The Solar System Archives - Page 5 of 26

August 21, 2023August 21, 2023

How Fast Are You Spinning?

You may think you are sitting still as you read this, but you are actually moving at tremendous speeds in various directions. You are on planet Earth which is rotating on its axis. The planet is also orbiting around the Sun. More than that, our solar system is spiraling around the Milky Way. Yes, the Milky Way is also moving in relation to other galaxies. It’s enough to make your head spin but let’s just look at Earth’s rotation. How fast are you spinning?

Earth’s circumference at the equator is about 24,900 miles, and a day, the time when Earth makes one rotation, is 24 hours. Therefore, if you are on the equator, you are moving at about 1040 miles per hour. Where I am, on the same latitude as Chicago, I am spinning around at 773 miles per hour. That’s because the circle at that latitude is much smaller. Those who live in Anchorage, Alaska, are moving at a leisurely 504 miles per hour. How fast are you spinning if you are standing on the North Pole? I doubt if any of our readers are doing that, but if so, you are just spinning in the same place like a top every 24 hours. Try not to get dizzy.

This spinning of Earth creates centrifugal force, which works against the pull of gravity. At Earth’s present rotational speed, if you moved to the equator from the North Pole, you would weigh about one pound less. Not a very efficient way to lose weight.

What would happen if Earth’s spin increased by one mile per hour? Centrifugal force would raise the ocean’s water level at the equator by a few inches and lower it in the Arctic Ocean. More noticeable would be that geosynchronous communications satellites would be out of their proper positions disrupting GPS services, satellite communications, television broadcasting, and military operations. A ten percent increase in Earth’s rotational speed would make the days only 22 hours long. And you thought you were having trouble getting everything done now. How fast are you spinning, and is the whole universe and our place in it just an accident?

What’s the point of all this? We have often discussed the many things that make this planet suitable for advanced life. Abundant water, a just-right tilt of the axis, the right spin, and a just-right Moon to stabilize the spin and speed. Those are only a few of Earth’s remarkable features. It almost seems that it was designed for a purpose by an intelligent Designer who knew we were coming.

July 19, 2023July 19, 2023

Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence

It’s known as the Sagan standard and abbreviated ECREE. Carl Sagan, an American scientist, and agnostic, hosted the PBS program Cosmos in the 1980s. He said in the series, “I believe that the extraordinary should be pursued. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” He was talking about claims that aliens from space had visited Earth. But we can apply the principle to more than alien visitations.

The truth is that Sagan did not originate the ECREE concept. He just popularized it on television. The idea had been previously expressed many times by others. Even Thomas Jefferson described it in a letter he wrote in 1808 about the existence of meteorites, but he was much more wordy. (He used about three dozen words instead of Sagan’s five.)

What does the Sagan ECREE standard mean? It tells us that when we make an extraordinary claim, we must back it up with extraordinary evidence. How about the extraordinary secularist claim that everything we see came from nothing by means of nothing? If matter, energy, time, and space all originated at the “big bang,” and nothing existed before that, where is the extraordinary evidence to back up that claim? Could an eternal God existing outside of time and space be a better explanation for the universe?

If one claims that life originated from non-living chemicals without intelligent guidance, what is the extraordinary evidence for that? Even if science succeeds in creating life from non-living chemicals in the laboratory (and they are far from doing that), it would merely prove that intelligence can create life from non-life. That is what the Bible has said for thousands of years.

Once life got its start, what is the evidence that it evolved from species to species until it reached homo sapiens? We don’t see any extraordinary experimental or fossil record evidence of that either. To prove that natural selection acting on random mutations could accomplish a task that defies the second law of thermodynamics requires extraordinary evidence, which we don’t have.

We agree with the Sagan standard that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” (ECREE). The question is, does all that we see in the universe and on our planet give extraordinary evidence of unguided random chance or design by an intelligent Creator?

Reference: Wikipedia

July 17, 2023July 16, 2023

An Astronaut Who Believes in the Bible and Science

“There are no atheists…on top of rockets” is the title of an article by B. T. Irwin, interviewing NASA astronaut Victor Glover. Glover has served on the International Space Station and will pilot NASA’s Artemis II Mission to the Moon next year. Glover is an astronaut who believes in the Bible and science. He talks about how the creation gives evidence for the existence of God.

What is especially interesting is that Glover’s interview was published in The Christian Chronicle, a Church of Christ periodical. The Christian Chronicle has been antagonistic to our ministry because we refuse to dogmatically say the Earth is less than 10,000 years old. The Chronicle has also supported dispensational efforts by promoting Ken Ham’s material and the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter amusement park. Ham’s program promotes the 6000-year age of the Earth to support his dispensational doctrinal views. Victor Glover is an astronaut who believes in the Bible and science, as he explained it in these words:

“The moon is a time capsule for the Earth, and we think it’s old – about 4.5 billion years. And my preacher used to say to me, ‘Yeah, but NASA is wrong because I know the Earth is about 10,000 years old.’ I said, ‘How do you know that?’ He walked me through the lineages in the Bible, and I said, ‘But that doesn’t mark any specific time period.’ And it doesn’t need to because the power of the Gospel is not in a timeline. It’s in that message, in that promise, and that promise being kept. So they don’t actually work against each other like some people like to claim that they do. I had to navigate that because of my faith and my belief in science. I believe in both, and I don’t find them to be in conflict. And I think it’s helped me to be an ambassador to both sides.”

For 55 years, the “Does God Exist?” ministry has shown that science is a friend of faith. We have seen much opposition from the religious establishment as we struggle to undo the collateral damage of the rejection of science. Physical evidence continues to reveal the truth of the Bible. Even when it conflicts with human religious tradition, science is in total agreement with what the Bible says. Let us all pray that some who will not listen to us will listen to an astronaut who believes in the Bible and science. Many young souls are at stake in this false conflict between science and faith.

Reference: The Christian Chronicle for July 2023, pages 22-23.

July 5, 2023July 4, 2023

Asteroid Strike from Space

As our view of space and our solar system improves, astronomers have realized that space is a dangerous place. Space travel requires considering the many ways astronauts can be harmed when they leave Earth’s protection. It isn’t just cold and radiation and the damaging effects of weightlessness, but our solar system is full of rock material left over from the creation process. NASA must keep in mind the possibility of an asteroid strike from space.

NASA has plotted 1000 known “Potentially Hazardous Asteroids” (PHAs). These are documented boulders of rock and ice over 140 meters across that will pass within 7.5 million kilometers of Earth (about 20 times the distance to the Moon). Were a giant asteroid to strike Earth, the result would be catastrophic. There is evidence that this has happened in the past, probably causing mass extinctions on our planet.

NASA used the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission in 2022 to explore the possibility of redirecting an asteroid away from the Earth. We are talking about a large object, not the small pieces of rock and dust that strike the Earth every day, producing meteor displays and fireballs. NASA designed DART to find a way to prevent a catastrophic asteroid strike from space.

NASA has concluded that none of the asteroids known to astronomers will strike the Earth for at least the next 100 years. God created our planet in such a way that we are protected from destructive agents from outer space. The more we learn about space, the more we see the design and planning involved in creation.

The threat to humanity is what we do to ourselves, not any failure in the design of our planet. God has also given us a way to protect ourselves from each other, and we see that in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Read Matthew chapters 5-7, and you will see what Jesus told us. The selfishness and greed of humans threaten our existence individually and collectively. Human self-destruction is far more likely than a catastrophic asteroid strike from space.

Reference: NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day for June 30, 2023

June 20, 2023June 19, 2023

Matter Greatly Exceeds Antimatter

It’s “one of the Universe’s best-kept secrets” and a mystery that physicists are working to resolve. Every subatomic particle in the universe has an antimatter equivalent. Each atom consists of electrons, protons, and neutrons. The negative electrons have alternative positrons with a positive charge. If you could combine an electron and a positron, they would cancel each other. Protons and neutrons, which compose the nucleus of atoms, are made of smaller particles called quarks. There are also anti-quarks, and if you combined a quark and an anti-quark, they would explode and destroy each other. Our universe, and us, can only exist because matter greatly exceeds antimatter.

If matter and antimatter were in a state of symmetry with equal amounts, they would have destroyed each other, and nothing would exist. Scientists theorize that the creation event, or Big Bang, should have created an equal amount of matter and antimatter, so they wonder why the lack of symmetry. In other words, why does anything exist in the universe, our planet, and our bodies? The universe is made of matter, while antimatter is almost non-existent except in radioactive particle decay and particle colliders such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland and France.

According to the Standard Model of particle physics, physicists theorize that a “charge-conjugation parity violation” (CP) caused the lack of symmetry – but how and why? Physicists working with the LHC say particles and antiparticles can spontaneously transform from one to the other. LHC spokesperson Chris Parkes said, “Through more precise measurement, large improvements have been made in our knowledge. These are key parameters that aid our search for unknown effects from beyond our current theory.”

We can be thankful that in today’s universe, the amount of matter greatly exceeds antimatter. Since physicists are looking for an explanation, they may eventually solve the mystery. It will be interesting to see the scientific explanation for the lack of symmetry. Whatever process scientists discover, we suggest that this is another example where intelligence and wisdom provide a more reasonable ultimate explanation than accidental chance offers.

References: CERN News and Space.com

June 19, 2023June 18, 2023

The Cosmological Argument for God

Cosmology provides strong evidence for God’s existence. The basic cosmological argument for God involves three simple questions:

1) Was there a beginning to time, space, and matter/energy? The evidence says there was.

2) Was the beginning caused or uncaused? Taking the position it was uncaused violates scientific conservation laws.

3) If it was caused, what or who was the causer? The evidence is that the cause can not be blind, mechanistic chance. Logic suggests that the cause was an intelligence, in other words, God.

As more data becomes available to support intelligence as the cause of planet Earth, the cosmological argument for God becomes stronger. If we define life as that which can breathe, move, respond to outside stimuli, and reproduce, what is necessary for life to exist? Astronomers now talk about the habitable zone (HZ) of stars. This is the zone around stars where the temperature on a planet would allow water to exist in the liquid state on the surface.

Recent discoveries have shown that M-class dwarf stars are the most common and longest-lived stars. The problem with these stars is that their HZ is very close to the star, so tidal forces would lock the rotation of any planet so its same side would always face the parent star. One side of the planet would be constantly hot while the other would be cold. Also, M-class stars would bombard these planets with stellar flares causing massive radiation levels that would eliminate any possibility of life. Other star types create various problems for a life-supporting planet.

Astronomers have determined there is a galactic habitable zone (GHZ) in addition to the star’s habitable zone. A star must be far from the galactic center to have a planet with life on it. The high star density near the core of a galaxy exposes the star system to deadly supernovae and gamma-ray bursts. Mass distribution within a galaxy is also an issue because, near the galaxy’s core, mass concentrations cause gravitational instability.

The basic cosmological argument for God is now supported by a vast number of parameters that must be within precise limits to allow life to exist in a planetary system. Having a large moon is essential to the survival of life on a planet. Likewise, having a shield against incoming cosmic bodies is critical. A body the size of Comet Hale Bopp hitting planet Earth would have sterilized it, killing even microbes that might be present. The Earth’s shield is the arrangement of the Jovian planets. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune preventing objects like Hale Bopp from reaching Earth.

The more we look at the cosmos, the unique qualities of our planet reinforce the cosmological argument for God. Proverbs 8 personifies Wisdom speaking of God’s creative power and design. As we learn more about the cosmos, the stronger the evidence becomes that “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

Reference: “Is Earth the Only Goldilocks Planet?” by Klaus R. Brasch in Astronomy Magazine for July 2023, pages 18-23.

June 5, 2023June 1, 2023

Chondrite Meteorites from Space

What are the odds of you getting hit by a rock that came to the Earth from Mars? A New Jersey woman named Suzy Kop walked into an empty bedroom in her house and found a hole in her ceiling and a still-warm six-inch potato-shaped rock on the floor. Scientists studying it have concluded it is one of the rare stony chondrite meteorites, dating back to the beginning of the solar system.

The word “chondrite” comes from the Greek “chondres,” meaning sand grain. Such rocks from space contain tiny, millimeter-sized granules, iron and nickel alloys, and as much as 50% silicate minerals. There are several different kinds of meteorites. Some are called “irons” because they are almost entirely made of iron and nickel alloys. Others, called “stoney irons,” have silicate minerals in addition to iron and nickel alloys. In addition, carbonaceous chondrite meteorites contain water, sulfur, and even some organic material.

In their excavations of ancient cities, archaeologists have found knives and various other objects made of meteoric iron material. Ling before humans learned how to smelt iron to make tools and weapons, they found iron meteorites and pounded them into useful tools. (See “Metal From the Heavens” in National Geographic for June 2023, pages 102-104.) Genesis 4:22 refers to Tubal-Cain, a son of Lamech, “who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron.” However, early humans used iron meteorites long before Tubal-Cain forged tools.

The question of why there are different kinds of meteorites is of greater interest. The answer is that the meteorites came from the formation of different objects in various places in the cosmos. Scientists believe iron meteorites came from the cores of asteroids or planets where extreme heat would allow only resistant metals to exist. Silicate minerals were probably ejected from planets with less heat and lower pressure. Some stoney chondrite meteorites have the same chemical composition as Mars, so they probably came from that planet.

In 2018 the Japanese Hayabusa2 spacecraft brought back samples from the asteroid Ryugu. The samples contained uracil, which is a building block of RNA. Some astronomers believe a planet exploded and that many meteorites, as well as Ryugu are what remain from that explosion.

Researchers are sampling other asteroids, but the message is that space is full of the remains of God’s creative actions. Likewise, the existence of planet Earth and the life on it tells us that this is indeed a unique place that we need to care for and preserve.

References: Nature Communications for March 21, 2023, and The Week for May 26, 2023, page 12.

May 31, 2023May 30, 2023

Misunderstanding the Big Bang

Religionists and atheists alike continue to make statements that indicate that they are misunderstanding the Big Bang. Some religionists ridicule the idea that an explosion could cause the order and design we see in the cosmos. They don’t realize that the scientific theory of the creation event is not a mere explosion. On the other hand, some atheists refer to the enormous explosions we see in space as proof that there have been multiple “bangs,” and one of them could produce what we see around us. They don’t seem to realize these are explosions of existing material. The original creation event involved something coming from nothing.

There is no question that incredible explosions are taking place in space. In October of 2022, astronomers observed a gamma-ray burst that was the most powerful explosion they had seen up to that time. They labeled it “BOAT” for “brightest of all time.” They theorized that the collapse of a black hole produced it. Some atheists suggested that this was proof that the collapse of black holes could produce the creation we see in our universe. That is an example of misunderstanding the Big Bang.

Now the “brightest of all time” has been exceeded by a much more powerful explosion emitting two trillion times the light of our Sun and ten times the energy of the brightest supernova ever observed. Labeled AT2021lwx, this object, eight billion light years away, is 100 times the size of our solar system and is emitting steady radiation 100 times more than our Sun will emit in its entire lifetime. At the time of this report, there is no scientific explanation of what AT2021lwx is.

Whatever AT2021lwx is, it is not the same as the Big Bang, nor is there any connection between creation and objects like AT2021lwx. A wide range of scientific observations support the Big Bang concept, but it was not an object that exploded. The cosmic creation event, whatever you call it, was a point where time, space, and matter/energy came into existence. There was a beginning, as Genesis 1:1 tells us.

In addition to misunderstanding the Big Bang, there is not and will never be a scientific explanation for it because scientific laws do not describe or apply to what took place. Objects like AT2021lwx are simply transformations of matter/energy that continuously produce the elements of our cosmos. What we see as we observe such things as the cosmic background radiation and the red-shift of galaxies moving away from us are the after-effects of God’s creation of time, space, and matter/energy. This is real creation, and no exploding object duplicates the nature or fine-tuning of the creation event.

AT2021lwx is a testimony to the incredible power and energy present in the creation. We get a small glimpse of how powerful God is when we see objects such as this. There will probably be a workable theory as to what caused AT2021lwx, but like all observations in space, it is simply another statement of Psalms 9:1: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the skies show the work of His hands.

Reference: “Astronomers Explain What Caused the Largest Cosmic Explosion Ever Seen” on TIME.COM for May 12, 2023, at 2:53 PM EDT.

May 19, 2023May 18, 2023

Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and Complex Electron Orbitals

Yesterday, we said that the simple atomic model shown in older chemistry textbooks leaves many mysteries unanswered. During my 50 years of teaching chemistry, students sometimes asked questions that could not be explained by electrons in circular orbits. In recent years, spectral analysis has shown that electrons travel in various orbital patterns that may be dumbbell or clover-leaf shaped. In addition, quantum mechanics has shown that electrons can act like waves rather than particles. Relativity, quantum mechanics, and complex electron orbitals explain some of the mysteries of chemistry.

For example, oxygen has a first shell with two s-type electrons traveling in circular orbits and four more in dumbbell-shaped p orbits. That second shell can hold six electrons, leaving openings for two more orbitals 90 degrees apart. If a hydrogen atom with one electron comes nearby, it will bond with the oxygen, each of them sharing an electron. If two hydrogens bond with the oxygen atom, you have a perfect, stable combination – a water molecule.

In the water molecule, the hydrogen atoms repel each other, creating a 180-degree angle between them and giving the water an electrical polarity. The result is that water molecules have a positive and negative end, and as they freeze, they repel each other, expanding their volume. Because of that, ice is less dense and floats on top of the water instead of sinking to the bottom. If bodies of water froze from the bottom up, life on Earth would be impossible.

What makes this picture even more interesting is that electrons can orbit at a speed that is 60% of the speed of light or faster. At that speed, their mass increases, and their orbit contracts in conformity with Einstein’s relativity equations. Relativity, quantum mechanics, and complex electron orbitals combine to explain the mysteries of chemistry. For example, the relativity contraction makes it harder for mercury atoms to interact strongly with each other. As a result, mercury is a liquid, while other metals are solids at room temperature.

Relativity and quantum mechanics also explain the difference in color between gold and silver. Relativistic effects in the electron orbitals cause silver to reflect all wavelengths of visible light equally. Because of that, it has no particular color. On the other hand, gold’s electron orbitals cause it to absorb blue light, making the reflected light appear yellow.

Relativity, quantum mechanics, and complex electron orbitals are opening new understandings in chemistry, allowing new techniques to aid in improving life for all humans. For example, doctors use radioactive technetium and rhenium as tracer molecules in medical imaging because of the effects of relativity. Understanding relativity and electron orbitals explains the formation of lead dioxide, which is essential for lead-acid auto batteries. Relativity in electron orbitals even plays a role in “glow-in-the-dark” items such as signs, stickers, and T-shirts.

The complexity of atoms is a testimony to the intelligence and engineering of the Creator. We are continually reminded that we can know there is a God through the things He has made. The challenges and the future of relativistic chemistry are a great testimony to that.

Reference: “Relativity and the World of Molecules” by Abhik Ghosh and Kenneth Ruud in American Scientist magazine for May/June 2023

May 18, 2023May 18, 2023

The Simple Atomic Model and Unanswered Questions

The Simple Atomic Model Leaves Unanswered Questions — This simple atomic model is not accurate

Our understanding of the design of the atom changed radically in the 50 years that I taught chemistry in public school. When I started teaching, scientists thought atoms were made up of a nucleus surrounded by electrons in circular orbits. This simple atomic model was easy to understand, and we had drawings and even plastic models to show it. However, the simple atomic model leaves unanswered questions.

The simple model did not explain the properties of certain atoms. For example, why is mercury a liquid at room temperature while other metals, such as gold, platinum, and lead, are solids, even though they have very similar structures? Why are gold and silver different colors? Why does water expand when it gets colder when all other materials contract?

As an old chemistry teacher, my students frequently asked questions I could not answer. Improvements in spectral analysis made the simple atomic model more complicated while answering some questions. For example, scientists could see that not all electrons travel in circular orbits. Also, electrons are not solid balls or even particles. Instead, electrons can be waves and have orbital paths that are spherical or shaped like dumbbells, clover leaves, or a mixture of those two.

Different orbital shapes cause different spectral patterns. As a result, scientists have coined the names “s” for sharp spectral lines, “p” for principle lines, “d” for diffuse lines, or “f” for fundamental lines. Moving out from the nucleus of an atom, the number of electrons increases, and their paths become more complex.

The more we learn, the more we see the wisdom built into the design of every atom in the universe. The precision of design makes it possible for life to exist. Minor changes would mean that we would not be here. However, the simple atomic model leaves unanswered questions and can’t begin to show the extent of God’s design wisdom. Applying what we know about relativity, quantum mechanics, and electron orbits answers some of the chemistry students’ difficult questions. We will have more on that tomorrow.

Reference: “Relativity and the World of Molecules” by Abhik Ghosh and Kenneth Ruud in American Scientist magazine for May/June 2023