Black Holes, and the Big Bang and Wonders in the Heavens

 We look to the the star showers, to Saturn and Jupiter aligning in the heavens, and to the eclipses. Are not these wonders in the heavens? Do they not fulfill scripture?

    "And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke," says the prophecy.

   But, now, listen to this: I run across a story about how gamma rays might travel faster than the speed of light, and I consider the prophecy in a whole new light. Gamma rays traveling faster than the speed of light, you say? What a thing! The story suggests such superluminal jets could create time reversibility. You say what? And, this is science, not something out of a Jules Verne novel.

   Wonders in the heavens? Learning that something might travel faster than the speed of light is a wonder. Learning from studying the heavens that time reversability might be possible? That is a wonder in the heavens. 

    Suddenly, I think of all the discoveries coming forth as we learn about the universe and the heavens. We marvel at the knowledge as it unfolds. What of when it was discovered that the nearest star is 4.3 light years away? You mean, we would have to travel the speed of light for as much as 4.3 years to arrive at the nearest star? Astounding!

   Consider how we've learned of black holes, and the Big Bang. And of giant planets and supernovas. Are not such discoveries wonders in the heavens? Speak even of the idea of humankind evolving from the elements of the heavens. What a concept! Evolution, itself, supposing it is true, then becomes one of the wonders of the heavens above. 

   Pull out a timeline of astronomy, and learn there was an uptick of discoveries starting about 1543, when Nicolas Copernicus theorized that the earth revolves around the sun. That was but years from when Columbus discovered America in 1492, an event that Latter-day Saints hail as paving the way for the restoration of the gospel. Even as events began to move more rapidly towards the coming of Christ, even so the great lessons to be learned from the heavens increased at the same time.

  In 1929, Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe is expanding. In 1932, Karl Jansky detected radio waves from space. And, in 1938, Hans Bethe explained how a star's hydrogen can burn for billions of years. Who would have thought? I would have thought that if you light up some hydrogen, it explodes and burns right there on the spot -- not that it burns for billions of years. 

   And, so the timeline continues. Man goes to outer-space -- that was a marvel. And, he circles the earth and lands on the moon. We certainly marveled at those events. They were wonders in the heavens above. Even the invention of the airplane was a wonder. Though it went not far, it was in the skies above. If God had wanted us fly, he would have given us wings, it was said. But, in marvel of marvels, man flew.

   So, when I read in SciTechDaily how Jon Hakkila and Robert Nemiroff have suggested that blasts that create gamma-ray bursts might exceed the speed of light in the surrounding gas clouds, and that these superluminal jets might create time-reversibility seen in gamma-ray bursts, I think of the scripture that speaks of wonders in the heavens. 

 "And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke." That the last part of the verse refers to "blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke" -- to me -- suggests that the typical interpretation we have is correct. It is referring to star shows, and eclipses and planet alignments. Still, who is to say that these discoveries of knowledge -- black holes and the Big Bang and such -- are not wonders in the heavens?