Jun 6, 2019
There are problems with conventional theories about the Sun.
Electric Universe theory does not adopt the prevailing idea that electromagnetic fields are composed of lines that can become trapped or tangled. When astronomers create theories that reify schematic representations, they reveal a failure to understand what electromagnetism is and how it is expressed. There are no “lines” of magnetism: a magnetic field is a continuum.
According to a recent press release, the conventional “field lines” approach is used to explain how the solar corona is heated to millions of Kelvin, while the photosphere is cooler. New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Gregory Fleishman said:
“We knew that something really intriguing happens at the interface between the photosphere – the Sun’s surface – and the corona, given the noticeable disparities in the chemical composition between the two layers and the sharp rise in plasma temperatures at this junction.”
In their view, “Energy releases in solar flares and associated forms of eruptions occur when magnetic field lines, with their powerful underlying electric currents, (emphasis added) are twisted beyond a critical point that can be measured by the number of turns in the twist.”
By way of background, studies from satellites and ground-based observatories note that 400 kilometers deep inside the photosphere, the Sun’s temperature is 7610 Kelvin, while it reads 4465 Kelvin at its outer boundary with the chromosphere. This is usually quoted as the Sun’s “surface temperature”. The temperature continues to drop until the boundary with the lower chromosphere. It then begins to slowly rise until the transition region with the corona, where it jumps in discrete steps.
Since it is 10^-8 times less dense than Earth’s atmosphere, the chromosphere is normally invisible, outshone by the brightness of the photosphere. Although, even the (relatively) dense photosphere is so thin that it would be considered a vacuum on Earth. Nothing in those measurements aids understanding—the high temperatures in the corona continue to mystify heliophysicists: why is it millions of Kelvin hotter than the photosphere?
There are many consensus theories used to explain the corona’s heat. The most common idea is that magnetic field lines “reconnect”, which is said to release “explosive energy and energy waves” that convert to thermal energy.
Magnetic reconnection does not acknowledge double layers, which must exist between two differing plasma fields. Hannes Alfvén was critical of “moving” field lines because the motion of magnetic field lines is inherently meaningless. An electromagnetic field is a vector function of space coordinates and time. Individual field lines cannot be identified with any particular field line as it changes over time, because they are conventions that must be carefully applied.
Double layers develop on the Sun as electricity flows through its plasmas. An electric field appears between regions of opposite charge. A “Langmuir burst” can occur when stored electric charge is catastrophically released. Heliophysicists incorrectly refer to those explosive bursts as “magnetic reconnection”.
As previously written, coronal arches penetrate the Sun’s plasma sheath, or double layer region, where its primary source of electrical energy resides. Powerful electric currents form secondary magnetic fields. If the current grows too strong, the double layer explodes, interrupting the charge flow. The sudden discharge causes solar flares and gigantic prominence eruptions. In 1964, Jacobsen and Carlqvist wrote that double layers store electromagnetic energy. They found that electric fields accelerate charged particles with up to 10^14 electron volts per unit charge. That idea was further refined by Alfvén and Carlqvist in 1967.
Retired Professor of Electrical Engineering, Dr. Donald Scott, wrote:
“Astrophysicists ignore Alfvén’s work. They attempt to arrive at a de novo explanation for the release of such energy by embracing the notion that the motion and interaction of magnetic field lines is its root cause. They expound on the (basically false) idea that magnetic fields are ‘frozen into’ plasma, and by moving and breaking, these lines carry the plasma along and spew it out into space. Alfvén ridiculed this explanation by saying, ‘A magnetic field line is by definition a line which is everywhere parallel to the magnetic field. If the current system changes, the shape of the magnetic field line changes but it is meaningless to speak about a translational movement of magnetic field lines.’”
Stephen Smith
