Passing Star 56 Million Years Ago Increased Earth's Temperature By 14.4 Degrees F

Indy100 reports that "[a]ccording to a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the relatively close passing of a star 56 million years ago caused the Earth’s temperature to rise by eight degrees centigrade." The increase in temperature had been linked to a massive increase in atmospheric CO2 levels (see this Wikipedia entry), so this new theory seems to be quite the divergence from current thinking. But back to the article:

    Their study points to the passing of a star, which they claim came close enough to change planetary orbits in the solar system. The change in temperature came during the period known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.

    Kaib said: "It has already been proposed that Earth's orbital eccentricity was notably high during this event but our results show that passing stars make detailed predictions of Earth's past orbital evolution at this time highly uncertain, and a broader spectrum of orbital behavior is possible than previously thought."

    Kaib added: "One reason this is important is because the geologic record shows that changes in the Earth's orbital eccentricity accompany fluctuations in the Earth's climate,"

    Stars passing close enough to potentially alter orbits are relatively rare occurrences, but their impacts can be huge. It’s estimated that a star passes within 50,000 astronomical units (one astronomical unit being roughly the distance between the Earth and the Sun) around once every million years, while one is thought to come as close as 10,000 astronomical units to Earth around every 20 million years.

By way of comparison, climate scientists claim that Earth's temperatures will increase 2-4 degrees Celsius (3.6-7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100. 

    But it is hard to take climate scientists seriously when they adjust the data to fit their models. As the video below points out, climate scientists have "adjusted" historical temperatures downward while modern temperature readings are "adjusted" upward which, of course, results in "global warming". This after the fact "adjustment" of data is very common and, suspiciously, always is adjusted in a way that favors the desired outcome--i.e., that temperatures are increasing. 

VIDEO: "Some Data That's Not Cool"

CDN (15 min.)