The Earth is in the Best Position to Observe the Universe

I have used eleven Nuggets to investigate the notion of life on earth and whether there is a possibility of life elsewhere and have come to the conclusion that the Earth is the perfect place for life and the chances of life elsewhere is remote. The Bible makes it clear over both Genesis accounts of creation (Genesis 1 and 2 – read Beginnings) that God made the heavens and the Earth for the habitation of the crowning glory of His creative acts. There are commentators who regard the first two chapters of Genesis as an account of two different and distinct creative acts of God. Some then interpret that to allow for the creation of a primitive form of man (Australopithecines, Cromagnon and Neanderthals) followed by the creation of modern man – (Adam). It is nonsense and a vain attempt to find a way to harmonize the biblical account with the long ages of evolutionary theory. In doing this they miss the point of there being two different accounts of creation (Genesis Chapter One and Genesis Chapter Two). The tolodoth mentioned in Genesis 2:4 is not a separate distinct creative act but rather a repetition of the first account which places mankind at the apex of God’s creative acts. The point is to emphasise the place that God arranged for mankind in creation.

Not only is Earth perfect for the life of the human beings God designed to live in the world He created but also for sustaining the life forms He created in a perfect symbiotic world made to be ongoing and everlasting. Man was to look after the world God had created and have dominion over it, read “manage” and “sustain” it. Oh, now that brings up a major issue as to how well “modern man” has manage and sustained it. But that is not the focus of this Nugget I am writing this morning. Rather I wish to look at a different aspect of Earth and it’s position in the heavens around it.

I feel I have made it clear in the recent 31 Nuggets that God positioned the Earth where He placed it perfectly, not only for life but for us to appreciate His message to human kind. However today I wish to focus on another aspect of the positioning of Earth in the heavens. Earth is also perfectly positioned not only for life but in order to observe life and the universe around us. Look again at the last Nugget I wrote. Take note of the pictures I included for you to depict the expanding universe. Here is one of those pictures again to remind you.

All four computer generated images (cgi) that I gave you make one further fact clear. That the Earth is also perfectly positioned to observe the universe that God created. There are astronomers who are astounded by the fact that the positioning of the earth in the universe around it means that we have a clear view of the universe in order to study it. It is almost as if God intended for us to learn about His creation by virtue of the position where He placed Earth. Look at the image above of our solar system (in the box) and its relationship to the Milky Way Galaxy in which it is placed. Earth is not buried in the midst of a dense cluster of stars, it is positioned high and free to give us the best position to observe our surroundings.

Furthermore, the fact that Earth is position in a radial arm galaxy enables us to look out on the universe around with an unimpeded view. We are not buried in the midst of the galaxy we are in with dense patterns of stars around us, neither are we clouded or enshrouded by meteor clusters or space detritus. We have a clear and unimpeded view of the universe from which to observe the heavens and the Earth and to investigate our surroundings and come to conclusions about the Creator who designed the universe and our position in it. As I told you earlier in the series on Mazzeroth (Signs in Heavens) and our position in the Universe, God positioned Jupiter to protect the Earth and draw meteors and asteroids away from us but also to give a clear view of the heavens so we could learn from them.

Our investigation of the other planets as to whether there was life on other planets resulted not only in us concluding there was not a possibility of life on other planets. You can also think about those facts from another point of view – even if we could survive on any one of those other planets, our ability to observe the universe from any one of them given the atmospheric conditions would be severely limited.

Not only are we in the best place for life in the Universe but we are also in the best place from which to observe the universe.

The Perfect position of the Earth – The Goldilocks Factor: Not too Hot and not too Cold

We have spent the last twenty weeks looking at the stars in the sky which tell the story of God. Now let’s take a look at the earth and its position in the heavens. The facts are astounding.

The Bible tells the story of the creation of the heavens and the earth twice in both Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. There are a number of people who have been taught that in Genesis 1 the creation of man before Adam is in focus (in other words Australopithecines and Cro-Magnon man). Then the theory goes that the creation of modern man is described in Genesis 2. It seems a convenient way of trying to harmonize the Bible with Science. But it is absolute rubbish. It does not hold a shred of truth. The point of two creation accounts from a Hebrew point of view is to emphasize strongly that man was the apex or the crowning glory of God’s creation and that the creation was made for the habitation of mankind. Man is the top of the pyramidof creation. Mankind is the apple of God’s eye. God created the earth as the perfect place for man to dwell. Everything was prepared in creation for the habitat of man. “Then God looked over all He had made and saw that it was very good. And evening passed and morning came marking the sixth day.” Genesis 1:31

Well let’s investigate this place where God placed man in the universe. Firstly we will look at the earth as man’s dwelling place from the point of view of the safety of our habitation and then we will look at the rest of the planets in our solar system as to whether they can also sustain life. We hear a lot about the search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and life on other planets. Well let’s examine the facts. Firstly, our place on earth and it’s perfection.

We are perfectly positioned in relationship to our sun to provide us with a habitable planet where the temperatures are varied in order to sustain life on the planet. If we were any closer we would roast, if we were any further we would freeze. I don’t need to tell you more in order to convince you these days. The issues of global warming and the extremes we are experiencing in terms of temperature should be enough to convince you. However, let’s consider the factors which are built in to sustainable life on earth. Our position in relation to the sun gives us the right amount of light and warmth. Without light and warmth we could not grow plants. The presence of water on the planet is crucial. The balance achieved to ensure water doesn’t freeze across the planet is crucial. So too is the issue of heat, too much heat and all the water would evaporate. How is this achieved? Quite simply as a result of two facts: The period of the earth’s rotation and its revolution around the sun.

The fact that the earth rotates over a day (24 hours) and revolves around the sun over a year (365 days) gives us a modified, sustainable environment. If we had long periods of time when a particular face of the earth was turned away from the sun freezing would occur. The fact that the earth traverses an elliptical path around the sun means there are periods of time (the seasons) when we are closer and further away from the sun, giving us the seasonal changes. But more to the point axial tilt plays a part here which we will investigate in the next Nugget. These factors related to light and warmth interact with others to produce what is called the habitable zone. Earth is in the habitable zone in the planetary system. It is also called by some the goldilocks zone. A reference to Goldilocks and the fact that her porridge was just right, not too hot and not too cold.

Why is the earth like that? Partly because of diurnal differences in temperature between night and day which gives us a heating period and a cooling period which is short in order to sustain life. With the temperatures we are experiencing in NZ at the moment or anywhere around the world consider what the temperatures would climb to if you didn’t have a night to allow cooling and dissipation of heat. Then there are the seasonal variations around the globe related to summer and winter. This is related to the earth’s elliptical movement around the sun in a year combined with the axial tilt of the earth. Imagine if you had month of daylight and high summer temperatures or a fortnight of night and winter temperatures. We don’t because of the way God designed our planet. It is not like that as we shall see when we visit the other planets in our solar system. Mercifully I use the word visit poetically. I for one would rather not go there.

Let’s now consider light rather than warmth. We all know light is essential for plants to grow. If we didn’t have light on our planet, life could not be sustained. The fact we have a balanced amount of light over a 24-hour period is hugely beneficial to both plants and humans. Plants don’t grow in long periods of darkness. But we humans don’t function too well in long periods of light or dark. Ask anyone living in the Arctic circle. Scandinavians we have known in our work tells us psychological problems arise in those long low-sun-periods. Our wake-sleep cycle is aided by the 24 hour rotation of the earth. Imagine for moment if the earth didn’t rotate. We would all be in trouble.

I have started this first Nugget on this topic sticking to light and warmth. In future Nuggets we will investigate the other factors.

The Earth’s Axial Tilt and Global Circulation Our planet was designed for life. There is no way to deny it. None of the other planets in our solar system come close. Today I want to focus on something we all know but in likelihood we don’t connect the dots. The fact that our planet has an axial tilt of 23.4 degrees is critical to life.

If earth had a greater or lesser degree of tilt our temperature would rise significantly and result in earth temperatures being too extreme for life. The tilt of the earth protects us from direct sunlight (a 90 degree angle to the surface for too long). The fact that our degree of tilt is what it is gives us the seasons we experience.

The fact that we have the four seasons across the sub-tropical areas of the earth results in the global circulation of earth that we have. It was almost like it was it designed that way. Oh but of course that’s right; it was designed that way, by God! Last week we looked at diurnal temperature differences and how beneficial they were to life on earth. Seasonal temperature differences make the atmosphere of the earth move and cause the circulation of winds and sea currents and result in earth temperatures changing and being modified. It is what essentially gives us the weather patterns we have. The more extreme temperatures in the tropics is what generates global winds and weather distribution. The heating of the air in the tropics causes wind. We all know that hot air rises. The air over the tropics is forced to rise when it heats and the cooler, more dense air rushes in to fill the gap. Wind!

The rotation of the earth doesn’t just give us day and night but also creates centripetal air movement and circulatory patterns of air and sea movement. If our day was any shorter than 24 hours the rotational winds across the earth would be too severe to sustain life. The fact that we have a moon as close as it is – not too close but not too far (the Goldilocks Zone from last week’s Nugget) – combined with the yearly movement of the earth around the sun gives us lunar tidal patterns as result of the gravitational effect of the moon on the earth. Perfect. Thanks LORD. But it doesn’t end there. There’s more! With God there’s always more.

Have you ever thought about our earth’s atmosphere? I mean really thought about it. It’s perfect to sustain life; despite the fact that we do our best to mess it up. Of all planetary atmospheres in the known universe our earth is the most perfect. Our atmosphere has just the right amount of pressure to ensure that water stays on the planet and that the “air bubble” around our earth stays in place. Once again it is just right to sustain life. The influence of the moon and the absence of other planetary close neighbours once again yields the perfect conditions for pressure and circulation of air.

Our atmosphere is made up of 78.09% of nitrogen, 20.95% of oxygen, 0.93% of argon, 0.04% of carbon dioxide and some other gases in micro amounts. The balance is perfect to sustain life. Think about it. We breath in oxygen and we breath out carbon dioxide with each breath we take, and there are a lot of us. Plants absorb nitrogen and carbon dioxide and release oxygen. It’s called the process of photosynthesis and is fuelled by the light from the sun and is critical to life on this planet. No wonder trees and plant life is critical to maintaining a healthy balance of life on earth. What an incredible symbiotic mixture of perfect balance. If our surface gravity of the earth were any greater the earth atmosphere would contain too much ammonia and methane which would be deadly to life on the planet. Now perhaps you are more aware why carbon credits are so important to the issue of global warming.

The water cycle which we all learned about in school is essential to life on earth. The atmosphere contains water vapour which is maintained by the atmospheric pressure on the earth which holds it all in place. The circulatory patterns generated by the heating and cooling of the planet and the rotational spin along with the annual trip around the sun basically gives us our water and weather cycle. We all know that too much sun would be deadly for us. Some of us experience the result of having too much sun through the summer in all the multiple ways that too much sun can be detrimental to life. Added to the atmospheric circulation I described above we have an oceanic circulation as well. Benjamin Franklin first published the idea in 1786 that there are huge ocean currents which move around the sea and redistribute warm and cool water around the planet. The Gulf Stream carries more than 5,000 times the volume of the Mississippi River around the planet constantly. But the Gulf Stream is only a part of a huge 21,000 km wide current pattern circulating around the Atlantic Ocean. The Psalmist wrote about it in Psalm 8:8. I included that fact in my God’s Awesome Book package. God told us how He had set up the planet in His Word. Job wrote about the springs of the sea in Job 38:16. It is only 40 to 50 years ago that the phenomena of huge fresh water springs on the ocean floor were discovered. Job also commented on water turning to ice and the surface of the sea freezing. (Job 38:29-30) My question during God’s Awesome Book was how did Job, an ancient Near Eastern dweller know about the polar caps on the earth? Simple the Creator of the Universe revealed it to him. God is the One who designed it all in the first place.

I will close with one more little fact, but a hugely important one. We all know that a solid of any substance is heavier than its liquid. Right? Wrong, there is one substance on earth where the solid is not heavier than its liquid. WATER! Water density at 4 degrees Celsius is 1.0 gm per millilitre? The density of ice at zero degrees Celsius is 0.917 gm per millilitre – always and everywhere. I am so glad that God designed it like that. If He had not made that one important switch in making ice lighter than water we would all be dead. That ice floats is a wonderful phenomenon. Because it does, water when it freezes floats to the surface to be warmed by the sun so it can become water again and add to our water cycle. If water was like all other substances and its solid was heavier than its liquid then ice would sink and we would all die. Frozen ice would sink to the bottom of the sea away from the sun’s warming effect and it would cause the oceans of the world to gradual freeze over from the bottom up and the global circulation of the water cycle would cease and so would life on earth. Aren’t you glad that God designed the earth and not man?

Zooming Out To Consider Our Place in the Solar System In the last Nugget we looked at a number of the factors which combine to make our planet perfect for life. Now I want to widen the view and encourage you to consider our place in the universe, or more specifically our immediate solar system.

This gives you an idea of the size of the earth in comparison with our moon and the size of our sun.

We looked last week at the effect of the earth’s axial tilt and the gravitational pull of the moon which gives us the tides. The fact that our relative position to our moon is the proximity it is, an average of 384,403 kms) and our distance from the sun is 149,597,887 kms gives us the balanced conditions for life. We have already investigated the perfection of our distance from the sun. Now let’s consider our moon.

Be thankful for our great big beautiful satellite, the moon. Without the moon, we would not be here. Life on earth is made possible because of our nearest celestial neighbour. Our moon compared with the moons of other planets in our solar system is larger relative to the size of the earth. The moon stabilizes our planet’s rotation, preventing drastic movements of the poles that could cause massive changes in temperature and would doom any chance for life on earth. The moon also helpfully pulls the ocean’s tides which flush our planet regularly and replenishes the nutrients in the coastal waters. It also plays a part in the movement of the seas in a more general way combined with the rotational force of the earth to influence the ocean currents. The placement and size of the moon in relation to the earth is perfect. If the moon was any larger or closer the effect would be catastrophic. The gravitational pull on our tides would be more than the planet could sustain. The differences between tidal ebb and tidal peak would wash over the land with such force it would seem like a tidal wave. Given the fact that approximately 40% of the world’s population lives within 100 kms of the coast, the result would be devastating. If the moon were smaller or further away the movement of tides and the cleansing effect on the earth would be negligible.

The earth’s rotation, the axial tilt, the proximity and size of the moon, the orbital movement of the moon around the earth and the earth and moon around the sun are all critical factors to ensure the delicate balance of life on earth. If any one of those factors changed it could spell disaster. Consider for example a change in the speed of the earth’s rotation. The effect would be wide-ranging. The rotational winds on the planet would be severe. For instance, Jupiter has the shortest days in the solar system, just six hours. The wind velocities on Jupiter are estimated to be in the region of 500 kms per hour. Everything about life on earth is balanced to ensure our survival.

Let’s move out a little wider still to consider our more distant planetary neighbours. George Wetherall of the Carnegie Institute made an exciting discovery about our solar system. He conducted computer simulations of the orbital movement and rotation of the planets and said “If it were not for Jupiter, we wouldn’t be around to study the origin of the solar system.” As I included in the Amazing Facts section of God’s Awesome Book, Jupiter is two and half times more massive than all the other planets combined. Because of its huge mass, thus huge gravity, and its location between earth and the clouds of comets surrounding the solar system, Jupiter either draws comets to collide with itself, or more commonly deflects comets right out of the solar system. In our position as the third rock from the sun, we are perfectly placed for our own protection. Wetherall says “without Jupiter, Earth would be struck about a thousand times more frequently than it is already by comets and comet debris.” Jupiter acts like a giant broom, sweeping the solar system of debris, rocks as small as cars and as huge as moons.

We didn’t just happento show up in a place that’s well-suited for life. Earth is perfectly placed in the Goldilocks position, within the sun’s habitable zone. Mars and Venus lie outside it; if Earth’s orbit had been just a bit further inside or outside of where it is, life would never have been possible and our planet would be a cold desert like Mars or a cloudy furnace like Venus. Earth remains the only known planet to host life, due to a unique combination of factors.

Alan Boss, a planet formation theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Washington, D.C. says, “Earth is the only planet we know of that has life.”

Alex Wolszczan of Pennsylvania State University, who co-discovered the first planets beyond our solar system says Earth is still the only world known to support life. “So far, we haven’t found it anywhere else.” He says that life was Earth’s single most impressive characteristic.

Don Brownlee, author of the book “Rare Earth” (Springer, 2003) says “So far, we haven’t seen any planet outside the solar system that comes close to Earth [with the potential to sustain life]. Of the nearly 300 new worlds glimpsed elsewhere in the galaxy, most are “hot Jupiters”, large planets that orbit close to their stars, on which life and liquid water are unlikely to exist. I doubt that in our galaxy typical stars have planets just like Earth around them, I’m sure there are lots of planets in the galaxy that are somewhat similar to Earth, but the idea that this is a

I know God created the universe. I don’t know HOW he created it, and I leave it to the scientists to discover it. Humans attempting to place restrictions on an infinite creator always amuses me to no end.

“He forgot Pluto. Only degenerate satanists think Pluto is not a planet.”

Still pisses me off that some people need to be dicks in order to feel important as in the bunch that kicked Pluto out of the solar system.

A common complaint, why would God create such a vast universe with maybe 2 trillion galaxies in it, if He only intended to populate one planet with intelligent life? Why not make a smaller universe, such as a disc (Earth) with a Heavenly dome over it?

Sorry, but I don't agree with you. I think it is highly probable that life exists in other places in the universe mainly because there are so many TRILLIONS and TRILLIONS of stars and many of those stars with planets.

Will we ever be able to visit them or them us? I don't know, but if all we can ever do is the speed of light, that's not nearly fast enough.

“Earth is still the only world known to support life. “So far, we haven’t found it anywhere else.”

We haven’t even explored our star system much less the other estimated 200 billion trillion star systems.

Given that God placed these systems so far apart we will never ever know much of anything about most of those other star systems.

Don Brownlee, author of the book “Rare Earth” (Springer, 2003) says “So far, we haven’t seen any planet outside the solar system that comes close to Earth [with the potential to sustain life]. Of the nearly 300 new worlds glimpsed elsewhere in the galaxy, most are “hot Jupiters”,

My understanding is, That's not the case anymore. We're aware of enough planets, and their likely characteristics, that we're able to categorize them. Hot Jupiters, mini-Neptunes, super-Earths, one face "eyeball" planets, etc. And no, none of them are any more likely to have life. Red dwarf stars, which is where most of the known smaller rocky "terrestrialoid" planets are, are known not to be a good place for life.

Anton Petrov's What Da Math yootoob channel frequently discusses new expolanet discoveries.

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