First image of neutral oxygen and hydrogen at the interstellar boundary.
Credit: University of New Hampshire/Boston University.


 

With gravity, there is only one kind of star: condensed. A cloud of gas collapses into a tiny ball until nuclear fusion reactions heat it to incandescence. (Never mind that the cloud’s angular momentum—which it must have to generate a planetary accretion disk later on—will stop the collapse long before it becomes a tiny ball.)

With electricity, there are two kinds of stars: anodic and cathodic. The anodic is the most common. It forms in a z-pinch in galactic Birkeland currents. The star acts as an anode within a discharge that is driven by an electron-dominated galactic current. The Sun is the closest example, and space probes enable us to take measurements that can test and articulate the model. Most stars are driven, like the Sun, by current densities in dark mode discharge. It’s called “dark” only because it doesn’t radiate in the visible portion of the spectrum. In radio and x-ray wavelengths, it “shines.”

However, the structure of the z-pinch that generates and maintains the star is better seen in planetary nebulae and supernova remnants. The nebulae are driven by current densities in glow mode. We can see the structure of the z-pinch in visible light. The galactic current channel is composed of concentric tubes of current filaments. The tubes pinch down in the region in which the star forms, taking on an hourglass shape.

Near the star, electromagnetic forces produced by the current squeeze the plasma into bubbles. We see the initial stages of this process in the coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on the Sun. Toroidal, or ring, currents form around the star in its equatorial plane, and double layers (bright “knots”) may appear in the helical “jets” (which are also Birkeland currents) that often emanate from the star’s poles.

Since the star is positively charged with respect to the galactic plasma, a sheath forms around it. With the gravity model of stars, the sheath is understood as the shock front between the stellar wind (assumed to be particles “boiled off” the hot star) and the interstellar gas through which the star is moving. Therefore, it must have a teardrop shape, compressed on the leading side and trailing off on the following side. If it were visible, it would look like a comet, and comet-like condensations have been observed in star-forming regions, apparently confirming the model.

However, recent observations by the IBEX satellite undermine the confirmation. IBEX measures the number and intensities of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) coming from all over the sky. ENAs are generated when fast-moving positive ions (primarily protons) acquire an electron and become electrically neutral (a hydrogen atom). As ions, the particles are confined to spiral along the Sun’s magnetic field, but the instant they combine with an electron they fly off in a straight line.

In the gravity model, the most likely place for solar wind protons to acquire an electron is in a collision with a hydrogen atom in the sheath. If the sheath has a teardrop shape, ENAs should be more or less evenly distributed around the sky. The IBEX observations revealed a band of increased ENAs that is perpendicular to the galactic magnetic field.

In the electric star model, this is precisely the location where the Sun’s neutral sheet current would interact with the galactic electron current in the z-pinch. ENAs most likely acquire their electrons from the galactic current.

Mel Acheson