The Lost Worlds of Planet Earth Ortelius hypothesized the idea that land masses may have been connected in the past, Alfred Wegener who hypothesized the idea of a super-continent Pangaea and continental drift despite the prevailing idea of flooded land-bridges at the time, and Bruce C. Heezen and Marie Tharp who discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that supported the theory of plate tectonics. Tyson describes how the landmasses of the earth lay atop the mantle, which moves due to the motion and heat of the earth's outer and inner core. Tyson moves on to explain the asteroid impact that initiated the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, leaving small mammals
The Songs of Distant Earth neutrino particle. In the acknowledgments to the book, Clarke states that he considered to depict the use of vacuum energy for spacecraft propulsion – a scientifically viable, but highly futuristic technology. The novel also features a space elevator. In his introduction to the novel, Clarke states that he wished the work to deal with a realistic interstellar voyage, without the use of warp drives or other fantastic technologies. Multi-instrumentalist and composer Mike Oldfield wrote an entire album based on – and entitled – "The Songs of Distant Earth", which was released in 1994. The album has a foreword written by