If you’re willing to walk outside early in the morning during the next two weeks, you’ll be treated to an other-worldly show.
Four of the five planets that are visible to the naked eye will be simultaneously on display about 30 minutes before sunrise.
Keep this phrase in mind: My Motorcycle Just Stalled. Those letters correspond to the order of the planets as they are currently aligned from the eastern horizon to the west: Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Venus, which is typically the brightest of the visible planets, currently appears in the night sky a few minutes after sunset. Uranus and Neptune are also in the morning parade of planets, but as noted in the image above, they can’t be seen without a telescope.
Ancient observers named those meandering lights in the sky (“planet” comes from the Greek verb planao, which means “to wander”) for gods and goddesses. It’s easy to see how those names became associated with the seven days of the week:
Sunday: The first day honors the brightest light.
Monday: Since this is the moon’s day, does that mean only lunatics go to work on Monday morning?
Tuesday: The French Mardi Gras (“fat Tuesday”) reminds us that this day historically honors Mars.
Wednesday: The Spanish miercoles betrays its connection to the planet Mercury.
Thursday: This derives from the Norse “Thor’s Day,” which honors both Jupiter and hunky actor Chris Hemsworth.
Friday: The French vendredi is the clue that Venus is honored as the door to the weekend.
Saturday: It’s impossible to miss the semantic connection to the planet Saturn.
Hollywood lends the impression that visiting other planets isn’t much more challenging than visiting West Virginia.
The characters in Star Trek, Star Wars, and dozens of other sci-fi space operas drop in and out of various planetary environments, featuring ice, sand, mountains, and lush vegetation – usually with air that is delightfully breathable.
If the planets in our own solar system are typical, however, a visit to another world is more likely to feel like a waking nightmare.
Mercury, which does not rotate, is permanently half-baked and half-frozen. Jupiter and Saturn are brutally cold, with gravitational forces that would flatten us to the surface – a surface of frozen methane gas that has the consistency of a Slushy. In fact, if you scooped up a handful of Saturn and put it into your bathtub, it would float.
Venus can best be described as the fulfillment of medieval descriptions of hell. Atmospheric pressure is 92 times that found at the earth’s surface. Temperatures exceed 450 degrees Fahrenheit, and a “rain” of sulfuric acid falls constantly. Probes that have landed on Venus stop working within 30 minutes.
It takes Venus 243 “Earth days” just to rotate once, while gigantic Jupiter spins wildly on its axis once every nine hours.
Matt Damon may have made things work for a while on Mars, but the Red Planet lacks the liquid water, soil, sufficient sunlight, and natural resources normally associated with human life.
Which brings us to our own world – the so-called Goldilocks Planet. It’s not too hot and not too cold, but is just right – the only place in the entire universe that we currently know is capable of sustaining life of any kind.
We orbit just the right kind of star, at just the right distance, in just the right part of just the right kind of galaxy. Our cycles of water, nitrogen, calcium, sodium, and multitudes of other components are exquisitely balanced. We have tectonic plates that recycle the earth’s ingredients, and a just-right moon that refreshes our oceans by means of twice-daily tides so they don’t become giant stagnant ponds.
The earth is a rare place, indeed – something that has not been lost on scientists.
How are we to account for this remarkable fine-tuning?
Maybe it’s inevitable. Toward the end of the 20th century some scientists were positing the existence of as many as 10 trillion advanced civilizations “out there.” The more we learn about the hazards of gamma rays and radiation in our turbulent universe, however, this position has fallen precipitously out of favor. Conditions that are favorable for life appear to be exceedingly rare.
Maybe it’s a fluke. “We were just incredibly lucky. Somebody had to win the big lottery, and we were it,” says geologist Peter Ward.
Or maybe our just-right planet was specially crafted so that certain creatures, made in the Creator’s image, would have the privilege of experiencing its beauty and boundless variety of life.
If you’re able to stand outdoors before sunrise sometime during the next two weeks, you’ll have a chance to experience the same sense of wonder that gripped King David:
Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory in the heavens…
When I consider your heavens,the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is humanity that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
(Psalm 8:1-2, 4-5)
David was conscious of the fact that gazing at the stars and planets truly puts us in our place.
And what is that place?
It’s to look upward and outward toward the immensity of God’s creation and say, “Wow.”
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