Species being WIPED away from earth?

Question

i remember watching a video that said when earth is in a certain part of the universe the species on earth go extinct.. anyone know anything about this? it was every ______ thousand,million, years

Answer 1

well one cycle around the universe is about 225 million years  

Answer 2

There are some non-scientists that seem to be trying to relate the sun's orbit around the galaxy (which takes about 225 million years) to extinctions on Earth.  

But there is no scientific evidence that the location of the Earth in the galaxy has any cyclical effect on life on Earth.

As the solar system orbits the galactic centre, we move along with everything else around us - its not like the solar system plows through the material of the galaxy.

There could be regular-recurring events (such as long-term novas or burstars) that may affect life on Earth, but there is no evidence these exist.

Answer 3

If that show mentioned the universe...then....that's hardly the case.

maybe someone confused the universe with just our galaxy.

The universe is all of space and time..but...our  galaxy is just a small entity floating in the grand scheme...known as the universe.

Anyway......the Earth revolving around our galaxy...is not ...in itself....responsible for the extinction for anything.

There are certain factors to consider.

For example.......an asteroid...if it's a significant size...would do considerable damage.

I think that......anything short of a major impact...would only be something man made...and...even that..would not necessarily wipe out every entire species on this planet.

The real earthly disaster...will happen in about 5 billion years...when our sun swells into a red giant star...and wipes out the first 2 to 3 planets in our solar system.

Whatever your video showed...or explained....is either plainly not true...or...you are not supplying the entire context to which it was presented.   (<not your fault though).

Answer 4

there is the Nemesis Hypothesis, which states that the mass extinctions we see occurring every 26 million years or so has a relationship with some object off Earth.  They conjectured it was a red or brown dwarf with a very wide orbit outside the Oort cloud.

the beauty of this hypothesis is that the object, Nemesis, doesn't have to actually do a close approach to Earth to cause trouble, it just "shakes the tree" out in the Oort cloud and a few years later we get smacked by a bunch of comets.

its totally unsubstantiated by observation, but the circumstantial evidence is intriguing.

Answer 5

Well, an asteroid that can wipe species away happens once every million years.

Answer 6

I highly doubt this. It is likely some body making a pattern between extinction (dinosaurs, etc.). However, I suppose it could be possible. Some event such as a black hole, exploding star, or rapid meteor collisions could cause this. Though I don't know of a specific place in the universe, or galaxy that would cause this, nor do I know that Earth could survive a black hole or exploding star to host new species.