WATCH THE WATER
>Jupiter flooding Saturn
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On Saturn and the Flood
On Saturn and the Flood
Worlds in Collision comprises only the last two acts of a cosmic drama—one that occurred in the middle of the second millennium before the present era; the other during the eighth and early part of the seventh century before the present era. Prior to the events described in Worlds in Collision, Venus—following its expulsion from Jupiter—was on a highly eccentric orbit for a period of time measured certainly by centuries, perhaps millennia, before its near-encounters with the Earth.
While the actual beginning of the drama is shrouded in the mist of grey antiquity and difficult to pinpoint with exactitude, there is a point at which a clearer picture emerges. This is the time when the two giant planets—Saturn and Jupiter—approached each other closely. Possibly they were close for a long period of time, passing near one another as they traveled along orbital paths quite dissimilar to those of today.
Saturn and Jupiter are so often associated in cosmological history that sometimes I even considered the possibility that they may have constituted a double star system, of which there are many in the universe. I said that Saturn and Jupiter were stars, though today we know them as planets. Actually, in Worlds in Collision, in the last chapter, I also used the word “star” in referring to the two giant planets. There I wrote, with respect to the future, that “some dark star, like Jupiter or Saturn, may be in the path of the sun, and may be attracted to the system and cause havoc in it.”1 At that time it was said that they were planets, not stars, while today it is known that Jupiter and Saturn, too, are star-like, producing several times the amount of heat they receive from the Sun.2
http://www.varchive.org/lec/valais/satflood.htm