May 2, 2018 Where did the heavy elements on Earth come from? Most, if not all, large craters in North America are said to be the remains of asteroid impacts. In fact, it was an asteroid impact that is thought by consensus geologists to be the event that wiped-out the…
Apr 30, 2018 What causes astronomers to think that space is expanding? “The greatest mistake in my opinion, and the one we continually make, is to let the theory guide the model. After a ridiculously long time it has finally dawned on me that establishment scientists actually proceed on the…
Apr 27, 2018 A NASA spacecraft slammed into the surface of Mercury on April 30, 2015. NASA launched the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) experiment from Cape Canaveral on August 3, 2004. After traveling nearly eight billion kilometers, the 485 kilogram spacecraft entered orbit around Mercury on…
Apr 26, 2018 Electric power switches on and off. From gamma-rays down through X-rays and radio waves, conventional theories rely on gravity and acceleration to produce radiation in space. Compressing dusty clouds of hydrogen gas is supposed to create enough transfer of momentum that they reach temperatures in the…
Apr 25, 2018 How much energy in a supernova? A previous Picture of the Day discussed cosmic filaments that connect celestial formations with bridges of luminous material. Those structures could mean that the visible Universe is a braided filament of electric charge that reaches from the Virgo supercluster to the…
Apr 24, 2018 Events on Earth reflect events in space. Transverse electric currents accompany a main discharge channel. This phenomenon is most often seen as part of terrestrial lighting bolts. Slow-motion videos reveal the complexity of each flash: multiple leader strokes descend from the clouds, while less visible potential…
Apr 23, 2018 What is lightning’s source? Electric discharges in plasma create electromagnetic sheaths along their axes. If the charge flow is high enough, sheaths will glow, sometimes creating a number of other sheaths. The sheaths are called “double layers”, and powerful electric fields appear between regions, which can accelerate…
Apr 20, 2018 More reified abstractions. “There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza, There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole.” — Traditional folk song. Almost twenty years ago, astronomers believe they discovered that the Universe is expanding. Redshift observations of distant galaxies appeared to…
April 19, 2018 Kristian Birkeland was called the first space scientist because of his pioneering experiments in the early 1900s. June 15th marks the 100th anniversary of his death. “It seems to be a natural consequence of our points of view to assume that the whole of space is…
Apr 18, 2018 Continental flood basalts. A wide region of central India is dominated by what geologists call “flood basalts”, because they represent what are thought to be the largest eruptions of magmas ever to occur on Earth. The Deccan Plateau consists of basalt lava more than 2000 meters…
