GN Commentary: May 18, 2009 - Hubble Sees the Future

Since human beings have existed we've looked at the night sky with a sense of wonder and mystery. We feel small, and ask "what is our place in the universe?" Could all this really be the result of random chance? Or were we placed here by a Creator who has in mind a purpose for our existence?

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Video Transcript

Over the last several days, Shuttle astronauts repairing the Hubble Space Telescope have performed what NASA officials have called the most challenging spacewalk mission ever.

Working 360 miles above the earth's surface, mission specialists were able to repair the survey camera on Saturday and the Imaging Spectrograph yesterday.

With these new repairs the Hubble Telescope can continue sending back stunningly beautiful and scientifically revolutionary images.

The most important image produced so far is called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field or HUDF. It shows the farthest galaxies human beings have ever seen. They're so far away from us, that the light coming from those galaxies is 13 billion years old! The size of the area photographed represents only about 1% of the area of space covered by the full moon. A particularly dark part of space was chosen and yet in that small dark area, about 10,000 galaxies were found: galaxies, each one composed of millions of stars.

It truly boggles the mind.

Since human beings have existed we've looked at the night sky with a sense of wonder and mystery. We feel small, and ask "what is our place in the universe?" Could all this really be the result of random chance? Or were we placed here by a Creator who has in mind a purpose for our existence?

One ancient thinker asked this "When I look at the sky, which you have made, at the moon and the stars, which you set in their places—what are human beings, that you think of them; mere mortals, that you care for them?" (Psalm 8:3-4 TEV)

What is our purpose in this vast cosmos?

So far every planet humans have been able to examine has been barren and lifeless. It appears the whole universe is like that, with the exception of our little blue planet.

One Bible passage gives us a mysterious glimpse of our destiny, and the fact that our future is linked to that of the limitless universe. It says "the creation [everything that exists] looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay." (Romains 8:21 NLT). The implications of that passage are amazing. One day we'll be joined to God's entire creation. Death and sterile decay will be things of the past: all will be perfect.

This is a destiny for you and me that goes beyond the farthest limits of space discovered by the Hubble. It is the greatest destiny imaginable. It is truly good news.

For GN Magazine, I'm Joel Meeker.