PLANETS AROUND THE STARS – IS THERE LIFE ON THEM?
I am pleased that my readers enjoy these articles which are written primarily for kids. They are also popular with adults, who find them easy to read and most educational.. This monkey finds it hard to understand how the Christ hating Mr Darwin managed to trick so many into believing his unworkable theory. The Universe is beyond the understanding of finite minds, and is magnificent display of the workmanship of an Almighty Creator. In order to keep informed make sure to subscribe to Creation Magazine: https://creation.com/magazines The authors biography can be read by clicking on his name at the beginning, which is a live link. Gibber! Gibber! Chugley Creation for kids—Planets around other stars: Is there life on them by Jonathan Sarfati Published in Creation 44(4):32–35, 2022 Our star, the sun, has eight planets and many other smaller objects. All of these make up the solar system. But what about all the other stars—200 billion in our galaxy alone? Could they have planets—called extrasolar, i.e., outside our solar system? In other words, could stars have their own stellar systems like our solar system? But they are so far away. How could we detect planets around them? After all, they would be much smaller than the stars they orbit. And they would not produce their own light; instead, they would reflect light from their star. Detecting extrasolar planets The first confirmed extrasolar planet was discovered as recently as 1992. Now there are over 5,000 confirmed extrasolar planets (‘exoplanets’). How do we know? Some planets have indeed been seen directly from their reflected light. But this is rare because the glare of the star usually overwhelms the faint reflected light. The most common detection is when the planet moves in front of its star, or ‘transits’. The planet is much smaller than the star, but…