# Is there any orbit at which the Roche limit can be “felt”?

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Do any of the planets have a Roche limit that is strong enough to be felt by an astronaut whilst in orbit?

Roche limit happens where the gravity of the object, trying to pull the object together, becomes smaller than the tidal force (trying to pull the object apart).

But the astronaut is bound by not gravity, rather by the electromagnetic interaction between his/her atoms. The own gravity of the astronaut is negligible, compared to the electromagnetic interaction.

However, the tidal force affecting an astronaut, should require a little calculation. We can derive the formula of the gravitational acceleration around a point-like body ($$F=frac{GM}{r^2}$$), we get

$$frac{dF}{dr}=frac{2GM}{r^3}$$

(We can ignore the sign on obvious reasons.)

Here $$G$$ is the gravitational constant, $$M$$ is the mass of the body, and $$r$$ is the distance.

Substituting the values of the Sun, we get $$frac{2cdot 6.67 cdot 10^{-11} cdot 2 cdot 10^{30}}{(7cdot 10^8)^3} approx 7.78cdot 10^{-7} frac{mathrm{m/s^2}}{mathrm{m}} approx underline{underline{8 cdot 10^{-8} frac{g}{mathrm{m}}}}$$.

More clearly, if we are orbiting the Sun just above its surface, a roughly 2m long astronaut feel that his head and foot are pulled apart by around $$1.6cdot 10^{-7}g$$ weight. In the case of a $$70:mathrm{kg}$$ astronaut, it is around the weight of $$0.0112$$ gram on the Earth.

The astronaut wouldn't feel it, but not very sensitive sensors could already measure it.

This calculation sometimes used $$mathrm{g}$$ for "gram", as unit of mass, and $$g$$ as the (non-standard) unit of acceleration.

The Roche limit is where the tidal forces exerted on an orbiting object are sufficient to overcome the self-gravity of that object.

The "self-gravity" of an astronaut is tiny. We can estimate it as something like $$F_{ m grav} sim frac{Gm^2}{(h/2)^2},$$ where $$m$$ is the mass of the astronaut (+ equipment) and $$h$$ is their size (height). Assuming $$m=100$$ kg and $$h=2$$ m, then the self-gravity force is $$2.7 imes 10^{-6}$$ N. This is a force that is too small to feel.

The tidal force on the astronaut a distance $$R$$ from a body of mass $$M$$ is approximately $$F_{ m tidal} simeq 2 frac{GMm}{R^3} h,$$ assuming they are pointing feet-first towards the Earth.

The Roche limit is where $$F_{ m grav} < F_{ m tidal}$$, so where $$frac{Gm^2}{(h/2)^2}< 2 frac{GMm}{R^3} h$$ $$R < hleft(frac{M}{2m} ight)^{1/3}$$ For example if $$M=M_{ m Earth}$$ and for the astronaut above, then $$R < 60,000$$ km for tidal break up. Which seems odd, because astronauts work quite happily in low-Earth orbit where the tidal forces are much stronger.

The problem with this calculation is that astronauts are not held together by self-gravity and a tidal field at the Roche limit has a negligible effect on a small body that is actually held together by atomic forces.

In order to experience a tidal field that can be felt on astronaut scales, let's say larger than 10 N (imagine hanging a 1 kg weight from your ankle on Earth), you would have to get much closer to the source of gravity.

Assuming a fixed mass equal to that of the Earth, we can work out you would need to get to within 500 km of the centre of mass in order to feel the tidal force. For the Earth (and also for other solar system bodies you could do the same calculation for) this would put you well inside the Earth, which isn't possible and in any case we could not assume that $$M$$ was fixed in that case, because it is the mass interior to $$R$$ that counts.

The only way that an astronaut could "feel" a tidal force would be to approach a compact star - a high density neutron star, white dwarf or black hole. There you can generate a very strong tidal field and, because they are compact, an astronaut could get close enough to feel it.

Expanding on Peterh's answer, we could try to find how should be an astronomical object for the tidal forces be felt by an astronaut orbiting it.

I don't have any reliable data on how strong need the tidal force to be felt. However, with a big simplification, we can very roughly model the upper and lower body of an astronaut as two masses placed about 1 meter apart. For a 70 kg astronaut under a tidal force of $$0.1·g$$ per meter (where $$g$$ is the acceleration of gravity), the difference of pull between those two 35 kg masses would be $$0.1·35 kg = 3.5 kg$$. Those force would stretch the astronaut's waist and would be clearly noticeably (maybe a force ten times weaker would be noticeable, too, but I'll will stick to $$0.1m^{-1}·g$$).

From Peterh's formulas:

$$r=sqrt[3]{frac{2·G·M}{0.1m^{-1}·g}}$$

For a 1 solar mass object:

$$r=sqrt[3]{frac{2·6.67·10^{-11}·2·10^{30}}{0.1·g}}=6481168 m = 6481 km$$

Then, an astronaut orbiting a sun-sized mass at a distance similar to Earth's radius would clearly feel tide forces when their head or feet point to the object. Of course the object would need to be a black hole or a neutron star to fit inside of the orbit.

With a more massive object the orbit could be larger, but given that mass is inside a cubic root, radius would grow very slowly.

## Roche limit

The Roche limit (pronounced /ˈroʊʃ/ ), sometimes referred to as the Roche radius, is the distance within which a celestial body, held together only by its own gravity, will disintegrate due to a second celestial body's tidal forces exceeding the first body's gravitational self-attraction. [ 1 ] Inside the Roche limit, orbiting material will tend to disperse and form rings, while outside the limit, material will tend to coalesce. The term is named after Édouard Roche, the French astronomer who first calculated this theoretical limit in 1848. [ 2 ]

Typically, the Roche limit applies to a satellite disintegrating due to tidal forces induced by its primary, the body about which it orbits. Some real satellites, both natural and artificial, can orbit within their Roche limits because they are held together by forces other than gravitation. Jupiter's moon Metis and Saturn's moon Pan are examples of such satellites, which hold together because of their tensile strength. In extreme cases, objects resting on the surface of such a satellite could actually be lifted away by tidal forces. A weaker satellite, such as a comet, could be broken up when it passes within its Roche limit.

Since tidal forces overwhelm gravity within the Roche limit, no large satellite can coalesce out of smaller particles within that limit. Indeed, almost all known planetary rings are located within their Roche limit (Saturn's E-Ring being a notable exception). They could either be remnants from the planet's proto-planetary accretion disc that failed to coalesce into moonlets, or conversely have formed when a moon passed within its Roche limit and broke apart.

It is also worth considering that the Roche limit is not the only factor that causes comets to break apart. Splitting by thermal stress, internal gas pressure and rotational splitting are a more likely way for a comet to split under stress.

## Determining the Roche limit

The Roche limit depends on the rigidity of the satellite. At one extreme, a rigid satellite will maintain its shape until tidal forces break it apart. At the other extreme, a highly fluid satellite gradually deforms with increasing tidal forces until it breaks apart.

For a rigid spherical satellite, the cause of the rigidity is neglected, in that the material constituting the satellite is still treated as though held together only by its own self-gravity. Other effects are also neglected, such as tidal deformation of the primary, and rotation of the satellite. The Roche limit, <math>d<math>, is then the following:

where <math>R<math> is the primary's radius, <math> ho_M<math> is the primary's density and <math> ho_m<math> is the satellite's density.

For a fluid satellite, tidal forces cause the satellite to elongate, further compounding the tidal forces and causing it to break apart more readily. The calculation is complex and cannot be solved exactly, but a close approximation is the following:

which indicates that a fluid satellite will disintegrate at almost twice the distance of a rigid sphere of similar density.

Most real satellites are somewhere between these two extremes, with internal friction, viscosity, and chemical bonds rendering the satellite neither perfectly rigid nor perfectly fluid.

### Rigid satellites

As stated above, the formula for calculating the Roche limit, <math>d<math>, for a rigid spherical satellite orbiting a spherical primary is:

where <math>R<math> is the radius of the primary, <math> ho_M<math> is the density of the primary, and <math> ho_m<math> is the density of the satellite. As described below, this rigid-body approximation does not take into account the deformation of the satellite's spherical shape due to tidal effects and is only an approximation of what a real satellite's Roche limit would be.

Notice that if the satellite is more than twice as dense as the primary (as can easily be the case for a rocky moon orbiting a gas giant) then the Roche limit will be inside the primary and hence not relevant.

#### Derivation of the formula

In order to determine the Roche limit, we consider a small mass <math>u<math> on the surface of the satellite closest to the primary. There are two forces on this mass <math>u<math>: the gravitational pull towards the satellite and the gravitational pull towards the primary. Since the satellite is already in orbital free fall around the primary, the tidal force is the only relevant term of the gravitational attraction of the primary.

Missing image
Roche_limit_(with_small_mass_u).PNG
Derivation of the Roche limit

The gravitational pull <math>F_G<math> on the mass <math>u<math> towards the satellite with mass <math>m<math> and radius <math>r<math> can be expressed according to Newton's law of gravitation.

The tidal force <math>F_T<math> on the mass <math>u<math> towards the primary with radius <math>R<math> and a distance <math>d<math> between the center of the two bodies can be expressed as:

The Roche limit is reached when the gravitational pull and the tidal force cancel each other out.

Which quickly gives the Roche limit, d, as:

However, we don't really want the radius of the satellite to appear in the expression for the limit, so we re-write this in terms of densities.

For a sphere the mass <math>M<math> can be written as:

<math> M = frac<4pi ho_M R^3><3><math> where <math>R<math> is the radius of the primary.

<math> m = frac<4pi ho_m r^3><3><math> where <math>r<math> is the radius of the satellite.

Substiting for the masses in the equation for the Roche limit, and cancelling out <math>4pi/3<math> gives:

which can be simplified to the Roche limit:

### Fluid satellites

A more correct approach for calculating the Roche Limit takes the deformation of the satellite into account. An extreme example would be a tidally locked liquid satellite orbiting a planet, where any force acting upon the satellite would deform the satellite. In this case, the satellite is deformed into a prolate spheroid.

The calculation is complex and cannot be solved exactly. Historically, Roche himself derived the following numerical solution for the Roche Limit:

However, with the aid of a computer a better numerical solution is:

where <math>c/R<math> is the oblateness of the primary.

## Answers and Replies

For example, what if earth were two spheres stuck together rather than just a single sphere?

Say the earth consisted of two, same size, spheres connected at what is now our north pole with a contact diameter of 1500 miles. The orbital plane is the same and the great axis is tilted the same from the orbital plane (about 29 degrees). The North pole is now on top of the attached sphere. The South pole remains were it is currently.

For example, what if earth were two spheres stuck together rather than just a single sphere?

Say the earth consisted of two, same size, spheres connected at what is now our north pole with a contact diameter of 1500 miles.

For fluid objects like stars, the Roche Limit is:

where R is the radius of the primary and ## ho M## and ## ho m## are the densities of the primary and secondary respectively. If the two densities are equal, then this puts the Roche limit more than twice the radius of the primary away, and you can't have a contact binary. If you increase the density of the secondary in order to decrease the ratio of the densities, you can drive the Roche limit down to being less than the sum of the two radii and you get a contact binary. This is possible with stars, as you can have hot larger star of low density paired with a smaller less massive star of greater density.

Now while the Earth is considered a "rocky" planet, it is not rigid and behaves more fluid (its shape is subject to outside forces like tidal forces).
Two Earth-sized planets of equal density touching each other would be within Each other's Roche limits. You are not likely to find the larger, less dense planet paired with a smaller High density planet, as planets like the Earth tend to increase in density with size. ( Such a pairing could theoretically happen between a gas giant and rocky world, but that is not what we are talking about here.)

As you reduce the size of the objects involved, the structural strength of the objects begin to overcome gravitational forces, and they can hold together against tidal forces, so you once again can form contact binaries.

For fluid objects like stars, the Roche Limit is:

Maybe since it's your claim.

If the bodies are small enough, they don't coalesce.

Someone did a really cool visual analysis of what gravity is like on/near such a body. Wish I'd bookmarked it.

If the bodies are small enough, they don't coalesce.

Someone did a really cool visual analysis of what gravity is like on/near such a body. Wish I'd bookmarked it.

I did a rather simple analysis of gravity on Ultima Thule.
The only interesting area is between F & G.

Probably not habitable, being only 34 km from end to end. But fun to think about.

#### Attachments

Cool. So starting at G, you'd be on the side of a hill, sloping sharply (feeling like about 45 degrees) down toward F.
As you "walked" (gently bounced) downhill, you'd feel the slope under your feet rapidly becoming vertical - moreso than expected, until you'd just drift off in the direction of C, eventually bumping into the larger mass.

It would be interesting to visualize the walk from the stroller's POV. The apparent horizontal would not be where you expect.
Standing at H, it would feel like a 15 degree slope, and it would look like the horizon of the larger mass is directly horizontal to your line of sight (i.e. perpendicular to the direction of "down" for you at H.)

I wonder, if you stood at F, could you push the masses apart.

Cool. So starting at G, you'd be on the side of a hill, sloping sharply (feeling like about 45 degrees) down toward F.
As you "walked" (gently bounced) downhill, you'd feel the slope under your feet rapidly becoming vertical - moreso than expected, until you'd just drift off in the direction of C, eventually bumping into the larger mass.

It would be interesting to visualize the walk from the stroller's POV. The apparent horizontal would not be where you expect.
Standing at H, it would feel like a 15 degree slope, and it would look like the horizon of the larger mass is directly horizontal to your line of sight (i.e. perpendicular to the direction of "down" for you at H.)

I wonder, if you stood at F, could you push the masses apart.

I think you've got it.
Though Ultima Thule is kind of weird, as the surface gravity is 3600 times less than here on Earth. Probably feels effectively weightless.

Perhaps I'll make another spreadsheet, doing the same thing, by tying a rope to the moon, and pulling it to the Earth's surface.
Might work. Might not.
You never know, till you do the maths.

Hmmm. According to everyone at Quora, the two would coalesce into a sphere.
But I wonder what would happen to the rotational speeds during the process.
Would it be like an ice skater, who brings their arms in while spinning, and speeds up?

Hmmm. Sounds like a lot of maths. Perhaps I'll look at what Janus was talking about in post #5 before I start any of this.

I don’t see how my claim proves the Roche Limit under this conditions. However, as that seems to be OK for you let’s start with it:

Two equal bodies with distance of 2.433·R would almost form a contact binary if they would remain spheres with radius R. But they don’t remain spheres due to tidal forces and centrifugal forces in the co-rotating system. Even with the conservative assumption that the mass is mainly concentrated in the centers the resulting deformations are sufficient to bridge the small gap between the original spheres. This is the result for two Earth-sized bodies (shown from the side):

As real or even homogeneous mass distributions would result in even larger deformations and therefore allow for contact binaries with a larger distance the Roche Limit actually supports my claim.

#### Attachments

Research results:
CONTACT BINARY SYSTEMS

Can binary terrestrial planets exist?

The possible existence of Earth-like binary planets is being described today at the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences meeting in Tucson, AZ. Two bodies, each of mass similar to Earth, can form a closely orbiting pair under certain conditions present during the formation of planetary systems.

201.02 – Binary Planets Can a bound pair of similar mass terrestrial planets exist? We are interested here in bodies with a mass ratio of

### Tidal question and orbital proximity

Anybody know how to determine the closest orbits that an Earthlike planet could safely ride about a gas giant primary (such as Jupiter)
and the effect that orbital distance would have on geologic activity and ocean tides?

I have seen them depicted in what looks like impossibly close proximities in movies and Discovery channel documentaries, but it seems to me by applying what little I know of the tidal equation, that those arrangements would yield devastatingly large ocean tides and land surface stresses.

### Tidal question and orbital proximity

Space Engine automatically calculates the Roche limit for all objects. You can see it at the bottom of the Orbital tab of the Info box:

### Tidal question and orbital proximity

The moon is located about 1.6 million miles away, at the edge of the parent planet's moon system in order to minimize the tidal forces. At this distance it has a 29 day orbit, and yet is still subject to 41 times the combined tidal forces that the Sun and Moon apply to the Earth here. Any farther away, and I've found that the parent star will distort the orbit and then strip the moon away from it's gas giant primary within a few hundred orbits.

Placing the moon super close to the primary might technically shorten the tidally locked day to within 20 or so hours, but it might violate the Roche Limit. Even if it doesn't, the primary would be so close and be so bright, completely filling the night-time sky that there would never be any darkness, not even close. Argueably, a more reflective planet like a cloud covered gas giant always filling the night-time sky would be even more blindingly bright than the sun would be on the sunlit side (square area of illuminance X brightness). Thus, no darkness or nighttime, ever, (except maybe an hour during eclipse time on the backside of the orbit), and a population of bleary-eyed humans trying to cope with perpetual overbearing daylight all the time. That would be hell on their circadian rhythms.

So now you see my problem.

## Galilean moons

In January 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei discovered four of Jupiter&rsquos moons — now called Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. He originally referred to the individual moons numerically as I, II, III, and IV. The numerical system for naming the moons lasted for a few centuries until scientists determined that simply using numbers as a naming device would be confusing and impractical as more moons were discovered.

Galileo&rsquos discovery was pivotal point in the history of astronomy as his observation revealed that not all celestial bodies revolved around the Earth. Until that time, Earth was thought to be the center of the universe.

Eight satellites — the four Galilean and four smaller moons — are closer to the planet and provide the dust that make up Jupiter's rings.

The closest of the Galilean moons to Jupiter is Io, the first moon to be discovered by Galileo. This satellite&rsquos distinctive feature is its volcanoes, making it the only celestial body in the solar system besides Earth to have volcanic activity. This moon also has sulfur dioxide snowfields, leading to its characterization as a moon of fire and ice. Io has an iron or iron sulfide core and a brown silicate outer layer, which gives it a splotchy orange, yellow, black, red, and white appearance.

Moving outward from Jupiter is Europa. While slightly smaller than Earth&rsquos moon, it is still one of the largest bodies in the solar system but the smallest of the Galilean satellites. Cracks and streaks crisscross the entire icy surface, which is marked with very few craters. Europa has a high degree of reflectivity, making it among the brightest moons in the solar system. At 20 to 180 million years old, the surface is fairly young. It is possible that an extensive ocean beneath the surface harbors life.

Ganymede is the third Galilean moon from Jupiter and the largest of the four. This low-density moon is about the size of Mercury but has about half the mass. Its outstanding characteristic is that it is the only moon to have its own magnetic field. The satellite&rsquos iron core is topped off by a thick crust that is mostly ice. Forty percent of the surface of Ganymede is covered by highly cratered dark regions, and the remaining sixty percent is covered by a light grooved terrain, which forms intricate patterns across Ganymede.

Callisto, the fourth and farthest of the Galilean moons from Jupiter, is the most heavily cratered object in the solar system. The moon&rsquos landscape has essentially remained unchanged since its formation, which has garnered much interest among scientists. It is about the size of Mercury but very low in density. It is also experiences the least impact of Jupiter&rsquos magnetic field as its orbit is the farthest from the planet and beyond Jupiter&rsquos primary radiation belt.

## 4 Answers 4

First, you state a few things that aren't quite right in your question. While the view that's generally talked about is that Phobos and Deimos are likely captured asteroids, dynamically it's a pretty difficult problem (you generally need a third (in this case fourth?) body to take away the extra energy, and it's hard to get a circular orbit around the equator). See for a bit more on that.

In terms of Phobos' demise, there are two things that make this problem very difficult to estimate. First, Phobos' orbit evolves as it orbits around Mars, so you can't just take a linear approach and say, "It's moving towards Mars at 18.3 cm/year so it's going to hit in about 50 million years." It's more complicated and non-linear.

But besides that, there's the Roche Limit to consider, whereby the moon will break up due to tidal forces before it would actually hit. The problem there is that Phobos is already within the Roche Limit, meaning that it's only being held together now by the physical strength of the rock it's made of. And since we don't really know what it's made of inside (though we can make educated guesses and I'm sure there are models out there for its strength), these unknowns make it somewhat difficult to estimate.

Another symptom of Phobos being so close to mars is that objects on its surface are not all in zero G. On average, object at the same altitude will weigh about 0.285 kg*mm/s less per kg on the day side than on the twilight one, with a gravity sometimes dipping under 2 mm/s^2, this could have noticeable effect on escape velocity.

Additionally, Phobos escape is not really necessary to escape Phobos, a jump above Stickney crater that would launch you all of 3 centimeters up on Earth would be enough to get to the Lagrange L1 point between Phobos and Mars. So you would than be in zero G, and never fall back down (staying in mars orbit) (although this jump would take around half an hour on the way up).

So, an astronaut trying to move around on said crater would be nightmarish without some sort of rocket pack, Let's say he bends over to pick up a rock, he gets back up over the course of 2 seconds, moving his center of mass 1 meter, he will now be moving a minimum of 1/2 meter/s away from Phobos, easily enough to reach L1 and go into a Mars orbit. Let's say that (s)he tries to walk quickly, his/her center of mass moves at several tenths of a meter per second upward, in addition to his m/s forward, therefore, he moves upward and drifts again into Mars orbit. Throw a 5 kg rock downward? go into orbit, throw it upward? still go into orbit, as does the rock, Here is the scary part, people on Phobos might lift not just that rock, but there lander if they try very hard at all. Oh, and heaven help you if you thought firing a gun downward was a good idea! less than a half-second of assault-rifle rounds into the crater will send you to Mars orbit. Or what if you puncture your suit? You might think you could just hurry up and be inside your pressurized spaceship within 2 minutes and you'd be fine, but nope, if it is facing upwards, air will rush out at 340 m/s, if it is escaping through a 1 cm^2 hole (widened by the pressure), you would lose 34 liters per second of air at 1/3rd sea-level pressure, even if your tank holds hundreds of times that, you still emit about 12 grams/s of air, accelerating you at 0.0408 m/s^2, enough to get to get to L1 with around 7 seconds of air released.

Oh, and don't even think about using golf to demo low gravity. 2 kg of metal flying back up at an appropriate speed could Easily send you into mars orbit.

As could a poorly balanced washing machine (send anything on top of it).

Diet Coke and Mentos rockets could reach escape velocity. Forget diet coke and Mentos, Diet coke by itself might be able to Reach L1.

It would take only a few nukes to deorbit Phobos into mars, creating an explosion that obliterates whole martian regions.

## 2 Answers 2

### Apparent size in the sky

The formula for the visual angle of an object is

$alpha = 2arctan<2d>>,$ where $alpha$ is the visual angle of the object, $r$ is the radius of the object (for a sphere, which is what we will be talking about), and $d$ is the distance from the viewer to the object.

### Limit of $d$: how close can a moon be?

The Roche limit for a rigid spherical moon, while taking its synchronous rotation into account is

where $d_$ is the Roche limit, $M_M$ is the mass of the planet (Earth in this case, $5.97 imes10^<24>$ kg), and $ho_m$ is the density of the moon.

### Limit of $r$: how big can the moon be?

The limit for the size of the moon is the point where the moon becomes more massive than the planet. Thus, the mass of the moon must be, at the most, equal to the mass of the Earth.

There are many ways we can express this mass, but wish to solve for $r$ in terms of something we are already using as a variable namely, $ho_m$. Thus

That looks surprisingly familiar.

### Putting it together

We now plug our minimum $d$ and maximum $r$ into the visual angle equation

## Is there any orbit at which the Roche limit can be &ldquofelt&rdquo? - Astronomy

According to the Earth's stratigraphic record, of both the Eastern and the Western Hemispheres, it has experienced numerous and repeated floods. The flood in the time of Noah was the most remarkable event to the ancients of the Eastern Hemisphere, but it was by no means the only celestial event.

The Earth also has experienced at least one ice age - possibly two or, less likely, three according to planetary catastrophism, but five or six according to gradualists. But what about the surface of our neighbor, Mars?

The atmosphere of Mars is unlike the Earth's in all ways. Mars has very little atmosphere. At its surface, atmospheric pressure is less than 1% of the Earth's pressure. Further, of what thin atmosphere Mars has, it contains only tiny percentages of water vapor (0.03%) or oxygen (0.13%). There are no oceans, lakes or seas on Mars. Therefore, how likely is it that the surface of Mars should show evidence of water activity? Of rampaging water action?

Perhaps the most controversial of all Martian surface features are the channels. Did they form as a result of the action of running water or not? .

It is possible to recognize three kinds of channel (sic) runoff channels, outflow channels and fretted channels. [n1]

In viewing the early photos of the surface of Mars from Mariner 4, 6 and 7 in the 1960's, astronomers and geologists were astounded at the seemingly impossible. Numerous dry river beds were found, some once containing water flowing at speeds at velocities estimated from 25 mph to 40 mph.

This is on a planet whose normal surface night time temperatures approach -200° F. The longest of the Martian dry river beds is 400 miles, which is long enough for 16 hours of rampaging waters, flash flooding at 25 mph. It would seem that Mars had rampaging rivers, but those rivers did not rampage for as long as two 24-hour days. The waters soon froze in the coldness of their first Martian night.

All of its dry river beds but one are in what has been designated as the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars, 0° to longitude 180 W. The one dry river bed which is in the Western Hemisphere is at its extreme eastern edge.

Thus, like its asteroid craters, its dry river beds have a one-hemisphere preference, in this case its Eastern Hemisphere. It was found that the craters of Mars have a one-hemisphere preference now its dry river beds do also. However, the two hemispheres do not share the same centers either in latitude or longitude.

It was found that the asteroid fragments hitting Mars arrived suddenly. Since the rivers have a one-hemisphere preference, and since they rampaged, but only for a dozen or so hours, it is concluded that the waters of Mars, like the fragments of Astra, arrived suddenly, from space.

Water, in immense volumes (like a flash flood) once flowed on the surface of a planet with no water clouds, no oceans, no rain, no rivers, no canals and no snow falls - at least from water-based snow. (Mars does have some carbon dioxide snow and concentrated carbon dioxide ice in its polar regions.)

The Rarefied Atmosphere Of Mars

There is ample evidence on Mars of the work of a fluid agent. There are numerous examples of what appear to be ancient stream beds and other water-sculptured terrain. [n2]

The atmospheric pressure on Mars is less than one-hundredth of what it is on Earth. In effect, this means the air is as rarefied on the Martian surface as it is at the height of 30,000 m on Earth. At pressures such as this and at Martian temperatures, liquid water becomes unstable and freezes on the surface.

Another effect of such a rarefied atmosphere is that the transportation of material along the surface (saltation) and the raising of fine material to form dust clouds are a conspicuous characteristic of the Martian landscape. [n3]

Its surface temperatures almost always are subzero, often far subzero. Occasionally, in equatorial zones, in its summertime, in the middle of its 24-hour day, surface temperatures may rise to 50° F., some 20° above freezing, for a few hours. But when the middle of the night comes, temperatures again plunge to -150( or -180° F., even in summer time.

On the Earth at night time, due to radiation, with no wind, temperatures may drop as much as 3° per hour. Temperatures during a Martian night can drop from +50° F. to -190° F. in twelve hours. This 240° in twelve hours is an average drop of 20° F. per hour during the Martian night. What an unlikely place is the surface of Mars to expect evidence of onrushing rivers, sudden lakes or as some have said, water-carrying canals, involving life and civilization on Mars?

Among planets and their atmospheres, there is a phenomenon known as "escape velocity." It relates to the energy of motion of various molecules. Different gases have different escape velocities, with lighter gases having lower escape velocities.

The more massive a planet is, the more easily its gravity retains all molecules that can comprise an atmosphere. Conversely, the smaller a planet is, the harder it is for it to retain the lighter gases that could compose an atmosphere.

The small mass of Mars is the reason Mars has so little atmosphere, but there is some. Mars neither presently has nor ever has had much oxygen or water vapor in its atmosphere. In fact by Earth or Venus standards, MARS IS EXTREMELY DRY, AND HAS NEVER HAD MUCH ATMOSPHERE AT ALL. All astronomers and most physicists realize this.

Therefore, when scientists suggest that there "might be" or "might have been" fossils of ancient life on Mars, it is contrary to the logic of escape velocity for O2, N2 and H2O. It is also contrary to the logic in the photographic evidence from the Mariner 6, 7 and 9 missions.

Some scientists who so speculate are merely posturing, needing some basis for favorable project grants from legislative bodies that are unaware of these troubling realities. Yet, such allegations do help to convince Congress to appropriate billions of dollars for Mars projects. Such allegations, if in concert with a supportive press, does help to drum up support.

However, there are valid reasons for funding missions to Mars. One reason is to search the debris of, reportedly, a former ring system. A second reason is to search its lava outflows for evidence of paleomagnetic polarity reversals.

A third reason is to determine the isotopic nature of any former ice that is locked in subsurface soils. Does Mars ice lack the oxygen 18 isotope and the deuterium mixture that characterizes Antarctic ice, 4,000 feet below sea level, resting on bed rock, today? Or is Martian ice similar in character similar to water and ice on our planet?

Gases in rarefied atmospheres such as that of Mars escape at different rates. Free hydrogen (H2) and helium escape first. Water vapor escapes second, atomic weight 18, H2O. Third fastest is nitrogen, atomic weight 28. Fourth fastest is oxygen, atomic weight 32. These gases cannot be retained by Mars at either its present or its ancient mass.

Argon, atomic weight 40, can be retained by Mars. Carbon dioxide, CO2, atomic weight 44 can be retained also, as can some other exotic gases like neon and krypton. This being said, the surface of nearby Mars is indeed a most unlikely place to find much in the way of usable water, with its deep subzero temperatures at night.

Thus, on Mars there is no growing season, no running water, no irrigation districts, no water-filled canals, no hydraulic engineers, no siphons, no flumes, and no farmers irrigating their fields on the red planet. But what has the literature of astronomy had to say on this before the Mariner 6, 7 and 9 missions, 1969-1971? The fact is that idea of life on Mars has fascinated scientists and non-scientists alike for the last two centuries.

Wishful Thinking By Astronomers For Life On Mars

William Herschel (1738 - 1822)

William Herschel was an amateur astronomer who built the finest reflecting telescope of his time, in his back yard. Using it, he became a professional astronomer. With his telescope, he discovered the planet Uranus, two satellites of Saturn and the rate of rotation of Mars. Herschel hoped that what he was seeing on the surface of Mars was a primordial ocean. He became the first president of the Royal Astronomical Society in London.

By Herschel's time, astronomers, looking at poorly defined images of Mars, were speculating that Mars was a planet that was much like the Earth, perhaps brimming with life. Herschel supported such speculations, adding that on the surface of Mars, dark spots were Martian oceans. Escape velocities for gases at that time were not understood.

But to Herschel, this meant water "must be" abundant on the surface of Mars. He also considered that the polar ice caps that he saw were evidence of water snow and ice white carbon dioxide ice didn't occur to him.

Herschel, like Swedenborg, was one of the earliest examples of astronomers wanting to believe there is or was life on other planets. The wish for life to be found elsewhere in the Solar System has not vanished with adverse evidence. It continues but is located elsewhere merely the distances from the Earth have been extended from 150 million miles to other galaxies thousands of light years distant.

In the first half of our century, the popular wish or yearning for this legend supported Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon comic strips and sold countless tabloid newspapers. Planet wars was the theme in a few movies of the 1930's, usually featuring Mars inhabited by men made of clay.

More recently, this yearning has supported some popular movies and television series. Necessarily now, the region for life on another planet is far away in the Milky Way or in another galaxy. No longer is it the nearby planets, the evidence now being so adverse. As has often been the case, wishful thinking runs ahead of evidence.

Giovanni Schiaparelli (1835 - 1910)

Giovanni Schiaparelli was an excellent astronomer, and he rose to be the director of the Brera Observatory in Milan. He made some important discoveries relating to asteroids, comets and meteor streams. He also determined the axis of rotation on Mars, and devoted himself to writing a series of essays on the surface of Mars.

Occasions occur once every 15 years when, in their orbits, Mars and the Earth are particularly close - at distances of 40,000,000 to 45,000,000 miles. The summer of 1877 was such an occasion. The weather was favorable. Schiaparelli had a new, fine 8-inch refractor telescope. He focused it on the surface of Mars. He saw numerous lines, and reported them, in Italian naturally, as "canali."

Schiaparelli's report of "canali," or lines on Mars by telegraph was transmitted to New York. The Italian word "canali" could have been translated equally well as "canals," "channels" or "lines." Schiaparelli meant "lines."

But in boisterous New York City, this most exuberant of cities in l877, as either chance or "excessive optimism" would have it, "canali" was translated as "canals" - with all that canals imply in the English language. Canals imply metering equipment, siphons, ditches, surveys, hydraulic engineers, artificial reservoirs, irrigation, flow gates, flumes, farmers, agriculture, cities, etc.

Schiaparelli's report, as translated in New York, became sensational. In cities up and down the Eastern Seaboard, newspapers containing mistranslations of Schiaparelli's account sold in record numbers. Canals meant life was indeed on another planet, and a neighboring one at that. "Life" included irrigation works, oases, engineers, farmers, perhaps even cities, universities and other astronomers!

Canals also imply intelligent engineering, surveys, major construction projects and an intensive agriculture. Probably Mars had intelligent engineers, brawny farmers, fragrant fields, overflowing oases, and perhaps even avid astronomers with their telescopes, watching our planet.

The theories of Charles Darwin, seemingly, had been right moreover, confirmation of Darwin's theory now had surfaced in record time, less that thirty years. The speculation developed in a carnival atmosphere.

Percival Lowell (1855 - 1916)

Lowell, a member of a brilliant, New England family, was educated at Harvard but not in science. His studies were in business, literature and the arts. He spent several years in the Far East, including Korea and Japan. There, he had written "Choson" (Korea) (1885), "The Soul of the Far East" (1888) and "Occult Japan" (1895).

In the mid 1890's, inspired by the translation of Schiaparelli's "canals" on Mars, Lowell determined to devote his energy and his inheritance to this popular matter. He took up the pen and went on a well paid lecture circuit. He wrote "Mars and its Canals" (1906), "Mars as the Abode of Life" (1908), "The Evolution of the Worlds" (1910) and in the year he died, "The Genesis of the Planets" (1916).

Lowell became a popular public lecturer and received numerous scientific honors. He associated with astronomers. He was instrumental in the choice of a site for a new astronomical observatory, near Flagstaff, Arizona. It was over 7,000 feet above sea level. There, skies were usually clear at night, and there were no glaring city lights. The atmosphere was thinner, and there was no smog. Now famous in science, and a leading proponent for this new observatory, he was honored by having this new observatory named in his honor, the Lowell Observatory.

Lowell, among others, came to suspect the existence of at least one Trans-Neptunian planet. Tiny perturbations in the position of Neptune pointed in that direction. At this observatory, a fifteen-year search project was instituted to find one. Fittingly, it was at this observatory where the planet Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh.

Tombaugh was accorded the privilege of naming the new planet he chose the Greek name "Pluto." Pluto was the Greek deity of the underworld. And not coincidentally, its first two letters, "P" and "L", were the initials of his mentor, and his observatory's founder, Percival Lowell. It was all quite fitting.

Lowell inspired much new and burgeoning interest in astronomy. His books inspired comic strips of the 1920's and B-rated cinemas of men on other planets in the l930's and l940's. In his wake, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers became household words. More recently, this widespread yearning, partly from his heritage, has inspired Star Trek and other television programs. But they are about intergalactic travel, not Martian adventures.

In the years following Lowell's death (1916), every time there was an "opposition" (near approach) of Mars, once every 15 years, telescopes would be turned toward Mars, with the big question being asked, "Is there life on Mars?" The telescopes were not good enough to resolve the question. About 50% of the astronomers said they didn't see lines on Mars, and the other half affirmed that lines seemed to be there.

Sketches of those legendary lines were made by astronomers at various locations, independently. Next they were collected and were compared. Collusion between sketchers was out of the question. When some of those sketches more or less matched, they were used by the "Life on Mars" proponents to announce that here was additional proof indeed, there was life on Mars.

The non-matching and blank sketches were ignored. The astronomers who didn't see lines on Mars, and were more skeptical, also were less vocal, or else they weren't nearly as good copy for the newspapers. And so the issue continued, basically unresolved, after Lowell's death for another 48 years.

Edward Charles Pickering (1846-1919) was a famous American astronomer of the early 20th century, among other positions, was director of the southern station of Harvard College Observatory, at Arequipa, Peru. His brother, William Henry Pickering (1858-1938) cooperated with him, and discovered another satellite of Saturn and predicted the ninth planet, Pluto.

James S. Pickering wrote about life on Mars as late as 1959 as follows:

So the issue continued, probable according to many authorities, but unresolved, . until the 1960's.

Photos Of The Surface Of Mars 1964 - 1971

Early in 1959, Pioneer 4 discovered the Earth's planetary magnetic field in space. Later that year, Luna l, 2 and 3 (Russian) and Pioneer 4 all made flybys orbiting the Moon. Vanguard 3 studied solar radiation in space. An exciting era for astronomy had just opened.

In 1960, Atlas 4 and 5 failed to reach the Moon, and Pioneer 5 sent data back of the solar wind in space. In 1961, the Soviet Venera 1 came within 6,000,000 miles of Venus. In early l962, Ranger 3 and 5 missed the Moon, but Ranger 4 landed on the Moon, but its cameras failed. The USSR's Cosmos 3 and 7 studied solar flares. Mariner 2 made a flyby of Venus at 20,000 miles. Mars 1 (USSR) missed Mars.

In 1963, Explorer 18 orbited the Earth at 150,000 miles, monitoring solar flares. Two more USSR space probes missed the Moon. In 1964, Ranger 6 landed on the Moon but again the systems failed. Next, Ranger 7 and 8 landed on the Moon and also sent over 11,000 photographs of its surface.

Russia's Zond 1 approached Venus. Zond 2, sent to Mars, failed in 1965. In November, 1964, Mariner 4 finally succeeded in making a close flyby of Mars and transmitted 21 pictures of its surface before contact was lost. More data was needed. As to the question of life on Mars, the results became increasingly unpromising.

In February 1969, Mariner 6 was launched and made a successful flyby of Mars, transmitting 75 pictures. It approached within 2,100 miles of its surface. A month later, Mariner 7 transmitted 126 pictures also from 2,100 miles of the Martian surface. The technology was exciting but it was a bad year for those yearning for life to be found on Mars. Later that year, Armstrong walked on the Moon and brought back some samples of Moon rocks.

1971. Two years later, Mariner 9 flew within 2,100 miles of Mars and transmitted returned 7,326 images of the surface of Mars. These images revealed unimaginable scars of catastrophism, indicating a surface of Mars tortured by craters, racked by rifts, battered with bulges, tried by extreme temperatures and with wild volcanism gone amok.

And further, mysteriously, most surprising all, its two tiny satellites, Deimos and Phobos, were badly poxed with pitlets. As was mentioned earlier, there was inadequate theory as to why Mars had these two satellites. But for their both being poxed with tiny pitlets, there was no theory. All this was unforeseen. For those yearning for life on Mars, it was a horrible year. The legend was over. Almost.

In 1976, Viking 1 and 2 landed on Mars, and returned more data. Its data underscored how inhospitable, cold and dry is the surface of Mars with respect to water-based life, as it is known on our planet.

Nevertheless, the latest page in the story of the surface of Mars is not yet written. In 1996 or 1997, Mars Pathfinder will enter the red planet's thin atmosphere, and parachute an instrument package toward the surface. Close to the ground, air bags will inflate around the package, insuring a soft landing.

What is the purported purpose of Mars Pathfinder - the big reason for its funding? It is to lay the groundwork for future efforts to find FOSSIL REMAINS OF LIVING THINGS.

Scientists in 1996 are somewhat shifty on the topic of life on Mars because there is so much wishful thinking, but so little (no) evidence. But there are scientists who want to promote space exploration and badly need a reason for massive funding for this and other projects. Space mission research is an industry, and it needs a flow of projects, and reasons for more funding. But alleging there are fossils of former life on such an inhospitable planet is troubling.

Well, yes, and most scientists today believe that Mars is barren of life. But that doesn't mean that there was never life there. And if life was there once, there's always a chance that we'll be able to find traces of it. [n6]

First of all, astronomers need to understand planetary catastrophism. The theory of Astra's fragmentation, 75,000,000 miles from the present orbit of Mars, also predicts that there is some residual debris still in orbit near its Roche Limit. This is 2,500 miles and more above its surface, and on a plane that is an extension of its equator. With poor routing, a multi-billion dollar Mars mission could encounter that expected debris and be destroyed.

Second, NASA officials fail to understand how recently were the Mars-Earth Wars, and before that, the delivery of Mars and other planets to the realm of the Sun. They fail to understand the evidence as to how recently the Sun experienced a nova, or why. Mars missions should be funded, but only when sound reasons are forthcoming.

Investigating paleomagnetic polarity reversals on lava flows in Mars could be a reason Mars Pathfinder should be funded. As was mentioned earlier, another reason is to analyze ices yet remaining in the subsoil's, in places in the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars. The Martian ices need to be assayed to determine if they also lack the oxygen 18 isotope, and the deuterium form of hydrogen.

In 1996 AD, ice still exists, 3,500 feet thick, all below modern sea level, resting on Antarctic bedrock. It is intermixed with volcanic ash, has a uniform crystalline axis, and is a strange, unearthly type of ice. Its oxygen lacks the oxygen 18 isotope. Its hydrogen contains no deuterium, much different from water in the Earth's oceans and snows in its polar regions. Perhaps a similarity will be found between Mars ice and the deep sub-sea level Antarctic ice. Perhaps such an investigation would help groping geologists form a clear, consistent ice age theory.

Astronomers and geologists wonder how Mars could have possibly had a sudden, widespread flood if there is no oxygen, no water vapor and only a tiny bit of nitrogen there. Isn't a planetary flood a kind of topic, a tradition, or perhaps even a legend or myth that applies only to the Earth? And hasn't that flood tradition, involving Noah, or Utnapishtim, however widespread, been widely discredited as "impossible" according to gain sayers in gradualist geology?

Evidence Of The Flood Of Mars

NO IRRIGATION DISTRICTS. In February, l969, Mariner 6 made a flyby of Mars at 21,000 feet and transmitted 75 pictures of its surface. It was followed by Mariner 7 a month later, which sent 126 pictures. Later, in 1971, Mariner 9 sent over 7,300 pictures of the surface of Mars. No canals were found. No running rivers. No reservoirs. No flumes or siphons. No oases. No irrigation district headquarters. No water ice. No liquid water.

MISDIRECTED PUBLICITY AND CLAMOR. It turns out that for the first 60 years of this century, those scientists who viewed Mars and didn't see lines, or canals, or oases, had been the less vocal. Or perhaps they just got very little press. But they were the ones to whom the ears in astronomy and journalism should have been attuned.

At the surface of Mars, gravitational attraction is only 30% of what it is at the Earth's surface. On Mars, an earthling might high jump 20 feet high, and a pole-vaulter 50 feet. Now dry ancient river beds are in evidence across the cold surface of only one hemisphere of Mars.

Drainage networks. Dense, dendritic networks of channels such as this are a common feature of the southern highlands of Mars. Dendritic patterns do suggest a fluvial origin of the channels . [n7]

It is possible to recognize three kinds of channel: (sic) run-off channels, outflow channels and fretted channels. Run-off channels typically have a V-shaped cross section, start small and increase in size downstream, and have well-developed tributary networks. The large branching channels Nirgal and Ma'adam Vallis can be assigned to this group, but more typical are large numbers of smaller networks that incise the ancient cratered terrain. [n8]

POST ASTRA IN TIMING. The timing of the Astra fragmentation has not been tied down, yet prospects are good that it can and will be done. Whatever the timing of Astra's demise, the icy fragmentation causing these flash rivers was later.

The later dating is established because a dry river bed is found where its ancient river flowed into one side of an older crater, filled it up, and then flowed out the other side again, same flow volume.

TWO ICY FRAGMENTATION'S. If the hemispheric geography of the dry river beds is correctly understood, and if the suddenness in the appearance and outflow of those rivers is correctly understood, the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars suffered a sudden icy spray from space. Recently, in terms of astronomical time, that is.

This means our Solar System has experienced not just one, but two icy fragmentation's. One on the Roche Limit of Saturn, and one near Mars. One resulted in Saturn's icy rings, which are at its Roche Limit. The other produced the dry river beds of Mars.

This duet of icy fragmentation's accompanies a quartet of rocky fragmentation's, the dark ring systems of Jupiter, of Uranus, of Neptune and the former rocky ring system of Mars. Suddenly it appears that this Solar System has a history of no less than six "little bangs".

Two of the Little Bangs, one icy in nature and one rocky, involved our close neighbor, Mars. Astronomers may or many not be correct about the Big Bang theory. But it is sure that they have missed both Little Bangs involving our close neighbor, Mars.

FLOWING WATER VELOCITIES. Flowing water velocities of 20, 30 and 40 mph are in evidence.

A FLASH FLOOD. Sudden catastrophic flooding is in evidence. One outflow channel, Capri Chasma, is compared in its dimensions to an ancient flood across Eastern Washington.

That prehistoric outflow occurred when an ice lobe loped out of mountain valleys of Southern British Columbia, and into Northeastern Washington. In so doing, the large ice lobe dammed up the combined drainage's of the Columbia River, the Kootenai, the Clark's Fork, the Flathead, the Coeur d'Alene, the St. Joe and the Spokane Rivers.

The intermontane ice lobe that galloped out of a mountain valley from British Columbia dammed all drainage between Trail B.C. and Spokane. Water was backed up some 250 miles, to within the shadows of the Continental Divide. A lake with a surface area of nearly 20,000 sq. miles formed. Its surface was nearly as big as Lake Michigan, another ice age lake.

When the ice began melting, the melting started from the bottom, where the ground had been warm. When the ice dam broke, it was sudden. Thousands of cubic miles of water gushed out and rampaged southwesterly across what are now called the scab lands of Eastern Washington. They galloped at velocities of 60 mph and higher.

The prehistoric great glacial lake, known as "Lake Missoula", drained in 48 hours. Sediments, gravel, rocks and even boulders in this rampage were entrained and carried downstream. Some of the boulders silted out as far away as 250 miles, near Portland. Larger stones silt out first, as water velocities begin to ebb. Lake Missoula was transformed into an "outflow channel." It also contributed to the silting of the Willamette Valley on Western Oregon.

Like Lake Missoula, Capri Chasma on Mars also was an "outflow channel." It was formed when a flash flood filled a huge lake, whose banks suddenly broke. Chasma's waters rampaged 50 and 60 mph across the adjoining plain. Outflow waters spread out, as waters tend to do when a dam breaks.

The width of Capri Chasma is defined as where it broke, and swept aside its dams walls. It was 35 miles wide. On the Earth, the widest river is the Amazon, 70 miles wide at its mouth. It is rain fed and drains a humid tropical region of 2,000,000 sq. miles. In comparison, at its widest, Capri Chasma was 35 miles wide. Capri Chasma was, half the width of the Amazon, and wider than the mouth of any other river on the Earth. This was "flash flood catastrophism."

Another type of dry river bed is a "run-off channel." Run-off channels gather tributaries in their upper course and widen downstream, like the Mississippi River or the Danube. Most rivers on Earth are rain and snow fed, annually, and are of this type. Their currents are usually under 5 mph.

Ma'adam Vallis is also a "run-off channel," about 400 miles long. Its water velocities averaged 25 mph. This velocity was achieved on a planet where the surface gravitational force is but a third of that force at the Earth's surface.

Being 400 miles long, with velocities of 25+ mph, it can be calculated that Ma'adam Vallis rampaged for some 16+ hours or so. It is one of the longest dry river beds in the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars. It rampaged across cold surfaces with deep sub zero temperatures, and apparently its waters, originally hot, cooled and shortly froze. With deep subzero night time temperatures, and a cold surface, those waters, originally hot, seemingly froze their first night on Mars.

Night time temperatures on Mars frequently are around -190° F. If ice fragments sprayed Mars, the energy of motion of the ice fragments would convert to heat the instant of crustal impact. Those waters then cooled from near boiling on the surface of Mars to freezing in less than a day. Like Chasma, Ma'adam Valles also was something less than a 24-hour affair.

A third type of dry river bed is the "fretted channel," with a flat floor, steep walls, and frequent changes in direction. One such fretted channel, is in the Ismenius Lacus region of Mars. Details of Ismenius and the terrain it crosses, flowing into a crater and out the other end, same volume, 120 miles long, again indicates a flash flood.

As a collective show, the three or four dozen dry river beds of Mars indicate that the Flood of Mars was a sudden, sub-24-hour affair. Their genesis was sudden and their freezing was quick. In addition, the flood was spotty, and it was hemispheric in scope, not global. The spotty hemispheric scope of this flash flood reminds one of the spotty geographical scope of the fragments of Astra, which also hit the Martian surface on one side only.

On the surface of Mars are found, alas, no canals, but it has ample indications of a hemisphere-sized flash flood. To repeat, the fact that no river beds are longer than 400 miles, coupled with the fact that they rampaged at high velocities, indicate that these waters ran across the cold surface of the red planet until, the first night with surface temperatures below -150° F., they froze.

Percival Lowell predicted canals with slow-moving water, flumes, gauges, and reservoirs (or oases.) It would have been better had some 19th century newspapers reported catastrophists such as Louis Agassiz on the ice age. Or on Baron Cuvier and the sudden sedimentation of the Paris Basin. Or on George McCready Price and the velocities of water needed to entrain various sized erratic boulders up to 150 tons.

The evidence of flash flooding is there, but what was the sudden cause? It was a sudden icy spray from space, by a fragmenting ice ball.

The Fragmentation Of An Ice Ball

The Second Of Two Fragmentation's Of Scar-Faced Mars

Old Scar face experienced a rocky fragmentation, that of Astra. It was of the type of the fragmentation that produced rocky debris. Other fragmentations at the Roche Limits of Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune produced permanent dark rings. But Saturn has an icy ring system, indicating its fragmentation was by a cold, straying ice ball.

THE SOURCE. What fed the rampaging rivers of Mars? The source seems to have been external Mars cannot retain water vapor due to molecular escape velocities and due to its small mass. The most likely answer is similar to what happened to Saturn. It was another fragmentation of an ice ball on another Roche Limit, that of the red planet.

One difference is that Saturn has 885 times as much mass as Mars. A second difference is that Saturn is more than four times as distant from the Sun as is Mars. A third difference is that Saturn's perihelion is, and was 830,000,000 miles from the Sun whereas, in this model, the Catastrophic Third Orbit of Mars had its perihelion at a toasty 64,350,000 miles. See Tables XI, XII and XIII.

The evidence is that an ice ball fragmented above the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars. Its icy fragments sprayed a large part of one entire hemisphere of Mars. Upon impact, the energy of its motion converted instantly to heat. It vaporized and condensed.

A flash flood came to the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars. (1) Its hemispheric scope suggests this. (2) The scattered, or spotty distribution points to this. (3) The velocity of the flowing water indicates suddenness. (4) The minuscule atmosphere of Mars also points to space as the region of origin for its former ices.

THE ICE BALL'S NAME. Astronomy traditionally accords to the discoverer the privilege of naming a new satellite, planet or star. Our nomination of this second ice ball sprayed Mars with a spray of ice, is "Glacis". Glacis in French means "ice."

Part of the evidence concerns the ice fragments that hit little Mars. If their fragment velocities were in the tens of thousands of mph, there was very little atmosphere to create any friction during their brief descent. Such is in contrast to the atmosphere of the planet Earth, and its atmosphere, 100 times thicker. Due to friction created by our atmosphere, ice fragments will "burn". A similar spray for the Earth would produce a sudden, warm rain across one entire hemisphere. It would also produce explosive fragmentations such as the Tunguska bolide, June 30, 1908.

For Mars, technically it cannot be said that ice can burn. Ice fragments can suddenly hit its surface and come to an instant halt, convert the energy of motion into heat, which causes sudden vaporization, and next a sudden, massive condensation. To the extent water can boil on Mars, this ice vaporized, condensed and began to rampage to lower elevations with velocities similar to a suddenly wounded, wild water buffalo. Such is the direction in which the evidence points.

Gradualists On The Dry River Beds Of Mars

TIMING AND CAUSE. It is of interest to evaluate to what kind of a timing gradualists attribute to the rampaging rivers of Mars. It also is interesting to note their idea of the cause.

Gradualists assume 3 billion years ago, give or take a half billion years. Imprecision. Planetary catastrophists recognize that this was the second and the last occasion for a fragmentation to bother little Mars. It was recent, although exactly how recent has yet to be established.

If the Greeks are to be understood correctly in that their ancestors saw Astra fragment, from a vantage point afar off, then the dating of the demise of Glacis is within the last 10,000 years, conservatively. Moreover, if their earlier ancestors saw Astra fragment, their later ancestors quite probably saw both Mars approach and with it the Glacis ice ball approach. Maybe it was together. In the ancient account, it was frightening to say the least.

More evidence in projected Volume IV will discuss the flash flood of Mars in the light of our planet's greatest flood. Thus both planets have had floods, hemispheric in scope. Both were followed by ice ages, as is in evidence shortly. That evidence will produce a better understanding of ice ages of both planets.

In general, planetary catastrophists require about one five hundred thousandth of the amount of time to lapse for the ancient icy spray of Mars as do the gradualists. Seldom if ever contradicted, they assert with some confidence, three billion years, plus or minus a half billion.

THREE ISSUES. One issue is WHEN Glacis fragmented. A second issue is WHY. A third issue is WITH WHAT OTHER EFFECTS.

There is a troubling geographical question here that needs to be asked and it is a simple question. 99% of the volcanism on Mars happens to have occurred in the Western Hemisphere of Mars, in the Tharsis Bulge region. 99% of the flash floods and the dry river beds of Mars are in its Eastern Hemisphere, with just one dry river bed being on the eastern edge of its Western Hemisphere.

On the surface of Mars, its dry river beds are 3,000 miles distant from the region of giant volcanoes, Olympus Mons, Arsia Mons, et al. Are gradualists trying to offer up to sensible people that volcanic flows, 3,000 miles distant, were the cause for once rampaging, now dry river beds? Apparently. And are they saying the source was subcrustal ices, 3,000 miles distant? And are they also saying "Suddenly" for this? Any inspection of such an explanation is troubling.

Mars has 98% or 99% of its dry river beds in one hemisphere, and only 2% of its volcanoes. And vice versa. What kind of a geographical explanation is that? What kind of a scientific explanation is it? Gradualists are advised to rethink this entire issue and come up with something more realistic - or do the unthinkable alternative, become planetary catastrophists.

Short Term Icy Comets

Since the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars was sprayed by icy fragments of Glacis from space, it is likely that most of the spray missed little Mars. If so, the ice fragment would have proceeded out into space --- and the region of space which the old Mars orbited. What became of those icy fragments that missed Mars?

SHORT TERM ICY COMETS. Short term icy comets are tiny ice balls, usually dirty ice balls. If they come close enough to the Sun, solar radiation RAPIDLY effervesces away their ices into long streams of glistening water vapors - cometary tails.

Their vapors, long cometary tails, are then bent into curved streamer shapes as they are left behind, only to be blown by the solar wind. Thus, a comet's tail is formed. Normally, one side of the tail of a comet mirrors the other side, as it is with bird wings. There may be multiple mirrored streamers, or wings in a cometary tail. The cometary ices trail, and to point back to the comet's tiny, icy nucleus.

Those icy comets that are nearer to the Sun effervesce away faster, and have higher attrition rates. Comets farther out survive longer. How many icy fragments have effervesced away in the last 5,000 years? Nobody knows. But it was many, based on modern comet attrition rates.

Even the last 150 years has demonstrated a high mortality rate among the short term icy comets. Some are disappearing each decade. The count of the short term icy comets, entirely within Jupiter's orbit, now number only about 100. [n11]

The genesis of the short term icy comets is disputed.

According to a theory developed by J. H. Oort in 1950, there is a diffuse cloud or reservoir of gas, dust and comets that is gravitationally part of the Solar System but about 40,000 a.u. distant from the Sun. .

There are some astronomers, notably V. Clube and W. Napier of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, who believe comets to be of interstellar origin, so they are captured by the Sun instead of being original members of the Solar System. This remains at present a minority view, but cannot be discounted there are many questions about the origin of comets that remain to be answered. [n12]

Short-period comets have characteristic lifetimes of between a few hundred and a few thousand years. Not only do they break up, they also get driven away by planetary encounters. There are at present approximately one hundred times too many short-period comets relative to the rate at which long-period comets are captured by Jupiter and fed into the observed stock of Apollo asteroids. The present number is probably due to the burst of new short-period comets formed several thousand years ago as a result of a single large comet fragmenting during Jovian capture or perihelion passage. [n13]

Contrary to the cited explanation, the fragmentation of Glacis and the spray of icy fragments was not due to Jupiter. Like the demise of Astra, it was due to the fragmenting of Glacis on the Roche Limit of an inner planet. Glacis fragmented on the Roche Limit of either the Earth, Mars or Venus.

A pair of theories on the genesis of the short term icy comets was cited. To this pair now a third theory is added. It is more likely that the genesis of short term icy comets are, in a sense, second generation. First an ice ball was imported into the inner region of the Solar system, and later it fragmented. This analysis is that initially, the co-orbiting Mars-Glacis was delivered to the realm of the Sun by Little Brother (see Vol. I).

Next, the short term icy comets have been simply survivors of an ancient icy fragmentation of Glacis on the Earth's Roche Limit during the closest of all Mars flybys. The genesis of the short term icy comets is that they are icy fragments that (1) missed Mars, (2) missed the Earth, and (3) have had enough icy mass to not yet effervesce away in the last 4,500 years. No doubt the majority already effervesced away. The surviving icy comets acquired new orbits, but from the energy of the old orbit of Mars.

Modeling The Fragmentation Of Glacis

When Glacis fragmented, it sprayed the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars. Mars was in its old catastrophic orbit of the earlier age. The Roche Limit of three planets are the three candidates, of (1) Venus, (2) the Earth and (3) Mars. Of these, if two can be eliminated, then the remaining Roche Limit is the cause of the fragmenting of little Glacis.

THE ROCHE LIMIT OF VENUS. A Mars-Venus flyby, with Mars towing the ice ball, is theoretically possible. But the orbit of Venus is too close to the Sun for the remaining short term icy comets. Venus in that era was 67,500,000 miles from the Sun. Very few cometary orbits come close to Venus.

THE ROCHE LIMIT OF MARS. If Mars was towing Glacis, Glacis would have had an orbit close in, something like Phobos at 5,700 miles. Otherwise it would have been swept out and away from Mars by either the Sun, or by flybys of Venus and/or the Earth.

Were Glacis to come within 5,000 miles of Mars, as did Astra, it would produce an icy demise, like Astra. Orbiting Mars and penetrating its Roche Limit are two different conditions. Deimos comes within about 15,000 miles of Mars, and it appears that Mars almost lost it. If Mars was co-orbiting with Glacis, and was in a sense towing Glacis, the Mars Roche Limit probably is not the cause for the shattering of Glacis.

THE ROCHE LIMIT OF THE EARTH. Most of the evidence of which we are aware points to the Earth's Roche Limit as the cause for the shattering of Glacis. It was during the closest of all Mars flybys, estimated at 15,000 miles. A foundation for this distance will occur in Volume III.

This opens up the possibility that the shattering of Glacis sprayed the Eastern Hemispheres of both the Earth and Mars simultaneously. This choice is attractive because it agrees with the bulk of the evidence of which we are aware, and it begins to answer (a) the sudden rain on the opening day of Noah's Flood, plus (b) ice age theory for the Earth.

The evidence for the third candidate, the Earth's Roche Limit, comes partly from space, the short term comets, and the dry river beds of Mars, and partly from the Earth's crust, from Antarctica, Siberia, and Alaska, and partly from ancient literature.

Some of the evidence from ancient literature comes from Hebrew Talmudic sources. Those literary resources were gathered by studious Jews while during their Babylonian exile. It was circa 550 B.C.E., almost 2,000 years after Noah's Flood.

Those Neo-Babylonian sources reflected both earlier Chaldean sources and earlier Sumerian sources, of which original writing, or copies thereof, was still available on cuneiform tablets. That material relates to the topic of the cause of Noah's Flood.

The flood was produced by a UNION of the male waters, which are above the firmament, and the female waters issuing from the earth [OCEANS]. The upper waters rushed through the space left when God removed TWO STARS out of the constellation Pleiades. Afterward, to put a stop to the flood, God had to transfer TWO STARS from the constellation of the Bear to the constellation of the Pleiades.

There were other changes among the celestial spheres during the year of the flood. [n14] (Caps ours).

One of those other celestial changes was a shift in the location of the spin axis, a precession.

Chaldean, Sumerian and Assyrian literature on Noah's Flood was still on clay tablets, probably in copies from the original accounts, second generation copies. In the 19th century and early 20th century AD nine flood stories were discovered in cuneiform on clay tablets. These included from a massive library of 20,000 tables, Assurbanipal's library.

Three flood accounts are in Assyrian cuneiform, three are in Chaldean and three are in the oldest language, Sumerian cuneiform. Some accounts are incomplete because of damage to the tablets. The Epic of Gilgamesh is the most complete of those ancient cuneiform accounts of Noah's (Utnapishtim's) Flood.

TWO STARS, NOT ONE. Ginzberg's sources affirm that two stars, not one, approached the Earth on the day of the onset of Noah's Flood. This model states that Mars was one. So does the Epic of Gilgamesh. The year was 2484 B.C.E. It was on target for the 108-year cyclicism. Evidence of the 108-year cyclicism is in Volume III.

There is other evidence one of the stars was Mars. Sumerian commentary from The Epic of Gilgamesh expressly identifies Enlil (Mars) as THE CAUSE of Noah's Flood. Gilgamesh's eleventh tablet is an extensive description of the onset of Utnapishtim's (Noah's) Flood. It is four times as long as is the Genesis account of Noah's Flood.

In the Sumerian pantheon, Enlil was Mars. Ea was the Earth. Innanna was Venus. Anu was Jupiter. Ninurta was Saturn.

What was the other star that also approached the Earth? Was it Glacis, an icy satellite with a diameter of 500 to 600 miles? Was it shattered ice, coming in from a fragmented Glacis, that entered our atmosphere, burned, and recondensed into a hemisphere-wide warm rain? Talmudic evidence points in this direction.

CLIMATOLOGY. The Inuit, Eskimos of Alaska, remember in their lore a time when volcanism suddenly erupted, and the Sun went low in the sky. This suggests a radical shift in latitude. Before that, it was easy to make a living, but afterward, it was only with difficulty. This makes sense if there was a sudden torque on the Earth's spin axis, and a radical shift in latitude resulted.

Hebrew Talmudic literature is as follows:

If this third candidate, the Earth's Roche Limit, is the best answer, it follows that the following sextet of topics as best being understood in tandem, and as being simultaneous.

1. The genesis of the dry river beds of Mars.

2. The genesis of the sudden rain in the Eastern Hemisphere of the Earth during Noah's Flood.

3. The genesis of the immense tides emerging out of the Indian Ocean during Noah's flood, floating the Ark but causing vast damage to Southern Asia.

4. The genesis of the Earth's last ice age, and perhaps its only ice age.

5. The genesis of the short term icy comets, icy fragments that missed both Ares and Hera, Mars and the Earth.

6. The genesis of ice found yet today 3,000 to 4,000 thick below sea level, resting on Antarctic bedrock. This ice is deficient in the oxygen 18 isotope common to ocean water and clouds. Also the ice is deficient in the deuterium form of hydrogen.

It has a uniform crystalline axis, pointing about 10° from vertical, suggesting it was related to, or directed in by magnetic field force lines. It is also intermixed in the volcanic ash, 3,000 and 4,000 feet below modern sea level, indicating that the polar flat spot was not at Antarctica at the time of Noah's Flood. As to volcanic ash, the deeper the ice core drilling, the thicker the ash in the mixture.

If this answer is the correct answer, ice in the nuclei and in the tails of short term icy comets should be found also with deficiencies in the oxygen 18 isotope and deuterium just like Antarctic sub-sea level ice. In addition, if sub-surface ice on Mars is found and assayed, it also will contain these deficiencies.

If this is the correct answer, this also opens up the possibility that the ice, descending in vast volumes over the magnetic poles, was at temperatures close to -300° F. It would be well to take another core drilling in deep sub-sea level Antarctic ice to have its temperature taken. Some of it might still be surprisingly, even unearthly cold, like the ices of Saturn's Rings, Callisto, Ganymede, etc.

This chapter has introduced a new theory on the genesis of short term icy comets. It has introduced evidence of flash floods, Lake Missoula and Capri Chasma. The subject of the ice ages of Mars and the Earth is one of vast length, breadth and depth.

In Volume IV, a foundation, begun to be laid here, is hoped to be completed in three years. The subject of ice age genesis is sufficiently massive and interrelated to require several volumes, partly involving geology, partly involving oceanography, and partly involving astronomy.

The first conclusion is that this sextet of "genesis issues" all originated and began to unfold on one day in late October in the year 2484 B.C.E. The day of that month was the 24th on modern calendars. It was the 17th of Marchesvan, "Mars' month", on the ancient Chaldean calendar, the Tishri calendar.

Marchesvan is cognate with the Hebrew word for Mars, "'ma 'owr", and with the Roman "Mars" and with the Greek "magna Ares." On the old Tishri calendar, the third month was Kislev, named after Jupiter. The ancient Tishri calendar began on the new moon of September 7.

The second conclusion is that on the day of Noah's Flood, it featured a strange union of waters from below, which were monster tides from the Indian Ocean, and an abundance of warm waters from above. They were warmed by friction in passing through the Earth's atmosphere, originally fragments from Glacis.

The "waters from below" were massive tides erupting out of an Indian Ocean. It contains 28,000,000 cubic miles of water, about 25% of the water on the Earth's surface. In the Book of Genesis the flood came from "the fountains of the great deep." Waters from the Indian Ocean and from the "fountains of the great deep" were the same thing.

With 500 to 600 miles as an estimate for the diameter of Glacis, it was similar in size to that of Saturn's Enceladus (320 miles) or Tethys (650 miles). It also was much like the Uranian Umbriel (500 miles) or Ariel (650 miles). And its ices may have been almost as cold.

The third conclusion is that indeed on this particular flyby, the Earth was assaulted by not one "star" [planet] but a planet and a satellite [Mars and Glacis.] Talmudic commentary is very clear on this count, whether correct or otherwise.

This particular flyby in October, 2484 B.C.E., was the closest of the long series of Mars flybys, for two precise reasons. Those reasons are identified and are discussed in two chapters in the projected Volume III, entitled "The Flood of Noah". Meanwhile, the advice needed for groping gradualists is that one can delve deeper into Genesis, Job, Isaiah and Talmudic commentary with profit.

Obviously, Hebrew Talmudic commentary about conditions and events surrounding Noah's Flood came from much earlier sources. It was from cuneiform tablets written in Assyrian, Babylonian, Chaldean, Sumerian and possibly Persian sources.

On the surface of the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars was added much surface ice by the fragmentation of Glacis. Those waters collected in a spotty geographical pattern of river beds and lakes to be sure. But for one day, and only one day, the rivers appeared, rampaged roughshod, and then promptly froze. In their place on the surface of the Martian Eastern Hemisphere was formed frozen lakes, frozen ponds and frozen river beds.

Where did those ices dumped on the Earth go? In the Earth's Ice Age, the ices descended from space and formed huge dumps, dumps close to the then magnetic poles. From the Keewatin Node in Upper Manitoba outflowed a lobe so great it deposited vast volumes of fine Canadian soil across the American Midwest from Montana to Ohio.

The edges of the most advanced lobe formed the Missouri River Valley and the Ohio River Valley. It formed Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and one lobe reached as far south as Cape Girardeau Missouri, at latitude 37. There, the end of the ice lobe was well over half the way from our North Pole to the equator.

Another flow came down the Frazier River Valley. It was a crunching flow, 2,000 feet deep on the Cascade Mountains east of Seattle, according to glacial striations.

Yet a third lobe formed on the surface of Labrador and Upper Quebec, the Labrador node. It flowed across Quebec and across Upper New York State. This lobe flowed not only around the Adirondack Mountains but also OVER THEM. They are 2,000 and 3,000 feet above sea level. Terminal moraines from the Labrador node were massive enough to form the Cape Cod peninsula and Long Island.

Other ice masses formed in Northern Europe and on the surface of Antarctica, then above sea level but now 4,000 feet below modern sea level. New Zealand was dealt ice flows, but Alaska and Siberia, farther from the magnetic pole, largely escaped.

This model indicates that when these ices finally melted, the Earth's oceans increased in volume about 7%, and simultaneously the mean temperature of the oceans decreased some 10° F. The Earth's last ice age was a big, cool case of catastrophism from the celestial region, a region where more ice exists, and it is both cold and abundant.

Ices effervesced off Glacis before 2484 B.C.E. and then off the surface of the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars after 2484 B.C.E. Other ices effervesced from the nuclei of the short term icy comets, some of it continuing to this time.

The Golden Fleece Of Aries

The surface ices on Mars had nowhere else to go other than to effervesce and float off into space during the Martian orbits past perihelion. Then, the distance at perihelion was a toasty 63,350,000 miles from the Sun. As a result, there was a shift in location of the Martian ices. They left the surface of Mars' Eastern Hemisphere effervesce and floated off into space. The effervescing ices from the surface of Mars was one of the Scars of Mars. Such is the origin of what the Greeks called, "The Golden Fleece of Aries."

Sometimes, Mars was 228,805,000 miles from Sun, at its ancient aphelion. Temperatures were such that little if any of its ices effervesced there. But when ancient Mars approached to 90,000,000 miles from the Sun, its visible cometary tail began to grow, and began to spread out, trailing Mars in its ancient orbit.

As Mars came in to 70,000,000 miles, solar radiation increased, and the cometary tail of Mars expanded in length and breadth. The Earth's sunward side might well have been swept lightly by the icy gauze from Mars. Figure 14 illustrates.

At 64,350,000 miles from the Sun, slightly inside the orbit of Venus, the rate of the effervescing of the ices doubled and redoubled, increasing rapidly, if briefly. If Venus happened to be nearby, its face also might have been swept and rinsed by the icy gauze. This was near the Mars perihelion, where maximum effervescing occurred.

But it was not where the maximum cometary tail of Mars fully developed. That was weeks later as Mars was approaching its March 20-21 flyby site of the Earth. A foundation will be laid in Volume III that once every 108 years, almost like clockwork, the Earth was close at hand. The Jews called it "Passover", the time of the destructive angel's Passover. The Romans called it "Tubulustrium," the time of trouble.

Figure 14 - The Golden Fleece Of Aries - Grand Scale

In this March crossing geometry, celestial mechanics and resonance orbit principles require that Mars always passed by the Earth on the sunward side, except the Final Flyby. As Mars did so, its cometary tail swept across the face of our planet. Visually, this is part of the reason that made the ancient Passover scenes and tubulustrium scenes so spectacular, so memorable, so frightful.

The ancient, magnificent cometary tail of Mars was called by the Greeks "The Golden Fleece of Aries" and it was for several reasons. First, Ares was Mars. Second its cometary tail was in full bloom as it swept across the face of the Earth, in the month of Ares.

Third, "Aries" or Ares was entering the first zone of the zodiac it was a 30-degree zone also called "Aries." Fourth, the vernal equinox and the first day of spring always occurred on March 21. On this day, the first star on the horizon at dawn appeared a small star, Mesartim, known to ancients as "the First Point of Aries." Mesartim is the lead star of the small, four-star constellation of Aries. Mesartim's appearance on the horizon at dawn heralded a new spring and a new year.

Fifth, this was the location in space where the Earth's sunward face could be swept by the fullness of the effervescing cometary tail of Mars (Ares.)

In that age, Mars had a 720-day orbit and it made a biennial pass across the Earth's orbit whether or not the Earth happened to be there. Once every 108 years on schedule, about 1% of the time, the Earth was close by when Mars also passed over.

In the Sumerian map of the heavens, the first 30-degree sector in space, their zodiac, was Aries. Each sector had a symbol. Usually symbols were animals but sometimes the sign of the sector was a pair of twins, a virgin, or a water bearer. The sector beginning on March 21, the first sector of the twelve, was symbolized by a ram with fighting horns, Aries by name.

Sheep skins in that era could be bleached into an off-white color. However, the "fleece of Aries" was not an off-white celestial fleece. In some accounts it was golden in other accounts it was "the color of electrum", a pale yellow alloy of gold and silver. Probably the "Fleece of Aries" appeared more the color of electrum. There was the sunshine reflecting off it, and to some extent the Sun's rays shone through it.

It was this glistening gauze that trailed the chariot of Mars, wheels rotating, pulled by its [his] two trusty steeds, Phobos and Deimos. Those close Mars flybys were fearful, inflicting mass damage by fire, flood and earthquake, throwing out high voltage lightning toward the Earth, causing volcanoes to erupt, causing earthquakes, causing radical tides and tidal waves at the sea side.

Dreadful as the occasions were, destructive as they were, ugly as the face of Mars was, its long, glistening cometary tail threatened to sweep across the face of the Earth. To a neutral observer in space, it must have been a scintillating sight. To an Earth dweller, the sight was far from funny. Such was the terror of the ancient authors who saw the "fleece of Aries" and its associated nucleus, Mars.

The following citation describes more the visage of Ares than its cometary tail:

In his hands he took up his shield, all-glancing, nor could anyone break it, either by cast or stroke, A WONDER TO LOOK AT. FOR ALL ABOUT THE CIRCLE OF IT, WITH ENAMEL AND WITH PALE IVORY AND WITH ELECTRUM IT SHONE, AND WITH GOLD GLOWING IT WAS BRIGHT, and there were folds of cobalt driven upon it. In the middle was a face of Panic . [n19]

. and these were in silver, but the fir trees they had in their hands were golden, and they were streaming together, as if they were alive, and battering each other in close combat with spears and fir trunks. And on it were standing the swift-footed horses of grim-faced Ares, IN GOLD, and he himself, the spoiler, the destructive, . [n20]

When the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars faced the Sun, near perihelion, ices effervesced abundantly for 10 to 12-hour periods. But when Mars turned its Western, or non-icy hemisphere to the Sun, no ices effervesced. Thus the effervescing of ices from Mars occurred in a daily pattern, in twelve-hour waves. To the ancients in Egypt and Mexico, it occurred that those waves of effervescing ices in the cometary tail of Mars resembled flapping wings, as in bird wings.

Thus it was that the Egyptians of that era had their Phoenix birds, which came close once or twice per century, threatening destruction, and flew with a feathery tail flying. The Mayans had their Quetzacoatl, also a fire bird. The Chinese had their fire star, Mars, and with its cometary tail, it was a writhing dragon's tail in appearance.

Figure 16 - The Passover Geometry II

As was mentioned earlier, red was the color of the face of Mars especially when seen by Greeks through an Earth atmosphere, clouded with smoke from prairie fires, forest fires and volcanic ash. On the other hand, black was the color of the backside of Mars, as it rotated into its night time posture.

Is it by chance that these two colors, red and black, were the traditional colors of the religion of Baal, the Phoenician belief system. It was also the colors of the belief system of their colonists, in Carthage. They, like many others in their different ways, were first of all, Mars-worshipers. Second in their pantheon was Astarte, Venus. Following those two was the host of heaven, including Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, the Sun and the Moon.

The Hebrews were otherwise, or at least they were supposed to be otherwise, non-conformists if they followed the messages of Moses and the prophets. The Creator (and His creation), not the planets, were to be venerated. On this particular point, Abraham's faith departed radically from his Chaldean civilization, and from the teachings of his forefathers.

As Mars approached the Earth in a March flyby geometry, its tail followed it. Mars and its fleece looked like an approaching, onrushing whitish, yellowish, glistening pillar. But after it passed the Earth, its tail appeared more like a cloud, from the rear, with its tail visually engulfing its nucleus. This was the pillar of "fire by night" and the "cloud by day" of the Exodus catastrophe.

The Exodus story features both descriptions. It was during just such a destructive flyby of Mars, a "Passover" (of Mars, the angel of death). A careful reading of Exodus chapter 14 is instructive. The appearance of the cometary tail of Mars shifted from a "pillar of fire" to a "cloud".

On that night of March 20-21, Mars made a close flyby between the Earth and the Sun the Moon was at full on the other side, out of the way. Prime time that night was when the Western Hemisphere including the Mayans in Mexico faced Mars and the Sun. For the Hebrews in Egypt, the crisis hour of the flyby was during the night of the Near East.

The Time Table Of The Exodus Passover

The timetable of the Exodus Catastrophe was roughly the following on that famous Passover night. For the Hebrews, it was to be their last night of slavery in Egypt, and that next morning it was Independence Day for all the Hebrews that followed Moses. In space, Mars was advancing on the Earth at a velocity of 30,000 miles per hour.

A MODEL OF ALL OF THE MARCH MARS FLYBYS. All except the Final Flyby were sunny side flybys. Mars, with its cometary tail flying, crossed the Earth's orbit some 30 minutes ahead of the Earth. Its tail swept across Mexico and the Western Hemisphere within hours it began to sweep the Eastern Hemisphere also.

In Egypt it was night time at the minute of the Mars perigee, estimated at between 30,000 and 40,000 miles. Richter scale 15 earthquakes rattled the bulge spot, the crust of the Caribbean, while Richter scale 13 and 14 earthquakes rattled the flat spot on the opposite side, including the crust of Egypt.

The cosmic scenery was splendid, if one could view it from a neighboring planet. Much structural damage and collapse occurred to Egyptian buildings. The experience was frightful. As Mars rose in the east on March 21, Moses gave the order to get going, now, Now, NOW.

They needed a head start, and somehow Moses knew it. The Hebrews fled the land of Goshen, the eastern part of the Nile delta, as fast as their livestock would allow. It was almost as if Mars was a sign to get going, high overhead in the otherwise dark hours of the night.

The next morning a few regiments of well-armed Egyptian chariots and cavalry set out to recapture the fleeing vassals, who had an eight or ten hour head start. The Hebrews as a group were able to move perhaps 3 or 4 miles per hour the Egyptian charioteers were much faster.

BUT, about the time of the perigee of Mars, in the middle of the Egyptian night, Thera, an underwater, sub-surface volcano 60 miles north of Crete went into a major league explosion and eruption. It sent ash and cinders all over the Eastern Mediterranean. Next, its walls collapsing back into the Mediterranean Sea, it sent tidal waves 600 feet high sweeping across nearby Anaphi Island. Sixty miles to the south, the north coast of Crete and its Minoan Civilization suffered a 250-foot tidal wave, and the Minoan Civilization collapsed (never to rise again).

Some 450 miles away, on the coast of the flat, low Suez Isthmus, the tidal wave had abated to a mere 75 to 100 foot surge above sea level. The pursuing Egyptian regiments with their chariots and cavalry were taking the low road, and were poorly positioned to cope with this sudden, watery envelopment. Most of the charioteers were engulfed.

Moses, like Noah 1,000 years earlier, somehow foresaw something like this. Hence his indomitable and timely leadership. Like Noah, Moses credited to Ea, or Yawheh for the escape of the Hebrew slaves and their livestock. On the other hand, the Egyptians suffered additionally to the night's earthquakes.

Egypt was downwind from Thera. The next morning ash from Thera fell 10 or 20 inches thick across the delta, and this didn't help matters. The Egyptians blamed Horus and/or their Phoenix bird. The Greeks blamed Ares, and perhaps his offspring, Typhon, Perseus, Gorgon or Medussa.

The Phoenicians attributed this catastrophe to Baal, and sacrificed a special offering, a dispatch of an extra big batch of screaming infants to the fiery furnace of Baal, their idea of a propitiation. It was a rough night in the Near East, and it was even a rougher day in the Caribbean. An approximate time line is as follows.

6:00 p.m. Mars 243,000 miles distant. The Sun sets in March 20, 1445 B.C.E. The incoming Mars did not yet set in the west until 9:00 p.m., and was brighter than the Moon. The Moon was in full phase that night. The Hebrews prepare to celebrate a Seder, and get set to hightail it out of Egypt, with possessions including livestock. Their carts were getting loaded.

9:00 p.m. Mars 132,000 miles distant. Mars sets on the western horizon of Egypt. Earthquakes commence with increasing intensity. The mostly submerged volcano Thera, 60 miles north of Crete, rumbles at an ominously level.

12:00 a.m. PERIGEE. Mars center is at 35,000 to 40,000 miles from the Earth's center. Richter scale 14 and 15 damage the Western Hemisphere, closer to Mars. Scale 12 and 13 earthquakes devastate Egypt, occurring especially severe about midnight, perigee for the angel of the Lord. Electrical damage as well as heavier earthquake sweep across the Western Hemisphere. Thera erupts in a major league eruption. The wind is from the northwest, blowing toward Egypt. Tides 100 feet high sweep many parts of the Caribbean Sea and the nearby Atlantic Ocean.

12:15 a.m. Mars at 30,600 miles, and rises on Egypt's eastern horizon, and is perhaps 25 times brighter than the full Moon. Earthquake and electrical damage wreak havoc in Mexico and the American Southwest. Thera's volcanic crater walls collapse, creating seismic sea waves 600 feet high on nearby Anaphi Island. Moses gives the order to go, now, Now, NOW. Arizona. Putting as many miles as possible between his congregation and Egypt he deems essential. Their route is out of the low lying Suez Isthmus and toward higher ground.

3:00 a.m. Mars is leaving, now over 100,000 miles. Mars-shine is still 20 times as bright as is Moonshine. Earthquake activity is largely over in Egypt. The Hebrew people, a mixed group, moves out at about 3 mph and now is 8 or 9 miles down the road to Elim. Seismic sea waves from There smash 200 feet high across the northern coasts of Crete, destroying the Minoan civilization, which never rebounded.

6:00 a.m. Mars is at 217,000 miles. A smoky, ashy morning as ash from Thera, 10 to 20 inches thick, begins to fall across the Nile delta. The Egyptians arise to assess the damage, and to bewail the dead, and find the Hebrews gone. They are now about 15 miles down the road toward the wells of Elim. Seismic sea waves 150 feet high in places begin to lash and pound the coast of Turkey and the coasts of the Greek mainland. Mars is 10 times brighter than the full Moon.

9:00 a.m. Mars at 301,000 miles. Mars is 7 times as bright as is the full moon. Pharaoh orders some regiments of cavalry and chariots to pursue the fleeing Hebrew vassals, vowing on them bloodshed and a heavier degree of slavery. Thera's seismic sea wave spreads out across the Eastern Mediterranean at 50 to 60 mph, lessening in depth as it broadens. The Hebrews are now weary and some 20 miles on their way to the wells of Elim as Egyptian cavalry and charioteers begin pursuit.

12:00 p.m. Mars at 390,000 miles distant, and showed a disc still somewhat larger and brighter than the Moon. The Egyptian cavalry takes the low road across the Suez Isthmus. Ash and cinders from Thera blot out direct sunlight throughout the Nile Delta, as volcanic ejecta compounds the recovery from the ruin and devastation across the Nile Delta. The Egyptian cavalry and charioteers are perhaps five miles behind the fleeing Hebrews, and the seismic sea wave crashes across the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, now only some 80 to 100 feet high, but still advancing 50 or 60 mph. The Hebrews are 5 to 10 miles ahead of the Egyptian army, and many were wondering about into what kind of a mess Moses was leading them. The seismic sea wave now was about 5 to 10 miles behind the pursuing Egyptian charioteers, still taking the fast, low road across the Isthmus. Show time was about to begin, and the armed forces of Egypt had forgotten to bring their swim suits. Show time was only minutes away.

3:00 p.m. The Hebrews breathe easier, and Moses gives a prayer of thanks to Yahweh. Mars was about 550,000 miles distant, and was a disc slightly smaller than the Moon, but it was still brighter, being more reflective. The Moon would appear on the eastern horizon in three hours, and Mars, departing with its splendid cometary tail in six hours. The momentary safety of Israel was now assured, and the people were breathing much easier. Moses and Joshua now looked like marvelous leaders. It was Independence Day for Israel, a day to be remembered for many reasons. Illustrated in Figures 15 and 16 is the celestial geography of the occasion. Mars and it cometary tail would rise across their eastern horizon in about six hours.

The cometary tail of Mars that night was among the scars of Mars. The erupting volcanoes visible on the surface of Mars were scars of Mars, as were erupting volcanoes on the surface of the Earth, and the consequent fallout of cinders and ash.

Seismic sea waves and huge tidal waves, that day were another of the scars of Mars, as were the earthquakes. The electrical damage that day was specific only to the facing hemisphere of the Earth, which happened to be the Western Hemisphere. The watery destruction that destroyed the Minoan Civilization on Crete also was among the scars of Mars.

It had been the most dramatic of all Passover nights, and Mars passed over. This angel of the Lord was physical, spherical, with a cometary tail of effervescing ices, and had a mass 11% of the Earth's mass. Being the Roman tubulustrium, it was a night of troublesome events. Being the Hebrew Passover, it was Independence Day.

Many scars are physical, and others are mental, or psychological. Story 15 is THE FLEECE OF ARIES it was one of the scars of Mars, with ices effervescing from its Eastern Hemisphere in the former age and in its former, catastrophic orbit. The "WINGS OF THE ANGEL OF DEATH" were the same visual reality.

The angel of death, a very real angel, "Passed Over" the land of Egypt and lapped our planet. The cometary tail of Mars, story 15, is another new perspective for good astronomers who aspire to become good cosmologists.

There is a logical explanation for the dry river beds of Mars. Rampaging rivers once flowed there, but only for a day. Story 16 is that THOSE RAMPAGING RIVERS WERE CREATED BY A SPRAY OF ICE FROM SPACE, FROM ICY FRAGMENTS OF GLACIS. The spray was across only the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars plus a tiny wedge of its Western Hemisphere.

The icy spray on Mars was thousands of years after the rocky fragment spray by Astra, but not millions of years. That the icy spray was later is proved by some of the Martian craters, some with rampaging rivers flowing in one side of the crater, filling it up, and then flowing out the other side, same volume.

Story 17 is that THE ICE BALL GLACIS FRAGMENTED ON THE EARTH'S ROCHE LIMIT, spraying both planets simultaneously. Thus it is that the ices of the Martian lakes effervesced off into space. Those effervescing ices formed the cometary tail of Mars. Glacis was similar in composition and in size to the ice balls revolving around Saturn and Uranus, except it revolved around Mars.

The most recent ice age of the Earth and the dry rampaging rivers beds of Mars are related, both in cause and in timing. The timing was simultaneous with the closest of the Mars flybys, and with the completion of the construction of Noah's Ark, 2484 B.C.E.

Story 18 is that the shattering of Glacis on the Earth's Roche Limit is also the most logical explanation for THE GENESIS OF THE SHORT TERM ICY COMETS. Such a hefty, recent icy spray is the most logical explanation for the survival of some short term icy comets to this time, 4,500 years later. In addition, it is the best explanation for the distribution of the short term comets in the Inner Solar System. Those fragments maintained much of the energy Mars had in its catastrophic orbit, allowing them to go out to 225,000,000 miles from the Sun.

The genesis of the rampaging rivers of Mars, of the Earth's ice age and of the short term icy comets in space all occurred as products of one event on one day. It was the day Glacis shattered, some 11,000 miles from the Earth's center, with Mars approaching nearby, very nearby.

Thus it is that six planets all have suffered "Little Bangs", nearby fragmentations. Four experienced rocky debris, Neptune, Uranus, Jupiter and Mars, and of these four, Astra's fragmentation was the biggest little bang. Two experienced icy debris, Saturn being one and the flyby scene of Mars and Earth being the other.

Mars, our nearby neighbor, has suffered two fragmentations, one rocky and one icy. Gradualist astronomers have missed the both Little Bangs for no good reason. The Earth has suffered one, an icy one, less than 5,000 years ago, and gradualist astronomers have missed it also.

Story 19 is that THE COMETARY TAIL OF MARS EXISTS IN NUMEROUS ACCOUNTS IN ANCIENT LITERATURES. The cometary tail of Mars was the basis of the Egyptian story of its Phoenix Bird, with fiery feathers flying. It was also basis of the story of the Mayan celestial bird, Quetzacoatl, fiery feathers also flying behind.

It was the basis for the dragon-like writhing tail of the Chinese fire star, Mars. Comparable mental scars have been left with other North American Indian tribes in their lores, as well as with the Vedic Indians of India. All this is in addition to traditions of the Fleece of Aries and the Wings of the Angel of the Lord.

One potentially valuable lesson to be learned is that, based on escape velocities, Mars never has had life as we know it on its surface. There is no water vapor, no oxygen and no growing season. Using the premise of maybe finding ancient fossil life on Mars for a \$4,000,000,000 grant for funding a space mission to Mars is a ploy. It is a ruse, unworthy of use by scientists in getting funding for space programs. Ruses often succeed in the short run, but they usually backfire in the long run.

Ruses are not needed there are plenty of valid reasons for Mars missions, Mercury missions, Venus missions, etc.

The popular Oort model for cometary genesis requires that somehow, icy comets relocated from the edge of the Sun's domain, 2+ light years distant, to the inner regions of the Solar System. It may be popular, but it is without evidence. The more recent Clube-Napier model is somewhat better. It suggests that icy comets were involved and caused Earth catastrophes in the era of recorded history. But icy comets were products of planetary catastrophism, not causes.

In the Exodus catastrophe, it was Mars, not its cometary tail, that did the damage. In the Clube-Napier model, they have the cart and the horse, and in that order. This is much better than the Oort model, but yet has its deficiencies.

Ice balls were delivered to the Solar System by being towed satellites of planets like Jupiter and Saturn, which Little Brother delivered to the Sun. One, Glacis, revolving around Mars, made it into the inner Solar System, co-orbiting with Mars until the day it fragmented.

The closest of all of the Mars flybys set the stage for seven events all at once. They were:

1. The shattering of Glacis,

2. The rampaging rivers of Mars,

3. The sudden rain accompanying Noah's Flood,

4. The Earth's subsequent gathering of ices from space in two ice dumps over its two magnetic polar regions,

5. The genesis of the close in, short term icy comets,

6. The cometary tail Mars once had in ancient times,

7. Monster tides in the Indian Ocean which floated the Ark of Noah into the mountainous terrain of Inner Asia.

That is a lot of achievement for one small 500 or 600-mile ice ball.

Somehow, like Noah and Isaiah, Moses was prescient, and had foresight, omniscience with regard to the future. This enabled him to be the indomitable, foresighted leader that, like Noah and Isaiah, he became.

PERCIVAL LOWELL. Percival Lowell illustrates the power of wishful thinking, a hankering and yearning within the soul for life to be found elsewhere in the cosmos. Many men find the prospect of life elsewhere in the Solar System a fascinating prospect, with or without solid evidence. William Herschel, discoverer of the spin rate of Mars, was among the earliest. Along with Percival Lowell were the Pickerings, William H., Edward C. and James S., and many, many others.

Percival Lowell serves for more than just an example of wishful thinking 90 years ago. As he sat on the edge of the catastrophic World War I, he asked the wrong question, "Is there intelligent life on the planet Mars?" Wrong planet.

Ninety years later, mankind is sitting on the verge of something potentially far worse. Minor league dictators, lacking Christian ethics, are gathering arsenals of major league weapons, missiles, nuclear bombs, chemical warfare packages and biological warfare packages. Some of them look upon Americans, Jews and their own women like donkeys. The first one who triggers the delivery of a missile to Jerusalem or New York City gets to go immediately to paradise, where a harem of 70 attractive, anxious ladies await. It is borderline madness.

The question Lowell ought to have asked is whether or not there is intelligent life on the planet Earth. And if there is, for how long.

With story 19, the readers are 51% of the way to the penthouse of Mars planetary catastrophism.

Modern gradualists have now missed both little bangs, both "recent". The score now is ancient writers 2, modern 20th century gradualists 0.

## Tides and Catastrophism

Hey Guys, would you all like to discuss tides and other astronomical effects with me? I'm working with the author of the http://NewGeology.us site on a paper about Earth's sedimentary rock strata, which likely was deposited in short time spans by megatsunamis. Could we discuss Mathis' Tides papers and similar papers here or somewhere else? Maybe we can help each other understand such astronomical effects better. Right?

My main interest here is trying to determine if an asteroid or planet temporarily orbiting Earth elliptically would produce tsunamis at perigee over one or two kilometers high and, if so, how close and large the object would need to be.

Below are a bunch of excerpts from Mathis on Tides and the Roche Limit. Can anyone help me find a way to calculate from this the perigee and size of an object to raise such tides?

OCEAN TIDES
http://milesmathis.com/tide2.html
E/M FIELD
The most astonishing thing I have discovered in my Unified Field is that small objects have stronger E/M fields than larger ones. Given two spherical objects of equal density and make-up, the smaller of the two will have a stronger E/M field, not just relatively, but absolutely. The Moon has a field that is 110 times stronger than the Earth's field. . This is due to the ratio of the surface area to the volume, of course. A smaller sphere will have the same ratio of mass to volume as a larger sphere, by the definition of density. But it will have a larger ratio of density to surface area, which proves my point.
[But doesn't the Sun have a much stronger E/M field than any planet?]

TIDAL E/M PUSH
. The gravitational force pulls us down, as an effect, and the E/M field pushes us up, as an effect, so the result is mostly down, to the tune of 9.8. But now I am saying that instead of subtracting, we add. The Moon causes the vector situation to switch. So now, directly under the Moon, we have about 9.82 m/s2 as our resultant acceleration. And this makes the tidal acceleration
.009545 x 2 = .0191 m/s2
And that is 572 times the maximum tidal force from gravity. So, yes, you would weigh about .2% more directly under the Moon.

ORBITAL DISTANCE
. the orbital distance of the Moon is not a coincidence. . the orbital distance, which we are calling R here, is a direct outcome of the two fields, E/M and acceleration (gravity). These two fields cause the orbital distance. The acceleration creates an apparent attraction, and the E/M field keeps the Moon from being caught. The Moon's "innate" velocity is also involved, of course, but the two fields determine this as well, after any amount of time.3 So R is completely determined by the size of the bodies and their densities. The Moon must orbit at (or near) that radius where its field intercepts 1/3 of the Earth's sphere. . In the center of the circle the force is radial. In other words, it comes straight down upon the ocean. . You can see that the initial force will change from radial to tangential as we go out from the center of our circle.

OCEAN WATER PILE
. Now, if we look just beyond the tangent — which is to say just beyond our circle of initial influence — we find water that has not been touched by any force at all. It is completely unaccelerated. As our accelerated water meets this unaccelerated water, it will pile up behind it, causing a swell. This is one of our high tides. In the initial stages of our analysis, it must be a complete circle of high tides, with a diameter on the curved surface of the Earth equal to 1/3 the circumference of the Earth. It will travel at some velocity around to the far side of the Earth, until blocked by a land mass or resisted by a reverse tide.

But let us return to our central force. . It hits the Earth like a radial meteor, except that this meteor has a radius of 378,000km. It is like a meteor with a very low density. The main difference between our force from the Moon and a real meteor is that our force keeps arriving continuously. . although the force is radial, the motion created is tangential. The water does not want to move down, and at greater depths it does not want to move sideways, either. So the result is motion sideways nearer the surface. Another circular wave is created, traveling out from the center. Initially this central wave is 60o behind the outer wave, and unless we show that it is moving faster than the outer wave, it will stay 60o behind it.

MAGNETIC FORCE
. By the right hand rule, if the electrical force is radial down, then the magnetic force will be clockwise, looking down on the ocean. Toward the center of our circle, this should have a magnifying effect on the electrical force, giving it the effect of a screw instead of a nail. . The screws therefore cause a spreading, which magnifies the lateral forces already in play with the electrical field. The magnetic field and the electrical field work in tandem to produce the central wave.

SOLAR WIND EFFECTS
http://milesmathis.com/tide3.html
. What really causes the spring and neap tide variation is the Solar Wind.

ARCHIMEDES EFFECT
http://milesmathis.com/tide5.html
. If the Moon is directly above you, you are at the center of the depression. You are lower than the mean sea level (sea levels without a Moon), but the rest of the world is at high tide (or would be, minus time lags). This is because the mechanism of tide creation is relatively simple: when the Moon is over water, it creates a lower sea below it, and this forces all the other water higher. Just take a beach ball into the bathtub, press it down . The tangential velocity of the Moon is already said to balance the gravitational forces between the two bodies, so there is no leftover force to create tides. . Not only is the Moon not oblate to any degree, with apsides pointing anywhere, if anything the Moon shows a negative tidal bulge on the front.

. the force arriving from the Moon is neither negative nor positive. It is photonic, not ionic, in the first instance. However, once it arrives, it must act by driving free ions. That is how the charge field becomes active in the E/M field. The photons drive ions.

BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
http://milesmathis.com/tide4.html
. What we now call the gravitational field is actually a differential field made up of both the gravitational pseudo field and the E/M field. All fluctuations belong to the E/M component none to the gravitational component. This makes it so much easier to explain the menstrual cycle, as well as to test the theory. We already know that the brain and nervous system work in large part on electrical impulses. The body, like the oceans, is mostly saltwater: therefore it is a lovely conductor. These and many other facts, too obvious to dwell on, lead directly to confirmation of my theory. We also know that manmade electrical fields can upset animal and plant cycles, including the human menstrual cycle.

ELECTROSTATIC TIDES
Charles Chandler thinks tides are electrostatic (See http://qdl.scs-inc.us/?top=9925 regarding crustal tides). So does Miles Mathis in a sense. Charles said privately yesterday: "The formula for calculating tidal forces was heuristically deriven, since Newtonian mechanics doesn't predict tides as strong as they actually are. And heuristic formulas don't scale well — there's no guarantee that the results will be correct. If I'm right, that tides are electrostatic, the existing heuristic formula for tides won't predict the forces at different distances at all."

ROCHE LIMIT MYTH
Mathis says the Roche limit is a myth, quoting below. Maybe that means an asteroid could make a relatively soft landing on Earth to form the supercontinent. Several moons are known to be within the supposed Roche limit.

A RECALCULATION OF THE ROCHE LIMIT
http://milesmathis.com/roche.html
["E/M field" means the field of mass-containing photons received and emitted by all matter.]
Now let us calculate the first new Roche limit, where the E/M field balances the gravity field. Using the equations from my UFT paper, we just set the two fields to equal one another:

For the Earth and Moon, that distance would be about 4,006 km. To find that number, I used my new accelerations for Earth and Moon. In those equations, the accelerations are for the solo gravity field, not the unified field, so standard-model numbers are not what we want. Current numbers are calculated from Newton's unified field equation, and are field differentials. In other words, I used the number 2.67 for the Moon, not 1.62.

What I just found is a Roche limit assuming the Moon has no tangential velocity.

. So let us calculate a new Roche limit assuming the Moon keeps its current orbital velocity. We will assume, like Newton, that the Moon has an “innate” tangential velocity, uncaused by the field itself. I have shown that this is not the case, but we can choose any velocity we like to develop an equation, and the current one is as good as any.

[m(A + a)] – mv2 /2R = [GMm/R2 ] – [m(A + a)]
4R2 (A + a) – v2R – 2GM = 0
R = v2 + √[v4 + 32GM(A + a)]
8(A + a)
For the Moon, that would be
R = 4,023km

. But let us move on to look at the second sort of Roche limit, the one that mirrors more closely the current one. We want to find a distance at which the E/M field would break up an orbiter. As should already be clear from our analysis of Pan above, this limit is a phantom. If Pan is still experiencing accretion when it is so near the surface of a huge planet, then we may assume that the tidal Roche limit is a complete myth. The E/M Roche limit would also be a myth, in that case, because we can see from Pan that neither field is strong enough to disintegrate a moonlet, even when it is low density and hammered by collisions.

The E/M field would tend to bounce a large body out of a low orbit, because a level of balance would be impossible to find in a natural way. Large bodies simply don't settle into low orbits with little or no impact trajectory. If they have high incoming velocities, the primary bounces them away with a quick increase in the E/M field. If they have low velocities, the E/M field keeps them at a greater orbital distance.

This is why only very small bodies are found in low orbits. They encounter a small section of the charge field [E/M field], feel a much smaller repulsion, and settle into orbit much more slowly. This is also why they can exist in these low orbits: using their own charge fields, they funnel the primary's charge field around them, encountering a smaller effect. Larger bodies can't do this nearly as efficiently.

. Now let us look at a near approach of Jupiter and Saturn, using these new equations. How close did the two great planets come millions of years ago, in order to create a resonance? We can now find out.

To use my new equation, we have to first calculate new accelerations for Jupiter and Saturn, based only on their radii. We do that with a proportionality with the Earth.

9.81/RE = x/RJ = y/RS
x = 110.7
y = 92.7

Saturn may have come that close to Jupiter, in being bounced away by the combined E/M fields (supposing the planets had no tangential velocities relative to one another). That was a very close call, and a much closer pass or a hit might have upset or destroyed the entire Solar System. Our entire history may have depended on that near pass. And in millions of years, when the resonant cycle returns to that near pass, the Solar System will once again hang on the outcome.

This means that the rings and satellite systems of Jupiter and Saturn must have re-formed since that close pass.

[Ancient myths suggest that the two gas giants and the inner rocky planets were all involved in close encounters about the time before the Great Flood.]