Jan 27, 2014 Black hole theory contradicts itself. Most astrophysicists try to explain narrow jets erupting from various sources by using words like “nozzle” or “high pressure,” contradicting the known behavior of gases in a vacuum. For example, according to a recent press release, “flares” have been discovered jetting from…
Jan 24, 2014 A collection of the largest moons in the Solar System will soon be observed by a new satellite in orbit around the largest planet. The Juno mission will be looking separately at Jupiter’s four largest moons. Since they vary in size, chemical composition, temperature, and appearance,…
Jan 23, 2014 The proverbial ‘golden age’ is a classic case study in the difference between local and global themes in mythology. It was the German ethnologist Adolf Bastian (1826-1905) who first introduced a systematic distinction between universal ‘elementary ideas’ (Elementargedanke) and culture-specific ‘folk ideas’ (Volksgedanke) in 1860. Taken…
Our weekly review of the Thunderbolts Picture of the Day, with new articles every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and “best of” every Tuesday and Thursday. Monday: Touching Ground, by Rens van der Sluijs: https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2014/… Wednesday: Star Forces, by Stephen Smith: https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2014/… Friday: Why the Lower Corona of the Sun is Hotter than…
Jan 22, 2013 Cosmologists still have no idea what dark energy is. In 1998, two astronomical research teams independently discovered what is now called “dark energy.” Saul Perlmutter of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Brian Schmidt from the Australian National University projects each led the two teams who…
Jan 21, 2014 To eyewitnesses, including those at lower latitudes, highly energetic formations produced by extremely vigorous aurorae have often suggested some form of painting or supernatural inscription on the canvas of the sky. This was the case with observers of the prominent aurorae spawned by the coronal mass…
Jan 20, 2014 Supernovae are what Hannes Alfvén called them: exploding double layers. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is relatively small, irregular galaxy approximately 168,000 light-years from Earth. The distance is approximate, because different parallax values are obtained when different measuring sticks are used. Within the LMC is an…
Jan 17, 2014 The chaos of Brownian motion produces the high temperature we see in the solar corona. Of all the ideas offered up as being an explanation of the extreme temperature (more than 2 million Kelvin) measured in the lower corona of our Sun, the simplest is that electrically…
We continue the discussion of late Dr. Halton Arp’s contributions to science and astronomy, this time with an explanation of redshift.
Jan 16, 2014 Astronomers have detected a strand of galaxies and gas flowing into a remote cluster. Today’s predominant cosmological hypothesis is based on a gravity-only paradigm. Moving masses and heat are the only factors allowed to operate in this Universe. Electric charge is sometimes considered, but it is…
