Regardless of which biblical chronology you follow from either the Masoretic Text (MT) or the Septuagint (LXX), the age of the universe calculated from the Old Testament is less than 10,000 years. But that figure is miniscule compared to the secular age of the universe according to standard big bang cosmology at about 13.8 billion years. Yet YEC biblical creationists hold to the much shorter biblical timescale. Then how do they explain the existence of bipolar jets of plasma ejected from active galactic nuclei/supermassive black holes like those illustrated above and imaged below? And in the available time since creation, i.e. less than 10,000 years, how do we see such structures millions of light-years long and billions of light-years distant from Earth?
Alcyoneus is a low-excitation, radio galaxy located 3.5 billion light-years from Earth, with host galaxy SDSS J081421.68+522410.0. It is located in the constellation Lynx and it was discovered in Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) data by a team of astronomers led by Martijn Oei. As of 2024, it has the second-largest extent of radio structure of any radio galaxy identified, with lobed structures spanning 16 million light-years across opposite sides of the host galaxy. It was described by its discoverers at the time as the “largest known structure of galactic origin.” It has since been superseded by two other radio galaxies, SDSS J081956.41+323537.6 and Porphyrion, with lobed structures of 17 million light-years and 23 million light-years respectively.
There are two questions here. The first is related to the size of the universe and the second is related to the size of these radio structures.
Biblical creationist do not dispute the size of these structures nor the size of the universe. So if a galaxy is a billion light-years (LY) away how do we see it only 6,000 (MT) or 8,000 (LXX) years after creation?
I have answered this question on this site many times using the tag starlight-travel time in our universe.
My current thinking is that the ASC model, as initially promoted by Dr. Jason Lisle, is the best solution. Under the assumption of the Anisotropic Synchrony Convention (ASC) we observe the whole universe in real time because that convention assumes the incoming speed of light is infinite towards the observer. Hence there is no travel time and no problem. See list of Related Reading below.
Well, what about the size of these galactic jets seen from their radio emissions? More than 10,000 LY in extent? Surely that refutes the ASC model? Actually it doesn’t.
In regards to this issue I asked Dr. Jason Lisle for his comment, which I quote below. [bold text are my emphases]
With regard to galactic jets, yes there are a few that are enormous. The jet in Centaurus A is estimated in radio wavelengths to be more than 1 million light years across. But the images we see in radio are from radio emissions, not reflections. In other words, the radio does not need to travel from the core to the outer limb of the jet and then reflect in our direction, which would constitute a large light echo. But that’s not what’s happening. The radio beams we see are formed in the material of the jet and reach us instantly by the ASC convention.
What [your physicist friend] might have in mind is the length of the material jet itself being so large today under the assumption that it did not exist at creation. In other words, how did the matter jet grow from zero to over a million light years in length in less than 6000 years. But this is not relevant to ASC because it is not a light-travel-time issue; rather it is a matter-travel-time issue. But of course the underlying assumption is that God did NOT create the galaxy with an extended jet already, and I don’t see how anyone could possibly know that. We creationists generally agree that God created the universe in an equilibrium condition with the first trees already bearing fruit. And so it is no problem to have (some) of the first galaxies already having extended jets. In principle, God could have done this with light as well, but I tend to think that light is in a different category because God designed our eyes to receive it and interpret the information therein as having a real origin. But we cannot draw a similar conclusion about matter just because we can imagine a hypothetical previous condition that could have led up to the initial conditions of the universe. I hope that makes sense.
– Dr. Jason Lisle
The ASC model necessarily assumes what we would call mature creation. That is the galaxies in the universe were created essentially the same condition as we currently see them now. Because under the ASC model we see the universe in real time, which means that since creation less than 10,000 years has past. You might say that the universe has aged less than 10,000 years.
Therefore these enormously large structures, like the bipolar radio jets, were created essentially much like we see them now. Secular cosmologist would not agree. They would assume they evolved out of active galaxy nuclei, containing supermassive black holes, and the ejected plasma had to have taken millions of years travelling at subluminal speeds to reach the extent we observe.
But as Dr. Lisle has noted, that is not a starlight-travel time problem, but a matter (plasma is matter) travel-time problem. The image we “see” in the radio emissions came from the matter lying along the whole extent of the jets. Radio emissions are light, part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and as such require a choice of a convention on their one-way speed towards the Earth.
By choosing the Anisotropic Synchrony Convention (ASC) means the incoming speed of radio signals is infinite. There is no delay between emission from the plasma and reception at the Earth receiver.
The same thinking is extended to all galactic structures and super-structures in the universe. We do not assume galaxies evolved out of a small initial ball of gas and grew in size as it accumulated more matter/stars.
Most galaxies are at least 100,000 LY in diameter; some are several times that size. So only if you assume, without observational evidence, that they all started off as small clumps of Hydrogen/Helium gas, which gravitated into the first stars then the clump of stars grew in size to what we now observe do you have a age problem in a universe less than 10,000 years old. Hence it is commonly stated that it takes 10 billion years for a typical galaxy to grow.
Under the biblical ASC model the process age for all structures is less than 10,000 years. Stars and their host galaxies existed from Day 4 of creation week. God created the stars and they appeared in the night sky instantly. There was no time delay. On Day 6 (2 days later) Adam could have seen many stars.
In Isaiah 48:13 when speaking of the stars in heaven the phrase “they stand up together” (AKJV) or “stand forth together” (ESV) highlights the instant, unified response of the cosmos to God’s command. Unlike chaotic creation myths especially atheistic ones, the biblical cosmos responded instantly and in unison to the Lord’s command. No time delay is implied.
So do these million light-year-long galactic bipolar jets disprove the Bible on the age of the universe? Absolutely not!
Related Reading
- Are We Really Observing the Universe in Real Time?
- Can We See Into the Past?
- Does Starlight Take Billions of Years to Reach Earth?
- Do Distant Light Emissions Prove a Finite One-Way Speed of Light?
- The Anisotropic Synchrony Convention Model as a Solution to the Creationist Starlight-Travel-Time Problem — Part I
- The Anisotropic Synchrony Convention Model as a Solution to the Creationist Starlight-Travel-Time Problem — Part II
- The Conventionality Thesis on the Synchronisation of Clocks Separated by Distance
- Questions on the Conventionality Thesis and the One-Way Speed of Light
- The Effects of the Curse Visible in the Cosmos Present Another Biblical Creationist Starlight Travel-Time Problem
- Synopsis: A Biblical Creationist Cosmogony
- A Biblical Creationist Cosmogony
- Jason Lisle Defends His ASC Model
- Supernova Remnants and the Age of the Universe
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