Fudging with Comets

(4 Minute Read. 28Sep2022)

1910 Halley’s Comet
Photo taken May 29, 1910
at Yerkes Observatory, WI

Comets have amazed, intrigued, and even scared sky watchers for millenia.

What is the purpose of comets in the Solar System?

From where do comets come? Have some pet theories about comet origins been fudged or misrepresented?

Comet Lifespans

As of November 2021 there were 4,584 known comets. Astronomers can estimate a comet’s longevity based on its orbital period (the time it takes to orbit the sun) and on how much mass it loses on each orbit.

Comets are fragile, and longevity calculations indicate most cannot last more than about 10,000 years. This is because every time a comet swings around the sun, part of its mass is burned off. For example, in the 1986 appearance of Halley’s Comet, the Giotto Probe determined that Halley’s nucleus weighed 240 billion tons and was losing matter at the rate of 17.6 tons per second. The 20th century witnessed the complete destruction of 10 comets in this manner.

If most comets last no more than 10,000 years, why do we still see comets if the Solar System is billions of years old?

Let’s make some generous estimates to get upper bounds on comet lifespans to compare with evolutionists’ supposed age of the Solar System. Generally astronomers think a comet can last no more than 100 orbits around the sun. Suppose we liberally estimate a comet’s life to be 1,000 orbits. In that case, short-period comets (orbits under 200 years) cannot last more than 200,000 years.

It’s often very difficult to calculate orbital periods for long-period comets (having periods over 200 years), but almost all have estimated periods of under 100,000 years. Thus long-period comets should be gone within 100 million years.

But evolutionist scientists believe the Solar System is 4.6 billion years old — almost 50 times the liberally estimated maximum lifespan of any comet.

So why do we still see comets? By evolutionary numbers they should all be long gone. Yet over 4,500 comets are still seen today. The multitude of visible comets is clear evidence that the Solar System is not billions of years old.

Where Do Comets Originate?

This obvious conclusion above does not fit the evolutionary story line. Evolution requires enormous lengths of time.

In order to get around this problem, in 1950 Dutch astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort proposed the existence of a cloud of billions of comets surrounding the Solar System. He suggested that this conjectured cloud occasionally ejected new comets into orbit around the sun.

This imaginary cloud is now called the Oort Cloud. It supposedly supposedly extends from 2,000 AU to 200,000 AU beyond the sun, where one AU (Astronomical Unit) is the distance from the earth to the sun, about 93 million miles. Thus the Oort Cloud supposedly extends out to 3.2 light-years from the sun — almost to Proxima Centauri, the nearest star about 4.2 light-years away.

The Oort Cloud concept is almost universally believed and assertively taught within astronomy. It is merely dogmatic belief; the Oort Cloud has never been observed. The Oort Cloud is completely speculative. Jan Hendrik Oort simply made it up.

Even the late Cornell astronomy professor Carl Sagan (1934-1996), a vigorous popularizer of cosmic evolution, said this in chapter 11 of his 1985 book Comet:
“Many scientific papers are written each year about the Oort cloud, its properties, its origin, its evolution. Yet there is not a shred of direct observational evidence for its existence.” (my emphasis)

An article on the Oort Cloud in New Scientist said,
“Indeed, the need for a source for ‘long period’ comets is the only evidence we have for the Oort Cloud’s existence, and that is circumstantial to say the least.”
(Stuart Clark, The Oort cloud surrounds our solar system – why can’t we see it?, New Scientist, 16 March 2016.)

“Need” is not evidence.

The Oort Cloud is simply a fudge factor introduced to rescue cosmic evolution from the extremely inconvenient existence of comets. It is an attempt to explain away the obvious relatively young age of the Solar System in order to preserve belief in its existence apart from the Great Creator.

Physicist Dr. Don DeYoung wrote,
“The existence of the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud of comets has not been verified. Perhaps there is an alternative: the presence of comets may be evidence that the solar system is not as old as is often assumed.
(DeYoung, Astronomy and the Bible, 2000, pp. 49-50.)

Astronomer Dr. Danny Faulkner wrote,
“Since it cannot be detected, the Oort cloud is not a scientific concept. This is not bad science, but non-science masquerading as science. The existence of comets is good evidence that the solar system is only a few thousand years old,.“
(Faulkner, “More Problems for the Oort Comet Cloud“, Aug 2001.)

The Oort Cloud has never been observed. There is no evidence that it exists, yet it is dogmatically taught. It is completely speculative. The only reason for its conjectured existence is to “rescue” belief in an evolutionary history of the universe. This amounts to fudging evidence.

Belief in the Biblical history of the universe has no need of the Oort Cloud. Comets easily survive the thousands of years since God created all of time, space, and everything in it.

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman is reported to have said this:
“I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.”

What is the origin of comets? That may be a question that can’t be answered apart from the ingenious creativity of the Great Creator Who placed them in the heavens. The Oort Cloud is an answer that should be questioned and challenged.

The existence of comets, no matter how fragile and short-lived, is no problem for the Biblical creationist. The Great Creator, the Lord God of the Bible, made His universe with great diversity, beauty, and complexity for His own glory. He created comets. The Oort Cloud pretense is an insult to the Great Creator.

Why did Yahweh put comets in His Solar System? Are they some of His fingerprints? Are they marks to estimate age? What do you think?

Questions to Ponder

1. How do comets portray the magnificence of their Great Creator?
2. Can you find a stunning comet photo to remind you of this giant glitch in the theory of cosmic evolution?

Share your thoughts on this question in the comments below. It could encourage or help another reader.

For Christ and His Kingdom.
Alere Flammam Veritatis.
Soli Deo Gloria.

Read the prequels:
Curious Comets
Halley’s Comet
Halley’s Surprise

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
“for the defense of the gospel”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:5; Phil 1:16)
Wednesday September 28, 2022 A.D.

Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised,
And His greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.
On the glorious splendor of Your majesty
And on Your wonderful works, I will meditate. (Psalm 145:3-5)

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