Julian Leviston wrote:
> If the universe is constantly expanding, how is it that we think that the
Not at all. In the simplistic logic you are using, expansion leads to cooling
(check the simple gas laws in any high school physics or chemistry book),
> earth is cooling down adn that the moon was once an earth but is now dead?
> Wouldn't it follow that if the universe is expanding, then things would be
> getting hotter, then the earth would be becoming more towards like the sun
> and the moon like the earth...?
The formation of the earth and moon is mostly from one larger planet that was hit by a planetesimal in an oblique manner. The outer crustal components were ejected into earth orbit where they eventually accreted into what we call the moon, which is why the moon has no nickle/iron core like the earth., and why the earth has such a thin crust compared to other similar planets like Venus and Mars. The earth would be as geologically quiet and cyclic as Venus if it were not for the tidal influence of the moon creating a drag on the rotation of the Earth's mantle, causing it to slip over the core. The core retains its rotational momentum and rotates about one more rotation per year than the mantle does. This differential in rotation acts as a dynamo which generates our strong electromagnetic field. Venus, Mercury, and Mars all have very weak magnetic fields compared to earth. The only small object in the solar system which has a similar field is Jupiter's moon Io, which is also thought to be generated by the tidal stresses of Jupiter on the moon.
Eventually, the moon will drag the earth's rotation to a dead stop, in some 800 million or more years, at which point the only thing providing any warmth will be the internal radioactive decay of natural isotopes and thermal convection.
If one beleived in an infinite universe, then things should definitely be getting hotter in the skies in infinities added to infinities every day. Even allowing for red shift dragging light down in the spectrum, the heat levels in the ELF ranges should be so high that the very interstella gas should glow visibly. Contrary to the claims of the steady staters, the cosmic background radiation agree very well with the age measurements of the universe by the big bang theory, and are coming more into agreement over time as we learn more and more.
People who are big proponents of the steady state theories either do from ignorance, or because they have a political agenda. They hate the air of 'legitimacy' that they see the Big Bang giving to traditional religion (because most religions talk of similar stories of creation of the universe). They put politics ahead of science, which is never a good thing to do.
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Michael Lorrey, President
Lorrey Systems
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