Solar Plasma Circuits

[jjohnson]

The computed illustration of the Sun's complex magnetic fields at a moment in time is illustrative of the complexity of a star. It should lead you to realize that each imaginary line of magnetic field traces out the path of moving charges; i.e. electric currents. "You can't have one without the other", as the old song recites. A star is a lively, writhing hairball of electric currents in plasma, as Steve and others have said many times.

But does the larger Birkeland filament which EU theory says is the real source of the Sun's activity have equal current into the Sun and out of the Sun? That seems unlikely, since in a circuit something which does work and extracts energy from the current flow has resistance, reducing the continuing flow of energy in the downstream circuit. Work done by the sun and lost from the circuit seems to include its radiation output across the electromagnetic spectrum (about 63 million watts per square meter per second at the photosphere), as well as the acceleration of mass in the forms of the solar "wind" and coronal mass ejections against the attractive force of its own gravity. The Sun, indeed any star, may be seen as a "lossy" element in its local circuit. As there is resistance, the magnetic fields and associated currents are not "frozen in" and the constant movement and change in the vicinity of the Sun is "normal".

The loss (depletion of energy) may be trivial compared to the total potential in a current flow — think of it as a self-bound plasma "wire" — which may have a diameter approaching a light year or more, but it is there. As the currents flow past the stars down the arms of a spiral galaxy toward the center, the loss builds up, but then, to take a longer view, galaxies themselves are probably kept lit by their own, even larger, currents, which are large stringy things interconnected between galaxies and among galaxy clusters. Everything is linked and powered by currents, the ultimate driver of which we haven't the foggiest idea.

J

[mharratsc]

Well said, Jim! Nicely put, indeed.