Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy

48:40

Mysteries of Mercury - Part Two

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2026/09/12

Did you know there names of artists, musicians, poets, writers, and sculptors given to craters on Mercury? Yes indeed! You'll have to listen to our broadcast to find out who's made the list!It is, as we say here on Good Heavens!, the human side of astronomy. And we think it's an entirely appropriate connection to link creators to a planet which is itself a work of art from THE Creator of the heavens and earth, our Lord Jesus Christ (Genesis 1; John 1; Colossians 1; Hebrews 1). So come and

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42:48

Mysteries of Mercury - Part One

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2026/09/05

Why does the planet Mercury exist? How did it form? Why does it behave so strangely? What is the "message" of our solar system's furthest interior orb? What is a spin-orbit resonance and how did it come about?On part one of our September episode of Good Heavens! Wayne and Dan explore some of the wonders and mysteries of the messenger planet. Come and see! NASA Press Conference on the Messenger Probe sent to Mercury. https://youtu.be/ZCclu4c9Yk4?si=U-RB5NAmdWQhkMtH Article on evidence Mercury may

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36:39

Exploring the Heavens with Astrophysicist Dr. Jeff...

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2026/08/16

We are storytellers. From childhood fairy tales to the most erudite and complex cosmological theories, we use good stories to communicate truth.What exactly then is the story of the cosmos? Is there one? And what can modern science tell us about this story? Good science communicators attempt to answer these questions, composing their explanations about the heavens into meaningful and compelling narratives. But is the modern story of the cosmos the true story of the cosmos? Most scientific theories

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50:49

Exploring the Heavens with Astrophysicist Dr. Jeff...

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2026/07/31

Program Note:Daniel misspoke about the Tycho and Kepler supernovae. They were not the last to be seen in the universe but the last two supernovae to be seen in the Milky Way galaxy. A great deal of time, effort, and tax dollars have been spent to explore the heavens. But even after all the expenditures, secular astronomy and cosmology are still unable to say what it all means. Some have suggested the universe doesn't mean anything, that it just is. Others say we can make up our own meaning. But

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70:22

The Wonders of Venus!

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2026/06/30

Venus is the morning and evening star, often mistaken for a plane or UFO. Named after the Greco-Roman goddess of love, Venus is anything but hospitable to human life. Tornado-like windspeeds in the upper atmosphere, a crushingly suffocating and poisonous atmosphere, a harsh, volcano-covered surface, all make us marvel and wonder. What exactly is Venus?Here on this month's Good Heavens! episode Wayne and Dan ponder aloud the mysteries and wonders of the second planet from the sun and how they think

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28:24

Get Thee Up Into the High Mountain (Isaiah 40:9)

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2026/06/01

Mountain peaks and summits make for excellent platforms for observing the glory of God. How might the summit of the dormant volcano of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, with its thirteen active telescopes operated by 11 different countries, point us to the glory of God and what God has done for us in Jesus?Thumbnail image: The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The telescope is operated by the East Asian Observatory https://www.eaobservatory.org/jcmt/public/gallery/images/ Good Heavens! is a

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82:37

The Wonders of the Moon!

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2026/05/01

This month, Wayne and Dan go to the moon (sort of)! We talk about the historic Artemis II mission, discuss some scientific mysteries about the moon, read some moon poetry and scripture which mentions the moon. We also, hopefully, make sense of how we see the moon pointing us to the glory of God in Christ.Image credits in the thumbnail. Moon and Earth - Artemis II crew and NASA. Astronaut cake topper, Jennifer Blevins. Links n things we mentioned in the broadcast. NASA Press Conference Artemis

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87:12

What in the World is a Platypus Galaxy?!

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2026/03/31

Come and see!Yet another discovery courtesy of the James Webb Space Telescope, something over which astronomers are presently puzzling!A star? A quasar? A galaxy? It's not something that astronomers have ever seen before. Like the Platypus, these objects are hard to categorize. How does this latest curious heavenly object remind us of the One who created them?Wayne and Dan have some ideas! Join us!Wayne's article on the PlatypusAccessible YouTube video on the Platypus GalaxiesPodbean enables our

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20:33

Too Many Galaxies For God?

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2026/02/23

Recently, cosmologist Dr. Sean Carroll suggested that the amount of galaxies in our universe is not something we would expect if God created the universe.But how does Dr. Carroll know what we should expect a God-created universe to look like? That's a question we explore on this month's episode of Good Heavens! Come and see! The thumbnail image of this month's episode is an enormous field of galaxies, thousands of them, released by NASA and the ESA last April. You can read more about this stunning

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74:31

Meerkats, Comets, and the Glory of God!

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2026/01/15

What do meerkats and comets have in common? Well, besides both being created by God, which is no small thing, you'll have to just listen to this month's episode of Good Heavens! to find out the answer! If we told you everything in the show notes, you might not end up listening!This month, Wayne and Dan give some updates on the science of interstellar comet 3i-ATLAS, talk about meerkats, stars, and a fantastic new discovery announced in December of last year that has astronomers' heads

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30:02

The Fascination and Enigma of Interstellar Object...

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2025/12/15

We have another interstellar visitor in the solar system, something truly out of this (particular) world!Is it an alien spacecraft? Is it a comet? A sign of the end of the world? An asteroid? Demons just messing with us? What's All the Gas About? Here on this episode of Good Heavens! we cut through all the viral hype and make some biblical sense of this wondrous interstellar object. Come and see! NASA fast facts on this mysterious

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100:01

Mission Control "Houston" with Mission Control...

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2025/11/15

This is Mark and Rita's first-ever podcast interview! The Schrocks are fellow Christians and engineer specialists at NASA's Mission Control in Houston, Texas and share with us what working at Mission Control is like. We talk about everything from landing on the moon, to Space Shuttle missions and even what they think of aliens!And of course, we talk about how we believe it all points to the glory of God. Human space exploration is good, but it isn't safe. Mark is the chief design engineer behind

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34:00

Unroofing the Roof - Some Thoughts on Jesus as God

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2025/11/01

How does a short passage in Mark chapter 2 point to Jesus as Lord and God? And what might Jesus' healing of the paralytic say about the nature of the universe and our place within it? Can we trust Mark's account as real history?This is a short audio essay examines these questions in greater detail and hopefully provides us with some encouragement not to be discouraged in times when God seems silent. Thumbnail photo credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI, A. Pagan (STScI)). This is Pismis 24, a small

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77:24

New Discoveries from the Vera Rubin Observatory

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2025/09/15

Atheists have often claimed that the Bible makes no scientific predictions and therefore cannot be a valid source of knowledge about the universe.But this is simply unfounded. First, modern science as we understand it today did not exist thousands of years ago. To demand that our modern expectations should be imposed upon the text of Scripture is anachronistic eisegesis. It is our imposing our expectations and understanding into the texts of the Bible. But second, Psalm 19, written by King David

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01:06:54

A Philosopher and a Physicist Discuss Probability and...

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2025/08/04

How does philosophy inform modern physics? And how do physicists incorporate philosophy into their research?On this episode, we dive into those questions with philosopher Dr. Timothy McGrew and astrophysicist Dr. Luke Barnes in order to help you fine tune your thinking about the fine tuning of the universe. Critics of the fine-tuning argument will often invoke probabilities in order to get around the argument's deeper implication of the existence of God. Tim and Luke will explore some of the issues

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48:19

The Language of Rivers and Stars with Author Seth...

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2025/07/28

The brand new Vera Rubin Observatory recently opened its 28-foot diameter mirror and snapped a few stunning images that astronomers displayed to the public for the first time in June. You can explore the amazing imagery of the heavens at the observatory's website at this site: https://rubinobservatory.org/news/first-imagery-rubin Why so many stars? Why is the universe so immensely enormous, beyond our comprehension? What is the universe saying to us? There would be no science of the heavens if the

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40:17

The Language of Rivers and Stars with Author Seth...

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2025/07/21

Despite how secular most disciplines in the physical sciences are today, those who study nature assume that nature is intelligible and that it should be explored. But how does modern science actually explain what nature is saying to us? How do the explain that nature is intelligible to us at all? Is science the only way to understand the physical universe and everything it contains?From silvery meandering rivers to the variegated heavenly canopy of stars above us, all creation is speaking to us,

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45:48

Filmmaker Michael Ray Lewis Part 2 - Design in the...

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2025/06/09

The Bible tells us that we can see and understand "God's invisible attributes" through what He has created. And this is precisely what former atheist Michael Ray Lewis discovered as he spent three years examining the evidence for Christianity. One of the most impressive arguments he encountered during his time of searching was that of the fine tuning of the universe.Jesus eventually got hold of Michael and not long thereafter his wife encouraged him to make a documentary about the evidence he had

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55:06

Filmmaker Michael Ray Lewis - Part 1 - Design in the...

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2025/06/02

This is why we produce Good Heavens! God's creation shows us His invisible attributes. He uses His creation to lead us to Christ, through whom and for whom the entirety of the heavens and earth were made (Colossians 1).Dan recently met a former atheist who became a Christian and has recently completed the final edits on a remarkable docudrama film about the cosmos and how it all points us to Jesus. The film is called Universe Designed and it is the passion project of our guest on Good Heavens! for

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01:03:04

The Beauty of Neptune - Enigmas of the 8th Planet

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy ·

2025/04/30

Neptune is the Roman name for the Greek god of the seas and of earthquakes. Poseidon, in Greek mythology, is the father of Polyphemus, the tyrannical, man-eating cyclopes of Homer's Odyssey. Because the Odysseus blinded Polyphemus, it was Poseidon and his wrath which ultimately made Odysseus' trip home a little more circuitous than was to the Big O's liking.Thankfully, Poseidon and his offspring exist only in the long-gone minds and imaginations of Homer and the Greco-Roman world. But there is a

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