Transcript ppt

EXOPLANETS AND THE SDA
PERSPECTIVE OF LIFE ON OTHER
WORLDS
Dr. Stephen Schiller
Astrophysicist
(e-mail: [email protected])
INTRODUCTON
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As a fundamental belief of the Seventh-day Adventist Church,
“The doctrine of the great controversy reveals the tremendous
battle … that touches every corner of the universe”. (Seventh-day
Adventists Believe, p. 119)
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An important participant are the many worlds with intelligent
beings God also created such that “Throughout eternity the
redeemed will … witness to unfallen worlds about His (Christ’s)
matchless love”. (Seventh-day Adventists Believe, p. 442)
However, most creationist (young and old universe) use recent
discoveries of science about the inhospitable environment of the
physical universe and the endless characteristics found for the fine
tuning of life to claim that conditions for habitability exists
“Nowhere but here”. (Why the Universe is the Way it is, Hugh Ross, p. 76)
As a denomination, Seventh-day Adventist doctrine stands alone
teaching that there many inhabited worlds not fallen to sin,
possibly millions. (E.G. White, Review and Herald, March 1, 1881)
Is the “Book of Nature” telling us a different story than the Bible
(Job 1:1-8, Isaiah 40:26, Rev 12:12) and the Spirit of Prophecy?
New astronomical research into exoplanets is providing a positive
answer to this question.
METHODS FOR DETECTING EXOPLANETS
Radial Velocity Method
(Detects a varying Doppler shift in spectral lines of
a parent star caused by the tug o an orbiting
planet)
Planetary Transit Method
(Planet passes in front of its parent star
causing a drop in brightness of the star)
Gravitational Lensing
(Sudden brightening of a distant star by the
bending of light from a foreground star and
planet)
Direct Imaging
(Uses a chronograph to block
out the light of the parent
star)
CURRENT PLANET COUNT (AS OF JULY 20, 2011)
Candidates detected by radial velocity
431 planetary systems
513 planets
51 multiple planet systems
Transiting planets
133 planetary systems
141 planets
11 multiple planet systems
Candidates detected by microlensing
12 planetary systems
13 planets
1 multiple planet systems
Candidates detected by imaging
21 planetary systems
24 planets
1 multiple planet systems
Current Total of 563 planets
(A planet is counted when confirmed
by more than one set of
ground based observations)
KNOWLEDGE OF EXOPLANETS BEFORE
KEPLER
Earth Distance =1 AU
Radius
^ of Jupiter
•Most planets appeared to be hot jupiters or larger.
• Nothing resembling our own solar system.
•The conditions for habitability appear to be “Nowhere but here”
•This picture turns out to be the result of an observational bias inherent
with the radial velocity method. (easier to detect massive planets in small
orbits)
KEPLER MISSION
THE MOST EXCITING AND ACTIVE AREA OF
EXOPLANET RESEARCH CURRENTLY UNDERWAY
The Kepler Mission is an orbiting telescope specifically designed to
survey a portion of the Milky Way galaxy for planets using the transit
method.
KEPLER MISSION
Goal is to gain actual knowledge of the number of Earth-size and larger
planets that exist in or near their habitable zone and determine how many of
the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets.
Kepler is designed to take a
picture of the same ~170,000
stars in the constellation
Cygnus once every minute
for 3.5 years looking for stars
that dim from a planetary
transit.
Smallest Validated Planet Discovered by Kepler
Planet Properties
Radius = 1.4 R
Mass = 4.6 M
Density = 8.8 g/cm3
=> Rocky planet
Stellar Properties (Sun Like)
• G4V
• Mass = 0.90 M‫סּ‬
• Radius = 1.06 R‫סּ‬
• Age > 8 Billion Years
• Distance = 560 Light-years
KEPLER PROVIDES THE FIRST STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE
FREQUENCY (PLANETS/STAR) AND OTHER PROPERTIES IN A
SAMPLE VOLUME OF SPACE OF THE MILKY WAY
In a cone of space that extends 3000 light years from earth in the
Orion arm of our spiral galaxy, all main sequence stars will be
examined
DISCOVERIES
Kepler’s more complete statistical sampling is revealing a different picture
After only 4 Months of observation
Kepler found 1235 planetary
candidates. For the first time,
astronomers are able to define families
of exoplanets arbitrary classified per
size which are:
-68 Earth-size exoplanets with a radius
(Rp) of less than 1.25 Earth radius (Re)
- 288 super-Earth size exoplanets with
1.25 x Re < Rp ≤ 2.0 x Re
- 662 Neptune-size exoplanets with 2.0 x
Re < Rp ≤ 6.0 x Re
- 165 Jupiter-size exoplanets with 6.0 x
Re < Rp ≤ 15 x Re
- 19 very-large-size with 15.0 x Re < Rp
≤ 22 x Re
Systems are appearing more like our own with most planets now
Neptune size or smaller (74%)
Blue - Candidates as of June 2010,
Yellow – Candidates added February 2011
Statistics show planets are on the average smaller and
further from the host star, thus, more similar to our solar
system
NEEDED FOR A HABITABLE PLANET APPEAR TO BE MORE
COMMON
Degrees
Kepler 11 is the most prolific and
compact planetary system
discovered. It is amazingly well
behaved.
Our solar system
•Kepler 11 orbits are circular (e=0) and
coplanar to ~1 degree.
•Dynamical integrations indicate the
system has the potential to be stable on
a time scale of billions of years
•The age of Kepler 11 is 8 billion years
(Compared to 4.6 billion years for the sun)
Kepler-11 is a G-type very similar to our Sun. It has approximately 95%
the mass of and 110% the radius and, within error bars, the same
temperature
As a planetary system, Kepler 11 system appears to be
more fined tuned with properties needed to support a
habitable planet than our own.
More candidates to be released in June
2012
Direction of
increasing
number of
candidates
with length
of
observational
mission
STATISTICS BASED ON KEPLER OBSERVATIONS PROVIDES A
REALISTIC ESTIMATION OF THE NUMBER OF “GOLDILOCKS
PLANETS” IN OUR GALAXY
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Kepler detects only planets with orbital planes that are aligned with
the direction to the earth.
Assuming exoplanets systems have random orbital inclinations
relative to our solar system allows the bias to be accounted for.
Correcting for observational bias, the current estimates are:
Of the 200 billion stars in our Milky Way, 200 million exist in the
galactic habitable zone.
 2.7 percent host so-called “Earth analogs” – Earth size planets in
the stellar habitable zone orbiting sun-like stars
 33.9 percent of those are in multiple planet systems
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=> On the order of 2 million planetary systems, in our Milky Way
Galaxy alone, that have one or more planets that have “just right”
conditions for habitability down to the solar system scale.
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The type of galaxy is just right (spiral)
The location in the galaxy is just right (galactic habitable zone)
The type of host star is just right (sun-like, G spectral type)
Each is a multiple planet system required for habitability (contains Neptune or Jupiter
size companions)
Just right orbits (near circular, coplanar)
A planet with the right distance from the host star (stellar habitable zone)
THE KEPLER RESULTS PROVIDES OBSERVATIONAL
KNOWLEDGE OF THE PROPERTIES OF GOD’S UNIVERSE
PRIOR TO THE CREATION OF HUMANITY
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Planetary systems were available for habitation long
before our creation week.
In our Milky Way:
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Kepler 11 (8 billion years) is twice as old as our solar system (4.6
billion years).
In billions of other galaxies in the observable Universe:
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Hubble Ultra deep space image revealed fully mature spiral galaxies
that could support habitable planets within 2 billion years of the
beginning of the universe (~13.8 billion years ago). (see back-up slides)
Thus, it now appears consistent with our scientific
knowledge of the cosmos that God had the universe
prepared, ready to carry out a creation week on many
other worlds prior to our creation week on earth.
“Lift your eyes and look into the heavens. Who created all
these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and
calls them each by name” (Isaiah 40:26)
THE RESULTS ARE CONSISTENT WITH TWO
PERIODS OF HISTORY DEPICTED IN GEN. 1
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The first period is Gen 1:1-2, “In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth” refers to a long period of time
that the universe we see in the heavens developed
according to God’s design.
Apparently the fine tuning of the laws of nature, the
physical constants, the initial density and rate of expansion
of the universe God established was sufficient over time to
bring about a cosmos with unnumbered star systems that
God could choose from to populate
In this period God established many inhabited worlds that
today remain unfallen.
The second period of time is the literal 7-day creation week
described in Gen. 1:3 – 2:3
“It seems as if this unformed and unfilled Earth has been
created before Day 1, and that the very short account of
that creation and the condition in which it was then left,
are given in verses 1 and 2.” (Mart de Groot, The Bible and Astronomy, 2
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Symp. On the Bible and Adventist Scholarship, Education Department, General Conference of the
Seventh-day Adventists, p. 172)
BACK-UP CHARTS
IMPLICATION ON THE AGE OF THE PHYSICAL
UNIVERSE
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1, NIV)
represents a period or duration of time in which God carried out creative
actions on a cosmic scale.
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Otherwise, assuming it is merely a title for what is to follow forces one to accept that “creation out of
nothing” is not taught in Genesis (The interpretation needs to be consistent with Heb. 11:3 )
The creative actions “in the beginning” was prior to his actions with and
in our World carried out during Creation Week.
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Proverbs 8:23,24 NIV – “(Wisdom) … the first of his works .. was appointed …from the beginning,
before the world began”.
Other inhabited worlds were created prior to Earth’s Creation Week
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“The Son of God had wrought the Father’s will in the creation of all the host of heaven. … Christ was
still to exercise divine power in the creation of the earth and its inhabitants” (Patriarchs & Prophets,
page 36).
“God’s government included not only the inhabitants of heaven, but of all the worlds he had created”
(Patriarchs & Prophets, page 41)
Each World was created one at a time each as God’s and the Universe’s
center of attention during their own “creation week”.
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“Lift your eyes and look into the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one
by one and calls them each by name” (Isaiah 40:26)
Millions of other inhabited worlds were created “in the beginning”
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He (God) could marshal the starry host of heaven, the millions of worlds above, to raise a song of honor
and praise and glory to his name (Review and Herald, March 1, 1881)
Conclusion:
Accepting the SDA doctrine of a Universe filed with unfallen inhabited
worlds leads one to accept that “In the beginning” as extended period of
time, possibly millions or billions of years in length of God exercising his
ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATION SHOW THAT
SPIRAL GALAXIES WITH HABITABLE ZONES HAVE
EXISTED FOR BILLIONS OF YEAR
Spiral galaxies reveal places in
the universe where life can exist
 The presence of large amounts of dust and
gas indicates stellar processes have produced
sufficient heavy elements to support the
existence of planets.
 These galaxies contain population I stars
similar to those studied by the Kepler
Observatory.
Spiral galaxies like our Milky
Way have existed for over 3 billion
years.
"The new results show that spiral galaxies,
such as the Milky Way, appears to have worked
in the same way, easily formed, and have been
the largest spiral galaxies in the universe for at
least the last 3.4 billion years," says Kambiz
Fathi. (Kambiz Fathi. Revisiting the Scale Length–μ0
Plane and the Freeman Law in the Local Universe. The
Astrophysical Journal, 2010; 722 (1): L120 )
A closeup from the Hubble Ultra
Deep Field. A graceful spiral
galaxy is seen as it was about 12
billion years ago
Hubble Ultra deep space image
discovered fully mature spiral
galaxies > 12 billion years old that
The
viewhabitable
of a universe
filled with inhabited worlds like ours created
couldSDA
support
planets.
over a long period of time is fully consistent with astronomical
observation