To say the least, there’s a bit of unrest going on in the world at the moment. The biggest powder keg, no doubt, is currently confined to a few square miles in Gaza. People should be out enjoying the beauty of the adjoining Mediterranean Sea. They’re not. Hamas’ attacks prompted Israel to strike back mightily, and the ensuing battle shows no signs of scaling back any time soon. Civilian and militia lives alike are being lost at a continuously climbing and alarming rate.

Countries in the Middle East surrounding the tinder box claim no knowledge of their support for Hamas. And Western countries scoff (usually with great derision) at such denials.

Meanwhile, Vlad “the Mad” Putin and his minions continue to try to lay waste to Ukraine. The two-day war he foresaw is soon to begin its second year of operation. Countless Russian and Ukrainian soldiers and civilians in Ukraine are paying the price for the ongoing battles with their lives.

Biding their time for something (who knows what?), China is amassing ships in the South China Sea and in the waters that separate the mainland from Taiwan, while North Korea’s madman finds it necessary to lob rockets farther and farther east into the sea.

In the U.S., we’re not being officially invaded, but with yet another mass shooting this past week in Maine, there are obviously troubles of our own we face in our homeland.

Perhaps it’s poignant to pause here and take a quick look at some biblical prophecies that seem rather relevant. In more than one book of the Old and New Testaments, there are references to the world being destroyed not by water (e.g., Noah and the Ark), but by fire. I’m no theologian nor biblical scholar, but I’m pretty sure there are other mentions in the Good Book about brimstone and other hot, hot, hot stuff raining down from the sky at the end times. And we may not even know what hit us. What I DO know is that there are more and more nations and ne’er-do-wells controlling those nations that are the proud owners of nuclear armaments not intended to be used for peaceful purposes.

All of the above is a lead-up to a news story that caught my eye this week. What do you know about the Devil Comet? The report I read said this comet is twice the size of Mount Everest and is currently hurtling toward Earth. Right now, it poses no threat to any of us, and it should only give us a really cool “shooting star” in the night sky next spring. So far, that is.

The report said in the science community, the Devil Comet is called 12P/Pons-Brooks, first discovered in 1812, subsequently seen in 1883, and then every 71 years after that. It’s one of the few comets with an active ice volcano that “contain a mix of ice, dust and gas known as cryomagma, and are surrounded by gas that leaks out from the inside.” The size estimate of the comet’s nucleus by astronomers is about 12.4 miles. (Imagine measuring such things?) That makes it massive compared to other comets’ nuclei which apparently measure between 0.6 and 1.8 miles wide. That volcano, it seems, has exploded a couple of times, and the most recent time produced a cloud of ice and gas that looked like a gigantic pair of horns. (Hence, the name Devil Comet.)

You know, another moniker for comets is “fireballs,” and they are aptly named. You may recall that scientists speculate some kind of comet blasted into Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs and whatever else was living on terra firma around 66 million years ago.

The Devil Comet is supposed to miss us this time, passing by our sphere roughly 144 million miles away. But according to one astronomer, comets are “notoriously unpredictable.” (And 144 million miles in space is probably like half a block here on Earth.) If Halley’s Comet (about the same size as this one) had hit us, the resulting energy impact reportedly would have been equivalent to 4.4 billion megatons of TNT (44 times more than the dinosaur destroyer).

So, what if the Devil Comet changes direction and descends upon us? Re-read the first few paragraphs above and see if you think the Creator of the universe might just be a tad bit unhappy with what’s happening on the third rock from our sun?

Let’s just hope sane heads prevail between now and next May or June and we don’t have to test anyone’s patience. Could be even messier than what’s going on right now.

©MMXXIII. William J. Lewis, III – Freelance Writer