A picture and essay from the perspective of the Electric Universe.
Jan 29, 2019 Planetary nebulae sometimes reveal bifurcated jets emanating from their interior stars. More often than not, those jets reveal an indication of helical shapes. Common astronomical theories propose that red giant stars expand because they “burn” most of their primordial hydrogen, and begin consuming the helium that was…
Jan 28, 2019 Science depends on novel ideas. “A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.” — Plato It is commonly believed that science “stands on the shoulders of giants”. In other words, new theories are based on those inherited from older generations. If that is the…
Jan 25, 2019 Dust at a temperature near absolute zero shows up as red and orange in this image of the Carina Nebula. NGC 3372 is a large, bright nebulosity in the constellation Carina, located between 6500 and 10,000 light-years from Earth. Since there are so many nebulae, and all…
Jan 24, 2019 What forms galactic disks? Observations by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) indicate that a torus of stars surrounds the Milky Way at a distance of 120,000 light-years. The Milky Way’s stellar population was previously estimated to be about 200 billion stars contained in the spiral arms…
Jan 22, 2019 Recent data calls black holes into question. Astronomers “know” that black holes exist because they see energetic radiation and collimated jets erupting from small regions of space. Collimated jets are said to result from matter falling into a black hole’s gravity field. As material orbits closer, it…
Jan 21, 2019 A new mission to study the second planet. The European Space Agency’s Venus Express mission is now over. Launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on November 9, 2005 the spacecraft entered orbit around Venus on April 11, 2006. Sometime in November 2021, NASA will launch the DAVINCI…
Jan 18, 2019 The Sun is not a ball of (con)fusion. “In a low density plasma, localized space charge regions may build up large potential drops over distances of the order of some tens of the Debye lengths. Such regions have been called electric double layers. An electric double layer…
Jan 17, 2019 Can strong gravity bend space? Einstein’s theory of General Relativity states that, when light passes close to a massive celestial object it bends in the same way that light is refracted by a glass lens. In consensus circles, that phenomenon is labeled “gravitational lensing”. As the theory…
Jan 16, 2019 What are magnetars? As conventional understanding suggests, neutron stars are created when massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycles. Gravity in those stars is said to be is so intense that they cannot resist the collapse, so electrons are squeezed into the nuclei that…
Jan 15, 2019 Does water ice exist on Mars? “He who cannot put his thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of dispute.”— Friedrich Nietzsche Mars is mysterious. Although it is the most extensively studied celestial body—from the days of Giovanni Schiaparelli to the Curiosity rover wandering its…
