- Evidence is growing that a huge comet
smashed into the Earth about 4,000 years ago.
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- Scientists are pointing to studies of
tree-rings in Ireland which have revealed that about 2,354-2,345 BC there
was an abrupt change to a colder climate.
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- They have also highlighted discoveries
by archaeologists in northern Syria of a catastrophic environmental event
at about the same time. This is also about the time that Bronze Age civilisations
collapsed.
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- Firework displays of meteors
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- Dr Bill Napier, an astronomer at Armagh
Observatory, and Dr Victor Clube, from Oxford and Armagh universities,
say the evidence points to a comet hitting the Earth, and have called for
more research.
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- Writing in Frontiers, the magazine of
the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, Dr Napier suggests
that the Comet Encke, first observed in 1786, might be a remnant of the
object along with its associated stream of meteors, called the Taurids.
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- This giant mother-comet is thought to
have been disintegrating as recently as 5,000 years ago.
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- At this time, and for some millennia
afterwards, the night sky would have been lit up by a bright light caused
by dust particles, cometary fragments, and firework displays of meteor
storms.
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- The scientists highlight ancient civilisations'
preoccupation with the sky.
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- Cosmic icons were widespread
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- Dr Napier wrote: "People have assumed
that this was driven by the need for a calendar for both agricultural and
ritual purposes.
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- "However, this explanation does
not account for the doom-laden nature of much cosmic iconography and early
sky-centred cosmic religions associated with these societies."
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- Icons apparently depicting comets were
widespread among early civilisations.
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- The new evidence also ties in with ancient
prophecies, including the Book of Revelations in the Bible, which appears
to describe cataclysmic events involving objects falling from the sky.
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- Dr Napier said the ancient swastika,
a symbol of great antiquity stretching back to at least 1400 BC and found
from China through India to the New World, may also be a cometary image.
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- Comets are giant dirty snowballs in space,
made of ice and dust. Unlike asteroids, which are rocky, there is no known
upper limit to their size, and the largest can measure several hundred
kilometres across.
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- Every 100,000 years or so one of these
rare, giant objects enters an orbit that crosses the path of the Earth.
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