Kolob is Near

Listen to the BYU Choir sing "If You Could Hie to Kolob," read the words, and continue on.

Eli and I went on a day date yesterday. It was amazing. Any little bit of time I get to spend with him is special and yesterday was no exception. He surprised me with a trip to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History. I know, a museum? We love it. We haven't had a chance to go since we moved here. We had some other plans for the day and decided to go to the show at the Planetarium.

If you've ever been to the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake, you'll know what the NM Planetarium is like. It's a little smaller, but still similar. In the dome they played a show called "Enchanted Skies: The Digital Universe." It wasn't quite what we expected, but it was still amazing. There is a woman that narrated the whole show and she shared interesting facts. She showed us where some of the more famous constellations are located and how to find the North Star. She taught us a lot about our solar system and the space around our planet.

Then we moved farther out in space. We were able to see other galaxies and this is where I shed a few tears. It's crazy to me to think that some people believe that we living is an accident, just coincidence. It's unbelievable what people have discovered in space. I'll share some interesting things with you that I learned.

Earth is located in a very special place called that Habitating Zone (or something like that). If we were 5% closer to the Sun, we'd burn because of the heat. If we were 10% farther from the Sun, we'd freeze. Technically speaking, Earth is located in the prime position for life. Mars has an irregular orbit, so it dips in and out of the Habitating Zone, but it does contain some of the elements necessary to sustain life. Scientists are looking for algae and fungus on Mars because that would be "life" on another planet.

Every week scientists are finding more galaxies than they ever thought existed. They are also finding more and more planets. That's INCREDIBLE! I wonder where those planets are coming from. Scientists looks for stars similar to our Sun and find other planets orbiting those stars. Eventually they'd like to explore those plaents within the habitating zone of those "suns," there may be other life there.

Scientists are also taking pictures of our galaxy and trying to figure the structure of our galaxy. They know that it's spiral, but not too much more. They have found something called "dark matter" and "dark energy" that suggests that there is something there, but they don't quite know what it is. I wonder what that is.

One of the things that I found most amazing though is the information I heard about the Andromeda Galaxy. Eli has a book called "The Kolob Theorem" that suggests the Andromeda Galaxy is where Kolob exists. As the woman at the Planetarium was talking about this Galaxy, she informed us that is was the nearest galaxy to our own Milky Way. She said that the way our galaxies were moving, they were on a collision course for each other. Now galaxies collide sometimes and they create a new galaxy. They combine and become part of each other. Our galaxy is set to combine with the Andromeda Galaxy in a billion years or so. They showed an enactment of what that might look like and it was stunning.

The Andromeda Galaxy

The Milky Way

Draw your own conclusions, even if the theories aren't correct, you cannot help but look into the starry sky and not know that EVERYTHING out there is not an accident. I KNOW that my Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ love me and created this AMAZING, INCREDIBLE, and STUNNING world for us. Science and religion have a place, next to each other, hand in hand. I believe that they both help each other. It's just unbelieveable what is out there. I am so blessed and am so thankful. I don't know how to express my gratitude for my life.

Happy Easter!