Posted on 08/25/2016 7:40:44 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Our solar system is in a unique area of the universe that's conducive to life, says John Webb and his colleagues at the University of New South Wales, who have carried out intensive study that threatens to turn the world of theoretical physics upside down.
The team studied the fine structure in the spectral lines of the light from distant quasars from data from the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile with stunning results that showed that one of the constants of nature --the Alpha appears to be different in different parts of the cosmos, supporting the theory that our solar system is in a part of the universe that is "just right" for life, which negates Einstein's equivalence principle, which states that the laws of physics are the same everywhere.
The "magic number," known as Alpha or the fine-structure constant, appears to vary throughout the Universe, concluded the team from the University of New South Wales, Swinburne University of Technology and the University of Cambridge.
"What they found threatens to turn the world of theoretical physics upside down," said theorectical physicist, Paul Davies of Arizona State in an article in Cosmos this past January. "On the face of it, α has slightly different values in different parts of the Universe, implying that the fine structure constant is not a constant at all, but varies over cosmological distances and times."
"This finding in 2015 was a real surprise to everyone," said John Webb of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailygalaxy.com ...
Interesting article.
Not a surprise to creationist Christians!
Fine planning, Heavenly Father. Thank you.
Let’s start a pool for this thread. How many posters will call the idea that life only exists on Earth “the height of arrogance.” I’ll take five.
Our position is almost TOO good.
-Right mass.
-Right orbital distance.
-Lots of the proper mineral and elements to nurture life.
-Correct sized moon in the correct orbit.
-We circle the perfect sized star, with no (known) companion.
-Our system has all planets in stable orbits.
-We have the right sized gas giant to keep comets and asteroids away from us.
-We are not in a tight open cluster.
-We inhabit a spiral arm that is the optimal distance from the center and edge of the galaxy.
No need for a pool.
Simple math would tell you that out of the trillions of stars in the Local Group alone that there is a high probability that there is some life somewhere out there.
“Just Right for Life”
Kind of like it was all planned out huh?
If conditions for life weren’t perfect around this part of the cosmos, we wouldn’t be around debating it, LOL.
While I would say your reasoning is not conclusive, it is a far cry from the point I was making. There is simply no evidence for life beyond Earth, yet for some reason people completely discount the possibility that the Earth is unique. In fact they mock anyone who holds that possibility might be true.
It would honestly surprise me to find out in heaven that Earth really was the only planet with life on it. The Bible isn’t specific about that matter so we will never know for sure until we die or we come in contact with something.
Well, duh!
Simple knowledge of high-school biology will tell you that random molecular interactions could never form even the simplest live single-cell organism, let alone one that could divide, grow to “adult” size, and divide again.
I’ve long suspected that at least some of the universal “constants” vary over time and perhaps distance.
Up until a few decades ago they believed the universe was expanding at a constant rate. Now they think it’s actually accelerating. And if that’s not strange enough, according to the Inflationary Big Bang model, the universe, in its earliest stage, expanded many times faster than light, then slowed down before speeding up again! Inflation theory needed to be added to the standard Big Bang theory because, on its own, the BBT doesn’t work. However, Inflation has even greater problems.
And I would not be surprised to find life in some distant galaxy either. I’m completely open to that possibility. My post was meant yo address the curious phenomenon, even on a politically conservative forum, to hold that belief in the uniqueness of Earth is somehow arrogant and backwards thinking.
Does Mr. Webb mean to imply there is a (GASP!)God?
Next thing you know he’ll even try to tell us the Bible is the Word of God.
I wonder how many American universities will ban his work from the classroom. The library may be off limits as well.
I subscribe to the theory we just exist in a higher being’s computer simulation. Like one big ant farm.
Simple math would tell you that out of the trillions of stars in the Local Group alone that there is a high probability that there is some life somewhere out there.
...
We obviously live in a solar system that is friendly to life, yet life is very rare within it. Even here on Earth the ratio of biomass to mass is about 3 parts in 10 billion. I’d say your math isn’t so simple.
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