Using technology from its New Horizons spacecraft, NASA now estimates that the number of galaxies is in the hundreds of billions rather than 2 trillion as previously thought. The New Horizons craft, launched in January 2006, captured the first close-up photos of Pluto and is now at the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, about 4.4 billion miles from Earth. The estimates are based on interpretations of “cosmic optical background” readings. The previous estimate was based on data collected by the Hubble Space Telescope. Scientists admit that they really don’t know how many galaxies there are or how vast the universe is. They are making guesses based on unproven presuppositions. The NASA website admits, “There may be many more faint, distant galaxies than theories suggest” (“New Horizons Spacecraft Answers Question,” Jan. 12, 2021, hubblesite.org). Regardless if there are hundreds of billions of galaxies or 2 trillion or many more, the fact is that the universe is unimaginably vast and the number of stars beyond counting. There are 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone. The universe star count announced in July 2003 was 70 sextillion observable stars (70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). This was the conclusion of the Two-Degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey. Before the invention of the telescope, man could see only a few hundred stars with the naked eye, but the very first book of the Bible, written about 3,400 years ago, says they are without number as the sand of the seashore (Gen. 22:17). The prophet Jeremiah, writing in about 600 BC, said the heaven cannot be measured (Jer. 31:37). This has been confirmed by current science. “Modern” man has discovered nothing that disproves the ancient Bible prophets. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard” (Psalm 19:1-3).
(Friday Church News Notes, January 22, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)