February 2014 the Kepler Science Team announced the discovery of 715 new planets outside of our solar system.
The Kepler Telescope launched in 2009. Kepler uses a photometer, a special camera, to measure the brightness of light with a lens a meter wide. It’s the largest camera we have launched into space.
We can’t actually see planets outside of our solar system. So we watch stars. When we see the star’s brightness go down, then we know that something is likely between us and the star…. like a planet!
How do we know that it’s a planet and not something else in the way? We keep watching. If we see the same star, dim by the same amount, for the same amount of time in the future; we know we have a planet.
So if you think about it, scientists look for planets outside of our solar system, not by what we see, but by what we don’t see. When the Kepler team are convicted that what they have NOT seen is a planet, they announce it.
That might remind you of some verses, like it did for me.
Hebrews 11:1-3
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.
While it is interesting that the Kepler team has faith in planets due to what they do not see, let's make sure our faith is in what really matters.
Romans 10:17
Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ
© Vivian P. Kirkpatrick, 2015