Celestial Visitor Returns After a Million Years: Comet C/2025 F2 (SWAN)

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Comet C/2025 F2 (SWAN), a newly discovered celestial object, boasts an astonishingly long orbital period estimated at roughly 1.4 million years. This immense timescale signifies that its current appearance in our skies is an exceptionally rare event, unlikely to be witnessed again by anyone alive today. The comet's presence offers a unique opportunity for astronomical observation and study of a long-period comet making its perihelion passage. Independently co-discovered in late March 2025 by amateur astronomers Vladimir Bezugly and Michael Mattiazzo through images captured by the SWAN instrument aboard the SOHO spacecraft, this icy wanderer provides valuable insights into the composition and dynamics of the outer solar system and the history of our planetary neighborhood. Its extended journey highlights the vastness of cosmic time and the infrequent nature of such close encounters with these primordial solar system remnants.

How NASA Measures This:

NASA utilizes sophisticated instruments like the SWAN imager on the SOHO spacecraft to observe comets. By tracking the comet's position over time against the background stars, astronomers can precisely determine its trajectory. Applying Kepler's laws of planetary motion and Newton's law of universal gravitation to this orbital data allows for the calculation of its orbital period. The long arc of the observed path, even over a relatively short observation window, provides enough information to extrapolate its highly elliptical orbit and the immense time it takes to complete one revolution around the Sun.

How Old-Earth Creationism Accommodates This:

Old-Earth Creationism (OEC) accepts the scientific consensus regarding the age of the Earth and the universe, including the long orbital periods of comets like C/2025 F2 (SWAN). OEC proponents interpret the Genesis creation viewing the "days" of creation as vast epochs of time rather than literal 24-hour periods. This allows for the integration of geological and astronomical timelines, accommodating the millions of years required for such cometary orbits within the framework of a divinely created universe.

How OEC Believes in Long Genesis Days Accommodating This:

OEC interprets the "days" in Genesis 1 as extended periods, allowing ample time for natural processes like cometary orbits. These vast timescales align with scientific observations, suggesting God's creative work unfolded over eons, encompassing the formation and movement of celestial bodies over millions of years.

"This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heavens."

This single verse encapsulates the entire creation week. By using "yom" in this way, the verse emphasizes the grand sweep of creation as a unified act by God, rather than a 24 hr day.

  • Psalms 90:4 "For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it passes by, Or as a watch in the night." Old-Earth creationists interpret Psalm 90:4 as support for their view that the days of creation in Genesis 1 were not literal 24-hour periods, but rather long ages. They highlight the verse's comparison of a thousand years to a day in God's sight, suggesting that God's perception of time is vastly different from humanity's. Scholars believe Moses wrote Ps 90 before Genesis thus shaping its interpretation.

  • Jeremiah 33:25, Thus says the Lord, 'If My covenant for day and night stand not, and the fixed patterns of heaven and earth I have not established, then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant..” In this verse, God uses the constancy of natural laws like Einstein's confirmed Special Relativity and the speed of light and the fixed patterns of heaven and earth, to emphasize the unwavering nature of His covenant with His people. Just as the natural order remains steadfast, so does God's faithfulness, offering hope and security amidst uncertainty. God does not break his promises.

How Old Earth Creationism Relates to God's Glory:

For Old-Earth Creationism, the immense timescales revealed by scientific study, such as the million-year orbit of Comet SWAN, magnify God's glory. They see the vastness and complexity of the cosmos, with its intricate celestial mechanics and long evolutionary processes, as evidence of God's infinite power, wisdom, and patient creative design unfolding over eons.


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