Posted on 08/08/2008 4:47:51 PM PDT by fightinJAG
ScienceDaily (Aug. 8, 2008) Prevailing theoretical models attempting to explain the formation of the solar system have assumed it to be average in every way. Now a new study by Northwestern University astronomers, using recent data from the 300 exoplanets discovered orbiting other stars, turns that view on its head.
The solar system, it turns out, is pretty special indeed. The study illustrates that if early conditions had been just slightly different, very unpleasant things could have happened -- like planets being thrown into the sun or jettisoned into deep space.
Using large-scale computer simulations, the Northwestern researchers are the first to model the formation of planetary systems from beginning to end, starting with the generic disk of gas and dust that is left behind after the formation of the central star and ending with a full planetary system. Because of computing limitations, earlier models provided only brief glimpses of the process.
The researchers ran more than a hundred simulations, and the results show that the average planetary system's origin was full of violence and drama but that the formation of something like our solar system required conditions to be "just right."
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Genesis 1:1
I'm in it.
Just more confirmation that we live in the “Goldilocks Zone”. As one cosmologist said, “Creation of life on earth is like a tornado hitting a junk yard and leaving behind a completely fully assembled 707 aircraft”...or something similar to that.
Given that most solar systems aren’t conducive to complex life, it shouldn’t be surprising that the one example we have of it (us) evolved in one of the few “just right” systems.
This is an affirmation of the "Anthropic Principle" which states that things are exactly as we observe them because if they were any different then we wouldn't be around to observe them differently ..... or something similar to that :)
I think these computer models have a lot of flaws - to be proven by observation of other systems in the galaxy. There is no reason to think that the solar system is a rare form - but that the models predict highly elliptical orbits, and our system has mostly circular orbits (planets and moons) suggests that the modelers are missing something in their equations.
Yes. Creation of life on earth is like a tornado hitting a junk yard and leaving behind a completely fully assembled 707 aircraft... = God.
There is a book on the subject, with great detail about how special the earth is.
Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe by Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee.
There is another book that sheds a lot of light, not only on how the entire Universe came into being, but also tells us exactly how we can come to know the Designer/Creator and how to live while we are residents here.
Oh yes.......the name of the book:
HOLY BIBLE
btt
God doesn’t make mistakes.
Amen!
Sit back, enjoy the ride (at 18.5 mi/sec), and praise the Creator...
That’s what I love about enjoying the creation.
The book “Rare Earth” (also the name of a fairly good band in the ‘60s or ‘70s) goes into this in amazing detail. A great read!
I just posted that, before reading down the thread. So you beat me to it!
That was a great book.
The Anthropic Principle suggests that the whole universe exists by way of a monster convergence of a dozen or so Goldilocks zones.
I once heard it described as follows... Imagine a radio with a dozen analog style tuning dials, each a billion or so miles long. Tune each dial to a spot the width of a hair. Get EVERYTHING tuned exactly right and you get the universe that we exist in, but if you are off by even a fraction of an inch the universe would be vastly different, if it ever formed at all!.
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