Giant star Betelgeuse has a 'Betelbuddy' — and it's very little indeed

 

This image of Betelgeuse is a color composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). (Image courtesy of ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin.)

Joel Kontinen

The star Betelgeuse has a smaller star that’s named Betelbuddy. Betelgeuse is about 700 times the size of our sun and thousands of times brighter.

"It turns out that there had never been a good observation where Betelbuddy wasn't behind Betelgeuse," Anna O’Grady, a postdoctoral fellow at CMU,"said in a statement. "This represents the deepest X-ray observations of Betelgeuse to date.”

Impressively, capturing an image of Betelbuddy was only the start of the discoveries. The researchers had anticipated the companion to be a white dwarf or a neutron star, but they saw no signs of accretion, a distinct signature of both types of objects. Instead, they suspect it might be a young stellar object about the size of our sun.

And herein lies the next major discovery. The size ratio between Betelgeuse and Betelbuddy challenges what we currently know about binary stars. Typically, binary stars have similar masses. But Betelgeuse is about 16 to 17 times the mass of our sun, whereas Betelbuddy has about the same mass as our sun.

"This opens up a new regime of extreme mass ratio binaries,” O’Grady said. "It's an area that hasn’t been explored much because it's so difficult to find them or to even identify them like we were able to do with Betelgeuse."

Stars come in all sized but there is only one planet, that harbors life.

Source:

Stefanie Waldek 2025  Giant star Betelgeuse has a 'Betelbuddy' — and it's very little indeed | Space 22 October

Scientists find best evidence yet, that icy moon Enceladus is habitable

 

The Cassini spacecraft took this image while looking across the south pole of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus on Nov. 30, 2010. Jets of water from the moon's underground ocean are visible bursting through cracks in the ice. (Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

Joel Kontinen

An ocean flowing beneath the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus is spewing ice that holds the building blocks of life.

Scientists have discovered that the molecular building blocks needed for life are "readily available" on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus.

At only 314 miles (505 kilometers) wide, Enceladus — and thanks to its liquid water, hydrothermal energy source and chemical tool kit, it has the potential to host extraterrestrial life.

Twenty years ago, NASA's Cassini spacecraft discovered evidence that a vast salty ocean hidden beneath Enceladus' surface was spitting out minuscule "ice grains" through cracks near the moon's south pole. Subsequent studies have spotted five of the six essential elements for life — carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus (only missing sulfur) — within these grains.

Twenty years ago, NASA's Cassini spacecraft discovered evidence that a vast salty ocean hidden beneath Enceladus' surface was spitting out minuscule "ice grains" through cracks near the moon's south pole. Subsequent studies have spotted five of the six essential elements for life — carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus (only missing sulfur) — within these grains.

However, the majority of these past studies looked at the relatively old ice grains that settled in Saturn's E ring — a diffuse ring outside the planet's bright main rings — after being ejected decades or centuries prior. This meant scientists couldn't be sure that the compounds truly came from Enceladus rather than from space weathering in the ring.

 But if there is life on Enceladus, it has to be created. Only Darwinists think that life can come from naturalistic ways.

 Source:

 Sophie Berdugo 2025 Scientists find best evidence yet that icy moon Enceladus is habitable | Live Science October 2

Weird planet is orbiting backwards between two stars

 

Image courtesy of Aaron Alien/Shutterstock

Joel Kontinen

After two decades of debate, research confirms that an odd binary star system has an equally odd planetary companion.

Some planetary systems do not look normal to us, How could you see a binary star system that has a planet between two stars, Space is wonderful and we should not see life on this planet.  

“After years of observation, researchers finally understand how a pair of stars can maintain a stable orbital dance with an elusive planet.

In 2004, David Ramm at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand spotted a mysterious repeating signal while observing the motion of a pair of stars in a system called Nu Octantis. This started a long debate on whether the signal was evidence that this system included a planet roughly twice the size of Jupiter, which some! physicists thought impossible because of the size and closeness of the two stars. Now, Ramm and Man Hoi Lee at the University of Hong Kong and their colleagues have offered the most conclusive evidence yet that Nu Octantis really is a threesome rather than a duo.”

Source: 

Karmela Padavic-Callaghan 2025 Weird planet is orbiting backwards between two stars | New Scientist 21 May 

 

Hot methane seeps could support life beneath Antarctica’s ice sheet

Image courtesy of Polar Rock Repository

Joel Kontinen

Could life appear in the icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter, for instance. This is what some evolutionists are claiming.  

But life does not appear by accident. It has to be made by a person who knows how to start it, as evolutionary processes cannot do it.  

“Microbes living beneath Antarctica´s ice sheet may survive on methane generated by geothermal heat rising from deep below Earth’s surface. The discovery could have implications for assessing the potential for life to survive on icy worlds beyond Earth.

“These could be hotspots for microbes that are adapted to live in these areas,” says Gavin Piccione at Brown University in Rhode Island.”

Source:

James Dinneen 2025 Hot methane seeps could support life beneath Antarctica’s ice sheet | New Scientist 18 April

NASA set to launch Europa probe to search for signs of habitability

 

Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Joel Kontinen

A 6000-kilogram spacecraft will embark on a six-year journey to Jupiter to explore whether its icy moon Europa has the conditions to support life.

Could NASA a find life on Europa?

According to some evolutionists, “The largest spacecraft ever created NASA for an interplanetary mission will launch today to determine whether Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, has an environment that could support life.

The Europa Clipper mission is expected to launch at 12:06 pm local time aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, having been delayed by several days as a precaution because of Hurricane Milton.

Europa is the smallest of the so-called Galilean moons, which are Jupiter’s four largest moons. It is slightly smaller than our own moon and is of particular interest to scientists. Previous observations have indicated that Europa has a vast subsurface ocean, and this mission is designed to explore the possibility that life could reside within it.

With its solar arrays deployed that Europa has a vast subsurface ocean, and this mission is designed to explore the possibility that life could reside within it.

With its solar arrays deployed, Europa Clipper spans more than 30 metres and weighs 3241 kilograms without propellant, which will add a further 2750 kilograms.

The spacecraft will take around six years to travel 2.9 billion kilometres to its rendezvous with Jupiter in April 2030, using the gravity. of Mars and then Earth to boost its speed.”

 Some believers in evolution have supposed that Europa is teeming with life, but only God can bring it about.

Source:

 Matthew Sparkes 2024 NASA set to launch Europa Clipper probe to search for signs of habitability | New Scientist 14 October.

Planet spotted orbiting Barnard's star just 6 light years away

 

Artist’s impression of Barnard’s star b, a planet in orbit around Barnard’s star

ESO/M. Kornmesser

Joel Kontinen

Astronomers have detected an exoplanet around Barnard’s star, one of the sun’s closest neighbours, but it is too hot for liquid water or life.

Life in a nearby planet?  

One of the sun’s closest neighbours, Barnard’s star, appears to have at least one planet orbiting it, as well as another three possible planets that need further confirmation.

Astronomers have been looking for planets aroud and Barnard’s star, which at 5.96 light years away is the next-closest star to us after the three stars in the Alpha Centauri system, since the 1960s.

In 2018, researchers claimed to have found a planet that was at least three times larger than Earth, which they called Barnard’s star b, but a follow-up analysis showed that the signals of the apparent planet were actually caused by higher than expected stellar activity.

Now, Jonay Hernández at the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics and his colleagues say they have found a new Barnard’s star b, which is around 40 per cent as massive as Earth.

The planet is much closer to its star than any planets in our solar system, completing an orbit in just over three Earth days. This also means its surface is too hot for liquid water or life, with a temperature of around 125°C (257°F).

So the scientist are are claiming that the planet is too hot for liquid water and life.  

Source:

 Alex Wilkins 2024 Planet spotted orbiting Barnard's star just 6 light years away | New Scientist 1 October. 

Europa’s seafloor may be impenetrable and inhospitable to life

 

Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute.

Joel Kontinen

Is there life on Europa? A few weeks ago, it seemed that there was.  But now it seems that there is not.

“Jupiter’s icy moon Europa may not be as ripe for life as previously thought. Its underground ocean has long made it one of the most promising candidates in our solar system to host life, but theoretical studies of its seafloor are putting a damper on its promise.”

On Earth, much of the life in the oceans is supported by hydrothermal activity at the seafloor, where water interacts with rock. This activity is missing on Europa.“

Well, God made the Earth a space for humans and not other planets or their moons.

Source:

 Leah Crane, 2024. Europa’s seafloor may be impenetrable and inhospitable to life | New Scientist 13 March.

Encelaudus spews water into space

 

Image courtesy of: NASA/JPL-Caltech. 

Joel Kontinen

The James Webb Space Telescope caught Saturn's icy moon Enceladus spraying a 'huge plume' of watery vapor far into space —Evolutionist claim that  and that plume may contain chemical ingredients for life.

Saturn's moon is covered by ice.  Scientists learned about them in 2005, They contain methane, carbon dioxide and ammonia. Reaachers think that below all this ice, evolution has produced life.  

Sourc: 

Whitcomb,  Isobel, 2023,  James Webb telescope discovers gargantuan geyser on Saturn's moon, blasting water hundreds of miles into space. Live Science 23 May. , 

Hidden life beneath Europa's surface

 Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute

Joel Kontinen

For evolutionists, life could be anywhere. So jupiter’moon Europa could be a place where life could be found, just as the Antartica of our planet.

”Beneath the frozen shell of Europa, flakes of ice may float upwards like strange underwater snow. The sparkling landscape formed by this process on the underside of the shell could be a favourable environment for alien life.

On Earth, the ice shelves in Antarctica are the closest analogue to the ice shells of Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus, which are both thought to host global oceans beneath their frozen surfaces.” 

 SSource: 

Crane, Leah. 2022. Shards of pure ice might snow upwards beneath the ice shell of Europa New Scietist 19 August,

Asteroid Bennu has water

 

BENNU OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. NASA, public domain.

Joel Kontinen

NASA send a spacecraft to the asteroid Bennu that has water on its surface.According to evolution that is a good sign.

However, even creationist think that the universe was made of water.  

Source;     

Smith, Keith T. 2022, Grabbing a sample of asteroid Bennu Science 9 July. 

Ancient virus lurking in us

 

Image courtesy of Mark P. Witton/Science Photo Library.

Joel Kontinen

Evolutionist claim that around 106 million years ago, the DNA of a virus that is, the early Cretaceous period, somehow got integrated into the genome of one of our mammal ancestors.

According to evolution, two million years later, something similar happened again with a closely related virus. Now, the ancient remnants of those viruses have been found inside our cells.

But the dates of the viruss are wrong.

Source:  

Le Page, Michael. 2022. 106-million-year-old virus found ‘fossilised’ in the human genome NewScientist 18 February. 

Mars means life for evolutionists

Image courtesy of NASA.

Joel Kontinen

According to evolutionists, Mars was once covered with water, and for them, water means life.

But now, evolutionists cannot see Mars without life. So they seek it.   

“NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has now collected two rock samples, with signs that they were in contact with water for a long period of time boosting the case for ancient life on the RedPlanet.”

"If these rocks experienced water for long periods of time, there may be habitable niches within these rocks that could have supported ancient microbial life," said Stack Morgan.

Source:

Mars rocks collected by Perseverance boost case for ancient life. Phys.org 11 September.

Dr. Tour Speaks: Molecules Don't Care About Life

Water, water everywhere .... but what about life?

They didn't need this on Mars

Joel Kontinen

In our "just add water" culture we often think that if there's water, there's life. Time and again this old evolutionist mantra finds its way into the news headlines. Whether it is the discovery of a new rocky "super Earth" such as Gliese 581 c found last spring [1] or something much nearer, the response is often more or less the same. Ten years ago, when the media spread the news that water had been found on Mars, Dr. Ross Humphreys wrote that he was delighted. He explained:

The first reason for my delight is that it helps people imagine the Genesis flood. After all, if a planet which is presently dryer than the Gobi desert could once have been covered with water, then how much more possible would such a deluge be for the Earth—whose surface is three-quarters covered with water two miles deep? [2]

He went on to say,

The second reason is that it supports the Bible’s implication of a water origin for all things [Genesis 1:2, 6-10; 2 Peter 3:5]. Water (often as ice) is everywhere in the solar system: in comets, planetary rings, on moons of the large planets, possibly on the asteroid Ceres and at the poles of the Earth’s moon, formerly on Venus [Science News, ‘Venus: The Waters of Yesteryear’, 120:372-373, Dec. 12, 1981], presently on Earth and deep in its rocky mantle, and in the polar caps of Mars. Water, as falling chunks of ice, may have pounded out many of the craters we see everywhere in the solar system. God asks, ‘…have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of distress …?’ (Job 38:22, 23, NAS). [3]

What does the hype about water on a "super-Earth" or Mars really tell us? As life cannot form spontaneously from non-life in water because of hydrolysis, have they at last found a new magic formula for abiogenesis?

A plausible tip: no. Magic should not be confused with science. Life only comes from life. It needs both information and an intelligent Sender, as information expert Dr. Werner Gitt explains. [4]

Nothing will not produce everything by chance over millions of years. Any number of monkeys banging a keyboard at random will not produce an intelligent message, even if one allows them a few millions of years to do so.



Notes
[1] New 'super-Earth' found in space BBC News. 25 April 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6589157.stm

[2] Humpreys, Ross. 1997. Water on Mars: A Creationist Response . http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3840
[3] Humpreys 2007
[4] Gitt, Werner. 1997. In the Beginning was Information. Bielefeld: Christhliche Literatur-Verbreitung.