Rocky Planet found, so what?
By Doug Heffner Jr.
The Associated Press reported that scientists have discovered the first “rocky” planet ever detected by man. Yo, Adrian… so what? Up to this point they have catalogued 300 extra solar planets, but all have been gas giants and the like. These have more in common with Jupiter than Earth.
The new planet, named Corot-7b, is 500 light years from Earth. A light year is about 6 trillion miles, so you’re talking about 3,000 trillion miles from us. Ok, cool find, but so what? Oh by the way, this “rocky” planet is more aptly described as “the lava planet”, since its surface is about 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit. It also circles its sun about every 20 hours, compared to Mercury at 88 days. This zippy little “rock” travels at about 466,000 mph. Try catching a ride on that one. That is about 129 times the speed of a hypersonic bullet such as one fired from a high velocity rifle. It also seems to be a dumb planet, since even though it is only 1.5 times larger than the Earth; it is 5 times denser than Earth. Sorry, I couldn't resist The scientists are all abuzz with this news, as they are convinced the Universe contains other habitable Earth-like planets. Now let’s break this all down to its respective components.
Let’s start with the premise that there are other habitable planets and possibly other life “out there”. I have stated in the past that I do not deny the likelihood that this is true, but again, I say “so what“? I agree that as we look out over the vast expanse of space we see not just other stars, but other galaxies with stars; it would seem like such a waste of space, resources and all to put all that out there simply for our viewing pleasure. Considering we are only now getting clear glimpses of the vast heavens with the Hubble Space Telescope, it would have been lost on us if that was its only supreme purpose.
I believe that there is more to the Universe than just good looks. I think it all has a point. I accept the probability that we are only one of His “experiments” in this Universe. I wouldn't be surprised that on the Day of Judgment, we see sentient forms unlike ourselves standing before the throne. We know that this is already true, when you look at the descriptions of the Angels, Elders and Beasts that are standing around His throne. According to Ezekiel, and John the Revelator, it seems like a pretty diverse crowd to me. I am good with that, and I don't think it lessens the special place we inhabit in God’s heart and plans.
I look to the Earth for the comparative example. Look at the many continents. Look at the many ecospheres, (deserts, tundra, rain forests, et al). Look at the diverse life forms God created within each one. Scientists recently explored a hollowed out volcano in the Pacific, and discovered a hundred new species. There was a wooly vegan rat measuring over 3 feet long, and a cuddly frog with FANGS, just to name a few. How many species of birds are there? How many species of bugs? How many kinds of dogs are there, not including the ones we had a hand in developing? How about flowers or fish?
I get the impression that our Creator likes a lot of different stuff. I believe He is consistent, as He has said so many times. Why would I box Him in and deny this diverse creative nature of His? Why wouldn't this extend to the Universe? A quick look up shows this in the many types and sizes of stars. From the white dwarfs to the red super giants, the range of stars is wide and widely populated. A white dwarf can be smaller than our Earth. One of the largest known red super giants, Betelgeuse would fit between our Sun and extend past Jupiter. (Look at the Wikipedia material I've included at the end of this article, and look at the Astronomical Unit used by Scientists as a measure of distance, and the distance comparisons calculated from this measurement).
The likelihood is that the range of planets orbiting these stars would run the full gamut of planet types, some we might not even be aware of yet. Why put Millions of galaxies filled with billions of various stars and planets in place and then leave them as blank slates? This doesn't seem consistent with the demonstrated nature of the Creator. Now, again I say, “so what"?
I agree with the concept of sending humans out into space. I believe that if space can be subdued and conquered, than we should do it. I think that the mandate given early in Genesis also includes the stars in the heavens. It is in our nature to overcome obstacles and inhabit new and diverse places. This drove people like Columbus and the many explorers after and before him. If we can go to the Moon and inhabit it, do it. If then we can expand to Mars as well, do so. Will we actually achieve this? I don't know.
I am inclined to think we will not. The Bible does not mention humans being on other worlds, so we might not make it there. Either the obstacles to space travel will be too great, or Christ will return before we get to that point. Regardless, if we manage to colonize Mars, I don’t think Jesus will miss us there. It’s not like he will part the eastern sky and then scratch his head wondering where part of the human population is.
I guess what puzzles me about the hoopla over this recently discovered planet is this: At what point will this all be relevant? Think about it. We haven’t figured out how to zip between our neighboring planets within our solar system yet. We have neither colonized these worlds nor cut the travel time down to a reasonable length. A trip to Mars, using our best technology, still takes six months minimum! And this is when Mars is at it’s closest to earth! Were happy about a planet 3,000 trillion miles away? It takes 500 years for light from that sun to reach here. And that is at the astounding speed of light. Our best minds don’t think that speed is even achievable for humans. Unless there is some miraculous breakthrough in travel comparable to hyper-drive or warp speed, we are physically limited to where we can go and still be on a worthwhile trip. That pretty much limits us to this solar system.
I think that it is worthwhile to explore our solar neighborhood. Then, once we have mastered this solar system and have expanded the useful knowledge gleaned in that endeavor, start to look a little further out. Take bite sized chunks. We still have to figure out how to traverse the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. These rock filled areas seem like natural fence to me. Voyager 1 is the furthest, and one of the fastest, man-made objects. It has been traveling since its launch September 5th 1977. That is 32 years! About this time last year it was only 107 AUs out from where it was launched. It is only about 1/10th the distance to the Oort Cloud. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about it:
As of July 31, 2009, Voyager 1 is about 110.66 AU (16.555 billion km, or 10.287 billion miles) from the Sun, and has passed the termination shock, entering the heliosheath, with the current goal of reaching and studying the heliopause, which is the known boundary of the solar system. If Voyager 1 is still functioning when it finally completes the passage through the heliopause (effectively becoming the first human-made object to leave the solar system), scientists will get their first direct measurements of the conditions in the interstellar medium, which may provide clues relevant to the origin and overall nature of the Universe. At this distance, signals from Voyager 1 take more than fifteen hours to reach its control center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a joint project of NASA and Caltech in La Cañada Flintridge, California. Voyager 1 is on a hyperbolic trajectory and has achieved escape velocity, meaning that its orbit will not return to the inner solar system. Along with Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 2, and the New Horizons, Voyager 1 is an interstellar probe. If Voyager 1 were traveling in the direction of the nearest star, it would arrive in about 75,000 years.
Think about that last part. It would take 75,000 years to reach the nearest star! By all accounts, this is about 2-5 times longer than man is known to have existed on Earth! Does this sound to you like a worthwhile trip for man to take?
And then there is the massive Oort cloud. Here is the Wikipedia information on it:
The Oort cloud (pronounced ort, alternatively the Öpik-Oort Cloud IPA) is a hypothetical spherical cloud of comets which may lie roughly 50,000 AU, or nearly a light-year, from the Sun.[1] This places the cloud at nearly a quarter of the distance to Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun. The Kuiper belt and the scattered disc, the other two known reservoirs of trans-Neptunian objects, are less than one thousandth the Oort cloud's distance. The outer extent of the Oort cloud defines the gravitational boundary of our Solar System.[2]
And:
The Oort cloud is thought to occupy a vast space from somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 AU[9] to as far as 50,000 AU[1] from the Sun. Some estimates place the outer edge at between 100,000 and 200,000 AU.[9]
The outer Oort cloud is believed to contain several trillion individual comet nuclei larger than approximately 1.3 km[1] (about 500 billion with absolute magnitudes[14] brighter than 10.9), with neighboring comets typically tens of millions of kilometers apart.[3][15] Its total mass is not known with certainty, but, assuming that Halley's comet is a suitable prototype for all comets within the outer Oort cloud, the estimated combined mass is 3 × 1025 kilograms, or roughly five times the mass of the Earth.[1][16] Earlier it was thought to be more massive (up to 380 Earth masses),[17] but improved knowledge of the size distribution of long-period comets has led to much lower estimates. The mass of the inner Oort cloud is not currently known.
Now, the several trillion 1.3km sized comet bodies are spaced tens of millions of kilometers apart. That is a lot of space between them, admittedly. But whether you are moving at or near the speed of light, or 17 kilometers per second like Voyager 1, how do you dodge and avoid these things in time? This makes for a perilous journey just to get out of our solar system. The likelihood that most solar systems have such “clouds” enveloping them is pretty good. This means you have to dodge huge balls of ice coming and going. This seems like a natural fence keeping us neatly within our solar system. Space is crowded, vast and dangerous. This is by Divine design and intent.
Now, with the nearest star being 75,000 years worth of travel away, and the journey in-between being filled with physical obstacles and peril, why are we so excited about a useless planet 500 light years away? Whoopee!? Why are smart scientists wasting their lives and our money looking towards planets we can’t reach, and wouldn’t want to if we could? Why are they so desperate to answer the question of the existence of habitable planets “out there” if we can’t reach them anyway? It is a pointless, fruitless waste of my tax dollars. As a tax payer, I expect better returns for my investment.
I propose that if we are going to do this, let’s do it right. Let’s focus on improving our knowledge of our own solar neighborhood and when possible travel within it. Let’s get set up on the Moon and Mars, and get traveling to Jupiter as quick and regular as between London and New York. If we can’t manage that, the rest of the Universe is out of our grasp. To work on this is no affront to our Creator. Just as Columbus’ trip was not blasphemous, neither would this be so.
Christians are often accused of being “so heavenly minded they are no earthly good”. (This is sadly true, at times, but often mistakes our desire to be with the Father, with a lack of interest in the here and now). The same can be said of many scientists today. They look for planets in the Andromeda Galaxy 2,500,000 light-years (1.58×1011 AU) away, and then act like they have made some supreme discovery that will benefit all mankind. Again, I ask, Why? So What? Many of these same scientists will deny the existence of the Creator, all the while plumbing his creation for the understanding of the cosmos (Like Carl Sagan used to say, billyuns and billyuns…), a sort of divine knowledge.
In the short run, it has very little to do with my daily life. It is a fanciful look to the stars. That is all well and good, but doesn’t put food on my family's table, and does little to affect the condition of the human heart. In contrast, the love and grace of Christ does have an immediate effect. His love has relevancy in my daily life, not just the afterlife. His patience and provision for me has monumental impacts on how my daily life goes and that of my family as well. While we have a divine mandate to subdue and conquer creation, we must stay grounded in purpose while in this pursuit.
From Wikipedia:
An astronomical unit (abbreviated as AU, au, a.u., or sometimes ua) is a unit of length roughly equal to the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun. It is approximately 150 million kilometers (93 million miles).
The distances are approximate mean distances. It has to be taken into consideration that the distances between celestial bodies change in time due to their orbits and other factors.
The Moon is 0.0026 ± 0.0001 AU from the Earth
The Earth is 1.00 ± 0.02 AU from the Sun
Mars is 1.52 ± 0.14 AU from the Sun
Jupiter is 5.20 ± 0.05 AU from the Sun
Pluto is 39.5 ± 9.8 AU from the Sun
The Kuiper Belt begins at roughly 35 AU
Beginning of Scattered disk at 45 AU (10 AU overlap with Kuiper Belt)
Ending of Kuiper Belt at 50-55 AU
90377 Sedna's orbit ranges between 76 and 942 AU from the Sun; Sedna is currently (as of 2006[update]) about 90 AU from the Sun
94 AU: Termination shock between Solar winds/Interstellar winds/Interstellar medium
100 AU: Heliosheath
108 AU: As of November 16, 2008, Voyager 1 is the furthest of any human-made objects from the Sun
100-1000 AU: Mostly populated by objects from the Scattered Disc
1000-3000 AU: Beginning of Hills cloud/"Inner Oort Cloud"
20,000 AU: Ending of Hills Cloud/"Inner Oort Cloud", beginning of "Outer Oort Cloud"
50,000 AU: possible closest estimate of the "Outer Oort Cloud" limits (0.8 ly)
100,000 AU: possible farthest estimate of the "Outer Oort Cloud" limits (1.6 ly)
125,000 AU: maximum extent of influence of the Sun's gravitational field (Hill/Roche sphere). Beyond this is true interstellar space. This distance is roughly 1.8-2.0 light-years
Proxima Centauri (the nearest star to Earth, excluding our own Sun) is ~268 000 AU away from the Sun
The mean diameter of Betelgeuse is 5.5 AU (822 800 000 km)
The distance from the Sun to the centre of the Milky Way is approximately 1.7 × 109 AU
Conversion factors:
1 AU = 149,597,870.691 ± 0.006 km ≈ 92,955,807 mi ≈ 8.317 light minutes ≈ 499 light-seconds
1 light-second ≈ 0.002 AU or 186,000 miles
1 gigametre ≈ 0.007 AU or 651,000 miles
1 light-year ≈ 63,241 AU or 5,881,413,000,000 miles (roughly 6 trillion miles)
1 parsec ≈ 206,265 AU or 19,182,645,000,000 miles (roughly 19 trillion miles) or about 3.2 light years
