 But the inner core rotates counterclockwise if you look down over the top of the pole of the Earth, and it may have stopped in 2009. We go out into deep space with some other theories. The Earth may have been hit twice, George, in geologic history, by an amazing interstellar cloud from the explosion of a supernova. It accordingly happened some 7 million years ago, and again some 2.5 million years ago, too. Why is it important?