Cosmos Episode 4: "Heaven and Hell"

Today I decided to post the entire fourth episode of Carl Sagan's landmark television series Cosmos: "Heaven and Hell". In fact of the all the thirteen episodes this has to rank as one of my most favourites. It was from this episode that I learned about the eyewitness account of a lunar impact seen by Canterbury monks on June 18, 1178 that some researchers believe resulted in the formation of crater Giordano Bruno. This event was recorded in the chronicle of Gervase. Another topic covered in this episode was Tunguska explosion of June 30, 1908. Some researches such as Bill Napier and Victor Clube have linked these two events together as being a byproduct of the Beta Taurid meteor shower; both events coincided with a peak in that shower. I will be covering this topic in a series of articles in commemoration of the upcoming centennial of the Tunguska explosion.

Some researchers have linked the Beta Taurid meteor shower to the collapse of late Bronze Age civilizations and some feel that lurking in its wake are more potential disasters to come. Imagine a Tunguska sized fireball exploding over New York City. The video segment below outlines just such a scenario very vividly.