Stars, Planets & Civilizations 

            The 2500-year-old quotation below describes the formation of stars and planets and is more detailed and explicit than our current planet-formation theory.  Its technical sophistication proves that it did not come from the imagination of primitive men who thought the stars were lamps hung on the inside of the inverted bowl of heaven.  How would they have known how the earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago?  Although mixed up and not expressed in modern scientific terminology, the explanation clearly represents advanced knowledge and thus begs the all-important question, 'What happened to the high civilization that originated this information?'  (Leucippus had no scientific equipment and could not have made this up by himself any more than he could have 'imagined' his atomic theory.) 

            Evidently a previous and sophisticated civilization just disappeared, and we need to seriously examine the unthinkable: could an identical fate befall our own civilization?  Incessant wars, the destruction of our climate, and the plague-potential of overpopulation make a lot of people uneasy about a repeat performance by the present human race. 

            Please help prevent a new disaster by publicly pointing out that Leucippus' rational and technically plausible explanations are proof of the existence of an advanced but now vanished civilization.  It goes without saying that such a stand against the conventional 'wisdom' will require the courage and conviction of a Galileo to defend, but without a wake-up call from responsible and credible individuals we may again go over the edge.  

            The following suggests that initially 'bodies' of matter came together in space with a collective spin.  Cyclone action stratified the material and, due to friction, a 'membrane' or layer -- probably comparable to the liquid magma layer underlying the earth's mantle -- was formed around a solid core.  This layer then absorbed more matter from the outside, and the remainder became 'entangled', i.e. solidified, to form the crust.  More massive worlds heated up and ignited to become stars. 

                "Leucippus [~450 BCE] holds that the whole is infinite... The worlds come into being as follows: many bodies of all sorts of shapes move by 'abscission from the infinite' into a great void; they come together there and produce a single whirl, colliding with one another and revolving in all matter of ways.  But when their multitude prevents them from rotating any longer in equilibrium (they begin to separate apart, like to like); those that are fine go out towards the surrounding void as if sifted, while the rest 'abide together' and, becoming entangled, unite their motions and make a first spherical structure.  This structure stands apart (from?) a 'membrane' which contains in itself all kinds of bodies; and as they whirl around owing to the resistance of the middle, the surrounding membrane becomes thin, while contiguous atoms keep flowing together owing to contact with the whirl.  So the earth came into being, the atoms that had been borne to the middle abiding together there.  Again, the containing membrane is itself increased: owing to the attracti(ng?) of bodies outside, as it moves around in the whirl, it takes in anything it touches.  Some of these bodies that get entangled form a structure that is at first moist and muddy, but as they revolve with the whirl of the whole they dry out and then ignite to form the substance of the heavenly bodies.  

                For some worlds there is no sun and moon, in others they [i.e. the sun or the moon] are larger than in our world, and in others more numerous.  The intervals between the worlds are unequal... they are in constant motion in the void [i.e. orbiting]...There are some worlds devoid of living creatures or plants or moisture..."  [Anaximenes had said (~550 BCE) that some stars have "certain earthy bodies that are carried around with them, being invisible"] 

                This was written about 1,750 years ago and is translated from the original Greek on page 417 (or 410) of The Presocratic Philosophers, 2nd Edition, by Kirk, Raven & Schofield, Cambridge University Press, and in other textbooks.