The center of the Milky Way. Credit: Serge Brunier


 

Plasmoids Refute Dark Matter Theory
May 05, 2011

"We should remember that there was once a discipline called natural philosophy. Unfortunately, this discipline seems not to exist today. It has been renamed science, but science of today is in danger of losing much of the natural philosophy aspect."

--- Hannes Alfvén

Previous Picture of the day articles have taken issue with the theory of dark matter, in general, and with the idea that "dark matter particles" can collide and annihilate each other, releasing vast amounts of radiation. In June 2006, the Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics (PAMELA) payload was launched onboard a Resurs-DK1 Russian satellite as part of the Russian-Italian Mission (RIM) research program.

PAMELA's primary goal, in conjunction with the Astrorivelatore Gamma ad Immagini ultra LEggero (AGILE) and Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescopes (formerly the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope) is to study the properties of high energy signals from deep space. Such emissions are thought possible because "non-hadronic particles outside the Standard Model" might be interacting, thereby producing bright gamma ray sources.

According to a recent press release, Fermi has found a gamma ray signal from the center of our galaxy that is much brighter than was originally thought possible. Researchers examined many computer models, but ultimately decided that the only way for such energetic radiation to be produced was through dark matter particle collisions.

Since the galactic center is so dense, the unidentified dark matter particles are "packed in" tight, thereby increasing the chance that they will meet and destroy each other. One of the components of dark matter theory is that they act like antiparticles, as well as particles. In other words, if two dark matter entities meet, they appear to one another like antimatter and convert their individual masses into energy. Conversely, there might be "anti-dark matter particles" that react with dark matter in the same way that antimatter is said to react with normal matter.

They do not know which process is occurring. However, weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with values nine times the mass of a proton are thought to be the source for the gamma ray light shining from the Milky Way's core.

Consensus cosmologists believe that dark matter is necessary, since there is not enough gravity in the Universe to account for galaxy formation, or for those galaxies to assemble into clusters. Also, galaxy clusters should not have maintained such rapid theoretical recessional velocities (95% of light speed) over the last few billion years.

Astronomers also think that a dark (meaning "undetectable") kind of matter must exist because stars on the edges of spiral galaxies revolve with the same angular velocity as stars close to their centers. Newtonian theory insists that stars farther away ought to move more slowly, so dark matter was assumed to impart extra velocity to them, although serious doubt about dark matter was already being published when those ideas were made public.

Electric Universe proponents share a different view regarding the nature of the cosmos. Astrophysicist Hannes Alfvén came up with an “electric galaxy” theory as early as 1981. Alfvén observed that galaxies resemble homopolar motors. A homopolar motor is driven by magnetic fields induced in a circular aluminum plate or some other conductive metal. The metal plate is placed between the poles of an electromagnet that causes it to spin at a rate proportional to the input current.

Galactic discs behave like the conductive plates in said motor. Birkeland currents flow within galactic disks, powering their stars. Galaxies are, in turn, powered by intergalactic Birkeland currents that are detectable by the radio signals they induce. Since Birkeland currents are drawn toward each other in a 1/r linear relationship, dark matter can be dismissed when electric currents flowing through dusty plasma are recognized as an attractive force.

Gamma ray (and X-ray) observations of the galactic core also reveal a plasma torus structure there known as a "plasmoid." High frequency radiation from the plasmoid is similar to that from electrically excited stars. A strong electromagnetic field in the plasmoid accelerates particles to high speed, causing them to spiral in the resulting magnetic field and emit X-rays and gamma rays.

It is the Milky Way's plasmoid that generates the glow from our galactic core.

Stephen Smith