Comets & disaster
"The Comet Is Real" – A Journal of the Crazy Year Tidbit #2
Can comets cause worldwide disaster – without crashing into the planet? Throughout human history, people certainly have thought so, and some think so now. A new comet soon to be on final approach to the Earth is giving fresh food for thought.
In the doomsday novel A Journal of the Crazy Year, the outbreak of a global pandemic coincides with the arrival of two comets. One of them is fictional – the comet Filipov, with an orbital period of 5,000 years. The other – Comet ISON – is not fictional. It's on its way here now. ISON is a "sun grazer" – it will brush by the sun in just a few weeks. If it survives the encounter, ISON will appear in the skies above the Earth in late December. The early buzz about ISON was that it could be the "comet of the century." That probably was overhyped, and journalists are being a bit more cautious now. But ISON will make a close approach to the Earth, and therefore does have the potential to be quite a sight.
ISON will be a one-time visitor to the Solar System. It's on an "ejection trajectory" – meaning that it will eventually leave the sun's gravitational field, never to return. In the novel, some scientists point out that a similar comet coincided with the advent of encephalitis lethargica in 1916, a disease that grew to pandemic proportions and caused widespread death and insanity. This is historic fact. The scientists go on to postulate that the two new comets may have something to do with the new plague that's at the heart of the novel. Is that possible?
For such an effect to occur, the comets would have to have properties and forces not currently known to science. So let's pull that thread – is there such a thing as a force unknown to science? The answer to that question is a resounding "yes." All of the examples referenced in the novel – including dark matter, dark energy, and the recent discovery of polar nebulae mysteriously aligned in the same direction despite being widely separated by distances spanning hundreds or even thousands of light years – are real.
Two of the scientists cited in the novel as believing in a cometary connection to disasters also are real. Edmond Halley was the legendary 17th century astronomer who first discovered the periodic nature of comets and famously predicted the return of the body that now bears his name; despite his stature, the Royal Society public censured him for suggesting that a comet may have caused The Great Flood (an idea that has refused to go away despite the Royal Society's hissy fit). Immanuel Velikovsky also was real; mainstream scientists regarded him as a crackpot, but he had a wide public following.
It's also true that throughout recorded human history, people have associated comets with disasters – many of which have been either biological or man-made in origin (wars and civil disturbances) – and after all, any man-made disaster is also biological, since we are part of the biosphere. One of the most recent such historical references is contained in Daniel Defoe's 1722 novel A Journal of the Plague Year – from which A Journal of the Crazy Year takes its name. A spectacular comet appeared in 1665. The Great Plague of London followed. This, also, is historic fact.
Most large comets get the doomsday crowd cranked up, and Comet ISON is no exception. To see for yourself, Google or Bing "Comet ISON disaster" and "Comet ISON Black Death."
Forrest Carr
Novelist and recovering journalist
Tucson, Arizona
Please "like" my author page on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/forrestcarrau...
Can comets cause worldwide disaster – without crashing into the planet? Throughout human history, people certainly have thought so, and some think so now. A new comet soon to be on final approach to the Earth is giving fresh food for thought.
In the doomsday novel A Journal of the Crazy Year, the outbreak of a global pandemic coincides with the arrival of two comets. One of them is fictional – the comet Filipov, with an orbital period of 5,000 years. The other – Comet ISON – is not fictional. It's on its way here now. ISON is a "sun grazer" – it will brush by the sun in just a few weeks. If it survives the encounter, ISON will appear in the skies above the Earth in late December. The early buzz about ISON was that it could be the "comet of the century." That probably was overhyped, and journalists are being a bit more cautious now. But ISON will make a close approach to the Earth, and therefore does have the potential to be quite a sight.
ISON will be a one-time visitor to the Solar System. It's on an "ejection trajectory" – meaning that it will eventually leave the sun's gravitational field, never to return. In the novel, some scientists point out that a similar comet coincided with the advent of encephalitis lethargica in 1916, a disease that grew to pandemic proportions and caused widespread death and insanity. This is historic fact. The scientists go on to postulate that the two new comets may have something to do with the new plague that's at the heart of the novel. Is that possible?
For such an effect to occur, the comets would have to have properties and forces not currently known to science. So let's pull that thread – is there such a thing as a force unknown to science? The answer to that question is a resounding "yes." All of the examples referenced in the novel – including dark matter, dark energy, and the recent discovery of polar nebulae mysteriously aligned in the same direction despite being widely separated by distances spanning hundreds or even thousands of light years – are real.
Two of the scientists cited in the novel as believing in a cometary connection to disasters also are real. Edmond Halley was the legendary 17th century astronomer who first discovered the periodic nature of comets and famously predicted the return of the body that now bears his name; despite his stature, the Royal Society public censured him for suggesting that a comet may have caused The Great Flood (an idea that has refused to go away despite the Royal Society's hissy fit). Immanuel Velikovsky also was real; mainstream scientists regarded him as a crackpot, but he had a wide public following.
It's also true that throughout recorded human history, people have associated comets with disasters – many of which have been either biological or man-made in origin (wars and civil disturbances) – and after all, any man-made disaster is also biological, since we are part of the biosphere. One of the most recent such historical references is contained in Daniel Defoe's 1722 novel A Journal of the Plague Year – from which A Journal of the Crazy Year takes its name. A spectacular comet appeared in 1665. The Great Plague of London followed. This, also, is historic fact.
Most large comets get the doomsday crowd cranked up, and Comet ISON is no exception. To see for yourself, Google or Bing "Comet ISON disaster" and "Comet ISON Black Death."
Forrest Carr
Novelist and recovering journalist
Tucson, Arizona
Please "like" my author page on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/forrestcarrau...
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