From: hils@saynotospam.net   
      
   "Periodic mass extinctions on Earth, as indicated in the global fossil   
   record, could be linked to a suspected ninth planet, according to   
   research published by a faculty member of the University of Arkansas   
   Department of Mathematical Sciences.   
      
   Daniel Whitmire, a retired professor of astrophysics now working as a   
   math instructor, published findings in the January issue of Monthly   
   Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society that the as yet undiscovered   
   “Planet X” triggers comet showers linked to mass extinctions on Earth at   
   intervals of approximately 27 million years.   
      
   Though scientists have been looking for Planet X for 100 years, the   
   possibility that it’s real got a big boost recently when researchers   
   from Caltech inferred its existence based on orbital anomalies seen in   
   objects in the Kuiper Belt, a disc-shaped region of comets and other   
   larger bodies beyond Neptune. If the Caltech researchers are correct,   
   Planet X is about 10 times the mass of Earth and could currently be up   
   to 1,000 times more distant from the sun   
      
   Whitmire and his colleague, John Matese, first published research on the   
   connection between Planet X and mass extinctions in the journal Nature   
   in 1985 while working as astrophysicists at the University of Louisiana   
   at Lafayette. Their work was featured in a 1985 Time magazine cover   
   story titled, “Did Comets Kill the Dinosaurs? A Bold New Theory About   
   Mass Extinctions.”   
      
   At the time there were three explanations proposed to explain the   
   regular comet showers: Planet X, the existence of a sister star to the   
   sun, and vertical oscillations of the sun as it orbits the galaxy. The   
   last two ideas have subsequently been ruled out as inconsistent with the   
   paleontological record. Only Planet X remained as a viable theory, and   
   it is now gaining renewed attention.   
      
   Whitemire and Matese’s theory is that as Planet X orbits the sun, its   
   tilted orbit slowly rotates and Planet X passes through the Kuiper belt   
   of comets every 27 million years, knocking comets into the inner solar   
   system. The dislodged comets not only smash into the Earth, they also   
   disintegrate in the inner solar system as they get nearer to the sun,   
   reducing the amount of sunlight that reaches the Earth.   
      
   In 1985, a look at the paleontological record supported the idea of   
   regular comet showers dating back 250 million years. Newer research   
   shows evidence of such events dating as far back as 500 million years.   
      
   Whitmire and Matese published their own estimate on the size and orbit   
   of Planet X in their original study. They believed it would be between   
   one and five times the mass of Earth, and about 100 times more distant   
   from the sun, much smaller numbers than Caltech’s estimates."   
      
   http://news.uark.edu/articles/34087/u-of-a-researcher-links-mass   
   extinctions-to-planet-x-   
      
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