How big is the universe? How many stars does it contain? What are some of the wonders astronomers have discovered? Everything we learn about the universe fills us with a sense of awe. But even more, all we learn provides convincing evidence that the universe must have been created.
Counting the Stars
If you look up at the night sky, it seems filled with stars. At first there might seem too many to count. But if you sat down and carefully counted each star we can see with the naked eye, you'd reach a total of 1,029.
About 300 years ago a man named Galileo invented the first telescope. How many stars could you count if you looked at the night sky through Galileo's telescope? You would be able to see 3,310.
Today, through the use of giant telescopes and radio telescopes that "see" radio waves, we know that our Sun lies in a great cluster of stars, called a galaxy. Astronomers estimate that there are 100 billion stars in our galaxy --- and that there may be 100 billion galaxies in the universe!
Long ago, God told Abraham, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars--- if indeed you can count them." (Genesis 15:5). God knew what, in that day before telescopes, no one else could have known, that it is impossible to number the stars in His universe!
How Big is the Universe?
Looking at the sky at night, we can't begin to see the end of the universe. But scientists have found ways to measure the distance to the farthest stars they can find. Distances in our universe aren't measured in miles. Distances are just too vast to measure that way.
Suppose you draw two circles, one large and one small, with their centers just nine inches apart. If each inch represents ten million miles (10,000,000), your picture will show the distance between our Earth and the Sun.
Now, let's say you want to draw another circle that shows where the nearest star will be. How far away will you have to draw it? That circle will be forty miles from the Sun you drew on your paper. The nearest star, Alpha Centauri, is twenty - four thousand million miles away! That's 24,000,000,000,000 miles.
The distance to our nearest star is so great that it's hard to imagine. Suppose you started out the moment you were born and ran a mile every four minutes, without stopping. You would be 700 years old before you even reached our Sun, just nine inches away on your drawing! And you would be 182 million years old before you reached the nearest star!
Since it's too difficult to measure star distances in miles, scientists use a different measure called a light - year. We know that light travels at the tremendous speed of 186,000 miles each second. That means light could speed around our planet seven and one - half times a second. Scientists use the speed that light travels in a year (a "light - year") to measure star distances. By that measure, our Sun is only about eight light - minutes away. That is, it takes light eight minutes to travel from the Sun to Earth, compared to your running for 700 years. How long does it take light to travel to Earth from the nearest star? It takes more than four years.
How far away is the farthest object in the universe we know about? One of the farthest is a quasar named OQ 172, nearly 17,000 million light - years away! A quasar is a distant starlike body that gives off immense quantities of light or radio waves.
Although quasars were not discovered until 1960 by astronomers at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego, California, the writers of the Bible described the vastness of the universe centuries earlier.
Many years ago David wrote a psalm, a song of praise to God. David had been a shepherd and had spent many nights alone under the sky gazing at the stars. There, looking up, David thought:
The heavens declare the glory of God;
The skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
Psalm 19:1-4
Today we know the universe is more vast than David could have imagined.
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RandomDID EARTH BEGIN WITH A "BIG BANG" COSMIC EXPLOSION? WHAT HAPPENED TO DINOSAURS? DID WE EVOLVE FROM APES? Find out the truth in this book. I OWN NOTHING.
