Third Evening—A Dusty Yellow Star
The end stages of nucleosynthesis initiated a process that led automatically to one more cycle of darkness and light. In the third cycle of darkness and light, gravity collected dry dust, rich in all the elements needed for life, into planets where life could begin. It also formed new stars incorporating this dust. These stars burned at lower temperatures than the first stars because one of the heavy elements in the dust was carbon. Carbon catalyzes the nuclear reactions that burn hydrogen into helium. The early stars were bluish-white, but the new stars were yellow. Yellow light is much better for life than the light of bluish-white stars, as we shall later see. One yellow star became our Sun, our source of light for the third day.
Supernovas Began the Third Evening
Some stars flare up and dim periodically. From afar a star that suddenly flares up may seem to be a new star, a “nova,” because before the star became so bright perhaps it was too dim to see. But a star that flares up brighter than a galaxy is a supernova. A supernova exploded 150 000 years ago in a nearby companion of our galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, and the light of its flare-up reached us in 1987. Some five or six billion years ago, other supernovas exploded, and dispersed their insides over a great region in space. The material quickly cooled, and the light of the star remnants went out. The cooled interiors of the stars were just a dry dust.
Supernovas Began the Third Evening
Some stars flare up and dim periodically. From afar a star that suddenly flares up may seem to be a new star, a “nova,” because before the star became so bright perhaps it was too dim to see. But a star that flares up brighter than a galaxy is a supernova. A supernova exploded 150 000 years ago in a nearby companion of our galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, and the light of its flare-up reached us in 1987. Some five or six billion years ago, other supernovas exploded, and dispersed their insides over a great region in space. The material quickly cooled, and the light of the star remnants went out. The cooled interiors of the stars were just a dry dust.
A star explodes at the end of the second morning, spreading rich chemical dust in the third evening.
When a hot iron is taken out of the fire and quenched in water, the light disappears with the heat. In a similar way, the extinction of the star remnants and the sudden cooling of their material brought on the third evening. The dust contained the iron that would later be the center of the Earth. The dust also had all the elements found in the crust of the Earth. They provide a rich chemistry, the basis of life.
The galaxy called the “Sombrero” (hat) is in the constellation Hercules. The outer dark band (the “hat brim”) is dust rich in the chemical substances necessary for life.
We cannot photograph the end of our own second morning and the beginning of our own third evening, because the Earth itself is made of material ejected from other stars that exploded long ago. The photograph taken in 1987 of a supernova shows the end of the second morning and the beginning of the third evening for some other planet near some other star.
Extra-terrestrial Water
Part of the dust contained oxygen. Powerful winds and jets from other stars drove shock waves through the clouds of dust and gases, heating them up. This made hydrogen react with oxygen, producing water. In 1998 the Infrared Space Observatory analyzed the Orion nebula.[i] There water forms continually. The production rate is enough to fill the oceans of the Earth five times every two hours. Long ago in a place much closer to us, the waters of the Earth came together. Other waters gathered in other places.
[i] Glanz, James, “A Water Generator in the Orion Nebula,” Science, 280 (17 April 1998), p. 378.
In Psalm 104:3 we read that God lays the beams of his upper chambers on the waters. This is a poetic way of saying that God is everywhere, on the Earth and in the highest heavens. Ancient peoples could see that there are sometimes waters in the sky, because they knew that rain falls from clouds. They did not know that there are huge clouds of water among the stars. But they were right in thinking that no matter how far one rises above the Earth, there will be waters. These waters are always below God’s upper chambers.
Extra-terrestrial Water
Part of the dust contained oxygen. Powerful winds and jets from other stars drove shock waves through the clouds of dust and gases, heating them up. This made hydrogen react with oxygen, producing water. In 1998 the Infrared Space Observatory analyzed the Orion nebula.[i] There water forms continually. The production rate is enough to fill the oceans of the Earth five times every two hours. Long ago in a place much closer to us, the waters of the Earth came together. Other waters gathered in other places.
[i] Glanz, James, “A Water Generator in the Orion Nebula,” Science, 280 (17 April 1998), p. 378.
In Psalm 104:3 we read that God lays the beams of his upper chambers on the waters. This is a poetic way of saying that God is everywhere, on the Earth and in the highest heavens. Ancient peoples could see that there are sometimes waters in the sky, because they knew that rain falls from clouds. They did not know that there are huge clouds of water among the stars. But they were right in thinking that no matter how far one rises above the Earth, there will be waters. These waters are always below God’s upper chambers.