Has Nemesis' orbit been detected?

Abstract

The orbital angular momenta of 126 very young comets are calculated from the orbital data of Marsden and Roemer (1982) and analyzed statistically. A large anisotropy is detected in a plane almost perpendicular to the ecliptic and shown to have a characteristic dissipation lifetime of 10-30 Myr. Dynamic evolution computations indicate that the impulse which produced the anisotropy is that of a very slow massive (10-90 Jupiter mass) body, which is bound to the solar system, passed its 15,000-35,000-AU perihelion about 2-15 Myr ago, and has period 5-50 Myr. It is suggested that this body could well be identical to Nemesis, the object proposed to explain mass faunal extinctions.