March 13, 2020
Dwarf planets are a puzzle.
In 1997, astronomers Adam Riess and Saul Perlmutter studied Type 1a supernovae, because their variable rise in luminosity and subsequent decline are considered predictable. That measurement is a way for consensus researchers to determine a supernova’s true brightness or “absolute magnitude“. Calculating a supernova’s redshift allows them to place it in space-time coordinates and find out how far away it is.
However, they were shocked to discover that the redshifts from the most distant Type 1a supernovae indicated that they were accelerating. Their observations also indicated that the farther away they were, the faster they were speeding up. This effect was called “dark energy” because no apparent cosmic influence could be seen. As time went on, new observations by various groups resulted in the conclusion that dark energy makes up 75% of the Universe.
The Dark Energy Survey project expanded efforts at identifying just what dark energy is. Astronomers and other scientists analyze observations of the southern sky using equipment such as the Dark Energy Camera that records images of over 300 million galaxies, so that a more precise determination of the hypothetical expanding Universe can be made. According to a recent press release, that camera is being used to detect celestial objects beyond Pluto’s orbit.
NASA launched the New Horizons spacecraft on January 19, 2006 on a mission to explore the outer Solar System, including Pluto, Charon and many Kuiper Belt Objects. On July 14, 2015 New Horizons flew by Pluto at a distance of 9656 kilometers.
Pluto is no longer identified as a planet in the same category as Mars, for example. Instead, it is now called a dwarf planet, similar to Kuiper Belt Objects like Eris and Sedna. Eris is the largest KBO, approximately 5% larger than Pluto, and is a little over 14 billion kilometers from the Sun. Eris has its own small moon called Dysnomia. Quaoar is about 6 billion kilometers from the Sun and revolves in the region of the Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto’s orbit. Quaoar is the third largest KBO, half the size of Pluto and about as large as Pluto’s moon Charon. The fourth largest KBO yet discovered is Varuna, about 40% as large as Pluto.
Sedna was discovered in an orbit that is much farther out than the grouping that includes Eris, Quaoar and Varuna. Sedna is large, about as big as Pluto, but it reaches more than 114 billion kilometers from the Sun in an eccentric orbit, making it too far away to technically be considered a KBO. The theory has yet to accommodate Sedna.
Using data from the now defunct Dark Energy Survey (DES), astrophysicists think they see more than 300 “new” KBOs in the dataset. Pedro Bernardinelli, a graduate student member of the research team:
“The most difficult part was trying to make sure that we were finding what we were supposed to find.”
The complexities of their research will not be detailed here. Suffice to say, they are using filtering algorithms that sort data into categories that they determine ahead of time. They ignore any electrical influence on how those theoretical entities are born.
The plasma cosmogony hypothesis suggests that stars form when cosmic Birkeland currents twist around one another, creating z-pinch regions that compress plasma into a solid. Laboratory experiments have shown that such compression zones are the most likely candidates for star formation and not collapsing nebulae, which is the eighteenth century theory to which astrophysicists still cling.
When stars are born, they are most likely under extreme electrical stress. If such is the case, they will split into one or more daughter stars, thereby equalizing their electrical potential. Electric Universe proponent, Wal Thornhill writes:
“The fission process is repeated in further electrical disturbances by flaring red dwarfs and gas giant planets ejecting rocky and icy planets, moons, comets, asteroids and meteorites. Planetary systems may also be acquired over time by electrical capture of independent interstellar bodies such as dim brown dwarf stars. That seems the best explanation for our ‘fruit salad’ of a solar system.”
Stephen Smith
The Thunderbolts Picture of the Day is generously supported by the Mainwaring Archive Foundation.
