One of things I love is a beautiful sunset. (I rarely get up in time to see the sun rise), or to gaze at the night sky and try and imagine the distances the stars are from us.
I was half listening to the Today programme on radio 4 two weeks ago when an item came on about Einstein rings. Both the presenter and the scientist from Portsmouth university sounded really excited, so I paid a little more attention.
I have to admit I didn’t fully understand the science behind the findings, but I will try to explain it, as I understood it.
The Euclid telescope is an extremely powerful telescope which is orbiting the earth. It has sent back some beautiful images of glimmering rings in space, known as Einstein rings. They are so named because Einstein predicted, over 100 years ago that light could be bent around objects in space to form these rings.
The images that have recently been seen are caused by light from a faraway galaxy, (5 billion lightyears behind!) that is perfectly aligned behind a galaxy nearer to earth.
This galaxy in the foreground has so much mass it is deforming space time, and produces four beautiful rings.
As well as being spectacular images, these rings actually tell us, (well the very brainy scientists), much more information about dark matter and dark energy.
You might wonder how all this helps us in our faith?
For me it just confirms what an awesome God we have, and that we are just one miniscule part of the whole of creation. It confirms to me, that we will never fully understand the immensity of what God can do. It confirms to me that creation is so much more than humankind.
Prayer: Creator God, you are so much more than we can understand. Your creation is farther than we can imagine. Your power is beyond comprehension. We gaze into the sky and see the beauty and warmth of the sun, and can only wonder at the beauty that surrounds us. May we never stop being amazed or curious at your wonderful works. AMEN