December 21, 2020 Many previous Pictures of the Day discuss the planet Jupiter—especially its electromagnetic interaction with its moons and the rest of the Solar System. Jupiter’s magnetosphere extends outward for nearly 650 million kilometers; beyond the orbit of the planet Saturn. Belts of ionized particles surround Jupiter, with the most energetic…
In keeping with the “Eye of the Storm” (EOS) series protocol, author and Thunderbolts colleague Andrew Hall uses Earth’s geology, the planet Jupiter, and the fractal self similarities of charge diffusion as our living laboratory for evidence. This episode’s focus is the San Andreas Fault. As discussed in the previous…
December 18, 2020 It’s common to hear people refer to “what science says.” The usual assumption is that “what science says” is said indefeasibly. But the term ‘science’ has two conflicting senses: science as currently-accepted theory (CAT) and science as method. To conclude that method inevitably leads to CAT and,…
December 17, 2020 “I’ll believe it when I see it” could be the motto of the empiricist. His not unreasonable belief is that reasonable belief in an idea should be governed by tests that give results which can be sensed. His concern is that beliefs not anchored to what is…
December 16, 2020 Black hole physics remains questionable. “One thing that I’m sure of is the real pleasure of life – it’s not being known, it’s not having your own jet plane, it’s not having a mansion. The pleasure is to learn something.”— Francis Ford Coppola According to a recent…
Dec 15, 2020 The Sun is a plasma phenomenon. The Solar Dynamics Observatory records coronal holes as they move across the Sun’s photosphere, causing storms of charged particles to blast toward Earth. Heliophysicists believe that coronal holes are regions of “open magnetic fields”. The Sun’s temperature in its core is…
December 14, 2020 Cryogenic detectors do not find evidence for dark matter. That failure means “back to the drawing board” for theoretical physicists. Since deep cold does not contribute to dark matter discovery, scientists are now using quantum physics in an attempt at building instruments that are more sensitive to…
CBSNews December 1, 2020: A huge radio telescope in Puerto Rico that has long played a key role in astronomical discoveries collapsed on Tuesday, officials said. The Arecibo Observatory, made famous as the backdrop for a pivotal scene in the James Bond film “GoldenEye” and other Hollywood hits, had been…
December 11, 2020 Hourglass-shaped lobes of X-rays extend about 65,000 light-years out from each side of the Milky Way’s central bulge. Rather than “bubbles” of radiation, the lobes are the signature of Birkeland currents moving through plasma and electrically charged dust. The intense electromagnetic fields associated with Birkeland currents cause…
December 10, 2020 Electric double layers are like waterfalls that energize charged particles falling through them. “We have to learn again that science without contact with experiments is an enterprise which is likely to go completely astray into imaginary conjecture.” — Hannes Alfvén A double layer forms in plasma when…
