Expert: Jayendra Upadhye - 8/28/2006

Question
Does this theory hold any merit, if not why?

http://www.metaresearch.org/solar%20system/eph/eph2000.asp

Answer
Hi, Sam,
One must never discount things in astronomy.
It is an observational science, where timescales are very large!
The earth for example has not completed a fraction of one rotation areound the galactic center in sagittarius.
We just emerged from the gold belt complex some million years ago. It takes 225 millions years to go round once.

One can only imagine what COULD happen in each transition thru the tempestous "arms" of the galaxy.
These are the star forming regions and replete wit hdark matter. (Black holes, brown dwarfs, cooled neutron stars, and cooled white dwarfs, rogue planets you name it!

For all we know, ever pass thru an arm may be epoch making!
During the last (ongoing) round itself, the dinosaurs came and went! On earth, Life started only 600 million years ago or less than 3 rounds of the galaxy ago!

How can we then with certainity say "this is wrong".."this is right"?

But some things can be discounted outright.
The earth Certainly doesnot have enough "radio-active" U235 to undergo "fission" and explode it! In its 4.5 billions years of "stable physical" existence ..(with or without life)..all of it turned to lead..by natural decay or by explosive reactions..that part is now all past.

However a planet may disintegerate die to collision with large enough foreign body..(a rogue)..during transition of the system thru the arms!

The rest "like velikovsky's stuff" is all "interesting stuff".."good read" and not much else.

So keep an open mind..yes some of these things are possible, but not the explosions inside out stuff!
remember..even if rock under pressure were to vaporise as the author tries to say... he is not telling you that in the ultimate cool of space..3 deg kelvin, the temp of the Cosmic Background Radiation, all such vapor will instantly flash freeze to silica dust! ..Sand! or Glass to be precise!
We dont see a rain of glass beads happening do we?
The iron and nickel and cobalt in the core would likewise lead to meorites of loosely compacted spongy iron (formed when molten flash cooled iron particles congeal together).
We dont see those either.

Rather all meteorites show a standard average dose of elements conforming to the ratio  of elements expected in the primordial solar nebula.

This can be independently verified from other sources ..wikipedia may be, by you.

As usual the truth lies "somewhere in between"
Jayen