In the year 2003, 44 years have passed by since the assessment of asteroid origin was made by James S. Pickering, a statesman among astronomers.  Since then, there have been over 50 lunar missions, over 50 solar missions and some 50 planetary missions to various planets.

Among the planet surfaces photographed were the back side of the Moon, then of Mars, Venus, Mercury and on to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.  Astonishing physical geography has been discovered on many of the planets and satellites, evidence in many cases of sudden, cataclysmic violence.

Has anything changed concerning theory of asteroid origin in the last 44 years?  Opinion still is divided between those who feel the asteroids accreted in space, like condensing dew drops, over 4 billion years, and those who still feel that there might have been a planetary collision somewhere between Jupiter and Mars.

The consensus among astronomers is about the same today as it was 44 years ago, with the majority still being “accreters” and the minority being “collisionists with an unknown planet”.  The thrust of the next six chapters is to provide a final explanation for the genesis of the asteroids.  A baker's dozen of categories of evidence are cited.

Twelve or thirteen items of physical evidence are presented and discussed in the next six chapters.  The evidence will be from the scars of Mars and its two tiny satellites.  It will be that Mars was out there, in an orbit much different than its modern orbit, and it was the red planet that caused the fragmentation of the asteroids.  But that is just part of the damage caused by Mars in its former orbit.

For the demise of a small former planet, the next six chapters will convict Mars, but a Mars not in its modern orbit.  It will convict a Mars having a different orbit, one long and narrow rather than an orbit almost circular.  It will be an orbit where the energy of Mars in its former orbit and the energy of Mars in its recent orbit are similar.  But the regions Mars roamed in space were vastly different than it is today.

This evidence, accurately reported and interpreted, will show that the “planetary collisionists”, the minority of astronomers, have been closer to the truth, and the majority, the “accreters” have been dead wrong.

However, today Mars does not go out into the asteroid orbit.  Most of the planetary collisionists, like the accreters, also suppose the orbit of Mars has been unchanged in the last 4 billion years.  With the dogma of gradualism they too have embraced, they too have failed to suspect the obvious candidate, and the one planet closest to the asteroid belt.  Why the failure?  Their thinking has been from a defective paradigm.

The paradigm offered here is that the Mars did not assume its modern orbit until the year 701 B.C.E., well within the boundary of ancient writings and ancient history.  If so, what was the orbit of Mars in its previous age?  Chapters 7 to 12 will address this, the deeper question.

Twenty questions are broached to encourage thought.  The phrase in Latin is “sapere aude”, - dare to think.  The dogmas of gradualism, taught over the past 150 years in the western science, frankly are wearing thin.  Perhaps the dogmas of gradualism in Earth history are due to be supplanted.  If so, that supplanting will be by planetary catastrophism.

ISSUE # 1.  The Epic of Gilgamesh is an ancient Sumerian account of history that extends back to the third millennium B.C.E.  It was written on clay tablets with wedge-shaped characters.  Many of those clay tablets have been found, and have been translated into English.  In over a dozen of them, there is a discussion about Noah and the Ark, and ancient survival amid holocausts of water.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the most complete of the cuneiform flood accounts, much veneration was given by the ancients to the planets.  They included Innanna, or Venus.  Ea was the Earth.  Anu was Jupiter.  Ninnurta was Saturn.  Enlil was Mars.

Tablet 11 in the Epic of Gilgamesh gives a Sumerian account of Noah's Flood in 300 lines.  It is an account four times as long as is the Genesis account of Noah's flood.  It indicts Enlil-Mars as the cause of Noah's Flood.
 

(But) Enlil shall not come near to the offering,
Because without reflection he brought on the deluge
And consigned my people to destruction!
As soon as Enlil arrived and saw the ship,
Enlil was wroth; ... [n1]

QUESTION # 1.  Why was Enlil-Mars blamed by Gilgamesh, some 200 years after the event, for the deluge?

ISSUE # 2.  Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews is a Talmudic Commentary in seven volumes.  The Jews absorbed considerable of the cosmology of the ancient Near East when in the Babylonian Captivity.  It was from Persian sources, Mede sources, Sumerian sources, Chaldean sources, etc., sources both Semitic and Aryan.  The Talmudic compendium states, quite definitely (if not thoroughly), the following:
 

The flood was produced by a union of the male waters,
which are above the firmament, and the female waters
issuing from the earth.  The upper waters rushed
through the space left when God removed two stars out
of the constellation Pleiades. [n2]

There were other changes among the celestial spheres
during the year of the flood. [n3]

QUESTION # 2.  Which two stars?  And what other changes?  Was it changes in climate?  Latitude?  Topography?  Orbit?  Population?  Place of Residence?

ISSUE # 3.  In the Old Testament, catastrophes are not only a repeating scenario; they are periodic.  Usually they are reported to involve earthquakes, cosmic lightning, thunderous cosmic noise, volcanism and celestial flyby scenery.  Was the cause of these catastrophes astronomical or earthly?

Four times in Hebrew records, the night of March 20-21 involved an angel from the heavens bringing fire, celestial noise, earthquakes, lightning and sudden destruction.  It was their “Passover.”

QUESTION # 3.  Could these days of upheaval have had anything to do with Mars?   Was Mars the destroying angel that appeared so suddenly, and also departed so suddenly?

ISSUE # 4.  In ancient Talmudic literature, there were seven archangels, or super angels.  Each archangel was assigned as comptroller of one luminary, five for planets, and one each for the Sun and the Moon.  One archangel, Sammael by name, was the comptroller of Mars.  It was an evil angel.  Was Mars as the planet like Sammael, the evil, destructive angel?
 

On the other hand, an old tradition states (Al-Barceloni, 247) that each one of the seven planets has its own angel as follows; the sun has Raphael; Venus, Aniel; Mercury, Michael; the moon, Gabriel; Saturn, Kafziel; Jupiter, Zadkiel; Mars Sammael. [n4]

Cain's descent from Satan, who is the angel Sammael, was revealed in his seraphic appearance. [n5]

PRE gives the downfall of Sammael and his host as the first penalty of the serpent, in agreement with the view of this Midrash, according to which the real seducer was Satan (= Sammael), who made use of the serpent ... [n6]

QUESTION # 4.  What kind of evil did Sammael wreak on the Earth?   See Psalm 18 or II Samuel 22.
 

Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth.
There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.
He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet.
He rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind.
And he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies.
Through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled.
The Lord thundered from heaven, and the most High uttered his voice.
And he sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited them.
And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

II Sam. 22:8 and Psalm 18:7-15 identical passages.

ISSUE # 5.  Homer, a Greek writer in the 9th century B.C.E., described a fiery holocaust which enveloped the Greek encampment as it was preparing to assault Troy.  Homer described Ares as “bane of mortals.”  In old English, “bane” meant murderer, bringer of ruin and woe, that which destroys life.

QUESTION # 5.  Why did Homer ascribe such a ruinous, murderous role to the planet Ares?  Did Homer really mean the planet the Romans called Mars?

ISSUE # 6.  Hesiod wrote, in his “Shield of Herakles, at the end of the 8th century B.C.E.,  about an Ares-Athene conflict and also about an Ares-Hera war in the cosmos.”  While it is only 480 lines long, no less than seventeen times Hesiod refers to Deimos and Phobos in one fashion or another as the two steeds of Ares, pulling the chariot of Ares across the cosmos.

Deimos and Phobos are so small that they weren't discovered until 1877, when finally telescope technology was up to the task.

QUESTION # 6.  How could Hesiod possibly have known that Mars has two tiny satellites unless he saw them circling Mars amid flyby chaos.  He described both the two black steeds circling Mars and the chaos of the flyby scene.

ISSUE # 7.  The ancient Romans venerated the planets, and above all Mars.  For Mars adoration, they set aside two days.  One was their tubulustrium, a day of trouble, turmoil and tumult, on March 20-21.  The other was their armilustrium, a day of alarm, October 24.

QUESTIONS # 7.  Why did their tubulustrium correlate precisely with the date of the Hebrew Passover?  Why did their armilustrium correlate with October 24, the day of the onset of Noah's Flood?  October 24 was the 17th day of the second month in the old Tishri calendar of the Near East.  Was the Earth's orbit crossed twice by Mars, once when coming in and once again while going out?  What was going on?

What was so special, and so fearful to the early Romans about Mars?

ISSUE # 8.  The Earth's rotation rate is once in 1,436 minutes, as measured by the fixed stars.  The spin rate of Mars is once in 1,477 minutes.  The differential of the two spin rates is only 2.8%.  The similarity is 97.2%.  Gradualistic astronomers hold that it is a coincidence.

QUESTION # 8.  Why are the spin rates of Mars and the Earth so similar?  Is this a coincidence?  Really?

ISSUE # 9.  The spin axis tilts of Mars and the Earth also are very similar.  The tilt of Mars is 23° 59 minutes while the tilt of the Earth is 23° 27 minutes.  They are within 32 minutes of each other.  They, too, are nearly identical, within 2.3%.

QUESTION # 9.  Why are the spin axes inclinations of Mars and the Earth so similar?  Is this also a coincidence?  Really?  If so, then it is coincidence “squared”, a particularly unique degree of coincidence.

ISSUE # 10.  Space probes Mariner 6, 7 and 9 flew within 2,000 miles of the surface of Mars.  That was in 1969, 1969 and 1971.  They photographed tens of thousands of craters on the surface of Mars.  Turn one of the hemispheres of Mars so that its center is at latitude 45° S. and at longitude 320° W.  Turn the other hemisphere's center to latitude 45° N. and 140° W. longitude.

From those two centers, in one hemisphere there is a count of craters, all 20 miles in diameter of more, of 3,068 (93%) and the other hemisphere has a crater count of only 237 (7%).  One hemisphere is among the most badly battered, bombarded, clobbered hemispheres in the Solar System.  And next to it the other hemisphere is the most serene.  They are side by side on the same planet, and that planet is our near neighbor.

The Moon has been photographed now on both sides, and both sides are heavily poxed with craters, craters which have a random distribution.  The craters also are randomly distributed on the satellites of Jupiter.  And also on the one side of Mercury photographed to date.  But not on Mars.

QUESTION # 10.  Why is there such a radically different distribution of craters on the surface of Mars.  And also, why would anyone in his right mind want to count the craters on Mars anyway?

ISSUE # 11.  Mars has just a few volcanoes, but they are giants.  The largest, Olympus Mons is 13 miles high and its volcanic cone contains 450,000 cubic miles of lava flow, ash and other ejecta.  The base of this cone covers 100,000 sq. miles, like the size of the state of Arizona or of Colorado.

QUESTION # 11.  Why does such a tiny planet, Mars have such gigantic volcanoes?  Like Mae West, was it squeezed hundreds of times?

ISSUE # 12.  Underneath the thick cloud cover of Venus is a surface that is badly battered with a variety of kinds of violence producing violent forms of physical geography.  The torturing of the crust of Venus looks as if it happened just yesterday.

QUESTION # 12.  Why is the crust of Venus so badly scarred?  Why do the scars of Venus appear to be so fresh?

ISSUE # 13.  Half of the surface of Mercury has been photographed, and the rest is in need of space probe attention.  On that half, there is a flat lake made of lava more than twice the area of Texas, and several other large lava flows.  But there are no volcanic cones on Mercury's known surface, and moreover, there is evidence Mercury's center is a solid, through and through, and is not fluid.

The Sun warms the surface of Mercury to a toasty 700 or 800° F. during its 88-day “day.”   But it requires 2,900 to 3,000° to melt crustal compounds such as silica, hematite, magnetite and alumina.  In addition, Mercury has craters with walls that are partly, but not fully melted down.

QUESTION # 13.  Where did the sustained heat come from, more than 3,000° F., needed to liquefy large amounts of the crust of Mercury?  And for how long was that torching sustained?  Did that torching affect the Earth?

ISSUE # 14.  The Sun's diameter has been measured and recorded for the last 150 years at the Greenwich Observatory, London.  Both the latitudinal and the longitudinal diameters have been measured annually and recorded.  For this time span, the Sun has been shrinking, apparently because it is cooling.  The rate of shrinkage is presently 120 feet per day.  This is a shrinkage of one mile in 44 days.  The Sun's diameter is about 864,000 miles.

864,000 X 44 = 38,016,000 days.  This divided by 365.256 = 108,040 years.

QUESTION # 14.  What does the shrinking of the Sun indicate in times past?  In times future?  100,000 years ago was the Sun twice its present diameter?  l00,000 years in the future will the Sun cool and shrink to become more like a planet?  Or is the diameter of the Sun in some kind of an oscillating stage, and is just in a down sweep of an oscillation?

ISSUE # 15.  One hemisphere of Mars has been badly battered by a sudden blizzard of fragments.  It has the craters to prove it, and the other side lacks the craters also to prove it.

QUESTION # 15.  Does this mean that Mars was the felon, cosmic culprit that caused an even smaller planet, somewhat farther out, to fragment into asteroids?

ISSUE # 16.  The known asteroid fragments are over 5,000 in number with more being discovered each year.  The largest three asteroids have diameters of 625 miles, 380 miles and 330 miles.  They are Ceres, Pallas and Vesta.

QUESTION # 16.  Are they remnant fragments of a small, former tenth planet?

ISSUE # 17.  The closest distance to the Sun is the “perihelion” of the asteroids.  It averages somewhere between 225,000,000 to 235,000,000 miles from the Sun.  If the asteroids suddenly became fragments, it would have been the biggest “little bang” in the history of the Solar System.  Whatever occurred, it was roughly 225,000,000 miles from the Sun.

QUESTION # 17.  Is this evidence?  Was Mars formerly once out there in a different orbit?

ISSUE # 18.  All students of science have been taught that the orbits of Mars and the other eight planets were set in cement 3 or 4 billion years ago.  No orbit changes subsequently.  This was where the coagulation of gases into the Sun and its surrounding planets, satellites, asteroids and comets occur.  Or at least so young students of science are being taught.

QUESTION # 18.  Is this model true?  Really?

ISSUE # 19.  In Chinese, there is a name for Mars, and it comes from very ancient times.  It was, and still is “the fire star”.

QUESTION # 19.  But hasn't Mars always been just a speck of light in the heavens, and never closer than 30,000,000 miles to our planet?  Why then would the ancient Chinese ever name Mars “the Fire Star”?

ISSUE # 20.  Planets have energies, discrete energies. Energy is measured by the length of the “x” axis of an orbit, its long orbit diameter, the major axis.  Maybe Mars, with its clobbered side, was out in the neighborhood of the asteroids, committing fragmentation, creating chaos.

QUESTION # 20.  If Mars once was farther out in the neighborhood of the asteroids, wouldn't Mars in such a former orbit still have a similar amount of energy as it does in its modern orbit?   See chapters 9, 10 and 11.

There are questions about Mars-Enlil’s presence on the day of Noah's Flood in ancient Sumerian literature.  This writing was in wedge-shaped characters on clay tablets that still exist.

There are questions about Ares’ presence during classical Greek times, the era of Homer and Hesiod.  There are questions, also in classical Greek literature, about the sighting and scenario of its two little satellites.

There are questions about why ancient Mars would ever be characterized as a “fire star” in the ancient Chinese pictographic language.

There have been at least five fragmentation’s on the Roche Limit of various planets.  Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune all have dark, rocky rings at their Roche Limits.

Saturn has a resplendent icy ring system at its Roche Limit.  The indication is that the body that fragmented there was a small ice ball.  Its icy debris, the ring system, is effervescing away slowly but steadily.  That fragmentation was so recent that the ring system has not yet effervesced away.  This indicates a recent dating, astronomically speaking, for another recent fragmentation on another Roche Limit, that of Saturn.

Therefore, why not do what seemingly is silly?  Count the craters of Mars?  They number in the high tens of thousands.  And after all, haven't they been there for four billion years?
 

From its superficial appearance, the southern hemisphere would seem to be generally older than the northern, and the larger craters, however they were formed, may date back 4,000 million years. [n7]

There are too many craters on Mars to count.  There are tens of thousands, large, middle sized and small, and acquiring the appropriate photo mosaics is not that easy.  Therefore, find a short cut.  Why not count just those craters that have diameters of 20 miles or greater, and keep records of their locations?

Atlases of the Solar System are readily available in libraries and book stores.  What data of interest data might a discrete count of the craters of Mars reveal?

At the first impression, undertaking such a task on a planet that is, and always has been at least 35,000,000 miles from the Earth seems somewhat ridiculous.  After all, haven't we all been taught that Mars has been just a tiny speck of light in the nocturnal heavens since the dawn of history?  Maybe for 4,000 million years?  Maybe, and maybe not.

This project was undertaken.  The first stage of the project was to count just the craters 20 miles and larger.  It was not difficult, though it was somewhat time consuming, the tally of this count, grid by grid, established that indeed there was a clobbered side, dense with craters and a serene side.

The second stage of the task was to ascertain where on Mars is the center of the Clobbered Hemisphere.  Finding its center, it turned out, also was easy.  Mars has a distinct rim where there is an abrupt fall off of crater density.  It is easy to notice if one is thinking “planetary catastrophism.”  So far this “rim of craters”, a drop off zone, has eluded astronomers thinking “gradualism”.  Once the rim's location is established, determining its center is a piece of cake.

The third part of the task was to ascertain the relationship, if any, between the center of the Hemisphere of Craters and the location of the giant Hellas Crater.  Hellas Planitia, the largest crater in the Solar System, is close to the center of the Clobbered Hemisphere.  Interesting.

In space mission research, Mars has arbitrarily been given latitudes, zero to 90°, both north and south of its equator.  In this respect the latitudes of Mars are similar to the pattern of latitudes on the Earth.

Also, Mars has arbitrarily been given 360° of longitude.  But they are designated from zero to 360° west.  There are no “east longitudes” on Mars.  On the Earth, longitudes are arranged 180° east and west of the Greenwich meridian to meet at the International Date Line.  It is different on Mars where there are 360°, all being west of the arbitrary prime meridian.  The 360th W. longitude meets, and becomes the zero longitude.

The next task was to divide up the surface into usable subdivisions, and count each subdivisions.  The subdivisions were 10° grids, each having 10° of latitude by 10° of longitude.  There were 648 such grids, a series of 18 for latitudes and a series of 36 for longitudes.  18 x 36 = 648.  This is the number of individual grids of 10° on a side.

Next was the counting itself of craters, only those 20 miles in diameter or greater, grid by grid.  There was no difference in the general distribution of larger craters versus smaller craters.  So assessing the pattern of the larger craters will give the pattern of all of the Martian craters.

Counting the smaller craters would require hundreds of maps whereas counting the craters, 20 miles and larger, can be done on ten map pages of a good astronomical atlas, widely available at libraries.  The count of craters of diameters of 20 miles or greater was made in each grid.  The scale of our maps of the quadrants of Mars turned out to be 370 miles to the inch.

After counting and recording the craters, grid by grid, the grids were gathered and condensed into six regions.  Region I was the northern region, 65° N. Lat. and north to the North Pole.  Region II was a central region, 65° N. latitude to 65° S. latitude, and 0° long. to 90°. Region III was the same degrees latitude, but 90 to 180° longitude.

Region IV was the same degree latitude but 180 to 270° longitude.  Region V was the same degrees latitude, but 270° to 360( (or zero) longitude.  Region VI was the southern region, 65° So. latitude and south to the South Pole.

Table I is a compilation of these crater counts, condensed into six regions.  The results indeed are, to say the least, interesting.

The modern Southern Hemisphere is entirely in the Clobbered Hemisphere.  It is heavily cratered, 355 craters.  Its counterpart is entirely in the Serene Hemisphere.  It had 25 craters, only 7% as many as its southern counterpart.  There was a 93% versus 7% distribution for the two the polar regions.  Would this same ratio hold for craters in the middle and lower latitudes of Mars?  In fact, the same ratio did hold.

It is reasonable to assume that, before the fragmenting of Astra, both hemispheres of Mars had a random distribution of craters, 237 in each hemisphere.

It is also reasonable to conclude that when the blizzard of fragments hit the Clobbered Hemisphere, 25% of the primordial craters in the Clobbered Hemisphere were masked out, and overlaid by newer craters.  Thus, of the 237 primordial craters in the Clobbered Hemisphere, an estimated 59 craters once existed, but were overlaid by the blizzard of fragments.  Hence, estimated 178 primordial craters remain in the Clobbered Hemisphere.

This means that the Clobbered Hemisphere received 2,890 craters, each 20 miles or greater in diameter, in one fifteen minute blizzard of fragments from Astra.  (3,068 - 178 = 2,890).  Before that, both the hemispheres of Mars were serene, and had a composite total of 474 20-mile craters.

From logic and Table I, the following information can be deduced..
 

1. 3,305 craters, each 20-miles in diameter or more, is the modern count for the surface of Mars.

2. 59 craters were, but are no more, having been masked and overlain by Astra craters.

3. l78 primordial 20-mile craters remain are in the Clobbered Hemisphere.  The rest, 2,890, are from the blizzard of fragments of Astra.

4. 237 craters, all primordial, all 20 miles or more in diameter, are in the Serene Hemisphere of Mars.

5. 2,890 of the 3,068 twenty-mile craters in the  Clobbered Hemisphere, are from the  fragmentation Astra.

6. “0” - zero fragments of Astra, made craters in the Serene Hemisphere of Mars, as it was the backside of Mars, facing away from Astra.

7. 87.4% of the existing craters on Mars are from fragments of Astra (2,890 of 3,305).  All 2,890 are in the Clobbered Hemisphere.

8. 12.6% of the existing craters on Mars are original craters, before Astra's fragmentation.  Of these, an estimated 178 are in the Clobbered Hemisphere and 237 are in the Serene Hemisphere.

9. The distribution of the original, primordial craters on Mars has been random, and random in both hemispheres.

10. The distribution of craters from the fragments of Astra that clobbered only one hemisphere of Mars, is random in the Clobbered Hemisphere.

What does all this mean?  It means the following.
 

A. If the tenth planet, Astra, once in the Solar System, wasn't already apparent from the spread of asteroids, it would have to be invented because of the spread of craters on Mars.

B. When Astra fragmented, Mars was there, and provided gravity and the Roche Limit for the crisis event.

C. The perihelion’s of the asteroids indicate the distance from the Sun when Mars and Astra were on a collision course.  This distance will be fine tuned in Chapter 5.  But that distance was over 200,000,000 miles from the Sun, but was less than 250,000,000 miles.  THUS, WHEN ASTRA FRAGMENTED, MARS WAS NOT EVEN WITHIN 50,000,000 MILES OF ITS MODERN ORBIT.

D. What was Mars doing out there?  It was riding its catastrophic orbit, which must have had an orbit eccentricity of somewhere between .50 and .65.  Its orbit was more like Halley's Comet than the modern orbit of Mars, although it didn't go out as far as Jupiter.  (For how far out, see Chapters 9, 10 and 11).

E. How far inward, then, did that catastrophic third orbit of Mars roam?  If it roamed outward farther, the law of the conservation on energy requires that it also roamed farther inward.

Did Mars in its old orbit roam inward as far as 92,250,000 miles?  If so, did it also roam inward as far as 65,000,000 miles, where it would bother Venus as well?

Figure 1 illustrates the close up geometry of Mars and Astra as Astra was about to fragment.  Figure 2 illustrates the same close up geometry of Mars and Astra just minutes after Astra did fragment.  Figure 3 illustrates today's disproportionate distribution of Craters on the surface of the two hemispheres of Mars.  It also represents the “Rim of Craters” on Mars where the density drops off dramatically.

Figure 9 in chapter 5 illustrates the orbits and the geometry of Mars and Astra from a great distance, as Astra overtook Mars in space, almost half way out to Jupiter's orbit.  The orbital calculations and analysis of this team indicates that Astra was past its perihelion, when it overtook Mars.  And old Mars, overtaken by Astra, was just past its ancient aphelion, out somewhere between 200,000,000 and 250,000,000 miles from the Sun.  (The specific distance is contained in Table XI).

Figures 3, 4 and 5 summarize the crater distribution data on the surface of Mars.  The data (not the figures) are potent evidence of a fragmentation of a small planet on the Roche Limit of Mars.  That was when the Solar System had ten planets and no asteroids.

There is an abrupt edge, or “rim” for a dramatic drop off of the density of craters on Mars.  This rim is where “the buckshot ends”.  It is where the red planet's Serene Hemisphere begins.  It is illustrated in Figure 3.

This rim is obvious to anyone who is thinking “fragmentation” on the Roche limit of Mars.  So far, astronomers who fail to think “planetary catastrophism”, also have failed to “see the obvious”.

The rim rises farthest to modern north on Mars in its northeast quadrant, at latitude 48 N. and at longitude 320 W.  From there, the Rim of Craters arches downward, or curves southwesterly toward the most southerly edge of the rim of craters.

The southern extremity of the rim, by modern coordinates, is at latitude 42 S., and at longitude 110 W.  The “Rim of Craters” is not hard to identify if it is expected, or anticipated.  It is there as it ought to be if Mars experienced a sudden, intense, 15-minute blizzard of fragments bombarding it on one side only.

This leaves everything in the modern Northern Hemisphere, above latitude 48 N., as being in the Serene Hemisphere.  In the high northern latitudes of Mars, above latitude 65 N., a crater count was a made; for craters over 20 miles in diameter, it was a sparse 25, all presumably primordial craters.

In contrast, the entire Southern Hemisphere higher than the 42nd latitude S. is in the Clobbered Hemisphere of Craters.  In the high latitudes of Mars, south of the 65th latitude S., the crater count (of craters 20 miles in diameter or more) is 355.  Some of these, less than a dozen, could be primordial craters.  The rest, almost 350 of them, are scars of Astra's fragmenting on the Roche Limit of Mars.

Statistically in these two zones, the cratering of the southern latitudes has been 7% in the high northern modern latitudes, compared to 93% in the high southern latitudes.  That is the percentages of 380 divided by 25 and 355.  This proportion favoring the modern Southern Hemisphere is 14 times as dense in cratering.

This disparity of crater distribution on Mars has led a typical astronomical editor to casually remark as follows:
 

In general terms the southern is the older of the two, this being indicated by the very great density of craters present ... The northern hemisphere is at a much lower elevation and is less densely cratered. [n8]

That assessment is true.  Another astronomer remarks, equally casually, that the Southern Hemisphere is more densely cratered “for whatever reason”.  A sophomore in planetary catastrophism can improve easily on the depth of those insights.

In astronomical parlance, the Hellas Crater is termed “Hellas Planitia.”  The Hellas Crater is the biggest crater in this Solar System despite its location on such a small planet.  Its longitudinal diameter extends from latitudes 29 to 54.  On Mars there is 36.75 miles to a degree.  This makes diameter of the Hellas Crater as 920 miles wide.

The latitudinal diameter of the Hellas Crater extends from longitude 272 to 312.  Which makes it 980 miles long.  The orientation of this shorter diameter suggests that the giant Hellas fragment which hit Mars here had one diameter somewhat longer than the other.  That is normal for asteroid fragments.

Mars is a small planet with a surface area of 56,000,000 sq. miles.  That is 28% of the area of the Earth's surface.  Yet the Hellas Crater has a surface area of 710,000 sq. miles.  Hellas Planitia covers 1.27% of the surface of Mars.

The Hellas Crater has as much area as Alaska, with Washington and half of Oregon thrown in.  The “H” Crater is 2.66 times bigger in area than Texas.  This gigantic crater, on such a small planet, has as much area as 23 of the 26 states east of the Mississippi River combined; all the eastern states except Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.

In Europe, the area of the Hellas Crater is equal to the combined areas of Great Britain, Ireland, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Monaco, San Marino, Liechtenstein and half of Hungary.

It is estimated that the Hellas Fragment was some 600 to 625 miles in diameter.  It clobbered the facing side of Mars at a velocity of 25,000 mph, or, 420 miles per minute, or 7 miles per second.

It so happens that the largest of the asteroid, Ceres, also is 625 miles in diameter.  The Hellas fragment and the Ceres fragment may well have been “twins” in size.

Pallas is the second largest asteroid, diameter 380 miles.  Isidis is the second largest crater on Mars, diameter 650 miles.  If, as an asteroid, the Isidis Fragment were 380 miles in diameter, and if an asteroid like Pallas made a crater 75% larger that the its diameter, then Pallas and the Isidis Fragment may have been similar in size.  It is suspected that asteroids of this size and velocity made craters 75% larger in diameter than the fragment size.

The third largest crater on Mars is Argyre, diameter 400 miles.   The fragment that created Argyre Planitia may have been as big as Euphrosyne, diameter 229 miles.

In comparing the sizes of the asteroids to the craters on the Clobbered Hemisphere, three things need to be realized.  First, all 15 of the largest craters of Mars are in its battered, Clobbered Hemisphere.  Second, about twice as many asteroids missed Mars as hit it.

Third, it is estimated that an asteroid hitting the Clobbered Hemisphere at such a high velocity will make a crater 75% larger than the fragment's diameter.  With these in mind, Table II gives a comparison of the sizes of asteroids and the sizes of craters in the Clobbered Hemisphere of Mars.

As was mentioned above, it is thought that fragments of these sizes made crater diameters on Mars 75% larger than their own diameters.  If this is so, and if two thirds of the asteroids missed Mars, and one third hit the Clobbered Hemisphere, then these two lists are commensurate.  The largest asteroids and the largest of the Astra fragments hitting Mars were of similar dimensions.

The fragments of Astra quickly spread out into a vast spray, a great cloud of asteroids that was somewhat larger in diameter in 12 minutes than was the diameter of Mars itself, at 4,212 miles.

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.- Albert Szent-Gyorgi (discoverer of Vitamin C)

In Volume I, a series of 18 new insights were presented in astronomy/cosmology involving the formation of this Solar System.  They were insights based on the paradigm of planetary catastrophism.

It was concluded that the planets were delivered to the Sun on the same plane, with their satellite systems intact, and with their spin rates already operational, craters in position, etc.  Evidence was given in eighteen categories for this and that the Sun captured these planets “recently” as an astronomer assess time.

Story 1 in this series contains the evidence and the logic that THE ROCHE LIMIT OF NEARBY MARS WAS THE SPECIFIC AGENT CAUSING THE FRAGMENTING OF A FORMER TENTH PLANET, ASTRA, INTO ASTEROIDS.  The two planets were on a collision course, with Astra overtaking the red planet.  The timing was thousands of years ago, not millions.

Story 2.  One of the results of Astra's fragmentation was that some 30% to 33% of its fragments bombarded one side of Mars, MAKING THAT FACE OF MARS AMONG THE MOST CLOBBERED HEMISPHERES IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM.

This bombarded hemisphere of Mars was subjected to a 15-minute blizzard of fragments of all sizes up to 600 miles in diameter.  They numbered into the high tens of thousands, and hit the surface of one side of Mars at a velocity estimated at 25,000 mph.  A foundation for this velocity estimate is laid in a subsequent chapter.

Story 3 is the “RIM Of CRATERS” on Mars.  This rim describes the edge of the Clobbered Hemisphere, where there is a sharp, dramatic drop off of crater density.  This rim fully encircles the red planet, but not along modern lines of latitudes or longitudes.  The Hemisphere of Craters is predominantly in the modern Southern Hemisphere of Mars, but yet reaches to the 48th latitude N. in the modern Northern Hemisphere of Mars at one place.

Story 4 is that the CENTER OF THE CLOBBERED HEMISPHERE IS AT LATITUDE 45° S. AND LONGITUDE 320° W.  The western edge of the Hellas Crater is only 220 miles east of this central location.  If the Battered Hemisphere is viewed as a target, the Hellas Crater is in the bulls eye zone.  It was over this surface location, some 2,500 miles high, where Astra penetrated the red planet's Roche Limit, and fragmented into tens of thousands of fragments.

The sizes of the asteroids and the sizes of the fragments that created the craters on Mars are commensurate within the standard that some 65% or slightly more of the fragments of Astra missed Mars, while only 30% or a little more hit the red planet's Hemisphere of Craters.

Story 5 is that the biggest little bang of this Solar System did not occur near Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune.  Judging strictly by the size of the asteroids it produced, THE BIGGEST “LITTLE BANG” HAPPENED JUST NEXT DOOR, ON THE ROCHE LIMIT OF OUR NEIGHBORING PLANET, MARS.

The diameter of Astra is estimated at 1,500 miles, plus or minus 100.  It was about 26% smaller than the Moon, and some 15% larger than Pluto.

When Astra fragmented on the Roche Limit of Mars, Mars was between 200,000,000 and 250,000,000 miles from the Sun.  Its present orbit at its furthest, is 155,000,000 miles from the Sun.  Therefore, something radical has changed the energy of Mars, and something radical has changed its orbit eccentricity.  What was that “something?” (It happened during the era of ancient literate man).

The ancient Chinese indicted Mars as “the fire star.” The ancient Sumerians indicted Enlil (Mars) as the cause of Noah's Flood.  The Greeks of classical times including Homer indicted Ares as the “bane of mortals.”  (“Bane” means murderous, or highly destructive).

Talmudic accounts, apparently dating to the 6th century B.C.E., indicted Sammael was an evil archangel, and also indicated that it was the comptroller, or “choreographer” of Mars.  Other better angels were the comptrollers of the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.  Archangels were viewed as messengers of the Lord, but their scale sometimes was planetary.

It is beginning to look as if their assessments of the cosmos were correct.  Gradualists still hold that Mars has never come closer to the Earth than 30,000,000 miles at any time over the last 4+ billion years.  Ancient sources indicate it came close to our planet fairly often, in fact once or twice a century.  It is beginning to look as if the scientific score is Ancient Catastrophists, 1; 20th Century Scientific Gradualists, 0.