Free Republic

Comets and disaster in the Bronze AgeCosmic impact is gaining ground as an explanation of the collapse of civilisations, writes Benny Peiser At some time around 2300BC, give or take a century or two, a large number of the major civilisations of the world collapsed. The Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia, the Old Kingdom in Egypt, the Early Bronze Age societies in Israel, Anatolia and Greece, as well as the Indus Valley civilisation in India, the Hilmand civilisation in Afghanistan and the Hongshan Culture in China - the first urban civilisations in the world - all fell into ruin at more...

Scientists from NASA and the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz., have identified what could be a supervolcano on Mars—the first discovery of its kind. The volcano in question, a vast circular basin on the face of the Red Planet, previously had been classified as an impact crater. Researchers now suggest the basin is actually what remains of an ancient supervolcano eruption. Their assessment is based on images and topographic data from NASA's Mars Odyssey, Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, as well as the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter.In the Oct. 3 issue of the journal...

Perusal of an article about Saddam Hussein's canal-building projects has led a scientist to a startling discovery about the mysterious collapse of Middle East civilisations more than 4,000 years ago. Sharad Master, a geologist at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, saw on satellite images of southern Iraq a large circular depression which he believes is a meteor crater. If confirmed, it would indicate an impact equivalent to hundreds of nuclear bombs, causing devastating fires and flooding in an area which would have been shallow sea at the time. The discovery could explain why so many early cultures went into ...

Thursday, 26 July, 2001, 12:12 GMT 13:12 UK Disaster that struck the ancients The pharaohs of the Egyptian Old Kingdom had built the mightiest legacy of the ancient world - the pyramids at Giza. But after nearly a thousand years of stability, central authority disintegrated and the country collapsed into chaos for more than a 100 years. What happened, and why, has remained a huge controversy. But Professor Fekri Hassan, from University College London, UK, wanted to solve the mystery, by gathering together scientific clues. His inspiration was the little known tomb in southern Egypt of a regional governor, Ankhtifi. ...

During my morning run at 5:56 am Central Daylight Time, I witnessed the brightest meteor that I have ever seen. It was early dawn and still relatively dark. It passed to the north of Mahomet, Illinois (near Champaign) from the east, heading west. It lasted for a while and if I had been alert enough, I might have had enough time to get the camera out which I carry & get a picture. However, that didn't happen & it takes the thing a while to boot up anyway. There was some green during part of of the meteor's flight, so...

MADRID (AFP) - A meteorite which residents described as a "huge ball of fire" was spotted over the eastern Spanish regions of Catalonia and Valencia, according to astronomers in the region. "We received scores of calls from witnesses, who at first thought it was an asteroid flashing past. But judging from its size it was a meteorite," said a spokesman for a Catalonia-based astronomers' association. Motorists spotted the glowing sphere from the motorway linking Spain with southern France and reported seeing it break up into fragments. The meteorite glowed a greenish hue as it sped through the atmosphere on a...

Probe to 'look inside' asteroids By Paul Rincon BBC News Online science staff in Paris, France Studies of asteroids would aid Earth-protection strategies A new space mission concept unveiled at a Paris conference aims to look inside asteroids to reveal how they are made. Deep Interior would use radar to probe the origin and evolution of two near-Earth objects less than 1km across. The mission, which could launch some time later this decade, would also give clues to how the planets evolved. The perceived threat of asteroids colliding with our planet has renewed interest in space missions to understand these...

A massive mysterious explosion in Wairoa this morning shook windows and woke people in Mahia, Kotemaori, Ruakituri, Lake Waikaremoana and Wairoa. Wairoa senior sergeant Chris Flood said the explosion occurred about 3.40am. Police called several people around the district. "They report hearing a loud explosion and seeing the whole sky light up. Everyone heard it," Mr Flood said. He thought it might have been a meteor. Department of Conservation Aniwaniwa area manager Glenn Mitchell said he thought the noise was an LPG bottle exploding. "I knew it wasn't a gunshot. It was a large explosion. I drove all around the...