ISLAM

PLACE: Mecca

DATE: 619

NAME: The Holy Quran, Surah Fussilat, verse 11

NEWS: Then He turned to the sky, which was smoke, and said to it and to the earth, “Come willingly or unwillingly.” They said, “We come willingly.”

SCIENCE

PLACE: United States of America, Mexico City

DATE: 1944–51

NAME: Gerard P. Kuiper

NEWS   : The Sun and planets were originally a cloud-like mass of gas. They were formed by splitting off from a single mass.

It was once thought that Earth was a fragment that broke away from the Sun. This idea was discovered by the Dutch astronomer Gerard P. Kuiper. He surprised the world of astronomy with his assumption that the most distant planets in the Solar System also belonged to a family. What led Kuiper to the idea that each planet belonged to a large family, despite the Solar System’s vast distances, was a very basic concept related to the behavior of comets. He proposed the theory that while planets were within a gas mass, they began to rotate and cool under the influence of gravitational force, and then some fragments broke off due to this rotation and gravitational pull and began to orbit around the main mass. The detached fragments condensed and cooled further due to the coldness of space and the effect of rotation. Meanwhile, the Sun condensed enough to emit heat and light, and the hydrogen and helium gases around the detached fragments evaporated. Thus, the planets began to take shape. The Holy Quran states that the universe, which began with the verse, “The heavens and the earth were joined together, and We separated them,” transitioned from the gas phase to its current state. The Holy Quran informed us of this discovery 1332 years ago.