Attos' Magazine

Volume #111, March/2010

Home Page

Immanuel Velikovsky

Worlds In Collision

By Immanuel Velikovsky

One of the Planets is a Comet

Democritus (circa -460 to circa -370), a contemporary of Plato and one of the great scholars of antiquity, is accused by the moderns of not having understood the planetary character of Venus. Plutarch quotes him as speaking of Venus as if it were not one of the planets. But apparently the author of the treatises on geometry, optics, and astronomy, no longer extant, knew more about Venus than his critics think. From quotations which have survived in other authors, we know that Democritus built a theory of the creation and destruction of worlds which sounds like the modem planetesimal theory without its shortcomings. He wrote: “The worlds are unequally distributed in space; here there are more, there fewer; some are waxing, some are in their prime, some waning: coming into being in one part of the universe, ceasing in another part. The cause of their perishing is collision with one another.” He knew that “the planets are at unequal distances from us” and that there are more planets than we are able to discover with our eyes. Aristotle quoted the opinion of Democritus: “Stars have been seen when comets dissolve.”

Among the early Greek scholars, Pythagoras of the sixth century is generally credited with having had access to some secret science. His pupils, and their pupils, the so-called Pythagoreans, were cautious not to disclose their science to anyone who did not belong to their circle. Aristotle wrote of their interpretation of the nature of comets: “Some of the Italians called Pythagoreans say that the comet is one of the planets, hut that it appears at great intervals of time and only rises a little above the horizon. This is the case with Mercury too; because it only rises a little above the horizon it often fails to be seen and consequently appears at great intervals of time.”

This is a confused presentation of a theory; but it is possible to trace the truth in the Pythagorean teaching, which was not understood by Aristotle. A comet is a planet which returns at long intervals. One of the planets, which rises only a little above the horizon, was still regarded by the Pythagoreans of the fourth century as a comet. With the knowledge obtained from other sources, it is easy to guess that by “one of the planets” is meant Venus; only Mercury and Venus rise a little above the horizon.

Aristotle disagreed with the Pythagorean scholars who considered one of the five planets to be a comet.

“These views involve impossibilities. . . . This is the case, first, with those who say that the comet is one of the planets . . . more comets than one have often appeared simultaneously . . . as a matter of fact, no planet has been observed besides the five. And all of them are often visible above the horizon together at the same time. Further, comets are often found to appear, as well when all the planets are visible as when some are not.”

With these words, Aristotle, who did not learn the secrets of the Pythagoreans directly, tried to refute their teaching by arguing that all five planets are in their places when a comet appears, as if the Pythagoreans thought that all comets were one and the same planet leaving its usual path at certain times. But the Pythagoreans did not think that one planet represents all comets. According to Plutarch, they taught that each of the comets has its own orbit and period of revolution. Hence the Pythagoreans apparently knew that the comet which is “one of the planets” is Venus.

Visitors Statistics