Teneisha Johnson
What time is it? 3:45 Signposts in the sky!
What time is it? How long has the expanding universe been expanding?
How old is the world and who created it?
These interesting questions have been approached in many ways.
My research efforts have brought forth evidence from many sources such as information in Cosmology, which is the philosophical study of the origin and nature of the universe and even biblical accounts from the Bible.
Palms 8, 1:9 states,
“1 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
5 You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
However, every year at this time we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
This time, let’s take a stroll down memory lane and remember what stars are made of.
We'll discuss the story of the Three Wise Men and the super star that guided their footsteps to the birth of Christ as well as celebrate the Cayman Islands National Flag!
Cosmology defines a star as a sphere of gas held together by its own gravity.
The force of gravity is continually trying to cause the star to collapse, but this is counteracted by the pressure of hot gas or radiation in the star’s interior.
This is called hydrostatic support.
During most of the lifetime of a star, the interior heat and radiation is provided by nuclear reactions near the center, and this phase of the star’s life is called the main sequence.
Before and after the main sequence, the heat sources differ slightly.
Before the main sequence, the star is contracting and is not yet hot enough or dense enough in its interior for the nuclear reactions to begin.
During this phase, hydrostatic support is provided by the heat generated during contraction.
After the main sequence, most of the nuclear fuel in the core has been used up.
The star now requires a series of less-efficient nuclear reactions for internal heat.
Eventually, when these reactions no longer generate sufficient heat to support the star against its own gravity, the star will collapse.
The nearest star beyond our solar system is the triple system of Alpha Centauri, which consist of two stars rather like the Sun orbiting closely around each other and a third component, a red dwarf star that swings around the other two in a much wider orbit.
According to my research, in 1989, The European Space Agency (ESA) launched the satellite Hipparcos, an acronym that stands for High Precision Parallax Collecting Satellite, and apparently also honors Hipparchus of Rhodes, the second-century B.C. Greek astronomer whose work formed the basis for Ptolemy’s Almagest.
To date, the satellite Hipparcos has provided precise distance measurements for approximately 120,000 stars, roughly a thousand times more than Earth-bound astronomers were able to measure.
But even 120,000 stars make up only a grain of sand compared to the vast numbers of stars in the heavens.
When it comes to measuring very long distances, nature has given astronomers a helping hand by placing signposts in the sky.
In 1910, Henrietta Leavitt of Harvard Observatory showed that the pulsation rates of certain stars (the brightness of these stars are called Cepheid variables) were closely related to their brightness.
Therefore, timing the period of a Cepheid’s pulsation allows an astronomer to determine how bright a star actually is, irrespective of its distance. Cool!
The Cayman Islands flag also has three stars and other symbols too. The Cayman Islands flag was adopted on May 14, 1958.
Prior to that, the Cayman Islands used the British flag for all official occasions because it is a British Overseas Territory.
The flag consists of a shield, a crested helm and a motto.
The three green stars in the crest represent each of the Cayman Islands.
The stars rest on blue and white wavy stripes; which represent the sea. In the top third of the shield, against a red background, sits a gold lion; which represents Great Britain.
There is a green turtle on a coil of rope above the crest and behind the turtle is a gold pineapple.
The turtle symbolizes the nation’s seafaring history and the pineapple symbolizes the Cayman’s ties with Jamaica.
The country’s motto, “He hath founded it upon the seas”, is situated beneath the crest.
This motto was taken from Psalms 24 and acknowledges the Cayman Island’s Christian heritage. Wow!
This time of year, is also the time when Christians around the world celebrate the birth of Christ.
Can you imagine how great His star must have been?
Talk about an extravagant night light!
The story of the Three Wise Men is one that is told every year and can be found in the book of Matthew.
After Jesus was born, three wise men came to look for Him bearing three gifts- Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.
Considering they were called wise men, we can assume that they were intelligent- probably today we would call them philosophers or scientists.
They had seen an unusual new star in the sky, and knew that it told of the birth of a special king.
They followed the direction of the star- East – and eventually found the place where Mary, Joseph and Jesus were staying.
To bring honor to the child, they brought rich gifts: gold and frankincense which by definition is a resin which burns with a beautiful smell, and myrrh which is a plant oil with a very strong sweet smell.
Herod, the evil king of the area, heard about the child and he saw him as a threat, and sent soldiers to kill Jesus.
But God told Joseph in a dream to take Mary and the baby and escape to Egypt.
They lived there till King Herod died and then went back to live in Nazareth.
But we truly appreciate the three wise men in this story who read and believed God’s word, sought Jesus, recognized the worth of Christ, humbled themselves to worship Jesus, and obeyed God rather than man.
Yes, they were truly wise men!
So what time is it?
Is it the time when we think of monetary or material things or is it the time to celebrate each other and honor our Savior Jesus Christ?
I leave that up tp you!
