A journey into the stars
God’s
Backyard
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained — what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?”
Psalm 19:1; Psalm 8:3–4
“Upon all created things is seen the impress of the Deity. Nature testifies of God. The susceptible mind, brought in contact with the miracle and mystery of the universe, cannot but recognize the working of infinite power. Not by its own inherent energy does the earth produce its bounties, and year by year continue its motion around the sun. An unseen hand guides the planets in their circuit of the heavens.”
Education, Page 100, Paragraph 1
We are going to travel outward — from the planets next door, past the stars He named, through clouds where stars are born, to galaxies so distant their light set out before anyone alive had been born. In space, distance is measured in light years. One light year is about 9.7 trillion kilometres.
Best viewed at night, with the lights off.
Chapter One
Our Solar System
Nine worlds circling one ordinary star. The bars below are drawn to scale against Pluto’s orbit — which is where you begin to feel how much of our own neighbourhood is simply emptiness.
Planet 1
Mercury
46,186 million km
Planet 2
Venus
107,49 million km
Planet 3
Earth
147,18 million km
Planet 4
Mars
227,91 million km
Planet 5
Jupiter
746,71 million km
Planet 6
Saturn
1,481 billion km
Planet 7
Uranus
2,9494 billion km
Planet 8
Neptune
4,4747 billion km
Dwarf planet
Pluto
5.9 billion km
Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006 — but it has been part of this tour since the beginning, so it stays.
Chapter 2
The Stars He Named
He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. — Psalm 147:4
Chapter 3
Worlds Around Worlds
Moons of ice and fire, circling the planets of our own solar system.
Chapter 4
Clouds of Making
Vast nurseries of gas and dust where stars are born, and tombs where they die.
Chapter 5
Gathered Multitudes
Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loose the belt of Orion? — Job 38:31
Chapter 6
Island Universes
Beyond our own Milky Way lie hundreds of billions more, each holding billions of suns.
The last chapter
Trip to Heaven
“Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing.”
Isaiah 40:26Everything you have just travelled through — every nebula, every star, every island universe — was made by the same hands that were nailed to a cross for you.
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