Earth may outlast sun-our souls outlast our bodies
Posted by Jonathan Ginsburg on September 26, 2007 | Tags: Yamim Noraim / High Holidays
Astronomers say Earth could survive sun's demise
International team finds similar planet that outlasted its star's change into a red giant
BY DENNIS OVERBYE
New York Times
Article Launched: 09/13/2007 12:01:00 AM CDT
There is new hope that Earth, if not the life on it, might survive an apocalypse 5 billion years from now.
That is when, scientists say, the sun will run out of hydrogen fuel and swell temporarily more than 100 times its diameter into a so-called red giant, swallowing Mercury and Venus.
Astronomers are announcing that they have discovered a planet that seems to have survived the puffing up of its home star, suggesting there is some hope that Earth could survive the aging and swelling of the sun. "
Reflections on this story:
Earth may survive death of our star in 5 billion years. 3 points:
a. but will we have destroyed the earth before that, with our misuse?
b. Analogy with our lives-our individual bodies will flame out and be extinguished at some future point. Our soul survives that, if we live righteously and repent when we don't. Yom Kippur is a self-correction mechanism to help insure that.
c. Chgo Tribune editorial on it-"the grimer realization of
recent decades, -at a time of looming made-made cataclysms,-is that we do not live in geological or astronomical time. We live in ethical and cultural time. The sensible questions are how to live that time to the fullest and how to stave off a premature ending."
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Jonathan GinsburgJoined: September 26, 2007 Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg and hs wife Rabbi Avigail Ginsburg, have developed amny online jewih eductional programs including conversio to Judaism, hebrew scool, bnai mitzvah training, para rabbis, Introduction to Judaism, and Judaism explained to Christians. He has developed over 550 videos of... Divrei Torah (89) |
