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From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science

Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of stellar phenomena. Studies include the physical characteristics of the stars and other heavenly bodies, their chemical constitution, light, heat, atmospheres, etc. Observations are typically made with the spectroscope, bolometer, and other instruments, usually used with a telescope.

Contents 1 Astrophysical Evidence for a Recent Creation 1.1 Comets 1.2 Interplanetary dust 1.3 Magnetic field decay 1.4 Lack of old supernova remnants 1.5 Distance to moon 1.6 Lunar surface ghost craters 2 Related References 3 See Also

Astrophysical Evidence for a Recent Creation

Comets

For years creationists have indicated that there are too many bright, low-period comets to support an old solar system. A comet loses some of its substance with each rendezvous with the sun, and hence the shorter the period the fewer such rendezvous a comet can withstand before dying. As there is no observed mechanism for replacing dead comets, the solar system should have already run out of comets.

Scientists, in response to this known problem, have hypothesized first an Oort cloud and then a Kuiper belt, where comets are supposed to exist and occasionally fall into our solar system. The Kuiper belt does exist, but it cannot be the source of the comets having the longest periods. Furthermore, a number of families of comets exists that have aphelia even shorter than the average radius of the Kuiper belt. Nor has anyone proposed a workable mechanism by which Kuiper belt objects could fall out of the belt and into the inner solar system on the highly elliptical orbits that comets have.

In 1984 paleontologists David Raup and Jack Sepkowski announced their hypothesis that extinction-level events occurred every 26 million years.^[1] Then the astronomer Richard A. Muller proposed the existence of a companion star, named Nemesis, that had an orbital period of 26 million years and a perihelion that took it inside the Oort cloud to send devastating showers of comets into the inner solar system.^[2] Astronomers have thus far failed to sight any such star.

Walt Brown has propounded a radical theory according to which comets have their origin in the earth itself, and particularly in the global flood.^[3]

Interplanetary dust

Creationists have indicated that there is too much interplanetary dust in the solar system. The solar wind, solar gravitation and the Poynting-Robertson effect remove dust from the solar system, while comets and asteroids can contribute to the dust. An argument was issued by Robertson and Slusher in a 100 page monograph confirming that equations derived nearly fifty years earlier were essentially correct and the solar system was limited to a few thousand years without some hitherto unknown massive replacement method. At least half of this conclusion is supported by secular scientists who hold that the lifespan for a typical dust particle is about 10,000 years.

Mainstream scientists have not suggested other major sources of dust, and so one must assume they consider the dust created by meteors and comets sufficient.

A related, but qualitatively different, argument based on flux of particles (not their lifetime) has been largely abandoned by creation scientists.^[4]

Magnetic field decay

Creationists have suggested that the decay in the Earth's magnetic field is a sign that the solar system cannot be old. They claim that it is lessening too rapidly. Secular scientists have hypothesized that the field reverses itself every certain number of years or else it has freely decayed from a higher value. The latter theory is considered untenable (by scientists on both sides) due both to the extreme effect ultra high fields in the past would have had on life and to the archaeological evidence that the field has apparently changed polarity. A great deal of speculation has ensued on both sides, as it is unclear how often the field reverses and by what mechanism. Talk.Origins^[5] offers a typical response to this claim. CreationWiki offers this response in turn. Jonathan Sarfati^[6] offers further information.

Russell Humphreys in 1984 developed a magnetic field creation model that assumes that God made all celestial bodies initially of water and then transmuted them to their present composition after the magnetic fields were established. He thus could calculate the total magnetic dipole moment of any celestial body at creation and set limits on the magnetic decay time, half life, and core conductivity of that body.

Humphreys used his model to make predictions for the magnetic fields of Neptune and Uranus, and published these prior to the measurement of those fields by Voyager 2. In fact, Voyager 2 validated Humphreys' predictions and embarrassed uniformitarians, who failed to predict that either Uranus or Neptune would have a magnetic field at all.^[7][8]

Lack of old supernova remnants

Danny Faulkner, after giving a sober description of current creationist claims, suggests that one major challenge to the standard model is the lack of old Supernova remnants. Theory suggests that supernovae should be visible for several thousand years, but yet we find almost none that are more than a few thousand years old.

Scientists propose ^[9] that the dating method Faulkner uses for SNRs only can be used for young ones, and claim that using a different dating method older SNR have been identified.

Distance to moon

Both creation and secular scientists have indicated that there is a problem with the distance the moon is from the Earth. In particular, its rate of departure seems high. This was noted by Kerr in a 1983 article for Science magazine. Donald DeYoung extrapolated plots of lunar distance in 1990. When new data was found using putatively old varves, DeYoung's extrapolation was supported. The problem is that this appears to put the Moon in contact with the earth only 1.5 billion years ago. Thompson, writing at Talk.Origins, suggests that DeYoung's model does not take dissipation and deformation appropriately into consideration.^[10]

Lunar surface ghost craters

The moon has numerous "ghost craters" on its surface, suggesting an inexplicably long time between the moon's initial cooling and a later lava overflow. Creationists, such as Danny Faulkner, also object to the standard timeline for lunar evolution because they claim these ghost craters should be more plainly visible. This is discussed in brief by Fryman^[11] and in more detail by Faulkner himself.^[12]

Related References

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See Also

• Cosmological relativity
• Geomagnetic field decay
• Geomagnetism
• Equinox precession
• Gravitational time dilation
• Helioseismology
• Oort Cloud
• Protostars
• Red shift
• Speed of light
• White Hole Cosmology
• Van Allen belts

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