Jun 04,
2007
Mountains of Creation Create a Comet
Popular
theories dominated by metaphors of weather and weathering fail to
apprehend actual conditions. An awareness of plasma behavior makes
possible a more realistic view.
The popular theories of star formation see in this
image “thick and turbulent clouds of gas and dust” that are “being
sculpted into pillars by radiation and winds from hot, massive
stars.”
“Radiation and winds from the massive stars
subsequently blast the cloudy material outward, so that only the
densest pillar-shaped clumps of material remain. The process is akin
to the formation of desert mesas, which are made up of dense rock
that resisted water and wind erosion.... [T]he pillars eventually
become dense enough to spur the birth of a second generation of
stars.”
The
unreliable confidence that arises from
having only one model with which to interpret meager data leads to
this kind of sloppy use of language. The “thick” clouds are less
dense than any vacuum that can be produced on Earth. They are almost
certainly not “gas and dust,” which are subject primarily to forces
of gravity and collisions. They are
plasma, which is subject
primarily to forces of electromagnetism. No doubt there are dust
particles and gas molecules present: The important distinction is in
how we think about them—whether as metaphorical desert rocks that
are eroded by fluid agents or as cosmic currents that are shaped by
electrical discharge.
And as plasma, the clouds are almost certainly not
“turbulent.” Hannes Alfven, the Nobel Laureate father of plasma
cosmology, warned astrophysicists, “The sloppy use of the term
‘turbulent’ has caused, and is causing, much confusion.... [T]here
is no certain indication than anywhere in space there is very
much (large scale) turbulence in the proper sense of the word.... [R]eal
turbulence produces mixing.... On the contrary, [in space plasmas] a
separation of elements often takes place.” [Alfven, Cosmic Plasma,
1981, pp. 42-3. Emphasis in original.]
As plasma, the pillars are examples of this
separation. The denser dusty plasma inside the pillars is being
separated from the transparent plasma outside by double layers. The
cosmic currents flowing around and through the dusty plasma
show up as filaments inside the pillars. (If the dense head of the
pillar were merely shielding “gas and dust” from a wind, structure
within the pillar would not be expected.)
Many of these filaments exhibit the knots and
helical braiding often observed in such cosmic currents. And many of
the stars in the heads of the pillars occur in lines: The stars are
“pinches” in the filaments where recurrent instabilities
squeeze matter into dense balls that are the focuses of arc
discharges. They have formed, not gradually over millions of years
in response to the gentle sweepings of nebulous winds, but in an
astronomical instant in response to thunderbolts.
The currents in the dusty plasma are
coupled
to other currents in the transparent plasma outside. The transparent
plasma is part of the plasma sheath around the large star just
outside the image. (The pillars point toward it.) The electrical
circuit is similar to that of
comets in the Sun’s heliosheath.
The clusters of stars inside the heads of the pillars are comparable
to the nucleus of a comet.
Instead of the
metaphor of desert mesas, a more appropriate metaphor would be that
of interstellar comets.
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