DBWI: 1908 Paris Meteor hits elswhere

I disagree that hitting one of those areas of North America would have been less tragic. There may have been fewer immediate deaths, but the tectonic sensitivity of some of those areas could have resulted in disaster. Do recall the increase in volcanic activity in Italy often attributed as a result of the Paris Event.

Unlikely, the Paris event was classified as an airburst event, NOT an impact event (as much as conspiracy theorists like to deny it), this is evidenced by a wide range of things, most importantly the tiny fragments of the bolide that actually reached the ground in any sizeable size.

OOC: Assuming its taken off of Tunguska
 
People seem to forget about the vast leap in French "scientifiction" writing in the aftermath of the disaster. Joseph Henri Honoré Boex should be remembered for his creation of the "Ferromagnetals" (1910) (OOC: ATL version of "Transformers"). Arnould Galopin is credited for predicting the "Nemesis Event" with his novel Doctor Omega(1906). Gustave Henri Joseph Le Rouge's Dr. Prosper Bondonnat (1914-x) is credited with being the longest running science fiction series. As for television, who here doesn't remember watching any of the 26 seasons, Solaris by Jacques F. Vallée???

Yes, the meator does seemed to have sparked a leap in French science that probably would not have happened otherwise. It is also remarkable that despite it being a very forward thinking country that most of the people in it remain observant Catholics.

OOC: This would make a great TL.
 
Its well known that on June 30th, 1908, the city of Paris, at the time capitol of France, was effectively destroyed by the explosion of what is believed to have been a meteor. However, that meteor could easily have hit elsewhere, by interaction with the gravity of other objects in space. Even a tiny change in trajectory could have had it hit as far away as Siberia, or miss the Earth, entirely.

Lets say that that deviation did occur, and the meteor hit some remote, mostly uninhabited region.

Would astronomers, and later rocket scientists, have gotten the budgets that they did in OTL?

Would we still have spent so much time and money, searching for hostile extra-terrestrial intelligences, and ways to defend against them? (OOC: War of the Worlds was published ten years before, and was quite popular, so this could have happened.)

How different would the Great War have been, without that fear distracting the Great Powers? (OOC: Europe was enough of a powder keg at the time, that I think something like WWI would still have happened.)

Could Paris have continued to be the cultural centre of Europe, or would that title still have been split between London and Berlin?

Paris probably would have been rebuilt in even grander spendor than even Baron Haussman could have dreamed of (I'm serious.) I don't think that Berlin could have been a cultural capital of Europe, it is too far east, never had the Versailles card, and is the capital of an autocratic monarchy, not the best place for Bohemian liberalism and free though to flourish.
 
Yeah, I heard about the new laptop. It's light-years ahead of anything else that's been put out. I just wish it weren't so expensive.

As to your earlier question about the moon. Without the Paris asteroid strike, there wouldn't have been as much interest in space exploration. We may have not seen a moon landing until as late as the mid-1970's (as crazy as that sounds). Also, when it eventually does happen I doubt it would have been a Frenchman and an Englishman. As bloody as the Great War was, at least it presented a clear result: a German victory. ITTL, I could see the result being less decisive. This could result in more tension and less cooperation in Europe. We could see the power bases being transfered outside of Europe altogether. The U.S.A. or Japan would be good candidates. Can you imagine how dominant the U.S. could have gotten if Europe had been fighting amongst themselves for the whole first half of the century instead of building themsleves into a semi-united superpower?

ooc: I would think that increase development in space and reaching the moon in the 50's would result in an also earlier advance of the computer. It just seems odd for computers and "laptops" to take another 55 years to develop.

IC: I wonder if the United States had got involved in the great war of Europe if it still would have gone into Mexico when it collapsed in the 30's? I can't imagine a U.S without the old northern territories of Mexico.
 
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