Oct 31, 2016
Picture of the Day articles argue for electrical interpretations.
Every science journal describes the formation of nebulae like NGC 6960, the Veil Nebula, as due to “blowing winds” created by shock waves from exploding stars. Nebulae are often described as “star factories”, because consensus astronomers think that X-ray radiation comes from new fusion reactions within nebular clouds initiated by gravitational attraction.
Electric Universe theory presupposes that plasma and magnetic fields form electric stars through enormous, diffuse Birkeland currents that power the galaxy, preventing plasma from dispersing inside their light-years long helical coils. When electric current density inside filaments gets high enough, the plasma that carries current begins to glow and to “pinch” into plasmoids that might eventually become stars.
When electric charge flow is low and the nebular plasma contains a small concentration of dust, only the stars “light up” in arc-mode discharge. Where electrical stress is greater, as in the Veil Nebula, curling filaments, jets, and any surrounding gas clouds also light up. Dust and gas can reflect the light from nearby stars, but NGC 6960 reveals characteristic filaments seen in laboratory plasma experiments.
Light in nebulae is produced by electrical discharge, so X-rays can be generated in stellar arcs. Any nebula could be thought of as a laboratory “gas-discharge tube”, similar to a neon lamp, which emits light because the gas is electrically excited.
When plasma moves through a dust or gas, the cloud becomes ionized and electric charges flow. Electricity generates electromagnetic fields that organize into coherent filaments known as Birkeland currents, as mentioned above. Charged particles in the filaments spiral along magnetic fields, appearing as electrical vortices. The forces between these spinning Birkeland currents pull them close together and wind them around each other into “plasma ropes”, since they do not merge.
Plasma is composed of charged particles, so the particles are accelerated by electric currents and spiral in the resulting magnetic fields, creating synchrotron radiation that can shine in all high energy frequencies, including X-rays.
In the case of the Veil Nebula, the unmistakeable appearance of twisting Birkeland current filaments is clearly visible. The overall configuration, at its widest extent, is an hourglass, and the shapes within the nebula correspond to the filaments, helices, and pillars that electrical discharge in plasmas create.
In the laboratory, plasma forms cells separated by thin walls of opposite charge called double layers. Could separation of charges also take place in nebulae? That question might require centuries to answer, since the only way to detect a double layer in space is by flying a Langmuir probe through one. However, everywhere in our own Solar System cellular structures separated by double layers abound: the Sun’s heliosphere, comet tails, and magnetospheres are all examples of charge separation in plasma.
Electric Universe advocates assume that plasma behaves in the same way whether in the laboratory, or in a formation like NGC 6960. Double layers resulting from charge separation in space prompted Nobel laureate Hannes Alfvén to suggest that they be considered their own class of celestial object. If that were so, the mysteries that confound astronomy today would become substantially less quixotic.
Stephen Smith
