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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I wrote:</DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>>> Today we know that there are in fact MORE stars in the
universe than there <BR>are grains of sand on earth! The numbers are
staggering, truly <BR>mind-boggling, numbers that even the greatest genius
cannot really grasp. There are <BR>somewhere between two billion and
four billion stars in our galaxy alone, <BR>and this Milky Way galaxy is
only one of BILLIONS OF GALAXIES! <<<BR><BR></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I made a mistake and thereby vastly UNDERcounted the number of stars in the
universe. I should have written that there are TWO HUNDRED BILLION stars
or more in our galaxy. I have even seen estimates of four hundred billion
and six hundred billion. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Now I am sure that everyone here can easily visualize the difference
between a mere two billion and two HUNDRED billion.......</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Just in our galaxy alone.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Can you, by the way, picture the DISTANCES involved -- knowing that there
are billions of galaxies?! If light travels at 186,000 miles a second, it
takes light from our sun eight minutes to reach earth. The sun is 93
million miles away. Eight minutes to go 93 million miles. OK, now,
there are visible galaxies that are so far away that their light left them not
eight minutes ago and not eight years ago, but a MILLION years ago! Every
eight minutes that light traversed another 93 million miles, and it still took a
million years to reach us. Who can possibly grasp such distances and such
numbers? And there are galaxies that are visible to the Hubble telescope
that are much, much further away than a million light-years. Many of the
stars we see are actually entire galaxies consisting of hundreds of millions of
stars.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Have a look at this, for instance:
<DIV><A
href="http://www.universetoday.com/82855/long-ago-in-a-galaxy-far-far-away/">http://www.universetoday.com/82855/long-ago-in-a-galaxy-far-far-away/</A></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This is why I have said in the past that the more science one knows, the
greater the appreciation of "mah gadlu ma'asecha Hashem" and "mah rabu
ma'asecha Hashem."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>PS If anyone is worried about the idea that light left some
of those galaxies millions of years ago and has been traveling towards
us for millions of years, here are a couple of ways to think about
it:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>A. Bereishis may be talking about our planet and not about the entire
universe, which may have been created long before our earth. (Rashi
himself points out that there was already water on the first day, but that the
Torah never says when the water was created.)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>B. Another possibility is that the universe was created with the light from
the stars already enroute, AS IF it had been emitted millions of years
ago. That's another way of saying that the universe was created LOOKING
like an old universe. Just a possibility.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT><BR><FONT color=#0000ff><STRONG>--Toby
Katz<BR>================</STRONG></FONT><FONT lang=0 color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>_____________________</FONT></DIV>
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