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…
December 9, 2020 A recent press release from Rice University states: “Orbiting instrument hints at how stored magnetic energy heats solar atmosphere.” The solar corona exceeds 2 million Kelvin. Many explanations for why this is so are offered by consensus heliophysicists, but they admit that they are not certain. Why…
December 8, 2020 What energizes this nebula to such extremes? Picture of the Day articles note that many structures in the galaxy are active energy sources, ejecting charged matter from their poles, leaving long braided tails, or revealing formations of tightly bunched filaments. A detailed image of Eta Carinae reveals a…
December 7, 2020 Are these mysterious balls of rock slow-forming concretions? Stone spheres were worshipped by some past civilizations, especially if they dropped out of the sky. They were often placed on plinths and were thought to be messengers from heaven. People in Greece, Rome, Arabia, and many other locations,…
December 4, 2020 Transverse electric charges accompany main discharge channels. 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, less visible potential contacts rise from the ground….
December 3, 2020 Is the Universe expanding? Modern astronomers believe that galaxies are receding from each other because they received “inflationary energy” imparted by the Big Bang. They estimate the recession to be about 71 kilometers per second for every 3.3 million light-years of spatial distance. This “dilation of space-time”…
December 2, 2020 Solar phenomena come from electricity flowing through space. The conventional view of the Sun is illustrated by a popular science website: “Our Sun is made up of elements left over from the Big Bang, elements formed from dying stars, and elements created in supernovae.” The basic premise…
December 1, 2020 BepiColombo continues its long journey. The BepiColombo mission was launched October 20, 2018 on a joint mission to Mercury. The mission will consist of two satellites: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). MPO is designed to study Mercury’s composition, while MMO will…
November 30, 2020 During the big bang, an irruption of energy from some other realm replaced “nothingness” with the present Universe. The “Big Bang” theory was proposed because Edwin Hubble, using the recently completed 100-inch telescope at Mt. Wilson observatory, believed that he observed galaxies receding from the Milky Way….
