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- THE mystery of Stonehenge may have been
solved. A leading British astronomer has found astonishing evidence that
it was an early warning system for meteor storms. A meteor impact can be
as devastating as a nuclear bomb.
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- It has long been suspected that Stonehenge
served some astronomical purpose, as many of its stones are aligned with
events such as the rising of the midsummer sun.
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- Dr Duncan Steel, an authority on comets,
was researching the cause of cosmic impacts such as the Tunguska event
of 1908, when a meteor exploded over Siberia with the energy of a hydrogen
bomb.
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- Calculations point to the existence of
a giant comet that entered the solar system 20,000 years ago and disintegrated,
leaving a trail of debris through which the Earth occasionally wanders.
Dr Steel found that the Earth would have been at greatest risk from meteor
impacts about 5,000 to 5,500 years ago - when work began on Stonehenge.
He also found that on the day of highest danger, the comet trail would
have risen above the horizon at Stonehenge in line with the Heel Stone.
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- Dr Steel believes that the link between
the Heel Stone and midsummer's day is a fluke - that the Earth cut across
the debris trail around the same time. And he suggests that the Long Barrows,
usually thought to be Iron Age burial chambers, might have been built for
a very different purpose. "They certainly look like air-raid shelters
- perhaps that's what they are."
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- His report is published this week by
Archaeopress.
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