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Description: Modern science has discovered
facts about the atmosphere mentioned in the Quran over 1400 years ago.
“By the sky which returns.”
(Quran 86:11)
“[He]
who made for you the earth a bed [spread out] and the sky a ceiling…”
(Quran 2:22)
In the first verse God swears by
the sky[1] and its function of
‘returning’ without specifying what it ‘returns.’ In Islamic doctrine, a divine oath signifies the magnitude
of importance of a special relation to the Creator, and manifests His
majesty and the supreme Truth in a special way.
The second verse describes the
Divine Act that made the sky a ‘ceiling’ for the dwellers of earth.
Let us see what modern
atmospheric science has to say about the role and function of the sky.
The atmosphere is a word which
denotes all the air surrounding the earth, from the ground all the way up
to the edge from which space starts.
The atmosphere is composed of several layers, each defined because of
the various phenomena which occur within the layer.
Rain, for one, is ‘returned’ to
Earth by the clouds in the atmosphere. Explaining the hydrologic cycle, Encyclopedia Britannica
writes:
“Water
evaporates from both the aquatic and terrestrial environments as it is
heated by the Sun’s energy.
The rates of evaporation and precipitation depend on solar energy,
as do the patterns of circulation of moisture in the air and currents in
the ocean. Evaporation exceeds
precipitation over the oceans, and this water vapor is transported by the
wind over land, where it returns to the land through precipitation.”[2]
Not only does the atmosphere
return what was on the surface back to the surface, but it reflects back
into space that which might damage the flora and fauna the earth sustains,
such as excessive radiant heat.
In the 1990’s, collaborations between NASA, the European Space
Agency (ESA), and the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS)
of Japan resulted in the International Solar-Terrestrial Physics (ISTP)
Science Initiative. Polar,
Wind and Geotail are a part of this initiative, combining resources and
scientific communities to obtain coordinated, simultaneous investigations
of the Sun-Earth space environment over an extended period of time. They have an excellent explanation
of how the atmosphere returns solar heat to space.[3]
Besides ‘returning’ rain, heat
and radio waves, the atmosphere protects us like a ceiling above our heads
by filtering out deadly cosmic rays, powerful ultraviolet (UV) radiation
from the Sun, and even meteorites on collision course with Earth.[4]
Pennsylvania State Public
Broadcasting tells us:
“The
sunlight that we can see represents one group of wavelengths, visible
light. Other wavelengths
emitted by the sun include x-rays and ultraviolet radiation. X-rays and some ultraviolet light
waves are absorbed high in Earth’s atmosphere. They heat the thin layer of gas there to very high
temperatures. Ultraviolet
light waves are the rays that can cause sunburn. Most ultraviolet light waves are absorbed by a thicker
layer of gas closer to Earth called the ozone layer. By soaking up the deadly
ultraviolet and x-rays, the atmosphere acts as a protective shield around
the planet. Like a giant
thermal blanket, the atmosphere also keeps temperatures from getting too
hot or too cold. In addition,
the atmosphere also protects us from constant bombardment by meteoroids,
bits of rock and dust that travel at high speeds throughout the solar
system. The falling stars we
see at night are not stars at all; they are actually meteoroids burning up
in our atmosphere due to the extreme heating they undergo.”[5]
Encyclopedia Britannica,
describing the role of Stratosphere, tells us about its protective role in
absorbing dangerous ultraviolet radiation:
“In
the upper stratospheric regions, absorption of ultraviolet light from the
Sun breaks down oxygen molecules; recombination of oxygen atoms with O2
molecules into ozone (O3) creates the ozone layer, which shields the lower
ecosphere from harmful short-wavelength radiation…More disturbing, however,
is the discovery of a growing depletion of ozone over temperate latitudes,
where a large percentage of the world’s population resides, since the ozone
layer serves as a shield against ultraviolet radiation, which has been found
to cause skin cancer.”[6]
The mesosphere is the layer in
which many meteors burn up while entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Imagine a baseball zipping along at
30,000 miles per hour. That’s
how big and fast many meteors are.
When they plow through the atmosphere, meteors are heated to more
than 3000 degrees Fahrenheit, and they glow. A meteor compresses air in front of it. The air heats up, in turn heating
the meteor.[7]
Earth
is surrounded by a magnetic force field - a bubble in space called “the
magnetosphere” tens of thousands of miles wide. The magnetosphere acts as a shield that protects us from
solar storms. However,
according to new observations from NASA’s IMAGE spacecraft and the joint
NASA/European Space Agency Cluster satellites, immense cracks sometimes
develop in Earth’s magnetosphere and remain open for hours. This allows the solar wind to gush
through and power stormy space weather. Fortunately, these cracks do not expose Earth’s surface
to the solar wind. Our
atmosphere protects us, even when our magnetic field does not.[8]
How would it be possible for a
fourteenth century desert dweller to describe the sky in a manner so
precise that only recent scientific discoveries have confirmed it? The only way is if he received revelation
from the Creator of the sky.
Footnotes:
[1]
Al-Samaa’, the Arabic word translated here as ‘sky’ includes earth’s
atmosphere as indicated by the verse 2:164.
[2]
”Biosphere.” Encyclopedia Britannica from Encyclopedia Britannica Premium
Service.
(http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=70872)
[3]
(http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Sweather1.htm)
[4]
Atmospheric, Climate & Environment Information Programme of the
Manchester Metropolitan University at (http://www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/eae/Atmosphere/atmosphere.html)
[5]
(http://www.witn.psu.edu/articles/article.phtml?article_id=255&show_id=44)
[6]
“Earth.” Encyclopedia Britannica from Encyclopedia Britannica Premium
Service.
(http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=54196)
[7]
(http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/meteors-ez.html)
[8]
(http://www.firstscience.com/SITE/ARTICLES/magnetosphere.asp)
Source: www.IslamReligion.com
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