THE CHRISTIAN BBS - Sysop: David Geauvreau 3053 Metchosin Road., Victoria, B.C., Canada, V9B 4Y9 BBS Phone: (604) 478-2789 Voice Phone: (604) 478-0254 - Sorry, Collect calls CANNOT be accepted! ====================================================================== This article is taken from a talk given by David and Linda Harris. Structures have been found lately that are larger than anything ever imagined by scientists. Many astronomers are finding it difficult to cope with such findings. THE LARGEST STRUCTURES IN THE UNIVERSE by David and Linda Harris Some very large structures were found in 1989, and in 1990, but large does not convey the actual size of these objects. First we should look at what large really means. We talk about the size of things in the universe, but do we really know how big they are? I don't mean the numbers but can we relate these large objects to things that we know. Let us look at some larger and larger things in this universe to get some idea of how big we are talking about. 'Home' - The Inner Solar System We will start with the inner Solar System. (Figure 1) This is something that we have some idea about. It consists of the four planets Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. The diameter of the Earth's orbit is 300,000,000 km. Just to put this into perspective, most new cars will travel about 150,000 km before they wear out. The distance we are talking about is 2,000 times larger. Kilometers are too small for these measurements so we often call the diameter of the Earth's orbit 2 Astronomical Units. One Astronomical Unit or A.U. is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. 'Next Door' - The Outer Solar System Now we move to the outer Solar System. (Figure 2) This consists of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto and Neptune. The average distance from Pluto to the Sun is 39 Astronomical Units. Pluto's orbit overlaps with the orbit of Neptune. Neptune is the furthest planet from the Sun at the moment. The diameter of the known Solar System is about 80 Astronomical Units. The Imaginary Oort Cloud Some scientists believe there is a cloud of comets orbiting the Solar System. (Figure 3) They call it the 'Oort Cloud' after the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort who thought it up. No-one has seen them, and there is no evidence for them, but if they did exist, this is where they would be. They are about 100,000 Astronomical Units from the Solar System, just over one light year away. A light year is the distance that light will travel in one year. The nearest star, Proxima Centurai (part of the Alpha Centurai group) is just over four light years away. The diameter of the orbit of this comet cloud would be about 200,000 Astronomical Units, or 2.5 light years. 'The Neighbourhood' - Local Stars Let us look at the local stars. (Figure 4) Within about 10 light years there are about 30 stars. You can see Alpha Centauri which is really three stars. Also Barnard's Star, Procyon, Tau Ceti, Epsilon Eradni and others. Here we have called the Sun 'Sol' since all stars are suns. Sol comes from the word 'Solar' in Solar System. This diagram is about 20 lights years across, or 1.25 million Astronomical Units. Note that we are now finding that even Astronomical Units are becoming too small. The next step larger is our galaxy. Do you know its name? 'The Local Town' - Our Galaxy Our galaxy is called the Milky Way. (Figure 5) Our star - Sol, and the Solar System are in the Orion Arm. On each side of the Orion Arm are the Perseus Arm and the Sagittarius Arm. You can see that further along the Sagittarius Arm joins with the Carina Arm to become the Sagittarius-Carina Arm. The distance across the Milky Way is about 100,000 light years. Nearby 'Towns' - The Local Group The Milky Way belongs to a local group of galaxies (Figure 6) that are near each other, if you can say that a million light years is near. Here you see a dozen or so galaxies, including the Milky Way and Andromeda, the two largest galaxies in this group. The Milky Way is the second largest. LMC means Large Magellic Cloud, and SMC means Small Magellic Cloud. Some galaxies are spirals, some elliptical, and others irregular. The distance across the local group is about 4 million light years, and that is the LOCAL group. Larger than the local group is the Super Cluster of galaxies. Do you know which Super Cluster the Milky Way belongs to? Our 'Country' - The Super Cluster Well the answer is the Virgo Super Cluster, which you see in figure 7. The Milky Way is on the edge of the Virgo Super Cluster. Our Super Cluster is smaller than most, it is ONLY 60 million light years across. You will see a part marked the avoidance zone. This area cannot be seen, since the Milky Way hides that part of our Super Cluster. Most of the galaxies of the Virgo Super Cluster are about 30 million light years from us. Other 'Countries' - Our Super Cluster Is Not The Largest! In 1989 Margaret J.Geller and John P.Huchra of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astro-physics discovered something much larger than the Virgo Super Cluster. It was larger than any other Super Cluster. It was North of the Milky Way. It is 8 times wider than the VirgoSuper Cluster. Remember the Virgo Super Cluster is 60 million light years. They called it the 'Great Wall', and it's 500 million light years across. (Figure 8) Each of the thousands of points represent a galaxy NOT A STAR! They are in a computer, and by turning up to eight different knobs the wall can be viewed from any angle. Is It A Joke? From one angle Margaret Geller exclaimed, "Most noticeable of all was the shape in the centre of the plot, which many people mistook for a joke. The shape represented a stick figure,its torso representing a prominent group of galaxies called the Coma cluster." (Figure 9) Can you see the stick figure in this picture? How Big Is The Great Wall - Really? Figure 10 shows a diagrammatic view of the Great Galactic Wall. You can see that it is 500 million light years wide, 300 million light years high, and 15 million light years thick. You can also see to scale the local group, and the Milky Way (which is just a dot). Actually the Milky way is exaggerated in size or you would not be able to see it. According to Science on November 17th the wall is so large, and so massive, that it could not have been built by gravitational attraction during the 15 billion year age of the universe. Since then some scientists have said it could possibly have been made in that time if there were 100 times as much mass in the wall. Stephen Hawking commented: "Either we have failed to see 99% of the universe, or we are wrong about how the universe began." We are asked to put our faith in something we can't see, and for which there is no evidence. There is another possibility of course, that it was created the way we see it now. Our G-d is so powerful that He could easily make something of that size. We also can't see G-d, but we can get to know Him, and the evidence for His existence is all around us. Here we have a choice. We can put our faith in matter that we can't see and have no evidence for, or in G-d whom we can't see but who will speak with us, and we can speak with Him. We can believe in non-intelligent matter, or in a super-intelligent G-d. It is a matter of faith which ever way you look at it! Where Are We? Just to give you some idea of how the Great Galactic Wall relates to us, Figure 11 shows it, 400 million light years away from the centre of the Virgo Super Cluster. In the Super Cluster is a tiny dot called the Milky Way. In this galaxy that is ONLY 100,000 light years across is a structure called the Orion Arm. In there is the Solar System, and a small planet called Earth. So we have a structure that is so large it cannot be formed in the lifetime of the universe. But in 1990 a structure was found that is over 10 times larger. The Structure Of The Universe David Koo of the University of California at Santa Cruz, Alexander Szalay of Johns Hopkins University, and Richard Kron and Jeffrey Munn of the University of Chicago surveyed the North Galactic Pole from Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. Thomas Broadhurst and Richard Ellis of the University of Durham did a similar survey of the South Galactic Pole from the Anglo Australian Observatory in Australia. They searched further than anyone had done before, about 5 billion light years. They found something astonishing. When they drew the hundreds of galaxies that had been measured they discovered that they were organized in clumps. (Figure 12) The Super Clusters appear at regular intervals, 400 million light years apart. Each clump contains the same density of galaxies. There are 7 clumps (including the Great Wall) to the North, and 7 to the South. Koo suspects that we may be seeing a whole series of 'Great Walls'. Between these clumps are very few galaxies. Koo says astronomers are very disturbed at such regular spacing. He suspects that when all directions are mapped that we may be inside a series of bubbles or shells. (Figure 13) He says it will take a lot of hard work to figure out how the universe could generate these great bubbles. The idea that the universe could be structured so well at such vast distances is difficult for evolutionists to accept, but it's actually not that difficult. There is a book that tells us already. It is called the Bible. Another word for structure is 'Design'. We can see design at these vast distances. This means that by all reasonable understanding of the universe, there must be a designer. References: Astronomy Magazine November 1989 p 44-46 "A Cross Section of the Universe". Astronomy Magazine January 1990 p 12 "Southern Super Cluster Traced Across The Sky". Astronomy Magazine June 1990 p10 "Sky Surveys Reveal Regularly Spaced Galaxies". Sky and Telescope Magazine January 1990 p 15 "The 'Great Wall'". Sky and Telescope Magazine September 1990 p 239 "A Universe of Bubbles and Voids". David and Linda Harris are available to give this talk, or supply the materials, to anyone who wishes to make use of this for encouraging Christians in the Faith of a G-d who can create the universe as we see it. 19 Orleans Drive, West Hill, Ontario, M1K 2C5 (416)286-4282 This article can be obtained in presentation format with diagrams as follows: Paper Transparency Black and White $10.00 $25.00 Colour $25.00 $99.00 The transparencies come with a text of the speech ready for anyone to present. 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