Galaxy hoax claims we're aliens
First it was the moon hoax, then the Mars hoax and now astronomers warn there's a galaxy hoax.
An article in Viewzone Magazine, which has prompted a number of calls to the astronomical community, says that new evidence from a survey of the skies known as 2MASS, 'proves' we come from an alien galaxy.
It says that our sun and all its planets do not belong to the Milky Way but rather to a stream of stars being stripped from a dwarf galaxy known as Sagittarius Dwarf.
Read the full article here.
But astrophysicist Dr Denis Sullivan, from Victoria University of Wellington, warns that although the article quotes legitimate scientists and their research, the conclusions it draws are false.
The 2MASS survey uses automated telescopes to map the infrared sky at near-infrared wavelengths.
By mapping the positions of thousands of particular stars known as M giants, which are common in the dwarf galaxy but not the Milky Way, scientists have traced the collision between the galaxies that has occurred over billions of years.
Sagittarius Dwarf appears as a ribbon of stars looping up through and around the elongated disc of the Milky Way, as it is torn apart by the much greater gravitational force of our galaxy.
The stream of stars ripped from the dwarf intersects the outer edge of the Milky Way at an angle.
Coincidentally, the solar system, which lies near the intersection point, is also tilted and at an angle to the plane of the Milky Way.
The Viewzone article argues that such coincidences are so highly unlikely that the solar system must have originated in Sagittarius Dwarf rather than the Milky Way, hence the headline 'Scientists Prove We Are Not From Here!'.
Angles prove otherwise
But the angle of the solar system, which is simply the chance result of stellar birth, does not align with the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy stream. Nor does the sun's motion around the Milky Way match the motion of the Sagittarius Dwarf stars.
Sullivan says people need to be more discriminating about information sourced from the internet.
"The internet is a marvellous tool, but since anyone can post virtually anything, and there is no guarantee that the stated facts are right or that any inferences drawn are reasonable," he says.
More detailed information debunking the galaxy claim can be found at badastronomy.com.
Sagittarius Dwarf was discovered with the Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring in 1994.
It was the first 'cannibalised' galaxy to be discovered in the Milky Way, confirming theories that large galaxies are formed by merging with or absorbing smaller galaxies.