Kansas City Adrift In The Known Universe

We set this post to publish in the wee small hours and to offer our late, late night readers something to ponder as their neighbors sleep.

A local faith blogger ciphers the big question and we pick up the topic from there . . .

"In his new book, The Universe: A Biography, British astronomer Paul Murdin outlines what scientists currently know or, on the basis of evidence, conjecture about the future of the sun and the Earth. It's not a happy story.

"First, the sun "will warm and brighten" until it "will be at its hottest 2.55 billion years from now." All that heat "will cause the Earth to bake, at about the same time that it loses its magnetospheric defense against solar cosmic radiation. It's hard to see that life could continue on our planet . . ."

"The challenge for people of faith is to wonder whether this violent, sad ending is what God had in mind from the beginning. Or is there a divine plan to mitigate what scientists now believe is inevitable?"

Just for fun . . .

Let's not forget that the inevitable "heat death" of the universe isn't the only theory out there . . . It's a big cosmos after all. 

"A cyclic model is any of several cosmological models in which the universe follows infinite, or indefinite, self-sustaining cycles. For example, the oscillating universe theory briefly considered by Albert Einstein in 1930 theorized a universe following an eternal series of oscillations, each beginning with a Big Bang and ending with a Big Crunch; in the interim, the universe would expand for a period of time before the gravitational attraction of matter causes it to collapse back in and undergo a bounce."

And so . . . 

For the late night, early morning under a sky full of stars . . . It doesn't to hurt to think about this topic for just a moment and in between so many days politically charged slap fighting ahead.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

Thinking theologically about the inevitable death of our home planet

There are two creation stories in the book of Genesis (they don't exactly agree). In both cases it's clear that God is in charge and is bringing the world, including Earth, into existence as an act of will and love....

Hubble spies the heart of a grand design spiral galaxy

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NASA: 'Something weird' is expanding universe amid Hubble discovery

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The Big Freeze: How the Universe Will Die

The cosmos may never end. But if you were immortal, you'd probably wish it would. Our cosmos' final fate is a long and frigid affair that astronomers call the Big Freeze, or Big Chill. It's a fitting description for the day when all heat and energy is evenly spread over incomprehensibly vast distances.

Universe could stop expanding, and collapse on itself 'remarkably' soon

Scientists have developed a new model of the universe which suggests its currently observed accelerated expansion could end as early as 100 million years from now, after which it would transition to a phase of contraction. Researchers, including Paul Steinhardt from Princeton University in New Jersey, say all this may happen "remarkably" quickly, sooner than thought before.

Could an advanced civilization change the laws of physics?

If you are going to look for evidence of technologically advanced civilizations in the Universe, you must start by considering what, exactly, you might be looking for. My colleagues and I in the NASA-sponsored Categorizing Atmospheric Technosignatures program spend a lot of time thinking about this.

This Cyclic Model of the Universe Has Cosmologists Rethinking the Big Bang

In Paul Steinhardt's corners of the cosmology world, to say that history repeats itself would be a laughable understatement. That's because according to him and a handful of peers, the universe's form might be hurtling into a new cycle every trillion years or so.

You decide . . .