Visitors invited to view Jupiter and Mars at S&T Observatory
Posted by Mary Helen Stoltz
Mars. Photo courtesy of NASA.
Mars. Photo courtesy of NASA.
The Missouri University of Science and Technology Observatory will open its doors before dawn this weekend for visitors to view the conjunction of Jupiter and Mars through its 16-inch telescope.
The viewing will be held at 5 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 18. The sky must be clear for observing and session length will vary.
Viewings at the observatory are free of charge and no reservations are required. Each observing session is open-ended. Children are welcome to attend but must be accompanied by an adult. All visitors must be able to ascend a short set of stairs in order to view the object through the telescope.
A conjunction between astronomical objects implies an apparent close approach between them to an observer. However, the phenomenon of conjunction is caused only by perspective. Due to this phenomenon, Jupiter and Mars will appear closest to the viewers at S&T at 5 a.m., around the time both objects rise in the sky and before the sun obstructs the view.
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun and the largest in the solar system. Jupiter is a gas giant with a mass one-thousandth that of the sun. It is, on average, the third brightest object in the night sky behind the Moon and Venus.
Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and the second smallest planet in the solar system, behind Mercury. Named after the Roman god of war, it is sometimes referred to as the “Red Planet.”
The observatory will host a viewing of the Pleiades on Monday, Nov. 9. All viewings are subject to weather conditions.
Built in 1973, the Missouri S&T Observatory is located at 1550 N. Bishop Ave. (Highway 63 North), adjacent to the university’s Stonehenge replica, north of McNutt Hall and west of St. Patrick’s Lane.
For more information, or to have your email address added to an event notification mailing list for future updates and weather cancellation notices, contact Ken Goss by email at krgvx4@mst.edu.
ANY LIFE ON MARS CAME FROM EARTH
by Babu G. Ranganathan
(B.A. Bible/Biology)
In the Earth’s past there was powerful volcanic activity which could have easily spewed dirt and rocks containing microbes into outer space which not only could have eventually reached Mars but also ended up traveling in orbit through space that we now know as meteors, comets, and asteroids. A Newsweek article of September 21, 1998, p.12 mentions the high possibility of Earth life on Mars. “We think there’s about 7 million tons of earth soil sitting on Mars”, says scientist and evolutionist Kenneth Nealson. “You have to consider the possibility that if we find life on Mars, it could have come from the Earth” [Weingarten, T., Newsweek, September 21, 1998, p.12].
HAVING THE RIGHT CONDITIONS AND RAW MATERIALS FOR LIFE doesn’t mean that life can originate by chance. Proteins can’t come into existence unless there’s life first! Miller, in his famous experiment in 1953, showed that individual amino acids (the building blocks of life) could come into existence by chance. But, it’s not enough just to have amino acids. The various amino acids that make-up life must link together in a precise sequence, just like the letters in a sentence, to form functioning protein molecules. If they’re not in the right sequence the protein molecules won’t work. It has never been shown that various amino acids can bind together into a sequence by chance to form protein molecules. Even the simplest cell is made up of many millions of various protein molecules.
The probability of just an average size protein molecule arising by chance is 10 to the 65th power. Mathematicians have said any event in the universe with odds of 10 to 50th power or greater is impossible! The late great British scientist Sir Frederick Hoyle calculated that the odds of even the simplest cell coming into existence by chance is 10 to the 40,000th power! How large is this? Consider that the total number of atoms in our universe is 10 to the 82nd power.
Also, what many don’t realize is that Miller had a laboratory apparatus that shielded and protected the individual amino acids the moment they were formed, otherwise the amino acids would have quickly disintegrated and been destroyed in the mix of random energy and forces involved in Miller’s experiment.
Miller’s experiment produced equally both left-handed and right-handed amino acids, but all living things strictly require only left-handed amino acids. If a right-handed amino acid gets into the chain the protein won’t work.
There is no innate chemical tendency for the various amino acids to bond with one another in a sequence. Any one amino acid can just as easily bond with any other. The only reason at all for why the various amino acids bond with one another in a precise sequence in the cells of our bodies is because they’re directed to do so by an already existing sequence of molecules found in our genetic code.
Of course, once you have a complete and living cell then the genetic code and biological machinery exist to direct the formation of more cells, but how could life or the cell have naturally originated when no directing code and mechanisms existed in nature? Read my Internet article: HOW FORENSIC SCIENCE REFUTES ATHEISM.
A partially evolved cell would quickly disintegrate under the effects of random forces of the environment, especially without the protection of a complete and fully functioning cell membrane. A partially evolved cell cannot wait millions of years for chance to make it complete and living! In fact, it couldn’t have even reached the partially evolved state.
Please read my popular Internet articles listed below:
ANY LIFE ON MARS CAME FROM EARTH, SCIENCE AND THE ORIGIN OF LIFE, NATURAL LIMITS OF EVOLUTION, HOW FORENSIC SCIENCE REFUTES ATHEISM, WAR AMONG EVOLUTIONISTS (2nd Edition), NO HALF-EVOLVED DINOSAURS, HOW DID MY DNA MAKE ME?DOES GOD PARTICLE EXPLAIN UNIVERSE’S ORIGIN?
Visit my newest Internet site: THE SCIENCE SUPPORTING CREATION
Sincerely,
Babu G. Ranganathan*
(B.A. theology/biology)
Author of popular Internet article, TRADITIONAL DOCTRINE OF HELL EVOLVED FROM GREEK ROOTS
* I have had the privilege of being recognized in the 24th edition of Marquis “Who’s Who In The East” for my writings on religion and science, and I have given successful lectures (with question and answer time afterwards) defending creation from science before evolutionist science faculty and students at various colleges and universities.