"Credit must be given to observation rather than theories, and to theories only insofar as they are confirmed by the observed facts."

Aristotle

The Solar System

Why does Venus rotate backward, while Uranus rotates at a 98 degree angle to its vertical plane?

The evolutionist needs to come up with special cases to handle these two solar system misfits.

Why do 11 (almost 1/3) of the moons of various planets rotate backward?

According to current views of the solar system origin, all should rotate in the same direction and in the same plane. These backward moons are difficult (though not impossible) to explain.

Why do many of those moons have inclined orbits?

The orbits of the satellites should be coplanar with the revolution of the host.

Why aren't most of the planets composed of hydrogen and helium like the sun?

Earth is composed mainly of heavy elements, while the sun has only 1% of its composition that is not hydrogen or helium. Interstellar gas is not composed of heavy elements, but is mainly hydrogen and helium also.

What stopped solar system gasses from falling into the sun?

The sun makes up 99 and 6/7% of the solar system's mass. The 1/7 of 1% of the remaining solar system's mass should have followed the rest into the sun.

Why didn't that gas simply dissipate?

For gravitational attractions to be significant, the particles would have to have been as large as small moons.

Where did the moon come from?

A July 28th,1997 article in USA Today indicated that perhaps a planet about three times the mass of Mars could have crashed into the early Earth and popped enough material into orbit to form the moon. They do point out that this would have significantly increased the spin of the Earth in a way that cannot be observed today, but something must have made the Earth slow back down - perhaps another large object hitting the Earth from the opposite direction. There has still never been an adequate theory proposed to explain the moon's origin.

How could the earth have had liquid water millions of years ago when the sun was weaker?

(See July 1999 Astronomy Magazine for a discussion of this paradox).

Earth's spin is slowing at the rate of almost 1 sec/year. How fast was it spinning 1 billion years ago?

Why are there any small (less than 100,000th of a cm.) particles left in the solar system?

Solar wind, acting for billions of years, should have pushed out all of these particles by now.

Where is all of the meteoritic dust on the earth?

Assuming only present accumulation (which should have been much greater during early years of the universe) there should be a 182 foot thick layer after 5 billion years. This dust is extremely high in nickel content. There is no great significant amount of nickel in either sea or land.

How big was the sun 1 billion years ago?

The sun looses 4 million tons of mass through fusion per second, and is shrinking by about 1% each century (5 feet per hour). This shrinking is responsible for a large amount of the energy that the sun gives off.

Where do short period comets come from?

A short period comet would completely "boil off" after about 15,000 years. There is no known way for a comet to come into existence. They have been thought to have been around since the start of the universe. The Oort cloud was devised to try to explain this but, once again, it is a case of trying to make the observed facts fit the preconceived notions.