Impact events in fiction explained

Impact events have been a recurring theme in fiction since the 1800s.

History

Impact events have been a recurring theme in fiction since the 1800s.^[1] The earliest such stories tended to depict impacts by comets, though other objects such as asteroids and meteoroids became more common in the 1900s.^[2] Impact events from more massive celestial objects also appear on occasion. The theme increased in popularity from the 1950s onward, possibly as a result of nuclear anxiety following World War II,^[3] and received additional boosts in popularity in 1980 with the publication of the Alvarez hypothesis, which states that the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was caused by an asteroid impact that created the Chicxulub crater off the coast of Mexico,^{[4] [5]} and in 1994 with the collision of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 with Jupiter.^[6]

Disaster

Impact events are a common disaster scenario in fiction.^{[7] [8]}

Tunguska event

The 1908 Tunguska event—an enormous explosion in a remote region of Siberia—has appeared in many works of fiction. It is generally held to have been caused by a meteor air burst, though several alternative explanations have been proposed both in scientific circles and in fiction.^{[9] [10]} A popular one in fiction is that it was caused by an alien spaceship, possibly first put forth in Ed Earl Repp's 1930 short story "The Second Missile".^[11] It gained prominence following the publication of Russian science fiction writer Alexander Kazantsev's 1946 short story "Explosion";^[12] inspired by the similarities between the event and the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Kazantsev's story posits that a nuclear explosion in the engine of a spacecraft was responsible.^{[13] [14]} An alien spacecraft is also the explanation in Polish science fiction writer Stanisław Lem's 1951 novel The Astronauts and its 1960 film adaptation The Silent Star,^[15] while a human-made one is to blame in Ian Watson's 1983 novel Chekhov's Journey. Additional variations on the spaceship theme appear in Donald R. Bensen's 1978 novel And Having Writ... and Algis Budrys's 1993 novel Hard Landing, among others. Another proposed explanation is that the cause was the impact of a micro black hole, as in Larry Niven's 1975 short story "The Borderland of Sol". Some stories nevertheless accept the conventional meteorite explanation, such as the 1996 The X-Files episode "Tunguska" that instead revolves around the impact possibly having introduced alien microbial life to Earth.

See also

• Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
• Asteroids in fiction
• Comets in fiction
• Disasters in popular culture

Further reading

• Book: Bloom, Steven D. . The Physics and Astronomy of Science Fiction: Understanding Interstellar Travel, Teleportation, Time Travel, Alien Life and Other Genre Fixtures . 2016 . McFarland . 978-0-7864-7053-2 . 57–60 . en . Asteroids, Comets, and Impacts . https://books.google.com/books?id=8NbIDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA57.
• Book: Bly, Robert W. . Robert W. Bly . The Science in Science Fiction: 83 SF Predictions That Became Scientific Reality . 2005 . . . 978-1-932100-48-8 . 43–46 . en . Asteroids Colliding with the Earth . https://archive.org/details/scienceinscience0000blyr/page/42/mode/2up.
• Web site: Fraknoi . Andrew . Andrew Fraknoi . January 2024 . Science Fiction Stories with Good Astronomy & Physics: A Topical Index . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20240210011957/https://astrosociety.org/file_download/inline/7b5edc23-7a89-46c1-a6b3-33a30ed4c876 . 2024-02-10 . PDF . 2024-03-29 . . 7–8 . PDF . 7.3.
• Book: Gillett, Stephen L. . . 2005 . Greenwood Publishing Group . 978-0-313-32951-7 . Westfahl . Gary . Gary Westfahl . 146–148 . en . Comets and Asteroids . . https://archive.org/details/greenwoodencyclo0000unse_k2b9/page/146/mode/2up.
• Book: Langford, David . David Langford . . 1983 . Knopf . 0-394-53010-1 . Nicholls . Peter . Peter Nicholls (writer) . New York . 112–113 . Natural disasters . 8689657 . https://archive.org/details/scienceinscience00nich/page/112/mode/2up.
• Encyclopedia: 2022 . Comets . . 2024-03-29 . 4th . Langford . David . David Langford . Clute . John . John Clute . Langford . David . David Langford . Sleight . Graham . Graham Sleight.
• Web site: Lynskey . Dorian . 2021-12-20 . Don't Look Up: The stories that reflect our oldest fear . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230922061154/https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20211215-dont-look-up-the-fiction-that-reflects-our-greatest-fear . 2023-09-22 . 2024-07-12 . . en-GB.
• Book: Martens, Bas . Outer Space and Popular Culture: Influences and Interrelations . 2020 . Springer International Publishing . 978-3-030-22656-5 . Froehlich . Annette . Southern Space Studies . Cham . 145–157 . en . Seven Billion Deer in the Headlights . 10.1007/978-3-030-22656-5_13 . https://books.google.com/books?id=_uOmDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA145.
• Book: Nichols, Ian . . . 2005 . Greenwood Publishing Group . 978-0-313-32951-7 . Westfahl . Gary . Gary Westfahl . 45–47 . en . Apocalypse . https://archive.org/details/greenwoodencyclo0000unse_k2b9/page/46/mode/2up.
• Book: Sawyer, Andy . Andrew Sawyer . . 2005 . Greenwood Publishing Group . 978-0-313-32951-7 . Westfahl . Gary . Gary Westfahl . 200–202 . en . Disaster . https://archive.org/details/greenwoodencyclo0000unse_k2b9/page/200/mode/2up.
• Encyclopedia: 2023 . Asteroids . . 2024-03-29 . 4th . Stableford . Brian . Brian Stableford . Langford . David . David Langford . Clute . John . John Clute . Langford . David . David Langford . Sleight . Graham . Graham Sleight.
• Book: Westfahl, Gary . Gary Westfahl . . 2021 . ABC-CLIO . 978-1-4408-6617-3 . 139–141 . en . Asteroids . https://books.google.com/books?id=WETPEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA139.
• Book: Westfahl, Gary . Gary Westfahl . . 2021 . ABC-CLIO . 978-1-4408-6617-3 . 205–207 . en . Comets and Meteoroids . https://books.google.com/books?id=WETPEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA205.

Notes and References

1. Book: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: The Definitive Illustrated Guide . 1996 . Carlton . 1-85868-188-X . Pringle . David . David Pringle . 39–40 . en . Cosmic collisions . 38373691 . https://archive.org/details/ultimateencyclop0000unse_a8c7/page/39/mode/2up.
2. Book: Stableford, Brian . Brian Stableford . . 2006 . Taylor & Francis . 978-0-415-97460-8 . 95–96 . en . Comet . https://books.google.com/books?id=uefwmdROKTAC&pg=PA95.
3. Web site: Gohd . Chelsea . 2021-11-17 . Why is sci-fi so obsessed with asteroid impact disasters (and how to stop them)? . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230921180303/https://www.space.com/asteroid-impact-disasters-science-fiction-obsession . 2023-09-21 . 2024-03-31 . . en.
4. Book: Stableford, Brian . . 2006 . Taylor & Francis . 978-0-415-97460-8 . 40–41 . en . Asteroid . Brian Stableford . https://books.google.com/books?id=uefwmdROKTAC&pg=PA40.
5. Hampton . Steven . Summer 2000 . Lee . Tony . . Momentos of Creation: Asteroids & Comets in SF . The Planets Project: A Science Fictional Tour of the Solar System . . 6–7 . 9 . 1351-5217.
6. Book: Hartwell, William T. . Comet/Asteroid Impacts and Human Society: An Interdisciplinary Approach . 2007 . Springer . 978-3-540-32709-7 . Bobrowsky . Peter T. . Berlin, Heidelberg . 71–87 . en . The Sky on the Ground: Celestial Objects and Events in Archaeology and Popular Culture . 10.1007/978-3-540-32711-0_3 . Rickman . Hans . . https://books.google.com/books?id=Gpwgm022ltMC&pg=PA79.
7. Book: . 1977 . Harmony Books . 0-517-53174-7 . Ash . Brian . Brian Ash (bibliographer) . 130–131 . Cataclysms and Dooms: Cosmic Causes . 2984418 . https://archive.org/details/visualencycloped00ashb/page/130/mode/2up.
8. Book: Seed, David . . Science Fiction: A Very Short Introduction . 2011 . OUP Oxford . 978-0-19-162010-2 . 113, 115 . en . Disasters . https://books.google.com/books?id=BC1lxSwsZewC&pg=PA115.
9. Book: Stableford, Brian . Brian Stableford . . 2006 . Taylor & Francis . 978-0-415-97460-8 . 301–303 . en . Meteorite . https://books.google.com/books?id=uefwmdROKTAC&pg=PA301.
10. Book: May, Andrew . . Pseudoscience and Science Fiction . 2017 . Springer International Publishing . 978-3-319-42604-4 . Science and Fiction . Cham . 32–35 . en . Tunguska . 10.1007/978-3-319-42605-1_2 . https://books.google.com/books?id=2O0QDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA32.
11. Book: Bleiler, Everett Franklin . E. F. Bleiler . . Bleiler . Richard . Richard Bleiler . 1998 . Kent State University Press . 978-0-87338-604-3 . 340 . en . Repp, Ed[ward] Earl (1900 or 1901–1979) . https://books.google.com/books?id=PbMdeizaCNcC&pg=PA340.
12. Book: Determann, Jörg Matthias . Islam, Science Fiction and Extraterrestrial Life: The Culture of Astrobiology in the Muslim World . 2020 . Bloomsbury Publishing . 978-0-7556-0129-5 . 68–69 . en . Missions and Mars . https://books.google.com/books?id=k1_xDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA68.
13. Web site: Britt . Robert Roy . 2004-08-12 . Russian Alien Spaceship Claims Raise Eyebrows, Skepticism . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20231205224219/https://www.space.com/250-russian-alien-spaceship-claims-raise-eyebrows-skepticism.html . 2023-12-05 . 2024-04-04 . . en.
14. Book: Randles, Jenny . Jenny Randles . UFO Retrievals: The Recovery of Alien Spacecraft . 1995 . Blandford . 978-0-7137-2493-6 . London . 21 . en . 1908: The Siberian Spacefall . Post-World War 2, aerial photos of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were compared with photos of the flattened Siberian taiga. They were stunningly similar. It took less than six months for someone to draw the obvious conclusion. A. Kasantsev, a science-fiction author, published a short story in January 1946 in which he offered serious speculation that an alien spacecraft powered by nuclear motors had blown up above Tunguska..
15. Encyclopedia: 2023 . Schweigende Stern, Der . . 2024-04-04 . 4th . Westfahl . Gary . Gary Westfahl . Stevens . Geoffrey . . Clute . John . John Clute . Langford . David . David Langford . Sleight . Graham . Graham Sleight.