A Visiting Star Jostled Our Solar System 70,000 Years Ago

#1

Post by rbanffy » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 1:08 PM UTC

A Visiting Star Jostled Our Solar System 70,000 Years Ago
gizmodo.com

Re: A Visiting Star Jostled Our Solar System 70,000 Years Ago

#2

Post by optimalsolver » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 1:25 PM UTC

Isn't that around the time of the Homo Sapiens genetic bottleneck?

Re: A Visiting Star Jostled Our Solar System 70,000 Years Ago

#3

Post by baxtr » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 1:39 PM UTC

optimalsolver wrote: post #2

Isn't that around the time of the Homo Sapiens genetic bottleneck?

What does that mean?

Re: A Visiting Star Jostled Our Solar System 70,000 Years Ago

#4

Post by keymone » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 1:42 PM UTC

baxtr wrote: post #3

optimalsolver wrote: post #2

Isn't that around the time of the Homo Sapiens genetic bottleneck?

What does that mean?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_bottleneck ?

Re: A Visiting Star Jostled Our Solar System 70,000 Years Ago

#5

Post by ddalex » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 1:42 PM UTC

optimalsolver wrote: post #2

Isn't that around the time of the Homo Sapiens genetic bottleneck?

I'm amazed at this coincidence, too.

Re: A Visiting Star Jostled Our Solar System 70,000 Years Ago

#6

Post by eleitl » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 1:47 PM UTC

ddalex wrote: post #5

optimalsolver wrote: post #2

Isn't that around the time of the Homo Sapiens genetic bottleneck?

I'm amazed at this coincidence, too.

It can't have had sufficiently fast impact on Earth by disturbing orbits to create impactors, given the distance.

Re: A Visiting Star Jostled Our Solar System 70,000 Years Ago

#7

Post by JoeAltmaier » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 1:52 PM UTC

eleitl wrote: post #6

ddalex wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm amazed at this coincidence, too.

It can't have had sufficiently fast impact on Earth by disturbing orbits to create impactors, given the distance.

Isn't the article mostly about how it did influence Oort cloud object orbits? Thirty-six identified.

Re: A Visiting Star Jostled Our Solar System 70,000 Years Ago

#8

Post by stult » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 2:01 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #7

eleitl wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can't have had sufficiently fast impact on Earth by disturbing orbits to create impactors, given the distance.

Isn't the article mostly about how it did influence Oort cloud object orbits? Thirty-six identified.

It also discusses how there was almost certainly no impact on Earth's surface or our ancestors. Apparently the star was unlikely to even have been visible in the night sky.

Re: A Visiting Star Jostled Our Solar System 70,000 Years Ago

#9

Post by 24gttghh » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 2:02 PM UTC

I was going to ask if perhaps ancient humans saw this new red star and if it drove them to an elevated state of being superstitious and chaos but:

>When Scholz’s Star was in the neighborhood, it would have been a 10th magnitude star (red dwarfs are very dim). That’s about 50 times fainter than what can be seen with the naked eye at night. Under normal circumstances, it would be invisible. But because red dwarfs are magnetically active, it could have briefly “flared-up” (i.e., V-band flares) to become thousands of times brighter. The astronomers say it’s possible that the star was visible to our paleolithic ancestors for a few minutes or hours if this rare flaring event transpired at the time.

Re: A Visiting Star Jostled Our Solar System 70,000 Years Ago

#10

Post by saalweachter » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 2:08 PM UTC

optimalsolver wrote: post #2

Isn't that around the time of the Homo Sapiens genetic bottleneck?

"However, subsequent research, especially in the 2010s, appeared to refute both the climate argument and the genetic argument." [0]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_bottleneck#Toba_cat...