Mysteries

One of my favorite constellations is Auriga, called The Charioteer—though more correctly, The Shepherd. In his arms he holds Capella, the mother goat, his brightest star, and two other stars, The Kids.

One of the kids, Epsilon Aurigae, is presently in the news. Every 27 years, for some unknown reason, this star grows dimmer. Over a six-month period it drops from magnitude 3.0 to 3.8. It remains this way for about a year, and then brightens again. Even more interesting, the star brightens for a short while right in the middle of its darkest time.

Epsilon Aurigae is now in its dimming phase. Astronomers have asked amateur observers to help keep an eye on the star in hopes of gaining some understanding of why this happens. One idea is that it is a binary star system in which one of the two stars passes in front of the other, hiding its light. But binary eclipses usually happen every few days and last only hours, and would not explain the mid-time brightening.

Reading about this at astronomy.com, I laughed aloud at one statement in the article which said, “This is one of the few genuine mysteries left to us in the galaxy.”

Oh, really? I can think of quite a few mysteries right within the solar system, never mind the galaxy! For example, why is there so much water on earth and little to none elsewhere in the solar system? Why does Venus rotate backwards? How did some of the rings of Saturn become braided? Why do Mercury and the Earth have magnetic fields while Venus does not? Why is Uranus lying on its side while its magnetic field is upright?

If all mysteries of the physical world were solved, what would we gain? We need mystery. And the greatest is God himself. Some people reject God because of questions like, “Why would a loving God allow . . . ”. They want a simple God they can get hold of with their minds. But what kind of God would that be?

Our Creator is the Great Mystery, and it is good to remain in awe of Him.