Top 5 Space Misconceptions
The Universe is a mysterious place, and for hundreds of years, the scientists have tried to solve its mysteries. Some of them managed to do it, but some of them issued certain statements which we see as very absurd nowadays. In what follows I am going to present you some of the biggest errors and misconceptions about the space which were issued over the course of history.
The book Worlds in Collision was published in 1950 by Immanuel Velikovsky. He talked about the planet Venus, and he said that planet Venus was actually a former comet which was formed from the materials collected from planet Jupiter. He stated that the comet might have a very large importance, as it could be the reason for all the cataclysms which take place on our planet. His book became a best seller, and it occupied the first place in the New York Times best seller for 11 weeks. It managed to remain in the top for twenty seven weeks which was very impressive. People seemed to love the book, even if the theories presented in it were considered to be very absurd, improbable, and impossible, by many experts. The scientists stated that most of the facts presented in the book were impossible.
For example they said that Venus and Jupiter did not have the same composition, which meant that Venus could not have been formed from Jupiter. Carl Sagan, a popular astronomer was against the book and against the ideas which were presented in it. However, it seems that Velikovsky got to benefit from this, as people started to believe what he says and they started to see him as an underdog. They were convinced that he must be right, and that all the other major scientists want to oppose him in order to hide the truth. There were many who disagreed with his theory, as they said that in most of the cases when a catastrophe occurs, it occurs at a very slow rate, and not all of a sudden as he said. The American Association for Advancement of Science considered the effect of the book to the very big, and they had to intervene, in order to make sure that people will not believe the false claims which were spread in the book. They were not successful, as people still rooted for Velikovsky and his claims.
Capt. John Cleves Symmes issued a theory in the 1800s which would last for several decades. He said that the Earth is hollow, and that there is life inside of it. According to him, there was an opening at each end of the Earth, where the poles were located. He tried to convince the members of the congress to fund his expedition, as he wanted to go to the Poles in order to get inside in the Earth in order to establish a connection with the people who were located there. His idea was not new, as there were many who considered the Earth to be hollow, and the ones who issued this theory were well known philosophers, such as Seneca, Aristotle, and Plato. They considered the volcanoes and the caves as being entries to the underworld, and it is very likely that they got their inspiration from all the legends and tales as well. Another great name which was a supporter of this theory was Sir Edmond Halley, the same man who discovered the now famous cometh. He said that the Earth was hollow and that it was made out of four concentric spheres.
He believed that the interior of the planet was populated by people or by other creatures which were made by the same creator. He said that the Aurora Borealis was the light which came from the interior world, and he said that it might have escaped from somewhere, probably from the Poles. Cyrus Teed, a physician who lived in the 19th century had an even weirder theory. He was convinced that people lived in the interior of the world, and that he was their messiah. He was knocked out of conscience one time when he did an experiment, and he said that God spoke to him during that time. He said that the Sun, the planets, and all the stars are actually located inside of the Earth, which as you can see is very absurd. He also said that the entire universe was contained inside of a sphere. He even established his own cult, and his own religion, and he had 250 followers.
For more than 50 years, the people were convinced that planet Vulcan was found. Yes, the planet had the name as the one where Spock from the Star Trek franchise was born. It was said that the planet existed between Mercury and the Sun. The first one who noticed the strange planet was Urbain Le Verrier, a French astronomer, and called it Vulcan. The following year, a second astronomer, Edmond Lescarbault came, and he stated that he discovered the planet one year before Le Verrier did. Soon afterwards, most of the astronomers started seeing the planet, and that is a clear indication of how easily people can get fooled. These were professionals, but it seems that they got convinced about the existence of the planet without any efforts. In their quest to become famous, they were willing to invent things.
The planet did not exist, yet there were tens of people who declared that they have seen it. Le Verrier was the one who discovered the planet Neptune, and he eve was awarded for it. When he died in 1877, he still believed that Vulcan was real, and that he was the person who discovered it. People still believed in the existence of the planet until 1915, when the scientists managed to prove through the general theory of relativity issued by Einstein, that the existence of the planet would be impossible. It is believed that what the astronomers actually saw were just sunspots, or were just inventions.
