Claim CE261.1:
The Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud have never been observed. They have been
proposed merely as an ad hoc explanation for a source of comets.
Source:
Brown, Walt, 1995. In the Beginning: Compelling evidence for creation
and the Flood. Phoenix, AZ: Center for Scientific Creation, p. 69.
Response:
- As of June 2000, more than 250 objects in the Kuiper Belt have been
observed directly (Buie 2000), and it alone can be the source of
short-term comets.
The Oort cloud has not been observed directly (although Sedna, a
planetoid discovered in March 2004, might be in the Oort cloud), but
its presence is well supported based on observations of long-period
comets.
- If there were no source for new comets to come from, all comets would
have the same age. They do not. Some are young and have lots of
gasses; others are little more than gravel heaps.
Links:
Matson, Dave E. 1994. How good are those young-earth arguments?
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/hovind/howgood-yea.html#proof3
References:
Further Reading:
Jewitt, David. n.d. Kuiper Belt.
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~jewitt/kb.html
created 2003-4-22, modified 2004-3-19
