[sinanju]

I believe a brown dwarf was floated as part of the “Death Star” hypothesis in the eighties. Concerning a brown dwarf whose distant orbit periodically sent mass amounts of comets from the Oort cloud into the solar system, resulting in earth impacts and periodic mass extinctions.

[cripplecreek]

The Nemesis theory.

[LibWhacker]

Hey, I kind of still believe that may be the case because early man dreaded comets. True, he was superstitious. But imagine early man looking up and seeing a night sky filled with comets, with a small one (like Tunguska) colliding with Earth now and then.

I’m hoping the next time the Oort Cloud is stirred up (if that’s what’s going on), our technology has advanced sufficiently to give us other options, besides just getting clobbered.

[Yossarian]

I believe a brown dwarf was floated as part of the “Death Star” hypothesis in the eighties. Concerning a brown dwarf whose distant orbit periodically sent mass amounts of comets from the Oort cloud into the solar system, resulting in earth impacts and periodic mass extinctions.

I'm just finishing up "Lucifer's Hammer" (by Nivens and Pournell) which is about exactly that.

Man, what a depressing book! But it does bring up the need to know how to be self-sufficient to survive "society break down" levels of disaster.