The crater-strewn surface of Rhea. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

 

Daughter of Earth and Sky
Jan 14, 2010

Rhea is one of Saturn's moons that bears examination in light of electrical theories. Even though Rhea's mean diameter is only 1528 kilometers, its entire visible surface is pocked with craters. One large basin is 360 kilometers across and six kilometers deep, giving it the distinction of being the most cataclysmic event in the moon's history. Anything larger would have blown it to bits.

Recent images from the Cassini-Equinox spacecraft reveal a moon that has been bombarded by powerful forces. Consensus science sees asteroids and meteors as the common cause. The Electric Universe offers alternatives to those commonly accepted beliefs.

A bright splotch on Rhea covers almost an entire hemisphere. Since it resembles the rayed structures on Earth's Moon, planetary scientists attribute its formation to an asteroid impact explosively throwing debris outward in radial "ejecta blankets" millions, if not billions of years ago. However, previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles have noted that those formations are more likely the result of electric arcs and could be due to relatively recent events.

The rays surrounding the large central crater are not deep but look more like a thin layer of dust without the gradual sizing of the granules as they recede from the point of influence. They were probably deposited by an "electric wind" as the plasma arc reduced the surface rocks to fine powder.

Another strange feature of Rhea is the large concentration of hexagonal craters, although nearly every rocky body in the Solar System, Earth included, exhibits similar structures. How can a colliding rock cause a hexagonal crater? No experiment can create a polygonal shape after an explosive event. No, as pointed-out in several previous Picture of the Day articles, hexagons are created when intense particle beams touch down on a solid surface.

Electric arcs are composed of Birkeland current filaments. Researchers studying the issue have found that beams of electricity flowing through plasma create a central column surrounded by concentric cylinders. The cylindrical discharge can sometimes form diocotron instabilities in the vortex, forcing a hexagonal shape. As the filaments rotate around one another, a hexagonal cross-section forms within the innermost column.

Cassini's January 11, 2011 flyby found that almost all of Rhea's craters occur in multiples, the majority of the larger ones are in pairs with many smaller craters distributed around them non-randomly. Many of them are found on the rims of the large craters.

In so-called "spark machining" equipment electric discharges "stick" to one spot for a split second, cutting microscopic craters as the main discharge rotates within a larger one. The typical shallow, flat floors of the craters, together with central bumps, provide a perfect match with the patterns created by plasma physicist C. J. Ransom in his laboratory arcing experiments.

These are only a few examples that indicate Rhea's features did not undergo a slow condensation out of a nebular cloud. Rather, electric arcs probably tore its surface. What has been left behind is a forensic record of past conditions in the form of fractures, chaotic terrain, and gigantic caldera as big as the state of Wisconsin.

Rhea might once have been caught in the grip of an interplanetary particle beam that excavated its craters. Due to plasma instabilities in the discharge, hexagonal formations remain, “fossilized” geometric shapes permanently burned in.

Stephen Smith

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