Strange glow has appeared above the city, submerged in the darkness of night. In the starless sky hangs a comet – fireball with a tail like blades of swords. Once in 76 years comes it from unimaginable depths of space and crosses the Earth’s orbit inspiring superstitious awe in the hearts of people. Comet’s shine casts ghostly patches of light on walls and a cupola of the tower rising above the city. It is the House of Wisdom. In its outside niches stand stone sages – guardians of the city, in monastic clothes with severe ascetic faces. The city stands still and waits: they must reveal the meaning of the heavenly sign. Now one after another they unfold the scrolls, and one after another appear Gothic letters, forming into an ancient prophecy: APOCALYPSE. One of the statues has moved from its place and in silent anguish has stretched his hand to the sky, asking for forgiveness and deliverance from catastrophes and disasters. The hope does not leave people, that prayers of saints will reach Heaven! 

A comet arrived from the mysterious depths of the Cosmos, and it cuts the Earth’s orbit instilling terror into inhabitants of a city. In the picture we see how in the niches of the dome of the sacred tower stone sages, the guardians of the temple, are frozen to stillness. The city is waiting: they would reveal the secret meaning of this sign from heaven… We see that one of these statues moved and raised its hands toward the sky praying unto God for the forgiveness and deliverance from universal disaster.

People took notice of comets from time immemorial. One cannot but observe in the sky such a rare, and hence, appalling sight, much more terrible than any eclipse, when in the sky a vague luminary is visible, sometimes so bright that it could blaze even through clouds outshining even the moon, and from bowels of the unwanted celestial visitor enormous tails erupt. Not without a reason in the Middle Ages comets were considered as a bad omen of  wars and epidemics. For example, the Norman invasion of South England in 1066 was associated with the appearance of the Halley’s comet. Fall of Constantinople in 1453 was also associated with 

appearance of the same comet. 

This wonderful newcomer arriving from the depths of the solar system can be seen practically only once within a span of man’s life. The comet made its appearance every 76 years, with amazing regularity. Mark Twain, an admirable American writer, the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, came into the world in the year 1835 when the Halley’s comet shone in the sky. A year before his death he said, “I came to this world in 1835 together with the Halley’s comet, and I expect to leave together with it.” So it happened.

The widely known Halley’s comet could be a perfectly suitable candidate for the role of a alien celestial body having intruded into our Solar system by order of some another cosmic civilization far surpassing humankind in its development.

Indeed, when comets approach the sun, considerable part of the material contained in them is spent on formation of tails. However, after disappearing from the sky, comets later arrive again.  Well then, somewhere in celestial workshops unknown to us they restore, or rather, recover their matter. Over millennia someone gathers information about our Solar system by means of these peculiar probes-comets. 

…Perhaps, Marc Twain came to us from another civilization too?