Eighth grade has been learning all about astronomy and some stunning facts related to our “smallness” and God’s “greatness.” Most of these stunning facts have to do with distance in our universe, as well as the size of the stars that God has made. Our nearest star is Alpha Centauri, and it is 4.4 light years (25.9 trillion miles) away from earth. On September 5, 1977, the space probe Voyager I was launched on a tour of our solar system, after which it was flung out into outer space. As of 2010, it was about 10.7 billion miles from the sun and still sending data back to the earth. The radio commands sent back and forth travel at 186,000 miles per second. At this rate, they take sixteen hours to reach the spacecraft. Voyager I’s average speed has been roughly 38,000 miles per hour into the nothingness of space. It is not aimed at our nearest star, but if it were, it would take 75,000 years to get there at its current speed. (Let me remind you that this is our nearest star.)
Of course, there is a special star in our solar system that is much closer than Alpha Centauri, which we call the sun. It is only 93 million miles from the earth and is very small compared to other stars. The sun is powered by nuclear fusion of hydrogen and helium atoms. In a nuclear reaction, there is an actual loss of a little mass for the great amount of energy gained. Our sun loses four million tons (160,000 dump truck loads) of mass every second. At this rate, scientists estimate that the sun could burn for at least twelve billion more years. Some creative scientists estimated how much it would cost for PP&L to power the sun for one second – the answer is astounding. It was estimated that PP&L would need the Gross National Product of the U.S. for seven million years to power the sun for one second. Just be glad God doesn’t send that bill!
The shear size of the stars God has created has also put us in awe as a class. To explain these great sizes, scientists use comparisons of how big the stars are compared to the earth or the sun. We learned that the largest star known to astronomers is called Canis Majoris (which simply means “the big dog”). If Canis Majoris were placed at the center of our solar system, it would extend out beyond the orbit of Saturn, possibly even filling our entire solar system. It would take 9.2 billion of our suns to equal the size of Canis Majoris. If the earth were the size of a golf ball, you could cover Texas with golf balls 22 inches deep and that would be how many earths could fit inside this Big Dog star. When trying to grasp this greatness of God, it causes us to exclaim with the psalmist, “When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that Thou visitest him?” (Psalm 8:3,4) These are very good questions in light of our smallness and God’s greatness. We may not know the full extent of the answer to this question, but we do know that God is mindful of us. We know that this great God is not only mindful of us, but has visited us in flesh and bone in the person of Jesus Christ. It’s not so important that we are here on the golf ball-sized planet, but that the great God of the universe has chosen to reveal himself to us as our Father and we as His children. May God’s greatness inspire us to a life that honors him, placing him in his rightful place as Lord of all.
-Lyle Musser, Administrator