http://www.skyandtelescope.com.au 57Still, one has to wonder why the
outlandish premises of Worlds in
Collision got so much traction in the
first place. Science historian Stephen
Jay Gould wrote, “The Velikovsky
affair raises what is perhaps the most
disturbing question about the public
impact of science. How is a layman to
judge rival claims of supposed experts?
Any person with a gift for words can
spin a persuasive argument about any
subject not in the domain of a reader’s
personal expertise.” Advocate-turned-
critic Leroy Ellenberger notes, more
pointedly, “The less one knows about
science, the more plausible Velikovsky’s
scenario appears.”
Six decades later, Worlds in Collision
is rapidly disappearing in the rear-
view mirror of history, yet our human
penchant for intriguing but outlandish
scientific claims remains.KELLY BEATTY keeps close watch
on Venus just to make sure it doesn’t
suddenly sprout a tail and careen
toward Earth.trumpedthepowerofgravity.
Understandably, astronomers of
thedaywereoutragedbyallofthis.
It took Velikovsky four years to get
Worlds in Collisionpublished, finally
gettingagreenlightfromMacmillan
inpartbecauseasympatheticGordon
Atwater, then head of astronomy at
NewYork’sAmericanMuseumof
Natural History, promised to create
a show for Hayden Planetarium to
depict the book’s planetary pinball. But
Atwaterwassummarilyfiredbefore
that could happen. Strenuous objections
by Harvard’s Harlow Shapley, Cecelia
Payne-Gaposchkin and other academics
—includingaboycottofMacmillan’s
astronomy textbooks — caused the
publisher to jettison this literary hot
potato to Doubleday. The book and its
author merited a blistering editorial in
Sky&Telescope.A curious, believing public
Remarkably,Worlds in Collision became
incredibly popular in 1950, especially
among the New York literati. Advance
articles about the forthcoming book in
Harper’s,Reader’s Digest and elsewhere
whetted the public’s appetite. Once in
print, the book rocketed to the top of
theNewYorkTimes’ best-seller list and
remained a top-ten pick for five months.
Although pilloried almost universally
by professional astronomers, Velikovsky
remained a frequent acquaintance of
Albert Einstein. More than a decade
later he gained a modicum of support
thanks to Princeton physicist Valentine
Bargmann and Columbia astronomer
Lloyd Motz, whose letter in Science
(December 21, 1962) pointed out
Velikovsky’s successful predictions that
Jupiter was a source of radio energy and
that Venus must be very hot.SIMON KIDD; VENUS SEQUENCE: SEAN WALKER
FURTHER READING: You’ll get a good
grounding in Velikovsky’s controversial
publications by perusing the essays in The
Skeptic’s Dictionary (skepdic.com/velikov.
html), by Stephen Jay Gould (https://
is.gd/OIkXye) and by Paula Findlen
(https://is.gd/9SmAGW).SNormally featureless to the eye, Venus revealed subtle atmospheric features when captured in
near-infrared light (610 nm) during its apparition before dawn in mid-2017.Venus mimics all the phases of the
Moon as it circles the Sun inside Earth’s orbit,
as shown in this near-ultraviolet sequence recorded in 2007.July 17, 2017 Aug. 31, 2017