Earth from Sagittarius Dwarf, not Milky Way?
Purportedly, "new" evidence from the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) project suggests our solar system may actually be from the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy, and that this is the cause of Earth's global warming.
... the astronomers are answering questions that have baffled scientists for decades and proving that our own Milky Way is consuming one of its neighbors in a dramatic display of ongoing galactic cannibalism. The study published in the Astrophysical Journal, is the first to map the full extent of the Sagittarius galaxy and show in visually vivid detail how its debris wraps around and passes through our Milky Way. Sagittarius ... is getting stretched out, torn apart and gobbled up by the bigger Milky Way.
The Viewzone article then goes on to state:
It has been postulated that this is the real reason for both global warming since higher energy levels of the Milky Way are almost certain to cause our Sun to burn hotter and emit higher energies. Indeed, temperatures have been seen to rise on virtually all the planets in our system. This seems quite apart from any local phenomenon like greenhouse gases etc.
Which echoes another article from June 26th, 2007:
...as the Sun and its attendant satellites, including Earth, get consumed by the Milky Way, the higher energy levels in this much larger galaxy will cause the Sun to burn hotter, and to emit higher energy. This, scientists say, is one reason temperatures have been rising steadily in all plants in our solar system.
Both articles, however, are based on a press release issued by 2MASS back in September of 2003, and the published Astrophysical Journal article (entitled "A Two Micron All Sky Survey View of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy") makes no mention of Earth or our solar system "actually belong[ing] to" the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy. The closest we get is that "Majewski and his colleagues [are] surprised by the Earth's proximity to a portion of the Sagittarius debris."
Are the assertions that we're from another galaxy random postulations or merely "supporting evidence" for galactic warming?
There has been a decent amount written about galactic warming, including evidence of global warming on Neptune's largest moon ("Triton [seems] to have heated up significantly since the Voyager space probe visited it in 1989."), Pluto (where "atmospheric pressure has tripled ... indicating a stark temperature rise"), Mars (the Mars Odyssey orbiter "has spotted seasonal changes like the advance and retreat of polar ice"), and Jupiter (which may be "in the midst of a global change that can modify temperatures by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit").
On the other hand, does The Accidental Weblog have it right?
It's since spread from there, of course, the way bullshit generally does. One Dan Eden of 'Viewzone' ... another woo-infested site, apparently, though I'm not clear on whether they're affiliated with CureZone -- has now done a story on it. His story was every bit as weirdly credulous as was Perkins Erwin's... and ends in a similarly long, fun, new agey cloud of incomprehensible fog about energy levels and so on...
Bad Astronomy spends a fair bit of time debunking the claim that our solar system is from Sagittarius Dwarf:
I talked to Steve Majewski, the lead author on the horribly maligned scientific paper about the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy. He thanks me for saving him the trouble of having to debunk the claim himself. :-) He has updated his original page about all this with a disclaimer saying the Viewzone article is wrong, too.
Said disclaimer:
DO NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ ON THE WEB!
IF YOU ARE A JOURNALIST, PLEASE FOLLOW TRADITIONAL JOURNALISTIC STANDARDS AND DO PROPER SOURCE AND FACT CHECKING! (IF OTHER SUPPOSEDLY RELIABLE NEWS AGENCIES HAD SUBSCRIBED TO THESE BASIC PRINCIPLES, YOU PROBABLY WOULD NOT BE WASTING TIME RIGHT NOW CHASING DOWN THIS ILLEGITIMATE NEWS STORY!)
