TESTING THE LINK BETWEEN TERRESTRIAL CLIMATE CHANGE AND GALACTIC SPIRAL ARM TRANSIT

Journal Article · Tue Nov 10 00:00:00 EST 2009 · Astrophysical Journal (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/705/2/L101· OSTI ID:21378336

Overholt, Andrew C; Melott, Adrian L ^[1]; Pohl, Martin ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, 1251 Wescoe Drive 1082, Lawrence, KS 66045 (United States)
2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011-3160 (United States)

We re-examine past suggestions of a close link between terrestrial climate change and the Sun's transit of spiral arms in its path through the Milky Way galaxy. These links produced concrete fits, deriving the unknown spiral pattern speed from terrestrial climate correlations. We test these fits against new data on spiral structure based on CO data that do not make simplifying assumptions about symmetry and circular rotation. If we compare the times of these transits with changes in the climate of Earth, the claimed correlations not only disappear, but we also find that they cannot be resurrected for any reasonable pattern speed.

• OSTI ID: 21378336
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 705, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/705/2/L101; ISSN 1538-4357
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
CLIMATES
CLIMATIC CHANGE
CORRELATIONS
MILKY WAY
ROTATION
SOLAR SYSTEM
SUN
SYMMETRY
GALAXIES
MAIN SEQUENCE STARS
MOTION
STARS