The new James Webb Space Telescope can ‘see’ much farther than ever, probing distant realms of the universe never observed before.

Some of its earliest images were of galaxies with highly red-shifted light, thus interpreted as very remote and among the first ones formed after the supposed Big Bang (BB).

As reported last issue, fully mature spiral galaxies were found, not ones in their early stages—much bigger than thought possible. In BB theory, gravity should not have had the time to assemble them, so headlines carried statements like “massive galaxies that shouldn’t exist”. Now a new study suggests the galaxies could be up to ten times more massive than first estimated, making the BB’s problem that much worse.

Despite this, secular astronomers are unlikely to abandon the BB, the favoured way of explaining how the universe supposedly made itself with no Creator. Rather, rescue attempts will involve ‘auxiliary hypotheses’ to try to explain the observations.

The ideas of dark matter, dark energy, and inflation were similarly postulated to overcome conflicts between theory and observation. No one has ever seen or sampled dark matter, for example, but without it, BB theory doesn’t work. So, expect various refinements and modifications to salvage the theory in due course.

Niels Bohr Institute, James Webb’s ‘too massive’ galaxies may be even more massive, phys.org, 17 May 2023.

There is increasing evidence of the remarkable stability of our solar system. CMI has reported on this previously (Creation Vol 44, Issue 3, page 8, 2022).

Medium-sized planets are common in other systems, but there are no medium-sized planets in our solar system; instead, we have gas giants and ice giants on one hand, and small rocky planets like our Earth on the other. Using the Nice model, scientists previously found that the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn regulate the orbits of the smaller planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars), and have prevented them from becoming unstable and falling closer to the Sun. A further study has recently suggested that our solar system has built-in constraints on the degree of movement of inner planet orbits, preventing them from becoming increasingly chaotic and colliding. Moreover, the latest mathematical modelling (Mogavero, F., Hoang, N.H., and Laskar, J., Timescales of chaos in the inner solar system: Lyapunov spectrum and quasi-integrals of motion, Phys. Rev. X, 13:021018, 2023), suggests that certain symmetries in the orbits of the planets restrict the chaotic forces at work. Yet such stability is not evident in other planetary systems in the Milky Way.

The remarkable stability and order of our solar system point to the wonderful design by an intelligent and benevolent God. The chaotic factors would also limit the age of the solar system, pointing to a maximum age less than naturalism allows. As the creation account in Genesis records, the sun, moon, and planets have been intelligently placed in their positions for divine purposes, “for signs and for seasons, and for days and years” (Genesis 1:14).

adapted from REMARKABLE EVIDENCE OF A DESIGNED, YOUNG, AND STABLE SOLAR SYSTEM by Andrew Sibley Creation Magazine, volume 45, Issue 4, 2023