Worlds in Collision by Immanuel Velikovsky

Author:Immanuel Velikovsky [Velikovsky, Immanuel]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781906833718
Publisher: Paradigma Ltd
Published: 2012-09-26T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 3

What Caused Venus and Mars to Shift Their Orbits?

When Venus became a new member of the solar system, it moved on a stretched ellipse, and for centuries imperiled the other planets. Because of its dangerous circling, Venus was diligently observed in both hemispheres, and records were kept of its movement.

In the last centuries before this era, the 225-day year of Venus, and apparently also its orbit, were practically the same as in modern times. As early as the second half of the seventh century before this era, Venus, watched until then with anxiety, had already ceased to be a cause of dreadful expectation; it probably reached then the orbital stage in which it was found in the last centuries before this era, and where we still find it today. What caused the change in the orbit of Venus?

I shall pose another problem besides the first. Mars did not arouse any fears in the hearts of the ancient astrologers, and its name was seldom mentioned in the second millennium. In Assyro-Babylonia, in inscriptions made before the ninth century, the name of Nergal is found only on rare occasions. On the astronomical ceiling of Senmut Mars does not appear among the planets. It did not play any conspicuous part in the early mythology of the celestial gods.

But in the ninth or eighth century before this era, the situation changed radically. Mars became the dreaded planet. Accordingly, Mars-Nergal rose to the position of the frightful storm and war god. The question must then present itself: Why, previous to that time, did Mars signify no danger to the earth, and what caused Mars to shift its orbit nearer to the earth?

The planets of the solar system move in nearly the same plane, and if one planet were to revolve along a stretched ellipse, it would endanger the other planets. The two problems – what caused Venus to change its orbit, and what caused Mars to change its orbit – may have a common explanation. The common cause may have been some comet which changed the orbits of Venus and Mars; but it is simpler to suppose that two planets, one of which had a greatly elongated orbit, collided, and that no third agent was necessary to bring about that result.

A conflict between Venus and Mars, if it occurred, might well have been a spectacle observable from the earth. It is not impossible that the two planets came repeatedly into contact, each time with different results.

If a contact between Venus and Mars really occurred and was observed from the earth, it must have been commemorated in traditions or literary monuments.

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