‘A Galaxy Far Far Away’Astronomy, SETI, UFOs, Aliens

Rev - 16-Jun-18

Courtesy: NASA

Training: Military, Astronauts For Hire, Virgin Galactic etc

Sub-Orbital Astronaut TrainingNASTAR Center - Pennsylvania

Psalm 19:1-4 (NLT)

The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display His craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make Him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world.

Astronomy

• Interpretation - Two Pairs of Glasses

• From Aristotle to Apollo – Brief History of Astronomy

• The Solar System – Defying Naturalism

• Earth – our perfectly designed home

• NASA’s “New Horizons” Pluto Mission

• Kepler Mission - Search for Extra-Solar Planets

• Distant Starlight and Time

• Cosmology – not even Science?

“Branch of science which deals with celestial objects, space, and the physical universe as a whole.”

Biblical Worldview

• There is a God.

• He created the universe to display His glory.

• Earth specially designed as a home for us. It is truly unique.

• We are the focus of His creation for relationship with Him and each other.

• Adam’s sin brought death and brokenness affecting the whole of creation.

Naturalistic / Secular Worldview

• There is no God.

• Everything came about by chance over billions of years.

• Earth is not particularly special or in any favoured location.

• Humans are not special, we are just the “most evolved pond scum”!

• There must be lots of places in a vast universe where life also evolved.

From Aristotle to Apollo• Aristotle (384-322BC). Geocentric (earth centred) solar system.

• Erastothenes (276-195BC). Calculated circumference of Earth.

• Ptolemy (AD90-168). Refined Aristotle’s geocentric ideas.

• … nearly 1500 years pass with not much happening…

• Copernicus (1473-1543). Heliocentric system (Sun at centre)

• Galileo (1564-1642). Invented telescope. Discovered Jupiter’s moons and sunspots.

• Kepler (1571-1630). Developed Laws of Planetary Motion

• Newton (1642-1726). Laws of Motion and Gravitation.

• Einstein (1879-1955). Proposed new physics to explain anomalies.

• Apollo 11 misson, July 1969. Man steps on to the Moon

“Big Bang’s Nebula Hypothesis”

• Initial cloud of swirling gas

• A star (Sun in our case) condenses at the centre.

• Other gas forms into dust.

• Dust accretes to planetesimals(asteroids).

• Planetesimals form planets.

• Star’s radiation pressure (solar wind) “sweeps” remaining gas away in relatively short (evolutionary) time.

Defying Naturalism: Major Problems

• Accretion doesn’t actually work!

• Sun’s tiny angular momentum.

• “Gas Giant” planets shouldn’t be here.

• Retrograde rotation of Venus and Uranus.

• Magnetic fields e.g. on Mercury and Pluto.

• Geologic activity on planets and moons –even our Moon.

• Source of short period comets a mystery.

The mean distance from the Sun to the Earth

Approximately 149,600,000km!

Astronomical Unit (AU)

• Sun / earth distance. “Goldilocks” temperature.

• Axial tilt. Gives us seasons.

• Sun/moon system just right for tides, observing eclipses.

• Atmosphere. Thickness and constitution is just right.

• Magnetic field and ozone layers both provide protection from radiation.

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Earth – our perfectly designed home. Isaiah 45:18

• Launched on Jan 19th 2006. Highest launch speed ever generated.

• Passed Jupiter on Feb 28th 2007. Systems tested and speed increased further.

• Mostly hibernated until full wakeup on Dec 6th 2014

• Travelled 5,000,000,000+ km

• Arrived 72 seconds early!

• Stunning images and measurements obtained.

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Mind Blowing Real Science and Engineering!

NASA New Horizons Pluto Mission

• Discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. Initially called “Planet X”

• Venetia Burney (age 11) suggested the name “Pluto”.

• Is classed as a “TNO” (Trans NeptunianObject).

• Looks surprisingly “young”.

• Confirmed geologically active and so is moon Charon. Proved not dead and cold.

• Likely will be reinstated as a planet again.15

Pluto “Not what we expected” Desperate interpretations

NASA New Horizons Pluto Mission

• Assumption that all you need is water the right elements and time to get life (eventually).

• Must be rocky, not gas planet.

• Have atmosphere and water.

• Must have near circular orbit.

• Its star must be stable and generate the right light.

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Great science but assumptions galore!

Kepler Mission – Search for Exoplanets

• God did not create “light in transit”.

• Biblical time reference is Earth

• A Light Year is a measure of distance, not absolute time.

• Time is affected by gravity and velocity. This is “Einstein 101”!

• New physics is required…

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Reconciling Biblical time frame with vast distances

Distant Starlight and Time

Time may be slower in different parts of the universe

Slow

Fast

Gravity distorts time

• Accepted by faith.

• Accept unobserved unknowns to explain unknowns. E.g. Dark Matter and Dark Energy”.

• Cannot be proven experimentally, so it is not operational science.

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Cosmology“The Origin, Evolution & Ultimate Fate of the Universe”

‘Cosmology may look like a science, but it isn’t a science. A basic tenet of science is that you can do repeatable experiments, and you can’t do that in cosmology.’

James Gunn of Princeton University, co-founder of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

An Astronomer Speaks Frankly

Photo 2009, Brian Wilson,

courtesy of Princeton University

LIGHT-YEARS?

NO PROBLEM!

The latest solution to the distant starlight

problem

By Dr Russell

Humphreys

Courtesy: NASA

• The key: Any signal containing informationmust have originated from an intelligent source.

• 50+ years of searching. Nothing detected!

• DNA – has highly complex coding. It screams out design and great intelligence - yet it is utterly rejected as evidence for God!

• UFO abductions and alien “space brother” visits often have a spiritual basis to them.

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SETI – Search for Extra Terrestrial IntelligenceLooking in all the wrong places! Religion or science?

• 80% believe that the government is hiding the existence of extraterrestrial life forms.

• 64% believe aliens have contacted humans.

• 50% believe that aliens have abducted humans .

• 93% however, have never been abducted!

• 75% believe that a UFO crashed near Roswell NM.

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Belief is mainstream and held by many as being true.

UFOlogyThe world’s fastest-growing ‘scientific’ religion?

‘I believe the simplest explanation is there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realisation that there is probably no heaven and no afterlife either...’

Prof Stephen Hawking

Science or Philosophy?