Resolving the Small-Scale Crisis
TNRTB Archive – Retained for reference information
A large team of American and European astronomers discovered a new galaxy that helps resolve a minor crisis for the simplest (and biblically and observationally most consistent) cosmic creation model. That model, the hierarchical-cold-dark-matter big bang creation model, states that most of the universe’s mass is comprised of exotic particles moving at slow velocities and that most of the universe’s galaxies formed from the merger of smaller galaxies, which formed from the merger of star clusters. The model predicts abundant substructure for both galaxy clusters and for individual galaxies. While the predicted substructure is beautifully confirmed in observations of galaxy clusters, astronomers had lacked the observational tools to observe the predicted number of low luminosity dwarf galaxies orbiting around large galaxies. The team exploited a new tool, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), to break through the observational barrier. They announced the discovery of Andromeda IX, a dwarf spheroidal galaxy orbiting the Andromeda Galaxy. Andromeda IX is by far the faintest known galaxy and its size and luminosity match what the hierarchical-cold-dark-matter model predicts. This discovery, plus SDSS’s potential to discover other similar tiny faint galaxies, is demonstrating the increasing consistency and success of biblical cosmic creation models.
- Daniel B. Zucker et al., “Andromeda IX: A New Dwarf Spheroidal Satellite of M31,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 612 (2004): L121-L124.
- https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/ApJ/journal/issues/ApJL/v612n2/18403/brief/18403.abstract.html
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- The Creator and the Cosmos, 3rd ed., by Hugh Ross