Any Southern California resident knows that strong Santa Ana winds are a part of life. It may not come readily to mind, but strong winds elsewhere in the universe are also a part of life. Scientists have learned that strong outflow winds near our galaxy’s supermassive black hole early in cosmic history prevented dangerous radiation and made advanced life possible.

I wrote about some of the design features of black holes a year ago in my article, Black Holes As Evidence of God’s Care, which was published in a peer review journal.1 The entire paper, together with the reviewers’ critiques and my responses to the critiques, are available online.2 Now, a team of 26 astronomers has published a paper in Nature that shows yet more evidence that the universe’s black holes are exquisitely designed to make advanced life on Earth possible.3

Supermassive Black Holes in the Early Universe
Astronomical observations show that bright quasars already existed when the universe was less than a billion years old. A quasar is an extremely bright active galactic nucleus powered by a supermassive black hole (SMBH) that is gravitationally accreting a huge amount of mass. (A supermassive black hole is a black hole with a mass that exceeds one million solar masses.) SMBHs convert from 6–42% of the mass they accrete into energy. For comparison, the Sun’s nuclear furnace converts just 0.07% of the hydrogen it fuses into helium into energy.

The existence of bright quasars during the first billion years of cosmic history coincides with the epoch of aggressive galaxy growth. The growth of galaxies during the early history of the universe should accelerate the growth of the galaxies’ SMBHs and should result in many more bright quasars during the universe’s first billion years than what astronomers actually observe. Thus, the 26 astronomers sought to solve this “missing early bright quasars” problem.

Why So Few Early Bright Quasars?
The team suspected that strong outflow winds generated by the SMBHs likely explained the scarcity of early bright quasars. To test their suspicion, they compared broad absorption line (BAL) features in the spectra of a sample of 30 bright quasars (the XQR-30 survey) spanning the redshift range 5.8–6.6. This range corresponds to when the universe was 800–1,000 million years old, with BAL features in a much larger sample of bright quasars (the Sloan Digital Sky Survey) spanning the redshift range 2.1–3.2, which corresponds to when the universe was 2.0-3.2 billion years old. BALs measure the outflow velocities of winds driven by the SMBHs.

The astronomers determined that more than half of the XQR-30 quasars have minimum outflow velocities from just outside the event horizons of the SMBHs that exceed 15,000 kilometers/second. All but 2 of the 30 quasars have maximum outflow velocities that exceed 20,000 kilometers/second. By comparison, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasars in the redshift range 2.1–3.2 had median minimum outflow velocities = 3,700 kilometers/second and median maximum outflow velocities = 14,000 kilometers/second. For another comparison closer to home, the strongest tornadic winds in the US sometimes exceed 400 kilometers per hour! The team concluded, therefore, that “BAL winds in z [redshift] > 5.8 quasars are significantly faster than at a lower redshift.”4

Implications for Advanced Life
These measurements imply that strong outflow winds from just outside the event horizons of the SMBHs in early quasars (quasars with redshifts greater than 5.8) inject huge amounts of energy into the interstellar medium of their host galaxies and suppress the accretion of gas and dust by the SMBHs. Hence, the strong outflow winds slow down the growth of SMBHs in early quasars.

One of the large galaxies that formed early in the history of the universe is our own Milky Way Galaxy (MWG).5 As I explain and document in my book, Designed to the Core,6 the mass of the MWG’s SMBH is undermassive by a factor of about 35 times. This exceptionally tiny mass makes advanced life possible in the MWG.7 Thus, a newly discovered design feature of the MWG is that strong outflow winds during the galaxy’s first billion years must be fine-tuned to ensure that its present SMBH’s mass is small enough to guarantee radiation emitted from outside the SMBH’s event horizon does not eradicate advanced life on Earth. Yet, that mass must be large enough to make stable, symmetrical spiral arms possible. Likewise, strong outflow winds in galaxies nearby to the MWG must be fine-tuned during those galaxies’ early histories so that their SMBHs do not pose a threat to advanced life in the MWG.8

All of this fine-tuning seems far more than fortuitous. The 26 astronomers’ research provides yet more evidence for the biblical principle that the more we learn about nature—in this case the universe—the more evidence we uncover for the supernatural handiwork of the Creator.

Check out more from Reasons to Believe @Reasons.org

Endnotes

  1. Hugh Ross, “Black Holes as Evidence of God’s Care,” Religions 12, no. 3 (March 2021): id. 201, doi:10.3390/rel12030201.
  2. Hugh Ross, “Black Holes as Evidence of God’s Care,” Peer-Review Record, Religions 12, no. 3 (March 2021): id. 201, doi:10.3390/rel12030201.
  3. M. Bischetti et al., “Suppression of Black-Hole Growth by Strong Outflows at Redshifts 5.8–6.6.” Nature 605 (May 12, 2022): 244–247, doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04608-1.
  4. Bischetti et al., “Suppression of Black-Hole Growth,” 246.
  5. Maosheng Xiang and Hans-Walter Rix, “A Time-Resolved Picture of Our Milky Way’s Early Formation History,” Nature 603 (March 24, 2022): 599–603, doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04496-5; Timothy C. Beers, “A Stellar Clock Reveals the Assembly History of the Milky Way,” Nature 603 (March 24, 2022): 580–91, doi:10.1038/d41586-022-00768-2; Hugh Ross, Designed to the Core (Covina, CA: RTB Press, 2022), 90–104.
  6. Ross, Designed to the Core, 97–101.
  7. Ross, Designed to the Core, 97–101.
  8. Ross, Designed to the Core, 82–84.

About The Author

Dr. Hugh Ross

Reasons to Believe emerged from my passion to research, develop, and proclaim the most powerful new reasons to believe in Christ as Creator, Lord, and Savior and to use those new reasons to reach people for Christ. I also am eager to equip Christians to engage, rather than withdraw from or attack, educated non-Christians. One of the approaches I’ve developed, with the help of my RTB colleagues, is a biblical creation model that is testable, falsifiable, and predictive. I enjoy constructively integrating all 66 books of the Bible with all the science disciplines as a way to discover and apply deeper truths. 1 Peter 3:15–16 sets my ministry goal, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience." Hugh Ross launched his career at age seven when he went to the library to find out why stars are hot. Physics and astronomy captured his curiosity and never let go. At age seventeen he became the youngest person ever to serve as director of observations for Vancouver's Royal Astronomical Society. With the help of a provincial scholarship and a National Research Council (NRC) of Canada fellowship, he completed his undergraduate degree in physics (University of British Columbia) and graduate degrees in astronomy (University of Toronto). The NRC also sent him to the United States for postdoctoral studies. At Caltech he researched quasi-stellar objects, or "quasars," some of the most distant and ancient objects in the universe. Not all of Hugh's discoveries involved astrophysics. Prompted by curiosity, he studied the world’s religions and "holy books" and found only one book that proved scientifically and historically accurate: the Bible. Hugh started at religious "ground zero" and through scientific and historical reality-testing became convinced that the Bible is truly the Word of God! When he went on to describe for others his journey to faith in Jesus Christ, he was surprised to discover how many people believed or disbelieved without checking the evidence. Hugh's unshakable confidence that God's revelations in Scripture and nature do not, will not, and cannot contradict became his unique message. Wholeheartedly encouraged by family and friends, communicating that message as broadly and clearly as possible became his mission. Thus, in 1986, he founded science-faith think tank Reasons to Believe (RTB). He and his colleagues at RTB keep tabs on the frontiers of research to share with scientists and nonscientists alike the thrilling news of what's being discovered and how it connects with biblical theology. In this realm, he has written many books, including: The Fingerprint of God, The Creator and the Cosmos, Beyond the Cosmos, A Matter of Days, Creation as Science, Why the Universe Is the Way It Is, and More Than a Theory. Between writing books and articles, recording podcasts, and taking interviews, Hugh travels the world challenging students and faculty, churches and professional groups, to consider what they believe and why. He presents a persuasive case for Christianity without applying pressure. Because he treats people's questions and comments with respect, he is in great demand as a speaker and as a talk-radio and television guest. Having grown up amid the splendor of Canada's mountains, wildlife, and waterways, Hugh loves the outdoors. Hiking, trail running, and photography are among his favorite recreational pursuits - in addition to stargazing. Hugh lives in Southern California with his wife, Kathy, and two sons.



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