Stars, Cells, and God | Cosmic Explosion Risk and Dust Drives Dinosaur Demise

Join Hugh Ross and Jeff Zweerink as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence. Cosmic Explosion Risk Astronomers have discovered yet another risk to advanced life in the universe—extremely luminous, fast-cooling transients. The most likely explanation for this newly discovered cosmic exploder is a tidal encounter between a star and a stellar-mass black hole or a star and an intermediate-mass black hole. It will take further observations to determine the precise risk of these events to advanced life in the universe. Initially, however, it appears that Earth resides in a galaxy, galaxy group, and galaxy cluster where such events should either be nonexistent or extremely rare. RESOURCES: AT 2022aedm and a New Class of Luminous, Fast-Cooling Transients in Elliptical Galaxies Dust Drives Dinosaur Demise Overwhelming evidence points to dramatic extinction events in Earth’s history where most of the life died out. One of the most well-known extinction events occurred 66 million years ago (the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods) and marked the end of the non-avian dinosaurs on Earth. Although the evidence pointing to the extinction is strong, scientists still seek to understand what caused the mass death. New evidence points to a specific size of dust particle that caused photosynthesis to shut down for almost two years after the impact of a miles-wide asteroid hitting Earth. This new research provides insight into Earth’s history as well as the processes God used to prepare Earth for humanity. RESOURCES: The Dust That May Have Killed the Dinosaurs Chicxulub Impact Winter Sustained by Fine Silicate Dust