The earth's time is running out

by David Grand
March 25, 2004

But not so soon that you've gotta pray more, cancel your vacation plans, or saying to hell with paying my bills. For according to cosmologists it'll be 4 to 5 billion years before our solar system (formed 4.5 billion years ago) is wiped out by the sun turning into a red giant making it too hot for life to endure on the earth. That's bad news for my poor descendants who'll be living then.

But that projected timetable could be cut-short at anytime by an accident, such as a star passing through the solar system and destroying it. And, of course, by Judgment Day arriving earlier.

The earth I'm told is 93 million miles from the sun, which makes the moon look like a next door neighbor at only a quater-million miles away. And that distance between them is just right, neither so close that our planet broils nor so far away that it freezes.

And talk about hot, the sun's surface temperature is several million degrees, even with the air conditioners running full blast. But if, as predicted, it's getting brighter and hotter, could it possibly be because some alien planet, who's envious of our beautiful, blue marbled-colored planet is raising the thermostat by remote control? Wouldn't put it past those sneaky Martians, who I hold responsible for cutting off a large portion of the country's power last year.

Now, let me say that I've long since given up trying to fathom the unfathomable universe. And I only look skyward to observe low-flying planes, migrating birds and to see if there are any dark clouds hovering overhead before mounting my lawn mower. Nor do I ever gaze at the stars, although I've been accused at times of "stargazing" for my overly ambitious goals and fanciful desires.

But I must also say, that I find the theories and astronomical figures advanced by cosmologists and astronomers to be as intriguing as they are mind-boggling. Some examples:

• The Milky Way galaxy we reside in (the word galaxy coming from the
  Greek word for "milk") has 10 billion stars and is about 100,000 light-years across, a light-year being equal to 5,880,000,000,000 miles. And here I thought nothing could be wider than driving across the country.
• Viewing stars in the night sky through a telescope would be
  comparable to examining a drop of water from a greenish pond under a good microscope and seeing the drop teeming with unexpected, small living creatures.
• There are billions more galaxies stretching out through space, with
  the super-sized ones containing as many as a trillion stars. As astronomer Sir James Jeans described it: "Put three grains of sand inside a vast cathedral, and the cathedral will be more closely packed with sand than space is with stars."
• Although astronomers cannot see to the end of the universe, galaxies
  have been detected that are thought to be between 5 and 15 billion light-years away from the sun. And before NASA pulled the plug on the Hubble space telescope, it got stunning shots of 40 billion more galaxies in the deep universe, with each having more than a billion stars. Hopefully, they'll plug it back in the socket.
• Before the "big bang" occurred 10 to 20 billion years ago, as a result of a violent explosion of some primordial (first in time) mass, there was no
  "before" and the volume of the entire universe was zero. But how can
  something come from nothing you may rightfully ask? Well, don't ask me. For I'm not good at solving riddles, even simple ones like "how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"

But if I remember to, I'll ask God to answer that vexing question the next time I talk to him, that is if he has the time. Meanwhile, I'll just continue believing that the universe is but one vast symbol of God's greatness.

(Now, I know many of you are thinking I must be a real "space cadet" for writing on such a complex, scientific subject. Maybe so, but I enjoyed doing it.)