Response Article This article (Comets wouldn't have lasted in an old universe (Talk.Origins)) is a response to a rebuttal of a creationist claim published by Talk.Origins Archive under the title Index to Creationist Claims.

Index

Claim CE261:

Comets lose material as they near the sun. If the solar system were very old, comets would long ago have evaporated.

Source:

• Velikovsky, Immanuel, 1955. Earth in Upheaval. New York: Pocket Books, pp. 261-262.

CreationWiki response: (Talk.Origins quotes in blue)

1. The comets that entered the inner solar system a very long time ago indeed have evaporated. However, new comets enter the inner solar system from time to time. The Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt hold many comets deep in space, beyond the orbit of Neptune, where they do not evaporate. Occasionally, gravitational perturbations from other comets bump one of them into a highly elliptical orbit, which causes it to near the sun.

This is not based on observation, but is actually two theories invented to save the old age model from reality. There is absolutely no observational evidence for the so-called Oort cloud, and so-called Kuiper belt objects are too big to be comets and many clearly have a different composition from comets.

Reference: More problems for the "Oort comet cloud"

Reference: Kuiper Belt Objects: solution to short-period comets?

Reference: Comets and the age of the solar system

Reference: Halley's comet—beacon of creation

v • d • e Anticreation Feature articles Atheism • Anticreationists • Common descent • Creation vs. evolution • Creation vs. evolution poll • Debate tactics • Evolutionism • Humanism • Legal controversy • Macroevolution • Media • Naturalism • Public schools • Sceptic arguments • Talk.Origins • Theistic evolutionism • Theory of evolution Response archives Creationism versus Science • EvoWiki • Talk.Origins' Index to Creationist Claims • Frequently Asked But Never Answered Questions • Transitional Vertebrate Fossils FAQ Organizations American Civil Liberties Union • American Humanist Association • National Academy of Sciences • National Center for Science Education Categories • Portal • News