Fenomena Astronomi Dari Sudut Astrologi

Oleh:

Nor Azam bin Mat Noor
Unit Penyelidikan Ilmu Falak dan Sains Atmosfera
Universiti Sains Malaysia
11800 Pulau Pinang
Emel: azzameen@time.net.my

Juga disesuaikan kembali dari : http://artikelfalak.blogspot.com

ABSTRAK

Peristiwa falak atau fenomena astronomi (astronomical phenomenon) berlaku selagi ada ruang dan waktu (space and time). Menurut Ibnu Sina, waktu hanya boleh difahami bila dihubungkan dengan gerak. Tidak ada gerak apabila tidak ada waktu dan bahawasanya hukum alam sudah diciptakan untuk mengatur dirinya sendiri setelah ia diciptakan oleh Tuhan. Pemahaman dan pandangan Ibnu Sina sebegini jauh lebih maju dari Aristoteles. Sesungguhnya, alam semesta semenjak era purba sebaik letusan perdana yang mewujudkannya telah berkembang hingga ke saat ini. Segala apa saja jasad alam semesta telah diaturkan perjalanannya sedemikian rupa oleh Pencipta Yang Maha Agung. Ini telah memberikan peluang kepada manusia untuk mencari sekian banyak nilai empirikal dan parameter yang kemudiannya diterbitkan dalam bentuk formula dan jadual yang konstan agar mereka dapat memanfaatkannya demi kelangsungan hidup hingga di waktu yang ditentukan oleh Tuhan. Namun, fenomena astronomi juga telah memberikan pelbagai versi yang berlainan dalam pemahaman manusia terhadap cakerawala di masa-masa lampau dengan mengaitkan gejala kelangitan dengan perlakuan manusia atau keadaan sekelilingnya. Artikel ini akan mengulas sejauh mana relevannya pandangan manusia masa lampau dan adakah masih terdapat kebenaran ataupun merupakan kebetulan-kebetulan yang silih berganti di sepanjang kehidupan manusia kala itu.

1.0 Astronomi dari sumber wahyu

Perkataan astronomi adalah berasal dari bahasa Yunani (Greek) iaitu ‘astron-nemo’ yang bermaksud ‘penyusunan bintang’. Tata cara ‘menyusun bintang’ ini berlaku apabila manusia pada zaman silam melihat bintang-bintang di langit menurut imaginasi mereka demi memudahkan mereka mengenali kumpulan-kumpulan bintang yang digelar ‘buruj’. Oleh itu wujudlah buruj-buruj hasil penyusunan bintang-bintang itu seperti buruj Dacing (Libra), Kala Jengking (Scorpius), Si Pemburu (Orion) dan bermacam-macam lagi. Kesemua gambaran yang tercerna dari imaginasi mereka itu kebanyakannya berpunca dari cerita-cerita hikayat atau kisah-kisah yang berlaku pada masa itu akibat mengagumi satria (pahlawan) ataupun puteri-puteri jelitawan dan sebagainya.

Timbul kekeliruan di sini kenapa bidang ilmu astronomi Islam gagasan oleh bangsa Arab telah disebut sebagai ilmu falak dan bukannya ‘ilmu an najmi’ (nujum) yang bermaksud bintang? Perkataan najam (bintang) nampaknya tidak dipakai secara menyeluruh oleh umat Islam sebagaimana meluasnya perkataan ‘astron’ bagi erti yang sama dalam bahasa Greek. Sebenarnya, hal sebegini berlaku disebabkan oleh terbahaginya dua fungsi ilmu perbintangan yang digunakan oleh umat Islam terdahulu apabila mereka mengalami kesukaran untuk menjelaskan kepada masyarakat mengenai ilmu bintang yang berlandaskan alam tabi’i dengan ilmu bintang yang meramal nasib manusia. Justeru, ilmu falak timbul apabila kajian alam tabi’i dibuat dengan tidak mengaitkan nasib hidup manusiawi kerana perkataan falak lebih cenderung untuk mengkaji segala perjalanan cakerawala yang berputar dan bergerak menurut hukum-hukum tertentu sedangkan ilmu nujum terlalu mementingkan ‘semangat kelangitan’ yang mempengaruhi segala aspek hidup manusia. Tamadun Yunani juga menghadapi dilema yang sama dengan tamadun Arab apabila terpaksa memberikan takrif yang berbeza untuk dua kajian perbintangan yang sama tetapi dalam hala yang berbeza iaitu ‘astronomi’ sebagai maksud ‘astro-tulen’ manakala ‘astrologi’ sebagai ‘astro-ramal’. Jadi, dua perspektif ini telah berkembang menjadi disiplin yang sangat berlainan tetapi masih dalam kajian yang sama iaitu bertunjangkan kepada gejala cakerawala atau peristiwa falak.

Firman Allah Ta’ala dalam Surah Yasin ayat 38 hingga 40 sepertimana berikut:


“Dan Matahari berjalan di tempat peredarannya. Demikianlah ketetapan Yang Maha Kuasa lagi Maha Mengetahui. Dan Kami tetapkan bagi Bulan beredar melalui beberapa peringkat sehingga di akhir peredarannya kembali seperti bentuk tandan yang tua. Tidaklah mungkin bagi Matahari mendapatkan Bulan dan malam pun tidak dapat mendahului siang, dan masing-masing beredar pada garis orbitnya.”

Menariknya ialah perkataan FALAK yang terbit dari kalimat “kullun fi falakiy yasbahun” (masing-masing beredar pada garis orbitnya) ditunjukkan dalam Rajah 1:

Rajah 1. Kalimat ‘kullun fi falakiy yasbahun’

Rajah 1 menunjukkan bagaimana perkataan FALAKIN atau ORBIT yang dibentuk oleh frasa FA, LAM dan KAF tetapi apabila disongsangkan (flip) secara mengufuk akan berubah menjadi KAF, LAM dan FA untuk membentuk kembali perkataan KULLUN FI. Manakala perkataan FI iaitu dari gabungan FA dan YA akan menerbitkan kembali kalimat FALAKIN YASBAHUN. Oleh itu perkataan FALAK sepertimana yang disampaikan dalam firman Allah adalah membawa pengertian ORBIT atau PEREDARAN kerana ayat FI FALAKIN ini menunjukkan ‘satu putaran’ telah berlaku yang seakan-akan berputar kembali untuk membentuk kalimat “kullun fi falakiy yasbahun”.

Demikian juga dengan ayat ke-41 yang berturutan yang bermaksud: “Dan bukti (kebesaran Allah) ialah Kami angkut keturunan mereka dalam bahtera yang penuh sarat”.

Ayat ke-41 ini masih mempunyai perkataan falak tetapi telah dieja sebagai FULKI. Jika perkataan FALAK membawa maksud ‘orbit’ maka perkataan FULKI pula bermaksud ‘bahtera’. Walaupun ayat ini boleh memberi kefahaman bahawa bahtera Nabi Nuh yang mengangkut manusia dan haiwan pada ketika banjir besar ribuan tahun dahulu tetapi tidakkah Bumi yang kita berada di atasnya ini adalah juga dianggap sebagai bahtera yang membawa kita mengharungi samudera angkasa yang terbentang luas? Ini secara langsung menunjukkan bahawa perkataan FALAK dan FULKI adalah berkait rapat dan telah digunakan secara serentak bagi menghubungkan kedua-dua ayat 40 dan 41 untuk istilah ‘orbit’ dengan ‘bahtera’ di mana Bumi adalah sebagai satu bahtera yang berada di atas landasan orbit itu.

Rajah 2. Bumi sebagai sebuah ‘bahtera’ (fulki atau ark) yang membawa umat manusia di atasnya merentasi samudera angkasa yang luas terbentang. Kelihatan jaluran cerah Galaksi Bima Sakti di mana Bumi berada di garis hijau landasan laluannya (falak atau orbit).

Pada dasarnya kebanyakan dari kisah-kisah kejadian langit dan Bumi adalah bersumberkan dari Al Quran dan Hadis namun banyak juga unsur-unsur Israiliyyat yang menyerap dalam kebanyakan hadis Nabi SAW. Ini memandangkan banyak sekali penulis-penulis awalnya yang berasal dari ulama Yahudi umpamanya Ka’ab Al Ahbar dan Wahab bin Munabbih malahan As Sa’labi sendiri merupakan penafsir Quran yang banyak dipengaruhi oleh tafsir Israilliyyat. Bagaimanakah contoh-contoh Israiliyyat ini?


Kita melihat bahawa salah satu aspek kosmologi Islam yang menyerap ke alam Melayu dengan kisah-kisah pelik kejadian langit dan Bumi iaitu awal kejadian yang pertama yang bermula dengan cahaya, air dan api seterusnya penciptaan Bumi ini. Kemudian dijadikan ikan paus raksasa diikuti oleh lembu besar yang mempunyai banyak tanduk yang berada di atas ikan paus itu. Di atas salah satu tanduk lembu itu pula diletakkan Bumi yang mana apabila berubah sahaja posisi Bumi ke atas tanduk-tanduk yang lain maka akan berlakulah gempa.

Menarik untuk ditunjukkan satu riwayat Israilliyat berkenaan pertanyaan Abdullah bin Abdus Salam kepada Rasulullah: “Dan ada apakah di balik Bumi itu? Sabda Rasul SAW: dibalik Bumi itu ada tujuh puluh ribu alam dan setiap daripada alam itu ada sejumlah malaikatnya. Dan ada apakah pula di balik itu? Sabdanya: ada seekor ular yang melingkari alam itu. Ada apa pula dibalik Bumi itu? Sabda SAW: ada tujuh lapis Bumi serta sejumlah malaikat. Dan Bumi itu di atas apa? Sabdanya: adalah Bumi itu atas seekor lembu, adalah lembu itu di atas sebuah batu, kemudian batu itu di atas seekor ikan dan ikan itu berada di atas laut yang luasnya laut itu seribu tahun perjalanan.”

Sebuah kitab agama terbitan Dar Al Ma’arif, Pulau Pinang yang bercampur dengan kisah-kisah yang tidak jelas sumbernya ialah Qishashul Anbiya terjemahan daripada bahasa Arab oleh Al Haj Azhari Al Khalidi dengan secebis ringkasannya adalah seperti berikut: “Maka, bumi yang tujuh lapis itu pun diletakkan di atas tanduk lembu itu. Apabila lembu itu berasa penat dialihnya bumi itu dari satu tanduk ke satu tanduk, maka terjadilah gempa di bumi.”

Rajah 3 mungkin dapat memberikan gambaran yang baik untuk menakwilkan riwayat Israilliyat di atas. Adalah dipercayai bahawa riwayat Israilliyat sebeginilah yang selalu dipertikaikan dan menimbulkan perdebatan oleh umat Islam untuk menolak sesuatu hadis yang dianggap daif atau palsu tanpa mengetahui maksud yang tersirat di sebaliknya. Maksud riwayat Israilliyat di atas menonjolkan beberapa perkara penting iaitu Bumi adalah berada di atas “lembu besar” manakala “lembu besar” ini pula berada di atas “ikan paus” di mana ikan itu pula berada di atas lautan yang luasnya seribu tahun perjalanan. Lautan yang dimaksudkan dalam riwayat Israilliyat ini sebenarnya adalah samudera angkasa (angkasa lepas) manakala jumlah jarak 1000 tahun pula sebenarnya mewakili 24 jam Right Ascension (RA) bagi setiap pusingan orbit semua planet di Sistem Suria. Bahkan maksud 1000 tahun adalah juga bertepatan apabila dikaitkan dengan peranjakan orbit Bumi dari satu buruj ke satu buruj yang sememangnya mengambil masa dalam gandaan 1000 tahun. Sebagai contohnya, anjakan titik Vernal Equinox (Ekuinoks Musim Bunga) pada buruj Aries (Kambing) ke buruj Pisces (Ikan) yang ditempohi oleh Bumi dari 23 September 399 Sebelum Masehi Gregorian hingga 24 September 1107 Masehi Gregorian adalah mengambil masa selama 1506 tahun suria (1553 tahun lunar) yang bermakna dalam lingkungan setiap 1000 tahun.

Satu hakikat berkenaan “Bumi di atas tanduk Lembu” ialah ironinya, gempa bumi sememangnya berlaku bukan setakat di sepanjang Bumi ini bergerak dari satu buruj ke satu buruj dalam tempoh 1000 tahun bahkan pada setiap tahun. Ini menjustifikasikan bahawa pergerakan Bumi di sepanjang garis orbit (ekliptik) adalah menghasilkan kesan gempa kerana Bumi sebenarnya mengalami liukan paksi dalam tempoh 25 ribu tahun bahkan dua kali liukan paksi dalam tempoh 50 ribu tahun

Rajah 3. Buruj Taurus (Lembu) kelihatan berada di atas Buruj Cetus (Raksasa Laut dalam mitologi Greek atau Ikan Paus dalam mitologi Arab) ketika Matahari berada tepat di atas Titik Awal Saur (Taurus) atau Titik Ekuinoks Musim Bunga pada jam 10:52:11 UT, 15 April 3113 Sebelum Masehi Julian atau 20 Mac 3112 Sebelum Masehi Gregorian (25 Muharram 3848 Sebelum Hijrah, Sabtu).

Kini telah jelas bahawa pernyataan riwayat Israilliyat yang dikatakan berasal dari sabda Rasulullah SAW yang ‘seakan-akan ganjil’ itu (atau dikatakan dongeng) telah dapat digambarkan dengan munasabah (logik). Jadi, kita dapat membuat kesimpulan bahawa peristilahan dalam ilmu falak menerusi riwayat Israilliyat dan juga sabda Rasul telah berkembang semenjak zaman berzaman dalam bentuk metos dan berbau astrologi tanpa disedari hakikat ilmiahnya oleh ramai umat Islam. Peristilahan dalam ilmu falak pula adalah simbol-simbol yang telah diterbitkan dalam bentuk aksara ringkas di mana perkataan Taurus (Lembu) akan dipaparkan sebagai x. Begitulah simbol-simbol falak yang seterusnya iaitu Hamal (w), Jauzak (y), Sarathan (z), Asad ({), Sunbulah (|), Mizan (}), ’Aqrab (~), Qawus (I), Jadiy (€) dan Daluw (�) yang menjadi kependekan untuk memudahkan kefahaman seimbas lalu terhadap peta bintang dan segala dokumentasi falak yang lain.

Rajah 4. Bumi bertepatan di atas “tanduk lembu” pada jam 02:14:39 UT pada 23 Oktober 4113 SMJ atau 20 September 4112 SMG (24 Dzul Qaedah 4879 Sebelum Hijrah, hari Khamis) bertepatan dengan titik Ekuinoks Musim Bunga.

Rajah 5. Bumi berada tepat di atas “kepala Lembu” pada jam 15:16:53 UT, 18 Oktober 3400 SMJ atau 21 September 3399 SMG (12 Syawal 4144 SH, Isnin) ketika detik Ekuinoks Musim Bunga.

Penulis percaya bahawa banyak lagi kisah Israiliyat yang masih belum dicungkil oleh ramai ulama dan semuanya menunggu hari sahaja untuk dibongkarkan. Penulis berharap satu dimensi baru terhadap pemahaman dalil Quran dan Hadis-hadis Nabi akan dapat dicungkil dan dibongkar melalui pemahaman ilmu sains moden. Bahawasanya ilmu adalah hak untuk semua manusia, tidak ada kategori sesuatu ilmu itu ilmu Islam atau ilmu kafir bahkan semuanya menuju kepada satu matlamat yang sama iaitu mencari kebenaran.

2.0 Astrologi Abad Ke-21

Kita sekarang berada dalam milenia ke-21, maka tahukah anda bahawa astrologi iaitu horoskop yang kerap dipaparkan kepada kita dalam majalah dan sebagainya sebenarnya adalah ramalan buruj yang tidak tepat kepada tahun yang sebenar. Kenapa? Sebabnya ialah aturan buruj-buruj tidak menepati menurut tarikh yang sepatutnya ia muncul di langit, justeru itu perlu ada satu perubahan yang radikal yang sewajarnya untuk mengubah aturan kedudukan buruj agar ia akan menuruti Jadual 1. Jadual 1 menunjukkan kedudukan sebenar setiap buruj pada setiap bulan apabila matahari beredar pada garis ekliptiknya menyinggahi setiap buruj berkenaan. Kini telah terdapat buruj ke-13 buruj iaitu Ophiuchus, bukannya 12 buruj lagi.

Jadual 1. Kedudukan sebenar buruj di zaman moden.

Jadi, cubalah anda bandingkan dengan susunan tarikh sebenar dalam horoskop yang telah berusia hampir 3000 tahun itu (385 SM hingga 2005) sepertimana yang ditunjukkan dalam Jadual 2. Ini bermaksud, ramalan horoskop yang anda lihat dalam pelbagai media sebenarnya adalah berdasarkan ramalan yang dibuat bagi 3000 tahun yang lalu kerana tarikh-tarikh dalam horoskop mungkin sekali tepat bagi peredaran matahari di atas ekliptik pada waktu itu. Jadi, bagaimana mungkin ramalan nasib anda akan benar pada hari ini jika anda masih lagi menggunakan tarikh bagi tahun horoskop yang salah?

Sedangkan apa yang masih digunakan bagi laluan matahari di atas buruj-buruj dalam kebanyakan buku-buku astronomi adalah seperti yang tertera dalam Tarikh_C. Sekarang telah disedari bahawa buruj Ophiuchus telah termasuk dalam senarai buruj yang dilalui oleh matahari di atas garisan ekliptiknya. Buruj ini dinamai sebagai “Al Hawak” oleh orang-orang Arab dan buruj ini telahpun berada dalam senarai buruj yang disinggahi oleh matahari semenjak tahun 385 Sebelum Masehi lagi (lihat Tarikh_B).

Jadual 1. Kedudukan sebenar buruj di zaman moden.

Jadi, cubalah anda bandingkan dengan susunan tarikh sebenar dalam horoskop yang telah berusia hampir 3000 tahun itu (385 SM hingga 2005) sepertimana yang ditunjukkan dalam Jadual 2. Ini bermaksud, ramalan horoskop yang anda lihat dalam pelbagai media sebenarnya adalah berdasarkan ramalan yang dibuat bagi 3000 tahun yang lalu kerana tarikh-tarikh dalam horoskop mungkin sekali tepat bagi peredaran matahari di atas ekliptik pada waktu itu. Jadi, bagaimana mungkin ramalan nasib anda akan benar pada hari ini jika anda masih lagi menggunakan tarikh bagi tahun horoskop yang salah?

Sedangkan apa yang masih digunakan bagi laluan matahari di atas buruj-buruj dalam kebanyakan buku-buku astronomi adalah seperti yang tertera dalam Tarikh_C. Sekarang telah disedari bahawa buruj Ophiuchus telah termasuk dalam senarai buruj yang dilalui oleh matahari di atas garisan ekliptiknya. Buruj ini dinamai sebagai “Al Hawak” oleh orang-orang Arab dan buruj ini telahpun berada dalam senarai buruj yang disinggahi oleh matahari semenjak tahun 385 Sebelum Masehi lagi (lihat Tarikh_B).

Jadual 2. Kedudukan buruj di zaman silam.

Seakan tidak ada satu kesedaran untuk mengubah fakta yang dianggap telah ketinggalan zaman ini. Kenapakah masih dikekalkan fakta yang tidak tepat ini? Dengan adanya perisian (software) yang mampu menghitung pergerakan matahari di atas ekliptik dengan tepat, maka adalah tidak wajar fakta kedudukan matahari dalam buruj-buruj di atas ini (Tarikh_C) dianggap benar!

Perisian Starry Night Pro 4.5.2 mampu memaparkan simulasi yang tepat kedudukan buruj-buruj bermula tahun 99,999 Sebelum Masehi hingga tahun 99,999 Masehi yang akan datang bahkan kita mampu untuk melihat senario kedudukan planet, bulan, matahari dan buruj-buruj bintang dalam masa-nyata (real time). Adakah apa-apa yang berbetulan dengan diri anda ataupun peristiwa besar pada hari itu, sama ada benar atau tidak, percaya atau tidak; tidak akan menjadi satu persoalan kerana kita boleh membuat justifikasi yang bersesuaian kerana semuanya terpulang kepada kepercayaan masing-masing.

2.1 Buruj Taurus dan Malapetaka

Mufti Negeri Perak, Datuk Seri Harussani Haji Zakaria semasa perasmian ‘Munaqasyah Falak: Pengkisahan Tokoh Falak Almarhum Mohd. Khair Mohd. Taib’ pada 24 April 2005 lalu telah menyebut bahawa pengabaian umat Islam terhadap bidang ilmu falak atau astronomi telah menyebabkan mereka gagal memanfaatkan ilmu untuk ‘menelaah’ pergerakan bulan, bintang dan bumi, hingga mereka turut menjadi mangsa bencana besar seperti tsunami.

Beliau menambah bahawa Al Quran sendiri ketika diturunkan oleh Tuhan di peringkat awal adalah menuntut dan menggesa umat manusia supaya mengkaji cakerawala kerana alam semesta ini saling mempunyai kaitan antara satu sama lain. Katanya, orang Islam zaman silam berjaya mempelajari ilmu itu sehinggakan sejarah membuktikan mereka menjadi manusia ulung dalam bidang berkenaan. Bagaimanapun, kerana ilmu itu tidak dikembangkan oleh orang Islam, mereka tidak dapat mengesan pergerakan bulan dan bintang yang juga memberi kesan kepada bumi. Kelalaian terhadap ilmu ini menyebabkan manusia terseksa dan ditimpa petaka khususnya pada umat Islam sendiri.

Artikel penulis “Gempa Bumi Menurut Astrologi dan Astronomi” (Dewan Kosmik, April 2005) mengutarakan perbicaraan mengenai bumi di atas tanduk lembu yang dikatakan menjadi punca bencana menurut pendapat orang-orang tua dahulukala. Persoalan yang ditimbulkan ialah kenapakah orang-orang tua dahulukala berpandangan sedemikian? Apabila dikaji sedikit-sebanyak mengenai peristiwa meletupnya gunung berapi Krakatua pada jam 10.20 pagi, 27 Ogos 1883, simulasi perisian Starry Night Pro akan memaparkan satu kejutan yang berhubungan dengan riwayat Israilliyat yang telah dijelaskan pada perenggan di atas.

Rajah 6. Bumi dan Bulan berserentak di atas Buruj Lembu pada 27 Ogos 1883.

Simulasi di atas menunjukkan posisi bulan di atas tanduk lembu tepat pada jam 7.12 pagi, 27 Ogos 1883 sejurus sebelum Krakatua meletup dengan hebatnya pada jam 10.20 pagi. Rajah ini adalah ketika zenith di mana buruj lembu berada di atas kepala pemerhati pada waktu itu namun buruj lembu dan bulan adalah sangat jelas di ufuk timur sejurus sebelum terbit matahari.

Satu kepastian terjawab di sini berhubungan dengan kenapa masyarakat dahulukala mendapat petua dari alamat malapetaka ini apabila mereka melihat terbitnya “heliakel Taurus” yang menandakan alamat tidak baik akan berlaku di gugusan Nusantara apabila saja gunung berapi Krakatua akan meledak tidak lama selepas itu. Nampaknya pemahaman “perubahan Bumi dari satu tanduk ke satu tanduk menghasilkan gerak gempa” telah diwariskan kepada anak cucu mereka zaman-berzaman dan apabila petua mereka sudah tidak diambil peduli lagi, secara kebetulan kita dikejutkan ketika gempa bumi dan bencana tsunami yang juga berlaku apabila kedudukan buruj Taurus dan bulan berada dalam keadaan yang sama pada jam 11.45 malam, 25 Disember 2004 lalu (Rajah 7). Kelihatan Komet Machholz (C2004 Q2) sedang berada di bawah kaki lembu. Lazimnya komet selalu dianggap simbol malapetaka terbesar.

Rajah 7. Bumi dan Bulan berserentak di atas Buruj Lembu pada 25 Disember 2004, kelihatan jaluran Galaksi Bima Sakti di sebelah kiri merentasi Buruj Monoceros (Kuda Bertanduk).

Isyarat yang sama (Bumi dan Bulan di atas tanduk lembu) telah juga kelihatan menurut simulasi bagi tarikh 11 Mei 2005 (Rajah 8). Kemudian, pada 14 Mei 2005, sekali lagi gempa bumi telah berlaku di Sumatera , Indonesia . Barangkali, sebarang ramalan gempa bumi boleh dibuat hanya dengan menggunakan simulasi untuk melihat kedudukan Bumi dan Bulan di atas Buruj Taurus. Namun, sesuatu ramalan adalah untuk tempoh sama ada dalam masa sehari hingga tiga hari kemudian dan itulah yang terjadi apabila ramalan penulis bagi gempa bumi 14 Mei dijangkakan lebih awal iaitu pada 21 April sebelumnya. Penulis tetap sedar bahawa sebarang ketentuan muktamad adalah pada kekuasaan Allah Yang Maha Esa.

Rajah 8. Bumi dan Bulan berserentak di atas Buruj Lembu ketika maghrib, 11 Mei 2005.

2.11 Kenapa Buruj Taurus?

Ini adalah satu pertanyaan yang baik untuk menghubung-kaitkan pemahaman masyarakat lampau terhadap Buruj Lembu yang dianggap sebagai simbol bala bencana. Pada 4 Julai 1054 Masehi telah berlaku letupan supernova yang terhebat pada zamannya. Kaum China merupakan antara kaum yang terawal yang menyaksikan letupan supernova ini. Letupan supernova ini berlaku pada jam 4.00 pagi di negara China yang dapat disaksikan di seluruh dunia menurut waktu yang berlainan. Supernova atau ‘bintang tetamu’ (guest star) kerana dianggap sebagai sebuah bintang yang tiba-tiba muncul pada satu posisi yang sepatutnya tiada di situ. Letupan supernova 1054 ini sangat hebat hinggakan cahayanya sangat terang pada magnitud -6 iaitu separuh dari kecerahan bulan purnama (-12). Sinaran yang luar biasa ini berlaku dalam Nebula Ketam di Buruj Taurus dan berakhir dalam tempoh 21 bulan. Mungkinkah kesan ledakan ini masih berterusan hingga sekarang?

Rajah 9. Letupan supernova 3C144 (SN1054) di Crab Nebula pada hujung ‘tanduk lembu’ manakala Bulan sedang berada di ‘pipi kiri lembu’.

Simulasi dalam Rajah 9 menunjukkan keadaan langit sebelah timur dengan Bulan fasa suku akhir sedang berada dalam Buruj Taurus di mana berlakunya letupan supernova di Nebula Ketam ketika awal pagi di Kaifeng , China .


Jadual 3. Maklumat supernova Taurus 1054.

Menurut maklumat dari Space.com Canada, bencana tsunami yang berlaku di Acheh pada 26 Disember 2004 mungkin turut berpunca dari letusan sinar gamma yang sangat hebat yang merentasi Galaksi Bima Sakti pada malam kejadian. Teleskop sinar gamma yang mengorbit bumi telah mengesan sejumlah besar radiasi gamma yang menerjah Bumi ini dalam masa 45 jam kemudian. Radiasi gamma yang dicerap adalah yang tercerah pernah direkodkan dalam sejarah. Ketibaan sinar gamma ini berlaku pada jam 21:36 UT, 27 Disember 2004.

Letusan sinaran gamma ini adalah 100 kali jauh lebih dahsyat dari mana-mana letusan yang pernah direkodkan sebelum ini dan menyamai kecerahan bulan penuh purnama tetapi radiasi tenaganya adalah pada jarak gelombang panjang gamma. Sinar gamma yang dihitung ini memuncak maksima dalam masa 1.5 saat dan menurun dalam tempoh 5 minit dengan pencaran 7.57 saat. Letusan ini telah menyebabkan perubahan sementara bentuk ionosfera bumi dan melengkukkan transmissi isyarat radio gelombang panjang. Letusan sinar ini telah dikesan berpunca dari sinar gamma lembut dari bintang pengulang (repeater star) iaitu SGR 1806-20, satu bintang neutron berdiameter 20 kilometer yang berpusing setiap 7.5 saat, menyamai dengan kadar pencaran letusan sinar gamma berkenaan.

SGR 1806-20 adalah terletak kira-kira 10 darjah utara dari pusat Galaksi Bima Sakti dan kira-kira 45,000 tahun cahaya dari kita. Ianya mengeluarkan tenaga yang amat banyak dalam persepuluh saat dari yang dapat dipancarkan oleh matahari dalam masa 100,000 tahun. Walau bagaimanapun, sinaran gamma ini telah tidak begitu cerah apabila ia tiba di sistem suria. Namun, apa yang menakjubkan ialah inilah letusan yang paling cerah pernah dicerap.



Rajah 10. Mungkinkah kesan ledakan ini masih berterusan hingga sekarang? Nebula Ketam (Messier 1) di Buruj Taurus di mana kedudukan bintang pulsar PSR0534+2200 yang terjadi setelah letupan supernova pada 4 Julai 1054 ditunjukkan oleh anak panah kecil. Imej teleskop Chandra (bawah kanan) mengesan kewujudan arus sinaran-X yang masih kuat bergelora di pusat letupan walaupun kejadian tersebut telah berlaku semenjak 951 tahun yang lalu.

2.2 Peristiwa WTC 11 September 2001

Serangan ke atas WTC di New York berlaku ketika para pekerja sedang bersiap-siap hendak memasuki bangunan berkenaan pada jam 8.00 pagi hari berkenaan (waktu pejabat mula dibuka), Buruj Gemini (Kembar) sedang merembang tepat di atas kepala. Secara kebetulan Buruj Gemini (Kembar) adalah bermaksud menara berkembar World Trade Center (WTC) yang menjadi serangan. Bahkan bulan turut berada di atas tanduk lembu yang bermaksud malapetaka. Suatu suasana cakerawala yang “harmonis” dengan tindakan pengganas di Bumi!

Rajah 11. Buruj Gemini sewaktu serangan ke atas WTC.

3.0 Kesimpulan

Bagi orang Melayu, mereka lebih dipengaruhi oleh visi orang-orang Arab setelah mereka menerima agama Islam. PengIslaman orang-orang Melayu bermula sekitar abad ke-9 (atau lebih awal lagi). Jadi, tidaklah menghairankan jika sebuah “hadis” (ataupun riwayat Israilliyat) yang menyebut mengenai “bumi di atas tanduk lembu dan lembu di atas ikan paus” digunapakai dengan meluasnya oleh orang Melayu Islam silam apabila merujuk kepada kedudukan bumi di angkasa. Justeru, apabila berbetulan dengan malapetaka iaitu antara bencana terhebat dalam sejarah dunia pada abad ke-19 iaitu pada 27 Ogos 1883 tatkala meletupnya Krakatua, visi “bumi di atas tanduk lembu” menjadi lebih jelas kepada mereka (orang Melayu) apabila saja terbitnya bulan di buruj Taurus sebelum waktu fajar hari tersebut.

Visi “bumi di atas tanduk lembu” ini tentunya diwariskan turun-temurun kepada beberapa generasi dalam tempoh seratus tahun kemudian tetapi nampaknya telah menjadi wadah lelucon (gelak tawa) anak-anak zaman ini. Padahnya, visi yang telah “hampir pupus” ini telah mengejutkan penulis apabila saja berlakunya gempa bumi dan tsunami akhir Disember 2004 lalu. Kesedaran sebeginilah telah memaksa penulis untuk menulis bagi membangkitkan kesedaran anda bahawa telahan orang-orang dahulukala bukannya tiada bersebab malahan petua-petua merekalah yang harus diabadikan sebagai “sanggar sanjung” iaitu salah satu warisan kebudayaan Melayu lama.

Sebarang riwayat Israilliyat tidaklah boleh dihukum sebagai dusta dan juga tidak membenarkannya, namun menurut Ibnu Taimiyah; Israiliyat adalah seperti yang telah dibincangkan (bumi atas tanduk lembu) boleh diriwayatkan kerana ia tidak mempunyai kaitan dengan persoalan akidah atau prinsip-prinsip asas dalam Islam. Imam Bukhari meriwayatkan satu hadis dari Abu Hurairah RA: “Golongan ahli kitab membaca kitab Taurat dalam bahasa Ibraniyyah. Kemudian mereka menafsirkannya kepada golongan muslimin dalam bahasa Arab”. Lalu Nabi SAW bersabda: “Janganlah kamu mendustakannya dan katakanlah, kami telah beriman dengan Allah dan apa yang diturunkan kepada kami.”

Bukanlah penulis ingin merumuskan bahawa segala gejala di cakerawala itu merupakan petunjuk terhadap apa yang akan berlaku di Bumi sama ada terhadap seseorang ataupun terhadap apa saja memandangkan semuanya adalah secara berbetulan belaka. Sama ada betul atau tidak, tepat atau tidak semuanya masih dalam ilmu Allah Ta’ala jua. Segala kepercayaan adalah terpulang kepada setiap individu untuk beriman kepada kekuasaan Yang Maha Esa yang telah menetapkan segala perjalanan alam sedemikian rupa menurut hukum-hukum yang ditetapkan-Nya ke atas alam semesta.

Kita perlu sedar bahawa segala apa yang dijadikan oleh Allah baik di langit mahupun di bumi telah ada dalam ketentuan-Nya semenjak Dia menciptakan langit dan bumi. Semuanya telah tertulis di Lauhil Mahfuzh. Barangkali itulah apa yang telah dizahirkan oleh-Nya di cakerawala ini iaitu berupa isyarat-isyarat yang ditunjukkan oleh-Nya dari buruj-buruj tadi yang hanya dapat difahami oleh sesiapa yang diberikan ilmu oleh-Nya. Namun, ilmu manusia hanyalah sekecil buih di lautan luas sahaja. Setakat itulah sahaja ilmu yang kita punyai dan hanya sedikit sahaja apa yang dapat kita tafsirkan (nujumkan) dari langit itu.

Kesedaran pada kita ialah maksud perkataan “falak” iaitu “orbit” sebenarnya boleh juga menjelaskan bahawa setiap apa sahaja yang diberikan hayat di atas dunia fana ini mempunyai roda pusingan (kitaran hayat) masing-masing bermula ia dilahirkan, alam remajanya, dewasanya tuanya dan akhirnya kematian.

Begitu juga pusingan “falak” hayat bintang-bintang yang bermula kelahirannya sebagai nebula, kemudian protobintang. Pertengahannya menjadi bintang sepertimana matahari. Peringkat dewasanya menjadi superraksasa merah dan akhirnya meletup sama ada sebagai supernova ataupun nebula planet (planetary nebula).

Ringkasnya, falak boleh ditafsirkan sama ada sebagai pusingan orbit, pusingan hayat atau apa saja yang telah ditentukan oleh Tuhan iaitu dikenali “sunnatullah”. Ertikata sebenar ialah hidup lawannya mati, fana lawannya abadi dan begitulah seterusnya. Itulah apa yang dimaksudkan oleh “kullun fi falakin yasbahun”.

Wallahua’lam bil ghaib.

FROM ISLAMIC BANKING TO HALAL HUB

by Nik Zafri (extracted from http://www.nikzafri.blogspot.com with permission from the author)



Just like Kosher, Halal Hub has become one of the most successful global business in the world. This is because every major halal certification and religious bodies are working closely with halal manufacturers, suppliers, sellers, buyers, consumers, end users etc.. It becomes the most efficient supply chain I have ever seen myself.

In Malaysia, Halal; like Islamic Banking; has affected almost everyone's life - Muslim and Non-Muslim alike. The Halal Hub construction owned by Perbadanan Industri Halal Berhad stands as a living proof that Malaysia is really serious about Halal.

The only setback is to network more effectively with other Halal authorities to ensure whatever being imported are according to the Halal Standard (for Malaysia, it's MS 1500 (latest version recently issued) - combined with GMP dan where applicable HACCP) Two other issues may need to be addressed is export and penetration to the global Islamic Market and the acceptance and recognition of FDA.

I'm aware of the Codex Alimentarius Commission thinks about Malaysia's Halal prospects.

Having Codex is a good thing but it's of not much use if everyone is having their very own standards and codes of practice especially such codes are customized according to the differents sects (Madzhab)

Thus, the Islamic World need to come out with a more comprehensive "Codex" that takes into account the circumstances of hukum based on native Islamic country which may have a certain "leeway and tolerance". If it is to be too stringent, then we may encounter a little bit of a problem of achieving the KPI of increasing the number of halal entrepreneurs. As in many cases, it's not about too many "tolerances or leeways", it is about enforcement.

What is recommended to be done besides giving the Halal certification, the most important is the authorities should have more men, not necessarily paid salary staff but even appointed from the general public. They need to be like "Rakan Cop" and report back to the authorities for further action. But first, they need to be properly trained. (perhaps such module can also be combined into short courses for handling food? - Health Inspectors? Municipal Councils? any takers?)

We shouldn't adopt the attitude wait for report to be lodged, wait for witness, wait for evidence of non-conformity etc, then we'll take action. Halal is not about firefighting, it's about adequate follow-up & surveillance.

I also notice the "Sharie Council" is focussed more on popular fast food chain rather than the slaughtering house. I recommend there should be at least one religious officer to control a certain zone of halal manufacturers from some sort like a kiosk or something like that.

The other challenge is about talking more on OTHER food products rather than focussing "too much on meat and slaughtering issue" I take an example, Artificial White Wine Non-Alchoholic Drink - many Muslims are having "was-was" about the product as well. The attitude need to be changed.

There is also a dire need for the global Halal Authorities to compare within such Codex (perhaps in the Annexure), the difference between Halal and Kosher as well - what can and what cannot be taken.

Despite this "Islamic Codex" may be a bit thicker but I'm sure judging by the success of Islamic Banking with all the thick "codes of practice", I'm confident that Halal can also dominate but playing a harmonic role with Kosher.

Galaxies Are Billions of Light-Years Away, So Isn’t the Universe Billions of Years Old?

Source : http://www.creationscience.com

Figure 186: Atomic Clock. This atomic clock at the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology is named NIST-7. If its time were compared with a similar clock 6 million years from now, they might differ by only one second! A newer development, called NIST F-1, will achieve three times greater precision by cooling the vibrating atoms to nearly absolute zero. Despite the extreme precision of atomic clocks, we have no assurance that they are not all drifting relative to “true” time. In other words, we can marvel at the precision of atomic clocks, but we cannot be certain of their accuracy.

The logic behind this common question has several hidden assumptions, two of which are addressed by the following italicized questions:

a. Was space, along with light emitted by stars, rapidly stretched out soon after creation began? If so, energy would have been added to the universe and starlight during that stretching. Pages 377–382 show that the scientific evidence clearly favors this stretching explanation over the big bang theory, which also claims that space expanded rapidly. (Yet, the big bang theory says all this expansion energy, plus all the matter in the universe, was, at the beginning of time, inside a volume much smaller than a pinhead.

b. Has starlight always traveled at its present speed—about 186,000 miles per second or, more precisely, 299,792.458 kilometers per second?

If either (a) space and its starlight were stretched out, or (b) the speed of light was much faster in the past, then distant stars should be visible in a young universe. Here we will address possibility (b) by examining the historical measurements of the speed of light.

Historical Measurements. During the past 300 years, at least 164 separate measurements of the speed of light have been published. Sixteen different measurement techniques were used. Astronomer Barry Setterfield of Australia has studied these measurements, especially their precision and experimental errors.^1. His results show that the speed of light has apparently decreased so rapidly that experimental error cannot explain it! In the seven instances where the same scientists remeasured the speed of light with the same equipment years later, a decrease was always reported. The decreases were often several times greater than the reported experimental errors. I have conducted other analyses that weight (or give significance to) each measurement according to its accuracy. Even after considering the wide range of accuracies, it is hard to see how one can claim, with any statistical rigor, that the speed of light has remained constant.^2.

M. E. J. Gheury de Bray, in 1927, was probably the first to propose a decreasing speed of light.^3. He based his conclusion on measurements spanning 75 years. Later, he became more convinced and twice published his results in Nature,^4. possibly the most prestigious scientific journal in the world. He emphasized, “If the velocity of light is constant, how is it that, invariably, new determinations give values which are lower than the last one obtained ... There are twenty-two coincidences in favour of a decrease of the velocity of light, while there is not a single one against it.”^5. [emphasis in original]

Although the measured speed of light has decreased only about 1% during the past three centuries, the decrease is statistically significant, because measurement techniques can detect changes thousands of times smaller. While the older measurements have greater errors, the trend of the data is startling. The farther back one looks in time, the more rapidly the speed of light seems to have been decreasing. Various mathematical curves fit these three centuries of data. When some of those curves are projected back in time, the speed of light becomes so fast that light from distant galaxies conceivably could have reached Earth in several thousand years.

No scientific law requires the speed of light to be constant.^6. Many simply assume that it is constant, and of course, changing old ways of thinking is sometimes difficult. Russian cosmologist, V. S. Troitskii, at the Radiophysical Research Institute in Gorky, is also questioning some old beliefs. He concluded, independently of Setterfield, that the speed of light was 10 billion times faster at time zero!^7. Furthermore, he attributed the cosmic microwave background radiation and most redshifts to this rapidly decreasing speed of light. Setterfield reached the same conclusion concerning redshifts by a different method. If either Setterfield or Troitskii is correct, the big bang theory will fall (with a big bang).

Other cosmologists are proposing an enormous decay in the speed of light.^8. Several of their theoretical problems with the big bang theory are solved if light once traveled millions of times faster.^9.

Atomic vs. Orbital Time. Why would the speed of light decrease? T. C. Van Flandern, working at the U.S. Naval Observatory, showed that atomic clocks are probably slowing relative to orbital clocks.^10. Orbital clocks are based on orbiting astronomical bodies, especially Earth’s one-year period about the Sun. Before 1967, one second of time was defined by international agreement as 1/31,556,925.9747 of the average time it takes Earth to orbit the Sun. On the other hand, atomic clocks are based on the vibrational period of the cesium-133 atom. In 1967, a second was redefined as 9,192,631,770 oscillations of the cesium-133 atom. Van Flandern showed that if atomic clocks are “correct,” the orbital speeds of Mercury, Venus, and Mars are increasing. Consequently, the gravitational “constant” should be changing. However, he noted that if orbital clocks are “correct,” then the gravitational constant is truly constant, but atomic vibrations and the speed of light are decreasing. The drift between the two types of clocks was only several parts per billion per year. But again, the precision of the measurements is so good that the discrepancy is probably real.

For the following four reasons, orbital clocks seem to be correct and atomic frequencies are probably slowing very slightly.

If atomic clocks and Van Flandern’s study are correct, the gravitational “constant” should be changing. Other studies have not detected variations in the gravitational constant.
If a planet’s orbital speed increased (and all other orbital parameters remained the same), the planet’s energy would increase. That would violate the law of conservation of mass-energy.
If atomic time is slowing, then clocks based on the radioactive decay of atoms should also be slowing. Radiometric dating techniques would give ages that are too old. This would bring radiometric clocks more in line with most dating clocks. [See pages 37–40.] It would also explain why no primordial isotopes have half-lives of less than 50 million years. Such isotopes simply decayed away when radioactive decay rates were much greater.^11.
If atomic frequencies are decreasing, then five “properties” of the atom, such as Planck’s constant, should also be changing. Statistical studies of past measurements show that four of the five “constants” are changing—and in the right direction.^12.

So, orbital clocks seem to be more accurate than the extremely precise atomic clocks.^13.

I initially doubted Setterfield’s claim, because the decrease in the speed-of-light measurements ceased in 1960. Large, one-time changes seldom occur in nature. The measurement techniques were precise enough to detect any decrease in the speed of light after 1960, if the trend of the prior three centuries had continued. Later, Setterfield realized that beginning in the 1960s, atomic clocks were used to measure the speed of light. If atomic frequencies are decreasing, then both the measured quantity (the speed of light) and the newly adopted measuring tool (atomic clocks) are changing at the same rate. Naturally, no relative change would be detected, and the speed of light would be constant in atomic time—but not orbital time.

Misconceptions. Does the decrease in the speed of light conflict with the statement frequently attributed to Albert Einstein that the speed of light is constant? Not really. Einstein said that the speed of light was not altered by the velocity of the light’s source. Setterfield says that the speed of light decreases over time.

Einstein’s statement that the speed of light is independent of the velocity of the light source, is called Einstein’s Second Postulate. (Many have misinterpreted it to mean that “Einstein said the speed of light is constant over time.”) Einstein’s Second Postulate is surprising, but probably true. Wouldn’t we expect a ball thrown from a fast train in the forward direction to travel faster than one thrown in the opposite direction, at least to an observer on the ground? While that is true for a thrown ball, some experimental evidence indicates it is not true for light.^14. Light, launched from a fast-moving train, will travel at the same speed in all directions. This strange property of light led to the more extensive theory of special relativity.^15.

Some people give another explanation for why we see distant stars in a young universe. They believe that God created a beam of light between Earth and each star. Of course, a creation would immediately produce completed things. Instantly, they would look much older than they really were. This is called “creation with the appearance of age.” The concept is sound. However, for starlight, this presents two difficulties:

Bright, exploding stars are called supernovas. If starlight, seemingly from a supernova, had been created en route to Earth and did not originate at the surface of an exploding star, then what exploded? Only a relatively short beam would have been created near Earth. If the image of an explosion was created on that short beam of light, then the star never existed and the explosion never happened. One finds this hard to accept.
Every hot gas radiates a unique set of precise colors, called its emission spectrum. The gaseous envelope around each star also emits specific colors that identify the chemical composition of the gas. Because all starlight has emission spectra, this strongly suggests that a star’s light originated at the star—not in cold, empty space. Each beam of starlight also carries other information, such as the star’s spin rate, magnetic field, surface temperature, and the chemical composition of the cold gases between the star and Earth. Of course, God could have created this beam of light with all this information in it. However, the real question is not “Could God have done it?” but “Did He?”

Therefore, starlight seems to have originated at stellar surfaces, not in empty space.

Figure 187: Hubble Deep Field North. The Hubble Space Telescope, searching for evolving galaxies in December 1995, focused for 10 continuous days on a tiny patch of sky, so small when viewed from Earth that a grain of sand held at arm’s length would cover that area. This picture of that tiny patch of sky is called Hubble Deep Field North. Most objects in it are not isolated stars, but galaxies, each containing billions of stars. Of the 3,000 galaxies photographed that emitted enough light to measure their redshifts, which presumably measure distance, all seemed surprisingly mature. As stated in Scientific American, “the formation of ‘ordinary’ spiral and elliptical galaxies is apparently still out of reach of most redshift surveys.”^16. Moreover, fully formed clusters of galaxies, not just galaxies, are seen at the greatest distances visible to the Hubble Space Telescope.^17. In 1998 and 2004, similar pictures—with similar results—were taken.

Think about this. There is not enough time in the age of the universe (even as evolutionists imagine it, times a billion) for gravity to pull together all the particles comprising clusters of galaxies.^18. (As explained under “Galaxies” on page 33, clusters of galaxies cannot form, even granting all this time.) Because the most current studies show fully-formed galaxies even farther away than those shown above,^19. creation becomes the logical and obvious alternative. We may be seeing galaxies as they looked months after they were created. Vast amounts of time are no longer needed. [See page 386.]

Figure 188: Spiral Galaxies. The arms in these six representative spiral galaxies have about the same amount of twist. Their distances from Earth are shown in light-years. (One light-year, the distance light travels in one year, equals 5,879,000,000,000 miles.) For the light from all galaxies to arrive at Earth tonight, the more distant galaxies, which had to release their light long before the closer galaxies, did not have as much time to rotate and twist their arms. Therefore, farther galaxies should have less twist. Of course, if light traveled millions of times faster in the past, the farthest galaxies did not have to send their light long before the nearest galaxies. Spiral galaxies should have similar twists. This turns out to be the case.^21. The galaxies are: A) M33 or NGC 598; B) M101 or NGC 5457; C) M51 or NGC 5194; D) NGC 4559; E) M88 or NGC 4501; and F) NGC 772. All distances are taken from R. Brent Tully, Nearby Galaxies Catalog (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988).

Surprising Observations. Starlight from distant stars and galaxies is redshifted—meaning that their light is redder than one might expect. Although other interpretations are possible, most astronomers have interpreted redshifted light to be a wave effect, similar to that of the lower pitch of a train’s whistle when the train is going away from an observer. As the wave emitter (train or star) moves away from an observer, the waves are stretched, making them lower in pitch (for the train) or redder in color (for the star or galaxy). The greater a star’s or galaxy’s redshift, the faster it is supposedly moving away from us.

Since 1976, William Tifft, a University of Arizona astronomer, has found that the redshifts of distant stars and galaxies typically differ from each other by only a few fixed amounts.^20. This is very strange if stars are actually moving away from us. It would be as if galaxies could travel only at specific speeds, jumping abruptly from one speed to another, without passing through intermediate speeds. If stars are not moving away from us at high speeds, the big bang theory is wrong, along with many other related beliefs in the field of cosmology. Other astronomers, not initially believing Tifft’s results, did similar work and reached the same conclusion.

All atoms give off tiny bundles of energy (called quanta) of fixed amounts—and nothing in between. So, Setterfield believes that the “quantization of redshifts,” as many describe it, is an atomic effect, not a strange recessional-velocity effect. If space slowly absorbs energy from all emitted light, it would do so in fixed increments, which would redshift starlight, with the farthest star’s light red-shifting the most. Setterfield is working on a theory to tie this and the decay in the speed of light together. If he is correct, we should soon see the redshifts of a few distant galaxies suddenly decrease. This may explain why two distinct redshifts are seen in each of several well-studied galaxies;^22. they are obviously not flying apart!

Another surprising observation is that most distant galaxies look remarkably similar to nearer galaxies. For example, galaxies are fully developed and show no signs of evolving. This puzzles astronomers.^23. If the speed of light has decreased drastically, these distant, yet mature, galaxies no longer need explaining. Also, the light from a distant galaxy would have reached Earth not too long after the light from nearby galaxies. This may be why spiral galaxies, both near and far, have similar twists. [See Figure 188.]

A Critical Test. If the speed of light has decreased a millionfold, we should observe events in outer space in extreme slow motion. Here is why.

Imagine a time in the distant past when the speed of light was a million times faster than it is today. On a hypothetical planet, billions of light-years from Earth, a light started flashing toward Earth every second. Each flash then began a very long trip to Earth. Because the speed of light was a million times greater than it is today, those initial flashes were spaced a million times farther apart than they would have been at today’s slower speed of light.

Now, thousands of years later, imagine that throughout the universe, the speed of light has slowed to today’s speed. The first of those light flashes—strung out like beads sliding down a long string—are approaching Earth. The large distances separating adjacent flashes have remained constant during those thousands of years, so the moving flashes slowed in unison. Because the first flashes to strike Earth are spaced so far apart, they will strike Earth every million seconds. In other words, we are seeing past events on that planet (the flashing of a light) in slow motion. If the speed of light has been decreasing since the creation, then the farther out in space we look, the more extreme this slow motion becomes.

About half the stars in our galaxy are binary. That is, they and a companion star are in a tight orbit around their common center of mass. If there is a “slow-motion effect,” the apparent orbital periods of binary stars should tend to increase with increasing distance from Earth. If the speed of light has been decreasing, the Hubble Space Telescope may eventually find that binary stars at great distances have very long orbital periods, showing that we are observing them in slow motion.

References and Notes

1.

Trevor Norman and Barry Setterfield, The Atomic Constants, Light, and Time (Box 318, Blackwood, South Australia, 5051: self-published, 1987).

2.

Two creationist physicists have claimed that the data shows no statistically significant change in the speed of light. See, for example:

u

Gerald E. Aardsma, “Has the Speed of Light Decayed?” Impact, No. 179 (El Cajon, California: The Institute for Creation Research), May 1988.

u

Gerald E. Aardsma, “Has the Speed of Light Decayed Recently?” Creation Research Society Quarterly, Vol. 25, June 1988, pp. 36–40.

u

Robert H. Brown, “Statistical Analysis of the Atomic Constants, Light and Time,” Creation Research Society Quarterly, Vol. 25, September 1988, pp. 91–95.

Their calculations contain mathematical errors which, if corrected, would support the hypothesis that the speed of light has decreased. I have discussed these matters with each author. The following professional statisticians have verified my conclusions or have reached similar conclusions independently:

Michael Hasofer, University of New South Wales, Sidney 2033, Australia.

David J. Merkel, 11 Sunnybank Road, Aston, Pennsylvania 19014, U.S.A.

Alan Montgomery, 218 McCurdy Drive, Kanata, Ontario K2L 2L6, Canada.

3.

“The Velocity of Light,” Science, Vol. 66, Supplement x, 30 September 1927.

4.

M. E. J. Gheury de Bray, “The Velocity of Light,” Nature, 24 March 1934, p. 464.

u

M. E. J. Gheury de Bray, “The Velocity of Light,” Nature, 4 April 1931, p. 522.

5.

Ibid.

6.

Light beams are considered to be traveling in a vacuum. Light traveling through any substance—such as air, water, or glass—travels at slightly slower speeds.

u

In two published experiments, the speed of light was exceeded by as much as a factor of 100! The first experiment involved radio signals which, of course, are a type of light. [See P. T. Pappas and Alexis Guy Obolensky, “Thirty Six Nanoseconds Faster Than Light,” Electronics and Wireless World, December 1988, pp. 1162–1165.] The second report referred to a theoretical derivation and a simple experiment that allowed electrical signals to greatly exceed the speed of light. This derivation follows directly from Maxwell’s equations. The special conditions involved extremely thin electrical conductors with very low capacitance and inductance. [See Harold W. Milnes, “Faster Than Light?” Radio-Electronics, Vol. 54, January 1983, pp. 55–58.]

Another phenomenon allows light to slightly exceed its normal speed. [See Julian Brown, “Faster Than the Speed of Light,” New Scientist, 1 April 1995, pp. 26–29. Also see Jon Marangos, “Faster than a Speeding Photon,” Nature, Vol. 406, 20 July 2000, pp. 243–244.] However, this effect does not explain distant light in a young universe.

7.

V. S. Troitskii, “Physical Constants and the Evolution of the Universe,” Astrophysics and Space Science, Vol. 139, December 1987, pp. 389–411.

8.

“We have shown how a time varying speed of light could provide a resolution to the well-known cosmological puzzles.” Andreas Albrecht and João Magueijo, “A Time Varying Speed of Light as a Solution to Cosmological Puzzles,” Physical Review D, 15 February 1999, p. 043516-9. [The authors state that light may have traveled thirty orders of magnitude faster than it does today!]

u

“It is remarkable when you can find one simple idea [a decaying speed of light] that has so many appealing consequences.” John D. Barrow, Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Astronomy Centre at the University of Sussex, as quoted by Steve Farrar, “Speed of Light Slowing Down,” London Sunday Times, 15 November 1998.

u

“If light initially moved much faster than it does today and then decelerated sufficiently rapidly early in the history of the Universe, then all three cosmological problems—the horizon, flatness and lambda problems—can be solved at once.” John D. Barrow, “Is Nothing Sacred?” New Scientist, Vol. 163, 24 July 1999, p. 28.

Two comments. First, each problem Barrow mentions is actually a reason for concluding the big bang theory is wrong. Second, no scientific law says that the speed of light is a constant. It has only been assumed to be such. In fact, today it is arbitrarily defined as a constant.

9.

For example, “the horizon problem” recognizes that opposite extremes of the universe have the same temperature. Why should this be? The universe isn’t old enough for such vastly separated regions ever to have had contact with each other. Light doesn’t travel fast enough—at least not today.

10.

T. C. Van Flandern, “Is the Gravitational Constant Changing?” The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 248, 1 September 1981, pp. 813–816.

u

T. C. Van Flandern, “Is the Gravitational Constant Changing?” Precision Measurement and Fundamental Constants II, editors B. N. Taylor and W. D. Phillips, National Bureau of Standards (U.S.A.), Special Publication 617, 1984, pp. 625–627.

11.

Some who believe in an old universe have a different explanation. Those isotopes are extinct because so much time has passed. However, this explanation raises a counterbalancing question: How did those isotopes, and 97% of all elements, form? The standard answer is that these elements appeared during 13.7 billion years’ worth of supernova explosions. This is speculation, because no supporting evidence has been found. Besides, in our galaxy, we see the remnants of only 7,000 years’ worth of supernovas. [See "Supernova Remnants" on page 39.]

12.

Alan Montgomery and Lambert Dolphin, “Is the Velocity of Light Constant in Time?” Galilean Electrodynamics, Vol. 4, September–October 1993, pp. 93–97.

13.

“Precision” should not be confused with “accuracy.” Atomic clocks are very precise, but not necessarily accurate. They keep very consistent time with each other, and each atomic clock can subdivide a second into 9 billion parts. This is remarkable precision. But what if this entire global network of atomic clocks is drifting—speeding up or slowing down? Precision, while impressive, is a necessary but not sufficient requirement for accuracy.

14.

Kenneth Brecher, “Is the Speed of Light Independent of the Velocity of the Source?” Physical Review Letters, Vol. 39, 24 October 1977, pp. 1051–1054.

15.

Another question concerns Einstein’s well-known formula, E=mc², which gives the energy (E) released when a nuclear reaction annihilates a mass (m). If the speed of light (c) decreases, then one might think that either E must decrease or m must increase. Not necessarily.

In the universe, time could flow according to either atomic time or orbital time. Under which standard would E=mc² be a true statement? Mass-energy would be conserved under both; in other words, the energy or mass of an isolated system would not depend on how fast time passed. Obviously, E=mc² would be true in atomic time where c is constant, but not in orbital time where c appears to decrease. Today, E=mc² will be approximately correct even in orbital time.

Nuclear reactions convert mass to energy. Unfortunately, the extremely small mass lost and large energy produced cannot be measured precisely enough to test whether E=mc² is absolutely true in orbital time. Even if mass and energy were precisely measured, this formula has embedded in it an experimentally-derived, unit-conversion factor that requires a time measurement by some clock. Which type of clock should be used: an orbital clock or an atomic clock? Again, we can see that E=mc² is “clock dependent.”

If c has decreased (using the orbital time standard), neither length, electrical charge, nor temperature standards would change. Therefore, chemical and nuclear reactions would not change. However, the speed of chemical and nuclear reactions would change, because the vibrational frequencies of atoms and nuclei would change. Also, radioactive decay rates, which depend on the vibrational frequency of the nucleus, would decrease if c decreased.

16.

F. Duccio Macchetto and Mark Dickerson, “Galaxies in the Young Universe,” Scientific American, Vol. 276, May 1997, p. 95.

17.

Govert Schilling, “Early Start for Lumpy Universe,” Science, Vol. 281, 11 September 1998, p. 1593. [See also E. J. Ostrander et al., “The Hubble Space Telescope Medium Deep Survey Cluster Sample: Methodology and Data,” The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 116, December 1998, pp. 2644–2658.]

18.

This problem for conventional astronomy has been quietly recognized for several decades.

u

See Endnote 7 on page 381.

19.

J. A. Stevens et al., “The Formation of Cluster Elliptical Galaxies as Revealed by Extensive Star Formation,” Nature, Vol. 425, 18 September 2003, pp. 264–267.

u

See Endnote 15 on page 381.

20.

William G. Tifft, “Properties of the Redshift. III. Temporal Variation,” The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 382, 1 December 1991, pp. 396–415.

21.

“The biggest challenge to the standard model of galaxy formation could be the number of large galaxies showing the spiral structure in the early universe.” Ivo Labbé, as quoted by Ron Cowen, “Mature Before Their Time,” Science News, Vol. 163, 1 March 2003, p. 139.

22.

William G. Tifft and W. John Cocke, “Quantized Galaxy Redshifts,” Sky & Telescope, January 1987, p. 19.

23.

“Most Distant Galaxies: Surprisingly Mature,” Science News, Vol. 119, 7 March 1981, p. 148.

TURN LEAD TO GOLD

http://chemistry.about.com/cs/generalchemistry/a/aa050601a.htm

Before Chemistry was a science, there was Alchemy. One of the supreme quests of alchemy is to transmute lead into gold. Lead (atomic number 82) and gold (atomic number 79) are defined as elements by the number of protons they possess. Changing the element requires changing the atomic (proton) number. The number of protons cannot be altered by any chemical means.

However, physics may be used to add or remove protons and thereby change one element into another. Because lead is stable, forcing it to release three protons requires a vast input of energy, such that the cost of transmuting it greatly surpasses the value of the resulting gold.

Transmutation of lead into gold isn't just theoretically possible - it has been achieved! There are reports that Glenn Seaborg, 1951 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, succeeded in transmuting a minute quantity of lead (possibly en route from bismuth, in 1980) into gold. There is an earlier report (1972) in which Soviet physicists at a nuclear research facility near Lake Baikal in Siberia accidentally discovered a reaction for turning lead into gold when they found the lead shielding of an experimental reactor had changed to gold.

Today particle accelerators routinely transmute elements. A charged particle is accelerated using electrical and/or magnetic fields. In a linear accelerator, the charged particles drift through a series of charged tubes separated by gaps. Every time the particle emerges between gaps, it is accelerated by the potential difference between adjacent segments. In a circular accelerator, magnetic fields accelerate particles moving in circular paths. In either case, the accelerated particle impacts a target material, potentially knocking free protons or neutrons and making a new element or isotope. Nuclear reactors also may used for creating elements, although the conditions are less controlled.

In nature, new elements are created by adding protons and neutrons to hydrogen atoms within the nuclear reactor of a star, producing increasingly heavier elements, up to iron (atomic number 26). This process is called nucleosynthesis. Elements heavier than iron are formed in the stellar explosion of a supernova. In a supernova gold may be made into lead, but not the other way around.

While it may never be commonplace to transmute lead into gold, it is practical to obtain gold from lead ores. The minerals galena (lead sulfide, PbS), cerussite (lead carbonate, PbCO3), and anglesite (lead sulfate, PbSO4) often contain zinc, gold, silver, and other metals. Once the ore has been pulverized, chemical techniques are sufficient to separate the gold from the lead. The result is almost alchemy...almost.

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http://www.jimloy.com/fiction/leadgold.htm

Lead into GoldFiction, © Copyright 2000, Jim Loy

The alchemists tried to turn lead into gold. If any of them succeeded, the word never got out. Personally, I do not think that any of them succeeded. It is a nuclear process, after all. Many alchemists probably had a very good intuitive understanding of chemistry. But nuclear reactions remained hidden within the nucleus of the atom. There just were not any clues, until the beginning of the twentieth century.

Uranium, and similar metals like Plutonium, spontaneously "decay" into lead. In essence, they fall downhill, losing energy, and become lead. This is because Uranium has a much higher energy "state" than lead does. Things tend to go downhill. Uranium goes downhill to lead. It is perfectly natural.

Well, lead has more energy than gold. That may surprise you. Here is gold, shiny and special. There is lead, dull and disgusting, when you come right down to it. But it is true. Lead has more energy than gold. So it is natural for lead to go downhill and become gold. Why doesn't it?
None of the non-radioactive elements ever spontaneously changes into an element with less energy. There are barriers. One of these natural atoms must gain energy, before it can finally go downhill to a lower energy. It is said that each of these atoms is stable.

It takes energy to move a lead atom over this barrier, before it can go downhill to gold. But, once it is over the barrier, you should get a lot of energy back. The process should produce more energy than it uses. In other words, it should be self-sustaining. Even though the process should be self-sustaining, it normally requires quite a lot of energy to start the ball rolling, so to speak.
So, I was concerned with supplying the energy to transform lead to gold. But a second problem occurred to me. What if my lead atoms went downhill and turned into something besides gold? It is not so bad to accidentally turn lead into silver. But turning lead into zinc could be quite embarrassing. So I began to form my theory that a lead atom needs an adjacent gold atom to "emulate." To carry the anthropomorphizing further, it seems natural for the lead atom to "want" to become a shiny gold atom. Luckily, this idea not only seems to change lead into gold, but at a much lower temperature than might be expected. The mysterious philospher's stone of the alchemists turns out to be gold itself.

At high temperatures, I thoroughly mix liquid lead and liquid gold. Some of the lead atoms change into gold. The remaining lead evaporates into a gas, which I later condense back into solid lead. I also solidify the liquid gold. In the end, I find that the mass of the gold has increased slightly (0.00037%), while the mass of the lead has decreased (0.00080%), after cleaning the lead coating off the inside of my glass equipment.

Repeating the experiment with the same gold and the same lead unfortunately results in almost no further change in the mass of the resulting gold. We have a state of diminishing returns. For some unknown reason, virgin gold would seem to be required.

I urgently need extensive funding to fine tune these very promising experiments. The government has surprisingly (perhaps not surprisingly) expressed no interest. So I am forced to turn to private investors. I estimate that they will at least double their investment in the next 12 months.