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167 lines
8.4 KiB
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<<UFONET I>> * 416-237-1204 * PC-Pursuitable * File Requestable * HST
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* 24 Hour Operation * Sysop - Tom Mickus * Toronto * FREE
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ASTEROID.TXT - "The End Of A Chapter?" FSR (Vol.34, No.3, Sept., 1989)
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- by FSR Editor Gordon Creighton
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- To Subscribe: Annual Subscription, 4 Issues.
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United Kingdom: 12 Pounds Sterling
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United States: US $30 (Money Order)
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Other Countries: 15 Pounds Sterling
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AIRMAIL: USA add $10, Others 6 Pounds
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- Address: The Editor,
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FSR Publications Ltd,
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P.O. Box 12,
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Snodland, Kent
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ME6 5JZ, ENGLAND
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NOTE: Use of "_underlining_" marks such as these are meant to
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indicate italicized words within the article.
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THE END OF A CHAPTER?
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---------------------
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As all our information media continue to bombard us with
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depressing reports about the Ozone Layer; the "Greenhouse Effect";
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the melting Ice-Caps and the rising seas; the rapid loss of the Earth's
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great tropical rain-forests; the massive pollution of land and sea and
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atmosphere; the terrifying overpopulation of the Earth by Man, the Great
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Predator; and the accelerating destruction of numerous other species of
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life, it is evident that many - even among the great unthinking masses
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of humanity - are beginning to preceive that "SOMETHING IS HAPPENING".
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And, here and there among them, the more perceptive ones are even starting
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to see that the close of one of the _Great_Chapters_in_the_Book_of_Life_
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on_Earth_ may be at hand. Should this indeed be so, then it is nothing
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new! For these things have occurred repeatedly before. For what we are
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discussing is "Catastrophism", and we know that the old-fashioned Victorian
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idea of "Gradualism", once so dear to the hearts of such folk as the
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geologist Lyall, has now been totally discarded. Today we already know
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from the scientific evidence, of _at_least_77_reversals_of_the_Earth's_
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Poles_.
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Firstly, there is the problem of the actual _wandering_ of the
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physical Poles, and this is no doubt connected with the slow processes
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of Continental Drift and the movements of the Plates. Secondly, as
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stated already, there is the question of the _magnetic_ reversals. It
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seems that there have been twenty of these in the last 4,500,000 years,
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which gives us a rate of _about_one_reversal_ every 200,000 years, on an
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average. There have been found to be several sorts of time-interval
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between them. One of the intervals is of about 700,000 years, while
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another is of about only 10,000 years. The longest interval yet
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discovered by our scientists happens to be in fact our current interval,
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as it seems that the last big reversal was about 690,000 years ago,
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though the scientists Folgheraiter and Mercanton have also found a brief
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period of reversal about 3,000 years ago.
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Findings of scientists in the Geological Department of the
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University of Minnesota (published in the London _Sunday_Times_ of July
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15, 1984) indicate that a new "flip" is indeed pending. They found
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that the Earth's magnetic field has halved in strength over the past
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4,000 years. The actual reversal may, the scientists say, "take a few
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years, or a couple of thousand if History is any guide".
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Clearly, when it does happen, magnetic compasses will be useless
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for navigation during the change, and the protection which the Earth's
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magnetic field at present gives us against solar radiation could be
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altered, no doubt bringing major changes in climate (such as we are
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already experiencing).
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Clearly, also, all creatures that utilize the Earth's magnetism
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for their navigation - birds, fish, and honey bees for example - will
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be thrown into utter confusion and their survival will be in doubt. And
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what about ours? (Incidentally, we have heard of all sorts of theories
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about the cause of extinction of the dinosaurs - such as the explosion
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of a Supernova. But this magnetic field reversal might also have been
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the cause.)
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All Life Is Lived On A Razor's Edge
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All life is miraculous and perilous, anyway, and we live on the
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razor's edge. In an earlier article, "Will The Earth Be Struck Again
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Soon?" (in FSR 30/5, 1985), I gave an outline of the view of Dr. Allen
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Hynek and fellow-astrophysicists regarding a further danger with which
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our planet is faced - _and_has_always_been_faced_ - namely the possibility
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of another major _strike_ soon by an asteroid or a comet, from which it
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seemed pretty evident that a good many astronomers think we might 'cop'
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something quite nasty again before very long.
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Such a view has recently received much confirmation. In his
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article, _The_Dynamics_of_Armageddon_, published in the journal ASTRONOMY
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NOW, the Oxford University astrophysicist Dr. Victor Clube has pointed
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out that, since about 1970, the previous scientific thinking about the
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likelihood of great geophysical disasters on our planet have been revised
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most drastically. He says that it is now perceived that, even within the
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tiny span of recorded history, the impact or near passage of comets have
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had quite startling effects upon the Earth.
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Comet Encke, And Another Near-Miss By An Asteroid
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Subsequently, on October 24, 1988, in an article in the London
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_Daily_Telegraph_, Dr. Clube showed that, in particular, COMET ENCKE,
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which, with its million-mile swathe of debris _intercepts_Earth's_orbit_
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once_every_3.3_years_(!), represents a terrible danger to this planet,
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and he adduces cogent evidence to show that in both the 5th century A.D.,
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there were what he calls veritable "waves of attack" against the Earth
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by Encke. He also thinks, incidentally, that the famous "Tunguska
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Phenomenon" of 1908 was almost certainly a large chunk of ice about 40
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yards wide and weighing some 30,000 tons, which had got detached from
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Encke's Comet.
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But now (Daily Telegraph, April 21, 1989) we learn that our Earth
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has just narrowly escaped being struck by a fresh, _totally_unknown_,
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asteroid weighing some 400,000,000 tons, which passed within half-a-million
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miles of us in March of this year! Dr. Henry Holt, the Northern Arizona
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University astronomer who discovered this "beastie", using the Mount
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Palomar Optical Telescope, says that the thing had come in from the
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direction of the Sun, so that the Sun's glare had prevented anyone from
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detecting its approach sooner, and that, "If it had appeared only a few
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hours earlier, it would have nailed us".
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"Half-a-million miles from Earth" mean that, as it passed us, the
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size of the gap separating the asteroid from us was only twice the distance
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from the Earth to the Moon.
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In 1937 the asteroid HERMES (400 million tons) also came within
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half a million miles of us. If we are to go on having many such "close
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shaves", then assuredly it can only due to some Very High Guidance - in
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other words DIVINE PROVIDENCE. But - can we always count on it? IF WE
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ARE WORTH PRESERVING, MAYBE SOMEBODY WILL CONTINUE TO SEE TO IT THAT WE
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ARE PRESERVED.
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As we contemplate these Immensities, we realize more acutely than
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ever that ALL OF LIFE IS LIVED UPON A RAZOR'S EDGE. What the purpose of
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our existence here is, not one of us knows, but we can be certain that
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_we_are_here_because_we_are_useful_to_Somebody_or_to_Something_. Let us
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ever be thoughtful and mindful, then, for should we cease to be useful,
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might not our time be running out?
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_What_do_all_the_signs_indicate?__Are_we_not_all_living_on_
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borrowed_time_now_?
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