Seeing Jupiter in December’s Night Sky we turn to NASA’s spacecraft Juno for a closer look. With Geminid meteorites and the Northern Lights, this month sees some dramatic cosmic displays. We also look at the future of Planet Earth.

Jupiter and NASA’s Juno

Each evening as I step outside and look up, Jupiter is unmistakable. Soon distant other worlds, millions of light years away, come into view as I’m reminded of the vastness of the Universe. What I see as faint specks of light, images from spacecraft reveal as galaxies and clusters of stars. Some highly coloured like the amazing Christmas Tree Cluster. Celestial displays of beauty on the grandest scale.

The images from the Juno spacecraft around Jupiter reveal the close-up beauty of this giant planet. (Twice as massive as all the other planets put together). I look up at it in the evening sky and can only dream of seeing again some of its moons and viewing, for the first time, Saturn’s rings. Jupiter will be at its brightest on Dec 21st- 23rd. Saturn on Dec 17th.
But the big attraction this month is the year’s great Geminid meteorite shower peaking in Dec 14/15th with over 100 meteorites per hour.

Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing

Isaiah 40:26

And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him!

Job: 26

Wordsworth’s Vision

Sometimes dramatic moments, when we see glimpses of ‘the outer fringe of His works‘, catch us by surprise, as for William Wordsworth. He was on his way from Nether Stowey to Alfoxden in the Quantock Hills one overcast night in 1798. Suddenly the cloud splits open to reveal the bright moon surrounded by multitudes of stars that:

Silently roll along
Immeasurably distant; and the vault,
Built round by those white clouds, enormous clouds,
Still deepens its unfathomable depth.
At length the Vision closes; and the mind,
Not undisturbed by the delight it feels,
Which slowly settles into peaceful calm,
Is left to muse upon the solemn scene

From ‘Night Piece by Wordsworth

As we lie with our face to the heavens the stars how they shine! As we gaze, they call us into the far regions of thought, singing the songs of creation’s dawn.

John Muir

As we wonder, open eyed, at all this celestial splendour we wonder, did our Creator just flinging the stars out into space for the sheer fun of it, adding, as if in after-thought, visions of meteorite showers and the Northern Lights? In his ‘The Planets‘ suite Gustav Holst calls Jupiter the Bringer of Jollity. God’s delight and joy in his Creation seems clear and it gives meaning to the Universe. The heavens are there ‘to declare the glory of God‘.

The Future of Planet Earth

But the clouds swirling around the giant statue of Christ towering over Rio de Janiero reminds us that God’s purposes on Planet Earth are waiting, unfulfilled.

Christ’s coming at Bethlehem was hardly noticed, but his next Coming will be seen by everyone, past and present. Jesus himself told us to look for the signs of his coming again and to wait patiently. In that day ‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon and the stars‘, but when Christ, the ‘bright Morning Star‘ (Revelation 22: 16) appears all else will be eclipsed.

As a follower of Jesus I want to be ready when he comes. I join the prayer of those early Christians at the end of the Bible: ‘ Yes, Come Lord Jesus!’

See my previous post ‘Winter’s Night Sky‘

Listen to Gustav Holt’s stirring ‘The Bringer of Jollity’