We have to account for a passage in Psalm 18 where the Bible tells us that God is in both 1) thick darkness and 2) has brightness before Him, at the same time and in the same context.
Brightness Before and Darkness Under
The Second Heaven
Most of the space between the firmament and Earth is the cosmos or observable universe. There's something very odd about the cosmos: there's a disconnect between what we can see vs. what we believe about it.
Deducing the Presence of the Firmament
We can use Principle VI to deduce the nature of stars from current scientific research and what we know about the firmament, a rigid sphere made up of at least 12 layers of different crystal structures.
If it Looks Like a Galaxy
Galaxies, in terms of the scientific definition, don't exist. The things that we call galaxies are ULM (unknown luminous matter), which consists of predominantly CFM (crystalline firmament material).
A Pavement of Sapphire Stone
You may be uncomfortable with the idea that God uses a section of the firmament as a movable platform like a giant cosmic surfboard. We get it, this is a deep end and we went off it. It's what we do.
Riding the Heavens
The idea that God or his agents may physically visit the Earth by riding on a piece of heaven may seem ridiculous. However it appears that a section of firmament is used like an elevator to travel between heaven and Earth.
Extraterrestrial Propaganda
Popular science (SciPop) is in love with the idea that an extraterrestrial impact caused a mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous (Mesozoic) which wiped out the dinosaurs. There's evidence for meteorite impacts.
Giant Mirrors in Space
A majority of the stars are crystalline firmament material (CFM) which reflect sunlight like giant mirrors in space. Giant 'mirror' planets just showed up in the popular science narrative (SciPop). Surprise, surprise.
A Huge Diamond in Space
There are times when reporting on new scientific observations gets ahead of the Peer Review propaganda machine and the truth gets reported, almost by accident.
Rubies and Sapphires
If there are football field-sized and larger pieces of ruby and sapphire in the Kuiper belt (crystalline firmament material), then we should see light spectra consistent with ruby and sapphire.