astronomy

When Worlds Collide

When Worlds Collide is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand When Worlds Collide rather than just read about it. In short: When Worlds Collide is a 1933 science fiction novel co-written by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie; they also co-authored a sequel, After Worlds Collide (1934). It was first published as a six-part monthly serial (September 1932 through February 1933) in Blue Book magazine, illustrated by Joseph Franké.

Key takeaways

When Worlds Collide belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect When Worlds Collide to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of When Worlds Collide from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

When Worlds Collide is a 1933 science fiction novel co-written by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie; they also co-authored a sequel, After Worlds Collide (1934). It was first published as a six-part monthly serial (September 1932 through February 1933) in Blue Book magazine, illustrated by Joseph Franké.

Synopsis Sven Bronson, a Swedish astronomer working at an observatory in South Africa, discovers a pair of rogue planets, Bronson Alpha and Bronson Beta, which will soon enter the Solar System. In eight months, they will pass close enough for gravitational forces to cause catastrophic damage to the Earth. Sixteen months later, after swinging around the Sun, Bronson Alpha (a gas giant) will return to pulverize the Earth and depart. Bronson Beta (discovered to be Earth-like and potentially habitable) may remain and assume a stable orbit. Men and women recruited by American astrophysicist Cole Hendron work desperately to build an atomic rocket capable of transporting enough people, animals, and equipment to Bronson Beta to stave off extinction. Other countries do the same. Eve Hendron, Cole's assistant and daughter, becomes convinced that God has provided Bronson Beta to give humanity a second chance, just as He did with Noah. Coastal regions are evacuated in preparation for the first encounter. As the planets approach, telescopes reveal cities on Bronson Beta. Tidal waves sweep inland at a height of 750 feet (230 m), volcanic eruptions and earthquakes add to the deadly toll, and the weather runs wild for more than two days. Bronson Alpha grazes and destroys the Moon. Aferward, three men receive permission from Hendron to take a floatplane to check out conditions across the United States. They meet with the President in Hutchinson, Kansas, the temporary capital of the United States. All three are wounded fighting off a mob at their last stop, but manage to return with a precious sample of an extremely heat-resistant metal one of them had noticed. This solves the last remaining engineering obstacle: no material had previously been found that could make rocket tubes capable of withstanding the heat of the atomic exhaust for very long. Five months before the end, desperate mobs attack the camp, killing over half of Hendron's people. When the survivors can hold no longer, they retreat to the rocket, as ordered by Hendron. They then take off, hover, and blast the enemy with their deadly exhaust. With the rocket tube breakthrough, they are able to build a second, larger ship that can carry everyone left alive (instead of only 100 of the roughly thousand people Hendron had recruited). The two American ships take off, but lose contact with each other. Other ships are seen launching from Europe; the French ship's tubes melt, causing it to crash. The original American ship lands successfully, but it is unknown whether anyone else made it. The survivors find that Bronson Beta is habitable. They also find a road. The sequel, After Worlds Collide, details the fate of the survivors on Bronson Beta.

Adaptations and influences When Worlds Collide had far-reaching influences on the science fiction genre. The themes of an approaching planet threatening the Earth, and an athletic hero, his girlfriend, and a scientist traveling to the new planet by rocket, were used by writer Alex Raymond in his 1934 comic strip Flash Gordon. Jack Williamson's 1934 short story "Born of the Sun" also used the concept of a scientist and his fiancée escaping the destruction of the Earth in a hurriedly constructed "ark of space". The 1940–1941 newspaper comic strip Speed Spaulding, an adaptation credited to the novel's authors, was more directly based on the novel. The themes of escape from a doomed planet to a habitable one also can be seen in Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's 1938 comic Superman. The novel was adapted as the 1951 film When Worlds Collide, produced by George Pal and directed by Rudolph Maté, which in turn was adapted into a comic book by George Evans in Motion Picture Comics #110 (Fawcett Comics, May 1952). In 2012, the British composer Nigel Clarke wrote a large-scale work for brass band inspired by the film and likewise titled When Worlds Collide.

See also Impact events in fiction Rogue planets in fiction Worlds in Collision, a 1950 book of pseudoscientific speculation by Immanuel Velikovsky

Footnotes

References

Further reading Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago, IL: Shasta Publishers. p. 39. Stanway, Elizabeth (March 20, 2022). "Rogue Planets". Warwick University. Cosmic Stories Blog. Archived from the original on March 30, 2023. Retrieved September 15, 2025.

External links When Worlds Collide at Faded Page (Canada) When Worlds Collide title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Bronson Beta series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with When Worlds Collide

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what When Worlds Collide claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to When Worlds Collide before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about When Worlds Collide ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of When Worlds Collide

In research: When Worlds Collide appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses When Worlds Collide in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: When Worlds Collide is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1933 American novels, 1933 English-language novels, 1933 science fiction novels, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for When Worlds Collide outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study When Worlds Collide in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what When Worlds Collide means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain When Worlds Collide out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is When Worlds Collide in simple terms?

Why does When Worlds Collide matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study When Worlds Collide?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on When Worlds Collide.