Hundreds of Billions Of Galazies

I worked with a fellow who was very interested in astronomy. He did not own a telescope. The reason was that he could study stars, planets, etc. much better on the Internet and in books than with any telescope he could afford ... and he did not have to go out on winter nights and freeze himself looking through a telescope.

 

Check out these Hubble Telescope photos of Saturn and other objects in our Solar System.



Saturn will be visible to the naked eye on Monday night, 4 April 2011, unless the sky is cloudy.

 

"Our God is an awesome God"

 

Yes, our God is an awesome God, which is why I like to observe the night sky. Most frequently I observe the night sky with my naked eye or binoculars. I also own a couple of small telescopes. Light pollution is beginning to affect my observation of galaxies, but I continue to enjoy the Moon.

You do not have to buy into the nonreligious theories of science to enjoy the night sky or a nature preserve during the day. Observing God's creation is a great way to praise God.

...Bob
Kentucky

 

As great as the Hubble photos are, just wait until the Webb telescope is operational.

http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/

 

I agree--I find it hard to wait for the Webb telescope.

...Bob

 

I do find it incredibly awesome!

But i would like to go back to the original debate (sorry). Even if we don't know what a planet looks like doesn't mean it's not a planet. Surely the definition of a planet is something large enough on an orbit about a star. Therefore surely by looking at the way gravity acts on something is better then seeing the object?
One person said that for all we know it could be a giant ham sandwich, (you have succeeded in making me hungry) however even if it were a giant ham sandwich, based it on its size and seeing that it orbits a star said sandwich is technically a planet is it not?

Also a great find to for the world hunger problem!:tongue3:

 

Extrasolar planets

If I may pipe up although this thread looks like it's winding down...there are other planets in the universe besides the eight that orbit the sun. It's not a pipe dream, a theory or hypothesis. It's fact. Here's a good article about detection methods, along with a link to a list of all the discovered planets, and some pictures of the planets themselves orbiting their stars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrasolar_planets

God has created a massive universe, and while we might be special creations on Earth, there is nothing in the Bible that suggests there are no more planets out there. As we slowly discovered through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Earth is not the center of the solar system, the galaxy, or the universe. It's not perfect or even shielded from disasters that might occur from space. It's a rather small planet orbiting a rather small star (the sun is a yellow dwarf itself). There are countless stars out there, hardly countable in our own galaxy, and the galaxies themselves are hardly countable. God alludes to this many times when discussing His covenant with Abraham.

I would be very surprised if God created all that universe for just one set of planets. The probability is (even without the hard photographic evidence) that at least some number of stars in that near infinite realm have planets around them. In fact, just earlier this year NASA found 54 Earth-like planets.

God is infinitely powerful and infinitely creative, and the Bible does not explicitly deny that there is anything else in the heavens besides stars. The Bible is not a science textbook. It's a divinely-inspired infallible story of God's redemption for humankind and Israel concerned with the spiritual matters of our world. I would be very hard pressed to press limits on God and deny what our instruments tell us beyond a shadow of a doubt.