The Star

Abstract

The story describes the disasterous effects on the Earth when the flaming remains of a planetary collision (Neptune collided with some planet sized object that came from outside our solar system) passes close by the Earth. Just after the collision, a math professor does the computations necessary to predict the path of "the new star" and is the first to recognize that it will be headed towards the Earth. It is a complicated computation, since it involves interaction with Jupiter which swings it around a curved path. My favorite part of the story is when the math professor announces to his students that he will not be able to finish the course due to circumstances beyond his control, and so rather than giving the next lecture as he had planned, he explains to them his derivation of the dynamics which suggest the possibility that the future of human life may be very short indeed.