- Series:Astronomy, Transcript English
Genesis 1:16-17
“And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,”
The possible existence of a ninth planet in the Solar System has been a source of controversy among astronomers for well over a century. Certain objects in the outer reaches of the Solar System have displayed movements which seem to derive from the gravitational field of a planet. When Pluto was discovered, astronomers thought they had the answer, but today it is well known that this tiny world has been downgraded from being a planet to the status of mere dwarf planet.
There are other objects, like Pluto, beyond the orbit of Neptune. Some of the smallest ones are known as extreme Trans Neptunian Objects, or eTNOs. Some of these eTNOs were observed in 2016 to be clumped together, and the mysterious and elusive Planet Nine was deemed to be the cause.
Observers from the University of Pennsylvania, however, have recently repeated the 2016 observations, but they report that they cannot find any clumping of eTNOs. One researcher said, “We would not have formulated the Planet Nine idea if our data was the only data that existed.”
Whether or not there exists a ninth planet in the Solar System does not, in one sense, affect creationists. But the Bible’s position is that what we see in the heavens brings glory to God, and therefore it is always interesting to research further and further into the universe that God has created. In all that we find, we praise God for His creative hand.
Prayer: We praise Your Name, precious Lord, for the greatness of Your creative power and how You made all things well. Amen.
Author: Paul F. Taylor
Ref: Crane, L. (2020), Mysterious ‘Planet Nine’ on the solar system’s edge may not be real, < https://www.newscientist.com/article/2241222-mysterious-planet-nine-on-the-solar-systems-edge-may-not-be-real/ >, accessed 4/22/2020. Image: Artist’s impression of Planet Nine, NASA, Public Domain.
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