Catastrophe on Uranus
Genesis 1:16
“He made the stars also.”
In a previous Creation Moment, we discussed the giant planet Uranus and its anomolous motion. The tilt of the planet’s rotational axis is at 98° to the Solar System Normal. By “Normal”, we mean a line drawn perpendicular to the plane, on which most of the planets of the Solar System orbit. As a comparison, the Earth’s rotational axis is at 23° to the Normal. Additionally, the planet Uranus is rotating clockwise, as seen above its North Pole, whereas the Earth and most other planets rotate counter-clockwise.
In that previous Creation Moment, we opined that no one knows how this anomalous rotation and tilt came about. That is still true, but evolutionary astrophysicists have recently suggested a catastrophic reason.
Some half a billion years, after the initial formation of the planets from stellar dust, an object about twice the size of Earth crashed into Uranus. It was a glancing blow but sufficient to cause the planet’s current tilt and rotation. This idea was suggested after a large number of computer simulations were run by researchers.
The reason for proposing this catastrophe is clear. Current evolutionary theories require the Solar System to have congealed from dust, in which case angular momentum would have had all objects rotating in a nearly similar way. The anomaly that is Uranus spoils this story. As creationists, we do not need to search for such speculations. We do not need to expect that God created all the planets with the same spin or axial tilt.
Prayer: Thank You for the glories of Your creation, and thank You for the ability of people to look into Your creation in order to understand it better. Amen.
Ref: Durham University. “‘Cataclysmic’ collision shaped Uranus’ evolution.” Science Daily, 2 July 2018.
Image: NASA, Public Domain.
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