For the first time in a while I found something useful on the site of the National Catholic Fishwrap!
Headline: Oldest and most distant object in the universe discovered
No, this isn’t about Richard McBrien or even Joan Chittister.
Fishwrap is referring to a story in The Daily Mail about how astronomers using a big telescope have spotted a galaxy so far away that it has taken 13.1 billion years for its light to reach us. That means that we are now seeing the galaxy as it was 13.1 billion years ago, or when it was only 600 million years old.
After reading about that galaxy far far away…. I also learned about a really cool green comet!
Hmmm… that’s portentous.
I don’t know what effect this will have on The Vortex.
I must have some …
[CUE MUSIC]
.
… Mystic Monk coffee and ponder this portentous news.
When you’ve had a hard day trying to figure out why people still pay attention to really old liberals, … and when you figure out you’ve just fallen into the trap of caring what they think and could kick yourself for driving traffic to their site … have a nice piping hot mug of Mystic Monk Coffee.
That’s right! With Mystic Monk Coffee, you’ll soon get rid of that nasty metallic taste left after reading that paper and replace it with sumptuous java goodness provided by… you know it… real live monks!
Refresh your supply now!
Mystic Monk Coffee.
It’s swell!
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Comet Hartley 2 looks like it’s coming straight for us! Run away! Run away!
But take your coffee with you!
I teach a very basic course in philosophy to transition year students (15/16 year olds) and to fifth years (about the same age) and we, as part of my argument for the existence of God, look at the origins of the Universe. Given that the estimated age of the Universe is about 13.75 billion years this does not give much time for a galaxy of stars to form does it? It’s as if the Universe got down to business very quick.
As an aside it also amazes me how many teenagers have no idea how big or old our Universe is. With all our communications capabilities it seems we waste so much of our capacity.
I dunno, Father… you keep associating Mystic Monk Coffee with the National Catholic Fishwrap
HAHAHA! I love your Mystic Monk commercials! We’ve been giving our son-in-law Mystic Monk for years, since I first heard about it on Relevant Radio (relevantradio.com). Last time we included a Mystic Monk sweatshirt, so now he’s a walking advertisement. Alas, I’m not a coffee drinker. But if they come up with a Mystic Monk hot chocolate I’ll be all over it.
Given that the estimated age of the Universe is about 13.75 billion years
Which means that we can estimate that before 13.75 billion years there was no Universe? Ergo: what was there? Nothing? And this can be surmised on the basis of some observable data? I’m well beyond my 15th year, but this leaves me very puzzled.
Andrew – well according to the standard Big Bang model the Universe began from a point of infinite density (or a really hot very tiny, very dense something). Before that science cannot say. We can look at the unlikelihood of all this happening by accident ( I liken it to throwing a deck of cards in the air and getting a tower of cards in one go) and say ‘This looks designed’ (Strong Anthropic Principle – Universe was intended for life). Some of my 15 year olds love it, some are boggled, some are bored – typical for human beings.
I hope you don’t mind if I post this father Z (I have only a hobbyist’s interest in this, honestly!):
Stellarium is planetarium software that shows exactly what you see when you look up at the stars. It’s easy to use, and free…
http://www.stellarium.org/
I’ve used it myself and it is absolutely fantastic. You can set it for your own location so you see the night sky as it is from where you are.
Enjoy!
I just read this on the green comet story:
”Even though it will not be passing Earth until 2061 smaller pieces of it break off on its journey and when Earth passes through its orbit they collide with our atmosphere.”
If I am alive then, I will be 80!
spotted a galaxy so far away that it has taken 13.1 billion years for its light to reach us.
That’s assuming you decide to accept the Principle of Uniformity (which has always struck me as being, if you will, a pretty big leap of faith).
Your Mystic Monk Coffee ads are KILLING ME! I used to come mainly for your take on things and now I’m on the prowl for your latest Mystic Monk Coffee ad too hah!
I have to figure out how to cut-and-paste them to my blog, with all credit going to you of course + a link so dont get worried lol
…P.S. Father, (anyone??) how do you post the link in your ads where a person can click on the Mystic Monk logo and go to their website?
There is something about this whole thing that makes my head spin. If the big bang was the method The Almighty chose to create the universe then what eventually would become this galaxy and us are compressed into this very small speck. We have to travel away from this galaxy and here we are now receiving light from it 13 billion years later. Wouldn’t the universe have to be at least twice times the 13 billion years in order for us to be in a position to receive this light? Am I missing something? Anybody?
pfreddys:
I’d say you’re not missing anything. At least twice the 13 billion, provided we traveled at the speed of light. But to me the first question to ask is “what do we mean by the term Beginning?”. The existence of some matter about to explode is not a beginning. It might be the beginning of some process but certainly not the beginning of the universe. The presence of an egg might be the beginning of a particular chicken, but it is not the beginning of the entire species. An explanation of the beginning has to explain the presence of the egg, also.