Orange Dwarf Star may Visit Our Solar System — Will it be Our Nemesis?

"A local orange dwarf star has a 90 percent probability of passing within the orbit of our outer solar system's Oort Cloud between 240,000 and 470,000 years from now..."

That soon? Should we start biting our nails now?

I think I read this somewhere else, "Earth to be Destroyed by Ort Cloud Comet - Poor and Homeless to be Impacted the Most."

Was this prediction made by Harold Camping?

A rogue star wandering into our solar system is the basis of one of my all time favorites of "hard" Science Fiction series, Dragon's Egg and Starquake by the late, great Robert L. Forward. For those of you that wish to see how an accomplished Physicist can write a compelling novel, buy these books.

For those of you that are dieing to know if life on Earth is doomed, we are doomed. We will all die one day. There will also come a time when life is impossible on the Earth. Most likely this will not happen for a very, very long time but it will still eventually happen.

Wow, thanks for the suggestions!

I just downloaded Dragon's Egg to my iPad and put it on my list of books to read.

When I went to college, I soon stopped reading sci-Fi. Only because it was written by scientists and physicists. They would take fact and theory and give it a twist. I couldn't remember if I read it in a text book or sci-if novel. Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

I'm more worried about toenail fungas

Run and Hide! Run and Hide! ....oh wait 0ver 200K years from now? Never mind.

At least you are getting a running start that way.

One of the theories of mass extinctions with about a 26 million year period is a binary companion to the sun, the so called nemesis star.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_(hypothetical_star)

That theory is finding it harder and harder for it to be substantiated. Our instruments are getting better and better and the total lack of evidence for such a body has pretty much killed that theory.

The solar system orbits the Milky Way once every 235 million years and I would bet that the subtle tides from various neighbors may have more to do with periodic extinctions than a rouge dark star companion.

Yeah, perhaps when we pass through the "equator" of the galaxy, there is more gas and other random stuff to send comets down from the Oort cloud.

I have read this hypothesis too, but for the moment, I can't recall the source.

If this is our Nemesis, what is the crime for which we are to receive this divine just retribution?

The sky is falling. Think I'll take a nap.