Space: The Final Frontier

The Prophet Daniel stated in the Book of Daniel that "knowledge would increase" during the End Times (Daniel 12:4). With the increase in technological knowledge in the last 120+ years, this prophecy has come to fruition. In Luke 21:25, the Evangelist said, "And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars". The Indian mathematician/astronomer Brahmagupta (c/598 – c/668 AD) first described gravity as an attractive force, using the term "gurutvākarṣaṇam" to describe it within a heliocentric view of the Solar System as had been defined by Aryabhata. The existence of the gravitational constant was explored by various researchers from the mid-17th century, helping Isaac Newton formulate his law of universal gravitation. Newton's classical mechanics were superseded in the early 20th century, when Albert Einstein developed the general theory of relativity. Einstein’s theory of gravity was first put to the test when Arthur Eddington observed light “bending” around the sun during a solar eclipse. While these early scientists were instrumental in introducing the possibility of exploring space, it was Edwin Powell Hubble who paved the way for further space exploration. Today, mankind is able to see far into the deepest reaches of space thanks to the astronomical achievements of Edwin Powell, an early 20th century scientist. 

History of the Hubble Telescope

While many early astronomers such as Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, and Johannes Kepler took a deep interest in outer space and made wonderful discoveries, it was Edwin Hubble that took that leap of scientific faith and decided to achieve what was beyond mankind's knowledge. While it was still had a couple of decades in the making, Hubble played a crucial role in inspiring the "space age" by establishing the fields of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology. By 1931, early rockets were being created and in 1944 Germany successfully launched the first rocket into space. In 1951, the USSR sent a pair of dogs into outer space and later, in 1957, the USSR successfully launched the first satellite into the cosmos.

Sputnik - 60 years on from the Start of the Space Race

On April 12, 1961, aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into space. During the flight, the 27-year-old test pilot and industrial technician also became the first man to orbit the planet, a feat accomplished by his space capsule in 89 minutes. The next accomplishment in space came when the first humans landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldren spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the Moon's surface, while the command module pilot Michael Collins flew the Command Module Columbia alone in lunar orbit while the American astronauts were on the lunar surface.

Hear Buzz Aldrin tell the story of the first Moon landing

During the early 1970s the "space race" was somewhat abandoned as the Cold War heated up. However, by 1977 America launched space probes called Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 as part of a program to study the outer solar system and interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. These unmanned probes have been successfully operating for 43 years, 8 months and 25 days as of May 31, 2021 UTC and still communicates with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and to transmit data to Earth. Real-time distance and velocity data is provided by NASA and JPL. At a distance of 152.2 AU from Earth as of May 31, 2021, the Voyager 2 is the most distant man-made object from Earth.

What Did Voyagers Find In Outer Space?

By the 1980s mankind was once again launched into space aboard new and improved spaceships known as Space Shuttles. In 1986, the shuttle Challenger exploded mid-air on launch and has since remained the worst space accident in history to date. In 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope [named in honor of Edwin P. Hubble] was launched into the lower orbit of Earth's atmosphere and began taking photos of the universe beyond what mankind had ever seen before.

Launching Hubble Space Telescope in 1990

Around the dawning of the 21st century, the International Space Station (ISS) was created and placed in the lower orbit of Earth's atmosphere and was first launched in 1998. NASA and its partners around the world finished the space station in 2011. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada). The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements. The station serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which scientific research is conducted in astrobiology, astronomy, meteorology, physics, and other fields.. At the end of October 2020, 240 people from 19 countries have been on the International Space Station. More than 2,800 experiments have been conducted in space.

Incredible Facts About the International Space Station

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American aerospace manufacturer, space transportation services and communications company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. SpaceX was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars. SpaceX's achievements include the first privately funded liquid-propellant rocket to reach orbit (Falcon 1 in 2008), the first private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft (Dragon 1 in 2010), the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (Dragon 2 in 2012), the first vertical take-off and vertical propulsive landing for an orbital rocket (Falcon 9 in 2015), the first reuse of an orbital rocket (Falcon 9 in 2017), and the first private company to send astronauts to orbit and to the International Space Station (SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 in 2020).

The Incredible Journey Of SpaceX in Under 10 Minutes | History of SpaceX From 2002-2020

SpaceX developed a satellite mega-constellation named Starlink to provide commercial internet service. In January of 2020 the Starlink constellation became the largest satellite constellation in the world. SpaceX is also developing "Starship", a privately funded, fully reusable, super heavy-lift launch system for interplanetary spaceflight. Starship is intended to become the primary SpaceX orbital vehicle once operational, supplanting the existing Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon fleet. Starship will be fully reusable and will have the highest payload capacity of any orbital rocket ever on its debut, scheduled for the early 2020s.

"To boldly go where no man has gone before" is no longer a moniker, but has become a reality in the 21st century. In last 120+ years the prophecies of Daniel and Luke have sufficiently been fulfilled and mankind does not show signs of abandoning their quest to explore the 'final frontier' any time soon. 

The Most Incredible Things the Hubble Telescope Has Ever Captured

Rare 2,300-Yr-Old Seal of Biblical King Jeroboam II's Servant Confirmed Authentic

The following article was obtained through AncientPages.com and written by Jan Bartek | January 18, 2021

2,700-year-old clay sealing from a stamp from the
Israelite King Jeroboam II in the 8th century BCE.
Credit: Dani Machlis/Ben Gurion University

The rare, 2,700-year-old seal of Biblical King Jeroboam II's servant has long been considered a forgery, but new chemical analysis proves the bulla’s authenticity. It’s a very important discovery that provides information about Biblical events and insight into the ancient history of Isra. 

The inscribed clay, known as a bulla, was purchased without provenance from a Bedouin antiquities merchant in the 1980s and is now thought to be from Jeroboam II’s 8th century. 

The ancient seal carries the depiction of a lion and an inscription that reads “Belonging to Shema the Servant of Jeroboam”, with Shema likely being a servant of Jeroboam II, who reigned in the 8th century B.C.

Jeroboam II was the son of King Jehoash of Israel and he ruled Israel a total of 41 years. (ca. 786–746 B.C). Archaeological evidence confirms the Biblical account of his reign as the most prosperous that Israel had yet known. Being a great monarch, he successfully reestablished the northern kingdom's ancient boundaries and fostered a period of economic prosperity. After his death, Israel plunged into a dark period of continuous disaster.

For many years, the seal impression was considered a forgery because of its lack of provenance. However, strict laboratory testing under the supervision of Yuval Goren, a professor in the Department of Bible, Archaeology, and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the Ben-Gurion University reveals the artifact is authentic.

The bulla has only a partial impression of the inscription, but Goren said it is clearly the same as what was incised on the jasper seal. The fact that the royal seal came in varied sizes is noteworthy and novel to this study.

Goren told The Times of Israel that he became aware of the seal impression over 10 years ago. It had been purchased from a Bedouin market near Beer-Sheva by Yigal Ronen, a former professor of nuclear engineering and a certified antiquities collector, for a mere 10 old Israeli shekels in the 1980s, equivalent to a few cents.

Because of the extremely strange circumstances and inexpensive price, Ronen initially disregarded the possibility that the small, 23.4 millimeter (1 inch) by 19.3 mm (.75 inch) bulla could be authentic, and thought it a clever forgery or replica, said Goren.

About five years ago, the secret in-depth testing of the seal impression began, Goren said. It followed a protocol he had forged over the past decade, which includes a series of overlapping tests from varied scientific disciplines.

Using this testing protocol, Goren has provided expert testimony in high-profile cases of alleged forgery, such as the James Ossuary trial. He has analyzed numerous seals for the Israel Police and the Israel Antiquities Authority, he said.

As Times of Israel reports, “while it is extremely rare to find a sealing from the Kingdom of Israel, such as this new bulla, there are hundreds that have been discovered in the Kingdom of Judah." "Some," said Goren, "have signs of being sealed upon papyrus, sometimes fabrics, and sometimes wood — maybe boxes, maybe sacks". 

However, there are indications that some of these seal impressions didn’t actually seal anything at all, he said, citing the work of archaeologist Nachman Avigad who called these “fiscal bulla.” These tokens, he said, may have been created as a reference to an official agreement or transaction.

Interestingly, said Goren, often those seal impressions that show signs of having been upon papyrus or cloth were later fired. It is his theory that a transaction was witnessed through the creation of the wet seal impression, which was later removed from the paper or cloth it ceremonially bound and fired at a high temperature of circa 750 degrees Celsius, the temperature at which the new bulla was fired.

“We believe they were fired or baked after removal from the document, and therefore preserved,” he said. Goren said that 1950s excavations at Tel Lachish found an Iron Age building in which a small, stoppered juglet filled with such bullae was discovered.”