Biblical text revealed from damaged scroll, 1,500 years old

 

For the first time, advanced technologies made it possible to read parts of a damaged scroll that is at least 1,500 years old, discovered inside the Holy Ark of the synagogue at Ein Gedi in Israel. High-resolution scanning a revolutionary virtual unwrapping tool revealed verses from the Book of Leviticus.

 

 

"The text revealed today from the Ein Gedi scroll was possible only because of the collaboration of many different people and technologies," said Seales, who is professor and chair of the UK College of Engineering's Department of Computer Science. "The last step of virtual unwrapping, done at the University of Kentucky through the hard work of a team of talented students, is especially satisfying because it has produced readable, identifiable, biblical text from a scroll thought to be beyond rescue."

 

Read more here:

 

Biblical text revealed from damaged scroll, 1,500 years old

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150720115149.htm

 

'Super-Earths' may be dead worlds: Being in habitable zone is not enough

Otis has pointed out a study a year ago that has a important influence on the discovery of Kepler 452b. This relates to the point I made in a previous post regarding the heavy atmosphere that Kepler 452b is most likely to have. Otis notes:

 

I would like to point to a study published last year that found that super Earths in the Habitable Zone are very unlikely to be habitable.  The reason is that any rocky planet that is larger than about 1.15 Earth radius will not lose its primordial hydrogen atmosphere.   The researchers even predicted that many planets will be found in the HZ like the one recently reported by NASA, but will have hydrogen-dominated atmospheres.  The recently found planet Kepler 452b has an estimated radius of 1.6 Earth's radius.

 

Here is an excerpt from the conclusions in the MNRAS paper:

"Therefore, we suggest that 'rocky' habitable terrestrial planets, which can lose their nebula-captured hydrogen envelopes and can keep their outgassed or impact delivered secondary atmospheres in HZs of G-type stars, have most likely core masses with 1 ± 0.5 M⊕ and corresponding radii between 0.8 and 1.15 R⊕.  Depending on nebula conditions, the formation scenarios, and the nebula lifetime, there may be some planets with masses that are larger than 1.5M⊕ and lost their proto atmospheres, but these objects may represent a minority compared to planets in the Earth-mass domain. We also conclude that several recently discovered low density 'super-Earths' with known radius and mass even at closer orbital distances could not get rid of their hydrogen envelopes. Furthermore, our results indicate that one should expect many 'super-Earths' to be discovered in the near future inside HZs with hydrogen-dominated atmospheres."

 

Otis

 

The ScienceDaily article Otis refers to can be found here:

 

'Super-Earths' may be dead worlds: Being in habitable zone is not enough

 

First evidence of farming in Mideast 23,000 years ago

And here is another cool discovery...

 

Until now, researchers believed farming was 'invented' some 12,000 years ago in an area that was home to some of the earliest known human civilizations. A new discovery offers the first evidence that trial plant cultivation began far earlier -- some 23,000 years ago.

 

The study focuses on the discovery of the first weed species at the site of a sedentary human camp on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel.

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150722144709.htm

 

Cheers,

Anthony

More on that fine-tuned parameter for Earth’s plate tectonics

Here's a follow up on the Plate Tectonics article a few days ago. I was going to post this yesterday, but Kepler-452b (being 60% bigger than the Earth) go in the way :)

Otis, who first alerted me to the original article, comments on this also (see below)

Why we live on Earth and not Venus

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150721193957.htm 

 

Compared to its celestial neighbors Venus and Mars, Earth is a pretty habitable place. So how did we get so lucky? A new study sheds light on the improbable evolutionary path that enabled Earth to sustain life.
__________________________________________________________________________________

The first article did not explain why the amount of radioactive material was less than expected.  This article does.

This information identifies an example of "environmental fine-tuning."   As more is learned about the Earth, planetary formation, stars, climate, etc., more cases of environmental fine-tuning are continually being found.

 

Otis

Is Kepler-452b really Earth 2.0?

With all the hype in the media today around finding “Earth's Twin”, lets have a deeper look at what Kepler has discovered.

 

From the ScienceDaily article...

Bigger, older cousin to Earth discovered

NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the "habitable zone" around a sun-like star. This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another "Earth." 

 

The newly discovered Kepler-452b is the smallest planet to date discovered orbiting in the habitable zone -- the area around a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of an orbiting planet -- of a G2-type star, like our sun. The confirmation of Kepler-452b brings the total number of confirmed planets to 1,030.

 

"On the 20th anniversary year of the discovery that proved other suns host planets, the Kepler exoplanet explorer has discovered a planet and star which most closely resemble the Earth and our Sun," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "This exciting result brings us one step closer to finding an Earth 2.0."

 

Kepler-452b is 60 percent larger in diameter than Earth and is considered a super-Earth-size planet. While its mass and composition are not yet determined, previous research suggests that planets the size of Kepler-452b have a good chance of being rocky.

While Kepler-452b is larger than Earth, its 385-day orbit is only 5 percent longer. The planet is 5 percent farther from its parent star Kepler-452 than Earth is from the Sun. Kepler-452 is 6 billion years old, 1.5 billion years older than our sun, has the same temperature, and is 20 percent brighter and has a diameter 10 percent larger.  

__________________________________________________________________________________

 

You can read the article here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150723115703.htm

 

A few thoughts come to mind about the discovery of Kepler-452b.

 

Firstly, it is a fantastic discovery and great to see we are close to detecting Earth sized planets. The majority of planets that have been detect are "Super Earths", Neptune sized or Jupiter sized. Roughly eight or so planets slightly smaller than Earth have also been discovered according to the Exoplanet Catalogue, but these are all either too close to their parent star, or too far away to be suitable to support life.

 

Finding a planet close the mass of Earth, in the zone where water (if present) can exist in liquid form, is a great discovery and full applause to NASA and the Kepler team.

 

So the big question is could Kepler-452b support life?

First up, scientists will need to determine if Kepler-452b is a rocky planet like Earth, Venus, Mars and Mercury. If it is not, then no it can't support life.

 

If Kepler-452b is a rocky planet, then in Kepler-452b's favour that it could support life are the facts that it appears to have a fairly stable, circular orbit and that Kepler-452 (its parent star) is a Type G2 star which is a similar spectral class to our own Sun.

 

Not in Kepler-452b's favour is that it appears so far to be the only planet in the Kepler-452 system, its size is too big, and Kepler-452 is now likely more active that our Sun. These things don't bode well for advanced life. And also pose a real challenge to simple life, such as bacteria.

If Kepler-452b turns out to be the only planet in the Kepler-452 system, then it will not be protected like Earth is from regular asteroid or comet impact. Jupiter and the other gas giants in our system act like shields their mass, acting via gravity, to either deflect or absorb the vast majority of stellar debris (asteroids and comets) that would otherwise come in our direction.

Its uncertain at this time what mass Kepler-452b has. All we know so far is that its about 60% larger than our Earth. Such a large size will likely mean that Kepler-452b, if its a rocky planet, will have a greater mass than Earth. If so, then it would capture and retained a much thicker atmosphere than Earth and a much larger water content. Too much of both is not good for life, even simple life. Just a cursory look at Venus will show you that a thick atmosphere is not a good thing for life.

Originally when Earth formed it had an atmosphere of about 100 times thicker than our current atmosphere. By comparison, Earths original atmosphere would have been about 2 to 3 times thicker than Venus. Moreover, Earth originally would have had a water content of somewhere between 5% to 15% of the mass of the planet. The water content of the Earth by mass is now far less. As Universe Today notes '..while the oceans cover 71% of the Earth’s surface, they only account for 0.02% of our planet’s total mass. ' The reason Earth has a much thinner atmosphere and lower water content today is due to how the Moon was formed. And these are very important characteristics for life on Earth.

Kepler-452 is now in its older years. As Type G stars last for about 10 billion years, if Kepler-452 was a human, it would be in its sixties. Type G stars at this stage will be flaring more actively and that's not a good thing for life, especially advanced life. Its detrimental to an atmosphere especially if Kepler-452b has no or little magnetic field like Mars. UV radiation is also a killer to life. If there is no adequate ozone layer, the survivability of any life is not good. If we can get a spectral image of Kepler-452b scientist should be able to work out the primary chemical composition of its atmosphere, assuming it has one. If little or no oxygen is present in the atmosphere, then not only will this show there is no life on Kepler-452b, but also no ozone to protect life.

Another thing to consider about Kepler-452b is to ask if it has plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is essential for life, forming landmasses above the oceans, and burying excess carbon. For plate tectonics, you need lots of thorium and uranium to provide the heat that drives the mantle of the planet. You also need a strong magnetic field to i) prevent the atmosphere from being sputtered away in to space, and ii) protect the planet from solar and cosmic rays. Earth has a rich iron core that produces a long lived magnetic dynamo that protects life on our planet. Mar's magnetic field is almost non-existent. The reason Earth has such a core is due to the Moon formation event. Whether Kepler-452b has such a core will be an open question we may never be able to answer, but is one that is crucial to life.

Your also going to need a moon capable of stabilising the axial tilt of Kepler-452b and slow down it rotation rate enough in order to prevent if from having raging cyclonic storms always raging across most of the surface of the planet. Mars, because its two moons are too small, flip flops on its axis by 40 to 60 degrees off the solar plane. Earth by comparison oscillates by only a degree around its axial tilt of 23 degrees. This tilt and oscillation provides Earth with little variation in its climate extremes, put still permits seasonal variability between the hemispheres. A flip flopping axial tilt really complicates matters for life, and again, that's not a good thing.

I could go on with more examples but this post has gone on much longer than I wanted. So for the sake of brevity, I'll point you in the direct of a few books you can read at you leisure. And as always, the Reasons to Believe website has a plethora of articles about Exoplanets and the fine tuning of our Solar System and Earth that make it habitable.

So, for the above and other reasons, I doubt that Kepler-452b will be suitable for life, even simple life. More research into Kepler-452b over the coming years will help answer some of these points, either in the for or against camp.

The discovery of Kepler-452b is science at its best. And lets be excited about that. But in my opinion, its rather overreaching to call Kepler-452b Earth 2.0. The quest for an Earth twin continues, but I don't believe that we will ever find one.

Book resources:

Why the Universe is the Way it is

How to build a Habitable Planet

What if the Moon didn't exist?

Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe
 

Alone in the Universe: Why our Planet is Unique

Cheers,
Anthony

Another fine-tuned parameter for Earth’s plate tectonics

Otis from the RTB Houston Chapter writes:

 

An article in Science Daily reports on research that has found another fine-tuned parameter that is necessary for Earth's plate tectonics.  Without plate tectonics there would be no carbon-silicate feedback loop that stabilizes global climate thereby allowing a planet to be habitable over billions of years.

 

There are two parts to this new research.  First, it was found that Earth's composition of uranium, thorium and potassium abundance should be reduced 30% from that of previous models.  Second, a model of Earth's geodynamics shows that the new reduced composition makes plate tectonics possible whereas the previously assumed composition does not.  In the words of one of the researchers, "The new compositional model gives Earth a sweet spot of its own where its interior is neither too hot nor too cold.  . . .  there's another dial that's important to turn."

 

I have not yet read the original research article which is in Nature Geoscience.  However, based on the Science Daily article, I think that the takeaway message is this: Earth is very special. Planetary habitability is very fragile and cannot be determined by simply computing a star's current heat flux on a planet.

 

Otis

 

You can read the Science Daily article via the link below.

 

Abundance of certain elements in Earth dictate whether plate tectonics can happen

Introducing On-Demand Courses

July 15, 2015

Support RTB today! Reasons Institute Now Offering Courses for Personal Enrichment Dear Anthony, Have you ever wanted to take a Reasons Institute course but didn't have the time? Check out our new line of flexible on-demand classes. These courses provide the same quality content but with less time commitment. Just listen and learn—there are no written assignments or homework! Courses Offered Physics and Astronomy Chemistry and Molecular Biology Evolution and the Fossil Record Examining Humans & Hominids Physics and the Christian Worldview Questions? Contact us at (855) REASONS or via email at learning@reasons.org. Here's to a great year! Krista Bontrager Dean of Online Instruction PS - Are you a certified teacher or administrator through ACSI? These Reasons Institute courses also count toward Continuing Education Units (CEUs). If you would like more information about CEUs, we invite you to watch a short introductory video. Click on "Continuing Education Units (CEUs)."

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Russell Moore on Evangelicals and Marriage

 

Here is a link to the best thing I've read so far in response to the gay marriage decision:

 

As the Culture Shifts on Marriage, Evangelicals Stand Firm

Why men, women, and sexual complementarity matter On Friday, when the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, Evangelicals issued a statement on their belief and teaching that marriage is between a man and woman. Russell Moore is president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. We talk about marriage and its future. — KJL

 

 

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/420475/evangelicals-marriage-russell-moore

 

 

Organisation of human brain is nearly ideal

Here's a neat little discovery reported on ScienceDaily.com

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150707120101.htm

 

New research reveals that structure of the human brain has an almost ideal network of connections

The structure of the human brain has an almost ideal network of connections -- the links that permit information to travel from, say, the auditory cortex (responsible for hearing) to the motor cortex (responsible for movement).

 

The study continues...

 

Have you ever wondered why the human brain evolved the way it did? A new study by Northeastern physicist Dmitri Krioukov and his colleagues suggests an answer: to expedite the transfer of information from one brain region to another, enabling us to operate at peak capacity.

Putting aside the fact that the human brain has been the same since we first appeared on the planet, and that no evolutionary pathway has yet been clearly demonstrated from the hominids to us (for e.g.  we know humanity didn't descend from Neanderthals, Denasovans or Homo Erectus), and hence no macroevolution can be demonstrated from primates to hominids to us. And putting aside the assumption that macro-evolution is a fact and therefore a theory dependent pre-existed belief in the human brain having evolved from some hominid and primate ancestor, what this study reveals is pretty wonderful and, I believe, echoes the words of David in the Psalms:

 

Psalm 139:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.

 

 

So remember, YOU ARE wonderfully made!

 

 

Cheers and God bless,

Anthony