We cannot see our Milky Way Galaxy since we are inside it, but the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy gives us an idea of what our spiral-armed Galaxy looks like. Hundreds of billions of stars in an infinite variety of clusters, planets and voids. Truly the cosmos move our hearts as the old hymn says:
“Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds Thy hands have made. I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior, God to Thee, How Great Thou Art!”
Check out this insightful article from Desiring God on the “sermon of the stars.”
“if our solar system . . . were the size of a grain of salt, the Milky Way galaxy would be about the length of a football field.”
David Blatner, Spectrums
“A recent estimate of the total number of galaxies in the universe is 150 to 200 billion, but the Hubble Telescope is indicating that the real number might be ten times that amount. And when it comes to the total number of stars, we really don’t know. One estimate is around 1 septillion (that’s a “1” followed by 24 zeros). And all this inhabits a universe that has an estimated radius of about 46 billion light-years.” Jon Bloom, Desiring God
The Gospel Project gives a helpful summary of how God has made Himself known – He shows and He tells. “The vastness of the universe, with all of its variety and splendor, and the intricate and observable orderliness with which it operates reveal to us the existence of God (Rom. 1:19-20). We see that this God is all-powerful and wise. He is orderly. He loves beauty and is attentive to detail.” (Aaron Armstrong)
“This video starts with a composite image of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant that was assembled by combining data from five telescopes spanning nearly the entire breadth of the electromagnetic spectrum: the Very Large Array, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope, the XMM-Newton Observatory, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The video dissolves to the red-colored radio-light view that shows how a neutron star’s fierce “wind” of charged particles from the central neutron star energized the nebula, causing it to emit the radio waves. The yellow-colored infrared image includes the glow of dust particles absorbing ultraviolet and visible light. The green-colored Hubble visible-light image offers a very sharp view of hot filamentary structures that permeate this nebula. The blue-colored ultraviolet image and the purple-colored X-ray image shows the effect of an energetic cloud of electrons driven by a rapidly rotating neutron star at the center of the nebula.Credits: NASA, ESA, J. DePasquale (STScI).”
“I must confess to a feeling of profound humility in the presence of a universe which transcends us at almost every point. I feel like a child who while playing by the seashore has found a few bright colored shells and a few pebbles while the whole vast ocean of truth stretches out almost untouched and unruffled before my eager fingers.”
Isaac Newton, https://answersingenesis.org/evidence-for-creation/the-majesty-of-god/
Click here for more from Answers in Genesis on the topic of astronomy. This page has detailed information on our solar system.
The wonders of creation – from the vastness of the universe to the complexity of a single cell – declare the glory of God. There is a Creator! The implications of this simple truth are significant.
- This world and everything in it (including you and me) belong to the Creator.
- There is meaning and purpose in the world because the Creator is infinitely wise and powerful.
- The Creator gave us an Owner’s Manual (the Bible) so we would know how to manage His Creation.
- The human impulse to glorify creation (worshiping the Sun, for example) points to our true purpose to worship the Creator.
- The fact that God made everything gives us confident assurance that He will one day restore everything to its original goodness.
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." Revelation 21:1-2