Sep 01,
2006
Saturn's Rings Sparkle in X-rays
One of the
latest images from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory telescope brings
another surprise in a year of surprises. The images show that the
rings of Saturn “sparkle in X-rays.”
The X-ray emissions are the
blue dots in the X-ray/optical composite image above. It appears
that the X-rays are brightest on the morning side (left side) of the
rings.
According to the Observatory report, “The likely source for this
radiation is the fluorescence caused by solar X-rays striking oxygen
atoms in the water molecules that comprise most of the icy rings.”
The
hypothesized events behind the X-ray production add more complexity
to a series of ad hoc rationales for the electrical and “sun-like”
behavior of Saturn. It is suggested that the ring X-ray events occur
as meteorites pass through the rings,
scattering
dust and ice out of their narrow plane. The displaced material casts
a shadow on the rings (the famous revolving “spokes” of the ring
system). The rings catch more solar x-rays, causing more
fluorescence.
On
this hypothesis, the X-rays are
brighter on
morning side because from midnight to the early morning hours the
relative speed of the rings through a cloud of meteoroids would be
greater.
Other Chandra
observations of Saturn show that the X-ray brightness of the rings
varies significantly from one week to the next.
A different
viewpoint is offered by the electrical hypothesis. Planets are minor
negatively charged “electrodes” within a stellar discharge envelope.
As long ago as 1913, Birkeland performed an electrical experiment
using a slightly magnetized 24 cm diameter conducting globe as a
cathode in a vacuum discharge. He wrote about the rings of Saturn
and their inexplicable thinness: “it seems almost incredible that
such a ring of cosmic dust should be able to exist for ever, so to
speak, without other governing forces than gravitation.” He compared
his remarkable electrical experiment result (seen above) with the
rings of Saturn. “... if the discharge-current ... be reduced ...
the ring becomes exceedingly thin and sometimes assumes an
appearance almost exactly like that of Saturn's rings.”
From
the electrical perspective, there is not a crowd of separate
anomalies to be explained, but one explanation that answers them
all: inexplicable hot spots on Saturn; “astonishing” megalightning;
the incongruous “spokes” of the ring system; the plasma torus around
the orb of Saturn; Saturn’s radiation belt; the super rotation of
Saturn’s atmosphere; Saturn’s X-rays; and (most recently) X-rays
from the ring system.
The following
brief citations from Wallace Thornhill’s website,
www.holoscience.com,
are indicative of the general direction of an electrical
interpretation of Saturn’s many enigmas. He compares Saturn with a
simple Faraday or “homopolar” motor, which has electrons flowing out
from Saturn in an equatorial sheet – as Birkeland found
experimentally.
“As shown in
laboratory experiments, the inflowing [conventionally] electric
current forms a plasma donut where the electrical energy is stored.
It is that energy that drives the winds and lightning on Saturn.”
“The
electromotive power is deposited mostly in the upper atmosphere at
mid to low latitudes and gives rise to its ‘super rotation’. That
is, the atmosphere races around the planet faster than the planet
turns.”
“Score one for
the electrical model. It predicted this finding of an inner
radiation belt. However, the conventional term ‘radiation belt’ is
misleading. The belt is a donut-shaped plasmoid, which stores
electromagnetic energy in the form of circulating high-energy
charged particles.”
“In
fact, Saturn has two plasmoids. One is outside the rings, the other
inside the rings. Discharges to Saturn must cross the rings.” [Megalightning
at Saturn]
“Saturn’s
rings form part of the circuit that feeds energy into its plasa
donut, where it is stored before discharging into Saturn’s
ionosphere and generating X-rays.” [Cassini's Homecoming]
“As NASA's
Cassini spacecraft approached Saturn last July it found evidence
that lightning on Saturn is roughly one million times stronger than
lightning on Earth. ‘That's just astonishing to me!’ said University
of Iowa Space Physicist Don Gurnett.”
The
spokes in Saturn’s rings are caused by “lightning discharges”
radially across the rings. That temporarily moves ice and dust out
of the rings plane. The X-ray spots from the region of Saturn’s
rings are primarily a result of lightning across the rings.
Fluorescence from solar radiation should be more diffuse.
[Concerning the polar “hot spot” on Saturn]: “Its compactness is due
to the electromagnetic pinch effect where it [electric current]
enters Saturn’s atmosphere. The hot spot's behavior should be
variable, like that on Venus, and correlated with the appearance of
Saturn's ring spokes, which are a visible manifestation of a
heightened equatorial discharge in that part of Saturn's Faraday
motor circuit.” [
Saturn's Strange Hot Spot Explained]
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