Greetings …
If you happened to be up between 2am and 5am on Wednesday morning you might have seen the meteor shower coming from the tailings of Halley’s Comet. To be scientifically correct this is actually known as the Eta Aquariids meteor shower and it is created as the Earth passes
through the dust trail laid down by Halley’s Comet.
Halley’s Comet circles in towards Earth every 76 years from somewhere out beyond Pluto.
While the comet was last in our skies in 1986, the dust we are passing through now is, according to Jonti Horner (astronomer at the University of Southern Queensland) actually “tens of thousands of years old”. Horner explains that as the dust is so old it has had time to spread out and so “we cross through this meteor stream for more than a month”.
Whether you were in the right place to see this physically, or saw some images after the event, the night sky is certainly magnificent. While we can explain what we see scientifically, or at least scientists can, when looking into the sky on a clear night I am often reminded of God’s glory in creation.
In Psalm 19:1 David reminds us that “The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.” What we see is so majestic that however we describe it our words are not adequate.
It would be easy to look at the heavens and think that we are small, and while in some ways we are, I am also reminded that the God who did all this … the One who created the heavens and earth didn’t remain distant or outside of the creation … but came to be One of us and One with us.
Blessings – Heather ☺