Feb 13, 2018 Brown dwarf stars could be harbors for life in the cosmos. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is scheduled for launch in October 2018 on a five-year mission. Its goals are to search for the earliest galaxies—meaning that it will look for those with the greatest…
Feb 12, 2018 Data from the now defunct Cassini mission provides more clues to Saturn’s environment. Cassini-Huygens was launched from Cape Canaveral on October 15, 1997. Its primary mission was to explore the Saturnian system, including the atmosphere, rings, magnetosphere and a number of its moons. As Cassini made its final…
Feb 9, 2018 There are no discrete magnetic field lines. According to a recent press release, researchers from the Centre de physique théorique (CNRS/École Polytechnique) believe that twisted magnetic fields called, “flux ropes” become trapped in a “cage”, causing explosions of “magnetic energy” on the Sun. An “…entanglement of magnetic…
Feb 8, 2018 Spherical shells around stars are signs of electrical activity. More than 70 years ago Dr. Charles Bruce noted that planetary nebulae are similar to electric discharges. He reasoned that their shapes were hourglasses, with central stars obscured by dusty toroids. Since nebular shapes are similar to…
Feb 7, 2018 Capacitance, resistance, and induction power the Sun. What are stars? And, by extension, what is the Sun? Consensus opinions state that the Sun is composed of elements formed in the Big Bang; other elements created in dying stars; and elements formed in supernovae explosions. Primordial hydrogen…
Feb 6, 2018 More dark matter machinations. In a previous Picture of the Day article about dark matter, it was argued that it is an ad-hoc theory, created so that the current gravitational models of the Universe can be preserved, primarily the Big Bang. here is a problem underlying…
Feb 5, 2018 Are blazars close-by and not far away? Twin lobes of gamma-rays extending beyond the Milky Way’s central bulge highlighted a previous Picture of the Day. The formations, each about 65,000 light-years in diameter, are a sign that Birkeland currents form z-pinches in galactic plasmas. Electromagnetic fields…
Feb 2. 2018 Cold gas does not give birth to stars. “A very great vision is needed, and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky.” — Crazy Horse The Eagle nebula is located in the constellation Serpens, approximately 7000 light-years…
Feb 1, 2018 Instead of tectonic activity, Venus shows signs of electric discharges. The planet Venus shows signs of a somewhat recent catastrophe: giant cracks extend for hundreds of kilometers; formations called “coronae” are accompanied by massive fracture zones, branching out like carved lightning bolts; and vast caldera with…
Jan 31, 2018 Gravity does not create gamma-rays. Gamma-rays are thought by consensus physicists to be massless, yet possessed of extreme momentum. They are “electromagnetic particles” called photons. Since matter is thought to exist as both waves and particles, and photons are a class of particle called a “boson”,…
