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Our Special Sun
#1
The sun has many characteristics that are precisely fine tuned to support life on earth, but according to many evolutionists that is nothing to make a fuss over. Many insist our sun is nothing special. 

The famous astronomer Carl Dagan once said, “Where are we? Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.” 

Is our sun ordinary? Not at all. Our sun is very unusual. It’s brighter than about 85% of all stars and has more mass than about 90%. In fact we should be very thankful that our sun is not an average star. Here’s why. About 75% of all stars are red dwarfs. These emit about 5% of the light output of our sun. If the earth revolved around one of these our planet would be extremely hostile to life. To be warm enough the earth would have to orbit extremely close to the star. That would create a tidal lock where the same side of the earth would always face the star. Photosynthesis would be impossible on the earth’s night side and possibly the day side as well because of the reddish light. So there would be no plant life, no food and no oxygen for us. Even worse than that, red dwarfs are unstable and they flare frequently. That would sterilise the earth if we were unlucky enough to closely orbit such a star. 

So 75% of all stars are unsuitable for us. Of the remaining 25% many of them are also unsuitable - they’re too unstable or they emit too much radiation for life to be possible nearby. Even among massive stars the sun is unusual and even among class g stars such as our sun, more than half of them are in binary or multiple systems. These systems make it much more difficult for there to be a stable climate on any planet that revolves around them. Many of them would not be able to keep any planets in stable orbits. The more we examine the universe, the more unusual our sun appears. For years astromoners have been looking for solar twins - stars with characteristics similar to our sun. 

Despite examining thousands of stars astromoners have discovered only a handful of candidates for twins and even these these few candidates still have significant differences from our sun. So we see that the sun is not average at all - it’s very special.

I just thought that you might find that interesting.
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#2
That'd be Carl Sagan, and the movie Contact, based on his book, has the most perfect visual description of our place in the Universe and our importance as humans in the greater scheme of things. Always worth a watch as a reminder of what matters, and what does not.
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#3
Thank you for that. A typo on my part. And thank you for the reference to the movie. I did not know about that. I'm certain I will be able to bring it up on You Tube. Much appreciated.
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#4
He was an utterly brilliant man, and the movie does his book justice. I think you'll enjoy it.
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#5
Also an atheist, and opponent of "intelligent design".
I do have other cameras!
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#6
Without our sun, we'd be up the well known creek; we're lucky to exist.

And his son, Nick Sagan wrote an interesting set of sci fi books, the Idlewild trilogy.
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/auth...sagan.html
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)
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#7
So just to ask, Is there more than one life giving sun in any galaxy besides our own, that we know of at all?  Sun Star Sun
Despite the high cost of living it remains popular
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#8
There may be, but although we can see many light years into the cosmos astronomers have yet to find a sun like our own.
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#9
They've recently found two earth like planets.


https://www.sciencealert.com/two-nearby-...to-survive

https://www.space.com/potentially-habita...c-backyard
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)
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#10
(12-01-2023, 11:52 AM)Oldfellah Wrote: So just to ask, Is there more than one life giving sun in any galaxy besides our own, that we know of at all?  Sun Star Sun

(12-01-2023, 02:18 PM)Lilith7 Wrote: They've recently found two earth like planets.


https://www.sciencealert.com/two-nearby-...to-survive

https://www.space.com/potentially-habita...c-backyard

You need to read the article again. Both of your two links say they orbit red dwarfs and the article says that although they may seem earth like planets, life as we know it cannot exist around a red dwarf as they are very hostile to life.
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#11
I think it is a mistake to accept blank statements that involved the word 'cannot' when it comes to the possibility of other life outside our planet. We simply do not know enough about life here, to make judgements about elsewhere.

Life like us, maybe hard to find. But life unlike us, that's an entirely different matter.
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#12
James Webb Space Telescope discovers its first exoplanet:


https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/482334/...-exoplanet
It's not the least charm of a theory that it is refutable. The hundred-times-refuted theory of "free will" owes its persistence to this charm alone; some one is always appearing who feels himself strong enough to refute it - Friedrich Nietzsche
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#13
(12-01-2023, 10:40 PM)zqwerty Wrote: James Webb Space Telescope discovers its first exoplanet:


https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/482334/...-exoplanet

the JWST is very cool...
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/481423/...g-universe
This world would be a perfect place if it wasn't for the people.

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#14
While it may be an earth like planet it is orbiting a red dwarf and as mentioned in my article, life as we know it, cannot exist around a red dwarf.
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#15
Mmmm, just like they said man cannot walk on the Moon, not so long ago.
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