The "big bang" is a concept that makes sense to most science-minded persons; evidently, the explanation for the entire universe is that it all was created in an instant from one subatomic particle.

Leaving the logic of the big bang for the moment, it was refreshing and exciting to discover this article about the new scientific thinking regarding the age of the universe. 

See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further.

200,000,000,000 B.C. - A time of contraction and condensation in the Andronover nuclear mass. Some planets revolving around the newborn suns have cooled sufficiently to be suitable for life implantation. The oldest inhabited planets of Nebadon date from these times. The completed universe mechanism of Nebadon first begins to function; Michael's creation is registered on Uversa as a universe of inhabitation - (The Urantia Book, 57:3.10; 57:3.11) 

75,000,000,000 B.C. - The Andronover nebula has attained the height of its sun-family stage. The majority of these suns have since developed extensive systems of planets, satellites, dark islands, comets, meteors, and cosmic dust clouds - (The Urantia Book, 57:4.2) 

50,000,000,000 B.C. - The first period of sun dispersion in the Andronovre nebula is completed, giving origin to 876,926 sun systems - (The Urantia Book, 57:4.3) 

7,000,000,000 B.C. - The height of the Andronover terminal breakup, the period of the birth of the larger terminal suns and the apex of the local physical disturbances. The Milky Way galaxy is composed of vast numbers of former spiral and other nebulae, and many still retain their original configuration. But as the result of internal catastrophes and external attraction, many are so distorted and rearranged that these enormous aggregations appear as gigantic luminous masses of blazing suns, like the Magellanic Cloud. - (The Urantia Book, 15:4.8; 57:4.7) 

They come in different flavors and sizes, some come in destructive duos that essentially vaporize each other, and many have fantastical names like sparticles and neutrolinos. Here are the tiny particles that leave even physicists drooling - terms like: God Particle, Quarks, Neutrinos, and Antimatter

See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further.  Lots of neat stuff there...

A new video by a NASA spacecraft orbiting Mercury is showing the closest planet to the sun like never before, revealing the rocky world as an oddly colorful planet.

Scientists created the new video of Mercury from space using images captured by NASA's Messenger spacecraft, which has been studying the small planet from orbit since 2011. The video shows a complete global map of Mercury as it spins on its axis and was assembled using thousands of photos into a single view.

See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further, where you'll also find a short video of the enhanced views of Mercury obtained by NASA's Messenger spacecraft (the name is short for the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging)

From The Urantia Book, we learn that Mercury always shows only one side of its surface to earth, similar to our moon. How lucky that we can now get a full view of this lovely planet!

^57:6.2 The planets nearest the sun were the first to have their revolutions slowed down by tidal friction. Such gravitational influences also contribute to the stabilization of planetary orbits while acting as a brake on the rate of planetary- axial revolution, causing a planet to revolve ever slower until axial revolution ceases, leaving one hemisphere of the planet always turned toward the sun or larger body, as is illustrated by the planet Mercury and by the moon, which always turns the same face toward Urantia.

The Sage of Salem

Urantia Now blog has a very nice video describing the existence,
1900 years before Jesus, of Machiventa Melchizedek

See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further. - about 10 minutes long...worth your time, I think...good to share.

As the world understands "final judgment,"it is commonly thought that there will be an ultimate "end of the world" when there will be a final reckoning of the evil, with goodness as the final victor...predictions about its arrival have been pretty frequent in these times, but we find ourselves here still.

135:5.5 All were agreed that some drastic purging or purifying discipline would of necessity precede the establishment of the new kingdom on earth. The literalists taught that a world-wide war would ensue which would destroy all unbelievers, while the faithful would sweep on to universal and eternal victory. The spiritists taught that the kingdom would be ushered in by the great judgment of God which would relegate the unrighteous to their well-deserved judgment of punishment and final destruction, at the same time elevating the believing saints of the chosen people to high seats of honor and authority with the Son of Man, who would rule over the redeemed nations in God’s name. And this latter group even believed that many devout gentiles might be admitted to the fellowship of the new kingdom.

98:5.4The adherents of this cult worshiped in caves and other secret places, chanting hymns, mumbling magic, eating the flesh of the sacrificial animals, and drinking the blood. Three times a day they worshiped, with special weekly ceremonials on the day of the sun-god and with the most elaborate observance of all on the annual festival of Mithras, December twenty-fifth. It was believed that the partaking of the sacrament ensured eternal life, the immediate passing, after death, to the bosom of Mithras, there to tarry in bliss until the judgment day. On the judgment day the Mithraic keys of heaven would unlock the gates of Paradise for the reception of the faithful; whereupon all the unbaptized of the living and the dead would be annihilated upon the return of Mithras to earth. It was taught that, when a man died, he went before Mithras for judgment, and that at the end of the world Mithras would summon all the dead from their graves to face the last judgment. The wicked would be destroyed by fire, and the righteous would reign with Mithras forever.

176:2.7 “But what is the significance of this teaching having to do with the coming of the Sons of God? Do you not perceive that, when each of you is called to lay down his life struggle and pass through the portal of death, you stand in the immediate presence of judgment, and that you are face to face with the facts of a new dispensation of service in the eternal plan of the infinite Father? What the whole world must face as a literal fact at the end of an age, you, as individuals, must each most certainly face as a personal experience when you reach the end of your natural life and thereby pass on to be confronted with the conditions and demands inherent in the next revelation of the eternal progression of the Father’s kingdom.”

113:6.7 And even so, when a planetary age ends, when those in the lower circles of mortal achievement are forgathered, it is their group guardians who reassemble them in the resurrection halls of the mansion spheres, even as your record tells: "And he shall send his angels with a great voice and shall gather together his elect from one end of the realm to another."

"The technique of justice demands that personal or group guardians shall respond to the dispensational roll call in behalf of all nonsurviving personalities. The Adjusters of such nonsurvivors do not return, and when the rolls are called, the seraphim respond, but the Adjusters make no answer. This constitutes the "resurrection of the unjust," in reality the formal recognition of the cessation of creature existence. This roll call of justice always immediately follows the roll call of mercy, the resurrection of the sleeping survivors. But these are matters which are of concern to none but the supreme and all-knowing Judges of survival values. Such problems of adjudication do not really concern us.

176:3.2“And even you, Thomas, fail to comprehend what I have been saying. Have I not all this time taught you that your connection with the kingdom is spiritual and individual, wholly a matter of personal experience in the spirit by the faith-realization that you are a son of God. What more shall I say? The downfall of nations, the crash of empires, the destruction of the unbelieving Jews, the end of an age, even the end of the world, what have these things to do with one who believes this gospel, and who has hid his life in the surety of the eternal kingdom? You who are God-knowing and gospel-believing have already received the assurances of eternal life. Since your lives have been lived in the spirit and for the Father, nothing can be of serious concern to you. Kingdom builders, the accredited citizens of the heavenly worlds, are not to be disturbed by temporal upheavals or perturbed by terrestrial cataclysms. What does it matter to you who believe this gospel of the kingdom if nations overturn, the age ends, or all things visible crash, since you know that your life is the gift of the Son, and that it is eternally secure in the Father? Having lived the temporal life by faith and having yielded the fruits of the spirit as the righteousness of loving service for your fellows, you can confidently look forward to the next step in the eternal career with the same survival faith that has carried you through your first and earthly adventure in sonship with God.

Cambridge, MA - Using publicly available data from NASA's Kepler space telescope, astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have found that six percent of red dwarf stars have habitable, Earth-sized planets. Since red dwarfs are the most common stars in our galaxy, the closest Earth-like planet could be just 13 light-years away.

"We thought we would have to search vast distances to find an Earth-like planet. Now we realize another Earth is probably in our own backyard, waiting to be spotted," said Harvard astronomer and lead author Courtney Dressing (CfA).

The Milky Way galaxy, home of Earth's solar system, may actually be only half as massive as currently thought, scientists say.

Stars in the far outer reaches of the Milky Way, between 260,000 and 490,000 light-years from the galactic center, are cruising around surprisingly slowly, researchers found. Galactic mass and star velocities are linked, so the results could have big implications.

^11:7.7 The relatively quiet zones between the space levels, such as the one separating the seven superuniverses from the first outer space level, are enormous elliptical regions of quiescent space activities. These zones separate the vast galaxies which race around Paradise in orderly procession. You may visualize the first outer space level, where untold universes are now in process of formation, as a vast procession of galaxies swinging around Paradise, bounded above and below by the midspace zones of quiescence and bounded on the inner and outer margins by relatively quiet space zones. *

He introduced himself with his full name but all I heard was Melvin. Though he had his back to me I could hear him talking about how he had recently been released from prison where he had spent 22 years. He said that he was trying very hard to find a job and that he refused to be a victim of the system. Expressing that all he really wanted was honest work. Then he talked about the skills he had like being a mechanic, painter, and an all around hard worker. He ended by saying that he was slightly embarrassed to have to do this but that he refused to “twiddle his thumbs” and that he was sorry if he had made anyone uncomfortable. Then he sat down.

I knew before he was even finished talking that I would be offering him some kind of help. So I approached him and asked if he would like to come sit by me and chat. He came over and started to talk with me about how he had gone to prison in the first place. Chicago being one of the worst murder capitals of the nation, they have some very strict laws on the books.

See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further. - one of our new generation of Urantia Book reader/students in the trenches, and doing good work!

Teuvo and Allson Zopel travel the US on a book-promotion tour, and in the process have opportunities to fellowship many souls. Melvin is one of them...

^160:5.3 If something has become a religion in your experience, it is self-evident that you already have become an active evangel of that religion since you deem the supreme concept of your religion as being worthy of the worship of all mankind, all universe intelligences. If you are not a positive and missionary evangel of your religion, you are self-deceived in that what you call a religion is only a traditional belief or a mere system of intellectual philosophy. If your religion is a spiritual experience, your object of worship must be the universal spirit reality and ideal of all your spiritualized concepts. All religions based on fear, emotion, tradition, and philosophy I term the intellectual religions, while those based on true spirit experience I would term the true religions. The object of religious devotion may be material or spiritual, true or false, real or unreal, human or divine. Religions can therefore be either good or evil.

LONG BEACH, Calif. — A possible alien planet discovered by NASA's Kepler space telescope is the most Earth-like world yet detected beyond our solar system, scientists say.

The possible planet is called KOI 172.02 (KOI stands for Kepler Object of Interest, a designation assigned to all planet candidates found by the telescope until they are confirmed as planets). The discovery was announced at the meeting Monday (Jan. 7) by Christopher Burke of the SETI Institute as part of a batch of 461 new planet candidates found by Kepler.

See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further.

From The Urantia Book:

^15:6.15 In your superuniverse not one cool planet in forty is habitable by beings of your order. And, of course, the superheated suns and the frigid outlying worlds are unfit to harbor higher life. In your solar system only three planets are at present suited to harbor life. Urantia, in size, density, and location, is in many respects ideal for human habitation.