Missing supernova remnants refute millions of years
Exploding stars point to a young universe
Where are all the supernova remnants?1
by Jonathan Sarfati
Supernovas. A mega-explosion in space. Some of these have been seen from the earth.
The Crab Nebula here as it is today, is the remnant of a supernova which was seen
in the year 1054 AD and remained visible to the naked
eye for about a year. Credit: NASA
A supernova,2 or violently
exploding star, is one of the most brilliant and powerful objects in God’s
vast cosmos. On average, a galaxy like our own, the Milky Way, should produce
one supernova every 25 years.
Click for 214k Supernova image, (courtesy NASA)
When a star has exploded in this way, the huge expanding cloud of debris is called
a SuperNova Remnant (SNR). A well-known example is the Crab Nebula in the
constellation of Taurus, produced by a supernova so bright that it could be seen
during daytime for a few weeks in 1054. By applying physical laws (and using powerful
computers), astronomers can predict what should happen to this cloud.
According to their model, the SNR should reach a diameter of about 300 light years3 after 120,000 years. So if our
galaxy was billions of years old, we should be able to observe many SNRs this size.
But if our galaxy is 6,000–10,000 years old, no SNRs would have had time to
reach this size. So the number of observed SNRs of a particular size is an excellent
test of whether the galaxy is old or young. In fact, the results are consistent
with a universe thousands of years old, but are a puzzle if the universe has existed
for billions of years. The conclusions can be seen from the simple table shown below:
Supernova
Remnant Stage
|
Number of observable SNRs predicted if our galaxy were…
|
Number of SNRs actually observed
|
|
… billions of years old
|
… 7000 years old
|
|
First
|
2
|
2
|
5
|
|
Second
|
2260
|
125
|
200
|
|
Third
|
5000
|
0
|
0
|
As can be readily seen above, a young universe model fits the data of the low number
of observed SNRs. If the universe was really billions of years old, there are 7000
missing SNRs in our galaxy.
Not only that, but the predictions for the Milky Way’s satellite galaxy, the
Large Magellanic Cloud are also consistent with a young universe. Theory predicts
340 observable SNRs if the LMC were billions of years old, and 24 if it were 7000
years old. The number of actually observed SNRs in the LMC is 29. [See
Detailed discussion and calculations]
As the evolutionist astronomers Clark and Caswell say, ‘Why have the large
number of expected remnants not been detected?’ and these authors refer to
‘The mystery of the missing remnants’.4
There should be no mystery—Psalm 19:1 says: ‘The
heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.’
Supernovas declare His mighty power, but are still only finite expressions. The
low number of their remnants is a pointer to God’s recent creation
of the heavens and earth.
How do supernovas happen?
An ordinary star is a gigantic ball of gas, about a million times more massive than
the earth—our sun is a medium-sized star. It is potentially stable for a long
time, because the energy produced by the core produces an enormous outward pressure,
which balances the inward force of gravity on its huge mass.
However, when the nuclear fuel runs out, there is no longer any force to balance
its gravity. If the star is very massive, most of it collapses very fast —
in about two seconds. This releases a huge amount of energy—one supernova
will out-shine all the billions of stars in its galaxy. The collapse is so violent
that the electrons and nuclei are crushed together and produce a core of neutrons.
This core is so dense that a teaspoonful would weigh 50 thousand million tons on
earth. It cannot be compressed any further, so the incoming material from the rest
of the star meets a solid wall. This material bounces off the core, rushes outward
and shines very brightly. The remaining core, only about 20 km in diameter, is called
a neutron star. Because it is spinning very fast, and has a strong magnetic
field, we observe regular radio pulses, so the object is called a pulsar.
The energy produced by a supernova is mind-boggling: 1044 joules. It
is the same as if each and every gram of the earth’s mass was converted to a nuclear
bomb 200 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima. That amount of energy
would fuel 80 million sun-like stars for 100 years!
Detailed discussion and calculations
A widely-accepted model of supernova expansion predicts three stages:
1) The first stage starts with debris hurtling outwards at 7000 kilometres per second.
After the material has expanded for about 300 years, a blast wave forms, ending
the first stage. By this time it reaches a diameter of about 7 light years.5 This is an immense object—about 25,000 times
larger than our solar system, which is ‘only’ about eight light hours
across (about 8600 million km or 5400 million miles).
The three predicted stages of supernova development
Since the first stage should last about 300 years and one SNR should occur every
25 years, there should now be 300/25 first stage SNRs in our galaxy, or about 12.
We should not expect to see them all—astronomers calculate that only about
19% of SNRs should be visible,6 that
is about two of the 12. It makes no difference whether the universe is thousands
of years old as the Bible indicates, or billions of years old as evolutionary theory
asserts. Actually we see five first stage SNRs (this is within the uncertainty range
of the calculation).
2) The second stage SNR, known as the adiabatic7
or Sedov stage, is a very powerful emitter of radio waves. This is predicted to
expand for about 120,000 years and reach a diameter of about 350 light years. After
this, it starts to lose thermal (heat) energy and begin the third stage. Now, if
the universe was billions of years old, we would predict (remember, one supernova
every 25 years, and taking into account SNRs in the 300-year first stage) that in
our galaxy there would be about (120,000–300)/25 second stage SNRs, or about
4800. But if the universe has only existed for about 7000 years, then there would
be only enough time for (7000–300)/25, or about 270. Astronomers calculate
that 47% should be visible, so evolutionary/uniformitarian theory predicts about
2260 second stage SNRs, while the Biblical Creation theory predicts about 125. The
actual observed number of second stage SNRs is a good test of which theory best
fits the facts.
There are actually only 200 second stage SNRs observed in our galaxy! This is
in the right ball park for Biblical creation, but is totally different from evolutionary
predictions. Evolutionists at present have no answer to the problem
of the missing supernova remnants.
3) The third, or isothermal,8 stage
is theorised to emit mainly heat energy. This stage would theoretically only start
after 120,000 years, and would last about one million to six million years. The
SNR would end its career when it either collided with similar SNRs at a diameter
of about 1400 light years, or became so dispersed that it would be indistinguishable
from the ֹvacuum’ of space at a diameter of about 1800 light years.
One calculation makes the generous (to evolutionary theory) assumption that the
third stage starts at about 120,000 years and a diameter of about 340 light years,
and lasts to an age of one million years and 650 light years. Thus if the universe
was billions of years old, there should be (1,000,000–120,000)/25 third stage
SNRs in our galaxy, or about 35,000. Of these, about 14% should be observable, or
about 5000. However, if the universe is only about 7000 years old, no SNR should
be old enough to have reached the third stage, so there should be absolutely none,
under currently accepted models. This is another test of the two theories, an old
vs. a young universe.
There are actually no third stage SNRs observed in our galaxy!
Related articles
References and notes
- This article is based on a paper by Keith Davies, Distribution
of Supernova Remnants in the Galaxy, Proceedings of the Third International
Conference on Creationism, Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh, ed.
E. Walsh, pp. 175–184, 1994. Return to text.
- See the article ‘supernova’, Encyclopædia
Britannica, 15th Ed., 11:401, 1992. Return
to text.
- A light year is a mesure of distance, not time. It is the distance
that light nowadays travels for one year in a vacuum—9.46 million million
kilometres (5.87 million million miles). Return to text.
- Clark and Caswell, 1976. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
Society, 174:267; cited in Ref. 1. Return to text.
- Mr Davies’ original draft of Ref. 1 had 1.28 parsecs, which
is 7 light years. Somehow in the final version, a typo occured and 7 ly became 7
pcs, which would be 23 ly. Return to text.
- Keith Davies,
Distribution of Supernova Remnants in the Galaxy, Ref. 1, has detailed observational
limitation formulæ. Return to text.
- Adiabatic means ‘not transferring heat to or from
its surroundings’. During the second stage, the SNR loses very little thermal
energy. Return to text.
- Isothermal means ‘staying at the same temperature’.
During the third stage, the SNR should stay at about the same temperature and radiate
excess thermal (heat) energy. Return to text.
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