do not shine brightly. If red dwarfs can be compared to the red embers of a dying fire, then brown dwarfs would be the smoldering ash. Because they are so dim, it is plausible that the Sun could have a secret companion even though we’ve searched the sky for many years with a variety of instruments. 

WISE began scanning the sky on January 14, and NASA recently released the mission’s first images. The mission will map the entire sky until October, when the spacecraft’s coolant runs out. Part of the WISE mission is to search for brown dwarfs, and NASA expects it could find one thousand of the dim stellar objects within 25 light years of our solar system. 

Davy Kirkpatrick at NASA’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech found nothing when he searched for Nemesis using data from the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS). Now Kirkpatrick is part of the WISE science team, ready to search again for any signs of a companion to our Sun. He believes Matese’s description of Nemesis as a low mass object closer to home is plausible. 

“I think the possibility that the Sun could harbor a companion of another sort is not a crazy idea,” said Kirkpatrick. “There might be a distant object in a more stable, more circular orbit that has gone unnoticed so far.” 

We may not have an answer to the Nemesis question until mid-2013. WISE needs to scan the sky twice in order to generate the time-lapsed images astronomers use to detect objects in the outer solar system. The change in location of an object between the time of the first scan and the second tells astronomers about the object’s location and orbit.  Then comes the long task of analyzing the data.

“I don't suspect we'll have completed the search for candidate objects until mid-2012, and then we may need up to a year of time to complete telescopic follow-up of those objects,” said Kirkpatrick. 

Even if Nemesis is not found, the WISE telescope will help shed light on the darkest corners of the solar system. The telescope can be used to search for dwarf planets like Pluto that orbit the Sun off the solar system’s ecliptic plane. The objects that make up the Oort Cloud are too small and far away for WISE to see, but it will be able to track potentially dangerous comets and asteroids closer to home.

Casey Kazan.

Sources:

http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/3427/getting-wise-about-nemesis

source: http://vladimirkorsakov.blogspot.com/2010/08/getting-wise-about-nemesis.html

Nicknamed “Nemesis” or “The Death Star,” this undetected object could be a red or brown dwarf star, or an even darker presence several times the mass of Jupiter. 

Why do scientists think something could be hidden beyond the edge of our solar system? Originally, Nemesis was suggested as a way to explain a cycle of mass extinctions on Earth. 

The paleontologists David Raup and Jack Sepkoski claim that, over the last 250 million years, life on Earth has faced extinction in a 26-million-year cycle. Astronomers proposed comet impacts as a possible cause for these catastrophes. 

Our solar system is surrounded by a vast collection of icy bodies called the Oort Cloud. If our Sun were part of a binary system in which two gravitationally-bound stars orbit a common center of mass, this interaction could disturb the Oort Cloud on a periodic basis, sending comets whizzing towards us. 

An asteroid impact is famously responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, but large comet impacts may be equally deadly. A comet may have been the cause of the Tunguska event in Russia in 1908. That explosion had about a thousand times the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and it flattened an estimated 80 million trees over an 830 square mile area. 

While there’s little doubt about the destructive power of cosmic impacts, there is no evidence that comets have periodically caused mass extinctions on our planet. The theory of periodic extinctions itself is still debated, with many insisting that more proof is needed. Even if the scientific consensus is that extinction events don’t occur in a predictable cycle, there are now other reasons to suspect a dark companion to the Sun. 

The Footprint of Nemesis 

The smaller object in these two photos is a brown dwarf that orbits the star Gliese 229.  Located in the constellation Lepus and about 19 light years from Earth, the brown dwarf Gliese 229B is about 20 to 50 times the mass of Jupiter.  Image credit: NASA

A recently-discovered dwarf planet, named Sedna, has an extra-long and usual elliptical orbit around the Sun. Sedna is one of the most distant objects yet observed, with an orbit ranging between 76 and 975 AU (where 1 AU is the distance between the Earth and the Sun). Sedna’s orbit is estimated to last between 10.5 to 12 thousand years. Sedna’s discoverer, Mike Brown of Caltech, noted in a Discover magazine article that Sedna’s location doesn’t make sense. 

"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.” 

Perhaps a massive unseen object is responsible for Sedna’s mystifying orbit, its gravitational influence keeping Sedna fixed in that far-distant portion of space. 

“My surveys have always looked for objects closer and thus moving faster,” Brown told Astrobiology Magazine. “I would have easily overlooked something so distant and slow moving as Nemesis.” 

John Matese, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, suspects Nemesis exists for another reason. The comets in the inner solar system seem to mostly come from the same region of the Oort Cloud, and Matese thinks the gravitational influence of a solar companion is disrupting that part of the cloud, scattering comets in its wake. His calculations suggest Nemesis is between 3 to 5 times the mass of Jupiter, rather than the 13 Jupiter masses or greater that some scientists think is a necessary quality of a brown dwarf. Even at this smaller mass, however, many astronomers would still classify it as a low mass star rather than a planet, since the circumstances of birth for stars and planets differ. 

The “New Object” labeled in this image is Sedna, a dwarf planet with a 12,000-year orbit around the Sun. It’s a mystery why Sedna has such an elongated orbit.

The Oort Cloud is thought to extend about 1 light year from the Sun. Matese estimates Nemesis is 25,000 AU away (or about one-third of a light year). The next-closest known star to the Sun is Proxima Centauri, located 4.2 light years away. 

Richard Muller of the University of California Berkeley first suggested the Nemesis theory, and even wrote a popular science book on the topic. He thinks Nemesis is a red dwarf star 1.5 light years away. Many scientists counter that such a wide orbit is inherently unstable and could not have lasted long – certainly not long enough to have caused the extinctions seen in Earth’s fossil record. But Muller says this instability has resulted in an orbit that has changed greatly over billions of years, and in the next billion years Nemesis will be thrown free of the solar system. 

Binary star systems are common in the galaxy. It is estimated that one-third of the stars in the Milky Way are either binary or part of a multiple-star system. 

Red dwarfs are also common – in fact, astronomers say they are the most common type of star in the galaxy. Brown dwarfs are also thought to be common, but there are only a few hundred known at this time because they are so difficult to see. Red and brown dwarfs are smaller and cooler than our Sun, and do not shine brightly. If red dwarfs can be compared to the red embers of a dying fire, then brown dwarfs would be the smoldering ash. Because they are so dim, it is plausible that the Sun could have a secret companion even though we’ve searched the sky for many years with a variety of instruments. 

NASA’s newest telescope, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), may be able to answer the question about Nemesis once and for all. 

Finding Dwarfs in the Dark 

Illustration of the “Oort Cloud,” a vast region of comets thought to extend a light year beyond our Sun.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Donald K. Yeoman

WISE looks at our universe in the infrared part of the spectrum. Like the Spitzer space telescope, WISE is hunting for heat. The difference is that WISE has a much wider field of view, and so is able to scan a greater portion of the sky for distant objects. 

WISE began scanning the sky on January 14, and NASA recently released the mission’s first images. The mission will map the entire sky until October, when the spacecraft’s coolant runs out. 

Part of the WISE mission is to search for brown dwarfs, and NASA expects it could find one thousand of the dim stellar objects within 25 light years of our solar system. 

Davy Kirkpatrick at NASA’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech found nothing when he searched for Nemesis using data from the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS). Now Kirkpatrick is part of the WISE science team, ready to search again for any signs of a companion to our Sun.

Kirkpatrick doesn’t think Nemesis will be the red dwarf star with an enormous orbit described by Muller. In his view, Matese’s description of Nemesis as a low mass object closer to home is more plausible. 

“I think the possibility that the Sun could harbor a companion of another sort is not a crazy idea,” said Kirkpatrick. “There might be a distant object in a more stable, more circular orbit that has gone unnoticed so far.” 

Ned Wright, professor of astronomy and physics at UCLA and the principal investigator for the WISE mission, said that WISE will easily see an object with a mass a few times that of Jupiter and located 25,000 AU away, as suggested by Matese. 

Astronomers think there could be as many brown dwarfs as stars like our Sun, but brown dwarfs are often too cool to find using visible light. Using infrared light, the WISE mission could find many brown dwarfs within 25 light years of the Sun. These two pictures show simulated data before and after the WISE mission (stars are not real). The simulated picture on the left shows known stars (white and yellow) and brown dwarfs (red) in our solar neighborhood. The picture on the right shows additional brown dwarfs WISE is expected to find.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“This is because Jupiter is self-luminous like a brown dwarf,” said Wright. “But for planets less massive than Jupiter in the far outer solar system, WISE will be less sensitive.” 

Comet “Siding Spring” appears to streak across the sky like a superhero in this new infrared image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. WISE will be looking for comets and asteroids that might pose a threat to Earth.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

Neither Kirkpatrick nor Wright think Nemesis is disrupting the Oort cloud and sending comets towards Earth, however. Because they envision a more benign orbit, they prefer the name "Tyche" (the good sister). 

Regardless of what they expect to find, the WISE search won’t focus on one particular region of the sky. 

“The great thing about WISE, as was also true of 2MASS, is that it's an all-sky survey,” said Kirkpatrick. “There will be some regions such as the Galactic Plane where the observations are less sensitive or fields more crowded, but we'll search those areas too. So we're not preferentially targeting certain directions.” 

Comments

[sadasivan]

If this indeed were true,how come the Astronomers have NOT detected it for so long,while detecting far flung Galaxies and even planets?

[joe]

Nibiru anyone? Sounds like it to me,hah it's funny an ancient culture told us about this and it has been "known" that it is there, but we are just discovering it now? probably because it's in an orbit of another massive object and it is not until now that we can see it. Kinda like how Allah said he was going to expand the universe in the Qur'an thousands of years ago, but we "knew" it was slowing down until not too long ago when we discovered it was actually speeding up.

[mark]

@sadasivan...

"If this indeed were true, how come the Astronomers have NOT detected it for so long,while detecting far flung Galaxies and even planets?"

i'm no astronomer, but a brown dwarf is very dim (can only be seen in the infrared. it's like a "smoldering ash"). galaxies emit the light of billions of stars.

an extra-solar planet can be inferred by its gravitional effect on the star it orbits around (wobble-effect). if it orbits directly in front of the star, the minute reduction in starlight can be detected by high-power telescopes pointed towards the suspect star. i don't think an extra-solar planet has actually been viewed as one would view jupiter though.

[Andrew T]

It would be nice if the "Posted by:" field included a "Report abuse" link so that spammers like "mbtsheos" above could be banned & have their spam comments deleted.

[Andrew T]

It would be nice if the "Posted by:" field included a "Report abuse" link so that spammers like "mbtsheos" above could be banned & have their spam comments deleted.

[Andrew T]

Sorry for the double post; the Post button hiccuped. ;-)

[Steve]

@sadasivan

Also keep in mind that that space is absolutely enormous. Beyond comprehension essentially. The amount of space just in our solar system is also huge, even though we consider it small compared on a galactic or universal scale. Then add on top of it that these objects are extremely faint.

[jim henson]

The 26 million year mass extinction cycle on earth varies within a few million years ! Nemesis would be far more predictabe to cause it. My theory is that it is caused by dwarf satellite galaxies, one of which is colliding now, and in millions of years our solar system will be swarmed by cosmic rays. Fossil Records are proof that cosmic rays are the reasons and not the Nemesis theory.

[Ivar Nielsen]

@Joe,
REGARDING THE NIBIRU MYTH.
This myth is very confused and distorted from it´s original meaning. Originally this myth is connected to the largest Myto-Cosmological "deities" of the Milky Way which contours seemingly are revolving on the night sky around a center point, marking the Earth celestial axis on the northern hemisphere, i.e. the Polar Centre. It is this celestial polar centre that is called Nibiru, "The one who crosses the middle of the sea (Tiamat) without calm, may his name be Nibiru, for he takes up the center of it". (Tiamat NOT representing the Earth oceans but of course the celestial Milky Way River)

- There is NO nemesis connected to the mythical name of Niburu. On the contrary it stands for a celestial order.

For a more specific Mytho-Cosmological interpretation and explanation, see: Link: http://www.saturn-myth-delusion.net/nibiru.htm

Natural Philosopher
Ivar Nielsen
http://www.saturn-myth-delusion.net
http:/www.native-science-net

[Ivar Nielsen]

NB: Myths of the Milky Way are long forgotten by mythological scientists even though they are the essential part of the Biblical and Mythological story of Creation. Not even still existing Native Tribes seems to remember the Milky Way myths.
Link: http://www.native.science-net

Regards Ivar

[Luis D Rey]

Ivar,

You seem to be on the right track, Niburu, etc., disregarding, of course, Zecharias Sitchin's great and best book ever written based on the old civilizations of Sumer and even before that (cuneiform tablets, etc.), THE 12TH PLANET,
How come none of you talk about this book?
Our Scientists know much more but don't or are not allowed to discuss it, etc.,
AM I JUST A FOOL PUTTING TOO MUCH TRUST ON THIS GREAT WRITER (Z. S.AND HIS BOOK)OR AM I ON THE RIGHT TRACK?

[Ivar Nielsen]

@Luis,
Thanks for the reply.

Quote from Wiki, quote: "Zecharia Sitchin (born July 11, 1920) is an author of books promoting an explanation for human origins involving ancient astronauts. Sitchin attributes the creation of the ancient Sumerian culture to the Anunnaki, which he claims to be a race of extra-terrestrials from a planet beyond Neptune called Nibiru. He believes this hypothetical planet of Nibiru to be in an elongated, elliptical orbit in the Earth's own Solar System, asserting that Sumerian mythology reflects this view", end of quote.

- In my opinion, the mythological Nibiru is NOT a planet or a comet, but it represent surely the North celestial Pole and I think that Zecharias Sitchin also have fallen in the large pithole of laypeople and mythological scientists who misunderstand the myths, especially taking Milky Way issues for being planetary issues and objects.

One cannot possibly interpret the meaning of the mythological Nibiru without having the knowledge of the Milky Way myths which is connected to the northern and southern hemispheres Milky Way contours.

Such a knowledge comes ONLY when one interpret the "supreme deities" as Milky Way figures, seemingly revolving around the north and southern celestial pole, of which Nibiru IS mytho-cosmological mentioned as being northern celestial pole.

Link: http://www.native-science.net/Mythology.Light_White_Right.htm

Regards Ivar

[jim henson]

there are not any supreme deities worth honoring nor respecting in the universe. It's difficult enough to hope that advanced alien life could respect the parasites on earth who are greedy selfish elected officials.

[Aeson]

Wasnt the Nibiru orbit highly eliptical? Also didnt Sitchin claim that it supports life? discrepancies?

[Aeson]

Wasnt the Nibiru orbit highly eliptical? Also didnt Sitchin claim that it supports life? discrepancies?

[Ivar Nielsen]

@Jim,
Notise my "supreme deities" - I´m not talking of personalised deities of any kind. "Deities" in my mind is just "cosmic creative forces" of all kinds. (Which of course are worth worshipping, since they also creates Life, right?)
Regard Ivar

[hontonoshijin]

There is a strain in more-or-less Buddhist thinking, exemplified most completely by Sri Yukteswar, Yogananda's guru, which claims that the Sun has a dark-star companion. According to these people, it is this "dark twin" that is responsible for the precession of the equinoxes, not the top-like wobbling of Earth's axis of rotation. According to these claims, the effects of precession can be observed only in the stars, not in the planets of the solar system. If this were true, if the effects of precession were only discernable in the stars, then precession could not possibly be an effect peculiar to the Earth, but must be an effect common to the solar system.

It occurred to me this simple logical point made for an excellent factual test. I suggested such a test to a physicist on Bad Astronomy. All a good astronomer would have to do is determine from the plentiful data on planetary orbits whether the effects of precession extend to the planets. I made the suggestion not because I credit the idea of a "dark star"--indeed, I am of the opinion the wobbling-on-its-axis idea is roughly right--but because here is a clear and definite test that could for once and for all discover the truth (or more likely, lack of it) of an "alternate" claim.

The physicist I wrote to treated me like an idiot. "The theory of precession is well understood he wrote." In other words, as simple as the test might be, he was so completely certain of his position he considered anyone who didn't immediately accept it on the assertion of "authorities" (which he obviously considered himself to be) a fool.

I realize that there is too much actual study to be done to waste time investigating the wackadoo claims of just anyone who comes along, but is this not a relatively simple test of a major theory?

I had thought science was about evidence and rigorous reasoning, not, like most theology, about assertion. Once again, bear in mind that I think the wobbling-axis theory is far more likely.

So. Is there any astronomer out there who cares enough to look at the data? Or is "I know it's true because I know it's true" good enough? Are "scientists" scientists because they "just know" things, or because they are willing to check?

I for one would like an answer. It seems clear to me that Sitchin is way out of his depth in his cosmological notions. But this is a simple factual question with a simple factual answer that could put to rest at least one "alternate" speculation forever. What the hell is wrong with asking the question?

[Ivar Nielsen]

@hontonoshijin,
Nothing is wrong asking any questions at all - what is wrong is that traditional scientists newer are asking questions to what they have learned - and therefore traditional scientific knowledge newer moves.

Regarding the "claims that the Sun has a dark-star companion", I could imagine one of the outher major gas planets in the Solar System as a good and qualified guess. MAybe Jupiter or Saturn - and even Neptune. "Dark Star" must then be "a star that did not make it to the star/sun stage".

Regards Ivar

[sonia]

"Getting Wise About Nemesis"
http://www.physorg.com/news187548596.html

[Joe]

Finally daily galaxy got wise on Nemesis. It's for real, you'll all find out soon. Starviewer found out about this months ago

[yaridanjo]

We call the Sun's binary Vulcan and its not one or two light years away, its only about 444 AU away. It mass is about 141 +/- 35 Earth Masses. Its orbital parameters can be found here. It was almost found by Forbes in 1880. It draws in comets from the Kuiper belt in a 3:2 resonate period that is nominally 3313 years. We have found evidence of about three dozen impacts in the last 14 thousand years including Noah's Great Flood and the Atlantis disaster.

http://www.barry.warmkessel.com/SimplyPut.html
BROWN DWARF GENERATED COMET SWARMS THREATEN MANKIND

and are (if html come through on this message board).

Table 3 - Vulcan's Orbital Parameters Parameter Value Max. Error Min. 2 Sigma Error Forbes'(1880)
Period (years) 4969.0 +30.4/- 24.3 +/- 11.5 5000
Orbital Eccentricity 0.537 +0.088/-0.035 +/- 0.0085 not cal.
Orbital Inclination 48.44o +3.12o/-9.05o +/- 0.23o 45o
Longitude of the Ascending Node 189.0o +/- 1.3o +/- 1.3o 185o
Argument Of Perihelion 257.8o +6.11o/-13.47o +/- 0.90o not cal.
Time of Aphelion (years) 1970 AD +/- 1.0 +/- 1.0 not cal.

[winter boots]

Its orbital parameters can be found here. It was almost found by Forbes in 1880