Re: [asa] Re: How to approach YECs was Empiricism, Faith and Science

Dave,
    This is the second time you've alluded to the moon dust argument as being resolved by the dust layer actually being thicker than it first appeared. When I encountered the moon dust argument nearly 25 years ago, the claim was debunked based on the fact that they used dust concentrations taken from high-altitude balloon measurement and U-2 flight data published in the mid-50's and ignored publications a few years later from space probes that greatly reduced the dust concentration level. Apparently the balloons weren't high enough to avoid terrestrial dust. Frank Awbrey and Steven Shore each had articles about this in 1983. Both claimed that the dust layer was in fact far thinner than had been anticipated in the 50's but it was resolved by better data on the rate of infalling dust on the lunar surface.

    Are you saying there's something new that turns this around?

    Randy

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: David Campbell
  To: ASA
  Sent: Friday, September 29, 2006 4:08 PM
  Subject: Re: [asa] Re: How to approach YECs was Empiricism, Faith and Science

  [snip] (Summary of the argument: The dust layer on the moon is very thin, contrary to expectations if the moon had been accumulating dust for 4 billion years. In reality, the layer is thick; a YEC saw a newspaper photo of an astronaut footprint and claimed that it demonstrated a thin dust layer, although stepping on dust would demonstrate that one doesn't sink to solid rock when stepping on a thick layer of dust.) [snip]
  --
  Dr. David Campbell
  425 Scientific Collections
  University of Alabama
  "I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"

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Received on Mon Oct 2 22:15:01 2006