Monday, December 17, 2012

WHERE DID THE MOON COME FROM?



Hello all my fine friends! 


Well be finally have winter weather settling in. We had a winter snow storm over the weekend (great for setting the Christmas mood), which has now melted leaving muddy and dripping. But I don’t mind, we certainly need the moisture and my horse has fun kicking up his heels and flinging mud everywhere!

There is a theory that secular scientists have formulated that is similar to the mud flinging off of my horse’s hooves (fission) that is proposed to explain the moon’s origins. It is called the lunar-origin fission theory. Basically it states that the moon formed out of materials from the earth that were flung off, much like the mud flings off of my horse’s hooves. Some scientists who believe in this theory even say the huge ocean crevices are proof of the earth lost some of its materials, suggesting this ‘lost’ material then formed the moon. Well, could it be possible God used this natural law to form the moon? After all He did form Adam out of dust, why not the moon?

It sounds good, but there are several intrinsic problems. A moon that had split off from the earth would more than likely have been launched from the equator region (just like mud from a tire flies off at the greatest centrifugal force in the middle/outer most region), therefore we would expect the moon to be circling the earth around the equator. However, anyone can look outside and see the moon does not do this. Instead, its orbit is slanted between 18 to 28 degrees. Hence the reason it appears higher or lower in the sky, depending on the season.

Another reason this theory does not work is that the earth does not rotate fast enough to fling material out of its gravitational pull (thank goodness!). Well, you may be thinking, what if at one time the earth did rotate faster-like in the ‘beginning’. First of all there is no evidence of that, but let’s just say this did happen, the earth in the beginning spun so fast it flung off  huge chucks of rocks and dirt. Now we have another problem. In the process of these huge chunks of debris breaking away from earth’s gravity, our planet’s gravity would have crushed the material to such a degree that it would resemble Saturn's rings rather than a moon. 

And finally, our explorations to the moon should have resulted in throwing out this theory for once and for all. When the astronauts went to the moon they brought back quite a bit of moon material (rock, dust, etc). After examining these items from the moon, scientists concluded that the moon rocks are not the same as the equivalent material on earth. Well, it the materials are different, then they couldn’t have come from the same source! 

Learn more about our moon, the closest celestial object to us, next week! Until then…
God Bless and take care!
Willow Dressel

This week in the sky: “The first-discovered asteroid, 1 Ceres, is at opposition tonight [December 17th]. It's not far from 4 Vesta, which is also in Taurus along with Jupiter. Ceres and Vesta are now magnitudes 6.7 and 6.5, respectively. Spot them in binoculars near the horns of Taurus…” Also, Friday December 21 is the winter solstice marking the shortest daylight hours of the year!

References:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/1997/11/05/astronomy-bible    Astronomy and the Bible Selected Questions and Answers Excerpted from the Book Astronomy and the Bible by Donald B. DeYoung November 5, 1997



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