The Lyrid meteor shower has been observed on our planet for
more than 2,600 years. It gets its name from the fact that it seems from our
perspective to originate from the constellation Lyra.
The Lyrids are pieces left behind by the comet C/1861 G. Each year, our planet passes through a cloud of debris left from an earlier visit by this comet. These particles collide with our upper atmosphere at a speed of about twenty-seven miles per second.
The Lyrids peak in mid-April and can cause nearly one hundred meteors to be visible per hour. While this year’s peak was in the predawn hours this morning, there will be a new moon tonight, which will give us another excellent chance to witness nature’s light show in the sky.
The grandeur of the universe is a constant reminder of the
grandeur of its Creator.
If you could travel at the speed of light (186,232 miles per
second), you could circle our planet 7.5 times in one second. You could travel
to the moon and back in 2.51 seconds.
But a new study estimates that it would take you 200,000
years to cross the Milky Way. And it would take you 93 billion years to cross
the observable universe.
How large is all of that to God? He “measured the sky
between his thumb and little finger” (Isaiah 40:12 MSG).
President Theodore Roosevelt and his good friend, the
naturalist William Beebe, would occasionally stay at Roosevelt’s family home.
They would walk out onto its lawn at night. They would search the skies until
they found the faint spot of light behind the lower left-hand corner of the
Great Square of Pegasus. Then they would remember together the words:
That is
the Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda.
It is as
large as our Milky Way.
It is
one…
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