http://www.snopes.com/science/dustcloud.asp
Attached is the link to an article that I found that claims that a 10 million-mile-wide planet dissolving dust cloud will completely destroy the solar system by 2014. This finding also claimed that the cloud was discovered on April 6, and is currently moving at the speed of light straight for our solar system. It has been called a “chaos cloud” wiping out everything in its path. Using a couple of the Scientific thinking principles I was able to determine this claim was completely false, and then read later in the article that indeed it was incorrect. The first most obvious principle that I could use to prove this theory wrong would be that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The definition of this principle is that the more a claim contradicts what we already know, the more persuasive the evidence for this claim must be before we accept it. In this instance, the claim that a dust cloud would wipe us all out in a matter of 3 years was extremely odd and extraordinary. With that being said, we would need more facts and persuasive evidence to be sure what these researchers are telling us is true. Another principle of the scientific method that we could use in this case would be ruling out the rival hypothesis. Thinking to our selves while reading the article, “Is this the only good explanation for this finding? Have we ruled out other important competing explanations?”. The answers to those questions would be no. There could be a thousand other explanations for this dust cloud finding other than it’s going to be the end of mankind as we know it. In conclusion, the principles of scientific thinking helped me to come up with my own opinion about this topic and decipher that the claim was false.
