Ticks in Amber, Mutant Crickets, and Paleolithic London
Studying ticks preserved in amber, mutant crickets in Hawaii, and flint tools from paleolithic London give scientists a few pages from Earth's story: and help us understand how this astounding world works....
(From NASA; ESA; G. Illingworth, D. Magee, and P. Oesch, University of California, Santa Cruz; R. Bouwens, Leiden University; and the HUDF09 Team; used w/o permission.)
About a half-dozen centuries after Sargon of Akkad became the first known emperor, quite a few folks thought we lived on a circular plate, surrounded by a cosmic ocean. That's where we get the Old Testament's poetic imagery about this universe. (January 3, 2014)
More recently, a 17th century Calvinist decided that God created the universe at nightfall before October 23, 4004 BC. A remarkable number of folks still think he was right. (April 4, 2014)
I'll grant that, as far as my personal experience goes, the universe might be no more than a few thousand miles across: and six millennia is a very long time when compared to a human lifespan.
But we've learned a great deal about this world in the last few centuries. Based on observations of the cosmic background radiation and red shifts of distant galaxies, we're reasonably certain that this universe is 13,798,000,000 years old: give or take about 36,000,000.
More at A Catholic Citizen in America
...Living Amid Ancient Splendors
(From NASA; ESA; G. Illingworth, D. Magee, and P. Oesch, University of California, Santa Cruz; R. Bouwens, Leiden University; and the HUDF09 Team; used w/o permission.)About a half-dozen centuries after Sargon of Akkad became the first known emperor, quite a few folks thought we lived on a circular plate, surrounded by a cosmic ocean. That's where we get the Old Testament's poetic imagery about this universe. (January 3, 2014)
More recently, a 17th century Calvinist decided that God created the universe at nightfall before October 23, 4004 BC. A remarkable number of folks still think he was right. (April 4, 2014)
I'll grant that, as far as my personal experience goes, the universe might be no more than a few thousand miles across: and six millennia is a very long time when compared to a human lifespan.
But we've learned a great deal about this world in the last few centuries. Based on observations of the cosmic background radiation and red shifts of distant galaxies, we're reasonably certain that this universe is 13,798,000,000 years old: give or take about 36,000,000.
More at A Catholic Citizen in America
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