© Sierra College Astronomy Department1 Starlight and Time: A Critical Review Starlight and Time  A theme created and promoted by Dr. D. Russell Humphreys to resolve a long-standing problem in the young-earth movement – how light could travel billions of light years from distant galaxies during the passage of only a few thousand Earth years  Quick Explanation: General relativistic time dilation  Quick Assessment: His ideas are faulty  Disclaimer: Christianity is not on trial here  Personal Philosophy: “Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind” -- Albert Einstein,

© Sierra College Astronomy Department2 Starlight and Time: A Critical Review Measuring Astronomical Distances  Within the Solar System Method: Radar Scale: Astronomical Units (Max = 80 AU)  Nearest Stars Method: Parallax Scale: Light-years (Max = 1000 ly)  The Milky Way and Beyond Method: “Standard Candles” & the “Distance Ladder” Scale: (Max = ly)

© Sierra College Astronomy Department3 Starlight and Time: A Critical Review Aging the Universe  Finite speed of light and distance to farthest observed objects implies a billion year old universe  Hubble expansion of Universe implies billion year old universe  Star cluster aging implies billion year old universe  Evolution of cosmological objects (in particular, galaxies) implies billion year old universe  Analysis of cosmic microwave background radiation implies billion year old universe  Etc. and particularly important: Many of these age determinations are local where spacetime is flat

© Sierra College Astronomy Department4 Starlight and Time: A Critical Review Relativity  Special Relativity The Principle of Relativity The speed of light is a constant in all frames Time dilation  General Relativity Finite speed of light and “action-at-a-distance” Equivalence Principle Matter tells spacetime how to bend and spacetime tells matter how to move Relativity and Quantum Mechanics  No experiment or observation contradicts them  Society has progressed on the backs of these theories (e.g., cars, computers, cell phones, GPS)

© Sierra College Astronomy Department5 Starlight and Time: A Critical Review Humphreys’ Cosmology  Attaches physical meaning to “global” spacetime coordinates for “local” processes  Uses gravitational time dilation to slow local clocks Fundamental Errors in This Cosmology  Ignores observations that indicate year old universe  Incorrectly uses coordinate systems to determine local physical clock rates

© Sierra College Astronomy Department6 Starlight and Time: A Critical Review Conclusions  Starlight and Time ideas of Dr. D. Russell Humphreys are faulty and border on unethical  Other Christian groups and scientists have spoken openly of the Starlight and Time ideas as being riddled with erroneous physics (in particular, Dr. Hugh Ross of “Reasons to Believe” has openly published very critical views of the ideas ( shtml?main )

© Sierra College Astronomy Department7 Nucleosynthesis Big Bang Nucleosynthesis  Need to start somewhere, say after quarks have combined to form nucleons, so the Universe starts with protons, neutrons, electrons, neutrinos, and photons (plus antiparticles).  Fusion to He 4 requires passage through the “deuterium bottleneck”  Creating heavier elements is tough since He 4 must react with rare H 2, H 3, and He 3 How did the Universe build up the rest of the elements?  In stars through nuclear fusion  In supernova explosions  Cosmic ray bombardment