Have you ever thought about just how special and unique within the universe is our galaxy, solar system, Sun, and planets? I'll save our Milky Way galaxy for a future time, so for this blog I'd like to show you just a few features of the Sun within our solar system which makes life possible on Earth.
The Sun: Our Sun is a very uncommon star. It too has been fine tuned for the benefit of human life on Earth. How do I know this? Because astronomers have yet to find a star considered to be a solar twin. And they've been searching the Milky Way galaxy for over fifty years, a galaxy containing over two hundred billion stars. One would expect to find stars similar to our Sun within a galaxy with such a vast number of stars, right? Do you know how many stars they have found similar to our Sun? Three. However, they are all considered "quasi solar twins" to our Sun according to Jorge Melendez and Ivan Ramirez, astronomers who have spent most of their careers in search of a star similar to our Sun which could make intelligent life possible on a planet orbiting it.
The three stars that come close in likeness to our Sun are 18 Scorpii, HD 98618, and HIP 56948. Here is a table taken from Hugh Ross' book, More than a Theory (page 123) which describes certain characteristics of each star in terms of a fraction of our Sun's value:
Characteristics 18 Scorpii HD 98618 HIP 56948
Mass 1.02 1.02 1.00
Luminosity 1.03 1.06 1.15
Metallicity 1.05 1.12 1.02
Age 0.85 0.91 1.26
Rotation 0.90 0.96 ?
Temperature 1.01 1.01 1.00
18 Scorpii and HD 98618's characteristics seem somewhat similar. However, according to Hugh Ross;
"life requires a virtually identical twin. Because of obvious differences when compared to the
Sun, Melendez and Ramirez eventually dubbed the stars 'quasi solar twins.' Not only do
key features (luminosity, metallicity, and age) differ from the Sun, but both stars also
possess a lithium abundance that's a factor of about three times higher than the Sun's."
source: More than a Theory by Hugh Ross, page 123.
The lithium levels in these two stars would destroy all life on Earth if our Sun had these similar levels. The third star, HIP 56948, (I know, astronomer's naming conventions are a bit bizarre) has an identical mass, temperature, as well as lithium abundance. However, HIP 56948 is 1.2 billion years older than our Sun and 15% more luminous (bright). As a star ages, it continues to grow more and more luminous (the result of nuclear fusion turning hydrogen into helium) in the star's core. The helium in the star's core increases the density of the star's core, which then causes nuclear fusion to increase in efficiency, causing the star to become more luminous. An increase in our Sun's luminosity of 15% would also make life on Earth impossible. In fact, just a few percentages brighter (see my previous blog) would destroy life on Earth. This added age of HIP 56948 is consistent with it's added brightness. According to Dr. Ross:
"The greater age and increased luminosity of HIP 56948 interfere with its potential to
support an advanced life carrying planet. If Earth's Sun shone brighter by just 0.4 percent
(as it will when it's only 0.2 percent older), advanced life would become extinct."
source: More than a Theory by Hugh Ross, page 124
Dr. Ross goes on to state that it is amazing that while our Sun has been becoming brighter and brighter all throughout Earth's history (since life first appeared some 3.8 billion years ago), life has been sustained by God's compensation mechanisms. Dr. Ross writes:
"The carefully timed introduction of the just right amounts and kinds of life and the just
right removal of certain earlier life forms gradually brought down the quantity of
greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere to perfectly compensate for the Sun's increasing
luminosity. Yet that compensation cannot continue much longer...Astronomers calculate
that within the next 30 million years, either the Sun will heat Earth's surface beyond what
will dwindle to levels inadequate to support life capable of efficient photosynthesis."
source: More than a Theory by Hugh Ross, page 124
Dr. Ross goes on to point out that while finding a twin for our Sun has not been achieved, it's not because twins of stars are rare. On the contrary, many twins have been discovered for stars other than our Sun.
In summary then, those characteristics shown in the above table have to be "just right" for life to exist on Earth. Change those values ever so slightly, and there is no life on Earth. In addition, our Earth has many, many fine tuning characteristics which I'll speak about next time. But just to give you a taste, the Earth's magnetic field (the formation of which is itself a miracle) helps to shield the Earth from harmful radiation from our Sun.
We'll, it's late and I'm done for tonight. I'm almost finished with my Capstone class at UGC, the intensity of which has prevented me from writing to you sooner. My hope is to write next time on the fine tuning of the Earth, then some other solar system characteristics, then move on to the Milky Way galaxy's fine tuning properties.
When you take all of these together as a cumulative case, the evidence for God's supernatural interventions in the design of the universe, Milky Way galaxy, solar system, and Earth (and life on Earth) are overwhelming.
As American physicist Freeman Dyson states:
"The more I examine the universe and study the details of its architecture, the more
evidence I find that the universe in some sense must have known that we were coming."
source: Disturbing the Universe by Freeman Dyson, page 250
Until next time (March), may God richly bless you as you open your minds to his creation.
Cheers
Tom
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