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Comets in the time of the plague
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You can also read the Polish version here.
In recent weeks when the world anxiously followed the spreading SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, we could observe the light of the C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) comet becoming brighter at an equally fast pace. It is supposed to reach the maximum brightness in May and become the most spectacular phenomenon of this type in years. People reacted with astonishment and curiosity, but in some circles it lead to fear and distrust.
This is nothing new. In our entire written history, people watched the skies with curiosity and celestial events, which could not be found in any of the predictions inscribed in clay tablets or papyrus scrolls of the astronomers of those times, raised extreme emotions, from praise to hysteria. Even though the average person of the ancient times knew the sky much better than we do today (otherwise they would miss the best time for seeding, or lose their way) something that suddenly appeared in the sky, considered to be the domain of temperamental gods, was a reason good enough to worry. In this field comets take a special place as the bearers of bad news and they have a pretty vast catalogue of ties with…
