Our Goldilocks Universe
Hugh Ross, Ph.D.
The universe is incredibly massive. Nevertheless, its mass must be spectacularly fine-tuned for life to be possible. Exactly how massive the universe is remained unknown until astronomers focused the Hubble Space Telescope on a patch of sky no bigger than a tenth the Moon’s (angular) diameter, and held it there for some 278 hours. This Ultra Deep Field study successfully imaged all the galaxies (at least those bigger than dwarfs) existing in that region.
The field contains roughly 10,000 galaxies. By simple extrapolation, astronomers determined that the entire observable universe contains at least 200 billion galaxies. These galaxies contain an estimated average of 200 billion stars each. The total number of stars in these galaxies, then, is 40 billion trillion. The unobserved dwarf galaxies would contribute an estimated additional 10 billion trillion. Thus, the total number of stars in the observable universe adds up to about 50 billion trillion.
Fifty billion trillion stars—that’s an unimaginably enormous universe. And yet the universe is more massive by far! The stars, both those that are still shining and those that have burned out, account for just one percent of the universe’s total mass. The rest of the mass is a combination of ordinary and exotic dark matter (matter that neither emits nor reflects radiation).
One reason the universe must be so massive is that life requires it. The density of protons and neutrons determines how much of the universe’s hydrogen fuses into heavier elements. With a slightly lower density (producing fewer than about 50 billion trillion observable stars), nuclear fusion would be less productive and at no time in cosmic history would elements heavier than helium be produced. Or, if the density were slightly higher (producing more than about 50 billion trillion observable stars), nuclear fusion would be so productive that only heavier-than-iron elements would exist. Either way, life-essential elements such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and phosphorous would be too scarce or even nonexistent.
Such amazing fine-tuning brings to mind Baby Bear’s “just right” everything in the Goldilocks fairy tale—and to a degree of precision not even the best human customization could approach. In other words, this amazing fine-tuning argues compellingly for the involvement of a supernatural, super-intelligent Creator, the God of the Bible.