Today’s New Reason To Believe

by Hugh Ross

Astronomers’ observations¹ of the universe continue to support big bang cosmology–which the Bible has taught for centuries.² The evidence shows, among other things, that the universe is predominantly comprised of dark energy (energy embedded in the space surface of the universe that causes the cosmic surface to expand faster and faster as the universe ages) and cold exotic dark matter (slow moving particles that weakly interact with photons). This particular cosmic creation model is known as the dark energy dominated cold dark exotic matter (ΛCDM) model. A team of astronomers from four American universities has developed another tool for testing it.

The ΛCDM model predicts a specified star formation history for dwarf galaxies. Testing for this history requires an enormous amount of information about the properties of thousands of stars in each of many dwarf galaxies. Thanks to twenty years of Hubble Space Telescope observations, such a database has now been accumulated.

Using Hubble Space Telescope observations of the colors and brightness of stars in Local Group dwarf galaxies, the American team calculated the ages of the stars, and, hence, their formation times.³ The researchers demonstrated that the ΛCDM model correctly predicts for the dwarf galaxies in the Local Group “the fractions of stars formed in the last 5 and 10 billion years.”⁴

They did uncover a few minor discrepancies between the model and the observations. The most significant being that observations revealed more stars forming within the past 2 billion years than the model predicts. However, one or more adjustments to the model easily resolve this issue. The first such adjustment would be to take into account recent tidal disruptions of associations between Local Group dwarf galaxies.⁵ The second would be to employ a more detailed model for star formation than the simple “Schmidt law” used by the team. They, therefore, concluded that “the observed star formation histories of Local Group dwarfs are generally consistent with the expected star formation cold dark matter haloes.”⁶ Consequently, the cosmic creation model most consistent with the Bible remains even more securely established.

1. Hugh Ross, The Creator and the Cosmos , 3rd ed. (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2001), 23-29.
2. Ibid., 31-67, 99-199; Hugh Ross, Why the Universe Is the Way It Is (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008), 27-106, 209-14.
3. Chris Orban et al., “Delving Deeper into the Tumultuous Lives of Galactic Dwarfs: Modeling Star Formation Histories,” Astrophysical Journal 686 (October 20, 2008): 1030-44.
4. Orban et al., 1030.
5. Elena D’Onghia and George Lake, “Small Dwarf Galaxies within Larger Dwarfs: Why Some Are Luminous While Most Go Dark,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 686 (October 20, 2008): L61-L65.
6. Orban et al., 1030.

David H. Rogstad, Ph.D.

As scientists build their case for big bang cosmology, they rely on increasing knowledge of the universe’s formation. One component, the expansion of the universe, is revealed by the cosmological redshift found in distant galaxies. Another component, the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation is considered by cosmologists to be one of the best available evidences for the big bang theory. In this theory, the CMB is viewed as a remnant of the big bang that dates to about 380,000 years after the beginning. The universe had cooled to 3,000 K, which allowed electrons and protons to combine to form hydrogen atoms. At that point the universe became transparent and radiation was able to travel freely through space.

Astronomers have been gathering a growing body of evidence revealing important details about the CMB since its discovery in 1965 by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson. These details include a uniform intensity in all directions (isotropic), a spectrum of black body radiation with a temperature of 2.7 K, and small variations in its distribution in the sky. These small variations are interpreted as the irregularities coming out of the big bang event that eventually led to the formation of stars and galaxies.

The big bang model predicts that observations at different epochs of the expanding universe (assuming the universe is approximately 13.7 billion years old) should show a cooling off of the CMB, going from its predicted original value of 3,000 K to its current measured value of 2.7 K. While earlier observations provided some evidence in support of this prediction, a new technique bolsters the case.

Astronomer R. Srianand and his colleagues reported that they’re using the ESO Very Large Telescope to detect, for the first time, the presence of the carbon monoxide molecule in a galaxy located at a distance where its light has traveled for 11 billion years. Their detection was accomplished by looking for absorption lines in the ultraviolet light coming from a more distant quasar and caused by gas in the foreground galaxy.

This observation allowed the team to estimate the CMB’s temperature, with the greatest precision to date, at the very early epoch of about 2.8 billion years after the big bang. The value they obtained is 9.15 +/- 0.07 K, which is in excellent agreement with the predicted value of 9.3 K. The same team had already broken the record for the most distant (but less precise) detection of molecular hydrogen in a galaxy that was at a distance corresponding to the universe when it was less than 1.5 billion years old (see here).

All of these observations provide important confirmation for the big bang model, and add credence to the RTB creation model that posits a beginning for the universe in accordance with the words of the Bible.