H1 Hydrogen emissions in the M51 galaxy. Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and The Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA)
Dec 7, 2015
Dark matter galaxies?
Solving a particular puzzle can be clouded by a layer of presumptions. Such is the case, according to a recent press release announcing the creation of a computer model to predict the existence of satellite galaxies.
Researchers with the Dark Energy Survey at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory propose that galaxies like our own Milky Way should have “lots” of smaller galaxies in orbit around them. Since their existence cannot be determined by visible light surveys, it is thought that most of them are composed of dark matter.
The Milky Way is host to at least two smaller companions, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. However, some astronomers suspect that there are as many as 80 or more. The new predictive model is supposed to help answer the question.
In 1933, Fritz Zwicky was studying the Coma Cluster. He found that his calculations for orbital acceleration and stellar mass were off by a factor of about 160, so he concluded that there must be something invisible to his instruments somewhere within the cluster that was holding it together.
Electric Universe theory sees clusters of galaxies, the galaxies themselves, and their associated stars driven by electric charge moving through dusty plasma. Birkeland currents create z-pinch compression zones between spinning magnetic fields in an electrical vortex. Compressed plasma forms electromagnetically confined spheres, some in arc mode, some in glow mode and some with variability between the two states.
Cosmic Birkeland currents flow into galaxies, so stars in their discs are powered by those currents. Galaxies, in turn, receive their power from intergalactic Birkeland currents that are detected by radio astronomers as filamentary structures traceable by their magnetic fields.
Birkeland currents are drawn toward each other in a linear relationship, with a long-range electric force attraction 39 orders of magnitude greater than gravity, although their magnetic attraction is weaker. Dark matter and dark energy influences can be dismissed when electric charge flowing through plasma is recognized.
When Birkeland currents interact, they twist around one another, forming a helix. If a cross section could be taken through plasma trapped in their interstices, it would reveal the familiar barred-spiral shape of a galaxy. In the image of M51 at the top of the page, the intertwining electrical filaments are clearly visible.
As Hannes Alfvén postulated, electricity flows into the poles of a galaxy and then out through the spiral arms. The circuit closes above and below the galactic disk, flowing back into the poles. This circuit receives its driving power from Birkeland currents that connect the galaxy with the rest of the Universe.
Galactic z-pinches form a cylindrical particle beam, coaxial with the galaxy and beyond the edge of the disk, which would energize a ring of stars. Observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey have uncovered such a ring, a separate structure that surrounds the galaxy at a reported distance of 120,000 light years.
Instead of dark matter dwarf companions, the Milky Way and other galaxies most likely have dark mode electrically energized satellites.
Stephen Smith
