Allah’s 6,000+ Planets And Moons Are Worlds Already Discovered – OpEd

A newly detected gravitational wave, GW250114, is giving scientists their clearest look yet at a black hole collision—and a powerful way to test Albert Einstein's theory of gravity. Its clarity allowed scientists to measure multiple "tones" from the collision, all matching Einstein's predictions. 

So as Albert Einstein put it: "What is the meaning of human life, or of organic life altogether? To answer this question at all implies a religion. Is there any sense then you ask, in asking it? I answer, people who regard their own life and that of their fellow creatures as meaningless are not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life."

The outer planets of our Solar System are swarmed by ice-wrapped moons. Some of these, such as Saturn's moon Enceladus, are known to have oceans of liquid water between the ice shell and the rocky core and could be the best places in our solar system to look for extraterrestrial life.

A new study published in Nature Astronomy sheds light on what could be going on beneath the surface of these worlds and provides insights into how their diverse geologic features may have formed. "Not all of these satellites are known to have oceans, but we know that some do," said Max Rudolph, associate professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Davis and lead author on the paper.

Science provides more clues to an astrochemical mystery: Where does carbon, the building block of life, come from and go to in the universe? Researchers have detected pyrene, a type of large carbon-containing molecule known as a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon in the Taurus molecular cloud which is close to Earth at 430 light years away.

There are about 400-500 hundred billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy and most of them have multiple planets and moons. So scientists believe that there must be millions of earth-like planets in our galaxy. Life developed on Planet Earth within the first billions years, so life is not hard to develop and will be plentiful. But human intelligent life only developed in the last 1/100 of 1% of  life on Planet Earth, so intelligent life is rare and widely spread out in space. Planets similar to Planet Earth within 50 light years of us and in the habitable zone should be well over 100.

The first planets and moons beyond our solar system were discovered over three decades ago. Since then, over 6,000 exoplanets have been confirmed in our galaxy; and astronomers have detected another 5,000 planetary candidates that need only a second sighting to be confirmed. 

Telescopes can now analyze the atmospheres of planets orbiting distant stars, looking for chemicals that on Earth can be produced only by living organisms. The first flicker of such a discovery has come. The possible sign of a gas that, on Earth, is produced by simple marine organisms was detected in the atmosphere of a planet named K2-18b, which is 120 light years away.

And a new analysis shows that there are probably many more Earth-like exoplanets with liquid water than had been thought, significantly increasing the chance of finding life. The work finds that even where the conditions are not ideal for liquid water to exist at the surface of a plane or a moon, many stars will harbor geological conditions suitable for liquid water under the moons or planet's surface. There are more than 6,000 confirmed exoplanets in our Milky Way galaxy. 

And water, along with carbon monoxide, also has been detected in the most massive galaxy in the early universe which is located nearly 12.88 billion light years from Earth. Detection of these two molecules in abundance suggests that the molecular universe was going strong shortly after the elements were forged in very early stars. 

Both the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an teach that the Living God created the whole universe to be conducive to the universal evolution of life. Recent astrophysical studies discover ever more evidence of the truth of this Biblical and Qur'anic view. 

Space may be vast, but it isn't lonely. New research indicates the Milky Way is teeming with billions of planets like ours, circling stars just like our sun. Astronomers calculate that in our galaxy alone there are at least 8-9 hundred billion stars (22%) like our sun with Earth-sized planets that are 'not too hot or not too cold' for life to develop.

The Zabur of David says, "Your kingdom is a kingdom of all worlds; and Your dominion is for all generations." (Zabur-Psalms 145:13); and the Qur'an says, "We have not sent you but as a blessing for all the worlds." (Al-Anbiya 107). Muslim commentators say this refers to the 18.000 habitable worlds created by Allah. Our world is but one of them. (Mir'at-e-Kainat, vol.1, p.77)  

And the Zohar, the central book of Jewish mysticism, says there are more than 12.000 habitable worlds. (Zohar 2:196a)

In a Caltech-led study, researchers learned that our galaxy has a strong preference for two types of planets: rocky planets up to 1.75 times the size of Earth, and gas-enshrouded mini-Neptune worlds, which are from 2 to 3.5 times the size of Earth (or somewhat smaller than Neptune). Our galaxy rarely makes planets with sizes in between these two groups.

All of the potentially habitable planets found in the team's survey are around K stars, which are cooler and slightly smaller than the sun. But the researchers' analysis shows that the result for K stars can be extrapolated to G stars like our sun. "If the stars in the Kepler field are representative of stars in the solar neighborhood, ... then the nearest (Earth-size) planet is expected to orbit a star that is less than 12 light-years from Earth" the researchers wrote in their paper. 

Each new discovery in astronomy yields new evidence of God's wisdom and power. As the Qur'an says, "Verily in the heavens and on the earth are signs for those who believe." (45:3) And prophet David says, "The heavens declare the glory of God. The universe proclaims God's handiwork." (Zabur-Psalms 19:2) 

Perhaps this is why Jews and Muslims are so open to learning about new scientific discoveries. During Medieval times Christian theologians accepted the Ptolemaic earth centered Greek view of the universe as an absolute universal truth.  The Catholic Inquisition even punished those who dared to voice other ideas. Some Christians still think that human beings must be at the literal center of God's creation.

Thus, even in America today, many Christians avoid learning about new scientific discoveries. According to a February 2015 study "Religious Understandings of Science", among members of non-Christian religions; 42 percent of Jews, and 52 percent of Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus (taken as a group) are twice as interested in new scientific discoveries compared to only 22 percent of Protestant evangelicals.

And according to the most recent Gallup survey on human origins, as of 2019, 40% of Americans said they believe that God created humans in their present form. No evolution for them, because they think evolution is Godless. 

So again as Albert Einstein put it: "What is the meaning of human life, or of organic life altogether? To answer this question at all implies a religion. Is there any sense then, you ask, in asking it? I answer, people who regard their own life, and that of their fellow creatures, as meaningless, are not merely unfortunate, but almost disqualified for life." (The World as I See It, Sacramento, Ca. Citadel Press, 1993 p.5)