Exploring Competing Theories of Cosmic Visitors
Every few years, headlines announce the arrival of another visitor from the far reaches of the solar system—a new comet, a fiery intruder, an ancient body awakened by its long fall toward the inner sun. To some, it’s a fascinating celestial event. To others, it rekindles old fears of cosmic disaster. The recent discovery of Comet C/2025 D1 (Gröller) is just the latest in a long tradition of comets capturing both scientific curiosity and public imagination.
But behind the public fascination lies a much deeper, and far more contentious, debate: What exactly are comets? And more importantly: Are they a threat?
In this post, we’ll explore three competing models:
-
The Standard Model held by most astronomers
-
The Electric Universe Model advocated by a growing minority
-
The Catastrophist Model, championed by thinkers like Velikovsky, Anthony Larson—and by my fictional character Manny Volynsky in Red Sky.
The Standard Model: Dirty Snowballs in Space
For over half a century, NASA, JPL, and mainstream planetary science have described comets as icy remnants from the solar system’s formation, often called dirty snowballs. The core of a comet (its nucleus) is believed to be a mixture of:
-
Water ice
-
Frozen gases (carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane)
-
Rocky and dusty material.
As a comet approaches the Sun, solar heating causes these ices to sublimate directly into gas, releasing streams of dust and vapor that form the glowing coma and spectacular tails we see from Earth.
This model was largely built on the pioneering work of Fred Whipple in the 1950s and was reinforced by missions like:
-
Deep Impact (Tempel 1, 2005)
-
Rosetta (67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, 2014)
These space missions provided stunning close-up images of comet nuclei—dark, rugged, oddly shaped bodies that seemed more rocky than icy, but whose activity was still attributed to sublimating ices.
The Shoemaker-Levy 9 Shift
In 1994, the spectacular impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter forever changed our perception of comets as harmless sky objects. Suddenly, the reality of cosmic impacts was undeniable.
Scientists who once dismissed impact scenarios as science fiction were now proposing active NASA programs to track so-called near-Earth objects (NEOs).
The era of cosmic complacency was over.
The Electric Universe Model: Cosmic Lightning Bolts
The Electric Universe (EU) model challenges nearly every core assumption of the standard model. EU theorists assert that comets are not primarily icy but are instead rocky, electrically charged bodies. Their spectacular displays result not from sublimation, but from electrical interactions with the Sun’s plasma field and solar wind.
Key Assertions of the EU Model:
-
Comet nuclei are largely solid rock with only minimal ice.
-
As comets plunge through varying electric fields in the heliosphere, they build up charge differentials that lead to plasma discharges—similar to cosmic lightning.
-
The coma and tails are electric plasma phenomena, not merely vaporized gases.
-
The EU community points to surprising features observed during missions:
-
Highly collimated jets far from the Sun
-
Unexpected surface compositions showing high-temperature minerals
-
Sharp surface features inconsistent with melting or sublimation.
-
The EU model is bold—and highly controversial. But its advocates argue that traditional comet theory repeatedly falls short when confronted with actual space probe observations.
In my novel Red Sky, my character Manny Volynsky aligns closely with this school of thought, though he extends it into even more radical territory, merging plasma cosmology with planetary catastrophism.
The Catastrophist View: Cosmic Visitors as Agents of Judgment
No discussion of comets would be complete without acknowledging the Catastrophist model, deeply influenced by the controversial work of Immanuel Velikovsky and carried forward by modern thinkers like Anthony Larson and others whose research I’ve studied carefully over the years.
Core Catastrophist Assertions:
-
The solar system has a chaotic past.
-
Large planetary bodies (including Venus and Mars) may have undergone unstable orbits and close encounters with Earth.
-
Many biblical and mythological catastrophes (the Exodus, flood narratives, apocalyptic prophecies) are interpreted as planetary near-collisions or electromagnetic plasma interactions.
-
Comets and planets may not be categorically separate: ancient comets may have been smaller rogue planets.
-
The Book of Revelation, Exodus plagues, and Last Days prophecies are rich with imagery that may describe not metaphor but actual cosmic phenomena—iron dust turning water to blood, thick darkness, pillars of fire, falling stars, massive quakes.
For Catastrophists, comets are not random icy leftovers but are often intimately tied to cycles of judgment and renewal. Their appearance signals not just scientific curiosity, but prophetic significance.
The Fear Factor: Why Comets Still Haunt Us
From the panic surrounding Halley’s Comet in 1910 (fueled by fears of cyanogen gas), to the sensational predictions surrounding Comet ISON and Comet Elenin, comets have always evoked more than just scientific interest.
-
Some feared the “end of the world.”
-
Others speculated about hidden alien craft (as with the wild claims about Elenin).
-
Even today, every new major comet seems to awaken dormant apocalyptic fears.
In truth, these fears reflect an ancient human instinct: an uneasy awareness that the heavens have not always been calm, and may not remain so forever.
The Red Sky Connection: Comets as the Heralds of Change
In my upcoming novel Red Sky, much of the story revolves around a rogue celestial object—a body that behaves both like a comet and like a planet. It reflects aspects of all three models discussed here:
-
Standard physics governs its trajectory and orbital mechanics.
-
Electric Universe principles influence how it interacts with solar plasma.
-
Catastrophist models inform how it triggers global disruptions—massive earthquakes, electromagnetic storms, and societal collapse.
Manny Volynsky, my fictional catastrophist prophet, embodies this synthesis. His warnings draw not only on hard data but on ancient traditions, prophetic patterns, and a deep conviction that history moves in cycles of great upheaval.
Conclusion: Three Models, One Ongoing Mystery
Comets remain one of the great unresolved puzzles of astronomy.
-
Are they harmless relics of solar formation?
-
Are they electrically alive, responding to plasma currents?
-
Or are they dangerous planetary agents, as Velikovsky and others suggest?
Perhaps the truth lies in a fusion of all three models. As always, science advances slowly, but comets remind us that sometimes ancient fears hold a kernel of wisdom.
And in fiction—as in Red Sky—we are free to explore every possibility.
Discover more from Red Sky Story
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
