July 3, 2017 - It's February 15, 2013, 9:25 am, and your morning commute has just been interupted by the supersonic boom of a meteor striking the ground at a force 30 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. Not a great Friday for the people of Chelyabinsk, Russia. Ironically, on the same day this 55 foot wide rock plummeted into a frozen lake, asteroid 2012 DA14 passed within 17,200 miles of earth, which is closer than our satellites in geosynchronus orbit. A one in a million coincidence? Most scientists are saying the two events are unrelated. The meteor was traveling in the opposite direction of the asteroid's south-to-north orbital path. But maybe there is more to these space rocks.
Michael Rampino's little known Shiva Hypothesis proposes just that. Named after the Hindu god of destruction, the Shiva Hypothesis connects past mass extinction events on Earth with impact events. As our solar system passes through planes in the Milky Way galaxy, gravitational disturbances jostle comets in the Oort cloud surrounding our solar system, sending them hurling towards our inner planets. This increases the likelihood of an impact event on Earth about every 30 million years. Earth has had 5 major and 20 minor mass extinctions in its history. The last major extinction event was the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. It occured about 66 million years ago and one of the most likely culprits is the 110 mile wide Chicxulub crater in Mexico, caused by a giant space rock. This extinction level event wiped out about 75% of the Earth's species, including the dinosaurs. Could we be in for more frequent occurences of falling rocks?
If the Shiva Hypothesis is correct, there is a positive correlation between Earth's craterings and mass extinction events. But Shiva is not just a deity of destruction. Shiva is also known as the "transformer," for to create something new, something old must pass. He is part of the Hindu Triad, along with Brahma the creator and Vishnu the maintainer. Together this trinity participates in a cosmic dance of creation and destruction, balancing life in the universe. If you're worried, check your homeowners insurance. Most will cover meteor strikes.