Another history of the Earth. Part 3d

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

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The beginning of part 2

The beginning of part 3

Video lecture at the conference

We are looking for traces of the disaster in myths and documents

In the previous part, we examined in detail the myth of Phaethon, recorded by Ovid in "Metamorphoses", the content of which in many details coincides with the consequences that should be observed after the described catastrophe. But in the myth of Phaeton, everything ends with the death of Phaeton and the destruction of the "solar chariot", the fragments of which fall to the Earth in different places. Whether anything happens next is not reported in this myth, perhaps because it was not important for the general plot of the myth.

But proceeding from the catastrophe scenario described in the first part, after the object breaks through the Earth's body, escapes outward and destroys it, the disasters on the planet do not end. For some time, there will be strong earthquakes and movements of parts of the earth's crust, massive volcanic eruptions, including in the oceans, a serious violation of the climate, as well as heavy showers that will be caused by the evaporation of a huge amount of water into the atmosphere, both due to volcanic activity, and and due to an increase in temperature in the inner layers of the Earth, which should have led to an increase in geothermal activity and evaporation of water in groundwater bodies.

In other words, after the catastrophe, during which the surface of the Earth along the flight path of the object was burned out, the "Flood" begins, which is aggravated by the passage of inertial and shock waves.

Such a phenomenon as the "Flood" is described in the mythology of many peoples of the world. True, according to the research of the British scientist James George Fraser, despite the fact that legends about the "Flood" are found among many peoples of the world, including Australia and the Indians of the Americas, this story is absent among the peoples of Africa, East, Central and North Asia, and also rare in Europe.

Why there are no such references in Africa, Asia, and little in Europe, is most likely due to the fact that it was these territories that suffered the most during the cataclysm. Therefore, practically no one survived on them, which means that there was simply no one to talk about it.

Nevertheless, upon careful study of Greek / Roman mythology, it turns out that not even one, but three "Great Floods" are mentioned in it. True, it is not yet entirely clear to me whether these are actually different events, or whether these are several phantoms of the same event, which were recorded by different authors with different plot and details.

One of these myths is the myth of Deucalion, which in its plot coincides with the myth of Noah from the "Old Testament" to some small details, such as building an ark, collecting "every creature in pairs", as well as a dove, which both Deucalion and Noah start to learn about the end of the flood and the descent of water. But there are also enough differences. We will return to this myth a little later.

The second flood, according to Greek mythology, happened during the reign of King Dardan, the son of Zeus and Electra. From the name of the king of Dardan comes the name of the Strait of Dardanelles, which separates Europe from Asia and provides a passage from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea.

The third, according to some researchers, the most ancient flood, occurred during the reign of King Ogygesus, who ruled in Boeotia. At the same time, the Roman writer Mark Terentius Varro, talking about this event, reports that during this flood the planet Venus changed its color, size and shape, for nine months night reigned and at that time all the volcanoes of the Aegean Sea were active.

Here again we have a description of the consequences that correspond to those that should have occurred after the described catastrophe. Mention are made of massive volcanic eruptions, which led to the fact that huge amounts of ash and dust were thrown into the upper atmosphere and caused various optical effects, as well as "night" for nine months. Although, in fairness, certain inconsistencies in this plot should be noted, since if our Sun's light does not reach the Earth's surface, which causes a long nine-month night, then it is unlikely that we will be able to see the planet Venus. Or, if Venus was still visible, then the reason for the long night was in something else.

If we take a closer look at the Jewish version of the myth of the "Great Flood" from the Torah, we will also find very interesting details there. About the fact that before the flood there was no such phenomenon as a rainbow on Earth, many, I think, have already heard. It is written about almost all Jewish sites devoted to the study of the scriptures, since it is the rainbow that is the symbol of the covenant between Noah and their Lord that the latter will never again destroy humanity with the help of such a catastrophe. By the way, it should be noted here that in the overwhelming majority of myths about the global flood, it is the supreme deity that is called the primary cause of the flood, only the name of God is different.

But other than that, there was no change of seasons on Earth before the flood. That is, there was no winter, spring, summer and autumn.

In Greek / Roman mythology, this fact is also mentioned, but not in relation to the "Flood", but in stories about the so-called "golden age", which was on Earth at a time when the world was ruled by Kronos, the father of Zeus.

In principle, we can say, as was done during the Soviet era, that the "golden age" is fiction and reflects the dreams of mankind for a better life, which is described as "life in Paradise." But earlier we have already seen that many things described in myths find their confirmation in the reality around us. So maybe in this case it is a reflection of the real past, and not fiction?

Now the change of seasons occurs because the axis of rotation of the Earth around its axis has an inclination to the so-called "plane of the ecliptic", in which all the planets, including the Earth, revolve around the Sun. This angle is 23.44 degrees. As a result, when the northern hemisphere is turned away from the Sun, its warming-up noticeably decreases and winter sets in, and beyond the Arctic circle there is a continuous polar night. In the summer, on the contrary, this part of the Earth turns to the Sun, the heating of this area intensifies and we have summer, and beyond the Arctic Circle there is a continuous polar day.

If we put the axis of rotation of the Earth perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic, removing the tilt, then we get a completely different climate, in which there are no pronounced seasons. That is, we get the very "eternal spring" that is mentioned in the myths.

In principle, the impact of such a massive object at high speed, together with the subsequent processes of displacement of the outer crust and movement of the inner layers of magma inside the Earth, could lead to the fact that the position of the Earth's axis of rotation has changed. But then a completely different picture should be depicted on the old maps of the starry sky. If the old axis of rotation was perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic, then the north pole of the old star charts should not be near the Pole Star in the constellation Ursa Minor, but in the same place as the pole of the ecliptic as a whole, that is, in the region of the constellation of the dragon. So I decided to look for old star charts. And what my surprise was when it turned out that almost all the old star maps were drawn in such a way that the constellation of the Dragon is located in the center! Moreover, it turned out that the maps in a new projection, when the Polar Star with the Ursa Minor is in the center, appear only at the end of the 17th century! Until that moment, they continued to use the old images of star maps with the constellation of the Dragon in the center,on which they simply drew the new position of the pole and new projections of the main lines from the surface of the Earth to the celestial sphere.

But let's take a look at these cards together and analyze their content.

This is an engraving with a sky map made by Albrecht Durer for the publication of Ptolemy's book "Almagest" in 1515.

This map is quite well known, it is often found in various publications both in astronomy and in history. In particular, this map is referred to many times in their works by A. T. Fomenko and N. G. Nosovsky. True, they mainly analyze the drawings that were used by the author to depict certain constellations, but completely ignore the content of the map itself from the point of view of the projection of the starry sky.

What's wrong with this card? First, it is very clearly seen that the north pole of rotation of the celestial sphere is in the constellation Draco. At the same time, the modern pole of rotation in the region of the North Star is generally ignored. Further we will see that on later maps, when the position of the pole had already been displaced, the projection of the map was still old, centered in the constellation Draco, but the new pole was already indicated. In this case, one of the lines of meridians necessarily passed through the new pole. Below I made an enlarged fragment of the center, on which I marked the position of today's North Pole, where it is very clearly seen that this point was ignored by the author of the map, since the meridian lines pass by.

That is, at the time of drawing up this map, this point did not mean anything to the author. An ordinary star in one of the small constellations.

There is one more important note to make about this particular map. In principle, since the pole of the ecliptic is actually located precisely in the constellation of the Dragon, then theoretically a similar map could be drawn. Moreover, now there are quite a few maps of the starry sky, which are compiled precisely in the ecliptic coordinate system. But only in the book of Ptolemy, which is devoted to the mathematical substantiation of the geocentric system, according to which the Earth is in the center, and not the Sun, there can never be such a map in principle!

The point is that if the axis of rotation did not change its position and at the time of compilation of this map was directed in the same way as now to the North Star, then an observer from the surface of the Earth, in principle, could not see the picture that is depicted on this map! Just like we do not see this picture now. To draw such a map, it is necessary first of all to recognize that the Earth revolves around the Sun along with all other planets, and the Earth's axis of rotation has an inclination to the plane of the ecliptic. Further, it is necessary to carry out a lot of observations in order to more or less accurately determine the angle of inclination of the Earth's axis of rotation to the ecliptic, and how the ecliptic plane as a whole is oriented in relation to the celestial sphere. And only then, after carrying out the necessary calculations, you can reproject the map of the starry sky from the view that we can observe on Earth into the ecliptic coordinate system, when the north pole of rotation of the celestial sphere is in the constellation of the Dragon.

In other words, first we must recognize the heliocetric system, when our Sun is in the center, and only then we may have a map in this form. But in this case, you will definitely indicate the pole star as the pole at which the Earth's axis of rotation looks, as is done on later maps, since this is the most important point for marine navigation and other orientation, since it is it from the surface of the Earth that will look stationary, and not point in the region of the constellation Draco.

Thus, this star map could appear in Ptolemy's Almagest in 1515 in only one case. At that time, the axis of rotation of the Earth was still located vertically to the plane of the ecliptic and the celestial sphere for an observer from Earth looked exactly as shown on this map, and the north pole of rotation was actually in the constellation of the Dragon.

The following map is taken from another edition of the Almagest, issued in 1551.

This map is still drawn in the old projection with the Draco constellation in the center. But here we already see the designation of the new position of the Earth's pole, which I marked with a blue cross. At the same time, this position does not yet coincide with the current position, which is indicated by a red cross. There are two options here. Either the new position of the North Pole on the celestial sphere was not determined and plotted on the old map accurately enough, or, more likely, at the time of plotting the position of the pole, the residual processes had not yet ended and this position continued to change.

A separate question is when, in fact, the new projections of the main lines and the north pole of the Earth's rotation were actually plotted on the map, at the time of the book's release in 1551, or were completed later. The latter is supported by the fact that on this map the meridians defining the angular coordinate system are plotted only in the old system, while on later maps we will already see either only new meridians built already in the Earth's coordinate system, or two systems at once, both Earthly and ecliptic.

Another star map from the 17th century book by Stanislav Lubenetsky.

This map is made in a completely different projection, deployed on a plane. The north pole of rotation of the celestial sphere still remains in the constellation Draco, although there are already projections of the equator and the lines of the northern and southern tropics. Only they are built again relative to the other pole, which is shown with a blue cross, while today's north pole is in the position marked with a red cross. At the same time, it is also not clear when these lines of projections of the new orientation of the Earth were plotted, immediately or later, but the entire system of angular coordinates was built relative to the ecliptic coordinate system, and not the earthly one.

The next star map found on the Internet, unfortunately, I have not yet been able to accurately identify. Some sites say about it that it was compiled by the Polish astronomer Jan Hevelius from Gdansk, who lived from 1611 to 1678, but the exact date of the map was not specified. Jan Hevelius is known for compiling a catalog of 1,564 stars visible to the naked eye, the so-called "Prodromus Astronomiae", which was published by his wife after his death in 1690.

On this map, the north pole has already moved to the end of the Ursa Minor's tail, through which one of the meridians passed, but the general projection of the map is still old. The constellation of the Dragon continues to remain in the center. The meridians also converge there, forming the angular coordinate system. It is very likely that when compiling this map, the author used an old image of the stellar sphere, which was compiled even before the catastrophe and the displacement of the Earth's axis of rotation, to which either he himself or someone else added the position of the new pole and the projection lines of the tropics and the equator …

Star map of the northern sky by Peter Apian allegedly of 1540.

On this map, we again see the Dragon in the center, while there is not even a hint of new projections of the pole and the lines of projections of the tropics and equator onto the celestial sphere. True, an arc has been drawn through today's North Pole of the Earth, that is, through the polar star in the tail of the Ursa Minor.

But the north pole of rotation cannot describe such an arc on the celestial sphere, since the axis of rotation is always directed almost exactly to the North Star and does not describe any arcs with such a radius. In fact, it looks more like someone was trying to retroactively display the new pole and projection lines similar to what we see on other maps, but did not really understand how to do this.

The next image is the planisphere of the northern hemisphere from the album of the famous German mathematician and astrologer Andreas Cellarius (1596-1665), published in 1661 under the name Harmonia Macrocosmica (some sources indicate the year of publication as 1660).

On this map, the north pole of the Earth's rotation is already looking, as it should be now, at the Pole Star in the tail of the Ursa Minor, but the general projection of the celestial sphere is still old, with the constellation of the Dragon in the center.

This is a fragment of John Speed's map of the world, issued by him in 1626, which also included maps of the celestial sphere.

There are several different editions of this image, both black and white and colored. Apparently, several copies of this map, printed at different times, have survived. At the same time, the content of the star map on them does not fundamentally differ. In the center of the map is still the Dragon, and the constellation Ursa Minor and the Pole Star are generally absent on this map. Although, the projections of the new pole and the Earth's rotation line are plotted. Most likely, John Speed himself did not make a map of the starry sky, but only borrowed this image of the celestial sphere from someone as the basis for his inset, which was originally drawn up in the old projection.

Planisphere Celeste Meridionale 1705. This map was created by the French professor of mathematics and astronomy Philippe de la Hire (1640 - 1718).

On this map, the constellation of the Dragon still remains in the center, but the terrestrial coordinate system has already been shown in more detail, not only the pole of rotation is plotted, but also the projections of the terrestrial meridians. The North Pole is shown in its present position.

In addition to the above maps of the stellar sphere, I found about a dozen more similar old maps, on which the same picture is observed. In the center of the north pole of rotation of the celestial sphere is precisely the constellation of the dragon, and the pole existing today in the region of the polar star is indicated as shifted to the desired position. I will not list all of them here, because it will take up a lot of space, and the quality of the images found is not very good.

Another interesting fact is that by the end of the 17th century, maps are beginning to appear on which a new projection of the celestial sphere is already depicted, centered in the area of the North Star. The first such map I could find was Philip Lea's 1680 sky map from Atlas and Hercules in Cheapside, Planisfero boreale 1680-1689.

That is, it was only in 1680 that a new projection was finally drawn up! Interestingly, on this map, the angular coordinate system is plotted only for the earth system, and the pole of the ecliptic in the constellation of the Dragon is not indicated at all, as are the meridians of the ecliptic coordinate system. There is only a projection of the intersection of the ecliptic plane with the celestial sphere, along which the zodiacal constellations go. That is, for several centuries they persistently depicted a map of the celestial sphere in an ecliptic projection, and then they even forgot to indicate the pole of the ecliptic? Now it doesn't matter? And before then why was it so important?

I want to once again draw the attention of readers to the practical aspect of both compiling and using these maps of the celestial sphere. If the axis of rotation of the Earth did not change its position, then a map of the celestial sphere in the ecliptic coordinate system is needed only for a very limited circle of people who, firstly, are supporters of the heliocentric system, and secondly, they are engaged in astronomical observations and calculations of the motion of planets in the Solar system. At the time these maps were compiled, there were no more than a dozen such people. But everyone else, for example, to navigate the stars, needs a map of the celestial sphere compiled exactly in the form in which we will see it from the surface of the Earth. At the same time, the angular coordinate system on this map should also be plotted specifically for the Earth, and not the ecliptic, since for navigation you need the Earth's coordinate system. To recalculate coordinates from one system to another every time is too long and difficult. It is much easier to immediately draw up a map of the celestial sphere in the projection in which it will be convenient to use it. In other words, we should have a lot of maps centered on the Pole Star and a small number of maps centered on the Dragon. In fact, we have a completely opposite picture. Until the end of the 17th century, maps centered on the Polar Star were practically absent.

Here is another old map of the starry sky. This is an image of the northern planisphere, which is applied to the inner side of the Gottorp Globe, located in the Kunstkamera of St. Petersburg.

This image in some sources dates back to 1650-1664, when this globe was made. This is how this globe looks from the outside now.

In this image, the North Pole is already where it should be, in the area of the North Star. But, as it turned out, this image is not so simple. In fact, we see an image that was created not in 1656, but in 1751, since in 1747 this globe was practically destroyed during a fire in the Kunstkamera. That is, in fact, this image appeared much later than the above-mentioned map of Philip Lea. Unfortunately, we do not know what was actually depicted there in 1650-1664.

Here is another very interesting map of the starry sky, published in St. Petersburg in 1717.

This map has also already been made in a new projection around the North Star. But the most important thing is that this card is called “New Heavenly Mirror”! That is, the old "celestial mirror" is the one that was built around the constellation of the Dragon, that is, before the displacement of the axis of rotation. And this is exactly NEW.

So what did we end up with?

Old myths of different peoples say that the "Flood" on Earth had a different climate, in which there were no changes of the seasons, that is, there were no pronounced seasons of the year in the form of spring, summer, autumn and winter. This is possible only if the axis of rotation of the Earth does not have an inclination to the plane of the ecliptic, due to which a more uniform heating of the entire surface of the planet will be ensured. Areas that are shaded for an extended period are absent in this case. This, in turn, also means that we will not have polar caps at the poles, since there are no conditions for their formation. Those small areas in the region of the poles, where there will be a very small angle of incidence of the Sun's rays on the surface, will be warmed up by the warm currents of water and air. At the same time, what is interesting, in this case, even at the poles, it will never be completely dark. If we add to this those facts that indicate that before the catastrophe, the atmospheric pressure, and possibly the chemical composition, were different, in particular, the pressure was noticeably higher, then this also changes the temperature regime on the planet as a whole, since with more in a dense atmosphere, its heat capacity and thermal conductivity change, due to which heat transfer and temperature equalization will be more efficient, and the climate as a whole will be more uniform.

The fact that the axis of rotation of the Earth has changed its position is confirmed by old maps of the stellar sphere, which are drawn up exactly as these maps should be compiled with the axis of rotation of the planet perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic. It is in this case that the axis of rotation of the Earth will be directed to the same point on the celestial sphere, where the common axis of the ecliptic is directed, that is, to the constellation of the Dragon. At the same time, it will be quite natural to draw up this map in such a projection, since for an observer who is on the surface of the Earth, the celestial sphere will revolve around a point in the constellation of the Dragon.

If the Earth's axis of rotation did not change its position and was all the time directed to the Pole Star, then during the Middle Ages, when the geocentric system prevailed, in which the Earth was allegedly in the center, and all other planets, including the Sun, allegedly revolved around the Earth, in principle, they could not draw up a map of the stellar sphere in the ecliptic coordinate system with the center in the constellation of the Dragon. They could not, first of all, because such a picture, when the celestial sphere revolves around the Dragon, in principle will not be visible from the surface of the Earth. Therefore, in order to draw just such a projection, it is first necessary to put the Sun in the center of the system, and only then can you imagine how the celestial sphere will look if we look at it not from the surface of the Earth, but from the imaginary plane of the ecliptic.

It is interesting that the final heliocentric system was recognized only in the 17th century, and the first serious work of Copernicus with the substantiation of the heliocentric system of the world "On the Circulation of the Celestial Spheres" appeared only in 1543. As we saw above, on the 1515 map there is not even a hint of today's pole, but on the 1551 map it already appears as an additional designation system. Interestingly, if the axis of rotation of the Earth changed its position and an inclination of the axis appeared, then this should have greatly facilitated the understanding of the fact that it is the Earth that revolves around the Sun, and not vice versa.

Another fact that we observe from old maps of the starry sky is that the correct projection of the celestial sphere, which is visible from the Earth at the current position of the axis of rotation, and which is more convenient from the point of view of practical application on the Earth's surface, appears on maps only in 1680. Moreover, on the map of 1717, this projection is clearly called "New Heavenly Mirror". Most likely, by this time the residual processes have finally ceased after the catastrophe and the Earth's axis of rotation has ceased its wandering in the celestial sphere. The fact that such a wandering took place is indirectly confirmed by the maps of the early 17th century shown above, in which the position of the north pole of rotation does not coincide either with the old position in the constellation Draco, or with the current position in the region of the Pole Star in the constellation Ursa Minor.

If we had such a strong impact that the position of the Earth's axis of rotation changed, then other parameters, such as the period of the Earth's revolution around its axis, as well as the period and parameters of the Earth's revolution around the Sun as a whole, could change. This, in turn, means that we also had to change the length of the year, and hence the calendar as a whole. And this change actually took place! Moreover, we know everything about him from school, and in our everyday life we still have the habit of celebrating the "new year" in the old style. But we will talk about the changes in the calendar in the next part.

Now I want to make one more important remark, which follows from the discovered facts. If we had a global catastrophe that caused a displacement of the Earth's axis of rotation, as well as a change in the parameters of the Earth's rotation both around its axis and around the Sun as a whole, this means that the use of astronomical methods of dating events, which are used in their works by Academician A.. T. Fomenko and G. V. Nosovsky, with all due respect to their work and knowledge, lose all meaning. More or less reliable data by this method, we can only get from our days to the moment of the catastrophe. We will not be able to make any calculations for the events that occurred before the catastrophe, since we do not know the exact parameters of the Earth's motion during that period. In other words, before the catastrophe, eclipses and other astronomical events took place on completely different days, and taking into account the different position of the Earth relative to the plane of the ecliptic, they were observed in a completely different way from its surface.