Science in the Glorious Quran: Sun and Moon Orbits

 “وَهُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَ وَالشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ ۖ كُلٌّ فِي فَلَكٍ يَسْبَحُونَ” (الأنبياء:33).

“It is He, Who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon, each swimming along in its rounded course” (Qur’an, 21:33).

“لَا الشَّمْسُ يَنبَغِي لَهَا أَن تُدْرِكَ الْقَمَرَ وَلَا اللَّيْلُ سَابِقُ النَّهَارِ ۚ وَكُلٌّ فِي فَلَكٍ يَسْبَحُونَ” (يس:40).

“It is not permitted for the sun to catch up to the moon, nor can the night outstrip the day, each swims along in its own orbit” (Qur’an, 36:40).

In 1609, the German scientist Yohannous Keppler discovered that the planets (like the earth with its moon) move in elliptical orbits around the sun and rotate around their axes, which explain the sequence of night and day.

The Moon takes 27.322 days to go around the Earth once and approximately 27 days for the moon to rotate once on its axis. Therefore, it appears to observers from Earth to be almost still.

On the other hand, the sun takes approximately 25 days to rotate around its axis and 200 million years to complete one revolution around the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy. The above verses of the Qur’an refers to the movements of the sun and the moon in orbits.

The sun path round the Galaxy takes about 200 million years (left). The Earth and the moon rotate together around the sun (right)