Category: Science Fears

• The "Halley’s Comet" Cyanogen Panic (1910)

  This theory held that Earth’s passage through the tail of Halley’s Comet in May 1910 would expose the planet to cyanogen gas and potentially extinguish life. The panic emerged after reports circulated that cyanogen had been identified in the comet’s tail and after popular press coverage amplified the most catastrophic implications of that finding. In many places, the event produced a recognizable market in comet remedies, anti-comet pills, bottled air, gas masks, and protective advice. Although astronomers repeatedly emphasized the extremely diffuse nature of the comet’s tail, the idea that poisonous gases from space could end civilization became one of the best-known scientific panics of the early twentieth century.