Of all the planets in the solar system, Venus most closely resembles Earth. Venus’s mass and radius are only 20% and 5% smaller, respectively. In addition, it orbits about 30% closer to the sun … more

Imagine the Antarctic glaciers extending over the whole Earth. Dating back to the early 1960s, scientists proposed just such a scenario, known as a “snowball Earth” hypotheses to explain … more

Last Christmas, my family flew back to the midwest in a Boeing 737. Getting an airplane to stay up in the air requires a tremendous amount of design, but most of the flight delivers all the excitement … more

As I discussed two weeks ago, Venus and Earth are remarkably similar in terms of their size and composition. Both probably started out with large oceans of water. While Earth continues to maintain a … more

Disaster movies seem to be a staple for Hollywood. One such disaster movie that I found enjoyable (enough to watch it four times on my way to Japan) was The Core. The movie opens by showing some … more

"Why don't we see new species emerging now?" Charles Darwin faced this question nearly 150 years ago when he proposed the theory of evolution. His answer–all Earth's habitats are full.

Whether … more

Among all the moons in the solar system, Earth’s is unique in that it is so massive compared to the planet. The ratio of the Moon’s mass compared to Earth’s is almost 50 times larger … more

A team of American astronomers recently announced the discovery of the first known planet outside our solar system to spend its entire orbit within the “habitable zone.”1When astronomers … more

Earthquakes are a byproduct of plate tectonics, a theory in geology developed in recent years for explaining motions near the surface of the Earth. One of the benefits from plate tectonics is that … more

The breakthrough yields yet more evidence for the divine inspiration of the Bible’s words and message. First, let me offer some personal background for this discovery.

I signed my name in the … more

If the planet rotates too slowly, the temperature differences between day and night will become too extreme. If the planet rotates too quickly, the jet streams will become too laminar and too stable, … more

As more evidence is gathered, does this evidence support the theory (requiring only minor modifications), or does the evidence undermine key elements of the theory such that it is best abandoned … more

The date was February 22, 2007. The event was a NASCAR race at California Speedway in Fontana, CA. I stood in the stands with my oldest son as the green flag dropped. As the collective roar of 32,250 … more

I ran across an interesting article in Science Daily a few weeks ago. The article’s authors point to evidence that the vast majority of North America would reside under water if the rocks making … more

A question puzzling astronomers for many decades has been whether Mars ever had substantial liquid water. An idea put forth in 1991, based on two long lips of rock that resembled ancient shorelines, … more

The Apollo missions were more than just television spectaculars, however. The Apollo program helped us solve the mystery of the moon’s origin and helped establish how amazingly designed the moon … more

(1) it provides protection for life from high-energy particles originating from both cosmic rays and from our sun, and (2) it provides a shield preventing the depletion of our atmosphere from … more