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Ballistic Cosmic Rays
Feb 02, 2010
The
European Space Agency announces that
cosmic rays are caused by supernova
shock waves.A recent
press release from the European
Southern Observatory announces that
“a unique ‘ballistic study’” proves
that cosmic rays are caused by
supernova shock waves bumping
particles to near light speed.
One author of the study noted that
astronomers have thought that for a
long time, raising the question
among skeptics whether the study
proves instead the bias of belief:
one tends to see (and to prove) what
one believes. The author concludes:
“that proves it.” Upon critical
examination, “proves it” is found to
mean that it’s allowed by my theory,
so if I exclude all other possible
theories mine has to be true.
One has to wonder: if these particle
accelerators in the Milky Way are so
“very efficient,” the particle
physicists at the Large Hadron
Collider should replace their
inefficient electromagnetic device
with one based on the new ballistic
laws of electromagnetism. The
particles can be accelerated by
directing shock waves from
explosions to bump them to high
velocities. Farther down the
ballistics totem pole, dentists can
replace their inefficient x-ray
machines that generate x-rays by
accelerating electrons with electric
fields, substituting the new
machines that work with tiny but
powerful shock waves. Your next
x-ray won’t just buzz, it’ll bang.
The efficiency of transfer of energy
from shock waves to particles and
the number of particles so affected
can only be determined by counting
the number of cosmic rays and
guessing the number of supernovae
that could produce them. The theory
must take as its initial assumption
the conclusion it is said to prove,
hence proving that tautologies are…tautologous.
Filaments. Pairs of filaments. Pairs
of filaments spiraling around each
other. Pairs of pairs of twisting
filaments. Anyone familiar with
plasma will immediately recognize
them (in the image above, as in
almost any image of a so-called
supernova remnant) as Birkeland
currents. Only an astronomer in
intellectual free-fall with his eyes
squeezed shut could fail to see
plasma. And so astronomers see “gas”
and “ballistics” where plasma
researchers see electric currents,
double layers, and electric fields.
It’s probably significant that the
press release uses the term
“particles” exclusively, never
“charged particles,” despite
mentioning that they are protons.
When these twisted structures were
first discovered, some astronomers
tried to explain them with a physics
of twisted shock waves. They never
mentioned Birkeland currents. The
physics was more twisted than the
shock waves, and the astronomers
moved on to more tractable problems.
Now a few astronomers are beginning
to refer to Birkeland currents but
only with the assumption that they
“don’t do anything.”
But Birkeland currents do “do
things.” The study’s author is
correct to note that “the energy
that is used for particle
acceleration is at the expense of
heating” but is mistaken to append
“the gas, which is therefore much
colder than theory predicts.” It’s
not gas, it’s plasma, and the study
is using the wrong theory.
Birkeland currents are also known as
field-aligned currents because the
electric field of the current is
aligned with the magnetic field.
Charged particles are therefore
accelerated in the direction of the
field. Their random motion—which is
what temperature measures—is
reduced; therefore the plasma which
they make up appears “colder” than
would be expected from their being
bumped by a shock wave in gas.
Perhaps it’s not the cosmic rays
that have gone ballistic but the
astronomers.
Mel Acheson
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