A collision 4.5 billion years ago nearly destroyed our planet but instead helped start path to life

National Post ^ | June 13, 2014 | Joseph Brean

[rickmichaels]

Creation stories tend to be outlandish, in keeping with the near impossibility of explaining why the world is the way it is — from the week-long labours of the Old Testament God, to the eternal cycles of the Hindu creator Brahma, to Raven’s metaphysical trickery in Pacific Northwest First Nations tradition.

Fanciful as they are, however, these myths have nothing on modern science, whose creation story — which already involves a mysterious Big Bang, perhaps one of many creations ex nihilo in infinite succession — this week got even weirder.

At a geophysics conference in California, a series of discoveries was announced that show — not for the first time, but in unprecedented detail — the Earth as we know it today was born of a violent collision between two ancient planets, so forceful it reduced both to molten rock and silicate vapour, and nearly blasted both into cosmic smithereens.

“It would have been a very, very bad day for the Earth,” said Sujoy Mukhopadhyay, associate professor in the Earth and Planetary sciences Department at Harvard University. “One potential outcome could have been complete destruction.”

It came close. The cataclysmic meeting of the proto-Earth and the smaller, Mars-sized planet Theia — known as the Big Splash — set the Earth spinning faster than ever, tilted its axis by 23 degrees, and created the moon from the debris that was blasted into orbit.

[WhiskeyX]

“Science!-tists sez: “Come on guys. Stop believing in God and believe in us! We need grant money more than he does. We made a YouTube video showing how the world was created. Where’s your God’s YouTube videos?”

Insofar as the Universe is God’s Creation, denial of the physical nature of the Universe is also denial of God’s Creation and God.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Does the Moon rotate?

The answer is yes. The rotation of the Moon – or a lunar day – lasts around 27.3 days. This is the same amount of time the Moon takes to complete one orbit around the Earth. Because the rotation of the Moon and the length of its orbit are (almost) exactly the same, the Moon always presents the same face to the Earth. However, because of its odd orbital path, at time, Earth can see 8 degrees more East or West of the Moon than is typical.

Another twist: The Moon differs from most satellites of other planets in that its orbit is close to the plane of the ecliptic, and not to the Earth’s equatorial plane.

The Moon’s orbit around the Earth has many irregularities (perturbations). The non-circular form of the lunar orbit causes variations in the Moon’s angular speed and apparent size as it moves towards and away from an observer on Earth.

More info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon

[reasonisfaith]

That without the curse of evil we cannot have the blessings of good, that both are born of moral law, and that moral law necessitates a moral law Giver are reminders to us all that Mind formed the moon, the earth and the entire universe and this brings great comfort in the face of un-Godly bloodshed like the slaying of students with the assurance that the same Mind who brings his enemies to absolute justice will also bring his children to absolute peace.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks rickmichaels. There is evidence which shows that no such impact gave birth to our Moon, and since the birth of the Moon is the only reason such a model was theorized in the first place, poof.

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[SunkenCiv]

Thanks rickmichaels.

[ZULU]

“Creation stories tend to be outlandish, in keeping with the near impossibility of explaining why the world is the way it is — from the week-long labours of the Old Testament God,....”

The National Compst speaks. The creation of the earth in Genesis is NOT contradicted by this theory nor evolution.

I get spo sick and tired of seeing Judaeo-Christian religious beliefs trashed by the mainstream media and select clique of atheist professors and educators.

Forgetting the God who made us great is a certain way to assure America’s collapse - and they know it.