One Step Closer to “The Road”

So this morning the NY Times reports that an amateur astronomer discovered what appears to be an impact spot on Jupiter that’s the size of the Earth. Check it out here: thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/amateur-astronomer-finds-new-earth-size-impact-mark-on-jupiter/?hp

At first I puzzled over what could be the cataclysm in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, brushing off the fuzzy-thinkers who said “It doesn’t matter.” I thought maybe a meteor/comet, but the details are rather sketchy—basically a series of bright flashes in the sky. A student of mine repeated my suspicion, and as we discussed it, I became convinced. (Nuclear war doesn’t fit; there’s no fallout described in the aftershock.) Later I heard McCarthy admitted that it was an impact.

Being an inveterate Discovery Channel watcher and lover of loopy meteor/comet theories, such as the one that posits an impact event 12,900 years ago wiped out the Clovis Culture in North America, I think it’s a great use of science with a soft touch. McCarthy didn’t have to get all Michael Crichton about it, just a few details and then launch the human and philosophical drama. Not to mention the cannibals, to boot.