May 29, 2012 This TPOD was originally published on December 5, 2011. More news about black holes is increasing the distortion of reason. According to a recent press release, two black holes with masses exceeding “9 billion times the mass of the Sun” have been detected. The supposed “event horizon” in…
May 28, 2012 What carved these landforms? Mars has been the subject of many previous Picture of the Day articles. Since its surface is preserved in a desert-like deep freeze, and appears devoid of water erosion, it is an excellent observational laboratory for Electric Universe concepts. One of the points…
May 25, 2012 Problematic black hole physics is in the news again. In a recent press release from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer and the Pan-STARRS1 telescope in Hawaii, astronomers announced “direct evidence” for the existence of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in another galaxy. The high frequency ultraviolet spectrum, as…
May 24, 2012 Gamma-rays are said to be particles with no mass, yet possessed of extreme momentum. According to a recent press release, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected several unidentified sources of intense gamma-ray emissions that are not seen in any other frequencies. NASA launched the telescope (formerly known…
May 23, 2012 One of the largest “active galaxies” is thought to be powered by a supermassive black hole. Electrical energy is a more likely driving force. A recent press release from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) announces that the elliptical galaxy Centaurus A is ejecting a light-years long jet…
May 22, 2012 The Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a companion galaxy to the Milky Way, is called a nursery for new stars. The growing awareness of plasma should make it also a nursery for new ideas to explain its features. It features glowing filaments of ionized…
May 21, 2012 Without a theory of electricity in space, astronomers must explain cosmic lightning with theories of falling gas. To get x-rays from falling gas, the gas must be attracted to a source of gravity with orders-of-magnitude more force than any known density of matter. Nevertheless, with suitable…
May 18, 2012 A galaxy-wide filament connects two galactic clusters. The Herschel Space Observatory possesses the largest mirror ever launched into space: 3.5 meters in diameter. Herschel entered orbit around LaGrange point L2 (behind Earth in relation to the Sun) in July 2009, so that its extremely sensitive, supercooled infrared…
May 17, 2012 Do the features on Europa indicate subsurface lakes? I care not what the sailors say: All those dreadful thunder-stones, All that storm that blots the day Can but show that Heaven yawns; Great Europa played the fool That changed a lover for a bull. — William Butler…
May 16, 2012 Recent analyses suggest that Saturn’s moon Phoebe resembles a planet. Saturn’s moon Phoebe is comparatively small, roughly 220 kilometers in diameter. Its surface gravity is 0.224m/s^2, compared to the 9m/s^2 on Earth. Phoebe is also as black as night, making it one of the darkest objects in…
