Amazing photo from Hubble space telescope depicts the enormity of space. When two galaxies pass through or close by each other the competing gravitational fields tear the galaxies apart. The upper left galaxy used to be a normal spiral galaxy until about 100 million years ago when the one on the right approached too close. You get an idea of the scale when you consider that each of the pin-pricks of light is an individual star with its own solar system.
Our own Milky Way galaxy contains between 100 billion and 400 billion stars, but even galaxies are dwarfed by massive superclusters. Fraser Cain at Universe Today explains:
The supercluster we live in is known as the Virgo Supercluster. It’s an enormous collection of more than a million galaxies, stretching across a region of space 110 million light-years across. Our Sun is just one member of the Milky Way, and the Milky Way is part of a collection of galaxies known as the Local Group. This contains three large spiral galaxies: the Milky Way, Andromeda, and the Triangulum Galaxy, as well as a few dozen dwarf galaxies. The Local Group is just one member of the Virgo Cluster. This is a collection of 1200-2000 galaxies that stretch across 15 million light-years of space. And then, the Virgo Cluster is just one cluster in the Virgo Supercluster.
……The Virgo Supercluster is just one of millions of superclusters across the Universe.
If the average galaxy is only 1/100th of the size of the Milky Way (i.e. between 1 and 4 billion stars) and the average supercluster contains a million galaxies, then the universe contains at least 1 Sextillion (or 10^18) stars.
See more photos at BuzzFeed: 18 Astounding Hubble Photos Released In 2012 | Donna Dickens
You’d be a fool to think it all came from nothink’ wouldn’t you.!! I know someone who can name them ALL! Yes I do!.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (NIV). This beautiful statement from Psalm 19:1 indicates one of the purposes of the created universe: the universe reveals the majesty of its Creator. Of course, God’s glory can be seen in many different aspects of creation—not just the heavens. Consider the magnificent intricacy of a living cell, the complexity and the amazing diversity of life on earth, and the mathematical precision of the laws of physics and chemistry. These are all indicative of the incomprehensible creativity, intelligence, and power of the Creator.
Why then does the Bible single out the heavens as declaring His glory? Perhaps the heavens declare God’s glory in a special way or to a greater extent. It may even be that the starry universe was specially designed for the purpose of declaring God’s glory to us. We will see that the universe has incredible beauty. This alone would be sufficient reason to praise God for His creation, but not only did God make the universe beautiful, He made it unimaginably large. The range of scales in the universe is truly staggering. The universe contains objects of incredible size and mass at distances which the human mind cannot fully grasp. When we consider the power of the Lord who made all this, we cannot help but feel humbled. Truly, the God who created this universe is glorious and worthy of praise. Let us now explore the size and beauty of the universe to gain an appreciation for the majesty of the Creator.
The moon is about the same size as the United States of America.
Let’s start close to home, with a relatively small astronomical object. The moon is..click on the link.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/tba/splendor-of-creation
How does the Bible describe the creation of all this? Genesis 1:16 states simply that God “also made the stars.” It is astonishing that the creation of the entire universe beyond earth is described so casually by such a simple statement. The biblical description makes it sound like the creation of all the hundreds of billions of galaxies was so trivially easy for God that it barely deserves to be mentioned. How awesome is the Lord!
Ring galaxies are comprised of a central core surrounded by a ring of bright blue stars. Since blue stars cannot last billions of years, ring galaxies are a reminder that the universe is much younger than is generally claimed.
When we contemplate all this which God created, it brings to mind Psalm 8:3–4: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” It is amazing that the God who created such a universe would be concerned with something as small as human beings. Yet, Scripture makes it clear that human beings are very important to God. Our place in the universe is very significant,
While I certainly understand your leaning towards crediting a God for creating such a splendid magnificence (although these days I, reluctantly have to admit, science is coming closer and closer to being able to provide credible explanations as to how such intricate perfection can be formed out of chaos)…. but it is a huge stretch to then quote and present passages from a book as if they are the words and actual thoughts of God himself… when it is blatantly obvious that they are just ancient mans opinions of what they thought God thinks and does.
When does “closer and closer” in an infinite universe become close enough? When does a “credible explanation” become the real explanation? How does it become “blatantly obvious” to challenge the words of ancient man and yet accept current “scientific” assumptions of events calculated to be millions of years prior to ancient man?
I do not dismiss out of hand current scientific thought of how things might have occurred. That there is a tangible, visible universe does not seem to be the question. If we humans are truly open-minded to learn how it came to be, then, in our theorizing, why is it so naive to also keep open the possibility of a Creator? Why should that possiblity thwart our search for answers to these age-old questions?
I do not propose to be right, but, as humans, why choose to be so perfectly convinced that there is no God? Or, that the Creator did not use perfectly logical processes to create the magnificence we see about us – processes we do not yet comprehend in our advancing science?
Don’t take the “IF” out of our scientific postulations! If there was a Creator, might he not still exist? If he spoke to the ancients, might he not still speak today? If he did make himself known today, we would not need to relay on “anceient mans opinions”.
Perhaps, we need to listen as well as see. Maybe we need to keep that open mindedness that has resulted in so many other scientific discoveries – even in the face of prevailing negatvie “scientific” opinion.
I think I understand what you saying Marv and I certainly wasn’t suggesting there is no God… it’s just that I think it is very dangerous, if not blasphemous, to claim something is of God (ie the Bible) and start quoting it as if it is from God when, as inspiring as it may be, is so obviously just a wonderful collection of mans opinions and thoughts of God. I think if I were God (speaking from a totally human perspective) I would be pretty pissed that my creation was falsely representing me.
What “IF” the Mormon texts are from God, what “IF” the Koran and all spiritual texts ancient and modern from the various world faiths & religions are from God….are you suggesting that we should also be open to that possibility and follow them all just in case? What “IF” God speaks directly to each person individually and never intended his “will” for that particular person to be written down to be followed by others. So many “IF’s”.
Don’t get me wrong… I have no problem with someone quoting inspiring spiritual texts and using them to help live a good life… but I do get a bit worked up when they then claim they are from God himself rather than acknowledging they are just the thoughts & opinions someone many years ago had about a God.
Interesting to see humans discussing the cosmos only to rely on religious descriptors….about a caring loving God…could you also please, when referencing God, also describe the individual behind the word so we can get an understanding of what exactly God is? maybe you need science to define it for you first?
OK, Now if a caring loving God is at work here in this photo of colliding galaxies, then the God entity must be extremely sadistic and cruel to watch this happening, cause it to happen, do nothing to stop it happening…because many countless stars and planets probably with civilisations on them have perished when these galaxies collided. So this then is your loving caring God at work??!
OK accepted this is God’s work and God is a murderer of billions.
And it took science to make it evident to us.
All praise science.
Science is God,
God is real.
I think you shouldn’t bother continuing to try to explain, Steve. You’re surrounded by godly people, and anything you say that even hints that the Bible is not necessarily ironclad literal truth is going to be met with fierce resistance and even more spouting off of Bibilcal quotes. Learn to pick your battles. Heh heh.
Yeh… I think you make a very wise point Mike
Man is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion – several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat, if his theology isn’t straight.
~ Samuel Clemens