Re: Anybody See Any Holes in this Argument?

Dick,

I don't see any holes in your argument, but I think some of your figures
are not accurate. According to an elementary astronomy text that I have
that was published in 1955, the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy is 80,000
light years. (It is the Large Magellanic cloud that is 30,000 light years
in diameter.) Both the Magellanic clouds are much closer to us than the
Andromeda galaxy, which is 1,500,000 light years away.

Gordon Brown
Department of Mathematics
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0395

On Sat, 27 Nov 2004, Dick Fischer wrote:

> Age of the Earth and SN1987A
>
> An independent method of measuring earth age can be derived by knowing
> the age of the universe. In 1987, we witnessed a cosmic event that gives
> us a reliable method of estimating the age of the cosmos by using an
> observation and simple math.
>
> Here on earth, the sun rises in the morning, and the light takes
> approximately eight minutes to strike the earth's surface. Our solar
> system with the sun and it's nine planets resides in the Milky Way
> galaxy. The closest observable star in our own Milky Way is 4.4 light
> years distant. If it twinkled now, we wouldn't see it for another 4.4
> years. The Milky Way is 30,000 light years wide.
>
> Our closest neighboring galaxy is Andromeda. The Magellanic Cloud is the
> second closest galaxy to our own Milky Way is and is visible in the
> Southern Hemisphere.
>
> A blue star, named for the astronomer Sanduleak, was logged in 1977 and
> designated Sk-60 202 in the Magellanic Cloud.
>
> On February 24, 1987, the star was observed as it exploded into a fiery
> supernova. A central ring of ejected material had formed around the
> star, similar to the rings of Saturn, but had not been observed prior to
> this date due to the great distance.
>
> As the star debris exploded into the ring, it began to glow. Because the
> ring was canted toward us slightly, the closest edge was observed first
> and appeared as a glowing spot. Over time the rest of the ring filled
> in, and we were able to observe the entire ring. Today we can observe
> glowing inner rings beyond the central ring as debris from the supernova
> has lighted them too.
>
> It had been estimated by conventional distance measuring techniques that
> the Magellanic cloud was located 175,000 light years away.
>
> A light year is the distance it takes light to travel in a calendar
> year. Knowing the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) we can
> calculate the distance to a light source if we know the time it took for
> light to travel the distance.
>
> Knowing the distance from the ring to the star, and the time it took to
> light it up, and the rate at which light travels, gives us all the
> ingredients we need to calculate the distance from the observer on earth
> to the star.
>
> Thanks to this observation of a spectacular cosmic occurrence, and with
> the use of simple math, we now know that the supernova was an event that
> took place 168,000 years ago, fairly close to previous estimates of the
> distance to the Magellanic Cloud.
>
> The calculations for SN 1987A can be found at the following web site:
>
> http://www.chem.tufts.edu/science/astronomy/SN1987A.html
>
> Today, we see galaxies in deep space billions of light years away. From
> a consensus of numerous, independent methods, the current estimate for
> the age of the universe is calculated at 13.7 billion years.
>
> Our sun is a second generation star. It's elements, as well as the
> elements in our own earth, were cooked down in a previous nova (or
> previous novations) that exploded roughly 5.5 billion years ago. It took
> about one billion years for the sun and its array of planets to form.
> And our earth age as estimated by radiometric techniques is about 4.5 to
> 4.6 billion years.
>
> Dick Fischer - Genesis Proclaimed Association
> Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History
> www.genesisproclaimed.org
>
>
Received on Sun Nov 28 19:54:09 2004