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ASTEROID.ASC
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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
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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 astro-physicists 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
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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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Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson
Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet
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