And is it not these likenesses,
With beauty, strength and grace,
That take my eye to see in you
The Great Designer’s trace?

Kevin Hartnett 7/2002

To whom, then, will you compare God?
What image will you compare Him to?
(Isaiah 40:18)

Spectacular in its clarity, this image of M51- the Whirlpool Galaxy in the constellation of Canes Venatici- was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, high above the blurring effects of the earth’s atmosphere. It reveals the true nature of galactic spiral arms: immense structures of gas, dust, and clusters of stars curving through the emptiness of outer space. The size of this system boggles the mind. If one were to reduce our own solar system of planets- billions of miles in diameter itself- down to the size of a cookie, this galaxy in proper scale would be larger than the entire United States! Spiral galaxies rotate everything in them in immense orbits that take millions of years to complete. The earth is being flung right now with the rest of the solar system at high speeds around the center of our own galaxy.

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.
(1 Chronicles 29:11)

Photo credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

The Great Nebula in Orion is considered by many astronomers to be the finest example of a diffuse nebula visible from earth. Located below the three easily- recognized stars that form Orion’s belt, this magnificent sight is simply a vast cloud of low-density gas and dust illuminated by nearby stars. At the heart of the nebula, visible only as a bright white glow in this photograph, is a small cluster of stars known as the Trapezium. This grouping is easily seen in amateur-sized telescopes. Many think that the stars of this nebula are in the process of coalescing from the material surrounding them, although this remains inconclusive since the precise nature of this process is poorly understood. The nebula appears to be about 1800 light years away, making its true size in space approximately 30 light years across.

Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands
(Psalm 102:25)

Photo credit: Armen Caroglanian.

A bright meteor slashes through the constellation of Casseopia. Usually no larger than small pebbles, meteors, or "shooting stars", are tiny bits of interplanetary material which vaporize many miles up due to friction with the earth's atmosphere. Some of these particles are the out-gassed debris from comets. Without our protective blanket of air, the planet earth would be subject to continual bombardment from meteors and other dangers, such as ultraviolet radiation from the sun. During the 1999 Leonid meteor shower, amateur astronomers using telescopes equipped with video cameras captured the impact of several meteors into the airless surface of the moon. If a meteoroid entering our atmosphere were large enough, a portion may survive its fiery descent and strike the earth. Such stones, called meteorites, are found all over the earth, but are particularly visible when strewn across the cold wastelands of the Antarctic.

The heavens are the heavens of the Lord; but the earth He has given to the sons of men.
(Psalm 115:16)

Photo by Kevin Hartnett