WikiIslam:Sandbox/EDIT THIS PART: Difference between revisions

{{Quote|Golia, Maria. Meteorite: Nature and Culture (Earth) Reaktion Books. p. 57|..an understanding of the stars set men apart, as evidenced in the emergence of the prophet Zoroaster around 1100 BC. An early Christian text suggests that Zoroaster, ‘a very great observer of the stars’, used his wisdom to his advantage: ‘wishing to be regarded as a divine being [he] began to elicit sparks from the stars and show them to people’. This brief passage and a story recorded in the first century AD have been interpreted as describing a meteor shower that Zoroaster may have anticipated. The oldest portions of Avestan scripture, thought to record Zoroaster’s words, say the sky is made of ‘hardest stone’ and worn as armour by Ahura Mazda, god of creation and cosmic order. Avestan texts contain many astronomical references, and the word asana means both ‘sky’ and ‘stone’. On one occasion, Zoroaster was said to have defeated demons with ‘a massive stone received from God’...}}

Meteor showers were of unknown cause to 7th Century Arabs, as the later (than the Quran's writing) historian and geographer [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ya%27qubi Al-Ya'qubi] reports several meteor showers that happened just before and during Muhammad's lifetime (In 571 AD and 609 AD), attributing them to shooting stars/planets striking devils, with the multitude of them potentially leading to the idea they are 'pelted from every side'. Further Muslim historians such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_%27Idhari Ibn 'Idhari] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Jawzi Ibn al-Jawzi] confirm this understanding, with a summary of their assessment of meteor showers held in this Royal Astronomical Society [https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1992QJRAS..33....5R&db_key=AST&page_ind=6&plate_select=NO&data_type=GIF&type=SCREEN_GIF&classic=YES publication].  

Also, stars do not actually 'burn' or cause flame which is caused by chemical burning on Earth needing oxygen.<ref>[https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24733000-900-lighting-fires-in-space-is-helping-us-make-greener-energy-on-earth/#:~:text=Fires%20can't%20start%20in,in%20strange%20and%20beautiful%20ways. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24733000-900-lighting-fires-in-space-is-helping-us-make-greener-energy-on-earth]</ref> Stars create energy via nuclear fusion instead with no flames.  

The claim appears to be that stars create heavier elements<ref>https://new.nsf.gov/science-matters/stars-within-us</ref> which eventually go on to become the sources of debris which can become meteors.  

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abul_A'la_Maududi Ala-Maududi] (d. 1979 AD) also wrote:{{Quote|{{cite web| url=https://myislam.org/surah-al-hijr/ayat-18/ | title= Tasfir Ala-Maududi 15.18}}|In Arabic the word shihab-i-mubin literally means a fiery flame. In Surah (Surah As-Saffat, Ayat 10), the same thing has been called shihab-i-thaqib (flame that pierces through darkness). <b>This may or may not necessarily be a meteor for it is just possible that it may be some type of rays such as cosmic rays or even a stronger type which we have not been able to discover as yet. </b>Anyhow, if the fiery flame that pursues Satans may be taken to be a meteor, a countless number of these can form a fortification around our sphere of the universe. Scientific observations made with the help of the telescope have shown that billions of these meteors are rushing from space in a mass of rainfall. towards the earth’s atmosphere. Such a scene was witnessed in an eastern pan of North America on November 13, 1833. This is so strong a fortification that it can prevent Satans from passing through any fortified sphere.}}''Note the meteor shower being referred to here Leonid Meteor Storm, where fragments of ice, rock, and dust left behind by the Comet Tempel-Tuttle. About every 33 years, the Leonid meteor shower intensifies, increasing the possibility of a dazzling display of lights.<ref>https://blog.newspapers.com/november-12-13-1833-the-night-the-stars-fell/</ref> This comes from a predictable pattern of material left behind by the comet entering earths atmosphere and burning up,<ref>https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/leonid-meteor-shower-when-and-where-see-it-uk</ref> they do not actually form a flame in space which is impossible due to there being no oxygen.<ref>[https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24733000-900-lighting-fires-in-space-is-helping-us-make-greener-energy-on-earth/#:~:text=Fires%20can't%20start%20in,in%20strange%20and%20beautiful%20ways https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24733000-900-lighting-fires-in-space-is-helping-us-make-greener-energy-on-earth/]</ref>''

''Comets'' are made up of mostly ice and dust and are known for the tail of gas and dust that gets blown away from them when they’re near the sun. Some, like asteroids, orbit the sun and come around in regular intervals.<ref><nowiki>https://www.dictionary.com/e/meteor-vs-asteroid-vs-comet/</nowiki> </ref>

''Stars''<ref>https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/what-is-a-star/</ref> are a luminous ball of gas, mostly hydrogen and helium, held together by its own gravity. Nuclear fusion reactions in its core support the star against gravity and produce photons and heat, as well as small amounts of heavier elements. The Sun is the closest star to Earth.

Another problem arises in that they are said to be pursued with flame, however there is no oxygen in space,<ref>https://science.nasa.gov/fire-space</ref> so you can't start a fire (or get smoke).<ref>[https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24733000-900-lighting-fires-in-space-is-helping-us-make-greener-energy-on-earth/#:~:text=Fires%20can't%20start%20in,in%20strange%20and%20beautiful%20ways https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24733000-900-lighting-fires-in-space-is-helping-us-make-greener-energy-on-earth]</ref> Let alone by throwing a rock through space. They only burn in Earths atmosphere due to friction from travelling extremely fast in a vacuum which takes no energy, to being compressed by air in the atmosphere, rising the temperature and setting fire where there is oxygen.<ref>https://science.howstuffworks.com/question308.htm</ref> (Stars like our sun create heat through nuclear fusion, which is a completely different process to chemical burning that creates flame).

Comets, which are the other source (~6%) of meteors, almost all through leaving behind debris, are arguably just as if not more problematic than asteroids. These are similar to asteroids, however they aren't just made of rock but also frozen gases, ice and dust, and orbit the Sun.<ref>https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/</ref>  

Similar to asteroids in the asteroid belt, the source of comets are from extremely distant sections of the solar system, the Kuiper belt (beyond Neptune) being the closest source. The inner edge of the Kuiper Belt begins at the orbit of Neptune and a distance of around 2.8 billion miles (4.8 billion kilometers) from the sun, with its main concentration of bodies ending at around 4.6 billion miles (7.4 billion km) from the star. It's thickness is approximately ~930 million miles (~1.5 billion kilometers / (10AU)).<ref>https://www.e-education.psu.edu/astro801/content/l11_p8.html</ref> The Kuiper Belt is far larger than the main asteroid belt, up to 20 times as wide and 20 to 100 times it's mass according to Nine Planets. In fact, astronomers estimate there are hundreds of thousands of objects in the region that are larger than 60 miles (100 kilometers) wide or larger, and potentially trillions overall, however, the total mass of all the material in the Kuiper Belt is estimated to be no more than about 10% of the mass of Earth.<ref>https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/kuiper-belt/overview/</ref>  Occasionally, one will break of from this orbit and reach the inner solar system, though for one to come anywhere near Earth is rare,<ref>https://www.space.com/comets.html</ref><ref>https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/7721/how-near-to-earth-do-comets-pass</ref> and for two that also happen to be appropriately sized, to be near enough to be used as objects is near impossible, making them extremely sparse for use as weapons to pelt jinn from every side from.   

As mentioned briefly earlier, comets do not make flames or have fire at their head, but ice melting and disintegrating under a barrage of solar radiation. For this reason, they only sprout a tail near the sun. In fact the tails direction more influenced by direction of the sun than the Comet trajectory.<ref>https://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/explore/comets/background/</ref> Comet ion tails are comprised of glowing lightweight gases ionised by UV light, this reflecting sunlight, not a flame.<ref><nowiki>https://www.google.com/amp/s/solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/in-depth.amp</nowiki></ref> These do not match the flaming pursuing lamps of the jinn - which would be scientifically inaccurate. When they are far from their stars comets are just cold dark space bodies movies on a highly eccentric ellipse path.

It is extremely rare for comets to cause a meteor directly, but in theory meteorites could come from meteors from them directly from the few 'near' Earth (it's extremely rare for one to come within 0.1AU of Earth),<ref>https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/7721/how-near-to-earth-do-comets-pass</ref> but none (meteorites) have been traced indefinitely. As meteor shower occurs when the Earth passes through the trail of debris left by a comet or occasionally an asteroid.<ref>https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/741990main_ten_meteor_facts.pdf</ref> When a meteoroid from these enters Earth’s upper atmosphere, it heats up due to friction from the air. The heat causes gases around the meteoroid to glow brightly, and a meteor appears.<ref>https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/meteor/</ref>