The Whirlpool Galaxy
The heavens tell about the glory of God.
The skies announce what his hands have made.
Each new day tells more of the story,
and each night reveals more and more about God’s power.
You cannot hear them say anything.
They don’t make any sound we can hear.
But their message goes throughout theworld.
Their teaching reaches the ends of the earth. Psalm 19:1-4 Easy-to-read Version
Isn’t it amazing to look up at a dark sky? Even without help, the stars are amazing. With helping lenses, people have been studying the stars for thousands of years.
Today I want to share two cool articles:
by Dr. Danny Faulkner: Galaxies–Unexplained Spirals
and by Dr. Jason Lisle: The Age of the Universe, Part 2 (the whole thing’s great, but for today, scroll down to “Spiral Galaxies”)
Both are rated “layman” which means if you’re reading at a 6th grade level, you’ll be fine. So I’m not going to translate them here. 🙂
What I love is all the puzzles God sets for those who want to explain the universe without Him. He doesn’t make His work completely obvious because He wants us to choose Him freely, not because we have to. But, He does throw a lot of wrenches in whatever scheme people come up with to deny Him.
Here are the things to watch for and remember so they are yours:
Blue stars are signs that the universe is _____________ because _________________
Spiral galaxies make long age astronomers have to come up with all kinds of wild ideas because ________________________
Some of their ideas to keep believing in billions of years are:
- the spiral density ______ _________
- small satellite _____________
- _________ matter (can we find any? see this article with interesting links)
- should far distant galaxies look _____ the same or _____ different if the universe were really billions of years old?
The best way to make sure this information sets in your brain is to tell someone about it. Got a relative who likes astronomy? What about someone at church whose eyes light up instead of crossing when you say “millions of light years”?
If you haven’t checked out God’s basic explanation for how the universe can have light travel so far in roughly 6,000 years see my article on Stretching the Heavens
