Recitation of the Holy Scripture.

By the sun and its brightness

And the moon when it follows it

And by the day when it displays it

And the night when it covers it

And by the heaven and He Who constructed it

And the earth and He Who spread it 

And by the soul and He who proportioned it

And inspired it its wickedness and its righteousness,

Indeed, he succeeds who purifies it 

And indeed, he fails who buries it. 

End of Recitation of the Holy Scripture.

O people I told you that these few programs are somewhat technical for an average listener, but all this is very important. As this program is for all of you so it is necessary to discuss these philosophical, scientific and scholarly debates so that people of interest and intellect in the field of theology get knowledge of science and scientific community get knowledge of Holy Scriptures and that men of understanding will take heed.

Now today I will conclude the Solar system by giving you a brief overview of the remaining bodies in it.

Starting from the satellite of planet earth our moon. The Moon is the Earth’s only real satellite and was formed 4.6 billion years ago around some 30–50 million years after the formation of the solar system. The Moon is in synchronized rotation with Earth meaning its same side is always facing the Earth. The Moon rotates around itself in 27.5 days and takes the same time to go all the way around the Earth with a mean speed 3,683 Km per hour. It is almost at a distance of 30 times the diameter of earth i.e 384,000 km, and light takes 1 second to come from the moon. The Moon has much weaker gravity than Earth, due to its smaller mass. So you would weigh about one-sixth of your weight on Earth. Moon has no atmosphere. This means that the surface of the Moon is unprotected from cosmic rays, meteorites, solar winds, and has extensive temperature variations. The absence of atmosphere means no sound can be heard on the Moon, and the sky always looks black. Because of no atmosphere it is therefore at 123 C in sunlight and freezes at -152 C in shadow. 1969 human footprint on the moon is still there as there is no atmosphere to disturb that.

The first unmanned mission to the Moon was in 1959 by the Soviet Lunar Program with the first manned landing being Apollo 11 in 1969. Russian were the first to explore the moon of earth, took pictures of the backside of the moon and then was the first land of Unmanned shuttle Luna9 in 1966. That’s why most of the names of the backside of the moon are Russian names. Much of the information we know today about moon actually came from Apollo Missions (1968-72). There are a total 12 people who walked on Moon.  All were American males. The first man to set foot on the Moon in 1969 was Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11 mission, while the last man to walk on the Moon in 1972 was Gene Cernan on the Apollo 17 mission. Since then the Moon has only be visited by unmanned vehicles.

The phases of the Moon are New Moon, Waxing Crescent, First Quarter, Waxing Gibbous, Full Moon, Waning Gibbous, Last Quarter and Waning Crescent. 

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon.

There are four theories of moon formation; first is Fission theory which says that when the earth was forming it split into earth & moon. Second is Sister theory which states that both earth and moon formed same time separately. Third is Capture theory which says that moon is captured by earth’s gravity from space and last theory or hypothesis is the Impact with Earth which says moon formed by the collision of a big object with earth due to which material from earth ejected. Most acceptable is Impact idea as both earth and moon are made up of almost same material although there are not many heavy metals on the moon but that could easily be understood because that impact must be with the earth’s crust which is not rich in heavy elements. 

Let me also clear here a misconception that moon orbits earth because earth and moon have different sizes, so the earth has a bigger force of gravity on the moon. While actually Moon and Earth are attracting each other with the same force. It is actually inertia that earth has more mass therefore not easy to move. The Same law applies when we jump or push earth so according to Newton’s third law of motion action and reaction are always equal but opposite in direction. So same force exerted by earth and same by us.

Is this all designed, created, happening and running by its own. Nay, it is all by the Will and command of your Lord. So which of the favors of your Lord will you deny?

Now let me explain to you the differences in Comets, Asteroids, Meteoroids, Meteors and Meteorites. Starting from Comets, they are Small icy pieces with other volatile material mixed with solid grains. Comets found in 2 main places in solar system Kuiper Belt at 45AU from the sun, which I told you in part 20 and in Oort Cloud at a distance of 50000AU. The Key Nucleus of Comet is mostly 1-10Km diameter consists mainly of ice and dust coated with dark organic material. While its Coma the cloud of gases that forms around the nucleus can be about 100,000Km. These gases are usually a mixture of water vapor, ammonia and carbon dioxide. A comet has two tails one made by coma a hydrogen envelope which is transparent and can reach nearly 10million km across and second its Iony tail which can go about 100million km. Comet becomes comet because of the solar heat and not because of Earth atmosphere. It becomes a comet with the tail when it enters in the solar system. The tail is always opposite in the direction of the sun because of solar winds i.e tail is behind comet when it is coming towards the sun and is in front of the comet when it is going away from the sun. Halley’s Comet is a short period comet returning after every 74-79 years since 239BC

Asteroids are small rocky objects with less volatile materials that orbit the Sun. There are currently over 600,000 known asteroids in our solar system. Most of them found in Asteroid Belt between Mars & Jupiter at 2.2 to 3.3AU. Current theory suggests that asteroids are planetesimals, the building blocks of planets, that were never combined into one of the eight planets in our solar system. Some asteroids are blown out comets. When the ice is gone, all that remains is the rocky material. An asteroid impact around 65 million years ago caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and affected all life on Earth.

Celestial objects smaller than about 25 meters will most likely burn up as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere and cause little or no damage. Every day, Earth is bombarded with more than 100 tons of dust and small particles. About once a year, a small rock-sized asteroid hits Earth’s atmosphere, creates an impressive fireball, and burns up before reaching the surface. Almost in every 2,000 years, a meteoroid the size of a football field hits Earth and causes significant damage to the area. And once in a few million years, an object large enough to threaten Earth’s civilization comes along. Impact craters on Earth, the moon, and other planetary bodies are evidence of these occurrences.

Now coming to Meteoroids, they are any small particle from a comet or asteroid orbiting the Sun. So they are fragments from Asteroids or Comets. Meteor is the light phenomena which result when a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere and vaporizes, simply a shooting star. So in simple words, Meteoroids that enter earth’s atmosphere are called Meteors. Lastly, a meteoroid that survives its passage through the Earth’s atmosphere and lands upon the Earth’s surface is called Meteorite. So Meteorites are Meteoroids that hit the earth. The place where that Meteorite hit is called IMPACT CRATER. We get a Meteorite Shower when the earth passes thru the place where a comet has passed from earth orbit as comet continuously giving off material gas & dust. 

Now before closing this topic of Solar system let me explain the remaining two essential terms, one is Heliosphere which is a vast region of space surrounding the Sun, a sort of bubble filled by the interplanetary medium and extending well beyond the orbit of Pluto. Solar wind creates and maintains this bubble against the outside pressure of the interstellar medium. The solar wind is a stream of charged particles a plasma released from Corona the upper atmosphere of the Sun. The corona, the sun’s outer layer, reaches temperatures of up to 1.1 million Celsius. At this level, the sun’s gravity can’t hold on to the rapidly moving particles, and it gushes away from the star. It mostly consists of electrons and protons with a mass of about one billion kilograms per second almost 4-5 billion tons per hour leaving the sun. The solar wind flows outward at speeds of 450-750km/s or almost 2 million Km/h to great distances filling a region heliosphere I told you above. The travel time for the solar wind from the sun to the Earth is two to four days. An average solar flare just in two hours releases enough energy to power the United States for 10,000 years.

If the stuff carried by the solar wind reached earth or any planet’s surface, its radiation would do severe damage to the life that might exist there. Earth’s magnetic field serves as a shield, redirecting the material around the planet so that it flows beyond it. The force of the wind stretches out the magnetic field so that it is smooshed inward on the sun-side and stretched out on the opposite side of the earth where there is night. Is this all designed, created, happening and running by its own. Nay, it is all by the Will and command of your Lord. So which of the favors of your Lord will you deny?

Recitation of the Holy Scripture.

But you denied and followed your inclinations.

So When the heaven breaks apart

And when the celestial bodies fall, scattering,

And when the seas are made to gush forth, 

And when the graves are overturned, 

A soul will then know what it has sent forth and left behind. 

O man! What has deceived you concerning your Lord, the Most Noble 

Who created you, then fashioned you, then balanced you? 

In whatever form He willed, He assembled you. 

Nay! But you deny the Judgment. 

And what can make you know what is the Day of Judgment? 

Then, what can make you know what is the Day of Judgment? 

The Day when a soul will have no power at all for another soul, and the Command that Day will be entirely with God.