A FEW SIGNS OF GOD'S GREATNESS (VERSE NO. 5 - 6)

      More details of the aforementioned verses are given here in which the sun is introduced as a light emitting source, and the moon as a light reflector.

      Not only the sun and moon, that everything in God's creation has use and purpose, beauty and grace, and fits into his universal design. In these verses, the sun is shown in its glory and splendour, and the moon in its beauty and attraction, and both of them are the signs of God's infinite and amazing power and knowledge of creation and His limitless Mercy and Grace.

      The sun, not only warms the bed of all the creatures, but also it nourishes all plants and animals. As an immense source of energy, it causes all the movements upon the earth, even those of the winds and the waves, and flow of streams and the eruption of springs.

      If the sun cease shining over the earth, soon every moving creature will die in the dark of the night.

      The moon too, with its poetical beauty, and spritual loveliness is our lamp in the night, and our water pump in the day, which its gravital attraction causes the lowِtide and highِtide of the seaِa vital natural phenomena for the life of plantations.

      here phases are arranged so that we may easily know the number of the years and the seasons, and use it in our time reckoning as a natural calendar.

      Not only the celestial bodies, but whatever is in the heavens and in the earth, be it large or small, it is a sign, and a well polished mirror that reflects the power, the purpose, the knowledge, and the general plan of God who is indeed all in all. Only those can see the marks and signs of our Lord in every particle, who have the mirror of their heart polished by piety and virtue.

THE SUN

      The sun is the only STAR that is near enough to our earth to be observed in detail.

      The sun's mean distance from the earth is about 92900,000ِmiles, and it takes 8.3 minute for a photon of sun's light to reach our earth; where as the light of the next nearest star requires more the four years to reach the earth.

Most of the sun's radiation emerges from a layer on its surface, called PHOTOSPHERE, which is 250 miles thick. The temperature of sun's visible surface is 11000 F³ or 5750³ ABSOLUTE. Sun's atmosphere consists of transparent gases which has the red glow seen round the sun during total eclipse. More than sixty chemical elements have been recognized in the sun from studies of the normal solar and chromospheric spectra. Almost all the material elements that are found in the earth, are believed to be present in the sun, but the lighter elements such as hydrogen accounts for about 76% of the mass of the sun. Helium is the second element in abundance which account for 23% of the mass.

      The sun like our earth does rotate on its axis, but for being gaseous, unlike the solid earth, its rotation period is not the same in all latitudes. The rotation period of the sun becomes longer, as the distance from the equator increases.

      The period is less than 25 days at the equator, and about 27 days at solar latitude 35³, and as much as 33 days nearer to the poles of the sun.

AND THE MOON

      Moon is the earth's only natural satellite. The orbit, relative to the earth's center, is an almost circular ellipse with the earth at one focus.

      The average distance from the center of the earth is 238857mi. In the our solar system, there are 30 other satellites, but our moon is larger and more massive than all of them.

      The moon's diameter is a little more than one forth of the earth's diameter, (2160 miles) and its mass is about one eightieth, on eigthyth of that of the earth. The moon's gravity is not great enough to retain an atmosphere, and so, there is no air around it.

      The moon and the earth revolve together once in 27(( ))1(( ))3(( )) days around a point 2900 miles from the earth's center, and this point revolves around the sun once a year.

      Approximately the same hemisphere of the moon is always towards the earth. It contains the dark spots that form the imagined face of the, ``MAN IN THE MOON''. Also certain markings near the edge are visible at time, and turned out of sight at other times

      The moon is a dark globe that shines only as it reflects sunlight.

      The cycle of its phases from new moon to full, and back to the new again during the lunar month, results from varying amount of the sunlit hemisphere that is presented to the earth as the moon revolves around it. The bright hemisphere is turned away from us at new moon, when it passes between the earth and the sun. It comes more and more into view at the crescent, first quarter, gibbous phases successively, until the round, full, moon appears in the sky. After the full moon; the phases come in reverse order, when the moon overtakes and passes the sun again.

      In addition to the light of the sun which the moon recieves directly, it is also illuminated by sun light reflected from the earth. Earth light on the dark part of the moon is a familiar sight at the crescent phase, when the earth is in the lunar sky and shows nearly its full phase.

      The mount of the moon phases has a length of about 29.5 days.

      The surface of the moon is pocked with innumerable craters. These craters range in size from small pits less than 1 ft. in diameter, to walled plains about 150 miles in diameter. The wall's slope is more abruptly to the floor inside, and more gradually to the plain around  them. The mountains on the moon are best seen near the terminator, i.e. the line between the moon's dark and light sides.

      There, the shadows are long, and the contrast between the mountain and plain is more pronounced. Near the moon's south pole, mountains have high peaks up to 26000 ft.

QUOTED FROM:ِ INTERNATIONALِAMERICANA AND BRITANICA ENCYCLOPEDIA

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE)