Falling Stars and X-rays
Oct 18, 2010

Because the source gives off more X-rays than stars but less than the sources in the cores of active galaxies, it is classed as an ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX). To account for this exceptional luminosity, astronomers must assume that gravity, and therefore matter, is concentrated far beyond any densities that can be achieved by testable means: “the X-ray emission is produced by debris from the disrupted white dwarf star that is heated as it falls towards the black hole.”

Of course, nature provides an easier means to produce X-rays than having stardust fall onto the extrapolation of a mathematical conjecture: electrons accelerated in a moderate electrical field work well. Electrical fields in space are almost impossible to detect without sending a probe through them. While we’re waiting for NASA to send a probe to NGC 1399, we can examine the indirect evidence.

Back in 1974, Halton Arp and some fellow heretics identified 43 X-ray sources in another galaxy in Fornax—NGC 1097, the Dogleg Galaxy. He took the spectra of 33 of the objects and found that 94% of them were quasars. Furthermore, they were aligned with the four jets, one of which is bent at a right angle and gives the galaxy its name. Subsequent examinations of other ULXs in other galaxies revealed most of them to be quasars.

In the Electric Universe, a quasar is highly charged matter under great electrical stress. One characteristic of a quasar is that its spectrum shows a blue continuum and very few emission lines. This is attributed to the Stark effect, which causes emission lines in a strong electric field to spread out in proportion to the field strength. Lines of lighter elements are spread more than lines of heavier ones, so a strong electrical field, such as would exist in a quasar, could easily smear the blue Hydrogen lines into a continuum.

The Electric Universe also posits that globular clusters are not old, primordial assemblages but are more in the nature of ball lightning fragments thrown off by the plasma discharge that is the galaxy. The ULX in the globular cluster of NGC 1399 is likely a recently ejected quasar from the galaxy. It’s possible that the globular cluster has accumulated enough charge that it has ejected—or is ejecting—its own quasar.

Mel Acheson