RINGS OF SATURN ASTONISHING, BREATHTAKING - PSALM 19 - WOW - THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD!

FOR MANY PEOPLE SATURN IS ASTRONOMY!

First observed by Galileo in 1610, his telescope was not powerful enough to unamiguously resolve.

"Saturn's (rings) are by far the largest and most spectacular (in the Solar System).

With a thickness of about one kilometer (3,200 feet) or less, they span up to 282,000 km (175,000 miles), about three quarters of the distance between the Earth and its Moon." -- NASA site.

"When we think of Saturn's rings, we are usually imagining the globe of Saturn surrounded by its brightly reflective disk.
This disk is composed of two rings, the outer A ring and inner B ring, separated by the Cassini division.
These main rings are astonishingly thin.
Though they spread hundreds of thousands of kilometers across, they are less than 100 meters thick.
That’s thinner than a piece of tissue paper spread across a football field." -- The Planetary Society.
Both this site and the NASA site are worth reading.
WOW - Hundreds of thousands of kilometers across and a couple hundred meters thick -- absolutely amazing.
One scientist said, "Saturn IS astronomy to many people."
"The rings of Saturn have puzzled astronomers since Galileo discovered them with his telescope in 1610." NASA
Galileo is reported to have thought God was playing a trick on him.
No wonder they have PUZZLED astronomers.
They should remember Psalm 19:1 where God prompts King David to say:
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
The word "firmament" means the fabric or medium that fills space.
Space is not empty, it is some kind of fantastic electro-magnetic medium.
That's why electro-magnetic waves propagate in it.
Modern bibles do a poor job of rendering this as "expanse" or some other obscuring term.
Another thing is -- the rings make for a very strong YOUNG cosmos argument.
With meteors zipping around in space, they should have badly damaged the rings by now -- IF the cosmos is billions of years old.
But if it is just, say, 6000 years old, as the bible chronology indicates, the rings great condition is very reasonable.
Several articles mention several "shepherd moons" keeping the F ring in place.
Perhaps God has maintenance mechanisms installed to keep things tidy.

Saturn's huge moon, Titan, in the background --

Titan is almost as large as Mars, and has an atmosphere thicker than Earth's

Christiaan Huygens who, around 1655, recognized

that Saturn was "girdled by a thin, flat ring, nowhere touching it."

One has to chuckle at the comment on the believed origin of the rings -- bold and underlined portion below.

"There are billions of ring particles in the entire ring system. The ring particle sizes range from tiny, dust-sized icy grains to a few particles as large as mountains.

Two tiny moons orbit in gaps (Encke and Keeler gaps) in the rings and keep the gaps open. Other particles (10s to 100s of meters) are too tiny to see, but create propeller-shaped objects in the rings that let us know they are there.

The rings are believed to be pieces of comets, asteroids or shattered moons that broke up before they reached the planet.

Each ring orbits at a different speed around the planet.

Information from NASA's Cassini mission will help reveal how they formed, how they maintain their orbit and, above all, why they are there in the first place." NASA

The NASA article is worth reading -- it is short, concise, and has some interesting links.

Again, I have to chuckle at their last statement, "why they are there in the first place." (underlined above)

It takes a huge imagination to hold the cosmic accident view of the ring's origins, and the rest of the universe for that matter, but if one is bent on rejecting the Creator, one has to think of something to say.

Notice that the rings orbit at different speeds.

This is called Keplerian motion - the closer in ones, must go faster to maintain orbit.

Again, how fantastic.

I have this little theory -- that children do not get as good a chance to acquire common sense, today, as they did in the past.

As a kid, I had a dirt pile - by experiment I discovered a certain amount of water would allow me to make hills steep, so I could play with my toy trucks and road making equipment.

Too much water made mud and the hills would slough down.

Too little water and the dirt would not stick together good enough to make steep hills.

Maybe people today, raised in structured child care situations don't acquire the same degree of common sense.

It does not GRAB them, or SEIZE them, that these amazing rings of Saturn, made of zillions of pieces of stuff, a few hundred meters thick, and spanning hundreds of thousands of kilometers -- MUST BE SPECIALLY CREATED!

IT IS INSANE TO IMAGINE THEY RESULT FORM COSMIC ACCIDENT.

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. -- Psalm19:1

Rings named alphabetically in the order discovered

the rings are relatively close to each other, with the exception of the Cassini Division, (4700 km)

NASA's article states that three spacecraft have been sent to Saturn, voyagers 1, 2, and Cassini:

"Goals: Voyager 1 and 2 were designed to take advantage of a rare planetary alignment to explore the outer solar system. Voyager 1 targeted Jupiter and Saturn before continuing on to chart the far edges of our solar system.

Accomplishments: Voyager 1 has been observing the interplanetary medium throughout its journey, and is now exploring the outermost reaches of where the solar wind and the Sun's magnetic field dominate space. In December 2004, the spacecraft crossed the termination shock (where the speed of the solar wind drops below the speed of sound) at 94 AU (about 14 billion km from the Sun, more than twice the distance to Pluto). Since then, Voyager 1 has been operating in the heliosheath environment, a region about 40 to 50 AU (3.7 billion to 4.7 billion km) thick where the solar wind mixes with the interstellar wind.

Accomplishments: Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to study all four of the solar system's giant planets at close range. It is now exploring the outermost reaches of where the solar wind and the sun's magnetic field dominate space. In September 2007, it crossed the termination shock (where the speed of the solar wind drops below the speed of sound) at 84 AU (about 13 billion km from the sun, more than twice the distance to Pluto). Since then, Voyager 1 has been operating in the heliosheath environment, a region about 40 to 50 AU (3.7 billion to 4.7 billion km) thick where the solar wind mixes with the interstellar wind.

Goals: Cassini was designed to explore the Saturnian system from orbit: the planet and its atmosphere, rings and magnetosphere, and its moons, particularly Titan and the icy satellites. Cassini also carried Europe's Huygens probe to its rendezvous with Titan.

Accomplishments: After successfully completing the first in-depth, up-close study of Saturn and its realm from orbit, Cassini is on an extended mission to follow up on the many discoveries made during its primary 4-year mission. Among the most surprising discoveries were geysers erupting on Enceladus and the dynamic effects of it and other moons on Saturn's rings. Cassini's observations of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, have given scientists a glimpse of what our home planet might have been like before life evolved on Earth."

^{Hebrews chapter 1 (New Testament -- speaking of Jesus Christ)}

¹⁰And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:

¹¹They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;

¹²And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

Cassini Division 4700km gap between A and B rings.

Giovanni Domenico Cassini observed the most prominent of the known divisions among the rings in 1675

Psalm 19

¹The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

²Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.

³There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.

⁴Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,

⁵Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.

⁶His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

⁷The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.

⁸The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.

⁹The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

¹⁰More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

¹¹Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

¹²Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.

¹³Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

¹⁴Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

And,Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the

foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; - Hebrews1

^{Psalm 104
¹Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very
great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.
²Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:

³Who layeth
the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind:
⁴Who maketh his angels spirits;
his ministers a flaming fire:
⁵Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.
⁶Thou coveredst it with the
deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.
⁷At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.

⁸They
go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.
⁹Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that
they turn not again to cover the earth.
¹⁰He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.
¹¹They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses
quench their thirst.
¹²By
them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches.
¹³He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied
with the fruit of thy works.
¹⁴He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth
food out of the earth;
¹⁵And
wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart.
¹⁶The trees of the LORD are
full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted;
¹⁷Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her
house.
¹⁸The
high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies.
¹⁹He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his
going down.
²⁰Thou
makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.
²¹The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat
from God.
²²The
sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens.
²³Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the
evening.
²⁴O
LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.
²⁵So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping
innumerable, both small and great beasts.
²⁶There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.
²⁷These wait all upon thee;
that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.
²⁸That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled
with good.
²⁹Thou
hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.
³⁰Thou sendest forth thy
spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.
³¹The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice
in his works.
³²He
looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.
³³I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing
praise to my God while I have my being.
³⁴My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.
³⁵Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the
wicked be no more. Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Praise ye the LORD.}

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