NASA has told us it is possible to make diamonds from plastic! Hold it! Don’t go running for plastic bottles just yet— the pressure needed to make this possible far exceeds anything we can create in our kitchens or school labs!
Aiming laser beams at a mixture of carbon and hydrogen with temperatures exceeding 3200º C and pressures upwards of 72 gigapascals – about one-fifth the pressure in Earth’s core — they have made nano-diamonds. This has turned attention to Jupiter and Saturn where similar atmospheric conditions exist. They estimate the pressures at the core of these planets to be about 50 million Earth atmospheres and compare it to, “100 elephants standing on top of each other with the bottom elephant standing on one foot – on a stiletto heel.”! These conditions make it possible for precious metals to exist in quantities beyond our imagination.
NASA launched the Juno probe to explore Jupiter’s atmosphere and will use this information to create models to unlock the mysteries of exoplanets. This kind of information boggles my mind and maybe yours too. I always wondered about the description of “streets of gold” and thought that John, the Apostle, in his descriptions of the new Earth was exaggerating and really meant “streets like gold”. But maybe I am the one who underestimates what lies beyond the realm of our physical world. Scientists are convinced that the dimensions and resources that exist on exoplanets are at present mind-boggling.
I am driven to reread John’s description of the New Jerusalem— that place that Jesus spoke of when He said, “I go to prepare a place for you . . . and I will come again . . .” John 14: 2,3.
I now read Revelation 21: 14- 21 with amazement exceeding my response to today scientific reports. Dare I believe John, a man whose prophecies have so far been proven accurate by historical evidence and only awaits this last one:
“Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. . . . The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.”
I am no scientist but in a time when the economic, political, and social future seems dismal, these discoveries of modern science seems to confirm that there is another indescribable, ineffable world that awaits believers in Christ. Won’t you trust His promise?
A Wilderness Guidebook . . . 