So wrote Johannes Kepler in 1605 to his friend Fabricius.  The letter concerned the elliptical nature of the orbit of Mars.  By this time, Kepler was a confirmed Copernican.  And he was in Prague, an associate of the famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe.  Tycho was the best star watcher and recorder of star positions of that time.  When Tycho died, Kepler inherited his voluminous records of star and planet positions.  This was a big assistance in his work.

Above is part of a letter from Kepler to David Fabricius, who was an independent-minded thinker, but who yet kept contradicting Kepler on his discovery.  Like Copernicus, Fabricius preferred that Mars have a circular orbit, not an elliptical one, and that the red planet's velocity in space never changed.  Kepler knew better.

Kepler had carefully studied the orbit of Mars and had logged the positions of Mars in its present orbit.  From his studies, and supported from Tycho's records, a second opinion, Kepler concluded that Mars advanced more slowly in one part of its orbit, near its aphelion, and faster when nearing its perihelion.

Kepler had calculated and determined that the Martian orbit was an ellipse; it was not a circular orbit as Copernicus and Fabricius had assumed.  This was the start of his scientific breakthrough.

Kepler was well on his way to codifying his famous three laws of planetary motions.  This codification, published in 1626 twelve years later, was his biggest achievement - and the most painful achievement to the more numerous astronomers, flat Earth folk, who preferred Ptolemy, and who preferred having the Sun to orbit the Earth.

In producing his three laws of planetary motion in 1626, his Rudolphine Tables, Kepler became the father of celestial mechanics and of modern astronomy.  This publication in 1626 became one the strongest of a long series of birth pangs that birthed modern science. [n1],  [n2]

It is to be observed that Kepler's work featured a study of the orbit of Mars in the modern era.  That orbit is now known to have an eccentricity of .0933865, a perihelion of 128,409,085 miles and an aphelion of 154,862,861 miles.  Its perihelion has a longitude of 335°, which places its semi-major axis in space.  Its modern period is 686.978839+ days, a period which began in 701 B.C.E.

This present research is a study, including calculations, of the likely orbit of Mars in the Catastrophic Era.  Shortly, the energy calculations and the shifts in energy for the ancient orbit of Mars will be presented.  In the next chapter, the simultaneous angular momentum shifts and their calculations are presented.  Both address the heart of celestial mechanics.

The key date is March 20-21, 701 B.C.E.  This was the night of the Earth's final waltz with Mars.  This occasion as recorded by Isaiah was the 15th year of the reign of King Hezekiah.  Edwin R. Thiele has produced a classic in dating the era of the kings of Judah and Israel.  In his historical analysis, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, Thiele concludes the year of the key flyby, Hezekiah's 15th, was 701 B.C.E. [n3]

Our astronomical study, based on retro-calculations of the orbits of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, independently places Mars there at this time.  Retro-calculations for 701 B.C.E. also place Jupiter in the feared and significant Capricorn, and Saturn at 180° opposite, in the feared and significant zone of Cancer.

If planetary catastrophists were unable to demonstrate logically - and could not model - how Mars shifted from its “catastrophic orbit” to its modern orbit, reservations and indeed full-blown disbelief about planetary catastrophism would be appropriate.
 

It was an age of orbital “harmony in the heavens,” an ancient phrase used notably in the Book of Job.  More appropriately, the former age was an age of orbital harmonics.  All this ended in the year 701 B.C.E.

If the shift in the orbit of old Mars to modern Mars, herein advocated, cannot be demonstrated, any and all discussions of Mars-Earth catastrophism are cloudy and uncertain.

Therefore for science, the next four chapters, 9, 10, 11 and 12, are the most important chapters in this volume.  The heart of these chapters are Tables XI, XII and XIII, what are named our “Rudolphine Tables”.  In chapters 11 and 12, twelve clues of scientific support are presented.  The aim is to present a triad of truth - energy shifts, angular momentum shifts and solid supporting clues.

Tables XI and XII of the Rudolphine Tables are condensations.  Table XIII, the most detailed, addresses those ancient orbital shifts in 24 categories of astronomical data.  This data defines precisely what happened.

It is incumbent for serious students of science and cosmology to delve into this data --- statistics of orbits and of planet masses that comprise planet energies and planet angular momentum’s for four planets involved.

For those of non-mathematical backgrounds, the significance of the ensuing data may be lost in “boring” numbers.  In such an event, skipping over the upcoming statistical material in favor of the more descriptive material is appropriate.  But it is with the recommendation that later, the Tables XI, XII and XIII be reexamined.

It might be what all gradualists assume, that Mars has been only a slightly reddish pinpoint of light in the nocturnal heavens since the beginning of time.  It might be that Mars never has come closer to our planet than 33,900,000 miles.  Moreover, it might be that Mars never orbited out further, into the asteroid belt, some 230,000,000 miles distant from the Sun.  If so, why are 93% of its craters on one side, and how did it capture its little satellites on the fly?

If that were the case, this volume and even this series might have to be classified with such books as Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz and the Star Trek themes.  Fantasy.  Historical fantasy and science fiction.

However the converse also is true.  If this model can be defended successfully in celestial mechanics, it logically follows that some version of the data herein is solid history --- solid history of the solar system -- solid cosmology.  Involved are the changes to orbits for Venus, Mars, the Earth-Moon system, Jupiter and ... Astra.

Like the dogma of Claudius Ptolemy, the 18th-19th-20th century theories and dogmas of gradualism would then become recognized as fantasy, imaginative and just so much science fiction.  There is no mistaking it; at least one of these two competing paradigms of solar system history is applesauce.

Fifty years ago, virtually all academic astronomers and geologists classified themselves as millions of years “gradualists.”  However times do change.  Photographic evidence has come in showing heavy catastrophism of the surfaces of Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, Deimos, Phobos, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan, the Rings of Saturn, and other satellites more distant.

In general, these surfaces reveal surprising spasms of catastrophism, whatever may be the era.  The evidence dictates that some events there were rather energetic.

Due perhaps to the planetary missions of the last 30 years, now, in the l990's, almost all astronomers and geologists prefer to be known as “Millions of Years Catastrophists.”  “Catastrophism” has become the latest vogue, an acceptable label of academic fashion.

This is a 180-degree change in the preference of styles over the last 40 years since the early first space probes.  In the 1940's and 1950's, catastrophism had about as much respect as prostitution.  But the changes that have occurred may have been one of style, not one of substance, not a change in paradigm.

Judging from the scenario of planetary catastrophism, many “lately styled catastrophists” actually cling to most of the traditional assumptions and dogmas of gradualism, whether or not they are aware of it.  There hasn't been a competing paradigm, except perhaps among the followers of Immanuel Velikovsky.  With the model herein, the dogma of “Millions of Years For Catastrophism” has competition.  Not only are the nature of catastrophic processes at issue; so are the timing issues.

In geology, like astronomy, the new style of the 1980's and 1990's also has become catastrophism.  There are paleo-catastrophists, meso-catastrophists and ceno-catastrophists in addition to astronomy, where there are “asteroid catastrophists” and “comet catastrophists”.  To repeat, in 1996 hyphenated catastrophism is in vogue, but no basic paradigms have changed.  Until paradigms shift, the change toward “catastrophism” is more one of style than of substance.

Some still assume what has been so widely taught, that the Sun had a hiccup or two, and a cough or two, for reasons unknown, four billion years ago.  Expelled out was the makings of a planet or two, or three or four, or six or eight, even nine.  Yet the planets we encounter have spin rates, often in pairs, craters, satellite systems, etc., all unexplained.  Such is the dysfunctional, traditional menu of gradualism.

There is evidence that planetary catastrophism has assaulted Venus, the Earth, Mars and has destroyed Astra.  In addition, it is pointed out in our “The Recent Organization of the Solar System”, there are four levels of evidence that planetary catastrophism has also extended the heart of this solar system, to the Sun itself.

The only conclusion we can draw from the evidence is that the Sun itself had a nova recently, as astronomers chart time.  The Sun is still cooling and shrinking, recovering adjustments of that crisis to the Sun.

As to asteroid catastrophism, asteroids typically are .0000000002 of the mass of the Earth; about one twentieth of a billionth of the mass of the Earth.  Such masses can create surface craters of various sizes.

But a single asteroid collision with the Earth cannot create a spin axis shift, an orbital shift, a geomagnetic field dynamo (or generator), a fragmentation (icy or rocky), or a paleomagnetic polarity reversal, much less sudden crustal tears and up thrusts, a hemispheric sized flash flood and sudden sedimentary strata.  Our planet, the Earth, has experienced all of these.  Evidence indicates the timing thereof has been “recent”.

Comets, typically are icier and smaller than asteroids.  Typically, they are tiny, dirty snowballs with orbits of high eccentricity.  Were a small ice ball to enter the Earth's atmosphere, like the Tunguska Bolide on Northern Siberia, there would be considerable damage on a local scale.  The Tunguska Bolide, June 30, 1908, 7:17 a.m., was just such an event.

It created a flash explosion, with a shock wave heard for over 1,000 miles.  It decimated forests, blasting them down and burning them up, all within a 10-mile radius.  But a colliding comet could never cause (1) a spin axis shift of several degrees, (2) an orbital relocation, (3) a paleomagnetic polarity reversal, (4) a hemisphere-wide flood or several other phenomena associated with ancient planetary catastrophes.  Never.  These scales are entirely different.

In geology, all newly styled catastrophists have to decide if they are paleo-catastrophists, meso-catastrophists or ceno-catastrophists.  But they have yet to identify the causing agent or the scope or the timing of these catastrophes.  They have yet to consider Mars making a planetary flyby as close as 100,000 miles or (heaven forbid) 27,000 miles to our planet.

Thus, planetary catastrophism is neither asteroid catastrophism, nor is it comet catastrophism.  Not in agent of cause, not in scope, not in timing.  The energy exchanges in planetary catastrophism far exceed such minuscule explanations.  And the timing of these upheavals is much too recent.

To reiterate, if planetary catastrophists cannot demonstrate logically - if it cannot be modeled - how Mars shifted from its “catastrophic orbit” to its modern orbit, then this model of planetary catastrophism is in trouble.  Also, conversely, if it can be sensibly modeled, 18th century gradualistic cosmology is in trouble.

Chapters 9, 10, 11 and 12 are dedicated to this task, and this achievement.  For many general readers, who are comfortable with popularized materials, the discussion will now move into an area with which they are unfamiliar, celestial mechanics.  However, to accent the positive, mind-bending material can be good; it can open up new vistas of thought and new perspectives of events in ancient history.

This is the first of four chapters that address how and why the orbit of Mars shifted from its Catastrophic Third Orbit to its Modern Era Orbit.  This chapter addresses energy shifts.  Chapter 10 addresses angular momentum shifts between Mars and Venus, the Earth-Moon system, and Jupiter.

It is found that the two energy shifts were less than 60 days apart.  The last of the Mars-Venus polkas briefly preceded (by 58 days) the last of the Mars-Earth waltzes.

Chapters 11 and 12 concern clues, twelve in number.  In murder mysteries, clues are left at the scene and sometimes elsewhere.  In the death of the Catastrophic Third Orbit of Mars, twelve clues exist, and they can be sifted from the ancient “wreckage.”  Each clue points to the crime, its timing, and to its perpetrator, the red planet.

Many physical scars on the surfaces of Mars, the Earth and the asteroids have been discussed in Chapters 1 to 8.  More are discussed in Chapters 9 to 11.  In a change of direction, Chapter 12 discusses psychological scars that still remain with us, 2,700 years later.  It discusses over 350 of them.

ENERGY.  In a closed system, energy can be given up by one body to another and it can change its form as well.  One planetary body can acquire (or lose) a specific amount of energy.  But at the same time, another planet must give up (or acquire) an equal amount.  Such is the second law of thermodynamics.  Such is the principle of the conservation of energy.  Nature knows no exception in a closed system, such as our solar system.

The total amount of energy in a closed system must always total the same - at the beginning, at the end of each stage in between, and at the end of an entire series of stages.  This process is what happened to four planets, rapidly, late in the 8th century B.C.E.

Because no “exchange” is perfectly efficient, some energy always is transformed into heat, tides, etc.  This is insignificant both in billiards and in planets where calculations are taken to six decimals.

ANGULAR MOMENTUM.  Similarly, in a closed system, angular momentum also can shift from one Solar System body to another nearby planet.  But at the same time, what one body gains in angular momentum, another planet must lose, and this is also true at the end of each and every stage.  Again, as with energy changes, nature knows no exceptions.

Perhaps one can visualize the Solar System, looking down on it from above, viewing it from the North Star.  In this format for a planet in orbit, one can visualize ENERGY as “vertical motion”.  This is a measure of its long axis multiplied by planet mass.

This is the “x” axis of its orbit.  Energy changes relate to any and all vertical changes along this axis.  Changes can be in length, or in direction or both.  Energy is a total property of a body that relates to its mass, its speed, its temperature, etc., but not to its direction of travel.

In this same context, one can view ANGULAR MOMENTUM as “horizontal motion,” or sideways movement.  Its changes affect only an orbit's “y” axis, the measure of an orbit's widest dimension.  It is called the minor axis.  Momentum relates not only to a planet's mass and its velocity but also to its direction.  To the mathematician, energy is a scalar value, while angular momentum is in vectors.

There is a similarity between shifts - (a) of energy and (b) of angular momentum among the planets.  It is (c) the completion of a crossword puzzle.  Crossword puzzles are composed of both horizontal words and vertical words.  To solve it correctly, all the letters in vertical words must agree with all letters in the horizontal words.  Otherwise, the solution for the puzzle is flawed.

Energy can be likened to the vertical words of a crossword puzzle.  Angular momentum can be likened to words on the horizontal axis.  In a correct solution, all words and letters must agree, harmonize and integrate.

If both of these two issues are found to be in agreement, simultaneously, it can be concluded that the puzzle is solved (or nearly solved).  If one issue is not addressed, or is not in agreement, the puzzle is not solved.  Like crossword puzzles, there is one totally correct solution, and only one.

Put another way, if the two issues above are found to be in agreement, it can be said that it is a completed model that conforms to the Second Law of Thermodynamics.  It is a scientific model.  It can be verified by known data, equations, procedures and testing.

On the other hand, if a model of catastrophism does not conform to these laws, it can be said that such a model is imaginary, wishful thinking, and/or speculative.  It could even be the stuff from which fantasies, wild speculations, fairy tales, false superstitions and science fiction plots are spun.

    Issue 1.  Mars And Astra Distances

There are five prominent issues involved in this model, and in understanding the shift of Mars from its catastrophic orbit into its modern orbit.  The first issue concerns whether or not it was the Roche Limit of Mars - and hence the mass of Mars - that caused little Astra to fragment into asteroids.

If this was the case, then when Astra fragmented, Mars must have been some 225,000,000 miles distant from the Sun, where the average perihelion’s of the asteroids is.  This is contrary to traditional theory.  Mars nevertheless was there. The red planet was 70,000,000 miles farther out, or more, than is the modern orbit of Mars.  Probably, its ancient aphelion was even somewhat farther out.

If Mars indeed was there, its energy level would have to be maintained within a few per cent.  The center of its orbit would be not far different than now.  With this in mind, if Mars went out 70 or 80,000,000 miles farther, also it would had to have come in much closer.  Its orbital length and its eccentricity would have to have been greater.

In so doing, Mars would approach closer to the Sun than the Earth, and even closer than Venus in a long narrow orbit.  The central issue then is identified as the old eccentricity of the orbit of Mars.  Its modern eccentricity is .093387.  A prefect circle has an eccentricity of .000000.  THE CENTRAL ISSUE THEN IS WHETHER OR NOT THE ORBIT OF MARS EXPERIENCED A SUDDEN AND SUBSTANTIAL SHIFT IN ITS FORMER ECCENTRICITY.

Its ancient orbital eccentricity would had to have been greater than .400000 in order for its perihelion to be within the orbit space of the Earth-Moon system.  And even more, its ancient orbit eccentricity would had to have been over .500000 in order to orbit within Venus orbit space.  Its modern eccentricity is under .10, at .093.

Therefore research for this model requires a sudden change in an ancient eccentricity from the old Mars orbit in excess of .400.  The issue is not one of a vast shift in the total orbit of Mars.  It is much less; it is a vast shift only in its eccentricity, or oblateness.

This model has the ancient orbit of Mars, from perihelion to aphelion, with a length of 293,158,820 miles.  Its modern orbit from perihelion to aphelion is 283,271,946 miles.  In this model, the length of the semi-major axis of Mars has diminished, but only 3.37%.  Mars lost some energy and in so doing, the length of its “x” axis was reduced by 9,886,874 miles.  The Martian energy diminished from -1.345017 to -1.39196l.

What was the cause of such a reduction?  Did another planet's energy similarly increase?  Was that planet the Earth?  Did ancient calendars of 360 days suddenly become obsolete, requiring a higher day count per year, reflecting an increase in energy?  An increase from 360 to 365.256 is an increase of about 1.5%.  What is this story?

This staff also has calculated that the probable former orbital eccentricity of Mars was .561.  Its orbit was lower in eccentricity than Halley's Comet, but nevertheless, it had a high eccentricity.  This compares to the modern eccentricity of the Martian orbit at .093.  It is a shift downward of .468.

Its follows that in the catastrophes of the late 8th century B.C.E., the width of the “y” axis, the minor axis of Mars increased.  This model indicates the length of its minor axis (the “y” axis) increased by 19,672,856 miles as its orbit rounded out.  This is why Mars no longer bothers Mars, and it no longer bothers the Earth-Moon system.  It was the increase in angular momentum that rounded out the orbit of Mars, with the very significant results that celestial peace came to the inner solar system.

Thus it is seen that the long axis of the orbit of Mars was shortened, but not a lot.  But its short axis, the “y” axis increased by 16.2%.  In this process, the period of ancient Mars was reduced from 723.26 new days down to the current 686.98 new days.

Does the shortening of the semi-major axis of Mars integrate well with the evidence that the Earth's ancient period increased from 360 to 365.256 days?  Of course.  Does an increase in its semi-minor axis and its rounding out agree with the observation that Mars no longer threatens either the Earth or Venus?  Again, of course.

The Rudolphine Tables, XI, XII and XIII indicate that the Earth's semi-major axis did increase, from 92,339,242 miles to the modern 92,955,807 miles.  It was an increase of 0.668%.  One of the results was that all of the old 360-day calendars used by numerous ancient societies suddenly became obsolete.  Calendars of 365, 365.25 or 365.25+ days were needed in replacement.  Did this happen in the 7th and 6th centuries B.C.E.?  Most certainly, according to ancient testimonies from a wide variety of sources.  .
 

    Issue 2.  The Moon And An Ancient 30-Day Orbit

The second issue concerns the Moon and whether or not some 12 to 15 ancient lunar calendars, each containing 30.00 days for the old lunar orbit, were accurate and hence useful in the ancient era.  If it were not the case, why are there so many ancient calendars from diverse peoples and places all making the same mistake?  After all, ancient calendar makers were not Neanderthals; they may have been basically more intelligent than modern men.

If the period of the Moon's orbit shifted, some event such as a planetary flyby must have occurred, and affected both the Earth and the Moon simultaneously.  It reduced the Moon's period from about 30.00 old days (sidereal) down to 29.53 new days, its modern period.

If ancient calendars contained 30 days, not 29.53 days, the Moon's orbital radius necessarily was decreased from about 241,500 miles to the modern distance, 238,900 miles.  If so, this was a shrinking of 1.08% in the radius of the Moon's orbit.  Could such a strange change happen if Mars passed between the Earth and the Moon when at full?  Yes it could.  The Earth would be pulled outward while Mars would be pulled inward.

How could the expansion of the Earth's orbit be related simultaneously to the contraction of the orbits both of the Moon and of Mars?  Does this mean that the Earth gained energy or that the red planet lost energy?  Yes for both.

Both of these are issues are easily answered IF MARS “BUZZED THE EARTH” FROM THE NIGHT SIDE OF THE EARTH, SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE EARTH AND THE MOON, that is, DURING A FULL MOON.  The ancient Hebrew “Passover” was always recorded to have occurred on the night of the first full moon of Nisan (or our March).  The “Passover” of -701 featured just such a full moon.

On their Mosaic calendar, the Passover was Nisan 13, always a Friday night in the Hebrew calendar; it was the “unlucky thirteenth”.  (It corresponds to the night of March 20 on our modern calendar).  This night, once every century or so, actually involved a devastating Mars flyby.  Research to be published later indicates repeated Mars flybys in 108-year cycles.

Ancient traditions of a catastrophically unlucky Friday the thirteenth is a vestige from Hebrew traditions when, sometimes, Passovers on that date were very destructive.  The Romans have a similar tradition, their tubulustrium, a time of trouble, also March 20, appropriately, in a month they named after Mars.

The Irish, on the other hand, are not to be outdone.  There were October 24 flybys also, which were even more destructive to the Eastern Hemisphere than were the March flybys.  Our modern Halloween themes are a carry over, a vestige from ancient Celtic traditions about destructions coming visibly from the heavens, in late October, at the time of a full moon.  The comet Mars' tail was interpreted as the witch's broomstick on which she flew.  It is the Irish interpretation comparable to the Greek “Fleece of Aries”.

Occasionally the cosmos of Celtic Ireland was fraught with celestial danger - something witchy, something moving across the heavens, making screechy celestial noises, with an orbit and a cometary tail instead of by broomstick.  That something was something close enough and massive enough to produce loud noises from lightning, shock waves, earthquakes, weird subliminal noises at subliminal levels, possibly due to uniting planetary magnetic fields.

In the Hebrew calendar, March 20 or Nisan 13 always was a full moon ... and Friday the 13th - of the month of Nisan.  If the Moon always was full on Nisan l3, and the ancient Hebrews had twelve 30-day months, Mars had to be in some kind of orbital resonance with the Earth.  It had to be.  Therefore it is important to note how many other societies around the Earth also had 360-day calendars (and 360-degree circles).  This will be addressed in chapter 12.

In the modern era, lunar calendars don't work well for anniversaries.  Passover nights, on full moons, are always on a different day each year, like the dates for Easter.  In this age, Passover celebrations and Easter Sundays are linked to the first full moon AFTER the vernal equinox.

In that era, the full moon of March/Nisan always was the vernal equinox.  Ancient Hebrew calendars portray this.  In this age, 2700 years after the change in orbit occurred, lunar calendars still are employed to determine Easter and Passover, a vestige of ancient 30-day calendars.

Periodically, repeatedly, in 108-year cycles, the Destructive Angel of the Lord arrived with “pestilences”, possibly involving geomagnetic waves, accompanied by cosmic lightning discharges, fire from heaven, earthquakes, deforming crustal bulges, volcanic upheavals, oceanic tides, and a scintillating geomagnetic show.  Talmudic sources identify the night of the Final Flyby as March 20-21.  Our research indicates March 20-21 of the year 701 B.C.E.  The word “Passover” is, and was quite appropriate. [n4]
 

    Issue 3.  The Earth And An Ancient 360-Day Year

The third issue concerns whether or not the Earth's orbit suddenly expanded from a former 360 day count per year to a modern 365.256 day count.  Such a shift would involve a sudden expansion of the day count per year by about 1.003%.

This would necessarily involve an expansion of the average radius of the Earth's orbit from approximately somewhere around 92,339,242 miles to the modern value of 92,955,807 miles.  This is an expansion of 616,000+ miles in the radius, 0.668%.

If catastrophism happened as this model describes, that perturbation by Mars was more than a mere tweak on the Earth's orbit.  It was a strong yank on our orbit, with simultaneously a strong gyroscopic torque on our planet's spin axis. [n5],  [n6]

If this occurred during the last Martian flyby event, it could occur only if Mars passed the Earth's outside, which is as Isaiah and Talmudic source material both report to have been the case.  Mars in orbit would have to have lapped the Earth-Moon system, somewhere between the Earth and the Moon.  And the moon would have to have been at or near full, as in “a Passover night”.

Such an orbit expansion for the Earth and orbit contraction for the Moon could happen, but only if that planetary flyby was between the two, but much closer to the Earth than the Moon.

The Moon's mass is 1.23% of the Earth's mass, about one part in 81.5.  Mars is 10.74% of the Earth's Mass.  The Moon is 11.45% of the mass of Mars.  Thus, roughly, the Earth is nine times the mass of Mars, and Mars is nine times the mass of the Moon.

In order to create these kinds of orbital perturbations, Mars would have to go on the night side of the Earth, during a full moon.  And the red planet's distance to the Earth at its closest works best if it was between one-eighth and one-ninth of the Earth's distance to the Moon.  This means that Mars, at its closest, was between 26,500 miles and 30,000 miles from the Earth, center to center.  And Mars was, at its closest, 215,000 miles from the Moon, again center to center.

Orbit perturbations (directional changes or shifts) caused by one planet on another follow an equation that states changes are according to the mass of the two planets, and are inversely proportional to the distance of the flyby squared.

This means that, during flybys, each time the distance between Mars and the Earth was halved, as from 240,000 to 120,000 miles, orbit shifts and energy shifting, whatever the amount, increased fourfold.  Thus, at a flyby of 27,000 miles, the orbit perturbation was four times as much as at 54,000 miles.  And perturbations would be sixteen times as much as flybys at 108,000 miles.  And 64 times as much as at 216,000 miles.

During a CLOSE, OUTSIDE flyby, Mars could shift its directions --- somewhat --- its orbital direction now could pivot on the Earth.  Such a close outside flyby by Mars would produce a push or a torque on the Earth's spin axis, producing a minute increase in the rate of its rotation.  Such a close flyby could, and apparently did increase the Earth's spin rate, however minutely.

The model presented in the next three chapters maintains there was an increase in spin rate due to the Final Flyby of Mars, and its torque.  That speed up is calculated at approximately 0.452+%.  Thus, it is modeled that the spin rate increased from about 360 old days to 361.628 new days, an increase of 1.628 days or 0.452+%.

Simultaneously the orbit expanded.  The combination of the new orbit and the new spin rate produced an increase from 360 old days (= 361.628 new days) to 365.256365 days per orbit.  Of the combination producing the new increase in day count, this model proposes about 31% was due to the tiny increase in spin rate, and the rest, about 69%, was due to the expansion of the orbit, an expansion over 600,000 miles in the semi-major axis.

Today's spin rate relative to the fixed stars is one rotation in 1,436 minutes.  This is “sidereal time”.  All gradualists suppose that this spin rate has been unchanged in 4.6 billion years.  Our model suggests that before 701 B.C.E., the Earth's slightly slower spin rate, was between 1,442 and 1,443 minutes (sidereal).  This is an increase in spin rate of 0.452%, or one part in 221.

The ancient increase in day count per year to 365.256 days per orbit is a product of a slight increase in spin, accounting for some 31% of the new day count per year.  And there was a significant increase of the Earth's distance from the Sun, accounting for an estimated 69% of the new day count per year, 365.256 days.  As the Earth's distance from the Sun increased, there was a corresponding slight decrease in the Earth's velocity around the Sun.

The increase in spin rate seems to have been 0.452%.  The increase in orbital radius, the semi-major axis, seems to have been 0.668%.  The increase in day count per year, a combination of the two preceding factors, has totaled about 1.46% according to this model.  This means 360 old days were equal to 361.628 modern days.  The spin rate was a minute bit slower.

This analysis is in harmony with a unique, Romanesque ancient change in the day count per year for the Earth made by a mathematical philosopher, Plutarch.  Plutarch said and wrote that at the end of the heroic age, the era of catastrophes, there had been a “celestial crap game”.  It was between Hermes, the Earth and the Moon.  Plutarch, or his translators, apparently confused Hermes with Ares.

In that celestial crap shoot, the Moon lost 1/70th of her “holdings”, or its period, while the “winner,” the Earth gained a similar 1/70th of its day count per orbit, an addition to its former orbit period.

The Moon's modern period is 29.53 days.  30 days minus one part in 70 is 29.57.  Plutarch was within .04 day of being exactly correct for the new lunar period.

The Earth's new period, 365.256 days, less one part in 70, results in an earlier period of 360.038 days.  Here again Plutarch's explanation was within .04 of a day of being exactly correct.  Plutarch's ancient Greek sources were solid, and his explanation for the new conditions satisfied his Roman audiences.
 

    Issue 4.  Mars And An Ancient 720-Day Year

The model here proposes that Mars had an ancient 720-day orbit (or 723.257 new days).  Mars was in 1:2 resonance with the Earth, and it was in 6:1 resonance with Jupiter.  Further, it was in a near 15:1 resonance with Saturn.  The general pattern of perturbations of Mars by the Earth and Jupiter requires this resonance of periods.

Interestingly, James Frazer cited in “The Golden Bough” that the Gonds, a tribe in Southern India, still worships Jupiter and has celebrations for Jove every twelfth year.  This relic of ancient planet worship is despite the fact that the Earth has not been in a 12:1 resonance with Jupiter for 2700 years.

A contraction or shrinkage of the orbit of Mars from 720 old days (or 723.26 new days) down to the modern 687 new days per year is a change in the right direction.  The Earth gained in day count per orbit - 5.256 old days - while the orbit of Mars, one ninth of the mass of the Earth, lost 36 days.  What one planet gained in energy (and in angular momentum), the other lost, a classical exchange of energy.

Some have superficially assumed that this is a three body problem, involving just Mars, the Earth and the Sun.  No.  It is a five body problem, involving Mars, the Earth, the Sun, Venus and Jupiter.

The model presented below portrays that the spasms of catastrophism in 701 B.C.E. were a celestial double header.  First there was an expansion of the Martian orbit which caused a close, inside flyby of Venus.  Tables XI and XIII indicate Mars gained from Venus .086476 energy units.

Some 54 days later, the red planet encountered the Earth and lost .133424 energy units to the Earth-Moon system.  For Mars in 701 B.C.E., it was a net loss of .046944 energy units.  There was also a loss in angular momentum.

The net result for Mars of the two 701 B.C.E. crises was a contraction in the period of Mars.  Measured in terms of days, it was 36 days - about 5.016%.  In terms of its average distance to the Sun, the two planetary flybys of Mars in 701 B.C.E. resulted in a net contraction in distance of 3.37%.  Again see Tables XI and XIII.

If Mars passed close by, on the outside of the Earth, because of the Earth's much greater mass, our planet would (and we affirm did) pivot and pull Mars inward eight or nine times as powerfully as Mars could pull the Earth outward.  The pattern is consistent.  Ancient calendars indicate something very much like this happened.  Ancient folklore’s involving Earth upheavals with the planet Mars (by whatever name) occurs on at least five continents.

As was mentioned earlier, Plutarch, a first century AD philosopher taught the rich, gambling, semi-barbarian Romans that the Earth and the Moon once had entered into a celestial crap game with Hermes.  Actually Plutarch made a misidentification; it was with Ares, not Hermes (Mercury.)  Plutarch taught that the Earth gained one-seventieth of its period in that celestial crap game.  365.256 x 69 / 70 = 360.038 old days.  That was good enough for the “undereducated” (barbarian) Romans.

Plutarch also taught that in the same celestial crap game, the Moon lost one-seventieth of its period.  30 days x 69 / 70 = 29.5714.  The Moon's modern period is 29.5306 days - its “lunation” or synodic month.  Again, Plutarch's explanation was good enough to satisfy Roman standards about both celestial mathematics and gambling. [n7]
 

    Energy And Its Equation
 

 
	Venus			0.814988

	Earth-Moon System	1.012303
		(Earth = 1.000000)
	Mars			0.107447

	Jupiter			317.799873

The energy lost by the Moon, involved in the shrinking of its orbit some 3,000 miles, can also be calculated.  But the calculations involved require going up to twelve decimal places.  To employ such figures for the Moon's energy and the contraction in its orbit would give a false impression of extreme accuracy.  Therefore, for both energy balances and for angular momentum considerations, changes in the length of the axis of the Moon's orbit are so slight that they are dismissed.

On the other hand, the mass of the Moon is .012303 of the Earth, about one part in eighty-one.  Earth's mass is 1.000000 Earth masses, the measure of one unit of weight.  Together, the mass of the Earth-Moon system is 1.0l2303.  The addition of the lunar mass to the Earth's mass is significant and necessary for purposes of calculating perturbations for both Mars and the Earth.
 

    Issue 5.  Astronomical Support Data

There are several statistical categories of astronomical data that support the model.  One can retro-calculate the position of Venus to determine whether or not it was where our model requires it was on January 24, 701 B.C.E.  Retro-calculations are made on the orbits of the Moon, Venus, Mars and Jupiter for their locations on Jan. 24, 701 B.C.E. for Venus, and March 20 for the Moon and Mars on the night of March 20, 701 B.C.E.  See Chapter 11.

If they retro-calculate well, they will comprise four clues of support, evidence to indict Mars as the ancient “bane of mortals”.  If retro-calculations are unsuccessful, they will invalidate this model.

Retro-calculations can be made from any modern date, back to March 20, 701 B.C.E.  Were the Moon, Venus and Mars where our model claims they must have been?  Was there a Mars-Venus interaction about January 24, just before the Final Flyby?  Can the orbit of Mars, and the position of Mars therein, be traced back to March 20, 701 B.C.E.?

For technical reasons, the energy of a planet is always cited in negative numbers.  Thus, the higher the negative number, the LOWER the energy level, and vice versa.  The lower the number, the greater the planet's energy.  Negative numbers for describing energy are helpful in science but make a confusion for the regular non-scientific reader.

Among Kepler's works are Mysterium Cosmographicum (1596), Astronomia Nova (1609) and Harmonice Mundi (1619).  Kepler is considered the founder of physical astronomy because of his demonstration that the planes of all planetary orbits pass through the center of the Sun.  He recognized the Sun as the moving power of the planetary system.

In his first teaching position at Graz, Johannes Kepler undertook extra-curricular nocturnal studies of the successive positions, hence, of the movements of Mars.  Years later in Prague, this Mars data taken 400 years ago led to his monumental scientific breakthrough.

All planetary orbits are ellipses that follow three laws of planetary motion.  Kepler discovered those laws and published them.  Two are in his original Rudolphine Tables.  Emperor Rudolph of Prague was his benefactor, and was the one to whom he dedicated them.  It is to Johannes Kepler, that our Tables XI, XII and XIII are dedicated; they are our “Rudolphine Tables.”

Table XI is a resume on energy changes.  Note that Jupiter energy did not change very much.  Table XII in the next chapter is a resume on angular momentum changes.  There, Jupiter's angular momentum does shift a bit.  Table XIII, also in the next chapter, is an in-depth analysis.  Table XIII lists 24 astronomical categories, involving the four planets and the various measurements of change from the Catastrophic Third Orbit of Mars to the Serene Fourth Orbit.  These shifts were what produced the modern orbit of Mars.

In this model of Mars catastrophism, Mars and Venus did a passionate polka on or about January 24, +/- one day.  This polka in late January 701 B.C. was, in a gravitational sense, passionate.  In an electromagnetic sense, it was also intense.

Ardent as the Ares-Venus dance was, at .086479 energy units, it was only 54.423% as passionate as was the last waltz between Mars and the Earth some 56 days later.  The last waltz, even more passionate, was at .133424 energy units.

It had been a long time since the Solar System had experienced anything as dramatic as these events in 701 B.C.E.  These polka left Venus closer to the Sun by 262,467 miles.  And the last waltz left the Earth-Moon system farther out by 616,565 miles.  The combination of these two dances plus modest effects by Jupiter left little Ares closer in to the Sun, by 4,943,437 miles.  See Table XIII.

Table XI, further analysis, indicates that the last Mars-Earth waltz, at its closest and most passionate, was at an estimated distance of 27,000 miles, planet center to center.  (Since Mars has a radius of 2,100 miles and the Earth 3,950, the two closest surfaces were about 21,000 miles distant).

The last Mars-Venus polka was only 58.423% as passionate as was the last Mars-Earth waltz.  Venus is smaller than the Earth; it weighs 8l% as much.  The Mars-Venus flyby distance planet center to center, is also estimated, at 35,000 miles.

The radius of Venus is 3,800 miles and that of Mars is the aforementioned 2,100 miles.  Thus, the nearest distance between the surfaces of these two planets at the closest moment (peri-Venus) was an estimated 29,100 miles (35,000 - 5,900 miles).

Is it any wonder that recent photos from space missions photographing the surface of Venus from nearby reveal a violent, recent physical geography of the Venusian surface?  The damage appears as if it happened only yesterday, and to astronomers, a time span of 3,700 years or 12,000 years ago is only “yesterday”.

Hesiod and Isaiah both saw the two flybys.  Hesiod saw them from Thebes, Greece.  Isaiah saw them from Jerusalem.  Hesiod wrote that first Ares had a tangle with Pallas Athene (Venus), and next Ares had a cosmic encounter with the Earth.  It brought much havoc, lightning, earthquakes, volcanism, etc.  He mentions the steeds of Ares, Deimos and Phobos, l7 times in 490 lines.

Hesiod is in disagreement with modern astronomers that Mars, with Deimos and Phobos, has always been 30,000,000 miles or more distant from the Earth over the last 4 billion years.  They were close enough to be seen, and as we shall see in chapter 11, their distances were noted in Mars diameters.

Swinging on a dance floor with different partners for different dances often involves in swinging different directions on a dance floor. So it was with these two planetary flings of Mars; they were also in opposite directions (with respect to the Sun.)  In the Mars-Venus polka, little Mars was on the inside, being pulled outward by Venus.

Venus, on the outside, was pulled inward, somewhat closer to the Sun.  As is mentioned above, Table XIII indicates that Venus ended up shifting some 262,467 miles closer to the Sun, according to calculations of our staff.  As a consequence, Venus acquired a permanent increase of 1% in solar radiation.  Hot, Venus became even hotter, by 0.36%.  Also as a consequence, the Earth, now at 92,956,000 miles, receives 1.49% less solar radiation at 92,339,000 miles than during the Catastrophic Era.

In the process, Mars also attracted and pulled the on-looking, nearby full Moon inward by some 3,070 miles, or 1.28% of its orbit radius.  It came in from 30.103 new days (one twelfth of the Earth's old period) to 29.53.  One result is that new lunar tides in the Earth's oceans and on its sea shores increased slightly, some 3+%.

Another result was that the ancient 30-day lunar calendar no longer served the ancients at all well.  Nor does it serve modern persons well.  But the old catastrophic era calendars had to be changed.  Every year they were five more days out of synchronization with the Sun, and they kept adding up.  For farmers and sailors, the old calendar soon became intolerable.  Crops had to be planted correctly, and voyages dated realistically.

A)  Mars, at .107 mass. is about one-ninth the mass of the Earth.  The Moon, at a mass of .0123, is 1/81th of the mass of the Earth.

B)  Thus the Moon also happens to be about one-ninth of the mass of Mars, one part in 8.7.  In the Catastrophic Era, it calculates that the Moon was about 241,900 miles from the Earth.  This relationship was invaded, and permanently changed, during the last Mars flyby.  However, according to this model, Mars passed through the Earth-Moon system much closer (about eight times closer) to the Earth as to the Moon.

Resonance studies indicate that in the Catastrophic Era, except for the last flyby, all of the 100+ Mars flybys were on the inside, or sunny side of the Earth's orbit.  Only the last Mars flyby was unique, on the outside, or night side.

C)  It calculates out that, planet center to center, at its closest, Mars was about 27,000 miles from Earth, and simultaneously 214,000 miles from the Moon.  Thus, the Mars flyby was at one ninth of the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

The ancients noticed these changed conditions after 701 B.C.E., and soon realized their 30-day lunar calendars were next to useless.  Despite evidence, the leaders of 20th century gradualism have rejected the idea of ancient 360-day calendars.  This is because they would also have to accept a sudden change in the distance of the Earth to the Sun, and its causing factor, a Mars flyby.  For the same reason, those leaders cannot accept a change in the Moon's ancient distance from our planet.  It would open the gate to further changes and developments.

The system of gradualism was conceived by various anti-clerical thinkers such as Kant and Laplace in astronomy, and Charles Lyell in geology.  With such a predisposition, those philosophers would give no credit to the Bible for its history, much less for its ethics and theology.  Now, were they to change, gradualists would need to go back, and read the Bible for its history and geography.  They might also gain greater respect for its ethics and theology.

Then they would need to read and assess, Plutarch, Apollodorus, Hesiod, Homer, Heraclitus, etc.  No, it is easier to simply reject, and reject again, and be stylishly “politically correct” in an age of compromises of all kinds.

In ancient society after society, there was a clamor by farmers, sailors and mathematicians for corrected calendars.  There was a need in Egypt to revise the calendar.  The Egyptian astronomical society, met in Canopus in 238 B.C.E., to create a better calendar.  Their conclusion was called the Canopus Decree, and it led to a revised 365-day calendar for Egypt.

It was a revision of two earlier Egyptian calendars.  One earlier calendar was related to the Earth's spin rate, their 360-day calendar.  The other ancient Egyptian calendar was related to the orbit of Venus, in an era when five Earth orbits equaled precisely eight Venus orbits.  The Venus calendar of the ancient Egyptians had been the more accurate of the two Egyptian calendars in that era.

It is to be noted that the old Egyptian Venus period is cited at .625 of the Earth's period in Tables XI and XIII.  .625 is a perfect 8:5 resonance.  The old Venus calendar of ancient Egypt had been a very useful one, and it might be that the ancient Mayas had a Venus calendar somewhat similar to the Egyptian Venus calendar.

For the Hebrews, a simple method was developed to revise the old calendar and still retain its now imperfect twelve month scenario.  Merely, it was to add five days to the twelfth month of the year, which was named “Adar”.  This was done and the additional five-day period was called “Veadar,” the new, or “the second” Adar.  Veadar made its appearance years after 701 B.C.E.  Their Veadar calendar also states much the same thing as Plutarch's assessment of the ancient order, centuries earlier.

However such a simple adjustment as adding five days per year still had an imperfection.  With this change, there came to be 36,500 days per century, but the Earth's orbit had 36,525.6365 (new) days.  The imperfect Veadar calendar still was off 25+ days per century.

So there was a need for 25 leap days added per century, one every four years.  But that still wasn't quite good enough for astronomers.  So analysis required for one leap day to be missed once per century (except for every fourth century).  The old calendar of the earlier era had major problems, but so did the new 365-day calendar have minor problems, unless perfected.

ELECTRICAL EFFECTS.  Another effect of these two swinging events involved the ancient planetary magnetic fields in space.  There is no dynamo in the inner core, as most scientists suppose.  In a future work of this series, it will be demonstrated that Mars flybys were the dynamo of our planet's geomagnetic field.  And it will be demonstrated that the geomagnetic field is housed in the cool iron of the Earth's crust.  Our planet no longer has its old dynamo.

As a consequence, its geomagnetic field, like any old once magnetized iron nail, is in the process of magnetic decaying.  The Earth's rate of geomagnetic field decay is a half life every 1,350 years.

The Earth's geomagnetic field strength now is .3 Gauss.  In 701 B.C.E. as was 1.2 Gauss.  In 4700 AD it will be .075 Gauss.  Ultimately it will become so weak as to no longer shield the Earth from the Sun's short wave (actinic) radiation.

This is a major long term problem for mankind, and for the future of all flora and fauna. Physicists need to analyze its present decay effects on the biosphere.  They need to predict the future effects of the decay.  And if possible, they need to find a method of planetary remagnetization.  If they don't, the survival of fauna and flora on this planet’s surface is doomed within five to seven thousand years.

The ancients in their literature discussed dramatically how destructive Mars flybys were.  But Mars flybys were a two sided coin.  On the positive note, Mars flybys created strata on continents with sudden oceanic floods; they created suddenly uplifted mountain systems from sudden magmatic crises.  In the magma they created mixes of water, silanes and carbides to convert into (l) more silica, or crust, the chemical byproduct, (2) more subsurface petroleum.

Also, paleomagnetic polarity reversals occurred as is evident in basalt formation, and spin axis relocations (shifts) occurred, as is evident in climatology and ancient literature.  Isaiah recorded one of them for history, a shift of 10°, and Joshua wrote about another.

Gravitationally, there was a strong mutual attraction (gravity) between two bodies, Mars and the Earth, attracted passionately in space during these swinging events.  The gravity of Mars created immense tides in the Earth's oceans and in its sub-crustal magma.  Volcanism suddenly erupted from dormant craters on the Earth, and nine times as much volcanism, or more, erupted from the gigantic volcanoes of Mars.

The Earth in close flybys created massive eruptions on the surface of Mars.  In this long, eruptive process, one of the Martian volcanoes eventually attained an elevation of 13 miles (Olympus Mons).  Its cone covers 110,000 sq. miles and contains 500,000 cubic miles of lava.  (If there were 250 flybys, that would average 2,000 cubic miles of erupting lava per fly.  And that is merely the largest of the Martian volcanoes.  Others rise to 35,000, 40,000 and 50,000 feet.  That lava was pumped up by gravities of the Earth and Venus during ancient flybys.

Electrically, it was an attraction, not gravitational combat.  In space, the two planetary magnetic fields of old Earth and old Mars BRIEFLY UNITED IN SPACE for ten to fifteen hours.  Soon they were torn apart ... as Mars parted company with the Earth ... and both experienced a reversed polarity for the magnetic field of each planet.  The south magnetic pole and the north magnetic pole were simply and suddenly reversed.  The spin axis sometimes relocated also.

Major league baseball schedules used to feature double headers.  The year 701 B.C.E. featured a cosmic double header, two shows in the theater of the cosmos in sixty days.  Admission was free --- for the survivors.  The first of the two in that remarkable year was “The Last Mars-Venus War.”  The second feature, even more dramatic (from any perspective) was “The Last Mars-Earth War.”  Both celestial cinemas were filled with orbit-changing action.

Electrically it resembled something like a brief tryst in space, as Hesiod described.  Ares had a sometime “date” with Pallas Athene; this would be the last of them.  There was (a) an ion exchange as well as (b) an energy exchange.  In addition, there was (c) an angular momentum exchange.  As has been mentioned, this one, the last polka of Mars with Venus, was only a prelude to 56 days later, its last waltz ever, the red planet's last dance with the Earth.

Both Hesiod and Isaiah saw the two flyby scenes.  As was mentioned, Hesiod viewed the scenes from the Greek Thebes, a place some 40 miles outside the city of Venus.  Athens, named after Pallas Athene, a cosmic deity, was the largest city of the province of Attica).

The other viewer-reporter, Isaiah, saw this celestial show, perhaps from a parapet on the city wall of Jerusalem.  Each reported and recorded the events they saw for posterity. We, both 20th century catastrophists and gradualists, are that posterity.  But they wrote in terms understandable and acceptable to their fellow citizens.

The opening caption of this chapter cited briefly a section from Hesiod's “The Shield of Herakles.”  This was a rich reporting job, less than 500 lines of verse about one of the most spectacular scenarios in the history of our planet.  The second of the last two wars of Mars was a close brush with the Earth.

As Mars approached the Earth, for a few minutes that night Mars was fully reflective, a “full Mars,” and with our Moon also at full moon in the background.  When full, our Moon, diameter 2,160 miles, occupies over a half degree (.515) in the night time skies.  Mars has a diameter of 4,212 miles, almost double that of the Moon.  At 240,000 miles, Mars occupied 1.0057° in the night time sky.

The Moon's reflectivity (albedo) is 7% while the reflectivity of Mars was 16%.  Thus at similar distances, and if both were full, Mars was nine times brighter than the Moon (16% x 4 / 7%).  When Mars was threatening the Earth at 240,000 miles distant, causing widespread terror, the red planet covered one full degree in the night time skies.  It was seven hours (and 213,000 miles) from perigee.

At 120,000 miles Ares covered 2°, both horizontally and vertically and it was only three hours from perigee.  The tocsin alarms were sounded, gongs in Japan and India, began to be gonged (54 times, once every few minutes).  Trumpets of warning in the cities of the Near East were blown in most cities.  Elsewhere other tocsin sirens were rung or were blown, warnings to the populace to find quickly their shelter, in caves, cellars, fox holes, etc.  It was three hours to perigee (climax).

At 60,000 miles the diameter of Indra-Horus-Baal-Enlil covered 4° as more populations on this planet became frantic, terrorized, and most had run to their prepared places of refuge.  It was a universal epidemic, it was Mars-phobia.  It was now one hour and a few minutes to perigee (maximum upheaval).  Mega Richter scale earthquakes rattled; dormant volcanoes began to re-erupt.

When at within 30,000 miles (planet center to center) Mars was some 6 minutes from climax.  That night, at climax, Mars' diameter covered over 8° of the night time skyscape.  Its shining area at its climax appeared to be 256 times greater than the full Moon.  Its reflection of sun light was 550 greater than the brightness of a full moon.

This was the “Disc of Mars” (The Shield of Hercules) as it was seen on that night.  A round disc was like the shape of Mars.  The color of electum was its coloring.  Electum was a shiny mixture of silver and gold.  When Hesiod titled his work, to him and his fellow Greeks, it meant “The Shining, Electum-colored Disc of Mars”.  Translators of Hesiod have lacked the perspective of planetary catastrophism, and so they have missed the point in Hesiod's titling of this saga of catastrophism.  The “Shield of Hercules” was “The Disc of Mars”.

The bright, light orange-colored, surface of Mars reflects sunlight almost 2.3 times more efficiently than does the duller, darker surface of the Moon.  In astronomical parlance, surface reflectance of a planet is “albedo.”  The albedo of the Moon that night was 0.07.  The albedo of Mars was 0.16.  The silvery, orange planet reflects a full 16% of its received sunlight.

The intensity of tides follows the principle of mass over the distance cubed.  At 240,000 miles, Mars' diameter was 1.94 that of the Moon.  On the Earth's sea shores, tides generated by Mars were nine times the normal lunar tide.  At 120,000 miles, four hours closer, Ares' diameter was 3.9 that of the Moon.  Its area was over fifteen times that of the Moon.  Its reflectance, if full, was 35 times that of the Moon.  This was about three hours before midnight, Athens and Jerusalem time.  At that moment, tides on the ocean shores caused by Mars were 68 x the normal lunar tides.  And Mars was still coming in.

At 60,000 miles, one hour from maximum, Mars-Enlil's diameter was 7.8 that of the Moon.  Its area was 60 times that of the Moon.  Its reflectance, if full, was almost 135 times the full Moon.  It was barely one hour from midnight.

As was mentioned above, tides in the oceans and in the magma increase according to the equation, mass over distance cubed.  Halving the distance produces tides EIGHT TIMES greater in intensity.  The following is an indication of tidal intensities as Mars approached:
 

At 30,000 miles, yet closer, Mars-Indra's diameter was 15.5 that of the Moon.  Its area was 62.1 of the Moon.  Its reflectance, if full, was 140 times the Moon's brightness.  This time is estimated as approaching midnight for our two reporters, Isaiah and Hesiot.  (Talmudic material indicates the climax was around midnight).

At 27,000 miles, perigee according to this analysis, the diameter of Bel/Baal/Horus was 17.24 times that of the Moon.  Its area covered 69 times (2 x 2) as much skyscape compared to the Moon.  Its reflectance was 157 times the brightness of the Moon if both were full.  This was the perigee of Mars that night, perhaps at a few minutes after midnight.  Oceanic tides and subcrustal magmatic tides were 5,900 times normal Moon-created tides, hence the crescendo of massive earthquake and volcanic activity.

Some were wondering if this would be the end of the world.  Or of the Earth.  No.  But had they understood Roche's Limit, Mars had come within 16,000 miles of shattering and being turned into countless asteroid fragments.  (Roche's Limit for fragmentation is 2.44 radii and the Earth's radius is 3,900 miles).  Had Mars come within 11,000 or 12,000 miles of the Earth, it would have fragmented just like Astra, many millenniums earlier.

Considered together, Ares, “bane of mortals” (Homer), made a close flyby, as it rapidly closed in on the Earth.  (To Greeks, “It” was a “He”, Ares, the celestial warrior. Athena, or Venus was feminine).  Mars was accompanied by its celestial steeds, Deimos and Phobos, on full display, just as Hesiod and others reported.

Hesiod referred to one or both of the celestial steeds of Mars, Deimos and/or Phobos, in one form or another 17 times in only 486 lines.  These include lines 97, 144, 154, (Onrush and Backrush) (Battle noise and Panic), 195 (Terror and Panic), 347, 370, 372 (fluttering-maned horses) and 463 (Panic and Terror).

Tiny Deimos has fragment diameters of only 6 x 7.5 x 10 miles.  Phobos was a little larger fragment, with a maximum diameter 17 miles.  Hesiod viewed the orbiting of these tiny asteroids as the turning of the wheels of the chariot of Mars.  Phobos has a period of 7 hours 29 minutes.  Deimos, 30 hours 21 minutes.  (Gradualists note, Hesiod could not have seen them if Mars were 2,000,000 miles distant).

For future generations, posterity, (including us), Isaiah and Hesiod reported the events of that night.  It was a scary, close, midnight Passover of Mars, overhead, to a surrounded, very frightened city of Jerusalem, a city that happened to be crammed with refugees.

Assyrian assault armies were waiting, a mile or so beyond the city walls.  Sennacherib and his star gazer advisors viewed this coming scene as an opportunity rather than as a catastrophe.  Lightning might hit Jerusalem, fry it and blow it down from the inside.  Or, more likely, earthquakes might compromise the integrity of its walls, and thereby simplify the coming brutal assault.

From such a sensational starry scene, including a visible Deimos and Phobos, a person might succumb to either dementia tremens, cometophobia (about which more is said in chapter 1), or “Ares-phobia.”  (Deimos and Phobos were two words among some two dozen Greek words for different kinds or categories of fear).

These events were both foreseen and reported by Isaiah in the Book of Isaiah in the Bible, chapters 1 to 38.  Also they were reported in Hesiod's rich 486-line account which he titled “The Shield of Herakles (Hercules).”  They are also reported in Ginzberg's “The Legends of the Jews”.

Incidentally, the title of Hesiod's work seems to have suffered from mistranslations by later translators, scholars who never imagined planetary flybys.  As was mentioned above, a more accurate title, which Hesiod probably had in mind, was “The Disc of Ares”.  A shield was a disc and Hercules was among the archetype names of Ares, as was Phaethon, Gorgon, Lotan, Medusa, Perseus, etc.

In Greek mythology, Hercules was very strong; he was one of many archetypes of Mars in Greek literature.  Ares may have gotten a new nickname with each flyby occasion.  Other archetypes included the swift Perseus, the evil Medusa, the hideous Cyclops, the even uglier Gorgon, the ravaging Lotan, etc.  Essays by David Talbott and Ev Cochrane consider that Ares had 110 archetypes or “nicknames” in Greek literature. [n8],  [n9]

Lotan, one of the Greek archetype of Mars, is derived from the Chaldean language.  This Chaldean word was borrowed or inherited by the ancient Hebrews and appears in the Bible as Leviathan, the celestial dragon in the Book of Job, ch. 41.

With some 100+ archetype words, all descriptive words for Mars in Greek, this is a measure of the swiftness, the luster, the terror and the repeated damage wrought by a numerous close Mars flybys in ancient times.  In another volume evidence will be cited that the Mars flybys were in cycles, 108-year periodic cycles, periodic to the day and virtually to the hour.

The great monsters or dragons of the celestial deep were known by the Hebrews, as by the Chaldeans, under several names.  Those names included Leviathan, Behemoth, Teammate, Asp, and Rehab.  Their assaults on the Earth go back to the era when these celestial assaults began, when the Earth's geomagnetic field was created, and when paleomagnetic polarity reversals began to appear in lava flow sequences.  Leviathan, in our analysis of Chaldean thought, appeared in October flybys, while Behemoth was seen and feared in Chaldean March case flybys, or “Passovers”.

The scenery, that frightening night, stirred both Isaiah and Hesiod to record it.  Since modern translators have no idea of planetary catastrophism, they have chosen a lesser, somewhat softer terms, non-astronomical terms for celestial scenes they could not understand.  As was mentioned earlier, round, electum-colored discs became shields.  They can be reflective if made of iron or bronze and polished.  Electum was a shiny alloy of silver and gold.  The shield of Mars according to Hesiod had the coloring of an electum disc.

Shields were used in earthly combat.  Circular shields were involved in celestial combat.  This night a round, shield-like disc was involved in intense celestial combat with the Earth.  It was with the disc of Ares.
 

For all about the circle of it, with enamel and with pale ivory, and with electrum it shone, and with gold glowing it was bright, and there were folds of cobalt driven upon it.

In the middle was a face of Panic, not to be spoken of, glaring on the beholder with eyes full of fire glinting. and the mouth of it was full of teeth, terrible, repugnant, and glittering white, while over the lowering forehead hovered a figure of Hate, marshaling the slaughter of fighting men, cruel spirit, who took the senses and perception out of those fighters who tried to fight in the face of Zeus' son, the War God. [n10]

As the catastrophe deepened, there was a thick smoke and ash smog in the air from burning forest fires and volcanic eruptions.  The next morning the smoke and ash smog in the atmosphere altered the color of this light silvery orange disc into a deep red.  Forest fire fighters readily understand this coloring due to a thick haze of smoke in the atmosphere, changing yellow sunlight into a red glow.

It was a night to be remembered, so Hesiod wrote in order that it could be remembered by future generations.  He had no idea this flyby would be the last of a long series of waltzes of Ares with Hera.  So it is that modern translators of Hesiod, unfamiliar with planetary catastrophism and the unruly Ares, thus have had to struggle in translating the scenes Hesiod described.

Interestingly, in his report, Hesiod portrayed Mars as first tangling with “gray-eyed” Pallas Athene - Venus.  Apparently, interplanetary discharges were generated by fierce friction in the subcrustal tides of magma.  Between Ares and Pallas Athene, the bolts of lightning lit up the cosmos, including lighting up the cometary tail of Ares.  This was some 56 days before the Final Flyby.

The reflective phenomenon, of discharges on Venus lighting up the cometary tail of Ares, was a rare phenomenon for the ancient Greeks.  Mars-Venus flybys occurred rarely, but when they did, cosmic lightning lit up the cometary tail of Mars like a Christmas tree.  It was an “aegis”.  Modern translators of Hesiod into English have struggled to find a word for Ares' cometary tail.

It was a reflective, silvery, effervescing celestial gauze, reflecting cosmic lightning, interplanetary Venus-Mars discharges.  In English there is no word other than the Greek “aegis” for this phenomenon when lit up.  Otherwise the icy, cometary tail of Mars it was known as the Fleece of Aries.”
 

It was a wonder to look at, even for Zeus deep-thundering, through whose counsels Hephaistos had made the shield, great and massive, fitting it with his hands.
And now the powerful son of Zeus swing it with full control, and leaped down from the horse-chariot like a lightning-flash from the hand of his father,
Zeus of the aegis, stepping light on his feet, and his charioteer, strong Iolaos, standing firm on its floor steered the curved chariot.
Meanwhile, the goddess, Athene of the gray eyes, came and stood close beside them ... [n11]

So modern translators settled upon the ancient Greek term, the “aegis” of Ares.  Only, no translator today can define “aegis” except that it may have had something to do with Pallas Athene and the warlike son of Zeus.

In addition, Hesiod, in his brief 480 lines in “The Shield of Herakles,” did not overlook the appearance of Deimos and Phobos as the two black celestial steeds of Ares.  Adjective and noun phrases used by Hesiod, and now translated, include such terms as “Shaker of the Earth” (line 104), “the War God” (150), “Manslaughter” (155), Grim-faced Ares (191), Death mist (264), “Man slaughtering Ares” (334), “Lord of Battles” (371), “Son of Zeus”, (391), “Stout-hearted son of Zeus”, (424), “Man slaughtering Ares” (425).

These black steeds were described drawing the shining, warlike, sword-swinging chariot of Ares across the celestial scene, the cosmos.

As was mentioned, Deimos and Phobos, and words for them occur some 17 times or more in 486 lines.  Panic and Terror.  Swift-footed horses.  Fast horses with reins slackened.  The horses that drew his chariot.  Horses on either side.  Fast-footed horses.  Fluttering-maned horses.  Two of them.

Isaiah, like Hesiod, was a reporter of the last cosmic waltz.  Among his predictions were forecasts of [high voltage] crashing cosmic lightning discharges, gigantic killer shock waves, terrible claps of thunder [heard for thousands of miles], rocking earthquakes, vigorous volcanic eruptions and an unsettling of the cardinal directions, hence a spin axis relocation.  All of these had occurred during the flyby of 756 B.C.E., perhaps when Isaiah was a child observer.

The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.  The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard and shall be removed like a [summer] cottage.  Isaiah 24: 19-20

Drunkards reeled; so could the spin axis of the Earth.  Summer cottages could be easily relocated with a pair of staves and a sextet of pole carriers.  So also, the North Pole, the South Pole and the equator were relocated.  Isaiah had it right.  It was somewhat of a repeat of the 756 B.C.E. catastrophe, except it was on a Passover anniversary in the spring.  It was at night rather than during the daytime.  But his language was good for the Hebrews of his era, though it was not well tailored for modern science.

Isaiah first predicted, and then reported on the next day after the Final Flyby, as if “the spin axis had shifted.”  Isaiah reported it in a factual manner for the citizens of Jerusalem.  He recorded the shadow on the Jerusalem Sun Dial shortened “10°.”  Someone had measured the new shadow versus the previous shadow, probably as cast at noon, at the Sun's zenith.

The standard of measure he used was lost by the Jews after their Babylonian Captivity, when they lost their Hebrew language.  So, translators, in Hebrew, Latin and English, have guessed and selected the English word “degrees.”

Probably the original term related to a measurement of angles.  The new versus the old angle was measured and the shadow was shorter.  Apparent the shadow was ten “short cubits” shorter, our educated guess.  And the obelisk was perhaps 75 feet high, again a guess.  Angles and degrees are related and this job of translation is fairly good.

Sennacherib's astrologers, close to the throne, had advised him that the Assyrian army ought be stationed outside Jerusalem at least by our date of March 20.  On that night, earthquakes would test the defensive walls, and perhaps shatter them, or at least damage them.  And one bolt of cosmic lightning from the Assyrian Nergal (the Chaldean Bel, the Greek Ares) might turn the holy city into a flaming holocaust.  Thus, Sennacherib's astrologers recommended taking Jerusalem the easy way, enlisting assistance from Nergal-on-high.
 

With this vast army Sennacherib hastened onward, in accordance with the disclosures of the astrologers, who warned him that he would fail in his object of capturing Jerusalem if he arrive there later than the day set by them. [n12]

The Jewish Talmud also records the scenery and the dramatic history of that unusual and pivotal night.  Sennacherib wanted to capture Jerusalem, either by surrender or by sack.  If by sack, it meant the total slaughter of Jerusalem's inhabitants, a holocaust, Nazi-like, including all stray pets.  If Jerusalem was taken by surrender, it meant deportation of the surviving populace to a cold, remote northern land, the land of the Volga, Southern Russia, 1,000 miles, or elsewhere in cities of remote Inner Asia.

King Hezekiah anguished over Sennacherib's terms of surrender, and asked for Isaiah's advice.  Isaiah advised faith and resistance; the Lord would deliver Jerusalem.  Taking Isaiah's advice, Hezekiah resisted, a chancy decision indeed in light of the record of Assyrian annihilation of cities elsewhere in the Near East.

The “Senna” part of Sennacherib's name means “the Moon.”  The “cherib” part of his name in Semitic languages is another word, as shall be demonstrated, for “the cosmic marauder, or Mars.”  The translation in English is “cherub,” which was a destructive angel or messenger of the Lord.  This is discussed in more detail in Chapter 12.  Those same two celestial bodies (Mars and the Moon) “by chance” were the two bodies whose orbits were reduced in diameter that very night.

That night, March 20, 701 B.C.E., Sennacherib's well-armed panzer, with their ample iron armor, were on schedule, and on duty, camped outside the western wall of the city, some 250,000 strong.  Sennacherib's terms, as usual, were “either-or”.  It was either (1) to surrender the city and accept deportation of the entire populace into a far away land, abandoning forever the land of Israel, or (2) to suffer total annihilation.  No more children of Israel.  It was reminiscent of Hitler's style.
 

In the Bible, the events of that night are found in the Book of Isaiah, chapter 38, and in two other places of the Old Testament, in II Kings and in II Chronicles.  Further description at greater length has been recorded in the Talmud, cited as follows.

The archangel Gabriel, sent by God to ripen the fruits of the field, was charged to address himself to the task of making away with the Assyrians, ...

The death of the Assyrians happened when the angel permitted them to hear the “song of the celestials.”  Their souls were burnt, though their garments remained intact. [n13]

Hezekiah and Isaiah were in the Temple when the host of the Assyrians approached Jerusalem; a fire arose from amidst them, which burned Sennacherib and consumed his host.

See Tehellim 22, 180.  The burning of Sennacherib is not to be taken literally. [n14]

“That day” was the night of March 20-21, when a close flyby of Mars would create subcrustal tides, crustal earth shocks, volcanic upheaval and interplanetary mega-thousand volt electrical discharges on the Earth's surface.  Sennacherib accepted the advice of his astrologers and was there on schedule, with his abundant arsenal of armor, much of it made of Hittite iron.

Iron is superior in hardness to other metals, important for military purposes.  But, as Benjamin Franklin discovered, iron also attracts lightning, and therefore it is an excellent material for manufacturing lightning rods.  An arsenal of iron armor makes an even better attraction than does a handful of iron weapons.  Iron's magnetic properties were not realized by either the Assyrians or Hebrews, the Greeks, the Trojans or the Romans.  It is understood only by modern scientists and their students.

The ancient rabbinical commentators wrote for the benefit of later scholars, and to our modern age of gradualism.  Later Hebrews lost the ancient literal perspective of catastrophes, having never seen one, and having lost the original Hebrew language.  Never would they experience interplanetary electrical discharges, on scales of 220 volts, much less on scales of 10,000 to 50,000 volts.  Therefore they tendered that the burning of Sennacherib on one side of his face “was not to be taken literally.”  They were mistaken.  This blast in some ways was like a small atomic bomb.

There were some eight or nine kinds of electrical effects and phenomena that occurred during March flybys.  The Earth's geomagnetic field swept across the cosmos and briefly, for 10 to 20 hours, united in space with the planetary magnetic field of Ares, or Mars. [n15]

The ancient, but post Babylonian rabbinical commentators were trying admirably, but came not even close to an understanding.  Thus they rationalized that the lightning blast which originated from the surfaces of Mars and the Earth instead originated in the Earth's troposphere, or its stratosphere.  Actually their ancient, original sources had been quite correct, and they ought to have been taken literally, without an added disclaimer.
 

Sanhedrin 95b, and similarly Jerome on Is. 10.3.  The latter states that Jewish tradition considers Hamon, “noise” (comp. Is. 33.3), to be the name of the angel Gabriel.  This is corroborated by Aggadat Shir 5, 39.  According to Sanhedrin, the angel clapped together his wings, and the noise caused by it was so terrific that the Assyrians gave up their ghosts.  Another view given in Sanhedrin is that the angel blew out the breath of the Assyrians.  This means that he took their souls without injuring their bodies. [n16]

In response to the high voltage lightning strike, there was a killer shock wave.  Apparently there was a flash somewhat comparable to a small atomic bomb.  Sennacherib himself was reported as being a survivor, but with burns - flash burns, perhaps on one side, like Hiroshima.

Immediately following the blast of lightning came the killer shock wave.  Traveling in the Earth's atmosphere, it was heard for thousands of miles, perhaps as far as the Western Hemisphere.  The celestial lightning had struck, but not in the citadel of Jerusalem, as it might have; it struck Assyrian heavy iron armor.

In three separate citations in the Bible, (Isaiah 38, II Kings and II Chronicles), the mortality count was recorded by that one monumental, massive, memorable nocturnal blast just outside Jerusalem - 185,000 dead Assyrian troops.  What was left of the scared and scorched Assyrian army beat a hasty retreat to Nineveh.  There, Sennacherib, burned and a big loser, was assassinated.

Thus it was that the “angel Gabriel,” a destructive and dreaded messenger of the Lord indeed, delivered Jerusalem.  It had happened once again.  Something similar had occurred on the Long Day of Joshua, some 701+ [or 702] years earlier.  [October, 1404 B.C.E.].

Something similar had happened in the years 1296, 1188, 1080, 972, 864, 756 B.C.E. and a half cycle later, in March of 701 B.C.E.].  Catastrophes were in 108-year cycles, as if they had something to do with Jupiter as well as with Mars.  (The Earth was in 12:1 resonance with Jupiter, and l08 is divisible by 9).  Thus Jupiter was always at the same place in the cosmos when catastrophes hit.

The above citations and others uncited ones in the Talmud indicate there was a record of the “deliverance’s” although not well understood.  Sennacherib's song, a rabbinical theological version of the deliverance of Jerusalem, and the final flyby, are all one, describing the last waltz of Mars and the Earth.

The scientific version of 20th century planetary catastrophism is that first of all, Sennacherib had no business invading Judah or Egypt.  He had no business uprooting and deporting entire populations, ethnic cleansing, which had occurred to Northern Israel and other populations elsewhere the Assyrian Empire.  But that is by our contemporary standards, not his.

Further, if he went ahead anyhow, Sennacherib had no business ever centralizing his iron armor in his encampment.  Especially he should not centralize his iron armor anywhere in a year and in a month and week when the Assyrian “angel of the Lord,” Nergal by name, was to make a close Nergal flyby.

Clearly the approaching “angel” or “messenger of the Lord” was visible and it was on schedule according to both Assyrian astrologers and Isaiah.  It was on the anniversary of the Hebrew Passover, and earlier catastrophes, such as the Exodus event, also the Sodom-Gomorrah event.

Sennacherib's basic problem appears to have been lust and egotism; he wanted to destroy the armies of Egypt and to plunder the great riches of the land of the Nile.  Jerusalem was merely a burr in his saddle on the way, but what a burr.

In our era, ongoing tidal friction within Jupiter creates discharges from Jupiter all the way to the surface of nearby Io, 260,000 miles away.  A constant flow of electricity occurs in voltages up to 400,000 - and some 5,000,000 amps - 2,000,000,000,000 (two trillion) watts.  This voltage between Io and Jupiter equals 70 X all of the human electrical generating capacity on the Earth.

By comparison that night, Mars was distributing (by Io standards) electrical discharges across only some 27,000 to 50,000 miles of space.  The discharges were scattered broadly across the face of the Eastern Hemisphere that night.  Perhaps those discharges were a mere 50,000 or 75,000 volts, or perhaps they were of a higher voltage.  That Troy had been hit sometimes is established by the way its mortar is fused in its city walls.  No other explanation suffices.  Until more research is done, their various voltages are unknown.

Sennacherib's army was a casualty.  It was much like the Greek army, 162+ years earlier, which had suffered heavy casualties from celestial fire just outside the walls of Troy on schedule, on October 24, 864 B.C.E.

Perhaps this particular bolt in 701 B.C.E. was destined generally to discharge somewhere in the land of Israel, even possibly near Jerusalem.  But (thanks be to Sennacherib) it honed in on the fine Assyrian concentration of Hittite iron armor instead, an arsenal of lightning rods.

THE AFTERMATH.  In the aftermath of the discharge, the first job was to bury the dead, a big job.  Next, the good news, very good news indeed, was sent out far and wide.  Scientific types of the late 8th century B.C.E. and early 7th century B.C.E. came from far and wide to inspect the meltdown of iron armor and the crater left at the point of the discharge.  There was a small raised mound left at the very center of where the lightning discharged.  (So it is with craters on Venus today).

Isaiah became famous as a great prophet, one of the greatest Israel ever had.  Hezekiah acquired the reputation as a great and wise king, which he was.

Among the visiting scientific groups was one from Babylon, from some 700 miles to the east.  The chairman was one Merodach-baladan, the son of the king of Babylon, Baladan.  Baladan, the king was named after Bel, the Chaldean Ares.

Merodach was named after the Babylonian deity Marduk, Jupiter.  Thus the name of the prince, Merodach Baladan means “Jupiter-Mars,” or perhaps “Jupiter father of Mars.”  King Belshazzar and the studious Belteshazzar had been named after Mars; Nebuchadnezzar was named after fast-moving Mercury.  In Chaldea, naming royalty after the planets was in vogue in the Catastrophic Era.

In this age of gradualism in the cosmos, nobody names their son Mercury, Mars or Jupiter.  Only rarely in this culture is a baby daughter named “Venus.”  But when this does happen, the position of Venus in the cosmos is hardly what the parents have in mind.

In the centuries after this event, some like Heroditus explained the Assyrian debacle as a sudden plague of flea-infested mice or rats, bringing biological disaster to the Assyrian camp in a single night.  It was a sincere try, but not a very good one.

Many theologians stick with Heroditus and his mice and fleas with bubonic plague for their explanations.  None of them have had the proper base of knowledge to comment.

A few months, even years earlier before the Final Flyby, there were recorded vignettes from what the prophet Isaiah had foreseen and forecast:
 

Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.- Isaiah 29:6

I will sweep with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts.  - Isaiah 14:23

It is well known that Isaiah credited the Lord, God of Israel, with their collective good fortune.  Apparently the Lord had provided Isaiah with some kind of precognition of what would happen, and why Hezekiah should refuse to surrender.  Isaiah told his king that danger indeed was coming but it was danger to the Assyrians, not a danger to the Hebrews.  Isaiah's precognition was shades of Noah’s, precognition, almost 1800 years earlier.

A logical pattern of energy shifts is offered for the energy conversion of Mars from its Catastrophic Era orbit to its modern orbit.

Story 26 is that the year 701 B.C.E. FEATURED TWO FLYBYS, FIRST, MARS-VENUS, AND SHORTLY THEREAFTER, MARS-EARTH.  The first flyby of Venus by Mars was on January 22, 701 B.C.E.  The second flyby was on the night of March 21, also 701 B.C.  This was only 56 to 58 days later.  The energy Mars gained from the first flyby is why Mars went into an orbit farther out, and it went on the wrong side of the Earth during the second flyby.  The first flyby was approximately 48% as energetic as the second.  This first time, Mars gained energy; it was an exchange.  Venus lost an equal amount of energy.

Story 27 is that of the second flyby, THE FINAL WALTZ, WHICH WAS THE MORE ENERGETIC OF THE TWO FLYBYS.  Mars passed between the Earth and the full Moon, on the Earth's outside, or dark side.  This occasion increased the Earth's orbital distance from the Sun by 616,565 miles.  Our planet's spin rate increased 0.452% (360 to 36l.628).  Its period increased 1.003% (361.628 to 365.256).  The combination of the two resulted in an increase of 1.46% in day count per year (360 to 365.256).

After this siege of catastrophism, the Earth no longer was in 12:1 resonance with Jupiter's orbit, nor was Mars in 6:1 resonance.  The orbit of Venus shrunk from .625 to .6152 in period.  Venus left an orbit that had been in 8:5 resonance with the Earth.  As is shown in Table XIII, chapter 10, the period of Venus diminished by 1.32 day.

Story 28 is that THE MOON ALSO DEPARTED FROM ITS EARLIER 12:1 RESONANCE AND 30-DAY PERIOD.  Its new orbit became 29.53 new days rather than the old count of 30.

This chapter addresses the shortening of the SEMI-MAJOR axis of the three bodies, Venus, Mars and the Moon.  In three stages, the “x” axis of Mars was shortened from 146,579,410 miles to 141,635,973 miles.  This is the new semi-major axis, the “x” axis, the longest axis of the Martian orbit.  The new period of Mars became 687 days, down from an old 720 (old count).

The “y” axis of an orbit, the SEMI-MINOR axis, measures the width of an orbit.  Changes in the “y” axis measure changes in angular momentum.  Chapter 9 addresses the changes, in three steps, of the “y” axis of Mars.  It has been deduced that the orbit of Mars rounded out; Table XIII will explain why.

Story 29 demonstrates HOW AND WHEN THE EARTH'S ORBIT ENLARGED FROM A 360-DAY OLD ORBIT CONDITION TO A 365.256-DAY NEW ORBIT CONDITION.  Simultaneously, the Moon's lunation, or synodical period shrunk from a 30-day period to 29.53 days.  Tables XI, in this chapter, and XII and XIII, in chapter 11, indicate that these shifts were in accord with celestial mechanics.

Such information would have brought a smile to the face of Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), the father of celestial mechanics.  No doubt, Isaac Newton among others in London's John Bull club, also would have smiled.  So would Jonathan Swift, Edmund Halley, John Arbuthnot, William Whiston and others.  Chapter 10 indicates why Arbuthnot, Swift and others would have smiled if they had this information.

Story 30 demonstrates HOW THE PERIOD OF THE ORBIT OF MARS SHRUNK FROM THE FORMER 723.257-DAY CONDITION (OLD DAYS) TO THE MODERN 686.979-DAY CONDITION.  This is a major reduction in period of 5.016%.  This reduction in the energy of Mars was attributable primarily to the Earth.  The three planets causing the new orbit of Mars and their energy exchange were:

By comparison, the Earth's orbit enlarged from 361.628 new days (or 360 old days) to 365.256 new days, an increase of only 1.003%.  Mars, in stage # 2, lost just as much energy as the Earth gained.  The Earth's orbit expanded 616,565 miles in its “x” axis.  In the Martian “x” axis, there was a reduction by 15,015,507 miles.  This was because tiny Mars has only one-ninth of the Earth's mass.

The orbit of Venus shrunk from 226.018 days to 224.700 days, a shrinkage in period of 0.58%.  The Mars-Venus flyby featured Mars on the inside.  Venus is smaller than the Earth, and the flyby of Mars wasn't quite as close.  The Mars-Venus polka was only 64.82% as energetic, as passionate astronomically, as was the last Mars-Earth waltz.

Half of this story of exchanges is now completed, the energy exchanges.  The other half, the angular momentum shifts, is in chapter 10.  It is an analysis of the changes of the “y” axes of these four planets.  The “y” axis, the semi-minor axis, measures an orbit's maximum width.

If the totals of both energy shifts and angular momentum exchanges agree, and agree simultaneously at all stages, this theory will constitute a viable theory of catastrophic cosmology and of Earth history.  It will indicate that the popular menu for Solar System genesis and history, gradualism, is the wrong menu.

Unfortunately, at stake is the turf (paradigm) which has been taught as truth to 99.9+% of the 19th and 20th century astronomers when undergraduates.  Without realizing it, they themselves became victims of these doctrines and dogmas that were developed (in an anti-clerical atmosphere) two centuries ago.

Each day, unwittingly, these persons, once undergraduates, now perpetuate the foolishness of gradualism, and create more victims.  The teacher, at least in science, is always thought to be right, that is, except for the mistaken teachers of the Ptolemaic system 400 years ago.  Some of them wanted both Copernicus and Kepler to be burned at the stake, and Galileo as well.

So most embrace these dubious dogmas of the anti-clericalists of 200 years ago.  For some, questioning these 200-year old “givens” is painful.  So it is that both teachers and students affirm that Mars has always been only a tiny pinpoint of light in the night time sky for the past 4+ billion years.  The red planet never ever has been closer to the Earth-Moon system than the modern 33,000,000 miles.

These scholars however pay no attention to ancient history, to ancient calendars, to ancient literature or to the repeated accounts of planetary catastrophism in the Old Testament.  In so doing, they have no concept of how much they have missed.

Story 31 is that both the Book of Isaiah and Hesiod's “The Shield of Herakles” WERE WRITTEN IN THE AFTERMATH OF BOTH THE FINAL FLING OF MARS WITH VENUS, AND THE FINAL WALTZ OF MARS WITH THE EARTH.

Add to this Hesiod's “Theogony” and the writings of Apollodorus, plus those of the “fire and brimstone prophets” Amos, Joel, Micah, etc.  Other materials include Homer, Ovid, Plutarch and others not discussed here in detail.  Vignettes only from Hesiod and Isaiah have been incorporated to widen the perspective of general readers, scientists, historians, geologists, archaeologists and theologians, among others.

Story 32 is THE NATURE OF THE DEMISE OF SENNACHERIB'S ARMY, AND OF THE SURVIVAL OF JERUSALEM.  Jerusalem survived the onslaught of the Assyrians, spearheaded by Sennacherib's panzer of 701 B.C.E.  Loosely speaking, the crisis night was a near carbon copy of goings on during the Long Day of Joshua, 700 years earlier.  At that time, also via catastrophism, the Hebrews had been spared and had triumphed over the larger, well-armed armies of a Canaanite alliance.

The 20th century, and soon the 21st century, is fortunate to have the records of these two such eye witness reporters of that celestial scene.  One was from just outside Athens, and the other from inside Jerusalem.  The reports of both deserve careful analysis.  As was mentioned above, other writers of the era, Greek, Hebrew and beyond, who described catastrophism, also merit attention.

Story 33 is that THERE ALSO WAS A MODEST, INWARD SHIFT IN THE ORBIT OF VENUS DURING LATE JANUARY OF THE CATASTROPHIC YEAR 701 B.C.E.  The inward shift of Venus plus the outward shift of the Earth spelled the doom of the ancient Egyptian Venus calendar.  The slight increase in the Earth's spin rate coupled with an enlarged orbit insured the doom of the 360-day calendars.

With story 33, the reader now is a full 70% of the way to understanding the catastrophic scenery of ancient times.  The view of both history and the cosmos keeps getting better and better, richer and more spectacular.

With respects to Plutarch, Hesiod, Homer, Apollodorus, Isaiah, Joel, Amos, Hosea, Jonah and others, in modern cosmology the score now is: Ancient literary catastrophism - 4, Modern 20th century gradualism - 0.