I have recently become familiar with Hank Kroll’s speculations on the apparent path of our sun and the possibility that that path has impacted on our climate. Hank Kroll is an Alaskan sea captain and fisherman with college background from the sixties who has caught the bug of digging up new science. He has pumped out several books on various subjects and is putting one out shortly on his cosmological ideas.
Like many he is inspired by ancient sources that hint at knowledge that we are trying to rediscover. The danger with that is to rely too heavily on the metaphors used.
What he has put together is that the sun is possibly in an elongated orbit with Sirius whose period is around 100,000 years. The Sirius group of stars including our own is traveling towards the constellation Hercules. In addition he points out that a possibly related star (Barnard’s Loop) exploded three million years ago, possibly altering the dynamics of the Sirius cluster and perhaps destabilizing the sun’s orbit around Sirius.
So far so good. What is lacking is measurement precision. A study was done estimating our velocity against the background of nearby stars and we apparently are 8.5 light years away and are heading back (Why if not an orbit?). A real effort is needed to refine this possible orbit. Barnard’s loop is much more problematic, but in fairness accepted ideas about it are just as problematic. I never forget that astronomy is the science that looks good but cannot be tested except from one viewpoint.
The payoff for this theory is that it places the sun in the Sirius group before three million years ago on an apparent 54 year orbit and subjected to much more UV energy. This allows the unusual conditions of the carboniferous age to even be explained and the additional lack of polar icecaps until recent geological time. As Hank points out, this also provides enough energy to end the initial ice bound state of earth before the emergence of life.
Of course, we still do not know any of this and are in need of an accurate orbital path. What I have just described is plausible and needs to be modeled and tested. And while we are at it we need to look around to see if we are eventually vulnerable to other stellar interactions. I say this because this is a new orbit and it is possibly unstable. This implies that we could easily be captured by another sun within ten light years of Sirius and we cannot anticipate the level of perturbation on a pass by Sirius.
The day is coming when we send a space telescopes out a long ways and start getting an accurate picture of what is happening out there. A moon on Jupiter would be fine.
You can find Henry Kroll and his books at: www.GuardDogBooks.com & www.AlaskaPublishing.com `
Like many he is inspired by ancient sources that hint at knowledge that we are trying to rediscover. The danger with that is to rely too heavily on the metaphors used.
What he has put together is that the sun is possibly in an elongated orbit with Sirius whose period is around 100,000 years. The Sirius group of stars including our own is traveling towards the constellation Hercules. In addition he points out that a possibly related star (Barnard’s Loop) exploded three million years ago, possibly altering the dynamics of the Sirius cluster and perhaps destabilizing the sun’s orbit around Sirius.
So far so good. What is lacking is measurement precision. A study was done estimating our velocity against the background of nearby stars and we apparently are 8.5 light years away and are heading back (Why if not an orbit?). A real effort is needed to refine this possible orbit. Barnard’s loop is much more problematic, but in fairness accepted ideas about it are just as problematic. I never forget that astronomy is the science that looks good but cannot be tested except from one viewpoint.
The payoff for this theory is that it places the sun in the Sirius group before three million years ago on an apparent 54 year orbit and subjected to much more UV energy. This allows the unusual conditions of the carboniferous age to even be explained and the additional lack of polar icecaps until recent geological time. As Hank points out, this also provides enough energy to end the initial ice bound state of earth before the emergence of life.
Of course, we still do not know any of this and are in need of an accurate orbital path. What I have just described is plausible and needs to be modeled and tested. And while we are at it we need to look around to see if we are eventually vulnerable to other stellar interactions. I say this because this is a new orbit and it is possibly unstable. This implies that we could easily be captured by another sun within ten light years of Sirius and we cannot anticipate the level of perturbation on a pass by Sirius.
The day is coming when we send a space telescopes out a long ways and start getting an accurate picture of what is happening out there. A moon on Jupiter would be fine.
You can find Henry Kroll and his books at: www.GuardDogBooks.com & www.AlaskaPublishing.com `
