Yucatan hit and divine timing

UPDATE 7 July 2012
This text mistakenly says that the dinosaur killer asteroid came from the Kuiper belt which is at the outer limits of the solar system. However, William F. Bottke and his colleagues D. Vokrouhlický and D. Nesvorný suggested in 2007 that the asteroid came from the main belt which is between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and belongs to the Baptistina family best known from the surviving 298 Baptistina and taking some 160 million years to reach planet Earth. 

Recent 2011 study of the results from NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has indicated, however, that the Baptistina family of asteroids broke off about 80 million years ago. W. Clavin and T. Perrotto write that this is not enough time for the Yucatan asteroid and that its origin remains mystery. 

I leave the post here as a reminder of how easy it is to make mistakes when not being careful and also how quickly modern astronomy is developing even in the past ten years as new data pours in from continuously improved instruments. The theological points made in this post remain valid regardless of the origin of the meteorite. The time it took to reach planet Earth is anyway considered to be in tens of millions of years.
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 Kuiper belt of deadly rocks

The things we have learned about the sudden and far reaching change in the history of life upon Earth when that rock hit the planet 68-64 million years ago can be compared to a great artist who decides to repaint the canvas and splashes white color over much of the previous work (not all, of course, we have sharks and tortoises and araucarias and flies with us today).


But note the divine timing!

Those whose mission in life is to explain God away can only see trees but not the forest, have very accurate knowledge of the details but cannot fathom the grandiose guidance of Creator. Things are not related, integrated, but rather little gods work here and there randomly causing some nice surprises as result.

Trying to speak about the unspeakable, from the point of view of faith, we could say (in very limited human terms) that God of Israel synchronized the evolution of life on Earth so that His calculated timer brings the big stone from Kuiper belt in exactly the right time and place to drastically repaint life upon Earth.

This is truly long term planning (again, in human terms), a 160 million years subproject that will once bring catastrophic end to the Age of the Dinosaurs. The big splash began the Cenozoic period when it was time for us mammals to stand up and begin our rule in the biosphere.

The development has culminated in the making of man and woman in God's image, this hairless branch in the tree of life who are using our mighty brain power He has given to us to figure out celestial things like comet Elenin and the Yucatan hit, and also to create things that threaten with our own means the very survival of life on Earth.

Trident is a submarine launched intercontinental ballistic missile

Hey people, if rocks falling from the sky do not smither us, let us blow ourselves to pieces just for the sake of power over our fellow humans!

Nuclear winter. An artist's view

The discovery of the Yucatan effect led Carl Sagan and other scientists to the realization what would be the consequence of an all-out nuclear war between U.S.A. and Soviet Union - the M.A.D. would be followed by a similar nuclear winter of cosmic dimensions. The scientific discovery led to plenty of SALT and those monstrous intercontinental missiles have been put in deep freeze. They are there, of course, in case, but in general the eagerness of world leaders to trigger a global nuclear war has markedly diminished.

They look scary and they are scary, no matter whether Russian, Chinese, American or whatever

Comet Elenin may be overrated - at least we hope and pray so.

The discovery of the meaning of the Yucatan hit may have saved mankind from a nuclear war.

All this and more is in the hand of God Almighty and He has put in His wisdom that Catcher in the Rye, Jupiter, to take care of most of the space rocks that could be threatening us. None will hit us by chance.

God of Israel is the only God and He is mightier than we can even imagine.

Comet Elenin and Yucatan hit

Almost like in the big time Hollywood catastrophe movie Deep Impact, on December 10, 2010 Russian amateur astronomer Leonid Elenin noticed very far a way a very faint smudge of light. It carries his name as Comet Elenin and is also called Nibiru and C/2010 X1.  That particular dim spot of light among myriads of celestial objects had escaped the sharp eyes of others looking at data from the International Scientific Optical Network's robotic observatory near Mayhill, New Mexico U.S.A.

And as in that spectacular movie, the seemingly innocent distant traveller has a calculated trajectory that brings it quite close to Earth on October 16, 2011.

This thing a true Speedy Gonzales: It is small, only 3 to 4 kilometers in diameter with about 100.000 km long coma. When it was discovered in December 2010 comet Elenin was about 647 million kilometers from us but in May 4 2011 the distance was only 274 million kilometers. That means it flew about one hundred million kilometers in a month and we all understand that a direct hit by such a space bullet would be a Deep Impact indeed.
 
Mr Richard C. Hoagland has already issued grim warnings about the consequences of our close encounter with this intelligent space visitor with truly bad intentions. (What is wrong with this seemingly very gifted and intelligent man?)

Calculated trajectory of Comet Elenin NASA

NASA has published a spectacular animation showing the estimated path of comet Elenin. It will be closest to Earth on October 16, 2011 about 35 million kilometers from us. Not nice if there is a smallest error in scientific calculations here - the zeros and commas matter for once!

But alas! For all doomsday prophets and us amateur astronomers waiting for a great show, Don Yeomans of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California says:

"We're talking about how a comet looks as it safely flies past us. Some cometary visitors arriving from beyond the planetary region – like Hale-Bopp in 1997 -- have really lit up the night sky where you can see them easily with the naked eye as they safely transit the inner-solar system. But Elenin is trending toward the other end of the spectrum. You'll probably need a good pair of binoculars, clear skies, and a dark, secluded location to see it even on its brightest night."
Don Yeoman

Large space object hits Earth. An artists view.

REALITY HIT
So we can sigh in relief - this one will pass... we pray and hope.

But there once was a direct hit and the space bullet is buried deep on Earth's crust under Mexican Gulf.

According to current understanding this flying rock hit Earth directly near the Yucatan peninsula some 68 million years ago. The impact caused climatic change, a long winter caused by dense dust clouds, that cooled the earth and destroyed much of the biologically so rich and varied Mesozoic life. Especially important for us is that those magnificent animals, dinosaurs lost their rule in this planet and gave way to us, the much weaker furry mammals. Dinos apparently survive as birds, as we call them in English..

Life on our planet was significantly transformed by this huge stone that had started its journey in the Kuiper belt some 160 million years earlier.

Life cycle of the Sun

The millions and billions of stars in our cosmos are studied examining the visible light and other radiation they are emitting.  The radiation is captured by telescopes on Earth and in near space and scientists can determine from the photos at which point of its life cycle a star is from its birth, aging, and its death.

The fundamental research helps us to understand the life cycle of our own star, the Sun, Helios, on which the existence of planet Earth and everything on it depends.

Life cycle of the Sun (wikipedia)

Today it is generally considered that the Universe is about 13.75 gigayears old. Sun was created about 4.5 gigayears ago together with its planetary system so according to our present knowledge it is about one third of the age of the entire Universe.

The life of a midsized star like our Sun has been carefully studied. Astrophysicists, astrochemists, nuclear scientists and other smart people have calculated in detail what will happen and why according to the known Laws of Nature.

Today it shines on the sky as a 4.5 gigayears old star and is doing well what a Sun is supposed to do.

But after another 4.5 gigayears when Sun reaches the venerable age of 9 the nuclear fuel burning inside it begins to show signs of running out.

Consequently many things will happen but in a nutshell, the warming Sun will start to grow so that at 10 gigayears it is a Red Giant. So big that it has devoured planet Earth.

The fun of being all swollen up will not last very long in cosmic time. After some rather massive and sad events the Red Giant will be smoked into a hazy planetary nebula where the bright Sun once was shining in one of the spiral hands of Milkyway.

What remains of our Sun at the old age of 12 is just a lifeless White dwarf that will be getting cooler and cooler in the dark space. Sun will have 0.6 of its current solar mass but all this is compressed into the volume of the Earth. Not a big thing in the Universe rather like a grain of sand in the beach.

Small, medium sized and large stars have different life cycles and all are studied by men on this planet. According to latest estimates humans and their nearest ancestors have existed on Earth about five to seven million years but only recently, some moments ago, humans have started to grasp where they are in the Universe and what is going to be the faith of Sun in the not too near future.

Light to the world!

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
Gen 1:3 

וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, יְהִי אוֹר; וַיְהִי-אוֹר

Light is mentioned at the very beginning of the Bible as the first work of creation of our God, God of Israel.

Perhaps the most majestic interpretation of this verse is in the oratorio Creation by Joseph Haydn, when after the amazing chaos praised by Leonid Bernstein as a masterpiece of classical music the LIGHT explodes with such power, that the ladies in Vienna dropped their fine hats in the first performance directed by Haydn himself (laughing at heart at the memorable effect let there be LIGHT had at the audience).

And indeed, light is such a fundamental thing of creation that modern science and technology is largely based on our understanding of what light is and our search for knowledge about light. Since late 19th century the study of all forms of electromagnetic radiation have been at the center of scientific research.

Our own Sun is radiating light that makes our days so lovely, from early morning Eos (Aurora) to the blue moments of the evening. So powerful and impressive that ancients have worshiped Sun as a god and the Pharaoh called himself humbly the Sun god Ra ruling his people as absolutely as the Sun rules the skies of Egypt and going at his death to West to join the bark.

Labarum in a coin minted by Constantine the Great

Sun was worshiped as his favorite also by Emperor Constantine the Great whom Christ won at the bridge of Milva with a vision in our star in hoc signo vinces (it was the labarum Rho Xhi rather than a cross as we can see in Constantine's coins).

The survival of an oratorio to the Sun by Julian the Apostasis is an amazing document about the futile darkness of late Roman Sun theology!

Light is the principal subject in all astronomy. With its enormous speed it still takes millions of years for light to reach us from the distant galaxies and stars. There is no other way to study them but to see as much as possible in that light.

And much we have learned about God's great world by studying cosmic radiation and all ranges of light reaching us from deep space. Much we have learned about the structure of the Universe by studying light.

Absolute Astronomy seeking the truth

Indeed, let there be light, light of Truth!
 
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 
John 1:1-5 NIS

Hallgrímskirkja

Hallgrimskirkja, Reykjavik, Iceland

Space Theology, Astrotheology?

No problem - the Lutheran Christians in Iceland are ready for the Challenge(r)!

And the roaring sound from the 5,275 pipes organ weighing 25 tons is quite convincing, too.

At 74.5 meters the church is the tallest building in all Iceland and visitors high up in the tower have breath-taking panoramic view of Reykjavik and its surroundings.


It took the Icelanders no less than 38 years (1945-86) to build the amazing Church of Hallgrimur.named after the priest and poet Hallgrímur Pétursson (1614-74).

Leif Ericson, Statue in Reykjavik

The statue of Leif Ericson (970-1020) in front of the church was donated by United States of America for the 1000th year celebration of the Parliament. The brave man still looks forward towards new explorations even beyond the great Atlantic in God's great world.


Sálmarnir 24

Davíðssálmur. Drottni heyrir jörðin og allt sem á henni er, heimurinn og þeir sem í honum búa.
Því að hann hefir grundvallað hana á hafinu og fest hana á vötnunum.
Hver fær að stíga upp á fjall Drottins, hver fær að dveljast á hans helga stað?
Sá er hefir óflekkaðar hendur og hreint hjarta, eigi sækist eftir hégóma og eigi vinnur rangan eið.
Hann mun blessun hljóta frá Drottni og réttlætingu frá Guði hjálpræðis síns.
Þessi er sú kynslóð er leitar Drottins, stundar eftir augliti þínu, þú Jakobs Guð. [Sela]
Þér hlið, lyftið höfðum yðar, hefjið yður, þér öldnu dyr, að konungur dýrðarinnar megi inn ganga.
Hver er þessi konungur dýrðarinnar? Það er Drottinn, hin volduga hetja, Drottinn, bardagahetjan.
Þér hlið, lyftið höfðum yðar, hefjið yður, þér öldnu dyr, að konungur dýrðarinnar megi inn ganga.
Hver er þessi konungur dýrðarinnar? Drottinn hersveitanna, hann er konungur dýrðarinnar. [Sela]

Jesus Christ - Extraterrestial?

Jennifer Wilson talked recently (26.6.2011) about this subject in Veritas forum