Today’s New Reason To Believe

by Hugh Ross

Thanks to a study from two MIT planetary scientists, the rare planet doctrine now finds additional support. This is the conclusion that Earth has many unique, apparently designed features that enable it to support life and, in particular, advanced life. The reseachers model degassing during the accretion phase of planetary formation for planets ranging in mass from 1 to 30 times the mass of Earth.¹ Their study was motivated in part by the recent discovery of several “super-Earths,” planets outside the solar system ranging in mass from 3 to 10 times Earth’s mass.

These scientists begin by pointing out that planets in general possess three different opportunities for gaining an atmosphere: capture from the protoplanetary disk surrounding their primordial star, degassing during the planetary accretion process, or later degassing resulting from the planet’s tectonic activity. While capture from the protoplanetary disk certainly is the dominant means for the buildup of atmospheres around the gas giant planets, planetary scientists are still uncertain of the degree to which such capture plays a role for planets the size of Earth or a few times larger. Thus, the MIT team decided to consider only the role of degassing during the planetary accretion process.

They based their models on measurements of the bulk compositions in the most primitive meteorites found in the solar system. These ancient remnants of the solar system’s protoplanetary disk represent the material from which Earth formed. They contain up to 20 percent of water by mass. The team used the range of water and carbon found in such meteorites and modeled how much of it would be retained in the formation process by Earths and super-Earths. The scientists determined that degassing during accretion alone would result in water and carbon compounds making up to 20 percent and 5 percent of the mass of Earths and super-Earths, respectively. They found, too, that using even modest estimates of water and carbon in the meteorites resulted in Earths and super-Earths ending up with very deep oceans and very thick atmospheres.

Both results pose major problems for potential habitability. Due to deep oceans, no conceivable amount of plate tectonic activity would ever produce continents. Without continents there would be no possibility for land life. Additionally, many important nutrient-recycling mechanisms would be absent. Thick atmospheres loaded with carbon compounds would trap tremendous amounts of heat, and would result in atmospheric pressures that would make lungs inoperable and block out so much stellar light as to impede photosynthesis.

This study underscores just how anomalous our Earth is. For a planet as large as it is and as far away from its star, Earth is miraculously water- and carbon-poor. Water makes up just 0.02 percent of Earth’s mass; carbon just 0.003 percent. While water and carbon are essential for life, too little or too much proves deadly, especially in the case of advanced life. Earth possesses the just-right amount of each.

Furthermore, the report demonstrates that Earth, like all planets its size and distance from its star, started off with a huge amount of water and carbon. Thanks to an exquisitely designed collision event early in the planet’s history, Earth lost just the right amounts of water and carbon. This event also led to the formation of the Moon.²

The MIT team’s research study illustrates a Christian apologetics principle. It shows that the more we learn about the physics of extrasolar planetary systems, the more evidence we accumulate for the supernatural, super-intelligent design of the Milky Way Galaxy, the solar system, and Earth for the benefit of all life on Earth, both simple and complex.

1. Linda T. Elkins-Tanton and Sara Seager, “Ranges of Atmospheric Mass and Composition of Super-Earth Exoplanets,” Astrophysical Journal 685 (October 1, 2008): 1237-46.
2. Hugh Ross, Creation as Science (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2006), 111-15.

by Hugh Ross

Important decisions in life, like whom to marry, are best made in the context of multiple independent confirmations along with efforts to improve their reliability. When all possible confirming efforts say she or he is the right one, one can be confident that the right decision has been made.

The same principle applies in scientific research. Scientists strive to test their hypotheses by developing as many independent experiments and observations as possible of the phenomenon under investigation. Given an adequate number of independent tests, if every possible experimental and observational method produces results consistent with a particular hypothesis, then scientists can be reasonably assured that the hypothesis is correct.

For many years now the Supernova Cosmology Project (SCP)—a team comprised of seventy astronomers working in institutions in eleven different nations—has been striving to improve one of the observational linchpins of the big bang creation model. This linchpin is the observation of Type Ia supernova eruptions in galaxies across a wide range of distances as a tool to measure the cosmic expansion rate throughout cosmic history. The theological importance of such a measurement is that for thousands of years the Bible stood alone in predicting that the universe continuously expands under constant laws of physics from an actual beginning of all matter, energy, space, and time.¹

Each Type Ia supernovae possesses the same mass at the time of its eruption, namely about 1.4 times the mass of the Sun. Possessing the identical mass means that, except for some minor adjustments for variations in their metal abundances, all Type Ia supernovae manifest the same luminosity or brightness. Consequently, they are standard candles. Thus, accurate distances to extremely faraway supernovae can be determined by comparing their measured brightnesses with those of nearby supernovae, which astronomers already have determined precise distances by independent means of measurement.

In order to determine the cosmic expansion rate throughout the universe’s history researchers need, besides accurate distances, precise measures of the rates at which the respective supernovae are moving away from Earth. Astronomers gain these data by assessing the redshifts in the spectra of the supernovae. According to Einstein’s theory of special relativity, the faster an object moves away from an observer the closer to the red end of the spectrum the spectral lines in the object’s spectrum shift.

The SCP has updated their cosmic expansion results by assembling measurements of 414 different Type Ia supernovae from several supernovae survey catalogs.² This update includes nearly double the number of supernovae used in their previous work though 107 of these 414 had to be eliminated because of doubtful measurements.

With their analysis of the additional measurements, the SCP published improved constraints on a number of important cosmological parameters. They determined a value for the quantity of dark energy, namely that it comprises 71.3 ± 2.8 percent of all the stuff of the universe. This compares very favorably with the best WMAP measurement, which placed the quantity of dark energy at 71.2 percent. The SCP also produced the best constraint to date on possible variation over time of the dark energy parameter. While not proving that the dark energy parameter is strictly constant over the history of the universe, the SCP’s results were consistent with that parameter being constant.

Improved precision of the SCP’s results and their consistency with the best WMAP measurement of the cosmic microwave background radiation means that scientists now have reasons for even greater confidence in the big bang creation model. Thus, 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. M. Kowalski et al., “Improved Cosmological Constraints from New, Old, and Combined Supernova Data Sets,” Astrophysical Journal 686 (October 20, 2008): 749-778.

Previously Posted July 2nd, 2008 by Jeff Zweerink

I travel frequently for work and pleasure. Whether loading up the minivan for a vacation or packing bags to fly to a speaking event, I work hard to avoid carrying unnecessary baggage. I also apply this principle to my apologetics work at Reasons To Believe.

I officially debuted on RTB’s weekly webcast, Creation Update, on August 5th, 2005. I discussed the possibility of liquid water on Mars. In particular, radioisotope measurements on a set of Martian meteorites demonstrated that the temperature of the rock out of which the meteorites formed never exceeded 0^oC (32sup>oF) over the last four billion years.

I looked at such evidence as confirmation that Earth was designed as the only planet that ever sustained large liquid water oceans. After all, life depends on liquid water. Thus, if no other planet ever had oceans, no other planet would have ever supported life.

Had I maintained an apologetic argument that Earth is designed as the only planet that contained liquid water oceans, a number of discoveries over the past couple of years would have challenged my position. At least two different lines of evidence now indicate that Mars sustained large bodies of liquid water on its surface sometime in the past. Furthermore, Jupiter’s moon Europa contains a large sub-surface liquid ocean under its outer ice crust.

However, as I reread various creation passages, I realized that the Bible seems to imply that Earth is not the only planet with water oceans. Consider the first two verses of Genesis:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. (NASB) [emphasis added]

Before any explicit intervention by God in Earth’s formation, the author of Genesis describes it as covered with a liquid water ocean. The rest of Genesis 1 describes some of the miraculous work God performs to transform Earth from a structureless, dark, and empty body into a planet with diverse habitats teeming with life. It is rational to conclude that strictly natural processes can produce planets that contain substantial liquid water. In fact, that may be the starting condition of most Earth-sized planets.

I am not saying that Earth does not exhibit design. I am simply noting that one of my original ideas of how that design would be displayed was incorrect. Careful reading of Scripture helped me formulate a more accurate picture of how scientists would find Earth designed to support life. For example, further research into the water environment of Mars recently demonstrated that the salt content was far too high to permit life to originate or even exist on Mars. In other words, large liquid water oceans are not sufficient for life. The oceans must exhibit additional fine-tuning. Fuz will discuss this result further in tomorrow’s TNRTB.

By carefully studying the words of the Bible and the record of nature, I was able to put away an unnecessary piece of apologetics baggage. Perhaps it is helpful to recall past examples of unneeded arguments that hindered the church’s witness:

1. The Bible says that the sun revolves around the Earth.
2. The Bible says that Earth is at the center of the universe.
3. The Bible says that the characteristics of species never change.
4. The Bible says that the Earth and the universe must be no more than 10,000 years old.

An apologist builds a body of evidence to support his position. However, any position is much easier to support if it carries no unnecessary weight.