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ASTEROID.TXT - "The End Of A Chapter?" FSR (Vol.34, No.3, Sept., 1989)
- by FSR Editor Gordon Creighton
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THE END OF A CHAPTER?
---------------------
As all our information media continue to bombard us with
depressing reports about the Ozone Layer; the "Greenhouse Effect";
the melting Ice-Caps and the rising seas; the rapid loss of the Earth's
great tropical rain-forests; the massive pollution of land and sea and
atmosphere; the terrifying overpopulation of the Earth by Man, the Great
Predator; and the accelerating destruction of numerous other species of
life, it is evident that many - even among the great unthinking masses
of humanity - are beginning to preceive that "SOMETHING IS HAPPENING".
And, here and there among them, the more perceptive ones are even starting
to see that the close of one of the _Great_Chapters_in_the_Book_of_Life_
on_Earth_ may be at hand. Should this indeed be so, then it is nothing
new! For these things have occurred repeatedly before. For what we are
discussing is "Catastrophism", and we know that the old-fashioned Victorian
idea of "Gradualism", once so dear to the hearts of such folk as the
geologist Lyall, has now been totally discarded. Today we already know
from the scientific evidence, of _at_least_77_reversals_of_the_Earth's_
Poles_.
Firstly, there is the problem of the actual _wandering_ of the
physical Poles, and this is no doubt connected with the slow processes
of Continental Drift and the movements of the Plates. Secondly, as
stated already, there is the question of the _magnetic_ reversals. It
seems that there have been twenty of these in the last 4,500,000 years,
which gives us a rate of _about_one_reversal_ every 200,000 years, on an
average. There have been found to be several sorts of time-interval
between them. One of the intervals is of about 700,000 years, while
another is of about only 10,000 years. The longest interval yet
discovered by our scientists happens to be in fact our current interval,
as it seems that the last big reversal was about 690,000 years ago,
though the scientists Folgheraiter and Mercanton have also found a brief
period of reversal about 3,000 years ago.
Findings of scientists in the Geological Department of the
University of Minnesota (published in the London _Sunday_Times_ of July
15, 1984) indicate that a new "flip" is indeed pending. They found
that the Earth's magnetic field has halved in strength over the past
4,000 years. The actual reversal may, the scientists say, "take a few
years, or a couple of thousand if History is any guide".
Clearly, when it does happen, magnetic compasses will be useless
for navigation during the change, and the protection which the Earth's
magnetic field at present gives us against solar radiation could be
altered, no doubt bringing major changes in climate (such as we are
already experiencing).
Clearly, also, all creatures that utilize the Earth's magnetism
for their navigation - birds, fish, and honey bees for example - will
be thrown into utter confusion and their survival will be in doubt. And
what about ours? (Incidentally, we have heard of all sorts of theories
about the cause of extinction of the dinosaurs - such as the explosion
of a Supernova. But this magnetic field reversal might also have been
the cause.)
All Life Is Lived On A Razor's Edge
All life is miraculous and perilous, anyway, and we live on the
razor's edge. In an earlier article, "Will The Earth Be Struck Again
Soon?" (in FSR 30/5, 1985), I gave an outline of the view of Dr. Allen
Hynek and fellow-astrophysicists regarding a further danger with which
our planet is faced - _and_has_always_been_faced_ - namely the possibility
of another major _strike_ soon by an asteroid or a comet, from which it
seemed pretty evident that a good many astronomers think we might 'cop'
something quite nasty again before very long.
Such a view has recently received much confirmation. In his
article, _The_Dynamics_of_Armageddon_, published in the journal ASTRONOMY
NOW, the Oxford University astrophysicist Dr. Victor Clube has pointed
out that, since about 1970, the previous scientific thinking about the
likelihood of great geophysical disasters on our planet have been revised
most drastically. He says that it is now perceived that, even within the
tiny span of recorded history, the impact or near passage of comets have
had quite startling effects upon the Earth.
Comet Encke, And Another Near-Miss By An Asteroid
Subsequently, on October 24, 1988, in an article in the London
_Daily_Telegraph_, Dr. Clube showed that, in particular, COMET ENCKE,
which, with its million-mile swathe of debris _intercepts_Earth's_orbit_
once_every_3.3_years_(!), represents a terrible danger to this planet,
and he adduces cogent evidence to show that in both the 5th century A.D.,
there were what he calls veritable "waves of attack" against the Earth
by Encke. He also thinks, incidentally, that the famous "Tunguska
Phenomenon" of 1908 was almost certainly a large chunk of ice about 40
yards wide and weighing some 30,000 tons, which had got detached from
Encke's Comet.
But now (Daily Telegraph, April 21, 1989) we learn that our Earth
has just narrowly escaped being struck by a fresh, _totally_unknown_,
asteroid weighing some 400,000,000 tons, which passed within half-a-million
miles of us in March of this year! Dr. Henry Holt, the Northern Arizona
University astronomer who discovered this "beastie", using the Mount
Palomar Optical Telescope, says that the thing had come in from the
direction of the Sun, so that the Sun's glare had prevented anyone from
detecting its approach sooner, and that, "If it had appeared only a few
hours earlier, it would have nailed us".
"Half-a-million miles from Earth" mean that, as it passed us, the
size of the gap separating the asteroid from us was only twice the distance
from the Earth to the Moon.
In 1937 the asteroid HERMES (400 million tons) also came within
half a million miles of us. If we are to go on having many such "close
shaves", then assuredly it can only due to some Very High Guidance - in
other words DIVINE PROVIDENCE. But - can we always count on it? IF WE
ARE WORTH PRESERVING, MAYBE SOMEBODY WILL CONTINUE TO SEE TO IT THAT WE
ARE PRESERVED.
As we contemplate these Immensities, we realize more acutely than
ever that ALL OF LIFE IS LIVED UPON A RAZOR'S EDGE. What the purpose of
our existence here is, not one of us knows, but we can be certain that
_we_are_here_because_we_are_useful_to_Somebody_or_to_Something_. Let us
ever be thoughtful and mindful, then, for should we cease to be useful,
might not our time be running out?
_What_do_all_the_signs_indicate?__Are_we_not_all_living_on_
borrowed_time_now_?
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