THE PLANETS

 

In the Quran God use adjurations in many verses, looking critically at those verses will reveal an underlying scientific facts in over 70% of those adjurations. An adjuration is a solemn appeal for persons to do some act, examine or to believe some important statement made by the evidence of something great or sublime or remarkable or out of the ordinary. In one of thoe adjuration God says

Q81:15 “So verily I call to witness the planets that recedes”

So which are the planets that recedes? Certainly the Arabs of the 7th Century have no way no way of truly understanding this adjuration. With the advent of modern astronomy it is discovered that the Earth is one of nine planets orbiting our Sun. Among these, two (Mercury and Venus) lies within the orbit of the Earth making them closer in promixity to the sun. Mercury being the closest to the sun, orbited the sun in 88 days making it the fastest among the planets. Being so close to the sun at the distance of only 58 Million Kilometers it is the hottest of the planets as on its surface metals like Tin, Zinc and Lead will melt under the scorching heat of 480 degrees centigrade. This planet is best seen in the evening sky and it has phases like the moon. The other planet,Venus is the easiest to spot as it appears for a few weeks every 7 months and is the brightest object on the western sky, even brighter than Sirius, the brightest star. It rotates in 243 days at the distance of 108 Million Kilometers away from the sun. When the two planets (Mercury and Venus) are on the far side of the sun, each will appear like a small full moon as the angle Earth-Planet-Sun increases, a proportionally diminishing fraction of the illuminated surface will be presented to viewers on earth. When the angle reach 90 degrees the planets will appear half illuminated and following this, a crescent form of steadily diminishing breath will be repeated in the reverse order until the planet become fully illuminated. Thus just like our moon they are always appearing and receding from our vision as the above verse said. The verse goes on further

Q81:15” (And the planet that) Go straight”

The phases of the planets revolving outside the orbit of the earth differ from those within the erath’s orbit in as much as the angle Planet-Earth-Sun can never reach 90 degrees. Therefore the planet Mars is always more than half illuminated and clearly seen for about 4 months every two years. It is about 228 Million Kilometres away from the sun and orbit in 687 days with extreme cold temperature of -150 degrees centigrade. For Jupiter, the largest of all the planets is easily visible for hours before and aftrer midnight for several months each year. It is 778 Million Kilometres from the sun and rotate very rapidly (once every 10 hours) and took 11 years to revolve around the sun. It is also a very cold place with surface temperatures at  -160 degrees. The two planets, Mars and Jupiter, being always visible (though at times the illumination is faint) are tagged by Quran as those that go straight (being constantly visible).

Q81:15 “(And the planets that) Hide”

The remaining four planets are tagged those that hide. Saturn, being about 1.4 Billion Kilometers away from the sun rotate also very fast like Jupiter at 10 hours and took 29.5 years to orbit the sun with a temperature of about -150 degrees. Uranus is 2.86 Billion Kilometers away and rotate in 17 hours and orbit the sun in 84 years with a cold temperature of -220 degrees. Neptune is 4,5 Billion Kilometers away and rotate in 17 hours and orbit the sun in 164 years has a surface temperature of about -213 degrees. Finally Pluto, the farthest from the sun (Presently scientist has demoted Pluto from the rank of the planets) it has an elliptical orbit so when it is farthest from the sun it is about 16.5 Billion Kilometres away. Even with very powerful telescopes, those planets are not easily seen and that is why God says they hide, certainly hiding from our vision. In a short, single verse God in the Qur’an using an adjuration has explain what scientist spent hundreds of years to explain about the phases of our sister planets in the solar system.   

 

 

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