Earlier (Thoughts on Winter Solstice) we considered the “luck” or design of the earth in regard to the tilt of its axis. It is tilted at 23.5 degrees which is just about ideal for life as we know it. But let’s look at a broader picture and consider the whole solar system.
The solar system revolves around a ball of hydrogen that is essentially a giant fusion bomb. Then there are nine, plus or minus, depending upon whim and definition, planets that orbit around the sun. All nine of these are lined up like peas on a platter and not scattered like the iconic atomic model that we often see with electrons whirling around it, completely encasing the center nucleus. The solar system resembles a frisbee and not a giant ball.
According to planetary cosmology theory, this whole thing began as a giant explosion, the Big Bang, that flung newly formed matter (out of nothing, it seems) out into the universe. That matter consisted mainly of hydrogen gas and a few “heavier” elements. By “heavier” we mean all of the other elements. (Incidentally, the “explosion” theory of elemental formation stops at iron. Nothing heavier can be made in “natural” or unguided atomic fusion reactions. But we will leave that for another day.)
There are approximately 600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (6 times 10 to the 23) stars in the universe, so there must have been that many discreet “globs” (scientific term) of matter ejected from the original explosion. If it had been evenly scattered, there would be nothing but the original splash of matter evenly distributed around the solar system. According to the theory, the particles in the globs attracted the other particles in the globs and began to coalesce into discreet bodies. Take the sun, for instance.
It was mostly hydrogen and the hydrogen molecules began to attract, by gravity, each other and begin to condense into a ball. As the theory goes, the mass became so great and hot that the gravitational forces smashed the hydrogen molecules into each other with such force that it began a fusion reaction that we know of as the hydrogen bomb.
Just for reference, any significant amount of hydrogen gas that we can “ignite” in that manner as in the hydrogen bomb uses an atomic bomb as the trigger. The atomic bomb forces the hydrogen molecules together with enough force to “fuse” them into a heavier element, helium. This smashing theoretically can continue with the heavier elements smashing into each other to make even heavier ones. (Up to iron, that is. More on that another time.)
A small disclaimer here. We cannot do that with actual hydrogen. Our fusion reactions are completed using a “heavy” hydrogen called deuterium that has a proton and a neutron. Natural hydrogen is only one proton. We cannot force two single hydrogen atoms together and make them “stick.” Theoretically the process would require at least three and probably four hydrogens, four protons, and slam them together in such a way that two of the protons change into neutrons and then combine with the other two protons to make helium. Helium usually has two protons and two neutrons. (He 4) He 3 (two protons, one neutron) is very rare on earth and probably the sun.
The compression of the hydrogen gas to produce the massive ball that can burst into nuclear fusion causes heat. We can measure the interior of the sun and it is roughly 15.6 million degrees K. The heat helps to initiate the fusion reaction, but also causes a problem for our theory.
Follow this reasoning. As we put more air molecules into a container, two things happen. Either the container will expand, like a balloon, or the pressure inside the container will increase, like a basketball. And when the pressure goes up, the temperature does too. That is the explanation as to why the sun can “catch fire.” The extreme pressure inside of the compressed ball of hydrogen is high enough, combined with the elevated temperature, to initiate an atomic reaction.
And you can begin to see the problem. Back to the beginning. The glob of hydrogen begins to collapse due to gravitational attractions. As this happens, the pressure of the coalesced gas also increases, resisting further compression. Without any constraint, like the shell of the basketball, the gas will spread out until the outward gas pressure is equal to the inward gravitational attractions. It will become a static ball of gas, neither expanding nor contracting. End of solar story. Cold, dark, and silent.
Just for the record the gravitational attractions must be very high to hold the hydrogen molecules together. Did I forget to mention that they are in motion? They are zipping around like a bunch of super balls in a blender. Only they do not get chopped up. To hold them together takes a very strong force. There is very little hydrogen in the atmosphere of earth, because the hydrogen is so energetic that it is escaping the earth’s gravity into open space. So for our glob to hold together, it would have to generate more gravitational force than the earth does. See the problem?
And as the glob compresses, the temperature increases, increasing the amount of force needed just to keep it together, let alone continue to compress. There is no scientific answer as to how this pressure-temperature barrier could be breached naturally. Not only do we have no sun, there are not any stars either. And many of them are much larger than old Sol. Once you get them together, the nuclear forces involved in the reactions can maintain the “ball” but there is not mechanism for getting to the top of the hill.
No sun, no solar system. But just for kicks, we will take a quick look the problems with the solar system generation. First, recall that the first four planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are called “rocky” planets, meaning that they consist of heavier elements. The rest, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are more gaseous planets. They have very little if any iron and silicon or the other elements needed to make a “solid” planet. They are mainly compressed, frozen gasses.
How is it that the heavier elements concentrated in the inner part of the solar system while a giant mass of hydrogen was at the center, and also in the outer rings? Did the sun attract the elements into the planetary positions from “outer space?” If it did, why did it stop attracting after it had “pulled” them all the way in from out there? They should have just fallen into the sun after coming from so far away. You remember, I am sure, that the closer things are together, the stronger the attraction is. So to pull them from way out with “weak” attraction, then stop when they are closer makes no sense.
And then how did they form bodies? Gravity again? Again we have the temperature-pressure barrier to overcome. But just in the chance that it did, we still have some problems. First remember the “platter” configuration? How is it that the sun pulled all 9 planets and all of the asteroids only on a single plane?
More problems arise when we think of the planets themselves. How did they begin to rotate? And the sun, itself, also rotates, like the earth and the planets. Getting all of this motion going would require some sophisticated computer calculations. And it was just random. Humm.
Kind of looks like some design was required from the initial formation of matter to the final configuration of the planets orbiting a burning sun. And Carl Sagan took us farther into the realm of believability when he stated that the chances are about one to the two hundred billion power that man could have evolved as he did. (The number is 2 with two hundred billion zeros behind it as opposed to the 23 above.)
And we have not even considered the tilt of the earth, or the problems with attracting a viable atmosphere. We have about 20% oxygen with 79% nitrogen and 1% everything else. Changing the oxygen to nitrogen ratio by more than 2 or 3 points would render the earth uninhabitable.
And we have only begun to plum the wonders of design. If the earth were 1% closer or farther from the sun–no life. If the moon were not there, no life and no world. Just luck, I guess.
The incredibly complex system that we see when we look anywhere in the natural world demands an intelligent design. The real science deniers are those who see the design but refuse to acknowledge it.
Disclaimer–of sorts: I did a Google search on star formation and every one that I could find said that once the mass of gas becomes large enough for the gravity to overcome gas pressure, the star will continue to contract, heat, and eventually begin the fusion reaction. Not one mentioned the barrier of getting past the pressure–gravity boundary. They simply assumed that it happened and once the cloud was massive enough, it would form a star.
Just for kicks, I am including a nice little two page PDF that gives all of the formulas for the gravity–pressure problem. If anyone is math oriented and wishes to flagellate themselves with the formulas, have at it. The author proved that Jupiter was stable because the internal gravity exceeds the gas pressure and it remains a stable planet. How it got there is omitted or ignored.
http://lasp.colorado.edu/education/outerplanets/math/gravity_vs_pressure.pdf
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