The Origin of Solar System free essay sample

A cloud of interstellar gas and/or dust (the solar nebula) is disturbed and collapses under its own gravity. The disturbance could be, for example, the shock wave from a nearby supernova. As the cloud collapses, it heats up and compresses in the center. It heats enough for the dust to vaporize. The initial collapse is supposed to take less than 100,000 years. The center compresses enough to become a protostar and the rest of the gas orbits/flows around it. Most of that gas flows inward and adds to the mass of the forming star, but the gas is rotating.The centrifugal force from that prevents some of the gas from reaching the forming star. Instead, it forms an accretion disk around the star. The disk radiates away its energy and cools off. First brake point. Depending on the details, the gas orbiting star/protostar may be unstable and start to compress under its own gravity. That produces a double star. If it doesnt The gas cools off enough for the metal, rock and (far enough from the forming star) ice to condense out into tiny particles. (i. e. ome of the gas turns back into dust). The metals condense almost as soon as the accretion disk forms (4. 55-4. 56 billion years ago according to isotope measurements of certain meteors); the rock condenses a bit later (between 4. 4 and 4. 55 billion years ago). The dust particles collide with each other and form into larger particles. This goes on until the particles get to the size of boulders or small asteroids. Run away growth. Once the larger of these particles get big enough to have a nontrivial gravity, their growth accelerates.Their gravity (even if its very small) gives them an edge over smaller particles; it pulls in more, smaller particles, and very quickly, the large objects have accumulated all of the solid matter close to their own orbit. How big they get depends on their distance from the star and the density and composition of the protoplanetary nebula. In the solar system, the theories say that this is large asteroid to lunar size in the inner solar system, and one to fifteen times the Earths size in the outer solar system.There would have been a big jump in size somewhere between the current orbits of Mars and Jupiter: the energy from the Sun would have kept ice a vapor at closer distances, so the solid, accretable matter would become much more common beyond a critical distance from the Sun. The accretion of these planetesimals is believed to take a few hundred thousand to about twenty million years, with the outermost taking the longest to form. Two things and the second brake point. How big were those protoplanets and how quickly did they form?At about this time, about 1 million years after the nebula cooled, the star would generate a very strong solar wind, which would sweep away all of the gas left in the pro toplanetary nebula. If a protoplanet was large enough, soon enough, its gravity would pull in the nebular gas, and it would become a gas giant. If not, it would remain a rocky or icy body. At this point, the solar system is composed only of solid, protoplanetary bodies and gas giants. The planetesimals would slowly collide with each other and become more massive.Eventually, after ten to a hundred million years, you end up with ten or so planets, in stable orbits, and thats a solar system. These planets and their surfaces may be heavily modified by the last, big collision they experience (e. g. the largely metal composition of Mercury or the Moon). As science in the western world began to abandon a Judeo-Christian view of creation, beginning about 200 years ago, the trend towards purely naturalistic explanations emerged. Today these views, known as scientism constitute the majority state-religion in our public school systemsif God exists at all He is uninvolved and irrelevant to a ull understanding of the world we live in. (Ref. 1). German philosopher Immanuel Kant in 1755 hypothesized the origin of the solar system as beginning with a rotating gaseous nebula out of which condensed globular bodies that became the sun and planetsall revolving in the same direction. (Ref. 2). Essentially the same theory, now called the nebular hypothesis was proposed by the French mathematician Laplace in 1796. According to this model the hot rotating gas cloud began to cool and contract, and if this were to happen the law of conservation of angular momentum requires a more rapid rate of rotation.This speed up was supposed to have flung off rings which condensed into the planets. James Clerk Maxwell and Sir James Jeans refuted the nebular hypothesis a hundred years later by showing that there was insufficient mass in the rings to provide enough gravitational attraction to form planets. Then, astronomer F. R. Moulton of Chicago called to attention the fact that the planets of our solar system carry 99% of the angular momentum of the solar system, while the sun has 99. 9% of the total mass.The nebular hypothesis couldnt possibly be correct, else the sun would presently be rotating a hundred times faster than it does now (once every 27 days) in order to conserve and distribute the angular momentum of the system correctly. Sir James Jeans and Sir Harold Jeffreys then revived a 1749 proposal of Count Buffon known as the collision hypothesis. A passing star was supposed to have pulled of giant tongues of gaseous matter from the sun. These streamers then presumably broke into small chunks called planetesimals. Chemist Harold Urey, physicist W. A. Fowler, and astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle attempted to make this model workable by suggesting plasmas and magnetic coupling to explain how the suns originally high angular momentum was transferred to the planets. Unfortunately there is no reason for molecules of gas and dust in space to stick together, congeal and cluster under the influence of random, disorderly collisions, the extremely weak force of gravity and the inexorable tendency to disorder dictated by the Second Law of Thermodynamics.There are many other problems that remain unsolved mysteries to this day, for example, one would expect as much as a third of the solar systems mass to reside in the planets and there are puzzling special problems with respect to the distribution of the planets, orbital inclinations and with many of the solar systems 34 moons. Secular science has lost much of its luster in recent years as more and more people have seen that purely materialistic, naturalistic explanations for the origin of the univ erse and of life are almost all bankrupt.A number of outstanding, competent scientists who are also Christians are calling clear attention these days to the sheer impossibility of a universe coming into existence by time plus chance, by any combination of natural processes, apart from the work of an outside Designer, Architect and Master Craftsman. (Ref. 9). See The Limits of Science. Genesis One, plainly read, declares that the earth was formed on Day One of creation week and the sun, moon, stars and planets all on Day Four. This notion is considered ludicrous to virtually all of todays secular cientists, yet Genesis is as fully authoritative as any other book of Holy Writ and invariable sound in the long run when addressing subjects that bear on scientific discovery. The authority of Genesis and the rest of the Bible rests on the integrity and authority of Jesus Christ. So central is the earth in the Biblical model of creation that intriguing models of Geocentricity are still proposed by some competent scientists who take Genesis seriously (Ref. 10). Of course it is difficult to make a convincing case for earth being at the center of the physical universe based solely on modern astronomy. But as far as theology is concerned, earth is the one unique planet where the Son of God chose to become a man. Earth was where He chose to redeem mankind by His death on a cross. In that cross he reconciled all things to himself (Col. 1:19, 20)thereby undoing evil not only on earth but also everywhere else it may exist in the cosmos and among the angels. The account of creation given in Genesis One very much suggests the observer is a man standing on the earth while the events of creation week are taking place.Finally the Son of God has chosen to reign from Jerusalem over a restored earth and from the satellite city, New Jerusalem, over an entirely renewed creationnew heavens and a new earth. The Biblical view of the universe is that it consists of a physical, material world and an unseen but very real spiritual world. The spiritual realm is commonly referred to as the heavenlies in the Biblethe Bible does not use the term supernatural. The heavenlies are inhabited by heavenly hosts, that is by angels.From the New Testament letter to the Hebrews we learn that the physical creation, which we see and touch has its source in unseen, invisible things: Now faith is the assurance (hupostasis = to stand under, i. e. , support, foundation) of things not seen. For by faith the men of old gained divine approval. By faith we understand that the world (aionos = ages, or world) was created (katartizo = to fit, or render complete) by the word (rhemati = the oracles, sayings, or spoken utterances) of God, so that what is seen came into being out of that which is unseen. (Hebrews 11:3)The physical world, the material realm, is perfectly real and solid (not maya, or illusion, as Hinduism supposes), but it is the world of the fading, the transitory, the impermanent, and the perishable. The Biblical view is in some ways similar to the Greek (Platonic) idea of invisible ideas and archetypes which produces resulting forms in the physical world. But there are important differences of course between the Greek and Hebrew world-views. The entire creation we live in is spoken of in the Bible as the old creation, which of course contrasts that creation with a later new creation. Something has gone wrong in the old creation producing death and decay, corruption and disintegration. The old creation is now a ruined creation. Evil has disturbed our universe, interfering with both the realm of the spirit and realm of the physicalwhich includes disruptions in the laws of physics which have taken place since the Seventh Day of Gods work in creation. Evil in the universe has damaged the original close and harmonious coupling between the spiritual and material dimensions of existence.What we now see and observe and experience is not the creation as it was finished at the end of the sixth day, but an aging, dying creation. When any one of us chooses to know God through faith in Jesus His Son, God responds by making us members of a new human race, headed by His Son, Jesus, the Last Adam. He has prepared a place for us to live in forever-a new creation: So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day.For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 5:6-8) Even if we succeed in mapping the physical universe, we are at a loss when it comes to measuring coordinates of time and space in the heavenly realm. The spiritual world is another dimension of reality (not a mere extension of the physical world into more than four dimensions). The spiritual world ermeates the physical world and that means that heaven is all around us and within usnot far away beyond the most remote galaxy at the edge of space. See Time and Eternity According to Genesis, God first created space, time and matter on the First Day. Then He created light (energy). These four, basic, constituent elements were then used to construct a universe. The physical universe was molded, formed fashioned and filled during six days. The earth was formed in the midst of the primal waters on the First Daythe sun, moon and stars were not fashioned until Day Four. Those who suggest otherwise must force Biblical interpretation well beyond all reasonable bounds (Ref. 11). Creation week was a unique, never-to-be-repeated sequence of events during which time the ordinary laws of physics as we know them now were suspended. Only when Gods creative work was finished was the universe set in motion as a dynamical system. How God does things almost always escapes our ability to discover (Ref. 12). This is especially true of creation week-naturalistic explanations for the solar system cant even begin to retrace Gods artisanship in creation. See especially The Uniqueness of Creation Week.