Recently a credible new scientific paper came forth suggesting the existence of a “new planet nine” in our solar system. It’s the new nine because a few years ago Pluto’s status was demoted to “dwarf planet.” If this was a German publication I could start a whole pun run, but it isn’t and I’m not supposed to write as a pundit in this column anyway. Oops, one of those puns got away from me. But I digress.
I’m excited by this planet nine theory. Interestingly we have evidence of it’s effect but no actual visual evidence of the planet itself. We have no pictures of it and no verifiable data it is there as of yet. Even Pluto in its diminutive state was visible long before the New Horizons probe gave us amazing close-up pictures this past year. This new planet nine is projected to be 10 times the size of Earth (whereas Pluto is 1/6th our size). We assume this large planet exists by the orbits of smaller objects.
What we know is that there are six objects that are aligned on the same axis and have their orbits affected by the same gravitational pull best explained by that of a nearby planet. Emily Lakdawalla, Senior Editor of the Planetary Society, says that for this to happen by chance would be 0.007%. Scientist Journalist Bob McDonald says, “It’s like seeing a disturbance on the surface of water but not knowing what caused it. Perhaps it was a jumping fish, a whale or a seal. Even though you didn’t actually see it, you could make an informed guess about the size of the object and its location by the nature of the ripples in the water.”
As a pastor and, more simply, a Christian this intrigues me. Scientists are now going to study this phenomenon with great interest and have calculated quite a bit of info from something we don’t actually know exists. They believe it exists (by a margin of 99.993% no less) because of how this invisible heavenly body affects just six small objects by its orbit out of a gazillion in the Kuiper Belt. Yet some would mock that Christianity is a myth about a heavenly body that affects the lives of those who follow God’s orbit, if you will.
The Bible did say, “The heaven’s declare the glory of God.” And my prayer is that the more Christians actually align their orbit faithfully with God that others will see our data and look for that mysterious and wondrous Lord at our center.
It reminds me of a scene from the movie “A Beautiful Mind” between genius John Nash and his fiancé about love. He says, “I need some kind of proof; verifiable empirical data.”
“Well, how big is the universe?”
“Infinite.”
“How do you know?”
“Because all the data indicates it.”
“But has if been proven?”
“No.”
“Have you seen it?”
“No.”
“How do you know for sure?”
“I don’t. I just believe it.”
Tags: belief, evidence, existence, orbit, planet nine, seeing
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