Ennustiko Mary Shelley asteroidi 2002 EM7:n

Frankenstein-kirjastaan kuuluisaksi tullut kirjailija Mary Shelley (1797 – 1851) kirjoitti futuristisessa Science Fiction kirjassaan "The Last Man" (1826) "mustasta auringosta" eli maan läheisyyteen vuonna 2093 kiitävästä taivaankappaleesta, joka radallaan kulkiessaan pimentää hetkeksi auringonkin:

"A strange story was brought to us from the East, to which little credit would have been given, had not the fact been attested by a multitude of witnesses, in various parts of the world. On the twenty-first of June, it was said that an hour before noon, a black sun arose: an orb, the size of that luminary, but dark, defined, whose beams were shadows, ascended from the west; in about an hour it had reached the meridian, and eclipsed the bright parent of day. Night fell upon every country, night, sudden, rayless, entire. The stars came out, shedding their ineffectual glimmerings on the light-widowed earth. But soon the dim orb passed from over the sun, and lingered down the eastern heaven. As it descended, its dusky rays crossed the brilliant ones of the sun, and deadened or distorted them. The shadows of things assumed strange and ghastly shapes. The wild animals in the woods took fright at the unknown shapes figured on the ground. They fled they knew not whither; and the citizens were filled with greater dread, at the convulsion which "shook lions into civil streets;"--birds, strong-winged eagles, suddenly blinded, fell in the market-places, while owls and bats shewed themselves welcoming the early night. Gradually the object of fear sank beneath the horizon, and to the last shot up shadowy beams into the otherwise radiant air. Such was the tale sent us from Asia, from the eastern extremity of Europe, and from Africa as far west as the Golden Coast."

http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/mws/lastman/


Vuonna 2002 maapallon läheltä ohi sujahtanut 70 metrin läpimittainen järkäle asteroidi 2002 EM7 saapuu uudestaan hätyyttelemään maapalloa vuonna 2093:

"According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2002 EM7 could smack into Earth in 2093."

http://articles.cnn.com/2002-03-19/tech/asteroid.blindside_1_gareth-williams-astronomers-earth?_s=PM:TECH

Jos ei välttämättä ihan kolaroi maapallon kanssa, niin ainakin pyyhkäisee tosi läheltä. Mereen pudotessaan se aikaansaisi tsunamin.

Aivan kuin Mary olisi tiennyt...:D