Seeing Stars

Hazy Early Earth Affirms the Bible's Account of Creation

When I first arrived in Pasadena for postdoctoral research at Caltech, the haze from Los Angeles smog was so thick that it was several weeks before I realized that a range of 5,000-10,000-foot-high mountains lay just three miles to the north. Now, thanks to air pollution abatement, I see those mountains clearly every day, and I even see a few hundred stars at night.

A research study published recently in The Astrophysical Journal affirms that a thick haze was at least partly responsible for the pervasive translucent skies that shrouded Earth during the first part of its history.1 Researchers have demonstrated through a series of experiments how Earth's atmospheric haze lessened greatly as its atmospheric oxygen...