May 1, 2015 Pluto is just ahead. The Nebular Hypothesis suggests that the Solar System condensed out of a cloud of molecular gases and dust billions of years ago. Eventually, the dust and gas shrank to the point where compression started a nuclear chain reaction in the dense ball…
Apr 29, 2015 Birkeland current interaction is probably the best large-scale structure model for the Universe. A recent article in the astronomical journals and popular press identifies an area of space as a “huge hole” completely empty of matter and energy; “colder” than any other region previously observed….
Apr 28, 2015 Are there billions of rocky planets in the galaxy? “Are we alone in the Universe?” That is probably one of the earliest questions that people ask, after “where do we come from?” According to the European Southern Observatory (ESO), there could be planets galore in our galaxy…
Apr 27, 2015 Earth and Jupiter reveal their common connections to the Sun. As previous Picture of the Day articles mention, Earth possesses a complex electrically active structure called a magnetotail (or plasma tail) that extends for millions of kilometers, always pointed away from the Sun. Streams of…
Apr 24, 2015 What takes place on Earth most likely reflects large-scale phenomena. In celebration of the Hubble Space Telescope’s twenty-fifth anniversary, the European Space Agency (ESA) released the image at the top of the page. The star cluster known as Westerlund 2, along with the surrounding view of…
Apr 23, 2015 If redshift equals distance calculations are incorrect, the Universe could be a much different looking place. “Of course, if one ignores contradictory observations, one can claim to have an ‘elegant’ or ‘robust’ theory. But it isn’t science.” — Halton Arp The speed of light is used as…
Apr 22, 2015 Stars are not merely gravitationally compressed hot gas. What are the stars? The question might seem self-evident, since children are taught from an early age that they are intensely bright, burning balls of hydrogen gas. A star’s great size, therefore its great gravitational attraction, is what…
Apr 21, 2015 Nebulae exhibit electrical characteristics. Previous Picture of the Day articles contend for an electrical interpretation of astrophysical observations. Every science journal describes nebulae like IC 1805 in terms of gases and “blowing” dust, along with “winds” created by “shock waves” from exploding stars. In many cases a…
Apr 20, 2015 Electric Universe theory fits observations better than dark matter theory. In previous Picture of the Day articles about the existence of “dark matter”, it was noted that it is primarily an ad-hoc theory, created so that the current gravitational models of the Universe can be preserved….
Apr 17, 2015 From galaxies to the laboratory, transverse electric charge flow accompanies a main discharge channel. On Earth, the main discharge channel is experienced as a terrestrial lighting bolt. Slow-motion studies reveal that each flash is a complex episode. Multiple leader strokes descend from the clouds, while similar,…
