At the end of the world, there will always be good food!

Evidence of cataclysmic events can be sketchy, because what if that evidence is transient? We know how the Moon — which is not that big or massive — causes tidal movements here on this planet... so if some "object" 50 times more massive than the Moon swoops by at about a million miles away, it would be a cataclysmic event, simply due to temporary gravitational pull... and then aforesaid object (on some giant elliptical orbit) would be way the heck outta sight by the time we spend 1000 years working out how to build a telescope to even start looking for it.

Brilliant writing, as always!