Posted on 08/25/2003 1:02:05 PM PDT by presidio9
We are so used to the routine circularity of our astronomical lives — the Moon revolving around us as we spin our way around the Sun — that we forget what a universe of singularities this really is. Some things happen every day, like sunrise and sunset, some only once a year, like annual meteor showers, and some occur on more elliptical schedules, like the return of certain comets. And then there are the rare conjunctions of heavenly bodies that would be starkly visible to us if we lived without artificial light, but that most of us have to admire intellectually instead. A case in point is the present proximity of Mars.
Next Wednesday, Mars and Earth will be almost as close together as they ever get: 34,646,418 miles apart. At dark, under the red glare of Mars, which is now the brightest object in the night sky, that number is very hard to take literally. So is the fact that 59,619 years ago, Earth's Neanderthals were staring skyward and wondering just how close that red planet was going to come. That was the last time Earth and Mars were so near. Sixty thousand years is the blink of an eye in our planet's long history. But the Neanderthals still had some 30,000 years left, and the whole of what humans have done and undone was undreamt of. In 284 years Mars and Earth will be closer still, and someone will look back upon us and wonder what those 284 years have meant. It is impossible to guess from here.
If you like, you can imagine a race of Martians wondering how close the blue planet is going to come and perhaps taking precautions. But a Mars without Martians is glorious enough. To watch the night sky with Mars kindling in Aquarius is to glimpse dimly a universe beyond the insubstantial aspic of human thought. Even under our shroud of light, we pay attention when Mars comes by. It draws us out to gaze at it against the backdrop of this unrepeatable universe, which we like to pretend is so strangely familiar.
Uh, dude, they had no idea what planets and stars were.
Another fine NY Times editorial moment.
;)
If the Neanderthals noticed it at all (and that's a big "if"), there is no reason to think they would have understood the ramifications of its proximity at all, or even cared. "Yesterday, no bright light there. Today, bright light there. Where's my food?"
Ask an African bushman what he thinks about it. Now shave his intelligence by about 90 percent. That's what the Neanderthal was thinking.
Fact? Where is the fact? We cannot find anything linking humans to this exact age!
if there were Neanderthals, how did they know this planet to be getting closer?
Yeah they and the Easterbunny.
Fact? Where is the fact? We cannot find anything linking humans to this exact age!
if there were Neanderthals, how did they know this planet to be getting closer?
I'd bet there are more people in this world today,
who have no idea what planets and stars are, than there were
Neanderthals 59,619 years ago.
Huh?
You one of those 4004 BC types?
Obviously they didn't know what a planet was, but I'd imagine seeing the bright light in the sky where there was a dim one before aroused the curiosity of some of them. ...the more intelligent ones, at least.
Uuunggg. Duuuuhhh.
A friend of mine works at a new age bookstore in L.A., and she told me that astrologers, psychics, channelers, and all the rest of the loons are playing this up for all it's worth.
"Yesterday, no bright light there. Today, bright light there. Where's my food?"
Ask an African bushman what he thinks about it. Now shave his intelligence by about 90 percent. That's what the Neanderthal was thinking.
Oh! You mean about the level of the typical government schooled liberal. ;-)
Close approaches of Mars occur every 15-17 years. This approach, while the closest in many millenia, is only a fraction closer than many other "favorable" approaches -- for example, this year Mars will span 25.11 arc seconds as seen from Earth, while in 1971 the apparent diameter was 24.9 arc seconds.
That difference would hardly have impressed a Neanderthal, though evidently New York Times writers are much easier to amaze.
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