Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"We'd have most of what we predicted of the conquest of space, if we hadn't ignored parasite control."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Cosmoquake | ||
| Gravity waves ripple across the solar system. |
This is similar to what are described as "gravity waves".
| The force of the cosmoquake was nowhere
overwhelming. Water in small shallow ponds
tended to overflow. Mostly, however, the two
impulses were so nearly equal in duration,
and so nearly opposite in sign that there was
no great damage.
Some chimneys fell. There were a great many traffic accidents. But the damage done by the cosmoquake itself was much less than that caused by violent local earthquakes which followed wherever geologic faults existed. The thing was inexplicable. It really appeared that not only the Earth but the whole cosmos had experienced something hitherto-unknown phenomenom. There was a monstrous increase in solar disturbances to lend color to the theory. But Braddick had used a new discovery in his own specialty—which was the study of research methods—and within three days had submitted a paper to the Philosophical Journal on the cosmoquake. In it, he pointed out that the observed effects on the Earth and sun could have been produced by a body of twelve sols mass passing through the solar system at a speed approaching that of light, along a line from Polaris toward the Southern Cross and at a distance of some six hundred million miles from Earth. |
| Technovelgy from Things Pass By,
by Murray Leinster. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1945 Additional resources -
|
Here's what a cosmoquake feels like to human observers:
It is not possible to describe them all.
There were areas where human beings found
themselves completely weightless, and were
made mad by the feeling that they fell upward into an empty, cloudflecked sky.
There were other areas in which people
felt themselves pressed to the earth as if by
an intolerable weight. Those sensations reversed themselves within the term of three
seconds to which cosmoquakes seemed to
be limited by the nature of things. But the
areas in such uncomplicated phenomena
showed were the lucky ones.
Compare to the gravity beam from Wandl, the Invader (1932) by Ray Cummings.
In the laboratory, an alarm bell rang
sharply. Braddick’s face grew dark. He put
his hand to the table to push back his chair.
And the earth groaned. Literally. There
are millions of people who will always swear
that they experienced the shocking vibration of the cry of a tortured earth. And then
horrible things happened. . . .
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Things Pass By
More Ideas
and Technology by Murray Leinster
Tech news articles related to Things Pass By
Tech news articles related to works by Murray Leinster
| SpaceX Wants A Moonbase Alpha |
| NASA Wants Self-Driving Or Remote-Controlled Vehicles For Lunar Astronauts |
| Orbital Mechanics, The Liftoff, The Turnover, The Retrograde Burn |
| Can A Human Land A SpaceX Rocket On Its Tail? |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!'
Now that's power walking that Hugo Gernsback would have approved.
'It was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct...'
'...he rewired the delivery robot so that it would serve him midnight snacks.'
'On went the electric-yacht faster and still faster.'
'...the huge vessel had spun, with a sickening lurch, through a complete half-circle, the instant the power was reversed.'
'...he realized that it was not quite a clear lens. Speckles of colored brightness swirled and gathered in it.'
