I have always loved astronomy from the days of Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, Brian Cox and most recently Neil deGrasse Tyson. I followed the Moon landings and the space probes, Pioneer, Voyagers 1 and 2, Galileo, etc and the Viking Lander on Mars. Those pictures and data they brought back were fantastic. It seems my love of space seems to be infectious as all my children read religiously all my books on space, the planets, stars, and explorations with a lot of pictures of the landscape of the Moon - the Apollo programs, Venus, Mars, and more recently the dwarf planet Pluto by New Horizons. Recently, when on YouTube I came across a whole range of celebrities and icons, who still believe that the earth is flat. I thought that this issue was settled by the ancient Greeks, Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Aristotle, etc and Aristarchus and Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth and knew it's placed in our solar system. If these great thinkers could deduce this with none of the advanced technology we have today and just their eyes, the ocean, a stick, and a deep well, and due to our misinterpretation of scripture we want to enforce our own beliefs with little or no evidence then we have a lot of problems now. Then there is the Louisiana Science Education Act, the act allows public school teachers to use supplemental materials in the science classroom which are critical of theories such as the theory of evolution and global warming. It seems some people want to force us back into the dark ages. It must say something for the US education system, and it is often reported that the President does not believe in the science behind climate change and a whole range of the population believed the earth is just 6,000 years old. I just feel tired with talking to people who believe that because you have some doubt on a topic especially on a scientific level it means total ignorance. It just shows they do not fully understand the scientific method.
This book summaries the main facts and points about the cosmos from the big bang and the beginning of the universe and time itself about 13.8 billion years ago to the present day. The nanoseconds after the big bang Neil deGrasse Tyson explained the formation of the building blocks of atoms - quarks, leptons and bosons, and antimatter. How the scientists came to this conclusion. The Newtonian laws and the problems with some theologians who believe it was sacrilege that mere mortals try to understand the things of God. Even in Isaac Newtons days, there were people who found that he could predict the movement of the heavenly bodies blasphemous. But using these laws we could predict solar and lunar eclipses. Take the man to the Moon and back. Newtonian equations only lack where there were problems that he could not be exposed to at his own time extreme mass. That is where Einstein equations come in at the extremes, there where the Newtonian laws needed to be modified with is special relatively and Einstein equations do actually equal to Newtonian equations when mass is lower.
When looking at our solar system, the planets, asteroids, and other floating bodies in our vicinity, Newtonian laws hold. But when looking at distant galaxies it seems something was not all right. Based on Newtonian laws it will be that there is something holding the galaxies in place. As at present scientist do not know, but are sure it is not a black hole, dark clouds, interstellar bodies or any identifiable phenomena. It could be a new form of matter, or it could be forced from another dimension or particles yet to be discovered whose properties are not well understood. What some scientists have postulated is that there is nothing and we must redefine the Newtonian laws or modify as before. Other scientists feel according to quantum field theory it consists of particles which appear and disappear in a manner yet to be explained. About 85% of the universe is held by a force does not emit light or energy. It is composed of dark matter which we do not know its mass or properties. Personally, I would like to avoid "God of the gaps" scenario and believe that we do not know it now and may soon be able to explain it. For what history has taught us although we will never be able to explain everything, the things we did not know before are being solved. There have been particles that scientists postulated before due to unexplained properties of matter and were later discovered years later.
He went further to expand on the electromagnetic spectrum from gamma rays to radio waves. The fact that the universe of full of things that our telescopes pick up from things we can see in the visible spectrum to things which cannot see. Space is so NOT EMPTY as I initially thought, and the earth goes through millions of tons stuff from rocks, dust, gas, electromagnetic waves, gravitational forces, etc. Most of the stuff is from the formation of our planets. We are protected from it by our atmosphere with reflects it and burns the majority of others before they reach the ground. Even materials from the Moon and Mars could be found on the earth. Instead of us going to the Moon or Mars to collect sample it would be far cheap to pick them up on Earth. It is suspected that Mars had water and maybe life, it was postulated that maybe life started on Mars and same here via meteorites. We are searching for life in the universe and so far have not come up with any intelligent life, but with Billions of galaxies and each of them containing billions of stars. With one or two likely exoplanets we have just started. In our solar system, there are the Moons Ganymede and Europa of Jupiter which has liquid water. And now liquid water has been discovered on Mars, we know that liquid water is a requirement for life "as we know it". Then there is Silicon-based life or Methane energy life that various scientist have been theorizing.
There are natural laws that all matter must obey, even the exception to the laws obey them. Like Newton's law of universal gravitation, if something is flying then it is either floating, gliding or self-propelling through the air. I believe that our God is a god of laws. He respects the law and there are universal laws in Christianity. We are must obey them and even the exceptions obey the law. But by studying astronomy we realize how insignificant we are in the grand order of things and the way does revolve around us. How greater God is and instead of taking it away it brings us closer. The cosmic perspective leads us to see beyond our personal wants and desire and see the bigger picture.
When looking at our solar system, the planets, asteroids, and other floating bodies in our vicinity, Newtonian laws hold. But when looking at distant galaxies it seems something was not all right. Based on Newtonian laws it will be that there is something holding the galaxies in place. As at present scientist do not know, but are sure it is not a black hole, dark clouds, interstellar bodies or any identifiable phenomena. It could be a new form of matter, or it could be forced from another dimension or particles yet to be discovered whose properties are not well understood. What some scientists have postulated is that there is nothing and we must redefine the Newtonian laws or modify as before. Other scientists feel according to quantum field theory it consists of particles which appear and disappear in a manner yet to be explained. About 85% of the universe is held by a force does not emit light or energy. It is composed of dark matter which we do not know its mass or properties. Personally, I would like to avoid "God of the gaps" scenario and believe that we do not know it now and may soon be able to explain it. For what history has taught us although we will never be able to explain everything, the things we did not know before are being solved. There have been particles that scientists postulated before due to unexplained properties of matter and were later discovered years later.
He went further to expand on the electromagnetic spectrum from gamma rays to radio waves. The fact that the universe of full of things that our telescopes pick up from things we can see in the visible spectrum to things which cannot see. Space is so NOT EMPTY as I initially thought, and the earth goes through millions of tons stuff from rocks, dust, gas, electromagnetic waves, gravitational forces, etc. Most of the stuff is from the formation of our planets. We are protected from it by our atmosphere with reflects it and burns the majority of others before they reach the ground. Even materials from the Moon and Mars could be found on the earth. Instead of us going to the Moon or Mars to collect sample it would be far cheap to pick them up on Earth. It is suspected that Mars had water and maybe life, it was postulated that maybe life started on Mars and same here via meteorites. We are searching for life in the universe and so far have not come up with any intelligent life, but with Billions of galaxies and each of them containing billions of stars. With one or two likely exoplanets we have just started. In our solar system, there are the Moons Ganymede and Europa of Jupiter which has liquid water. And now liquid water has been discovered on Mars, we know that liquid water is a requirement for life "as we know it". Then there is Silicon-based life or Methane energy life that various scientist have been theorizing.
There are natural laws that all matter must obey, even the exception to the laws obey them. Like Newton's law of universal gravitation, if something is flying then it is either floating, gliding or self-propelling through the air. I believe that our God is a god of laws. He respects the law and there are universal laws in Christianity. We are must obey them and even the exceptions obey the law. But by studying astronomy we realize how insignificant we are in the grand order of things and the way does revolve around us. How greater God is and instead of taking it away it brings us closer. The cosmic perspective leads us to see beyond our personal wants and desire and see the bigger picture.
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