Psalm 33:6
Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
6 The heavens were made by
the word of the Lord,
and all the stars, by the breath of His mouth.
and all the stars, by the breath of His mouth.
Julia phoned me up on Thursday and invited me to come to Cal
Tech on Saturday night. A supernova had suddenly appeared in the Cigar Galaxy. Family
and friends of university employees were invited onto campus to see this rare
event.
Astronomers tell us that when an average star burns up all
of its hydrogen fuel, it slowly shrinks under the force of gravity until it
becomes a white dwarf star. At this stage it is about the size of our earth.
This shrinking compresses the gases in the star causing it to grow hotter and
hotter and thus brighter and whiter. This compression forces the helium atoms
together until a nuclear reaction starts that fuses three helium nuclei to form
the nucleus of a carbon atom, thus releasing a vast amount of energy extremely
suddenly. The white dwarf explodes violently. For two or three weeks this
supernova outshines an entire galaxy before the exploding gases cool down and
fade into oblivion.
The picture shows this kind of supernova sparkling near one
end of the Cigar Galaxy in this Cal Tech photograph.[i] Although
it was almost twelve million light-years away, we could see it quite clearly
even in an eight-inch telescope on that crispy February evening.
Seeing this unimaginably huge show of force stretches and
expands my appreciation of the power of God who spoke this star, now dubbed SN2014J,
into existence a long-long-long time ago and far-far-far way. This is the very
same God that is personally interested in my and your well being.
Thank You, Almighty
God, for deigning to remember, love, and care for each totally insignificant being
like me.
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