Dante Alighieri's Inferno may contain more than religious symbolism and poetic imagination. According to new research, the famous work could also represent an early thought experiment in impact physics, describing a catastrophic planetary collision centuries before modern meteor science existed. By comparing Dante's descriptions to modern theories of asteroid impacts and crater formation, researchers argue that the 14th-century poet envisioned an Earth-altering cosmic event long before scientists understood meteoritics.

For hundreds of years, readers have interpreted Satan's descent in the Divine Comedy as a spiritual fall from grace. But Timothy Burbery of Marshall University believes Dante may have been imagining something much more physical and destructive.

Using concepts from modern meteoritics, Burbery suggests that Dante portrayed Satan as a massive high-speed impactor striking the Southern Hemisphere and driving straight toward Earth's core.…