Legacy TPOD Chronological Archive PDF

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The Thunderbolts Project Presents:
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive
Note: Please do not be alarmed if you notice large temporal gaps. This is not in error. Duplicate [re-run] entries have been removed and the earliest publication dates used.
This document brought to you courtesy of the tireless efforts of Michael Gmirkin.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents....................................................................................................................2 2011........................................................................................................................................37
Goddess of the Hearth (Sep 16, 2011) ............................................................................................................. 38 The Dark of the Sun (Sep 14, 2011) ................................................................................................................. 40 Skipping Moon Stones (Sep 12, 2011).............................................................................................................. 42 The Electrical Etching of Mercury (Sep 09, 2011)............................................................................................. 44 The Diamond Fields of the Mind (Sep 07, 2011)............................................................................................... 46 IndisCERNible (Sep 05, 2011) .......................................................................................................................... 48 Snow White and the Frozen Dwarfs (Aug 26, 2011)......................................................................................... 50 Daughter of Zeus (Aug 24, 2011)...................................................................................................................... 52 Cosmic Blobs (Aug 22, 2011)............................................................................................................................ 54 When is a Flood not a Flood? (Aug 19, 2011)................................................................................................... 56 Mega-Tsunamis, Chinese Junks and Port Phillip Bay (Aug 17, 2011).............................................................. 58 Mountains of Evidence (Aug 15, 2011) ............................................................................................................. 60 Seeing Things--In the Sky Part Two (Aug 12, 2011) ......................................................................................... 63 Seeing Things--In the Sky Part One (Aug 10, 2011)......................................................................................... 65 Painted Into a Corner? (Aug 08, 2011) ............................................................................................................. 67 A Solar Siesta (Aug 05, 2011) ........................................................................................................................... 69 Rainy Days on Saturn (Aug 03, 2011)............................................................................................................... 71 A Kinked Link (Aug 01, 2011)............................................................................................................................ 73 Forty-four Trillion Watts (Jul 29, 2011) .............................................................................................................. 75 Neutrino Quest II (Jul 27, 2011) ........................................................................................................................ 77 It Has a Nice Ring To It (Jul 25, 2011)............................................................................................................... 80 Daughter of Rhea (Jul 21, 2011) ....................................................................................................................... 82 Whats There and Whats Not There (Jul 20, 2011) .......................................................................................... 84
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Balanced Water (Jul 18, 2011) .......................................................................................................................... 86 Astronomical Fashion Flips (Jul 15, 2011) ........................................................................................................ 88 Billions of Suns, Billions of years (Jul 13, 2011)................................................................................................ 90 Vesta in View (Jul 04, 2011) .............................................................................................................................. 92 Power Lines (Jun 29, 2011)............................................................................................................................... 94 Criss Cross Bulge (Jun 27, 2011) ..................................................................................................................... 96 Which Came First? (Jun 24, 2011).................................................................................................................... 98 Lines We Neatly Stumble Over (Jun 20, 2011) ............................................................................................... 100 Bubbling Plasma (Jun 17, 2011) ..................................................................................................................... 102 Twisted Pairs (Jun 15, 2011) ........................................................................................................................... 104 Magnetic Effervescence (Jun 13, 2011).......................................................................................................... 106 Twist and Shout (Jun 10, 2011)....................................................................................................................... 108 A Superstar for Gravity is Normal for Plasma (Jun 08, 2011) ..........................................................................110 A "Double" of the Milky Way (Jun 06, 2011).....................................................................................................112 Toroidal Tension (Jun 03, 2011) .......................................................................................................................114 Where Do Asteroids Come From? (May 30, 2011) ..........................................................................................116 Lunar Water (May 27, 2011).............................................................................................................................118 Rhea's Atmosphere (May 25, 2011)................................................................................................................ 120 Son of Zeus (May 23, 2011) ............................................................................................................................ 122 That One Story Again (May 20, 2011)............................................................................................................. 124 Cometary Asteroids (May 18, 2011)................................................................................................................ 126 Planetary Double Layers (May 16, 2011)........................................................................................................ 128 Windy Galaxies (May 11, 2011)....................................................................................................................... 130 Sacrifice, Delusion and Climate (May 09, 2011) ............................................................................................. 132 The 'Little Ice Age' on Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay (May 04, 2011)............................................................... 134 Gold, Glamour and Destruction (May 02, 2011).............................................................................................. 136 Gradualism Versus Catastrophism Part Two (Apr 29, 2011)........................................................................... 139 Gradualism Versus Catastrophism Part One (Apr 28, 2011) .......................................................................... 142 Electric Enceladus (Apr 25, 2011)................................................................................................................... 144
Orcus Patera (Apr 22, 2011) ........................................................................................................................... 146 Nuclear War God (Apr 20, 2011)..................................................................................................................... 148 Sonic Booms Make Those Stringy Things (Apr 18, 2011) .............................................................................. 150 Reminders of Titan (Apr 13, 2011) .................................................................................................................. 151 Down the Barrel (Apr 11, 2011) ....................................................................................................................... 153 Martians, Men and Machines (Apr 08, 2011) .................................................................................................. 155 Jordan's Valley of the Moon (Apr 06, 2011) .................................................................................................... 157 Dark Satellites (Apr 04, 2011) ......................................................................................................................... 159 Nox Aeterna (Apr 01, 2011)............................................................................................................................. 161 Damp Stars (Mar 30, 2011) ............................................................................................................................. 163 Shots in the Dark Part Two (Mar 28, 2011) ..................................................................................................... 165 Shots in the Dark Part One (Mar 25, 2011)..................................................................................................... 168 MESSENGER in Orbit (Mar 23, 2011) ............................................................................................................ 170 Mythology at Stake (Mar 21, 2011) ................................................................................................................. 172 Earthquakes and Volcanoes (Mar 18, 2011)................................................................................................... 175 Polar Wondering (Mar 16, 2011) ..................................................................................................................... 177 Going Round the Sun in Circles (Mar 14, 2011) ............................................................................................. 180 MRO's Fifth Year (Mar 11, 2011) ..................................................................................................................... 183 Galactic Hexagon (Mar 10, 2011) ................................................................................................................... 185 Cosmic Accelerator (Mar 07, 2011)................................................................................................................. 187 Solar Lightning (Mar 04, 2011)........................................................................................................................ 189 Andromeda's Mother (Mar 02, 2011)............................................................................................................... 191 The Dragon's Den (Feb 28, 2011)................................................................................................................... 193 Doubting the Dark (Feb 18, 2011)................................................................................................................... 195 A Galactic Fairy Ring (Feb 16, 2011) .............................................................................................................. 197 Jove's Glowing Mantle (Feb 14, 2011) ............................................................................................................ 199 Hannys Voorwerp (Feb 11, 2011) ................................................................................................................... 201 Phobos-Grunt (Feb 09, 2011) ......................................................................................................................... 203 Cloudy with a Chance of Instability (Feb 07, 2011)......................................................................................... 205

A Mystifying Menagerie (Feb 04, 2011)........................................................................................................... 207 The Persistent Illusion (Feb 03, 2011) ............................................................................................................ 209 Shooting Star (Jan 31, 2011)............................................................................................................................211 Far Distance Run Around (Jan 28, 2011)........................................................................................................ 213 Corona Discharges (Jan 26, 2011) ................................................................................................................. 215 Snap Crackle and Spark (Jan 24, 2011) ......................................................................................................... 217 Nebular Plasmoids (Jan 21, 2011) .................................................................................................................. 219 The Huangshang Mountains (Jan 19, 2011) ................................................................................................... 221 Rainmaker (Jan 17, 2011) ............................................................................................................................... 223 Daughter of Earth and Sky (Jan 14, 2011)...................................................................................................... 225 Nebular Flares (Jan 12, 2011)......................................................................................................................... 227 A New Order of Magnitude (Jan 05, 2011)...................................................................................................... 230 Worthy to be Admired (Jan 04, 2011).............................................................................................................. 232
2010......................................................................................................................................234
Dielectric Breakdown (Dec 31, 2010).............................................................................................................. 235 Snowballs in Hell (Dec 27, 2010) .................................................................................................................... 237 O Christmas Tree! Thy Candles Shine So Brightly! (Dec 24, 2010) ............................................................... 239 The Ornament Not Seen (Dec 22, 2010) ........................................................................................................ 243 Magnetic Storms (Dec 20, 2010)..................................................................................................................... 245 Novus Ratio (Dec 15, 2010)............................................................................................................................ 247 It's Birkeland's Birthday (Dec 13, 2010) .......................................................................................................... 249 A Spectre Haunts the Darkness (Dec 10, 2010) ............................................................................................. 251 A Spray of Plasma (Dec 09, 2010).................................................................................................................. 253 De-Tailing Comets (Dec 06, 2010) .................................................................................................................. 255 The Eggs of the Thunderbird (Dec 03, 2010).................................................................................................. 258 Eclipsing Cepheid Falsifies Stellar Evolution Theory (Nov 29, 2010) ............................................................. 261 Colliding Conceits (Nov 26, 2010)................................................................................................................... 263 Victoria's Topography (Nov 24, 2010) ............................................................................................................. 265
Craters and Dunes (Nov 19, 2010) ................................................................................................................. 267 Supernatural Physics (Nov 18, 2010) ............................................................................................................. 269 Lunar Magnetic Anomalies (Nov 15, 2010)..................................................................................................... 271 The Faraday Motor (Nov 12, 2010)................................................................................................................. 273 Plasmoids Refute Dark Matter Theory (Nov 08, 2010) ................................................................................... 275 Hartley 2 Flyby (Nov 05, 2010) ....................................................................................................................... 277 Where the Long Shadows Fall (Nov 03, 2010) ............................................................................................... 279 The EPOXI Mission (Nov 02, 2010) ................................................................................................................ 281 Son of Marduk (Oct 29, 2010)......................................................................................................................... 283 On the Horn of a Dilemma (Oct 27, 2010) ...................................................................................................... 285 Sunspot 1112 (Oct 25, 2010)........................................................................................................................... 287 Unwinding the Spirals (Oct 22, 2010) ............................................................................................................. 289 Magnetic Questions (Oct 20, 2010) ................................................................................................................ 291 Falling Stars and X-rays (Oct 18, 2010).......................................................................................................... 292 BP Piscium: A Fish out of Water (Oct 15, 2010) ............................................................................................. 294 Pulsar, Pulsar (Oct 13, 2010) ...................................................................................................................... 296 Big Rocks or Big Sparks? (Oct 12, 2010) ....................................................................................................... 298 Double Layer Acceleration (Sep 15, 2010) ..................................................................................................... 300 M87--Bringing it Home (Sep 13, 2010) ........................................................................................................... 302 The Light at the End (Sep 10, 2010) ............................................................................................................... 304 Adolescent Galaxy (Sep 09, 2010) ................................................................................................................. 306 Draconian Landscaping (Sep 06, 2010).......................................................................................................... 307 Light My Fire (Sep 03, 2010)........................................................................................................................... 310 Electrodynamic Duo Part Two (Sep 01, 2010) ................................................................................................ 313 Bad to the Bones (Aug 30, 2010).................................................................................................................... 316 Electrodynamic Duo Part One (Aug 16, 2010)................................................................................................ 319 Wheels within Wheels (Aug 11, 2010) ............................................................................................................ 321 Tuning in a New Signal (Aug 10, 2010)........................................................................................................... 323 Mount Banks (Aug 06, 2010) .......................................................................................................................... 325

Stellar Shedding (Aug 04, 2010) ..................................................................................................................... 327 Back to Plasma (Aug 02, 2010) ...................................................................................................................... 329 Oceans of Sand on Rocky Shores (Jul 30, 2010)........................................................................................... 331 Exocomets (Jul 28, 2010)................................................................................................................................ 333 Galactic Thunderbolts (Jul 26, 2010) .............................................................................................................. 335 Blowing Hot Air (Jul 21, 2010)......................................................................................................................... 336 Another Donut on a Stick (Jul 19, 2010) ......................................................................................................... 338 Black Jets (Jul 15, 2010) ................................................................................................................................. 340 CH Cygni in a Pinch (Jul 12, 2010) ................................................................................................................. 342 Barring the Sculptor Galaxy (Jul 05, 2010) ..................................................................................................... 343 Electric Biology (Jun 30, 2010) ....................................................................................................................... 345 The Hourglass Milky Way (Jun 28, 2010) ....................................................................................................... 347 Small-Scale Moon (Jun 25, 2010)................................................................................................................... 348 No Sweeping Claims, Please - Part Two (Jun 23, 2010) ................................................................................ 350 No Sweeping Claims, Please - Part One (Jun 21, 2010)................................................................................ 352 Illuminating Dark Matter Theories (Jun 18, 2010)........................................................................................... 354 Go Figure! (Jun 16, 2010) ............................................................................................................................... 356 Helios Awakens (Jun 14, 2010)....................................................................................................................... 358 Black Winds (Jun 11, 2010)............................................................................................................................. 360 Does it Matter? (Jun 09, 2010)........................................................................................................................ 362 Martian Electric Augers (Jun 07, 2010)........................................................................................................... 365 Hyperion's Daughter (Jun 04, 2010) ............................................................................................................... 367 Eyewitness to a Black Hole (Jun 02, 2010) .................................................................................................... 369 Elementary Knowledge (May 31, 2010) .......................................................................................................... 371 Jupiter's Consort (May 28, 2010) .................................................................................................................... 374 Backwards Planets (May 26, 2010) ................................................................................................................ 376 Eject This (May 24, 2010) ............................................................................................................................... 377 Why the Lower Corona of the Sun Is Hotter Than the Photosphere (May 19, 2010) ..................................... 379 Whimsical Science (May 17, 2010)................................................................................................................. 381
The Crack of Light (May 14, 2010).................................................................................................................. 382 Cosmic Capacitors (May 13, 2010)................................................................................................................. 384 Vredefort Dome (May 10, 2010)...................................................................................................................... 386 Massive Protostars (May 07, 2010) ................................................................................................................ 388 Pulsed Power (May 06, 2010)......................................................................................................................... 390 Detecting Double Layers (May 03, 2010)........................................................................................................ 392 The Galilean Moons (Apr 30, 2010) ................................................................................................................ 394 Perceiving Einstein (Apr 27, 2010).................................................................................................................. 397 Casualty of War (Apr 23, 2010)....................................................................................................................... 401 Redshifts and Microwaves (Apr 21, 2010) ...................................................................................................... 403 Lunar Charge Distribution (Apr 19, 2010) ....................................................................................................... 405 Dark Lensing (Apr 14, 2010) ........................................................................................................................... 407 Neptune's Herald (Apr 09, 2010)..................................................................................................................... 409 Electromagnetic Galaxies (Apr 09, 2010) ........................................................................................................411 The Sahara Desert (Apr 08, 2010).................................................................................................................. 414 The Dust of Creeds Outworn (Apr 02, 2010) .................................................................................................. 416 Electric Pulsars (Mar 31, 2010)....................................................................................................................... 418 Hide and Seek (Mar 30, 2010) ........................................................................................................................ 420 More Martian Enigmas (Mar 26, 2010) ........................................................................................................... 423 Venus in Lockstep (Mar 24, 2010) .................................................................................................................. 425 Solar Plasma Circuits (Mar 22, 2010) ............................................................................................................. 427 Jupiter's Great Hot Spot (Mar 19, 2010) ......................................................................................................... 429 The Quest for Life (Mar 17, 2010)................................................................................................................... 431 Earth Cycles (Mar 15, 2010) ........................................................................................................................... 433 Velikovsky's Comet Venus (Mar 12, 2010) ..................................................................................................... 435 The Sunbeam of Yore (Mar 10, 2010)............................................................................................................. 437 First Sight (Mar 05, 2010) ............................................................................................................................... 439 The Voice of the Peoples (Mar 03, 2010) ....................................................................................................... 441 Hot Neon (Mar 01, 2010) ................................................................................................................................ 444

Primitive Stars and Galactic Eggs (Feb 24, 2010) .......................................................................................... 446 Orions Thunderbolt (Feb 17, 2010) ................................................................................................................ 448 What on Earth ? (Feb 15, 2010) .................................................................................................................. 450 Quasars: Massive or Charged? (Feb 12, 2010).............................................................................................. 453 More Than Meets the Eye (Feb 10, 2010) ...................................................................................................... 455 Quasar Clusters (Feb 08, 2010)...................................................................................................................... 458 The Interconnected Sun Part Two (Feb 05, 2010) .......................................................................................... 461 The Interconnected Sun Part One (Feb 03, 2010).......................................................................................... 467 A Galaxy with Its Tail in a Knot (Feb 01, 2010) ............................................................................................... 470 The No-Belief Belief System (Jan 29, 2010)................................................................................................... 472 Cosmic Bearcat (Jan 27, 2010)....................................................................................................................... 475 The Electrical Origin of Kimberlite Pipes (Jan 25, 2010) ................................................................................ 477 The Gorgon's Head (Jan 18, 2010)................................................................................................................. 479 Beetlejuice (Jan 15, 2010) .............................................................................................................................. 481 The Shape of Things that Are (Jan 13, 2010) ................................................................................................. 483 The Interstellar Medium (Jan 11, 2010) .......................................................................................................... 485 Galactic Tail Lights (Jan 08, 2010) .................................................................................................................. 487 Heat Upon Heat Upon Heat (Jan 06, 2010).................................................................................................... 489 Presumptive Proplyds (Jan 04, 2010) ............................................................................................................. 491 MACHOs and WIMPs (Jan 01, 2010) ............................................................................................................. 493
2009......................................................................................................................................495
Titan's Glass Lakes (Dec 28, 2009) ................................................................................................................ 496 Dione's Daughter (Dec 23, 2009).................................................................................................................... 498 TIMED is on My Side (Yes it is) (Dec 21, 2009).............................................................................................. 501 Things that Go Bump in the Light (Dec 18 2009............................................................................................. 503 VISTA's First Light (Dec 16, 2009) .................................................................................................................. 505 Seeing Red Giants (Dec 14, 2009) ................................................................................................................. 507 The Global Problem of Turbulence Cooling (Dec 11, 2009) ........................................................................... 509
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Solar Breeze (Dec 07, 2009)........................................................................................................................... 512 Craters and Buttes Part Two (Dec 04, 2009) .................................................................................................. 514 A Twist in the Ring of Centaurus A (Dec 02, 2009) ......................................................................................... 517 Craters and Buttes Part One (Nov 30, 2009).................................................................................................. 519 Dark Mode Galaxies (Nov 23, 2009)............................................................................................................... 521 The Spirit is Willing (Nov 20, 2009)................................................................................................................. 523 Planetary Paradigms (Nov 18, 2009) .............................................................................................................. 525 Gamma Gamma Hey (Nov 16, 2009) ............................................................................................................. 527 Red-Faced Worlds (Nov 13, 2009) ................................................................................................................. 529 Where the Star Winds Blow (Nov 11, 2009).................................................................................................... 531 Dawn Approaches the Asteroid Belt (Nov 09, 2009)....................................................................................... 533 How Are Stars Born? (Nov 06, 2009).............................................................................................................. 535 Pulsar Convolutions (Nov 04, 2009) ............................................................................................................... 538 Stars in Collision Part 2 (Nov 02, 2009) .......................................................................................................... 540 Stars in Collision Part 1 (Oct 30, 2009) ........................................................................................................... 542 A Pattern of Forces (Oct 29, 2009) ................................................................................................................. 544 Scraps of Cosmic Electricity (Oct 19, 2009).................................................................................................... 546 Say What? (Oct 16, 2009)............................................................................................................................... 548 Saturn Loosens its Belt (Oct 12, 2009) ........................................................................................................... 550 Impulse Control (Oct 09, 2009) ....................................................................................................................... 552 Son of the Sky (Oct 07, 2009)......................................................................................................................... 554 Cometary Galaxies (Oct 05, 2009).................................................................................................................. 556 Final Flyby (Oct 01, 2009)............................................................................................................................... 558 Spring Has Sprung (Sep 28, 2009) ................................................................................................................. 560 Hitched to a Star (Sep 25, 2009)..................................................................................................................... 562 Heliophysics (Sep 23, 2009) ........................................................................................................................... 564 Wheeling Spokes (Sep 21, 2009) ................................................................................................................... 567 Riding the Solar Cycle (Sep 18, 2009)............................................................................................................ 569 Big and Little Science (Sep 16, 2009)............................................................................................................. 571
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Suddenly (Sep 14, 2009) ................................................................................................................................ 575 Frozen Fires (Sep 11, 2009)............................................................................................................................ 577 Solar Magnetic Polarity Reversal (Sep 09, 2009) ........................................................................................... 579 Inside the Aurorae (Sep 07, 2009) .................................................................................................................. 582 Magnetic Disconnection (Sep 04, 2009) ......................................................................................................... 585 The Trouble with the Trifid (Aug 31, 2009) ...................................................................................................... 588 Fingerprinting Titan (Aug 28, 2009)................................................................................................................. 590 The Planck Mission (Aug 26, 2009) ................................................................................................................ 592 Mars Lights and Lightning (Aug 24, 2009) ...................................................................................................... 594 Frankensteins Comet: Sparks of Life? (Aug 21, 2009) .................................................................................. 596 Martian Auroras (Aug 19, 2009) ...................................................................................................................... 598 Happy Birthday "Radiant Matter" Plasma! (Aug 17, 2009) ............................................................................. 600 Siriusly Red (Aug 14, 2009) ............................................................................................................................ 602 A Bubble of Obsolete Presumptions (Aug 12, 2009) ...................................................................................... 605 The Unwavering Truth about the Zodiacal Light (Aug 10, 2009) .................................................................... 607 Memories of Plasma (Aug 05, 2009)............................................................................................................... 609 The Adler Report (Aug 03, 2009) .....................................................................................................................611 Venus: Flame Broiled Pressure Cooker (Jul 29, 2009)................................................................................... 617 Geological Narratives (Jul 27, 2009)............................................................................................................... 619 Upheaval Dome (Jul 24, 2009) ....................................................................................................................... 621 All in the MOND (Jul 22, 2009) ....................................................................................................................... 623 Another Fogged Image of Stephans Quintet (Jul 20, 2009)........................................................................... 625 Son of Gaea (Jul 15, 2009) ............................................................................................................................. 627 Wollangambe Crater (Jul 13, 2009) ................................................................................................................ 629 The First 'People' in Space (Jul 10, 2009) ...................................................................................................... 631 Ring of Ice, Ring of Fire (Jul 08, 2009) ........................................................................................................... 634 Riders of the Night (Jul 06, 2009) ................................................................................................................... 636 Divining the Meaning of the Aurora (Jul 03, 2009).......................................................................................... 639 Tales of Brave Ulysses (Jul 01, 2009)............................................................................................................. 641
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Ballistic Cosmic Rays (Jun 29, 2009).............................................................................................................. 643 Lake Shalbatana (Jun 26, 2009) ..................................................................................................................... 645 Solar Electricity (Jun 24, 2009) ....................................................................................................................... 648 Nebular Currents (Jun 22, 2009)..................................................................................................................... 650 Reconnoitering the Moon (Jun 19, 2009)........................................................................................................ 652 Electric Wind (Jun 15, 2009) ........................................................................................................................... 654 Plasma In Three Dimensions (Jun 12, 2009).................................................................................................. 656 Celestial Bodies On Their Guard (Jun 10, 2009) ............................................................................................ 658 Extra-Solar Habitable Zones (Jun 08, 2009)................................................................................................... 660 What Are Little Planets Made Of? (Jun 05, 2009)........................................................................................... 662 The New Solar Cycle (Jun 03, 2009) .............................................................................................................. 664 Cassini Equinox Titan Update (Jun 01, 2009)................................................................................................. 666 Not Seeing Whats Not Believed (May 25, 2009)............................................................................................ 669 Vanishing Rings (May 20, 2009) ..................................................................................................................... 671 Comet Crystals (May 18, 2009) ...................................................................................................................... 673 Faster Than Light: Part Two (May 15, 2009)................................................................................................... 676 Faster Than Light: Part One (May 13, 2009) .................................................................................................. 679 Joining the Dots Part Two: The Dating Scene in the Sky (May 08, 2009) ...................................................... 682 Joining the Dots Part One: Fireworks on New Year's Day (May 06, 2009) .................................................... 685 Unveiling More of Mercury's Secrets (May 04, 2009) ..................................................................................... 688 An Aristotelian Hangover (May 01, 2009) ....................................................................................................... 691 Space Tornadoes Cause a Stir (Apr 29, 2009) ............................................................................................... 693 Dwarf Galaxies Pose Big Problems (Apr 27, 2009) ........................................................................................ 695 Imagine Another Wet, Rocky Planet (Apr 24, 2009) ....................................................................................... 697 Sungrazers (Apr 22, 2009).............................................................................................................................. 700 Hot Gas vs. Electric Currents (Apr 17, 2009).................................................................................................. 702 Dark Power (Apr 15, 2009) ............................................................................................................................. 704 Jebel Arkenu (Apr 13, 2009) ........................................................................................................................... 707 Plasma Volcanoes (Apr 08, 2009) .................................................................................................................. 709
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The Coming of the Sky Dancers (Apr 06, 2009) ..............................................................................................711 BlackMax and Black Arts (Apr 03, 2009)......................................................................................................... 713 A New Look at Near Neighbors - Part Two (Apr 01, 2009) ............................................................................. 716 A New Look at Near Neighbors - Part One (Mar 30, 2009) ............................................................................ 719 Velikovskian Chaff and Wheat: Venus (Mar 27, 2009).................................................................................... 722 Which Nebula is Real? (Mar 25, 2009) ........................................................................................................... 725 Closing Gaps--In Our Knowledge (Mar 23, 2009)........................................................................................... 727 A Lamentation for Arp 261 (Mar 20, 2009)...................................................................................................... 730 Dark Matter Recreations - Part Two (Mar 18, 2009) ....................................................................................... 732 Superclusters and Supervoids (Mar 16, 2009) ............................................................................................... 735 Dark Matter Recreations - Part One (Mar 13, 2009)....................................................................................... 738 A Twist of Plasma (Mar 09, 2009) ................................................................................................................... 741 Megaripples (Mar 06, 2009) ............................................................................................................................ 743 The Leo Ring (Mar 04, 2009) .......................................................................................................................... 745 Ionic Tempest (Feb 27, 2009) ......................................................................................................................... 748 Dust in the Wind (Feb 25, 2009) ..................................................................................................................... 750 Noisy Space--Electric Space (Feb 23, 2009) .................................................................................................. 752 The Kondyor Massif (Feb 20, 2009)................................................................................................................ 754 Carina Breakdown (Feb 18, 2009) .................................................................................................................. 756 Dark Matter Hiding in the Margins (Feb 16, 2009).......................................................................................... 758 Double Layer Detonation (Feb 11, 2009) ........................................................................................................ 761 Seeing Down Tunnels (Feb 09, 2009)............................................................................................................. 763 From Ptolemy to Dark Matter - Part 2 (Feb 06, 2009) .................................................................................... 765 From Ptolemy to Dark Matter - Part 1 (Feb 04, 2009) .................................................................................... 768 Lightning, Sticky Tape, and Black Hole Observations - Part 2 (Feb 02, 2009) ............................................... 770 Lightning, Sticky Tape, and Black Hole Observations - Part 1 (Jan 30, 2009) ............................................... 773 Ariel's Cicatricial Visage (Jan 28, 2009).......................................................................................................... 775 Do Chinese Whispers Affect Myths? (Jan 27, 2009) ...................................................................................... 777 The Comeback of Cas A (Jan 23, 2009) ......................................................................................................... 779
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The Weakening Gravity-Dominated Cosmos Theory (Jan 21, 2009) ............................................................. 782 Dragons--All Between The Ears? (Jan 19, 2009) ........................................................................................... 785 Is Lightning the Strongest Creative Force? (Jan 14, 2009) ............................................................................ 788 How Old Are The Stars? (Jan 13, 2009) ......................................................................................................... 791 Adhering to Fusion (Jan 09, 2009).................................................................................................................. 793 A Magnetic Problem with "Protogalaxies" (Jan 07, 2009)............................................................................... 795 Magnetic Breaches (Jan 05, 2009) ................................................................................................................. 798 How Long Ago? Part Two (Jan 02, 2009) ....................................................................................................... 801 How Long Ago? (Jan 01, 2009)....................................................................................................................... 804
2008......................................................................................................................................806
Before the Beginning (Dec 29, 2008).............................................................................................................. 807 Lake of the Woods (Dec 24, 2008) ................................................................................................................. 809 Titan Tells More Strange Tales (Dec 19, 2008) ................................................................................................811 Electric Baubles in the Night (Dec 17, 2008) .................................................................................................. 813 "Hot Hot Hot!" (Dec 15, 2008) ......................................................................................................................... 815 Multi-Ringed Basins (Dec 12, 2008) ............................................................................................................... 817 Confronting the Dragon (Dec 10, 2008) .......................................................................................................... 819 First Star I See Tonight (Dec 08, 2008) ........................................................................................................... 821 What is Truth? (Dec 05, 2008) ........................................................................................................................ 823 Vampire Astronomy (Dec 03, 2008) ................................................................................................................ 825 How Should We Presume? (Dec 01, 2008) .................................................................................................... 827 Magnetic Monsters (Nov 26, 2008) ................................................................................................................. 829 Black Holes Stretch the Truth (Nov 24, 2008) ................................................................................................. 831 The Consensus and the Crab (Nov 21, 2008) ................................................................................................ 834 So Hot You're Cool, So Cool You're Hot (Nov 19, 2008) ................................................................................ 836 Footprints on Mars (Nov 18, 2008) ................................................................................................................. 838 Cold Dust Or Glowing Plasma (Nov 12, 2008) ............................................................................................... 840 Feeding Habits (Nov 10, 2008) ....................................................................................................................... 842 The Barren Moon Born Out (Nov 07, 2008).................................................................................................... 844
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Martian Ripples (Nov 06, 2008) ...................................................................................................................... 846 The Phoenix Expires (Nov 03, 2008) .............................................................................................................. 848 Enceladus Cracks and Creaks (Oct 31, 2008)................................................................................................ 850 Is the Universe Recession Proof? (Oct 29, 2008)........................................................................................... 852 Plasma Politics (Oct 27, 2008)........................................................................................................................ 854 Cometary Filaments (Oct 22, 2008) ................................................................................................................ 856 The Dead Sea (Oct 20, 2008) ......................................................................................................................... 859 Saturn's Raging Storms (Oct 16, 2008) .......................................................................................................... 862 Filaments and Fireballs (Oct 13, 2008) ........................................................................................................... 864 Kuiper Crater's Rays (Oct 10, 2008) ............................................................................................................... 866 Gooches Crater, Australia (Oct 08, 2008) ....................................................................................................... 869 Bubble Magnets (Oct 06, 2008) ...................................................................................................................... 871 Greater and Greater Attractors (Oct 03, 2008) ............................................................................................... 873 The Grand Canyon: Part Two (Oct 01, 2008) ................................................................................................. 876 The Grand Canyon: Part One (Sep 29, 2008) ................................................................................................ 878 Misplaced Mavericks (Sep 26, 2008) .............................................................................................................. 880 Cluster Coupling (Sep 24, 2008)..................................................................................................................... 883 Natural Arches (Sep 22, 2008)........................................................................................................................ 885 What the Heck is it? (Sep 19, 2008) ............................................................................................................... 887 In Space No One Can Hear You Scream (Sep 17, 2008)............................................................................... 889 Abell Clusters: Would You Like Them Here or There? (Sep 15, 2008) .......................................................... 891 The Uvs Nuur Basin (Sep 12, 2008) ............................................................................................................... 894 Rosetta Sees a Stone Called Steins (Sep 10, 2008) ...................................................................................... 896 Multi-Colored Centaurs (Sep 08, 2008) .......................................................................................................... 898 Merger or Spin-off? (Sep 05, 2008) ................................................................................................................ 900 War of the Worldviews (Sep 03, 2008) ........................................................................................................... 902 Island Arcs (Sep 01, 2008).............................................................................................................................. 904 Clusters and Cosmological Constants (Aug 29, 2008) ................................................................................... 906 The Weaubleau-Osceola Structure (Aug 27, 2008) ........................................................................................ 909
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Forever Blowing Bubbles (Aug 25, 2008) ....................................................................................................... 912 Kuiper Belt Objects (Aug 15, 2008)................................................................................................................. 914 Two Views of a Supernova (Aug 13, 2008)..................................................................................................... 916 The Cat's Eye Catspaw (Aug 11, 2008) .......................................................................................................... 918 The Braided Filaments of Galaxy M87 (Aug 08, 2008)................................................................................... 920 The Sea of Japan (Aug 06, 2008) ................................................................................................................... 921 Saturn's Invisible Rings (Aug 04, 2008) .......................................................................................................... 923 Stoking the Star Maker Machinery (Jul 30, 2008) ........................................................................................... 925 Missing Matter-Missing Discharge (Jul 28, 2008) ........................................................................................... 927 Empty Space--Electric Space (Jul 25, 2008) .................................................................................................. 929 Dark Matter-Dark Currents (Jul 23, 2008)....................................................................................................... 931 Red Clusters (Jul 21, 2008) ............................................................................................................................ 933 Frozen in the Dark (Jul 16, 2008).................................................................................................................... 936 Europa's Unsettled Poles (Jul 14, 2008)......................................................................................................... 938 Binary Asteroids (Jul 11, 2008) ....................................................................................................................... 940 The Canadian Shield (Jul 07, 2008)................................................................................................................ 942 Supermassive Problems with Black Holes (Jul 02, 2008)............................................................................... 944 Antarcticas Dry Valleys (Jun 30, 2008) .......................................................................................................... 946 The Search for Water on Mars Continues (Jun 20, 2008) .............................................................................. 948 The Channeled Scablands (Jun 18, 2008) ..................................................................................................... 950 Little Star Lost (Jun 16, 2008) ......................................................................................................................... 952 Happy Birthday Willard Bennett (Jun 13, 2008).............................................................................................. 955 Lunar Dust Levitation (Jun 11, 2008) .............................................................................................................. 957 Cradle Mountain, Tasmania (Jun 09, 2008) .................................................................................................... 959 The Norwegian Fjords (Jun 02, 2008)............................................................................................................. 963 Hannes Alfvn: the Maverick Plasma Astrophysicist (May 30, 2008) ............................................................. 965 The Phoenix Awakens (May 28, 2008) ........................................................................................................... 968 Predictions, Falsifiability and the Standard Model of Stellar Evolution (May 26, 2008) .................................. 970 Colossal Flare Erupts from EV Lacertae (May 23, 2008) ............................................................................... 972
17
Ring Around Rhea (May 21, 2008) ................................................................................................................. 974 Is Hoags Object a Dense Plasma Focus? (May 19, 2008) ............................................................................ 976 White Mars (May 14, 2008)............................................................................................................................. 979 The Sombrero Galaxy (May 12, 2008)............................................................................................................ 981 Shedding Some Light On Jupiter (May 05, 2008)........................................................................................... 983 A Sea of Holes (May 02, 2008) ....................................................................................................................... 985 Bringing in the May (May 01, 2008) ................................................................................................................ 987 Pillars of Desolation (Apr 30, 2008) ................................................................................................................ 989 Martian Water Features (Apr 28, 2008) .......................................................................................................... 991 The Siberian Traps (Apr 23, 2008) .................................................................................................................. 993 Star Formation in the Southern Pinwheel (Apr 21, 2008) ............................................................................... 995 New Zealands Moeraki Boulders (Apr 18, 2008) ........................................................................................... 997 A Potted View of Ancient Geometric Imagery (Apr 17, 2008) ......................................................................... 999 Is Stickney Crater an Impact Feature? (Apr 14, 2008).................................................................................. 1001 The Spirit of Mythology Part Two (Apr 11, 2008) ....................................................................................... 1003 The Spirit of Mythology Part One (Apr 09, 2008)....................................................................................... 1005 Stellar Dumbbell (May Illustrate Electric Fissioning (Apr 07, 2008) .............................................................. 1007 N132Ds Electric Arc (Apr 02, 2008) ............................................................................................................. 1009 Wilpena Pound (Mar 31, 2008) ......................................................................................................................1011 The South Lunar Pole (Mar 28, 2008)........................................................................................................... 1013 Galactic Deflection (Mar 26, 2008)................................................................................................................ 1016 Dendritic Channels (Mar 24, 2008) ............................................................................................................... 1018 Mohenjo-Daro (Mar 21, 2008)....................................................................................................................... 1020 Gods in the Flesh Part Two (Mar 19, 2008) ............................................................................................... 1022 Gods in the Flesh Part One (Mar 17, 2008)............................................................................................... 1024 Detecting the Undetectable (Mar 10, 2008) .................................................................................................. 1026 When Winds Collide (Mar 07, 2008) ............................................................................................................. 1028 The Circular Ocean: a Round Up (Mar 05, 2008) ......................................................................................... 1030 Anomalous Trajectories (Mar 04, 2008) ........................................................................................................ 1033
18
More from Mercury (Feb 29, 2007) ............................................................................................................... 1035 Myth as Metaphor (Feb 27, 2007)................................................................................................................. 1037 Impending Enceladus Encounter (Feb 25, 2008) ......................................................................................... 1040 Venus' Tail of the Unexpected (Feb 20, 2008) .............................................................................................. 1042 The Electric Fires of Creation (Feb 18, 2008)............................................................................................... 1044 A String Theory for the Sun (Feb 15, 2008) .................................................................................................. 1047 Southern Utahs Catastrophic Past (Feb 13, 2008) ...................................................................................... 1049 But What About Jung? (Feb 11, 2008) .......................................................................................................... 1051 Spicules Complete the Circuit (Feb 08, 2008) .............................................................................................. 1054 Peopling the Mythical Landscape (Feb 07, 2008)......................................................................................... 1056 Mercurys Araneidal Terrain (Feb 04, 2008).................................................................................................. 1059 Saturns Thermogenic Vertex (Feb 01, 2008) ............................................................................................... 1061 Happy Birthday Irving Langmuir (Jan 31, 2008) ........................................................................................... 1063 A Miss is as Good as a Mile (Jan 30, 2008).................................................................................................. 1064 The Worzel Deep Sea Ash (Jan 28, 2008) ................................................................................................... 1066 Filamentary My Dear Watson (Jan 25, 2008) ............................................................................................... 1068 Bosticks Plasmoids (Jan 24, 2008) .............................................................................................................. 1070 Mal de Mimas (Jan 21, 2008)........................................................................................................................ 1072 Martian Glaciers (Jan 18, 2008).................................................................................................................... 1074 Messages from Mercury (Jan 16, 2008) ....................................................................................................... 1076 Mars or Earth the Devils are Electrified (Jan 14, 2008) ................................................................................ 1078 Popigai Crater, Siberia (Jan 07, 2008) .......................................................................................................... 1080 Martian Skylights in the Laboratory (Jan 04, 2008) ...................................................................................... 1082 Born out of Hell (Jan 02, 2008) ..................................................................................................................... 1084
2007....................................................................................................................................1086
The Vercors Plateau (Dec 28, 2007)............................................................................................................. 1087 A Case for Mistaken Identity (Dec 26, 2007) ................................................................................................ 1089 The Bird is the Word (Dec 24, 2007)............................................................................................................. 1091 Transient Lunar Phenomena (Dec 21, 2007) ................................................................................................ 1093
19
The Nature of Nature Gods (Dec 19, 2007).................................................................................................. 1095 Electric Clouds (Dec 17, 2007) ..................................................................................................................... 1097 The Amazonian Tepuis (Dec 14, 2007)......................................................................................................... 1099 Happy Birthday Kristian Birkeland (Dec 13, 2007).........................................................................................1101 The Ladder to Heaven (Dec 12, 2007)...........................................................................................................1103 The Hole at the Pole (Dec 10, 2007)..............................................................................................................1105 Electric Caverns (Dec 07, 2007) ....................................................................................................................1107 Tumultuous Tethys (Dec 05, 2007) ................................................................................................................ 1110 Aphrodite's Blazing Mane (Nov 30, 2007)...................................................................................................... 1112 Antarctica: Fire and Ice (Nov 28, 2007) ......................................................................................................... 1114 Manicouagan: Impact Crater or Lightning Scar? (Nov 26, 2007) ..................................................................1116 Back to the Moon (Nov 21, 2007) .................................................................................................................. 1118 Electric Space Weather Baffles Scientists (Nov 19, 2007) ............................................................................1120 Sulfurous Mars (Nov 16, 2007) ......................................................................................................................1123 Cosmic Ray Guns (Nov 14, 2007) .................................................................................................................1125 Kinks in Saturn's Rings (Nov 12, 2007) .........................................................................................................1128 China's Mysterious Iron Pipes (Nov 09, 2007)...............................................................................................1130 Dust Braids in Melas Chasma (Nov 07, 2007)...............................................................................................1132 Space Aliens Blamed For Electric Universe (Nov 05, 2007)..........................................................................1134 New Stars from Orion's Head (Nov 02, 2007)................................................................................................1137 Comet Holmes 17P Startles Astronomers (Oct 31, 2007)..............................................................................1139 Stone Monoliths - Part Two (Oct 29, 2007) ....................................................................................................1141 Atlas, Saturn's Lenticular Moon (Oct 26, 2007) .............................................................................................1143 The Tharsis Montes Volcanoes (Oct 24, 2007)..............................................................................................1145 Stone Monoliths (Oct 22, 2007)......................................................................................................................1147 Victoria's other Secrets (Oct 19, 2007) ..........................................................................................................1149 Australia's Big Three (Oct 1, 2007) ................................................................................................................1151 Particle Sorting on Asteroid Itokawa (Oct 15, 2007) ......................................................................................1153 Mars in Miniature (Oct 12, 2007)....................................................................................................................1155
20
Tyrannosaurus Rex: Prima Ballerina (Oct 10, 2007) .....................................................................................1157 NGC 4550: Galactic Bi-directionality (Oct 09, 2007)......................................................................................1159 Comet McNaught Modulates the Solar Wind (Oct 05, 2007).........................................................................1161 Iapetus Rising (Oct 03, 2007) ........................................................................................................................1163 The Zagros Mountains, Iran (Oct 01, 2007) ...................................................................................................1165 The Hot Pole(s) of Neptune (Sep 28, 2007) ..................................................................................................1167 The Tail of a Galaxy (Sep 26, 2007)...............................................................................................................1169 Fantastic Phobos (Sep 24, 2007)...................................................................................................................1171 Exploding Bolides (Sep 21, 2007)..................................................................................................................1173 Old Star, New Star, Red Star, Blue Star (Sep 17, 2007) ................................................................................1175 Dark Understanding of Matter (Sep 14, 2007) ...............................................................................................1177 The Pioneer Anomaly (Sep 12, 2007)............................................................................................................1179 Bio-plasma Physics Anyone? (Sep 10, 2007)................................................................................................1181 Holes in Space (Sep 04, 2007) ......................................................................................................................1183 Saturn's Plasma Ring (Aug 29, 2007)............................................................................................................1187 Mira: The Tale of a Giant Star (Aug 27, 2007) ...............................................................................................1189 The Expanding Earth Debate - Part Three (Aug 24, 2007)............................................................................1191 The Expanding Earth Debate - Part Two (Aug 23, 2007)...............................................................................1193 The Expanding Earth Debate - Part One (Aug 20, 2007) ..............................................................................1196 Chaotic Callisto (Aug 17, 2007) .....................................................................................................................1198 Ganymede Bears Witness (Aug 15, 2007).................................................................................................... 1200 Shiprock New Mexico (Aug 13, 2007)........................................................................................................... 1202 Lake Victoria (Aug 10, 2007)......................................................................................................................... 1204 Small Star with a Large Planet (Aug 08, 2007) ............................................................................................. 1206 Titan Tells Strange Tales - Part Two (Aug 03, 2007) ..................................................................................... 1208 Titan Tells Strange Tales - Part One (Aug 01, 2007)..................................................................................... 1210 The X-Ray Jets of Circinus X-1 (Jul 30, 2007).............................................................................................. 1212 Rhea the Battered Ice Ball (Jul 27, 2007) ..................................................................................................... 1214 Explaining Phoebe's Giant Spiral (Jul 25, 2007)........................................................................................... 1216
21
Homing in on Hyperion (Jul 23, 2007)........................................................................................................... 1218 The Tortured Landscape of Iapetus (Jul 20, 2007) ....................................................................................... 1220 Venus the Bright Planet (Jul 19, 2007) ......................................................................................................... 1222 Dione's Tortuous Cliffs (Jul 13, 2007)............................................................................................................ 1224 The "Mysterious Arms" of M106 (Jul 11, 2007) ............................................................................................. 1226 Memories of the "Squatter Man" (Jul 09, 2007) ............................................................................................ 1228 Victoria Crater--A Prediction (Jul 06, 2007)................................................................................................... 1230 New Tunguska Crater Found? (Jul 05, 2007) ............................................................................................... 1232 The Martian Polar Vortices (Jul 02, 2007)..................................................................................................... 1234 China's Stone Eggs (Jun 29, 2007)............................................................................................................... 1236 The Mountains of Patagonia (Jun 27, 2007) ................................................................................................. 1238 The Brandberg Massif (Jun 25, 2007)........................................................................................................... 1240 Triton's "Ice Geysers" (Jun 22, 2007)............................................................................................................ 1242 The Reiner Gamma Formation (Jun 20, 2007) ............................................................................................. 1244 Saturn's Electric Moons (Jun 18, 2007) ........................................................................................................ 1246 Mars' South Polar Dark Spots and "Geysers" (May 25, 2007) ..................................................................... 1248 Bull's-Eye Craters (May 23, 2007) ................................................................................................................ 1250 "Dalmatian Spots" of Mars' South Pole (May 21, 2007)................................................................................ 1252 The "Dark Spots" of Russell Crater (May 18, 2007)...................................................................................... 1255 The "Gullies" of Russell Crater on Mars (2) (May 16, 2007)......................................................................... 1258 The "Gullies" of Russell Crater on Mars (May 14, 2007) .............................................................................. 1260 Electric Io Revisited (May 11, 2007).............................................................................................................. 1263 Martian Dust Devils--Prediction Confirmed (May 09, 2007).......................................................................... 1265 Martian Global Warming (May 07, 2007) ...................................................................................................... 1267 More Martian "Lava Tubes" (Mar 19, 2007) .................................................................................................. 1269 Enceladus Plumes Explained? (Mar 16, 2007)............................................................................................. 1271 Alaskan Volcano Spits Lightning (Mar 14, 2007) .......................................................................................... 1273 The Electrical Heating of Saturn (Mar 12, 2007)........................................................................................... 1275 The "Galactic Mask" Unveiled (Mar 09, 2007) .............................................................................................. 1277
22
2006....................................................................................................................................1279
The "Impossible" Twin Peaks (Dec 22, 2006) ............................................................................................... 1280 One Crater, Many "Puzzles" (Dec 15, 2006)................................................................................................. 1282 Bulls-Eye Craters (Dec 13, 2006)................................................................................................................. 1284 Unsolved Mysteries of a "Starburst" Galaxy (Dec 11, 2006)......................................................................... 1286 Saturns Monstrous Polar Storm (Dec 08, 2006) .......................................................................................... 1288 The Dendritic Ridges of Valles Marineris (Dec 05, 2006) ............................................................................. 1290 New Evidence for Quasar Ejection (Dec 04, 2006) ...................................................................................... 1292 Son of M81 (Dec 01, 2006) ........................................................................................................................... 1294 The "Dunes" of Rabe Crater (Nov 29, 2006)................................................................................................. 1296 Dendritic Ridges--Eye of the Beholder (Nov 27, 2006)................................................................................. 1298 The Ridges of Olympus Mons (2) (Nov 24, 2006) ........................................................................................ 1300 The Dendritic Ridges of Olympus Mons (Nov 22, 2006)............................................................................... 1302 The "Dunes" of Victoria Crater (Nov 20, 2006) ............................................................................................. 1304 Victoria Crater on Mars (Nov 17, 2006) ........................................................................................................ 1306 A "Doomsday" Stellar Flare (Nov 15, 2006) .................................................................................................. 1308 Another Electrical "Shock" for Astronomers (Nov 13, 2006)......................................................................... 1310 Stellar Ouroboros (Nov 10, 2006) ................................................................................................................. 1313 The Moving "Geysers" of Enceladus (Nov 08, 2006).................................................................................... 1315 Pinch Yourself! (Nov 06, 2006) ..................................................................................................................... 1317 Bullet Cluster Shoots Down Big Bang (Sep 04, 2006).................................................................................. 1319 The "Science" of the Big Bang (Aug 23, 2006) ............................................................................................. 1321 Titan Update--Our Prediction Stands (Aug 15, 2006) ................................................................................... 1324 Astronomers Stumble Over Assumptions (Aug 14, 2006) ............................................................................ 1326 Expanding Uncertainty about the Hubble Constant (Aug 11, 2006) ............................................................. 1328 A Flickering "Black Hole" (Aug 09, 2006)...................................................................................................... 1331 Electricity Alters Martian Soil (Aug 07, 2006)................................................................................................ 1333 Predictions Concerning Titans Methane (Aug 04, 2006).............................................................................. 1335 Methane Lakes on Titan? (Aug 02, 2006)..................................................................................................... 1339
23
Titans Sinuous Rilles (Jul 31, 2006) ............................................................................................................. 1341 The Baffling Martian Spiders (3) (Jul 28, 2006) ............................................................................................ 1343 The Baffling Martian Spiders (2) (Jul 26, 2006) ............................................................................................ 1345 The Baffling Martian "Spiders" (Jul 24, 2006) ............................................................................................... 1347 "Neutron Star" Refutes Its Own Existence (Jul 21, 2006) ............................................................................. 1349 Magnetic Vortex in Space (Jul 19, 2006) ...................................................................................................... 1351 Another "Double-Eye" of Venus (Jul 17, 2006) ............................................................................................. 1353 Saturn's Dragon Storm (Jul 14, 2006)........................................................................................................... 1356 "Doomsday Asteroids" Enchant Astronomers (Jul 12, 2006)........................................................................ 1358 The "Amber" Beads of Phaeton (Jul 10, 2006) ............................................................................................. 1360 A Record of Planetary Catastrophe (Jul 07, 2006) ....................................................................................... 1362 "Baked Galaxies," or Half-Baked Theories? (Jul 06, 2006) .......................................................................... 1364 "Fizzy Bubbles" or Plasma Layers? (Jul 04, 2006) ....................................................................................... 1366 Deep Space Explosion Baffles Astronomers (Jul 03, 2006) ......................................................................... 1368 A, B, C, D, Electric Solar System (May 12, 2006)......................................................................................... 1370 Knowing Too Many Wrong Things (May 10, 2006) ....................................................................................... 1372 Comet Schwassman-Wachmann 3 Disintegrates (2)--Predictions of the Electric Model (May 08, 2006).... 1375 Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 Disintegrates (May 05, 2006) ............................................................. 1378 Aorounga Crater (May 03, 2006) .................................................................................................................. 1381 Two "Black Holes"? (May 01, 2006).............................................................................................................. 1383 Ossified Dragon Theories (Apr 28, 2006) ..................................................................................................... 1385 Galaxies Behaving Badly (Apr 26, 2006) ...................................................................................................... 1388 Libya's Kebira Crater Apr. 24, 2006) ............................................................................................................. 1391 Columbia Shuttle Disaster Revisited (3)--The Realities of Megalightning (Apr 21, 2006) ............................ 1393 Stephans Quintet Rekindles Controversy (Apr 19, 2006) ............................................................................ 1397 Blue Rings Pose New Mystery (Apr 11, 2006) .............................................................................................. 1400 When Asteroids Become Comets (Apr 07, 2006) ......................................................................................... 1402 Asteroid Itokawa (Mar 28, 2006) ................................................................................................................... 1404 A Dent in the Space-Time Fabric? (2)--No "Dent," Just Electricity (Mar 27, 2006)....................................... 1406
24
A Dent in the Space-Time Fabric? (Mar 24, 2006) ....................................................................................... 1409 Stardust Shatters Comet Theory (3)--Of Comets and Planetary Catastrophe (Mar 23, 2006) ......................1411 The Moon and Its Rilles (3)--A Partnership of Craters and Rilles (Mar 21, 2006) ........................................ 1414 Stardust Shatters Comet Theory (2)--Mythic "Oort Cloud" Finds No Support in Comet Dust (Mar 20, 2006) ....................................................................................................................................................................... 1416 The Moon and Its Rilles (2)--The Rilles Are Electric (Mar 17, 2006) ............................................................ 1418 "Stardust" Shatters Comet Theory (Mar 16, 2006)........................................................................................ 1421 The Moon and Its Rilles (Mar 15, 2006)........................................................................................................ 1424 Jets of Enceladus (Mar 13, 2006) ................................................................................................................. 1427 Lunar Craters: a Failed Theory (2)--The Puzzles of Aristarchus (Mar 10, 2006).......................................... 1430 A Radio Message from Space (Mar 09, 2006).............................................................................................. 1433 Lunar Craters: a Failed Theory (Mar 08, 2006)............................................................................................. 1435 Man in the Moon (Mar 06, 2006)................................................................................................................... 1438 The Ever-Elusive "Dark Energy" (Mar 02, 2006)........................................................................................... 1440 In the Dark on Matter--Fabulous Matter and Energy (Feb 28, 2006)............................................................ 1442 The Comet and the Future of Science (Feb 27, 2006) ................................................................................. 1444 Deep Impact: Wheres the Water? (3)--A Unified Explanation of "Water" Production (Feb 17, 2006) ......... 1447 Deep Impact: Wheres the Water? (2)--The Comet as a "Water" Factory (Feb 16, 2006)............................ 1454 Deep Impact: Wheres the Water? (Feb 14, 2006) ....................................................................................... 1457 A Tornado in Space (2)--Remembering Hannes Alfvns Admonition (Feb 13, 2006).................................. 1461 A "Tornado" in Space (Feb 10, 2006)............................................................................................................ 1464 The Chicago Fire (3)--Human Testimony Reconsidered (Feb 09, 2006)...................................................... 1467 The Chicago Fire (2)--Where was Comet Biela? (Feb 07, 2006) ................................................................. 1472 The Comet and the Chicago Fire (Feb 06, 2006) ......................................................................................... 1475 The Tunguska Event (2)--An Explanation that Works (Feb 03, 2006) .......................................................... 1477 Tunguska--the Fire in the Sky (Feb 02, 2006)............................................................................................... 1481 Meteor Crater in Arizona (Jan 31, 2006)....................................................................................................... 1484 The Mystery of Chicxulub Crater (Jan 30, 2006) .......................................................................................... 1487 Hole in the Ground (Jan 27, 2006)................................................................................................................ 1490
25
The "Iron Sun" Debate (4)--Meteorites and the Modern Myth of Solar System Genesis (Jan 26, 2006) ..... 1492 The "Iron Sun" Debate (3)--Exploding the Myth of the Imploding Supernova (Jan 24, 2006) ...................... 1495 The "Iron Sun" Debate (2)--The Myth of the Neutron Star (Jan 23, 2006).................................................... 1499 The "Iron Sun" Debate (1)--Nuclear Reactions at the Solar Surface (Jan 20, 2006) ................................... 1502 When Comets Break Apart (Jan 19, 2006) ................................................................................................... 1504 The Electric Hurricanes of 2005 (Jan 17, 2006) ........................................................................................... 1507 "Festoons" Add to Martian Mysteries (Jan 16, 2006).................................................................................... 1509
2005....................................................................................................................................1511
The Electric Universe--A Status Report (Dec 30, 2005) ............................................................................... 1512 Sunspots and Earthquakes (Dec 21, 2005) .................................................................................................. 1514 Getting to Know Pluto (Dec 15, 2005)........................................................................................................... 1517 Titan's Winds (Dec 08, 2005) ........................................................................................................................ 1519 The Worship of Lightning (Dec 06, 2005) ..................................................................................................... 1521 "No Discernable Debris" (Dec 05, 2005)....................................................................................................... 1523 Saturn's Comet (Dec 02, 2005)..................................................................................................................... 1525 Mesas with Moats (Nov 29, 2005)................................................................................................................. 1527 More Strange Lava Tubes of Mars (Nov 28, 2005) ....................................................................................... 1529 Bearing the Unbearable (Nov 25, 2005) ....................................................................................................... 1531 Melted Moons (Nov 24, 2005)....................................................................................................................... 1533 Mountains of Creation Create a Comet (Nov 22, 2005)................................................................................ 1535 What Eroded Arabia Terra? (3) (Nov 21, 2005) ............................................................................................ 1537 What Eroded Arabia Terra? (2) (Nov 18, 2005) ............................................................................................ 1539 What Eroded Arabia Terra? (1) (Nov 17, 2005) ............................................................................................ 1541 Electric Currents Big and Small (Nov 15, 2005) ........................................................................................... 1543 The Strange Lava Tubes of Mars (Nov 11, 2005) ......................................................................................... 1545 Giant Lightning to Space (Nov 10, 2005) ...................................................................................................... 1547 Electric Wind in the Laboratory (Nov 08, 2005) ............................................................................................ 1549 Just Another Small, Faint Galaxy (Nov 07, 2005) ......................................................................................... 1551
26
Bigger View of the Local Group (Nov 04, 2005) ........................................................................................... 1553 A Bigger View of the Fornax Cluster (Nov 03, 2005) .................................................................................... 1555 A Bigger View of the Virgo Cluster (Nov 01, 2005) ....................................................................................... 1557 Plasma: The other 99.9% (Oct 31, 2005)...................................................................................................... 1559 The Activities of NGC 1097 (Oct 28, 2005)................................................................................................... 1562 Boomerang Nebula Comes Back--to Plasma (Oct 27, 2005) ....................................................................... 1564 Stacked Ancestors (Oct 25, 2005) ................................................................................................................ 1566 Milky Way Plasma-focus Plasmoid (Oct 24, 2005) ....................................................................................... 1568 Chinese Longevity Symbol (Oct 14, 2005).................................................................................................... 1570 Electric Sunspots (Oct 13, 2005) .................................................................................................................. 1572 Electric Supernovae (Oct 11, 2005) .............................................................................................................. 1574 Gamma Ray Bursters (Oct 10, 2005)............................................................................................................ 1576 A History for Hyperion (Oct 07, 2005) ........................................................................................................... 1578 Mysterious Ring of Stars (Oct 06, 2005) ....................................................................................................... 1580 The Virgo Cluster Circuit (Oct 04, 2005) ....................................................................................................... 1582 Lightning Strike on Mars (Oct 03, 2005) ....................................................................................................... 1584 Tycho's Star in Theory and Practice (Sep 30, 2005)..................................................................................... 1585 Too Many Galaxies (Sep 29, 2005)............................................................................................................... 1587 Warm Ice Caps and Warmed-over Ideas (Sep 27, 2005) ............................................................................. 1589 Martian Butte and Crater (Sep 26, 2005) ...................................................................................................... 1591 Comets: The Loose Thread (Sep 23, 2005).................................................................................................. 1593 Layers or Terraces? (Sep 22, 2005).............................................................................................................. 1596 Craters, Trenches and Arcs (Sep 20, 2005).................................................................................................. 1598 Mars Bears Witness (Sep 19, 2005) ............................................................................................................. 1599 Burned by a Dust Devil (Sep 16, 2005)......................................................................................................... 1600 The Temperature of a Star Cluster (Sep 15, 2005) ....................................................................................... 1601 Paradigm Lockout, Paradigm Paralysis? (Sep 13, 2005) ............................................................................. 1602 Gravitational Lensing or Birth of a Theory? (Sep 12, 2005).......................................................................... 1605 Gravitational Lensing or Death of a Theory? (Sep 09, 2005) ....................................................................... 1607
27
EDM on Enceladus (Sep 08, 2005)............................................................................................................... 1609 Solar Power, Internal or External? (Sep 06, 2005) ........................................................................................1611 Galactic Currents or Collisions? (Sep 02, 2005) ........................................................................................... 1613 A New Theory for the Ring Nebula (Sep 01, 2005)....................................................................................... 1614 Martian Thunderbolt Strikes a Positive Note (Aug 30, 2005)........................................................................ 1616 Curly Trenches in Mars Ice Cap (Aug 29, 2005) .......................................................................................... 1618 Galactic Rotation: Point or Axis? (Aug 26, 2005).......................................................................................... 1620 Electrical Erosion on Mars Ice Cap (Aug 25, 2005) ..................................................................................... 1622 Yardangs or Scavenger Currents? (Aug 23, 2005) ....................................................................................... 1624 Gravitational Lensing Used As Excuse Again (Aug 22, 2005) ...................................................................... 1626 E-Wind (Aug 19, 2005).................................................................................................................................. 1628 Clean Craters All in a Row (Aug 18, 2005) ................................................................................................... 1630 Gravitational Lensing Misused Again* (Aug 16, 2005).................................................................................. 1632 Electric Lights on Saturn (Aug 15, 2005) ...................................................................................................... 1634 Richat Crater Revisited (2) (Aug 12, 2005)................................................................................................... 1635 Richat Crater Revisited (Aug 11, 2005)......................................................................................................... 1638 The Hot Poles of Enceladus (Aug 09, 2005)................................................................................................. 1640 Quasars in Infrared are Still Nearby (Aug 08, 2005) ..................................................................................... 1642 NASA on Martian Dust Devils--"Theyre Electrified!" (Jul 21, 2005) ............................................................. 1644 Interim Report on Deep Impact (Jul 19, 2005) .............................................................................................. 1647 Deep Impact and Shoemaker-Levy 9 (Jul 18, 2005)..................................................................................... 1650 The Missing Water of Comet Tempel 1 (Jul 15, 2005).................................................................................. 1652 Asteroids That Should Not Be (Jul 14, 2005)................................................................................................ 1655 Holes in Moons and in Theories (Jul 12, 2005)........................................................................................ 1657 Saturn's Rings Sparkle in X-rays (Jul 11, 2005)............................................................................................ 1659 Deep Impact--The Smoking Guns? (Jul 08, 2005) ....................................................................................... 1662 The Meaning of Deep Impact (Jul 07, 2005)................................................................................................. 1665 Reconsidering Comet Wild 2 (Jul 06, 2005) ................................................................................................. 1668 Deep Impact--First Impressions (Jul 05, 2005) ............................................................................................. 1670
28
Predictions on "Deep Impact" (Jul 04, 2005) ................................................................................................ 1673 Seeing More Electricity in Space (Jul 01, 2005) ........................................................................................... 1680 Deep Impact (Jun 30, 2005).......................................................................................................................... 1683 An Electrical Blister on Titan (Jun 28, 2005) ................................................................................................. 1685 Seeing Electricity in Space (Jun 27, 2005) ................................................................................................... 1687 The Explosion that Shattered Solar Theory (Jun 24, 2005).......................................................................... 1690 Nebulas--The "Shocking" Answers (Jun 21, 2005) ....................................................................................... 1693 The Supernova Nobody Saw (Jun 20, 2005)................................................................................................ 1695 Sunspot Penumbra Shock Astrophysicists (Jun 17, 2005) ........................................................................... 1697 Sunspots Still Surprise Investigators (Jun 16, 2005) .................................................................................... 1699 The Origins of Doomsday Anxiety (Jun 14, 2005) ........................................................................................ 1701 The Peekskill Meteor (Jun 13, 2005) ............................................................................................................ 1704 The Picture that Wont Go Away (Jun 10, 2005)........................................................................................... 1706 Life Outside the "Habitable Zone" (Jun 09, 2005)......................................................................................... 1709 "Collapse Pits" of Arsia Mons (Jun 07, 2005).................................................................................................1711 The "Caldera" of Olympus Mons (Jun 06, 2005) .......................................................................................... 1713 The Meeting of Myth and Science (Jun 03, 2005) ........................................................................................ 1715 Orion Stellar Nursery (Jun 02, 2005) ............................................................................................................ 1717 Mars Rover Gets Miraculous Cleaning (May 31, 2005) ................................................................................ 1719 Luminous Crater Rims (May 30, 2005) ......................................................................................................... 1721 Variable Stars (May 27, 2005)....................................................................................................................... 1723 Comet Neat and CME's (May 26, 2005) ....................................................................................................... 1725 The Flood from Heaven (May 24, 2005) ....................................................................................................... 1727 Comets, Gravity, and Electricity (May 23, 2005) ........................................................................................... 1729 The Explosive Demise of Comet Linear (May 20, 2005) .............................................................................. 1731 The Winged Disk (May 19, 2005).................................................................................................................. 1735 Projecting Nuclear Fusion onto the Sun (May 19, 2005) .............................................................................. 1737 Message of Valles Marineris (May 16, 2005)................................................................................................ 1740 The Feathered Serpent (May 13, 2005)........................................................................................................ 1743
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M15: A Great Globular Cluster (May 12, 2005)............................................................................................. 1745 The Mountain of the Gods (May 10, 2005) ................................................................................................... 1747 Electric Universe: Part IV--Plasma and World Mythology (May 09, 2005).................................................... 1749 Plasma in the Lab and in Rock Art (May 06, 2005)....................................................................................... 1752 Electric Universe: Part III--The Nine Steps to Heaven (May 05, 2005)......................................................... 1754 The Electric Universe: Part II--Discharges and Scars (May 04, 2005) ......................................................... 1756 The Electric Universe: Part I--Bodies and Circuits (May 03, 2005) .............................................................. 1758 Titan's Hydrocarbons (Apr 29, 2005) ............................................................................................................ 1761 Cluster Collisions (Apr 28, 2005) .................................................................................................................. 1763 The Electric Glow of the Sun (Apr 27, 2005) ................................................................................................ 1765 Getting Serious about Sirius (Apr 25, 2005) ................................................................................................. 1769 Something New in the Wind (Apr 22, 2005).................................................................................................. 1771 Tektites (Apr 21, 2005) .................................................................................................................................. 1773 Things That are Impossible (Apr 19, 2005)................................................................................................... 1776 Equatorial Ridge of Iapetus (Apr 18, 2005)................................................................................................... 1778 Electric Motor of the Milky Way (Apr 15, 2005)............................................................................................. 1780 Lightning-Scarred Gods and Monsters (Apr 12, 2005) ................................................................................. 1782 Pits, Scoops, and Gouges on Mars (Apr 11, 2005)....................................................................................... 1784 The Thunderbolt that Changed the Face of Mars (Apr 08, 2005) ................................................................. 1786 Earth's Richat Crater (Apr 07, 2005)............................................................................................................. 1788 On Mars Things Only Get More Weird (Apr 05, 2005).................................................................................. 1790 So Far and Yet So Near (Apr 01, 2005) ........................................................................................................ 1792 Planet of a Thousand Mysteries (Mar 31, 2005) ........................................................................................... 1794 Domed Craters on Mars (Mar 29, 2005) ....................................................................................................... 1796 "Blueberries" Could Redefine Martian Geology (Mar 28, 2005) ................................................................... 1798 Martian "Blueberries" in the Lab (Mar 25, 2005)........................................................................................... 1801 When Dust Storms Engulf Mars (Mar 24, 2005) ........................................................................................... 1803 Dust Devils--or Tornadoes? (Mar 22, 2005).................................................................................................. 1806 Electric Dust Devils on Mars (Mar 21, 2005) ................................................................................................ 1809
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Europa and Mars (Mar 18, 2005) ...................................................................................................................1811 Looping Rilles on Europa (Mar 17, 2005) ..................................................................................................... 1813 Best Picture of a Europan Rille (Mar 15, 2005) ............................................................................................ 1816 Europa--Dynamics of Rille Formation (Mar 14, 2005) .................................................................................. 1818 Electrical Rilles of Europa (Mar 11, 2005)..................................................................................................... 1820 Electrical Scars on Europa (Mar 10, 2005) ................................................................................................... 1822 The Smallest Star (Mar 08, 2005) ................................................................................................................. 1824 Electric Arcs in Planetary Science (Mar 07, 2005)........................................................................................ 1826 Electrical Birthing of Stars (Mar 04, 2005) .................................................................................................... 1828 Just Add "Dark Matter" (Mar 03, 2005) ......................................................................................................... 1830 Of Pith Balls and Plasma (Mar 01, 2005)...................................................................................................... 1832 A Peek at Star Formation (Feb 28, 2005) ..................................................................................................... 1834 Electric Scars on Enceladus (Feb 25, 2005)................................................................................................. 1836 Magnetars--A Computer's Dream World (Feb 24, 2005) .............................................................................. 1838 Space Shuttle Struck by Megalightning? (Feb 23, 2005).............................................................................. 1840 Ultra Luminous Astronomy (2) (Feb 22, 2005).............................................................................................. 1842 Ultra Luminous Astronomy (Feb 21, 2005) ................................................................................................... 1844 Electric Venus and Oil-Lamp Physics (Feb 18, 2005)................................................................................... 1846 Electric Scars on Venus (Feb 16, 2005) ....................................................................................................... 1848 Temperature of Space (Feb 15, 2005) .......................................................................................................... 1849 Big Bang Distortions (Feb 14, 2005) ............................................................................................................. 1850 Thirty Years Later (Feb 11, 2005).................................................................................................................. 1852 Electric Meteorites? (Feb 09, 2005) .............................................................................................................. 1854 Electric Dipole of Venus (Feb 08, 2005) ....................................................................................................... 1856 The Electrified Atmosphere of Venus (Feb 07, 2005) ................................................................................... 1858 The Atmosphere of Venus (Feb 04, 2005) .................................................................................................... 1861 Venus and the River Styx (Feb 03, 2005) ..................................................................................................... 1864 Electrical Scars of Venus (Feb 05, 2005)...................................................................................................... 1866 Titan's Big Sister (Feb 01, 2005)................................................................................................................... 1868
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Volcanic Lightning (Jan 31, 2005) ................................................................................................................. 1869 Solid Plasma (Jan 28, 2005) ......................................................................................................................... 1871 Making Sense of Emptiness (Jan 27, 2005) ................................................................................................. 1873 Titan and its Rilles (Jan 25, 2005)................................................................................................................. 1875 Seen Through Titan's Haze (Jan 24, 2005) .................................................................................................. 1880 First Impressions of Titan (Jan 21, 2005)...................................................................................................... 1882 Titan's Strange Atmosphere (Jan 20, 2005).................................................................................................. 1884 Titan versus Venus (Jan 19, 2005) ............................................................................................................... 1886 Titan's Sinuous Rilles (Jan 18, 2005)............................................................................................................ 1889 Titan Panorama from Cassini (Jan 17, 2005) ............................................................................................... 1891 The Vortical Tree (Jan 14, 2005)................................................................................................................... 1893 Seeing Circuits (2) (Jan 13, 2005) ................................................................................................................ 1895 Seeing Circuits (1) (Jan 12, 2005) ................................................................................................................ 1897 The Lightning Wheel in Ancient Times (Jan 11, 2005).................................................................................. 1899 Electric Stars in Action (Jan 10, 2005) .......................................................................................................... 1901 The Wayward Sun (Jan 07, 2005) ................................................................................................................ 1903 The Universe According to Arp (Jan 06, 2005) ............................................................................................. 1905 A Loose Cannon in Space (Jan 05, 2005) .................................................................................................... 1907 How's the Weather? (Jan 04, 2005).............................................................................................................. 1909 In the Coils of the Serpent (Jan 03, 2005) .....................................................................................................1911
2004....................................................................................................................................1913
Prediction #5: Plasma Formations in the Ancient Sky (Dec 31, 2004) ......................................................... 1914 Prediction #4: The Scars of Planetary Violence (Dec 30, 2004)................................................................... 1917 Prediction #3: Electric Comets and the "Domino Effect" (Dec 29, 2004)...................................................... 1921 Prediction #2: Saturns Surprises Will Point to Electrical Origins (Dec 28, 2004)......................................... 1924 Prediction #1: Big Bang a Big Loser in 2005 (Dec 27, 2004) ....................................................................... 1927 On the Wings of a Butterfly (Dec 24, 2004) .................................................................................................. 1930 Predicting a Year of Breakthroughs (Dec 23, 2004) ..................................................................................... 1932
32
Retrospective on Io (Dec 22, 2004) .............................................................................................................. 1934 The Navel Stone (Dec 21, 2004)................................................................................................................... 1936 A New Eye for Iapetus (Dec 20, 2004).......................................................................................................... 1938 Io's "Volcanoes" Blur Scientific Vision (Dec 17, 2004) .................................................................................. 1940 Io's "Volcano" Prometheus (Dec 16, 2004) ................................................................................................... 1942 Predicting the Electrical Etching of Io (Dec 15, 2004)................................................................................... 1943 The Pedestal of the Sun (Dec 14, 2004)....................................................................................................... 1945 Io and the "Greatest Surprise" (Dec 13, 2004).............................................................................................. 1947 Elusive Female Figures (Dec 10, 2004)........................................................................................................ 1949 Prometheus Steals the Ring, or Forges It (Dec 09, 2004) ............................................................................ 1951 The Bifurcated Mountain (Dec 07, 2004) ...................................................................................................... 1953 "D-Day" for Comet Theory (Dec 06, 2004).................................................................................................... 1955 Titan--The Enigma (2) (Dec 03, 2004) .......................................................................................................... 1958 Titan--The Enigma (1) (Dec 02, 2004) .......................................................................................................... 1960 The Dragon and the Pearl (Dec 01, 2004) .................................................................................................... 1962 Craters on Mars (Nov 30, 2004).................................................................................................................... 1964 Antarctic Fossil Questions (Nov 29, 2004).................................................................................................... 1965 Impossible Dinosaurs (Nov 24, 2004) ........................................................................................................... 1968 The Pleiades Problem (Nov 23, 2004) .......................................................................................................... 1970 What's in a Comet's Tail? (Nov 22, 2004) ..................................................................................................... 1972 Meteorite Mysteries (Nov 19, 2004) .............................................................................................................. 1973 Electric Discharge Erosion Rilles (Nov 18, 2004) ......................................................................................... 1974 Beware of the Dark Side (Nov 17, 2004) ...................................................................................................... 1975 Living Plasma (Nov 16, 2004) ....................................................................................................................... 1977 Electric Craters on Planets and Moons (Nov 15, 2004)................................................................................ 1979 Cosmic Wheel (Nov 12, 2004) ...................................................................................................................... 1981 Volcanic Cradle of Life (Nov 11, 2004).......................................................................................................... 1982 The One Story (Nov 10, 2004) ...................................................................................................................... 1984 Having Faith in Edwin Hubble (Nov 09, 2004) .............................................................................................. 1986
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Milky Way Family (Nov 08, 2004) ................................................................................................................. 1988 Technological Extra-Sensory Perception (Nov 05, 2004) ............................................................................. 1989 Mystery of the Cosmic Thunderbolt (7) (Nov 04, 2004) ................................................................................ 1991 Kepler Supernova Remnant (Nov 03, 2004)................................................................................................. 1993 Layered Crater (Nov 02, 2004) ..................................................................................................................... 1995 Halton Arp: A Modern Day Galileo (Nov 01, 2004) ....................................................................................... 1997 Electric Waterspouts (Oct 29, 2004) ............................................................................................................. 1999 Redshift Rosetta Stone (Oct 28, 2004) ......................................................................................................... 2001 Electrical Journey to Center of the Earth (Oct 27, 2004) .............................................................................. 2003 Another Active Ejecting Galaxy (Oct 26, 2004)............................................................................................. 2005 As the Paradigm Shifts (Oct 25, 2004).......................................................................................................... 2007 A Cosmic Egg (Oct 22, 2004)........................................................................................................................ 2009 Mystery of the Cosmic Thunderbolt (6) (Oct 21, 2004)................................................................................. 2010 The Scarring of Venus (Oct 20, 2004) .......................................................................................................... 2012 Europa Caught in the Middle (Oct 19, 2004)................................................................................................. 2014 Fingers of God (Oct 18, 2004) ...................................................................................................................... 2016 Solar Tornadoes (Oct 15, 2004) .................................................................................................................... 2018 Mystery of the Cosmic Thunderbolt (5) (Oct 14, 2004)................................................................................. 2020 Tornadoes as Electric Discharge (Oct 13, 2004) .......................................................................................... 2022 Mystery of the Cosmic Thunderbolt (4) (Oct 12, 2004)................................................................................. 2023 Lava Tubes (Oct 11, 2004) ............................................................................................................................ 2025 Eros: Got Erosion? (Oct 08, 2004)................................................................................................................ 2027 Mystery of the Cosmic Thunderbolt (3) (Oct 08, 2004)................................................................................. 2029 The Iron Sun (Oct 06, 2004) ......................................................................................................................... 2031 Missing Air of Mars (Oct 05, 2004)................................................................................................................ 2033 Mystery of the Cosmic Thunderbolt (2) (Oct 04, 2004)................................................................................. 2035 Quasar in Front of Galaxy (Oct 01, 2004) ..................................................................................................... 2037 Discovering the Magnetosphere Sept 30, 2004)........................................................................................... 2039 Big Holes in Little Moons (Sep 29, 2004)...................................................................................................... 2041
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Mystery of the Cosmic Thunderbolt (1) (Sep 28, 2004) ................................................................................ 2043 Earth: A Self-repairing Capacitor (Sep 27, 2004).......................................................................................... 2045 What is the Electric Universe? (Sep 24, 2004) ............................................................................................. 2047 Saturn in Ancient Times (Sep 23, 2004) ....................................................................................................... 2049 Electric Stars (Sep 22, 2004) ........................................................................................................................ 2051 Stephan's Quintet (Sep 21, 2004) ................................................................................................................. 2053 Vela Pulsar (Sep 20, 2004) ........................................................................................................................... 2055 Weather: Fair, Foul or Electric? (Sep 17, 2004)............................................................................................ 2057 Crab Nebula (Sep 16, 2004) ......................................................................................................................... 2059 Plasma on Stone (Sep 15, 2004) .................................................................................................................. 2061 Death Star--The Galaxy that Killed the Big Bang (Sep 14, 2004)................................................................. 2063 Plasma Galaxies (Sep 13, 2004) .................................................................................................................. 2065 The Electric Earth (Sep 10, 2004)................................................................................................................. 2067 The Scars of Miranda (Sep 09, 2004) ........................................................................................................... 2069 Complete the Circuit (Sep 08, 2004)............................................................................................................. 2071 Ice Core Findings (Sep 07, 2004) ................................................................................................................. 2072 Flying a Kite (Sep 06, 2004).......................................................................................................................... 2074 The Search for Two Numbers (Sep 03, 2004) .............................................................................................. 2076 What's in a Name? (Sep 02, 2004) ............................................................................................................... 2078 What Else Could it Be? (Sep 01, 2004) ........................................................................................................ 2079 Hoyle's Conclusion-- Three Challenges For Cosmology (Aug 31, 2004) ..................................................... 2081 The Myth of Magnetic Reconnection (Aug 30, 2004).................................................................................... 2083 Blueberries on Mars And Other Spherical Rocks (Aug 27, 2004)................................................................. 2085 Parallel Auroras (Aug 26, 2004) .................................................................................................................... 2087 Crater Chains (Aug 25, 2004) ....................................................................................................................... 2088 Comet X-rays (Aug 24, 2004) ....................................................................................................................... 2090 Lightning on Saturn (Aug 23, 2004) .............................................................................................................. 2092 How Big is a Gamma Ray Burst? (Aug 20, 2004)......................................................................................... 2094 What Happened to Uranus? (Aug 19, 2004)................................................................................................. 2096
35
Scalloped Edges (Aug 18, 2004) .................................................................................................................. 2098 Magnetic Lines to Infinity (Aug 17, 2004)...................................................................................................... 2099 Rim Shots (Aug 16, 2004) ............................................................................................................................. 2101 Origins of Rock Art (Aug 13, 2004) ............................................................................................................... 2102 Mapping the Universe (Aug 12, 2004) .......................................................................................................... 2103 Etched Mars (Aug 11, 2004).......................................................................................................................... 2105 Mystery of the Cosmic Dragon (Aug 10, 2004)............................................................................................. 2107 V838 Mon (Aug 09, 2004) ............................................................................................................................. 2109 Asteroid Ida (Aug 06, 2004) ........................................................................................................................... 2111 Electric Comet (Aug 05, 2004) .......................................................................................................................2113 Io's Plumes (Aug 04, 2004) ............................................................................................................................2115 Charge Separation in Space (Aug 03, 2004) .................................................................................................2117 Missing Quasars of M82 (Aug 02, 2004)........................................................................................................2119 Cygnus Loop (Jul 30, 2004) .......................................................................................................................... 2121 Arc Lamp in the Sky (Jul 29, 2004) ............................................................................................................... 2123 Electric Jets on Io (Jul 28, 2004)................................................................................................................... 2125 Stellar Nurseries (Jul 27, 2004)..................................................................................................................... 2126 The Einstein Cross (Jul 26, 2004)................................................................................................................. 2128 Galaxy Filaments (Jul 23, 2004) ................................................................................................................... 2129 Rampart Craters (Jul 22, 2004)..................................................................................................................... 2130 Cometary Knots (Jul 21, 2004)...................................................................................................................... 2131 Blushing Asteroid (Jul 20, 2004) ................................................................................................................... 2132 The Mountains of Io (Jul 19, 2004) ............................................................................................................... 2133 Eta Carinae (Jul 16, 2004) ............................................................................................................................ 2134 Temperatures in Space (Jul 15, 2004) .......................................................................................................... 2135 Galactic Perspective (Jul 14, 2004) .............................................................................................................. 2137 The Jets of Hale-Bopp (Jul 13, 2004) ........................................................................................................... 2138 Craters on Eros (Jul 12, 2004) ...................................................................................................................... 2140 Martian Dust Storms (Jul 09, 2004) .............................................................................................................. 2141
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Driving Forces of the Milky Way (Jul 08, 2004)............................................................................................. 2142 NGC 6302: Bug Nebula (Jul 07, 2004) ......................................................................................................... 2143 Saturn's Spokes (Jul 06, 2004) ..................................................................................................................... 2145 Olympus Mons (Jul 05, 2004) ....................................................................................................................... 2146 Craters in the Lab (Jul 02, 2004)................................................................................................................... 2148 The Jets of Comet Wild 2 (Jul 01, 2004)....................................................................................................... 2150
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2011
38
Equatorial grooves on Vesta. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
Goddess of the Hearth

(Sep 16, 2011)
Vesta is confirming Electric Universe ideas about planetary scarring. Vesta appears to have experienced some powerful forces. Several craters more than 50 kilometers in diameter Mar its surface. Near Vesta's south pole is a particularly large example that is 460 kilometers wide. Since Vesta has a mean diameter of 529 kilometers (Vesta is not quite spherical: 564 x 531 kilometers), it represents an impressive portion of the asteroid's over all physical size. The crater is about 13 kilometers deep, with an 18 kilometer high central peak. Dusty aggregations, or so-called "protoplanetary disks," are thought to be where gravity pulls wispy gases together until they reach pressures great enough to ignite thermonuclear fusion. As the "Nebular Hypothesis" concludes, any remaining clumps of dust and gas not absorbed by the new star swirl around, attracting other bits, until they condense into planets. The Solar System is said to have been created in this way billions of years ago. Asteroids are typically considered to be the "leftovers" after the major planets and moons formed. A close examination of Vesta's surface casts doubt on the notion that the large craters could have been created by an object smashing into it, especially when those craters share walls that are thin and undisturbed by blast effects. The alternative explanation--formation by plasma discharge--is well supported. The shallow craters, the overlapping rims and the lack of impact debris are important considerations in the theory of electrical effects. By thinking only in terms of meteor impacts, landslides and other familiar geological forces, NASA is ignoring the one possibility that makes all the disparate features they see cohesive: an electrically dynamic Solar System in its formative phases, when cosmic thunderbolts carved the surfaces of planets and moons. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In a standard Newtonian impact scenario, craters should form as dish-shaped holes with a blanket of blast debris surrounding the rims, sorted from largest to smallest particles depending on distance from the explosion. On Vesta, there is a decidedly different landscape. The craters are clean and most are found in collections, as if a shotgun blast struck the area. The most obvious evidence for a plasma discharge is the steeply carved cliffs on Vesta. These features are not expected in an impact scenario. The visual evidence also reveals long canyons and furrows, some of which are ten kilometers wide, cut into the equator. A closer examination shows that those trenches (no matter what size) are chains of craters. Asteroid formation does not require that one object smash into another one for there to be craters. Electric arcs can scoop out material, accelerate it into space, and leave behind deep pits. They tend not to disturb the surroundings, so they are used in industrial applications to finely machine metal parts. Based on laboratory analysis, that is what has occurred on Vesta: spark discharge erosion. Planetary scientists ignore electrical explanations, which rectify the anomalies in other theories, because they know almost nothing about plasma and electric charge movement in space. Electricity can create the very things they are sending out probes to study. Stephen Smith
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Dark against light solar spicules in the H-alpha band. Note that the dark regions are "blue-shifted." Credit: Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab
The Dark of the Sun

(Sep 14, 2011)
Dark mode plasma phenomena exist on the Sun. The image at the top of the page is the most detailed ever taken of the Sun's chromosphere. The smallest features are 130 kilometers in size. Each spicule is about 480 kilometers in diameter, with a length of 3200 kilometers. The largest measure as much as 8000 kilometers long. Although the light and dark regions are colorful, the colors were added in processing. In the electric Sun hypothesis, the Sun is a glowing anode, or positively charged "electrode." The cathode is an invisible "virtual cathode," called the heliosphere. The heliosphere is at the farthest limit of the Sun's coronal discharge, billions of kilometers from its surface, where a "double layer" isolates the Sun's plasma cell from the galactic plasma that surrounds it. Galactic plasma is otherwise called the Interstellar Medium (ISM). Electric forces occurring within the double charge layer above the Suns surface are responsible for the incredibly active plasma phenomena that we see. Since Electric Universe theory assumes that celestial bodies interact through conductive plasma and are connected by circuits, the Sun is also assumed to be electrically connected with the galaxy. The Sun can be thought of as an electrically charged object seeking equilibrium with its environment. However, it is not stable. The charges flowing into and out of the Sun can sometimes increase to the point where it releases plasma discharges called solar flares. Conventional scientists see solar flares, or coronal mass ejections (CME), taking place when magnetic loops "reconnect" with each other, causing a short circuit. The so-called "magnetic energy" is said to accelerate gases into space. Although "magnetic reconnection" is a poorly constructed theory, it is the only explanation offered by heliophysicists. The "solar wind" is a dark mode emission radiating from the Sun at approximately 700 kilometers per second. In a Universe governed by gravity, the Sun's heat and radiation The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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pressure cannot explain how the charged particles that make up the solar wind accelerate past Venus, Earth and the rest of the planets. Prior to the discovery, no one expected such acceleration. In an Electric Universe, there is an obvious explanation: electric fields in space. Since coherent charges flow through the Solar System, then it seems reasonable to conclude that the dark mode solar plasma is affected by the electrodynamic fields of the Sun and its planetary family. Solar flares could be tremendous lightning bursts in that case, pushing plasma to near relativistic speeds. If the circuit that connects the Sun with the Milky Way extends for hundreds of thousands of light-years, massive amounts of electrical energy might be contained in such magnetically confined "transmission lines" feeding the solar anode. According to the Electric Sun theory, flares, the hot corona, and all other solar phenomena result from changes in the electrical input from our galaxy. Birkeland current filaments slowly rotate past the Solar System, supplying more or less power to the Sun as they go. Arc mode, glow mode, and dark mode discharges are all influenced by those flowing currents of electric charge. Stephen Smith
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Messier crater (left) and Messier A from Apollo 11. Credit: Lunar and Planetary Institute.
Skipping Moon Stones

(Sep 12, 2011)
Elongated craters on the Moon are said to come from "grazing impactors." In one of the earliest Pictures of the Day by the late Amy Acheson, the question was asked, how do you make a crater? When astronomers began to observe the Moon centuries ago, the craters there were considered to be the remains of volcanic vents. As telescopes advanced in their resolving power, the structure of lunar craters was found to be anomalous. Flat floors and central peaks characterize a significant percentage of lunar craters. The majority of those that remain are well-defined, conical holes with clean sides and no evidence of debris surrounding them. Rather, they appear melted with slumping walls in some cases. In the image at the top of the page, two members of a crater group in Mare Fecunditatis are shown. The conventional explanation for them is that a massive asteroid struck the Moon a glancing blow, scooping out the elongated Messier crater and then bounding back to the surface, where it excavated the Messier A formation before returning to space. There are no ejecta anywhere near the crater formations, particularly outside of the long axis boundaries, so where is the debris from the impact? The ability of an object to survive the energies involved with a high-velocity strike is also questionable. Especially since the two craters measure 15 X 8 kilometers and 16 X 11 kilometers, respectively. There are several other elongated craters on the Moon, and others on Mars. They have features in common: flat floors, steep walls, lack of impact ejecta, and a fresh appearance. The Electric Universe hypothesis offers another perspective on the observations. Several The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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factors come into play that are not available to the consensus theories of geophysics because the lexicon of descriptions available to them does not include electric arcs or traveling subterranean electric discharges. There are, of course, many possible explanations for craters, but once the electric force is included in the search for those explanations a new way of seeing the world becomes possible. If the conductive surface carries a negative charge, an arc will travel, sometimes eroding elongated craters, like those under discussion. The electrical interpretation explains the nature of the topography dominating the craters on the Moon. Electromagnetic forces between Birkeland currents constrained to a surface will force them into alignment. Ionic winds can lift material and carry it along in the direction of the current flow, thus explaining the "rays" associated with the Messier craters. An interesting note is that there is no magnetosphere on the Moon, but some areas possess an "impressed" magnetic field. Since magnetism and electricity are bound together, why is it puzzling for planetary scientists when confronted with anomalous magnetic signatures? Would it be unreasonable to conclude that an electric field impinged on those bodies, leaving behind a remanent magnetic domain? If so, then that is evidence for "electric craters." Stephen Smith Hat tip to Eric Aitchison
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Firdousi, a rampart crater (center) on Mercury, illustrates electric arc erosion. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
The Electrical Etching of Mercury

(Sep 09, 2011)
The MESSENGER space probe is confirming the Electric Universe theory. MESSENGER entered orbit around Mercury on March 17, 2011 after traveling nearly eight billion kilometers. Since that time, it has sent hundreds of close-up images of the surface, revealing features and topography that assure Mercury's kinship with the Solar System's other celestial bodies: its surface is pitted, gouged, punctured, and grooved in ways so like its sisters and brothers that telling it apart from some of them would be difficult. Past electrical activity on Mercury is evident in several locations around the planet. Indeed, the entire planet could be said to exhibit nothing but electrical effects. The etched furrows radiating outward from some craters, such as Firdousi, above, denote the path of untold numbers of electric filaments as they danced a fiery dance across the surface. On Earth, those filaments would have been the largest lightning strikes ever witnessed. A landscape such as the one surrounding Firdousi would be difficult to reproduce in the laboratory, unless electricity were brought into the picture. Not the electricity needed to operate a compressed air gun firing hypersonic projectiles, but that needed to act as a high voltage discharge. In an experiment at Vemasat Laboratories, Dr. C. J. Ransom created the same kind of etched furrow by shocking a thin layer of magnesium silicate with a 120 milliamp, 12,000 volt discharge for five seconds. He created radial gouges on a small scale equivalent to Mercury at the large scale. As pointed out in previous Pictures of the Day, Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfvn thought that electrical (plasma) phenomena could be scaleable by as much as 14 orders of magnitude. Since an electric arc is composed of rotating filaments, if electricity were involved in Mercury's The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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evolution, it would have manifested in many ways. One of those ways would be to act like a plasma "drill bit," cutting steep crater sidewalls, while sometimes leaving a "pinched up" mound in the center. Multiple filaments would cut one crater within another, often with one or more craters on the rims. Firdousi, among dozens of other large craters on Mercury, conforms to that insight. What is most remarkable about Mercury and other members of the Solar System are the numerous crater chains that abound throughout the population. From Phobos to Phoebe; from Mars to Miranda, planets and moons are pocked with holes that run in long lines, sometimes for hundreds of kilometers. The common explanation for them is that a string of meteoroids impacted one after another, one behind the other. The necessary coincidence for that effect notwithstanding, the absence of distortion in adjoining crater walls calls the theory into question. Add to that the twists, turns, loops, and braids that can be seen in many of them and the idea that rocks falling from space caused these features falls apart. Anyone who has made an electric arc device called a "Jacob's Ladder" knows how the line of craters could have formed. A Jacob's ladder is constructed by placing a stiff copper wire on each standoff of a neon sign transformer and then bending them in toward each other until they form an ever-widening "V" from bottom to top. When the current is turned on, an electric arc begins at the lowest level of the V and then rises up to the top, growing longer across the widening gap until it disconnects with a snap, only to immediately begin again. If a piece of paper is held between the two limbs of the V while the electric arc travels upward, a row of pinholes will be found burned lengthwise into the paper. Electric arcs traveling across a conductive medium vary in strength from millisecond to millisecond, so they burn chains of craters instead of smooth channels. In fact, the "smooth" channels seen on many objects are actually crater chains that are packed so close together that they can no longer be distinguished. There are more examples from MESSENGER that reveal Mercury's catastrophic past. It is certain that additional evidence supporting the new Electric Universe paradigm will come to light. Stephen Smith
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A planet made of compressed carbon is said to be orbiting a neutron star.
The Diamond Fields of the Mind

(Sep 07, 2011)
A star becomes a diamond? A recent press release announced the "discovery" of a planet in orbit around a pulsar that is thought to have once been a star, but is now a planetary body composed of something similar to compressed carbon, or diamond. The reason for the supposed density and composition assumptions is that the "planet" was seen in an orbit around the pulsar that is deemed impossible to consensus astrophysicists. As announced by the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, pulsar J17191438 rotates more than 10,000 times per minute, has a mass of about 1.4 times that of our Sun, but is only 20 kilometers in radius. What is it about the planet's orbit that causes the assumption it is crystalline and extremely dense? The first step in this chain of circumstances is neutron star theory. Pulsars are neutron stars is the second link. As the theory posits, a neutron star comes into being when a star with at least five times the mass of the Sun implodes, shedding its outer layers in a supernova. Since the star is no longer able to shield itself from its own immense gravity with thermonuclear fusion theory, gravitational acceleration theory takes over, pulling all the electrons in the remaining stellar matter into the nuclei. Two more links. The massive star's original angular momentum remains, so its rotational period can be astonishing, as J1719-1438 attests. The increase in rotational velocity can be likened to an ice skater's arms stretched out in a slow spin and then pulled in tight, thus increasing the spin rate. Another link. The forces generated when trillions of gigatons spin as fast as a dentist's drill means that the star ought to burst apart like a cracked flywheel. However, enough mass is added to the theory so that gravity can hold it together. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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There is thought to be an intense magnetic field surrounding a pulsar that is focused at each pole. Narrow beams of radio waves blast out from the polar cusps like lighthouse beacons, and whenever that beam intersects Earth, telescopes fitted with gamma ray, radio wave, or Xray detectors can see it. The final theoretical link in the pulsar chain of circumstances is the tidal force theory that would tear apart a companion star or planet if it came too close. Before discussing the nature of the planet in orbit around the pulsar, it should be pointed out that there was no observation of the pulsar. Rather, researchers first "found" it in 200,000 Gigabytes of data obtained from three different radio telescopes, analyzed by supercomputers at three different computation centers, using customized software. Since J1719-1438's pulses in the data were seen to be "systematically modulated," the only conclusion their computer models could reach is that a companion planet is in orbit around the pulsar. Astronomers think an original stellar companion gave up most of its material to the pulsar. As theory supposes, this results in a millisecond pulsar with a white dwarf companion. J1719-1438 and its dwarf partner are thought to be close together, so the companion "must be" a white dwarf that has lost 99.9% of its original substance, leaving behind what astronomers suggest is a planet-sized carbon and oxygen sphere. Any lighter element constituents would mean the star (planet) "would be too big to fit the measured orbiting times." Another possibility, one not considered by contemporary astrophysicists, is that electrical oscillations are causing the rapid flicker of pulsars. Don Scott, in his book "The Electric Sky," stresses that neutron stars are impossible phantoms, suggesting instead that there is an electrical explanation for their periodic pulses. He proposes that pulsars are relaxation oscillators; their pulse frequencies are not mechanical. Instead, it is the capacitive, resistive, and inductive electrical environment around the star. Compacted matter and extreme rotation are not necessary. Electricity traveling through circuits provides a coherent explanation that is consistent with commonly accepted electromagnetic theories, as well as with laboratory experiments. When the focus shifts from gravity and gas toward the electrical behavior of an entire system, then steps can be taken that will help to quantify the absolute current density in that system, as well as the capacitive and resistive values, and the magnetic fields generated by the inductive interaction of the binary pair. There must be an electric current generating the intense magnetic fields in a pulsar. It is also indisputable that the feeder current must be part of a circuit, since persistent electric current must complete a circuit. That circuit includes the galaxy in which stars reside, along with all the other galaxies associated with their clusters. Pulsar oscillations are most likely complex in their origins. Stephen Smith
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The ATLAS particle detector, one of four huge detectors at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.
IndisCERNible
(Sep 05, 2011)
The so-called "god particle" is most likely an illusion. The idea of a Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was originally proposed early in the 1980s. Since the Large Electron Positron Collider (LEP) was at the end of its life, and a machine capable of generating more power was needed, a 20 nation consortium, all members of CERN (Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire), started design work in 1994. The LHC straddles the border between Switzerland and France, occupying a 27 kilometer long, circular tunnel. Its electromagnets force protons into a narrow beam, split it in two, and then send the two streams of charged particles around the ring in opposite directions, causing the twin beams to collide head on. Although the LHC was built to carry out a number of experiments, most particle physicists will admit that the $10 billion was spent to find the Higgs boson. Physicists postulate that matter is built from twelve fundamental particles, six quarks and six leptons. Note that protons and neutrons are not considered "fundamental," since they are made of quarks. Quarks are defined as elementary particles with electric charges one-third or two-thirds that of the electron. Leptons are a group of elementary particles (and antiparticles), such as electrons, muons, or neutrinos that are affected by electromagnetic and weak interactions. According to the standard theory of quantum mechanics, quarks are "colored" and "flavored," but a detailed explanation of those fields of influence is not germane to this account. The quark flavors are up, down, bottom, top, strange, and charm. Each of the six quark flavors can have three different colors, red, green, or blue. The lepton table includes the electron, electron-neutrino, muon, muon-neutrino, tau, and tau-neutrino. The muon and the tau leptons are not stable, however, and quickly decay. While leptons are thought to participate in weak atomic interactions, other particles such as The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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mesons, baryons, and hadrons are more massive and are affected by strong force influences. Quantum mechanics proposes that there are four forces at work in nature: the strong force, which holds atomic nuclei together; the electromagnetic force, which holds atoms and molecules together; the weak force, which governs radioactive decay; and the gravitational force, which attracts matter to itself in an inverse square relationship over infinite distance. According to nuclear physicists, a "force" is more like an exchange. When the strong force binds an atomic nucleus together, for example, the particles exchange "carrier particles," called bosons. Each force requires its own boson. It is the photon that supposedly carries the electromagnetic force, and "gluons" carry the strong force. An ongoing problem for physicists is the detection of "gravitons" that supposedly carry the gravitational force. In 1964, Peter Higgs speculated that space is permeated by a "field," similar to an electromagnetic field. When particles travel through space, they encounter this field, acquiring "mass." The concept can be illustrated by particles moving through a viscous fluid: the greater interaction of particles with the field, the greater their mass. The existence of the Higgs field is an essential component of his hypothesis. As previously mentioned, quantum theory requires that fields be associated with carrier particles, so the expectation is that there must be a particle carrying the Higgs field: the Higgs boson. For the last few years, LHC's focus has been to "find" the Higgs boson and determine if this mass origin hypothesis is correct. Recently, physicists announced that LHC had shown hints that the Higgs-Boson was "real." However, experiments in the 145 billion to 466 billion electron volt range have excluded the boson's existence. As Dmitri Denisov of Fermilab said: "We do not see the signal. If it existed, we would see it. But when we look at our data, we basically see nothing." Electric Universe advocates propose that the entire quantum mechanical universe requires a new viewpoint. Since it is the electric force that governs the cosmos, the behavior, origin, and structure of matter needs to be revised. One of the most interesting aspects of this premise is the clues that exist within quantum mechanics, itself. Plasma's electrical and physical properties are scalable over many orders of magnitude. Laboratory experiments can model what is observed in space. Gravity's force falls off with the square of the distance, while the attraction between electrified plasma filaments is linear and up to 39 orders of magnitude greater than gravity. Looking at the four hypothetical quantum forces, it can be seen that the strong force is also 39 orders of magnitude greater than gravity. Perhaps that relationship is better explained with the electric force. Virtual models operating within computer algorithms have replaced direct observation in recent years: the natural philosophy of science has been abandoned. Computer models are used to build other models, which, in turn, are used to "confirm" further models. Physics used to mean investigating the nature and properties of matter and energy. Instead, it has become the handmaiden to mathematics. Stephen Smith
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Various dwarf planets in the Solar System.
Snow White and the Frozen Dwarfs

(Aug 26, 2011)
On August 24, 2006 the International Astronomical Union adopted fixed definitions for various objects in the Solar System. "Snow White," otherwise known as 2007 OR10, is a dwarf planet about 13 billion kilometers from the Sun. Its orbit, canted by almost 31 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic, is so large that it was closest to the Sun in 1856 and will not reach its farthest point until 2130, taking more than 550 years to revolve. Snow White joins many other icy worlds so far from the Sun that it would be hard to pick out that luminary from the star field. It is in a similar orbit with its sister dwarf Eris (2003 UB313) within a region occupied by so-called "Trans-Neptunian Objects" (TNO) or "Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO)." Astronomers Kenneth Edgeworth and Gerard Kuiper proposed a Kuiper Belt theory in 1951. In 1992, the as yet unnamed 1992 QB1 was discovered, confirming the idea that a group of frigid objects beyond Neptune was in orbit around the Sun. Dwarf planets are also part of the TNO designation, although they are in a subclass by themselves. In 2006, a controversial vote was cast at a meeting of astronomers in Prague that provided a way to classify various celestial bodies. Four relevant resolutions were proposed: Resolution 5A: "Definition of Planet" Resolution 5B: "Definition of Classical Planet" Resolution 6A: "Definition of Pluto-class objects" Resolution 6B: "Definition of Plutonian Objects" According to the vote, a "planet" is a celestial body that orbits the Sun, has a nearly round shape, and has "cleared" its orbit of extraneous debris. Another classification was added to the terms used by astronomers: "dwarf planet." A dwarf planet is essentially something that looks like a planet but is not a planet. Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet, as is the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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asteroid Ceres. Along with the aforementioned Eris and Snow White, Haumea, Makemake, Sedna, Quaoar, and Orcus are also likely to be dwarf planets. Pluto's moon Charon would also fit if it were not a moon. There are dozens more that await further investigation. Immanuel Kant's theory that the Solar System was born from a dusty cloud of gas, or nebula, floating in space is known as the "Nebular Hypothesis." As Kant suggested, the cloud contracted because gravity drew the cloud particles together into clumps. As they grew, the clumps became more attractive, finally accumulating into a mass. The gravitational force became so strong that it compressed the mass into a hot ball, rotating with the cloud's original angular momentum. It gathered more and more matter until a nuclear fusion reaction ignited it, giving birth to the Sun and a structure called an "accretion disk" circling its equatorial plane. The accretion disk is said to have extended beyond the orbit of Neptune. According to scientists, eddies of matter formed in the spinning ring of dust and gas. Those eddies grew larger, slowly sucking in more and more particles until hundreds of millions of impacts from nebular condensates gradually formed the planets. The Kuiper Belt, as well as the theoretical "Oort Cloud," are supposed to be "holding areas" for the remaining material that did not condense into planets (or dwarf planets). In a previous Picture of the Day, another class of Solar System object called "centaurs" was discussed. It was noted that they are what could be called "cometary asteroids" and come in several colors: reddish-brown, blue, green, and brownish-yellow. As suggested by this writer, the centaur objects could be colored because they were ejected by the gas giant planets; their colors corresponding to the colors of their parents. An interesting characteristic of the various dwarf planets is that they, too, are colorful. Snow White, contrary to its name, is reddish in color like its sister Haumea. Pluto itself is brownishyellow, while Eris is green. In a plasma cosmogony hypothesis, the stars are formed when cosmic Birkeland currents twist around one another, creating z-pinch regions that compress the plasma into a solid. Laboratory experiments have shown that such compression zones are the most likely candidates for star formation and not collapsing nebulae. When stars are born, they are probably under extreme electrical stress. In that case, they will split into two or more daughter stars, thereby equalizing their electrical potential. "The fission process is repeated in further electrical disturbances by flaring red dwarfs and gas giant planets ejecting rocky and icy planets, moons, comets, asteroids and meteorites. Planetary systems May also be acquired over time by electrical capture of independent interstellar bodies such as dim brown dwarf stars. That seems the best explanation for our fruit salad of a solar system." Wal Thornhill When New Horizons arrives at Pluto in July 2015, Electric Universe theorists expect the Nebular Hypothesis to be falsified again, as it has in the past. 99% of the Universe is plasma, so the conclusions derived from the Hypothesis are not connected with real observations. Stephen Smith
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Saturn's moon Helene. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Daughter of Zeus
(Aug 24, 2011)
Can the surface of a tiny moon help to explain the mysterious geography of Mars? In an Electric Universe, the charged moons and the charged rings around Saturn are alternately repelling and attracting each other as they move through the gas giant's plasma sheath. Electric discharges from Saturn might be what created its rings and moons in the first place, so electricity is most likely responsible for their appearance and arrangement. The recently renamed Cassini-Solstice mission, launched from Cape Canaveral on October 15, 1997, has found electromagnetic fields extending from Saturn to most of its moons. Tethys and Dione are both known to be interacting with Saturn's electric field, ejecting "great streams of particles into space," according to NASA officials. The Saturnian system is not a neutral environment, it is highly charged and electrically active. Many features, particularly in the ring structure, cannot easily be explained. "Spokes" hovering above the ring plane, bands that are sorted by chemical composition, as well as the X-rays that the rings emit, falsify standard explanations. At some point in the past, according to Electric Universe theory, Saturn underwent a violent spasm that unleashed plasma discharges throughout the Solar System. Any celestial bodies within range would have been blasted by powerful currents, intense radiation, and heat from electromagnetic induction. All of that energy might have also assisted in creating the distinctive patterns seen on Saturn's moon Helene. Helene is a small moon, measuring 36 by 32 by 30 kilometers. It is referred to as a TroJan satellite of Saturn because it resides in the Dione/Saturn Lagrange point: it is in the same orbit, but precedes Dione by about 60 degrees. Helene joins a grouping of other small Solar System bodies whose surfaces exhibit craters and gouges so large that it looks like they should have been blown to pieces. How they withstood such catastrophic impacts is still a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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mystery to planetary scientists. One surprising feature shown in the image at the top of the page is the narrow "gullies" that appear to be flowing down the sides of large craters and horseshoe-shaped valleys. Helene is so small, however, with an escape velocity of only 33 kilometers per hour, that it is unlikely landslides of such magnitude can occur. Plasma discharges that pause for a moment before jumping away can excavate a crater. What is visible on Helene, as well as in the canyons and valleys of Mars, is what remains after electromagnetic fields grip and pull charged particles out of the surrounding terrain. Electrons were yanked toward the center of a lightning discharge channel of tremendous power that ripped apart the rocks, dragging along neutral material. Microscopic dust was sucked up into the plasma vortex and ejected into space. This explains why the bottoms of many craters on Helene and Mars are smooth and flat, with little or no blast debris, yet the surface of Helene is covered with finely divided powder, and the southern hemisphere on Mars is covered with dust and debris. A plasma lightning stroke on the surface of a planet or moon might leave behind Lichtenberg trackways that point to where the electric current flow was strongest, excavating the material like a rotating auger of fire. It is those effects that are most likely responsible for the large crater anomalies, dendritic channels and ridges (Lichtenberg figures), and the ultra-fine dust on Helene, as well as for the "avalanche" channels on Mars. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Jim Johnson
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At least three intersecting filaments containing galaxy clusters and Lyman-Alpha Blobs. The structure is conventionally estimated to be 200 million light years wide. Credit: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Cosmic Blobs
(Aug 22, 2011)
Immense clouds of ionized plasma as large as galaxies have been seen in deep space. A recent press release from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) discusses a vast cloud of gas and dust originally discovered in 2000, conventionally measured to be over 300,000 light years in diameter and over 11 billion light years distant. Located in the constellation Aquarius, the great "blob" is known as LAB-1, for "Lyman-Alpha Blob 1." Why the name Lyman-Alpha Blob? What does Lyman-Alpha mean? Quantum physics postulates that a hydrogen atom's electron orbit must abide by its principal quantum number. Mathematical calculations use n = 1 for the smallest orbital radius, n = 2 for the next quantized orbital step, n = 3, and so on. As mentioned, those orbital radii must rise and fall in discrete jumps. Also, since electrons are negatively charged, they are attracted to protons by their binding energy. Each "n" orbit's binding energy is expressed in electron volts. The closer to a hydrogen atom's nucleus, the greater the binding energy. As an electron jumps down from a higher binding energy orbit to a lower one, it emits light in the ultraviolet range. The photo emissions from the n2 to n1 jump correspond to 121.6 nanometers. This frequency band is known as "Lyman-alpha" radiation, named after Theodore Lyman. According to ESO, LAB-1 might be shining in the 121.6 nanometer frequency because cool gas is heated when gravity pulls it toward the center of the blob. It is also thought that there might be dynamic galaxies inside the blob, lighting it up by their highly energetic processes: black holes or star formation, for instance. In a recent analysis of light coming from LAB-1 the galaxy theory appears to win out. The polarized light coming from LAB-1 is the reason that The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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ESO astronomers have adopted that theory. The research team found a ring of polarized light coming from the center of the blob. It is not considered possible for compressed gas heating up as it falls into the blob to produce polarized light. However, if ultraviolet radiation were emitted from active energy sources within LAB-1, then the light would become polarized before it was scattered by the gas. One of the principal tenets of Electric Universe theory is that electricity flowing through ionized gas, otherwise known as plasma, creates long electromagnetic filaments called Birkeland currents. Gas obeys the laws of kinetic motion, with molecules accelerated by "shock waves" or gravitational attraction. Plasma behaves according to the laws of electricity. According to plasma physicists, the anisotropy of an ionized gas polarizes light shining through it. Polarized emissions are sometimes used to map ionized gas and magnetic fields in discrete sources. Another factor in the ESO observations that has not been considered is that some components of synchrotron radiation are circularly polarized. As stated many times in previous Picture of the Day articles, if electrons are moving they are called an electric current. An electric current in a magnetic field is defined as "field-aligned" and can release synchrotron radiation. Extreme ultraviolet light is one way that synchrotron radiation is manifested. The excitation frequency of a specific gas is a more correct model for LAB-1. Electricity passing through neon gas causes it to glow pale red. Other gases, such as oxygen, produce blue light, while heavier elements have their own colors. In the case of this cosmic blob, electrically excited hydrogen is producing an ultraviolet glare. Therefore, the title of the ESO press release, "Giant Space Blob Glows from Within," is merely an assumption based on a gravity-only cosmology. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Larry White.
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So-called "flood channel." Olympia Fossae in the Martian Tharsis region. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
When is a Flood not a Flood?

(Aug 19, 2011)
Water is said to have carved many of the features on Mars. Scientists from the University of California reported in June 2007 that a "confirmation" for the Martian liquid ocean theory was found: "shorelines" extending for thousands of kilometers around a large lake that existed a little over three billion years ago. It is speculated that the "liquid oceans" have been gone for over two billion years. Planetary scientists have correlated deep canyons, ripples, and other structures on Mars with floods of water flowing on the surface, eroding it in the same way as water is supposed to erode features on Earth. A theory supporting oceans of water on Mars millions of years ago seems to be contradicted by mineralogical evidence, such as deposits that would be destroyed by water. The flowing water hypothesis continues to guide consensus theories, however. According to a recent press release, some researchers are beginning to move away from water as the active agent in creating channels like the one shown in the image at the top of the page. Instead, lava flows are thought to play a more significant role than previously considered. As David Leverington from Texas Tech University wrote: "This paper highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the two theories that these outflow channels were formed by volcanic or water activity. Many scientists realize there are issues with aqueous interpretations of these The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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channels. They recognize that if these systems formed by giant subsurface flows of water, there would need to have been extraordinarily high ground permeability, up to a million or more times greater than what wed expect for the crust of the Earth, just to allow sufficient amounts of water to make it to the outflow locations and erupt to the surface." The prevailing view of Mars is that it is covered with a layer of ice. The soil temperature has been measured to be about minus 50 Celsius; so cold that carbon dioxide freezes solid. If water exists, it has to be locked in icy soils or in underground vaults, since the low-density atmosphere would cause water-ice out in the open to sublime to its vapor phase. Several Mars missions were sent to confirm the water hypothesis. Clouds and low-lying fog were reported, and the Phoenix lander is reputed to have detected water just below the surface, although there has been no result that can stand up to close scrutiny. Despite what was called "visual evidence," the devices used to test for water returned a null reading. The soil around Phoenix was nonconductive, indicating no water. Phoenix froze to death when it was encased by almost 3 meters of frozen carbon dioxide during the Martian winter, so it is probable that it was dry ice providing the visual clue rather than water-ice. Martian areography bears witness to violent events in the Red Planet's past. Many images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) indicate that Mars was once the scene of devastating plasma discharges that, among other effects, ripped out the northern terrain to a depth of six kilometers below the planet's mean elevation. Burned craters and piles of scorched dust lead to the conclusion that lightning thousands or millions of times more energetic than we know today resurfaced Mars. The existence of these formations constitutes a confirmation of the Electric Universe hypothesis. Valles Marineris, Olympus Mons, the terraced mounds in Arabia Terra, as well as both Martian poles demonstrate strong support for the electric discharge theory. It is possible that there are ice deposits on Mars formed during the catastrophic events that altered its surface. The aforementioned plasma discharges left behind sinuous rilles, flatfloored craters, "railroad track" patterns in canyons, intersecting gullies, and giant mesas with Lichtenberg "whiskers." Lightning of sufficient power can compress material in the discharge channel and accelerate it along with the negative charge, forming a jet. If the jet contains water vapor, liquid water or even ice might form inside the spinning Birkeland filament due to z-pinch effects. If this phenomenon were to be scaled up to planetary dimensions, the increased electric discharges might have dumped quantities of ice particles onto the surface that clumped together into the frozen piles of debris that MRO's imagers allegedly detected. The fact that areologists are thinking about lava instead of water is a step toward an understanding of catastrophic evolution on Mars. If what we find on Mars took place in the presence of planetary lightning bolts and was not the result of ice or water moving across the surface, should we rethink our ideas about similar observations here on Earth? Stephen Smith
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The Chinese junk. Artist unknown.
Mega-Tsunamis, Chinese Junks and Port Phillip Bay

(Aug 17, 2011)
The Australian Bunurong tribe recorded the catastrophic formation of Melbournes Port Phillip Bay in their mythology. "Plenty long ago, you could walk dry foot from our side of the bay to Corio. Then, in a night of destruction, great tornadoes uprooted all the trees and giant seas rushed in through the headlands. The land sunk under shattering earthquakes and the seas became void and deep, just as they are today." Georgiana McCrae When did these events occur? In 1450 AD, the catastrophic comet Mahuika descended upon the coast of New Zealand. Reputed to be twenty-six times as bright as the Sun, it discharged electrically and shattered Admiral Zhou Mans Chinese fleet of some sixty ships. The fleet supported a thriving Chinese colony of Han, Tang and Song, mining gold, jade and antimony in New Zealand. The comets screaming noise blew out the sailors' eardrums; they received horrific burns. Earthquakes and gigantic waves that could have been more than 200 metres high tossed the ships upside down like matchsticks, whilst the intense heat caused the masts and rigging to catch fire. Zhou Mans wrecked hulks hurtled across the seas to New Zealand and southeast Australia fanned by 600 kilometre per hour winds. Junks were flung ashore at Bairnsdale, Warrnambool, King Island, Kangaroo Island and even the tip of West Australia. Sound incredible? These facts are recorded in the meticulous fifteenth century records of Chinese ambassador Zheng He. Historian Gavin Menzies claims that over nine hundred ships failed to return to China from Pacific expeditions in that tragic year. Professor Ted Bryant recounts how matching Maori South Island mythology speaks of the Fires of Tamatea. They describe "the falling of the skies, raging winds and massive and mysterious fires and storms from space." The catastrophe was centred on Tananui (Maori for "the big explosion") where the airburst flattened trees within a radius of 80 kilometres. Vast forests caught fire. The Chinese colonists were burned alive. Flocks of the flightless Moa bird The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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were incinerated and became extinct. Manu Whakatan translates as "the bird felled by a strange fire." Local names describe the fireball: names such as, "Waitepeka," "Kaka Point" and "Oweka" (Ka is Maori for "fire"). A deluge followed the fire. The Invercargill plains, including the Chinese mine shafts, were flooded. Trees were toppled by the mega-tsunami. Maori place names inland reflect this: "Tainui," "Tairoa," "Paretai" (Tai being Maori for "waves"). Zheng He's records and the Maori mythology agree. Aboriginal myths from Port Phillip Bay, Newcastle, and Wilcannia on the southeast coast of Australia also describe falling debris, cataclysmic floods, earthquakes and heavenly auroral fires. Physical evidence of wrecked junks was discovered by marine engineer Cedric Bell, who investigated the hypothesis of a fifteenth century tsunami. Bell surveyed the coast of New Zealands South Island. Magnetic instruments showed 44 large junks buried in the sand or amongst inland chevrons. One treasure ship was impaled in a cliff at Moorak. Two burning junks were hurled into the cliff face at Wakanui Beach, their wreckage buried deep beneath a tsunami formation enclosing a stone-built Chinese canal. Turning to Port Phillip Bay, there is abundant evidence for a destructive mega-tsunami. Layers of burnt cliff top and shells stretch endlessly around Port Phillip Bay and the Victorian coastline. Burnt trees protrude along the shorelines. Chevrons (20-30 metre high sand incursions) invade the coastline along Wilsons Promontory, Portsea, Warrnambool and beyond. The sand chevrons are solid evidence for tsunamis washing inland for many kilometres. Carbon dating of the burnt shell remains appears to validate the fifteenth century catastrophe. Conventional geology insists on a slow creation of Port Phillip Bay in a post ice age (Pleistocene) event occurring some ten thousand years ago. However, recent research from the University of Melbourne confirms this formation occurred within the last thousand years. This was a catastrophic event. Peter Mungo Jupp
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Jean-Jaques D'Ortous de Mairan (1678-1771). Engaved portrait by Pierre-Charles Ingouf (1746-1800), based on a work by Louis Tocque (1696-1772). Courtesy Smithsonian Institution Libraries digital collection, Washington DC, USA.
Mountains of Evidence
(Aug 15, 2011)
Plasma mythology May be defined as the study of plasmas, specifically near-earth plasmas, in human traditions, such as mythology and proto-scientific records. If this is a discipline, one of its most notable pioneers must be the French savant, Jean-Jacques dOrtous de Mairan (1678-1771). De Mairan was a prominent biologist, a geophysicist and an astronomer, who conducted vital experiments in the circadian rhythms of living organisms. His interests extended to atmospheric plasma avant la lettre, as he was obsessed with the aurora borealis, but neither the concept nor the term plasma had yet entered the minds of scientists. As an auroral expert, de Mairan towered well above his contemporaries. He was apparently the first to use mathematical methods in order to measure the height of the aurorae in 1726. In 1733, he published what has been identified as "the first textbook devoted entirely to the subject" of aurorae; this was his magisterial Trait physique et historique de laurore borale. And although he gave short shrift to an electrical theory of the phenomenon, he hit the nail on the head when he attributed the lights to interaction between the atmospheres around the earth and the sun: " it is always certain that there really is other matter outside the Terrestrial Globe, to wit, the matter of the Atmosphere of the Sun, which is endowed with the property to reflect or to shoot at us a sensible light ; that this matter May reach as far as our Atmosphere, as it actually does, & often passes well from there to the Terrestrial Orbit, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive so that, consequently, it is suited to mix with the superior parts of our Atmosphere, & that it May be a sufficient cause of the Phenomenon we are concerned with."
With other writers on the aurora, de Mairan shared an interest in chronicling historical sightings, yet he rose above his predecessors in his perceptive idea that the polar lights May actually illuminate aspects of mythology. Specifically, he conjectured that the Greek Mount Olympus could have been selected as the abode of the gods because it would have been over its peaks that the Greeks of Athens and other important centres would have observed the aurora borealis, low towards the horizon at those latitudes. In the mysterious lights which would perhaps manifest only once a decade spectators could have recognised deities sporting on the pinnacle of Olympus. In de Mairans words: "Olympus, with which we are concerned, since it is more than one in Greece, consists of a chain of high mountains which border Thessaly towards the North and Macedonia towards the center, and which, consequently, in the North tend to the West of Achaia, of Phocia, and of all those which formed that part of Greece known as Hellas, ancient Greece, a country fertile in poetic ideas and fables. The aurora borealis, which is never very elevated at those latitudes, and which most often tends toward the West, would therefore appear immediately above these mountains, and as adhering to their summit. Beyond the limb the luminous and rayed center of the phenomenon would be, for the astonished spectator, as an unequivocal sign of the presence of the Gods; the dark segment which would sometimes be seen below, as a cloud hiding these Immortals from profane eyes. And the jets of fiery colored light, which sprung out, would seem to them to be the bolts of lightning which left the hand of Jupiter? The more the phenomenon was infrequent, the more it would seem to be marvellous, and the more the tradition would be maintained over time without question." The suggestion does not seem to have been followed up, except perhaps for the late historian of auroral science, Samuel Silverman, who mounted a similar argument for aphon, the holy rock in far southeastern Turkey on which people in Ugarit and Canaan situated the divine assembly. In recent years, evidence for an auroral component in the worlds rich tapestry of myth and tradition has mounted and de Mairans proposition is worth revisiting if only because the aurora is now known to have been much more frequent and intense over the eastern Mediterranean basin during the early 1st millennium BCE (see http://thunderbolts.info/tpod/2011/arch11/110316wondering.htm). It is no longer feasible that the notion of a collectivity of mythical beings on a mountaintop owed its absolute origin to sightings of the polar lights above local peaks. This is because the theme of a cosmic mountain itself emerges as a recurrent element in traditional cosmologies worldwide. Properties attributed to this mountain such as its division into tiers, its hollow interior, its location at the navel of the earth, its twin peaks or the spiralling dragon or pathway wrapped around its surface expose the mountain itself as a mythical concept, at least in origin. In numerous parts of the world, people identified local hills and mountains with this cosmic prototype as if they were the real thing. Yet what May be salvaged from de Mairans suggestion is the important possibility that a regular appearance of the aurora borealis above a local elevation May have been one reason why such a rock would come to be identified as the embodiment of the cosmic mountain. The potential application of this idea is worth exploring. Hind people situated their hallowed Mount Meru or Sumeru in the Himalaya range to the north. Did they do so simply because the mountains there were The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive prominent? Or had intermittent dances of the polar lights above these very peaks played a decisive role?
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Whatever the truth May be, de Mairans searches for correlations between auroral antics and themes in mythology count as respectable, linear precursors to todays fledgling field of plasma mythology. Prescient though it May have been to equate the Olympian gods with auroral apparitions, even bolder hypotheses are being entertained at the present time. Did the template for the global myth of a cosmic mountain itself reflect a conspicuous atmospheric feature, not seen today? Was the cone of the zodiacal light enriched with so much dust as to sit above the eastern or the western horizon like a luminous sky-scraping rock? Or did the earths ionosphere host a plasma tube of such colossal proportions as was never seen again since the dawn of human history? Hopefully a modern-day de Mairan, equipped with better mathematics and technology, will find motivation to continue where Jean-Jacques left off at the peak of a career. Rens Van der Sluijs
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Was this congeries of pictures from the Moche culture of Peru a star map? Lower terrace reliefs, north facade, ceremonial plaza, Huaca de Luna, Valle de Moche, Trujillo, Peru. Rens Van Der Sluijs
Seeing Things--In the Sky Part Two

(Aug 12, 2011)
Where does the idea of constellations come from? And how do these arbitrary groups of stars relate to mythology? The argument shapes up nicely in the light of traditions that name specific constellations as mythical creatures thus conveyed to the night sky. Examples are again in no short supply. Thus, a chief of the Snohomish (Washington State) related that a few of the first people, who were unaware that the sky was about to be raised, climbed up into the sky, as was customary to do, and were forced to remain there, in the form of familiar asterisms: "But a few people did not know about the sky pushing. Three were hunters who had been chasing four elk for several days. The elk jumped into the Sky World, and the hunters ran after them. When the sky was lifted, elk and hunters were lifted too. In the Sky World they were changed to stars. At night, even now, you can see them. The three hunters form the handle of the Big Dipper. The middle hunter has his dog with him now a tiny star. The four elk make the bowl of the Big Dipper. Some other people were caught up in the sky in two canoes, three men in each of them. And a little fish also was on its way up into the Sky World when the people pushed. So all of them have had to stay there ever since. The hunters and the little dog, the elk, the little fish, and the men in the two canoes are now stars, but they once lived on earth." An informant from the Kathlamet (border area of Washington and Oregon) reported a transformation of the first 'people' into stars following the severance of the 'rope' that had occasioned their transportation to the sky: 'Then [Bluejay] cut the rope and the sky sprang back. Part of the people were still above. They became stars. [Therefore] all kinds of things are [in the sky] the Woodpecker, the Fisher, the Skate, the Elk, and the Deer. Many things are there'. In eastern Colombia, the Sikuani agreed that, following the destruction of the string of arrows upon which Tsamani and his siblings had travelled to the sky, the members of the party turned into familiar asterisms: "They remained in the sky, to one side of the sun. When they got there Mva gave them other clothing, and when they threw away the ones they had worn on earth they turned into stars, into groups of stars: Kahyali, Hwinai, Tsamni, barru, Sfarrei. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive They can be seen in the summer, for in August they begin to appear early in the morning. Not all of them can be seen at the same time."
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Of this party, Kahyali represented Orion, who 'can be seen in the sky without a left leg', Tsamani Delphinus, three brothers the Pleiades, and their sisters Coma Berenices. In Amazonian Peru, meanwhile, the Shipibo-Conibo would finger the Pleiades as Hushmabo, Orion as the cripple Qushioma and the constellation Hare as Rya three brothers who had ventured into the sky along a chain of arrows. Or again, in the far southeastern tip of Australia, members of the Bibbulmun nation figured that many familiar asterisms were mythical characters well known to them, at least in 1924: "Now Wommainya and his family and his brotherinlaw May all be seen in the sky. Wommainya (Vega) stands beside the lake, and in the middle of the lake his two boys still stretch out their hands to him (two stars south of Vega). Wommainya looks angrily at Irdibilyi (Altair), and sees the spear still sticking through her heart, and near the womens fire sits Karder (Delphinus), because he was lazy and tired, and would not hunt for meat or look out for his nephews. Wommainya, Irdibilyi, Karder, and the boys sit down in the sky, so that all Bibbulmun shall see them and shall keep the camp laws." Joining the dots, the following picture now emerges: around the world, bands of people passed on myths regarding mysterious supernatural beings that had lived on earth, but at some point moved up into the sky, where they occupied permanent positions. Looking up at the starry firmament, people then projected the famed members of this departed race onto the stars, either framed individually or in bunches. Practically every culture arrived at different identifications, but the fundamental concept was the same. Where does this leave the nature of such mythical beings themselves? The solution to this enigma is intimately tied up with the origin of creation mythology as a whole. Steering clear of the pointless hypothesis of alien visitors as advanced by Erich von Dniken, a promising scenario involves extraordinarily vivid transient events in the atmosphere, as observed globally during prehistoric times. Once our scientists are ready to recognise the full impact such near-earth plasmas must have had on the earth and its inhabitants, we May want to thank our lucky stars that some survived to tell the tale. Rens Van der Sluijs
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Was this congeries of pictures from the Moche culture of Peru a star map? Lower terrace reliefs, north facade, ceremonial plaza, Huaca de Luna, Valle de Moche, Trujillo, Peru. Rens Van Der Sluijs
Seeing Things--In the Sky Part One

(Aug 10, 2011)
Where does the idea of constellations come from? And how do these arbitrary groups of stars relate to mythology? The early 20th century saw the ascendancy of a short-lived movement in scholarship called Pan-Babylonianism, soon bemoaned for its folly. Supporters of this group held that the Babylonians had been remarkably bright astronomers from a very early time onward, spreading their science and the associated mythology to all the worlds major civilisations. Part of this knowledge gift were the notion of constellations, even the zodiac itself, and an understanding of the precession of the equinoxes. The figurehead of the movement, Alfred Jeremias (1864-1935), pontificated that attestations of the zodiac traced back to the Age of Taurus, i. e., the late 5th millennium BCE. Dotty ideas such as these continued to produce ripples in other areas, such as anthropology and the history of religions, until the present day. Did countless myths worldwide originally encode the precession of the equinoxes, the protagonists representing asterisms? An affirmative yes was publicised in such influential bestsellers as Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechends Hamlets Mill (1969), Thomas Worthens The Myth of Replacement (1991) and Elizabeth and Paul Barbers When They Severed Earth from Sky (2006). Variants of the precessional theory of myth continue to be placed in the spotlights, yet it is incumbent to put their supporters quite firmly on the spot this line of thought is in as poor a shape as Pan-Babylonianism ever was. Not a scintilla of proof was found for knowledge of precession antedating Hipparchus. Evidence for constellations in Mesopotamia is nonexistent prior to circa 2,000 BCE. And specialists agree that the zodiac itself, in its traditional form, only arose in Babylon during the 5th century BCE, affecting the Greek-speaking and the Egyptian worlds as late as the Hellenistic period. If key myths were not modelled on star patterns, where do familiar denizens of the sky such as Capricorn, the Twins, the Virgin or the Bear come from? Were ancient stargazers, prone to an overactive imagination, simply seeing things? Three steps point the way to a satisfactory answer. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The first point is that mental images of these entities must have existed before they were artificially read into the starry sky. An English solicitor and amateur orientalist, Robert Brown junior (1844-1912), published a detailed study of the origins of the constellations in 1900. Though his analysis was far from stellar, it was surely spot on with the words: " the great majority of the primitive constellation-figures had a pre-constellational history; and were in fact forms and phases of thought familiar to the mind of early man before he had entered upon the task of stellar uranography for, as we have seen all along, and as even a cursory examination of the starry heavens will convince any reasonable person, the stars themselves, with certain exceptions which will be noticed, do not in their natural configuration resemble the forms in which they have been grouped, or where there May be a slight resemblance it is equally shared by a hundred other objects which have never been constellation-figures Having already certain fixed ideas and figures in his mind, the constellation-framer, when he came to his task, applied his figures to the stars and the stars to his figures as harmoniously as possible. Thus, nearly each primitive constellation-figure is a reduplication of an idea connected with simpler natural phenomena, solar, lunar, or as the case May be." In the case of Taurus, for example, bulls appeared in iconography from a very early date, but nothing suggests that the corresponding constellation of later times was intended. A second pointer, of universal application, is that the characters associated with many constellations figure in mythology. The fact is somewhat obscured in Greek astronomy, as most of the classical asterisms were imported from the Near East. Nevertheless, one cannot fail to spot the link between the constellations of Hercules, Andromeda, Hydra or Perseus with the mythical entities of the same names. Countless other one-to-one connections were in circulation. Some would identify Aquarius with Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha, survivors of the deluge; others would pinpoint Auriga as the tragic Phaethon, close to Eridanus, the river in which he drowned. To complete the picture, a final element is the remarkable pan-human belief, seldom documented, that the stars are mythical beings such as gods, heroes or ancestors who were translated to the heavens long ago. Just to give a flavour of this widespread theme of catasterism, the Skid Pawnee (Nebraska) 'believed that the stars were either gods or people who had once lived on earth and had been changed into stars at death'. Among the Lillooet (Fraser River, British Columbia), 'All the heavenly bodies are said to have been people who were transformed during the early ages of the world'. The Khasia (currently Bangladesh) relay that 'the stars are men who have climbed into heaven by a tree'. Again: 'All over Australia, it is believed that the stars and planets were once men, women and animals in Creation Times, who flew up to the sky as a result of some mishap on earth and took refuge there in their present form.' And among the Khoi-San peoples (southwestern Africa), too, 'the stars are held to have once been animals or people of the Earthly Race, on some cases people who had been transformed upon breaking some taboo'. Rens Van der Sluijs
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Dr. Anthony Peratt with (inset) Don Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola
Painted Into a Corner?

(Aug 08, 2011)
History repeats itself and that includes the history of science. Back in 1879, the very notion of prehistoric cave art was unheard of. The famous Palaeolithic art galleries inside such caves as at Altamira, Trois Frres and Lascaux still lay undiscovered in the womb of the earth. Enter the Spanish gentleman, jurist and amateur archaeologist, Don Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola (1831-1888). De Sautuola owned the land in which the cave of Altamira was found in 1868 and began exploring the caves in 1875. In 1879, a chance discovery revealed the marvellous images to the world while Marcelino was digging in the cave floor, searching for prehistoric tools of the type he had examined at the Paris Exhibition a year before, his daughter Maria, still a child, was "running about in the cavern and playing about here and there" when, suddenly, she "made out forms and figures on the roof." Her eyes were the first in more than 10,000 years to perceive the cluster of great polychrome bison on the ceiling. De Sautuola instantly sensed the antiquity of this parietal art. In the following year, his careful conclusions received instant acclaim when a professor from Madrid, Juan Vilanova y Piera (1821-1893), checked out the site, lectured on the discovery, including at the International Congress of Anthropology and Prehistoric Archaeology in Lisbon, and inspired crowds of people to visit among them king Alfonso XII. Clearly, de Sautuola had ushered in a new era in archaeology. Or had he? Professor Vilanova y Piera was a geologist and palaeontologist, while the enthusiastic members of the public were lay people. Specialists in the archaeological The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive community painted a very different picture of de Sautuola. In the words of Paul Bahn and Jean Vertut, two modern writers:
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"One would think that such a remarkable find, albeit unprecedented and unexpected, would have met with interest even excitement ; that there would have been a stampede of specialists to see the site; that Sanz de Sautuola would have been fted and congratulated. It is to archaeologys undying shame that the very opposite occurred, and that it helped to bring about his premature death in 1888, a sad and disillusioned man still under suspicion of fraud or naivety, with his discovery rejected by most prehistorians. He had taken the hostility personally, as an attack on his honour and his honesty." The French lite of archaeologists at that time treated de Sautuolas proposition with extreme contempt. At the great Congress in Lisbon, a doyen, mile Cartailhac (1845-1921), walked out in disgust upon de Sautuolas exhibition of drawings of the Altamira figures, suggesting afterwards that the painted animals were anatomically incorrect. Amid universal rejection in the wake of this conference, the only known person to conduct a personal inspection of Altamira was once again not an archaeologist: even so, the French engineer, Edouard Harl (1850-1922), apparently had already made up his mind regarding the recent manufacture of the paintings prior to his visit in 1881. The paint was too well preserved. Eventually, the well-credentialled naysayers had to cave in. With the discovery of additional cave paintings at La Mouthe, Dordogne, in 1895, followed by a steady stream of others, de Sautuolas name simply had to be inscribed in the annals of archaeology. In 1902, Cartailhac finally cleared de Sautuola of all blame, commenting later that 'we were blinded by some dangerous spirit of dogmatism'. Fast forward a century or so and another amateur archaeologist and lover of hiking is seen engrossed in a systematic exploration of prehistoric rock art, from caves to exposed rocks, working in ever greater circles from the direct surroundings of his home. Although most of the logged sites still carry Spanish names, New Mexico is now the centre of action. Amassing what is arguably the largest database of petroglyph and pictograph images worldwide, this collector makes another discovery that should rock the academic world. This time, the thought revolution does not concern the exquisite naturalistic art of Palaeolithic times, but the crude and angular images produced in the Neolithic and some time afterwards. A mixed group of electrical engineers and mythologists are quick to offer support and spread the word to a sympathetic audience. Fully aware of the importance of his findings and with an unwavering zest for knowledge, the researcher unabashedly lectures at a prestigious university to an audience of archaeologists and other specialists. But he is greeted with derision. A decade on, not a single archaeological publication has addressed his work, not a single archaeologist has picked up the gauntlet and gone out to test the new idea. A stunning silence is the collective voice of scholarship. Sadly, de Sautuola did not live to see the public vindication of his work. The joy to see his premonitions corroborated by the discovery of countless similar caves was not granted to him. Accelerated by the acrimonious reception of his disclosures, his premature death preceded Cartailhacs apology by a full 14 years. To fear a similar fate for that second pioneer, doctor Anthony Peratt, is not rocket science it is rock science. Rens Van der Sluijs
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Sunspot 1263 on August 2, 2011. Credit: Emil Kraaikamp
A Solar Siesta
(Aug 05, 2011)
The Sun is predicted to "hibernate" during its next cycle in 2020. A recent press release states that the Sun's activity will slow to an unprecedented decline in the next ten years. The prediction is based on "...three independent studies of the sun's insides, surface, and upper atmosphere..." According to the article, the drop in output could initiate climate effects comparable to the Maunder Minimum between 1645 and 1715. Predictions about how the Sun will behave are reliable only if the interpretation of the data upon which the prediction was made is reliable. As many past Picture of the Day expositions have revealed, however, conventional theories of solar dynamics leave much to be desired. For example, attributing to internal heating the unexpected "weather patterns" recently discovered below the photosphere is like ascribing Earths weather patterns to heat escaping from within the Earth. The possibility that weather systems May be externally electrically powered has not occurred to investigators. The Electric Universe theory proposes that stars are primarily electrical phenomena and not strictly based on gravitational compression somehow balanced by internal thermonuclear energy. Stars are electromagnetic in nature, responding to the laws of plasma physics and electric circuits and not those of gas dynamics or electrostatics. This alternative view applies to the Sun, as well as to all other stars that populate the Universe: celestial bodies exist in conducting cosmic plasma and are connected by electric circuits. The Sun is "plugged-in" to a galactic power source and behaves like an electric motor and electric light. The faster rotation of the solar equator is prima facie evidence of an external force acting to offset the momentum loss of the solar wind. Electric stars are not born from cold nebular clouds. Rather, their genesis resides in the electric currents induced in moving plasma. The electric currents induce their own encircling The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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magnetic field, which "pinches" the currents to flow in filaments. Photographs of plasma in the laboratory show those currents forming twisted filament pairs called "Birkeland currents." Birkeland currents follow magnetic field lines, drawing ionized gas and dust from their surroundings and then "pinching" it into heated blobs called plasmoids. As the so-called "z-pinch" effect increases, it strengthens the magnetic field, further increasing the z-pinch. The resulting plasmoids form spinning electrical discharges that glow first as red stars, then "switch discharge modes" into yellow stars, some intensifying into brilliant ultraviolet arcs, driven externally by the Birkeland currents that created them. Since this view of the Sun is at great variance with the conventional view, the mainstream "predictions" concerning solar activity should probably be taken with a grain of salt. Stephen Smith and Wal Thornhill
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Enceladus looms against the backdrop of Saturn's rings. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Rainy Days on Saturn

(Aug 03, 2011)
Water vapor in the gas giant's clouds comes from a local source. According to a recent press release the European Space Agency's Herschel space observatory has detected a torus of water vapor around Saturn. The newly discovered ring is extremely diffuse and invisible to optical telescopes, requiring Herschel's infrared sensors to see it. The total width of the water vapor ring is about 603,000 kilometers, but its thickness is scarcely one-tenth of that. It appears that the comet-like jets emanating from the south pole of Saturn's tiny moon Enceladus are constantly replenishing the water supply while it orbits the giant planet. As the ESA report states, Enceladus "...is showering rain water onto its home planet." This is not the first time a hitherto unseen ring around Saturn required infrared vision to find. The Spitzer Space Telescope discovered a new ring in a retrograde orbit, tilted off the main ring plane by 27 degrees. It is much larger than the ring found by Herschel: 2 million kilometers wide and 2.5 million kilometers from top to bottom. The Cassini spacecraft's observations of Enceladus reveal charged vapor plumes erupting from the south pole that follow magnetic fields. Enceladus orbits inside Saturn's magnetosphere, so the moon acts like a generator: conducting plasma moving through Saturn's magnetic field induces current flow. This fact was confirmed when Cassini observed the electromagnetic "footprint" of Enceladus in Saturn's polar aurora. Of greater interest was a note of the time-variable correspondence between emissions from the moon's polar The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive discharge points and the auroral footprint's brightness.
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The "tiger stripes" on Enceladus are constantly referred to as "steam vents," both in scholarly journals and in science blogs. They are said to "channel water to the surface" in the same way a terrestrial geyser might: heating water in a constricted tube until it overcomes the resistance to steam pressure. It is widely presumed by astrophysicists that the Universe is electrically neutral, so when electrically active plasma is found in space, or on other rocky bodies, it is glossed over. Localized phenomena no matter how improbable are invoked: tidal "kneading," "cryovulcanism," and "geysers" erupting from underground chambers of liquid water are given as the cause for activity seen on Enceladus, while electricity is ignored. The vents on Enceladus are scars caused by traveling electric arcs. They are similar to the "sinuous rilles" seen on Jupiter's moon Europa. They are often found in parallel, cutting across other channels as if they were not there. Such characteristics contradict the idea that they are fractures or "strike-slip faults." For Enceladus to gain the features that we observe today, it must have been gouged and torn, rather than cracked and broken. A white-hot torch seems to have carved the surface, disregarding the prior topography: a sure sign that an electric arc was the active agent. The tiger stripes show parallelism not because they are open cracks but because filamentary electric currents flowing across a surface tend to align and follow the ambient magnetic field direction. As Electric Universe theory proposes, the rilles on Enceladus, as well as the anomalous heat flow from its poles, are due to electromagnetic induction. The water vapor traveling the circuits back and forth from Saturn is electrically "machined" from Enceladus. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Thane Hubbell
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The warped ring in the center of the Milky Way glows in various infrared wavelengths. Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech
A Kinked Link
(Aug 01, 2011)
Plasma instabilities are a better explanation for the Milky Way's strangely distorted central ring. According to a recent press release: "...observations from the Herschel Space Observatory show a bizarre, twisted ring of dense gas at the center of our Milky Way galaxy." The ring observation is not new, as reported in a previous Picture of the Day. What is new is the bizarre figure-eight structure. What Herschel saw was not visible to optical telescopes, since the intervening dust and gas obscures the view of our galaxy's nucleus. Several past infrared views had revealed a portion of the ring, sparking speculations that it exists because inertia from galactic spin, as well as that imparted by gas moving across the central bulge, creates a standing wave. The latest images show the complete ring, with the figure-eight or "infinity" structure. The warped nucleus of galaxy Centaurus A was discussed in a previous Picture of the Day. It was noted that many active galaxies display transverse, donut-shaped plasma discharges, as well as plasma jets erupting from their axes. Twisted rings inside galaxies form because helical electric currents squeeze plasma inside them, creating cosmic "transmission lines" through space known as Birkeland currents. These currents confine clouds of ionized gas within electromagnetic fields, causing star formation and toroidal currents around the galactic axis on its equator. In a recent Picture of the Day, it was reported that the reason galactic rings flatten and curl at The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive "The edges curl in and out and upwards and downwards to the current flow."
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the edges is because of plasma instabilities in the torus. As electric current density increases: Anthony L. Peratt, "Characteristics for the Occurrence of a High-Current, Z-Pinch Aurora as Recorded in Antiquity," IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Volume 31, Number 6, December 2003, pages 1195-6. An electric discharge in plasma creates a tube-like magnetic sheath along its axis. If enough current flows through the circuit, the discharge will cause the sheath to glow, sometimes creating a number of other sheaths within it. The sheath is called a "double layer." Double layers form when positive charges build up in one region of a plasma cloud and negative charges build up nearby. A powerful electric field appears between the two regions, which accelerates charged particles. The electric charges spiral in the magnetic fields, emitting X-rays, extreme ultraviolet, and sometimes gamma rays. Toroidal filaments couple to hourglass-shaped current sheets that are subject to diocotron instabilities: the current flow through plasma sometimes forms vortices that change into distorted curlicue shapes. This phenomenon has been witnessed in many laboratory experiments, as well as in the polar aurorae. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Larry White
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An elevation map of the Mid-Atlantic ridge. Credit: NOAA/USGS.
Forty-four Trillion Watts

(Jul 29, 2011)
Earth is said to emit heat energy because radioactive elements decay in its depths. Electrical activity might be a better explanation. "Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking." -- William Butler Yeats A recent press release asks what forces are powerful enough to spread the floors of Earth's oceans and move the continents? Additionally, Earth's core is supposed to be molten iron. What heat source has kept it hot for the billions of years that it has supposedly floated in the cold of space? According to geologists, the heat from uranium, thorium, and potassium isotope decay is what powers Earth's great engines. Bore hole temperature data from over 20,000 worldwide locations confirms an estimated heat flow in excess of 44 terawatts escaping Earth's interior. However, it is now thought that only fifty percent of that loss is due to radioactive element decay. Using the Kamioka Liquid-scintillator Anti-Neutrino Detector (KamLAND), scientists report that they have found a flux of anti-neutrinos from Earth's crust due to the decay of the previously mentioned radiogenic elements. Most neutrino family particles fly through our planet as if it were not there. Their interactions with matter are said to be extremely weak because they carry no electric charge. The only forces that can act on them are gravity and the weak nuclear force, although some physicists would argue that the weak force is another aspect of electromagnetism. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Anti-neutrino detection depends on computer analysis of several events that take place over breathtakingly small fractions of time. When an incoming anti-neutrino converts a proton to a neutron and a positron (an anti-electron), the first thing that happens is inverse beta decay: the positron annihilates itself, along with an electron when they come into contact. There is a brief, dim flash of light from the annihilation that is picked up by the KamLAND photomultipliers. In another hundred millionths of a second, a proton in the tons of hydrocarbon fluid inside the detector vessel captures the neutron, causing it to emit a gamma ray. It is these two delayed coincidence signals that constitute the "detection" of an antineutrino when they are decoded from the "noise" that interferes with the machine. There are several factors that call into question the reliability of such practices, not the least of which are the presumptions that are made about the signals that KamLAND detects. Its primary function was to identify various neutrino "flavors" from nearby nuclear reactors. The fact that it found neutrinos in conditional states that did not agree with the standard model of quantum mechanics indicates a problem with the theory or a problem with the data. Possibly both. Of further significance, its findings do not support the conventional model of the Sun. Perhaps what is needed is a track change away from conventional destinations and into new areas of thought: thought that takes into account Earth's interaction with colossal electrical forces at some time in the recent past. So-called "telluric currents" circulate through Earth's crust because our magnetic field induces current flow in conductive strata. Hundreds of thousands of amperes stream beneath the surface, the current strength varying according to the conductivity of the strata. Since the Sun can affect Earth's magnetic field through geomagnetic storms, fluctuations in telluric currents can occur when solar activity increases. This happens because of oscillations in the ionosphere. The slight variations that have been found are probably accounted for in this way. When blocks of acrylic plastic are exposed to a high intensity electron beam, they accumulate a significant electric charge. After the blocks are discharged by driving a nail into their sides, the traces of feathery figures remain embedded in the plastic. The lightning-like pathways are called Lichtenberg figures. They result from electrons rushing through the acrylic toward the point of discharge. The tension caused by the current flow leaves micro-fractures behind. Interestingly, the blocks continue to exhibit flashes from internal electric discharges for several minutes. If small plastic blocks were converted to quartz and scaled-up to the size of North America, and the electron beam were scaled up to an electric discharge of planetary dimensions, giant scars might be left behind: scars like the Grand Canyon's Lichtenberg geography, or something as incredible as the Mid-Atlantic ridge. The remanent electromagnetic fields could also generate a great deal of thermodynamic energy. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Thane Hubbell
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Neutrino Quest II
(Jul 27, 2011)
Dealing with less than scrupulous salesmen requires the consumer to employ diligence, a healthy skepticism, and have some knowledge of the items being offered for sale. As the traveling salesman in the Broadway musical The Music Man says, "Ya gotta know the territory!" For about a decade, astrophysicists have been selling the idea (to what they hope is an accepting public) that: "neutrinos have mass and therefore can change flavor." This, they claim, explains the so-called "neutrino deficit." It doesnt. Things are not quite that simple. A steady-state thermonuclear reaction of the type they claim powers the Sun must emit a flood of electron-neutrinos and so far, nowhere near the requisite number of these neutrinos have been observed. Solar fusion advocates are in a near-panic because a series of grandly expensive experiments have failed to find the necessary electron-neutrino flux. Briefly, the problem is as follows: According to accepted particle physics, there are three different kinds of neutrinos: electron neutrinos (which are the ones supposedly produced in the Sun) muon neutrinos, and tau neutrinos. The fusion reaction in question is: 4 1H + 2 e --> 4He + 2 electron-neutrinos + 6 photons "Some solar neutrinos have indeed been observed - but only one-third the number required if this fusion reaction really is the main source of the Sun's energy production. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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These negative results from the neutrino experiments have resulted not in any reexamination of solar models. Rather, an intense theoretical effort to discover new properties that solar neutrinos 'must have' has occurred. As a result of this effort, it was announced (June 2001) by the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) in Canada that neutrinos have mass and can change flavor. This supposedly accounts for why they have not been fully observed previously." I wrote those lines several years ago on my web site: http://www.electriccosmos.org/sudbury.htm and went on to analyze inaccuracies in the SNO report. Since that time, I have been roundly taken to task by pseudo-skeptics claiming that I am ignorant of the latest experimental results that have now put this question to rest. Really? Lets see. We must remember that it is the observed flow of electron-neutrinos that is too low. For example we read1 in Wikipedia: "For many years the number of solar electron-neutrinos detected on Earth was 1/3 to 1/ of the number predicted by the standard solar model. This anomalous result was 2 termed the solar neutrino problem. Theories proposed to resolve the problemposited that electron neutrinos could oscillate--that is, change into undetectable tau and muon neutrinos as they traveled between the Sun and the Earth." This statement makes sense logically. If the type that seems to be missing (when the neutrino stream reaches Earth) can change into either of the other two types somewhere along the journey, that might explain the deficit. So the crucial question is: Do electron-type neutrinos change into either of the other two types? Reading further in the Wiki article we see: "Several neutrino observatories were built in the 1980s to measure the solar neutrino flux as accurately as possible, including the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory and Kamiokande. Results from these observatories eventually led to the discovery that neutrinos have a very small rest mass and do indeed oscillate [change type]. Moreover, in 2001 the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory was able to detect all three types of neutrinos directly, and found that the Sun's total neutrino emission rate agreed with the Standard Solar Model, although depending on the neutrino energy as few as onethird of the neutrinos seen at Earth are of the electron type. This proportion agrees with that predicted by the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effect (also known as the matter effect), which describes neutrino oscillation in matter, and it is now considered a solved problem." Fine. But they still did not observe electron-neutrinos changing into either of the other two types. They said they observed a sufficient total number of neutrinos, such that if they all had been electron-type, the accepted solar fusion model would have been verified. But they werent all that type. The last phrase in the above paragraph, "it is now considered a solved problem," is analogous to Napoleon declaring victory at Waterloo and going home to Paris. What would have to happen on the journey to Earth is for electron-neutrinos to change into one or both of the other types. This was not observed in any of these experiments and May indeed be impossible. The search went on, but the reverse of what they want to see keeps being observed. Just last month we read that muon-neutrinos have now been observed changing into electronneutrinos: ScienceDaily2 (June 15, 2011) The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive "The international T2K collaboration has announced that it has observed an indication of a new type of neutrino transformation or oscillation from a muon-neutrino to an electron-neutrino. In the T2K experiment in Japan, a muon-neutrino beam was produced in the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex, called J-PARC, located in Tokai village, Ibaraki prefecture, on the east coast of Japan, and was aimed at the gigantic Super-Kamiokande underground detector in Kamioka, near the west coast of Japan, 295 km (185 miles) away from Tokai. An analysis of the detected neutrinoinduced events in the Super-Kamiokande detector indicates that a very small number of muon-neutrinos traveling from Tokai to Kamioka (T2K) transformed themselves into electron-neutrinos."
But, again, this is the reverse of what they want to see. If this kind of type-change occurs on the neutrinos journey from the Sun to Earth, we should measure too many electron-neutrinos, not too few. The magazine The Economist3, June 25th July 1st also announced this latest experimental result: T2K had seen six electron-neutrinos. If no spot-changing oscillations were happening it should have seen only one or two. So again too many electron-neutrinos were measured in this experiment. But that does not seem to bother them. They certainly hope it doesnt bother you. They hope you will accept their package-deal that because muon-neutrinos May morph into electron-neutrinos, we must assume the reverse transformation occurs too, even when that has never been observed. Be careful when you read what these traveling neutrino-salesmen are selling. Dont get bilked by their road-show sleight of hand. The fusion Sun model is in big trouble. Donald Scott author of The Electric Sky The author earned his Bachelor and Master degrees in Electrical Engineering at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut. Following graduation he worked for General Electric in Schenectady, New York, and Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He earned a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts, and was a member of the faculty of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst from 1959 until his retirement in 1998. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_neutrino_problem sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110615161804.htm The Economist, June 25th July 1st 2011, p. 93, Delta Force
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Galaxy AM 0644-741. Credit: NASA and the Hubble Heritage team.
It Has a Nice Ring To It

(Jul 25, 2011)
Galactic haloes are best explained using the Electric Universe theory. There are rings around planets, rings around stars, and there are rings around galactic nuclei, as demonstrated by the Hubble Space Telescope image of AM 0644-741. Although the conventional explanation for such structures is that they are formed when one or more collisions between galaxies take place, electricity flowing through plasma is a more likely cause. It is possible that stellar haloes are examples of a dense plasma focus penumbra, with AM 0644-741 being a dramatic example. Images taken of plasma gun experiments provide a direct analogue to its galaxy-scale discharge. A dense plasma focus device is usually constructed from two electrodes made of copper or beryllium cylinders, one inside the other. They are confined within a vacuum chamber, with low pressure gas between the cylinders. An electric pulse is sent across the electrodes, causing an intense electric current to flow from the outer electrode to the inner electrode for a few milliseconds. The electric arc heats the gas between the cylinders, creating a plasma and an intense magnetic field. The magnetic field "pinches" the plasma into tiny filaments called a charge sheath. The filament sheath flashes to the end of the inner electrode where the plasma compresses into a magnetically confined "plasmoid." The magnetic field decays, inducing an electric field that accelerates an electron beam in one direction and a beam of positive ions in the other. The electron beam heats the plasmoid to energies of 100,000 electron volts, the equivalent to billions of Kelvin in temperature. AM 0644-741 is most likely equivalent to the rings that surround SN1987a, except on a galactic scale. As the electric current pinches down, variations in plasma density cause The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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individual filaments in the gun's current sheath to glow. Double layers accelerate the charge carriers that then emit extreme ultraviolet light and X-rays. A double layer consists of an electric charge separation that forms in current-carrying plasma. Two oppositely charged parallel layers generate an electric field across the layer, accelerating charged particles in opposite directions, which produces an electric current. If the voltage drops and the separation between layers is great enough, electrons can reach velocities approaching the speed of light. Double layers in plasma can self-generate between two regions of different properties. The dense plasma focus device provides a precise mechanism by which cosmic electric currents can influence the evolution and morphology of space structures (See Peratt, A. L. and Dessler, A. J. "Filamentation of Volcanic Plumes on the Jovian Satellite Io." Astrophysics and Space Science volume 144, numbers 1-2, May 1988, pages 451-461). Just as the helical strands from the core of galaxy NGC 3079 are an indication that electricity is discharging from its nucleus, the swirling toroids that constrain the hot stars in the halo of AM 0644-741 conform to the Electric Universe theory. A signature phenomenon in a dense plasma focus is helical strands of energy surrounding a powerful arc-mode discharge and a dark-current torus. The helical strands are plasma confined by magnetic fields into something like "power lines" in space, otherwise known as Birkeland current filaments. That phenomenon is present in the plasma gun discharge that makes up AM 0644-741. Stephen Smith
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The "protoplanet" Vesta. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
Daughter of Rhea
(Jul 21, 2011)
It is not often that one's fundamental perceptions change. The Electric Universe theory frequently predicts what space probes find. When the heavy projectile launched from the Deep Impact space probe struck comet Tempel 1, a sequence of events took place that surprised the mission team. The 370 kilogram Impactor was sent directly into the path of the comet, with a closing speed of about 10.2 kilometers per second. The expected result was that a small crater would form on the surface of the comet's nucleus, and an ejecta blanket that would take a few minutes to settle. What was actually seen? Cameras recording the event were overloaded by the initial blast because the radiant output was greater than their ability to process it. All that Earth-based observers saw was a brilliant white flash on their monitors. Including the prediction of a brilliant flash of light, Electric Universe physicist Wal Thornhill also wrote that the energy of the "impact" would be greater than expected from high velocity gun experiments, because electric discharges would occur. When that predicted event was observed, NASA researchers were baffled. He also predicted an electric discharge between the nucleus and the Impactor before physical contact with the surface. Two visible flashes occurred, and no NASA team member anticipated them. It is because the scientific understanding of electricity in space provides a foundation for his work that Wal Thornhill is able to make such predictions in the face of seemingly little data to support them. Consensus astrophysicists can not see the information available within the Electric Universe paradigm. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Now, with Dawn's arrival at Vesta, the predictive abilities of Electric Universe theory are again confirmed. Vesta's surface is gouged, pitted, and grooved in ways similar to other small bodies in the Solar System. So much so, that it could be placed in any family grouping and it would not look out of place. Among the small moons of Jupiter or Saturn, Vesta would blend in with no difficulty. Time and again, these pages (and other commentators) have pointed out that similar formations would be found wherever cameras are sent. Step terraces in crater walls, craters on the rims of other craters, elongated craters, long sinuous channels that terminate in craters, and chains of craters are visible on every rocky body regardless of size. Vesta reveals similar features. How is it that the formations are so much alike at so many different scales? It is because electrical energy is scaleable up to many orders of magnitude. From the smallest Martian blueberry, the monolithic cliffs on Miranda, or the mountains on Vesta, electricity provides a magnetically guided force that can energize biological organisms at the microscopic level or carve planets, depending on the strength of the current. Knowing how electricity behaves, along with its essential counterpart, plasma, Electric Universe advocates look at a new reality governed by forces that are invisible or disguised to theories generated by other paradigms. Without the paradigm, the theory is impossible to formulate. Without the theory, no hypothesis can be tested. Experiments come along after the ability to ask new questions, not before. Stephen Smith
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Formation near Granger, WY. Photo by author
Whats There and Whats Not There

(Jul 20, 2011)
Did sediment build up gradually over millions of years, become pressure-transformed into rock, somehow get lifted a mile above sea level, and then get mostly eroded by wind and rain until only this tiny (compared to the original extent) mesa remains? Or did material with the consistency of wet-concrete slurry flow this far into a catastrophic global flood, sorting itself into layers and hardening some layers chemically or electrically? The popular conception of the scientific method is that the scientist observes a phenomenon, develops or modifies a hypothesis to explain it, and then tests the hypothesis against further observations. The three steps are repeated until the scientist decides that accepting the hypothesis is more reasonable than not accepting it. A deeper examination reveals that the initial observations are not performed by a mind that is a tabula rasa but by one that has many often unconscious preconceptions. Indeed, the data or sensations of observation are indistinguishable from the noise unless the observer has criteria with which to distinguish data from noise. This is why the three steps of the popular method should be--and often are, although without it being remarked--supplemented by a fourth step, called by some "error probes," in which alternative preconceptions and hypotheses are actively searched for. In geology, one pair of these alternatives is what could be called the "figureground inversion." Will we "see" geological formations as whats left after gradual deformation and erosion of continuous slabs of rock, or will we see them as essentially undisturbed surficial catastrophic deposits? Since we cannot travel back in time to observe the origin of formations, both alternatives leave us with an insoluble tension between seeing what is not there and not seeing what is there: In the first case, the gradualist vision sees "missing" material that has been eroded away; the catastrophist vision sees an episodic past of forces not present today. In the second case, the gradualist vision does not see sharply limited "dumps" of material; the catastrophist vision does not see remains of gradual sculpting over millions of years. These visions are the preconceptions that enable geologists to distinguish data from noise. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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They translate undifferentiated data-noise into facts and irrelevancies. On these facts--now "observed facts"--hypotheses are constructed, and against similarly determined facts hypotheses are tested. The circularity (or, better, helicity, since the process is repeated with new facts) of the process is mitigated to some extent by its iteration and more so by error probes--by keeping alternatives in mind. The final choice of hypothesis--or, rather, the temporarily popular choice, since by the nature of the process there cannot be finality--will depend on which one geologists find most useful in helping them to do what they then want to do. Because geologists are human, egotistical and political motives are an inseparable part of the process, and the science will always have to trickle around declarations of finality and conspiracies to dismiss alternatives. Acquiescence in pretenses of "secure knowledge" will lead only to a self-congratulatory sterility. Curious minds will wander off to see things with new visions. Mel Acheson
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Eroded flanks of cliffs near Palisades, CO. Photo by author.
Balanced Water
(Jul 18, 2011)
Balanced rock formations are common. But how to explain balanced water? At first thought, one would not expect water to run down the hip ridge of a hill. The gravitational condition is unstable equilibrium: any deviation from the exact locus of highest points will perpetuate the deviation, and the water will run down the side of the hill. The sinuousness of the channel emphasizes its defiance of the gravitational condition: some force must pull the deviant water back toward equilibrium. The channel seems to oscillate along the ridge as one would expect in a condition of stable equilibrium. At second thought, it May occur to one that the Earth sports an electric field in addition to its gravitational field. This has been noted but little investigated. Almost never does one take it into account when devising such explanations as water erosion. Water is a polar molecule and has some responsiveness to electric fields. But how much is this a factor in rain draining down a ridge? Electric fields tend to concentrate at sharp edges and high points. Conceivably, the electric field along a ridge could have the morphology of stable equilibrium: strongest at the ridge and weakening to each side. The momentum of a water molecule would be constrained by an inverse electrical force to oscillate about the ridge axis as it moves down the "trough" of the ridge-maximized electric field. The electrical force must be only slightly greater than the gravitational force, or it May be so only intermittently or discontinuously, because many of these ridge rilles eventually do run off to the side. To underscore the resemblance of these ridge rilles to the more familiar lunar and Martian The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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rilles, one May note that several seem to be composed of crater chains. Readers of these pages will be aware of the contention that electrical discharges excavated those extraterrestrial rilles. Were these rilles formed during lightning strikes to higher ground? Did a final "leakage spark" excavate them into the top when the ridges were electrically deposited? Is there a lower-energy process by which dark mode discharges can etch such formations? Rainwater would then opportunistically follow the electrical channel and enlarge it with a contribution of mechanical erosion. Perhaps because humans have no sensory apparatus that is sensitive to specific electrical properties, such as sharks, birds, and platypuses are said to have, we ignore electricity in nature. When it forces itself onto our attention, we find it spooky and a bit frightening. In this modern day, when we have many instruments that can fill in for our biological lack, and when we have been made aware of the ubiquity of electrical phenomena, we must reexamine all the mechanical theories that we have inherited and taken for granted to get some idea of whether they should be revised to take electricity into account. Mel Acheson
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Active galaxies (red crosses) in new study that disproves the proven theory of galaxy mergers. Credit: CFHT/IAP/Terapix/CNRS/ESO
Astronomical Fashion Flips

(Jul 15, 2011)
Mergers are out. Vanity is in: active galaxies are self-absorbed. For many years, the only acceptable explanation of high galactic x-ray output accompanied by high redshift was mergers of galaxies. The universe became a bumper-car arena where every presumed high-energy event was proof of a collision. Proof has just collided with disproof in a new study that examined 600 high-redshift active galaxies. A team of astronomers identified the active galaxies from observations with the XMM-Newton x-ray telescope. Next, they obtained spectra of the galaxies with ESOs Very Large Telescope. They took liberties with the language and claimed to have "measure[d] the distances to the galaxies." What they actually did was to measure each galaxys redshift and to calculate a number from it. They called this number "distance" in conformity with the consensus presumption that redshift is "how much the light has been stretched by the expansion of the Universe." With these numbers, they constructed a three-dimensional map--which was actually a fourdimensional map, since under the expanding-universe assumptions distance is also an indicator of time. Using the map as a guide (one recalls the saying about the blind leading the blind), they finally "studied" the changing distribution of galaxies that was assumed to have occurred during the early stages of the hypothetical Big Bang. "The team found that most active nuclei reside in galaxies with masses about 20 times larger than the value predicted by merger theory." Viola Allevato, the lead author of the paper reporting the results, said, "They indicate that black holes are usually fed by processes within the galaxy itself..., as opposed to galaxy collisions." Oops. The consensus reasoning begins with the proposition that redshift indicates distance, despite the by-now-tiresome quantities of evidence that falsify, disprove, contradict, question, and do other unpleasant things to it. A faint light that is far away can only mean that the light is actually very strong, as long as you dont entertain any other possibility. A strong light requires a large quantity of mass (whatever that is) to produce it, assuming, of course, that you allow no other assumptions to be considered. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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If redshift does not indicate distance...(the chain of logic is left as an exercise for the reader). In the Electric Universe, a large part of the redshift of a body (quasar, galaxy, even a star) is intrinsic and probably due to the charge on the body. It is an indicator of the age since the body was formed or ejected, as distinguished from "age since the big bang." High-redshift objects are fragments of violent, far-from-equilibrium plasma discharges from relatively nearby galaxies: they are small, faint, and nearby (compared to the "ultra" designations of the consensus theories). Since they are electrical discharges, mass is of little concern and black-hole theory is unnecessary. They dont "merge," but neither do they "feed." They are loads in an intergalactic circuit that is subject to instabilities and can discharge energy from the circuit-more than is available locally. If a false proposition has no real-world adverse consequences--such as a building collapsing if a beam is wrongly sized--theres no urgency in discarding it. If one is being rewarded--with money, reputation, or power--for advocating it, there is a strong incentive to deny its falsity. Whether the universe is expanding or turning into chicken soup has no noticeable effect on the price of gasoline. For the layman, astronomy press releases have the same value as the latest gossip about Lady Gaga (or perhaps a bit less). With no anchor to consequential effects, fashion becomes the ultimate criterion of acceptability. Mel Acheson
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The Superlative Quasar (the red dot near center). Credit: ESO/UKIDSS/SDSS
Billions of Suns, Billions of years

(Jul 13, 2011)
If redshift (z) indicates distance, then astronomers have discovered the superlative object: the most distant, the most ancient, the most luminous, the most massive. Analysis of the objects spectrum shows that its lines have shifted toward the red by over 700% (z=7.1). The consensus opinion is that the object--a quasar--is therefore almost 13 billion light-years away. Since its light is presumed to have taken nearly 13 billion years to reach us, the quasar formed and became fully operational less than 800 million years after the widely publicized secular Genesis Event that most astronomers truly believe created both the universe and the coordinate system in which it is described. To appear as bright as it does at that distance, it must be giving off about 60,000 billion times the output of the Sun. To get that much energy, 2 billion Suns must be crammed into a mathematical point called a black hole. There can be no doubt that the presumptions are absolutely true--if you have no doubt about them. If you are one of the handful of infidels who still entertains doubts, if you havent undergone the institutional conditioning that reduces you to acquiescence in such opinions, you May find the beliefs fatuous. These Pictures of the Day for the last seven years have reported the considerable evidence that contradicts the initial claim that redshift indicates distance. If the quasar is not so far away, its not so big and bright and old. If redshift is intrinsic and indicates intrinsic age--age since the quasar formed--the quasar could be close, small, dim, and young. In this view, quasars appear to have a peak luminosity around z=1 and to be less luminous with increasing redshift. (See Quasars, Redshifts and Controversies by Halton Arp, p. 67-70.) That would indicate that this quasar is located within the Local Group of galaxies The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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and perhaps is a recent ejection from the Milky Way.
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The giant asteroid Vesta. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
Vesta in View
(Jul 04, 2011)
The Dawn spacecraft is set to begin its investigation of Asteroid Vesta. There are three classes of "substellar objects" defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU): Planet: In orbit around the Sun; massive enough to possess a rounded shape; and with little (if any) remnant debris from its formation left in orbit. Based on that definition, there are eight planets in the Solar System: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Dwarf Planet: In orbit around the Sun; massive enough to possess a rounded shape, but its orbital environment is not clear and it is not a moon. The dwarf planet Ceres resides in the Asteroid Belt. Pluto (voted by the IAU to be a dwarf planet in August 2006) and Eris are located in the Kuiper Belt, with Sedna farther out in the hypothetical Oort Cloud. Pluto is also considered to be the first of a new celestial body classification, "trans-Neptunian objects (TNO)." Small Solar System Bodies (SSSB): Refers to all other objects in orbit around the Sun, such as asteroids, comets, and moons. NASA launched the Dawn spacecraft on September 27, 2007. Its scientific mission is scheduled to begin on July 17, 2011, when it enters orbit around the largest asteroid in the Solar System, Vesta. Vesta is now the largest asteroid, comparable in size to Saturn's moon Enceladus, because Ceres was moved into the dwarf planet category. Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers discovered Vesta in 1807. Ceres was the first asteroid discovered by Guiseppe Piazzi in 1801 and was the largest known until its promotion. Ceres has a diameter of 950 kilometers, but since no spacecraft has visited Ceres its size is an estimate derived from combining various telescope observations. Ceres is about as large as Saturn's moons Tethys and Dione. Dawn will visit The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Ceres in February 2015, after spending a year circling Vesta. Vesta appears to have experienced violent collisions at some time in the past, since several large craters Mar its surface. One crater is 460 kilometers in diameter, making it more than 80% as large as the asteroid itself. Whatever formed the crater gouged out a hole 13 kilometers below the asteroid's mean elevation. The rolled rim is about 6 kilometers higher than the mean. In the center is an 18 kilometer high peak. As has been asked many times in these pages: Why did an impact that removed more than 1% of the asteroid's mass not blow it to bits? Planetary scientists ignore electrical explanations because they know almost nothing about plasma and electric currents in space. The "rubble pile" theory of asteroid composition was created to help explain the mass anomalies that have been seen in asteroid crater studies. It is the only available explanation in a gravity-based model. Asteroids are supposed to be "loosely compacted," so it is presumed that they act like big sand piles and absorb impacts without shattering. Asteroids therefore have no hard crust, according to consensus viewpoints, so they do not fracture despite repeated pounding. In an Electric Universe, it is unnecessary for one object to crash into another for craters to exist. Electric arcs can gouge surfaces and scoop out material, accelerating it into space, leaving clean, deep pits. Based on laboratory analysis, plasma discharges probably eroded Vesta (and other asteroids and moons with large, deep craters). Stephen Smith
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A "galaxy string" known as Markarian's Chain. Credit: Hap Griffin
Power Lines
(Jun 29, 2011)
Galaxies often exhibit alignment with one another across vast distances. According to Electric Universe theory, galactic evolution occurs as large-scale plasma discharges form spinning wheels of coherent filaments that display electrodynamic behavior and not merely that which gravity alone can contribute. Stars in galaxies can also form long arcs that thread through them like silver beads on a string. No nebular contraction theory can adequately explain star formation. Beyond that, the great spirals that collect in clusters, that then also group themselves in superclusters, are beyond any conventional definition. When plasma moves through a cloud of dust and gas, the cloud becomes ionized, initiating an electric field and the flow of electric current. Electricity moving through any substance forms magnetic fields that tend to align and constrict the current flow. Those fields create what are sometimes called "plasma ropes," otherwise known as Birkeland currents. Birkeland currents are electromagnetic filaments that carry electric charges through space. The filaments are double-walled, folded layers of charge separation, isolating regions of opposite charge and preventing them from neutralizing. Almost every body in the Universe displays some kind of filamentation. Comet tails often occur in pairs. The dusty one forms an arc as it follows along its orbital path. The other one, composed of "stringy" ion filaments, reaches out from the nucleus in a straight line, always pointing away from the region of like polarity. Planetary nebulae are spun from intricate webs of lighted tendrils. Herbig-Haro stars and energetic galaxies emit braided jets. Some galaxies look "hairy," with threads of material extending from them. Since the various loads in galactic circuits radiate energy, they must be powered by coupling with larger circuits. How large those circuits are can be inferred by the observation that galaxies also occur in strings. The standard model of the Universe places galaxies within the void according to redshift (z). Some astronomical observations contradict the conventional view, however. High-z objects The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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are seen to be aligned along the axes of low redshift galaxies, their redshifts decreasing stepwise with distance along the axis. These high-z objects also demonstrate an increase in mass and luminosity with distance. There is some fundamental physics involved here that does not appear in any textbook Astronomer Halton Arp's work has shown that there are connections between high-redshift objects (supposedly far away) and low-redshift galaxies. Since the "distant" objects are really companions of nearby galaxies, then what is visible outside the Milky Way is part of a "stringy" galactic grouping. The strings are actually Birkeland current filaments millions of light years thick and billions of light years long, out of which groups of galaxies are "pinched." Arp raises the possibility that the visible Universe is one braided filament extending from the Virgo supercluster to the Fornax supercluster across billions of light years. This power line carries electric currents beyond anything we can imagine. Stephen Smith
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Edge-on galaxy NGC 4710. Credit: NASA and ESA.
Criss Cross Bulge

(Jun 27, 2011)
A pair of field aligned currents can be seen discharging from the core of this active galaxy. Any substance containing charged particles is a plasma: electrons, positive ions, electrically charged dust, neon lights, lightning, planetary magnetospheres, the so-called "solar wind," stars, and even galaxies are plasma. Filaments of electric current can flow in closed circuits through plasma. It is the existence of electric circuits in space that distinguishes Electric Universe theory from most conventional viewpoints. Phenomena that appear "mysterious" to space scientists are readily explained using observational evidence coupled with the results from laboratory experiments. That fact helps to distinguish Electric Universe concepts from others. Gravity cannot be modeled in the laboratory in the ways that plasma can. X-ray emissions from planets, braided plasma filaments, hourglass-shaped nebulae, and jets of charged particles erupting from galactic axes provide observational evidence for the existence of plasma circuits in space. Celestial bodies are not isolated from one another but are connected across vast distances. Electric discharges in plasma create tube-like magnetic sheaths along their axes. If enough current flows, the discharge causes the sheath to glow while sometimes creating other sheaths within it. These "double layers" form when positive charges build up in one region and negative charges build up nearby. An intense electric field develops, which accelerates charged particles. Electric charges spiral in the magnetic fields, emitting X-rays, extreme ultraviolet, and sometimes gamma rays. Electromagnetic forces squeeze those conductive channels, called "Birkeland currents," into filaments that tend to attract each other in pairs. Electric fields that form along the plasma strands generate an attractive force that can be 39 orders of magnitude greater than gravity. However, when they get close to each other, instead of merging, the plasma "cables" twist into a helix that rotates faster as it compresses tighter. It is those "cosmic transmission lines" that make up galactic circuits. The cosmos appears to be interlaced with those interacting circuits. Each of those circuits appears to be composed of untold numbers of twisting Birkeland currents. At the largest The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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observable scale, there are power-consuming loads in the circuits that convert electrical energy into rotational energy. These are known as galaxies. Since galaxies exist within a filamentary circuit of electricity that flows through the cosmos, they should be evaluated according to electrodynamic principles and not on mechanical kinetic behavior with mysterious magnetic fields added to save the theory. For example, twin lobes of gamma rays in an hourglass shape extend axially beyond the Milky Way's central bulge. Each structure measures approximately 65,000 light-years in diameter. Plasma physicists are familiar with hourglass shapes. The funicular formations are an unmistakable signature of Birkeland currents squeezing plasma and charged dust into z-pinch compression zones. The intense magnetic fields associated with Birkeland current filaments cause electrons to accelerate with velocities close to light speed. Those excited electrons emit synchrotron radiation, the principle source for gamma rays in space. Electric Universe advocates have long known that radio lobes far above the poles of active galaxies are the signature of Birkeland currents. In the case of NGC 4710, partial field aligned ring currents can be seen extending out from the galaxy's core. According to astronomers, NGC 4710's central "X" is mysterious, and could be due to the vertical motion of stars around its nucleus. They do not know why the stars are consolidated into symmetrical rings. However, the structure is another example of energized plasma. Looking for answers in gravitational theory will not help to resolve its enigmatic form. Stephen Smith
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A coronal mass ejection erupts from the Sun. Credit: Jo Dahlmans
Which Came First?

(Jun 24, 2011)
Electric currents create magnetic fields in the Sun. "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" Asking this question always gets a chuckle from a group of kids who havent been asked that before. For adults, it confirms their conviction that unanswerable questions must be laughably ignored. For a farmer who gets into the egg business by purchasing a group of laying hens the answer is easy. "My chickens came first; thats how I got my eggs." Solar astrophysicists who try to explain what causes coronal mass ejections (CMEs) have a similar conundrum: "Which came first, the change in electric current, or the change in the solar magnetic field?" Until the present day there has been no mention of electric currents in space by solar astronomers. There has been no acknowledgement whatever that electric current is needed to create magnetic fields or that it even exists. In 1908 Kristian Birkeland suggested that electrical flows from the Sun caused the auroral displays that we see. Astronomers such as Sidney Chapman ridiculed him. When it came to descriptions of solar coronal mass ejections and similar phenomena, all we have heard about for decades was that magnetic fields move around and twist their "magnetic lines of force" come together, touch, and then fly apart carrying matter with them. This is called "Magnetic Reconnection." Solar astronomers never mention electric currents. We are to believe that magnetic fields do it all by themselves, without help. Recently things seem to have changed. A new paper entitled "A Current Filamentation Mechanism for Breaking Magnetic Field Lines During Reconnection" (9 June 2011 Vol. 474 The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Nature p. 187) mentions electric currents but as an effect rather than a cause of magnetic field movements. The authors performed particle-in-cell simulations, not real laboratory experiments. Real lab experiments would have required them to set up electric currents to create the magnetic fields they wanted to measure. So they reported results of their computer simulations as experimental fact. Electrical engineers and classical physicists have known for decades that only movement (flow) of electric charges causes magnetic fields. Electric current is the only cause of magnetic fields. Varying the strength and direction of those currents will move the magnetic fields around and vary their strength. Shutting off the causal electric current will cause magnetically stored energy to be released. In the abstract of the paper mentioned above the authors state: "...we find that when the current layers that form during magnetic reconnection become too intense, they disintegrate and spread into a complex web of filaments that causes the rate of reconnection to increase abruptly." They have it backwards. They are oblivious to the fact that variations in the direction and strength of the causal electric currents are what produce the observed changes in the magnetic fields. Do they think that magnetic fields posses volition? Do magnetic fields just "take it into their heads" to move around and "reconnect"? What prompts their movement in the first place? What is the primal cause of the phenomenon they observe and call "magnetic reconnection"? They report in this paper that changes in magnetic fields produce electric current filaments. It is the electric filaments that produce the magnetic fields and cause their movements. This paper offers us the first glimmer of hope that these ideas May be awakening in an embryonic state in the minds of solar astrophysicists. At this point, they still have their eggs before their chickens. Maybe someday they will realize that. And get it straight. Donald Scott
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This composite image from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope (HST combines the deepest X-ray, optical and infrared views of the sky. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC U.Hawaii/.Treister et al; Infrared: NASA/STScI/UC Santa Cruz/G.Illingworth et al; Optical: NASA/STScI/S.Beckwith et al
Lines We Neatly Stumble Over

(Jun 20, 2011)
Enceladus joins other celestial objects that produce "magnetic bubbles." A recent press release proclaims that "astronomers have obtained the first direct evidence that black holes are common in the early Universe." The tortuous path of prevarication between the evidence and the hole is direct evidence of irony. The evidence provided is a few blue smudges. To be direct, the interpretation of these smudges as black holes in the early universe must rest on an unquestionable rock of secure knowledge. Unfortunately, the easiest way to establish such a rock is to ignore the questions. The knowledge so obtained will be secure as long as skeptical qualms dont attenuate the fervency of belief. Our choicest plans have fallen through, our airiest castles tumbled over, because of lines we neatly drew and later neatly stumbled over. from Grooks, by Piet Hein A skeptical examination reveals that the conclusion dangles from a contraption of assumption The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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cantilevered from prior assumption and extended precariously over a bonfire of contradicting evidence. The "early universe" claim assumes that redshift is solely a Doppler effect of receding velocity. This has been our experience in the Solar system, so why shouldnt the assumption hold true throughout the universe, despite all the fabulous and surprising phenomena weve discovered. (In contradiction, much evidence exists for pairs of objects with similar high redshifts located on opposite sides of low-redshift active galaxies along their spin axes.) Extended from this assumption is the further assumption that the velocity interpreted from the first assumption represents a distance. This is because greater redshift is associated with smaller and fainter objects. Assuming that these objects are all the same size and luminosity, they must be farther away to appear smaller and fainter. In conformity with the "easiest" way to make a rock of knowledge secure, as mentioned above, the possibility that these smaller and fainter objects are actually smaller and fainter is ignored. (In contradiction, direct evidence--i.e., actual measurements--shows that the smaller and fainter members of galaxy clusters consistently have greater redshift than the largest and brightest members.) If redshift is a measure of velocity, which is then a measure of distance, these small faint objects must actually be huge and luminous. In fact, they must be radiating more energy than the assumed-to-be-securely-known processes of gravitation and fusion will allow. The only way to get this energy density is with a supernatural concentration of mass. This is where astronomers retreat into a tower of theory sealed against any contamination by empirical questions and ignore the known electromagnetic limits on compressing matter. They let radius decrease without limit, divide by zero, and conclude that density is infinite: voil! a black hole, from which nothing can escape. Having turned one impossible cartwheel, they turn another: matter thats being pulled into the hole has its mass (whatever that is) converted into energy, which does escape--as the ultraluminous radiation that we observe. So the black hole that pulls everything in blows everything out. By this time there are so many adjustable parameters, assumptions, and imaginary objects that any amount of energy could be produced. The black hole is a blank check written for whatever is needed to balance theory with observation. To call this twisted and self-serving path "direct" is to excuse every paperhanger who ever bilked his credulous victims. Its doubly sad because these blank-check writers are bilking themselves and their science. The Electric Universe interprets the blue smudges as electric discharges in galaxies whose distances are indeterminate. Without measurements of current and voltage, writing numbers for any of these quantities would also be writing blank checks. However, the electrical processes can be demonstrated and studied at reduced scale in a laboratory, and they can account for the evidence that must be ignored in the "unquestionable rock" model. The Electric Universe is not secure knowledge to be believed but speculative knowledge to be experimented with. Mel Acheson
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Comet-like jets spew from the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Bubbling Plasma
(Jun 17, 2011)
Enceladus joins other celestial objects that produce "magnetic bubbles." In a recent Picture of the Day, the so-called "bubbles" of magnetism supposedly found by the Voyager spacecraft at the boundary where the Sun's heliosphere meets the ISM (interstellar medium) were explained as Langmuir sheaths, or electrically charged double layers in plasma. Since the bubbles are thought to be elongated, it was suggested that the electron flux variations detected by the twin Voyagers probably indicate filaments of electricity called Birkeland currents. Similar electromagnetic structures are seen around Earth, on Venus, on the various gas giant planets, and within and surrounding galaxies. All of these phenomena share a common characteristic: they are all manifestations of electricity flowing through plasma. Plasma experiments in the laboratory correspond to plasma formations in space because of the scalability factor: under similar conditions, plasma discharges produce the same formations independent of size, whether in the laboratory or on a planetary, stellar, or galactic level. Duration is proportional to size, however. An electric spark that lasts for microseconds in the laboratory might last for years at the stellar scale, or for millions of years at the galactic scale. Recent observations of Enceladus by the Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn reveal that its electrically charged plumes are also bubbly with magnetic fields. Saturn's "magnetic bubble" is its magnetosphere, inside of which Enceladus orbits. The interactions with Saturn are because the moon acts like a generator, its conducting plasma moving through Saturn's magnetic field induces current flow. An ultraviolet "footprint" of the electric circuit between them was seen in Saturn's auroral oval during Cassini's August 11, 2008 flyby. The onboard plasma sensors found ion and electron beams propagating from Saturns northern hemisphere. Their variability was puzzling to NASA scientists until time-variable emissions from Enceladus south polar vents were found to The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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correspond with the auroral footprint's brightness variations. Consensus viewpoints assume that the Universe is electrically neutral, so evidence confirming electrically active plasma is said to be caused by localized phenomena no matter how improbable. Tidal "kneading," "cryo-volcanoes," and "geysers" erupting from underground chambers of liquid water are said to cause the activity seen on Enceladus, while electricity is ignored. Planetary scientists persist in misinterpreting the "tiger stripes" on Enceladus as "vents," channeling water to the surface. The vents are really incisions on the moon caused by traveling electric arcs. They are analogous to the v-shaped trenches seen on Jupiter's moon Europa. They are often found in parallel and they cut across other channels. Such characteristics contradict the idea that they are a series of fractures. It appears that Enceladus was gouged and torn, rather than cracked and broken. A giant auger seems to have cut across the surface, disregarding the prior topography: a sure sign that an electric arc was the active agent. The tiger stripes show parallelism not because they are open cracks but because filamentary electric currents flowing across a surface tend to align and follow the ambient magnetic field direction. Electric Universe advocates propose that the rilles and hot pole are heated by electromagnetic induction, while the water vapor is electrically "machined" from them. A similar process occurs at the north pole of Enceladus, where the electric current returns to Saturns plasma sheath. Stephen Smith
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Markarian 739 is thought to be 425 million light-years away. Its two bright "nuclei" are clearly seen in this Sloan Digital Sky Survey image.
Twisted Pairs
(Jun 15, 2011)
A remote galaxy is said to host two black holes. Could an electrical explanation better fit the observation? Electric Universe advocates propose that electric currents in plasma generate magnetic fields that constrict the current flow. As previous Picture of the Day articles point out, the constricted channel is known as a "Bennett pinch," or "z-pinch." The pinched electric filaments remain coherent over long distances, spiraling around each other, and forming helical structures that can transmit power through space. Those strands of electric current and spiraling formations are seen in almost every body in the Universe. Venus possesses a comet-like tail that is "stringy," as NASA scientists describe it. Twin vortices of electric current are also visible at Venus south pole--counterparts to the those discovered at Venus north pole. Comets, themselves, are often observed with twin tails, kinked tails, "wiggly" tails, or multiple tails. Comets manifestly demonstrate the electrical nature of charged celestial objects. Planetary nebulae are threaded through with strings and webs. Glowing, braided filaments are sometimes visible in "jets" that blast out from stars and some galaxies. The filaments are called "Birkeland currents," and they are the visible portion of enormous electric circuits that form that large-scale structure of the Universe. The circuits generate magnetic fields that can be mapped, so their helical shape can be seen. Plasma's behavior is driven by conditions in those circuits. Fluctuations in current flow form double layers with enormous voltages between them. This means that electric forces in double layers can be several orders of magnitude stronger than gravity. Double layers separate plasma into cells and filaments that can have different temperatures or densities. Various components coupled to and driven by electric circuits in space comprise the heart of Electric Universe theory. Charged particles accelerating through powerful electric fields The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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radiate energy in many bandwidths. Changing conditions within Birkeland currents can alter the radiation patterns in some galaxies over time. According to a recent press release, a "colliding" pair of galaxies is creating a double-eye formation in Markarian 739. Since it is a foundational assumption of modern astrophysics that over 90% of galaxies harbor Supermassive Black Holes (SMBH) with gravity exceeding 100 million stellar masses, the conclusion is logical from a conventional viewpoint. They are detectable because vast clouds of dust and gas are supposed to keep them "fed." However, the Electric Universe position in these cases is that the image is a view "down the barrel" of a Birkeland current filament pair spiraling down and concentrating electrical energy. The Bennett pinch regions are seen end-on, where electricity flowing into them causes plasma to erupt in a burst of radiation. Stephen Smith
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Artist's impression of "magnetic bubbles" surrounding the Solar System. Credit: NASA
Magnetic Effervescence
(Jun 13, 2011)
"Bubbles" of magnetic energy are said to surround the Sun's heliosheath. "In all our quest of greatness, like wanton boys, whose pastime is their care, we follow after bubbles, blown in the air." -- John Webster According to astronomer Merav Opher of Boston University's Voyager team: "The Voyager probes appear to have entered a strange realm of frothy magnetic bubbles. This is very surprising." Voyager 1 encountered the heliosheath in December 2004, followed by Voyager 2 in August 2007. It was Voyager 1 that first detected fluctuations in the electron count as it traveled through the heliosphere, while Voyager 2 made similar observations later in 2008. Since NASA's computer model of the heliosphere works only if the readings are assumed to come from flying in and out of the aforementioned bubbles, some means for their creation had to be concocted. Enter stage left, the old tried and true, magnetic reconnection. As a press release about the discovery states, the Sun's "twisted and wrinkled" magnetic field lines far out in the heliosphere "bunch up," causing them to "reconnect" and explosively "reorganize" into long, sausage-shaped bubbles of magnetism. The European Space Agency's Cluster mission recently observed anomalous bubbles that "grew and popped" around Earth, as well. The magnetic interactions were detected where Earth's magnetic field meets the barrage of charged particles known as the solar wind. In the same way as the bubbles around the Solar System are supposed to be created, magnetic reconnection was used to explain this case, as well. Earths magnetospheric "bubble" is known among space plasma physicists as a Langmuir The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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sheath and is part of an electrical circuit coupled to currents flowing in the Sun's heliosphere. Langmuir sheaths are electrically charged double layers of plasma, in which opposite charges build up near each other, creating an electric field between them. Double layers can accelerate ions to extreme velocities that might easily be misinterpreted as high temperature. The same conditions are most likely present where the solar magnetosphere, or heliosphere, meets the dissimilar charge of the Interstellar Medium (ISM). Two regions of dissimilar plasma will form a Langmuir sheath between them, which leads to a potential "bubble" formation. Plasma in a laboratory isolates itself with thin walls of oppositely charged double layers, so it is probable that the same thing is happening around the Sun and around Earth. By extension, the same thing is most likely occurring around our galaxy, the galactic clusters, and the superclusters. At every scale, plasma behaves in the same way. Proving that case will be impossible for centuries to come, no doubt, because there is no way to know except by placing a Langmuir probe into each location and measuring the current differential. Charged particles in motion comprise an electric current. That current wraps itself in a magnetic field. As more charged particles accelerate in the same direction the magnetic field gets stronger. A familiar idea to electrical engineers, but when astronomers find magnetism in space they are mystified. They resort to ironic ideas about voids with magnetic fields frozen inside them or so-called "magnetic reconnection." Electric Universe advocate Wal Thornhill wrote: "...plasma in space forms a bubble, known as a 'virtual cathode'. Effectively it is the heliopause. In plasma terms, the heliopause is not a result of mechanical shock but is a Langmuir plasma sheath that forms between two plasmas of different charge densities and energies...Such 'bubbles' are seen at all scales, from the comas of comets to the magnetospheres of planets and stars." Although no specific data is yet forthcoming, Electric Universe scientists assume that plasma behaves in space the same way as it does in the laboratory. Armed with that insight, an electrically sensitive mind will see what otherwise remains invisible. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Jason Brown
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Massive solar explosion on June 7, 2011. Credit: NASA/SDO, AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams. Edited by J. Major.
Twist and Shout

(Jun 10, 2011)
Alfvn waves are said to carry heat from the Sun's photosphere out to its corona. "Giant twisting waves" have been detected in the Sun's lower atmosphere, prompting heliophysicists to speculate that they are transporting heat energy upward from lower levels into the solar corona. Why the corona is millions of Kelvin hotter than the surface is one of the Sun's greatest enigmas. If the Sun is a thermonuclear engine, sustaining itself through hydrogen fusion, then the core should be the hottest region, with a surface temperature as we see it, and an atmosphere that declines in temperature as distance from the surface increases. However, that is not the case. The Sun's temperature gradient is anomalous, ranging from 7500 Kelvin at the bottom of the photosphere to 4500 Kelvin at the top. It then increases substantially, reaching 2 million Kelvin in the corona. Some scientists suggest that the Sun accelerates charged particles into space through "acoustical wave-guides," known as magnetic flux tubes. Structures called spicules rise thousands of kilometers above the photosphere and supposedly carry hot gas with them. This mechanism was recently proposed as an explanation for coronal heating. Another method for heating the corona involves a recent discovery published in the journal Science: Alfvn waves have been shown to transport energy into the corona, or outer layer of the Sun. According to a relatively recent press release, magnetic oscillations spread upward from the solar surface, carrying enough energy to heat the coronal plasma. In an Electric Universe, the extreme temperature in the lower corona is most likely due to electrically accelerated positive ions colliding with relatively static ions and other neutral atoms. Electric discharges in plasma take the form of long, thin, twisting filaments that can best be described as tornadoes of glowing plasma. Anode tufting on the Sun's surface is mistaken for convection cells. In the electric Sun hypothesis, the Sun is a glowing anode, or positively charged "electrode." The cathode is an invisible "virtual cathode," called the heliosphere, at the farthest limit of the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Sun's coronal discharge, billions of kilometers from its surface. This is the double layer that isolates the Sun's plasma cell from the galactic plasma that surrounds it. Electric forces occurring within the double charge layer above the Suns surface cause the observed phenomenon. The Electric Sun model predicts the reverse temperature gradient and describes how it occurs. If the temperature discontinuity did not exist, that would be a problem for the Electric Sun hypothesis. The Sun's reverse temperature gradient agrees with the glow discharge model, but contradicts the idea of nuclear fusion energy trying to escape from within the Sun through magnetic oscillations. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Anne Klinkner
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This view shows part of the very active star-forming region around the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small neighbor of the Milky Way. At the upper left is the brilliant but isolated star VFTS 682 and at the lower right is the very rich star cluster R 136. Credit: ESO/M.-R. Cioni/VISTA Magellanic Cloud survey. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit
A Superstar for Gravity is Normal for Plasma

(Jun 08, 2011)
A bright star without companions challenges popular theories. Electricity comes to the rescue. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released this image of a "superstar," named VFTS682. It appears reddish, but the color is attributed to the absorption of higher wavelengths by surrounding dust. The spectrum indicates a surface temperature of 50,000 C: It must be white-hot. To be this bright in red, the star must be a giant with 150 times the mass of the Sun. If standard stellar evolution theory is correct, it will soon explode as a supernova. It appears to be isolated, not a member of a cluster. The Tarantula Nebula contains ten clusters of new stars, and the closest one to this star has several similar stars. However, its unlikely that the cluster would have gravitationally ejected such a massive star. Its also unlikely that such a massive star would have formed by itself. Astronomers are puzzled over how to adjust theories and observations to fit this rogue star into their consensus model. The electric model of stars has an immediate advantage over the consensus one. It was developed from actual observations of the behavior of the medium from which stars are made--plasma. The consensus model is based on deductions from theories of gas behavior with a little magnetism gratuitously thrown in. As one might expect, the electric model readily accounts for the complex behaviors of stars made of plasma without the many surprises and adjustments that afflict the gas model. Electric stars are at the focus of electromagnetic (Bennett) pinches that form in galactic Birkeland currents. Those galactic currents are shaped into helical filaments by cylindrical pinching forces acting along the currents axes and causing them to spin. Hence, electric stars The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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tend to form in strings, either singly or in clusters, and their axes would tend to be aligned with the galactic currents axes. The pinch forces pull in plasma from surrounding regions and concentrate it along the filaments and in the stars. When the current density exceeds the glow-discharge threshold, the filaments and stars begin to shine. The stars are more like balloons than rocks. Their "surfaces" are the equilibrium positions of plasma sheaths required to maintain stability of the discharge. Mass has little to do with it. Mass determinations from luminosity powered by a hypothetical central nuclear furnace, as with mass determinations from orbital motions, tell us nothing about a stars composition. The beauty of an electric star is truly only skin deep. Electric supernovas are explosions of double layers that envelop the entire star, comparable to a scaled-up version of a so-called coronal mass ejection. The consensus speculation that supernovas result from the implosion of a thermonuclear core that runs out of fuel is based on faith in a sequence of theoretical deductions and assumptions that can never be tested. Exploding double layers in the rectifiers of the Swedish power grid were what launched Hannes Alfvens career, the father of plasma cosmology. They can be--and have been-studied in a laboratory. Mel Acheson
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The spiral galaxy NGC 6744. Credit: ESO
A "Double" of the Milky Way

(Jun 06, 2011)
A nearby spiral galaxy in the southern sky looks like the Milky Way--except it is twice the size. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has put together an image of NGC 6744, a spiral galaxy that astronomers think looks a lot like our own Milky Way: "striking spiral arms wrapping around a dense, elongated nucleus and a dusty disc. There is even a distorted companion galaxy -- NGC 6744A, seen here as a smudge to the lower right of NGC 6744, which is reminiscent of one of the Milky Ways neighbouring Magellanic Clouds." The only big discrepancy is that NGC 6744 is nearly twice the size of the Milky Way--200,000 light-years across instead of 100,000 for our galaxy. This size is easily calculated from the galaxys measured angular diameter and its distance. The distance, too, is easily calculated from the galaxys measured redshift. The result is as certain as mathematics can be. There is, however, one loose thread dangling from this tightly knit fabric of mathematical certainty: the assumption that redshift is a measure of distance. A tug of skepticism on that thread unravels the entire fabric. And there is much evidence to add weight to the tug. Many previous Pictures of the Day have featured the discordant evidence that undermines this assumption: the statistical and physical associations of high- and low-redshift objects, periodicity of redshifts, and ultra-luminosity, as well as this supersizing. NGC 6744 is at the low end of supersizing, calculating out to be twice the size of the Milky Way despite appearing to be the same in all other respects. NGC 309, on the other hand, is a spiral with a structure similar to that of NGC 6744 but with a much larger redshift. Hence, its calculated distance is much greater, requiring much greater size for its angular diameter. If placed at the same distance as M81, one of the largest of the nearby spiral galaxies, it would be four or five times the size of M81. Because its HII (star-forming) regions are comparable in relative size (to itself) as those in NGC 6744, not just the size but the scale of the galaxy must The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Astronomers place much confidence in the precision of their mathematics. But precise calculations from uncertain assumptions reminds one of the rule of thumb: garbage in, garbage out. Mel Acheson
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The center of the Milky Way taken by Herschel SPIRE. Credit: NASA/ESA
Toroidal Tension
(Jun 03, 2011)
A ring of gas is said to be orbiting the center of our galaxy. In a previous Picture of the Day, a twisted ring of material within the nucleus of Centaurus A was discussed: active galaxies display characteristic axial jets and transverse, donut-shaped plasma discharges. According a recent announcement by the ESA/NASA Herschel Space Observatory, our own Milky Way galaxy is demonstrating similar active center plasma behavior. Galaxies are created within helical electric currents that flow in a great circuit through intergalactic space. The Bennett pinch effect squeezes plasma inside these cosmic "transmission lines," confining vast clouds of ionized gas within electromagnetic fields, igniting stars and forming toroidal currents around the galactic equators. It is electrical current density that causes the plasma in stars to glow. However, as a recent paper speculates, the ring orbiting the center of the Milky Way might exist because of a standing wave in the central bulge caused by galactic spin and the inertia of gas moving across its central bar. Combining those forces is thought to create a gravitationally unstable region that initiates the ring's unusual oscillation. Consensus opinions state that galaxies spin because of how they form. A hypothetical cloud of gas and dust contracts, causing its spin rate to increase. Spiral arms form, a disk of material surrounds the central nucleus, and gravitational eddy-currents inside the disk condense into stars. The spinning cloud is supposed to overcome its internal gravitational attraction with centrifugal force, flinging out material like drops of paint. Although, how a randomly moving cloud of particles acquires a net spin is unexplained by consensus astronomers. Hannes Alfvn's "electric galaxy" hypothesis, on the other hand, states that galaxies are more like a device invented by Michael Faraday, the homopolar motor/generator. A homopolar motor is driven by magnetic fields induced in a circular, conductive metal plate. The plate The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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rotates between the poles of an electromagnet, causing it to spin at a rate proportional to the input current. Since galaxies are part of a filamentary circuit of electricity that flows through the cosmos, they most likely spin because of electricity flowing through them like it does through Faraday's motor. Galaxies exist within an inconceivably large filamentary circuit of electricity. There is no way to know where this current flow arises, or to what electrode it is attracted, but we see the effects of its electromagnetic fields in the magnetism and synchrotron radiation that permeate space. Electricity organizes itself within fields of plasma that are sometimes larger than galaxy clusters. The plasma is composed of neutral atoms, but a small percentage of charged particles is also present. Those particles, and the charge-neutral ones they sweep along with them, are driven by the larger electromagnetic field to form "pinches" of matter. Rather than a gravitational crisscross from cold gas, it is electromagnetic plasma that is spinning the Milky Way's central torus. Stephen Smith
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Artist's drawing of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Credit: NASA/GSFC/The University of Arizona
Where Do Asteroids Come From?

(May 30, 2011)
Are carbonaceous asteroids the precursors of life or the wreckage of life? NASA plans to launch the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer mission, also known as OSIRIS-REx, in 2016. The spacecraft will orbit the Near Earth Object (NEO) 1999RQ36. After a year in close orbit, the probe will gather a sample of material from the objects surface and bring the sample back to Earth. 1999RQ36 is over 500 meters in diameter, about a third of a mile. Its orbital period around the Sun is 1.2 years. Observations indicate that its surface contains quite a bit of carbon, so astronomers classify it as a carbonaceous asteroid. Its orbit crosses the Earths orbit, and it will come close to the Earth--a few times the Moons distance--several times during the rest of this century. Mission scientists are hoping to gain some insight into how to deflect it if it should threaten to collide with the Earth. The primary goal of the mission is to get a sample of "asteroid dust" and to examine it in a lab. According to presently accepted theory, asteroids were the leftovers when planets condensed out of the solar accretion disk that formed the Solar System a few billions of years ago. Astronomers expect to find "pristine organic material that might have seeded the sterile early Earth with the building blocks that led to life." Judging from previous missions, what the astronomers find will "surprise" them and send them "back to the drawing board." They will not have collected a sample of "pristine material" but a sample of unquestioned presumptions from an obsolete theory. The nebular theory of planet formation never worked; astronomers abandoned it at one time; but they resurrected it because they could think of nothing better. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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So they ignore the contradictions and spend their time--and taxpayers money--following their faith in their textbooks, much as the Medieval priest-scholars did, albeit with a different textbook. Their work at the drawing board will be an ad hoc addition to the unwieldy contraption that is presently accepted theory. It will enable them to interpret the surprising new data in an acceptable way, or at least in a way that will excuse attention to unorthodox ideas. If they had more confidence in the scientific method than they do in textbooks and peer pressure, they would consider the evidence left by ancient astronomers. People around the world at the dawn of history were obsessed with observing and recording the movements of bodies in the sky. Modern astronomers accept the ancient astronomers identifications of those bodies as planets when remarking on their observational skills. When the content of the observations reveals a sky and movements that contradict the textbooks, the ancient evidence is dismissed out of hand as fantasies about gods. If astronomers treated historical data with the same rigor and attention to detail with which they treat present data, they would consider that that evidence indicates the occurrence of events only a few thousands of years ago that reorganized the Solar System and resurfaced the Earth. Instead of taking for granted their speculation that 1999RQ36 is a pristine sample of billion-year-old proto-life, they would consider that it might be a space-fried fragment of life recently blasted from the ruins of the Earth. Mel Acheson
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Image of an unnamed crater from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Lunar Water
(May 27, 2011)
Water has been reportedly found inside rocks brought back from the Moon. If it is there, where did it come from? In previous Picture of the Day articles, the presence of frozen water on the Moon was considered to be a theoretical possibility, but was not given much credence. Recent missions designed to explore the question more thoroughly have returned results that seem to show water in greater amounts than predicted by planetary scientists. Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, wrote: "NASA has convincingly confirmed the presence of water ice and characterized its patchy distribution in permanently shadowed regions of the moon." The Moon has long thought to have been created when a planet the size of Mars hit Earth billions of years ago. It was once a blob of molten magma that was torn out and hurled into orbit. Since it was born in an event that generated immense heat, there should be no water on or inside the Moon: it should have all boiled away. Samples brought back by the various Apollo missions were predominantly dry. They contained metallic iron, as well, something that would not exist if there were any appreciable moisture in the samples. On January 25, 1994, NASA's Deep Space Program Science Experiment satellite (Clementine) data indicated that the south pole of the Moon contained pockets of water ice shielded from the Sun by shadows cast from the walls of deep craters. The recent Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) found almost pure ice crystals within craters that are permanently shaded. LCROSS, along with one of its rocket stages, struck Cabeus crater on October 9, 2009. When the explosive cloud rose up to 16 kilometers above the lunar surface, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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both LCROSS and LRO observed the debris with a variety of sensors. Spectrographic analysis showed water ice in the vapor plume. Water is built from two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom. Hydrogen arrives on the Moon by way of the solar wind, with its one electron stripped, traveling along as a proton. If a hydrogen atom is removed from water, it becomes a hydroxyl molecule. Water and hydroxyl can bind to the lunar surface through electrical forces. Solar wind protons can form hydrogen atoms when they pick up loose electrons from the Moon's charged surface, as well. The hydrogen might then combine with ionized oxygen atoms in the regolith to form water. Five separate missions have reported the discovery of either water or hydroxyl on the Moon: Chandrayaan-1, Cassini, as it flew by on its way to Saturn, EPOXI, the Lunar Prospector, and LCROSS. Chandrayaan-1 and EPOXI found that there was water or hydroxyl over the Moon's entire surface during a portion of each day. Near the poles and in permanently shadowed craters the signal was stronger. Water and other volatiles are most likely on the Moon because it and the Earth were once part of the same grouping of planets that wandered into the realm of the Sun long ago. We most likely shared a similar birth, with similar chemical gifts. From an Electric Universe perspective, the sparse presence of water on the Moon is not surprising. The catastrophic nature of the Moon's experiences over time have removed most of what was once there, leaving only a pale shadow behind. The Solar System's gas giant planets and their accompanying moons suggest that our own Moon might once have been similar: theirs are largely covered in ice. Perhaps what has been seen in the deep polar craters on the Moon are all that remains. Stephen Smith
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Rhea's northwestern limb. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Rhea's Atmosphere
(May 25, 2011)
A thin mix of oxygen and carbon dioxide has been found above Saturn's moon Rhea. A NASA press release states that the atmosphere on Rhea is 100 times less dense than that found on Europa by the Galileo space probe to Jupiter. Where does the oxygen come from? In a previous Picture of the Day about cometary asteroids, it was noted that negatively charged oxygen ions are found near cometary nuclei. Also, as physicist Wal Thornhill remarked in the past, the "forbidden lines" in neutral oxygen spectra around comets indicate that they possess intense electric fields. Several examples of how Jupiters highly charged electric environment creates features on the planets many moons have been presented here in the past. The observed phenomena are deemed "mysterious," and they appear to contradict the theory of an electrically neutral solar system. Jupiters moons Ganymede and Europa are now known to electrically influence the gas giants plasmasphere. Recently, the same phenomenon was observed between Saturn and its small moon Enceladus. During the August 11, 2008 flyby, Cassini's plasma sensors found ion beams propagating from Saturns northern hemisphere that corresponded to time-variable emissions from Enceladus south polar vents. Astronomers suggest that the vapor plumes from Enceladus are because Saturn's gravity "kneads" the moon as it orbits. The particles then flow as an electric current to Saturn. However, since electricity flows in a circuit, the one-way connection cannot be correct. Rather, Enceladus acts like an electric generator as it travels through Saturn's plasmasphere, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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inducing current flow along its magnetic field into Saturn's electrical environment. Relative to Saturn, Rhea is most likely negatively charged. Saturn's powerful opposite charge is probably initiating an electric discharge, causing the water in Rhea's icy surface to dissociate, so the presence of oxygen around the moon is not unexpected. Along with the water ice, the presence of frozen carbon dioxide subliming into space would be a reasonable expectation. Since Saturn is a powerful source of electrical energy, it acts like a small sun to its family of orbiting moons. In that light, it should come as no surprise that it will eject its own radial current sheet of charged particles: a Saturnian "wind" similar to the flow of ions from the Sun that interacts with its moons, causing "cathode sputtering" of their surfaces. In a June 13, 2007 European Space Agency release, it was announced that the moons Tethys and Dione are "flinging great streams of particles into space." The discovery was made by the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer, when data revealed that the plasma surrounding Saturn was trapped within its magnetic field. Electric Universe advocates argue that Saturn moves within the plasmasphere of the Sun and interacts with the Suns electric field. Planets and moons in the solar system are charged bodies. They are not isolated in space, but electrically transact with each other. Rhea moves within the plasmasphere of Saturn, so it stands to reason that it would interact electrically with its primary. The source of oxygen and carbon dioxide on Rhea is really no mystery. Stephen Smith
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Bartok crater on Mercury. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Son of Zeus
(May 23, 2011)
MESSENGER has completed 100 orbits around the planet Mercury. In the image at the top of the page, all the characteristics of an electric discharge leaping from Mercury's surface to space can be seen. The crater walls are terraced, there is a peculiar spiral-shaped crater on the southeastern rim, and several ridges converge onto the central peak. Bartok's floor is also flat and smooth for the most part, one of the signs that point to a plasma event of some kind in Mercury's history. In order to construct a new theory of planetary evolution, it is necessary to first assume different engines of transformation and a rapid morphology. Electric Universe physicists couch their theories in assumptions that do not conform to the "long slow change" required by conventional ideas of planetary formation. Clearly, catastrophic evolution cannot be merged with gradualism. If the Solar System is a four-billion-year-old antique, then there is no way for a hypothesis that calls for recent restructuring to coexist. A new way of seeing the Universe must first be adopted. Many of the features on Mercury are similar to those found on Mars, as well as the Moon. Bright rays extend outward from several large craters on Mercury, similar to those seen around Tycho Crater on the Moon. However, based on an analysis of Tycho crater by the late Ralph Juergens, it is more likely that the rays formed when material suddenly rushed toward the middle of the crater. A powerful electric current pulled loose rocks and dust inward into the center of an active region where bolts of electricity discharged upward. This conclusion is diametrically opposed to consensus opinions about "ejecta ray" formation. Another unusual structure in the image of Bartok crater is the hexagon located to the Northwest. Nearly every rocky object in the Solar System exhibits similar structures. How can The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the impact of a space rock cause a hexagonal crater? No experiment can create a polygonal shape after an explosive event. No, as pointed-out in several previous Picture of the Day articles, hexagons are created when intense particle beams touch down on a solid surface. Electric arcs are composed of Birkeland current filaments. Researchers studying the issue have found that beams of electricity flowing through plasma create a central column surrounded by concentric cylinders. The cylindrical discharge can sometimes form diocotron instabilities in the vortex, forcing a hexagonal shape. As the filaments rotate around one another, a hexagonal cross-section forms within the innermost column. Another example of electrical effects on Mercury are the etched furrows radiating outward from some craters. Earlier images of Caloris Basin show the same kind of etching. In 2007, Dr. C. J. Ransom performed an experiment at Vemasat Laboratories in Fort Worth, Texas. He exposed a thin layer of magnesium silicate to a 120 milliamp, 12,000 volt discharge for fiveseconds. In that short period, he produced radial gouges in the substrate similar to what has been found on Mercury. Dr. Ransom's experiments serve to demonstrate the scalability of electrical activity. Concentric structures are found on Mercury. When electricity passed through them it eroded material from the surface where the arc touched down because the pits and craters left by electric arcs are usually circular. An electric arc is composed of two (or more) filaments rotating around a common center, so the surface was excavated by a plasma "drill bit," leaving steep sides and a "pinched up" rim of debris. If several filaments were involved, the plasma beams would have cut one crater within another, often with one or more smaller craters on the rims. After traveling nearly eight billion kilometers, the MESSENGER spacecraft settled into orbit around Mercury on March 17, 2011 and began its scientific mission on March 23. It is apparent that more information from the innermost planet will continue to confirm Electric Universe theories of Solar System dynamics. Stephen Smith
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Detail of a petroglyph from The Valley of Fire, Nevada. Credit: John Cole.
That One Story Again

(May 20, 2011)
Ev Cochranes recent book, On Fossil Gods and Forgotten Worlds, again presents the challenge to explain an undeniable intelligibility in a large and coherent body of data. Petroglyphs, myths, and rituals around the world are composed of the same motifs: the ladder to heaven, the great star, and the thunderbolt--to name only three. The motifs are linked within each ancient societys oeuvre and therefore are implicitly defined: the thunderbolt springs from the eye of the hero as he descends the ladder from heaven. Furthermore, the linkages are the same around the world. This is not a new insight. Many mythologists have remarked on the one story told around the world. The difficulty lies in explaining that pattern of recurrence. There would seem to be only three possibilities. One Story: Some physical event with a global occurrence inspired the anthropomorphic narrative. If the story were about sunrises and thunderstorms, there would be no difficulty. However, the story is about planetary gods hurling hammers and fiery wheels from a celestial column that is fixed along the axis of heaven. If those planetary gods are the same planets that we see today, the story violates the Law of Gravity and is impossible. One Storyteller: This was the first story told by the handful of first humans as they huddled around the first campfire in Africa. Their descendants took it with them as they spread around the world. They changed the names of the characters as they invented different languages, but they kept the motifs and plots and even the specific details of the images and interrelationships. Thus, a primitive tribe in the Amazon today tells of the same ladder to heaven as the ancient Babylonians told of because their ancestors carried it unchanged across the Bering land bridge during the Ice Age. This explanation trades impossibility for incredibility. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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One Storytelling: The human brain is hardwired to generate this myth in all its details. Then why did it generate those myths and glyphs only during the Age of Mythmaking, not before, not now? Todays comparable creation myth, the Big Bang, retains the explosive initial event but puts it far in the past beyond human witnessing and devotes most of the narrative to slowly changing uniformity. For ancient people as for modern, their myths are the explanatory foundation for their world and their behavior in it. How can people today be so smart if their ancestors were so stupid? How could the ancestors have survived? Why would not natural selection "deselect" them? This explanation suffers from the same problem as the first: If the world then was the same as now, the story is impossible. The key is the conditional: if. Already the world today is not the same as it was just a few years ago. The growing awareness of plasma behavior in the laboratory and in space correlates with ancient art and artifacts, and it undermines Presently Accepted Theories with their P.A.T. answers. The technologically enhanced vision of space telescopes and trans-optical detectors "see" polar configurations and thunderbolts throughout space. Herbig-Haro stars and active galaxies sport rope- and snakelike columns of plasma along their spin axes, often with bright knots of plasma entwined along them. In an Electric Universe, these structures are the "wiring harnesses" that power the star or galaxy below them pushed into visibility by a surge in the current. Gravity cannot explain such structures. Astronomers have invented all manner of ad hoc excuses, magnetic artifices, and arbitrary mathematics to justify ignoring the plain sense of the observations. Similarly, mythologists have ignored the plain sense of myths and petroglyphs. The result has been the denial of a past that imbues the present. An electric view of the world unifies past and present. It explains why our ancestors were not crazy and why modern humans act crazy. It explains why thunderbolts of the gods are matched with thunderbolts of the galaxies. Gravity whimpers into oblivion; electricity floods the universe of explanation with the flip of a cognitive switch. Dare to flip the switch: the universe will never again look the same. Mel Acheson
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Asteroid 596 Scheila. Credit: S. Larson and A. Gibbs (University of Arizona/Catalina Sky Survey)
Cometary Asteroids
(May 18, 2011)
In an Electric Universe, comets are thought to be rocks moving rapidly through the Solar System's force fields. Comets are often called "dirty snowballs" by astronomers. However, various investigative missions, such as Giotto and Deep Impact, revealed them to be blackened, cratered, and fractured. No ice fields, reflective crust, or watery clouds were observed. The Giotto spacecraft's close approach to Halley's comet discovered the blackest object ever seen. The comet's energetic plumes blasted out from a dense nucleus. Comet Tempel 1 resembled an asteroid more than a chunk of muddy slush. Craters, boulders, and cliffs were observed--nothing like a snowball venting. Water vapor was discovered near the comet, but there was too little ice on the surface to account for it. Other comets defy convention: Shoemaker-Levy 9 exploded when it encountered Jupiter's magnetosphere, and the pieces did not expel the volatile compounds astronomers expected to see. Deep Space 1 flew by comet Borrelly in 2001, finding it hot and dry instead of cold and wet. The Stardust mission to comet Wild 2 found a great deal of dust, but no trace of water could be found on its surface. Comets travel through a differential electric potential as they move toward the Sun. The variable electric fields cause visible glow discharges. Rather than "dirty snowballs" or even "snowy dirtballs," comets are electrically active, solid bodies. Comets form plasma sheaths that can become comas, often more than a million kilometers in diameter. Plasma filaments connect comets with the Sun's electric field, generating "hot spots" on their surfaces. So hot that extreme ultraviolet light and X-rays were detected radiating from comet Hyakutake. According to a recent press release, on December 11, 2010 asteroid 596 Scheila became much brighter than previously observed, forming a large C-shaped coma. The Swift spacebased observatory did not find water vapor thought to be "normally" associated with comets. Instead, two dusty plume-like tails trailed behind the asteroid, subsequently fading over the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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A Hubble Space Telescope image of 596 Scheila reveals a broad coma, along with a dust tail. As team leader David Jewett said: "The Hubble data are most simply explained by the impact, at 11,000mph [17,700 km/h] of a previously unknown asteroid about 100 feet [30 metres] in diameter." The primary reason for thinking that 596 Scheila is an asteroid and not a comet is because there is no water vapor in its vicinity. The team investigating the Deep Impact mission to comet Tempel 1 claimed that there was "lots of ice" ejected when the copper projectile hit the comet's surface, so it was expected that 596 Scheila would also have lots of ice if it was a comet. However, Electric Universe advocate Wal Thornhill took issue with that presumption just after Deep Impact: "The flaw in the conventional approach is that only gas-phase chemical reactions and reactions induced by solar radiation (photolysis) are considered. The far more energetic molecular and atomic reactions due to plasma discharge sputtering of an electrically charged comet nucleus are not even contemplated...The hydroxyl radical, OH, is the most abundant cometary radical...It is chiefly the presence of this radical that leads to estimates of the amount of water ice sublimating from the comet nucleus. "The electric field near the comet nucleus is expected if a comet is a highly negatively charged body, relative to the solar wind...So the presence of negative oxygen and other ions close to the comet nucleus is to be expected. Negative oxygen ions will be accelerated away from the comet in the cathode jets and combine with protons from the solar wind to form the observed OH radical at some distance from the nucleus. The important point is that the OH does not need to come from water ice on, or in, the comet." As mentioned in a previous Picture of the Day, there are several "Centaur objects" orbiting near the asteroid belt that demonstrate that indeterminate state between comet and asteroid. 2060 Chiron is classified as both comet and asteroid. Chiron manifests a coma whenever it reaches its closest approach to the Sun, although it does not grow a tail. 174P Echeclus displayed a coma in 2005, so it too is now classified as a cometary asteroid. At least ten Centaurs are known to have cometary activity at great heliocentric distance. Proponents of mainstream viewpoints are slowly beginning to realize that asteroids and comets exist in a continuum: neither are strictly identical nor completely different from the other. When the Stardust mission returned to Earth with samples from the coma of comet Wild 2, scientists found that the material looked more like meteoric dust than what was expected from a dirty snowball. Stardust also found that the coma of Wild 2 contained the "signature" of water vapor, although the farther from the surface of the comet it was, the greater the amount of vapor it saw. Whatever water or hydroxyl compounds found in cometary comas are probably created there, as Wal Thornhill has explained: ionized oxygen from the comet reacts with hydrogen ions streaming out from the Sun. No "jets" of water vapor spew from comets, and no icy plains have ever been observed. It is electric effects that are seen. Discharges and arcs form the comet phenomena. Exposing an asteroid to an intense electric field over time will most likely create a comet. Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Canyons in Titan's southern latitudes. Credit: NASA/JPL
Planetary Double Layers

(May 16, 2011)
Was Titan born from electrical parturition? Considering the variety of Saturn's moons, it would be difficult to identify them as members of the same family. They vary in size, chemical composition, temperature, and appearance. However, superficial appearances are often misleading when it comes to overall qualities or characteristics. Powerful electromagnetic connections with their giant parent planet indicate they share common traits. A recent press release states that a gravity map of Titan, created by monitoring changes in the Cassini orbiter's speed as it flew by the giant moon between February 2006 and July 2008, shows that its interior is a mixture of rock and ice with no layering. The orbital variations were measured by the Earth-based Deep Space Network as Titan's gravity "pushed and pulled" Cassini in its flight path. Analyzing those gravitational tics provides data for computer models of Titan's core. Since the variations in gravity suggest a variation in density, and that variation is so subtle, there are no "mascons" of rock distributed through Titan's body as there are inside Earth's Moon. Instead, the rocks and ice are thought to be compacted into a relatively homogeneous interior structure. As written in previous Picture of the Day articles, many of Titan's anomalies can be explained if a youthful aspect is considered. Titan might be only a few thousand years old and not the billions of years required by conventional astrophysics. If that is the case, then the presence of its dense atmosphere, lacking a mechanism for replenishment, can be attributed to that youth. Since Titan is relatively young, its atmosphere is not in equilibrium. It is losing methane at a measurable rate. That atmospheric loss requires methane production somewhere on or in the moon's body if it is ancient. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The canyons and "rilles" on Titan's surface are thought to be "drainage channels" from the methane rains that must periodically fall to feed the "rivers," although no precipitation was detected. However, in an Electric Universe the canyons are blast marks etched into Titans surface from tremendous lightning discharges. They point to the moon's savage electrical birth. Their dendritic forms are called Lichtenberg figures, which look like some river systems on Earth. That recent electrical birth, possibly resulting from a double layer overload within Saturn, also explains Titan's homogeneous core. Electric Universe theory proposes that the progeny of stars or planets are not all born at the same time as the parent. They are born hierarchically at intervals, and typically from within the parent. They are ejected. If Titan was ejected from Saturn in a paroxysm, then its atmosphere and surface features are the results of that catastrophic event. Its interior could be electrically charged, either from a continuous circuit connection with Saturn or because it retains a remanent discharging current flow. Possibly both. The small effects on Cassini could be electrical in nature. Are concepts of a "slushy core" or a "rocky interior" outdated premises? Do the deep places of planets and moons possess double layers? If so, the "gravitational effects" on Cassini could indicate that Titan is exerting an electric force on the spacecraft. Stephen Smith
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"Merging galaxies" NGC 2207 and IC 2163. Credit: ESO
Windy Galaxies
(May 11, 2011)
Winds and shockwaves are often used to describe phenomena in the cosmos because plasma behaves in unfamiliar ways. According to a recent press release, The European Space Agency's orbiting telescope Herschel has observed "molecular gas gusting at high velocities" from galaxies that appear to be merging. In some instances, the gas is being driven to velocities exceeding 1000 kilometers per second. Traveling at that speed, the United States is about fives seconds across from coast to coast. As the announcement goes on to state, "powerful, storm-like processes" are taking place. These storms are said to be initiated by the black holes within each galaxy as the two come together. Another theory is that supernova explosions take place that are sufficient to blow away almost the entire volume of gas in a galaxy. Star formation, with its assumed attendant high frequency radiation, creating the blasts of galactic energy is another. Since the idea that electricity flows through the Universe is commonly met with resistance by today's consensus, its influence and attributes are unseen. It has long been said that "seeing is believing." However, it should not be surprising that "believing is seeing" appears to be more apt. When there is no inner experience, outer realities can often remain invisible. From gamma rays down through X-rays and extreme ultraviolet, conventional theories have relied on gravity and acceleration for radiation to be produced in space. Compressing hydrogen gas and dust is supposed to create enough transfer of momentum that the gas reaches million degree temperatures. It is the high temperature of the gas that is supposed to make it glow so brightly. For example, the CHANDRA X-ray Telescope found eruptions of charged material pouring out of the Crab Nebula, emitting X-rays as they go. In another announcement, astronomers The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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reported that two giant stars in Eta Carinae were blowing off "intense winds." The winds are so powerful that the collision of the wave fronts is thought to be generating X-rays where the shells intersect. All of these effects are supposed to be due to kinetic shock, even though the researchers acknowledge that the observed "wind" is ionized particles. Despite that understanding, researchers persist in the use of "billiard ball physics": as electrons bounce back and forth in the magnetic fields they accelerate until they impact low-frequency photons, imparting so much energy that they become X-rays. From the Electric Universe perspective, those magnetic fields do accelerate electrons, but since the electrons spiral in the field, they emit synchrotron radiation. To the detectors observing stars, synchrotron radiation can be in the form of X-rays or gamma-rays. Electric currents surge out along galactic spin axes, forming double layers that can sometimes be seen as radio or X-ray "lobes." The currents spread out around the galactic circumference, flowing back to the core along the spiral arms. All the elements in a galactic circuit radiate energy. That energetic radiance shows that they are powered by larger circuits. Galaxies occur in strings, and the extent of the larger circuits May be traced by radio telescopes from their polarized radio "noise." It seems apparent that we will never be able to observe them, since they are far too large and diffuse. Plasma's behavior is governed by those circuits. Double layers with large potential voltages between them often exist. The electric forces in double layer filaments can be much stronger than gravity. Those filaments can also have different temperatures or densities. Double layers broadcast radio waves over a wide range of frequencies. They can sort galactic gas and dust and then condense it. Most significant to the ESA bulletin, they can accelerate charged particles to cosmic ray energies. This vision of the cosmos sees various components coupled to and driven by circuits at ever larger scales. Electrons and other charged particles accelerating through intense electric fields radiate "shouts" of energy in many bandwidths. The power of those currents can sweep up neutral gas and dust as they move through a galaxy. Stephen Smith
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Do cosmic rays affect cloud cover?
Sacrifice, Delusion and Climate

(May 09, 2011)
Can humanity change Earth's environment? Or, are we too small? In ancient Carthage children were sacrificed to appease the gods. The Carthaginians thought that their actions could control the gods of thunder, drought, earthquakes and volcanoes. Our modern god, science, is imbued with powers that humans believe can make us masters of our planet. Is this a mere childish arrogance similar to the Carthaginians, or do we possess the power to control or modify Earth's environment? There are two camps. Camp one is led by the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Control) with its link to the United Nations. They are thought of as a prestigious, flawless body representing highly qualified scientists and logical, precise government concern. Then Michael Mann's 'hockey stick' scandal revealed their inept duplicity. Then came modifications, the withholding and deleting of research data by Professor Jones and Dr. Kelly from the University of East Anglia. Grave doubts were voiced over the IPCC's integrity. The second climate camp is the ever growing body of 'climate warming' skeptics, also represented by many eminent scientists such as Professor Ian Plimer. They claim that the IPCC has made an industry out of nonsense, and that this steam roller with it's so called 'proven science' has made dogma out of dodgy beliefs. Upon examination, they claim that the 'proofs' from camp one are based on 'fudged' results. Water vapour is said to be a more effective green house driver than carbon dioxide. Lord Monckton and Joanne Nova are representative of this viewpoint. The essential dogma from camp one is that human carbon emissions cause climate change. Like most opposing forces there is truth in both camps. However, the danger is that in the name of 'better safe than sorry' we May become committed to a farce. To be sure, most politicians, more intent on votes than truth, are afraid to go against the 'global warming' camp. Global warming is now a huge industry with many research projects. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Australia's Rob Gell, in a recent presentation at the 'Kananook Creek Association' day, urged citizens to become part of this burgeoning industry. Away from the glitz and political correctness, what does control our weather? The answer literally stares us in the face: the Sun! Anyone who has seen a Coronal Mass ejection (CME) cannot help being awed by its immense electromagnetic power. Together with solar flares, their explosive discharges dwarf any pathetically puny human efforts. A million coal burning power stations cannot match a solar flare's thunderous domination. Somehow, both phenomena are tied to the sunspot cycle. NASA's STEREO satellites aim to find out why. No one knows or understands the specific mechanisms. Radiation and charged particles blast into space. Earth's magnetosphere lights up with aurorae; cyclones form; volcanoes erupt with huge lightning displays above their peaks, while earthquakes, with their attendant electrical discharges, devastate cities and generate tsunamis. Snow storms, such as the recent examples in the United States and Europe, as well as flooding in Australia and Pakistan, along with volcanoes in Iceland, Japan and Indonesia could all be connected. There is a strong contention that these whims of nature are linked. The common thread is the Sun's electrical connection to Earth's magnetosphere. Meanwhile, Dr. Henrik Svensmark has proposed that cosmic rays are the ultimate driver of weather. In essence, charged particles create low level cloud cover that modifies temperature and precipitation. This, not carbon dioxide, correlates with Earth's weather. Svensmark also postulates that the Sun is driven by variable chaotic forces from outside the Solar System. And recent research has found unexpected sources of cosmic rays close to the Sun, which conform to Alfvn's heliospheric electric circuit model of the Sun. These factors combine to affect the Earth's climate. So, decide for yourself but do not accept the dogma from either camp. Investigate. The politically correct 'proof' of our time might prove to be bunk in another generation. After all, we are victims of fashion. It is unfortunate that the argument against carbon dioxide emissions is tied up with our environmental concerns. Clearly, we must protect our habitat, but authentic modern concerns must not be confused with contentious and dogmatic arguments. Peter Mungo Jupp
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Port Phillip Bay from the Challenger Space Shuttle. Credit: Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center
The 'Little Ice Age' on Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay

(May 04, 2011)
Imagine the yachts of Mornington harbour locked up in meters of thick ice. Picture our pride and joy, maxi yacht Wild Thing, with its tackle caked in icicles and skipper Grant Warrington clad in fur skins. Imagine yourself down at the Portsea headlands, looking across at the ice blocking the passage of massive container ships trying to get into the once thriving Melbourne Docklands. 'Impossible!' you say, but research has shown that just such a scenario probably occurred in Victoria and only a few short centuries ago. What happened? The 'Little Ice Age' period is a scientific reconstruction that includes the time from 1300 AD to approximately 1820 AD when there was a dramatic and erratic climate deterioration. The Little Ice Age is classified into four periods: the Wolf, Sporer, Maunder, and Dalton Minima respectively. They were interspaced with relatively stable periods before. These deteriorations were not only cooler and wetter on average but vastly more erratic. Such erratic climate extremes are prime ingredients for famine, plague, and the abandonment of human settlements. They followed a period known as the 'Medieval warm maximum', which lasted from 900 AD to around 1300 AD That time was much hotter than the present. It was a prosperous era that saw the expansion of the Viking tribes into Iceland, Greenland, Vinland (America), and Russia. Grape vines were grown in warm meadows in what are now cold snowy countries, while great herds of sheep and cattle roamed their now inhospitable coastlines. However, the Little Ice Age was a global phenomenon. In the Southern Hemisphere, the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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expansion of the Polynesian peoples occurred From New Zealand to Hawaii and Tahiti. These bold sea peoples resettled the Pacific. Then, dramatically, the first trough of the Little Ice Age hit with terrible, tragic severity. Erratic minima periods saw the formation of thick sea ice 10 kilometers into the English channel. Major rivers, such as the Thames in London, were frozen for much of the year. Perhaps the River Murray followed suit. The world was hit with particularly severe storms such as the one that wrecked the Spanish Armada in 1588 AD. Glaciers destroyed many prosperous villages. High rainfall and much colder climates were recorded in unstable sequences. Not coincidentally, the opening thrusts of the Little Ice Age saw a period of major plagues and famines that ravaged Europe and the rest of the world. It was a global phenomenon. The causes were probably the underlying forces that drive weather systems, which Plimer argues are largely due to the influence of sunspot minima. Coronal mass ejections are likely to be another related contributor. These periods of high cosmic ray bombardment cause increased positive ion concentration in Earth's atmosphere. Fred Soyka claims this causes bacteria to become highly virulent and invasive. Black Death, Plague, and other relentless infections follow. The plagues and famines attending the Little Ice Age were devastating. Estimates record that the population of the Mediterranean basin was reduced to a third. For instance, the plague of 1347 AD depopulated Europe so badly that it took two hundred and fifty years for it to return to its pre-plague population. A similar scenario might easily have occurred in the Aboriginal population before white settlement. Archaeologist Hiscock reports that around the 1750s there was significant depopulation of tribes in Australia due to epidemics. This May have been encouraged by the last phase of the Little Ice Age, the Dalton minimum. The Viking settlement of Greenland became ice bound and the population perished. In Iceland, the population was greatly reduced and became stunted physiologically. Agriculture and fishing had to be largely abandoned. Did similar shocks occur in Australia? Proof that the Little Ice Age occurred in Australia is forthcoming from many sources. Reconstruction of sea temperatures from Coral cores (Handy et al.), stalagmite isotopic oxygen ratios (Wilson et al.), and Glacial studies in New Zealand (Winkler) confirmed that the Southern hemisphere mimicked the erratic temperature changes of the United States and Europe. So where does this lead us? First, as Professor Ian Plimer concludes, the Little Ice Age was in no way due to the hand of mankind. Of equal importance, many scientists contend that the earlier Medieval and Roman warming's were much hotter than our modern warm period despite lower carbon dioxide levels. How can we possibly contend that our modern warming is due to mankind and his unwelcome industrial pollution? Fumes and effluent May be obnoxious but they do not cause climate change. The issue is aesthetics not a proven greenhouse effect. Is a proposed Carbon tax a childish waste of time? Do we really think we can control the weather? Peter Mungo Jupp
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Sunspot 798 produced an X-17 solar flare on September 7. 2005. Credit: Jack Newton
Gold, Glamour and Destruction

(May 02, 2011)
Could the Carrington Event of 1859 have had broader effects than originally assumed? Imagine your posturing self-assurance as you parade on the dockside at Port Melbourne, dressed in the finest fashions the colony of Port Phillip can offer. Your beautiful new bride is elegantly bubbling beside you whilst showing off the latest copy of high Paris couture. Yes, my boy, you have made it! The year is 1859. You came to the Victorian goldfields a pauper and struck it rich. You look across the bay to Frankston, Mount Martha, Dromana and Tubbarrubba where shortly even more goldfields will be pegged out. This was an era like no other and rags to riches were common, with no conniving government tax collectors to strip you of your 'Paul Hogan' fortune. Now with ritzy wealth reflected in your grand finery, you are boarding the luxurious steam clipper 'Royal Charter' to fast tack up Port Phillip Bay and head home to England. Doubtless the gentry will fawn over your new found colonial riches. This sleek iron sailing ship is a modern technical marvel. She is the fastest steam clipper in the world and on this trip she will break the Melbourne to England record by touching down in 58 days. Built for the Australian run, she is 80 meters long and weighs 3000 tonnes. She is carrying 388 passengers and 112 crew. But what else? This is a 'gold' ship. She is bursting with over 70,000 ounces of gold ($98 million today), 48,000 newly minted sovereigns, and the personal gold wealth (uncalculated) of passengers who struck it rich on the Victorian goldfields. As you steam by Perth on September 1, 1859 all the passengers are delighted by an incredible phenomena. It is the 'Aurora Australis', but one so bright it lights up the night as if it The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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were day. The captain, Thomas Taylor, notes he has never seen an Aurora this close to the equator before. Skies all over planet Earth erupted in red, green, and purple auroras so brilliant that newspapers could be read as easily as in daylight. On the other side of the world, a brilliant Aurora Borealis is seen as far south as the Caribbean and Hawaii. This was the largest geomagnetic storm ever recorded (NASA). Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed. Telegraph pylons threw sparks and telegraph paper spontaneously caught fire. But this was only the first portent from the heavens. Just two months earlier a massive earthquake had occurred in Erzurum, Turkey, of force 9 on the Mercalli scale. Over 16 thousand people had perished. Was there a strange connection between these two events? But even stranger coincidences were to follow. The rest of the 'Royal Charter's' journey was pure bliss. The luxury cabins were a delight. The company boisterous and the sharing of 'wealth laden' future dreams enervating. As she beat down towards the English Channel all seemed well. But when she reached the north-western tip of Anglesey, on October 25, the barometer was dropping. The master, Captain Thomas Taylor, was advised to put into Holyhead harbor for shelter but he continued on to Liverpool. During the night of October, the winds rose to Hurricane force 12 at over 160 kmh, in what became known as the 'Royal Charter' gale. Its direction changed from E to NNE, driving the ship towards the coast of Anglesey. At 11 p.m. she anchored, but at 1.30 a.m. on October 26 the port anchor chain snapped, rapidly followed by the starboard. Despite cutting the masts to reduce the drag of the wind, the 'Royal Charter' was driven inshore, with the steam engines unable to make headway against the gale. The ship initially grounded on a sandbank, but in the early morning the rising tide drove her to the rocks. Battered against the rocks by huge waves whipped up by winds of over 160 kilometers per hour, she quickly broke up. Most of the passengers and crew, a total of over 450 people, died. Many of them were killed by being dashed against the rocks by the waves rather than drowned. Others were drowned, weighed down by the belts of gold they were wearing around their bodies. The survivors, 21 passengers and 18 crew members, were all men, with no women or children saved. The 'Royal Charter' storm was the worst of the entire nineteenth century with a total of 133 ships sunk during the storm. The death toll was around 800. What had caused this unprecedented megastorm? I believe we can look to another event that shows us precisely where our weather comes from. In the heavens, the solar superstorm of 1859, also known as the 'Carrington Event', was the most powerful solar storm in recorded history. Richard Carrington sketched its magnitude whilst observing the bright flashes of a solar flare on the surface of the sun. This was the same event that caused the disruption of telegraphs, the extreme glow of the Aurora Australis, earthquakes in Turkey, and finally the massively destructive 'Royal Charter' mega-storm. Quite probably 'synchrotron' radiation poured down on Earth. Tempel's observations came shortly thereafter, when he sketched an enormous Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), with its terrible body blooming out as far as the width of the sun itself, during a solar eclipse a few months later. The electromagnetic connection with the sun controls our weather, not puny mankind with his imagined impact. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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One more phenomena occurred that is painfully coincidental and baffles modern science. The world wide flu epidemic of 1859 was one of the worst ever, causing half a million deaths (Duffy. J.- Louisiana University press). Could solar flares and the CME's synchrotron radiation stimulate viral growth? As for the gold, many an Anglesey resident became rich overnight, and to this day salvage divers seek to recover some of the wealth with no success. Note: Whilst filming on the Jurassic coast in England, I spoke to one of these professionals involved in the last attempt in 2005. Expert salvage diver John Ledger gave me some souvenirs from his incredible memorabilia. A few lead balls of rifle buckshot, a broken plate and some 'Royal Charter' ship's rivets. These I have with me as I type this tragic tale - a sad legacy that has returned to Melbourne some 150 years later. Peter Mungo Jupp
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Layering through the Kaibab Plateau is visible in this image of the Grand Canyon.
Gradualism Versus Catastrophism Part Two

(Apr 29, 2011)
Does the position of geologic strata determine age? In part one of this article, a reference to laboratory experiments that falsify the consensus view of sediment deposition mentioned that fossil ages could not be reliably determined based on the so-called "geologic column." The geologic column is defined as a series of depositional layers that form a chronological sequence. It is also called the "stratigraphical column." Considering the position of fossils in rock strata, the following sequence is generally accepted: ERA Quaternary PERIOD EPOCH Holocene Pleistocene Tertiary (Cenozoic) Pliocene Miocene Oligocene Eocene Jurassic 135 2 END DATE IN MILLION YEARS
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive Triassic Primary (Paleozoic) Permian Carboniferous Devonian Silurian Ordovician Cambrian Precambrian 190 225 280 345 395 440 500 570
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Thus, the extinction of the dinosaurs is said to have taken place over 135 million years ago. However, the popular notion that the geologic column represents vast periods of time is being questioned by a number of geologists who realize that it most likely results from a series of catastrophic events. Nicolaus Steno is often said to be the father of geology. His "principle of superposition" influences geologists to this day, even though it was formulated in the late 1600s. In many ways it seems to be completely straight forward, but only now is it recognized that it was not based on experiments but on field observation. "At the time when any given stratum was being formed, all the matter resting upon it was fluid, and, therefore, at the time when the lower stratum was being formed, none of the upper strata existed." In February 2000, Guy Berthault wrote a paper in which he described several experiments that analyzed the hydraulic processes involved with sedimentary layering. His conclusions were subsequently published in Lithology and Mineral Resources, Vol. 37, No. 5. Under conditions of constant flow rate and a continuous supply of particles, he discovered that a mixture of coarse and fine particles would separate into thin laminations. Material flowing through a flume under simulated flood conditions created a downstream deposit that sorted into several horizontal strata that continued to build up on the advancing face. The unusual aspect to the deposition of particles is that each layer was composed of laminations younger than those farther back. Rather than top stratum being younger than the bottom, all strata were deposited simultaneously in a horizontal fashion. As the paper states: "Superposed strata are not, therefore, necessarily identical to successive sedimentary layers." Another problem with the superposed strata theory is speed of erosion. The current weathering rate for the continental shelves is thought to be six centimeters per thousand years. Therefore, in less than 10 million years today's continental shelves will erode away. The difficulty with that assessment is that sediments hundreds of millions of years old are on top of all the continental shelves. How can this be when that material should have all washed away in the Cenozoic era? Since rock layers are often dated by the type of fossil contained within them, and experiments The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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reveal that the deposition of sediments containing pre-fossil skeletons can no longer be based on the principle of superposition, then rock layers can no longer be dated in that way. Another problem with gradualism in geology is the radiometric dating of rocks. Rocks are typically dated using the principle of constant radioactive isotope decay rates and an assumption of the estimated original isotope ratios. The oldest rocks are dated using the uranium/lead half-life ratios. When rocks form, they contain a certain percentage of elements. Zircon contains uranium and thorium atoms, but no lead. Therefore, the assumption is that all the lead in zircon must be radiogenic. This idea depends on a uniform, gradual process free of sudden alteration. If the decay rates of various elements can be altered by external influences, then the percentage formulae that indicate a sample's age are unreliable. "There has been in recent years the horrible realization that radiodecay rates are not as constant as previously thought, nor are they immune to environmental influences. And this could mean that the atomic clocks are reset during some global disaster, and events which brought the Mesozoic to a close May not be 65 million years ago but, rather, within the age and memory of man." -- Fred Jueneman, FAIC, Industrial Research & Development, p.21, June 1982. A foundation of Electric Universe theory is the flow of electricity through space and the catastrophic influence it had on planets and moons in the recent past. Whatever phenomenon it was, within the recorded history of humanity a great cataclysm engulfed the Earth. Canyons were blasted out, mountains raised, ocean basins shifted, and great swathes of plants, animals, and people obliterated in the blink of an eye. Those enormous energies, the rearrangement of the topography, and the intense radiation make it impossible to assign any measure of antiquity. Repeated and rapid sedimentation that hardened to stone in mere minutes, fossilizing its burden of organic detritus, means that what is visible on the surface might be the same age as what lies beneath. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Mel Acheson
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Strangely fractured rock strata near Guadalest, Spain. Credit: Abdet.com
Gradualism Versus Catastrophism Part One

(Apr 28, 2011)
Did the terrain we see around us take millions of years to form? Some recent experiments suggest otherwise. As mentioned in past articles, Electric Universe proponents think that something is wrong with the "long, slow" view of geology. Fossils are dated based on the rock layers in which they are found, so a uniformitarian view of geology influences the understanding of how life began and evolved on Earth. If the rock ages are wrong, fossil ages are wrong. It is commonly believed that fossils are created when an animal or plant dies and is subsequently entombed in mud or silt before decay and dissolution. After millions of years, the sediments in which it is buried harden because of pressure from the overlying accumulation of other later deposits. Tectonic forces then break or bend the ocean bottom (or lakebed), causing it to rise above the waterline and dry out, hardening the sediments into stone. Those layers of stone around the world are used to determine when the fossils were alive, since it is assumed that the top layers are younger than the bottom layers. The layers of hardened sediments are called "the geologic column." Prevailing theories state that it took millions, if not billions, of years to arrange the scenery on our planet. Mountains rise in response to mechanisms that are so slow as to be undetectable: the Himalayas, the Alps, and the Rocky Mountains retain the same shapes that ancient nomadic tribes saw. The seas, it is said, have not left their basins in time spans that have no meaning to the human mind. The Atlantic Ocean has bridged the distance between Africa, Europe, and the Americas for a period greater than the human species has existed on Earth. Rivers, deserts, canyons--all appear to our modern eyes just as they would have appeared to The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Alexander the Great, Goyathlay, Sargon, or Khufu. The cyclic processes of erosion or sediment deposition are the same today as they were long ago. Most of the current methods for dating artifacts, geologic layers, or fossils are dependent on that presumed gradual, uniform action. What if the uniformitarian hypothesis is incorrect? What if the topography of Earth was created in a time so short that ancient civilizations were able to record it? What meaning would the Neolithic, or the Jurassic, or the Precambrian eras have? Would evolutionary theory suffer for the lack of a chronological map? Electric Universe theorists postulate that between 5000 and 10,000 years ago (perhaps sooner), the Earth and its sister planets were engulfed in a catastrophic interplay of celestial forces that have not been seen since. Clouds of electrified plasma and electric arcs described by the ancients as "thunderbolts of the gods" dissected the continental geography, creating what traditional theories say are ages-old structures in an instant of time. "Evolutionary theory is based upon the belief that a succession of fossil species in a scale of geological time demonstrates that evolutionary progress has taken place... As we have shown in the laboratory, layers of incoming sediment have been wrongly identified as being strata. The scale of geological time and the chronological succession of fossils have been calculated on this mistaken belief: that strata are successive layers of sediment. So the position of fossils, rather than sharing evolution, merely indicates the distribution of marine species which lived at different depths." -- Guy Berthault: Fundamental Experiments in Stratification Stephen Smith Hat tip to Mel Acheson
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The moon Enceladus leaves a "footprint" in Saturn's electromagnetic field. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Colorado/Central Arizona College.
Electric Enceladus
(Apr 25, 2011)
Saturn exhibits a circuit between Enceladus and its electrical environment. One of the most surprising results of the Galileo space probe's mission to Jupiter was the identification of electrical activity between several Jovian moons and their parent. So-called "volcanic" plumes were seen erupting from the moon Io. The plumes are the result of cathode arcs, electrically etching the surface and blasting sulfur dioxide "snow" up to 150 kilometers into space. Io acts like an electrical generator as it travels through Jupiters plasmasphere, inducing over 400,000 volts across its diameter at more than three million amperes. That tremendous current flows along its magnetic field into the electric environment of Jupiter. Electric Universe proponents argued at the time of Galileo's discovery that plasma discharges from the moon, which is electrically connected to Jupiter, are contributing to the intense aurorae around the gas giant's poles. Some astronomers even acknowledged that electrical connection when Io's circuit pathway was seen in Jupiter's polar aurora. Later, it was found that all four of Jupiters large moons also leave their imprints. According to a recent publication, the same kind of activity has been found connecting the moon Enceladus with Saturn's poles: an ultraviolet "footprint" in the auroral oval. During the August 11, 2008 flyby, Cassini's plasma sensors found ion and electron beams propagating from Saturns northern hemisphere. Their variability was something of a puzzle until it was noted that time-variable emissions from Enceladus south polar vents could correspond with the footprint's brightness variations in Saturn's aurora. Astronomers have suggested that the vapor plumes from Enceladus are due to Saturn's gravity field "kneading" the moon as it orbits. The particles then flow as an electric current to Saturn. Since electricity does not flow in one direction the one-way connection cannot be correct, so how is the electricity moving between Enceladus and Saturn? NASA scientists will continue to monitor the plumes from Enceladus to see if there is a definite connection between the two phenomena. Electric Universe advocates assume that The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the results will confirm the electrical exchanges between Saturn and its moon. Conventional theories assume that the Universe is electrically neutral, so when observational evidence confirms electrically active plasma for instance, localized phenomena no matter how improbable are invoked. Tidal forces and "cryo-volcanoes" are presented as the cause for the activity seen on Enceladus and the evidence for electric circuits is ignored. Saturn is connected with the Sun and the Sun is connected with the Milky Way. The Milky Way is probably connected with the Local Group and then with the Cluster and so on and so on. That idea is what forms the basis of Electric Universe Theory. An electrical interaction between Saturn and its moons means that they are charged bodies and are not electrically neutral. Saturn exists in a dynamic electrical relationship with the Sun and with its orbiting family. Stephen Smith
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Elongated crater formation on Mars. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
Orcus Patera
(Apr 22, 2011)
What formed this unusual structure on Mars? Mars is the topic of a new video from the Thunderbolts Project called The Lightning-Scarred Planet Mars. In it, Electric Universe advocate Dave Talbott explains how the Red Planet was probably the scene of tremendous plasma discharge events in the recent past. The various formations, as well as the overall topography, indicate something other than flowing water or blowing wind sculpted Mars. Since erosion is a blurring and rounding process, the sharp peaks, steep valleys, and clean craters suggest that little erosion has taken place. If Mars once possessed a warmer, wetter environment in the past, then the layers of water-soluble olivine in vast deposits should not exist they should have dissolved eons ago. In the image at the top of the page, a dry lake bed is one of the speculations for the strange shape of the "crater." The Orcus Patera depression is approximately 380 kilometers long and 140 kilometers wide. Its rim is 1800 meters above the surrounding terrain, but its flat floor lies 600 meters below the surroundings. A lake bed would not have an upraised rim. The presence of "graben" (rift-like valleys) that cut across its rim supposedly point to faulting from tectonic movement in the Red Planet's crust. Volcanism has therefore been suggested as a possible source for the crater, as well as for the almost three-kilometer-wide graben found only on the rim and nearby. Another poorly thought-out option is that a glancing blow from an asteroid scooped out the crater before its shallow attack angle sent it back into space. There are no ejecta anywhere near Orcus Patera, particularly outside of its long axis boundary, so where is the debris from the impact? Besides, the ability of an object to survive the energies involved with a highvelocity asteroid strike and then escape back to space is questionable. Other elongated craters exist in the Solar System. There are several on the Moon, and others on Mars. They all share common characteristics: flat floors, steep walls, lack of impact ejecta, and a fresh appearance. If those criteria are applied to other structures, then Wilpena Pound The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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in the Flinders Range near Adelaide, Australia could be part of that family. Conventional viewpoints see the Flinders Range forming as sediments 650 million years ago in a now extinct ocean. Tectonic forces pushed the materials upward into a dome shape that has been subsequently worn down by wind and water. Over the millennia, the surrounding peaks have diminished and the hills and valleys have vanished into the dust and sand of the great desert. As the standard theory goes, although Wilpena Pound appears to be the remains of a meteor impact, the overall shape and the stratigraphic composition do not support that idea. As has been pointed out in the past, erosion does not possess the all-encompassing power for change that modern geology asserts. When lightning strikes Earth, multiple leader strokes descend from the clouds, while similar, less visible potential contacts rise from the ground. Once the circuit closes, electrical energy stored in the cloud-to-ground capacitor discharges, drawing current from several square kilometers. A lightning stroke is accompanied by transverse or "corona" discharges at right angles to the main channel. They appear to be "tributaries" joining the primary discharge, just like those connecting to the Orcus Patera depression. Surface lightning forces close tributaries to be parallel because of the electromagnetic force between them. Lightning bolts orders of magnitude more powerful than anything seen today could have created the topography on the Sun's family of planets and moons. As the Electric Universe theory explains, Mars has been subjected to electrical jolts that etched its surface with "skylights," deep canyons with multiple side branches at right angles to the main channel, dry falls, terraces, and other features that can be found on Earth. Due to their close resemblance to terrestrial physiography, the Martian formations are thought to be extremely old and cut by water millions of years ago. Electricity is never part of the equation when geological theories are presented. Failing to consider it, NASA scientists have missed a vital clue in the search for answers to the puzzles of planetary scarring. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Bernhard Kraker
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Portion of the Mare Acidalium quadrangle on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Nuclear War God

(Apr 20, 2011)
Did an atomic explosion decimate Mars long ago? According to a recent press release, a theory about how the planet Mars acquired its red color, as well as its barren desiccation has been proposed. Dr. John Brandenburg, co-author of "Dead Mars, Dying Earth," suggests that a nuclear explosion--albeit a natural one-destroyed Mars almost 200 million years ago. Brandenburg's theory is based on two regions of increased radiation that appear to have been caused by processes that once took place here on Earth, as well. In Franceville, Gabon, scientists noticed that there was an unexpected three-thousandth of a percent difference between expected values of uranium 235 compared to uranium 238 in their spectrographic analyses of rock samples. It was suggested that two billion years ago, a self-sustaining chain reaction began in some mineral deposits containing uranium 235 in concentrations over three percent. Particular isotopes of xenon gas in the uranium deposits in the "Oklo reactor" region of Gabon are said to indicate that a natural nuclear burned for thousands of years until the fissile uranium was exhausted. Brandenburg says that the "natural explosion" on Mars was more like a blast and not a reactor. The million megaton atomic detonation is supposed to have scattered radioactive dust from Mare Acidalium all over the planet. The increased detection of xenon 129 isotope radiation is supposed to confirm the connection between Gabon and Mars. Several factors in both the Gabon and Mare Acidalium theories, might lend themselves to other explanations when the time of both observations is adjusted. Rather than 200 million, or two billion years, what if both anomalies were created in the same more recent events. Burned and blasted craters, along with piles of scorched dust cover almost an entire hemisphere of Mars. Gigantic trenches across its scarred face could indicate that lightning The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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thousands or millions of times more energetic than we know today devastated Mars. Electric Universe advocates have suggested many times in these pages that electric arcs could have sculpted what we see on Mars. Valles Marineris, Olympus Mons, the vast 900 kilometer crater in Argyre Planitia, the terraced mounds in Arabia Terra, as well as both Martian poles demonstrate strong support for the electric discharge theory. In other articles, those powerful electric discharges on Mars were theorized to have transmuted silicon into iron and reformed silicon dioxide rock layers into the vast fields of hematite spherules that litter the landscape. If electricity can transmute elements, then isotopic ratios, no matter which elements are considered, cannot be used to prove or disprove the timeframe of any radiative emissions. Past Pictures of the Day deal with geological formations all over the world and with craters exceeding 100 kilometers in diameter. In some cases, there are glass spherules or large chunks of pure silica lying in broken pieces all over the area. What could account for kilometers long fields of broken glass shards like those in Egypt or large sheets of "Darwin glass" from Australia? It could have been plasma discharges in the form of lightning bolts and electric arcs that melted and fused the soils into glass. The timeframe is probably impossible to determine with any accuracy at this late date. Intense ionizing radiation most likely bombarded Earth and Mars at some time in the recent past. Rather than nuclear reactors in the ground it was electricity from space that left its imprint. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Thane Hubbell
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The IC5146 interstellar cloud. Credit:ESA/Herschel/SPIRE/PACS/D. Arzoumanian (CEA Saclay)
Sonic Booms Make Those Stringy Things

(Apr 18, 2011)
Consensus astronomy proposes that thunder causes lightning. Infrared images of the "clouds" around the Cocoon Nebula reveal "networks of tangled gaseous filaments." The filaments tend to have constant width and extend for many lightyears. They appear to be stellar counterparts of the "stringy things" found in Venuss tail. (We wont mention the similar features in comet tails.) They puzzle astronomers because gravity and hot gas dont do that. To add an enigma to the puzzle: "Newborn stars are often found in the densest parts of them." If such a thing as "the vacuum of space" actually were to exist, hot gas would expand into it rather than get tangled. The vanishing small force of gravity tends to act with spherical symmetry, not with the linear complexity of twisting filaments. Astronomers have to say something to keep up the appearance of being knowledgeable in the face of such clear falsification of the theories they have come to believe in, so they speculate that "sonic booms from exploding stars" generate the filaments. The gas, of course, is plasma, a word thats not present in consensus astronomys lexicon. The filaments are Birkeland currents, identifiable by their coherence over large distances, their twisting about each other into cable structures, and their pinching into high-density "starforming" instabilities. The networks are better known in plasma physics as circuits. The image above is a snapshot of a cosmic electrical discharge. Since astronomers have no word for electricity, they have no way to explain what puzzles them: the concentration of fast-moving charged particles into long, thin channels. Their only recourse is to the superstition that preceded the investigation of electricity: Thunder causes lightning. Mel Acheson Hat tip to Alazel Acheson The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Artist impression of Sikun Labyrinthus region on Saturn's moon Titan. Credit: NASA/JPL/ESA/SSI and M. Malaska/B. Jonsson
Reminders of Titan
(Apr 13, 2011)
Are the features found on Saturn's moon Titan something other than they appear? The recently renamed Cassini-Solstice spacecraft has been analyzing information from the planet Saturn and its family of moons for almost seven years. Its primary mission target continues to be Titan, the largest moon in the Solar System and the only one with an atmosphere. Titan has puzzled planetary scientists for as long as Cassini has been sending data. For example, methane gas is constantly escaping from Titan because of its low gravity. Sunlight also causes the methane molecule to dissociate into its carbon and hydrogen constituents. Conventional theories state that Titan is billions of years old, so why does a dense atmosphere continue to exist? Cassini mission scientists believe that there are "oceans" of methane on the surface of Titan, replenished by a "drizzle" of liquid methane raining out of the atmosphere. Images sent from the surface by the Huygens lander revealed a rocky landscape with the consistency of damp sand. A field of small pebbles extended to the horizon. Spectrographic analysis established that the "rocks" are made of water ice. It is easy to understand how ice can appear to be like rock when it is at a temperature of - 179 Celsius. What Huygens did not detect was liquids of any kind. No methane droplets were falling from the clouds; there was no precipitation, and no pools of methane were visible within the lander's field of view. If there are no methane oceans to feed the atmosphere, how is it generated? Cassini team members speculated for some time that so-called "cryo-volcanoes" were keeping Titan's atmosphere replenished. These supercooled eruptions were thought to bring the necessary gases out from the interior as Titan is heated up while being squeezed and twisted by Saturn's tidal forces. Recent data from Cassini has dispelled that notion, however. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Titan retains its atmosphere because it is a relative newcomer to the Solar System born from Saturn in an electrical conflagration. Saturn contains a great deal of methane in its atmosphere, so if Titan came into existence just a few thousand years ago, it has not had time to lose what it was born with. A previous Picture of the Day noted that flowing methane (or ethane) has never been found on Titan and that the entire line of reasoning follows from an assumption without foundation. The so-called "river valleys" on Titan do not look as if they were carved-out by flowing liquids. Electric Universe advocates predicted that an examination of the images would reveal the "rilles" going uphill and downhill, rather than always downhill, as a moving stream would do. Rather, what we see on Titan are probably electric discharge effects. "Sinuous rilles" occur on most rocky planets and moons. Although they superficially resemble some river systems on Earth, there are no catchment areas or feeder streams and the tributaries are short, often meeting the main channel at right angles, a sign of electric arcs traveling through the terrain. Also, rather than ocean basins, the flat depressions on Titan could have been etched out by energetic plasma discharge events. Titan is an electrically charged body that is constantly bombarded by ion storms from Saturn. It has a particle fountain flowing out of its poles, as well as a torus of charged particles encircling it. The banding around its north pole indicates that streams of charged particles are circling Titan in the same way that electrons and positive ions circle Earth in opposite directions. In other words, there is a plasma ring surrounding Titan that influences its geology and its weather. Orbital images confirm that it has a dry surface where dunes several meters high march across the terrain in parallel rows. The so-called "dunes" are large, being visible from the Cassini orbiter thousands of kilometers away. They are quite distinct, with well-defined, almost solid-looking ripples and waves that pass over craters and around "yardangs." They appear to follow wind patterns, but they also have some characteristics that might mean they are not wind-generated in the conventional sense. Many of the dunes look like fingerprint patterns, with whorls and arches. In response to the reported "anomalies" found on Titan, Electric Universe theorist Wal Thornhill wrote: "Huygens' descent to Titan's surface was an acid test...In particular, the expectation of channels carved by cosmic lightning, similar to Venus, was confirmed. The channels on Titan bear the hallmarks of cosmic lightning imprinted on the surface. Also, the lack of a methane ocean was predicted because Titan's atmosphere is very young and a vast reservoir of the gas is not needed to make good the losses expected over the 4.7 billion years required by the solar nebula model. Titan is a Rosetta Stone for planetary history once the context is understood...Titan's surface and the other bodies in the solar system can be deciphered when it's realized they repeat what is 'said' in plasma discharges." Stephen Smith
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Left: Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) 110328A. Right: Plasma focus penumbra and filaments. Credit: (L) NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler. (R) Focus Fusion Society.
Down the Barrel

(Apr 11, 2011)
Converging radial filaments indicate an interstellar Birkeland current "pinching down" into an hourglass shape. According to a recent press release, the longest lasting gamma-ray source ever recorded has been found by the Swift satellite's Burst Alert Telescope. "Swift" is so named because it can quickly identify and transmit the coordinates of various celestial high energy sources, so that optical instruments can locate the associated visible object (if it exists). The Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory also participated in the discovery. Chandra's image reveals the gamma-ray source is emitting copious X-rays in highly collimated beams. The consensus opinion among astrophysicists who study these phenomena is that there is a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in the center of the galaxy in which the GRB was detected. Matter from the surrounding stellar neighborhood is said to be pulled into the SMBH, where it is accelerated by an intense gravity field. The extreme velocity supposedly heats up particles as they approach the speed of light. It is that excitation that is said to create X-rays and gamma-rays. On the other hand, an electromagnetic z-pinch can squeeze plasma with such force that it rapidly compresses. Electric current flowing into the z-pinch might cause the plasma to erupt in an arc-mode discharge. We are seeing plasma structures when we look at nebulae, as well as the "remnants" of supernovae, and they behave according to the laws of electric discharges and circuits. One of the signature phenomena in a dense plasma focus is the helical strands of energy that surround a powerfully radiating arc-mode discharge and a dark-current torus. The strands are helical magnetic fields that confine plasma. In the two images at the top of the page, the dense plasma focus on the right compares with the gamma-ray emissions from GRB110328A on the left. It is not a black hole that is forming the structures around the GRB. Near the center of the Milky Way, and presumably in the centers of all galaxies, there is an abundance of electromagnetic energy. There might be 28 filamentary strands (or 56, or 49 or some other The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive number discussed by Alfvn, Peratt, Thornhill, and others) in the penumbral cloud of stars and nebulae that have been energized by the plasma gun effect.
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Birkeland currents enable electricity to move great distances through space in a manner analogous to power transmission lines on Earth. Plasma is compressed within the vortical filaments in long lines extending out from the galactic nucleus. Sometimes the "lines" are seen in galactic images as "bars" that spin at right angles to the current flowing out of the central bulge. It is in the most dense current flows where stars form. GRBs are not created by gravitational forces, but by the electric nature of the Universe and the way that moving plasma behaves in a magnetic field. Stephen Smith
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Inside Eberswalde crater, one of four proposed MSL landing sites. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Martians, Men and Machines

(Apr 08, 2011)
Is there, or has there ever been, life on the Red Planet? A new mission will try to find out. On a morning between November 25 and December 18, 2011 NASA will launch the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), otherwise known as "Curiosity." The new rover owes its handle to naming contest winner Clara Ma from Lenexa, Kansas. Curiosity is five times heavier than the Mars Exploration Rovers "Opportunity" and "Spirit," with upgraded instrumentation, including a high definition stereo video camera. Additionally, a tunable laser spectrometer can identify a wide range of organic compounds, as well as determine the isotopes of different key elements. The primary mission objective is for Curiosity to travel through the landscape within one of four landing sites, searching for life, or evidence of previous life, on Mars. The space program has been working on that project since the early 1970s when Viking 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral on August 20, 1975, followed one month later by Viking 2. On July 20, 1976 Viking 1 landed on Mars, preceding its twin by almost exactly six weeks. The essential reason for the Viking landers was to look for the same things that the MSL is designed to look for. Viking 1 landed in the western portion of Chryse Planitia, while Viking 2 landed 6700 kilometers away in Utopia Planitia. Both landers analyzed soil samples in an attempt to locate respiratory byproducts, but nothing conclusive was found. One could argue that any organic substances that might have been in reach of either Viking platform could have been incinerated when the descent engines blasted the landing area with superheated gases. To avoid this potential problem, Curiosity's descent module is designed to hover over the surface, while the rover is lowered by an onboard crane. The module will then The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive engage thrust and fly some distance away before crashing.
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The air is 100 times thinner on Mars and averages 75 degrees colder than Earth. The environment appears to be bone dry, with only some suggestive experiments by the Phoenix lander to indicate the possible presence of water ice. Without the presence of water in the form of subsurface ice deposits, the chances of finding life are admitted by all concerned to be slim. On Mars, deep channels and other structures are thought to be caused by water flowing on the surface, although it was "millions of years ago." Chemicals that form in the presence of water on Earth are presumed to have formed on Mars by the same process. Despite the contradictory evidence of mineral deposits that would be destroyed by water, such as olivine, the flowing water hypothesis continues to guide theories of Martian areography. In 1997, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) found outcrops of layered rock extending for thousands of kilometers. Hundreds more images uncovered rock layering in other locations. Since many of the layers are similar in thickness, NASA scientists conclude that the strata are sedimentary. They might have built-up in water and then been eroded by wind. For that reason, Curiosity's landing sites are in areas that are extensively layered. The active electrical forces that almost destroyed Mars at some time in the recent past are, of course, ignored by consensus science. Until electromagnetic forcefields, plasma discharges, and double layers are studied and understood by planetary scientists, no theory about Mars will be satisfactory. Mars tells a story that includes powerful plasma discharges on a massive scale. Vast areas show signs of excavation down to six kilometers below the mean elevation. Some of the shattered rock was accelerated electrically into space; some fell back to the surface, where it was electrically sorted and deposited in hardened layers. Rather than water, it was probably lightning that layered Mars. Stephen Smith Thanks to Eric Frank Russell for inspiring the title.
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Wadi Rum, Jordan. Credit: NASA EO-1 team and the United States Geological Survey.
Jordan's Valley of the Moon

(Apr 06, 2011)
Middle eastern deserts tend to preserve their geography because there is so little precipitation. NASA's EO-1 satellite returned the above image of a dry valley in Jordan. Like many regions dominated by deserts, the sinuous channels and vertical cliff walls often found there are usually attributed to precipitation. Since there is so little rainfall, it is presumed that the geography we see today must be ancient, otherwise there would not be such deep canyons. Wadi Rum is a collection of granite and sandstone mountains, with valleys choked in sand. The highest peaks rise to about 1700 meters and are nearly vertical. Its nickname, "Valley of the Moon," comes from the fact that it is so barren and chaotic. Jabal Rum, one of Jordan's tallest peaks, is a chunk of sandstone 700 meters thick. Its most unusual characteristic is that it rests on a 40 meter high granite slab. The dry gullies (wadis) and steep cliffs are thought to have been carved by floods after the last Ice Age. According to conventional theories, as the glaciers melted the runoff from the coastal mountains carved a drainage system. The last Ice Age is supposed to have ended 15,000 years ago, yet the sharpness of the cuts into the stone and the vertical cliffs belie a watery birth. Erosion is a blurring and rounding process. Conical mountain peaks are said to slowly reduce into flattened mounds and finally wear down to the level of the plains out of which they rose. Steep, vertical walls are supposed to gradually become shallow slopes, and v-shaped river valleys must give way to meandering flood plains. If the mesas, gullies, pillars, spikes, and ridges have all been exposed to wind and rain for millions of years, why are they still so sharp, steep and well-defined? Erosion does not possess the all-encompassing power for change that modern geology The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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asserts. In a previous Picture of the Day, it was proposed that curved gullies that stretch out from a common center, and sharp ridges with sine wave undulations incised into them are the remains of lightning bolts cutting into the topography like a plasma knife. Lichtenberg figures have been highlighted in these pages many times. They are the forking shapes that lightning bolts make when they strike the Earth or some man-made material. Their unique configuration can be seen in acrylic blocks that have been instantly charged with thousands of volts at high amperage, leaving a tracery of the electrical pathway visible in the otherwise transparent plastic. It seems possible that lightning bolts of sufficient power could do the same thing to minerals in the Earth on a continental scale. Indeed, Martian topography demonstrates "erosion" patterns like those in Jordan. The same multi-branched canyons, steep walls, flat bottoms, sinuous rilles and rims with scallop-shaped cutouts are so much like the ones seen here that transplanting Mars to Earth or vise-versa would be undetectable. In the Picture of the Day about the tepuis of Amazonia, it was reported that on many of the summits rock formations that look more like abstract sculpture gardens are abundant. Stone points, thickets of tubular palisades and upraised, columnar "hands" with multiple fingers demonstrate that weathering cannot be the primary cause. How does erosion leave behind stacked stone towers with many layers, sharp edges, mushroom-shaped caps and fine detail? Figures such as those should have softened long ago. The same structures are found in the Valley of the Moon. The focus of an ion beam large enough to cut out and take away sedimentary deposits weighing billions of tons is not easy to contemplate. The energy requirement is so great that there appears to be no way that it can be generated. What could launch a bolt of lightning that powerful? Indeed, what could launch hundreds or thousands of such bolts? Earth bears witness to catastrophic events in the not so remote past, despite uniformitarian views that assume slow, steady effects. Craters are declared to be ancient and not recent. Mountain ranges and valleys are asserted to be older than the memory of man and not newly minted out of a destroyed and remade previous world, despite the record of our ancestors. As has been stated many times by Electric Universe advocates, it is time for another perspective on geology. Some geologists question the slow-motion theories that dominate science today but they are few. Since planetary scientists have witnessed comet fragments colliding with Jupiter, vast ionized plumes erupting from Io, and volcanoes spitting lightning, it seems reasonable to insist that theories involving fast acting forces of change be considered along with those that require millions of years. Stephen Smith
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H1 Hydrogen emissions in the M51 galaxy. Credit: Sukanya Chakrabarti/UC Berkeley.
Dark Satellites
(Apr 04, 2011)
Are there dark matter galaxies orbiting the Milky Way? Sometimes, clues can be hidden in plain site. The key to solving a particular puzzle might simply be clouded by a layer of presumptions that obscure its true import. Such appears to be the case according a recent press release announcing the creation of a computer model to predict the existence of satellite galaxies. Astronomers from the University of California, Berkeley propose that galaxies like our own Milky Way should have "lots" of smaller galaxies in orbit around them. Since their existence cannot be determined by visible light surveys, it is thought that most of them are composed of so-called "dark matter." The research team developed a predictive computer model that analyzes H1 hydrogen distribution in galactic discs. If they can find disturbances in the structure it might indicate gravitational perturbations ("tidal effects") caused by invisible galaxies. The Milky Way is host to at least two smaller companions, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. However, some astronomers suspect that there are as many as 80 or more. The new predictive model is supposed to help answer the question. Gravitational force exerted by this unseen and undetectable material is thought to sustain not just our galaxy, but all galaxies. The supposed lack of luminous matter that can be observed in the visible Universe led to the original theory of dark matter. In 1933, Fritz Zwicky was studying the Coma Cluster and found that his calculations for orbital acceleration and stellar mass were off by a factor of about 160. He concluded that there must be something invisible to his instruments somewhere within the cluster that was holding it together. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Dark matter is unseen and undetectable and can be analyzed through inference alone. Could it be that something else is taking place? Something that mainstream observers fail to consider as an active force? What about electricity? Electric Universe theory sees clusters of galaxies, the galaxies themselves, and their associated stars driven by electric currents flowing in dusty plasma. Birkeland currents create z-pinch compression zones between spinning magnetic fields in an electrical vortex. Compressed plasma forms electromagnetically confined spheres, some in arc mode, some in glow mode and some with variability between the two states. Cosmic Birkeland currents flow into galaxies, so stars in their discs are powered by those currents. Galaxies, in turn, receive their power from intergalactic Birkeland currents that are detected by radio astronomers in space as filamentary structures traceable by their magnetic fields. Birkeland currents are drawn toward each other in a linear relationship, with a long-range electric force attraction 39 orders of magnitude greater than gravity, although their magnetic attraction is weaker. Dark matter and dark energy influences can be dismissed when electric currents flowing through plasma are recognized. When Birkeland currents interact, they twist around one another, forming a helix. If a cross section could be taken through plasma trapped in their interstices, it would reveal the familiar barred-spiral shape of a galaxy. In the image of M51 at the top of the page, the intertwining electrical filaments are clearly visible. As Hannes Alfvn postulated, electricity flows into the poles of a galaxy like the Milky Way and then out through the spiral arms. The circuit closes above and below the galactic disk, flowing back into the poles. This circuit receives its driving power from Birkeland currents that connect the galaxy with the rest of the Universe. The galactic z-pinch forms a cylindrical particle beam, coaxial with the galaxy and beyond the edge of the disk, which would energize a ring of stars. Observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey have uncovered such a ring, a separate structure that surrounds the galaxy at a reported distance of 120,000 light years. Instead of dark matter dwarf companions, the Milky Way and other galaxies most likely have dark mode electrically energized satellites. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Wal Thornhill
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INTEGRAL gamma-ray image showing isotopic aluminum-26 distribution in the galactic plane. Credit: CGRO/COMPTEL
Nox Aeterna
(Apr 01, 2011)
Do so-called "accretion disks" around presumptive black holes generate gamma-rays? "Now it is quite clear to me that there are no solid spheres in the heavens, and those that have been devised by the authors to save the appearances, exist only in the imagination." -- Tycho Brahe On October 17, 2002 the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the most sensitive gamma-ray observatory ever sent into space, the INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory. Its 10,000 kilometer perigee and 153,000 kilometer apogee means that the spacecraft spends most of its time outside of Earth's obscuring radiation belts. INTEGRAL will remain funded until December 2012. According to a recent press release, INTEGRAL has observed intense gamma-ray emissions from the Cygnus X-1 star system. As prevailing lore states, Cygnus X-1 is a stellar binary with one companion being a black hole and the other a blue supergiant known as HDE 226868, and is one of the strongest X-ray sources ever detected. The fact that the two objects radiate at high frequencies and with great intensity provides support for an interpretation based on the tenets of an Electric Universe. Consensus thinking creates a stellar wind from the blue supergiant star that then collects around the black hole, forming an accretion disk, where it orbits at such a high speed that it heats up to temperatures in excess of 10 million Kelvin. It is that fast, hot stellar material that is supposed to generate X-rays. The latest observation suggests that gamma-rays originate from the same matter stream However, Cygnus X-1 possesses another bizarre structure that is not readily explicable using black hole physics: a bipolar jet. Explaining the jets of ionized particles seen emanating from various objects in space is one of the most difficult tasks facing modern astronomy. What The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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force creates energetic particle beams spanning light-years? What confines them into narrow filaments? Hundreds of stellar jets have now been observed since Cygnus X-1 was first seen in 1964. The prevailing theory of "compact gravitational point sources" heating gas and dust in an accretion disk does not address the existence of collimated jets. There is only one force that can hold such a structure together: magnetism. The only way to generate the magnetic fields necessary for bipolar jets is with electricity flowing through space. The two lobes of Cygnus X-1's radio jet represent a cone of plasma viewed from the side. It is an example of a stellar scale dense plasma focus or "plasma gun." Surrounding the stellar binary is what should more properly be called an "expulsion disk," rather than an "accretion disk." Also, plasma arc discharges are known to generate high-energy ultraviolet light. The more electric current supplied to the arc, the higher the frequency. If enough power is supplied, X-rays and gamma-rays can be generated. Standard cosmological theories are hard-pressed to match models with observations. X-rays from ion excitation, a range of energy curves, and (sometimes) gamma-rays are all properties of lightning bolts. Computer simulations demonstrate that plasma phenomena are scalable over several orders of magnitude; they behave in the same way whether in atoms or galaxies. Perhaps the gamma-rays (and X-rays) from Cygnus X-1 are really flashes of cosmic lightning coming from electrified clouds of plasma on a stellar scale. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Wal Thornhill
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So-called "carbon star" IRC+10216. Credit: Izan Leao (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil).
Damp Stars
(Mar 30, 2011)
Some stars are said to be surrounded by haloes of hot water mixed with carbon dust. According to a recent European Space Agency (ESA) press release, the Herschel infrared space observatory discovered a cloud of hot water surrounding a giant star in constellation Leo known as IRC+10216. Space scientists were puzzled by the discovery of water near other carbon stars, but the Herschel team thinks they know what creates it: ultraviolet light. As the ESA bulletin states: "It is the only explanation for why a dying star is surrounded by a gigantic cloud of hot water vapour." Supposedly, ultraviolet light from nearby stars penetrates the envelope between gaseous "clumps," breaking apart carbon monoxide and silicon monoxide, allowing oxygen and hydrogen atoms to attach, forming water. IRC+10216 is a red giant star, surrounded by a massive cloud of dust that absorbs most visible light. The only way to "see through" the dust barrier is with infrared detectors. It is in that dust that the water vapour was found. The "clumpy structure" in the dust around the star is said to contribute to the formation of the water. In an Electric Universe, stars are electromagnetically and externally powered. A star is the locus of electric currents that circulate through the galaxy along star-spanning filaments known as Birkeland currents. A red giant is a star lacking a photosphere, the "surface" from which main sequence stars emit radiation. In the case of IRC+10216, its chromosphere has expanded in order to meet the red giants electrical needs. Stars shine because electricity flows through each galaxy. As has been written in these pages The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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many times, stars can be thought of as giant spheres of slow-motion lightning. It is this simple hypothesis that best matches observational evidence. Any fusion takes place on the surface of an electric star and not "deep in its core." Molecular oxygen can be created in electrically intense outer layers of a star. The primary indicator for a star's behavior is the current density at its surface. Stars do not rely on internally generated fusion fires to supply them with energy. Electric Universe advocate Wal Thornhill writes: "Red stars are those stars that cannot satisfy their hunger for electrons from the surrounding plasma. So the star expands the surface area over which it collects electrons by growing a large plasma sheath that becomes the effective collecting area of the stellar anode in space. The growth process is self-limiting because, as the sheath expands, its electric field will grow stronger. Electrons caught up in the field are accelerated to ever-greater energies. Before long, they become energetic enough to excite neutral particles they chance to collide with, and the huge sheath takes on a uniform red anode glow. It becomes a red giant star." A relatively cool atmosphere exists beneath the chromosphere of a red giant, so larger and more complex molecules can exist there. The molecular oxygen and the carbon atoms around IRC+10216 are created in the star's atmosphere because an electric field accelerates electrons toward the star. This flow of electrons is balanced by a flow of positive ions radiating in the opposite direction. Electric stars form by Marklund convection, so they do not possess cores of compressed hydrogen. Heavy elements, including carbon, collect in their cores. Relying on the remote ultraviolet emanations from other stars penetrating the obscuring clouds of dust because they are "clumpy" misses the point of electrical activity there. Stephen Smith
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Experimental results obtained in 1879 when conducting electricity through rarefied gases in a vacuum tube and modulated by a magnetic field. From left to right, the tube is filled with nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and tin(IV) chloride. The positive electrode is on top. The tube with nitrogen produced a spiral, the one with carbon dioxide a set of nine stacked toroids embracing a Y-shaped column. (c) John Rand Capron.
Shots in the Dark Part Two

(Mar 28, 2011)
The previous Picture of the Day described several of the many myths that refer to a celestial chain of arrows or a celestial ladder. It asked, how is this theme to be explained? A significant pointer is the realisation that stories concerning the arrow-chain form a subset of the mythology of the axis mundi, the "cosmic column" that occupies such a prominent position in the sacred traditions of most human cultures. Embedded in this larger body of material, the suspicion that the serried arrows mark a specific stage in the temporal development of the column will not be wide off the mark. When, during the second part of the nineteenth century, physicists began to experiment with electrical discharges in rarefied gases, they soon discovered that a sustained discharge May exhibit striation and take the form of a row of multiple discs or toroids. Perhaps preceded by the little-known Henry dAbria in 1843, the Welsh judge and physicist, Sir William Robert Grove (1811-1896), first hit upon the phenomenon in 1852. James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) himself observed in 1873: "Some of the forms of electrical discharge through rare gases are exceedingly remarkable. In some cases there is a regular alternation of luminous and dark strata, so that if the electricity, for example, is passing along a tube containing a very small quantity of gas, a number of luminous disks will be seen arranged transversely at nearly equal intervals along the axis of the tube and separated by dark strata. If the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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strength of the current be increased a new disk will start into existence, and it and the old disks will arrange themselves in closer order. These, and many other phenomena of electrical discharge, are exceedingly important, and when they are better understood they will probably throw great light on the nature of electricity as well as on the nature of gases and of the medium pervading space." In modern terminology, such "luminous disks" are viewed as a type of plasma instability occurring in z-pinches; informally though not in the published literature they have been referred to as "Peratt Instabilities," after the American plasma physicist, Anthony Peratt. Although Maxwells expectations were aimed at developments in physics, the analysis of such "stacked toroids" or "nested mushrooms" finds a pointed application in the study of human traditions. Reporting on an extensive set of experiments in 1878, Warren de la Rue (18151889) and Hugo W. Mller employed a wide variety of imaginative labels to characterise the Peratt Instabilities they obtained, including "luminosities arranged in serpent-like form," "parallel worm-like entities," "spheroids," "disc-shaped strata," "saucer-shaped strata," "umbrella-shaped strata," and "small crescent-shaped disks of red light," ranging anywhere in number from 2 or 3 to 62. The metaphor of arrows was frequently resorted to as well: an "arrow-headed nebulosity," "luminosities, part of them arrow-headed, arranged in a wavelike formation," "arrow-headed luminosities," "arrow-headed entities," "luminosities with arrow heads arranged in a spiral," and so forth. John Rand Capron (1829-1888) was an English solicitor and amateur astronomer who generated similar toroids and spirals during electrical experiments he performed around 1879 to prove the electrical nature of the aurorae. Moreover, apparently without exception, myths of the arrow-chain type situate that curious configuration in the sky. For these reasons, only the most spineless of scholars would forbid that such traditions could be based on a conspicuous electric discharge event directly observed in the earths atmosphere on one or perhaps a few occasions in the prehistoric past. The energy required for such a plasma tube to form, to glow and to develop "Peratt instabilities" must have been enormous. A study of the evolutionary stages that would precede as well as follow that of the nested cones might clinch the matter. De la Rue and Mller had already noted that, under some circumstances, "two disks near the negative join together, assuming the form of a double convex lens," while, under others, "the strata become thicker and fewer; lastly, the current passes with increasing difficulty, and the strata have a tendency to run together." Perhaps the latest in a long string of diligent researchers, Peratt has put a firmer backbone into such early researches using cutting-edge technology and simulation software run on the worlds fastest computer. In 2003, he outlined his finding that an initial set of 7 to 9 plasmoids, loosely aligned, will form a rigid "backbone"- or "ladder"- structure under increasing electrical charge. As the current intensifies, the "branches" will begin to warp and merge, until the pinch collapses. As seen, in the world of mythology, the embedded arrow cones that once led up to the sky run a similar gamut of manifestations and deformations, including the metamorphosis of the pliable string into a rigid ladder or a storeyed mountain and the final disintegration of the latter. With penetrating insight, Peratt also launched the idea that prehistoric petroglyphs categorised as "caterpillars" and "ladders" present visual records of this linear evolution. The above amounts to circumstantial proof that the earths atmosphere once or repeatedly The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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sported a prodigious z-pinch, stratified into an array of discrete plasmoids. With such evidence lined up, the question what unusual physical circumstances could have spawned such a display is surely right on target. Rens Van der Sluijs
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Striations in an electrical discharge tube filled with hydrogen. The left portion is 45.7 centimetres long, the right one 44.4 centimetres. The small tube terminates in a point, the large one in a ring. In the image on top, the point is positively charged, producing 62 disc-shaped strata in the small tube and 12 saucer-shaped ones in the large one. Below, the point is negatively charged, producing 54 disc-shaped strata in the small tube and 13 saucershaped ones in the large one. The strata in the small tube were blue, but at times, with a large current, carmine. Copied from photographs, obtained in respectively 15 and 10 seconds. Warren de la Rue and Hugo W. Mller, 1878
Shots in the Dark Part One

(Mar 25, 2011)
The mythical landscape is replete with structures alien to the familiar terrestrial environment today. The term "anomaly" is hardly appropriate for such forms, as it falsely suggests that they constitute a minority. Instead, it would be more accurate to say that puzzling apparitions dominate the scene conjured up in traditional tales. One example of such a mysterious object is the so-called chain of arrows or spears, a concatenation of arrows, or spearheads, each lodging in the butt of the one preceding it, that is suspended from the sky downwards. Countless myths tell how one or a group of mythical beings brought this curious formation into being, usually in the bygone days of "creation." For example, the Kaurna tribe, of the Adelaide Plains of South Australia, told that a certain Monana "was one day throwing large spears in various directions, east, west, north, south; when, having thrown one upwards, it did not return to the earth. He then threw another, and another, and so continued throwing; each spear sticking fast to the former one until they reached the ground " The lowest segment, required to link the formation to the surface of the earth, tends to be described as crescentic in form, such as a hook, a bow or the upper half of a birds beak. Thus, in traditions from the Kutenai, of Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia, "a chain of arrows" is formed by the primordial animals, "which Raven completes by putting his beak in the nock of the last arrow." Some traditions intimate that the arrowheads or their correlates, having lodged together, were securely fastened to each other so as to form a veritable "rope" or "chain." The transition May be accompanied by a shaking of the string. In an account from the Kwgu, of northern Vancouver Island, a chain of arrows was fabricated by a certain L!sElagila alias "Born-tobe-the-Sun": " he strung his bow, and Born-to-be-the-Sun shot (his arrow) against the upper world. Then he shot another arrow, and still another one, and yet another. Now he had shot all the four arrows. Born-to-be-the-Sun had not looked up long when the arrows came sticking one into the other and struck the ground. They began to stretch out. Then Born-to-be-the-Sun took them and shook them, and they became a rope." In some accounts, the loosely embedded constituents of the column subsequently undergo a physical transformation at the expense of the flexibility that typifies a rope or chain; a solid, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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collinear structure results when a vertical cross-bar strings the superimposed constituents of the cable together and flattened extensions emerge from both sides. For instance, a Kutenai story-teller spoke of "the arrows, which are transformed into a mountain," identified as Mount Baker, near Cranbrook, British Columbia. More frequently, the "freezing" of the arrows is stated to have produced a "ladder" or a "stairway." The Tlingit, of the extreme northwestern coast of British Columbia, report that the son of a great chief woke up to find the chain of arrows he had produced transformed: "After a while he awoke, found himself sleeping on that hill, remembered the arrows he had shot away, and looked up. Instead of the arrows there was a long ladder reaching right down to him." The Menik Kaien and the Kintak Bong are two non-Malay groups of Malaysia, who narrate that a certain Tapern "made a ladder up to heaven by shooting a series of darts from his blowpipe into the air. The first of these stuck into a black cloud, and the others ranged themselves in order below " Countless other illustrations of the genre spell out how one or more mythical entities proceeded to ascend to the sky or descend to the earth along a string of arrows or spears, how war ensued between this party and the creatures of the sky, how the connecting cable was eventually severed and how this precluded any further traffic between the realms above and below it, leading to the current division between the stars and the birds in the sky and the people and other animals on earth. Variations on this story proliferate in the Americas and also circulate in parts of Oceania. In Africa, heaped-up trees or pillars take the place of the arrows, as do stacked mountains or storeyed mountains in Eurasia. How is this theme to be explained? Rens Van Der Sluijs
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Unusual cratering on Mercury's far side. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University APL / Carnegie Institution of Washington
MESSENGER in Orbit
(Mar 23, 2011)
After a seven year journey the space probe is now Mercury's first satellite. On August 3, 2004, NASA launched the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) experiment from Cape Canaveral. After traveling nearly eight billion kilometers, the 485 kilogram spacecraft initiated orbital insertion around Mercury on March 17, 2011. It will begin its scientific mission on March 23, 2011. Mercury is a small planet, 4878 kilometers in diameter. Jupiter's moon Ganymede and Saturn's moon Titan are both larger. Mercury revolves at a mean distance of 57,910,000 kilometers from the Sun, so a year on Mercury lasts 88 days. Since it rotates once every 58.6 days, the planet completes three rotations for every two orbits. Mercury, like most bodies in the Solar System, has a weak magnetic field, but scientists have no idea how it is generated. A magnetometer on the MESSENGER satellite should help resolve where the magnetic field originates. Modern theories suggest that it is a rotating "dynamo" of molten metal inside Mercury, although no one understands how a molten core exists on Mercury since the planet appears cold and dead. The molten interior should have cooled off eons ago. Considering its estimated high density, Mercury is believed to be almost 75% iron surrounded by a thin shell of silicon-rich rock. Consensus theories about protoplanetary nebulae cannot explain the abundance of iron: the ratio of iron to silicon is opposite that of the other rocky planets. Mercury's temperature exceeds 400 Celsius at noon, and it receives an average of nine times more radiation at its surface than the Earth. Since it is bathed in searing heat, and is bombarded by charged particles from the Sun, how can it possess a detectable atmosphere? The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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According to planetary scientists, a planet with a gravity field only 38% that of Earth, and under such intense solar irradiation, should not possess the smallest remnant of an atmosphere. It is possible that Mercury could be a young planet, so, like Titan (a possibly young moon of Saturn), it retains some of its primordial envelope despite low gravity. During MESSENGER's second flyby of Mercury, electromagnetic flux tubes were found connecting the planet's weak magnetic field directly to the Sun with gigantic filaments of electric current. In April of 2009, NASAs THEMIS satellites found similar "electric tornadoes" above Earth at the interface between the magnetosphere and the Sun's ionic wind. Such currents are familiar to plasma physicists and Electric Universe proponents. It is those helical "Birkeland currents" that confine plasma and allow electricity to flow over great distances. The presence of electric forces flowing like giant tornadoes into Mercury hint at a time when those forces might have been far more powerful. As mentioned in a Previous Picture of the Day, there could have been a period in Mercury's history when those helical currents were energized to the glow mode or the arc mode stage. If that happened, then the surface of Mercury would have been the scene of gigantic electric discharges blasting out craters, cutting vast chasms, and rearranging the atomic structure of the planet's crust over large areas. One of the most intriguing features on Mercury is the Caloris Basin, a 1300-kilometer "astrobleme" that supposedly caused shockwaves to pass entirely through the planet. On the opposite side of Mercury are bizarre folds and uplifts that are said to be from the antipodal compression of the crust as the tremendous pressure partially melted and then re-solidified the strata. The Caloris Basin resembles other multi-ringed "impact" structures we have previously discussed in other Picture of the Day articles. Multiple basins found on Mercury, just as on several other celestial bodies, are probably formed when electricity erodes material from the surface. Craters are usually circular because the electromagnetic forces constrain them to strike at right angles to the surface. If an electric arc is composed of two filaments rotating around a common center, the surface will be excavated by a plasma "drill bit," leaving steep sides and a "pinched up" rim of debris. If several filaments are involved, the plasma beams can cut one crater within another, sometimes with one or more smaller craters on the rims. Most of the debris on the surface of Mercury appears to be chunks of fallback material that was blown out by the explosive energies of plasma discharges. Ordinarily, as in the image at the top of the page, the craters have little if any ejecta surrounding them. Indeed, a close examination of some of those concentrations of craters reveals them to be woven together in patterns that crisscross and braid themselves over and under one another. They all lie along the path of flat-topped mesas that rise above deep chasms cutting across the landscape without regard to the elevation. Many times the chasms slice right through the middle of a crater and its central mountain peak as if they werent there. How does the Electric Universe hypothesis account for the volumes of information returned by missions such as MESSENGER? The Electric Universe provides simple yet surprising answers to that question in such publications as, "Astronomical Myths of Mercury and the Sun," by Wal Thornhill. With MESSENGER's mission in orbit around Mercury it is likely that additional observations will confirm our hypothesis. Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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A modern statuette representing the legendary Sn Wkng or "Monkey," the protagonist of W Chngns Journey to the West (Xyu-J) (1590s). Monkeys magic rod, the Ry Jng Bng, was described in the novel as made of iron with two gold bands, but is also depicted in other dyes, including as a solid golden staff. It was stated to be immensely heavy and had the magic ability to grow to a prodigious size, then shrink again. Upon its discovery by Monkey in "the depth of the Heavenly River," it emitted "a thousand shafts of golden light." DusanH
Mythology at Stake
(Mar 21, 2011)
The central challenge in comparative mythology is to account for the many similarities between traditions from different cultures and ages. This task is all the more daunting in cases where the pertinent cultures are not known to have been in touch with each other, even indirectly, and in those where the content of the shared themes is not immediately obvious from the perspective of the local culture or environment. A vivid example of the striking degree of convergence encountered so often in this field concerns the following two traditions from respectively ancient Sumer, recorded on clay tablets some 4,000 years ago, and New South Wales, Australia, delivered orally sometime prior to 1925. Both belong to the prominent class of origin myths and describe how some mythical being lifted up the sky from the earth by means of a golden rod-like implement. In the Sumerian tale, the god Enlil, also styled Gibil, separates heaven and earth with his al or "hoe": "Then Enlil praised his hoe (al), his hoe (al) wrought in gold, its top inlaid with lapis lazuli, his hoe (al) whose blade was tied on with a cord, which was adorned with silver and gold, his hoe (al), the edge of whose point (?) was a plough of lapis lazuli, whose blade was like a battering ram {standing up to a great (gal) wall} Gibil made his hoe (al) raise its head towards the heavens he caused the hoe (al), sacred indeed, to be The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The deity allegedly did so at a sacred place called uzu--a, "where flesh came forth," raising or suspending the bulug, the "axis of the world," at Dur-an-ki in the ancient Sumerian city of Nippur. The idea May have been that the hoe itself transformed into this column. A remarkably close parallel to this tradition is furnished by a myth from the people from the headwaters of the Murrumbidgee River, a branch of the Wiradjuri, in central New South Wales. In this, a "rod made of gold" once enabled an anonymous chief to lift up the sky by its magic protrusion: "It surely was a rod made of gold, for the blacks say that it was very bright and of the colour of gold. He lifted it up; and, behold! As it touched the sky, the sky went on and up before it. And the rod grew. So the sky went on up as far as the rod grew, and for as long as the chief pushed it." The elevation of the sky, the prodigious expansion of a sky pillar and the golden stanchion of the sky are archetypal motifs that recur and combine worldwide in a seemingly endless kaleidoscope of narrative variants. Is the occasional occurrence of near-identical versions amid this dazzling phantasmagoria a mere result of coincidence? Or does the precise embedding of myths such as the above in a refined structural edifice of cross-cultural "creation mythology" suggest that something more fundamental is at stake? Just as in other disciplines that handle vast amounts of "raw data," such as comparative linguistics and paleontology, the recognition of patterns functions as an indispensable pillar of methodology. Yet whereas meanings lie beyond words and the bodies of living animals beyond dead bones, the mythologist May at times feel "poleaxed" by the bafflingly complex world of elusive forces and agents evoked in this intricate network of corresponding stories and beliefs. Just what is the subject matter of mythology in the real world preceding the myths? In his monumental The Golden Bough, the famed Scottish anthropologist and belletrist, Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941), staked his claim that the mind everywhere evolves along similar lines, thus translating similar experiences in nature into similar superstitions and institutions. For all its elegance, however, this hypothesis does not stand up to the light of day. It May account for some elementary traits of archaic folklore, such as that the sun journeys beneath the surface of the earth at night or is accosted by a monster during eclipses, but it fails spectacularly when it comes to a clarification of the hundreds of interconnected themes constituting the global nexus of origin myths. Few would stake their lives on the accuracy of the many tortuous "naturalistic" explanations that have been advanced for universal archetypes by those that followed in Frazers footsteps. A far more attractive proposition is that such myths find their original inspiration in the collective experience of a series of conspicuous transient events occurring in the earths atmosphere and above. With a nod to Frazer, the perplexing resemblance many of these myths bear to each other springs from the tendency of the human mind to interpret a similar display of forms, colours and motions using similar metaphors. Meteorites, bolides, comets, eclipses, aurorae all such phenomena were universally mythologised in terms of similar symbols. Likewise, a far more dramatic "celestial pageant" will have suggested to Sumerians and proto-Wiradjuri alike that someone lifted up the sky by means of a golden staff. On that solid foundation, interdisciplinarians can subsequently debate what physical conditions could have provoked such imagery. Does a meteorological-optical effect, such as a "sun pillar" The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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occasionally seen at sunrise, do the trick? Or does the evidence point to the erstwhile formation and collapse of a glowing plasma z-pinch in the earths atmosphere and beyond? The stakes are high. Rens Van Der Sluijs
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Lightning erupts from the crater of Mount Shinmoedake on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Reuters New Agency
Earthquakes and Volcanoes

(Mar 18, 2011)
Lightning discharges in the atmosphere are familiar, but what about the ones underground? The electrical phenomenon we call lightning is not well understood. The most common interpretation involves the circulation of water vapor up and down through clouds in a process called convection. Water is heated by the Sun until it evaporates, rising into the air where it collects into clouds. The water vapor continues to rise higher and higher, finally cooling enough to condense back into liquid. Earth's gravity then pulls it back to the surface where the cycle repeats. According to consensus opinions, water droplets tend to collide during convection, knocking electrons off one another, creating a charge separation. Electrons accumulate in the lower portion of the cloud, where it acquires a negative charge. As the droplets that have lost an electron continue to rise, they carry a positive charge into the top of the cloud. The regions of charge differential, or charge separation, cause an electric field to form between them, with a strength directly proportional to the amount of charge in the cloud. The electric field can become so powerful that it repels electrons in the Earth's surface, forcing it to become positively charged. A conductive pathway between the two regions can initiate a lighting leader stroke that eventually connects with some positive streamer rising from the ground. Such a process cannot explain volcanic lightning. Most planetary scientists assume that the cause is similar, but there is no experimental evidence to confirm the idea. Over the last two hundred years of reporting, lightning has been seen in the ash clouds spewing from numerous volcanic eruptions. Gigantic branching displays were photographed The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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during the Mt. Chaiten eruption in May of 2008. There were reports of ball lightning bigger than beach balls rolling along the ground when Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1981. Eyjafjallajkull produced flashes that lit up the sky for many kilometers. Large "telluric currents" have been found circulating through Earth's crust because our magnetic field induces current flow in conductive strata. Thousands of amperes flow beneath the surface, varying according to conductivity. Since the Sun can affect Earth's magnetic field through geomagnetic storms, fluctuations in telluric currents can occur when there is an increase in sunspots or solar flares, because they create oscillations in the ionosphere. Sometimes earthquakes can produce flashes of light and other luminous events, as well. Ball lightning has been reported accompanying earthquakes, as have bright, colorful cloud-like formations floating in the sky above the fractured strata. It is not surprising that glow discharges occur before and after earthquakes: compressing quartz creates a flow of electric current. That is one reason why radio noise can be detected coming from areas under extreme stress. Is that stress only due to compression? Quartz reacts to stress by producing electricity, but when electric current flows through quartz it vibrates with a frequency coincident with the watts of power supplied to it. In a previous Picture of the Day, our planet was compared to a capacitor, capable of being charged and discharged by external electric fields. A capacitor stores electric charge. Capacitors are constructed of two conductors, or "plates," separated by a dielectric insulator. Electric charge on one plate attracts an opposite charge to the other, resulting in an electric field between them. As the capacitor's charge increases, its electric field increases, stressing the insulator's ability to separate opposite charges. If a high enough potential grows between the two conductive plates, the dielectric insulator will fail and the capacitor will short circuit, suddenly releasing the stored energy. It is that phenomenon that most likely contributes to atmospheric lightning discharges. Stored electrical energy in the clouds and in the ground overcome the atmosphere's ability to keep the two charges separate, so they reach out to each other as "leader strokes." When the two lightning leaders meet, a circuit between the clouds and the ground (or between one cloud and another) is completed and a burst of electric current flashes along the conductive pathway. Since magma can be considered a form of liquid plasma, it can also conduct electricity. As the ionosphere is charged up by solar flares, opposite charge is attracted to subterranean magma. Electric currents in plasma pinch down into filaments and form double layers. Electromagnetic forces between current filaments and between double layers can cause sudden pressure variations. If, as stated above, the charge differential between layers becomes too great, a double layer can explode, releasing all of its energy flow instantaneously. So, earthquakes can be considered a form of underground lightning. If there is a break in the strata, permitting magma to reach the surface, the arc discharge might connect to the outside and a lightning bolt will leap from the cone of a volcano. If earthquakes are underground lightning bolts, then perhaps seismic waves are the thunderclaps. In that case, it seems likely that the majority of energy release during an earthquake is not from the fracturing and movement of rock strata, but is the result of electrical energy detonating within the matrix. Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Diagram showing the estimated path of the north geomagnetic pole from 8000 BCE to 2000 CE. Courtesy Masao Ohno and Yozo Hamano
Polar Wondering
(Mar 16, 2011)
Leibniz beloved adage that natura non facit saltus or nature does not make leaps has had to endure a fair amount of comeuppances since it gained currency. An arresting example today of our unpredictable world is the rapid wandering of the north geomagnetic pole in recent years an eastward movement currently estimated at a rate of 37 miles per year and possibly still accelerating. The surge of attention for this in the popular media highlights a widespread fear of the unknown, in which the possibility of a complete reversal of the earths magnetic poles occupies a prominent part. Yet although signs that the earths magnetic field is really about to reverse are wanting, the likes of Carolus Linnaeus, Isaac Newton, and Charles Darwin might have turned over in their graves at todays grand display of natures capriciousness. Whereas newspapers and television programmes delight in the phrase that the north magnetic pole of the earth has not been known to move with such celerity "since records began," modern scientists are not at all taken aback by these developments, as such manmade records are really all but hoary. Archaeologists, climatologists and geophysicists have been studying records of past pole movements buried in the earths crust since at least a couple of decades. Extracting archaeomagnetic measurements from baked clay materials, collected from archaeological sites, and for earlier periods from geological sediments, painstaking analysis has enabled researchers to model the past evolution of the earths magnetic field all the way back to the onset of the Holocene. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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As early as 1992, a Japanese team published the diagram shown above, mapping the path of the north geomagnetic pole over the past 10 millennia. It transpires that "distribution of the geomagnetic pole was elongated to the direction parallel to the meridian of 45 and 225 longitude, and westward movement of the pole was predominant throughout this period." Moreover, the polar trajectory appeared to have involved three different intervals: prior to 5,000 BCE, "the movement of the geomagnetic pole was active, in which it changed its position over 15 degrees"; the period between 5,000 and 1,700 BCE was comparatively inactive, as "the range of the movement of the geomagnetic pole was limited within 5 degrees around the geographical pole," and from 1,700 BCE onward the movement of the pole was again "very active, fluctuating over 10 degrees," so that "the geomagnetic pole moved largely to the outside of the circle of 80 degrees of north latitude." The polar antics of antiquity help to place recent displacement patterns in a wider context. In addition, knowledge of the past positions of the poles is a vital tool in the study of transient celestial events in historical times for along with the geomagnetic pole shifts the auroral oval, beneath which displays of the aurora are most frequent. An especially active episode known among Russian researchers as the Sterno-Etrussia geomagnetic excursion occurred between 800 and 600 BCE and lasted one or two centuries. During this time, the geomagnetic dipole inclined more than 10 towards the East, taking it to 81.4 N, 45.1 E, just to the northeast of Spitsbergen. As the Babylonian city of Nippur was located at the same longitude, the dipole magnetic latitude of Babylon at that time was 40.8 N, as compared to the present-day value of 27.0. This suggests "a higher auroral incidence at Babylon in 567 BC than at present," as some have noted. It would also have predisposed the area to a richer variety of auroral forms, including the occurrence of magnificent overhead aurorae or coronae; for comparison, the overhead aurora of 14 May 1921 occurred at 40 magnetic latitude, and the one of 1 September 1859 the famous "Carrington Event" at 36. The hypothesis is confirmed in fact by Babylonian observations of a red glow at around 600 BCE, as mentioned in a cluster of cuneiform texts. Similar records "were uncommon in the centuries preceding and following this date, consistent with this being the only time over the past few thousand years that the magnetic pole was in the longitude of Nippur (modern day Iraq)." Indeed, as a handful of researchers have argued, the very outburst of auroral activity exhibited in the skies over the Middle East during this period was almost certainly recorded in ancient sources as a smattering of "visions," including the famous "vision of the chariot" reported by the Hebrew prophet, Ezekiel. The latter was essentially "a windstorm coming out of the North," "an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light." Despite the presence of "lightning," this was not an ordinary tempest: the luminous structure of wheels, animal-like creatures, "an expanse, sparkling like ice" and the crowning image of the enthroned deity all find close analogues in eyewitness reports of the polar aurora. In the bigger picture, it can be shown that prophetic visions reducible to auroral apparitions and perhaps accompanied by hallucinations, induced by ambient electromagnetic fields have fuelled significant changes in prevailing cultural paradigms. It May not be coincidental that the Sterno-Etrussia geomagnetic excursion roughly corresponds to the so-called "axial age," which was typified by spiritual revolutions extending from Greece to China. Confucianism and Daoism in China, Buddhism and Jainism in India, Zoroastrianism in Persia, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the reformative utterances of the Hebrew prophets and Greek philosophy all share a common origin in this epoch. Although it is still premature to finger a geomagnetic cause for this age of reforms, the case of Ezekiel justifies the search for a correlation between geomagnetic upheaval and the inspirational visions had by many sages at this time suggesting that the polar adventure of this era proved quite beneficial to denizens of the Old World. If the cultural history of mankind thus progresses in leaps and bounds, sometimes in tune with the dance of the magnetic poles, all are advised to allay "Doomsday" fears and to enjoy the ride. Rens Van Der Sluijs
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Left: a solar prominence detaching itself from the sun (6 December 2010). NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory. Right: detail from the papyrus of B_k-n-Mw.t, Egypt (Tenth century BCE). Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, Cairo, Egypt.
Going Round the Sun in Circles

(Mar 14, 2011)
Sometimes science is served better by questions than answers. When crossing the threshold between familiar physics and uncharted territory, contemplating possibilities that are theoretically plausible but so far unexplored or untested, premature conclusions can be more detrimental than carefully framed questions transcending existing boundaries of feasibility. On the morning of 26 June 1873, two citizens of Fort Scott, Kansas (3750 N, 9442 W), recorded an unusual appearance of the rising sun: "The sky was clear, and the sun rose entirely unobscured. When the disk of the sun was about half way above the horizon, the form of a huge serpent, apparently perfect in form, was plainly seen encircling it, and was visible for some moments." As the pair were "willing, if necessary, to make affidavit of their assertions" and the editor of the local paper had "all confidence in the credibility of our witnesses," this tidbit of information May conceal a genuine transient phenomenon on the sun but what could that have been? Certainly the sun was all but calm at the time of the sighting. The "serpent" was seen during the maximum of solar cycle 11, the cycle following the one that saw the famous Carrington event, transpiring about 1.5 years after the great low-latitude aurora of 4 February 1872, which was recently characterised as "the greatest of the modern epoch, surpassing that of 1859," and "perhaps the most extensive in relatively recent times." The observation of the solar "serpent" from Kansas coincides with a flurry of notable aurorae that occurred between 18 and 27 June 1873. One experienced observer, Minerva Emily Wing (1833-1881), of West Charlotte, Vermont, stationed at a latitude of 4419 north, recorded an "aurora all night" on 22 and 23 June and characterised the peak occurrence on the 25th. as the "most brilliant aurora of this year," having the "form of an arch, with short beams playing on both sides up and down " As this "most brilliant aurora" occurred one or perhaps two nights before the two witnesses at Fort Scott spotted their "huge serpent" encircling the sun, it is tempting to infer that the "serpent" was a solar prominence producing or coinciding with a coronal mass ejection intense enough to last while some of the expelled plasma had already reached the earth. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Allowing that a filament undulating around only the upper half of the solar disc could adequately be described as "encircling" it, the morphology of solar filaments lends itself well to nave or casual comparison to a snake. This was illustrated most recently in the formation of a "mega-filament of solar magnetism" spotted on 16 November 2010, which reporters described as a "dark filament of magnetism snaking around the suns southwestern horizon" or "around the suns SE limb" (here, here and here), a "huge snakelike tendril of magnetic plasma," and a "snakelike solar filament arcing up from the sun" (here). Reaching a staggering length of 700,000 kilometres before snapping and sparking off a coronal mass ejection on 6 December, the filament ultimately spanned "a full solar radius." Upon examination of photographs of the event (as above), the analogy of the structure with the contortions of a snake, perhaps a fire-spewing one, seems apposite. Superficially, therefore, the solar "serpent" seen at Fort Scott sounds suspiciously like an eruptive solar prominence, manifesting during a powerful solar storm. Is this a loopy idea? It is well known that the solar corona, or any of its features, can never be perceived with the unaided eye of a human observer at other times than solar eclipses. Even at dawn or sunrise, the brightness of the sky near the horizon exceeds that of any solar prominences and coronal mass ejections by several orders of magnitude. For that reason, it would be rash and irresponsible to insist on a coronal explanation of the 1873 event. Scouring the rich repertoire of meteorological-optical phenomena for alternative options, a solar halo leaps to mind. A halo might meet the requirement of being "apparently perfect in form," haloes have been known to sport wavy edges, and the added manifestation of a parhelion or sundog on one of its sides or of a "horn"-like arc at its top might have supplied the reptilians "head." Yet on current knowledge the metaphoric comparison of a halo to a snake lacks parallels entirely. Optical coronae, which are really diffraction discs, come to mind, but are not on record as "sun snakes" either. During the few "moments" when the "serpent" was discerned would fit the ephemeral nature of the so-called "green flash," commonly spotted at sunrise or sunset, but while the flash assumes a variety of forms none surround the disc of the sun in anything resembling a loop. Reluctant to dismiss the Fort Scott report as fictional, not fully convinced of the atmospheric options and impressed by the coincident occurrence of an auroral storm, the inquisitive mind cannot help pondering adventurous solutions to the enigma. If there is merit in a meteorological-optical interpretation, could there be a correlation between the breaking and scattering of the suns light, as effected by cirrus clouds, and disturbances in the geomagnetic field, such as provoke aurorae in the upper atmosphere? Alternatively, if eruptive solar filaments discharge in arc mode, like a flash of lightning, should they not be able to rival the brilliance of the suns photosphere, however fleetingly? To avoid circular reasoning, the observation from Fort Scott cannot be invoked in support of this suspicion. Yet with a history of scientific observations reaching back no further than some four centuries, are solar physicists really in a position to roundly dismiss these possibilities? On the other hand, "special pleading" is an undesirable tactic and, on present knowledge, only the assumption of a halo or glory emerges as justifiable. This small puzzle is of some importance from an interdisciplinary point of view. In the image of a snake encircling the sun mythologists and symbologists May recognise the ourobros or "tail-biting serpent," most familiar from alchemical iconography. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In ancient Egyptian art and literature, the circular snake was almost exclusively portrayed surrounding the sun, as were other types of so-called uraeus serpents. Some of these May be explicable in terms of "green flashes" and other optical phenomena. Could others, and perhaps specifically the round snake, relate to ancient observations of the solar corona, be it during eclipses or not? In a roundabout way, these musings revive the question what mechanism powers the sun. During the late nineteenth century, when astronomers were still debating whether the solar corona envelopes the sun or the moon, or is just an artefact of the earths atmosphere, the open intellectual climate still allowed the English astronomer, Sir William Huggins (18241910), to address the Royal Society of London with his electrical model of the sun. After a centurys worth of gravity-only models for the sun, Huggins conviction that the sun operates electrically is now coming full circle. Perhaps, then, the time is also ripe to examine another of Huggins hunches: "May the corona have been still faintly visible in the earliest ages of the human race? Are there any philological traces of it in the earliest words and ideas connected with the sun?" Until that question is answered, the dragon will most likely continue to rear its ugly head. Rens Van Der Sluijs
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An image of Mars from the HiRise camera. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
MRO's Fifth Year

(Mar 11, 2011)
Cameras orbiting Mars continue to provide spectacular imagery that helps confirm Electric Universe theories. On August 12, 2005 NASA launched the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on a two year mission to map the surface of the Red Planet. After several months of flight, polar orbit insertion occurred on March 10, 2006. However, more months of aerobraking--dipping in and out of the Martian atmosphere in order to reduce speed--were required, as well as thruster burns needed to circularize its orbit. Final orbital parameters were achieved in September 2006. Its other primary science goal was and continues to be a search for water in the barren wastelands of Mars, as well as to identify landing sites for future robotic explorers. After completion of its original mission, MRO was funded twice more, with another two years to go. Several scientific instruments are onboard the spacecraft. Among them are a spectrometer, radar, and a gravity field detector, as well as several cameras assigned to various tasks. In particular, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera (HiRise), a 0.5 meter telescope, able to resolve objects as small as 30 centimeters from 300 kilometers up, has provided Electric Universe advocates uncountable examples of past, intense electrical activity on Mars. The equatorial diameter of Mars is approximately 6793 kilometers, about half that of Earth. Its average temperature is - 63 Celsius, compared to Earth at 13 Celsius. The atmospheric density on Mars is equivalent to standing on top of a mountain six times taller than Mount Everest, or 1/800 that of Earth at sea level. Scientists speculate that four billion years ago, Mars lost most of its atmosphere. How is not known, but several theories have been put forward. An asteroid impact might have exploded with such force that it blew the atmosphere away. A torrent of charged particles blazing out from the Sun could have eaten away the atmosphere over millions of years, leaving Mars as it is today. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Martian areography tells a story of incredibly violent events. It appears from the many images sent to Earth by MRO's HiRise camera that it once experienced powerful plasma discharges on a massive scale. As terrain mapping instruments indicate, the northern latitudes of Mars are six kilometers below the mean elevation of the planet. Burned and blasted craters, piles of scorched dust covering almost an entire hemisphere, and great trenches that wend across its scarred face lead to the conclusion that lightning thousands or millions of times more energetic than we know today devastated Mars. The existence of these formations constitutes a confirmation of the Electric Universe hypothesis. On Mars, deep channels, ripples and other structures are thought to be the remains of water flowing on the surface, eroding it in the same way as water is believed to erode our planet. It has been proposed that there were oceans of water millions of years ago, so chemicals that form on Earth in the presence of water are presumed to have formed on Mars in the same fashion. Despite the contradictory evidence of mineral deposits that would be destroyed by water, such as olivine, the flowing water hypothesis continues to guide consensus theories. It has been suggested many times in these pages that electric arcs could have sculpted what we see on Mars. Valles Marineris, Olympus Mons, the vast 900 kilometer crater in Argyre Planitia, the terraced mounds in Arabia Terra, as well as both Martian poles demonstrate strong support for the electric discharge theory. NASA scientists often refer to what they find on Mars as "mysterious" or "puzzling" with long years of research and contemplation ahead of them. We predict that the reason for the confusion is the problem of reverse application. Earth should not be used to explain the Solar System. The geological patterns found elsewhere deserve alternative viewpoints. Stephen Smith
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Galaxy M61 displays hexagonal interlacing. Credit: Hillary Mathis, N.A.Sharp/NOAO/AURA/NSF
Galactic Hexagon
(Mar 10, 2011)
Some galaxies exhibit polygonal structures. The term "diocotron instability" is not generally well known. Its use is confined to the field of plasma physics and refers to the distortions that occur when two sheets of plasma flow past each other. It is often confused with the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability seen in dynamical fluid interactions. Since plasma is a charged substance, with a small percentage of its particles being ionized, it does not tend to obey the laws of kinetic motion. Rather, plasma is more strongly influenced by electromagnetism than it is by any other force, including gravity. A principle of physics underlying all aspects of Electric Universe theory is that plasma makes up 99.99% of the Universe. From lightning, to auroral curtains, to the solar wind, to the interstellar medium, to stars, to the galactic glow permeating space, everything is plasma. As such, it is expected that what can be observed is going to be a manifestation of forces acting on electrically charged material, no matter how tenuous. When unusual characteristics are observed, no matter what scale, the fact of plasma's behavior should be given first priority in any attempt to resolve the question. In the image at the top of the page, a bizarre hexagonal formation can be seen in the arms of galaxy M61 (NGC 4303). There is little in the astronomical lexicon that can explain the bent, interlaced arms of what should be a smooth spiral. Astronomers have no requirement for training in electric theory. Maxwell's equations might as The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive well be classical Greek poetry to most astronomers. They have far too much to do without getting involved in topics that are irrelevant to their work. Gravity is the foundation for the majority of scientific thought about the cosmos, so electrodynamic formulae are rarely consulted, if at all.
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Many natural structures have been shown to be hexagonal: Saturn's hexagon, hexagonal craters on planets and moons, and hurricane eyes, to name a few. Despite one astronomer's contention that fluid dynamics is all that is needed to explain Saturn's hexagon, it is not possible to use that explanation for the other phenomena, as well. Besides, there are other occurrences on Saturn that are clearly electrical in nature: the ring spokes, the Dragon Storm, the Great White Spot, the polar aurorae, and the mid-latitude ultraviolet discharges. A diocotron instability explains the Saturnian hexagon quite well. Plasma's characteristic behavior also explains the other Saturnian events. Can the same explanation appertain to galaxies? Electric Universe theory considers galaxies to be the progeny of electromagnetic coupling. Birkeland current filaments conduct electricity across cosmic distances, twining around one another until they crush plasma into discrete formations. A typical barred spiral galaxy is created in two or more twists of those intergalactic filaments. Diocotron instabilities in the Birkeland current filaments are most likely responsible for the hexagonal shapes seen in galaxies. Electric power can act with trillions of times more force than gravity. When a plasma Universe is considered, the mysteries left by gravitational theories are resolved. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Lloyd Kinder
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Cosmic rays could be generated in the same way as high-altitude "sprites" create positive ions. Credit: Oscar van der Velde
Cosmic Accelerator
(Mar 07, 2011)
New observations suggest that cosmic rays are not produced by supernova explosions. Cosmic rays are ionized particles, or fragmented atoms. Electrons are stripped from atoms, leaving them free to move, with positively charged nuclei remaining. The majority of cosmic rays are single protons (hydrogen ions), but uranium and other massive ions have also been detected. As standard theory states, ions are accelerated to velocities approaching the speed of light by unknown forces, although published research in 2009 identified exploding stars as the best candidate. Most cosmic rays are at energy levels below one billion electron volts, so when they hit atoms in Earth's atmosphere they initiate small secondary showers of particles and are absorbed before they reach the ground. In June 2006, the Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics (PAMELA) payload was launched onboard a Resurs-DK1 Russian satellite as part of the Russian-Italian Mission (RIM) research program. PAMELA's primary goal, in conjunction with the Astrorivelatore Gamma ad Immagini ultra LEggero (AGILE) and Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescopes (formerly GLAST) is to study the properties of high energy signals from deep space. According to a recent press release, PAMELA has discovered radiant emissions that seem to contradict the conventional explanation for cosmic rays in deep space. New observations by its cosmic ray detector prompted astronomer Piergiorgio Picozza of Italy's National Institute of Nuclear Physics and the University of Rome to state: "Now we dont know how cosmic rays are accelerated in space. Before our data, it The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive seems that the paradigm is supernova remnants. Now we have to think of some refinement of this paradigm, or we need to find some other possibility."
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Although exploding stars (supernovae) are misapprehended to be kinetic events involving shock waves and rebound phenomena, interpreting them as the points where cosmic Birkeland currents create "z-pinch" vortices brings everything into focus. Magnetic fields have been detected in space. Those fields are thought to be generated by electric currents flowing through and around galaxies along light-years long "transmission lines" called Birkeland current filaments. Magnetic forces constrict the filaments, twisting them around each other and forming z-pinch compression zones. What are called "double layers" by plasma physicists form in the stellar circuit. Nobel prize winner Hannes Alfvn described a double layer as: "... a plasma formation by which a plasma--in the physical meaning of this word-protects itself from the environment. It is analogous to a cell wall by which a plasma--in the biological meaning of this word--protects itself from the environment." In an Electric Universe, there is another mechanism for cosmic ray acceleration and that is the "exploding" double layer, first described by Irving Langmuir in 1929. A double layer forms in plasma when electric current flows through it. At times, a double layer might interrupt current flow in the circuit, causing a catastrophic rise in voltage across it. The powerful energy release of the exploding double layer is sometimes observed in power transmission switchyards when a circuit breaker is opened incorrectly. Electric forces accelerate charged particles with energies of 10^20 electron volts or more. Laboratory experiments with particle accelerators confirm the observation. For mechanical shock waves to achieve that power would mean explosive detonations exceeding the most powerful supernovae ever recorded. Stephen Smith
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A plasma vortex spins across the Sun. Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory/NASA
Solar Lightning
(Mar 04, 2011)
Solar flares can be thought of as giant lightning discharges. Conventional thinking suggests that the Sun accelerates charged particles into space in the same way that sound waves are amplified. Eruptions in the photosphere travel outward through "acoustical wave-guides," known as magnetic flux tubes. Structures called spicules rise thousands of kilometers above the photosphere and carry the hot gas with them. The Sun is the locus of positive charge with respect to interstellar plasma. Sunspots appear when electric discharges penetrate the photosphere, allowing electric current to flow into its depths. Electromagnetic flux tubes expose the Sun's cooler interior. The idea of acoustic heat transfer from the core cannot be supported by any observations of the Sun. As standard theories about the Sun propose, there is also a vast "conveyor belt" circulating solar matter down into magnetically active zones deep inside the solar interior, where it is "reenergized." When sunspot magnetic fields begin to decline, the conveyor belt pulls what's left inside the Sun. As a recent press release states, they are drawn 300,000 kilometers below the surface, where they are re-magnetized by the "solar dynamo." The sunspots become buoyant in the plasma flow, rising back up to the photosphere to start a new solar cycle. In an Electric Universe, plasma discharge behavior is a better model for solar activity. Laboratory experiments with a positively charged sphere show that a plasma torus forms above its equator. Electric discharges bridge the torus with the middle and lower latitudes of the sphere. Spicules are consistent with the principle of "anode tufting," a plasma discharge effect expected of a positively charged electric Sun. Closeup images of sunspot filaments, seen clearly in sunspot penumbrae, indicate that they are whirling charge vortices. Looking down into a sunspot means seeing the rotating discharge columns in profile. Electric discharges in plasma form rope-like, hollow tendrils. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive Since they are funnels of plasma, their centers are darker, where convection cells would appear darker at their edges. Standard theory does not accept that the darker and cooler regions revealed by sunspots means that the Sun is cooler in its interior.
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"It is not coincidence that the photosphere has the appearance, the temperature and spectrum of an electric arc; it has arc characteristics because it is an electric arc, or a large number of arcs in parallel. These arcs quickly result in the neutralization of the accumulated space charge in their neighbourhood and go out. They are not therefore stable discharges, but May rather be looked upon as transient sparks. Arcs thus continually appear and disappear. It is this coming and going which accounts for the observed granulation of the solar surface." -- C. E. R. Bruce, A New Approach in Astrophysics and Cosmogony (1944) Coronal arches and multiple loop structures connect sunspots and rise up to penetrate the chromosphere. The chromosphere is a plasma sheath, or double layer region of the Sun, where most of its electrical energy is contained. When the current flowing into the Sun's plasma sheath increases beyond a critical threshold it can trigger a sudden release of that energy, causing solar flares and enormous prominence eruptions. Powerful looping electric currents generate secondary toroidal magnetic fields that surround the loop. When the current grows too strong, the plasma double layer is destroyed. That event interrupts the current flow and the stored electromagnetic energy is blasted into space as a solar flare. Solar flares can therefore be thought of as tremendous lightning bursts, discharging vast quantities of matter at near relativistic speeds. Stephen Smith
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The remains of an exploding double layer known as Cassiopeia A with an artist's impression of a theoretical entity called a neutron star. Credit X-ray: NASA/CXC/UNAM/Ioffe/D. Page, P. Shternin et al; Optical: NASA/STScI; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss
Andromeda's Mother
(Mar 02, 2011)
Rather than searching for exotic explanations, this celestial object can best be described using plasma physics. According to a recent announcement from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the so-called "supernova remnant" Cassiopeia A (or "Cas A") harbors a strange passenger within the neutron star that is supposed to inhabit its interior, a form of superconductor known as a superfluid. As theory suggests, neutron stars form when large stars exhaust their fuel supplies as they age. Once a star with about five times the mass of our Sun accumulates enough thermonuclear "ash" composed of non-fusible elements like iron in its core, it undergoes a catastrophic implosion. Since nuclear reactions can no longer be sustained, the star becomes the victim of its own gravity field. The star's outer surface collapses inward at tremendous speed, rebounding off the dense core material. The star then erupts outward in a supernova explosion, blasting its outer layers into space, releasing X-rays, gamma rays, and extreme ultraviolet. Depending on the mass of the star, the remaining stellar core material might remain as a hot, white dwarf star, or if it is large enough, the gravity field will pull all the electrons out of their atomic orbits and squeeze them into the nucleus, forming neutrons. The star will become what astrophysicists call a "neutron star" with unbelievable density and gravitational attraction. It is commonly said that a teaspoon of neutron star stuff would posses an inertial mass in the billions of tons. A neutron star is thought to exist at the center of the Cas A nebular cloud. In the image at the top of the page, various frequencies of X-rays are shown in red, green, and blue. Since X-rays are invisible, the colors are arbitrary and are either assigned by a computer program or a graphic interpreter who's job is to create images for public release. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive The interesting thing about the X-ray distribution is that they are englobing the central star, with tendrils of plasma interconnecting other glowing regions.
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In a previous Picture of the Day, the fact that supernova explosions emit X-rays was used to support the contention that supernovae are not kinetic events resulting from gravitational collapse, rebound, or shockwaves. Instead, they are electrical in nature, with behavior that cannot be calculated based on simple Newtonian mechanics. Rather, plasma physics and the action of electrodynamic forces should be brought to bear in order to unlock their puzzles. It is a principle of science that one should begin with the simple and then continue to the more complex if the situation warrants that step. 2 + 2 = 4 does not require algebraic equations to solve it. If the foundational precepts of Electric Universe theory, based on well-established, Nobel-vetted work by dedicated researchers in the physics of high-energy plasma provides concise, laboratory replicated answers to the puzzle of supernovae, then this writer submits that that is the most logical place to begin an exploration. Although Electric Universe responses to the Chandra team's announcement provide a sober minded explanation, what is it that the researchers themselves conclude? As the artist's impression at the top if the page indicates, they conclude that a neutron star, something never observed by any telescope, has a crust (orange) and a core (red). The core temperatures are estimated to be a billion degrees Celsius. The blue rays are supposed to be neutrinos escaping from the neutron star, causing it to cool off, forming a neutron superfluid. A research team leader, Peter Shternin of the Ioffe Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia said: "The rapid cooling in Cas As neutron star, seen with Chandra, is the first direct evidence that the cores of these neutron stars are, in fact, made of superfluid and superconducting material." The remainder of the press release contains what appears to be sheer speculation involving the predictions of mathematical models and how mathematical entities like neutron stars ought to behave. If the astronomical community was not so serious about their contentions, it would be tempting to think they were being ironic. Contrasting the Electric Universe perspective with that of consensus science can be instructive. In the first sense there is simplicity, experimental evidence, mathematical illustration backed by laboratory analysis: explanations that can be communicated easily to almost any audience. In the second, arcane mathematical reifications are placed onto a stage created out of computer models: characters acting out scripted roles. Neutron stars can never be experimentally verified. The scalable nature of plasma's electrical and physical properties is critical when it comes to investigating the cosmos. In the laboratory, effects that model those in space can be created. Gravity's effects are not scalable in the laboratory. Gravitational force falls off with the square of the distance, where the attraction between electrified filaments is linear and is up to 39 orders of magnitude greater. Gravity is too weak to model. Virtual models operating within computer algorithms have replaced direct observation in many ways. Models are used to support the existence of yet more models. Models are used to build other models, which, in turn, are used to "confirm" further models. Physics used to mean investigating the nature and properties of matter and energy. Instead, astrophysics has become an apprentice to mathematics. Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Saturn's powerful "dragon storm" now circles the planet. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
The Dragon's Den

(Feb 28, 2011)
Saturn's electrically charged atmosphere has erupted in spectacular fashion. Sungrazers are comets that pass close to the Sun in their highly elliptical orbits. They tend to reaffirm the Electric Universe opinion about comets: If comets are the result of electrical events that took place early in the life of the Solar System, then their several "anomalous" behaviors can be easily explained. Some comet anomalies include Hale-Bopp's ion tail and coma when it was far past Jupiter's orbit, the catastrophic explosion of Comet Linear when it was over 100 million kilometers from the Sun, the desert-like, cratered appearance of Comets Borrelly and Tempel 1 (contrary to the "dirty snowball" hypothesis), and Shoemaker-Levy 9's broken pieces refusing to expel any water vapor. The Sun's radial e-field is a dynamic structure, changing in strength and size depending on the corresponding strength of electric currents that flow into it. For that reason, it is in a state of constant flux, requiring just a small trigger for it to explosively discharge with solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CME). Comet NEAT initiated a CME eruption that appeared to impact the comet. Several other sungrazers have been associated with violent flares. When comet 96P/Machholz circled the Sun its intense charge differential caused a gigantic CME to blast out from the Sun for millions of kilometers.The electrical connection between comets and the Sun seems certain. If that is the case, then the electrical connection between the Sun and its entire family of planets and moons is certain. Changes in electrical activity affect the environments of every member in that family. Saturn could be thought of as a solar system in its own right, with a family of 31 moons. It The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive possesses a Langmuir charge sheath (plasmasphere) that isolates it from the Sun's own charge sheath that, in turn, is isolating it from the charged interstellar medium.
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Many things about Saturn have changed in the 31 years since the two Voyager spacecraft passed by the giant gas planet. Saturn's magnetosphere grew by more than a million kilometers and then contracted, only to begin expanding again. The spokes in Saturn's B ring disappeared and then reappeared. The equatorial thunderstorm (known as the Dragon Storm) that raged continuously broke up, moved toward the poles, and then erupted again. The most likely explanation for the storms on Saturn is that they are equivalent to sunspots. As the Sun changes its behavior over the course of a 22 year cycle, the electrical output that connects it with its family of planets varies. If Saturn's Great White Spots, Dragon Storm, and ring spokes are driven by the same galactic Birkeland currents that drive the Sun, they should get stronger and closer to the equator as the sunspot cycle oscillates. It appears that that is just what has happened over the past three decades. Every so often Saturn breaks out with a great white spot three times larger than Earth. Traditional models of Saturn cannot explain such a periodic outburst, but an intense lightning discharge deep in the atmosphere could cause vertical jets similar to the sprites in Earth's upper atmosphere. Its connection to the current flow in the Solar System can explain the effects that Cassini and other science packages have discovered on and around Saturn. Perhaps, like the Sun, there are other factors that link explosive discharges with electrical connectivity. Since Saturn's environment is highly charged, could objects traveling through it's vicinity initiate substantial electrical events like sungrazers do? Presuming Saturn to be a highly charged object in a state of dynamic equilibrium, could a Saturn-grazer start some of the longlasting lightning-like disturbances there? Stephen Smith
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Supposed galaxy density in the Cosmic Evolution Survey. Redshift of 0.2 (blue) to 1 (red). X-ray emission contours in pink. Credit: ESA
Doubting the Dark

(Feb 18, 2011)
Dark matter theory's claims have not convinced everyone in consensus circles. Another in a series of announcements from NASA and the European Space Agency reports "the confirmation" of dark matter. Dark matter, as its name implies, is non-luminous, invisible to telescopes, and weakly interacting (at best) with the "baryonic" matter around it. However, its existence has been considered an essential aspect of cosmology because, as an ESA scientist put it a few years ago: "Our own galaxy should have fallen apart by now, so dark matter--this unseen force--is somewhere keeping it glued together." After studying the Coma Cluster of galaxies in 1933, Fritz Zwicky found that his calculations for orbital acceleration and stellar mass within it were off by a factor of about 160. He thought that something invisible to his instruments was holding the cluster together. That "something" later became known as "dark matter." His hypothesis was supposedly confirmed in 1979 with the announcement of "gravitational lensing" (another theory of Zwicky's) and the "twin quasar" QSO0957+561 A, which are not topics of this paper. It should be noted that some astrophysicists are not convinced that dark matter or its enigmatic twin "dark energy" are justified because the data used to support their existence is questionable. Observations from both COBE and WMAP might have calibration issues that "...could indicate that fluctuations measured in the intensity of the CMB radiation are actually smaller than they originally appeared. The size of these fluctuations is a key parameter used to support the existence of dark matter and dark energy. With smaller ripples, there would be no need to invoke exotic concepts like dark matter and dark energy to explain the CMB observations." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Since dark matter cannot be seen by optical telescopes and can be analyzed through inference alone, could it be that something else is taking place? Something that NASA and the ESA observers have failed to consider as an active force? That "something" is electricity. Electric Universe theorists see electricity flowing through plasma driving galaxy clusters, galaxies themselves and their associated stars. Birkeland currents create z-pinch compression zones between spinning magnetic fields in electrical vortices. The compressed ions form spheres of glowing plasma, some in arc mode, some in glow mode, and some that vary between the two states. Electric currents pouring into them from the outside power the stars and galactic wheels. What should we expect to see in their shapes and behavior in that case? 1. Around the galaxies and throughout the cluster will be Birkeland current filaments slowly fluctuating in their intensity, causing mass density variations that will be difficult to interpret (without the "blank check" of dark matter) as gravitational effects. 2. The plasma in which the galaxies exist contains magnetic fields that map the Birkeland current flows, interconnecting each galaxy with its neighbor and forming electrical bridges between them. 3. Electrical charges separate from one another across a double layer in a Birkeland current filament. Double layers May break down if too much current flows in the circuit. In that instance, there will be a stellar flare, a gamma-ray flash, a nova or a supernova. Since Birkeland currents are drawn toward each other in a linear relationship, dark matter is unnecessary when electric currents flowing through plasma are recognized as the most powerful long-range accretion force. Stephen Smith
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Interacting galaxy pair Arp 147. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/S.Rappaport et al. Optical: NASA/STScI
A Galactic Fairy Ring

(Feb 16, 2011)
Todays image is billed as a ring of black holes. As such, it presents a fairy ring of gravitational fantasies. The first fairy dances a fantasy of Redshift-is-Proportional-to-Distance, overlooking half a century of contrary evidence. That puts the ring far away. For the ring to appear as bright as it does, a second fairy must dance a pas de deux of Super Luminosity. To get that much energy from the feeble force of gravity, a third fairy must support the others with the Dance of Great Mass. Since the ring is constrained by the Assumption of Equivalence of Mass and Matter, a fourth fairy must squeeze in--and be squeezed to a supernatural density. She (or he, we cant tell at these densities) cant dance but can only quiver and quake. When the other fairies bump into her, she does emit X-rays. The ring is the result of the crowded stage and the bumping. Fairy rings and fantasy dances are entertaining, but when a theory requires this much supernaturalism, it would be wise to question assumptions. Astronomers no longer see whats there but gaze with incurious enchantment upon artists impressions of obsolete hypotheses. The radiant energy and its pattern of distribution indicates the action of electricity, not gravity; of plasma discharges, not mass; of pinch and double layer effects, not density; of instabilities in a circuit, not collisions and mergers. In other words, its an entirely natural event, no supersizing needed. In the first place, Arp 147 is located in the ejection cone from M31. The "super-luminal" radio galaxy 3C120 is only a few degrees farther along. (As an ejection from M31, the galaxy would be nearby and its super-luminal jet would have a normal velocity for a plasma discharge.) Arp 147 is likely another high-redshift ejection from M31: 400 thousand light-years would be a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive better guess for its distance than 400 million. Its radiant energy would be 3 orders of magnitude less than what the second fairy is dancing for.
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In the second place, an abundance of energy is available. The ring and the galaxy to the left that supposedly bumped it would be components in the same ejection current from M31. They are loads in the intergalactic circuit and dissipate only a small part of the total current. Much more energy will be flowing through them to drive other components (galaxies) farther along the circuit. In the third place, Arp 147 is likely the galactic equivalent of the rings around the axis of SN1987a. As the current pinches down in typical hourglass form to power the galaxy to the left, variations in the plasma push the individual filaments of current into glow mode. Double layers accelerate the current carriers, and they emit ultraviolet and x-ray radiation. As "mass and gas" astronomy pirouettes to ever more fanciful dances, plasma astronomy describes a natural history of electrical phenomena. Mel Acheson
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Combined Hubble camera images of Jupiter's polar aurorae. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Jove's Glowing Mantle

(Feb 14, 2011)
Jupiter puts on a periodic light show. Several years ago, Picture of the Day articles discussed the so-called "volcanic" plumes erupting from Jupiter's moon Io. It was argued that they are plasma discharges from the moon electrically connected to the giant planet. Some astronomers acknowledged the electrical connection when Io's electromagnetic "footprint" was seen in Jupiter's polar aurora. Later, it was found that all four of Jupiters large moons leave their imprints in the aurora. When NASA launched the New Horizons spacecraft on a mission to study Pluto and Charon, they trained its cameras on Jupiter's environment as it flew by in order to test their resolution. The "plumes" of Tvashtar, one of Io's "volcanoes," were seen by the itinerant spacecraft to be filamentary, indicating that they are corona arc discharges from the electric "hot spots" linking Io with Jupiter. According to a recent press release, Jupiter's aurorae are becoming more active, with bursts of extreme ultraviolet light detected. The research paper's authors attribute the auroral flares to "...pulsed reconnections of the magnetic field at the planet's dayside magnetopause..." An electrical interaction between Jupiter and its moons means that they are charged bodies and are not electrically neutral. Jupiter exists in a dynamic electrical relationship to the Sun and it is now known that charged particles from the Sun power the planetary aurorae. Earth possesses an electrically active magnetotail (or plasma tail), extending for millions of kilometers, always pointed away from the Sun. Streams of charged particles from the Sun (the solar wind) are captured by the magnetosphere, collecting in a plasma sheet within the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive magnetotail, where they are held together by Earth's magnetic field. The same structural factors doubtless govern Jupiter's magnetosphere.
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The light bursts from Jupiter's aurorae are said to be the result of "magnetic reconnection" events. The solar wind is said to "stretch" its magnetic field like a rubber band. When it "snaps back" the over-stretched magnetic field lines explode, converting some of the "magnetic energy" to heat and light. As was discussed in a previous Picture of the Day, how that energy is released is not known. It seems, though, that space scientists are reversing cause (electric currents) and effect (magnetic fields). They downplay or deny the importance of electrical processes. Retired Professor of Electrical Engineering Don Scott's admonitions about magnetic reconnection should be kept in mind when the electromagnetic nature of aurorae, in general, is invoked: Magnetic field lines are only convenient concepts, nothing more. They are not loci or contours of constant magnetic flux density (field strength). They just indicate the fields direction. In regions where they are close together the field is stronger than where they are widely separated. Therefore, sketching magnetic field lines can help us visualize the shape and strength of magnetic fields. They can help us to sketch the net result (vector sum) if and when two or more fields interact (are superimposed on each other). We can only draw magnetic field lines (in cases not involving permanent ferromagnetic magnets) by considering the electric currents that create those fields. Magnetic lines of force do not actually exist in three-dimensional space anymore than lines of latitude or longitude do. If a field changes from one instant to another, we cannot use "streaming video" to watch a given line move and change shape. This is because we must redraw a complete set of lines at each instant. It isnt the same line that has moved it is the field that has changed. The two sets of lines describe the field at those two different times. Magnetic lines of force do not move any more than lines of longitude do. A determined unwillingness to recognize this fact has led to the idea that lines can move toward each other, touch, merge, and then release energy. This last notion, if applied to circles of longitude that come together and "merge" at Earths poles, could be proposed as causing gravitational energy releases at those locations.
There is no such process as "magnetic merging" or "reconnection" of magnetic field lines in the real world. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Anne Klinkner
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Galaxy IC 2497 and the ionized streamer called Hanny's Voorwerp. Credit: NASA, ESA, William Keel (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa), and the Galaxy Zoo team.
Hannys Voorwerp
(Feb 11, 2011)
Astronomers are puzzled by this cloud's highly ionized state. In 2007 Dutch Galaxy Zoo volunteer, Hanny van Arkel, discovered the gaseous formation that bears her name. The strange thing about it is its excessive heat and ionization. Some of its spectral lines indicate the presence of neon V. It requires 97 electron volts of energy to strip the electrons from neon, corresponding to about one million Kelvin. A recent press release points to suggestions that only a quasar in the heart of nearby galaxy IC 2497 could generate the energy necessary to ionize neon, but no quasar can be seen there. Electric Universe proponents would like to see the electrical properties of plasma added to theoretical formulae rather than read about each new remote observation possessing "extraordinary properties" or providing "puzzling results" or revealing "mysterious events." The filamentary nature of the Voorwerp is a clue to its electrically charged nature. Observations by the Subaru Space Telescope of galaxy NGC 4388 also uncovered ionized filaments extending 110,000 light years from its nucleus. It was previously thought that the hypothetical black hole in the galaxy's center could only ionize gas out to 50,000 light years, so the data is baffling to astrophysicists. Another vast cloud of hydrogen gas known as Smith's Cloud, massive enough to be considered a galaxy itself, is also glowing in the light of ionized atoms but there are no stars there. One more example is VIRGOHI 21. It does not shine in visible light but hydrogen gas glows in radio waves, so its existence was revealed from a chance scan by the Arecibo The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Observatory. What is the common theme binding all these observations together? Electricity flowing through plasma. Charged particles in motion constitute an electric current which take the form of plasma filaments. An electric current is accompanied by a magnetic field that wraps around the current filament, diminishing directly with the distance from it. An electric current filament in plasma May create a double layer along its axis. Positive charge builds up on one side and negative charge on the other side of the double layer. A strong e-field exists between the two charge layers and if enough current is applied the double layer will glow, but it is otherwise detectable only by its emission of radio noise. Double layers and current filaments form in the circuit that threads through the galaxy. They are mostly invisible because of their low current density, but the magnetic fields they produce can be mapped by radio telescopes. A lamp that emits light only at the excitation frequency of a specific gas is a more correct model for Hanny's Voorwerp. Electricity passing through neon gas causes it to form a plasma and to glow pale red. Other gases, such as oxygen, produce blue light, while heavier elements emit their own colors. The helical filaments of the Voorwerp show that electricity, traveling along cosmic Birkeland currents, is energizing the cloud. The divergence between the Electric Universe model and the standard model is based on plasma, which comprises 99% of the Universe. Plasma tends to obey the laws of electromagnetism, so gravity and kinetic interactions are subsidiary. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Jim Johnson
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Previously considered (blue) and current mission landing sites. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
Phobos-Grunt
(Feb 09, 2011)
A Russian space mission will attempt to land a sample return package on Phobos. In October 2011 the Russian Space agency, RosCosmos, will launch a scientific instrument package toward Mars, with a planned landing on its largest moon in either March or April of 2013. The small lander will gather samples of the surface and then blast off for a rendezvous with an Earth return vehicle. Phobos and Deimos are the two moons of Mars, although Deimos is so small it cannot be readily observed from Earth. Only the Viking 2 orbiter captured close up images in 1976. Phobos has been extensively studied by Earth-based telescopes and by satellites in Mars orbit. Picture of the Day articles about Mars have shown that it was once immersed in a plasma flame sufficiently large to gouge out Valles Marineris. Millions of cubic kilometers of rock and dust were blasted out from the planet at escape velocity. Stone blocks larger than Manhattan Island fell back to Mars from a great height, shattering on impact. This explains the fields of enormous boulders with sharp edges covering millions of square kilometers. Could it be that moons like Phobos and Deimos, as well as asteroids like Ida, were also born from that cataclysm? Stickney crater dominates one hemisphere of Phobos. It is 10 kilometers wide and more than 100 meters deep. Many previous Picture of the Day articles mention the physical problems associated with blasting large craters into small bodies. For example, there is a hole in asteroid 253 Mathilde that should have caused it to disintegrate. Phobos is a mere 28 by 20 kilometers in size, so Stickney is nearly half as big. Scientists speculate that asteroids (and perhaps small moons) are loose aggregations of rocks and soil, similar to a gravel pit in space. Since they were not blown apart from meteor impacts, it is thought that they most likely behaved like a pile of sand, cushioning the shock. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive Does the gravel pile theory best fit the facts?
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Since Phobos is about the same size as asteroids Mathilde, Eros and Ida, exhibiting the same features like relatively gigantic craters, is there a common event that can form similar structures without obliterating the objects in the first place? The answer is electricity. The electrical history of the solar system includes intensely energetic events and violent interactions between charged planets and moons. That electric arcs can remove material with ease is proven by the experiments conducted by Dr. C. J. Ransom of VEMASAT Laboratories. His plasma discharges excavate surface depressions, scoop out material, and explode it into the air, leaving cleanly cut features. The lightning bolts that carved Mars threw large chunks of its crust into orbit around it, as well as sending them around the Sun. The electric fields that accompanied the celestial disasters of the past smoothed and eroded them with plasma discharges. The result is that Phobos and the asteroids mentioned are covered in dust, are defined by huge craters, and look like they're half-melted. Phobos and Deimos appear to be remnants of a catastrophic event that electrically devastated their parent planet. Stephen Smith
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"Kelvin-Helmholtz" instabilities in a solar plasma eruption.
Cloudy with a Chance of Instability

(Feb 07, 2011)
Clouds on the Sun are electrically charged, so dynamic structures should be described using plasma physics. "The plasma exhibited striations and double layers; the electron distribution was nonMaxwellian; there were all sorts of oscillations and instabilities." -- Hannes Alfvn, shortly after receiving his Nobel prize According to a recent press release, physicists from the University of Warwick in Coventry, England discovered regions of plasma instability occurring along the edges of some solar filaments. Warwick researchers "...spotted a familiar pattern of instability on one flank of an exploding cloud of solar material that closely paralleled instabilities seen in Earths clouds and waves on the surfaces of seas." The pattern seen within the exploding solar double layer was dubbed a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability because it seemed to be occurring between two regions of different velocity. In other words, fluid dynamics theory is being attached to the phenomenon in an attempt to explain its features. The Electric Universe hypothesis is based on electrodynamic principles and not on electrostatic or kinetic behavior. Its basic premise is that celestial bodies are immersed in plasma and are connected by circuits. Since the Sun is "plugged-in" to the galaxy and to its family of planets, it behaves like a charged object seeking equilibrium with its environment. An electric discharge in plasma creates a tube-like magnetic sheath along its axis. If enough current flows through the circuit, the discharge will cause the sheath to glow, sometimes creating a number of other sheaths within it. The sheath is called a "double layer." Double layers form when positive charges build up in one region of a plasma cloud and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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negative charges build up nearby. A powerful electric field appears between the two regions, which accelerates charged particles. The electric charges spiral in the magnetic fields, emitting X-rays, extreme ultraviolet, and sometimes gamma rays. Toroidal filaments couple to hourglass-shaped current sheets that are subject to diocotron instabilities: the current flow through plasma sometimes forms vortices that change into distorted curlicue shapes. This phenomenon has been witnessed in many laboratory experiments, as well as in the polar aurorae. Plasma physicist Dr. Anthony Peratt wrote: "One of the outstanding problems in the propagation of electron beams along an axial magnetic field is the breakup of the beam into discrete vortex-like current bundles when a threshold determined either by the beam current or distance of propagation is surpassed. The phenomena observed closely resembles that associated with the Kelvin-Helmholtz fluid dynamical shear instability, in which vortices develop throughout a fluid when a critical velocity in the flow is exceeded..." Stephen Smith Hat tip to Dennis McClene
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Artist's impression of an extrasolar planet with many times the mass of Jupiter. Credit: ESA/C. Carreau
A Mystifying Menagerie
(Feb 04, 2011)
A distant system of planets in proximity to one another challenges current theories. A recent press release from the Kepler Space Telescope research team announced the discovery of an "alien solar system" with six planets. That they are so near to the newly named Kepler-11 star has caused some consternation, since they are tightly aggregated in a single orbital plane. NASA launched Kepler on its three and a half year mission to search for planets revolving around other stars, and it has found dozens of them in a variety of sizes. Astronomers have been investigating the possibility that there are other stellar families outside of the Solar System for many years, so Kepler was built to find planets that are close to the size of Earth. In 1756, Immanuel Kant proposed that the Solar System condensed out of a dusty cloud of gas floating in space. As the "Nebular Hypothesis" concludes, the cloud contracted because gravitational attraction between particles caused them to clump together. As each clump grew, even greater attractive force drew them all together into a mass. The mass attained so much gravity that it compressed into a small, hot ball, rotating with the angular momentum contained in the original cloud. It attracted more and more material into its mounting gravitational field, until it finally ignited in a nuclear fusion reaction, thereby giving birth to the Sun. If the hypothesis is correct a similar, if not identical, process presumably takes place in other nebular clouds. The hypothesis has at least one fault: it fails to explain how the planets possess about 97% of the total angular momentum in the Solar System when their combined mass is less than onetenth of one per cent of the Sun's mass. Some astronomers have attempted to prop up the theory by suggesting that the Sun has an undetected companion star on a long, parabolic The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive orbit that takes it beyond our instruments.
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Kepler-11's inner five planets all revolve closer than Mercury orbits the Sun, posing a problem for the conventional explanation of planet formation. However, Electric Universe physicist Wal Thornhill argues that a different view of stellar ignition and evolution clears up the problem of planets packed in so tightly to their parent star, as well as their angular momentum. The plasma cosmogony hypothesis suggests that stars form when cosmic Birkeland currents twist around one another, creating z-pinch regions that compress plasma into a solid. Laboratory experiments have shown that such compression zones are the most likely candidates for star formation and not collapsing nebulae, which is the eighteenth century theory to which astrophysicists still cling. When stars are born, they are most likely under extreme electrical stress. If such is the case, they will split into one or more daughter stars, thereby equalizing their electrical potential. Thornhill writes: "The fission process is repeated in further electrical disturbances by flaring red dwarfs and gas giant planets ejecting rocky and icy planets, moons, comets, asteroids and meteorites. Planetary systems May also be acquired over time by electrical capture of independent interstellar bodies such as dim brown dwarf stars. That seems the best explanation for our fruit salad of a solar system." He also argues that the longer a star lives, the more metal it will accumulate: "Intense plasma discharges at the stellar surface give rise to starshine. Those discharges synthesize 'metals' that continually rain into the star's depths." At some point, the star ejects those metallized accumulations as large, ionized gas giant-type planets. Smaller, rocky objects might also calve from the host star. When it becomes possible to send probes to other star systems, they will most likely find planets similar to those around our own Sun. The electric forces that formed this planet most likely formed the exoplanets, so it is expected that we will find Earth-like planets eventually. Stephen Smith
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Spectrum of galaxy M84 supposedly indicating a black hole near its center.
The Persistent Illusion

(Feb 03, 2011)
Does the acceleration of gravity alone create high frequency radiation? "Greatness is a zigzag streak of lightning in the brain." -- Herbert Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1908-1916 Black holes are theoretically required because velocity and gravity calculations of motions at the galactic center yield otherwise impossible results. Matter inside a black hole is said to be near infinite density, with intense gravitational attraction so great that not even light can escape. They are called "black" holes because they cannot be detected with optical telescopes. They are thought to inhabit over 90% of the galaxies in the Universe. Previous Picture of the Day discussions about black holes determined that the descriptive terms used by astronomers rely on highly speculative explanations. Ambiguous labels such as space/time, singularities, infinite density and other ideas that are unreal, make what should be a scientific investigation into the nature of the Universe something of a nonsense. According to a Hubble Space Telescope press release, galaxy M84 has provided NASA researchers with "proof" that it harbors a Super Massive Black Hole (SMBH) in its core greater than 300 million times the mass of our own Sun. Using spectrographic data from the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers measured the rotational velocity of dust and gas near the center of M84. Since the spectrogram's s-shaped graph seems to show areas of more rapid rotation (up to 1,400,000 kilometers per hour), it was assumed that something very compact in the galaxy's core must be exerting a powerful gravitational force. Since galaxies are thought to be self-powered, gravity-driven engines, relying on kinetic energy to operate, the fact that they do not appear to supply enough energy to hold themselves together required space scientists to come up with two major adjustments to their cosmological theories: SMBHs and dark matter. In this case, a black hole's near-infinite The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive mathematical capacity to accelerate matter is brought into play.
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X-rays and other high frequency radiation in space, no matter the source, are not easily generated by accelerating charge-neutral gas in gravity fields. It is far easier for charged particles (plasma) accelerated by electric fields to shine in all frequencies: extreme ultraviolet, X-rays, and even gamma rays. In a galactic circuit, electric power flows inward along the spiral arms where it is concentrated and stored in the central plasmoid. When the plasmoid reaches a threshold density, it must decay and discharge, along the galaxys spin axis. This process can be demonstrated in the laboratory using a plasma focus device. The discharge creates neutrons, heavy ions, and electrons jetting out from the nucleus. Electromagnetic forces confine the jet to thin filaments that remain coherent for thousands of light-years. The jet usually ends in radio lobes on either side of the galaxy, which radiate in radio frequencies. The cosmic Birkeland currents that supply energy to galactic plasmoids also provide rotational energy by spinning around one another. Electromagnetism concentrates electric currents that generate magnetic fields, increasing current confinement forces, which increases the magnetic field, and so on. When those forces act on the galactic scale, they might be perceived in the unphysical way of black holes. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Gilbert Eriksen
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Zeta Ophiuchi in infrared. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
Shooting Star
(Jan 31, 2011)
What model best fits heliospheric behavior? "How now, wit! Whither wander you?" -- William Shakespeare: As You Like it, Act 1, Scene 2 Space, it is said, is a vacuum. Since the best pumped vacuum on Earth reaches a 0.1 millimeter spacing between individual atoms, while, in comparison there is about one atom per cubic centimeter between stars, the label is not far off the mark The Interstellar Medium (ISM), through which all stars move, consists of gas and dust composed of hydrogen and helium, with one-tenth of a micron dust grains. One micron equals one-millionth of a meter, so the dust is smaller than the wavelength of blue light (0.450 microns). The ISM contains ionized particles, as well as neutral molecules. It is those electrons and positive ions that are critical to understanding the behavior of the ISM and how stars interact with it. Even though the ISM is extremely diffuse, since charge separation takes place in different regions weak electric fields can develop. Electric fields, no matter how weak, initiate electric currents. According to a recent press release, astronomers using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have located a star whose "...powerful winds push gas and dust out of its way and into what is called a bow shock." It is assumed that the star's velocity compresses gas and dust in front of it as it flies through space because its "stellar wind" shoves gas and dust out of the way. The so-called "bow The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive shock" heats up the ISM until it glows in the infrared frequencies WISE can see.
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However, instead of treating the ISM like an inert medium, the Electric Universe model sees it as a magnetic, electrically charged material that is affected by the plasma sheaths around stars known as magnetospheres. Stellar plasma and the ISM are different plasmas, so they develop Langmuir plasma sheaths, or "double layers," between them. Stars are where galactic electric discharges are focused, so the double layers form "virtual cathodes." Whenever electric discharges take place in plasma, the current flow is compressed inward by induced magnetic fields. This effect is known as a "z-pinch," and is a foundational principle of Electric Universe theory. The compression can be so intense that plasma is squeezed down into solid particles. Indeed, stars and galaxies are thought to owe their existence to massive electric currents forming cosmic z-pinches in the vast clouds of plasma propelled through the Universe by larger electromagnetic fields. When Voyager 1 experienced "events unlike any encountered before in the mission's then 26year history" as it approached the boundary between our own Sun and the ISM, physicist Wal Thornhill wrote that the spacecraft was penetrating a Langmuir plasma sheath that insulates the solar plasma from that in the ISM. Since electric currents generate magnetic fields, and magnetic fields strong enough to hold tenuous clouds of gas and dust together have been found in the ISM, then electric currents must be flowing through it in order to create those fields. Magnetic fields cause filamentation of space plasma. The filamentary nature of the "bow shock" around Zeta Ophiuchi points to electric currents and not kinetics as the more likely explanation for its appearance. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Jason Brown
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Portion of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team.
Far Distance Run Around

(Jan 28, 2011)
Redshift theory inhibits new research into the age and size of the Universe. Two major points in Big Bang theory are that redshift is proportional to distance and that it also indicates velocity. It is assumed that the larger an object's redshift is the farther away it is and the faster it is moving away from the observer. Those two ideas led to the commonly held belief that the Universe is expanding. Astronomer Edwin Hubble, based on his own observations, as well as those of Vesto Slipher, believed that he had observed remote galaxies receding from the Milky Way in 1929. His greatest surprise was not the recession itself, but the apparent high velocities associated with it. It seemed as if some galaxies were moving away at thousands of kilometers per second. Spectrograms from Hubble's galactic images appeared to indicate a "redshift" of light frequencies. He adapted the Doppler effect (after the Austrian physicist Christian Doppler) to the spectra of various galaxies. His thought was that the change in location of "Fraunhofer lines" (for the German physicist Joseph von Fraunhofer) demonstrated a shift toward the red end of the spectrum because of galactic recessional velocity. Fraunhofer lines occur at certain regions in the spectrum because different elements absorb unique light frequencies. If they are in a different location, then they must be Doppler-shifted from the element's velocity. Hubble's conclusion created the foundation for galaxy-scale distance calculations and their supposed recessional velocities. Some galaxies are said to be receding at over 90 percent of light-speed. Although many observations contradict the consensus view, and have been doing so for 40 years or more, those data are ignored or marginalized. High redshift quasars have been located in axial alignment with galaxies at substantially lower redshift. Sometimes they are connected to those lower redshift galaxies by "bridges" of glowing gas and dust. According to a recent press release, the Hubble Space Telescope has recorded the image of a galaxy over 13 billion light-years distant, making it the farthest object from Earth ever seen. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive As Rychard Bouwens, co-author of the report in the science journal Nature article said: "These observations provide us with our best insights yet into the earlier primeval objects that have yet to be found."
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In other Picture of the Day articles, the current theories of large-scale structure that are based on cosmological distance assumptions have been brought to question. Astronomer Halton Arp, for instance, interprets galactic redshift to be an indicator of age and not distance. Electric Universe theory proposes that galaxy clusters are Birkeland current z-pinches in superclusters that make up a "superfamily" hierarchy. Birkeland currents occur in a "nest" of double helices: each filament of electric current is a tube consisting of filament pairs that spiral around a common axis. Therefore, galaxy clusters are composed of individual galaxies, while stars make up the galaxies. Electric currents charge and discharge vast concentrations of plasma at every scale from star to supercluster, causing some z-pinches to overload. In that case, another plasma blob gets ejected from the overcharged galactic parent, forming a quasar and distributing the current load over a larger area. Arp wrote: "The typical case is that the largest galaxy in a cluster is a radio E, and the other bright galaxies in this cluster are aligned on either side of this central galaxy along the line of elongation of the radio components. It is argued that this general physical phenomenon can only be explained by having the line of galaxies, or their progenitors, ejected from the central galaxy along with the radio emitting material." Halton Arp's work prompts the question: how big and how old is the Universe if redshift readings are not reliable indicators of distance? Stephen Smith Hat tip to Colin James III
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NGC 891. Credit: R. Jay Gabany
Corona Discharges
(Jan 26, 2011)
From galaxies to the laboratory, transverse electric currents accompany a main discharge channel. That "main discharge channel" experienced by most people comes in the form of 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. Once two points of contact are made, the electrical energy stored in the cloud-toground capacitor discharges, drawing current from several square kilometers. On Earth, a surface lightning stroke is accompanied by transverse or "corona discharges" at right angles to the main channel. They appear to be "tributaries" joining the primary discharge. Surface lightning forces close tributaries to be parallel because of electromagnetic forces between them. Brachiated burns or cuts in various materials at different scales are sometimes called "Lichtenberg figures." Lichtenberg figures are named after Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. They form when lightning bolts strike some material on Earth it can be soil or even human tissue. They have also been artificially generated in blocks of acrylic plastic. Many Lichtenberg figures have been discovered in the south polar region of Mars and have been discussed in previous Pictures of the Day as Martian "spiders." To understand the connection that plasma formations in space have with laboratory experiments the scalability of plasma phenomena must be considered. Plasma discharges can produce the same formations irrespective of size. The same patterns appear in laboratories, on planets, around stars, and inside galaxies. What have been called "streamers" were seen inside the shell of gas and dust that makes up the haze around the nucleus of Comet Holmes 17P. They remain in the same alignment as they had since their initial formation. Despite several months of travel, they did not rotate to stay aligned with the Sun. As has been discussed in previous Picture of the Day articles, the braided filaments are the sign of helical Birkeland currents. A few years ago, scientists analyzing data from the Subaru Telescope announced the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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discovery of a "threadlike structure" emerging from RB199, one of the larger elliptical galaxies inhabiting the Coma cluster. The filament extends approximately 260,000 light years and contains groups of stars enclosed by glowing, ionized shells. Researchers refer to these rapidly moving star cluster knots as "fireballs," because they look like flaming projectiles shooting out from the galaxy. Duration is also directly proportional to size. Sparks lasting two or three microseconds in the laboratory might scale up to decade-long events at stellar scales, or millions of years at the galactic scale. Filamentary shapes appear to exist no matter where investigators search. Forces exerted by electrified plasma contained in the twisting filaments of Birkeland currents dominate the Universe. They flow in a cosmic circuit that comes into our field of view and then goes back out into the void with long-range attraction between them. In the image at the top of the page, NGC 891 also displays streamers of material moving away from its equatorial plane at right angles. Could it be that corona arc discharges, an electrical phenomenon associated with terrestrial lightning, are occurring on a thousands of light-years scale? Stephen Smith
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Red indicates high particle intensity, blue is low intensity. The vertical energy scales run from 30 kilo-electron volts to several mega-electron volts. Credit: NASA/JPL/APL
Snap Crackle and Spark

(Jan 24, 2011)
Electric Universe theory posits that celestial bodies are not isolated islands in space, they are connected by current-carrying electric circuits. Most of the time planets and moons are not in a stable electrical condition because they are moving across plasma filaments within the Solar System, or if a moon, in the plasmaspheres around planets. The plasmasphere of Saturn electrifies its environment, causing dark-mode plasma discharges to impinge on its family of moons. Enceladus, Dione and Tethys are all electrically active, flinging vast quantities of charged particles into space. Each moon is connected to its parent and to one another through the aforementioned circuits. Planets with magnetic fields can trap fast-moving particles to form giant electrified clouds, more accurately called electric currents. NASA scientists have noted that Saturn's magnetic field bends around Enceladus "due to electric currents generated by the interaction of atmospheric particles and the magnetosphere of Saturn." Further flattening of the plasma torus on the sunward side demonstrates an electrical effect is occurring between Saturn and the Sun. According to a recent press release, NASA scientists have found a direct relationship "...between mysterious, periodic signals from Saturn's magnetic field and explosions of hot ionized gas, known as plasma, around the planet." Researchers discovered plasma toroids around Saturn that contain regions of increased charge density that generate strong periodic signals in measurements of the planet's magnetic field. The cyclic nature of the signals interferes with charting Saturn's rotational rate. The press release goes on to state that "hot plasma" surrounding Saturn "explodes," causing The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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magnetic field lines to stretch. Centrifugal force initiated by "cold dense" plasma erupting from Enceladus stretches them to the point where they "snap back," releasing heat. The process is also known as "magnetic reconnection." As the consensus view states, planetary magnetospheres deform like teardrops because they are bombarded by a powerful stream of charged particles that crackle out from the Sun. As the fields are pushed on the sunward side of a planet, they stretch out on the other side, where they are said to "unravel" and "flap like a flag waving in the wind." According to theory, when those magnetic field lines cross and "reconnect" through some unknown mechanism, they detonate, releasing large quantities of heat, light, and electrical energy. However, magnetic field lines cannot be the storehouse for so-called "magnetic energy" because the field lines are no more real than the arrows used to describe an electric field, or the curved lines that indicate highs and lows on a weather map. Besides, a magnetic field is a continuum for all practical purposes, it is not quantized into discrete bands. To say that magnetic field lines can cross, or flap, or break and reconnect is tantamount to saying that weather diagrams can produce rain. Retired professor of Electrical Engineering Don Scott writes about the other feature thought to be "mysterious" by the data analysts: the "clump" of electrified particles synchronized with the planet's rotation. "I do feel they would stand a better chance [of understanding] if they would recognize how magnetic and electric fields interact with streams of charge. Nearby electric current can distort a magnetic field. A congestion of electric charge May be due to a concentrated electric field along some particular radius vector emanating up from the planet." Every so often Saturn breaks out with a "great white spot" three times larger than Earth. Standard models of Saturn cannot explain such a spark, but an intense lightning discharge deep in its atmosphere might create vertical jets similar to the sprites in Earth's upper atmosphere. It seems as if all the phenomena that NASA finds so mysterious can be explained through one agency: electricity. Stephen Smith
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NGC 1514 in visible light (left) and infrared. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
Nebular Plasmoids
(Jan 21, 2011)
Most nebulae exhibit the unmistakable characteristics of electrical activity. Previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles have argued for an electrical interpretation of astrophysical observations, so that there is an alternative available for those who want extracurricular exploration and deeper levels. Every science journal describes nebulae like NGC 1514 in terms of gases and "blowing" dust, along with "winds" created by "shock waves" from exploding stars. In many cases a nebula is described as "star forming," because intense points of X-ray radiation, or extreme ultraviolet, indicate to astronomers that new thermonuclear fusion reactions have begun within the cloud. A recent press release uses similar terminology when it refers to "jets of material" from a white dwarf star "smashing into" the wall of a gas bubble ejected from a companion star. It is said that the areas where the jets impact the wall create the false-color orange rings seen above. The material is thought to be heated by those collisions, causing it to glow in infrared. The Electric Universe theory presupposes plasma and magnetic fields forming electric stars through enormous, diffuse Birkeland currents that power the galaxy, preventing plasma from dispersing inside their light-years long helical coils. When the electric current density inside the filaments gets high enough, the plasma that carries the current begins to glow and to "pinch" into plasmoids that might eventually become stars. When electrical stress is low and the plasma contains a small concentration of dust, only the stars in a nebula "light up" in arc-mode discharge. Where electrical stress is greater, as in NGC 1514, curling filaments, jets, and any surrounding "gas" clouds can also light up. Of course, dust clouds can reflect the light from nearby stars, but NGC 1514 illustrates the characteristic filaments and cell-like behavior seen in plasma laboratory experiments. The light in the nebula is produced by electrical discharge, so ultraviolet and X-rays can be generated by the intensity of its stellar arcs. Any nebula could be thought of as a laboratory "gas-discharge tube," similar to a neon light, which emits light because the gas is electrically excited. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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When plasma moves through a dust or gas, the cloud becomes ionized and electric currents flow. The currents generate magnetic fields that confine themselves into coherent filaments known as Birkeland currents. The charged particles that compose the currents spiral along the magnetic fields, appearing as electrical vortices. The forces between these spinning Birkeland currents pull them close together and wind them around each other into "plasma ropes." Invisible electric sheaths can get "pumped" with energy from galactic Birkeland currents in which they are immersed. Excess input power might also push them into "glow mode." Nebulae are ignited with electric triggers. Stephen Smith
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"Carved by the Gods." Credit: Garry Maxfield
The Huangshang Mountains

(Jan 19, 2011)
Scientists tell us that Earths geology has been shaped over million of years. Millions of years might actually be involved in forming the topography we see. But if that is the case, then there are anomalies that occasionally surface. For example, there appear to be eyewitness accounts in myths and legends that refer to massive geological processes. Rather than the slow processes of plate tectonics, wind, and weather there is another process that can cause exactly the same events but in an almost instantaneous period: electric discharge, or "spark machining." Electric currents might once have flowed through Earth's conductive strata with energies like nothing we know today. Evidence can be found on Earth and throughout the Solar System. For instance, the Huangshang or Yellow Mountains in China is sacred mountain range with hundreds of spires that taper at the top. This range is not a soft sandstone but a hard granite type rock. A typical explanation would be that the range has been pushed up by plate tectonics. Cracks have appeared and freezing water has done the rest. Plausible. However, a close look at the tops of the peaks reveals structures that cause one to question whether water could have formed them. Stone obelisks of rock almost 100 meters high alongside smaller versions reveal that they are pointed, not weathered and rounded. Water erosion? An alternate explanation is that this is an example of electrical machining from an upward flow of electricity. A planetary-scale discharge pulled material to this region and pulled it up. The strong electric field etched the surface and carried the debris into space. Some characteristics that indicate a discharge are hard to miss. A three-way intersection of a valley that has very little outflow compared with the intersecting valleys: Mount Banks, Mount The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Hay, and Lockleys Pylon. An impressed helical pattern can be discerned, and on top of each formation is a giant lightning blister. The area is a popular tourist destination in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, Australia. Many Pictures of the Day have discussed geological anomalies that can only be explained through electricity machining Earth's surface. Of course this leads to an uncomfortable conclusion that our planet as we see it today isnt that old. Garry Maxfield
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Rainbow in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Credit: GulfNews.com
Rainmaker
(Jan 17, 2011)
Arid regions are influencing their weather using electrical technology. According to a recent press release, the United Arab Emirates successfully caused rain to fall by making use of negative ion generators. Approximately 50 rainstorms fell in the driest months, during which time weather forecasters did not predict any rain at all. Scientists installed a network of interconnected conductors in the desert that release clouds of negatively charged ions. As the particles rise in the hot air, they attract water vapor in the atmosphere, since water is a dipolar molecule with both positive and negative poles. It is commonly believed that weather on Earth is driven by the Sun's thermal influence on the atmosphere. As we rotate beneath our primary, gases and dust absorb solar radiation at varying rates and in varying degrees. When any particular region heats up, the air expands and loses density, creating a relative low pressure area. Cooler air, being denser, will naturally flow into the bottom of the warm, low pressure region, causing an upwardly rotating convection cell to form. Most weather systems on Earth are thought to be based on that simple kinetic explanation: winds blow when the cooler, denser air flows into the warmer, buoyant air. However, ions attract water in the atmosphere instead of through the commonly described process of neutral dust motes building up raindrops through a process of condensation. The dust hanging in the air becomes charged, making it more attractive to water vapor. Since Earth is immersed in the stream of ions permeating space, it holds an electric field at its surface of 50 200 volts per meter. The electricity from space carried by ionic particles emitted by the Sun, otherwise known as the "solar wind," speeds along massive Birkeland currents through a circuit connecting the Sun with our planet. Water molecules are electric The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive dipoles and are attracted to an opposite polar charge, such as that on another water molecule, so they clump together, aligned within Earths "fair weather field."
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It was in September of 2006 that a major premise of Electric Universe theory was confirmed: Earth weather is electrically connected to the ionosphere. Since electricity always flows in a circuit, if the ionosphere connects to Earth's magnetosphere then it connects to the circuits of the Solar System, as well. The ionosphere is connected to the Sun by twisting filaments of electric current, so the lower levels of the atmosphere must also experience the Sun's influence because of the additional circuit node that connects them with the ionosphere. Could these electric circuits linking the atmosphere with the Sun have anything to do with Earth's climate in either the short or long term? This leads to the more general idea that all weather May be influenced by the electrical connection between Earth and solar plasma. The larger view has only recently been considered, so experiments designed to verify the effect that charged particles have on Earth's weather are now being conducted. It appears that they are having some success. Electric Universe physicist Wal Thornhill wrote: "If conventional theory fails to explain electrical storms it cannot be used to discount the results of ionization experiments. Instead, conventional theory suffers doubts about its basic plausibility. Weather experts have a limited view of the electrical nature of the Earth and its environment. The 'enormous power input' is freely available from the galaxy. That galactic electrical power drives the weather systems on all of the planets and even the Sun. So the ionization experiment is rather like the control gate in a transistor, where a small current into the control gate influences the entire power output of the transistor. This method of weather control should eventually force the critics to think again." Stephen Smith Hat tip to Jason Brown
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The crater-strewn surface of Rhea. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Daughter of Earth and Sky

(Jan 14, 2011)
Saturn's moons are difficult to explain without including an Electric Universe hypothesis. Rhea is one of Saturn's moons that bears examination in light of electrical theories. Even though Rhea's mean diameter is only 1528 kilometers, its entire visible surface is pocked with craters. One large basin is 360 kilometers across and six kilometers deep, giving it the distinction of being the most cataclysmic event in the moon's history. Anything larger would have blown it to bits. Recent images from the Cassini-Equinox spacecraft reveal a moon that has been bombarded by powerful forces. Consensus science sees asteroids and meteors as the common cause. The Electric Universe offers alternatives to those commonly accepted beliefs. A bright splotch on Rhea covers almost an entire hemisphere. Since it resembles the rayed structures on Earth's Moon, planetary scientists attribute its formation to an asteroid impact explosively throwing debris outward in radial "ejecta blankets" millions, if not billions of years ago. However, previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles have noted that those formations are more likely the result of electric arcs and could be due to relatively recent events. The rays surrounding the large central crater are not deep but look more like a thin layer of dust without the gradual sizing of the granules as they recede from the point of influence. They were probably deposited by an "electric wind" as the plasma arc reduced the surface rocks to fine powder. Another strange feature of Rhea is the large concentration of hexagonal craters, although nearly every rocky body in the Solar System, Earth included, exhibits similar structures. How The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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can a colliding rock cause a hexagonal crater? No experiment can create a polygonal shape after an explosive event. No, as pointed-out in several previous Picture of the Day articles, hexagons are created when intense particle beams touch down on a solid surface. Electric arcs are composed of Birkeland current filaments. Researchers studying the issue have found that beams of electricity flowing through plasma create a central column surrounded by concentric cylinders. The cylindrical discharge can sometimes form diocotron instabilities in the vortex, forcing a hexagonal shape. As the filaments rotate around one another, a hexagonal cross-section forms within the innermost column. Cassini's January 11, 2011 flyby found that almost all of Rhea's craters occur in multiples, the majority of the larger ones are in pairs with many smaller craters distributed around them nonrandomly. Many of them are found on the rims of the large craters. In so-called "spark machining" equipment electric discharges "stick" to one spot for a split second, cutting microscopic craters as the main discharge rotates within a larger one. The typical shallow, flat floors of the craters, together with central bumps, provide a perfect match with the patterns created by plasma physicist C. J. Ransom in his laboratory arcing experiments. These are only a few examples that indicate Rhea's features did not undergo a slow condensation out of a nebular cloud. Rather, electric arcs probably tore its surface. What has been left behind is a forensic record of past conditions in the form of fractures, chaotic terrain, and gigantic caldera as big as the state of Wisconsin. Rhea might once have been caught in the grip of an interplanetary particle beam that excavated its craters. Due to plasma instabilities in the discharge, hexagonal formations remain, "fossilized" geometric shapes permanently burned in. Stephen Smith
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The Crab Nebula in X-ray (Chandra), optical (Palomar), infrared (Keck), and radio (VLA).
Nebular Flares
(Jan 12, 2011)
Filamentary structures in this nebula indicate electric currents flowing through clouds of plasma. NASA launched the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope (formerly GLAST) on June 11, 2008. Its primary mission is observing high frequency electromagnetic waves in space, including gamma rays. Since gamma rays are unable to penetrate our atmosphere, Fermi was placed in high orbit.Scientists from the University of California Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics have identified 16 new so-called "pulsars" from scans of their gamma ray emissions. Pulsars were usually discovered by monitoring radio waves, but Fermi has discovered "radio quiet" pulsars. Pulsars are described as "lighthouses" with concentrated beams of energy constricted to narrow regions on the surface of a rapidly spinning neutron star. Gravity relies on rotation as the pulsation mechanism, so when a pulsar's beam comes in line with Earth, a flash of light can be seen. However, the rotation rates of some pulsars are faster than one revolution per second (even with many times the mass of our Sun). Nothing known to science can withstand the forces involved with those spin rates, so "neutron stars" were mathematically created. Only something that dense was thought able to withstand the rotational velocity. According to a recent press release, one of the most well-known pulsars, the Crab Nebula, is emitting such extremely energetic gamma ray bursts that astrophysicists are reconsidering their theories. Stefan Funk from the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) at the Stanford Linear Accelerator facility in California said: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"We thought we knew the essential ingredients of the Crab Nebula but that's no longer true. It's still surprising us." KIPAC's director, Roger Blandford agreed: "We were dumbfounded." The Fermi report states that the gamma ray flares occur in short periods of time, as little as two days before the intensity drops back to normal levels. In agreement with Electric Universe theory, the research team acknowledges that the rapid slew rate points to synchrotron radiation as the gamma ray source: ten trillion electron volts worth. The press release also poses the most critical question: how can the nebula do that? On July 4, 1054 CE, Chinese astrologers saw a "guest star" near Zeta Tauri in the constellation Taurus. They record that it was bright enough to shine in daylight, but lasted only about a year before fading out. John Bevis saw a bright nebula in the reported location in 1731, with Charles Messier's observation coming in 1758. William Parsons, the third Earl of Rosse, using his 72-inch, four ton metal mirror telescope called "the Leviathan of Parsonstown," wrote that the nebula resembled a crab's claw, so it came to be named the Crab Nebula. Consensus opinions ascertain that the nebula is what remains after a supernova explosion. The lowest energy electrons emit radio waves as they spiral in the nebula's magnetic fields. They can travel the farthest distance, so the nebula's central pulsar was initially discovered by radio astronomers in 1968. Subsequently, the pulsar was also catalogued as an optical and X-ray radiation source. The Crab Nebula pulses at 30 times per second, so by definition, the central star rotates 30 times per second. Electric Star theory proposes that neutron stars are imaginary objects. A gravity-only cosmology requires them because the forces generated from spinning billions of megatons as fast as a power drill would cause the star to tear itself apart. Neutron stars are supposed to answer the question of anomalous pulsar behavior, especially when their brightness fluctuates over a short time, like the Crab Nebula pulsar. They are thought to be the leftovers after stars "blow off" their outer layers in powerful explosions, leaving a super-dense core behind. All the electrons in the remaining stellar core are said to be gravitationally compressed until they combine with protons in the nuclei, forming matter so dense that a single teaspoon would weigh billions of tons on Earth. Previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles have discussed the problems associated with neutron stars. Primarily, they violate the "Island of stability" principal. The number of neutrons plotted against the number of protons in elemental nuclei reveals a ratio of about one-to-one for light elements and one point five-to-one for heavier ones. Anything outside that range will spontaneously decay until it reaches equilibrium. Too few neutrons and atoms will emit protons until they stabilize or vise-versa. Therefore, an atomic nucleus consisting of neutrons alone would be unstable and immediately decay. Pulsars are thought to form when a neutron star's magnetic field exceeds 10^15 Gauss. In comparison, Earth's magnetic field measures one-half Gauss. The evidence for neutron stars is indirect, however, and none have ever been observed. What is observed are intense magnetic fields pulsing in fractions of a second. Since magnetic fields are induced by electric currents, there must be electricity generating the intense fields in a pulsar. Those "feeder currents" must also be part of a circuit, since persistent electric current must flow in a completed circuit. Electric Universe advocates The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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speculate that the oscillations in pulsars are caused by resonant effects in those circuits. The sudden release of stored electrical energy in a "double layer" is responsible for their energetic outbursts. As current flows through clouds of dusty plasma, the Biot-Savart effect draws linear filaments together, forming zones of compression known as "z-pinches" or "Bennett pinches." Depending on how much electricity is flowing through the circuit, the star's magnetic field will be greatest where the current density is at a maximum. It seems more likely that pulsars are exhibiting an immense accumulation of electricity focused by a "plasma gun" effect. Super-dense matter and extreme rotation are unnecessary. Electricity flowing in circuits provides a coherent explanation for pulsar behavior, including gamma ray flares, that agrees with accepted electromagnetic theories. Stephen Smith
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Hemisphere-wide blast on the Sun. Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory.
A New Order of Magnitude

(Jan 05, 2011)
The scale and significance of solar electromagnetic disturbances is being reevaluated. "The medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium--that is, of any extension of ourselves--result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology." -- Marshall McLuhan According to a recent press release, an immense eruption on the Sun encompassed almost an entire hemisphere. The extraordinary plasma discharge prompted this response from Karel Schrijver of Lockheed Martin's Solar and Astrophysics Lab in Palo Alto, California: "The August 1st event really opened our eyes. We see that solar storms can be global events, playing out on scales we scarcely imagined before." The massive coronal mass ejection (CME) demonstrated that solar explosions are interconnected by magnetic fields reaching out for thousands of miles. The Great Eruption (as it was called) was composed of several smaller components: solar flares, filaments, and CMEs that spanned 180 degrees of solar longitude and lasted for 28 hours. CMEs typically spew plasma in the billions of tons throughout the Solar System. A signature of CME ejections is an increase in auroral brightness and frequency on Earth. The ejections are composed of charged particles, and are attracted to and follow Earth's polar magnetic cusps. A few CMEs have been observed to leave the Sun with unexpected acceleration: velocities more than 70,000 kilometers per second have been clocked. The fact that events on the Sun should be influenced by one another does not seem surprising when the Electric Star model is considered. Magnetic fields have been detected in galaxies, meaning that electric currents must flow through them in circuits. There is no other way to create a magnetic field other than the movement of electric current in a conductive The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Magnetic forces constrict currents into filaments, which twist around each other and "pinch" galactic plasma into balls, pulling matter together until internal pressure balances the socalled "electromagnetic z-pinch" pressure. This pinch effect is far more powerful than gravity, and can gather matter from hundreds of light-years away, forming stars like beads along the galactic filaments. The surface of a star like the Sun generates multiple loop structures that rise up from its surface and penetrate its plasma sheath, or double layer region of the Sun, where most of its electrical energy is contained. When the current flowing into the Sun's plasma sheath increases beyond a certain point it can trigger a sudden release of energy, otherwise known as a CME. As Electric Universe advocate Don Scott makes clear, powerful looping electric currents generate secondary toroidal magnetic fields. If the current grows too strong, the plasma double layer is destroyed. That event interrupts the current flow and the stored electromagnetic energy is blasted into space. It is not surprising to Electric Universe proponents that conditions on the Sun are governed by interconnected magnetic fields, and, by extension, electric currents. Stephen Smith
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The surface of the Uranian moon Miranda. Credit: NASA/JPL
Worthy to be Admired
(Jan 04, 2011)
What force deformed this small moon? The gas giant planet Uranus is lying on its side, along with its moons and rings. Instead of Uranus orbiting the Sun with its equator in the plane of the ecliptic, its axis is offset from the vertical by 97. There are a few tiny moons that revolve around Uranus in the plane of the ecliptic, circling from pole to pole, but they are moving in a retrograde orbit. It is not known why this is so. Planetary scientists think it is because they were "captured" by Uranus. It is not an unreasonable hypothesis. Recently, a current sheet was found connecting Uranus with its moon Miranda, revealing an electric circuit within the Uranian system. In fact, the magnetosphere of Uranus is wide enough to encompass its entire system of moons in an electric field. Miranda is the most heavily contorted of all the moons in the Solar System. It is so damaged that many scientists once thought it had been virtually destroyed more than once in its history. Some speculations suggested that it had been blasted apart and gravitationally reassembled five times or more. A major problem with that theory, and the one that caused investigators to finally dismiss it, is how Miranda could remain in its circular orbit after being blown apart multiple times. Another hypothesis proposed that Miranda's icy surface melted and refroze repeatedly, obliterating craters and forming the giant cliffs that rise more than 14 kilometers high in some places. Since it is so cold on Miranda at -187 Celsius, one wonders where the energy came from that produced heat sufficient to melt megatons of ice. A computer generated flyover of Miranda shows how deeply carved it is. Canyons and ridges The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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dominate its surface, with several large craters. One such crater is almost 25 kilometers in diameter. Miranda itself is only 472 kilometers in diameter, so the crater's large size is somewhat of an anomaly. In an Electric Universe, electric forces create planets and moons and circularize their orbits. One result of those creative forces is electric discharges that scar and gouge their surfaces with ridges and rilles. The plasma arcs make craters in some areas and not in others, so there is no need for many events. It is possible that all the features on Miranda were generated in a single episode. There has only been one visit to Miranda, and that was more than 20 years ago. The New Horizons spacecraft will cross the orbit of Uranus on March 18, 2011. Unfortunately, it will not have a view of any moons. Both consensus science and Electric Universe advocates will have to wait for quite some time before more in situ observations can be made. Stephen Smith
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Lightning strikes the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai. Credit: Alisdair Miller
Dielectric Breakdown
(Dec 31, 2010)
Glass, plastics, and various metal oxides are efficient dielectric insulators. Dry air is another example. A capacitor is used to accumulate and store electric charge. Capacitors are usually made of two conductors separated by an insulating medium, or dielectric insulator. An electric charge on one conductor attracts an opposite charge to the other conductor, resulting in an electric field between them that acts as an electrical energy reserve. As charges inside the capacitor increase, the electric field increases, stressing the insulator's ability to keep them separate. If a high enough potential grows between the two conductive plates, the dielectric insulator will fail and the capacitor will short circuit, suddenly releasing the stored energy. It is that phenomenon that most likely contributes to lightning discharges. Stored electrical energy in the clouds and in the ground overcome the atmosphere's ability to keep the two charges separate, so they reach out to each other in the form of "leader strokes." When the two lightning leaders meet, a circuit between the clouds and the ground (or between one cloud and another) is completed and a burst of electric current flashes along the conductive pathway. Lightning's "arc mode" effect is only one way that the electricity can behave. There are also so-called "glow discharges," often observed high above the clouds as "red sprites" and "blue jets." There might also be what are known as "dark" discharges. These could be powerful electric currents but they are unseen and difficult to detect. An "ionic wind" can reveal the presence of a dark discharge, such as that from an electric air purifier. In thunderstorms, dark mode discharges drag surrounding neutral air molecules along with the charged particles. The strong winds into and out of such storms appear as updrafts and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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downdrafts. A mark of their power can be seen in any rapidly rotating system, like a tornado. They can lift dirt and rocks, erode surfaces, and accelerate materials to extreme velocity. In an Electric Universe, those storms are therefore not produced solely through hot air convection. Instead, thunderstorms could be a secondary phenomenon driven by an invisible dielectric breakdown of Earth's atmospheric insulator. Electrostatic forces would be responsible for suspended dust or water in storms. This explains why hailstones are most often spherical. An electric field carries charged water molecules more easily than would powerful winds trying to hold several grams of ice up against the pull of gravity. If winds are pushing hailstones back up into the cloud to add layers of ice each time, they ought to show distorted and random shapes from the chaotic nature of wind. Human beings are not well-equipped to sense electric and magnetic fields. However, the feel of a breeze or the chill of a wind are readily detected. This can lead to an idea that all weather is convective in nature, depending only on the rise of hot air and the fall of its cold analog. In consensus viewpoints, lightning appears to be an aftereffect of that convection, so the electrical interactions between Earth and its surrounding charged plasma sheath are overlooked. Electrical phenomena are scalable: they demonstrate characteristics that are alike whether the spark spans a millimeter or thousands of kilometers. Tiny electric arc scars are seen with a microscope on insulators and semiconductors. As previous Picture of the Day articles have shown, those arc scars can be seen on the faces of planets and moons, as well. How powerful might be an interplanetary lightning bolt? Plasma physicist Anthony Peratt estimated that a single such bolt could be as powerful as a 3,000,000 megaton nuclear explosion. Stephen Smith
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Comet Hartley 2 supposedly surrounded by "snowballs" of water ice. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD
Snowballs in Hell
(Dec 27, 2010)
Frozen clumps of ice are thought to be spewing from the nucleus of comet 103P/Hartley 2. Comets are assumed to be icy conglomerations of dust, gases, and mineral grains from the earliest days of the Solar System. As many Picture of the Day articles have argued, that assumption leaves many puzzles unexplained. As early as July 2004, Electric Universe advocates have provided analytical data that contradicts the theory of comet "snowballs." For example, some comets demonstrate comas, tails, and jets when they are far from the Sun, supposedly the energy source for all cometary activity. If the Sun is what causes water ice to melt, or as a recent press release has announced with some surprise, dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) to sublime and form "jets," then a comet past the orbit of Jupiter should not exhibit those features. Now, the EPOXI mission website has stated that water ice has been detected by the infrared camera onboard the recommissioned Deep Impact spacecraft. Despite some differences between the spectrum of pure water and the emissions from Hartley 2, NASA scientists state: "Data collected by Deep Impact's onboard infrared spectrometer show without a doubt that the particles are made of frozen H2O, i.e., ice." An electric comet hypothesis was proposed by Ralph Juergens in the early 1970's as a part of his electric Sun model. His physicist colleague, Dr. Earl Milton, and Wal Thornhill developed the model after Juergens' untimely death in 1979. The first article on electric comets on Thornhill's website appeared in October 2001 along with his predictions for the Deep Impact mission. Later articles appeared in January 2004 when the Stardust mission encountered comet Wild 2. And some results of the Deep Impact experiment were reported in July 2005. As Thornhill writes: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"The EU model predicts that all active comets will exhibit frequent, short outbursts in different spots on their surface. The outbursts happen because they are electrical discharge phenomena, known technically as (cold) cathode jets. Their onset will be as sudden as an electric spark (described in one report as 'nearly instantaneous') and their duration extended only because space plasma has a limited current carrying capacity. The jets will focus on an extremely small bright area generally situated on a raised point or edge of the comet surface." The cathode sparks erode minerals from the surface of comets (such as carbon) and, as Thornhill elucidates, they can dissociate comet minerals containing oxygen atoms so that the ionized O- atom combines with H+ ions, or protons, from the Sun's solar wind, forming the OH hydroxyl molecule. "It is an assumption," Thornhill insists, "that it is formed by the breakdown of H2O 'vapor' by solar UV radiation." The carbon from comet minerals May similarly combine with ionized oxygen to form carbon monoxide in his electric comet model. Since comets are probably the blasted out debris left over from catastrophic events in the recent past, then they are most likely composed of many different substances. In that scenario, there could be comets in the Solar System that are composed of water ice, since ocean water could have also been explosively launched into solar orbit at the same time as the chunks of rock. However, those water-based objects have not been seen by space borne imaging equipment. As Wal Thornhill has made abundantly clear, mission specialists from the EPOXI team are relying on assumptions to make their observations fit. Comets that have been lately investigated all appear to be rocky bodies, lacking snow fields or icy plains. Since they are most likely stoney, then they could be composed of silicon dioxide, as well as several other mineral compounds. If silicon is present, then the cloud of large particles could be small rocks with hydroxyl coatings. Research done in 1964 demonstrated that the surfaces of silica gels can contain hydroxyl groups. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Thane Hubbell
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Left: Christmas tree in Piazza Portanova, Salerno old town, Italy. 11 December 2008. SOLOXSALERNO, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Right: Buddha represented as Agniskanda or pillar of fire, surrounded by worshippers. From Amaravat, Andhra Pradesh, India (first century CE). Courtesy Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore.
O Christmas Tree! Thy Candles Shine So Brightly!

(Dec 24, 2010)
That the Christmas tree did not originally root in Christian symbolism has never been a secret. The custom to erect a Christmas tree during the winter solstice, sustaining a reminder of the summers verdancy and abundance of sunlight through the heart of winter, is of pagan origin, but its antiquity and former geographic distribution remain knotty subjects. Like the Maypole, the earliest historical references to the Christmas tree date from the fifteenth or the fourteenth century CE, but unlike it, the practice to set up and decorate a Christmas tree at that time appears to have been limited to a small part of Europe first the Baltic region and then also northern Germany. As is true of so many other branches of folklore, the late attestation of the ritual does not necessarily imply a recent origin. For earlier epochs, the historian faces a dearth of texts discussing popular domestic topics and especially in eastern Europe a predominantly preChristian setting, within which references to non-controversial aspects of daily life May be expected to be sparse. Against this background, there is every chance that the preparation of a Christmas tree was an old and ingrained part of traditional culture in northeastern Europe. If it was, the many conifers so adorned May have represented a single mythical prototype and the discovery of global analogues to the veneration of such a mythical tree of light carries clout. A brief survey of luminiferous trees in mythology reminiscent of the Christmas tree could hardly fail to acknowledge two passages in the Icelandic Edda, in which the numinous ash Yggdrasil was lauded as 'the radiant, sacred tree' and 'a high tree, soaked with shining loam'. The central textbook of Qabbala, the medieval Jewish work entitled Zohar, owed its name to The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive the luminosity of the tree of life, which doubled as the central axis in the scheme of the Sephirot:
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'In this tree exists one radiancy: zohar, radiance, all colors inhering there. Those colors ascend and descend, not settling anywhere except in that tree. When they issue from it to appear in the radiance that does not shine, they settle and do not, endure and do not for they settle nowhere else'. Indeed, for adepts of this brand of mysticism the tree 'is the Sun which illumines all. Its radiance commences at the top and extends through the whole trunk in a straight line'. Further afield, the Omaha, of Nebraska, tell of 'a luminous tree' frequented by the Thunder birds: 'When the Thunder birds alight upon the tree it bursts into flame and the fire mounts to the top. The tree stands burning ' The Nlakapamux nation, of British Columbia, contend that the world received its first light from a magical tree that possessed an intrinsic luminosity and was then incinerated: 'A very large dead tree grew on a hill called Yeqatwauxus cuxcux, near Spences Bridge. It was endowed with magic, and in some manner possessed light. At that time it is said the world was always dark. The Chipmunk did not like the continual darkness, and, going to the tree, set fire to its roots. He kept the fire going, and, as the tree burned, light commenced to come'. While Balto-Finnish ancestors of the Christmas tree also used to be ritually burned, many other parallel traditions attribute the light to smaller units of fire, often compared to suns, gems or flowers, that were distributed across the tree like Christmas lights are today from Alaska to New Zealand. Hind literature knows of 'a golden wish-tree, decorated with gems, shining like the sun', which is variously called Kalpatura, Kalpavksa or Prijta. This entity May trace to an early Vedic belief in a fiery heaven-spanning tree from whose branches the gods as the 'other fires' were suspended like baubles on a Christmas tree 'to be a light unto the rya'. In the early days, the flaming pillar had been personified as the fire god, Agni, who 'like a builder raised his smoke to heaven Eager he rises like the new-wrought pillar which, firmly set and fixed, anoints the victims'. Later, Buddhists would represent their hero, the Buddha, as 'a fiery pillar, with wheelmarked feet, supported by a lotus, and with a triula "head" ' In Chinese lore, the giant tree known as f sng or 'support mulberry' was stated to be the place 'where the ten suns were bathed:' 'In the water is a large tree with nine suns in the lower branches and one in the upper'. A commentator added to this: 'In the top of the jo tree are ten suns, resembling flowers strung together, casting light downward'. Meanwhile, the native people of Kdang, one of Indonesias Lesser Sunda Islands, preserved memories of ai wern, the 'tree of gold', so called because its 'blossoms were golden chains (abalodon), its fruits were golden earrings (laong wern) ' And members of the Iroquois confederation, of northeastern North America, held that the flowers of a tree supplied the only light during the first of the 'three great mythic cosmic periods' that have existed, before todays luminaries had been placed in the sky; they would speak of 'the sunless and moonless skyland, lighted only by the snowy white flowers of the great tree of light ' Thus, the creation myth of the Seneca, in New York State, involved 'a tree which was covered with white The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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blossoms' growing in 'the middle of the village in the sky', 'in the center of the sky above', where the first people used to live: 'When this tree was in bloom its flowers gave light to the people there, but when its flowers fell, darkness came over the people. the tree was sacred to them.' An Onondaga variant of this myth reveals Onodj or 'Tooth' as the name of the tree: ' And there beside the lodge stands the tree that is called "Tooth." Moreover, the blossoms this standing tree bears cause that world to be light, making it light for the man-beings dwelling there. Such, in kind, is the tree that stands beside the lodge. beside the lodge stood the tree Tooth, whose flowers were the source of the light of the earth there present, and also of the man-beings dwelling there'. For the Mohawk the heavenly tree 'belonged to the species wild cherry and was constantly adorned with blossoms that gave light to the people dwelling there; for these flowers were white, and it was because of this that the blossoms gave light, and, therefore, they were the light orb [sun] of the people dwelling there'. Candles and other lights aside, several other properties of the Christmas tree resonate with global ideas about hallowed trees. The angel or star crowning the tree brings to mind the supreme deity at the pinnacle of the axis mundi, often conceived as a sun or a star. Garlands and ribbons draped around the tree resemble the respective vines, ropes and serpents wrapped around the column in helical form. The choice of an everlasting tree could hardly be separated from the world tree as an emblem of life, immortality and durability. Baubles compare to spirits and deities inhabiting the trees branches. The decoration of the tree with communion wafers, paper roses, apples, and so forth, as was common in medieval Germany, meshes with cross-cultural rituals involving the dispersion of goodies from a cosmic tree. With so many similarities with the sacred trees of non-European cultures it is easy to miss the forest for the trees. Yet the bottom line is that a unified image appears to have existed worldwide of a tree reaching into the sky that supplied light to the world during a time of persistent darkness and displayed a number of discreet structural forms. As the earliest precursor to the Christmas tree was mentioned in 1441 in Livonia and Livonia only converted to Christianity in the early 13th century, there is a strong case that the Christmas tree was a local, possibly Finnish reflex of this universal theme. Elaborate legends and rituals involving trees, many of which immortalised by the writings of the great Romanian mythologist, Mircea Eliade (1907-1986), flourished throughout the Arctic world and the BaltoFinnish Christmas tree May just represent a western outlier of this continuum. As argued in many of our publications, the global memory of a blazing tree in the dark sky preceding the time of creation seems to have arisen in response to a low-latitude aurora of an extraordinary intensity which remained visible for a prolonged time during the late Neolithic period. Computer models and analogies with plasma z-pinches in laboratories suggest that this aurora for much of its existence took the form of a giant column sprouting dendritic lightning-like branches. Plasmoids and spiralling filaments formed in the column would produce a spectacle quite like that of a tree ornamented with baubles and ribbons. Hence, human eyewitnesses of this remarkable display, seemingly orchestrated by the gods, might well have been moved to sing: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive 'From base to summit, gay and bright, Theres only splendour for the sight! How richly God has decked thee!' Rens Van Der Sluijs
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Supernova Remnant 0509: X-ray in blue and green, optical in red. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/J.Hughes et al, Optical: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
The Ornament Not Seen

(Dec 22, 2010)
This image of the Christmas Ornament nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud looks the same to Electric Universe and Gravity Universe proponents alike. Their radically contrary descriptions of what it is result from their ideas about what they dont see. Gravity Universe proponents describe a star that exhausted its thermonuclear fuel and exploded. It blasted its outer layers into a rarified interstellar gas, generating spherical shock waves that compressed and heated the gas to the extent of emitting x-rays. They call the nebula a supernova remnant. It helps to know ahead of time that theyre looking for spheres because, at that distance, everything looks flat to the human eye. They dont see depth. Depth is constructed from the assumptions and calculations of some theory. It also helps to know ahead of time that theyre looking for hot gas because, at that distance, they cant stick a thermometer into it. Temperature is constructed similarly to depth. So it is with most of the other elements of the description. Electric Universe proponents describe an hourglass-shaped z-pinch in a galactic Birkeland cable--a tubular configuration of current filaments rotating around an axis. Such a configuration is the "wiring harness" of all stars, which is usually invisible. In stars that are under heightened electrical stress, the plasma in the harness is pushed into glow mode and emits optical and x-ray light. Z-pinches viewed down the axis--as is this one--appear as rings. From the side, they appear as hourglasses, and from other angles they May appear as entangled circles or even as squares. The red sheath around the outside of the cable, excited to emit optical light, appears as a ring. The brighter region at upper left is where the electrical stress is greatest. Significantly, a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive diocotron instability--the curlicue bend in the ring--is developing there.
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The inner filaments, in which current carriers spiraling in the magnetic field emit x-ray synchrotron radiation, appear as the 26 x-ray "spots." The number 26 is typical in electrical discharges in plasma--which is the Electric Universe description of stars. They tend to pair up-as seen especially in the "hot region" at upper left. Another characteristic feature of such glow mode cables is the braided appearance of the ring currents. Also, the ring is actually two concentric rings but with only half of each emitting light-the outer one at upper left, the inner one at lower right. A similar configuration exists in the auroral circuit around Earths poles: the luminous half of each ring corresponds to current flowing in one direction; the dark half to current flowing in the other. It helps to know ahead of time that theyre looking for 26 spots because the x-ray image is not all that clear. They dont see 26. Differentiating the several pairs of spots and the occasional single one is constructed by analogy with lab experiments and repeated trial-and-error counting. It helps to know ahead of time that theyre looking for concentric rings of current because they cant stick an ammeter into them. Current flows are constructed similarly to paired spots. So it is with most of the other elements. The important observation (for this essay) is whats not seen. If explanations were limited to only whats seen, they would make little sense. Sensation (data) gives only glimpses: a theoretical model composed of things not seen provides context, a bigger picture, that enables us to do things, or at least to do more things and new things. Mere facts tend to be merely confusing. The sprockets of a theoretical model into which the cogs of facts can fit animate the machine. Because cogs and sprockets can be fit together in more than one way, we have the opportunity to see and to do new things. The choice of a model, then, as Karl Popper and many others since have claimed, is a decision directed by what we want to do. Mel Acheson
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The electrically charged Sun and its four inner planets move through the galaxy. From: A Little Book of Coincidence by John Martineau.
Magnetic Storms
(Dec 20, 2010)
Strong magnetic disturbances are usually observed when there are bright aurorae. In 1903, Kristian Birkeland's Arctic expedition led him to propose that the aurorae were electrically energized by currents flowing parallel to the formation. Since electric currents flow in closed circuits, and since the auroral glow seemed to be caused by processes in distant space, he suggested that the currents travel down from space at one end of the arc and then back out to space at the other end. In 1973, the U.S. Navy satellite Triad flew through this electrically charged layer. The onboard magnetometer found two gigantic current sheets, each carrying a million amperes or more, one descending on the auroral zone's morning side and one ascending on the evening side. Physical processes require an energy input that can change from one form to another. Consensus views also suggest that this holds true for geomagnetic, or auroral, substorms. It is no accident, according to scientists, that they take place when the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) slants to the South. The southern orientation, it is said, means faster "reconnection" between interplanetary and terrestrial field lines, initiating rapid release of magnetic fields and plasma from Earth's sunlit side. How this energy is released, as well as what starts the process, are still controversial subjects. Energy in nature cannot be destroyed, as the conservation of energy law states; it changes from one form to another. When electricity powers a motor, it is converted to kinetic energy. When friction stops motion, the kinetic energy converts to heat. Magnetic energy is also thought to reappear in different forms. Some becomes heat, increasing the velocity of plasma ions and electrons. Some of the energy ends up driving electric currents in a circuit linking the plasma sheet with Earth. Don Scott's commentary about magnetic reconnection should be kept in mind when reading The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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reports from NASA about Earth's interaction with the plasma stream (commonly called the solar wind) and electromagnetic energy radiating from the Sun. He notes that magnetic field lines are only convenient ideas and nothing more. They indicate a magnetic fields direction. Schematic diagrams consisting of magnetic field lines are useful for visualizing its shape and strength, although lines of force do not exist in space anymore than lines of latitude or longitude do. Magnetic field lines do not move, since the field is continuous. Consensus opinions ignore that fact and speak of field lines that can move, touch, merge, and "detonate." Scott's observation is that if this idea were to be applied to circles of longitude, they would come together and "merge" in the polar regions and could be theorized to be the source of gravitational energy. There is no such thing as "magnetic merging" or "reconnection" of magnetic field lines in the real world. The energy comes from electrical currents, which can move, touch, merge, and detonate. The cellular structure confining electric currents in space is not directly observable, except by flying a space probe through them. They have been detected on Earth and in nearspace. Do we assume that the Solar System is the only place in the Universe where electric currents play an active role? Electric Universe advocates prefer to assume that the space beyond our Solar System obeys the same physical laws of plasma interaction that are observed here. Those laws are founded in electricity. Stephen Smith
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Artist's impression of a so-called "cataclysmic variable stellar pair," or "nova."
Novus Ratio
(Dec 15, 2010)
Stellar explosions might not be what has commonly been assumed. On January 6, 2003 the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base onboard the Coriolis satellite. SMEI was designed to detect coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the time they leave the Sun until they make earthfall. It does so by analyzing sunlight Thomson-scattered from heliospheric electrons. According to a recent press release, since the SMEI views the entire sky every 102 minutes, and starlight must be subtracted from their datasets, the research team constantly makes detailed maps of stellar brightness. While visiting the University of San Diego, Rebekah Hounsell, a graduate student at Liverpool John Moores University in the U.K. identified four stars in those maps that fluctuated so rapidly in brightness that they were classified as "novae," or exploding stars. A nova explosion is thought to take place when a smaller white dwarf star in orbit around a larger companion draws matter onto its surface. Gravity compresses the gas and dust until, at a critical threshold the accreted material reaches fusion temperatures, whereupon it explodes, sending pulses of high-frequency light and powerful shock waves into space. An important fact uncovered in the observations by astronomers at the University of San Diego was the rapid flickering of three nova explosions. Observations of stellar flaring were also noted. The pauses in brightening that were observed prompted Mike Bode of Liverpool John Moores University to remark: "The reality of this halt as found in all three of the fast-declining novae observed is a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive challenge to detailed models of the nova outburst."
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Why is this brightness variation so important? Nova explosions are supposed to be based on thermonuclear models of behavior, so there should be no starts and stops during the events. Nuclear explosions are not known to pause in their expansion. So what could be the cause of these anomalies? Is a rewrite of theory required? Binary pairs of stars are common in the galaxy. More than half of all stars have one or more companions. Since stars are remote from one another, this suggests that something favors the formation of multiple stars. One possible electric mechanism is nova fissioning. A star's electrical stress is concentrated on its surface. If the electrical flux is too great, the star might split into two stars. The surface area of two stars is greater than the surface area of one, so the new system is able to accept more electrical stress. An electric current in plasma generates a magnetic field that will constrict the current flow. As has been pointed out in previous Picture of the Day articles, the constricted channel is known as a Bennett pinch, or z-pinch. Fluctuations can form double layers with large potential voltages between them. Electric forces in double layers can be much stronger than what gravity provides, while z-pinches can cause intermittent interruptions in current flow, which would account for the flickering. Double layers can accelerate charged particles. Double layers can explode, releasing more energy than is locally present. It is this effect that is seen in stellar flares or so-called "novae." Fissioning to relieve electrical stress should present some common characteristics: nova-like brightening and dimming ("flickering"), a change in the star's spectral type and surface chemical composition, the discovery of a binary companion, and the appearance of a nebular cloud. Instead of revising outdated theories, Electric Universe proponents would like to see a complete revision of thinking where plasma and electric double-layers are given precedence. Stephen Smith
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A simulation of Saturn's plasmasphere using equipment similar to Birkeland's terrella. Credit: Laboratoire de Plantologie de Grenoble, Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, Universit Joseph Fourier Grenoble 1, European Space Agency, Centre National dEtudes Spatiales, Astrium Aerospace, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association, A. Piot, C. Simon, P. Volcke.
It's Birkeland's Birthday

(Dec 13, 2010)
"According to our manner of looking at the matter, every star in the universe would be the seat and field of activity of electric forces of a strength that no one could imagine." -- Kristian Birkeland A previous Picture of the Day acknowledged Birkeland's one hundred fortieth birthday. His contributions to science cannot be easily dismissed, especially considering what his work means to the Electric Universe hypothesis. When astronomical advances in the 1980s revealed intense radiometric activity around galaxies and galaxy clusters, the role of magnetic fields in space prompted renewed interest in Birkeland's theories and observations. He primarily conducted research into Earth's Aurora Borealis, although his famous "terella" experiment opened up investigations into the behavior of magnetic fields on other planets besides Earth. His work inspired other scientists to begin thinking about how those fields might be scaleable up and down by many orders of magnitude. In almost every Picture of the Day describing stellar evolution, galactic structure, or electricity in space Kristian Birkeland's name is usually invoked because the filamentary currents that carry electrical energy through space bear his name. The electric charges flowing out of the Sun travel down magnetic flux tubes that have recently been discovered. Sometimes called "magnetic tornadoes," they are several kilometers wide and allow electric currents to flow directly from the Sun into the polar regions, generating visible light, radio waves, and X-rays. The power generated by auroral substorms is far greater than anything human beings can create. The electric currents flowing through them The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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comprise widely separated, low density charged particles and are called Birkeland currents. Despite the low current density, the volume of charge is so great that there is an extremely high overall current flow, over a million amps. Electric Universe advocates see similar phenomena in other regions of space. "Cosmic tornadoes" that span hundreds of millions of light-years might also connect galaxies like a string of colored lights winding through the Universe. Large magnetic fields have been detected in galaxies, and those fields indicate that Birkeland currents flow in circuits through them. Birkeland revealed that electric currents travel along filaments that are constrained by magnetic fields. His experiments confirmed that parallel linear currents experience a longrange attractive force that is orders of magnitude greater than gravity. Rather than dark matter or dark energy, Birkeland's research provides a consistent, detectable, experimentally confirmable explanation for that which is conventionally "mysterious." Perhaps those currents will one day become the basis for other theories regarding the extremely small, or organic systems at the molecular level. As speculated in past articles, it would not be too great a stretch to think that electric currents might cause proteins to shake at varying rates, thus changing their behavior. Whether big or small, Kristian Birkeland's influence continues to contribute to new understanding. Stephen Smith
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A schematic of the Solar System out to the nearest star. Credit: NASA
A Spectre Haunts the Darkness

(Dec 10, 2010)
Could a giant planet be lurking at the outer boundaries of a hypothetical cometary cloud? The Oort Cloud is supposed to be a giant nimbus of small fragments left over from those early days when the Sun was a newborn star. It is said to be a spherical region enclosing the Sun at a maximum radius of about 5 trillion kilometers and contains billions of objects, some as big as small planets, but most around the size of a medium asteroid. A recently published paper seeks to explain the appearance of comets passing through the inner Solar System by invoking the occasional influence of a solar companion that could be larger than the planet Jupiter. That theoretical object nudges the Oort cloud, causing one or more of its frozen denizens to be dislodged from its orbit and begin falling toward the Sun. The reason such a large planet was proposed is because more than 25% of observed comets would require at least that much gravitational impetus for them to change their motion around the Sun. However, since stars are nodes in vast electrical circuits connected by Birkeland current filaments within galaxies, their attendant planets, moons, asteroids, and comets are electrically charged and exist within a radial electric current that surrounds most stars, including our own Sun. Comets, specifically, have nothing to do with an ancient nebular cloud of cold gas and dust that became gravitationally unstable and collapsed into the Solar System of today. Comets and their asteroid sisters are relative newcomers to the solar family and might have been blasted out of larger bodies by tremendously powerful electric discharges in the recent past. They are not "snowballs" or blobs of muddy slush, they are solid, rocky, cratered, electrically charged objects. Several previous Picture of the Day articles have dealt with the problems that the frozen ice The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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and mud comet model incite. The observed high-energy cometary events require a new understanding of what makes a comet work: X-rays, an ultraviolet coma several times the size of the Sun, turbulent magnetic fields, million degree "temperatures" in the coma, collimated, supersonic jets, filamentary tails stretching out to one hundred million kilometers, the break up and complete disintegration of comet nuclei far from the Sun, sharply etched surface relief, and bright surface patches that overload camera optics are a few points that cannot be adequately explained using conventional theories. An electrical model of comets fits the bill quite well when it comes to gathering the collection of phenomena under one roof. Electric Universe advocate Wal Thornhill asks: "How many surprises and disconfirmations of cherished beliefs about comets will it require before a fundamental rethink occurs, instead of mere revision of old ideas"? An electric comet must exist within an electric Solar System powered by an electric Sun that receives energy from the electric Milky Way galaxy. The galaxy, in turn, is supplied with external power from tremendous Birkeland current filaments that span the Universe, carrying electricity along virtual transmission lines a billion light years long. This viewpoint is not countenanced by consensus opinions because it means a shift in the foundations of thinking. There is little in astronomical theories that can meet the test of new information. The flood of data from space-borne telescopes and telemetry from remote sensors, some orbiting other planets, has literally overloaded the scientific establishment. New ideas must always be given their place. As philosopher Paul Feyerabend wrote: "Given any rule, however 'fundamental' or 'necessary' for science, there are always circumstances when it is advisable not only to ignore the rule, but to adopt its opposite." Stephen Smith
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Nebula Henize 3-1475, the "Garden Sprinkler" Nebula. Credit: J. Borkowski, (North Carolina State University, United States), J. Harrington, (University of Maryland, United States), J. Blondin (North Carolina State University, United States), M. Bobrowsky (Challenger Center for Space Science, United States), M. Meixner (Space Telescope Science Institute, United States), and C. Skinner (Space Telescope Science Institute, United States).
A Spray of Plasma
(Dec 09, 2010)
Consensus opinions state that a star in the latter stages of its life will undergo violent upheavals as its supply of hydrogen fuel diminishes and the "ash" of heavier elements accumulates in its core. Before stars reach the final white dwarf stage in their evolution, it is thought that disequilibrium caused by the fusion of heavier nuclei causes them to eject vast quantities of matter--they "slough off" their outer layers. It is thought that the expanding cloud of dust and gas is illuminated by the senescent star at its center, and it is that reflected light that astronomers detect. Nebulae come in all shapes and sizes: round, elliptical, interlocking rings, or nested cylinders, sometimes with long tendrils and symmetrical hourglass shapes, such as in the image of Henize 3-1475 at the top of the page. According to conventional theories, such features are the result of shock waves, or stellar winds blowing off the parent star crashing into the slower material ahead of them. In the case of the Garden Sprinkler Nebula, the unmistakeable appearance of twisting Birkeland current filaments is clearly visible bisecting the center of the image. The overall configuration is an hourglass, with braided filaments, and the shapes within the nebula correspond to the filaments, helices, and pillars that electrical discharge in plasmas creates. In the laboratory, plasma forms cells separated by thin walls of opposite charge called double layers. Could separation of charges also take place in nebulae? That question might require centuries to answer, since the only way to detect a double layer in space is by flying a probe The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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through one. However, everywhere in our own Solar System cellular structures separated by double layers abound: the Sun's heliosphere, comet tails, and magnetospheres are all examples of charge separation in plasma. ESO astronomers have a different viewpoint: 'To produce a jet, you require some sort of nozzle mechanism. So far, these theoretical "nozzles" remain hidden by dust that obscures our view of the centres of planetary nebulae'. Electric discharges through plasma clouds form double layers along the current axis. Positive charge builds up on one side and negative charge on the other side of this "sheath." An electric field develops between the sides, and if enough current is applied the sheath glows, otherwise it is invisible. Electric currents flow within and across the sheaths. Electric sheaths that are normally invisible are "pumped" with additional energy from Birkeland currents in which they are immersed. Electromagnetic forces draw matter from the surrounding space into filaments. The electrical power pushes them into "glow mode." Prevailing astronomical theories do not provide a mechanism that can form nebular clouds and their energetic emissions. They do not know how stars "eject" their outer layers or how lobes of matter speed from their polar axes. The reason for that lack of understanding is that nebulae are not composed of inert gas, cold or hot, but of plasma. According to Electric Universe theory, bipolar formations are not puzzling or surprising. Rather, they are readily explicable and expected. From nebula to galaxy, hourglass configurations are one signature of electric currents flowing through the aforementioned plasma. Stephen Smith
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Left: This infrared image from NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope shows the broken Comet 73P/SchwassmannWachmann 3 skimming along a trail of debris left during its multiple trips around the sun. The flame-like objects are the comets fragments and their tails, while the dusty comet trail is the line bridging the fragments. NASA/JPL-Caltech/W. Reach (SSC/Caltech), 2006 May 10. Right: Marble bust representing Democritus of Abdera (460-370 BCE), who argued that comets are composite bodies. Venice, 1700-1750 CE. Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom.
De-Tailing Comets
(Dec 06, 2010)
Science does not always progress. A major setback in the astronomy of the GraecoRoman world was the widespread adoption of the Aristotelian worldview. One of many fields affected by the rise of Aristotles star was the theory of comets. With much verve, Aristotle advanced his specious argument that comets do not exist in space, in the arena dominated by planets and stars, but are restricted to the atmosphere or what the philosopher would call the element of air. Lacking any solid substance, comets were simple fires occupying the same phenomenological slot as what are known today as meteors, aurorae and even the Milky Way, when the comet stands on its own, or as haloes, when it forms as a reflection of the antics of a star or a planet. In asserting this palpably false opinion, Aristotle marked a signal departure from a bevy of pre-Socratic thinkers who had lumped comets and planets together. Yet curiously, from a modern perspective these early theoreticians appear to have had a better grasp on comets than Aristotle, who actually understood heads nor tails of the phenomenon. According to Aristotle, 'some of the so-called Pythagoreans say that a comet is one of the planets, but that it appears only at long intervals and does not rise far above the horizon'. Hippocrates of Chios (470-410 BCE), whose ideas displayed strong Pythagorean streaks, and his disciple Aeschylus 'maintain that the tail does not belong to the comet itself, but that it acquires it ' The pair also reasoned that the comet 'appears at longer intervals than any of the other stars because it is the slowest of all in falling behind the sun ' Another contemporary, Diogenes of Apollonia, classified comets as stars, a term that generally included the planets. Apollonius of Myndus (Fourth century BCE) is on record with his belief that 'many comets are planets a celestial body on its own, like the Sun and the Moon'. The conviction that comets are physical bodies in their own right facilitated the early theory, vigorously brushed aside by Aristotle, that they result from a conjunction of planets. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Democritus of Abdera (460-370 BCE), for example, opined that comets are a 'coalescence of two or more stars so that their rays unite.' Thinking along similar lines, Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (500-428 BCE), too, held that 'two or more stars being in conjunction by their united light make a comet', 'when they appear to touch each other because of their nearness'. Leucippus of Miletus (480-420 BCE) was cited to a similar effect: 'Comets are due to the near approach to each other of two planets'. Much later still, the spiritual father of Stoicism, Zeno of Citium (Third century BCE), judged 'that stars come together and combine their rays, and from this union of light there comes into existence the image of a rather long star'. To a modern cometologist, proto-scientific speculations of this sort seem far more up to speed than Aristotles vapid postulate that all comets are disturbances in what we would call the earths atmosphere. In grouping comets with planets, the pre-Socratics listed above anticipated the modern understanding of comets as bodies in the Solar System, whose paths May intersect with those of planets. Their suspicion that comets are planets orbiting at extremely long intervals is vindicated by current knowledge of the periodicity of many comets including, of course, Comet Halleys well-known cycle. More recent discoveries have tended to corroborate even more of the hunches Aristotle so vociferously opposed. Observations of the rocky cores of some comets, such as Tempel 1 in July 2005, suggest a common ancestry not only with asteroids, but with the rocky planets occupying the inner region of the Solar System themselves a far cry from Aristotles doctrine that only the element of fire can exist in the superlunary realm. Conversely, detection of the plasma tails of Venus, Mercury and the earth, and the sodium tails of Mercury and the moon has elicited frequent comparisons to the tails of comets in cutting-edge scientific reports. Even solar prominences, now documented in extensive detail, might suggest a comet-like appendage to the intellectually adventurous. Aristotles opinion, which was to dominate scholarly consensus in the western world until the Seventeeth century, was informed more by the preconceived axiom that everything in the planetary and starry heavens is perfect and immutable than by actual, unbiased observation. Bodies moving on seemingly erratic paths and exhibiting unpredictable behaviour would upset the mathematical elegance Aristotle and his Platonic and Pythagorean colleagues detected in their growing models of planetary orbits. Aristotles banishment of comets from the serene stage of perpetually unerring motion was really a striking demonstration of a so-called topdown theory quite unlike the bottom-up methodology that has been cultivated since the onset of the intellectual revolution in Renaissance Europe. To be sure, Aristotle did cite observational evidence in his treatment of the subject; however, his predilection for pure reason shows when he changes tack to confront competing views with the claim that 'the theory can be shown to be wrong on purely logical grounds'. The careful reader of his Meteorology also perceives a certain laziness in the pundits efforts to explore the pre-Socratic theories of comets to their fullest extent. Aristotles refutation of the view that comets are akin to planets May look superficially plausible, but really rests on a tacit but erroneous assumption that comets, like planets, ought to move on the ecliptic plane. In reality, they are free to roam the precincts of the planets under any angle they see fit. If Aristotles cardinal error was to accord greater status to supposedly undefiled reason than to the tested method of construing theories by deduction from sets of observation, the reverse appears to be equally true for his maligned predecessors. The puzzling idea that comets are The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the product of planets in conjunction derived at least in part from direct observation; Democritus, for one, 'has defended his view vigorously, maintaining that stars have been seen to appear at the dissolution of some comets'. In support of that, the Greek historian, Ephorus of Cyme (Fourth century BCE), claimed that a comet once observed by all mankind split up into two stars, a fact which no one except him reports. The reference was evidently to the splitting of cometary nuclei, as frequently recorded in modern times. Meanwhile, Hippocrates perspicacious argument that the tail is an accessory to the comet could easily have suggested itself if so-called tail disconnection events had been observed in Antiquity. Current knowledge of the pre-Socratic contemplation of comets amounts to little more than the few surviving snippets cited above. The loss of an entire body of literature precludes the possibility to determine exactly which observations led to the remarkably precocious hypotheses that preceded Aristotle. The Pythagorean penchant for information of Babylonian extraction agrees with Apollonius intimation that the scholars who analysed comets as astral objects were Chaldaeans. While Assyriologists have been able to furnish only meagre support for that statement, it is certainly conceivable that Babylonian astrologers passed on a body of traditions, perhaps never committed to writing, that would have firmly pointed towards a deep affinity between comets and planets. A larger incidence of comets in the early Holocene, for which some have argued, would naturally have aroused more interest in cometary diversity and nature. As discussed elsewhere, memories of a prehistoric time when Venus plasma tail appeared within the visible spectrum seem to have persisted in a variety of cultures, including late 3rd-millennium BCE Mesopotamia. It has also been argued that planets in conjunction May have produced fireworks if, at times of electrical instability, their pointed tails lined up, brushing against each other. In Senecas words, it is then that 'the space between the two planets lights up and is set aflame by both planets and produces a train of fire'. One of the last echoes of the pre-Socratic idea that comets ensue when planets approach each other May have been Platos pithy reference to the mythical Phaethon as a past agent of catastrophe towards the end of a Great Year. Did Plato think of Phaethon as an earth-bound comet spawned as all known planets arranged in a linear conjunction? Whatever the answer May be, Plato and his precursors unquestionably count as greater trailblazers in cometology than Platos pupil Aristotle, who threw caution into the wind along with the comets. Rens Van Der Sluijs
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Black spherules produced by an electric discharge (18 April 2010). Courtesy of: Vemasat Research Institute, Colleyville, Texas, United States of America.
The Eggs of the Thunderbird

(Dec 03, 2010)
That lightning can leave lasting impressions in the landscape is well known. Fulgurites also familiar as petrified lightning are amorphous, sometimes tubular structures formed when quartz sand is fused under the influence of a lightning strike. Can atmospheric plasma produce similar transformations on the surface of other material than sand? An affirmative answer is suggested by recent experiments conducted by the American plasma physicist, C. J. Ransom, and the Australian physicist, Wallace Thornhill. The pair discovered that spherules are often created when an electrical discharge is unleashed upon materials as diverse as a piece of iron oxide, carbonates, manganese dioxide, aluminium, magnesium silicate, rutile, perlite, diatomaceous earth, and hematite. Although these experiments have only scratched the surface of a phenomenon almost entirely new to science, patterns are already beginning to emerge that link the intensity and duration of the discharge, coupled with the chemical composition of the affected metal or mineral, to specific qualities of the spherules that are formed their quantity, size and distribution, their relationship to craters, whether they are hollow, and so on. For example, it appears that hematite impacted by an electric discharge tends to produce hollow spherules with relatively thick walls. While the potential impact of these findings on geology May be considerable, the fledgling sub-discipline of geomythology is likely to reap benefits, too. A large set of superstitions and mythical traditions worldwide are concerned with eggs and boulders deposited on occasion of lightning flashes or other luminous transient events in the atmosphere. Such traditions typically do not belong to the framework of creation mythology, but exist in isolation as a type of proto-scientific folklore. The following Korean legend allegedly describes events taking place during the first century BCE: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive 'Suddenly there was a lightning-flash, and an auspicious rainbow stretched down from heaven and touched the earth in the south by the well called Najng in the direction of Mt. Yang, where a white horse was seen kneeling and bowing to something. the white horse neighed loudly and flew up to heaven on the rising veil of the rainbow, leaving behind a large red egg (some say a blue egg) lying on a giant rock near the well'.
Another tale from the Korean peninsula relays how 'a purple ribbon with six round eggs came down from heaven' in the region of Gimhae, northwest of Busan, in the year 42 CE: 'Lo! The heavens opened and a purple rope descended to the earth, with a golden bowl wrapped in a red cloth tied to the end of it. When the cloth was removed the bowl was found to contain six golden eggs, round like the sun. The people worshipped the eggs ' Or again: 'Spirits descended to place eggs in the mountains, hiding themselves in the mist. In the darkness a voice was heard but noone was to be seen. The gathering crowd responded to the voice with dance and song. After seven days the wind blew hard and the clouds cleared, and from the blue heavens six round eggs descended at the end of a purple string'. Illyeon, the 13th-century chronicler of these beliefs, dismissively judged that 'these stories are too fantastic to believe, although they have traditionally been accepted by the populace as facts'. Nevertheless, the operation of some genuine natural event is suggested by crosscultural parallels. A legend from the Balkar people of the northern Caucasus testifies to the formation of a crater around a sky-fallen rock: The primordial blacksmith Debet saw 'an enormous star with a tail flying in the middle of the sky, and it was brightly lighting up the whole world'. On approaching the place where it had landed, he saw: 'a huge hole, and in the middle of it was a large dark blue stone, which had split in two'. The possibility that this concerned a meteorite fall rather than the forging of a spherule does not apply to striking parallels furnished by the Zulu, of South Africa, who conceived of lightning as the hen Inyoni Yezulu, or else as a bird called Impundulu or Intakezulu. One informant, Umpengula Mbanda, dwelled on the physical traces this creature leaves behind: ' for where the lightning strikes the ground, the doctors say there is something resembling the shank of an assagai, which remains in the earth, and this thing is called a thunderbolt; they dig till they find it, and use it as a heaven-medicine; and so they say that the courage which they possess of contending with the heaven is that thunderbolt, which is found where the lightning has struck'. As in the Korean account, the treasure is only discerned once a 'fog' has cleared: 'But as regards that bird, there are many who have seen it with their eyes. And especially doctors, and those persons who have seen it when it thunders and the lightning strikes the ground; the bird remains where the ground was struck. If there is any one near that place, he sees it in the fog on the ground, and goes and kills it. he sees that it is quite peculiar, for its feathers glisten. A man May think that it is red; again he sees that it is not so, it is green. But if he looks earnestly he May say, "No, it is something between the two colours, as I am looking at it"'. Another Zulu report draws attention to the grooves cut into the surface when the lightning bird 'comes down to earth to lay its eggs': 'When coming to lay its eggs, it sweeps down over the earth, and in order to stop its speed it digs up a furrow in the earth. Where the furrow ends, there its eggs will be found'. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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A disturbance of the ground is also implied by the claim that 'the Lightning-bird buries itself in the ground where it strikes'. Similar beliefs occur elsewhere. Salish people, from the Pacific northwest coast of North America, would explain 'the large black stones found in the country' as the arrows of the Thunderbird, 'a small, red-plumaged creature which shoots arrows from his wing as from a bow, the rebound of the wing making the thunder, while the twinkling of his eyes is the lightning ' Some of the Sioux, Dakota, 'imagined that the large boulders on the northern prairies were the spent ballistics of the Water Monsters, hurled up at the Thunder Birds who struck back with lightning'. Whereas the geomythologist, Adrienne Mayor, adduces kangi tame or 'bolts of lightning which have turned into black stones shaped like spear points', and explains these as pointed belemnites, such fossils are hardly large enough to qualify as 'large boulders'; a closer study of the Sioux tradition is desirable. Be that as it may, it is tempting to relate such anecdotal reports of hollow eggs and massive rocks discovered in the wake of lightning to the spherules recently generated by plasma under laboratory conditions. The comparison does leave a number of loose ends, however. For example, the material cited from Korea and the Caucasus invariably adds that some heroic or royal ancestor hatched from the preternatural eggs respectively Park Hyeokgeose, Kim Suro and the other kings of Gaya, and the Nart hero Yoruzmek. As the study of these spherules is itself still in its infancy, however, it would be premature to dismiss the analogy with such accounts on this ground. Perhaps a lightning strike potent enough to generate a spherule on the ground would create a local magnetic field sparking hallucinations in the minds of sensitive observers the discovery of diminutive beings inside the shells would then shade into similar aspects in the phenomenology of ball lightning and UFO lore. Another factor to consider is that spheres of plasma, known as plasmoids, May also form along the z-pinch, or the path of discharge, itself, well above the actual surface material. Like spherules created on the ground, such plasmoids can also be identified in the traditional lore of different cultures abundantly so but they May need to be formally distinguished from the spherules produced in Ransoms and Thornhills laboratories. Ample fertile ground for exploration, but before such highly conjectural ideas should be addressed, scientists need to be on the ball insofar as the basic physics of plasma-generated spherules are concerned. This leaves the ball in the court of the geophysicists. Rens Van Der Sluijs
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Artists impression of Cepheid variable star and its eclipsing companion. Credit: ESO/L. Calada
Eclipsing Cepheid Falsifies Stellar Evolution Theory

(Nov 29, 2010)
Victory for one theory should mean defeat for its rival. An ESO (European Southern Observatory) press release boasts, "Pulsating Star Mystery Solved." Cepheid variables are stars whose rates of pulsation vary with their luminosities: the brighter the star the longer it takes to complete a cycle of variability. Its called the period luminosity relationship. By timing the period of pulsation, the absolute luminosity of the star can be calculated. By comparing that quantity with the stars apparent brightness, the stars distance can be determined. Edwin Hubbles discovery of Cepheids in the Andromeda galaxy in 1924 was the key to proving that the "spiral nebulae," formerly thought to lie inside the Milky Way, were actually independent galaxies far outside the Milky Way. Until now, two theories that predict properties of Cepheids have been in conflict. The press release explains: "Predictions of their masses derived from the theory of pulsating stars are 2030% less than predictions from the theory of the evolution of stars. This embarrassing discrepancy has been known since the 1960s." The newly discovered Cepheid is a member of a binary system in which the two stars pass in front of each other as seen from Earth. This configuration enables astronomers to measure not only variations in their luminosities but also their orbital velocities. From these measurements, the stars masses can be determined with unprecedented accuracy. "The mass of the Cepheid is now known to about 1% and agrees exactly with predictions from the theory of stellar pulsation. However, the larger mass predicted by stellar evolution theory was shown to be significantly in error." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Also significant is this last result is passed over without further comment. One can presume that the aforementioned "embarrassing discrepancy" has paralyzed advocates abilities for critical thinking. The discrepancy can only be embarrassing for an orthodoxy of belief which admits, with false humility, that Cepheids are "not fully understood." The admission thinly hides the implied obverse that Cepheids are "almost entirely understood," a scientific conceit rightly deserving embarrassment. That the result confirms the stellar pulsation theory necessitates that it falsifies the stellar evolution theory. If astronomers were philosophically honest, they would declare the theory nullified in accordance with Karl Poppers 1959 proposal of falsification as a criterion to distinguish a scientific theory from a pseudoscientific one. Falsification was to be a "convention" that required scientists to agree not to adjust a theory to accommodate test results but, when falsified, to start over with searches for alternative theories. Falsification is not a property of a theory that justifies acquiescence in orthodoxy but a convention that enables opportunities for discovery of new theories and the overthrow of conceptual monopolies. But in view of past performance, stellar evolution theory will be "adjusted." A substantially different theory will be put forward with the same name in order to maintain the illusion of continuity and cumulativeness of conceptual progress. The only continuity will be the tenure of advocates; the only cumulativeness will be in their power and salaries. The conceptual claim is fraudulent. In the Electric Universe, variations in luminosity are caused by oscillations in the currents powering the stars and are likely "atmospheric" effects. Mass is proportional to the charge on a body and May be unrelated to the oscillations unless they deposit or remove charge. The process is "hardly at all understood" and is an opportunity for discovery and development. When Cepheids are used as indicators for the distances to nearby galaxies, a necessary assumption is that mass is invariant throughout the universe. But if mass varies with charge, each galaxy--and therefore each star in it--could have a different charge distribution with respect to the intergalactic plasma. Each galaxy could have an idiosyncratic period luminosity relationship for Cepheids, rendering them unusable for determining distances to other galaxies. Halton Arps discoveries of connections between high-redshift quasars and low-redshift active galaxies have already brought "ultra-luminous" objects at great distances back to being "normally luminous" objects at much closer distances. The objects May even be "underluminous" and located at nearby distances. With both redshift and Cepheids thrown into doubt, astronomers are left with no reliable way to determine distances to galaxies. Astronomy is once again open to new fundamental insights. The ornate knowledge with which the Queen of the Sciences has proclaimed herself to be draped is turning out to be invisible. Perhaps she should not have paraded herself so far down the street without an alternative theory at hand. Mel Acheson
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NGC 7252 the "Atoms for Peace" galaxy. Credit: ESO
Colliding Conceits
(Nov 26, 2010)
Galaxies with peculiar shapes are presumed to be the result of collisions. The study of one such presumed galactic collision, imaged above, number 226 in Halton Arps Catalog of Peculiar Galaxies, begins after the presumption is made and without awareness of or doubt about having made it. The astronomically trained eye can see immediately "the chaos in full flow in the shapes of the tails [and] the incredible shells that formed as gas and stars were ripped out of colliding galaxies and wrapped around their joint core." Arp 226s shape is distorted (from what astronomers assume is "normal" spiral and elliptical forms) and its radiation is high-energy (from what the normal forms produce). What else could it be but a collision? Unfortunately, the astronomically trained eye is connected directly to a consensusindoctrinated mind. Making explicit the parts of the above sentence that are omitted, we end up with an interrogatory conditional instead of an expository categorical: If gravity is the only force that generates galactic form, what else could Arp 226 be but a collision? Making the "if" explicit raises the terrifying proposition that the astronomical work of a century or two--including next months paycheck--was misdirected. That "if" frees the indoctrinated mind to see: collimated jets that dont expand into the cold vacuum of space as hot gas emissions would; helical filaments with knots that are impossible with gravity alone; cells of plasma bounded with double layers that will behave differently from bubbles of gas left by acoustic shock waves. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Collisions in space run afoul of the very gravity that is supposed to produce them. If bodies are orbiting around each other, theyll go around and not collide. Bodies in the same or near orbits will avoid each other: As their gravitational attraction pulls them together, one will speed up and the other will slow down; the change in energy will push the former into a larger orbit, the latter into a smaller orbit; and they will oscillate around each other, as the Earth and Moon do around the Sun. If bodies "target" each other on intersecting orbits, the orbits must be greatly divergent and the bodies must have excellent "aim." At galactic distances, the target is minuscule and the chance of random alignment with the equally minuscule "bullet" is next to impossible. A plasma discharge, on the other hand, can produce all these gravitationally anomalous and impossible forms and behaviors before taking its morning cup of coffee. Electromagnetic forces that are coextensive with the discharge squeeze the current channel into a thin filament. Filaments tend to combine in pairs to twist around a common axis, generating a helix shape. Instabilities in the current can pinch it into bright knots. Persistent currents are parts of circuits, and modern telescopes can trace these connections within and between galaxies by their X-ray and radio emissions. Whether gravity is the only force that generates galactic form, Arp 226 is not likely to be two galaxies colliding in empty space. If plasma is recognized, it is a distorted fragment of a much larger discharge from some nearby active galaxy. (The Sculptor Group is nearby.) The only collision involved is that of consensus presumptions with reality. Mel Acheson
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The Grampion Mountains in Victoria, Australia. Credit: Ian Felton
Victoria's Topography
(Nov 24, 2010)
When considering the topography of our planet, it is possible to look at it in different ways. The first consideration is that what is seen can be viewed with an assumption that it took millions or billions of years to form the current landscape. Second, considering only known forces: wind, water, volcanic action, and plate tectonics, an assumption can be made these are the only forces at work. In this respect, there has been little progress beyond the 1800s, when scientists already thought they had worked out how this planet was shaped. However, like the Grampion Mountains shown above, water does not cut through mountains and leave vertical cliffs. In fact, water appears to follow what is already there and "adopts" channels that have already been carved into the rock. Third, our planet can be thought of as isolated from what is happening in the Solar System. What is observed "out there" on other planets and moons is often explained in terms of presumptions about what is happening here on Earth. Most planetary scientists do not look at forces at work on other planets and apply them to Earth. If one takes time to appreciate Earthly terrain, there is a wealth of evidence that seems to point to features here that are similar to other planets where wind, water, plate tectonics, and volcanoes are missing. The state of Victoria in Australia is a good example. It is assumed that nothing much happens there: the continent is too old, all the mountains have eroded away, and apart from the occasional tremor, it is a quiet place geologically speaking. A close examination tells a different story. In the Google Maps internet search application, enter Panmure, Victoria. Switch to the terrain The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive option under "More" and zoom out one click. What is seen? A chain of craters. What is the explanation? Conventionally speaking, multiple impacts or sink holes are the only option, although some of the craters have central dome structures. They are also nearly circular, leaving the impression that whatever caused them was some sort of vertical force. Performing a similar search for Noorat, Victoria uncovers a beautiful cone structure that is said to be an old volcano.
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Ballarat, Victoria is next. At the top side of the city on the map there are multiple domes and multiple cones. Victoria, along with the rest of Australia, has the highest concentration of cone, dome, and crater structures in the southern hemisphere. The Google Maps "terrain mode" selection provides a clearer view of the formations, along with the "satellite view." Mafeking, Victoria is another interesting search. The occasional crater might be explained by consensus geological opinions, but multiple craters in chains, along with multiple domes in cones are not so easy to explain. No crater in Victoria is registered as an impact site. Neither are the cones registered as volcanoes. They are simply "anomalies." Perhaps if they are ignored, they might just go away. The Electric Universe hypothesis provides a possible way for all these shapes to form. Rather than taking millions of years, they might have come into existence within the memory of humankind. Some Aboriginal folklore suggests that people witnessed some of the formative events. What happened to Victoria has to be taken in context with the rest of the Solar System, not as if it were isolated to one place or even to one planet. Contributed by Garry Maxfield
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Dunes on the western edge of Arkhangelsky crater. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Craters and Dunes

(Nov 19, 2010)
Why are the bottoms of many craters on Mars filled with so-called "sand dunes"? The atmospheric density on Mars is less than 1% that of Earth. It is composed almost entirely of carbon dioxide, although nitrogen and argon make up about 3%, with trace elements less than 1/10%. The temperature on Mars varies from a maximum of 20 Celsius to a minimum of -140 Celsius. The atmosphere is so thin that winds blowing at nearly 300 kilometers per hour exert almost no pressure. Since the winds exert little force, what caused the formation of the many dune fields on Mars? Why do they also appear to be fresh looking and sharply delineated? Many of them are textured with fingerprint-like patterns or, as in the image at the top of the page, with scorch marks. In many cases, the dunes lie on top of quartz deposits that exhibit polygonal fracturing over a wide area. Finding sand ripples or dunes on other planets incites the assumption that similar activity created what look to be the same kind of formations on Earth. Since sand and dust from wind and water erosion are presumed to have created the dune fields found here, then Mars "must have" had an environment at one time that provided the same conditions for them to form there. Is projecting an Earth-like environment onto other worlds the right way to go? Should planetary scientists instead use the evidence from other worlds as a guide for what might have happened here? Most sand dunes and ripples do not move around Mars. Some research has suggested that a small dune on Mars might take more than a thousand years to move a meter. Recent observations from the HiRise camera system do seem to show changes in some dunes, though, possibly due to the action of planet-wide dust storms, but the same press release announcing dune changes also states that some of them in other locations have not moved for 100,000 years. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The observed study area is within Nili Patera, Syrtis Major's so-called "collapsed lava pit." Syrtis Major is a mere nine degrees north of the Martian equator, a region that is sometimes swept by gigantic dust storms. The Martian atmosphere is 100 times thinner than Earth and 75 degrees colder, on average. However, its dust storms are far larger than those seen on our planet and are accompanied by multi-kilometer high vortices, or "dust devils." When the Viking spacecraft landed on Mars, planetary scientists were surprised by all the suspended dust. They thought the sky would be dark, since the atmosphere is so thin that it should be too weak for small particles to blow around, let alone to raise such monstrous dust devils. NASA scientists studied the dust devils in Arizona in order to understand what possible causes generate them on Mars. They discovered an electric field of up to 10,000 volts per meter associated with dust devils on Earth. This means that dust devils on both planets are an atmospheric electric discharge phenomenon similar to the electric winds produced by air ionizers. Perhaps it is ionic winds that are changing the shape of the dunes under consideration. The dunes in Nili Patera are blackened, possibly due to the vast electric discharges that created them. When electricity passes through a solid body, such as a planet, the current pulls charged material from the surface where the arc makes contact. Neutral dust and stones will be pulled along with the ionized particles as well. Craters formed by the arcs are most often circular because electromagnetic forces cause them to maintain right angles to the impact zone. Since two or more filaments rotate around the arc axis, it can behave like a drill, excavating steep side walls and "pinching" a rolled rim. Often, the filaments will leave behind a central peak. Minerals in the crater will be electrically heated, scorched, and melted. This explains the scorch marks found on the Arkhangelsky crater dunes shown at the top of the page. As Electric Universe proponent Wal Thornhill suggested, a positively charged surface will be melted, while the electromagnetic forces within the arc might lift the surface to form a "lightning blister," called a fulgamite. Olympus Mons demonstrates the results of such a discharge: a gigantic mound with several overlapping craters at the top and a vertical drop off at its edge. If the surface is negatively charged, an arc will travel, sometimes eroding elongated craters, like the enigmatic "boot-shaped" crater recently discussed in several press releases. The arc might also jump from high point to high point. Smaller craters on the rims of larger ones point to this phenomenon. A series of craters in a line, otherwise called a "crater chain," is another sign of arcing to a negatively charged substrate. The advantage of the electrical interpretation is that it directly explains the nature of the topography dominating the craters on Mars. Electromagnetic forces between Birkeland currents constrained to a surface will force them into alignment. Ionic winds can lift material and carry it along in the direction of the current flow. Where a discharge channel bifurcates, the branches tend to remain parallel to each other and May rejoin. Orthogonal coronal discharges from parallel Birkeland currents generate the dune ripples. It is most likely electrical effects that carved the craters on Mars and in so doing formed the drifts of finely pulverized debris that lie at their bottoms. Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Spiral galaxy M100 indicating what is said to be a newly formed black hole. Credit:X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/D.Patnaude et al. Optical: ESO/VLT. Infrared: NASA/JPL/Caltech
Supernatural Physics
(Nov 18, 2010)
Zero volume and near-infinite density are incompatible with three-dimensional space. The Virgo Cluster harbors several galaxies that are listed in the early Messier catalog. Among them are M61, M90, and M100. M100 is particularly interesting to NASA scientists who, in conjunction with the Chandra X-ray Telescope team, called a special press conference on November 15, 2010 in order to announce the discovery of "the youngest black hole ever detected." The object thought to be a black hole was identified by an excessively bright X-ray emission that has not varied in brightness for more than 12 years. According to consensus theories, the steady state of the radiation indicates that material is being superheated as it falls into the black hole's steep gravitational gradient. SN 1079C, a supernova, is thought to have "given birth" to the black hole because when stars more than 5 times as massive as the Sun "explode," they are thought to leave behind compacted remains that can fall in on themselves until they attain near-infinite gravity in a zero volume. There are several opinions inherent in NASA's conclusion to which Electric Universe advocates would object. First, what is a supernova? As previous Picture of the Day articles have argued, stars do not age and die in the way that conventional understanding proposes. Stars are not globes of hot gas under pressure, they are composed of plasma. Plasma is ionized and is an electrically charged substance. Since it is ionized, it does not behave like a pressurized gas, so shock waves and gravitational instabilities are insufficient when it comes to explaining the birth and death of stars. As Electric Universe theory states, a supernova is an exploding star, but not in the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive conventional sense. Rather, it constitutes the explosion of a double layer in plasma. The power comes from external electric currents flowing through vast circuits in space, so the radiation from stars is due to discharges that vary in strength. It is those electric arcs that make up the stellar corona, chromosphere and photosphere of our Sun, for instance.
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Supernovae are the result of a stellar "open circuit" in the galactic power supply. The result is the same as sometimes occurs in high-voltage switching yards, with extensive arcing. In an exploding double layer, the energy of an entire circuit might flow into the explosion, increasing its expansion far from the surface of the star. Radiation from the double layer shines in ultraviolet or X-ray wavelengths, sometimes emitting bursts of gamma rays. It was those effects that should have been considered when SN 1979C was first identified. Second, what is a black hole? Black holes are theorized to twist space and time so that velocity calculations yield impossible solutions. Matter inside a black hole occupies no volume at all, yet it retains gravitational acceleration so great that not even light can escape its attraction--the hole is "black" because it cannot be detected with optical telescopes. Several previous Picture of the Day discussions about black holes determined that the language used by astrophysicists is itself problematic, relying on highly speculative explanations. Ambiguous lexical labels such as space/time, multiple universes, singularities, infinite density, and other ideas that are not quantifiable have introduced irony into what should be a realistic investigation. It is assumed that matter falling into the intense gravity well of a black hole is accelerated and subsequently compressed. Material orbits the black hole at a faster and faster rate as it gradually spins closer to a point several times the mass of our Sun. The X-rays and ultraviolet light emissions are interpreted by astronomers as gas heating up from atomic collisions in the rotating disc. Finally, hot gas, no matter how fast it moves, is not the principal cause of X-rays. Laboratory experiments most easily produce them by accelerating charged particles through an electric field. No gigantic masses compressed into tiny volumes are necessary; they are easily generated with the proper experiments. There is no experimental evidence that matter can be compressed to "near-infinite density." Compression zones (z-pinches) in plasma filaments form plasmoids that can become stars and galaxies. Electricity is responsible for the birth of stars, and when the stellar circuit catastrophically releases its excess energy it appears as gamma ray bursts or X-rays or flares of ultraviolet light. In the electric star hypothesis, no concentrated gravity from "singularities" is necessary. Classical understanding of electromagnetism reveals that it is more than able to create the phenomena we see, without recourse to the supernatural physics of black holes. Meanwhile astrophysicists, untrained in the physics of double layers, treat supernovae remnants as a problem in fluid dynamics, using mechanical shockwaves and gravitational pressure to provide the observed energies. It is an approach that Hannes Alfvn warned, more than half a century ago, is doomed to fail. Stephen Smith
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Swirls in Mare Ingenii are associated with magnetic anomalies there. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Lunar Magnetic Anomalies

(Nov 15, 2010)
The relationship between electricity and magnetism has been known for more than a century. In a previous Picture of the Day, the complex surface features of the Reiner Gamma Formation were discussed. It remains a mystery for those who insist on slow, uniform cooling and a relatively stable lunar environment. The swirling pattern of bright material is located in Oceanus Procellarum, near Reiner crater. Recent maps of lunar magnetic anomalies reveal several other formations of high albedo material also associated with areas of crustal magnetism imprinted on the lunar surface. Descartes, the Apollo 16 landing site, possesses a prominent magnetic signature. Powdery swirls in Gerasimovich crater, on the Moon's far side, are estimated to be less than five centimeters thick. Gerasimovich is also notable for its magnetic attribute. Latent magnetic fields in Mare Marginis and Mare Ingenii were measured by the Lunar Prospector spacecraft in the 1990s. Measurements of the remanent magnetism in the lunar crust were taken by observing the magnetic reflection of electrons from the Moons surface. The differences are small, but the evidence points to a variable strength magnetic field imprinted on the Moon. Since magnetism is a result of electrical currents, then the swirling pattern of the various formations could be due to an external electrical influence. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's Mini-RF radar imager has returned the most current images of the lunar swirls. A published paper reports: "Lunar swirls appear to overlay the lunar surface, apparently representing diffuse brightening of unmodified terrains. Lunar swirls are associated with regions of anomalously high crustal magnetic fields, but their exact formation mechanism is unknown." Since magnetism and electricity are so intimately bound together that they are known as one The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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electromagnetic force, why is it puzzling for planetary scientists when confronted with anomalous magnetic signatures, not just on the Moon but on Mars and Mercury as well? Would it be unreasonable to conclude that an electric field impinged on those bodies, leaving behind a remanent magnetic domain? On Mars, swirling patterns are often seen incised into the rock strata, implying a more powerful electric discharge. The Moon might be less conductive, or might have been spared a direct hit from interplanetary lightning storms, so the eddy currents induced by the arcs could have left shallower impressions. However, the appearance of gigantic craters and maria suggests extreme events that might have impacted its surface. As Electric Universe theorists postulate, a common explanation for each of the geomorphological features that we have illustrated is that planets and moons exist within an electrically active Solar System that could have been more energetic in the past. Each object is normally insulated within its individual charge sheath. However, if those sheaths touch, electric charge can be exchanged. Those electromagnetic exchanges are what might have created what we see today. Is there a possibility that those forces will be unleashed again? There is no way to know at this point. Suffice to say, the evidence reveals that they were once active in the recent past. Stephen Smith
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Original plate illustrating Michael Faraday's electric motor. Credit: Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature and the Arts, 1821, volume XII
The Faraday Motor

(Nov 12, 2010)
Galaxies have been likened to "homopolar motors" invented by Michael Faraday. What are they and how do they work? It has been argued that galaxies might behave like a device invented by Michael Faraday, the homopolar motor. A homopolar motor is driven by magnetic fields induced in a circular, rigid conductive metal plate. The metal plate is placed between the poles of an electromagnet, causing it to spin at a steady rate proportional to the input current. The meter attached to the wall in most backyards that determines monthly electric bills is a homopolar motor. The homopolar motor owes its existence to the discovery of electromagnetism in 1820 by Hans Christian rsted, although that line extends much farther back in time. It was a socalled "voltaic pile," one of the earliest batteries, that opened rsted's eyes to the relationship between electricity and magnetism. In 1800, Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta invented an apparatus made up of discs that included copper, zinc, and cardboard that was impregnated with a salt solution. He alternately stacked the discs and attached conductive wires to the top and bottom of the stack. When the two wires were connected in a circuit, an electric current flowed through the voltaic pile. rsted noticed that a magnetized compass needle was deflected from its north-south orientation whenever the compass came close to the current flow. It was his observation that electric current and magnetism were related, coupled with Andr-Marie Ampre's The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive mathematical analysis of said "electromagnetic" effect, that ultimately led to Faraday's experiment.
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Faraday built a device out of a wire, a battery, and a mercury bath. The wire hung down loosely from a hook so that it made contact with the mercury. A permanent bar magnet stood upright in the mercury pool, which was connected to the negative battery terminal. The positive battery terminal was connected to the hook holding the wire. When current ran through the circuit going from positive to negative, the wire's magnetic field interacted with the bar magnet, causing a circular magnetic field around the wire, which began to spin around the bar magnet. A force that is at right angles to both the direction in which a charged particle is moving and the direction of the applied field is called the "Lorentz force," and is an integral component to the operation of a homopolar motor. The Dutch physicist Hendrik Lorentz found that the velocity and charge of a particle, as well as the strength of a magnetic field, influences the particle's direction of travel. When current flows through the homopolar motor's conductive disc in a magnetic field, a force acts on the charges in the conductor, producing torque that causes the disc to spin around its pivot point. As retired Professor of Electrical Engineering Don Scott wrote: "In 1986, Nobel laureate Hannes Alfven postulated both an electrical galactic model and an electric solar model. Recently physicist Wal Thornhill has pointed out that Alfven's circuits are really scaled up versions of the familiar homopolar motor that serves as the watt-hour meter on each of our homes. The simple application of the Lorentz force equation ('crossing' the direction, v, of the current into the direction, B, of the magnetic field) yields a rotational force. Not only does this effect explain the mysterious tangential velocities of the outer stars in galaxies, but also (in scaled down version) the observed fact that our Sun rotates faster at its equator than at higher (solar) latitudes." Stephen Smith
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The center of the Milky Way. Credit: Serge Brunier
Plasmoids Refute Dark Matter Theory

(Nov 08, 2010)
So-called "dark matter" reactions are said to initiate gamma rays from the center of our galaxy. "We should remember that there was once a discipline called natural philosophy. Unfortunately, this discipline seems not to exist today. It has been renamed science, but science of today is in danger of losing much of the natural philosophy aspect." -- Hannes Alfvn Previous Picture of the day articles have taken issue with the theory of dark matter, in general, and with the idea that "dark matter particles" can collide and annihilate each other, releasing vast amounts of radiation. In June 2006, the Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics (PAMELA) payload was launched onboard a Resurs-DK1 Russian satellite as part of the Russian-Italian Mission (RIM) research program. PAMELA's primary goal, in conjunction with the Astrorivelatore Gamma ad Immagini ultra LEggero (AGILE) and Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescopes (formerly the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope) is to study the properties of high energy signals from deep space. Such emissions are thought possible because "non-hadronic particles outside the Standard Model" might be interacting, thereby producing bright gamma ray sources. According to a recent press release, Fermi has found a gamma ray signal from the center of our galaxy that is much brighter than was originally thought possible. Researchers examined many computer models, but ultimately decided that the only way for such energetic radiation to be produced was through dark matter particle collisions. Since the galactic center is so dense, the unidentified dark matter particles are "packed in" tight, thereby increasing the chance that they will meet and destroy each other. One of the components of dark matter theory is that they act like antiparticles, as well as particles. In other words, if two dark matter entities meet, they appear to one another like antimatter and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive convert their individual masses into energy. Conversely, there might be "anti-dark matter particles" that react with dark matter in the same way that antimatter is said to react with normal matter.
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They do not know which process is occurring. However, weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with values nine times the mass of a proton are thought to be the source for the gamma ray light shining from the Milky Way's core. Consensus cosmologists believe that dark matter is necessary, since there is not enough gravity in the Universe to account for galaxy formation, or for those galaxies to assemble into clusters. Also, galaxy clusters should not have maintained such rapid theoretical recessional velocities (95% of light speed) over the last few billion years. Astronomers also think that a dark (meaning "undetectable") kind of matter must exist because stars on the edges of spiral galaxies revolve with the same angular velocity as stars close to their centers. Newtonian theory insists that stars farther away ought to move more slowly, so dark matter was assumed to impart extra velocity to them, although serious doubt about dark matter was already being published when those ideas were made public. Electric Universe proponents share a different view regarding the nature of the cosmos. Astrophysicist Hannes Alfvn came up with an "electric galaxy" theory as early as 1981. Alfvn observed that galaxies resemble homopolar motors. A homopolar motor is driven by magnetic fields induced in a circular aluminum plate or some other conductive metal. The metal plate is placed between the poles of an electromagnet that causes it to spin at a rate proportional to the input current. Galactic discs behave like the conductive plates in said motor. Birkeland currents flow within galactic disks, powering their stars. Galaxies are, in turn, powered by intergalactic Birkeland currents that are detectable by the radio signals they induce. Since Birkeland currents are drawn toward each other in a 1/r linear relationship, dark matter can be dismissed when electric currents flowing through dusty plasma are recognized as an attractive force. Gamma ray (and X-ray) observations of the galactic core also reveal a plasma torus structure there known as a "plasmoid." High frequency radiation from the plasmoid is similar to that from electrically excited stars. A strong electromagnetic field in the plasmoid accelerates particles to high speed, causing them to spiral in the resulting magnetic field and emit X-rays and gamma rays. It is the Milky Way's plasmoid that generates the glow from our galactic core. Stephen Smith
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Medium resolution image of Comet 103P/Hartley 2. Credit: NASA/JPL
Hartley 2 Flyby
(Nov 05, 2010)
This "hyperactive" comet is only 1.2 kilometers long but demonstrates a nucleus more active than comets twice its size. As of this publication, the EPOXI Mission spacecraft has completed its close flyby (about 690 kilometers away) of comet Hartley 2. The mission was not as informative as it might have been, since optical cameras and an infrared imager were the only instruments onboard the retargeted Tempel 1 mothership. However, as the spectacular image at the top of the page attests, visual results again provided confirmation that comets are electrical in nature. Consensus science sees comets as "leftovers" from the birth of our Solar System. It is said that after the nebular cloud from whence all was born finished condensing into our primary, and subsequently, all the planets, a mass of dust and gas formed a hypothetical spherical shell about 30 trillion kilometers from the Sun. The shell of frozen material, thought to be close to absolute zero, is known as the Oort cloud, after Dutch astronomer Jan H. Oort. It is ironic that Oort inferred the existence of the cloud that bears his name because he only studied 19 long period comets. Since long period comets seem to arrive from deep space and exhibit extremely elongated elliptical orbits, he could not imagine any other solution than a cold repository of objects beyond astronomical observation. Note that short period comets are known to revolve in orbits that do not exceed the distance to Jupiter. More than six trillion cometary bodies are supposed to inhabit the Oort cloud. They are barely held in place by the Sun's gravity, so if stars or giant masses of dust and gas pass too close, tidal forces can change their orbits and they will plunge into the inner Solar System. Conversely, they might be drawn out into interstellar space. However, what has the latest face-to-face with a comet brought to the table? Has there been confirmation of the "dirty snowball" theory? Or, as EPOXI mission principal investigator Michael A'Hearn summarized, is this another in a series of surprising experiences? The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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As previous Picture of the Day articles have shown, not one image of a comet has revealed frozen plains, ice cliffs, slush, or snowy crystals. Instead, Wild 2, Tempel 1, Borrelly, Halley, and now Hartley 2 look like asteroids, with hard, dry, rocky exteriors. Like Borrelly, Hartley 2 is an elongated potato tumbling through space. If asked, this writer would say that it resembles asteroid 433 Eros. What of the jets blasting into space from isolated regions on the comet's surface? One unidentified participant in the live streaming video of EPOXI's close approach remarked: "This is almost like Enceladus." There is no way to know what level of insight he possesses regarding electrical activity in space, but his comments were perspicacious. The jets of vapor escaping Enceladus at supersonic speed and the bright jets seen on Hartley 2 (as well as other comets) pose the same problems for space scientists: despite their contention that narrow vents or fissures are allowing vapor to escape into space, no such vents have been found. There are so-called "tiger stripes" on Enceladus, but rather than being geyser-like fumaroles, they are actually created as electric arcs move across the surface. The jets on comets are most likely behaving in the same fashion. When the Stardust mission made its close approach to comet Wild 2, similar jets were found. The jets of vapor did not disperse as one would expect gas to do in space. As was reported in a Picture of the Day at the time: "Chunks of the comet, some as big as bullets, blasted the spacecraft as it crossed three jets. Wild 2's surface was covered with 'spires, pits and craters' that could only be supported by rock, not by sublimating ice or snow." In an Electric Universe, electric comets are most likely rocks moving rapidly through the Sun's force fields. They develop plasma sheaths that can evolve into comas, sometimes millions of kilometers in diameter. Electric arcs connect their surfaces with the Sun's electric field and generate extremely high temperatures in isolated spots. X-rays and extreme ultraviolet light have been detected radiating from comet Hyakutake, for example. Comets pass through a differential electric potential as they accelerate toward the Sun. The variable electric field can cause visible, glow discharges. Rather than "dirty snowballs" or even "snowy dirtballs," comets are electrically active, solid bodies. As Electric Universe advocate Wal Thornhill wrote: "A history of unexpected discoveries is the hallmark of a failed hypothesis. The electrical model of comets was able to predict or simply explain all of the discoveries made during the Deep Impact mission. The 'outbursts' from the comet are in the form of cathode jets, which are bursty in nature and tend to jump around from one high point or sharp edge to another...Comets have not undergone 'an evolutionary process'. They are the debris resulting from electrical discharge sculpting of planetary surfaces. They belong to families, which characterize their parent planet." Stephen Smith
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Strange vertical structures in Saturn's B ring. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Where the Long Shadows Fall

(Nov 03, 2010)
Wall-like formations in Saturn's rings could be due to electromagnetic effects. A recent press release argues that Saturn's rings could behave like spiral galaxies. The same forces that create galactic "arms" might be responsible for the unusual features that have been seen rising vertically from the gas giant's ring plane, as well as for the oscillations in the B ring. According to Carolyn Porco of NASA's Cassini-Equinox mission team: "We have found what we hoped we'd find when we set out on this journey with Cassini nearly 13 years ago: visibility into the mechanisms that have sculpted not only Saturn's rings, but celestial disks of a far grander scale, from solar systems, like our own, all the way to the giant spiral galaxies." Cassini has been in orbit around Saturn since July 1, 2004. On August 11, 2009 the spacecraft was in position to observe the giant planet's equinox, when its rings turned edgeon to the Sun, something that happens every 15 years. During that phase, several complex configurations were seen within the rings: so-called "propellors," ridges, and waves rising up as high as four kilometers. Since the rings had been long thought to be about twenty meters thick, anomalous meta-stable shapes of such dimension were a complete surprise to mission specialists. How do clumps, undulations, and ridges form? Researchers suggest collisions and shock waves initiate the resonant vibrations. Gravitational attraction from so-called "shepherd moons" is said to be an additional source of influence. Small moons, such as Daphnis, do move up and down through the ring plane, affecting the motion of ring particles. However, a far stronger force than gravity is neglected in their speculations: Saturn's rings and moons are electrically charged objects moving within its vast plasmasphere. Instabilities The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive inherent in that system probably contribute to the formation of the perpendicular features.
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The effect of shepherd moons is not like a wind. Gravitational torque is not seen acting on a cloud of fine particles. Instead, sine waves, perpendicular "braids," and cylindrical arcs are seen. Some are multiply woven, like those in the remote F ring. In fact, NASA scientists now think that the observed oscillations in the B ring are not caused by moons or any other body. Instead, "unforced 'free' waves grow on their own and then reflect back again at the edge." Those waveforms are also thought to exist within spiral galaxies. So-called "density wave theory" was designed to explain how mass variations within a galaxy, along with tidal forces from other galaxies, can induce ordered structure like spiral arms. Although those motions can never be observed on the galactic scale, only in computer simulations, it is assumed that a small-scale version is occurring in Saturn's rings. Important factors are not considered in this theory. Bodies immersed in plasma are not isolated, they are connected by circuits. Most of the time they are not in equilibrium because they are in unstable conditions. The majority of them are moving across the plasma filaments that exist in the Solar System, in the plasmaspheres around planets, or in interstellar and intergalactic space. Currents in plasma contract into those filaments and the force between filaments is linear, so the electromagnetic fields created by them are the most powerful longrange attractors in the Universe, as well as short-range repulsors. Those magnetic fields also trace out the spiral arms in galaxies because electric current flows through them, both from the intergalactic circuit feeding the galaxy and from the homopolar action of the galaxy itself. The magnetic fields exist because the spiral arms behave as large Birkeland current filaments. Since, like a galaxy, Saturn's ring plane possesses a magnetic field, diocotron instabilities might occur in the same fashion as seen in NGC 3646, for example. It is in this way that Saturn and galaxies relate. Stephen Smith
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Comet 103P/Hartley 2 (right) and NGC 281, the PacMan Nebula. Credit: Mike Broussard
The EPOXI Mission

(Nov 02, 2010)
NASA scientists hope this new mission will help them learn more about what comets are but admit that they might find "more puzzles." The Stardust mission collected dust particles from the coma of comet Wild 2 and then sent them to Earth. The system worked perfectly, scooping up fine bits of rock and trapping them for their return journey on January 15, 2006. Mission specialists were shocked to discover minerals in the sample that form only at extremely high temperatures. Since conventional theories describe comets as "dirty snowballs," how could an object that was supposed to be a denizen of the Solar System's most remote region, a "leftover" from the primal nebular cloud, exhibit a crystalline structure that could only be forged in a furnace of fire? Other comets have demonstrated anomalies in their characteristics and behavior. Years after Hale-Bopp made its appearance in Earth's night sky, when it was far past Jupiter's orbit, it displayed an ion tail, bright jets, and a glowing coma. The "dirty snowball" theory cannot account for such activity at distances where radiant emissions from the Sun will not melt ice. Logically, if the Sun caused Hale-Bopp to discharge at that distance, all of Jupiter's moons would be bone dry and appear more like our own moon than like the frozen bodies that they are. If the Sun was not responsible for Hale-Bopp's display, then what provided the energy for its explosive eruptions? Comet Linear actually blew apart when it was over 100 million kilometers from the Sun and not when it passed by during perihelion. The strange fact is that the majority of cometary disruptions take place when they are far from the Sun. Sun-grazer comets do not break apart despite sometimes coming within 50,000 kilometers of the Sun's photosphere. In 2001, Deep Space 1 found that comet Borrelly was hot and dry instead of cold and wet. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Tempel 1 was also thought to conform to conventional comet theory, but it looked more like an asteroid, with a large crater and cliffs, than a snowball venting steam. Shoemaker-Levy 9 blew up when it crossed Jupiter's powerful magnetosphere, but the broken pieces did not expel any water vapor. The Tempel 1 impact mission has been renamed EPOXI (Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization combined with Deep Impact eXtended Investigation) and is set to explore comet 103P/Hartley 2. The green color of Hartley 2 is said to come from the release of cyanogen, but another possibility is that it is due to diatomic carbon. Since cometary phenomena are primarily electrical in nature, the presence of diatomic carbon would not be a surprise to Electric Universe proponents. It can be surmised that when water or hydroxyl compounds are found in cometary comas, they are created there. Ionized oxygen from the comet nucleus reacts with hydrogen ions streaming out from the Sun. No "jets" of water vapor spew from comets, and no icy plains have ever been observed. It is electric effects that are seen--discharges and arcs form the comet phenomena. Electric arcs could easily form the diatomic carbon seen in Hartley 2's coma, since it is most readily created when a powerful electric current is passed through a gap between two carbon rods. Diatomic carbon does not last long, however. It quickly stabilizes into graphite, diamond, or other more exotic forms. While in its ground state, it May combine with hydrogen to form acetylene, with nitrogen to form cyanogen, or with oxygen to form carbon dioxide. It is the emission spectra of diatomic carbon that is most often seen in faint comets. Comets have nothing to do with a primordial nebular cloud of cold gas and dust that is said to have collapsed into our Solar System. Rather, comets and their asteroid sisters are most likely newcomers to the Sun's family, and might have been blasted out of larger bodies by powerful electric discharges in the recent past. They are not "snowballs" or blobs of muddy slush, they are solid, rocky, cratered, electrically charged objects. Stephen Smith Editor's note: For a more extensive review of the EPOXI mission encounter with 103P/Hartley 2, see Wal Thornhill's Holoscience.com article Deep Impact 2.
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MESSENGER space probe data reveals Mercury's sodium tail varies in size. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and the Carnegie Institution of Washington
Son of Marduk
(Oct 29, 2010)
Mercury's tail represents another "unexpected" result when planetary scientists ignore plasma physics. According to Electric Universe theory, comet tails are created when the cometary plasma sheath accumulates enough electrical potential to discharge, causing it to glow. Irrespective of their individual composition, comets obey the fundamental behavior of charged objects within a plasma shell. Earth's cometary plasma cocoon, otherwise known as the magnetosphere, changes shape and power as electric currents from the Sun impinge upon it. Those electric currents are due to the movement of charged stellar particles streaming out in what conventional science calls a "solar wind." Earth's magnetospheric tail points away from the Sun because of the electrical effect of those high-speed ions. As the Moon revolves through the ionized plasma surrounding Earth, the materials in the lunar regolith gain a negative charge, causing them to repel each other and drift off the surface. As was mentioned in a previous Picture of the Day, charge differential between the day and night sides of the Moon generates an ion "wind" flowing from the negatively charged night side into the more positively charged sunlit side. The electric fields between the two hemispheres can vary by as much as 1000 volts. In a recent press release, the planet Mercury is described as possessing a tail of sodium atoms. This means that Mercury joins Earth and other Solar System bodies that exhibit tails. Venus has a filamentary tail so long that it reaches Earth at times. Neutral sodium has been seen flowing off the Moon. Jupiter's moon Io contributes to a cloud of sodium around Jupiter that extends in a comet-like tail for millions of kilometers. However, as long ago as 2008, astrophysicists at the McDonald Observatory in Texas The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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measured the tail of sodium from Mercury and found it to be over four full Moons long. One of the most interesting aspects about their observations was that the sodium appears to be coming from two high latitude "hot spots." In previous MESSENGER spacecraft flybys of Mercury, the hot spots were found to be where material is being removed from the surface by "radiation pressure" from the Sun. However, as Electric Universe advocate Wal Thornhill writes: "The most important process missing...is that of electric discharge machining (EDM) of Mercurys surface. The problem of the astrophysics mind set can be seen in the language used, 'the stream of hot, ionized gas emitted by the Sun' is better understood by plasma physicists as an equatorial solar current sheet rather than a hot wind. Also the exosphere has not existed for the 'age of Mercury' since Mercury has not been in its present orbit for as long as astronomers believe. So we can expect more surprises when MESSENGER goes into orbit about the planet -- as usual." Since Mercury has no atmosphere and no magnetic field to shield it from the Sun, terms that have previously been applied to the Moon might help to explain it. If lunar phenomena can be explained by electrical activity, then Mercury's features might also be illuminated by that electrical hypothesis. Jupiter's moon Io might also be a useful model to use for Mercury's hot spots. Io is in close orbit with Jupiter, so intense electromagnetic radiation bombards its surface, removing approximately one ton per second in gases and other materials. Io acts like a generator as it travels through Jupiters plasmasphere. More than four hundred thousand volts at three million amperes of current flows into the electric environment of Jupiter from Io. Perhaps Mercury is experiencing something similar as it rapidly revolves around our primary. The hot spots could be where dense plasma foci connect Mercury with the Sun. Cathode erosion of Mercury might also provide a reason why its tail seems to be a filamentary structure, reminiscent of Birkeland currents that have been discussed many times in these pages. Stephen Smith
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So-called "star-forming region" Monoceros R2 thought to be 2700 light-years from Earth. Credit: ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit.
On the Horn of a Dilemma

(Oct 27, 2010)
Astrophysicists are hung up on gravity-only theories of star formation. According to the standard model, new stars result from a compression wave passing through a cloud of dust and gas. Supernovae explosions from another part of the galaxy push nebulae into a star making process based on gravitational collapse. Electrical activity never enters the discussion. "Hot gas" is identified instead of "plasma." Scientists will occasionally admit that the gas is plasma, but they mean "hot neutral gas" and not ionized matter. Nebular cloud analysis is based on kinetic models of gas behavior and not on plasma physics. A more accurate model for nebulae is a fluorescent lamp emitting light at the excitation frequency of a specific gas. Electricity causes the plasma within the lamp housing to glow. According to astronomers, supernova shock waves are able to initiate many frequencies of light because the compressed gas is heated to high temperatures. However, since ionized oxygen frequencies make up more than 90% of the light from planetary nebulae they should be thought of as oxygen discharge tubes and not balls of hot gas. In a recent European Southern Observatory (ESO) announcement, Monoceros R2 is said to be a prolific stellar nursery, constantly bearing new stars, although the dusty environment makes it difficult to see most of them. As the press release states: "...the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy...penetrates the dark curtain of cosmic dust and reveals in astonishing detail the folds, loops and filaments sculpted from the dusty interstellar matter by intense particle winds and the radiation emitted by hot young stars." The idea that gas can be heated until it gives off intense radiation (extreme ultraviolet and Xrays) without electrical input, or that a "wave" of ionized particles does not comprise an electric current betrays adherence to outmoded theories despite observational evidence. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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An electromagnetic z-pinch can squeeze plasma with such force that it rapidly compresses. Electric current flowing into the z-pinch might then force the plasma to erupt in a discharge. When we look at nebulae we are seeing plasma formations behaving as the laws of electric discharges and circuits dictate. The filamentary structure and the finger-like filaments that spiral through and away from the Monoceros nebula are Birkeland currents, named after Kristian Birkeland, who first proposed their existence in the late 1800s. Those currents form scalable tubes of plasma that can transmit electric power all around the galaxy. No further study is required when one considers the Electric Star hypothesis. Rather than mechanical action (heated gas), Monoceros R2's radiant emanations are due to electric currents powering its interior stars. Electrical sheaths (double layers) that are normally invisible receive greater input from the galactic Birkeland currents in which they are immersed, entering the "glow discharge" state. The increased flux density pulls matter from the surrounding space (and other stars) into filaments that ignite the nebular gasses electrically. Stephen Smith
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A 400,000 kilometer long prominence emerges from the Sun. Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory/Goddard Space Flight Center.
Sunspot 1112
(Oct 25, 2010)
An extremely large filamentary structure has appeared on the Sun. Electric star theory presupposes such formations. What is the Sun? And by extension, what are stars? A popular website describes the Sun in this way: "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 of the Electric Universe theory is that celestial bodies are immersed in plasma and are connected by circuits. Since the Sun is also electrically interconnected with the galaxy and its planets, it should be thought of as a charged object in balance with the forces of its environment. That balance is not completely stable, however. The currents flowing into and out of the Sun can sometimes cause tremendous bursts of energy called solar flares. According to consensus opinions, solar flares, or coronal mass ejections (CME), occur when magnetic loops in the Sun's atmosphere "reconnect" with each other, causing a short circuit. The explosive release of "magnetic energy" is said to accelerate the superheated gases out into space. No one knows what "magnetic reconnection" is, but it is offered as the only explanation by heliophysicists for the flaring phenomenon. Since CMEs increase auroral brightness and frequency when they meet Earth's magnetic field, deductive reasoning (and instrumentality) identifies them as a flow of charged particles. Although space scientists refer to the ion stream pouring out of the Sun as a "wind," and that atomic fragments "rain down" on Earth, that they are attracted to and follow the polar cusps should definitively establish their electrical nature. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In the consensus view, when gas and dust start to collapse into a new star it naturally warms up and radiates energy. Outward pressure, it is said, opposes the inward force of gravity. If the outward force wins and overcomes the force of gravity, the atoms in the gas will never be compressed enough to undergo nuclear fusion. However, if the body is massive enough gravity continues to compress the star until its core becomes so hot and dense that thermonuclear reactions can begin to resist further compression and a star is born. The discovery of a "solar wind" escaping the Sun at almost 700 kilometers per second was surprising in light of the thermonuclear fusion theory. In a gravity-driven Universe, the Sun's heat and radiation pressure are insufficient to explain how the particles of the solar wind accelerate past Venus, Earth and the rest of the planets. Since they are not rocket powered, no one expected such acceleration. According to conventional doctrine, the Sun accelerates electrons (and protons) away from its surface in the same way that sound waves are amplified. Energetic pulsations in the solar photosphere travel upward through "acoustical wave-guides," called magnetic flux tubes, that push "hot gas" outward. In an Electric Universe populated by electric stars there is a more obvious explanation: electric fields in space can accelerate the charged solar particles, creating coherent electric currents that flow through the Solar System. Solar flares can therefore be thought of as tremendous lightning bursts, discharging vast quantities of matter at near relativistic speeds. The circuit connecting the Sun with the Milky Way probably extends for thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of light-years. How much electrical energy might be contained in such magnetically confined "transmission lines" feeding the solar anode? As the Electric Sun theory relates, sunspots, flares, coronal heating, and all other solar activity most likely results from changes in the electrical input from our galaxy. Birkeland current filaments slowly rotate past the Solar System, supplying more or less power to the Sun as they go. The giant filament recently observed in association with sunspot 1112 reveals its electrical parentage, proving Electric Universe advocate Wal Thornhill's assertions that: "While enormous time and resources have been poured into the effort to understand stars based on a single outdated idea, those familiar with plasma discharge phenomena have been paying close attention to the observed phenomena on the Sun and finding simple electrical explanations. After 100 years of neglect, an electrical model of stars is just beginning to emerge. It is an engineers view that offers a coherent understanding of our real place in the universe (cosmology) and practical insights for the future exploration of space. If the Sun shines as an electric light plugged in to the Electric Universe, the objective tests become obvious. Perhaps, with a real understanding of stars we May reach childhoods end in the cosmos." Stephen Smith
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IRAS 23166+1655 (left) and WR 104 (right). Credit: (left) ESA/NASA & R. Sahai; (right) U.C. Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory/W.M. Keck Observatory
Unwinding the Spirals

(Oct 22, 2010)
Rather than gas and dust flung out by two stars in pirouette, these structures reveal the characteristic hourglass formation of a z-pinch. Helical structures abound in the Universe. Galaxies, planetary nebulae, hurricanes: all exhibit characteristic shapes that have been identified in past Picture of the Day articles as electrically induced formations. The term "planetary nebula" was first applied in the early days of telescopic observation, since they appeared to be round, with a faint greenish tinge, similar to the planet Uranus, so it was assumed that they might also be gas giant planets. Planetary nebulae are observed to come in all shapes and sizes: round, elliptical, nested cylinders, and now helical spirals. Such features are said to be the result of shock waves, or stellar winds blowing off the parent star, crashing into the slower material ahead of them. Consensus astronomy sees planetary nebulae as the final stage of senescent stars when they drive off their outer atmospheric layers because of increased internal radiation pressure. It has been suggested that stars like our Sun, middleweights in the galactic stable, do not undergo supernova eruptions as they end their lives--no explosive demise in a blaze of glory. Instead, their gaseous envelopes drift away into space. According to a recent press release, IRAS 23166+1655 is an example of that process, except that it comprises a binary system, so the fumes of gas and dust are being gravitationally drawn toward a companion star in an 800 year orbit. As stated, the spinning pair thus create a glowing spiral of stellar material as they dance around one another. WR 104, on the other hand, is a Wolf-Rayet (WR) star, named for astronomers Charles Wolf and Georges Rayet. WR type stars are thought to be three times the diameter and 25 times more massive than the Sun, with a luminosity over 100,000 times greater. The intense radiative output of WR 104 is theorized to blow off its outer layers through "photon pressure." This so-called "stellar wind" flying off the rapidly rotating star is what the Keck telescope image is thought to represent. As has been discussed in past articles, almost 70 years ago Dr. Charles Bruce noted that The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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planetary nebulae appeared to be similar to electric discharges. Rather than spheres, he reasoned that their shapes were hourglasses, with a central star obscured by a dusty torus, since nebular shapes are similar to the twisted filaments and spirals of electric discharges in plasma. Electric discharges in a cloud of plasma form double layers along their current axes. Positive charges build up on one side of the cloud and negative charges on the other. A powerful electric field develops between them. If enough current is applied to the double layer it glows otherwise, it remains in "dark mode" and will be invisible. Electric currents flow along the double layers. In plasma, the currents spiral into filaments, which attract each other. However, instead of merging they wind around, sometimes "pinching down" into arc mode discharges. If enough current passes through the plasma cloud, a z-pinch in the double layer will initiate the formation of a star. Electric double layers can be "pumped" with energy from galactic Birkeland currents in which they are immersed. The excess input power pushes them into "glow mode," while increased flux density draws matter from the surrounding space into filaments, igniting the nebular "gases" electrically. Could this be what is observed in both examples shown above? That question might never be answered experimentally, because the only way to detect double layers in space is to send spacecraft equipped with Langmuir probes through them. However, more local experiments within the Solar System have found double layers like those created in the laboratory. Such structures are known as magnetospheres, magnetotails, cometary nuclei, and comet tails. Nobel laureate Hannes Alfvn wrote: "...it is unpleasant to base far-reaching conclusions on the existence of a structure which we cannot detect directly. But the alternative is to draw far-reaching conclusions from the assumption that in distant regions, the plasmas have properties which are drastically different from what they are in our own neighborhood. This is obviously far more unpleasant ..." Stephen Smith
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Imagined mechanical magnetism (left) vs. lab electrical magnetism (right). Credit (left): NASA/CXC/M.Weiss; (right) unknown.
Magnetic Questions
(Oct 20, 2010)
Astronomers recently discovered a star emitting bursts of X-ray and gamma-ray radiation: a magnetar. However, it wasnt slowing down: not a magnetar. It was another anomaly that would somehow have to be squeezed into the box of consensus science. Sporadic bursts of X-ray and gamma-ray radiation were superimposed on a regular X-ray oscillation of 9.1 seconds. After the bursts, the intensity decreased as expected, but the oscillation period did not. If the period is a reflection of the stars rotation (and what else could it be.), a burst of radiation and particles will carry rotational energy away, causing the star to slow down. Since the star didnt slow down, the magnetic field must be weaker than normal. But then, as the press release puzzles, "where does the energy come from to power bursts and the persistent X-ray emission"? Theyre asking the right questions. However, theyve limited answers to the pocket lexicon that came with the gravity-in-a-box wind-up science toy from a couple of centuries ago. They propose a winding up of internal magnetic field lines that unwind at the surface and heat or accelerate particles. Imaginary lines may, like iron filings, help in visualizing the magnetic field around a bar magnet. When used to visualize a fluctuating magnetic field, the metaphor sends all the wrong signals. First in importance is that it obscures the origin of the field in an electric current. Adding "electricity" to the lexicon opens answers to the possibility of lab-testable explanations: X-ray oscillations can be generated with the electrical properties of inductance, capacitance, and resistance found in ordinary stellar plasma. X-ray and gamma-ray bursts can be generated from exploding double layers in a plasma discharge. Recourse to "spooky neutronium" and mechanical over-twisting of reified field lines is unnecessary. The "particles" that are heated and accelerated can be understood simply as charge carriers in a star-sized Birkeland current. Mel Acheson
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Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/UA/J. Irwin et al; Optical: NASA/STScI
Falling Stars and X-rays

(Oct 18, 2010)
A recent composite image of NGC 1399, an elliptical galaxy in the Fornax Cluster, has identified a high-energy x-ray source in one of the galaxys globular clusters. Because the source gives off more X-rays than stars but less than the sources in the cores of active galaxies, it is classed as an ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX). To account for this exceptional luminosity, astronomers must assume that gravity, and therefore matter, is concentrated far beyond any densities that can be achieved by testable means: "the X-ray emission is produced by debris from the disrupted white dwarf star that is heated as it falls towards the black hole." Of course, nature provides an easier means to produce X-rays than having stardust fall onto the extrapolation of a mathematical conjecture: electrons accelerated in a moderate electrical field work well. Electrical fields in space are almost impossible to detect without sending a probe through them. While were waiting for NASA to send a probe to NGC 1399, we can examine the indirect evidence. Back in 1974, Halton Arp and some fellow heretics identified 43 X-ray sources in another galaxy in Fornax--NGC 1097, the Dogleg Galaxy. He took the spectra of 33 of the objects and found that 94% of them were quasars. Furthermore, they were aligned with the four jets, one of which is bent at a right angle and gives the galaxy its name. Subsequent examinations of other ULXs in other galaxies revealed most of them to be quasars. In the Electric Universe, a quasar is highly charged matter under great electrical stress. One characteristic of a quasar is that its spectrum shows a blue continuum and very few emission lines. This is attributed to the Stark effect, which causes emission lines in a strong electric field to spread out in proportion to the field strength. Lines of lighter elements are spread more than lines of heavier ones, so a strong electrical field, such as would exist in a quasar, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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could easily smear the blue Hydrogen lines into a continuum. The Electric Universe also posits that globular clusters are not old, primordial assemblages but are more in the nature of ball lightning fragments thrown off by the plasma discharge that is the galaxy. The ULX in the globular cluster of NGC 1399 is likely a recently ejected quasar from the galaxy. Its possible that the globular cluster has accumulated enough charge that it has ejected--or is ejecting--its own quasar. Mel Acheson
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Credit: UCO/Lick/STScI/M.Perrin et al
BP Piscium: A Fish out of Water

(Oct 15, 2010)
Before the discovery of jetted stars, such as BP Piscium above, the idea of a star with a ring around it threaded by a hot helical filament that remained coherent for several light-years would have been dismissed as impossible. With only gravity and gas, you cant get much more than balls of warm hydrogen. To make a star, the weak force of gravity has to compress the gas beyond the natural limits that we know of until the pressure initiates a nuclear reaction thats not been demonstrated actually to occur. (Decades of building expensive machinery to replicate this hypothetical process and to produce fusion power have still to do it.) Thats just to get an ordinary star with an ordinary power output. To get the much greater energy of such stars as novas and pulsars, theorists must leave the garden of natural physics and trek deep into the dungeons of the supernatural: into the lairs of such speculative hypotheses as neutron stars and black holes, merging stars and colliding galaxies. The jetted stars were found in abundance. So were their big brothers, jetted galaxies, with threads that were tens or hundreds of thousands of light-years long, ending in regions of radio emission larger than the galaxies. Hot gas, even in a strong gravitational field, tends to dissipate. These threads didnt dissipate. The "donut-on-a-stick" stars were often accompanied by signs of magnetism--another phenomenon that the gravity-and-gas boys had thought was impossible in space. Without worrying too much about how the magnetism was generated, astronomers were happy to let the magnetic field lines twist themselves into tubes that would confine the gas into the observed filaments. Of course, magnetism doesnt affect gas, so they had to admit that the gas was plasma long enough to keep it in the magnetic tube. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The admission was repudiated before anyone had time to mention the electrical properties of plasma. Electricity was a fifth column that threatened to overthrow the gravity-and-gas citadel: The threads were Birkeland currents that carried electrical power. They were what generated the magnetism--as the physics of nature as we know it describes. X-ray and radio maps of the heavens traced out lanes of emission and magnetism connecting stars and galaxies: This was evidence that the stars and galaxies were strung like streetlights on these Birkeland currents. Electricity and plasma can be many, many times more energetic that gravity and gas, and the possibility arose that the cosmos was powered, not by gravity and gas and supernatural physics, but by electricity and plasma and the natural physics that can be studied in a laboratory. BP Piscium and its visible Birkeland power cable are a pointer to a return to nature in astronomy. Mel Acheson
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Composite image of pulsar G327.1-1.1: x-ray (blue), radio (red and yellow), and infrared (field stars). Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/T.Temim et al. and ESA/XMM-Newton Radio: SIFA/MOST and CSIRO/ATNF/ATCA; Infrared: UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF/2MASS
Pulsar, Pulsar
(Oct 13, 2010)
burning bright/ in the presumptions of the night. Pulsar G327.1-1.1 illuminates astronomers penchant for seeing what they presume. If you presume that gravity rules the universe, youll look for spherical symmetry and circular forms. So a pulsar will appear to be the core of a supernova at the center of a spherical blast wave. The collapsed core will blow off a fast wind that will compress the interstellar gas into a shock wave and leave a bubble of relative emptiness behind. Seen from our distance, the shock wave will appear as a circle. But something must have got in the way of this pulsar: Astronomers note that the pulsar and its "wind nebula" are off-center, they are moving in opposite directions, and the pulsars x-ray emissions have a "comet-like" shape. Lost in the glare from their brightly burning presumption is the sight that the shock wave is not circular: both the "wind nebula" and the outer "blast wave" are hexagonal. In the Electric Universe, energy doesnt emanate from gravitational "point sources" that impose a spherical geometry on the energys distribution. Electricity comes in "cables" of Birkeland currents. They distribute energy in ways more like a lightning stroke or an aurora. Instabilities impose quasi-stable forms: "jet" and "comet-like" ones are common, as are hexagonal ones. See, for example, the auroral currents around the poles of Saturn (item 4 in link) or the hexagonal craters left by discharges to the surfaces of rocky planets and moons. Pulsar G327.1-1.1 is not "off-center": it is a pinch in an x-ray jet emanating from a corner of the "wind nebula" hexagon. Diocotron instabilities, such as the swirls seen in auroras, likely have spawned small vortices in the toroidal plasmoid that is the nebula, pulling it into the hexagonal shape. Charge May have built up in one of the vortices, and a plasma-gun-like The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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mechanism has discharged the jet and its pinch. The pulsar hasnt been precisely located yet. But when found, it will likely resolve into a binary that has set up the pulsar oscillation in the circuit supplying its power. Mel Acheson
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Composite image of galaxy CID-42 in x-ray (blue) and optical (yellow). Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/F.Civano et al. Optical: NASA/STScI
Big Rocks or Big Sparks?

(Oct 12, 2010)
Its hard to explain lightning bolts when all you can imagine is rocks banging together. Its even harder when your assumptions force you to locate the lightning bolts far, far away. The object named CID-42 (above) has two spots that emit x-rays. From standard assumptions that redshift of the rays means velocity, which can be converted to distance, CID-42 is about four billion light-years away. That makes its x-ray emission brighter than what can be produced by any normal degree of crushing rocks together (as in the imagined conditions in the core of the Sun). Supernatural crushing is invoked--black holes--to get the densities required for gravity to squeeze out that many x-rays. So the rock-bangers have little choice but to assert that supermassive black holes are recoiling from what must have been a merger of their host rock piles. But if redshift does not mean velocity and cannot be converted to distance, as the trend of evidence since the discovery of QSOs paired across active galactic nuclei suggests, then CID-42 is much closer than assumed and therefore much less bright. A larger view is suggestive of a more coherent theory. CID-42 is a misshapen fragment of a galaxy in a field of torn and distorted fragments. A person familiar with plasma discharges can recognize a similarity with the wisps of ionized material thrown off in a high-energy discharge. The long tail of CID-42 stretches away in the direction of the dominant galaxies of the M96 group to the northeast. Have CID-42 and the fragments around it been ejected from one of the galaxies in the M96 group? Is there a bridge of x-ray or radio emission connecting them? Are the QSOs in the vicinity aligned along the minor axis of CID-42, as the two bright spots seem to be? The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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If CID-42 is a plasma discharge, then the two bright spots are likely ejections of QSOs according to normal plasma-focus mechanisms. Their redshifts are near the Karlsson peak for intrinsic redshifts of z=0.3. They require no intervention of the supernatural, only a recognition of the electrical properties of plasma. Mel Acheson
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Galaxy NGC 4666, thought to be about 80 million light-years from Earth. Credit: ESO.
Double Layer Acceleration

(Sep 15, 2010)
Instead of gaseous "superwinds," astronomers are witnessing the acceleration of particles from plasma double layers. A recent press release states that NGC 4666 (above) is blowing a "superwind" of hot gas outward from the galaxy's energetic central bulge. It is so hot, according to astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO), that it is emitting copious X-rays and radio waves. Since those wavelengths are not visible to the naked eye, the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton space telescope saw them first, prompting ESO to capture a visiblelight image with its Wide Field Imager located in Paranal, Chile. According to ESO: "A combination of supernova explosions and strong winds from massive stars in the starburst region drives a vast flow of gas from the galaxy into space." To say that gas can be heated until it emits X-rays that "blow like a wind" indicates a serious lapse on the part of ESO's research team. Molecules of gas cannot remain intact at million degree temperatures because electrons are stripped from the atomic nuclei, causing them to become ionized. Instead of hot gas, the galactic surge should be referred to by its proper name: plasma. Irrespective of their source, X-rays in space are not created by gravitational fields regardless of how strong they are theorized to be. Since plasma is composed of charged particles, the particles are accelerated by electric currents and spiral in the resulting magnetic fields, creating synchrotron radiation that can shine in all high energy frequencies, including extreme ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays. Electric power flows along the spiral arms of a galactic circuit where it is concentrated and stored in a central plasmoid within the galactic bulge. When the current density reaches a critical threshold, it discharges along the galaxys spin axis as an energetic jet of plasma. That The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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phenomenon has been replicated in the laboratory with a plasma focus device. When plasma moves through a dust or gas, the cloud becomes ionized and electric currents flow. The currents generate magnetic fields that confine themselves into coherent filaments known as Birkeland currents. The charged particles that compose the currents spiral along the magnetic fields, appearing as electrical vortices. The forces between these spinning Birkeland currents pull them close together and wind them around each other into plasma ropes'. Birkeland currents squeeze galactic plasma into thin filaments that remain collimated over great distances. Indeed, ESO's observations reveal that the material from NGC 4666 travels more than 30,000 light-years from its source, but that estimate could be off by a significant factor because of problems with redshift distance estimates. Jets usually end in so-called "radio lobes" that extend for many times a galaxy's diameter and, as mentioned, radiate copiously in radio frequencies. The diffuse current then flows back around toward the galaxys equatorial plane and spirals into its nucleus. Don Scott, author of The Electric Sky, wrote about the way plasma acts in the Universe: "Plasma phenomena are scalable. Their electrical and physical properties remain the same, independent of the size of the plasma. In a laboratory plasma, of course, things happen much more quickly than on, say, galaxy scales, but the phenomena are identical--they obey the same laws of physics. In other words we can make accurate models of cosmic scale plasma behavior in the lab, and generate effects that mimic those observed in space. It has been demonstrated that plasma phenomena can be scaled to fourteen orders of magnitude. (Alfvn hypothesized that they can be scaled to 28 orders or more!) Electric currents flowing in plasmas produce most of the observed astronomical phenomena that remain inexplicable if we assume gravity and magnetism to be the only forces at work." Hannes Alfvn identified the "exploding double layer" as a new class of celestial object. Double layers in space plasmas form most of the unusual structures we see. Stephen Smith
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Composite image of M87 in X-ray (blue) and radio emission (red-orange). Credit: NASA/CXC/KIPAC/N. Werner, E. Million et al.
M87--Bringing it Home
(Sep 13, 2010)
The eruptive activity of the active galaxy M87 May be like that of a galactic-scale volcano on a super-massive black hole. Or are volcanoes planetary-scale electrical activities like the plasma discharges of M87? Established scientific societies have a long history of denying evidence and proclaiming new theories to be impossible. (Stones cant fall from the sky; washing hands between surgeries has no health benefit; electricity in space doesnt do anything.) They especially resist "cognitive blowback," as when a new theory is reluctantly considered for explaining new evidence, but obvious implications for re-explaining already-explained phenomena are rejected out of hand. The jet activity in M87 is explained in analogy with eruptive activity of volcanoes on Earth. What we know locally is applied to understanding similar phenomena in deep space. (Bear in mind that "similarity," like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. In this case, its a human eye: What we see is a selection effect of biological senses and historical habits of interpretation. Doubt is always in order.) But if we learn that phenomena in deep space can be understood better with another theory, the symmetry of argument by analogy should urge us to reconsider our provincial knowledge from the viewpoint of the other theory. If M87s activity is electrical, explainable as a plasma discharge, perhaps volcanoes on Earth are electrical, too. The idea that volcanoes are exclusively mechanical phenomena, which can be explained with principles of convection, necessarily explains (away!) observed lightning activity as the incidental effect of friction among dust particles in the plume. Observations indicating that the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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electrical activity is surprisingly powerful for foot-scuffling-on-carpet static are brushed aside-much as were reports of megalightning and lightning to space in storm clouds. The fact that an electrical field exists between the surface of the Earth and the ionosphere is unacknowledged. The existence of diffuse but powerful electrical currents beneath the surface is unmentioned. The likely relationship with the electrical phenomena of earthquakes is unexamined. The Electric Universe doesnt stop at the atmosphere. It goes all the way to the core of the Earth and to the core of all that we presume to know. Mel Acheson
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Spiral galaxy NGC 300. Credit: European Southern Observatory
The Light at the End

(Sep 10, 2010)
This image of the nearby galaxy NGC 300 covers an area of the sky about the size of the full moon. Astronomers call it a "wide field," which shows how much modern astronomy is afflicted with tunnel vision. A wider view would see a line of quasars stretching nine degrees to the Southeast. A cloud of hydrogen gas lies nearby but is rotated about 20 degrees with respect to the galaxys core. (Its called hydrogen gas because of the radio emission that reveals it, but its filamentary form and synchrotron radiation indicate that its actually a Birkeland current of plasma.) NGC 300 and its companion, NGC 55, a short distance away, are the dominant members of the Sculptor Group, the nearest cluster of galaxies to our Local Group. As is typical for such groups, the dominant members have the lowest redshifts. All the other smaller galaxies in the group have consistently higher redshifts. The standard Doppler interpretation of redshift would have all clusters elongated and pointing at the Earth. This observation alone requires that redshift of galaxies be primarily intrinsic, not Doppler. The only way to adhere to a Doppler interpretation (and with it an expanding universe interpretation, and the Big Bang theory following on a short leash) is to restrict ones vision to a tunnel that encompasses only one galaxy at a time. The Sculptor Group is embedded in a cloud of quasars that is up to ten times denser than the average cosmological background density. In fact, most of the excess quasars cluster around the two dominant galaxies--NGC 300 and NGC 55. Halton Arp tells the story of this early inadvertent finding in his book Quasars, Redshifts, and Controversies: "Now an extraordinary stroke of good luck occurred when two astronomers at the U.S. National Observatory in Chile, decided to observe a sample of quasars. They picked a declination zone that ran high overhead for them (Dec = -40) and observed a long, narrow strip of sky, 5 degrees wide, running from west to east. The good luck was that this strip runs right across our Sculptor galaxies NGC 300 and NGC 55. The beginning and the end of the strip lie outside the Sculptor group and can be used to compare to the results in the center of the strip. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive "An uncomfortable result became apparent as soon as they plotted their results. A good many more quasars were found in the center of the strip than at the edges. Since these two astronomers accepted unquestioningly that the quasars were out at the far reaches of the universe, this result obviously could not be correct. Therefore, after the fact, they decided that the photographic emulsions they had used were less sensitive on either end of the strip than they were in the middle of the strip! "This was duly published and accepted. But I noticed that the quasars at the ends of the strip contained proportionally more 'weak-lined' quasars. That is, the emission lines identifying them as quasars were fainter and they were consequently more difficult to discover. If the photographic emulsions were really less sensitive at the ends of the strip, then a proportionally smaller number of these quasars should have been found rather than a larger number. When I tried to publish this result in the British journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, it was sent to one of the original two authors to referee. Needless to say, it was not published."
In the beginning of telescopes in space, astronomers decided not to put up a wide field instrument that would survey what there was to see from orbit: They assumed that they already knew what there was to see. So they put up the Hubble with its extremely narrow field in order to confirm the details of what they had deduced from first principles (i.e., from their presumptions). Everything since has been a surprise. Now, finally, theyre making instruments with slightly less narrow views. But their eyes--their minds eyes--have been conditioned to see only down the conceptual tunnel. "The main purpose of this extensive observational campaign was to take an unusually thorough census of the stars in the galaxythat warrant deeper and more focused investigation." Perhaps the continual surprises will eventually lead them out of the tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, vision opens onto a panorama of plasma: everything we observe is connected with webs of genealogy traced in lines of quasars, clusters of galaxies, hydrogen filaments, and x-ray emissions. The cosmos is not an ancient convulsion followed by predictable inertial drifting. It has a history. Its a drama of procreation unto the present day. Irving Langmuir named plasma well--because it seems alive. The cosmos seems alive--a "live wire"!--as plasma discharges, coupled across all scales, move an aboriginal charge separation toward a likely never-attainable equilibrium. We live in the midst of Heraclituss "thunderbolt that steers the universe." Mel Acheson
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The superwind galaxy NGC 4666. (Credit: ESO/J. Dietrich)
Adolescent Galaxy
(Sep 09, 2010)
NGC 4666 is one of the younger additions to the Virgo cluster of galaxies. It has also apparently given birth to another generation. The galaxy lies eight degrees south of M49, the great-grandmother of the Virgo cluster. Whether NGC 4666 is the daughter of M49 or of one of her many children has yet to be determined. The galaxy is directly in the line of ejection of many objects that M49 has thrown off: M87 at one end and 3C273 at the other. These objects are connected by electrical circuits that can be traced from their x-ray and radio emissions. In turn, lines of ejection from M87 and 3C273 extend the family tree of M49 to the third generation, and pairs of quasars on the opposite ends of these grandchildrens spin axes mark the births of great-grandchildren. (Read Halton Arps discussion of ejection in his book Seeing Red, available from Mikamar Publishing.) NGC 4666s youthful vigor is revealed in its flourishing star formation. The high-energy Birkeland currents driving the galaxys growth in turn pinch into stellar-scale instabilities, otherwise known as stars. The massive flows of plasma (conventionally called stellar "winds") and their frequent eruptions in exploding double layers and expanding current loops (conventionally called "supernovae") highlight the galactic-scale driving currents. Recurrent ejections of the plasma-focus plasmoid at the galaxys core have likely produced the next-generation companion galaxies at lower left (NGC 4668) and upper right: the galaxies lie along the spin axis of NGC 4666, they are smaller, and they are more redshifted. There are likely a number of quasars along this line also, but they have yet to be identified. The Birkeland currents driving the galaxy show up in x-ray. The x-ray plumes (jets) extending from the poles indicate the narrowest "waist" of the hourglass-shaped pinch in the intergalactic Birkeland currents. The electrical configuration will be similar to that of planetary nebulae. The polar plume currents and the induced equatorial ring current are, of course, traced in the magnetic field map of the galaxy. Mel Acheson The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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When water levels rise, some rivers reveal a dendritic pattern similar to lightning. This image shows the La Serena Reservoir, established in the Zjar River, Badajoz, Estremadura, Spain. Rens van der Sluijs
Draconian Landscaping
(Sep 06, 2010)
The mythical dragon drives a wedge in a variety of ways. While scholars are divided about the origin and the meaning of the symbol, the dragon itself, in untold creation myths, carves out features of the landscape such as rivers and valleys. A common story-line, as yet undetected by comparative mythologists, is that the surface of the embryonic earth used to be flat and featureless, until the contortions of the monster produced familiar elevations and depressions, including waterways, canyons and mountains. A few examples will illustrate the theme. Reporting on the Syrian river Orontes, the Greek geographer, Strabo (64 BCE 24 CE), relayed an Aramaean tradition according to which Typhon, 'who, they add, was a dragon', 'when struck by the bolts of lightning, fled in search of a descent underground; that he not only cut the earth with furrows and formed the bed of the river, but also descended underground and caused the fountain to break forth to the surface ' The Fon people, of Benin, name the ourobros, D Ayidohwdo, as the forger of the mountains and rivers: 'When he carried the creator from end to end of the earth, wherever they rested a mountain arose in his travels over the earth D traced out the courses of the streams; till that time there were only stagnant waters (t); he dug out channels in which the waters were to move. Thus the world was made ready to receive life.' According to the Toba Batak, of northern Sumatra, the earths mountains and valleys owe their origin to the wriggling of the malevolent snake Naga Padoha, who inhabited the waters of the underworld and objected to the formation of the infant earth on its back: 'As the earth commenced growing it took the light away from Naga Padoha, who being vexed, gave it a shove and allowed it to float off on the waters. His early squirmings, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In the Kimberley district of Western Australia, belief was current in 'a giant serpent named Wonnaira who made all the rivers as he travelled inland from the sea. The big waterholes along the river courses were places he rested when he was tired'. In southeastern Australia, it is claimed that 'The River Murray was made by a Snake. He travelled from the head of the river to the mouth, and as he went along he formed the valley and the bed of the river'. The locals at Drysdale River, in the northwestern part of the continent, dub the engineering serpent Ungur: 'No one has ever seen the Ungur, but it is regarded as a very big and deadly snake, and is held in very great awe and veneration. It descended from above among the other animals that accompanied the Galoru to the earth. At first the Ungur settled down in a certain big pool named Tjerni, but it was not long before it opened itself a way out to other pools. The paths thus formed by the Ungur are the rivers. The Ungur is believed to abide wherever the Galoru is, that is, in practically every pool of considerable size and depth ' To modern geologists, this archaic, cross-culturally attested theory of river formation is amusing at best, embarrassing gibberish at worst. The recurrence and consistency of the odd notion of a giant snake gouging out trenches do call for reflection, however. What natural force, if any, does the excavating snake or dragon represent? As often in the study of mythology, a careful reconstruction of the underlying conceptual template yields a tantalising clue: lightning emerges as a close associate of the reptilian sculptor. Typhon, as seen, reputedly did the job while he was under assault from Zeus punitive thunderbolts. In Benin, D Ayidohwdo is intimately connected to the lightning: 'Beneath the earth Ayido Hwdo is submerged in the waters. He May still be recognized today in standing pools (t), which recall the memory of the primordial waters: he is seen cleaving the waters like a flash of light ' 'The tail of the celestial serpent is twice the length of the distance between the earth and the sky; that is why there are always two reports when a thunderbolt crashes, the first of the sending of the bolt to earth, and the second of the recoil of the bolt really the sound made by the tail of Aido Hwedo as it returns above. Aido Hwedo acts as bearer of the thunderbolts of the royal master among the Thunder deities'. The Toba Batak equated Naga Padoha with Pan na Bolon, 'the underworld-serpent', who 'sends the rains, he creates the waves, the thunder and the lightning ' One account stipulates that the type of lightning presided over by Pan na Bolon is sheet lightning observed at twilight that is oriented towards one point of the compass and shifts with the seasons. Throughout Australia, the rainbow serpent bears an intricate relationship to the lightning. An example is Borlung, the rainbow serpent as known to communities from Arnhem Land, which was stated to take 'the form of the lightning-bolt which heralds the approach of the monsoon rains'. The conjecture that many mythical snakes or dragons signify bright plasma filaments observed at times in the earths atmosphere successfully accounts for a large number of traditions. In many cases, the assumption of a mundane sighting of an auroral band, ray or curtain suffices. In other cases, specifically where the deep mythology of creation is The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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concerned, more intense types of plasma activity must be imagined. A common manufacturing process is electric discharge machining (EDM), whereby a series of controlled current discharges remove material from a surface, producing a desired pattern. Tornadoes and powerful lightning flashes are known on occasion to create trenches and Lichtenberg figures. Could similar discharge events on a planetary scale have gouged out riverbeds and canyons, on other planets as well as on earth? Could this also have occurred in prehistoric times, prompting human witnesses, scared witless, to recognise a creative dragon in a vortical plasma cloud that, tornado-like, scoured the landscape? Blasphemous though the thought May be to geologists used to imperceptible slowness in their models as well as their thought processes, the electrical phenomenon itself is undeniably real. Plasma cosmologists, who demonstrate a much greater awareness of the preponderance of the electromagnetic force throughout the universe, could more easily accommodate the thought of atmospheric discharges leaving visible marks on the surface of the earth. It is to be hoped that future research will be able to close at least this rift. Contributed by Rens Van Der Sluijs
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Diagram of the cosmos designed by the English physician and alchemist, Robert Fludd (1574-1637), Utriusque Cosmi Historia, Ia89). The sun occupies its characteristic position midway between the upper and the lower regions of the universe.
Light My Fire
(Sep 03, 2010)
What powers the sun? Some three generations of astrophysicists have perfected the dominant theory that the sun, like all other stars, is a giant nuclear fusion reactor, producing radiation as it converts hydrogen into helium in its core. In classical antiquity, philosophers reflected on the same question, but often came up with a very different type of answer: the sun does not generate its own heat and light, but draws these from a cosmic powerhouse. A figurehead of the Pythagorean movement in his time, Philolaus of Croton (fifth century BCE), postulated 'that the sun receives its fiery and radiant nature from above, from the aethereal fire, and transmits the beams to us through certain pores ' According to him, 'the sun is transparent like glass, and it receives the reflection of fire in the universe and transmits to us both light and warmth ' The Roman poet, Lucretius (99-55 BCE), similarly accounted for the remarkable explosion of solar light from one source by comparison to a fountain, replenished from an external source: 'Another thing also need not excite wonder, how it can be that so small a sun emits so much light, enough to fill with its flood seas and all lands and the heavens, and to suffuse all with warm heat. For it is possible that from this place is opened one single fountain of the whole world, to splash its generous flood and to fling forth light, because the elements of heat gather together from all parts of the world in such a manner, and their assemblage flows together in such a manner, that the heat flows out here from one single source'. The cult of the sun god rose to unprecedented prominence during the Roman Empire, spawning a rich and largely unexplored literature on the suns physical and spiritual nature. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Against this background, the notion that this luminary collects 'elements of heat' from 'all parts of the world' fired the imagination of numerous authorities, who, in the footsteps of Pythagoras and Plato, regarded the sun and other celestial bodies as intelligent entities thriving on a constant influx of a mysterious concept dubbed the good, the intelligible or cosmic soul from the highest and outermost regions of the universe. That such thinkers did not eschew metaphysical speculation of this kind is somewhat understandable considering that they did not have todays accomplished chemistry and sophisticated tools for observation at their disposal. It should certainly not detract from the intellectual originality of the notion of an externally powered sun. Writing in Egypt, the Jewish allegorist, Philo of Alexandria (20 BCE 50 CE), reasoned that 'the sun and the moon, and all the other planets and fixed stars derive their due light, in proportion as each has power given to it', from 'that light, perceptible only by the intellect, which is the image of the divine reason' and of God, really 'a star above the heavens, the source of those stars which are perceptible by the external senses, and if any one were to call it universal light he would not be very wrong'. The core text of the Hermetic movement (second or third century CE), also of Egyptian provenance, states in no uncertain terms that 'the sun, through the intelligible cosmos and the sensible as well, is supplied by god with the influx of good'. Setting the paradigm for NeoPlatonic thought, another Egyptian citizen, Plotinus (205-270 CE), developed the idea of hierarchic chains or emanations running through the cosmos, that convey certain qualities or energies from higher to lower levels of existence. The prime example was the transmission of intelligence from a 'sun' in 'the divine realm' to 'soul' and on to the quotidian sun. Dressed in Plotinus typical recondite language: 'This soul gives the edge of itself which borders on this [visible] sun to this sun, and makes a connection of it to the divine realm through the medium of itself, and acts as an interpreter of what comes from this sun to the intelligible sun and from the intelligible sun to this sun, in so far as this sun does reach the intelligible sun through soul ' The Roman grammarian and Neo-Platonist, Macrobius (5th century CE), whose writings epitomise the glorification of the solar deity, equated this cosmic cable running through the sun with 'the golden chain of Homer': 'Accordingly, since Mind emanates from the Supreme God and Soul from Mind, and Mind, indeed, forms and suffuses all below with life, and since this is the one splendour lighting up everything and visible in all, like a countenance reflected in many mirrors arranged in a row, and since all follow on in continuous succession, degenerating step by step in their downward course, the close observer will find that from the Supreme God even to the bottommost dregs of the universe there is one tie, binding at every link and never broken. This is the golden chain of Homer which, he tells us, God ordered to hang down from the sky to the earth'. This line of thought received its fullest elaboration in the work of Proclus Diadochus (412-485 CE), a vegetarian and lifelong bachelor heading the prestigious Academy that Plato had founded in Athens. Proclus cosmology boiled down to the idea that space is effectively light, as light pervades the entire cosmos. This underlying power grid communicates itself to the smallest scales via channels Proclus called seirai or cords. Chief among these was the solar series, which commences with the One Being or Kronos, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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which is the purest and invisible form of light, continues through the Demiurge of the world or Zeus and a supracosmic sun personified by Apollo, and ends with the ordinary sun, Helios, which is visible to us in the sensory world. The Demiurge 'is the "king of the universe," bathed in and transmitting the light from the One, and kindling the sun with it; hence his title "source of the sun"'. Thus, in his Hymn to Helios, Proclus invoked the sun as a 'dispenser of light', who does 'channel off from above a rich stream of harmony into the material worlds'. An invisible substance akin to light but more ethereal that permeates the entire universe and kindles the sun and other stars such an idea is obviously far out from the viewpoint of current astrophysics; a researcher who would only cast doubt on the accuracy of the nuclear fusion theory of stellar powering already runs the risk of being fired. Yet to plasma cosmologists, the arcane Neo-Platonic musings about cosmic cords or strings transmitting the suns essence sound far less abstruse. The Norwegian scientist and explorer, Kristian Birkeland (1867-1917 CE), was among the first to suspect that space is saturated with electrical currents: 'It seems to be a natural consequence of our points of view to assume that the whole of space is filled with electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds'. Electrons, of course, move in currents. The Swedish plasma physicist, Hannes Alfvn (19081995), further cemented the view that space is not a vacuum, punctuated by galaxies, but is 'filled with a network of currents which transfer energy and momentum over large or very large distances. The currents often pinch to filamentary or surface currents'. Since then, writes another plasma physicist, Eric Lerner, 'the idea that space is alive with networks of electrical currents and magnetic fields filled with plasma filaments was confirmed by observation and gradually accepted The universe, thus, forms a gigantic power grid, with huge electrical currents flowing along filamentary "wires" stretching across the cosmos'. Could our own sun mark a node on one of these immense, interstellar plasma cables known as Birkeland currents, glowing like one unit in a string light on a Christmas tree? Exactly that was the thought of no less a person than the English astronomer, Sir John Herschel (17921871), expressed in a letter composed in 1852. Writing to his compatriot, Michael Faraday (1791-1867), who had posited the existence of plasma in 1816, Herschel wondered if the sun could not owe its brightness to 'Cosmical electric currents traversing space': 'If all this be not premature we stand on the verge of a vast cosmical discovery such as nothing hitherto imagined can compare with. Confer what I have said about the exciting cause of the Solar light referring it to Cosmical electric currents traversing space and finding in the upper regions of the Suns atmosphere matter in a fit state of tenuity to be auroralized by them ' Although plasma cosmologists have not yet followed up on Herschels hunch, the GraecoRoman thought experiments regarding the suns intermediate position on a cosmic power cable no longer sound outrageous on a paradigm that already envisions a universe alive with untold plasma wires stretching across vast distances. Lacking the requisite equipment used today as if they themselves somehow received direct illumination from the interstellar circuit these classical savants hit upon concepts eerily similar to the ones formulated in modern plasma cosmology on an independent and empirical basis. Should Herschels suspicion be confirmed one day, these prescient minds therefore rate a mention in the roll call of pioneers. Contributed by Rens Van Der Sluijs
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A phase to phase electric arc on a 138 kilovolt line in Duncan, Oklahoma. Photographer unknown.
Electrodynamic Duo Part Two

(Sep 01, 2010)
Pioneering discoveries about electricity flowing through dusty plasma provide the foundation for Electric Universe theory. Irving Langmuir's scientific contributions were originally electromechanical when he invented a pump capable of drawing a high vacuum, eventually leading to an efficient vacuum tube (or "valve"). Later, along with Lewi Tonks, he realized that tungsten filaments inside lightbulbs would last much longer if he filled the glass with an inert gas, a crucial step in lightbulb development. The thermal emissions from hot filaments led Langmuir to the consideration of charged particles moving through various gases. He was the first to coin the term "plasma" when referring to such ionized gas. Since charged regions in the gas tended to isolate themselves from the environment, as well as act in ways not governed by mechanical theories of gas behavior, he thought they appeared similar to the organic plasma component of cells. Langmuir's most important contribution to plasma physics might be the Langmuir probe, a device that measures temperature and density within a plasma by using an electrostatic tip with a voltage bias. In 1999, the ill-fated Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) spacecraft NOZOMI (PLANET-B) was fitted with a Langmuir probe in order to obtain the first set of measurements between Mars and the solar wind. There were several mission problems, however, and NOZOMI never made it into Mars orbit. Although his contributions to many scientific fields, including plasma physics, were extensive, Langmuir's Nobel Prize was awarded in 1932 "for his discoveries and investigations in surface chemistry." Despite the insights demonstrated by Irving Langmuir, Kristian Birkeland was probably the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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first investigator to predict that space was filled with plasma: "It seems to be a natural consequence of our points of view to assume that the whole of space is filled with electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds. We have assumed that each stellar system in evolutions throws off electric corpuscles into space. It does not seem unreasonable therefore to think that the greater part of the material masses in the universe is found, not in the solar systems or nebulae, but in 'empty' space." And: "From a physical point of view it is most probable that solar rays are neither exclusively negative nor positive rays, but of both kinds." Meaning that the solar wind is composed of both negatively and positively charged ions. Electromagnetic disturbances (geomagnetic storms) are observed when bright aurorae are seen. In 1903, Birkeland's Arctic expedition found electric currents from the Aurora Borealis flowing parallel to the auroral formation. Because those electric currents must flow in a circuit, and the auroral glow appeared to result from events in space, he proposed that they flowed down from space at one end of the auroral arc and back out to space at the other. In 1973, when the magnetometer onboard the U.S. Navy satellite Triad found two gigantic electric current sheets carrying a million amperes or more, one descending from the aurora's morning side and the other ascending from the evening side, they were named "Birkeland currents," since it was his research that predicted them. Birkeland's polar electric currents are known today as "auroral electrojets" and are connected to electric currents that follow Earth's geomagnetic field into and away from the Arctic region. They have been called a "new" discovery by NASA scientists who continue to ignore Birkeland's work. The words "plasma" and "currents" are often used in NASA press releases, but they are usually paired with "impacts," "collisions," and "streams." Birkeland created an experiment to test his ideas at the University of Oslo. He evacuated the air from a large chamber in which he placed a magnetized metal ball he called a "terrella." The terrella was meant to represent Earth ("terrella" meaning "little Earth"). Birkeland charged up both the terrella and the vacuum chamber at different voltages and polarities, observing how they behaved. Birkeland revealed that electric currents travel along filaments that are constrained by magnetic fields. His experiment confirmed that parallel linear currents experience a longrange attractive force that is orders of magnitude greater than gravity. As plasma filaments get closer together, however, they do not coalesce, they rotate around each other in a helix. A short-range magnetic repulsion occurs, preventing them from "shorting out." Instead, they remain isolated from each other. The closer that electric filaments (Birkeland currents) get to one another, the faster they spin. The pairs of "transmission lines" become a twisted electrical tornado, or plasma vortex, that scales by several orders of magnitude. The twisted pairs that exist in space create a fieldaligned current flow that follows the magnetic field, permitting electric power to travel vast distances. Hannes Olof Gsta Alfvn affirmed an interest in the acceleration of charged particles, especially those at cosmic ray energies, while at the Nobel Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. His concepts of field-aligned electric fields, combined with the field-aligned currents described by Birkeland, are now seen as necessary for the acceleration of charged particles in the polar aurorae. Alfvn's proposed idea of "exploding double layers" is one of the foundational principles relied The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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upon by Electric Universe advocates because they generate cosmic rays at extreme energies. Cosmic rays are ionized particles. The majority of cosmic rays are single protons, but nuclei as heavy as uranium have been detected. As consensus theories state, heavy particles are accelerated to relativistic velocities by unknown forces and then whipped out into the galaxy like a shotgun blast, scattering in every direction. Hannes Alfvn described a double layer as: "...a plasma formation by which a plasma, in the physical meaning of this word, protects itself from the environment. It is analogous to a cell wall by which a plasma, in the biological meaning of this word, protects itself from the environment." Double layers might cutoff the current flow in a galactic circuit causing a catastrophic rise in voltage. The powerful energy release, or "exploding double layer" is what astronomers sometimes call a "supernova," or a "gamma ray burst." Alfvn, said in 1986 (NASA CP 2469): "Double layers in space should be classified as a new type of celestial object (one example is the double radio sources). It is tentatively suggested that x-ray and gamma ray bursts May be due to exploding double layers. In solar flares, DLs with voltages of 10^9 Volts or even more May occur, and in galactic phenomena, we May have voltages that are several orders of magnitude larger." Plasma, not hot gas, is flowing through space. The physics of electric currents apply, not the physics of winds. Inside planetary nebulae are one or more plasma sheaths, or "double layers," that act like capacitors, alternately storing and releasing electrical energy. The current flow alternately increases and decreases within the sheaths inside and outside the shell. Because plasma in laboratory experiments forms cellular structures separated by thin walls of opposite charge (double layers), it is probable that the same thing happens in nebulae. There are many more men and women of science who have contributed to understanding the "electrodynamic duo" of electricity and magnetism. In future articles, more insights into their contributions will be offered. Stephen Smith
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(Left) View of Lake Eyre from the South (18 January 2007). Matt Malone (Right) Emil Kintalakadi, a member of the Tirari nation, east of Lake Eyre, 1901.
Bad to the Bones

(Aug 30, 2010)
Fossils did not go unnoticed in human societies that Victorian scholars once disdainfully labelled brutes, savages and primitives. With renewed vigour, todays geomythologists explore the ideas traditional cultures harboured regarding the nature and the origin of bones and stones they encountered on the surface, embedded in rock, or anywhere else. The American classicist, Adrienne Mayor, has documented that the first nations of the Americas, just like the Greeks and Romans, recognised that fossils were the remnants of creatures that lived in previous eras and, in many cases, did not die a natural death. Intriguingly, pre-modern fossil lore does not stop there, but often identifies the extinct life forms with a mythical race of beings that dwelled in the sky before its extermination during a cataclysmic, lightning-charged battle, or a world-engulfing fire or deluge. Though compelling parallels have been adduced, scholars have not yet documented the global extent of such ideas. One case that has so far eluded discussion in this context is the local mythology surrounding the bones found in the vicinity of Lake Eyre, in the Tirari Desert of northern South Australia. The species represented here are predominantly those of vertebrate animals associated with the Tertiary age. The Dieri and the Tirari people, who have traditionally lived on these grounds, identified these bones as the relics of a breed of "strange monsters" known as the Kadimakara or Kadimerkera. According to them, these beings once dwelled in a region in the lower atmosphere that they described in paradise-like terms: 'Instead of the present brazen sky, the heavens were covered by a vault of clouds, so dense that it appeared solid; where today the only vegetation is a thin scrub, there were once giant gum-trees, which formed pillars to support the sky; the air, now laden with blinding, salt-coated dust, was washed by soft, cooling rains, and the present deserts around Lake Eyre were one continuous garden. The rich soil of the country, watered by abundant rain, supported a luxuriant vegetation, which spread from the lake-shores and the riverbanks far out across the plains. The trunks of lofty gum-trees rose through the dense undergrowth, and upheld a canopy of vegetation, that The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive protected the country beneath from the direct rays of the sun. In this roof of vegetation dwelt the strange monsters known as the "Kadimakara" or "Kadimerkera"'.
In these words, the comparative mythologist immediately recognises a variation on the global motif of a past golden age, during which a blessed stock of ancestors lived in a land supported by celestial pillars. Easy traffic between the regions above and below is a signature aspect of the theme: 'Now and again the scent of the succulent herbage rose to the roof-land, and tempted its inhabitants to climb down the gum-trees to the pastures below'. However, the denizens of that hallowed land turned evil and belligerent, according to a typical story-line, and inevitably, catastrophe followed. The Kadimakara reputedly met their demise some time after the stanchions of heaven had subsided: 'Once, while many Kadimakara were revelling in the rich foods of the lower world, their retreat was cut off by the destruction of the three gum-trees, which were the pillars of the sky. They were thus obliged to roam on earth, and wallow in the marshes of Lake Eyre, till they died, and to this day their bones lie where they fell'. The story concludes with the collapse of the solid sky, an event that must also have been thought to have precipitated the onset of the dry conditions prevailing in the area today. At least until the end of the nineteenth century, the Dieri continued to make pilgrimages to the bones and hold corroborees to 'appease the spirits of the dead Kadimakara, and persuade them to intercede with those who still dwell in the sky, and control the clouds and rain'. The British geologist and explorer, John Walter Gregory (1864-1932), who recorded this tradition during an expedition in 1901 or 1902, posed the dilemma presented by this account: 'It May have arisen as a pure fiction, invented by some imaginative, storytelling native, to explain why large bones are scattered over the bed of Coopers Creek. It may, on the other hand, be a shadowy reminiscence of the geographical conditions which existed in some distant ancestral home of the aborigines, or of those which prevailed in Central Australia, at some remote period'. A little more reflection disqualifies the former option, as the Dieri would hardly have founded elaborate rituals and a collective belief on the fantasy of an individual. Comparison of the Dieri story with a similar tradition from the Arrernte people, farther to the north, suggested to Gregory that the myth was based on a core narrative involving the 'idea of a sky-country, to which communication was formerly possible by climbing up a tree or pole'. This elementary backbone of the story aligns itself with the mythology of a sky-reaching column mythologists refer to as the axis mundi or world axis. Gregory further concluded that the Dieri 'have modified the story to explain the occurrence of the great bones in the rivers of their country'. He made no bones of his finding that a systematic pattern pervades fossil lore: 'As a general rule, where stories of giants and dragons are assigned to precise localities, they are founded on the occurrence of fossil bones'. This rule of thumb finds a much wider, cross-cultural application. As the outlines of the story seem to represent a global archetype, it stands to reason that events in the cosmic environment surrounding the earth spawned the myths. The million-dollar question is whether the tendency to link local fossils with this mythical prototype was an imaginary or whimsical appendix to the myth or whether the actual deposition of the fossils was entwined with environmental disasters accurately recalled by these people. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The answer May very well prove to be the former. However, it May not be coincidental that Pleistocenic vertebrates such as the so-called megafauna are often among the fossils that attract myths of cosmic disaster. Besides some mundane animals such as dingoes, bats, crocodiles, rodents, and birds, the specimens collected by Gregorys team also included a Diprotodon sp. or giant wombat, which Emil Kintalakadi, one of the last surviving Tirari tribesmen, readily identified as a Kadimakara. Surveying the tribal lore, Gregory noted that the creatures identified as Kadimakara appear to involve 'two distinct animals', one a water monster possibly related to the fossil remains of crocodiles in the rivers of Lake Eyre, the other a unicorn-type beast, 'a big, heavy land animal, with a single horn on its forehead'. A striking parallel emerges with several North American cultures, who likewise associated local fossils with two groups of mythical entities, water monsters and their supposed rivals, the thunderbirds. Gregory advanced the perfectly reasonable proposition that Dieri people May have recognised the perished breed of celestial monsters in Diprotodon fossils they sighted in their lands. Does this preclude any direct relationship between the fossils and the myth of legendary sky travellers? Perhaps not, though one must tread very carefully. Interdisciplinary studies involving plasma physics and archaeoastronomy suggest that much in the global myths concerning the end of a golden age can be explained on the hypothesis of a solar storm of unprecedented proportions, provoking intense geomagnetic disturbances and near-lethal synchrotron radiation emitted by magnetospheric plasma, possibly in combination with a cometary interloper. These events are conjectured to have occurred between the end of the Pleistocene when a comet is also thought to have impacted or exploded over North America, according to Firestone and West and the end of the Neolithic period. If myths like the Kadimakara tradition preserved a memory of this tumultuous period, the presence of megafauna among the purported fossil remnants at Lake Eyre as well as in North America, where mammoths and mastodons exemplify the case, makes sense. Could it be that the Dieri, like other pre-modern societies, had a sense of the type of mammals that perished during what was arguably the latest great extinction event in geological history? Indeed, is it conceivable that the Dieri did not take this myth with them from an ancestral homeland, as Gregory tentatively suggested, but were already stationed on the Australian continent at the time of these events, witnessing the eradication and fossilisation of the unfortunate animals including, possibly, humans first hand? Although rock-solid evidence for this suggestion cannot be marshalled at this time, no stone should be left unturned in the giant jigsaw puzzle that is the planets recent past. Contributed by Rens Van Der Sluijs
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A 9.4 Tesla electromagnet built for brain research, about 200,000 times more powerful than Earth's magnetic field. Credit: Siemens press picture.
Electrodynamic Duo Part One

(Aug 16, 2010)
Magnetism and electricity have been known since ancient times. More recently, how the two forces connect has prompted more interest. The Greeks were familiar with magnetis lithos, or "Magnesian stone" as early as 500 B.C.E. Magnesian stone, from which the word "magnet" is derived, was originally found on the coast of what is now Turkey. Later, the magnetic rocks came to be known as "lodestones" and were probably used as compasses to guide ships since the eleventh century. Not much was known about how compasses worked until the time of Sir William Gilbert, commonly referred to as "the father of magnetism and electricity" because of experiments leading to the groundbreaking book, De Magnete in 1600. Gilbert was the first person to use terms like "magnetic pole," "electric force," and "electric attraction." He also coined the word "electricity" from the Greek word for amber, elektron. In 1820, Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted found that electric current flowing through a wire deflected a compass needle, inspiring electromagnetic theory. When he placed a magnetic compass below an electric current, the needle moved perpendicular to the wire. A magnet is simply any object that possesses magnetic properties. Primarily, that means two poles known as "north-seeking" and "south-seeking," which on separate magnets attract each other. Like poles of different magnets, on the other hand, repel each other in the same way that opposite electric charges attract or repel. In the eighteenth century, C. A. Coulomb discovered that the force between magnetic poles could be described using the same inverse square relationship as that between electric fields. Just as with electricity, magnetism is directly proportional to the strength of the combined poles and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the poles. Also similar The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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to electricity, magnetism acting at a distance is described as a "field of force" because it has no known physical component. "Magnetic flux" is a term that illustrates how force appears to flow out of a magnet at one pole and back into it at the other. This effect can be seen in the patterns that form when iron filings are sprinkled on a paper with a magnet underneath it. The patterns are known as "lines of induction." There is no physical flow, but the lines of induction confirm descriptions of magnetism. Lines of induction (magnetic field lines) emanate from a magnet's north pole and terminate at the south pole. The number of lines per a given area indicates the field strength: where the lines converge at the poles, the field is large, while the field becomes progressively weaker where the lines diverge. The electrical basis for magnetism has been verified down to the level of the electron. Since an electron spins and has an electric charge, it is often said to be "charge in motion, which by definition results in a magnetic field." In 1825, Ampre demonstrated that a current-carrying conductor exerts forces on a magnet and that a magnet also exerts forces on a current-carrying conductor. Michael Faraday and Joseph Henry followed with their discoveries that current can be generated in a conductor by changing the magnetic field surrounding it. So-called "electromagnetic induction," along with the realization that electric currents create magnetic fields, paved the way for both the electric generator and the electric motor. Further relationships between electricity and magnetism were elucidated by James Clerk Maxwell. In particular, a changing electric current in a conductor creates a changing magnetic field around the conductor, thus creating a changing electrical field. Oscillating electric and magnetic fields (now called "electromagnetic radiation") can therefore become self-sustaining, like a wave propagating through space. Also, since the velocity of electromagnetic radiation is identical with the velocity of light, light's close connection with electricity and magnetism was revealed. Solid, liquid, and gas are the commonly understood states of matter, although the readers of these pages are aware that a fourth state known as "plasma" exists. Plasma is estimated to constitute 99 percent or more of the Universe, and is distinctive because it contains a large enough number of electrically charged particles for its electrical properties and behavior to be altered. In a neutral gas, positive and negative charges combine: the positive charges (protons) in the atomic nuclei are surrounded by an equal number of negatively charged electrons. The atoms are electrically neutral. Gas becomes plasma when heat or some other energy strips some electrons off some of the atoms. A positive charge is left on those atoms, while the detached negative electrons move around. This results in an electrically charged gas that is said to be "ionized." When enough ions accumulate so that the electrical characteristics of the gas are affected, it is a plasma. Irving Langmuir was first to use the term "plasma" (referring to an ionized gas) in the 1920s. He noticed similarities in the structure of electric discharges through mercury vapor. Regions close to the walls in the glass discharge chamber, or near the electrodes were already called "sheaths." However, the ionized material filling the discharge chamber had no name, so Langmuir decided to call it "plasma." Plasma was found to be an excellent electrical conductor with behavioral laws all its own. Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Spiral galaxy NGC 4911 in the Coma Cluster. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Wheels within Wheels

(Aug 11, 2010)
There are a multitude of celestial bodies, and all of them spin. Any substance that contains charged particles is a form of plasma: electrons, positive ions, electrically charged dust particles, neon lights, lightning, Earths magnetosphere, the solar wind, stars, and even galaxies are plasma. In energetic regions of plasma, filaments of electric current flow in closed circuits, otherwise the charged particles would accumulate and the flow would stop. The existence of electric circuits in space is what distinguishes Electric Universe theory from most, if not all, conventional viewpoints. As Electric Universe advocates insist, it is the behavior of electricity that explains phenomena that appear "mysterious" to space scientists. X-ray emissions from planets, braided plasma filaments, hourglass-shaped nebulae, and jets of charged particles erupting out from galactic axes provide observational evidence for the existence of plasma circuits. Celestial bodies are not isolated from one another, but are connected across vast distances. Electromagnetic forces squeeze those conductive channels into filaments that tend to attract each other in pairs. Electric fields that form along the long strands generate an attractive force that can be 39 orders of magnitude greater than gravity. However, when they get close to each other, instead of merging, the plasma "cables" twist into a helix that rotates faster as it compresses tighter. It is those "cosmic transmission lines" that make up galactic circuits. Astronomers maintain that galaxies are condensed clouds of hydrogen and dust that have been compressed by gravity until they ignite with multiple thermonuclear fireballs. Since there is not enough luminous mass to account for their large angular momentum estimates, theories that involve "haloes of dark matter" around galaxies, or "supermassive black holes" The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive in their centers have been proposed for why galaxies spin.
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The cosmos appears to be interlaced with untold numbers of interacting circuits that occur in nested hierarchies. Each of those circuits appears to be composed of untold numbers of twisting filaments of plasma called Birkeland currents. At the largest observable scale there are power-consuming objects, or loads in the various circuits, that appear to be converting electrical energy into rotational energy. Consensus opinions suggest that galaxies, stars, and planets spin because of how they formed. A comparatively large cloud of gas and dust is said to contract, causing its spin rate to increase. Although, why a randomly moving cloud of particles should have a net spin rate is both illogical and unexplained. In the case of a galaxy, spiral arms form, a disk of material surrounds the central nucleus, and eddy-currents inside the disk condense into stars. The spinning cloud is supposed to overcome its internal gravitational attraction with centrifugal force, flinging out material like drops of paint. In the same way, stellar systems develop within eddies that form in discrete bands around fusion-hot gravity wells that, in turn, become planets, moons, comets, and asteroids. Since they are all supposed to share a similar genesis, they are all believed to spin for the same reason. Hannes Alfvn's "electric galaxy" hypothesis, on the other hand, states that galaxies (and by extension, stars and other objects) are more like a device invented by Michael Faraday, the homopolar motor. A homopolar motor is driven by magnetic fields induced in a circular, conductive metal plate. The plate rotates between the poles of an electromagnet, causing it to spin at a rate proportional to the input current. Since galaxies exist within a filamentary circuit of electricity that flows through the cosmos, they and their attendant stellar and planetary offspring most likely spin because of electricity flowing through them like it does through Faraday's motor. Stephen Smith
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The Antennae Galaxies. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/J.DePasquale; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Optical: NASA/STScI.
Tuning in a New Signal

(Aug 10, 2010)
A new image of the Antennae Galaxies from new instruments in new wavelengths of radiation is explained with obsolete ideas from old astronomers. X-ray, deep optical, and infrared telescopes reveal the intricate circuitry of a galaxy-sized plasma discharge. The interacting filaments of Birkeland currents drive pinch and kink instabilities to flare into star-forming regions. The electromagnetic forces squeeze dusty plasma into plumes and cells. Electric fields accelerate the charge carriers in the current to high velocities, and the associated magnetic fields constrain them to spiral along the fields directions and to emit synchrotron radiation at all frequencies. Fluctuations and twists in the currents build up into double layers and loop currents that explode as supernovae and nebulae. Intense secondary discharges smash ions together into heavier elements, and the several mechanisms that sort materials in plasma separate them into regions of elemental enrichment. The old astronomers before the discovery of plasma developed their explanations from ideas of gravity and other mechanical effects on the surface of the Earth. Modern astronomers, willfully blind to the behavior of plasma, talk about the cosmic electrical phenomena in meteorological terms of gas, clouds, winds, and rains. To account for the greater energies that electricity supplies, they must multiply the mechanical energies by imagining the gas and the clouds to be concentrated in untestable ways: into black holes and dark matter. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Our country-bumpkin senses, which evolved on this small, rocky planet in the provinces of our galaxy, have wandered into the electrified cosmopolis of the rest of the universe. We must learn the ways of plasma and give up our rock-banging habits. Mel Acheson
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Mount Banks, Australia. Photo by Garry Maxfield.
Mount Banks
(Aug 06, 2010)
A fresh perspective on Earths geology is needed. We tend to perceive the Universe according to what we see around us. 'Erosion' on other planets must have been caused by wind or water because thats what is supposed to happen on Earth and thats all we know. We need to turn things around and look at the geology here with respect to what we see out there. Mount Banks is situated about 100 kilometres west of Sydney, Australia. It is about 15 kilometres from the Wollangambe Crater, which is not an impact crater or ancient volcano. Mount Banks has always been called a volcano because of the basalt deposits on its summit. However, there is no caldera and no sign of lava flows. There is some basalt there, but the majority of what is found is sandstone, along with layers of ironstone, and a few stone spherules. The most striking aspect to the mountain is that 40% of it appears to be missing. It is located on the edge of the Grose Valley, which is not unusual. What is strange is that the valley has cut through the side of the mountain. 'It must have been water', one might say, but there is no known mechanism for water to cut vertical cliffs through a mountain. The width of the valleys in this section of the Blue Mountains is significant because the Grose Valley narrows downstream from this point. If the valley was cut by water, where did all the eroded material go? Formations on Mars have been considered in previous Picture of the Day articles. Some structures on the Martian surface are similar to the sandstone rock formations found on the side of Mount Banks that appear to have been molten at one time. Both contain stone spherules known as 'blueberries' on Mars. On Mount banks, the blueberries occur in alternate layers. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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An aerial view of the three-way valley junction shows a definite pattern. Each arm is exactly the same for the first few kilometres, and on each arm of the junction sits a mountain: Mount Banks, Mount Hay, and Lockleys Pylon. All share similar characteristics: they resemble socalled 'lighting blisters' created by electric discharges on a positively charged surface or anode and look similar to Olympus Mons on Mars. On Earth, water follows paths that were already there. So what can carve out a valley while slicing through the side of a mountain, leaving vertical sides? Perhaps the only method is a plasma discharge on an interplanetary scale. Contributed by Garry Maxfield
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Close up image of the Carina Nebula, with its bright star WR 22. Credit: European Southern Observatory.
Stellar Shedding
(Aug 04, 2010)
Astronomers do not know why some stars shed their atmospheres at a furious rate. For many years, astrophysical models of stellar evolution have relied on mechanical action. The forces that shape them have been attributed to the collapse of cold gas under gravitational influence. Common viewpoints see stars as whirling vortices of compressed matter heated to fusion temperatures by pressure, alone. Compression, it is said, draws clouds of gas and dust a thousand times less dense than a puff of smoke into a region of increased density that coaxes even more material to collect there. Eventually, the atoms within the cloud can no longer resist the inward attraction and they fall into the well of nuclear fusion, initiating a self-sustaining reaction. According to consensus opinions about stars, those that are extremely massive live fast and die young. They rapidly "fuse" their hydrogen and helium into heavier elements that, in turn, fuse into ones that are heavier still. In their senescence, the radiative emissions from such stars are thought to be so intense that they "blow away" enormous quantities of stellar material. In some cases, they lose mass up to a million times faster than our own Sun. However, that process is highly speculative. The Electric Star hypothesis resolves many of the distorted opinions that arise when astronomers misunderstand the role of plasma and electric fields in space. Rather than gravity and kinetic activity (heated gas), radiant emanations result from electric currents. More powerful electric flux results in more powerful energetic output. Electric discharges in plasma clouds create double layers, or sheaths, along their current axes. Positive charge builds up on one side and negative charge on the other. An electric field develops between the sides, and if enough current is applied, the sheath glows; otherwise it is invisible. When electric currents flow along the sheaths, the currents spiral into filaments. The filaments attract each other, but rather than merging, they form zones of enormous compressive force known as z-pinches. Arc mode discharges might occur. Gravity, although it plays a small role in stellar evolution, is far too weak a force when compared to electric fields in plasma. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Since astronomers do not map the current flow through space, or consider its influence on stellar evolution, they overstate the case for gravitational models. The electrical input and output of the stars is not considered when theories are debated. By failing to give it credence, an entire line of investigation remains fallow. Retired professor of electrical engineering Don Scott provided a new look at stars in his book The Electric Sky. Scott suggests that mass, temperature, and luminosity are not the only factors that should be considered when describing a star's life cycle. The most important factor is the current density in Amperes per square meter (A/m^2) at the star's surface. If the incoming current density increases, a star's surface gets hotter, radiates shorter wavelengths, and becomes brighter. Therefore, the strength of the impinging current density, as well as diameter, are responsible for a star's absolute brightness. Massive stars might not be so massive after all. The intense radiation that is interpreted as an "atmosphere blowing away" is most likely due to high input currents triggering frequent bursts of stellar lightning. What appears to be a giant star might be a relatively small star with a large coma structure that is emitting a torrent of charged particles. Whether such stars live short or long lives has nothing to do with their gravitational mass. Stephen Smith
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The Boomerang Nebula. Credit: Hubble Heritage Team, J. Biretta (STScI) et al. (STScI/AURA), ESA, NASA
Back to Plasma
(Aug 02, 2010)
Astronomers believe this nebula to be one degree above absolute zero. Temperature has little to do with electrical interactions, however. "Bipolar outflow" is a term used to describe the nebular structure seen above, although the cause of the effect remains baffling to scientists who study such phenomena. One theory is that its shape is due to slow-moving stellar material interfering with dust and gas that was ejected from a red giant star at higher velocities. Magnetic fields are sometimes invoked to describe lobate celestial objects, but the electric current flow needed for their generation is neglected. Astronomical theories do not provide for a mechanism that can form nebular clouds and their energetic emissions. They do not know how stars "eject" their outer layers or how lobes of matter speed from their polar axes. The reason for that lack of understanding is that nebulae are not composed of inert gas, cold or hot, but of plasma. According to Electric Universe theory, bipolar formations are not puzzling or surprising. Rather, they are readily explicable and expected. From nebula to galaxy, hourglass configurations are one signature of electric currents flowing through the aforementioned plasma. Gases obey Newtonian laws of kinetic motion with molecules bumping into each other or accelerated by "shock waves" imparted by other particles. Plasma, on the other hand, behaves according to the laws of electricity. Stars are born within twisting Birkeland currents that flow around a circuit through the galaxy. The z-pinch effect squeezes plasma inside those filaments, igniting stars and forming toroids of electricity around stellar equators. It is actually the electrical current density that causes plasma in nebulae to glow, not reflections or thermal emissions. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Nebulae often exhibit long tendrils and bubbles within their symmetrical hourglass shapes. According to conventional theories, those features are the result of stellar winds blowing off the parent star, crashing into the slower material ahead of them. In the case of the Boomerang Nebula (and others) the unmistakeable appearance of Birkeland current filaments is clearly visible. The overall configuration corresponds to the helices and pillars that electrical discharges in plasma can create. In the laboratory, plasma forms cells separated by thin walls of opposite charge called double layers. Could separation of charges also take place in nebulae? That question might take a long time to resolve because the only way to detect a double layer in space is to insert a Langmuir probe into one. Although no definitive answers are yet forthcoming, Electric Universe advocates assume that plasma will behave in space in the same way as it does in the laboratory. Electric double layers resulting from charge separation impelled Nobel laureate Hannes Alfvn to suggest that they have their own classification alongside stars and galaxies. Stephen Smith
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The Opportunity rover continues its journey through endless plains of iron and silicon oxides. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Oceans of Sand on Rocky Shores

(Jul 30, 2010)
The Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, has been rolling for six years through a sea of hematite nodules that overlay fractured stone slabs. Since its landing in Eagle crater on January 24, 2004 Opportunity has traveled a total distance of 21.83 kilometers at an average speed of 9.5 meters per day. It has far exceeded its original mission timeline of 90 days, providing a wealth of evidence that supports Electric Universe concepts of planetary scarring events in the recent past. For many years, mission specialists have struggled to explain the geological morphology of Mars, especially the vast accumulations of hematite nodules otherwise known as "blueberries." In the image above, the incongruous spherules are seen heaped into sinuous dunes that cover thousands of square kilometers. On its way to the rim of Victoria crater, and continuing to this day, fields of the dark dunes and white, polygonal blocks of stone have dominated the landscape. The silicon dioxide blocks were dubbed "cobbles" or "pavement" because they are flat compared to the undulating piles of hematite gravel. Indeed, the wide avenues of stone appear to underlie the iron-rich pellets. Previous Picture of the Day articles highlighted the dune fields on Mars, their carved faces, and the craters associate with them. Since standard geological and astrophysical theories offered no explanations except those that depend on comparisons with Earth-based formations, it was concluded that electricity is the one unifying factor that explains how they all might have been created. The quartzite pavement is split into regular polygons with wide cracks that are most often filled with hematite blueberries. They exhibit fractures that radiate in concentric arcs from what appear to be hollow impact zones, and have been roughly etched, or eroded away on The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive top. The cracks have edges that are sometimes razor-sharp. Many are undercut. Several seem to have been sliced off at ground level from large blocks composed of the same material. The big chunks also contain great quantities of blueberries embedded in them.
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The presence of iron oxide in several forms indicates that something not taking place on Mars today did take place at some time in the past. Some have speculated that there was once a dense, oxygen-rich atmosphere that allowed for "rusting" of the iron in its crust to occur. Others have said that there were oceans of open water on the surface that helped to form the trillions of hematite nodules that cover nearly an entire hemisphere. Whatever the cause, some hematite dunes rise up to nearly a kilometer in height. There are giant cracks that go on for hundreds of kilometers with their bottoms covered in hematite ripples. Seas of hematite dust tens of meters deep engulf craters a hundred kilometers in diameter, many of them associated with silicon dioxide pavement. It is unusual that dark hematite is so intimately bound up with white silicon-dioxide rock. Could there be a connection between silica and hematite on Mars? Could the same electric arcs that are thought to have carved the Red Planet transmute elements: reforming the atomic structure of silicon (with 28 particles in its nucleus) into that of iron (with 56)? Stephen Smith
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The nucleus of Halley's comet. Credit: Halley Multicolor Camera Team, Giotto Project, ESA.
Exocomets
(Jul 28, 2010)
Astronomers observed what appears to be a gas giant planet with a cometary tail around a distant star. According to Jeffrey Linsky of the University of Colorado: "We found gas escaping at high velocities, with a large amount of this gas flowing toward us at 22,000 miles per hour. This large gas flow is likely gas swept up by the stellar wind to form the comet-like tail trailing the planet." Does the data analysis from Hubble's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) support the contention that "powerful stellar winds" are responsible for the structure? Could it be a simple case of kinetic energy dragging the planet's atmosphere into space, or should another theory that explains more than just this observation be considered? In October 2007, a Picture of the Day discussed comet Holmes 17P, noting that many of the "unusual" phenomena, such as filamentation in the coma and anomalous brightening far from the Sun, might find a better explanation in an electrical theory of comets. As long ago as 2004, when these pages were first published, Electric Universe advocates have challenged prevailing comet theory. Hale-Bopp, a naked-eye comet that passed by in 1997, remained active four years after it left the inner solar system. When it was farther from the Sun than the orbit of Uranus, it was The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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almost two million kilometers in diameter, displaying a coma, a dust tail, and an ion tail more than a million kilometers long. Astronomers are still unable to offer a solution. On March 16, 1996 the European Space Agency's Giotto probe encountered Halley's Comet. To the astonishment of the scientific community, it was found to possess a hard, blackened crust. Jets of ionized gas, otherwise known as plasma, were seen erupting from three highly localized areas. As Horst Uwe Keller of the Max Planck Institut fr Aeronomie remarked at the time: "We discovered that a comet is not really a 'dirty snowball' since dirt is dominant, not ice. Instead of being spherical like a warm snowball, a comet nucleus is elongated. The physical structure of a comet's interior is defined by its dust content rather than its ice content." Shoemaker-Levy 9 was shattered into chunks that plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere in 1994. Space scientists thought that ices in the fractured nucleus would sublimate so that the "snowball theory" of comets could be confirmed. However, the Hubble Space Telescope found no volatile gases in the debris clouds. After one large fragment hit Jupiter's atmosphere, auroral emissions were seen, something completely unexpected. In an Electric Universe, comet tails are produced when electric discharges reach a critical point and the plasma sheath surrounding the nucleus starts to glow. Irrespective of composition, comets obey the fundamental behavior of charged objects interacting with one another. A comet's tail is created when its electrically charged substance is struck by solar discharge plasma, conventionally called the "solar wind," similar to what has been observed around a star 153 light-years from Earth. The faster a comet's electrical environment changes, the more likely that flaring will occur. Exoplanet HD 209458b is orbiting so close to its star that it completes one revolution in a mere 3.5 days. It seems probable that it is traveling through conductive strands of plasma that are energizing it enough for its Langmuir sheath to enter a discharge state. Its "atmospheric steamers" are significant evidence for that contention. Stephen Smith
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The Tarantula Nebula (left and center). Star cluster R136 (right). Credit: ESO/P. Crowther/C.J. Evans.
Galactic Thunderbolts
(Jul 26, 2010)
Consensus astronomers look at individual points of light and discover the most massive stars. Electric Universe observers look at the entire complex of filaments and discover the characteristic features of a galactic thunderbolt. "Mass" astronomy posits a relationship between mass and luminosity. By observing a double star system in the cluster shown at the top of the page, astronomers were able to calculate a baseline for the relationship and extrapolate the masses of brighter stars. They found some that were nearly twice as massive as they had thought possible. Although, since theories are often adjusted to explain any observation, failures of expectations cannot be equated with falsifications of theory. Plasma astronomy posits a relationship between electrical stress and luminosity. Gravity, and consequently mass, is a weak manifestation of electrical stress. In regions that are relatively insulated from the primary effects of electricity (within stellar sheaths, such as the Suns heliosphere), gravity will largely determine orbital motions. However, the mass that is calculated from analysis of the orbits is a result of the charge contained, not of the quantity of matter as is commonly assumed. In an Electric Universe, there are no maximum or minimum sizes for stars. The objects of interest to plasma astronomers are the helical filaments that give the regions around the clusters their characteristic electrical structure. In the far view (left), arcs of parallel filaments appear to wind around kinked tubes that converge on the cluster, evidence for large plasma discharge channels. Where channels intersect (center view), the stress increases. Bubbles form (exploding double layers, similar to coronal mass ejections), secondary discharges are induced, and instabilities pinch plasma into stars. The observed large outflow of material, mischaracterized as mass (and misnamed "wind"), is the electrical current flow coursing through the region like a galactic lightning bolt. Instead of a random scattering of gravitationally collapsing clouds shaped by hot winds, these regions are unitary plasma discharge formations better called galactic thunderbolts. Mel Acheson The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Artist's rendition of a supposed black hole. Credit: ESO/L. Calada/M.Kornmesser.
Blowing Hot Air

(Jul 21, 2010)
When hot air is injected into a cool, lower pressure environment, it expands. Stars appear to be exempt from that rule. Imagine a soccer ball filled with hot air. Imagine it being punctured on a winters day. What do you think will happen? Hot aircold surroundingslower pressureeven without knowing Boyles Law, one would expect expansion. Now imagine that the soccer ball is scaled up to the size of a star. Imagine it is a star. Imagine that the hot air is really hot, so hot that its ionized, and the winters day is as cold and lowpressure as the vacuum of interstellar space. Now what do you think will happen? UmId guess expansion. Astronomers have found a star in a nearby galaxy that has "collimated jets of fast moving particles" and "a huge bubble of hot gas." One astronomer compares it to a soccer ball with jets that reach to the orbit of Pluto. The standard model of stars assumes that they are isolated balls of really hot air bound by gravity. The hot air is escaping from this newfound star, and its expanding into a bubble. So far, so good. Unfortunately for the model, the hot air is refusing to expand until it gets hundreds of lightyears away from the star. Then suddenly it expands into a bubble a thousand light-years wide that "contains a mixture of hot gas and ultra-fast particles at different temperatures." Another astronomer remarked: "We have been astonished by how much energy is injected into the gas." Obviously, stars blow hot air according to rules that are different from those that govern soccer balls. Maybe, just maybe, its not stars that blow hot air, but astronomers. Boyles Law May be universally true after all; it just doesnt apply to stars and their jets and bubbles. Astronomers have used the wrong law to build their model. After all, stars are not composed of hot air, not even really hot air: theyre composed of plasma. Plasma is electromagnetically active. The fast-moving particles are really ions; their movement is otherwise known as an electrical current. That current generates an inwardly directed magnetic force that constricts the current into a filament--called a jet by plasmaimpaired astronomers and a Birkeland current by plasma physicists. Electrical forces accelerate the ions, electrons, and charged dust to different velocities, which astronomers The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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interpret as different temperatures. If the standard model used the wrong law for the stars composition and the wrong mechanism for its containment, its probably wrong about the stars energy. With plasma and Birkeland currents, stars cannot be isolated or internally powered. Moving charged particles must continue moving around a circuit; if they stop, they will quickly build up an electric field that stops the current. The jets are part of galaxy-wide circuits, and the stars are loads on a galaxys power grid. The magnetic maps of galaxies trace these circuits. The energy supplied to the bubbles is only astonishing if it must be supplied by the internal resources of the star. Its a minuscule portion of a galactic generators output. Mel Acheson
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Artist's conception of a protoplanetary disc. Credit: ESO/L. Calada/M. Kornmesser
Another Donut on a Stick

(Jul 19, 2010)
The jet-and-disk formation (donut on a stick) typical of plasma discharges has been discovered around a high-mass star. Its another surprise for the consensus belief; another confirmation for the Electric Universe. The consensus belief is that a "cloud" of gas and dust will pull itself into a compact ball with the tiny force of its own gravity. Random motions will cancel out as the cloud collapses--else a net spin would soon generate enough centrifugal force to cancel out the collapse. However, in the final stage, spin somehow appears and sets the ball rolling, and friction heats the gas and dust to ignite a thermonuclear furnace in the balls core. The spin throws the remnants of the cloud out into a disk, and the radiation from the furnace eventually "evaporates" it. Then astronomers discovered rings around some balls and long, threadlike jets from their poles. These formations were "surprising," which is to say that gravity and gas cant do that. The discoveries generated a flurry of ad hoc speculation that fractured the coherence of fundamental theory. Until now, the discoveries were limited to low-mass stars. Convention speculated that the intense radiation of higher-mass stars would evaporate the cloudy disk material before disks--now somehow compacted into rings--could form. As discoveries multiplied, they were explained away with "somehow" excuses. Often, "magnetism" was invoked as a synonym for "somehow" without acknowledging that magnetism goes with electricity. Such acknowledgement is long overdue: plasma phenomena (i.e., donut-on-a-stick formations) have been studied in plasma labs for decades. A high-energy electric discharge will generate magnetic forces many times stronger than gravity. They pull plasma into threadlike channels and spin it. Instabilities compress the plasma into hot, spinning balls and generate ring currents around them. The masses of the balls are a result of the ring and jet, not the cause: gravity and light pressure are irrelevant to the operation of Heraclituss "thunderbolt that steers the universe." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Of course, such acknowledgement would destroy the entirety of the conventional belief--along with textbooks, papers, professorships, grants, research programs, and reputations that are based on it. The institution of astronomy as we know it is not likely to start talking plasma. Students of the cosmos who are more interested in understanding the stars than in starring in celebrity astronomy should go into electrical engineering. Mel Acheson
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A "microquasar" is said to reside near NGC 7793. Credit: ESO
Black Jets
(Jul 15, 2010)
An electromagnetic phenomenon on the fringes of galaxy NGC 7793 is confounding astronomers because they insist on seeing it as a gravitational superforce. Explaining the jets of ionized particles often seen erupting from various objects in space ranks as one of the most difficult tasks facing modern astronomers. What force can create highly energetic particle emissions that span distances measured in light-years? What confines them into narrow beams? Hundreds of stellar jets have now been observed, but the prevailing theory of "compacted gravitational point sources" exciting gas and dust as they orbit does not address the existence of collimated jets. There is only one force that can hold such a matter stream together over those distances: magnetism. The only way to generate that magnetic confinement is through electricity flowing through space. In the past, astronomers observed coherent filaments from so-called "Herbig Haro" stars, some more than 12 light-years long. Charged particles within the filaments were thought to exceed velocities of 500 kilometers per second. The finely knotted jets exceeded three times the distance from our Sun to the nearest star, Alpha Proxima. According to ESO's recent announcement, however, the jets from the NGC 7793 microquasar are several hundred lightyears long. Most researchers try to account for narrowly confined jets by invoking words like "nozzle" or "high pressure," defying all that science knows about the behavior of gases in a vacuum. Some are even willing to acknowledge that magnetic fields might focus gases into narrow beams, although there is a commonly held opinion that magnetic fields are not important. Magnetic fields are only one part of the story, and failure to realize that electric currents create magnetic fields has led many physicists to model plasma in space without considering the flow of electricity. Nobel laureate Hannes Alfvn, a pioneer in the field of plasma cosmology, stated that plasma is "too complicated and awkward" for the tastes of mathematicians. It is The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"not at all suited for mathematically elegant theories" and requires laboratory experiments. Alfvn observed that the plasma universe had become "the playground of theoreticians who have never seen a plasma in a laboratory. Many of them still believe in formulae which we know from laboratory experiments to be wrong." He thought that the underlying assumptions of cosmologists "are developed with the most sophisticated mathematical methods and it is only the plasma itself which does not understand how beautiful the theories are and absolutely refuses to obey them." Stars are nodes in electrical circuits. Electromagnetic energy could be stored in the equatorial current sheets surrounding them until some trigger event causes them to switch into a polar discharge. The electric jet could receive its energy from a natural particle-accelerator, a "plasma double layer" with a strong electric field. Toroidal magnetic fields would form because of the polar plasma discharge, confining it into a narrow channel. Axial electric currents should be flowing along the jet's entire length. Only electric fields can accelerate charged particles across interstellar space. Stephen Smith
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Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/M.Karovska et al; Optical: NASA/STScI; Radio: NRAO/VLA]; Wide field [Optical (DSS)
CH Cygni in a Pinch
(Jul 12, 2010)
Recent images of the star CH Cygni (composite image above) reveal the electrical circuitry that drives it. Radiation in radio (blue), optical (green), and x-ray (red) highlight the several inner components (inset) of the plasma discharge. The outer red circle (large optical image) is composed of radial filaments. This is a region of increased density where the plasma has jumped into glow mode. It shows a cross section of the interstellar Birkeland cable as it pinches down to form the star. Its circularity indicates that we are viewing the star down the axis of the cable: The radial filaments appear foreshortened in consequence. The string of green "sausages" in the "jet" near the center (inset) shows the narrowest region of the pinch as the current flows into the star. The increase in current density has again pushed the plasma into glow mode. Instabilities, called "sausage" instabilities, have caused secondary pinches to break the jet into cells. The curled shape is the result of viewing the current down the axis as it spirals around that axis. The star at the center is a binary. Many stars in such "active" systems (where a surge in the interstellar current has caused the outlying components to "light up") are multiple. Often they are composed, as here, of a red giant and a (so-called) white dwarf. The details of their operation are explained toward the end of articles here and here. Mel Acheson The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit.
Barring the Sculptor Galaxy

(Jul 05, 2010)
The European Southern Observatory has released a new infrared image of NGC 253, one of the brightest galaxies in the Sculptor Group. That assemblage, near the south pole of the Milky Way, is the closest galaxy group to the Local Group, of which our galaxy is a member. The infrared image reveals several features previously hidden behind cells and lanes of dusty plasma. The most prominent is a bar of stars across the nucleus of the galaxy. In addition the image shows many cool red giant stars, especially in the halo region around the galaxy. Two features which are not shown are important in an Electric Universe: One is the plume of X-ray emission that extends from the nucleus into the halo region along the minor axis (the spin axis) of the galaxy. The other is the large concentration of quasars that lie to the Southeast (below, in the image above) along the same bearing as the plume. In a plasma Universe, galaxies are the result of a "pinch" interaction between two (or more) intergalactic Birkeland-current filaments. Plasma collects in each filament at the point of closest approach as well as in a "sump" between them. This sump develops into the galaxys nucleus, and a bar of plasma May connect it to the "hot spots" in the filaments. The filaments rotate around their common axis--what becomes the galaxys spin axis--at a constant velocity. Secondary ("coronal") currents feeding into them then spiral in at the same velocity to form the galaxys arms. Pinches in these secondary (and tertiary, etc.) currents form stars. Gravity plays an almost insignificant role. In a starburst galaxy, such as NGC 253, a surge of current generates many hot spots where star formation is accelerated. As well, it "charges up" the plasma focus mechanism(s) in the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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core. The plasma focus then episodically discharges X-ray emitting jets and highly redshifted quasar-like ejections of plasma, usually along the spin axis. As a result, active galaxies build up families of quasars and other high redshift objects in their outlying neighborhoods. Mel Acheson
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Ionic transport structure in a typical cell membrane. Credit: Geoffrey M. Cooper.
Electric Biology
(Jun 30, 2010)
Experiments with electrostatic fields might illuminate biological diversity. A major problem in biology is the internal motion of proteins. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania using Magnetic Resonance Imaging were surprised to discover that the calmodulin protein molecule possesses an internal "jitter" that shakes it billions of times per second. This revelation led them to conclude that it is not merely the complex folded shape of such molecules that affects their function, but their internal movement. According to Dr. Joshua Wand: "The situation is akin to the discussion in astrophysics in which theoreticians predict that there is dark matter, or energy, that no one has yet seen." Where the internal energy necessary for protein binding comes from is unknown at the present time, but it seems likely, based on research with electrostatic fields on various organisms, that there is an electrical component to the source. Cell walls are arranged in a double layer configuration with positive and negative ion channels built-in. A book called The Primeval Code (Der Urzeit-Code) was recently published in Switzerland, detailing experiments that demonstrate how a changing electric field can alter gametes so much that new species are created. According to author Luc Brgin: "In laboratory experiments the researchers there Dr. Guido Ebner and Heinz Schrch exposed cereal seeds and fish eggs to an 'electrostatic field' in other words, to a high voltage field, in which no current flows. Unexpectedly primeval organisms grew out of these seeds and eggs: a fern that no botanist was able to identify; primeval corn with up to twelve ears per stalk; wheat that was ready to be harvested in just four to six The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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weeks. And giant trout, extinct in Europe for 130 years, with so-called salmon hooks. It was as if these organisms accessed their own genetic memories on command in the electric field, a phenomenon, which the English biochemist, Rupert Sheldrake, for instance believes is possible." Electric Universe advocates recognize that plasma is a self-organizing phenomenon. Indeed, Irving Langmuir coined the name because he saw that collections of charged particles isolate themselves from their surroundings in ways that are similar to biological systems. A cell membrane could be thought of as a Langmuir plasma sheath, sustaining a voltage difference between the negatively charged interior and the positively charged exterior. Electric currents most likely maintain charge separation across the membrane layers. Perhaps these observations can all be tied together. Sheldrake's "morphic fields," protein jitter, gamete alteration that leads to speciation, and the electric charges in cells might all be manifestations of plasma's emergent properties. At some time in the past, as these pages have repeatedly emphasized, Earth's electrical properties were substantially altered when other highly charged objects or ionic clouds passed close to our plasmasphere. Intense electric arcs swept across the surface of the Earth, creating powerful electromagnetic fields that could have transmuted biological organisms in the same way that they changed the atomic structure of elements and minerals. The famous Miller-Urey experiment demonstrated that inorganic compounds exposed to electric currents can be altered to form organic chemicals like amino acids. Given the report in The Primeval Code, it would not be too great a stretch to think that electric currents might cause proteins to shake at varying rates, thus changing their behavior, or triggering morphic fields to change state, creating new forms of life. Symbiosis, a longtime thorn in the side of evolutionary biology, might find its genesis in electricity. Stephen Smith
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The center of our galaxy from the European Southern Observatory. Credit: ESO/S. Guisard.
The Hourglass Milky Way

(Jun 28, 2010)
Recent observations reveal a dipolar "bubble" of gamma radiation from the galactic nucleus. Information obtained by the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope has given astronomers another puzzling knot to unravel: the twin lobes of a gamma ray hourglass shape extend outward beyond the Milky Way's central bulge. Each structure measures approximately 65,000 light-years in diameter. Plasma physicists are familiar with hourglass shapes. Rather than "bubbles" of radiation, the funicular formations are the unmistakable signature of Birkeland currents squeezing plasma and charged dust into a z-pinch compression zone. The intense magnetic fields associated with Birkeland current filaments cause electrons to accelerate with velocities close to light speed. Those excited electrons emit synchrotron radiation, the principle source for gamma rays in space. Electric Universe advocates have long known that "radio lobes" far above the poles of active galaxies are the signature of Birkeland currents. Almost every body in the Universe displays some kind of filamentation. For example, the jets from energetic galaxies, such as M87, resolve into braided filaments, while the spiral arms of some galaxies exhibit twisted strands of material extending from their cores. All those filaments are Birkeland currents, but they only represent the visible portion of an entire circuit. Every element in a galactic circuit radiates energy, and it must be powered by its coupling with larger circuits. The extent of those larger circuits is unknown, but since galaxies occur in strings, they must traverse millions of light-years. As more data accumulates from an ever-increasing array of telescopes, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the Milky Way shares characteristics with the rest of its galactic family. A halo of stars, filamentary structures, lobes of radiation, a microwave "haze," and other observed phenomena point to its electrical nature. Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Europa compared to the results of electric arcs on an aluminum-coated children's ball. Credit: NASA/JPL and C. J. Ransom/Vemasat Laboratories.
Small-Scale Moon
(Jun 25, 2010)
Laboratory experiments reveal the effects of electric discharges on Jupiter's moon Europa. Many Picture of the Day articles have discussed the ice moon Europa. The overwhelming conclusion, based on observation, is that it was the scene of cataclysmic events sometime in the recent past. Those events carved its surface into long, sweeping rilles called "flexi" that wend for thousands of kilometers, as well as blackened swaths that crisscross its landscape in multi-kilometer wide spans. Some features in the so-called "chaos" regions reveal that Europa experienced heating and wrenching forces that shattered and grooved the ice into widely scattered, broken jigsaw puzzle pieces. Since the "ice rafts" are not melted, it indicates a short-lived disturbance of some kind. When Voyager 2 passed by on its way toward interstellar space, planetary scientists were surprised by the absence of craters on Europa. Jupiter's gravity is supposed to have swept up the millions of smaller rocks and comets left over from the Solar System's formation, so many of them should have been pulled into collision with the moon. Rather than craters, a vast network of trenches with v-shaped cross sections and steep walls were found. Various hypotheses about fractures, a "decoupled crust" floating on a vast watery ocean, and "oozing water" brought up from Jupiter's "tidal kneading" were proposed in order to bring Europa's strange topography in line with features seen in Earth's Arctic Ocean. Such speculations were dealt a serious blow when the Galileo spacecraft entered Jupiter space in 1996. Galileo's high resolution camera revealed smoothly cut channels that do not look like fractures. Their orientation disregards prior channels, sometimes with five or six of them stacked on top of each other at every angle. As electrical experiments in Dr. C. J. Ransom's Vemasat Laboratories have shown, this should come as no surprise. Electric currents flowing across a conductive surface are "pinched" into thin filaments by their associated magnetic fields and draw other filaments into parallel alignment. The trackways often overlap each other. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Close-up shots of Dr. Ransom's model, an aluminum-coated ball about a foot in diameter, demonstrate another result when electric arcs strike a sphere: smaller, perpendicular side channels created by corona discharges as the electricity crawled across the ball. Also visible are loops that formed when the electric arc blasted the aluminum off the ball's nonconductive plastic substructure. Darkened, scorched areas, pits, curving channels that appear to be centered on Europa's poles, and a lack of craters are all duplicated in the Vemasat experiment. NASA's surprises are expected by Electric Universe advocates because plasma behavior scales by many orders of magnitude. From the laboratory to the Solar System's planets and moons, plasma is the primary ingredient that shapes worlds. Stephen Smith
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Erich von Dniken photographed on 19 October 2006. Michal Mana
No Sweeping Claims, Please - Part Two

(Jun 23, 2010)
Despite a knack for science-fiction writing, the Swiss Erich von Dniken (1935- ) has become the face of twentieth century pseudo-science. Carl Jungs resort to archetypes stored in a collective unconscious did little more than to give the mystery a name. mile Durkheims hunch that the grand themes of religions everywhere were modelled on the deeper structures of society was lacking in explanatory power, as was Claude Lvi-Strauss hypothesis that the hardwiring of the human brain could account for them. Each invoked vast stores of recurrent universals in mythology and religion. Each failed to convince a majority of scholars and enable a comprehensive theory of myth. The contributions of armies of non-specialists proved to be even more aggravating. Nazi interest in folklore and sacred symbolism did much to discredit studies in these areas. Catastrophists, such as Hans Bellamy, Alexander Braghine and Immanuel Velikovsky, tended to be peerless self-taught thinkers who espoused perfectly rational ideas, but spoiled any opportunities to be heard by failing to collaborate with colleagues, by a dogmatic, pontificating or overly sensationalist manner, or by a deplorable lack of scholarly competence and rigour in their cavalier selection, presentation and interpretation of source material. Others again abused anthropological data in the service of a religious agenda, such as a literalist interpretation of Hebrew mythology. Needless to say, a cross-cultural examination of myths about a world-ravaging deluge will suffer if the goal is to prove that Noah existed. Likewise, an investigation of dragon lore does not benefit from an assumption that these monsters are Dinosaurs that coexisted with human mammals. A thin line divides these groups from pseudo-scientists of Erich von Dnikens ilk, who have typically fallen into the same traps. With such a legacy, it causes little surprise that modern scholars are wary of anyone The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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discussing mythological parallels from different cultures. Will his or her purpose again be to prove the Bible right, to show that the Egyptians traversed all oceans or that colonists from Atlantis had attained very high levels of scientific wisdom? Yet understandable though this knee-jerk reaction is, numerous babies risk being thrown away with the bathwater as a result. Clearly the academic world is still recovering from the backlash of past maltreatment of the subject, overreacting to anything remotely similar to the mindsets of hyperdiffusionists, pseudo-scientists or Jungians. It is as if a collective conscience guides the scholarly community, expressing its remorse over these past sins and seductions through a process of limitless specialisation and short shrift for any bigger-picture models. While specialists in the humanities are thus hardly to blame for being cautious, it is incumbent for them to keep abreast of developments in science, for such knowledge is capable of igniting a Renaissance of thought in cross-cultural studies. There is every reason to be optimistic that this can be accomplished. The remedy will be threefold: First, it is time historians, archaeologists and anthropologists wake up from their slumber and catch up with the current scientific picture of the earths placement in a complex web of electromagnetic structures. Much has changed since the 1950s in our scientific worldview. Just as their 19th-century peers finally acknowledged the fall of meteorites in the face of observational evidence, so professionals in the humanities need a 101 of current knowledge regarding the pervasive role of electromagnetic phenomena in the terrestrial environment. Second, it must be realised that a perfectly feasible mechanism to account for cross-cultural agreement is available. Whereas attempts to seek the cause of parallels in the inner workings of the mind have foundered, the possibility must now be explored that past transient events in the sky are behind numerous globally recurrent themes and patterns. Third, it must be demonstrated that this new approach can be pursued in an intellectually responsible way. The past has seen enough self-indulgent Velikovskys and vn Danikens. What is needed is the collective effort of capable and credentialled scholars, at home in the fields they write about, willing to entertain radically different possibilities, meticulous in their source analysis, careful in their conclusions, and equipped with a humility that befits explorers of entirely new vistas. Contributed by Rens Van Der Sluijs
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Erich von Dniken photographed on 19 October 2006. Michal Mana
No Sweeping Claims, Please - Part One

(Jun 21, 2010)
Despite a knack for science-fiction writing, the Swiss Erich von Dniken (1935- ) has become the face of twentieth century pseudo-science. Many scholars share a profound distaste for cross-cultural comparison of aspects of human culture, such as architecture, ritual practices, rock art, pottery designs, mythology and religion. Displeasure is especially incurred when such analysis highlights universal similarities in these areas and inspires explanations other than the anodyne cultural archetypes. While specialist journals dedicated to specific cultures or specific eras abound, publications in comparative fields are few and far between; the ones that do see the light of day generally content themselves with a presentation of materials, shying away from raising questions, let alone offering answers. The signature of admirable scholarship is an in-depth study of a highly specialised subdiscipline. Archaeologists and art historians alike take pride in the search for features that make their pet cultures unique, with marked disregard for arguments focussing on shared beliefs and practices. Among the most lamentable casualties of this biased attitude is a theory of mythology. Mythology par excellence is a global form of cultural expression that is rich in striking patterns of agreement between far-flung regions, but lacks a consensus paradigm within such parallels can be categorised and understood. Specialised studies of cultural mythologies are invaluable contributions to scholarship, but the doyens of fields such as Egyptology, Assyriology, classical studies, Sinology, Maya studies and so on will need to grow more tolerant towards intercultural comparison if any broader theory of mythology is allowed to supplant the unsuccessful thought experiments of earlier savants. The question why eminent scholars, who supervise doctoral dissertations, chair conferences The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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and referee papers, have developed such a visceral aversion to interdisciplinary parallels surely warrants a lifetimes study and a PhD thesis in itself. Nevertheless, a brief psychoanalysis suggests that hidebound experts perpetuate an intellectual climate suffused with trauma. The trauma is the cumulative exposure to no less than six embarrassing types of source abuse and uncritical speculation, all in one century, perpetrated by scholars and laymen alike, and all drawing on bountiful repositories of cross-cultural data. A quick run-down yields the following fiascos in the field of comparative studies. One way to explain common themes and patterns in contiguous cultures is through borrowing, missionary activity and other types of diffusion. There is no doubt that interacting cultures have exchanged objects and ideas and in many cases the expert can recognise the fruits of such exchanges with confidence. Hyperdiffusionists are people who dispense with the need to identify forensic evidence of such borrowing and claim widespread diffusion of ideas for which little evidence exists other than the parallels themselves. Perhaps the worst excess of this approach was the Pan-Babylonianist school of the early twentieth century, which attributed highly advanced astronomical knowledge to cultures worldwide, all of which was traced back to Mesopotamia using dubious methods of reasoning and with very little in the way of proof. A late champion of this theory was the celebrated American comparative mythologist, Joseph Campbell (1908-1987). As the short-lived academic love-affair with Pan-Babylonianism wore off, it left in its wake a deep-seated disinclination for any theories suggesting accomplished astronomical skill or historically related parallels between cultures that are far removed from each other in time and space. In this climate, any discussion of astral materials in the traditions of illiterate societies is just about tolerable, as long as not too much sophistication is argued for. For classicists or professionals in the field of ancient Near Eastern culture, astronomical interpretations as well as comparative discussions are barely palatable. Further discouragement from comparative studies must have come from the repeated failure of psychosocial theories designed to account for global parallels. Sir James Frazers argument that mankinds evolution of mental progress independently proceeds along exactly the same lines in all areas was doomed to failure at the outset. Contributed by Rens Van Der Sluijs
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Computer model of supposed dark matter distribution in the Universe over time. Credit: NASA/ESA/R. Massey/Caltech
Illuminating Dark Matter Theories

(Jun 18, 2010)
More doubts are surfacing about the existence of this undetectable phantasm. In previous Picture of the Day articles about the existence of "dark matter" we noted that it is primarily an add-on to "Big Bang Cosmology." The Big Bang is supposed to be what brought all matter and energy, including gravity, into existence. All modern cosmologists, with few exceptions, accept the theory without question. NASA launched the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) on June 30, 2001. The instruments onboard the satellite were designed to measure temperature fluctuations theorized to exist in lower mass density regions of the Universe. Since the Big Bang theory does not account for such regions--matter and energy should be evenly distributed--WMAP was sent to confirm their existence. According to conventional physics, dark matter is a necessary addition to their models since there is not enough gravity in the Universe to account for galaxy formation, or those galaxies assembling themselves into clusters. Galaxy clusters should have slowed down considerably over the last few billion years and not maintained such wild recessional velocities, some of which are said to approach the speed of light. Astronomers came up with a dark (or undetectable) form of matter when they noticed stars on the edge of a spiral galaxy orbiting its nucleus with the same angular speed as stars closer to its center. As Newtonian mechanics insists, stars farther away from the center should be moving more slowly, so astronomers assumed dark matter was imparting extra velocity to them. Investigators have also tried for years to reconcile the amount of mass in the Universe with how fast it is expanding. Their only recourse has been to invent the existence of another undetectable force, "dark energy." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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As long ago as 2007, for example, serious reconsideration of dark matter theory was already published. Consensus astronomy presupposes dark matter organizing galactic structure. Dark matter (as well as dark energy) are thought to be necessary mathematical constructs in the astronomical community, because in their minds gravity is the sine qua non of all forces that govern galactic motion. Recently, scientists from Durham University in Great Britain announced that the theories of dark matter and dark energy are most likely based on incorrect assumptions about WMAP observational analysis. Professor Tom Shanks noted: "If our results prove correct then it will become less likely that dark energy and exotic dark matter particles dominate the Universe. So the evidence that the Universe has a 'Dark Side' will weaken." Those who consider Electric Universe theory have adopted a far different approach regarding the nature of the cosmos. Astrophysicist Hannes Alfvn elucidated his "electric galaxies" theory in 1981. Alfvn (a Nobel laureate) noticed that galaxies and their motions resemble a homopolar motor more than anything else. A homopolar motor operates because electric currents create magnetic fields, causing a metal disc to spin at a rate directly proportional to the supplied current. Galactic discs act like the conductive plates in said homopolar, or Faraday, motors, named for their inventor, Michael Faraday. Gigantic Birkeland currents flow into galaxies, so stars in their discs are powered by those currents. Galaxies, in turn, receive their power from intergalactic Birkeland currents that are visible in space as filamentary structures traceable by their magnetic fields. Birkeland currents are drawn toward each other in a linear relationship, with a long-range attraction potential 39 orders of magnitude greater than gravity. Dark matter and dark energy influences can be dismissed when electric currents flowing through dusty plasma are recognized as that which energizes and sustains clusters, galaxies, and stars. Stephen Smith
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Aurora Borealis by Frederic Edwin Church (1865). Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, United States of America.
Go Figure!
(Jun 16, 2010)
To eyewitnesses, including those at lower latitudes, highly energetic formations produced by extremely vigorous aurorae have often suggested some form of painting or supernatural inscription on the canvas of the sky. This was the case with observers of the prominent aurorae spawned by the coronal mass ejection of 1859. From Stockton, central California, came the report that the "great streams of red and blue" appearing after 9:00 PM on 28th. August "would faint and brighten in such a wonderful manner, that we imagined some painter in the skies drew his great brush from the horizon up to 40 or 50 degrees, dipped with vermillion, then with sky blue, and then with white and flesh color." Even more graphically, and as far south as 13 18 North, an observer from La Unin, San Salvador, reflected as follows on the display that followed a few days afterwards: "On the night of Sept. 2d, a most extraordinary phenomenon was witnessed. a dense black cloud arose in the east, and commenced to spread over the colored portion of the heavens, presenting a most curious spectacle; for in the parts where the cloud was not dense enough, the red light shone through, and formed a thousand fantastic figures, as if painted with fire on a black ground." And certainly it must have been a similar sentiment that drove the talented Danish photographer and auroral expert, Sophus Tromholt (1851-1896), to wonder: "Will man ever decipher the characters which the Aurora Borealis draws in fire on the dark sky? Will his eye ever penetrate the mysteries of Creation which are hidden behind this dazzling drapery of colour and light?" Tromholts writings exude a striking sense of intellectual honesty regarding the boundaries of current understanding. By decipherment of auroral "characters" in the sky Tromholt clearly The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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meant a figuring out of the physics underlying the shapes and colours that presented themselves to the eye. With the passing of more than a century, this task has been largely accomplished by todays plasma physicists. At the same time, Tromholts words convey the sense of numinous awe many have felt upon exposure to this celestial drama. Considering the marked emotional impact powerful aurorae tend to have on human minds, it would not be surprising if the appearance of discreet light structures in the sky had provoked similar associations with painting in people of prehistoric times. Seemingly charged with religious significance, these cosmic fingerprints, in which many strove to read omens for the future, could have prompted human spectators to record their observations for posterity. What would have been more natural for them than to mimic the art of the gods to the best of their ability painting or carving the selfsame images on a darker background, perhaps leaving colours that were reminiscent of the auroral prototypes themselves? Arguably the most obvious type of enduring canvas ancient artists could resort to would be parietal the surfaces of walls and rocks, which are found today to be filled with millions upon millions of paintings and carvings. Indeed, in 1976, the American physicist, George Siscoe, figured that the earliest depictions of aurorae might be found in the macaronis or serpentine meanders painted on rocks and cave walls: "The most dramatic example of this possibility is to be found on the ceiling of the cave of Rouffignac in France, where lines drawn in the red clay ceiling resemble the folded curtain patterns of the aurora." Although it May seem puzzling that Cro-Magnon people would have preoccupied themselves with a natural phenomenon that rarely occurs at their latitude, conditions are bound to have been different in the past: "We know that there have been more than 30 reversals of the earths magnetic field in the last 10 million years. Associated wandering of the magnetic poles would have resulted in periods when the aurora was seen much more frequently at mid-latitudes than is the case today. Consequently, it is not unreasonable to suppose that Stone Age man gazed with concern at flickering auroral lights and perhaps recorded them in his art." This view is endorsed by members of NASAs THEMIS team, who concluded from this type of rock art that aurorae "have influenced the course of history, religion, and art" from prehistoric times. Other specialists on the polar lights have also speculated "that a great deal of the very ancient engravings which have been found in several grottos along the Mediterranean Sea are in fact pictorial representations of the northern light." Moving beyond speculation, a recent comparison with the observed behaviour of high-energydensity plasmas in laboratory, in space and according to particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations suggests that not only some of the French and Spanish cave paintings of the Cro-Magnon era May include auroral motifs, but also the worldwide impressions on rock, typically exposed to the open air, that proliferated from the end of the Palaeolithic and throughout the Neolithic period, roughly from 11,000 BCE to 3,000 BCE, though in many places continuing into later periods. Rupestral art as a whole appears as one monolithic witness to the possibility that awe-inspiring plasma filaments painted their characteristic nonfigurative images in the firmament first. Contributed by Rens Van Der Sluijs
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A massive CME erupts from the Sun on May 7, 2010. Credit: ESA, NASA.
Helios Awakens
(Jun 14, 2010)
The Sun is beginning to rouse itself from a long period of quiescence. What a difference a year can make, not only in our personal lives, but also in the life of the Sun. It was in June of 2009 that heliophysicists were reporting a period of low sunspot activity that had not been seen in 100 years or more. There were almost 800 days of inactivity between sunspot cycles 23 and 24. However, according to a June 13, 2010 report from Spaceweather.com, sunspot number 1081 is "crackling" with C-class and M-class solar flares. Solar flares are categorized as A, B, C, M, or X: light, medium, or powerful, with a numerical intensity from 1 through 9 attached. The labels are primarily used to illustrate the potential effects that they might have on our planet. Thus, an X-17 flare is considered extremely intense, while a C-4 event will have little effect on satellites in Earth orbit or on electric power grids. As standard theories state, solar flares, or coronal mass ejections (CME), occur when magnetic loops in the Sun's atmosphere known as "prominences" connect with each other, causing a short circuit. The sudden release of "magnetic energy" is often described as millions of hydrogen bombs simultaneously detonating inside a confined space. Although no one knows what so-called "magnetic reconnection" is, it is the only explanation offered in science journals for why those gigantic solar explosions appear. CMEs eject solar plasma in the billions of tons. A hallmark of CME ejections is an increase in auroral brightness and frequency, since the flares are composed of charged particles. Although the majority of researchers identify the stream of ions pouring out of the Sun as a "wind" and that the particles "rain down" on Earth's magnetic field, the fact that they are attracted to and follow the polar cusps indicates their electrical nature. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Solar flares are sometimes observed to leave the Sun's surface with unbelievable acceleration. In the past, velocities more than 70,000 kilometers per second have been clocked. The critical factor in that measurement is that the solar matter continued to accelerate as it left the Sun. If shock waves were responsible for the initial impetus, then surely the blast would have begun to decelerate as it moved toward Earth. Since the opposite effect was seen, there must be another phenomenon at work other than the forces that might propel a cannonball, for instance. In an Electric Universe populated by electric stars the explanation seems obvious: electric fields in space can accelerate charged particles and create coherent electric currents. According to conventional doctrine, the Sun accelerates electrons (and protons) away from its surface in the same way that sound waves are amplified. Energetic pulsations in the solar photosphere travel upward through "acoustical wave-guides," called magnetic flux tubes, that push "hot gas" outward. Giant formations called spicules rise thousands of kilometers above the photosphere and carry the hot gas with them. The Electric Universe hypothesis is based on electrodynamic principles and not on kinetic behavior, or even electrostatic models. The basic premise of this alternative view is that celestial bodies are immersed in plasma and are connected by circuits. Since the Sun is also "plugged-in" to the galaxy and to its family of planets, it behaves like a charged object seeking equilibrium with its environment. In his exhaustive work, The Physics of the Plasma Universe, Dr. Anthony Peratt describes field-aligned currents in this way: "...electric fields aligned along the magnetic field direction freely accelerate particles. Electrons and ions are accelerated in opposite directions, giving rise to a current along the magnetic field lines." Solar flares could be thought of as tremendous lightning bursts, discharging vast quantities of matter at near relativistic speeds. How those flares generate such highly energetic emissions is a continuing mystery to heliophysicists. Early in the Twentieth century, Nobel laureate Hannes Alfvn was contracted by the Swedish Power Company because some of the rectifiers used in their power transmission circuits had exploded for no apparent reason. When they shorted-out more energy was released than was contained by the plasma flow inside them. It was subsequently discovered that the power from an entire 900 kilometer long transmission line had instantly passed through the devices. The result was catastrophic failure and extensive damage. Alfvn identified the cause as unstable double layers within the plasma flow, otherwise known as plasma instabilities. The circuit connecting the Sun is of unknown length, but probably extends for thousands of light-years. How much electrical energy might be contained in such magnetically confined "transmission lines"? No one knows, but astronomers are continually "surprised" by the incredible detonations that they observe from solar flares. As the electric Sun theory relates, sunspots, flares, coronal heating, and all other solar activity most likely results from fluctuations in electrical input from our galaxy. Birkeland current filaments slowly rotate past the Solar System, supplying more or less power to the Sun as they go. Stephen Smith
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Galaxy NGC 1068 reveals a powerful stream of X-rays emerging from its nucleus. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/UCSB/P.Ogle et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI/A.Capetti et al.
Black Winds
(Jun 11, 2010)
Supermassive black holes are said to generate galactic winds. "Black holes are where God divided by zero." -- Stephen Wright As a recent press release from the Chandra X-ray Observatory reports, "strong winds" are racing outward from the core of NGC 1068, a galaxy said to be 50 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus. The source of the winds is supposed to be an "average sized" supermassive black hole (SMBH) that is accelerating "hot gas" around its event horizon until gravity can no longer hold it in place. The gas is said to be heated by X-ray bursts from the SMBH, whereupon it is ejected along a tangential trajectory at an average velocity of 1.6 million kilometers per hour. In the image at the top of the page, Chandra's X-ray results are combined with those from the Hubble Space Telescope to illustrate the temperature differences between the galactic body and the jet of X-ray emitting material. The hot gas possesses a spectrographic temperature reading of over 100,000 Celsius, 20 times hotter than the surface of the Sun. To say that gas can be heated until it gives off X-rays and "blows like a wind" betrays a serious lack of understanding, or a careless presentation of observations. No gas can remain intact at such temperatures because electrons will be stripped from the nuclei, causing it to change into the primal stock from which the Universe is made: plasma. X-rays in space, no matter the source, are not created in gravity fields regardless of how strong they are theorized to be. Charged particles (plasma) accelerated by electric currents spiral in the resulting magnetic fields and shine in all high energy frequencies, extreme The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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ultraviolet, X-rays, and sometimes gamma rays. In a galactic circuit, electric power flows inward along the spiral arms where it is concentrated and stored in the central plasmoid, or galactic bulge. When it reaches a certain current density it discharges, usually out of the galaxys spin axis as an energetic jet of plasma. Laboratory experiments have replicated the phenomenon with a plasma focus device. Electromagnetic forces confine those jets into thin filaments that remain coherent for thousands of light-years. Chandra's observations of NGC 1068 indicate that material from the galactic core reaches more than 3000 light-years from its source, but that estimate could be off by a significant factor. Jets usually end in double layer lobes that extend for many times the size of the galaxy and radiate copiously in radio frequencies. The diffuse currents then flow toward the galaxys equatorial plane and spiral back into its nucleus. Hannes Alfvn identified the "exploding double layer" as a new class of celestial object. It is double layers in space plasmas that form most of the unusual structures we see. Galactic jets, toroids, and glowing clouds are all examples of electricity flowing through dusty plasma confined within Birkeland currents that stretch across the light years. Stephen Smith
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Vjra or stylised thunderbolt from Tibet (17th to 19th century CE), Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Anthropology, Bijng Dxe Hidin, Beijing, China. In Buddhist mysticism, the flattened sphere in the centre represents the bindu, the original particle from which creation exploded outward following the contours of the bilobate thunderbolt.
Does it Matter?
(Jun 09, 2010)
Does the universe have a beginning in time? Was there a time before time, when the visible world did not yet exist in any form? Was visible matter once formed out of nothing? These questions have exercised human minds for thousands of years. Yet surprisingly, out of myriads of traditional myths of creation worldwide, very few support the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo or formation out of nothing. One of the most perplexing cases is the opening verse of the Hebrew book of Genesis. This is commonly understood as saying that heaven and earth were called into existence by the deity and therefore had not hitherto existed. But the matter is not quite so easy. Serious objections have been raised against this reading from a purely grammatical point of view. Some have argued that this line is really a dependent clause, so that the sentence must be translated as follows: In the beginning of Gods creation of heaven and earth, when the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the face of the abyss, and the spirit of God was hovering over the water, God said: Let there be light. If this translation is correct, the absolute origins of heaven, earth and the watery void remain unspecified, while Gods activity is restricted to bringing order into this pre-existent chaos. Other philologists have claimed that the verb br, which is usually rendered as to create, in this case referred to cleaving or separating which is an entirely different matter: In the beginning, God cleft heaven and earth. Again, the upshot would be that these two extremities of the known world had already been present in some form prior to Gods involvement. And the medieval Jewish commentator, Rashi (1040-1105), commented on the matter at hand that even those who prefer to read In the beginning God created heaven and earth still run into the difficulty that the provenance of the waters, mentioned in verse 2, is not given. Whichever way one looks at it, the Hebrew myth of creation leaves a strong impression that the act of Gods creation consisted primarily in the rearrangement of matter that had already been present to begin with. On a global scale, traditional enunciations of a creation from nothing do exist, but are exceedingly rare. In the Judaeo-Christian world, no examples are known prior to the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Hellenistic period. The Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures, the Septuagint, opens with words meaning: In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. In a version of the Hebrew legend of Enoch, God is made to explain: "Before anything existed at all, from the very beginning, whatever exists I created from the non-existent, and from the invisible the visible." In the Vedic cosmology of India, it was repeatedly declared that "In the beginning this was non-existent. It became existent, it grew." "Verily, in the beginning there was here the nonexistent." And the Jesuit historian, Bernab Cobo (1582-1657 CE), observed that some of the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the former Inca empire "believe that creation came forth from nothing" while "others hold that it came from clay." This handful of examples contrasts with the overwhelming majority of creation myths, according to which the earliest remembered state of the world was not one of an empty vacuum, but a limitless expanse of water, the unformed mass of sky and earth joined in primordial union, or a sea of intermingling elements, always shrouded in permanent darkness. Clearly, the philosophical question whether there was an absolute beginning to visible matter was insubstantial and of no concern to most people, with the exception of a few isolated original thinkers pioneering proto-scientific traditions. Modern scientists face the same ontological dilemma as the old myth-makers did when contemplating the universe. Unlike the earlier societies, proponents of the Big Bang theory claim that the entire universe, including the concepts of matter and of time, sprang into existence at a single instant prior to which pure energy alone is thought to have existed in a greatly condensed form. The spiritual father of this theory, the Belgian priest, physicist and astronomer, Georges Lematre (1894-1966), did not conceal his conviction that this explosive event, billions of years ago, vindicates the Christian teaching of Gods creation from nothing. Yet as in mythology, so in science creatio ex nihilo is challenged by champions of a universe that is infinite in space as well as time first by advocates of a steady state cosmology, including Fred Hoyle and Thomas Gold, and now again by plasma cosmologists, who have developed better ways to save the phenomena than the mind-boggling postulate of a singularity triggering uniform expansion. To be sure, the concept of a cosmos bursting into existence from a primeval atom has much in common with age-old creation myths. Even though archaic traditions did not make much of the idea of a mystical era of nothingness preceding creation, a very prevalent notion is that of an egg, a gourd, a womb or some other receptacle pregnant with the ancestral seeds of sky and earth and all their living denizens. Hence, it is not for nothing that historians of science cannot help wondering whether Big Bang theory rests on more than mathematical derivation alone, owing some ideational input to such widespread cultural ideas. Even so, in the cold light of day ancient traditions about the construction of the cosmos and the formation of life are quite immaterial with respect to the actual origins of the universe or, indeed, the solar system in deep time. On current knowledge, it is rather more likely that creation myths began as recollections of highly turbulent episodes in the recent history of the earth, involving geomagnetic storms, earthquakes, floods and conflagrations. As such catastrophic events would have involved drastic changes in geological, climatic and atmospheric conditions, it is understandable that early myth-makers would conflate the most recent fashioning of sky and earth with the question of their true beginnings. Not a single ancient civilization of any importance failed to recognize that the universe goes through periods of destruction and renewal perhaps in infinite succession. For that reason, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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despite the mythological aura that surrounds Big Bang theory, there really is no conflict between the world view relayed in ancient lore and that explored by modern plasma cosmologists. The latter are, indeed, much better placed to make sense of the cosmic egg and similar recondite aspects of ancient memory. What better authority to cite, then, than Heraclitus of Ephesus, who not only claimed that 'Thunderbolt steers all things', but also said: 'This (world)order did none of gods or men make, but it always was and is and shall be: an everliving fire, kindling in measures and going out in measures'. Contributed by Rens Van Der Sluijs
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A chain of electrically etched craters in the Alba Terra region of Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Martian Electric Augers

(Jun 07, 2010)
The surface of Mars is electrically eroded. Editor's note: This Picture of the Day will be slightly different. The following image links require the use of anaglyph glasses to see the 3D effect. What caused the majority of craters on Mars? From a consensus perspective, the answer lies in one of two ways: meteor or asteroid impacts or the remains of volcanic vents and caldera. From the perspective of an electric Universe paradigm however, the answer is quite different and perhaps difficult to accept: electric arc discharges of enormous power. Northwest of Hellas Basin Lighting bolts are hollow, rotating helices of plasma capable of disintegrating the hardest stone. In this image the rotational component is readily apparent. Since the majority of planetary scientists would say that this structure was created by a meteor crashing into Mars, the question is: what kind of explosion can carve the bottom of a crater into multiple spiraling bands? North of the Tharsis "volcanoes" When plasma discharges linger for a moment before jumping to another location, the intense heat generated by the multimillion degree current flow will excavate a crater, while melting the material. An example of the "pulling" effect that electromagnetic fields have on the surrounding terrain can be seen here. Electrons are yanked towards the center of the discharge channel, ripping apart the rocks and dragging the neutral material along with them. The fused microscopic dust is then sucked up into the center of the vortex and ejected into space. This explains why the bottoms of many craters are smooth and flat, with little or no blast debris. Northeast of Olympus Mons The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Around the largest "volcano" in the Solar System is a network of deep fractures that radiate from the central mound for hundreds of kilometers. Among those sharp-edged, steep-walled chasms are several craters with nearly identical morphology, such as the one in this image. When electricity passes through a solid body, like as a planet, it either erodes the surface or deposits material at the strike points. The craters are usually circular because electric forces cause the arcs to impact at right angles. Since filaments of electricity rotate, rock and dust is drilled out, leaving steep sides and "rolled" rims of melted debris. Northwest of Elysium Mons Concentric circles, central peaks, and uplifted mounds dominate the terrain in this image. Conventional viewpoints are unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for why craters found on Mars (and other Solar System bodies) often display ridges around a common center. As conventional theories state, craters formed through kinetic impact possess rounded floors because explosions are spherical. Blast debris is hurled outward ballistically, creating a radial pattern of material sorted from coarse and heavy close by, to fine and light farther away. Impact energy dissipates through mechanical shock, forcing the strata to flow and then instantly freeze in place. The process that produces these mound and crater combinations is a mystery to Mars researchers. Southwest of the Tharsis region Crescent-shaped discharges appear to have carved the formations seen here. The highest points are embossed with the unmistakable sign of electricity acting on a conductive medium, Lichtenberg figures. The moats that are dug deeply into the surface also suggest electrical activity, as do the perpendicular ridges and granular landscape covering hundreds of square kilometers. The nubbins of solid stone that align themselves in crisscross patterns are reminiscent of corona discharges that can sometimes be seen at right angles to a primary arc. The features on Mars tell a story that includes incredibly violent events in the recent past when it experienced powerful plasma discharges on a massive scale. Vast areas show signs of excavation down to 10 kilometers below the mean elevation of the planet. Some of the shattered rock was accelerated electrically into space; some fell back to the surface, where it was electrically sorted and deposited in hardened layers. Burned and blasted craters, piles of scorched dust covering almost an entire hemisphere, and great trenches that wend across its scarred face lead to the conclusion that lightning thousands or millions of times more energetic than we know today devastated Mars. The existence of these formations constitutes a confirmation of the Electric Universe hypothesis. Stephen Smith
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The southern auroral oval. Image from the Space Shuttle Discovery. Credit: NASA, Astronaut Overmeyer and Dr. Hallinan.
Hyperion's Daughter
(Jun 04, 2010)
Electrons streaming into Earth's magnetosphere energize the bands of colored light at each pole. Then, rising with Aurora's light, The Muse invoked, sit down to write; Blot out, correct, insert, refine, Enlarge, diminish, interline. -- Jonathan Swift On July 16 and then again on August 9, 2000, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched a small squadron of four spacecraft called Cluster II from the Baikanor Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The individual satellites were given the names Rumba, Salsa, Samba, and Tango. The Cluster II spacecraft were originally scheduled to spend two years investigating the interaction between the Sun and our own world. However, ESA extended the mission until 2009 and then again until 2012. The four probes were designed to explore the layers and boundaries that exist within Earth's magnetosphere, as well as monitor the magnetic poles and the magnetotail. They constantly cross the intersection that delineates Earth's magnetic bubble from the solar wind. Discovering the interaction between the solar wind and the magnetosphere is Cluster's primary goal. The identical spacecraft are flying a tetrahedral formation in a highly elliptical orbit. Cluster is currently collecting information about how charged particles from the Sun enter the Earth's atmosphere through magnetic "funnels" at each pole. Earth's complex, electrically active magnetotail (or plasma tail) extends for millions of kilometers, always pointing away from the Sun. The solar wind is captured by the magnetosphere, and along with ions ejected by the Earth, collects in a plasma sheet within The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive the magnetotail that is held together by our planet's magnetic field.
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Between 1902 and 1903, Kristian Birkeland's Norwegian Aurora Polaris Expedition found electric currents from the Aurora Borealis flowing parallel to the polychromatic displays. Since electric currents must complete a circuit, and because the aurora seemed to be influenced by energetic events beyond the atmosphere, he wrote that those currents probably flow down from space at one end of the auroral arc and back out to space at the other. Toroids of charged particles, otherwise known as "plasma," surround Earth, confined by its magnetic field. They are commonly called "Van Allen radiation belts" after Dr. James Van Allen, whose Explorer I and Explorer 3 missions confirmed Birkeland's theoretical conclusions. Similar structures exist around other planets. Plasma contains charged particles. They can be negatively charged electrons, positively charged ions, or dust particles that have an excess of either positive or negative charge. Neon signs are plasma. Lightning is plasma. Earths magnetosphere, the solar wind, and the Sun itself are plasma. Nebulae in space, referred to most often as "hot gas and dust," are plasma. Dark interstellar clouds, mostly composed of hydrogen, are plasma because they exhibit magnetic fields and radiate in radio wavelengths. Solar ions travel along Earth's magnetic field into the poles, causing atmospheric molecules to emit light: red from oxygen at high altitudes, green from oxygen lower down, and blue from nitrogen. Strong electromagnetic disturbances are observed when a bright aurora is seen. Recently, ESA announced that Cluster has successfully measured the acceleration of ions as they enter Earth's environment. Although ESA mission specialists speculate that the aurora are created by so-called "magnetic reconnection" phenomena, previous Picture of the Day articles have demonstrated why that explanation is incorrect. Conventional theories state that Earth's magnetosphere deforms like a teardrop because it is bombarded by the Sun's solar wind. The field is compressed on the sunward side and stretched on the dark side. Magnetic field lines are said to "flap like a flag waving in the wind." When magnetic field lines cross and "reconnect" (through an unexplained mechanism), they are said to "detonate" with bursts of heat, light and electricity. The power from those "magnetic explosions" is thought to flow down into Earth's poles, energizing auroral colors. Magnetic field lines cannot stretch, compress, or flap because they are no more "real" than lines of latitude and longitude: they are character symbols. A circuit schematic is no more a circuit board than magnetic field lines are a magnetic field. To say that magnetic field lines can cross, or flap, or break and reconnect is tantamount to saying that weather diagrams can produce rain. "The knowledge gained since 1896, in radioactivity has favoured the view to which I gave expression in that year, namely, that magnetic disturbances on the earth, and aurora borealis, are due to corpuscular rays emitted by the Sun." -- Kristian Birkeland "The Norwegian Aurora Polaris Expedition 1902-1903, Volume 1, Part 1" Stephen Smith Hat tip to James Parker
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Optical and X-ray images of M31 (NGC 224), the Andromeda Galaxy. Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/SAO/Li et al.), Optical (DSS).
Eyewitness to a Black Hole

(Jun 02, 2010)
"Seeing is believing," so the saying goes. "Believing is seeing" seems to be closer to the truth. The image above is an optical view of our neighboring galaxy M31, also called the Andromeda Galaxy. Inset are composite X-ray images of the center of the galaxy before (left) and after (right) January 2006. The "after" image shows a new X-ray source below and to the right of the top source. Detailed examination indicates that a dim source suddenly brightened by more than a hundred times. According to the press release, this brightening is "suggesting an outburst of X-rays." (This is readily believed, considering that the image was taken in X-ray light.) The release further informs the reader that the brightening was "produced by material falling onto the supermassive black hole in M31." This suggests that the reporter was an eyewitness to the event; one assumes he was wearing sunglasses. Yet even with this outburst, the source is "surprisinglyten to one hundred thousand times fainter" than expected for such a black hole. One should not make too much of press releases, of course. This does illustrate one of the problems with modern astronomy: actual observations are merely suggestive; the really true indubitable reality is the uncritical acceptance of a fashionable consensus theory that predicts a result thats wrong by 4 to 5 orders of magnitude. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In an Electric Universe, the homopolar circuitry of a galaxy feeds electrical power into a plasma focus mechanism at the core. Episodic discharges result in ejection of charged material accompanied by emission of X-rays. The power distribution follows the same pattern as a lightning bolt: sudden outburst followed by exponential decay. During "normal" times, the discharges are small. However, if there is a surge of power in the galaxy (as in active galaxies), the discharge May be cataclysmic, resulting in the ejection of quasars. Mel Acheson
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Diagram showing the four elements, seasons and body types, based on an edition of Isidore of Sevilles Liber de Responsione Mundi (6th or 7th century CE), Augsburg in 1472. Courtesy Huntington Library.
Elementary Knowledge
(May 31, 2010)
A cornerstone of ancient Greek science was the theory of the four elements: Pythagoreans, Platonists, Aristotelians and Stoics alike subscribed to the idea that all visible matter is formed of earth, water, air and fire, varying only in concentration and mode of intermixture. The 'four element theory' reached its standard form when Empedocles of Acragas (492-432 BCE) synthesised earlier attempts to identify the prima materia, the primary or original substance from which all else was derived historically as well as chemically. During the formative period of Greek philosophy, Thales of Miletus (624-547 BC) had argued that "the beginning and end of the universe was water," while the Pythagorean Hippasus of Metapontum (500 BCE), Heraclitus of Ephesus (535-475 BCE) and Zeno of Elea (490430 BCE?) all recognised fire as the first principle. Other opinions were voiced as well. The notion of the four classical elements remained intact for centuries and was used to account for commonly observed physical processes, including weather and climate, as well as for cosmogonic theories. The only significant modification was Aristotles treatment of the fire constituting stars and planets as a separate, fifth element called aether, an innovation which only the Aristotelians seem to have embraced. As one follower put it: "The substance of the heaven and the stars we call aether it is an element different from the four elements, pure and divine." The idea was that aethereal objects were perfectly immutable, while fiery ones were prone to change and decay. The theory fell out of favour with the rise of modern chemistry in the late 17th century. In 1669, the German physician and alchemist, Johann Joachim Becher, split the element of earth into three, corresponding to different degrees of viscosity and fluidity. During the same The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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decade, the Irish alchemist, Robert Boyle, while pioneering chemical analysis, theorised that the traditional elements really were compounds and mixtures, consisting of smaller particles with a greater diversity. As the infant science of chemistry progressed, the number of recognised elements rose from 33 in 1789 and 49 in 1818 to the 66 that Dmitri Mendeleyev incorporated in his periodic table in 1869. This further increased to the 118 elements that have been observed up until now, either in the laboratory, in space or in nature. From this point of view, the ancient Greek notion of four elements sounds hopelessly obsolete, but is it reasonable to view it as a precursor to the modern chemical definition of elements? Are ancient and modern elements really the same thing? It is true that Platonists associated each of the four elements with one of the regular polyhedra, so as to make sense of their physical properties. But were these philosophers really so nave as to imagine that all known physical behaviour is reducible to just four constituents? A recurrent topic in the classical literature concerned the cycles according to which one element would transform into another. In the modern sense of the word, elements jumping positions in the periodic table must be understood either in terms of alchemy or of nuclear chemistry, such as radioactive decay or nuclear fusion. Yet it is clear that this is not what Greek philosophers were preoccupied with. Heraclitus, for example, "called change the upward and the downward path, and held that the world comes into being in virtue of this. When fire is condensed, it becomes moist, and when compressed it turns to water, water being congealed thus turns to earth, and this he calls the downward path. And, again, the earth is in turn liquefied, and from it water arises, and from that everything else; for he refers almost everything to the evaporation from the sea. This is the path upwards." Clearly, speculations of this type do not involve chemical elements, but states of aggregation. After the English natural philosopher, Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), successfully isolated different airs or gases, including oxygen, three states of matter were widely recognised solids, liquids, and gases. At a later date, one of the most significant fall-outs of the study of electromagnetism was the recognition of a fourth state. Its discoverer, the English scientist, Michael Faraday (1791-1867), dubbed it "radiant matter": "If now we conceive a change as far beyond vaporisation as that is above fluidity, and then take into account also the proportional increased extent of alteration as the changes rise, we shall perhaps, if we can form any conception at all, not fall far short of radiant matter The simplicity of such a system is singularly beautiful, the idea grand, and worthy of Newtons approbation." Sixty years later, it was Faradays compatriot, Sir William Crookes (1832-1919), who followed up in earnest the suggestion of "Matter classed into four states solid, liquid, gaseous, and radiant which depend upon differences in the essential properties." The term plasma was employed for the "radiant" or partly ionised gases by the Nobel-prize winning American chemist and physicist, Irving Langmuir (1861-1957), in 1928. The discovery of the plasma state allows a reappraisal of the ancient theory of elements. If the four elements of the Greeks were really states of matter, the concept is no longer antiquated, but up to speed with current understanding. If earth corresponds to solids, water to liquids, air to gases, and fire to plasmas, the likes of Empedocles effectively anticipated Faraday by more than two millennia with their insight that fire and lightning represent an essentially different regime of matter than ordinary air. Faraday himself was acutely aware of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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this connection: "It was what the ancients believed, and it May be what a future race will realise." With remarkable prescience, Crookes, too, foresaw the immense scientific potential of the radiant state as early as 1879: "In studying this Fourth state of Matter we seem at length to have within our grasp and obedient to our control the little indivisible particles which with good warrant are supposed to constitute the physical basis of the universe. We have actually touched the border land where Matter and Force seem to merge into one another, the shadowy realm between Known and Unknown which for me has always had peculiar temptations. I venture to think that the greatest scientific problems of the future will find their solution in this Border Land, and even beyond " Those at the forefront of plasma science today would agree that plasma constitutes "the physical basis of the universe" and that it can potentially solve "the greatest scientific problems." Indeed, owing to its ubiquity in space, plasma has been promoted from being the fourth state to the fundamental state of matter. And this, again, accords quite well with Heraclitus hoary adage: T d pnta oiakzei kerauns Thunderbolt steers all things. Contributed by Rens Van Der Sluijs
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Plasma streamers connect Jupiter with its moon Io. Michael Boss. Used with permission.
Jupiter's Consort
(May 28, 2010)
Io has puzzled planetary scientists for years. Electric Universe advocates are not so mystified. The Galileo spacecraft was launched October 18, 1989 aboard the Atlantis space shuttle. Just as the Cassini mission's images and data analysis are providing substantial evidence for the Electric Universe hypothesis, Galileo performed the same service while exploring Jupiter and its family of 63 known satellites. Galileo's power supply consisted of twin Plutonium-238 reactors that used the heat from radioactive decay to power its instruments. On September 21, 2003 the spacecraft was incinerated when it was deliberately sent into Jupiter's vast maelstrom so that it would not contaminate any of the moons, especially Europa. Since the two Voyager space probes discovered "surprising volcanic activity" on Io, plasma physicist Wal Thornhill predicted that the plumes erupting from the so-called "volcanic vents" would be hotter than any lava fields ever measured. His prediction was confirmed when it was found that the "caldera" around the vents exceeded temperatures of 2000 Celsius. Io orbits close in to Jupiter, so intense electromagnetic radiation bombards its surface, removing approximately one ton per second in gases and other materials. Io acts like an electrical generator as it travels through Jupiters plasmasphere, inducing over 400,000 volts across its diameter at more than three million amperes. That tremendous current flows across its magnetic field into the electric environment of Jupiter. The plumes seen erupting from Io are the result of cathode arcs, electrically etching the surface and blasting sulfur dioxide "snow" up to 150 kilometers into space. As Thornhill predicted, the most active regions of electric discharge were found to be along the edges of so-called "lava lakes," while the remainder of the dark umbras surrounding them were extremely cold. No volcanic vents were found. Instead, what was discovered is that the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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plumes move across Io, as illustrated by the Prometheus hot spot that moved more than 80 kilometers since it was first imaged by Voyager 2. Galileo mission specialists were shocked when they realized that the volcanic plumes also emit ultraviolet light, characteristic of electric arcs. Electric discharges can accelerate material to high velocity, producing uniform trajectories that then deposit it at a uniform distance. This explains why there are rings around the various caldera. Cathode erosion of Io also provides a reason why the plumes seen highlighted against the black of space possess a filamentary structure, reminiscent of Birkeland currents that have been discussed many times in these pages. The Tvashtar "volcano" near the north pole of Io, was seen by the New Horizons probe to be shooting a plume more than 290 kilometers above the surface. A NASA press release from that time reported that "...the remarkable filamentary structure in the Tvashtar plume is similar to details glimpsed faintly in 1979 Voyager images of a similar plume produced by Io's volcano Pele. However, no previous image by any spacecraft has shown these mysterious structures so clearly." It appears that the electrical circuit on Io is concentrating Jupiter's current flow into several "plasma guns," or dense plasma foci, as noted plasma physicist Anthony Peratt observed more than twenty years ago. "Tidal kneading" of Io is not the cause of its heat: Io is not being heated from within by friction. The most probable cause, based on observational evidence and laboratory analysis, is that Io is receiving an electrical input from Jupiter that is heating it up through electromagnetic induction. Stephen Smith
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Artist's impression of exoplanet Wasp 8b. ESO/L. Calada
Backwards Planets
(May 26, 2010)
What force determines the direction and angle of planetary orbits? A new study of exoplanets finds that many have orbits that are tilted relative to the equators of the stars they orbit. Some even revolve in the opposite direction (retrograde) to the rotation of the star. Standard theory requires planets to move in the same direction as the star and to orbit in or near to the stars equatorial plane. This is because the planets are thought to condense out of a rotating protoplanetary disc that is spun out as the star collapses from a cloud of gas. In an electrical system, planets May form in the polar "jets" (Birkeland currents) of young stars (such as Herbig-Haro objects), or they May be ejected from active stars much like CMEs from the Sun. When the polar jet discharge quenches, the planets will "scatter like buckshot," as seen in lab discharges. The planets May then be gravitationally captured in any configuration of orbit, although a prograde equatorial configuration is most likely. Mel Acheson
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X-ray and optical images of Galaxy M82 (NGC 3034). Inset: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Tsinghua Univ./H. Feng et al.; Full-field: X-ray: NASA/CXC/JHU/D.Strickland; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA/The Hubble Heritage Team; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of AZ/C. Engelbracht
Eject This
(May 24, 2010)
This image of the bright core of the active galaxy M82 depicts the twisting axial filaments and equatorial toroid current of a galactic sized plasma discharge. In the 1960s astronomers discovered quasi-stellar objects, better known as quasars, or QSOs. They have extremely large redshifts, indicating to the consensus astronomical community that they are far out in deep space, near the edge of the observable Universe. Quasars are referred to as "quasi-stellar" because they are small, often little more than a light-year wide at their assumed distance. However, they shine so brightly that they are the most powerful continuously radiant objects in the Universe, provided they are really as far away as proposed. The only other sources detectable at such distances are so-called "gamma ray bursters" (GRB). However, GRBs last for mere minutes, while QSOs are continuous. They remain as bright as when they were first discovered. Some astronomers discovered that QSOs are associated with spiral galaxies (like M82) and appear to be near the galaxy instead of billions of light-years distant. The quasar distribution also appears to be nonrandom. They form a tight cone stretching to the southeast of M82. The southeastern group aligns with a point near the center of M82. The QSOs to the northwest of M82 occupy a wide arc. There are no quasars to the Southwest. The quasars to the Northwest are brighter than those to the Southeast, with lower redshifts. They are arranged in an arc rather than the tight cone seen in the group to the Southeast. Those observations suggest that the northwestern quasars are between the observatory and the M82 galaxy, while those to the Southeast are farther than M82. The southeastern The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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grouping is fainter because light travels through M82 before reaching the observatory. The northwestern QSOs have a lower redshift because they are traveling toward the Milky Way. Wider fields of view show the axial filaments in M82 to be helices, confirming that they are giant Birkeland currents. To the Southeast, in the direction of the red cone extending from the galaxys center, lie four quasars. The farthest is about 10 minutes of arc away. Nearer to the center is a radio source and X-ray emissions. In line with this ejection cone but on the opposite side of the center lie two compact X-ray sources. The inset shows that they are very close to the center. Their spectra have not been identified, but it is likely that they are quasars, as so many galactic X-ray sources turn out to be. If so, their closeness to the center suggests that they are recent ejections--baby quasars just emerging into an Electric Universe. Mel Acheson and Stephen Smith
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Positive ions being accelerated by the double layer of electrical charge in the Electric Suns chromosphere. Top: Electrical energy of a positive ion as a function of its position. Middle: Outward force on a positive ion as a function of its position. Bottom: Outward velocity of a positive ion as a function of its position.
Why the Lower Corona of the Sun Is Hotter Than the Photosphere
(May 19, 2010)
The chaos of Brownian motion produces the high temperature we see in the solar corona. Of all the ideas offered up as being an explanation of the extreme temperature (more than 2 million Kelvin) measured in the lower corona of our Sun, the simplest is that electrically accelerated high velocity positive ions are colliding with relatively static ions and neutral atoms in that location. The electrical properties of the Photosphere/Chromosphere/Lower corona region of the Suns visible boundary is dominated by a double layer (DL) of electrical charge. This double charge layer is shown in the bottom plot in the main figure of the May 11, 2010, Picture of the Day. The top and middle plots in that figure are reproduced in the image above. Positive ions in the photospheric plasma do not experience external electrostatic forces when they are within the photosphere (region a to b in the figures). Only diffusion motion (response to a concentration gradient) and random thermal (Brownian) movement occurs. Temperature is simply the measurement of the violence of those random movements. The photosphere is where the Suns low ~5800 K surface temperature is measured. The top electrical energy (voltage) plot shows that positive ions have their maximum electrical The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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potential energy when they are in the photospheric plasma. However, their mechanical (kinetic) energy (temperature) is relatively low. At a point just to the left of the right hand edge of the photospheric energy plateau (point b), any random movement toward the right (radially outward) that carries a +ion even slightly over the edge will result in its being swept away, down the energy hill, toward the right. The middle plot in the figure above shows the strength of the E-field (voltage gradient) consistent with this spatial voltage distribution. This electric field is the force per unit positive charge applied to any +ions in this region. In region b to d this force accelerates each such +ion in the outward direction. The acceleration produced by this E-field is a maximum at point c, and the +ions outward velocities reach a maximum value somewhere near point d. As these positive ions accelerate down the steep potential energy drop, they exchange the high (electrical) potential energy they had in the photosphere into kinetic energy they gain extremely high outward radial velocity and lose side-to-side random motion. Thus they become "de-thermalized." This is because in this region of high radial acceleration, the movement of these ions becomes extremely organized (parallel). Their temperature, which is just a measure of their random motion, drops to a minimum. When these rapidly traveling +ions pass beyond the reach of the intense outwardly directed E-field force that has been accelerating them, they have reached the bottom of the hill and are moving much faster than when they were at the top. Because of their high kinetic energy, any collisions they have at this point with other ions or neutral atoms are violent. This creates high-amplitude random motions, thereby "re-thermalizing" all ions and atoms in this region (shown in red) to a much higher temperature. The sparkling x-ray emissions that have been observed here in the lower corona are undoubtedly due to these collisions. Ions just above (in the diagram, to the right of) point d are reported to be at temperatures of one to two million K. Nothing else but exactly this kind of result could be expected from the Electric Sun model. The re-thermalization takes place in a region analogous to the turbulent white water that boils up at the bottom of a smooth laminar water slide. In the fusion model no such (water slide) phenomenon exists and therefore neither does any simple explanation of the observed temperature discontinuity. Notice that no mention has been made in this process of magnetic reconnection or, in fact, of any magnetic mechanism whatsoever. Strictly electric forces that occur within the double charge layer above the Suns surface cause the observed phenomenon. Therefore it is clear that the Electric Sun model straightforwardly predicts the existence of the observed temperature profile and demonstrates how it occurs. If there were no temperature discontinuity, this would pose a problem for the Electric Sun hypothesis. Donald Scott author of The Electric Sky
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Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss; Spectrum: NASA/CXC/Univ. of California Irvine/T. Fang et al.
Whimsical Science
(May 17, 2010)
Spectroscopic evidence indicates the presence of material in what was thought to be empty space between the galaxies in the Sculptor Wall. Heresy is a cradle; orthodoxy a coffin. -- Robert Green Ingersoll The Sculptor Wall itself is an artifact of assuming that a galaxys redshift (z) is a measure of its distance. With that assumption, the Wall stretches across the universe from near to far. The raw data, of course, only indicates that it stretches from low-z to high-z. With Arps assumption that high-z objects are ejected from low-z ones and evolve toward low-z themselves, the Wall is a family grouping of relatively nearby galaxies. The newly discovered material between the galaxies has been named WHIM (Warm Hot Intergalactic Medium). Theres an already existing name for it--plasma--but the invention of a new name helps to obscure the electrical implications. The artists license also permits the WHIM to be drawn as a fog bank rather than the more likely filamentary cell. Electrically discharging galaxies embedded in cells of plasma is a phenomenon that can be studied (on a smaller scale) in plasma labs on Earth. Such a study would take astronomy a giant step toward becoming a science and away from whimsical artistry. Mel Acheson
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Spitzer Space Telescope infrared image of nebular cloud BYF73. Credit: NASA /JPL-Caltech.
The Crack of Light

(May 14, 2010)
Do stars form from the collapse of cold gas and dust? Heresy is a cradle; orthodoxy a coffin. -- Robert Green Ingersoll A cloud of gas and dust capable of bearing stars 50 times more massive than the Sun is said to inhabit BYF73, a nebula about 8,000 light years away in the constellation Carina ("the keel"). How such clouds form heavier than normal stars is not known, although infrared observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope appear to indicate that massive young stars already exist in the center of the nebula. Using the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization's (CSIRO) Mopra radio telescope, scientists from an international research group found the cloud of mostly hydrogen gas and dust while conducting a survey of similar structures. According to a recent press release, BYF73 is collapsing in on itself faster than any other "star factory" ever observed. "Evidence" for the collapse comes from spectrographic analysis of two different molecules: hydrogen carbonate anions (HCO+) and hyperpolarized C-labeled bicarbonate (H13CO+). According to standard theories of stellar evolution, Fraunhofer line redshifts in the molecular spectra indicate a rapid infall of material in the cloud. As usual, all analysis is based on kinetic models of gas behavior and not on the mathematics of electrified plasma. The nebular theory of star formation was initially proposed in the eighteenth century by Kant and Laplace, with modifications in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to accommodate objections. Since gravity is a relatively weak force (one can overcome the gravitational pull of an entire planet by simply lifting one's arm), for a gas cloud to collapse under its own weight it must be cool and possess no magnetic fields. However, in the so-called "stellar nurseries" that have been observed, new stars are always embedded in what appear to be chaotic The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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regions of hot dust, energized plasma, and magnetic fields! The consensus solution to those problems is to conjure shock waves from stellar winds and supernovae ramming through the star-forming regions, pushing the thin wisps of dusty gases into gravitational compression, thereby jump-starting the star forming process. The origin of stellar "winds" continues to defy explanation, though, and shock-heated gases should rapidly dissipate, not collapse. The Electric Star theory resolves many of the distorted opinions that arise from misunderstanding the role of plasma and electric fields in space. Rather than kinetic activity, BYF73 is powered by electric currents. Electric sheaths that are normally invisible are "pumped" with energy from galactic Birkeland currents in which they are immersed. The excess input power pushes them into "glow mode," while increased flux density draws matter from the surrounding space into filaments that ignite the nebular plasma electrically. Electric discharges in plasma clouds create double layers, or sheaths, along their current axes. Positive charge builds up on one side and negative charge on the other. An electric field develops between the sides, and if enough current is applied the sheath glows, otherwise it is invisible. Electric currents flow along the sheaths. In plasma, the currents spiral into filaments, or double layer tubes that attract each other, but rather than merging they spiral around, gradually pinching down into arc mode discharges. It is in this way that stars are born. Gravity, although it plays a small role in stellar evolution, is far too weak a force when compared to the force of an electric field on ionized particles. More massive stars are not necessarily "heavier" than the Sun, they are stronger electric discharges, which are naturally accommodated by the expansion and increasing luminosity of their photospheric discharges. The size limit of stars is not determined by gravity vs. radiation pressure but by electromagnetic forces without and within the growing star. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Eric Aitchison Editor's note: Title taken from "Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited" by Vladimir Nabokov
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Galaxy clusters such as Abell 2151 in the constellation Hercules are powerful X-ray emitters. Credit: Tony Hallas
Cosmic Capacitors
(May 13, 2010)
Capacitors store and release electric current. Could phenomena at disparate scales conform to that principle? Previous Picture of the Day articles have discussed the electric field that builds up in and around thunderstorms. Since Earth is electrically charged, it maintains an electric field at its surface of between 50 and 200 volts per meter. In other words, for every meter of altitude the voltage increases by that measure. Electromagnetic fields beneath thunderstorms increase to 10,000 volts per meter because the storms and the Earth act like the plates of a capacitor, storing electrical energy from the surrounding environment. A "wind" of charged particles blows toward the developing storm, which could be construed as an electric current flowing into the base of the clouds. The surrounding air is pulled along with the current flow, creating powerful updrafts that can occasionally rise into the stratosphere. Once the storm reaches a critical threshold, the stored energy is released as a lightning bolt. According to a recent press release, thunderstorms act like "particle accelerators," launching massive discharges upward to space, as well as downward to ground. Known as red sprites and blue jets, they are not easy to detect since they last just a few milliseconds and are at high altitude. Red sprites are massive, diffuse flashes above active thunderstorms, coinciding with normal lightning strokes. They can be single events, or multiple, with filaments above and below, often extending to altitudes close to 100 kilometers. Some of the largest sprites contain dozens of individual smaller sprites, covering horizontal distances of 50 kilometers, with a volume of 10,000 cubic kilometers. Blue jets are distinct from sprites, since they propagate upward in narrow cones that disappear at an altitude of about 50 kilometers. They are also more powerful because the electric discharges are confined within a smaller spatial volume. Geophysicists are beginning The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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to realize that sprites and jets are part of every moderate to large storm system and are an essential component in Earth's electric circuit. It has been proposed by Electric Universe theorists that what is observed on other planets, within galaxies, or in free space should be used as examples of what can occur on Earth, as opposed to using our planet to model the Universe. We are part of a cosmic "ecology" that maintains a coherent physical aspect, so that aspect ought to apply here. Therefore, what takes place in thunderstorms on Earth is most likely a smaller version of large scale phenomena. The European Space Agency's (ESA) International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL), was launched from the Baikanor Cosmodrome on October 17, 2002. It is the first space-based observatory that can be used to simultaneously study objects in gamma ray, X-ray, and visible light. One of INTEGRAL's major finds was the observation in 2008 of an extreme X-ray source from the center of the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster. As a press release from the period states, the X-ray emissions are far too intense to be generated from hot gas in the cluster, so "shockwaves must be rippling through the gas." ESA astrophysicists, faced with such an anomaly, suggested that the shockwaves had "turned the galaxy into a giant particle accelerator." The temperature of gases in the cluster core has been measured at 100 million Kelvin. Researchers think that electrons accelerated by shockwaves traveling through the cluster gas generate the intense X-rays. The shockwaves are said to be created when two galaxy clusters "collide and merge." By referring to material with a temperature of 100 million Kelvin as "hot gas," ESA scientists are highlighting their complete ignorance of plasma and its behavior. No atom can remain intact at such temperatures: electrons are stripped from the nuclei and powerful electric fields develop. The gaseous matter becomes plasma, capable of conducting electricity and forming double layers. Nobel laureate Hannes Alfvn maintained that double layers are a unique celestial object, and that intense X-ray and gamma ray sources could be due to double layers "shorting out" and exploding. Double layers can accelerate charged particles up to enormous energies in a variety of frequencies, forming "plasma beams." If the charge density becomes excessive, they explode, drawing electricity from the entire circuit and discharging more energy than was contained in the double layer. Double layers dissipate when they accelerate particles and emit radiation, so they must be powered by external sources. Birkeland currents are theorized to transmit electric power over many light-years through space, perhaps over thousands of light-years, so they are most likely the power source for the extreme X-ray generator in Ophiuchus. In conclusion, so-called "particle accelerators" in thunderstorms and galaxy clusters are most likely manifestations of Birkeland currents pouring electricity into double layers. Sprites and jets exhibit filamentary structure, as does terrestrial lightning. Streamers of plasma can be seen flowing through galaxy clusters. In time, it May become evident that the scaleable nature of the plasma Universe reveals itself through electrical events both large and small. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Anne Klinkner The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The multi-ringed Vredefort Dome, South Africa. Credit: Space shuttle STS51I-33-56AA.
Vredefort Dome
(May 10, 2010)
The largest crater on Earth might not have been created by a meteor impact. Africa exhibits some of the most complex terrain on Earth. As has been suggested in past Picture of the Day articles, Africa appears to have been devastated in the recent past. From the Sahara Desert in the North to the vast dune fields of Namibia in the South, African topography resembles images taken by spacecraft in orbit around Mars. There is more to the Martian connection than sand, however. Mars is home to some of the largest craters in the Solar System, while Africa plays host to the largest crater on Earth, otherwise known as Vredefort Dome. The "dome" is supposed to be a "rebound peak" where rocks in the crater's center melted from impact, consolidated into a single mass, and then bounced back after the explosion, freezing into an upraised mound. A similar process is thought to have formed the central peaks that can be seen in many lunar craters. Vredefort Dome is located about 100 kilometers southwest of Johannesburg. It has been classified by geologists as the oldest and largest astrobleme on Earth: approximately 300 kilometers wide, ten kilometers deep, and nearly two billion years old. One of the characteristics shared by Vredefort and craters on other planets and moons is that it is a multi-ringed structure. Among their common features, multi-ringed circular formations possess flat inner plains with vertical cliffs, some of which rise several kilometers. The outer rim of Vredefort is said to have eroded away over the eons, explaining why the crater was identified as a volcanic dome for decades. The vertical walls, such as those found around Popigai Crater in Siberia, are missing. It is possible that the rim was scoured away by wind and rain, but from an Electric Universe perspective the crater May not have had a rim from the moment of its inception. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In the northwestern arc of Vredefort is a secondary plain with a deep outer perimeter, like a Vshaped canyon, that also resembles the morphology of other concentric rings. Surrounding the secondary plain is another ring of cliffs with a gradual drop-off extending outward from the central uplift. That pattern is repeated several times, with shorter cliffs and broader plains, until they finally merge into the bedrock. Was it a gigantic block of stone that formed Vredefort? Did a 10-kilometer-wide meteor strike Africa and excavate the giant crater in an explosion orders of magnitude greater than that which is supposed to have killed-off the dinosaurs? Alternatively, as has been previously proposed, did an electric arc of unimaginable force travel through the region, vaporizing the terrain and blasting out a hole along the path of a sinuous channel known as the Vaal River? Some Electric Universe theorists think that many of the large rivers and their tributaries around the world are secondary to whatever it was that carved the beds in which they flow. In other words, rivers have "adopted" paths of least resistance through the landscape rather than founding their own courses. In the case of Vredefort Dome, the Vaal River cuts through many tiers of mountains that lie across its path as if they were not there. This anomaly is significant, since there is no known way for a river to punch through a wall of solid rock, leaving a deep canyon. The river should have naturally gone around the barrier or gathered into a lake, not eaten away square kilometers of the hardest basalt in a clean cut. Another anomaly within the crater is the chaotic magnetic fields that have been detected in the surface rocks, reminiscent of the intense crustal magnetism found in and around large basins on Mars. According to Rodger Hart of the iThemba Laboratory for Accelerator Based Science in South Africa, Vredefort's magnetic fields were imprinted by strong electric currents flowing in the ionized gases generated by the energetic impact. Mineral deformations, such as shattercones, requiring pressures and temperatures far exceeding anything seen on Earth today are put forward as evidence for the impact theory. Indeed, diamonds are abundant in the region, conforming to the consensus opinion. Downstream from the crater, the Vaal River is mined for diamonds. The pressure waves released by whatever caused the crater are thought to have compressed gneiss formations and instantaneously transformed them into diamond. The blast that created the gems also threw them hundreds of kilometers to the West, where they can be found in the riverbed. As Wal Thornhill wrote several years ago: "The kinds of things to watch for are pitting, surface glassification or a burnt appearance, damage caused by the explosive release of trapped gases, shock metamorphism, and isotopic and elemental anomalies...One thing to look for if shocked crystals are found and their orientation determined, is the direction from which the blast originated. Electrical cratering has a blast center that moves below ground and around the crater's center. An impact has a stationary blast center above ground that coincides with the crater's center. An example on Earth of shocked minerals oriented to a subterranean moving blast center can be found in the giant Vredefort Dome structure in South Africa." Stephen Smith
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New stars are thought to be forming inside the wall of this "galactic bubble." Credit: ESA/PACS/SPIRE/HOBYS Consortia
Massive Protostars
(May 07, 2010)
Stars more than eight times the mass of the Sun are said to be born inside this "collapsing nebula." On May 14, 2009, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Herschel Space Telescope from the Guiana Space Centre, Kourou, French Guiana. Both Herschel and the Planck spacecraft were onboard the Ariane 5 rocket, since they were both set to occupy independent orbits around a stable configuration known as LaGrange point L2. They were separated shortly after launch. Herschel currently occupies a Lissajous orbit around L2, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth's night side. The telescope employs a 3.5 meter primary mirror, almost twice the size of the one on Hubble, coupled to infrared detectors that are cooled to temperatures near absolute zero. According to a recent ESA press release, Herschel has been studying what are called "highmass protostars" inside a nebula dubbed RCW 120. In the image at the top of the page, a bubble of gas and dust is seen, supposedly expanding outward because of the radiative pressure from a star in the center, increasing the density of material in the bubble's wall. The compression is said to have allowed new stars to form, since the increased density causes increased gravitational attraction among the particles, initiating the accepted process of star formation. Astrophysicists continue to puzzle over the fact that some stars accrete more mass during their gestation than is theoretically possible. Since the collapsing cloud of gas and dust that gives birth to stars is supposed to envelop them in a fragile shell, a large formation should generate more radiation as it condenses than its structure can survive. In other words, the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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shell of gas and dust around those embryonic stars should blow away before that much mass can accumulate. The most likely reason that the object Herschel has discovered does not obey the tenets of conventional theory is that it is not what astronomers think it is. The somewhat concentric filaments prompt plasma physicists to conclude that we are not seeing an expanding bubble in RCW 120, but are looking down into a Birkeland current "cable," pinching itself into an hourglass form that is creating and powering the central star. The instabilities within the nebula are plasma instabilities that can pull in material and compress it, as well as cause it to spin. The toroidal filaments couple to the hourglass-shaped current sheets and are subject to diocotron instabilities: the current flow through the plasma will sometimes form vortices that can evolve into distorted curlicue shapes. This phenomenon has been witnessed in many laboratory experiments, as well as in the polar aurorae. The bubble's temperature (infrared emissions) is also open to question. Most observable radiation in the cosmos is synchrotron radiation. Thermal radiation comes from random atomic collisions. Its peak wavelength corresponds to the temperature of the atoms. Synchrotron radiation is created by electrons moving in a magnetic field. Since moving electrons constitute an electric current, and that current travels along a magnetic field, it is a "field-aligned current," otherwise known as a Birkeland current. Therefore, a Universe composed almost entirely of plasma, organized into Birkeland currents, will primarily emit synchrotron radiation and not thermal radiation. Synchrotron radiation provides no temperature information. Since it comes from a nonrandom process, "temperature" should not even enter into the equation. The "massive protostars" in RCW 120 are most likely massive electric currents flowing through plasma. Stephen Smith Hat tip to James Parker
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A combined radio and X-ray image of pulsar PSR B1509-58. Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/P.Slane, et al.
Pulsed Power
(May 06, 2010)
The finger-like structures in this nebula are the signature of electric currents flowing through clouds of plasma. According to a press release from the Chandra X-ray Telescope Observatory last year: "A small, dense object only twelve miles in diameter is responsible for this beautiful Xray nebula [above] that spans 150 light years." The object to which they refer is a rapidly rotating neutron star called a "pulsar." The pulsar that Chandra saw in the constellation Circinus flashes once every seven seconds, so the neutron star must be rotating at an amazing speed if consensus theories are correct. Neutron stars are supposed to answer the question of anomalous pulsar behavior, especially when their brightness fluctuates over a short time, sometimes fractions of a second. They are said to be the remains of stars that have undergone supernova explosions, blowing off their outer layers, leaving an ultra-dense core behind. It is thought that all the electrons in the remaining stellar core are crushed by intense gravity until they are forced to combine with protons in the atomic nuclei, forming matter so dense that a single teaspoon would weigh billions of tons on Earth. As conventional theories propose, some neutron stars have hot spots: regions where socalled "magnetic reconnection events" take place, emitting copious radiation at various frequencies. Since neutron stars are thought to be incredibly dense, they are also thought to have exceptionally strong magnetic fields. The "reconnection" in those strong fields means that the hot spots are often X-ray or gamma ray sources when they "rotate" into the view of Earth-based detectors. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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It is a well-established fact that magnetic fields are induced by electric currents, so an electric current must be generating the intense fields in PSR B1509-58. It is also indisputable that the current must be part of a circuit, since electric current must flow in a completed circuit. The Electric Universe hypothesis requires no collapsed stars or rotational speeds so great that ordinary matter could never take the strain. Pulsar oscillations are due to resonant effects in their electric circuits. The release of electrical energy from a "double layer" is responsible for the occasional outburst of X-rays or gamma rays. Those outbursts emit sudden peaks of energy and then decline, like lightning bolts. In the image at the top of the page, the emissions are shown in green and blue, representing medium and high energy X-rays. Two radio lobes, or jets, are also visible in purple. The lobes are thought to be the result of precession in the star, creating the two jets as it wobbles. The extreme density of the neutron star influences its intense gravitational field around it, so the rapid precession causes waves in the ejected material. Previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles have touched on the subject of neutron stars and discussed the various problems associated with them. Primarily, neutron stars violate the "Island of stability" principal. Plotting the number of neutrons against the number of protons in the nuclei of all elements demonstrates that the ratio is about one-to-one for light elements and one point five-to-one for the heavy ones. An atomic nucleus outside the range will spontaneously decay so that it reaches a stable configuration and remains in equilibrium. If there are too few neutrons the atom will emit protons in order to stabilize and vise-versa. A nucleus composed of neutrons alone would be completely unstable and immediately decay. In the electric star hypothesis, no exotic objects like neutron stars are necessary. Electricity is more than able to create the phenomena we see from Chandra and other orbiting space stations. Electricity is the force powering the stars. The more electricity, the greater the effect on stellar output, causing powerful bursts of energy that are detected by instruments like Chandra. The stars are anodes in a huge galactic circuit and the standard models for their behavior will always fail to adequately explain the observations. Stephen Smith Hat tip to Jason Brown
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Galaxy M82 (NGC 3034). X-ray: NASA/CXC/JHU/D.Strickland; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/ AURA/The Hubble Heritage Team; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of AZ/C. Engelbracht
Detecting Double Layers

(May 03, 2010)
Something in this galaxy started sending out powerful radio waves a year ago and has been holding steady ever since. Energy emissions in radio wavelengths are shining from a source in galaxy M82, otherwise known as the Cigar Galaxy. The fact that nothing like it has ever been seen before has created something of a stir among astrophysicists, according to a recent press release. Tom Muxlow of Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics believes that the radio source could be a large black hole pulling matter into an accretion disk, where it is being accelerated to high velocities. Perhaps the strangest aspect to the phenomenon is that it appears to be moving across the sky at four times the speed of light. Astronomers do not think that the apparent motion really exceeds light speed, but that it is moving almost as fast as light at a particular angle creating an optical illusion. Some "matter jets" shooting out of active galactic nuclei also seem to travel faster than light, so Muxlow thinks that effect could be happening in M82. An electric current in plasma generates a magnetic field that will constrict the current flow. As has been pointed out in previous Picture of the Day articles, the constricted channel is known as a Bennett pinch, or z-pinch. The "pinched" filaments of electric current remain coherent over large distances, spiraling around each other, forming helical structures that can transmit power through space. Plasma physicists identify those threads of electricity in almost every body in the Universe. The cometary "tail" of Venus is "stringy" as NASA scientists describe it. The glow of planetary nebulae resolve into strings and intricate webs. Herbig-Haro stars and some galaxies often reveal braided filaments. These filaments are Birkeland currents, and they are only the visible portions of enormous electric circuits. The remainder of the galactic circuit generates The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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magnetic fields that can be mapped, as in the case of M82. High-density currents flow out along the galactic spin axis and form double layers that can sometimes be seen as radio and X-ray lobes around active galaxies. The currents then spread out around the circumference, returning to the core along the spiral arms. Every element in a galactic circuit radiates energy, indicating that they are powered through coupling with larger circuits. Galaxies appear to occur in strings, so the extent of the larger circuits can be inferred. Plasma's behavior is driven by conditions in those circuits. Fluctuations can form double layers with large potential voltages between them. The electric forces in double layers can be much stronger than gravitational and mechanical forces. Double layers separate plasma into cells and filaments that can have different temperatures or densities. Double layers emit radio waves over a broad band of frequencies. They can sort galactic material into regions of like composition and condense it. They can accelerate charged particles to cosmic ray energies. Double layers can explode, releasing more energy than is locally present. This effect can be seen in stellar flares or so-called "nova" outbursts. This vision of the cosmos sees various components coupled to and driven by circuits at ever larger scales. Electrons and other charged particles accelerating through intense electric fields radiate "shouts" of energy in many bandwidths. Changing conditions within the Birkeland current generators of some galaxies means that the radiation patterns will change over time. M82 is probably demonstrating those changing conditions. Stephen Smith
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Left to right: Jupiter's moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
The Galilean Moons

(Apr 30, 2010)
A collection of the largest moons in the Solar System are in orbit around the largest planet. Looking separately at Jupiter's four largest moons, it would be difficult to identify them as members of the same family. They vary in size, chemical composition, temperature, and appearance. However, superficial appearances are often misleading when it comes to overall qualities or characteristics. Powerful electromagnetic connections with their giant parent planet indicates they share common traits. Jupiter and its moons have been explored for over three decades, beginning with Pioneer 10 in 1973. The most recent visit was by the New Horizons spacecraft on its way to Pluto in 2009. Including New Horizons, seven different science packages have entered Jupiter's environment, as well as that of its many moons. Of them all, Ganymede is possibly the most bizarre, with a wild mix of fractures, craters, and rilles. At 5262 kilometers in diameter, Ganymede is the largest moon orbiting any planet and is the fourth largest rocky object after the planet Mars. Ganymede also possesses an intrinsic magnetic field, something not even found on Mars. In December 1995, the Galileo spacecraft discovered a field much like the one surrounding Earth. The magnetic field is supposedly being created by the moon's core in a "dynamo" of sorts, in the same way that the Earth's core is supposed to be generating its magnetic field. However, Ganymede's core is too hot to hold on to permanent magnetism. It is a puzzle for planetary scientists because Ganymede is so small that, according to conventional astrogeology, it should have cooled off billions of years ago and should not have a liquid core in the first place. The ad hoc explanation offered by NASA is no help. The moon might have been much closer to Jupiter at one time, so it was compressed and stretched with greater force by the planet's gravitational field. The gravitational "kneading" kept its core liquid for much longer than if it had formed in its present orbit. The question has to be asked what could have forced an object bigger than the planet Mercury to move into a new orbit? Another member of the Jovian system, Callisto, appears to bear the marks of many massive electrical jolts. A gigantic ring of ridges that dominates the trailing hemisphere of Callisto marks out a circle 1056 kilometers in diameter. The Asgard Multi-Ring Structure consists of concentric rings that outline a bright central feature. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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A domed crater named Doh in the center of the bright plain is also unusual. Rather than a depression in the center of the crater, 50 kilometer-wide Doh contains a huge mound-shape with deep channels. More than anything else, this feature is reminiscent of the large fulgamites, similar to Olympus Mons, that have been discussed in past Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles. The Valhalla Basin is another point to consider in the electric theory of Callisto's topography, as well as the enormous crater in the southern hemisphere. At 200 kilometers in diameter, its rays extend outward hundreds of kilometers across the surface very much like the lunar crater, Tycho. As has been noted several times in past Pictures of the Day, the morphology of such rays can be traced to electrical effects. In previous Thunderbolt Pictures of the Day, several confirmed predictions about the electrical activity on Io have been discussed. The most notable of them is the intense electric arcing between Io and its parent body, Jupiter. More recently, NASA scientists also discovered a secondary electrical connection between Jupiter and another of its moons, Europa. Detailed images of Io have verified those electric discharge predictions. The Tvashtar volcano near the north pole of Io exhibits a volcanic plume extending 290 kilometers above the surface. As NASA reported at the time: "The remarkable filamentary structure in the Tvashtar plume is similar to details glimpsed faintly in 1979 Voyager images of a similar plume produced by Io's volcano Pele. However, no previous image by any spacecraft has shown these mysterious structures so clearly." From a conventional perspective, ignoring the connection between Jupiter and Io means that the filamentary structure of the volcanic plumes will never be adequately explained. Astronomers who analyze these images have begun to gain ground, though, since New Horizons has sent stunning data that reveals the electrical connection Io has with Jupiter. The electric circuits on Io are concentrating the bombardment from Jupiter into several "plasma guns," or dense plasma foci. According to plasma physicist Anthony Peratt: "The apparent filamentary penumbra on Io May be the first direct verification of the plasma gun mechanism at work in the solar system." When the first images of Europa were sent to Earth from Voyager 2, scientists were surprised to find that water ice covered the surface. They were also surprised by the absence of visible craters. Jupiter is sometimes referred to as the Solar System's "vacuum cleaner," so it should have pulled many objects into collision courses with Europa. Instead of craters a vast network of linear channels dominates the surface. NASA investigators immediately began to speculate about "fractures" on the moon. Dark material had filled the cracks or oozed out onto the surface as levees running along the two sides of the trenches, accounting for the dark coloration of the markings. "Cracking" on Europa was the official interpretation even when higher resolution images returned by Galileo in 1996 undermined the idea that the channels were cracks. Many of the larger channels are smooth, not at all like fractures. There is often a constant channel width extending for over a thousand kilometers. From an electrical viewpoint this is not surprising. The current of an electric discharge, flowing across the surface, has an associated magnetic field which "pinches" it into a thin filament and tends to draw concurrent filaments into parallel alignment. There are chaotic regions on Europa, as well, with massive ice sheets rafting, but channels The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive with no evidence of fracturing are more abundant. Virtually all regions of Europa are complexes of parallel and side-by-side grooves with no indications of fracturing. Can repeatedly breaking ice produce extensive parallel grooves with levees?
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No, the Europan rilles are not cracks in the ice, they are overlying and intersecting V-shaped troughs. The dark color appears to be strings of small craters with dark material in their centers. A narrow discharge channel exploding beneath the surface will throw material onto the sides of the trench. The narrow lines of dark material at the base of the channel mark out what was acted on by the discharge--smashing oxygen atoms into atoms of sulfur. The lighter material is ice that was above the discharge channel, blown out to the sides. Electric Universe advocates assert that Jupiter moves within the Sun's plasmasphere and interacts with the Suns electric field. Planets and moons in the Solar System are charged bodies, they are not isolated in "empty" space. Since Ganymede, Europa, Io, and Callisto all move within the plasmasphere of Jupiter, it is only to be expected that they would transact electrically with their primary. The scientists and engineers who make up the Thunderbolts team have been asserting for many years that plumes, geysers, and jets on the moons of gas giants like Jupiter are plasma discharges. NASAs investigators seem unable to comprehend the observational evidence, preferring to describe the activity on these moons as forms of "volcanism." Stephen Smith
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Credit: Sidney Harris
Perceiving Einstein
(Apr 27, 2010)
To the average person the words "Einstein" and "Relativity" are reflexively synonymous with "complexity," "unintelligibility," and the notion that "this has to involve obscure mathematics." We all know that Albert Einstein invented Special Relativity (SR) and its extension, General Relativity (GR). But what are they? Are these theories correct? Are they useful? Does it take a physicist or mathematician to understand them? Typically, any search of your local library or the Internet for a clear explanation of what Relativity Theory is all about usually falls quickly into a tangle of concepts such as Minkowsky space, time dilation, and other hypotheses all impenetrable for the uninitiated. Or at least they have been up to now. For years I have sought a simple explanation of these ideas. That search has been discouragingly unproductive. Early on I became aware that both SR and GR are controversial. Opinions on both sides of the question of their validity are intense. On one side, cosmologists and astrophysicists accept, defend, and use Einsteins ideas to further their own work. They claim absolute success for models that result from their use of his theories. They disparage anyone who deigns to question the soundness of their beliefs. Several non-believers1, 2 claim to have identified chinks in the body armor of Einsteins work and in the validity and precision of later experiments that allegedly support it. But, understanding the thrusts and counter-thrusts of these arguments requires proficiency in graduate-level math through tensor analysis. Therefore, until recently, even the welleducated, interested reader has been unable to really understand this and thus has had no chance to develop an informed opinion. This all changed for me when I read a book written by astronomer Hilton Ratcliffe. Hilton Ratcliffe The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In the eleventh chapter of his first book3 Ratcliffe presents an account of some of the fundamental issues, assumptions, and goals that prompted Einsteins work. He does this using only words without mathematics4. For me these pages provided an opening key to the arcane concepts that had eluded me for so long. Ratcliffe starts by pointing out that one of Einsteins primary assumptions or goals (it is not clear which) was to show the impossibility of the existence of absolute universal time and the real simultaneity of events. One of the necessary tools for evaluating Einsteins argument is the concept of the "reference frame" and what happens when two such frames move relatively to each other. Frames of reference Take three one-meter rulers. Arrange two of them, lying on your desk, at right angles to each other. Now set the third ruler vertically at the junction of the first two and secure them all to each other so the (90) angles between them are fixed. Name the two horizontal rulers x and y. Call the vertical ruler z. The instantaneous position of any object (a fly, a dust mote, etc.) can be uniquely defined by measuring its distance out along each of the rulers e.g., x = 3 cm, y = 4 cm, and z = 8 cm. This defines the position of the object. The set of rulers thus provides a "frame of reference" in which the location of any point can be described. Any change in this position measures the "motion" of the object in this frame of reference. Of course the rulers must be straight and the gradation marks along them must be equally spaced and not move with respect to one another.
Figure 1. Einsteins example of two simultaneous lightning strokes down to points A and B.
Another frame of reference (set of rulers) can be constructed and placed on a rotating merrygo-round. The position of any object (say for example an insect sitting still on the merry-goround) can be measured by both of these frames of reference. In one of them (the one on the merry-go-round) the insects velocity is zero. The other frame of reference would describe the insect as moving in a circle. When one frame of reference is moving with respect to another frame of reference, different measurements of motion will be recorded by the same event. Coriolis effect An example of this is the so-called Coriolis effect. Suppose we have a stationary circular merry-go-round on which two people stand facing each other at the ends of a diameter of the disk. One throws a ball directly toward the other person who catches it. Both our frames of reference (one attached to the ground and one sitting on the merry-go-round) would report The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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that the ball had traveled in a straight line when viewed from above. Now rotate the merry-go-round in a counter-clockwise direction (looking down at it from above) at a constant angular velocity. We can see the path of the ball by placing a downward looking TV camera above the merry-go-round. But if the camera is fixed to the stationary Earth, we will see that although the ball initially moves directly toward the other person, he will be rotated away from his initial location and not be there to catch it when the ball arrives. Because the ball still travels in a straight line. If we mount another downward looking camera this one fixed to the rotating merry-go-round the two people will appear to be stationary and the ball will appear to curve off to the right. This effect is demonstrated on several YouTube presentations.5 It is important to realize that the perception the observer gets about what is occurring depends on which frame of reference he is in. Relativity example Ratcliffe describes an experiment proposed by Einstein that involves an observer riding on a railroad train. Two simultaneous lightning strokes occur one from the sky down to point A on the ground and the other down to point B. At that instant the train happens to be located such that its front end is passing over point A and its back end over point B. The situation is shown in the top diagram in figure 1 above. The train is moving with constant velocity v toward the right. Assuming light propagates with a finite velocity, the observer at point M is unaware of the flashes until a time, T, has passed. But the train has moved toward the right during that time interval. The lower diagram shows the position of the train after time, T, has passed. The observer, now at position Mnew, sees the flash from stroke B. But because the light from A has farther to travel, he still is unaware of it. Therefore, the observer perceives that stroke B has occurred prior to stroke A. The reason for this is, of course, that the observers frame of reference is moving relative to the stationary "inertial" frame the Earth. Einstein then goes on to conclude that, in the frame of the observer, which is moving toward the right, the two events were really not simultaneous. Can you see the error? If he had said that the observers perception of what happened was that stroke B occurred first, he would have been correct. But his interpretation was that, within the moving frame of the observer the two events were in reality not simultaneous. Einstein confused the observers perception of reality with reality itself. Another even more confusing and erroneous interpretation of what actually happened in this experiment is that time, as measured by a stopwatch held by the observer, slowed down. This is because the interval between stroke B and its observation at Mnew is too short. The moving stopwatch measured too few nanoseconds so Einstein said, "Clocks in a moving frame of reference slow down." Of course, this is nonsense. Ratcliff easily falsifies the hypothesis that a moving clock slows down via the following example. Consider two clocks, A and B, moving toward each other along a straight line joining them. Relativists consider that a clock that is moving within any frame of reference with respect to one that is fixed to that frame, runs slow. Referred to A, B goes slow. Referred to B, A goes slow. But they cannot each go slower than the other one. So the idea is mutually contradictory. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive To quote Ratcliffe:
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"The mistake [Einstein] makes, one he commits consistently throughout development of Special Relativity Theory, is that he confuses his frames of reference and does not adjust for varying travel times of constant-velocity signals covering different distances." I would add that, more importantly, Einstein mistakenly glosses over the distinction between an observers perception of reality and reality itself. Reality exists. Reality will continue to exist even after you and I both die and are unable to perceive it. If Einstein had observed the Coriolis experiment that involved throwing a ball across a rotating merry-go-round, he would have falsely concluded that the ball really did curve in the "reality" of the rotating frame of reference. That is what the observer perceived. But thats not what happened. "Seeing is believing" is sometimes "seeing is misleading." An observers perceptions must not be improperly upheld as being of equal validity with reality. Perceptions are often inaccurate. "My reality is just as valid as your reality" is not universally true. Conclusion Ratcliffes The Virtue of Heresy provides a sound, accessible critique of fundamental logical errors in SR and GR that have been unnoticed in the past, even by people with outstanding physics and mathematical backgrounds. He attacks the basic foundations of Einstinian theory with clarity, counter-examples, and sharp dissection of some of the imprecise "gedankenexperimental results" and "observations" that are thrown up in support of these notions. This book is a powerful resource. When taken together with Steve Crothers devastating analyses of errors in the tensor analyses that have here-to-fore been effectively raised as an impenetrable barrier to any criticism of SR and GR normally intelligent people need no longer feel intimidated. We must remember that the erroneous Ptolemaic Earth-centered universe model lasted for at least a thousand years. But that was before enquiring minds had access to books and the Internet. Possibly we will now not have to wait that long for the false SR and GR theories to be put to rest. Contributed by D. E. Scott Stephen Crothers - http://www.sjcrothers.plasmaresources.com/index.html Sid Deutsch Einsteins Greatest Mistake, iUniverse, 2006. Hilton Ratcliffe The Virtue of Heresy, http://www.booksurge.com, 2008. Even though on page 286 he chastises electrical theorists by saying, "Give us the numbers! Do your sums and tell us the formulae that apply to systematic study of the cosmos." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcPs_OdQOYU&feature=related
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Mimas is sharply outlined against the giant planet Saturn. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Casualty of War
(Apr 23, 2010)
Saturn's moons are enigmatic, with features that are difficult to explain using conventional theories. Mimas Is a tiny world, only 397 kilometers in diameter. It compares in size to another of its sisters, Enceladus, and to one of Neptune's moons, Proteus. Mimas looks like the "Death Star" space station seen in a popular movie. The giant crater that dominates one of its hemispheres is about one-eighth the diameter of the entire moon. A crater of similar scale would cover almost half of Earth's Pacific basin. Why such an enormous shock did not disrupt the moon's material structure is a mystery that continues to baffle planetary scientists. Herschel crater, named for Sir William Herschel who discovered Mimas in 1789, is 130 kilometers wide with a towering central peak. Such craters are theorized to form from asteroid impacts. However, there is little debris within the crater and not many boulders or other fragments surround it. Researchers think that one reason for the lack of debris is that Mimas has little gravitational attraction, so the blast remnants did not remain nearby. It sounds like a plausible explanation, except that the craters on large planets like Earth and Mars--some many hundreds of kilometers wide--also demonstrate little eruptive fallback, their floors and sidewalls are swept clean, though some glassified breccia is often incorporated into them. The greatest puzzle of all is the hexagonal shape of Herschel crater. How can an asteroid explosion cause a hexagonal crater? No high velocity gun experiments have demonstrated a polygonal crater after an explosive event. Impact events do not result in such formations. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive Instead, they are chaotic and leave behind circular depressions with conical bottoms.
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Another recent discovery on Mimas is the peculiar temperature distribution. Mimas is an extremely cold place. Infrared measurements of its surface by the Cassini spacecraft reveal it to range from -146 Celsius to -160 Celsius. It is the strange pattern of cold that is confusing NASA mission team members. It was expected that Mimas would be the warmest in the area where the Sun's energy shines straight down. However, the infrared map generated by Cassini indicates that the warmest temperature is along the western limb. Other false-color images seem to suggest that the temperature differences correspond to surface composition, but no one is sure why. It could be that the ice grains vary in size, causing them to change the way they reflect light. In previous Picture of the Day articles, we have attempted to provide evidence for plasma discharges on Saturn's moons. Lightning bolts, diffuse glow-mode clouds of energetic particles, and rotating Birkeland currents have been suggested as causative agents for the bizarre conditions found there. It could be that Mimas has collected a coating of some compounds that were eroded from the other moons in the Saturnian system, especially Phoebe. It was argued in previous Picture of the Day articles that the splotches of dark red and sooty black coloring the faces of Rhea, Tethys, Iapetus, and Mimas are made of ultra fine dust electrically etched from Phoebe. Mimas might have once been caught in the grip of an interplanetary particle beam that excavated Herschel crater and the other geological features incised on its face. Due to the plasma instabilities in the discharge, a hexagon was cut deeply into its crust. When the electrical energy was withdrawn, Herschel crater remained, a "fossilized" geometric shape permanently burned in. The electric currents that cut the craters and rilles on Mimas most likely left evidence of their passages in other ways. The anomalous temperature measurement that cannot be attributed to the Sun's influence is probably one sign of those past catastrophes. It May be that the unusual V-shaped pattern in the false color images from Cassini is a warmer layer of dust and ice that was excavated from Herschel crater and ionically deposited "downwind" by a highenergy plasma discharge in the recent past. Stephen Smith
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Galaxy NGC 7319. Arrow points to foreground high redshift quasar. Credit: NASA/Hubble Space Telescope
Redshifts and Microwaves

(Apr 21, 2010)
Modern astronomy surely suffers from a kind of blindness. It is either a blindness of mind or one of practice. The continuing presence of Big Bang cosmology among those who are charged with increasing the store of scientific knowledge proves that there certainly is blindness in some form. Not only astronomers, but science reporters have lost the ability to differentiate fact from theory, thus helping to perpetuate the Big Bang. Media reports constantly assert that new discoveries confirm it when such reports are not based on observational evidence. On October 3, 2003, the Big Bang theory was falsified by direct observation. The galaxy NGC 7319 was measured to have a redshift of z = 0.0225. It is not uncommon for "nearby" galaxies to have redshifts below z = 1. However, a quasar was located in front of NGC 7319's opaque gas clouds with an observed redshift of z = 2.114. The two principle tenets of the Big Bang theory are that redshift is proportional to distance and that it is an indicator of velocity. The larger an object's redshift the farther away it is and the faster it is moving away from the observer. Those two ideas provide the backdrop for the commonly held belief that the Universe is expanding. According to the Big Bang, the NGC 7319 quasar "must be billions of light years farther away than the galaxy" because it has a higher redshift. Yet, since the galaxy is opaque, the quasar has to be in front of the galactic dust clouds and not shining through them. "No one has found a quasar with such a high redshift, with a redshift of 2.11, so close to the center of an active galaxy," said the late astronomer Geoffrey Burbidge at the time. The discovery team included his spouse, E. Margaret Burbidge, another noted astronomer. The find was significant because it is the most extreme example of a quasar in front of a galaxy with a lower redshift. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Conventional cosmology relies on an electrically neutral Universe ruled by gravity. Without this dogmatic consensus, the Big Bang would never have become so predominant. Scientists, needing to renew their grants every year, "confirm" the theory when, according to reports, it has been discredited. Magazine publishers desire to maintain good relationships with established institutions, so they accept the latest news releases with little background investigation or critical analysis. On June 30, 2001, NASA launched the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) on a mission to reexamine some unusual telemetry returned by the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite in 1992. Temperature fluctuations data seemed to suggest that there were regions of lower mass density in the Universe. Since the Big Bang theory does not account for such regions--matter and energy should be evenly distributed--the WMAP survey was sent to verify COBE's results. Electric Universe advocate Wal Thornhill pointed out that neither COBE or WMAP detected "cosmic" radiation. Rather, they both found the natural microwave radiation from "electric current filaments in interstellar plasma local to the Sun. Instead of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), it is the Interstellar Microwave Background. That makes sense of the fact that the CMB is too smooth to account for the lumpiness of galaxies and galactic clusters in the Universe." The Electric Universe theory has an entirely different way of addressing these matters. It does not rely on unseen and undetectable forces whose existence can only be inferred. Electric currents flowing through ionized gas and dust provide the energy for the stars, presenting themselves in straightforward and understandable ways without resorting to esoteric mathematical models. Redshifts and microwaves have proven themselves inadequate to explain how the Universe functions. Stephen Smith
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The Moon's magnetic field. Credit: Mark A. Wieczorek.
Lunar Charge Distribution

(Apr 19, 2010)
Recent lunar missions have uncovered new information that changes the way we look at the Moon. The Moon is a "dead body," according to modern theories of the Solar System; it long ago exhausted any remnant heat that it retained from its birth. It has no intrinsic magnetic field and it does not radiate, except to reflect the light that it receives from the Sun. But could electrical forces have recently shaped the lunar surface? The discovery of water ice at the south pole buried beneath the walls of sun-shaded craters was one of the more important new finds of the past few years. Latent magnetic fields were detected by the Lunar Prospector spacecraft in the 1990s. Evidence from that experiment points to a variable strength magnetic field imprinted on the Moon, and magnetism is a result of electric currents. Recently, scientists from NASA's Lunar Science Institutes Dynamic Response of the Environment at the Moon (DREAM) project announced the discovery of electric charge in some of the polar craters. According to William Farrell of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center: "...in addition to the wicked cold, explorers and robots at the bottoms of polar lunar craters May have to contend with a complex electrical environment as well, which can affect surface chemistry, static discharge, and dust cling." It is thought that the solar wind might be what charges up the craters to many hundreds of volts. Computer simulations led the researchers to believe that the solar wind acts like winds on Earth. Depending on temperature, winds flow into cold valleys. On the Moon, the solar wind flows down onto cold crater floors. As their theory states, electrons, having less mass, flow into a lunar crater before the heavy ions, forming a negative charge. The heavy ions move into the crater at a lower pressure then The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive the electrons, causing the interior walls and floor to become negatively charged. Charge separation is greatest along the crater rim closest to the solar wind flow.
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The article suggests that "...the heavy ions have the greatest difficulty getting to the surface. Compared to the electrons, they act like a tractor-trailer struggling to follow a motorcycle; they just cant make as sharp a turn over the mountain top as the electrons." Planetary scientists relate electric current flow with kinetic illustrations once again. Between May 1966 and January 1968, NASA launched the Surveyor spacecraft, which softlanded on the lunar surface. Surveyor 7 made one of the mission's most intriguing discoveries when its onboard camera detected a faint glow in the lunar night, hovering over the horizon. In 1998, the Lunar Prospector detected a surprisingly high voltage change as it passed through Earth's magnetotail. The magnetotail is part of a plasma sheath that envelops our planet. The Moon passes through it once a month during full moon phase. The electric differential was found to occur during that passage. The Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field that is trapped inside a cometary plasma tail that stretches well beyond the Moon's orbit. The Earth's magnetospheric tail points away from the Sun due to the high-speed ions streaming along with the solar wind. The movement of the Moon through the ionized plasma affects the materials in the lunar regolith. Electrons accumulate and produce a negative charge on the ultra-fine dust particles, causing them to repel each other and drift off the surface. The levitating dust and the faint glow on the lunar horizon are most likely because the Moon has no atmosphere at all, so the electric charges have greater impetus. Charge differential between the day and night side of the Moon might generate an ion "wind" flowing from the negatively charged night side into the more positively charged sunlit side. The negative charge on the bright surface during daylight is moderated by the photoelectric phenomenon, while it tends to build up in the darkness, forming static electricity. The charge variation between the two hemispheres has been measured at more than 1000 volts. Electric Universe pioneer Ralph Juergens explained the structure of Tycho Crater on the Moon in electrical terms: "The visual evidence suggests that triggering electrons for the Tycho discharge were assembled by means of an atmospheric-breakdown process that drew them from numerous distant points in all directions and hauled them over the surface to a common collection point. On the far side of the Moon are several more long-rayed craters, presumably marking sites where much the same thing happened; these, too, are located in highland terrain." Earth's cometary plasma cocoon changes shape and power as electric currents from the Sun bombard our planet. It is sometimes described as a "flag waving" because of somewhat regular oscillations in the field. This means that the Moon does not simply pass through the magnetotail once and briefly, but that electric charges will brush the surface several times during each monthly encounter. Stephen Smith
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Inferred dark matter distribution based on the Weak Gravitational Lensing theory. Credit: NASA, ESA, P. Simon (University of Bonn) and T. Schrabback (Leiden Observatory)
Dark Lensing
(Apr 14, 2010)
Perceiving the cosmos requires presuppositions. "We and the cosmos are one. The cosmos is a vast body, of which we are still parts. The sun is a great heart whose tremors run through our smallest veins. The moon is a great gleaming nerve-centre from which we quiver forever. Who knows the power that." -- D. H. Lawrence "Gravitational lensing" theory is currently in fashion among astronomers. They use it to explain the arcs of glowing material surrounding some galaxies. They also use it in conjunction with other theories to help deal with puzzling observations. One of those puzzles involves the so-called expanding Universe. According to a recent press release, scientists have, for the first time, combined data from the Hubble Space Telescope with ground-based measurements to map the effect that gravity might have on light as it travels through space. Recent calculations seem to show that the Universe is expanding faster than it should, perhaps because there is a greater amount of mass than previously thought. In particular, the research group looked at previously catalogued redshift information from 194,000 galaxies, plugging the figures into a statistical model they designed. Minute differences in how some galaxies are shaped point to what they claim is a "warping of spacetime" due to unseen conglomerations of matter. It is that space-bending effect that holds their hypothesis together. The intense gravity generated by the concentrations of invisible (or "dark") matter is said to cause light rays from remote objects to bend as if seen through a lens. However, it is a "weak gravitational lensing" effect, so the slight variations can only be identified statistically. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive In the image at the top of the page, galactic redshift data was plotted against the altered shapes of distant galaxies due to weak gravitational lensing. Based on complex software programs, the gravity model produced galaxy cluster plots that indicate the presence of enough dark matter to account for the accelerated expansion of the Universe.
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Conventional "gravity-only" astronomy sees the bending of light by gravitational "lensing." What is more important is that the entire premise depends on a single assumption, that higher redshift equals greater distance. Halton Arp has made several assertions that counter that assumption, however. As Arp's galactic compendium grew, he noticed that there was something wrong with conventional time-speed-distance calculations--he found objects with higher redshift values in front of objects with lower redshift. Surely, such a conundrum should have immediately called into question the very nature of that "cosmological constant." It is often written in the popular press that dark matter makes up "25% of the Universe" or that dark energy makes up "75% of the rest of the Universe." To anyone familiar with plasma physics, it is well known that plasma makes up 99.99% of the Universe. It is a fascinating convergence that the amount of gravitational mass invented to save conventional theories is the same as the ionized plasma that is overlooked. Stephen Smith
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The surface of Neptune's moon Triton. Credit: NASA/JPL. Voyager 2 mission.
Neptune's Herald
(Apr 09, 2010)
Summer has finally come to Triton. Neptune's largest moon accompanies the giant gas planet as it travels in an elliptical orbit around the Sun at an average distance of about 4,495,060,000 kilometers. Neptune requires approximately 165 Earth years to complete one revolution, so summer arrives at infrequent intervals on its near planet-sized moon. On August 25, 1989, Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft to return close-up images of Neptune and its moons. Neptune is now officially recognized as the most distant planet from the Sun, since Pluto was voted to be a Kuiper Belt Object. It was during Voyager's flyby that six of Neptune's thirteen known moons were discovered. Triton is in a retrograde orbit around Neptune, circling the planet opposite to the direction of its rotation, and is the only moon in the Solar System to exhibit that configuration. Most of its other moons are not visible from Earth, and little is known about them. About half are so close to Neptune that Earth-based telescopes are not able to resolve them against its background. Triton is one of the Solar System's strangest moons. First, it has an atmosphere, cold and thin as it is. However, it shares that characteristic with only two others: Jupiter's moon Io, and Saturn's moon Titan. Triton's atmospheric pressure is greater than Io's but less than Titan's: only 1/100,000 that of Earth. Second, its anomalous retrograde orbit could indicate that Triton is a captured body, but one that is unusually big. Triton is two-thirds the size of Earth's Moon. Third, its temperature makes it the coldest place known in the Solar System at -235 Celsius, yet so-called "nitrogen geysers" were seen spewing out of cracks in its surface. It is thought that those gas eruptions are what give Triton its atmosphere. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive The geyser-like formations shooting nitrogen gas and dust particles eight kilometers into space were one of the Voyager mission's greatest surprises. They were called "ice volcanoes," and several were identified in the south polar region.
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Triton's surface features resemble those on Ariel, one of the moons circling Uranus; or those seen on Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons; as well as Jupiter's moons Europa, Ganymede, and Io. There are also polar ice caps similar to those on Mars, although Triton appears to most resemble Pluto in temperature, size, and chemical composition. According to a recent press release, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has used their Very large Telescope to perform an infrared analysis of Triton's atmosphere. Since Triton changes seasons once every forty years, this is the first time in over a century that summertime observations have even been possible. The southern summer solstice began in 2000, and scientists think that the atmosphere has become much thicker since then due to the sublimation of ices off the moon's surface. Not just nitrogen, but carbon monoxide and methane have been detected in an upper layers of ice. They believe it is vapors from those thin layers, evaporated by the remote Sun, that have thickened the atmosphere. The geysers, darkened cavities, and "wind streaks" on Triton have been explained as electric discharge effects in other locations. A previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day noted an association with the bizarre "Dalmatian spots" and geysers on Mars. The apparent role of charged particle beams excavating ice, and provoking massive geyser activity was offered as a possible explanation: "If the dark spotting on Mars south polar ice is indeed caused by charged particle streams, one of the first things we should look for is an active response of the surface to these events. Since the dark spotting is occurring in the Martian south polar spring, that would be the time to look for signs of energetic activity, not unlike the so-called 'volcanic' plumes of Jupiters closest moon Io, or the 'geysers' of Saturns moon Enceladus." Consensus scientists typically ignore electricity when observing events in Neptunes frigid vicinity. They do not consider that similar formations on Io, Enceladus, or Mars are even relevant to the geological condition of Triton. They do not realize that those differences are not an issue when an electrical interpretation is considered. Instead of the Sun's heat influencing the change of seasons on Triton, perhaps the orientation of the moon within the electric fields generated by its parent body should be considered. Stephen Smith
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Composite image of spiral galaxy M106 (NGC 4258). Credit: X-ray NASA/CXC/Univ. of Maryland/A.S. Wilson et al.; Optical: Pal.Obs. DSS; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech; VLA: NRAO/AUI/NSF
Electromagnetic Galaxies
(Apr 09, 2010)
Galactic magnetic fields were discovered more than 50 years ago. Astronomers continue to ask basic questions about the stars: what generates their magnetic fields? What gives those fields their shape and their strength? According to a recent press release, a team of astronomers using an updated analytical model of galaxy formation think they have found the answers. Cool gas falling into the galaxy, supernovae explosions, the birth of new stars, and the rotational energy of the galaxy itself are what create the fields. However, they are missing other factors in their equations since the models are not able to predict the fields observed in several spiral galaxies. How do scientists observe extrasolar magnetic fields? George Ellery Hale first plotted the Sun's magnetic field using the "Zeeman effect," or the change in position of Fraunhofer lines found in spectrograms of the Sun. Optical spectra indicate which chemicals can be found in the Sun, as well as other stars. By spreading starlight into its components like a prism does to white light, dark lines at specific places provide a way to determine a star's constituent elements. In the presence of a magnetic field, elements produce spectral lines that split and occupy different positions. Those changes in position are called the Zeeman effect. However, as a paper written by the investigation team states: "Such fields are important in star formation and the physics of cosmic rays, and could also have an effect on galaxy evolution, yet, despite their importance, questions about their origin, evolution and structure remain largely unsolved." It is not surprising that the magnetic field contours surrounding the stars that have been The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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mapped, as well as those seen around galaxies, remain unexplained in the minds of those who hold to a consensus viewpoint. In the theoretical pool of knowledge from which they draw, there are no electrical entities to provide the source for that magnetism. Instead, "star formation reducing turbulent energy," "gas ejection," and "how fast ordered magnetic fields arise from random ones" are discussed. No electromagnetism, no e-fields, and no motor-generator effects are included in their calculations. Magnetic fields in space can be detected more easily than electric currents, so modern astronomers think that the fields are "primordial" fragments left over from the Big Bang. They rely on that conclusion to explain how the structures that make up the Universe were formed. The fact that moving charges constitute an electric current that can generate magnetic fields has been known since the days of Michael Faraday. However, a lack of knowledge often means a lack of vision. As previously stated, moving charged particles constitute an electric current, and that current is wrapped in a magnetic field. When more charged particles accelerate in the same direction, the field gets stronger. That is a familiar idea to electrical engineers, but when astronomers find moving charges in space they are mystified and refer to them as "winds," or "shock waves." Something else not considered when researchers attempt to explain structure in the Universe is that for charged particles to move, they must move in a circuit. Energetic events cannot be explained by local conditions, alone. The effects of an entire circuit must be considered. For that reason, while the consensus scientific worldview only permits isolated "islands" in space, the Electric Universe emphasizes connectivity with an electrically active network of "transmission lines" composed of Birkeland current filaments. Filaments expand and explode, throwing off plasma that can accelerate to near light-speed. Jets from opposite poles of a galaxy end in energetic clouds emitting X-ray frequencies. These phenomena are based in plasma science and not gas kinetics, gravity, or particle physics. Astrophysicists see magnetic fields but not the underlying electricity, so they are at a loss to explain them. Astronomers maintain that galaxies are clouds of hydrogen gas and intergalactic dust that were assembled by gravity until they coalesced into glowing thermonuclear fires. The conventional community also proposes that most galaxies contain black holes of unbelievable magnitude. It is those "gravitational point sources" that cause the galaxies to spin, jets of gamma and X-rays that span thousands of light-years to appear, as well as "radio lobes" sometimes larger than the parent galaxy to form. The Electric Universe theory does not adhere to the idea of galaxies condensing out of cold, inert hydrogen and specks of zircon no bigger than a molecule. So, what are galaxies? In 1981, Hannes Alfvn said that galaxies are much like one of Michael Faraday's inventions, the homopolar motor. A homopolar motor is driven by magnetic fields induced in a circular conducting plate. The plate is mounted between the poles of an electromagnet, causing it to spin at a rate proportional to the input current. Galaxies move within a filamentary circuit of electricity that flows through the cosmos from beginning to end. We see the effects of those electromagnetic fields that permeate space. Electricity organizes itself within masses of plasma sometimes larger than galaxy clusters. That plasma is primarily composed of neutral atoms, but free electrons, protons and other charged particles are also present. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Primal electrical energy is orders of magnitude more powerful than gravity. The "plasma ropes" that comprise Birkeland currents attract one another over distance in a linear relationship, so Birkeland currents are the most powerful long-range attractors in the Universe. Electric currents flowing through dusty plasma sustain the magnetic fields detected in stars and galaxies. Stephen Smith
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The African Sahara Desert. Composite satellite image in orthographic projection: Credit: NASA.
The Sahara Desert

(Apr 08, 2010)
An extraterrestrial sand scar? The light areas in the image above show the wide swath of desert area that extends across Africa, the Middle East, and the entire Asian continent. It encompasses many deserts including the Sahara. The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometres (3,500,000 square miles), it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe. The desert stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the sand dunes can reach 180 meters (600 ft.) in height. Mixed in with the oceanic sands there are large rock formations, boulders, stones and pebbles. Some have compared areas of the Sahara to the surface of Mars. The sands of the Sahara hold many secrets. It wasnt always a vast desolate ocean of sand; around 5,000 years ago it was a very different terrain. It was a sub-tropical paradise where deer, hippos and elephants were hunted and giraffes and rhinoceros roamed the area. With a plentiful supply of food, thousands of hunter-gatherers flocked to live in this lush savannah. These facts are evident from the discovery of hundreds of human graves and numerous rock paintings, depicting people hunting and even swimming. Furthermore, radar images taken by the NASA space shuttle show that beneath the sand are networks of rivers, once spanning the entire Sahara. North Africa was once alive with people! What happened to this lush green world? It was initially believed the Sahara died out abruptly about 5,000 years ago. However, recent studies have supposedly shown this to be incorrect. Conventional scientists believe the process took about three millennia as reported by Reuters in May 2008. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"The once-green Sahara turned to desert over thousands of years rather than in an abrupt shift as previously believed, according to a study on Thursday that May help understanding of future climate changes. The study of ancient pollen, spores and aquatic organisms in sediments in Lake Yoa in northern Chad showed the region gradually shifted from savannah 6,000 years ago towards the arid conditions that took over about 2,700 years ago. The findings, about one of the biggest environmental shifts of the past 10,000 years, challenge past belief based on evidence in marine sediments that a far quicker change created the world's biggest hot desert." Sand Sand is the result of finely weathered and eroded rock. It is believed it takes tens of thousands, if not millions of years for exposed rock to weather into sand. The longer this erosion takes place, the finer the grains. The sand in the Sahara is some of the oldest on the planet; it is believed to have existed for seven million years. Some of the sand dunes are rich in iron ore. The impurities stain the quartz particles, which accounts for their yellow colour. Where did the Sahara sand come from? It did not exist 6,000 years ago. Experts are proposing that vast oceans of sand formed in less than 3,300 years. This is impossible because Saharan sand is some of the oldest on the planet. Putting this into context means that an area the size of the US has been covered in a vast sea of sand in what has to be the blink of an eye in geological terms. This makes no sense because the time frame for the formation of the sand does not allow it according to consensus theories. If the adjoining deserts swathing out across the Middle East and Asia are also considered, this equates to an area twice the size of the US. Where did all this sand come from? Is it possible the earth is covered with debris from recent cosmic catastrophe? Could debris such as large boulders, rocks, stones, pebbles, dust and sand which are believed to be indigenous to Earth actually be extraterrestrial in origin? Wall Thornhill speaking on "Coast to Coast" November 26, 2007: "When you have an highly charged object like a comet coming towards the earth, before it strikes the earth there will be an electrical discharge between the two bodies and that discharge will usually be of sufficient magnitude to destroy the incoming object - so you end up with a shower of sand and stuff like that." "The famous Chicago fires where that whole area of the US was lit by strange fires and falls of sand and such like. And this occurred at the time of the disappearance of Biela's comet." Countless tons of rocks bombarded Earths atmosphere, fragmenting and breaking up into fine grains of sand. As it fell to Earth it covered vast areas of once-lush, green fertile land, turning it into the barren deserts we see today. This sand forms a gigantic scar across the landscape which suggests great swarms of debris were hurled at the Earth, and the enormous quantities of sand demonstrates the extent of this bombardment. Contributed by Gary Gilligan
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So-called supernova remnant G54.1+0.3 in X-ray (blue), short wavelength infrared (green), and longer wavelength infrared (yellow). Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/T.Temim et al.; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Dust of Creeds Outworn

(Apr 02, 2010)
Collapsed stars, exploding stars, windy stars, and dusty stars call for the missing element: electricity. A recent press release from the Chandra X-ray Observatory describes the image at the top of the page as, "...made up of gas and dust that condensed out of debris from the supernova." The glowing clouds are "...energized and heated by a shock wave from the supernova." Material blown away by the supernova explosion is said to be streaming at enormous speed past the other stars that were close by when the giant stellar mass collapsed and then rebounded, throwing its outer layers into space. Does that explanation correspond to observations? How is it that explosions inside clouds of hot gas create X-rays? As has been pointed out many times in previous Picture of the Day articles, stars are not simplistic globes of hot gas under pressure, they are composed of plasma. Plasma is ionized and is therefore an electrically charged substance. Since it is ionized, it does not behave like a pressurized gas, so shock waves and gravitational instabilities are insufficient when it comes to explaining the birth and death of stars. In the laboratory, plasma forms cells separated by thin walls of opposite charge called double layers. Could charge separation also take place in the short circuit discharges known as supernova remnants? That question might require centuries to answer, since the only way to detect a double layer in space is by flying a probe through one. However, everywhere in our own Solar System cellular structures separated by double layers abound: the Sun's heliosphere, comet tails, and magnetospheres are all examples of charge separation in plasma. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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As Electric Universe theory states, a supernova is an exploding star, but not in the conventional sense. Rather, it constitutes the explosion of a double layer in plasma. Star power comes from external electric currents flowing through vast circuits in space, so the radiation and "wind" from stars are due to arc discharges that vary in strength. It is those electric arcs that make up the stellar corona, chromosphere and photosphere of our Sun, for instance. Supernovae are the result of a star effectively "throwing a switch" in the galactic circuit. The result is the same as an unintended circuit break in an earthly power grid where the stored electromagnetic energy in the entire circuit is suddenly focused at one point. In an exploding double layer, the energy of an entire circuit might flow into the explosion, increasing its expansion far from the surface of the star. Radiation from the double layer is pushed into ultraviolet or X-ray wavelengths, emitting bursts of high-energy light. Shock waves and heat (infrared) are not the principle evidence for such an occurrence, they are the secondary manifestations of a primarily electrical event. The roughly concentric and radial filaments of G54.1+0.3 suggest that the telescope is looking down into the cylindrical formation of an interstellar Birkeland filament that is pinching into an hourglass shape and powering the excessively bright central star. The Chandra team's analysis of the temperature is also most likely questionable. Thermal energy is created when atoms collide with each other. The various infrared wavelengths emitted from those atomic collisions correlate to their temperature. However, most radiant energy in space is synchrotron radiation produced by electrons as they travel through a magnetic field. If electrons are moving they are called an electric current. An electric current in a magnetic field is defined as "field-aligned" and is known as a Birkeland current. Birkeland currents release synchrotron radiation, and synchrotron radiation provides no indication of temperature. It is electric currents in plasma that make up what we observe. Rather than an expanding shock front of gases, the features shown in the Chandra image are lit by electricity passing through the dusty plasma. The X-ray radiation is typical of that given off by highly excited stars, indicating extremely strong electrical stress. Stephen Smith
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The heart of the Crab Nebula is thought to harbor a neutron star. Credit: NASA, Kris Davidson (U. Minn.), William P. Blair (JHU), Robert A. Fesen (Dartmouth), Alan Uomoto (JHU), Gordon M. MacAlpine (U. Mich.), and Richard B.C. Henry (U. Okla.)
Electric Pulsars
(Mar 31, 2010)
Lacking a solid theory, astronomers now propose electric current moving faster than light as pulsar power sources. Pulsars are described as "lighthouses" with rotating beams of energy concentrated at specific points. Gravitational theory relies on a rotational mechanism for their pulsations, so when the spin of a pulsar brings its beam in line with telescopes on Earth, a flash of light is visible. However, the rotation rates of some pulsars were clocked at speeds faster than once per second (even with many times the mass of our Sun). Nothing known to science can withstand the forces involved with those spin rates, so "neutron stars" were mathematically created. Only something so dense was thought able to withstand the rotational velocity. Now, according to a recent press release, another mechanism for the rapid blink rate has been proposed: electric currents flowing faster than light speed. Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists theorize that the rotating star's intense magnetic field is generating electricity that is, in turn, causing charge separation to take place. The movement of opposite charges is supposed to emit the beams of light. Several Picture of the Day articles have addressed the problem of neutron stars. According to the Electric Star theory, neutron stars belong with the Celestial Teapot in the imaginary objects category. Deficits in gravity-only cosmology made the neutron star hypothesis necessary because gravity has been granted ostensibly endless powers. The Crab Nebula pulses 30 times per second, or 30 hertz. That means the star is theoretically rotating 30 times per second. There are pulsars with frequencies as high as 716 hertz, as well. The regular frequency is not mechanically generated, however. Instead, it is the capacitive, resistive, and inductive electrical environment around the star that generates an The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Compacted matter and extreme rotation are not necessary. Electricity traveling through circuits provides a coherent explanation that is consistent with commonly accepted electromagnetic theories, as well as with laboratory experiments. Pulsars are said to be created by neutron stars with magnetic fields measuring over 10^15 Gauss. For comparison, the Earth's magnetic field is about one-half Gauss. It must be stressed, though, that the evidence is indirect and no neutron star has ever been observed. What is observed are intense magnetic fields pulsing at times in fractions of a second. It is a well-established fact that magnetic fields are induced by electric currents. Therefore, there must be an electric current generating the intense fields in a pulsar. It is also indisputable that the feeder current must be part of a circuit, since persistent electric current must flow in a completed circuit. The oscillations in pulsars are caused by resonant effects in electric circuits. The sudden release of stored electrical energy in a "double layer" is responsible for their energetic outbursts. Pulsars do not shine with visible light alone; sometimes X-rays and gamma rays are seen. The outbursts begin with a sudden peak of energy, and then gradually decline, like a stroke of lightning. As the current flows through clouds of dusty plasma it concentrates forces because of the Biot-Savart effect, drawing itself together and forming helical zones of immense compression known as "z-pinches" or "Bennett pinches." Depending on how much electricity is flowing through the circuit, the star's magnetic field will be greater where there is more current. It seems more likely that in pulsars we are witnessing an immense concentration of electricity being focused by some kind of "plasma gun" effect. Stephen Smith with a hat tip to Harry Walton
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The Fornax galaxy cluster. ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA. Credit: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit.
Hide and Seek

(Mar 30, 2010)
Astronomers claim to have found the galaxies missing in their earlier observations. "Astronomers always knew they were missing some fraction of the galaxies in Lymanalpha surveys, but for the first time we now have a measurement. The number of missed galaxies is substantial." So states Matthew Hayes in a recent press release from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Paranal, Chile. According to ESO, astronomers have not been able to see most of the light from what they call "the earliest days of the Universe" because specific frequencies that are used in their surveys are absorbed by the galaxies emitting them. Therefore, their galaxy counts are most likely off by a significant factor. What that factor is has not been known until now, ESO investigators claim. The hydrogen atom is composed of one electron orbiting a single proton. That one proton forms the hydrogen atom's nucleus. Since a proton's mass is 1836 times greater than an electron, the majority of a hydrogen atom's mass is contained in the nucleus. Quantum physics states that an electron's orbit must abide by a wave function that fits into its orbital circumference: the "principal quantum number." Mathematical calculations use the value n = 1 for the smallest radius, with n = 2, n = 3, and so on as the orbit increases. Those radii must also rise and fall in discrete steps. As quantum mechanics theory posits, since electrons are negatively charged they are attracted to nuclear protons by a force called "binding energy." Each "n" orbit possesses its own binding energy value expressed in "electron volts." The closer the electron is to a hydrogen atom's proton nucleus, the greater the binding energy. As an electron jumps from an orbit with a lower binding energy to an orbit with greater energy (n2 to n1 for example), it emits light at a specific ultraviolet frequency. Light from the n2 to n1 jump corresponds to The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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121.6 nanometers and is called "Lyman-alpha" radiation, named for Theodore Lyman, who first discovered it in 1906. Astronomers use detectors sensitive to the Lyman-alpha frequency to count distant stars. However, stellar surveys using Lyman-alpha light waves see only part of the starlight because Lyman-alpha ultraviolet is blocked by interstellar dust clouds. The ESO team claims to have overcome that difficulty by re-scanning the sky in another frequency of hydrogen light called H-alpha. H-alpha is emitted when electrons make the jump from n3 to n2, corresponding to 656 nanometers, or infrared light. Infrared is less readily absorbed by intervening gas and dust. Since reviewing so-called "deep field" surveys in H-alpha light, 90% more stars have been detected than were previously seen in the Lyman-alpha band. Said ESO team member and co-author Miguel Mas-Hesse: "Now that we know how much light weve been missing, we can start to create far more accurate representations of the cosmos, understanding better how quickly stars have formed at different times in the life of the Universe." Could these new insights prove detrimental to the theory of dark matter? Astronomers first postulated a dark form of matter when they found that stars near the edge of spiral galaxies revolve at the same angular speed as stars closer to the center. According to Newtonian mechanics stars farther away from the center should be moving more slowly. Therefore, astronomers assumed dark matter, not observable by current instruments, was imparting extra speed to the stars. The gravitational force exerted by this unseen and undetectable material is said to sustain not just our galaxy, but all galaxies. Conventional theories propose that the "big bang" brought all matter and energy into existence, including dark matter. Every modern cosmological theory has the big bang at its core. For many years, investigators tried to reconcile the lack of mass, particularly in galaxy clusters, with the expansion of the Universe and the acceleration of that expansion. It has been stated many times in these pages that dark matter is an unnecessary theory if electrical phenomena are taken into account. Stellar ages and the "age of the Universe" are also seriously compromised when astronomical investigations presuppose that their images represent objects whose H-alpha emissions have been traveling through the cosmos for 10 billion years. Big bang cosmology sets modern science on a path that leads to misapprehension. Electric Universe theory sees galaxies and their associated stars being driven by electric currents flowing through dusty plasma over immeasurable distances. Birkeland currents create z-pinch compression zones between spinning magnetic fields. The compressed ions form spheres of glowing plasma, some in arc mode, some in glow mode and some with variability between the two states. Circuits of electricity pouring into them from outside power the stars and galactic wheels. In that case, what should we expect to see in their shapes and behavior? Around the galaxies will be slowly fluctuating Birkeland filaments, causing mass density variations that might be interpreted as gravitational effects. Intergalactic plasma will create magnetic fields as the current flows, interconnecting each galaxy with its neighbor and forming electrical bridges between them. Double layers will form in the plasma as electric charges isolate themselves from one another. They May break down if too much current flows in the circuit, causing intense discharges commonly called "supernovae." Around the galaxies The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive will be toroids, or rings of charged plasma, that shine in extreme ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma ray light.
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Electron orbit jumps are most likely due to electric effects. If astronomers would consider the forces that affect electric currents flowing through interstellar plasma and how those forces are expressed, they would not now be searching for what has already been hiding in plain sight. Stephen Smith
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Unusual rocks on the rim of Concepcin crater. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University.
More Martian Enigmas

(Mar 26, 2010)
New information from the surface of Mars incites additional questions about its formation. The Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) Spirit and Opportunity have been rolling across the face of the Red Planet for more than six years. Opportunity was launched on July 7, 2003. After a six month journey, it bounced to a landing inside a newly developed airbag system that cushioned its impact with the surface of Meridiani Planum. Opportunity was meant for no more than a six month sojourn in the frozen desert of Mars, but the data it gathered compelled NASA managers to continue its mission indefinitely. During its many years of travel, Opportunity has provided a wealth of information about the topography of Mars, as well as an analysis of its chemical composition. The surface of Mars appears to be rich in silicon dioxide, otherwise known as quartzite, and in various iron oxides, especially hematite. However, the trillions of tiny hematite spherules covering the landing site, labeled "blueberries" by mission team members, became one of the first mysteries uncovered by Opportunity. How they were formed continues to elude planetary scientists. They were not called blueberries because of their color, since hematite is a dull gray, but because they resembled blueberries in a muffin. Most of the sandstone rocks observed by the rover are filled with them. Once again, the MER has discovered "strange stuff" on Marian rocks. According to principle investigator Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Opportunity has been studying a 10 meter crater known as Concepcin for the past six weeks. An unknown dark gray material covers some of the rocks near the crater's rim. The rocks also reveal compressed layers of blueberries in between thin layers of a different mineral. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive Squyres:
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"It's possible that when you melt this rock, the sandstone melts before the blueberries do, leaving intact blueberries as part of a melt layer. As an alternative, we know that this type of rock has fractures and that the sandstone can dissolve. Long ago, water flowing through fractures could have dissolved the sandstone and liberated blueberries that fell down into the fracture and packed together." Rather than melted rocks caused by a meteor strike, perhaps there is another explanation that can account for the crater, the hematite nodules, and the vast fields of iron oxide dust gathered into immobile dune-like shapes that lie on top of hard quartzite slabs. Mars is largely composed of iron and silicon, with massive quantities of oxygen bound into the soils and bedrock. The atmosphere on Mars is of such low density it is sometimes described as standing on top of a mountain six-times higher than Everest, so it lacks the ability to aggressively attack the Martian lithosphere. On Earth, water vapor in the atmosphere forms a weak carbonic acid solution when it mixes with CO2, so that helps to wear away the rocks. On Mars, such erosion is impossible for several obvious reasons, not the least of which is that there is no open water on Mars or in its atmosphere. The presence of iron oxide in several different forms indicates that something not taking place on any large scale today did take place at some time in the past. When that past imposed its influence on Mars depends on which of many suppositions are considered. Most Mars research groups speculate that there was once a dense, oxygen-rich atmosphere that allowed for the "rusting" of iron in its crust to take place. Others have said that there were oceans of open water on the surface that helped to form the hematite nodules covering nearly a whole hemisphere (perhaps more). Whatever the source, Mars has hematite dunes a kilometer high, giant cracks that go on for hundreds of kilometers with their bottoms covered in hematite ripples, and seas of hematite dust tens of meters deep swallowing craters a hundred kilometers in diameter In previous Picture of the Day articles about the Martian blueberries, it was suggested that there might have been some kind of elemental transmutation on the Martian surface. Electrical energy, flowing underground through selectively conductive materials, can produce many effects, among them the change of one element into another. In the picture at the top of the page is a sample of what other effects might be observed. The striated and layered quartzite is sharp-edged and broken into angular polygons. The fissures running through them are filled with hematite dust. Close up images of the layered chunks show thousands of raised nubbins all over the exterior. When electric currents of gigajoule magnitude explode through rock strata they blast out the material, forming great trenches. The debris falls back, creating piles of distorted and halfmelted minerals with no sign of how they could have been eroded into their present appearance. Conventional theories do not consider elemental transmutation, so there are few avenues of experimentation left open. Precipitation or chemical recombination from impact events appear to be the main arguments put forward by Mars research scientists, so their theories about its evolution are often inconsistent. Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Venus in radar wavelengths and in visible light. Credit: NASA/JPL/RPIF/DLR.
Venus in Lockstep
(Mar 24, 2010)
It has long been known that Venus and Earth are somehow gravitationally bound. According to a recent press release, an old theory about the resonant orbits of Venus and Earth has been resurrected. Whenever Venus arrives at its closest approach to Earth, called an inferior conjunction, it always turns the same face toward our planet. The implication of that arrangement is that Earth and its sister planet are exerting some kind of influence on each other. Since there is no other force known to astronomers that can act between planets, that influence must be gravitational. An inferior conjunction of Venus takes place when it is aligned between Earth and the Sun. At that time, it is approximately 41 million kilometers away from our planet. However, planetary scientists insist that gravity is too weak to form a resonant lock, leading to an Electric Universe theory that the two planets were once much closer. Venus is actually in near resonance with Earth. In order for an exact orbital resonance to exist, Venus would have to rotate in 243.16 days, but its actual period is 243.01 days. This close alignment suggests that it might be moving out of a resonant pattern that was once more precise. One factor besides gravity that might contribute to its face-to-face dance with Earth is that Venus has a long ion tail that extends outward for more than 45 million kilometers. During inferior conjunction, that electrically charged structure can interact with our magnetosphere. What if that electrical connection was much stronger in the past? Venus is evidently a young planet and still retains some of the cometary characteristics that The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive were once visible to the ancients. Electric Universe theorist Wal Thornhill writes:
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"Venus, with its cometary tail, is evidently still discharging strongly today after a recent cometary past noted globally by ancient witnesses. Venus was described variously as a hairy star or bearded star and a stupendous prodigy in the sky. Today, Venus comet tail operates in the dark discharge mode and is invisible. It can only be detected by magnetometers and charged particle detectors." More than 60 years ago, a radical new approach to Solar System dynamics was placed in the public record by a brilliantly inventive scientist, Immanuel Velikovsky. Although various details of his theory have been revised in light of recent discoveries, his essential premise continues to inspire others, including this reporter, to pursue further insights. Prior to the Solar System we know today, there was another arrangement whose downfall became manifest in the mythology of every civilization able to record it for posterity. Once, perhaps as little as 5000 years ago, the planets were seen as veritable gods, with tremendous powers and chaotic aspects. Those godlike luminaries cast violent energies upon each other and upon Earth: boiling seas, melting mountain ranges, raising sky high tornadoes of fire, and hurling lightning bolts sufficient to vaporize any human work. The planet-gods did not revolve in the stately orbits we see today. Instead, they encroached on each other, looming large and then retreating, only to rush together in conflict again. During those encounters, Venus and Earth exchanged gigantic outbursts of electric discharge. In those bolts of interplanetary lightning they formed an electromagnetic bond. It was probably then that the orbital resonance that both planets share came into existence. As time passes, the intimate relationship once shared by Gaea and Aphrodite is beginning to fade. The long ion tail of Venus that continues to brush Earth with its faint electric tickle indicates that it is still in a state of discharge as it slowly regains equilibrium with the Solar System's overall balance. The past appearance of Venus as a terrifying comet with fire-like tendrils and monstrous features has been detailed elsewhere in these pages. For now, let it be said that the goddess is sleeping, and in her slumber we are drifting apart. Stephen Smith
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Computer simulation of the Sun's complex magnetic field on October 21, 2000. Credit: Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory. Drs. Markus Aschwanden, Marc DeRosa, and Carolus Schrijver
Solar Plasma Circuits

(Mar 22, 2010)
Do convection currents and vibrating magnetic field lines create the dynamic phenomena observed on the Sun? According to the thermonuclear fusion model of the Sun, hydrogen in its superdense core is being crushed with so much force that it is converting to helium, releasing tremendous amounts of energy. The temperature in the core is thought to be 15 million Celsius, with compressive strain greater than 340 billion times Earth's atmospheric pressure. A common metaphor used to illustrate the process is to imagine millions of hydrogen bombs exploding all at once within a confined space: 700 million tons of hydrogen are said to be converted into helium every second. The Sun's surface is known as the photosphere. Above that surface layer is the chromosphere, and above that is the corona, the outermost part of the Sun's visible atmosphere. The photosphere averages 6000 Celsius, while the corona can be as much as two million Celsius! This is the great mystery that has encumbered researchers. How is it that the hottest region of the Sun begins at an altitude of 4000 kilometers and extends over a million kilometers from its surface without any significant temperature drop? Many ideas have been proposed for how this steep temperature rise occurs. Some research groups have concluded that it is the "rearrangement of magnetic field lines," otherwise known as "magnetic reconnection," that is causing the heating. Both the SOHO and TRACE satellite observatories have detected small, rapidly changing magnetic regions on the Sun's surface. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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It has been suggested that "reconnection events" within those fluctuating fields continuously heat the solar corona. The problem with that theory is that no one has ever observed magnetic field lines "reconnecting." As Electric Star theory advocate Don Scott has repeatedly stressed, no one ever will. Another potential explanation for the solar corona's extreme thermal radiance is that convection on the Sun's surface causes magnetic field lines to oscillate. As the field lines move up and down, waves travel along them, eventually moving outward into the corona where (presumably) sufficient kinetic energy heats it up. In the electric model of stars, the Sun is a positively charged electrode in a circuit, while the negatively charged electrode is located far beyond the planetary orbits. The "virtual cathode" is known as the heliopause. As the electric model relates, sunspots, flares, coronal heating, and all other solar activity is most likely a result of fluctuations in electricity from our galaxy. Birkeland current filaments slowly rotate past the Solar System, supplying more or less power to the electric circuit powering the Sun. The electric current flowing out of the Sun is balanced by the current flowing into it, so perhaps the changes in temperature indicate the magnetic field polarity and the strength of the electric field. If the Sun is connected to the rest of the galaxy by Birkeland current "transmission lines," then its puzzling characteristics with respect to conventional interpretations are most likely demonstrating the fluctuations in current arriving from the Milky Way's electric generator. The Sun's inverted temperature gradient can be explained by the Electric Star theory because it conforms to an electric discharge within the z-pinch zone of intergalactic Birkeland current filaments. The Sun is a gigantic electric arc, not a ball of hot hydrogen gas. Therefore, the energy of the Sun is focused from outside and not expelled from inside. As Electric Universe advocate Wal Thornhill wrote: "The chromosphere has a strong electric field which flattens out but remains non-zero throughout the solar system. As protons accelerate down the chromospheric slope...they encounter turbulence...which heats the solar corona to millions of degrees. The small, but relatively constant, accelerating voltage gradient beyond the corona is responsible for accelerating the solar wind away from the Sun." Stephen Smith
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The Great Red Spot on Jupiter surrounded by smaller rotating cells. Credit: Voyager 2/NASA-JPL.
Jupiter's Great Hot Spot

(Mar 19, 2010)
Is the famous gyre on Jupiter the result of atmospheric convection? The red spot in Jupiter's atmosphere has persisted for more than 300 years, at least as long as there have been telescopes on Earth able to see it. The consensus opinion is that it is a cyclonic storm driven by rising heat from below. However, exactly how it was formed and why it has persisted for so long remain a mystery. The oval-shaped spot varies in size, from approximately 19,500 kilometers long to over 39,000 kilometers, with a maximum width of around 21,000 kilometers. In comparison, Earth is 12,800 kilometers in diameter. Wind speeds around its perimeter have been measured at 635 kilometers per hour, twice as fast as a terrestrial tornado. Planetary scientists are not sure what causes its red color. In fact, they are not sure why the gas giant planets exhibit unique overall color schemes. Optical instruments reveal that Neptune has a green color, Uranus a blue, Saturn a pale yellow, and Jupiter a rusty red appearance. A recent announcement from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Paranal, Chile states that their Very Large Telescope (among others) has detected variations in the temperature map of the spot. Observations reveal a warmer region at its center, corresponding to the deepest red color. "Warm" is a relative term in this case, though, since the Great Red Spot's temperature averages -160 Celsius. ESO investigators contend that the warmer areas in the center of the spot's vortex are sufficient to drive its rotation as well as to turn that center a darker red than the rest of the spot. The red color's origin--whether from chemical changes in the atmosphere or upwelling The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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From an Electric Universe perspective, Jupiter's enigmatic markings, especially the Great Red Spot, could have a different origin altogether. Rather than from internally generated heat and convection, Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere might be receiving its energy from an external source. A previous Picture of the Day noted that gigantic "plasma tornadoes," or flux tubes, have been found entering Earth's magnetosphere from space. The flux tubes were discovered by the fleet of THEMIS satellites when they flew through the highly charged structures. The tubes were rotating at more than 1.5 million kilometers per hour and generating over 100,000 amps of electric current flow. What the THEMIS satellites transected in space were multiply twisted electromagnetic fields, the characteristic signature of Birkeland current filaments. Electric fields, no matter how weak, initiate electric currents that, in turn, generate magnetic fields. The fields interact with magnetic fields generated by other currents, forming twisted pairs of filaments named after the one who originally discovered them, Kristian Birkeland. Birkeland currents follow magnetic field lines and draw charged material from their surroundings with a force that can be 39 orders of magnitude greater than gravity. Perhaps what ESO astronomers are witnessing is the influx of plasma filaments into Jupiter's electrically charged environment. In the image accompanying their press release, several bright points surround the red spot in an arc-shaped array. Below the spot is another bright arc-shape, indicative of increased infrared radiation emissions. Birkeland currents rotate around each other, beginning as many strands spinning around a common center in pairs. At first, there might be 56 filaments that merge into 28, then 14, and so on. As more current flows through the circuit, the number of filaments reduces, but each pair becomes more energetic. Where Birkeland currents intersect, z-pinch compression zones occur, glowing brightly as the plasma density increases, releasing abundant thermal (and other) radiation. Rather than upwelling clouds of warm gas, the spot is probably rotating because external electromagnetic fields are influencing the atmosphere. The Great Red Spot, as well as other rotating vortices on Jupiter, could be where Birkeland currents impinge on the giant gas planet. Stephen Smith
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Sulfur-rich soil churned up by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell.
The Quest for Life

(Mar 17, 2010)
Sulfur is an abundant element on Mars. Is it a sign that life once existed there? "My hour is almost come, when I to sulphurous and tormenting flames must render up myself." -- William Shakespeare, Hamlet: Act 1 Scene 5 According to the Electric Universe theory, diversity exists among the Sun's planetary family because they were created from electric discharge events. A gas giant planet or a brown dwarf star ejected the rocky planets because plasma instabilities within the parent body caused it to become overcharged, akin to a short circuit within its structure. In the conventional view known as the Nebular Hypothesis, after stars condense from a diffuse cloud the remaining clumps of dust and gas that are not absorbed by the newly minted star swirl around, attracting more stray bits, until they also condense, but this time into planets. It is said that our own Solar System was created in that way billions of years ago. As has been discussed in previous Pictures of the Day, when a star is under extreme electrical stress it might undergo a process known as "stellar fissioning," so that its surface will increase, absorbing the additional load. When those splits occur, gas giants might form, then smaller planet-sized objects, then moons, then asteroids, and so on. Assuming the fundamental principles of Electric Universe theory to be true, this method of parturition is a credible alternative to the problems associated with the Nebular Hypothesis. Stellar electric discharges are also efficient at sorting elements based on their critical ionization velocities, which can help to explain why planets do not contain the same elemental ratios. Plasma discharges also release neutrons that can form short-lived radioactive elements when they bombard more stable nuclei. Such discharges are also powerful enough to cause transmutation. A recent press release states that certain sulfur compounds might be found on Mars, which will signify that life once existed in the now frozen desolation of its surface. Since microbes on Earth are capable of metabolizing sulfates into sulfides, especially the lighter isotopic The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive compounds, researchers suggest that, if the same materials are found on Mars then they were probably created by bacteria.
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As the press release states, in 2012 NASA plans to launch the Mars Science Laboratory, with a spectrometer sensitive enough to detect the light isotopic sulfides that are found on Earth. They contend that those mineral deposits will be the signature of biological activity. Sulfur has been found throughout the Solar System. The Galileo space probe discovered it on Jupiter's moons Io and Europa. The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit found several deposits on the Red Planet, as well. Does electricity have anything to do with those revelations? As the MER A Spirit traveled through an area of deep powder on the way to "McCool Hill" in 2006, its rear wheel became jammed, causing it to drag instead of spin. The locked wheel churned the ground, uncovering soil high in magnesium sulfate, commonly called "Epsom salt," a white, crystalline compound. The majority of the sulfur on Mars is bound up with iron and magnesium into sulfates that seem to indicate a "long soak in water." Since Mars is conventionally presumed to have been a wet planet at some time in the past, the sulfates provided planetary scientists with a potential confirmation. On Mars, deep channels, ripples and other structures are thought to be the remains of water flowing on the surface, eroding it in the same way as water is believed to erode our planet. It has been proposed that there were oceans of water millions of years ago, so chemicals that form on Earth in the presence of water are presumed to have formed on Mars in the same fashion. Despite the contradictory evidence of mineral deposits that would be destroyed by water, such as olivine, the flowing water hypothesis continues to guide theories of Martian geology. It has been suggested many times in these pages that electric arcs could have sculpted what we see on Mars. Valles Marineris, Olympus Mons, the vast 900 kilometer crater in Argyre Planitia, the terraced mounds in Arabia Terra, as well as both Martian poles demonstrate strong support for the electric discharge theory. In other articles, we concluded that the same powerful electric discharges on Mars could have transmuted silicon into iron and reformed silicon dioxide rock layers into the vast fields of hematite spherules that litter the landscape. Because electric arcs are capable of such transmutation effects, it has also been suggested that Jupiter's electrically active moon, Io, has experienced the transmutation of oxygen from water ice into sulfur, resulting in the gigantic sulfur "volcanoes" that Mar its surface. In reality, according to Electric Universe advocates, the "volcanoes" on Io are the touchdown points where the plasmasphere of Jupiter completes its electrical circuit with its moon. The sulfur on Mars could be from a similar cause, without the need for microbial lifeforms. Mars has no plasma sheath to protect it from solar wind radiation. Instead, electric currents from the Sun impinge directly. If those currents were stronger in the past, all the chemical compounds that have been attributed to water might have appeared when the current flow pulverized the materials, compressed them in z-pinch zones, exposed them to intense shock and magnetic force fields, and then finally deposited them in layers following rapid cathode sputtering. Stephen Smith
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The Alps from space. Could they be a relatively new mountain range and not millions of years old? Credit: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC
Earth Cycles
(Mar 15, 2010)
It is a commonly held belief that events on Earth progress according to cycles. One of the principle tenets of Electric Universe theory is that Earth and the Solar System have experienced catastrophic reordering and resurfacing perhaps as little as 5000 years ago. The time varies, but most adherents to the theory consider 10,000 years ago to be as far back as we need to look for the events to have occurred. Prevailing geological theories state that it took millions, if not billions, of years to arrange the scenery on our planet. Mountains rise in response to mechanisms that are so slow as to be undetectable over all the millennia of human history: the Himalayas, the Alps, and the Rocky Mountains, for example, retain the shapes that were visible to ancient nomadic tribes that wandered the continents in ages past. The seas, it is said, have not left their basins in time spans that have no meaning to the human mind. The Atlantic Ocean has bridged the distance between Africa, Europe, and the Americas for a period greater than the human species has existed on Earth. Rivers, deserts, canyons--all appear to our modern eyes just as they would have appeared to Alexander the Great, Goyathlay, Sargon, or Khufu. The cyclic processes of erosion or sediment deposition are the same today as they were long ago. Most of the current methods for dating artifacts, geologic layers, or fossils are dependent on that hypothesis of gradual, uniform action. What if the uniformitarian hypothesis is incorrect? What would be the ramifications if carbon dating, potassium-argon, or the so-called "geologic column" were not reliable windows to the past? What if the topography of Earth was created in a period of time so short that ancient civilizations were able to record it? What meaning would the Neolithic, or the Jurassic, or the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive Precambrian eras have?
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Coal beds cover millions of square kilometers all over the world. Insects, leaves, trees, rocks, and animal bones are found inside them, although hardly any intact forms exist. The majority are disarticulated, shredded, or crushed. Carbonized trees are sometimes found standing upright in a few coal seams, extending down through many layers that are said to progress through eons of time, 250 to 500 million years. Mineralized trees, called "petrified wood," cover large areas of the American prairie. The prairie, itself, rests on top of gravel deposits in some cases hundreds of meters deep. There are trilobites, pterosaurs, palm trees, fir trees, dragonflies--all preserved for what is said to be millions, hundreds of millions, and even billions of years in a variety of minerals. Some are entangled in mountain-high piles, with multitudes of different species from every era mixed together in a splintered mass. When did these plants and animals, all strong, all "fit," all perfectly adapted to their environments, meet their dooms? What caused the forests to burn, or freeze, and then succumb to petrification? Once again, the primary assumption in the development of dating systems is that the Earth is an isolated planet that does not interact with other celestial bodies. Planetary scientists do say that there have been meteor impacts of staggering size, but nothing like that has taken place for the aforementioned millions of years. The large craters, such as Popigai or Chicxulub, date back to the Jurassic Age. An additional aspect to the uniformitarian hypothesis is that radioactive decay rates have never changed since the radioactive elements were formed, and no alteration to Earth's electric or magnetic fields have taken place. Geologists rely on a smooth, continuous clock ticking off the millennia at a measurable rate. If that is not the case, then the Age of the Dinosaurs, or the formation of the ocean basins, could have occurred at any point in the past, or over any length of time. It seems possible that plasma interactions with Earth and other charged bodies in space or the impact on our biosphere from ion beams could disrupt all the elemental changes that are used to date rocks. Earth could be much younger than the billions of years commonly ascribed to it, or much older. If Electric Universe concepts are found to be more reasonable than previous theories, that cataclysmic events completely overturned the familiar environment that older peoples experienced, then we have no "clocks" and no "calendars" to use, except those that came into being a mere 100 generations ago. Stephen Smith
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Left: Diagram and Animation of the solar wind interacting with the atmosphere of Venus. Credit: ESA/C. Carreau. Right: Close up of Ankhsunamuns 'comet crown on the back of Tutankhamuns throne.
Velikovsky's Comet Venus

(Mar 12, 2010)
Immanuel Velikovsky concluded from his extensive interdisciplinary research that the planet Venus was remembered from the time of the dawn of civilization as a brilliant cometary body. While there is a wealth of literary sources to draw upon, when it comes to the pictorial evidence it isnt as forthcoming. No images can be conclusively identified as actually representing Venus in cometary form, a situation that essentially shouldnt exist. After all, it stands to reason that it was naked eye observations that primarily inspired the myths. So, at the very least the imagery should be equal to or analogous to the literary sources but this clearly isnt the case. Have we overlooked something? Is it possible images of Comet Venus have been staring us in the face for decades? The image on the right has been taken from the back of Tutankhamuns throne. It depicts the wife of king Tut, Ankhsunamun. The queen is shown wearing a very distinctive crown consisting of a disk surmounted by cow horns and two tall plumes. This unusual headdress made its appearance in the New Kingdom and features prominently in Egyptian art - numerous queens can be seen sporting this particular crown. Although the actual shape or outline remained constant (for approximately 900 years), there exist a few variants to the colours shown. For example, the disk was predominantly painted the traditional Egyptian deep red, the horns normally black, while the plumes can be gold, a plain yellow, or blue and without the filaments. Like most Egyptian crowns encompassing a sphere, it somehow represents an aspect of the sun, or so the conventional way of thinking goes. This is a perplexing line of thought since the Sun is a golden glaring ball--it doesnt have cow horns wrapped around it and most certainly exhibits no signs of enormous cometary tails. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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It is apparent even to the uninitiated that what we are looking at here is a comet--a large comet with a plumed tail. Furthermore, if Egyptian art is used as a measure of time, this comet graced our skies for nearly a thousand years. It is carved, painted, and represented in statues the length and breadth of the Nile valley. Even the legendary Cleopatra wore this headdress. Could this particular crown be a true-life physical representation of proto-Venus as it appeared in ancient times? To quote Wal Thornhill: 'In the electrical model of the solar system, any body on a sufficiently eccentric orbit about the Sun will exhibit cometary features. For ancient people to have seen Venus as an Earth-threatening comet, Venus must have had an eccentric orbit that brought the planet near to Earth'. Are we looking at Velikovskys comet Venus? Comparing the comet crown with the Venus diagram on the left reveals some fundamental similarities, far too close to be deemed coincidental. In fact, for all intents and purposes they are virtually identical! The orb represents the body of Venus: the horns signify the bow shock as the solar wind slams into the Venusian surface, enveloping its body due to a lack of an intrinsic magnetic field. The two large plumes represent Venus magnetotail--split in two and flowing downstream at least three times its diameter. The image on the left is just a diagram, and today Venus comet tail can only be detected by magnetometers and charged particle detectors. However, place Venus on an eccentric orbit in a highly charged dusty environment and the normally invisible magnetotail (and bow shock) would become highly visible. Wal Thornhill commenting on Venus cometary magnetotail: 'A power surge in those filaments today would cause them to glow, and Venus would form a "stupendous" cometary apparition in the sky. The forensic evidence would stand up in court, showing that Venus was a comet within human memory'. Science is slowly proving Velikovsky to be correct in a number of areas. Perhaps with the comet crown of ancient Egypt we now have the pictorial evidence to match. Contributed by Gary Gilligan
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William West, The Israelites passing through the Wilderness, Preceded by the Pillar of Light (1845), K4234, Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery, Bristol, United Kingdom. The use of this painting does not necessarily mean that the author identifies the Biblical column of light as a form of the axis mundi.
The Sunbeam of Yore

(Mar 10, 2010)
Virtually every culture on earth preserved traditions of a stupendous sky-reaching column that mythologists collectively refer to as the axis mundi or world axis -- a theme that can now be understood with the help of plasma science. Numerous elements in the traditional descriptions of cosmic pillars are entirely meaningless had they been inspired by the earths rotational axis, the Milky Way or the ecliptic in their present forms. One such puzzling trait is the widespread belief that the column emitted a dazzling radiance comparable only to the lightning or the sun. The Sumerians were wont to eulogise their temples by comparison to the prototype of a cosmic mountain endowed with the lustre of Utu, the sun god. For example, Gudea, ruler of Laga (22nd century BCE), "made Ning irsus house come out like the sun from the clouds" so that it "rises like the sun over the Land illuminates the assembly like a delightful moonlight The house is a great mountain reaching up to the skies. It is Utu filling the midst of the heavens " In Hindism, the cosmic Mount Meru, surmounted by the supreme abode of Viu, was thought to be "brighter than sun and fire" and "is difficult to see for the Gods and Dnavas because of its splendor. When they reach there, even the celestial luminaries no longer shine, for the Lord of undaunted spirit outshines them by himself." The late medieval Jewish Zohar, which is the classic textbook of Qabbl, made no bones of the belief that the tree of life "is the Sun which illumines all. Its radiance commences at the top and extends through the whole trunk in a straight line." A millennium earlier and applied to the cross of Christ, the Christian St. Ephrem the Syrian ( 373 CE) similarly mused: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive Perhaps that blessed tree, the Tree of Life, is, by its rays, the sun of Paradise.
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Indian philosophers stated with respect to the holy fig tree Avattha, which is another form of the sky tree, that "Its light is the yonder sun," "that indeed is called the Bright, that is called Brahman, that alone is called the Immortal. All worlds are contained in it " One poet declared: "I know that great person (purusha) of sunlike lustre beyond the darkness. This whole universe is filled by this person (purusha), to whom there is nothing superior, from whom there is nothing different, than whom there is nothing smaller or larger, who stands alone, fixed like a tree in the sky." Drawing on Hindism, a Javanese tradition had it that Kalpataru, Kalpavksa or Prijta was "a golden wish-tree shining like the sun." On Kiribati, Micronesia, "the beam of wood that had lifted the sky" was styled "the First Tree, the Ancestor Sun." And the Desana people, of Brazilian Amazonia, submitted that "the creative Sun holds and carries the cosmos, of which it is the center or axis, as the spine holds and carries the body It is the sun axis that holds together the upper, middle, and lower worlds The sun axis is the phallus, our world to be fertilized is the vulva " The scintillating quality of the mysterious object ancient myth-makers described as a tree, a rock or a giant man rising up to heaven is a strong indication that the original referent was a plasma phenomenon. That the solar system, like the rest of space, is inundated with plasma, mostly in a very rarefied state, has now been well established. Plasmas shift from a dark mode, invisible to the human eye, to a glow mode and then to an ultra-bright arc mode under increasing electrical strain. Since lightning as well as the sun consist of visible plasma, it is understandable that prehistoric eye-witnesses of an aurora-like illumination of the earths magnetosphere, in their effors to capture the experience in words, would resort to the terminology of lightning or solar irradiation distinct from the quotidian sun. Indeed, the hypothesised plasma tube that once emanated from one or both of the earths magnetic poles must at times have emitted synchrotron radiation. Synchrotron radiation is defined as electromagnetic emission generated whenever electrons moving at a speed almost identical to the speed of light come into the presence of a magnetic field or a component thereof that lies at an angle to their path, forcing these so-called relativistic electrons to perform a circular or helical motion around the magnetic field lines. Excepting man-made light using modern technology, any such radiation emitted at visible wavelengths is, under todays tranquil conditions, derived from extremely remote sources such as the Crab Nebula M1 in the constellation of Taurus and the jet coming from the elliptical galaxy M87 in Virgo. It now appears, however, that the earths biosphere was also bombarded with a much closer source of visible synchrotron radiation light during the Neolithic period light so unbearably bright to the unprotected human eye, and arguably lethal in many cases, that human observers keen on watching or recording the unfolding forms were forced to occupy positions where shields such as rock formations or trees would conceal the brightest sources of synchrotron radiation. From a human perspective, the closest imaginable match for the ineffable intensity of this light is the lightning or the full-blown radiance of an unobtruded sun.
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"Starry Night" by Vincent van Gogh
First Sight
(Mar 05, 2010)
Over a century ago, doctors invented a procedure to remove cataracts from peoples eyes. Among their first patients were people who had been blind from birth. The surgery enabled them to see for the first time as though they were newborn. But unlike newborns, they had acquired language and so were able to tell the doctors what they were experiencing. They didnt see "things" that were "out there"; they saw meaningless moving patches of color. The patches were not just confusing in themselves, they caused confusion with other senses as well. The newly sighted persons understandings of the world were disrupted. They had to make sense of it all over again. The patients had to learn how to interpret those color patches in ways that were compatible with their other sensations. This entailed developing new concepts of "things"--groups of sensations combined into a unitary concept--that could be interrelated in a concept of "space." For the most part, they had no concept of space. It also required "unlearning" many concepts of things and relationships that had been developed without visual sensations. The old concepts couldnt accommodate the new visual sensations. The task was difficult. Some patients gave up, closed their eyes, and returned to their old life in the home for the blind. The doctors were surprised to discover that seeing--the understanding of visual sensations as "things" in "space"--was something that had to be learned. By the time most of us can talk about it, weve taken it for granted. We take the metaphor literally: seeing is understanding, no interpretation or theory seems to be needed. In the last few decades, astronomers have developed instruments that provide us with The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive sensations never before experienced. Telescopes detect "light" from radio to gamma-ray frequencies. Space probes provide points of view far from the surface of the Earth.
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The new instruments have removed the "cataracts" of our biological sensory limitations, and we perceive for the first time patches of new colors. We must learn again how to see new things in a new space. Not surprisingly, the experts in the old way of seeing are having a hard time learning, and many are taking refuge in the home of blind astronomy. The more we look at the lights in the sky, the more we see that they are like the electric lights on Earth. But understanding what that means requires work: The full metaphor must be created. Nerves must combine sensations in new ways. The old dog must learn new tricks. What will it mean to say "stars are electric lights"? We must first unlearn "stars are thermonuclear furnaces" and "stars are mass and gas." We must figure out just how "stars are loads in a circuit" and "stars are charges in plasma." The space age has opened new eyes that are giving us the first sight of an Electric Universe. We must respond with a new insight. Mel Acheson
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A manashi or traditional storyteller at Karakol, Kyrgyzstan, July 2002. Simon Garbutt
The Voice of the Peoples

(Mar 03, 2010)
Most scholars have traditionally assumed that mythology arose from a primitive inability to understand forces that we now comprehend. But an alternative view has gained considerable support from plasma science. This view holds that our forebears witnessed intense electrical phenomena beyond anything occurring today. Plasma mythology works from the understanding that many myth lines, including the global themes of creation mythology, were ultimately based on eye-witness accounts of complex near-earth plasmas accompanying prehistoric geomagnetic storms of unimaginable magnitude. As such, plasma mythology effectively represents a contemporary revival of the nature schools of mythology that were in vogue in the academic world until the meteoric rise of Freuds and Jungs ideas. The extraordinary advantage of a naturalist theory of myth, especially a catastrophist one, is that it does not make a mockery of the traditional insistence of indigenous cultures that creation mythology embodies true history. On the contrary, in contrast to the dominant theories of the 20th century, plasma mythology offers an approach that traditional non-western societies can potentially sympathise with. In identifying genuine natural phenomena that May have caused events remembered in myths, plasma mythology places itself much closer to the typical uncultured understanding of what the myths were about than did the theories of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, mile Durkheim, Georges Dumzil, Claude Lvi-Strauss, and a bevy of others. Though these authorities did, of course, offer some very insightful ideas as they charted the psychological, sociological and neurological dimensions of myth, they systematically missed the historical The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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essence of their sources, pushing their own interpretations in an arrogant academic spirit of Besserwisserei. This happened at the expense of the very explicit claims of traditional peoples that the mythical events were real historical occurrences that genuinely explain how the present state of the world has evolved from an earlier one. At a loss to make sense of such claims, the big names in the comparative mythology of the 20th century have had to ignore or deny such claims of historicity, thereby distancing themselves from the native, literal understanding that prevailed practically everywhere until reason stepped in. Insofar as the present endeavour initially involves little more than just listening in to traditional reports and distilling recurring patterns from the welter of data, without imposing too many a priori assumptions, it takes a much closer and, arguably, more respectful stance towards indigenous understanding of creation myths in particular. One must dismiss an absolutely literal interpretation of myths, according to which the sky would have been populated with real talking animals and hybrid creatures, and is forced to embrace a symbolic reading of the myths, recognising that a dragon, a serpent or a mythical ancestor May really refer to a natural prototype that resembled a snake or a person. The fluidity of mythical metaphors, if anything, dictates such a symbolic understanding. The essential difference with the psychosociological paradigms of the past century is that these metaphors must have been inspired primarily by real, visible phenomena in nature, not by abstract patterns in the unconscious mind. So the type of symbolism of which the mythical narrative is woven together is much more visual than abstract. On that provision, plasma mythology takes the historicity of mythical events and the reliability of the reports much more seriously than its intellectual precursors have done, who typically had to resort to excessive measures of poetic elaboration, exaggeration and superstition while making a laughing stock of ethnic naivety. Plasma mythologists are not alone in vindicating traditional claims of historicity in myths; geomythologists and those who recognise mythical reflexes of cometary apparitions participate in the same Renaissance of mythological theory. Bruce Masse is an environmental archaeologist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, who has done particularly much to drive this home, writing: "The scientific study of myth is dominated by a paradigm that recognizes myth as having been viewed as truthful narrative history by past traditional cultures and yet is considered false or otherwise suspect by the modern scholars who study myth. Although virtually all scholars recognize that myth was of critical importance for traditional cultures, the attempt to elicit scientific reasons for this importance has led to many competing theories, few of which place an emphasis on the validity of myths as representing the product of actual observed historical natural events. This paradox May hinder our understanding of the origins of myth and prevent us from fully appreciating a critical aspect of why myth was so highly valued by past cultures." Masse continued: "Myths are cultural accounts of major events that typically happened in the remote past of that culture, when the world was different to today. They are considered truthful by the traditional knowledge keepers who transmit the stories, and mostly are profoundly sacred or at least are imbued with strong religious and ritual overtones. The fact that virtually all traditional knowledge keepers believe myths (and legends) to be historically true whereas nearly all scientists presume they do not represent factual historical events is a disquieting conundrum that tells us more about the biases of western science than the nature of myth. The great diversity of the scholarly works on myth The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive shows that, although being one of the most studied subjects in the history of the social sciences and the humanities, it has not yet been entirely understood. At the crux of this confusion is the simple and straightforward question of whether or not the storyline content of myth has any basis in historical events or processes."
Masse went on to present his own take, which agrees with ours: "It can be demonstrated beyond any doubt that at least some myths and categories of myth are based on the observation of specific real natural phenomena and events that can be accurately placed in both space and time and can be linked to various types of physical evidence for the historical event." And: "Astronomy shares with the Earth sciences a kindred relationship in that both can be used not only to demonstrate the reality of many myths but also to serve as vehicles by which to mine myths for important information about these natural processes and events " The respective fields of enquiry that explore the reflexes of such natural phenomena in the sky and on earth can be labelled cosmomythology versus geomythology. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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NGC 346. Credit: ESO
Hot Neon
(Mar 01, 2010)
NGC 346 (image above) is a cluster of stars immersed in glowing filaments of plasma. The press release sees in the new image "massive stars" that have thrown off "light, wind and heat," which has "dispersed the glowing gas." Once again, astronomers see what they believe and talk about blowing hot air. The press release elaborates: "gas within [the nebula] has been heated up by stars until the gas emits its own light, just like the neon gas used in electric store signs." One must wonder if the experts at ESO know how neon signs operate. Have they been so expertly conditioned by their years of indoctrination with gravity and gas that they are unaware of electricity as a natural phenomenon? One recalls the conference at which a wellknown astronomer declared, "Of course theres electricity in space; it just doesnt do anything." Neon signs are powered externally by a high-voltage source of electricity. Most people would guess thats why theyre called "electric store signs." The strong electric field between the electrodes at each end of the tube ionizes the neon, and the continuous recombination and re-ionization of electrons and ions produces the light. The electric current supplies the energy for the light, not some internal thermal source that has "heated up" the "gas." Thermal energy is due to random motions of atoms and molecules; in an electric current, electrons move toward one electrode, ions toward the other, and random motion is minimized. Hence, a cool "gas"--actually a plasma--can emit radiation. Converting the energy of that radiation into a "temperature" as though it were emitted by a thermal source is fundamentally misleading. It is at this level of epistemic awareness (or unawareness!) that experts can be misled by The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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what they believe into seeing what isnt there and not seeing what is. The difference between a neon light in space and a neon light in a store is the fervency of belief in applying Newtons Laws or Maxwells Laws. The choice of laws to apply to explain a phenomenon is determined more by conformity with politically dominant interests than by criteria of truth. Especially with phenomena in deep space, there are few if any consequences to explanations: a fib is as good as a truth, and getting along with ones colleagues becomes the only criterion that matters. Scientific truth is a thin layer of frosting on the cupcake of scientific politics. The electricians who string wires through the store would be surprised to hear that the wires are only decorative: the neon signs are obviously powered by tiny nuclear furnaces in their hot, dense cores; the electricity in the wires doesnt "do anything." But seeing wires in stores as decorative is "just like" seeing the filaments in NGC 346 as not "doing anything." An astronomer who is aware of plasma phenomena will see in this image Birkeland currents powering an "electric store sign" of the galaxy. Mel Acheson
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The Fornax dwarf galaxy. Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2
Primitive Stars and Galactic Eggs

(Feb 24, 2010)
A new method of comparing stellar spectra with computer models enables astronomers to distinguish primitive stars--ones that formed shortly after the Big Bang--from younger stars with similar compositions. In the Electric Universe, the distinction is irrelevant. In the Gravity Universe, primitive clouds of hydrogen collapse under their own gravity into stars. Thermonuclear reactions in the cores of the stars cook the hydrogen into heavier elements. The stars explode and fling the heavier elements into space, seeding nearby hydrogen clouds with the heavier elements. When those clouds collapse, their stars will show increased amounts of heavier elements in their spectra--what astronomers call metallicity. Primitive aggregations of primitive stars (generally dwarf galaxies) merge into larger galaxies. Spiral arms develop from gas clouds seeded by supernovae in the dwarfs, producing the two populations of stars: redder lower-metallicity Population II stars in the galactic centers and bluer higher-metallicity Population I stars in the arms. Roughly and generally speaking, metallicity indicates age since the Big Bang: the higher the metallicity, the more the material has been "processed" since it was first created. In the Electric Universe, a star forms in a pinch in an interstellar Birkeland current. The nature of the stellar "surface"--the region that generates most of the stars radiation--will depend on such factors as the electrical stress and the current density: stars like the Sun will have a photosphere of hot anode tufts, a kind of electrical tornado. Red giants will have an extended chromosphere of cooler anode glow discharge. So-called white dwarfs will have not so much a surface as a diffuse x-ray producing region: they will appear rather like the Sun would appear if it consisted solely of its corona. A pinch pulls in surrounding matter and tends to sort it into shells of elements with similar The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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ionization potentials: Helium on the outside, hydrogen and oxygen in the middle, iron and silicon toward the center. The region in which the stellar "surface" forms will show the effects of this sorting. Furthermore, the high electrical potentials of the surfaces accelerate ions to the point of nucleosynthesis, much as a linear accelerator does in a lab. Heavier elements are cooked at the stars surface, not in its core. Metallicity is more an indication of how long a star has been cooking rather than "primitiveness," a notion that has no meaning in an Electric Universe. The relationship of electric galaxies to electric stars is just the reverse of the gravity relationship. In the Electric Universe, galaxies come first and stars "hatch" from them. A galaxy begins with an interaction between two (or more) intergalactic Birkeland currents. When far apart, the currents attract each other; when close, they repel. They tend to spiral around a common axis with a constant speed at some equilibrium distance. Fluctuations at some closest approach will generate a "hot spot" pinch in each current, which will pull surrounding matter toward it. Secondary pinches will further condense the matter into stars. (Birkeland currents tend to be composed of tubes of smaller-scale current filaments, each of which is a tube of still smaller current threads.) Heavier elements tend to accumulate toward the hot spots. Gas, dust, and stars that escape from or are ejected by the hot spots trail behind, forming the spiral arms. This combination of increased metallicity and higher current densities produces the typical spiral arm composition of Population I stars, nebulae, dust, and star-forming regions. Because the rotation is driven by the electrical forces in the Birkeland currents, the stars in the arms share in the nearly constant speed of the rotating hot spots. This explains the observation of flat rotation curves that in the Gravity Universe require halos of dark matter several times more massive than the visible galaxies. Between the hot spots, matter--largely hydrogen--accumulates in a "sump," which becomes the galaxys nuclear bulge. The electrical stress is lower in this sump than in the arms, and so the stars are cooler and their light is redder. These conditions--abundance of hydrogen and low current density--are what produce the Population II stars. Outlying dwarf galaxies are likely to be sparks, or leakage currents, thrown off by the primary discharge, or they May be intermediate stages of ejected quasars that are evolving into companion galaxies.
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Credit: ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA & R. Gendler. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit
Orions Thunderbolt
(Feb 17, 2010)
The European Southern Observatorys newest telescope, VISTA (Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy), highlights the distinction between looking and seeing. The telescopes ability to look in infrared wavelengths is counteracted by astronomers inability to see the images as anything but familiar theory. The press release announcing the recent observation of the Orion Nebula (above: optical on left, infrared on right) sees in the image "clouds" and "clearings" in a "gas": "a cloud of gas," "deeply embedded in dust clouds," "curious red features," "gas streams collide with the surrounding gas," "hot young stars pumping out fierce ultraviolet radiation that is clearing the surrounding region and making the gas glow." The Electric Universe sees filaments--parallel filaments, twisting filaments, braided filaments, filaments everywhere--a feature that the press release didnt even notice, much less find "curious." Of special interest are the evenly spaced coronal "hairs" along and perpendicular to the central column of dusty plasma between the upper and lower "bubbles" or cells of plasma (the "clearings"). These are indications of a high electrical potential between the central discharge channel and the surrounding region. The z-pinch forces of the central current not only constrict it into its columnar form but also pull in surrounding dust, ions, and neutral matter. The increased density is why the region is optically opaque. Pinch instabilities along the secondary filaments of current that make up the columnar current further constrict the plasma into the "curious red features"--the beginnings of electric stars. The plasma "bubbles" at each end of the dusty column are sheath-like enclosures of double layers, similar to the cells of plasma within the "funnels" at each end of the pinches that generate planetary nebulas. Consensus astronomers see a "clearing" because the only mechanism available to them is the pressure from light. Plasma theory has the much stronger The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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and more differentiated mechanisms of electric fields. Compare, for example, the force of light as demonstrated by an electroscope with the force of electromagnetic fields as demonstrated by an electric motor. The form of a column with a bubble at each end will remind those who are familiar with plasma discharge phenomena of the squatter figures in petroglyphs. It also shows the characteristic form of the thunderbolt of myth as represented in art and artifacts around the world. The mythical thunderbolt was planet-size and reputedly dropped lumps of stone and iron on the Earth. The Orion Nebula is a super-stellar-size thunderbolt that is dropping stars. The consensus theory sees in the Orion Nebula meteorological metaphors, theoretical deductions, and obsolete presumptions. The Electric Universe sees in the Orion Nebula the same phenomena that occur in a so-called "gas discharge" tube and that can be tested in a laboratory. The next step for the reader is to decide how he wants to see what hes looking at. Mel Acheson
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Depiction of an aurora formed of numerous pencil like rays above a cloud of stars, as seen on 12. January 1570 in Bohemia. Germanisches National museum, Nrnberg.
What on Earth ?
(Feb 15, 2010)
A comparative study of the world's creation myths suggests that the created "earth" May have been a plasma formation in the sky, appearing as the "dwelling of the gods." The earth occupies a prominent place in human traditions about the creation of the world. Myths supply many details about its purported creation, while a familiar refrain in the worlds religions is that the gods used to dwell on earth before their eventual departure into the sky. For example, according to an ancient Egyptian myth, the sun god, R, originally ruled on earth as a king. The San people, of the Kalahari Desert, had it that "In the earliest days the sun lived among the tribes of the bush" and "was like other men." Scores of variations on this theme are on record. Insuperable difficulties arise for the interpretation of such traditions if it is assumed that the earth in such traditions literally represents the surface of our planet. Were that the case, the global belief that celestial bodies such as the sun, the moon, the planets or the stars formerly inhabited the earth would become risible. And the numerous specific details supplied in creation mythology regarding the construction and shape of the earth would evade any meaningful explanation that the earth was a flat disc formed through radial expansion from a single starting point; that a circular snake surrounded its perimeter; that it had a hole at its centre; that four columns rose up from it to support the sky at the cardinal points; and so forth. At the same time, it cannot be denied that, in many of such traditions, the tradition keepers and chroniclers themselves honestly believed the reference was to the actual earth. What is going on here? An intellectually indolent solution is that such myths concerning the earth are simply imaginative, nave, artistic or deluded. But before this conclusion is reached, it is worth contemplating the idea that numerous anomalous traditions about the earth are really concerned with past transient phenomena in the atmosphere, too distant to rank as geology, but close enough from a pre-scientific point of view to warrant a contrast between this The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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terrestrial part of space and the sky populated by stars and planets. The advantage of this hypothesis is that abstruse stories of the origin and the features of this earth qualify as potentially reliable eye-witness accounts of real events, that transpired during the early Holocene and have nothing to do with the beginning of geological time or life. The strongest support for this subtle reinterpretation of the term earth in mythological and early scientific descriptions is the complete typological symmetry between earth mythology and the mythology of a land, a paradise or an abode of mythical beings at once described as gods and souls of deceased ancestors in the sky. A rich tapestry of structural similarities between the mythical sky land and the earth suggests that one and the same place is being referred to consistently. A very widespread traditional belief is that the sky is really a solid plane extended over the earth, which itself forms the surface of another land or earth. In many cases, the former presence of a deity on the apex of a sky-reaching tree or mountain is expressed mythically as the beings residence on the earth. According to the ancient Greek mythographers, the gathering of the Olympian gods on the peak of Mount Olympus amounted to their dwelling in heaven and the very word Olympus itself developed into a synonym for ouranos or sky. The indigenous people of the Andaman Islands held that the creator, Pluga-, used to live on the summit of the local Saddle Peak, yet this same location was described as "the sky." The Ashanti, of Ghana, stated with respect to the supreme god that "Long, long ago Onyankpo lived on earth, or at least was very near to us." The story makes it clear that the gods dwelling on earth was really his existence in the atmosphere, in close proximity to the earth. And so on. In some cases, a comparison between different narrations of the same myth bears out that the mythical earth was really a celestial region. The Seneca, a branch of the Iroquois from New York state, contended that "the earth was the thought of the Indian Ruler of a great island which floats in space. This mythical island of the Iroquois is a place of eternal peace. In its abundance there are no burdens to weary; in its fruitfulness all needs are endlessly provided. To its perpetual calm death never comes, and to its tranquillity, no desire, no sorrow nor pain." This paradise was home to "one stately tree that branched beyond the range of visions" and must be interpreted as a form of the axis mundi. The story goes on to tell how the uprooting of this cosmic tree led to the creation of the oeh-da, the present earth, below the "floating island" in space. Tellingly, whereas Harriet Converse, in her recording of this myth, had described the original land "in space" as the "earth," John Hewitt, an anthropologist of the Tuscarora nation, had more directly situated this land in the sky: "The dwelling place of these first great primal beings was conceived to have been on the upper surface of the visible sky, which was regarded as a solid plane. Here dwelt these first beings in peace and contentment for a very long period of time; no one knows or ever knew the length of this first cosmic period of tranquil existence." Other versions of the same Iroquois myth offer: "A long time ago human beings lived high up in what is now called heaven." And: "Before this earth came into existence there were human beings who dwelt in the center of the sky above. In the middle of the village in the sky stood a tree which was covered with white blossoms." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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How does this work on a physical level? A promising possibility is that near-earth plasmas of a very high intensity, owing visibility due to synchrotron radiation, once assumed semi-stable forms that gave terrestrial skywatchers the impression of a magical and lively landscape with distinct features. If todays aurorae are capable of inspiring visions of battles and sports enacted by multitudes of spirits in the sky, plasma activities on a larger order of magnitude would certainly be so. In most cases, the issue is not really a case of mistranslating the word for earth, but of the difficulty to describe a distinct circumscribed area in near-earth space that is no longer visible. Interestingly, Plato faced a similar lexical challenge in his discussion of the ideal earth as opposed to what we regard as the earth. In his dialogue Phaedo, he introduced Socrates on his deathbed, explaining that the surface of the earth in optima forma is not at the level of the elements of earth and water, inhabited by us, but higher up, where the element of air gives way to that of fire: " we dwell in a hollow of the earth and think we dwell on its upper surface; and the air we call the heaven, and think that is the heaven in which the stars move. But the fact is the same, that by reason of feebleness and sluggishness, we are unable to attain to the upper surface of the air; that is the real heaven and the real light and the real earth." Had Socrates lived today, he would probably have said that the earths boundary is defined by its magnetosphere, not by the orb on which we live. And it is precisely in this region that, in prehistoric times, heightened electromagnetic activity May have produced aurora-like formations suggestive of a land of gods and ancestors. This proposition furnishes an elegant explanation of myths concerning gods and stars that formerly lived on earth as well as concerning people that formerly lived in the sky. As a disclaimer, none of this rules out that some mythical materials relate to the geological history of the earth itself. There are vast classes of traditions such as the myths about the deluge, fossils, orogenesis and the formation of river beds that seem equally amenable to geological and atmospheric explanations. Perhaps a direct physical connection must eventually be assumed between certain energetic forces in the atmosphere and some geological events. A careful and uninhibited examination of the sources is the only way forward. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Credit: X-ray:NASA/CXC/SAO/P. Green et al., Optical: Carnegie Obs./Magellan/W.Baade Telescope/J.S.Mulchaey et al.
Quasars: Massive or Charged?

(Feb 12, 2010)
Consensus theories of the cosmos presume that mass is the fundamental quality with which to explain phenomena. For example, quasars are considered to be massive accretions of matter into supermassive black holes at a galaxys nucleus. Because mass attracts mass, astronomers easily imagine that galaxies attract galaxies and that collisions, mergers, and tidal disruptions are common. Merging galaxies should massively increase the matter accreting into their nuclear black holes, and so astronomers expected to see many binary quasars among the collisions. Until recently, they have been disappointed. However, a new series of images has found two close quasars in the midst of two close galaxies with distorted tails (image above). The tails could be nothing other than tidal disruptions from the merging of the galaxies, and the quasars are therefore indisputable confirmation of consensus theory. Should anyone have any doubts, a computer simulation of merging galaxies has "corroborated this conclusion." "The model verifies the merger origin for this binary quasar system," averred the model-maker. Consensus, of course, being a massive merger of opinion, seldom takes notice of wisps of dissent. But those who read marginalia will spot a few disagreements. To corroborate appears to mean to program a computer with the same assumptions used to interpret observations and to generate features similar to the observations. (But what else can you do with an object thats so far away you cant stick your thumb in the pie to test it as Jack Horner did?) "The model verifies the merger" is one of those wheels of logic that provides exercise for astrophysical gerbils. Another comment questions the certainty that "tailsare a sure signof an ongoing galaxy merger." One can be sure of any belief merely by pumping up ones fervency. But a scientific theory should be instead reliable, which requires alternative theories to be sought out and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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tested as well: What else could the phenomenon be under other assumptions? The consensus theories appear to produce excuses instead of tests. Readers of this site will likely think of several alternatives that could provide tests for reliability of the "sure signs." The Electric Universe is one of several alternative plasma theories that presume charge is the fundamental quality with which to explain phenomena. It takes a hint provided at the end of the press release (first link above) that "the galaxy disks both appear to be nearly face-on to Earth" and "the X-rays from Chandra show no signs of absorption by intervening gas or dust." In the Electric Universe, quasars are plasmoids ejected, usually along the spin axis, from a plasma focus mechanism in a galaxys nucleus. A face-on disk means that we are looking down the barrel. An ejected quasar would appear projected against the galaxys core. It would be interesting to obtain a spectrum of the tails apart from the central quasars to see if they have a lower redshift. If they do, this would be another instance of a higher-redshift quasar in front of a lower-redshift galaxy. Of course, the two quasars May instead be part of a fragmented ejection (from an active galaxy outside the field of view) and are starting to evolve into companion galaxies. After all, they lie on the eastern edge of the Virgo Cluster, where much ejection activity is occurring.
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Schematic representation of the axis mundi. Seong Hee Jo.
More Than Meets the Eye

(Feb 10, 2010)
While the axis mundi is only a geometric notion with no physical substance, a smattering of mythological and early cosmological traditions describe it as a conspicuous luminous column endowed with a large number of specific morphological features. In astronomical terms, the axis mundi or world axis is the imaginary line that extends outward into space from the rotational poles of the earth. From a viewpoint on earth, it marks the celestial pole, around which the stars and planets appear to rotate in a daily cycle. From the Roman period onwards, natural philosophers were well aware of the theoretical nature of the axis existence. The Roman astrologer, Marcus Manilius (1st century CE) spoke of the tenuis axis, the "insubstantial axis" that "controls the universe, keeping it pivoted at opposite poles." He elaborated on the "insubstantial" nature of the axis: "Yet the axis is not solid with the hardness of matter, nor does it possess massive weight such as to bear the burden of the lofty firmament; but since the entire atmosphere ever revolves in a circle, and every part of the whole rotates to the place from which it once began, that which is in the middle, about which all moves, so insubstantial that it cannot turn round itself or even submit to motion or spin in circular fashion, this men have called the axis, since, motionless itself, it yet sees everything spinning about it." Much later, the African writer Martianus Capella (5th century CE) also commented on the theoretical nature of the axis mundi as well as the poles: "I myself do not consider an axis and poles, which mortals have fastened in a bronze armillary sphere to assist them in comprehending the heavens, as an authoritative The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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guide to the workings of the universe. For there is nothing more substantial than the earth itself, which is able to sustain the heavens. Another reason is that the poles that protrude from the hollow cavity of the perforated outer sphere, and the apertures, the pivots, and the sockets have to be imagined something that you May be assured could not happen in a rarefied and supramundane atmosphere. Accordingly, whenever I shall use the terms axis, poles, or celestial circles, for the purpose of gaining comprehension, my terminology is to be understood in a theoretical sense " Centuries later, again, the anonymous author of a tract attributed to the Venerable Bede (12th century CE) observed with respect to the earth that "an intelligible line passes through the middle of it from the arctic pole to the antarctic." So far, so good. The intellectual challenge arises upon the discovery that, while the axis is only a geometric notion with no physical substance, a smattering of mythological and early cosmological traditions describe it as a conspicuous luminous column endowed with a large number of specific morphological features. At the outset, it is important to acknowledge the distinction between the astronomical definition of the axis, as above, and the way the same term is often used in anthropological and archaeological literature. Scholars in the humanities typically employ the term axis mundi in the loose sense of a roughly vertical and stationary connection between sky and earth that is mythically expressed as a radiant tree, mountain, pillar, ladder, rope, giant, and so on. In this sense, which was popularised by Mircea Eliade in particular, the polar location of the sky pillar is rarely specified. The mythological and cosmological literature worldwide is replete with references to the axis mundi in the loose, generic sense of the word in the form of stories and statements concerning the former existence of a stupendous visible linkage between the realms of the sky and the earth. Yet even much rarer reports concerning the world axis in the strict astronomical sense occasionally portray the column as a visible entity. An example of the latter is the famous pillar of Er described in Platos dialogue The Republic. In this, Socrates recounts the phenomena a certain Er of Pamphylia had observed during what would nowadays be diagnosed as a Near-Death Experience: " they came in four days to a spot whence they discerned, extended from above throughout the heaven and the earth, a straight light like a pillar, most nearly resembling the rainbow, but brighter and purer. To this they came after going forward a days journey, and they saw there at the middle of the light the extremities of its fastenings stretched from heaven; for this light was the girdle of the heavens like the undergirders of triremes, holding together in like manner the entire revolving vault. And from the extremities was stretched the spindle of Necessity, through which all the orbits turned." This description is fairly arcane, perhaps because Socrates needed to speak in concealed terms to safeguard him from hidebound politicians. Nevertheless, its astronomical intent is beyond dispute and a number of ancient as well as modern commentators were agreed that the awesome "straight light like a pillar" was the axis mundi, around which the fixed stars and planets revolved in circles. Historians of astronomy have argued over the question whether Plato conceived of the axis as an imaginary line or as a solid object. The Neo-Platonic philosopher, Proclus Lycaeus (412-485 CE), who headed the Platonic Academy in Athens for some time, rejected the interpretation of the pillar of Er as the axis mundi on the ground of the axis palpable invisibility: For to think, as some of our predecessors have done, that the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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world axis was meant by the light is quite absurd. What sort of a light is the axis really, or how does it have a colour more radiant than the rainbow, as it is an incorporeal force? With the advent of the Space Age and the emergence of plasma cosmology, it is high time to revisit the issue and enquire whether a column more lustrous than the rainbow could have marked the polar regions of the atmosphere at a time in the past, long before Manilius and Proclus could confidently assert the non-reality of the world axis. Could a highly enhanced influx of energetic particles into the earths magnetosphere once have produced aurora-like effects of such an intensity that the Birkeland currents joining the ionosphere to the solar wind themselves emitted light in the visible spectrum? After more than a century of heated debate, the existence of these Birkeland currents has become irrefragable. As these field-aligned currents eventually reach the auroral ovals above the earths magnetic poles, the hoary notion of one or two pillars joining the sky to the earth has taken on a surprisingly down-to-earth physical reality except that they cannot be seen at this time. Whereas the rotational axis mundi remains a purely mathematical or geometric concept, the proximity of the magnetic pole warrants the association with the very tangible reality of the earths highly structured magnetosphere a domain populated by ions and electrons that will give off light whenever incoming plasmas alter its electric and magnetic fields. It can be established to a high level of confidence that these Birkeland currents, down to the finest details, correspond to the detailed descriptions of a sky column in mythological and early cosmological sources the axis mundi in the loose sense of the word. For that reason, interdisciplinarians would be well advised to look into the question of possible historical visibility of magnetospheric features. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Credit: H. Arp, C. Fulton, D. Carosati
Quasar Clusters
(Feb 08, 2010)
Twenty-one quasars with similar redshifts cluster in a three-degree diameter area of the sky. The quasar density is nearly six times the density of the nearby areas. At their Hubble distance, which assumes that their distance is proportional to their redshift, they would occupy a region of space over 800 million light-years in diameter. In comparison, the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, the largest nearby cluster, is estimated to be only 9 million light-years across. Near the apparent center of the cluster lies the relatively nearby active galaxy AM2230-284. According to the Hubble relationship, the cluster is about 13 billion light-years beyond it. Its presence near the center of the cluster is merely a coincidence. In a recent paper, astronomer Halton Arp and two colleagues analyzed the dispersion of redshifts in the cluster in relation to that of the AM galaxy. They removed the active galaxys redshift from that of the quasars, transforming the quasars redshifts to the rest frame of the galaxy. In consequence, the quasars redshifts fall closely on the most common value of the Karlsson periodicity--1.96. In the beginning--in the 1960s and 1970s, just after quasars were identified--several astronomers noticed that the redshifts (z) of quasars around bright nearby galaxies tended to occur closely around certain periodic values: 0.60, 0.91, 1.41, and especially 1.96. In the conventional theories of the Hubble relationship, the expanding universe, and the Big Bang, this periodicity would mean that quasars were distributed in shells centered on the Earth. Such a consequence pushed imagination past the borders of boggled. Fortunately (for convention), as more observations of fainter and higher-z galaxies and quasars were made, culminating in all-sky surveys, the periodicity "washed out" to insignificance. Convention sighed in relief, banished the small circle of dissident astronomers to the margins, and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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rejected their papers, apparently without reading them. Unfortunately (for convention), the all-sky surveys misunderstood the proposal (hence the suspicion that conventional astronomers didnt read the papers), so they failed to find the wrong result: They didnt identify the quasar clusters associated with active galaxies, and they didnt transform the zs to the active galaxies rest frames before testing for the Karlsson periodicity. They only proved--unsurprisingly--that not following the method of the proposal will not find the proposed result. Arp et al. propose that the Karlsson periodicity is an intrinsic quality of quasars due to their being newly created matter that is ejected from active galaxies, often in pairs in opposite directions. The new matter is initially without mass. As it communicates at the speed of light with other mass in the universe, its mass increases in accord with the Machian theory of inertia. As one consequence, its velocity of ejection decreases in accord with conservation of momentum. As a reflection of the quantum conditions of its "birth," the changes occur in steps rather than continuously. With each increase in mass, the energy of emitted light increases: the same transition in an atom or particle produces a photon at a higher frequency, that is, shifted toward the blue end of the spectrum. As the matter ages, its light becomes less redshifted. It approaches the redshift of the parent galaxy, whose z is a Doppler effect of the systems velocity with respect to Earth. Hence arises the necessity of removing the parents z in order to discover the intrinsic z of the "babies." This intrinsic effect and the Karlsson periodicity apply not just to quasars but to companion galaxies as well. To the southeast of AM2230-284 lies the nearby galaxy NGC 7361, with a z of .004. A large number of companion galaxies with z between .058 and .065 extend for more than five degrees along the line connecting the two galaxies. The transformation to the rest frame of NGC 7361 makes little difference at this low value: the zs of the companions cluster tightly around the lowest Karlsson value of 0.06. As the paper states: "The implication would be that NGC 7361 had ejected essentially all the low z companions in the pictured field and one of them, AM 2230-284, later ejected the 21 quasars of z = 2.149." NGC 7361 is not unique. NGC 7793, also with negligible z, has 49 galaxies within one degree whose zs are confined to the interval .057.062. NGC 4063, with a z of .0164, has companions with z of .078. When transformed to the rest frame of NGC 4063, the companion z is .061. The high-z galaxy UM341, with z of .399, has companions with z of .488--which transforms to .064. A similar relationship holds with the Abell compact galaxy clusters, which tend to have intermediate values of the Karlsson sequence. Objects with intrinsic zs of .06 tend to be galaxies; those with zs of 1.96 tend to be quasars. This sequence implies an evolution from ejected quasar to compact cluster to companion galaxy as the matter ages. It groups deep sky objects into families and genealogies of families. The clue, for those who have a clue, is to look for groupings of objects whose zs, when transformed to the rest frame of a likely parent, cluster closely around the Karlsson peaks. Likely parents can be sought by looking for pairs of objects on opposite sides of a galaxy whose zs are slightly above and slightly below the Karlsson peaks, indicating velocities of ejection toward and away from the observer that are superimposed on the intrinsic z. Arp et al. remark: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"Moving the quasars closer than their redshift distance would reduce their physical size towards that of known clusters of bright apparent magnitude galaxies." Their radiant output also would come more in line with what we know about the radiant properties of nearby matter. An intrinsic redshift universe would not have so many, if any, superluminous objects. The visible part, at least, would be much smaller than the Big Bang universe. If the quasar cluster around AM2230-284 is at the same distance as that conventionally assigned to the "grandmother" galaxy (NGC 7361), it would be only 3 million light-years across. Mel Acheson
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Evolution of a CME. Credit: the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) satellite (1980).
The Interconnected Sun Part Two

(Feb 05, 2010)
Electric Weather. One of the more spectacular examples of the Sun/Earth connection are the so-called "red sprites" and "blue jets" that have been seen shooting into space from the tops of thunderstorms. Sprites and jets carry charge distribution from lower atmospheric layers into the ionosphere. They are usually seen at altitudes of between 45 and 90 kilometers. Space shuttle flights have recorded the glow from sprites and jets as they launched upward toward space. They are essentially reverse lightning bolts--beginning as powerful upward strokes that rapidly diminish into small filaments--and seem to be closing the circuit between the cloud tops and the ionosphere.
Red sprites and blue jets. Credit: University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
On August 25, 1997, NASA launched the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite on a mission to monitor energetic ions coming from the Sun, as well as higher energy particles The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive (cosmic rays) thought to be arriving from intergalactic space.
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ACE is in orbit around the L1 LaGrange point approximately 1,500,000 kilometers from Earth and will remain there until 2024. Data from the spacecraft's onboard sensors will provide important information that should help to understand how the solar magnetic field moderates incoming high-speed ions. During periods of high activity, energetic pulses on the Sun eject charged particles in the billions of tons. They are normally slow moving, requiring about 24 hours to reach Earth. Known as Coronal Mass Ejections (CME), an indication of their arrival is an intensification of the aurorae. Sunlight reaches Earth in approximately eight minutes. A solar ejection arriving in 30 minutes must be moving at more than a quarter of the speed of light. In the consensus view, such velocities are a profound mystery, yet a gigantic CME was observed on January 17, 2005, that reached our planet in less than half an hour. How do CMEs accelerate to 75,000 kilometers per second or more? An electric field emanates from the Sun in all directions. The easiest way for charged particles to accelerate is within such a field. The Sun's e-field extends for billions of kilometers, ending at the heliospheric boundary, which the twin Voyager spacecraft are just now beginning to penetrate. Electric fields freely accelerate charged particles, which move outward in opposite directions, activating an electric current that follows the Sun's magnetic field.
Ultraviolet light image of the Bastille Day 2000 solar flare AR9077. Credit: NASA/TRACE satellite.
As mentioned above, the ionosphere is connected to the Sun by twisting filaments of electric current, so the lower levels of the atmosphere must also experience the Sun's influence because of the additional circuit node that connects them with the ionosphere. Could these electric circuits linking the atmosphere with the Sun have anything to do with Earth's climate in either the short or long term? On July 14, 2000, the Sun erupted with a massive X-flare, or CME. Solar flares are labeled C, M, or X: light, medium, or powerful. AR9077 was classified as an X5 flare. Until the September 7, 2005, X17 flare impacted Earth's magnetosphere, knocking out radio The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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transmissions and overloading power station transformers, the Bastille Day CME was considered one of the most powerful ever recorded. A veritable cosmic tornado of positive ions poured into the electrically charged environment of our planet. The Sun is in a relatively quiet stage during this phase of sunspot cycle 24. The Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite launched by NASA on December 7, 2001, has revealed that the amount of ultraviolet radiation emitted by the Sun has significantly decreased since the beginning of this "solar minimum." Infrared radiation emitted by nitric oxide molecules in the upper atmosphere has also declined, implying that the upper atmosphere is cooling down. It has long been known that temperatures in the thermosphere are dependent on solar radiation. Extreme ultraviolet light is absorbed by the residual oxygen and becomes electrically charged, with increasing molecular motion. Fast molecular motion is known as heat, so even though a household thermometer would register temperatures below zero in the thermosphere, it is considered hot, sometimes reaching over 1500 Celsius during solar maximum. Since there are fewer molecules in the thermosphere, the amount of thermal energy per cubic centimeter is lower than it is at the surface--there is not enough contact between molecules to transfer heat. The Sun's 22 year cycle has now been shown to be linked with Earth's climate. Although solar energy does vary over the course of a sunspot cycle, that variance amounts to less than onetenth of one percent, so how are the increases and decreases in cloud cover, temperature, and thunderstorm activity explained?
Solar flares erupt from active sunspot regions. Credit: Kitt Peak Vacuum Solar Telescope.
The average annual wind speed on Earth is approximately 56 kilometers per hour, with a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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maximum gust of 372 kilometer per hour recorded on Mount Washington, New Hampshire in 1934. Some isolated wind phenomena, such as tornadoes and hurricanes, can sustain average velocities of 480 and 320 kilometers per hour for short periods. Meteorologists are not sure how tornadoes form, but they are often associated with lightning storms. It seems that the key to understanding tornadoes is to think of them as rapidly rotating electric discharges. Just as copper wires carry electrons for power transmission, so do tornadoes. The difference is that electrons are moving at several centimeters per hour in a wire, while flying around at many meters per second in a tornado. The result is that the tornado forms an enormously powerful electromagnetic force field called a "charged sheath vortex."It is commonly believed that weather is driven on Earth primarily by the Sun's thermal influence on the atmosphere, otherwise known as "convection." According to the consensus theory, as Earth rotates gases and dust absorb solar radiation at varying rates and in varying degrees. When any particular region heats up, the air expands and loses density, creating a relative low pressure area. Cooler air, being denser, will naturally flow into the bottom of the warm, low pressure region, causing an upwardly rotating convection cell to form.
Waterspout with lightning bolt in the Adriatic Sea. Credit: Mladen Duka.
Most weather systems on Earth are thought to be based on that simple kinetic explanation: winds blow when the cooler, denser air flows into the warmer, buoyant air. The kinetic model of weather does not take into account the fact that planets much farther out in the Solar System have sustained winds that make those on our planet seem like gentle breezes. The average wind speeds on the gas giant planets are fantastic. Jupiter's winds roar at 635 kilometers per hour around the Great Red Spot; Saturn's average wind speed is 1800 kilometers per hour; Uranus 900 kilometers per hour; and Neptune comes in at 1138 kilometers per hour. On Neptune the winds are blowing through an atmosphere that measures - 220 Celsius. Why is it that the most remote planets, receiving small fractions of the solar energy bathing Earth, are able to convert that small fraction into much larger effects? The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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As mentioned above, Earth is a charged body moving in a large cell of plasma, so physical phenomena on our planet must take the electrical nature of plasma into account. Perhaps lightning powers the wind? Neptune has some of the strongest winds of any planet in the Solar System, yet it is farthest from the Sun--its frigid atmosphere contradict the thermal model of air movement. Perhaps hurricanes, tornadoes, and even prevailing winds are electrical in nature? The Electric Universe hypothesis agrees with conventional theory that wind is movement of air molecules, but that there is more to the explanation. Electromagnetic forces in plasma move and accelerate charged particles, so collisions between charged and neutral particles drag the neutral air molecules along with them. Close observation of laboratory arc discharges reveals that an electric "wind" surrounds and often precedes an electric arc. A plasma discharge sweeps up the surrounding air along with the charge carriers, or ions. The wind appears as inflows and updrafts as well as outflows and downdrafts. It can lift dust particles and erode surfaces. By analogy, we must then question the accepted explanation of thunderstorms as being caused solely by convection of hot air and the climatological movement of winds by the Sun's heat alone.
Neptune's winds blow at 1138 kilometers per hour. Credit: NASA/Voyager 2.
Earth is an electrically charged body that interacts with ions permeating space. Electricity from space is also injected into the thermosphere from charged particles emitted by the Sun, speeding along massive Birkeland currents through a closed circuit. When solar winds are at a minimum, the electric currents decline in amperage, thereby decreasing the strength of our planet's magnetosphere. As the magnetosphere declines in strength, it is less able to deflect energetic ions arriving The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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from deep space known as cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are charge carriers, and those ions are able to reach the troposphere. Collisions between charged and neutral particles drag air molecules along with them, influencing low level cloud cover. More clouds reflect more radiation from the Sun back to space--clouds are white because they are acting like mirrors to all forms of visible light. More reflection means less solar energy, more cloud cover, and so on. This leads to the more general idea that all weather May be influenced by the electrical connection between Earth and solar plasma. The larger view has only recently been considered. Experiments designed to verify the effect that charged particles have on Earth's weather are now being conducted by scientists such as Henrik Svensmark and Eigil FriisChristensen of the National Space Institute in the Technical University of Denmark. However, many experiments have already falsified the mechanical theory of atmospheric convection. When a weather forecast is wrong it could be considered a falsification of the convection theory. The many erroneous weather forecasts indicate that some other factor (or factors) is missing in the proposal. Electric Universe advocates suggest that a consideration of plasma's electrical properties is the most important missing factor. Stephen Smith
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Helical plasma streamers in the laboratory. Credit: Terry Fritz.
The Interconnected Sun Part One

(Feb 03, 2010)
The Sun/Earth Connection Plasma is often described as the fourth state of matter. Since it makes up more than 99% of the Universe, it should be reckoned the first state. As has been proposed in previous articles, the Sun is an example of plasma and its normal behavior. Although the general premise is probably thousands of years old--that Earth is somehow an electrical entity--it has only been in the last 100 years that scientists have given serious credence to the possibility that we could be living in a dynamic Solar System where electricity plays an important role. The Sun's electric field extends for billions of kilometers, influencing the planets in their motions, as well as how they interact with each other. In September of 2002, a major premise of Electric Universe theory was confirmed: weather systems on Earth are electrically connected to the field of charged particles called the ionosphere. Dual bands of plasma shining in ultraviolet light were detected by the IMAGE satellite. The plasma streams are circling the Earth in opposite directions along the equator, carrying positive and negative electric charges. Since plasma is a charged substance, if it is in motion it will generate an electric current. An electric current flowing through plasma creates a tube-like magnetic sheath that "squeezes" the current to form one or more filaments . If enough current passes through the circuit, the plasma current filaments will glow, sometimes creating one or more "double layers" of charge separation along the current axis. Double layers form when a current flows in plasma and positive and negative charges build The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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up in adjacent regions along the current flow. A powerful electric field appears between the two regions, which accelerates charged particles. Hannes Alfvn considered double layers an important cosmic circuit element.
Plasma bands in the ionosphere emitting ultraviolet light. Credit: NASA/University of California, Berkeley.
Another example of the Sun's intimate association with Earth are the polar aurorae. The curtains of blue, green, and red that hang down from the sky like wind-wavering veils of color have both puzzled and entranced observers for countless millennia. In 1621, Pierre Gassendi called the shimmering lights seen in the Arctic the Aurora Borealis after Aurora, the Roman goddess of dawn, and Boreas, the Greek name for the north wind. In the south polar region the same phenomenon appears and is known as Aurora Australis, literally "Southern Dawn" in Latin, or more conventionally, "Southern Lights." Solar ions follow Earth's magnetic field down into the poles, causing atmospheric molecules to emit light: red from oxygen at high altitudes, then green from oxygen lower down, along with blue from nitrogen. The electric charges travel down magnetic flux tubes that have recently been discovered. These "electromagnetic funnels" are several kilometers wide and allow electric currents to flow directly from the Sun into the polar regions, generating colorful visible light, radio waves, and X-rays. The power generated by electric currents in auroral storms is far greater than anything that human beings can create with every coal-burning, oil-fired, or water-driven means combined. These currents are composed of widely separated, low density charged particles and are called Birkeland currents. Despite the low current density, the volume of charge is so great that the current flow can exceed one million Amperes. Recently, the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) satellites detected "space tornadoes," vortices of electrified plasma rotating faster than 1,600,000 kilometers per hour. These helical storms of electromagnetic energy were found approximately 64,000 kilometers from Earth. The five THEMIS satellites, together with Earth-based stations, verified their connection with the ionosphere.
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Aurora Australis over the Bellingshausen Sea.
Electromagnetic vortices flowing into Earth's poles. Credit: Andreas Keiling/UC Berkeley.
Laboratory simulation of solar plasma flux tubes. Time index 0 - 1.4 microseconds.
To view a movie of the electrically active solar wind particles interacting with Earth's plasmasphere click here. Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Galaxy ESO 130-001. Credit: X-ray NASA/CXC/UVa/M. Sun, et al; H-alpha/Optical: SOAR (UVa/NOAO/UNC/CNPq-Brazil)/M.Sun et al.
A Galaxy with Its Tail in a Knot

(Feb 01, 2010)
A new x-ray image of a galaxy in the Abell cluster 3627 reveals a second tail parallel to the first, which was already known. The second tail is fainter but also contains knots. Both tails are surrounded by x-ray point sources. The second tail visible in the image above is "a surprise" to plasma-impaired astronomers, who must explain it with the mechanics of evaporation. Plasma-wise astronomers immediately recognize that Birkeland currents tend to come in pairs. Actually, they come in pairs of pairs, braided pairs, and cables of braids--hence explaining the filamentary universe. (Perhaps one could call it the "fibrous universe.") A plasma astronomer will notice that the second tail is not so much parallel to the first as twisted around it in a half-turn. Since Birkeland currents--even galaxy-cluster size ones such as this--are the transmission lines of a larger circuit, the current must continue in dark mode beyond the region in which it emits x-rays. Presumably, the two "tails" continue to twist around each other. This conclusion is reinforced by the optical (red) filament at the core of the first tail: It appears to be a twisted pair of filaments itself. The knots in the tails and the point sources around them are likely to be pinch instabilities. Electromagnetic forces concentrate matter in the current flow into clumps. They also pull in matter from the surrounding region and sort it into layers of similar composition according to ionization potential. This process, observable in laboratory discharges and involving forces many, many times stronger than gravity, is more likely to be the cause of star formation than the gravitational collapse of gas clouds. Gravitational collapse has never been demonstrated, nor has it overcome the theoretical difficulties--seldom discussed--that seem to render it impossible. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Halton Arp and a number of colleagues have shown that clusters of galaxies such as those in the Abell catalogue are often associated with nearby active galaxies and are positioned within the active galaxies ejection cones. Being nearby, as distinguished from the conventional redshift-distance placement, they are small. They appear to be the next step in growth of BL Lac objects, quasars with multiple or "fractured" centers, which are the first products of ejection from the nuclei of the active galaxies. (The "grown-up" results are companion galaxies, which have evolved step-wise down the Karlsson redshift periodicity from highredshift quasars.) As such, in the Electric Universe the entire cluster is the focus of an electrical plasma discharge. Individual galaxies are foci of only a part of the discharge current and can only be understood in relation to the whole circuit. One possible view is in analogy with stellar circuits. The dominant galaxy in a cluster would be the anode within a sheath that surrounds the entire cluster, similar to the heliosphere around the solar system. The smaller galaxies would be secondary cathodic elements within that sheath, similar to comets. The double tail on this galaxy marks it as a galaxy-sized comet. Mel Acheson
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"Beyond Belief." Oil on canvas by Alicia Mroz.
The No-Belief Belief System

(Jan 29, 2010)
I believe in not believing. I try not to believe anything, which is not the same as believing nothing. Even though nothing is not something, believing in nothing is still believing, and I try not to do that. People seldom ask me what I mean by "believe." They argue that I must believe something, or they smile and roll up their eyes. I don't take offense: On alternate days, I smile and roll my eyes at myself, too. I do have an excuse for my confusion. Before I can say what I mean by "believe," I have to say something about what I mean by "mean." Consider the ideas of heads and tails. They stand in opposition to each other. You can't have one if you have the other. It's either/or. It's yes/no. It's good/bad. Let's put all these heads and tails in a small room with a hole in its ceiling. Now imagine a conceptual ladder. It runs through the hole in the ceiling. Climb the ladder. Stick your head out the hole. Look around. You're in a larger room, one that completely encloses the heads-andtails room. This larger room is full of ideas of coins. Each coin has a head and a tail on obverse and reverse sides, but the coin is a whole. The head and the tail are merely parts that are thought of as opposites, along with other parts (the edge, the metal, the shape) that aren't thought of as opposites. So what were opposites in the room below are unities in the room above. You've just discovered a nested hierarchy of ideas. Ideas other than opposites can also nest into hierarchies. In logic, one such hierarchy is the distinction between an object language and a metalanguage. The object language is the one in which you formulate statements. The metalanguage is the one in which you talk about the object language. In the metalanguage, you don't care about the content of statements. You pay attention instead to how the statements interact. The metalanguage is a higher or more inclusive or more abstract level of meaning than the object language. The same term May be used in both languages, but in the object language it The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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refers to its content and in the metalanguage it refers to its function in the object language. For example, in the first sentence in this essay I first use "believe" in a metalanguage mode: how I choose to evaluate the overall processes of the evaluation of particular theories. Then I use it ("not believing") in an object language mode: how I evaluate particular theories. Now I can answer the first question: What do I mean by "believe"? In the object language mode, I mean placing greater confidence in a particular theory than is warranted by the facts and by the nature of cognition. Notice there can be a complimentary definition: "Disbelief" is the placing of less confidence than is warranted. To place the proper level of confidence in a theory, i.e., to avoid both belief and disbelief, all I need do is evaluate the facts and the operation of cognition. Theories can then be given an index of confidence, and the one with the highest number can be judged most credible. Unfortunately, I immediately run into an insoluble problem. Facts are polymorphic and cognition is creative. Facts take on different meanings depending on the theory in which they're used. Cognition selects and applies different pigments of facts to paint different pictures of reality. So what's warranted cannot be calculated. That's not to say reason can't come up with good excuses for believing or disbelieving an idea. Reason is an abject slave: When Desire gives a command, Reason obeys. So if warrants are indeterminate, why bother with belief at all? You can skirt the issue of confidence and still use an idea as a working hypothesis. You can still test the idea and experiment with it and develop its logical implications. What's left after belief is abandoned is a provisional idea that's subject to critical evaluation and testing: In other words, science. If this is the cup with which we measure science, the most notable aspect is the great quantity that spills over the edge. Theories, speculations, idle thoughts, surmises are barely articulated before someone judges them by the criterion of "credibility." Because you can't put numbers on "credibility," the criterion deflates to mere "familiarity." Peer-reviewed papers are rejected because they're not credible, but the only apparent objection is that they disagree with a currently accepted theory. A more sophisticated reaction to innovation is the listing of evidence. The idea is that the theory with the longest list is best. New theories are at a disadvantage because they haven't been around as long to collect as much evidence. The accumulation of evidence can never "prove" a theory. Nothing can guarantee that some new theory won't explain more things better. If credibility can't be calculated and confirmation can't be counted on, how are we to know if our knowledge is true? I'd make a distinction between true and truthful: "True" is an exact representation of some hypothetical rock-solid reality; "truthful" is a correspondence with selected parts of a reality that includes and is interactive with the knower. What "truthful" lacks in confidence is more than made up for in adaptability to a dynamic and hierarchical reality. "True" is dogmatic, "truthful" is critical. Karl Popper developed this idea of criticism as the criterion of demarcation between science and all the other cognitive efforts to understand our world. Theology, metaphysics, pseudoscience, even politics can be just as meaningful as science. They can be beneficial or detrimental, just as can science. There's a reason dogmatic theology is called dogmatic: The fundamental tenets of faith are not subject to critical evaluation. Now there's a good and useful place for dogmatism, too. What sets science apart, what distinguishes it, is the encouragement of criticism, even of fundamentals. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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This is why science moves and the others stand fast. This is why science progresses and the others preach. This doesn't mean we should abolish the others. Most ideas arise in pseudoscience or metaphysics or theology. They become scientific when they're criticized and tested. They can become metaphysical or pseudoscientific again if the criticism and testing stop. Belief is an anchor that prevents the winds of criticism from blowing the ship of curiosity into new cognitive waters. Belief turns science into the pseudo-religion of scientism, which then tries to wrest from established religions the sacerdotal claim to revelation of divine truth. Criticism, especially of fundamentals, will be the first sacrificial offering slaughtered on the new altar. Science is not all of life, and curiosity is not the only reason for living, but they are an important part. As long as this limitation is respected, belief can be excised from science, and science can continue to discover new worlds. Mel Acheson
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The Cat's Paw nebula, NGC 6334. Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO).
Cosmic Bearcat
(Jan 27, 2010)
Giant blue-white stars in the heart of this southern nebula signify extreme electrical activity. The Cat's Paw nebula is also known as the Bear Claw nebula and carries the astronomical designation NGC 6334. It is 50 light-years across and approximately 5500 light-years away, as astronomers calculate distance. The glowing cloud is part of a larger nebular complex near the heart of the Milky Way and includes NGC 6357, or El Cangrejo (the Crab). According to a recent ESO press release, NGC 6334 contains an active star-forming region where hundreds of blue-white stars far more massive than our own Sun have been detected. The 2.2 meter Max Planck Gesellschaft telescope used several filters to create the image at the top of the page, particularly one that allows H-alpha (atomic hydrogen) light emissions to be seen. NGC 6334 would ordinarily be a brightly lit emission nebula if not for the intervening clouds of dust that cause "extinction" of blue and green light. Extinction is usually used to indicate the dimming of light in Earth's atmosphere from a direct beam transmission. The atmosphere either absorbs light, or certain frequencies are scattered. Atmospheric scattering is the primary mechanism that dims light on Earth, but in space the main culprit is absorption: dust and clouds of molecular gas "soak up" the higher spectral bands, which are blue and green. That is the reason NGC 6334 is given a red coloration when electro-optical devices display the image. As stated in the press release, the nebula is a prolific stellar nursery, with a potential population of new stars numbering in the thousands, although the dusty environment makes it The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive difficult to see most of them.
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From an Electric Universe viewpoint, the bubble located in the lower right of the image is an interesting feature. ESO proposes that it is a dying star ejecting its outer layers, or perhaps the expanding remnant of a star that has already exploded. However, the converging radial filaments are likely indicators of an interstellar Birkeland current that is "pinching down" in an hourglass shape. Rather than a bubble, we might instead be "looking down the barrel" of a vortex, or z-pinch. An electromagnetic z-pinch can squeeze plasma with such force that it rapidly compresses. Electric current flowing into the z-pinch might cause the plasma to erupt in an arc-mode discharge. We are seeing plasma structures when we look at nebulae, and they behave according to the laws of electric discharges and circuits. Near the center of the Milky Way there is an abundance of electromagnetic energy, and it is in the most dense current flows where stars form. Stars are not born of gravitational forces, but from the electric nature of the Universe and the way that moving plasma behaves in a magnetic field. Previous Pictures of the Day have explained that an electric discharge in a plasma cloud (a nebula) can create a double layer, or sheath, along its axis. Electric currents flow along the sheath. Those currents spiral into filaments, or double layers, which attract each other. Instead of merging they twist around into a helix, gradually pinching down into powerful electric discharges. A star is born when those discharges reach the arc-mode state--the more intense the electric current the bluer, larger, and more energetic the star. NGC 6334 is in a highly energized state, so it is rapidly creating massive blue-white stars. Stephen Smith
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Mined out kimberlite pipe, Kimberley Big Hole, Kimberley, South Africa. Note the crater wall which is natural and formed by a "vortex" mechanism of unknown origin.
The Electrical Origin of Kimberlite Pipes

(Jan 25, 2010)
One of the more perplexing mysteries in geology is the mechanism behind kimberlite eruption at the Earths surface, because these eruptions have never been witnessed. Historically, kimberlite eruptions tend to occur on the tectonically stable parts of the Earths landmasses, well away from the tectonically active zones where many active volcanoes are found, and from the stability of diamond-graphite pair we know they erupt catastrophically over a very short time, taking a matter of half a day from the initial melting in the mantle to eruption and solidification at the surface. Another peculiarity these ancient volcanoes have lies in the close chronological association with global mass extinction events, where the globally largest eruptions of these rocks occurred at the Cretaceous extinction event. The actual process which formed the kimberlite crater or diatreme remains unknown, because there is clear evidence that these diatremes were machined downwards from the surface by a magmatic vortex effect. The final puzzle lies in the origin of these rather unique rocks--some 220 kilometers under the surface, well away from active tectonic zones. What could have affected the upper mantle at those depths to allow partial melting and the rapid ascent of the, occasionally diamond bearing, kimberlite magma to the earths surface? The New Concepts in Global Tectonics Newsletter issue No 43 of June 2007, published an important paper by the Russian scientist Konstantin K. Khazanovitch-Wulf who proposed that kimberlites and related rocks are linked to disruptions in the Earths electric field caused by The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the electromagnetic effect of a passing cosmic body or meteorite. Earlier research by Russian scientists also point to earthquakes being caused by subterranean electric discharges, and which could also trigger kimberlite eruptions. In his model it is the actual physical disruption of the earths electrical field by the electrically active interloper that initiated the kimberlite eruptions, and presumably also the associated mass species extinctions. This strongly suggests kimberlite eruptions are essentially electrical discharge sites of short duration between the Earth and another cosmic body, where electrical charge differences between the Earth and the interloper caused electrical short circuits between them. The rotary or tunneling mechanism recognized from the shape and structure of the kimberlite diatremes can then be explained as the result of powerful Birkeland currents corkscrewing into the Earths surface forming the smooth and steep sides of the kimberlite diatreme. Geological mysteries disappear when the Plasma Model is used to explain observed facts. Contributed by Louis Hissink Louis Hissink, M.Sc., is a consulting geologist in Perth, Western Australia. He is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and editor of the A.I.G. News.
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Coronal loops 450,000 kilometers high erupting from the Sun. Credit: NASA/Stanford Lockheed Institute for Space Research and the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) spacecraft.
The Gorgon's Head

(Jan 18, 2010)
Looping magnetic fields are the result of electric currents flowing through circuits. Algol is the English transliteration of the Arabic "Ra's Al Ghul," the Demon's Head. It is the brightest star in the constellation Perseus, and is set in the forehead of Medusa, the Gorgon decapitated by the Greek hero. Although many star constellations bear Greek names, a large percentage of the stars within them are identified by Arabic words. In Perseus, star names such as Mirfak ("elbow") and Menkib ("shoulder") are from the Arabic language. Algol, otherwise known as Beta Persei, has been of interest to the astronomical community for hundreds of years, because every 68 hours and 49 minutes the star diminishes in apparent magnitude and then returns to normal brightness. The Italian astronomer Geminiano Montanari first identified the star's variability in either 1667, 1669, or 1670 depending on the historical source material. Irrespective of the date, Algol was most likely seen as a variable star for millennia, since its periodic changes in brightness can be observed with the naked eye. Algol is an eclipsing binary star located 93 light-years from Earth, as measured with the Hipparcos satellite using baseline parallax techniques. There is also a third stellar companion (gamma) in the system that orbits the alpha and beta pair every 21 months. New spectrophotometry data indicates a possible fourth star in the group, as well, making for unique orbital parameters. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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According to a recent press release from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), a looping coronal prominence has been detected as it arcs outward from the poles of the less massive beta star toward the larger member of the pair. There is nothing particularly unusual about coronal loops, as indicated by the picture of our parent star at the top of the page, but this is the first time that a prominence has been observed anywhere other than the Sun. There are repeated mentions of the "magnetic field," "magnetic loops," and "magnetic features" in the NRAO announcement. Noticeably absent is any reference to the electric currents that must be generating those magnetic phenomena. Magnetism cannot exist without electricity. The surface of the Sun generates coronal arches and multiple loop structures that rise up from its surface and penetrate the chromosphere. The chromosphere is a plasma sheath, or double layer region of the Sun, where most of its electrical energy is contained. When the current flowing into the Sun's plasma sheath increases beyond a critical threshold it can trigger a sudden release of that energy, causing solar flares and enormous prominence eruptions. As Electric Universe advocate Don Scott has repeatedly pointed-out, powerful looping electric currents generate secondary toroidal magnetic fields that surround the loop. When the current grows too strong, the plasma double layer is destroyed. That event interrupts the current flow and the stored electromagnetic energy is blasted into space as a solar flare. It should come as no surprise that electric stars behave in the same way as the electric Sun. Stars are not self-powered thermonuclear fusion reactors, they are elements in galactic circuits that receive their power externally. The coronal loops observed on Algol are doubtless common occurrences on many stars. "As I visualize the electric Sun, the cosmic space within which the Solar System is embedded possesses a net negative charge per unit relative to the Sun's charge per unit. As the Sun 'burns', it acquires increasing negative charge. The Sun's radiative lifetime will extend until the solar charge density equals that of its galactic surroundings." -- Earl Milton, Associate Professor of Astronomy, Lethbridge University, Alberta, Canada "The Not So Stable Sun" Kronos, Vol. V No. 1 (1979). Stephen Smith
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The red supergiant star Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion. Credit: NASA/ESA/A. Dupree.
Beetlejuice
(Jan 15, 2010)
Two bright regions visible in recent astronomical observations of the massive star's surface provide more evidence for the Electric Star theory. Betelgeuse is one of the largest stars in the observable Universe. If it was placed in the Sun's position, it would be larger than Jupiter's mean orbital diameter. However, the star's material structure is so diffuse that the orbits of the inner planet's might not be affected at all. Betelgeuse is the upper left star in the constellation Orion, also notable for the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, a topic of several previous Picture of the Day articles. The star is considered youthful by consensus astronomers, but nearing senescence because its extravagant radiative output exceeds 100,000 times that of our Sun. According to a recent press release, sunspots have been found on the surface of the stellar behemoth. However, there are only two of them occupying over one-third of its surface, and are said to be the signature of heat transfer from the interior through "matter convection." As the report suggests, the star is acting like a pot of boiling water--a strictly mechanical phenomenon. Betelgeuse is notable for gigantic "bubbles of hot gas" that are in constant motion--bubbles as large as the star itself. Since it has been observed to eject massive amounts of stellar material, greater than six-times its diameter, it has been proposed that Betelgeuse is undergoing violent vertical oscillations just beneath its surface. It is that energetic motion that is causing the "hot gas" to blast into space, just as bubbles in boiling water erupt with puffs of steam. The Electric Star theory provides another explanation. An explanation that relies on the electrical connection stars have with their galactic neighborhood, and with the Universe. Stars The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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shine because electricity flows through each galaxy. As has been written in these pages many times, stars can be thought of as giant spheres of slow-motion lightning. It is this simple hypothesis that best matches observational evidence. Retired Professor of Electrical Engineering Don Scott wrote in his acclaimed book The Electric Sky that a star's size, luminosity, and color have little to do with its age. Stars fall into position on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram because of the input they receive from galactic electrical circuits. As Dr. Scott wrote, the primary indicator for a star's behavior is the current density at its surface. Stars do not rely on internally generated fusion fires to supply them with energy. Red giant stars are relatively cool but extremely bright, so they are interpreted to be quite large. Scott proposes that the "giant" characteristic is a result of an exceptionally broad corona and not because the stellar disc is oversized. The star might be small inside its extended, energetic atmosphere. The fact that Betelgeuse has a temperature measurement of about 2900 Celsius calls into question the thermonuclear model of stars. How can such cool temperatures create a radiative output that is so extreme? Physicist and Electric Universe advocate Wal Thornhill also proposes an electrical model for Betelgeuse, and red supergiant stars, in general. Electric currents in space are primarily due to the flow of electrons through interstellar plasma, and not the movement of positive ions. This means that stars are lacking in electrons because of a charge separation process. Stars can be considered "positive anodes in a galactic glow discharge." Therefore: "Red stars are those stars that cannot satisfy their hunger for electrons from the surrounding plasma. So the star expands the surface area over which it collects electrons by growing a large plasma sheath that becomes the effective collecting area of the stellar anode in space. The growth process is self-limiting because, as the sheath expands, its electric field will grow stronger. Electrons caught up in the field are accelerated to ever-greater energies. Before long, they become energetic enough to excite neutral particles they chance to collide with, and the huge sheath takes on a uniform red anode glow. It becomes a red giant star." Betelgeuse is an electric star, and the bright regions are areas where electric currents are flowing with the greatest Amperage. Stephen Smith
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Galactic grouping Arp 194. Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).
The Shape of Things that Are

(Jan 13, 2010)
Galaxies are the luminous children of electrical parentage, not the darkling spawn of invisible forces. "Hear one side and you will be in the dark. Hear both and all will be clear." -- Lord Chesterfield A recent press release opens with these words: "Galaxies come in many shapes and sizes, but until recently astronomers have been at a loss to explain why. Now scientists have used dark matter theory to predict the menagerie of galaxies found in the Universe." The standard model of galaxy evolution relies on two principle constituents, dark energy and cold dark matter. The mathematical description of dark matter is plugged into computer programs that create models of galaxy formation. The quantities vary depending on the source, but consensus astronomy assumes that dark matter makes up approximately 25% of the Universe. So-called "dark energy" is said to comprise more than 70%, with the remaining 5% being the baryonic matter that is visible to the naked-eye and detectable with instrumentation. Astronomers use the term "baryonic" in reference to all celestial objects made of normal atomic matter--that is, matter composed of protons and neutrons. Note that electrons are not baryonic, they are "leptons," but they are ignored on the astronomical scale because protons are usually accompanied by electrons. Dark matter is described more by what it is not than by what it is. As stated above, it does not exist as stars or planets that can be seen. It is not dark clouds of normal baryonic matter, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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because baryonic clouds can be observed when they absorb radiation. Dark matter is not antimatter. Since gamma rays are said to be created when matter and antimatter annihilate each other, dark matter would glow with that high frequency light. As the press release states, researchers used the "Lambda Cold Dark Matter" theory to write a new supercomputer model that was able to closely approximate the number of spiral and elliptical galaxies that can be observed. Including dark matter in their calculations was deemed "crucial" because galaxies are thought to be surrounded by "haloes" of dark matter. Such large concentrations of invisible material are essential for galactic clusters to hold together, as well as preventing individual galaxies from "flying apart." The confident assertions about the models accurate predictions must be balanced against the fact that the equations have been created to match observations. In order to offer "predictions," many assumptions must be considered literal. However, as has been pointedout in previous Picture of the Day articles, there are many things the models cannot anticipate: the large scale structure of the Universe, for example. Popular astronomy envisages dark matter organizing galactic structure. Another mathematical genie, black holes, are also important to the hypothesis, since black holes are said to inhabit the cores of almost every galaxy. Both dark matter and black holes (as well as dark energy) are necessary mathematical constructs in the astronomical community, because in their minds gravity is the sine qua non of all forces that govern galactic motion in the cosmos. A far different approach is taken by those who consider the Electric Universe theory. Astrophysicist Hannes Alfvn first proposed his theory of "electric galaxies" in 1981. Galaxies and their motions resemble a homopolar motor more than they do anything else. A homopolar motor operates because electric current creates a magnetic field, which causes a metal disc to spin at a rate directly proportional to the supplied current. A galactic disc is like the metal disc of a homopolar, or Faraday motor, named for its inventor Michael Faraday. Immense Birkeland currents flow into galactic axes and out along the disc. Stars in the disc are powered by those currents. Galaxies, in turn, receive their power from intergalactic Birkeland currents that are visible in space as filamentary structures traceable by their magnetic fields. Filaments of electricity can be seen everywhere: static electricity sparks, lightning flashes, "jets" of x-rays that pour from galactic poles, and the "strings" of superclusters that make-up large-scale structures in the Universe. Birkeland currents are drawn toward each other in a linear relationship, with a long-range attraction potential 39 orders of magnitude greater than gravity, so the need for dark matter influences can be dismissed as completely unnecessary. Electric currents flowing through dusty plasma energize and sustain clusters, galaxies, and stars. Stephen Smith
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Artistic rendition of the Sun's heliosheath. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech.
The Interstellar Medium

(Jan 11, 2010)
A diffuse cloud of gas surrounds the Solar System. What is holding it together? It is often stated that space is a vacuum. It is true that the material in space is at a far lower density than any vacuum that can be created on Earth, but matter does exist in the regions between stars and galaxies. The best pumped vacuums on Earth typically reach a 0.1 millimeter spacing between individual atoms. Between stars, there is one atom per cubic centimeter, while in the Milky Way's galactic halo they are estimated to be ten centimeters apart. The regions of least density are in the intergalactic voids, where it is theorized that there is only one atom for every ten cubic meters. The Interstellar Medium (ISM), through which the Solar System and all other star systems are moving, consists of a mass of gas and dust primarily composed of hydrogen and helium, with an admixture of dust grains that are less than one-tenth of a micron in size. One micron is equal to one-millionth of a meter, so the dust is almost as small as the frequency of blue light (0.450 microns). The size of the dust particles means that blue light is scattered when it passed through the ISM, so more red light reaches Earth than it would without the dust. This phenomenon is called "interstellar reddening," and is the same effect that causes reddening of the sunrise and sunset. Dust clouds lit from the side by starlight appear blue, on the other hand, for the same reason that Earth's sky is blue: blue light is scattered by Earth's atmosphere. What the dust is and where it came from is not known, but astrophysicists speculate that it is The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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ejected from stars. Supergiant stars are often seen with immense clouds of dust surrounding them. However, deep space images also reveal dust lanes thousands of light-years in circumference looping around many galaxies. One important characteristic of the ISM is that it contains ionized particles, as well as neutral molecules. It is those electrons and positive ions that are critical to understanding the behavior of the ISM and how the Solar System interacts with it. Although the ISM is extremely diffuse, if charge separation takes place in different regions, a weak electric field will develop. An electric field, no matter how weak, will initiate an electric current. According to a recent press release, there is an unexpected cloud of gas and dust that is encompassing the Sun's heliosheath. Prior to the discovery, conventional understanding did not predict that it would be there because high pressure supernova shockwaves should have blown it away. However, according to Merav Opher of George Mason University: "Using data from Voyager, we have discovered a strong magnetic field just outside the Solar System. This magnetic field holds the interstellar cloud together and solves the long-standing puzzle of how it can exist at all." On August 20, 1977, NASA launched the Voyager 2 mission on a multiyear journey to the outer Solar System. Voyager 1 was launched on a faster, shorter trajectory on September 5, 1977. Voyager 1 passed through the Sun's termination shock in December 2004. Voyager 2, traveling a different path, did the same in August 2007. It was data from those "old-timers" that provided the information for Opher's assessment of the ISM. What is the heliosheath? When Voyager 1 experienced "unusual events" as it approached the boundary between the Sun and interstellar space, Electric Universe advocate Wal Thornhill explained that the spacecraft was entering a "double layer," or Langmuir plasma sheath between the solar plasma and the plasma of the ISM. It is a well-known principle that electric currents generate magnetic fields. Since Opher's research team has found magnetic fields strong enough to hold tenuous clouds of gas and dust together against the influence of hypothetical supernova explosions, then electric currents must be flowing through the ISM in order to create those fields. Whenever an electric discharge takes place in plasma, the current flow is compressed inward by induced magnetic fields. This effect is known as a "z-pinch," and is a foundational principle of Electric Universe theory. The compression can be so intense that plasma is squeezed down into solid particles. Indeed, stars and galaxies are thought to owe their existence to massive electric currents forming cosmic z-pinches in the vast clouds of plasma that make up 99% of the Universe. In conclusion, the ultra-fine dust, magnetic fields, influences on spacecraft, and the heliosheath, itself, are all manifestations of the electric force. Electricity will eventually supplant gravitational theory as the primum mobile of existence. Meanwhile, patient observations continue to support Electric Universe concepts. Stephen Smith
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Infrared image of the Small Magellanic Cloud. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI.
Galactic Tail Lights

(Jan 08, 2010)
Streams of gas between galaxies are evidence for electrical connectivity. The Magellanic Clouds consist of two dwarf galaxies in proximity to the Milky Way. According to astronomers, they are orbiting our galaxy and might have once been part of it. The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is approximately 200,000 light-years from Earth, as astronomers gauge distance, and is no more than a smudge of light to the naked eye. Both galaxies were first seen by the European explorer Ferdinand Magellan during his global circumnavigation in 1519. The people of Australia have known about their existence for thousands of years, however. According to a recent press release from the Spitzer Space Telescope team, the SMC is interesting because it "is very similar to young galaxies thought to populate the universe billions of years ago." A lack of heavy elements--20% of those found in the Milky Way, for example--leads then to conclude that its stellar population has not had time to transmute the hydrogen in their thermonuclear cores into nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen, the "elements of life." In the false-color image at the top of the page, infrared data from Spitzer's supercooled detectors is highlighted according to light frequencies: blue reveals what are thought to be older stars, green indicates organic dust streams, composed of "tholins" flowing in and around the SMC, and red relates to hypothetical star-forming dust clouds, or proplyds. Tholins are large organic molecules found outside our planet that arise when ultraviolet light interacts with smaller molecules. They cannot exist naturally on Earth, because the atmospheric oxygen would quickly destroy them. They can be synthesized in laboratory isolation, however, by sending electric arcs through various combinations of methane and ammonia. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Tholins are primarily a rusty color, which could help to explain the reddish-orange hue of Titan's atmosphere, where there is almost no oxygen. Perhaps the reddish-brown "soot" that covers several of Saturn's moons also contains tholins. What do a planet-sized, frigid moon and a small galaxy have in common that can explain the formation of similar organic molecules? The green-tagged material sweeping through the SMC is part of a structure known as the Magellanic Stream. The Magellanic Stream is composed mainly of hydrogen gas, with tholin compounds mixed in. Close examination of the Stream's formation reveals it to be filamentary. As has been noted in past Picture of the Day articles, filaments in gas clouds are a sign of electric currents flowing through dusty plasma. The current flow creates vortex structures that gradually morph into distorted wisps and curlicues of glowing matter. The distorted filaments have been observed in laboratory experiments, as well as in Earth's aurorae, and other planets, such as Jupiter. It is not a coincidence that electric arcs are used to create tholins in the laboratory. The Huygens probe found high concentrations of charged particles in the lower atmosphere of Titan, so intense electrical activity could have been responsible for the formation of organic molecules there, as well. Stars, galaxies, and planets are all moving through plasma in space and are affected by electric currents. Whether great streams of intergalactic plasma, electric arcs in the laboratory, or lightning discharges between planets, the observations all point to electricity as the active agent. Stephen Smith
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Artistic rendition of extrasolar planets. Credit: T. Riecken.
Heat Upon Heat Upon Heat

(Jan 06, 2010)
Mysterious objects too hot to be planets and too small to be stars have been found. On March 7, 2009, NASA launched the Kepler Space Telescope on a three and a half year mission designed to search for planets revolving around other stars. Astronomers have been investigating the possibility that there are other stellar families outside of the Solar System for many years, but Earth-based telescopes have been able to detect only gas giants that are Jupiter-sized or larger. Kepler was built to find planets that are similar in size to Earth. In 1992, radio astronomers found a pair of objects in orbit around PSR B1257+12, a radio pulsar 980 light-years away, as astronomers reckon distance. Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail used a "radial velocity" technique to measure shifts in the pulsar's radio frequency, inferring the existence of dense bodies "tugging" on the star. Other extrasolar bodies were found by teams such as those at the Lick Observatory, headed up by Geoff Marcy. Marcy is credited with discovering 70 new planets using a combination of astrometry, calculating stellar positional shifts caused by a planet's gravitational pull, and radial velocity measurements. That information is also used to determine the planetary masses and orbits. Kepler is using the "transit method" to find remote worlds. By observing a star's brightness, the telescope can see when a planet passes in front of the stellar disc because there will be a reduction in the light. Theoretically, that slight dimming can be used to deduce the size of the object occluding the star. With repeated observations, the transit interval can allude to the planet's orbital duration. Currently, the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia lists 417 planets outside of the Solar System. Recently, Kepler scientists announced that they have found five potentially new planets The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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around various stars. Each of them are possessed of strange characteristics (one has the apparent density of Styrofoam), but the strangest of all is that two of them are incredibly hot-hotter than their parent stars. According to mission team members they have no idea what they could be. They are too hot to be planets, but too small to be stars. One of the "mysterious" new objects is KOI 74b, with a temperature of 39,000 Celsius, while its stellar host is only 9400 Celsius. This cannot be explained with consensus theories: why would a planet be hotter than a star? That is, if it is a planet. However, because of its relatively small size--about as large as Jupiter--it is far too small for fusion fires to be burning there. Another bizarre object, this time about as large as Neptune, with a temperature near 15,000 Celsius, is in such close proximity to its star that it completes one revolution in just over five days. Are these new types of celestial object, or are they simply conforming to the characteristics of plasma double layers, and the Electric Star theory? Intense magnetic fields have been detected in space. Those fields are thought to be generated by electric currents flowing through and around galaxies along light-years long "transmission lines" called Birkeland current filaments. Magnetic forces constrict the filaments, twisting them around each other and forming "z-pinch" compression zones. The pinch effect is far more powerful than gravity when it comes to concentrating matter. Stars are formed when z-pinch effects crush plasma into rotating spheres of electric charge. This concept has been elucidated many times in these pages. In a previous Picture of the Day article, the Electric Star theory was proposed as a way to deal with the then "puzzling" discovery of yellow, super-giant stars orbiting close to one another in the Holmberg IX galaxy. The conventional view of luminosity versus spectral class was shown to be overturned by the theory's premise. The theory also predicts that binary star systems at every stage of evolution and luminosity should exist. The Electric Star theory states that stellar fissioning will occur if a star is under great stress because of excess current flow from the galactic generator. A blue-white star might explosively split into two or more daughter stars if the input current passes a critical threshold. In so doing, the surface area increases, resulting in a decrease in current density. The two (or more) new stars will experience a reduction in luminosity and appear to be "older" as conventional theories of stellar evolution discuss age. The electric currents flowing between the new stars might also be interpreted as heat. Perhaps what the Kepler mission has done is help to confirm the Electric Star theory by providing data that supports stellar fissioning. Stephen Smith
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So-called "protoplanetary disks" in the Orion Nebula (M42). Credit: NASA/ESA and L. Ricci (ESO).
Presumptive Proplyds
(Jan 04, 2010)
Are the elongated blobs of gas and dust observed within various nebulae the signature of star-birth? A recent press release from the European Space Agency (ESA) highlights images from the Hubble Space Telescope that are said to reveal "baby stars" called proplyds (PROtoPLanetarY Disk) within the Orion Molecular Cloud complex. Such dusty aggregations are thought to be where gravity is pulling wispy gases together until they reach pressures sufficient to ignite thermonuclear fusion. According to the Nebular Hypothesis, the remaining clumps of dust and gas that are not absorbed by the newly minted star swirl around, attracting more stray bits, until they also condense, but this time into planets. It is said that our own Solar System was created in a similar "stellar nursery" billions of years ago. A previous announcement from ESA's XMM-Newton x-ray telescope revealed "flowing plasma" at over one million Kelvin, along with x-ray emissions, in the same regions where the supposed star factories are located. Astronomers were surprised by the discovery, because no one expected to find "hot gas" within a cloud of cold vapor. At last count, over 700 new stars are said to be forming inside the nebula. Although stars of any class are thought to be x-ray sources, no nebula is supposed to possess the intrinsic energy necessary to generate them. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The investigators believed that they knew where the plasma and x-rays came from, the collision of "high velocity winds emitted by stars." In other words, in the heart of the nebula, stellar winds cause "shock waves" to raise the temperature in the environment to millions of degrees. The plasma they identified is really meant to refer to hot gas with no reference to its electrically active component. Star-forming regions are conventionally associated with high frequency light from their active regions. Gamma rays, x-rays, and extreme ultraviolet shine from the "cosmic eggs," and appear to be the glowing tips of condensed gas balls. One of the most iconic images in modern astrophotography is the famous "Pillars of Creation" in the Eagle Nebula. The tops of the clouds, with their Q-tip structures, x-ray radiation, and compact shapes are also deemed to be stellar nurseries, where standard theories meet colorful pictures. That gas can be heated until it gives off x-rays without stripping electrons from the nuclei, or that a "wind" of ionized particles is not an electric current, or that the only way for charged particles to accelerate is through shock waves is seriously limiting. It betrays a reactionary viewpoint despite the evidence of observations. The Electric Star hypothesis resolves many of the distorted opinions that arise from misunderstanding the role of plasma and electric fields in space. Rather than kinetic activity (heated gas), the Orion Nebulas radiant emanations result from electric currents. Electric discharges in a plasma cloud create double layers, or sheaths, along the current axis. Positive charge builds up on one side and negative charge on the other. An electric field develops between the sides, and if enough current is applied the sheath glows, otherwise it is invisible. Electric currents flow along the sheaths. In plasma, the currents spiral into filaments, or double layer tubes. The filaments attract each other, but rather than merging they spiral around, gradually pinching down into arc mode discharges. Electric sheaths that are normally invisible are "pumped" with additional energy from galactic Birkeland currents in which they are immersed. The excess input power pushes them into "glow mode," while increased flux density draws matter from the surrounding space into filaments that ignite the nebular "gases" electrically. It is in this way that stars are born. Gravity, although it plays a small role in stellar evolution, is far too weak a force when compared to an electric field and ionized particles. Stephen Smith
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Dark matter density in a simulated galaxy halo. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics
MACHOs and WIMPs

(Jan 01, 2010)
According to cosmologists, the Universe is made mostly of dark matter and dark energy, but they do not know what either is. A recent press release opens with this question: "Dark Matter Detected for First Time?" It seems ironic to ask, since what they are "detecting" has been one of the most all pervasive, yet most highly speculative investigations since phlogiston. In previous Pictures of the Day, it was noted that dark matter is an ad hoc theory, an addendum to the gravity-based model of the Universe. As consensus physics proposes, without adding dark matter there is insufficient gravity in the cosmos to account for galaxies bunching together. Without sufficient mass, they should also have decelerated over the eons instead of moving through space at 90% of light speed. An exotic form of matter was proposed when astronomers realized that stars traveled around the edge of a spiral galaxy with the same angular velocity as stars close to the center. This was a quandary, since according to Newton's theory they should be slower. Therefore, astronomers assumed that a form of dark matter was imparting extra gravitational energy to the stars. It was called "dark" because the theory states that it cannot be detected, except indirectly. This unseen matter is said to be sustaining all galaxies, preventing them from flying apart. Over the years, research groups have been trying to reconcile the lack of mass in the Universe, particularly in galaxy clusters, with their recessional velocity. There is not enough gravity in the visible stars and gas clouds to account for that velocity, as well as the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive consolidation of individual galaxies and clusters.
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If dark matter exists, according to physicists, then it ought to be expressed through a particle. After all, gravity is based on mass attraction, so if dark matter is holding the stars in their galactic orbits, and pulling those galaxies into clusters, there must be an invisible particle (or particles) responsible for the effect. If not particles, then perhaps cold, non-radiating matter--burned-out stars, or large planets-are exerting their influences on galactic structure. Those "normal" but invisible objects were called MAssive Compact Halo Objects (MACHOs). Telescopes were scheduled to look for stellar occultations caused by MACHOs, but after years of investigation there have been no results. MACHO scientists have recently thrown in the towel, finally acknowledging that MACHOs are not dark matter candidates. Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) theory has been the chief competitor with MACHO theory for several years. With the demise of the latter theory, scientists have now pinned their hopes on a subatomic particle to account for the necessary gravitational attraction. In 1999, a consortium of ten research institutions from around the world known as the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) developed a detector that was supposed to "see" the sporadic impacts from WIMPs on other atomic particles. The CDMS sensor is an array of silicon and germanium crystals that are cooled by liquid helium until they are close to absolute zero. When subatomic particles strike an atomic nucleus in the crystals, it is interpreted as ionization and heat. Since the atomic movement in the sensor is almost stopped, any tiny vibrations caused by a particle's impact are seen as "hits." The sensor has been handicapped by many false readings due to cosmic rays and other ionized particles. For more than ten years, scientists working on the project have seen nothing to suggest that WIMPs are colliding with the detector. The current press release is simply publicizing further ambiguous results. Are they seeing WIMPs or are they continuing to witness cosmic ray impacts? From the Electric Universe perspective, electric currents drive the galaxies and their associated stars. Laboratory experiments reveal that the magnetic vortex between twin Birkeland current filaments can create structures that resemble spiral galaxies. Birkeland currents have a longer-range attractive force than gravity, and diminish with the reciprocal of the distance rather than gravity's square of the distance. That alone could account for the anomalous movement of stars as they revolve around the galactic core. It is the flow of electricity through plasma in space that tends to initiate the effects that we can observe with space-based telescopes and confirm in ground-based research laboratories. It is the electric currents in the cosmos and their associated magnetic fields that should be our focus and not the search for that which can never be found. Stephen Smith
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Specular reflection from Titan's north polar region. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/DLR.
Titan's Glass Lakes

(Dec 28, 2009)
Pools of liquid hydrocarbons are said to exist on the surface of Titan. On July 8, 2009, the Cassini-Equinox spacecraft detected a flash of reflected light from Titan. Since the mission team had been speculating about methane lakes on Titan for some time before launch, and since early images from Cassini seemed to show expanses of liquid on its surface, the latest images are said to "confirm" that speculation. It was in January of 2005 that the Huygens probe successfully landed on the frigid moon. Mission specialists had previously setup a sensor on the bottom of the 319 kilogram capsule, so that when it touched down an indication of the landing zone's composition could be established. Prior to launch, the sensor was plunged into a variety of substances, including liquids and ices, and those results were then programmed into the software. One of the substances was sand. Images transmitted from the giant moon's surface revealed a rocky landscape with the consistency of damp sand. A field of small pebbles extended to the horizon. Spectrographic analysis established that the "rocks" are made of water ice. It is easy to understand how ice can appear to be like rock when it is at a temperature of - 179 Celsius. What Huygens did not detect was liquids of any kind. No methane droplets were falling from the clouds. In fact, there was no precipitation of any kind, and no pools of methane were visible within its field of view. Instead, orbital images confirmed a dry surface where dunes several meters high march across the terrain in parallel rows. In the image at the top of the page, the Cassini-Equinox orbiter detected an infrared reflection from an area known as Kraken Mare ("Monster Ocean") that covers more than 400,000 The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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square kilometers in Titan's north polar region. Is Kraken Mare really a lake larger than Earth's Lake Superior? Cassini has also returned images of "riverbeds" that seem to flow into several of the presumed methane lakes, including Kraken Mare. As was noted in a previous Picture of the Day, the lakes on Titan are similar to the "maria" of our own Moon. Moreover, every brachiated channel on Titan is dry; they all have dark, flat floors, with no evidence of flowing liquids. Coupled with the observation that Titan's Kraken Mare resembles Mare Serenitatis more than it does Lake Superior, the same rilles are present on Titan as on the Moon. In previous Picture of the Day articles about the Moon, "sinuous rilles" were identified as the scars left by plasma discharges of immense proportions. Practically every body in the Solar System, other than the gas giant planets, exhibit such rille structures. The ice moon Europa, the inferno-like moon Io, the most remote planetary moon Triton, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Earth--without exception there are steep-walled, meandering, flat-floored canyon formations everywhere our instruments look. Electric Universe advocate Wal Thornhill observed that the images from Cassini are "...typical of arc machining of the surface. I would compare them directly to the scalloped scarring on Jupiters moon Io and the flat, melted floor depressions that result. Such floors would be expected to give a dark radar return." The fact that the "lakes" are also close by the vast dune fields in the polar regions suggests an electrical origin sometime in the past. It is in the southern and northern latitudes of Titan that they are found. Since electrical activity has been shown to have carved the surface of other rocky bodies, why would it come as a surprise to find that it has also been at work on Titan? It is a distinct probability that the infrared light seen by Cassini was reflected by the hard, glassified crust left by an interplanetary plasma discharge. Stephen Smith
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Ovda Regio in the western half of Aphrodite Terra, Venus. Credit: JPL/NASA/California Institute of Technology.
Dione's Daughter
(Dec 23, 2009)
Instead of a birth at sea, rising up out of the foam, Aphrodite appears to have been born of a fiery furnace. On April 11, 2006, ESA's Venus Express entered orbit around the enigmatic planetary inferno. The mission is designed to explore the upper atmosphere and the "mysterious" ultraviolet bands in the cloud tops, as well as why those high altitude clouds rage at hurricane force. It is a puzzle to planetary scientists, because the atmosphere at the surface moves sluggishly. Images obtained by various Russian Venera-class landing vehicles revealed a rock-strewn, sandy terrain with low hills in the distance. Venera 14's instruments felt what would be called on Earth a light breeze, with an average wind speed of only 0.3 to 1.0 meters per second. Venus Express hopes to resolve this issue by conducting long-term atmospheric circulation studies. Venus is 12,100 kilometers in diameter, about 1000 kilometers smaller than Earth. Its gravitational acceleration is 8.1 meters per second per second, or 90% of that on Earth. The surface temperature has been measured to be 500 Celsius, with an atmosphere that is composed almost entirely of carbon dioxide and a small amount of nitrogen. The atmospheric pressure is 90 times greater than our planet. A human being standing in the open on Venus would be instantly reduced to a smear of gray ash. The Magellan spacecraft, which entered orbit on August 10, 1990, mapped over 80% of the planet, uncovering another mystery for NASA scientists: mountaintops on Venus glowed brightly in the radar light used to see through the cloud layers. Why this is so cannot be The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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explained with conventional theories, so other speculations were proposed: lead precipitation coating the mountains in metallic shells, or a chemical reaction that forms pyrite. Physicist and Electric Universe advocate Wal Thornhill disagrees, seeing the anomalous reflectivity as part of the electrical environment on Venus: "St. Elmo's fire is a highly ionised state involving actual discharge. Put the two together and you have dense plasma--which conducts like a metal and therefore reflects radar like a metal surface. The thickness of such a plasma would have no more effect on radar reflectivity than the thickness of a metal sheet would. Since the plasma would coat the surface rocks (whatever their composition), the radar return would be an enhanced version of that being received from nearby, uncoated, electromagnetically dissipative rocks, and would be greater than that returned from fool's gold [pyrite]. I consider my hypothesis is simpler than one relying on chemical or physical changes in rocks of unknown composition." Gigantic fissures with radial grooves are carved into the Venusian surface in great swirling arcs. In three-dimensional imagery, they are depressions with raised central peaks surrounded by "moats," similar to those observed on Mars. The so-called "coronae" are not the only comparable formations between Venus and other celestial bodies. In the image at the top of the page, Lo Shen Vallis appears remarkably similar to carved channels on Mars, as well as on its moon Phobos. Maadim Vallis in the Terra Cimmeria region of Mars is a 20 kilometer wide, 2 kilometer deep, 700 kilometer long channel, said to be created by water millions of years ago. On Venus, however, no one thinks that there was ever flowing water available to cut vast chasms with vertical walls and flat floors, so what made them? In Electric Universe terms, theories about Venus and how its surface was shaped must include electricity as a defining factor. In the high density Venusian atmosphere, electric arcs might have carved the geographical structures in the same way as those on Mars. Energetic plasma discharges leave "arachnoids" on Venus that resemble "spiders" on Mars, but are far larger and more pronounced. Electric currents in a thick atmosphere tend to branch out into filaments, some of which spin concentric circles around the primary discharge. Other filaments radiate outward. Together, they etch structures that look like a spiderweb, which is why they are called "arachnoids." Spider-like features are largely found incised along Venus' equator. Pits and craters produced by electricity are circular because electromagnetic fields will only allow an arc to impinge on a surface at a right angle. Electric arcs are filamentary, rotating around the central discharge channel, as mentioned above. Surface material is machined away and pulled out, leaving behind steep sides and flat floors with little or no blast debris. Often, the center of the circular formation will be "pinched up," as found in many lunar craters. Should the electric arc move laterally, it might excise a line of craters in a chain. If they overlap, they will consolidate into a steep-sided trench with scalloped edges. The trench might run for some distance before jumping to another conductive point, where it will electrically erode another long, winding valley, often terminating in a crater. Some valleys have large craters in their middles. As highlighted in previous Picture of the Day articles, lightning of strength sufficient to excavate craters that measure up to 100 kilometers in diameter, or slice open 700 kilometer gashes, is no longer active on Venus, although it might exist on some of the Solar System's The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Lightning bolts scaled up to continental or planetary dimensions are beyond modern imagination, since activity on that level has never been observed. However, the forensic evidence left behind on Venus, Earth, Mars, and the Moon demonstrates that it will behave the same as it does when confined in laboratory plasma experiments. Stephen Smith
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Variation in the temperature of Earth's atmosphere. Credit: Windows to the Universe, UCAR.
TIMED is on My Side (Yes it is)

(Dec 21, 2009)
New research confirms that Earth's upper atmosphere is cooling off. On December 7, 2001, NASA launched the Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite to study the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere. As part of the Solar Terrestrial Probes Missions, TIMED preceded STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory), launched October 25, 2006, and the HINODE (Solar-B) mission, launched September 23, 2006. Future additions to the fleet of space vehicles analyzing the connection between the Sun and our planet's environment will include the MMS (Magnetosphereic MultiScale) mission, scheduled for launch in 2014, the GEC (Geospace Electrodynamic Connections) mission, and the MagCON (Magnetospheric Constellation) mission. The latter two are currently in the budget assignment and contract phase. The highest levels of our atmosphere are poorly understood, especially the thermosphere. At an altitude between 60 and 180 kilometers, it is the region where the Sun's energy begins to interact with atmospheric particles. Just how this dynamic relationship proceeds is still under investigation, but according to a recent press release from the the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), the thermosphere has experienced a tenfold decline in temperature since 2002. TIMED measurements indicate that the amount of ultraviolet radiation emitted by the Sun has significantly decreased since the start of solar minimum. The amount of infrared radiation emitted by nitric oxide molecules has also declined, implying that the upper atmosphere has The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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It has long been known that temperatures in the thermosphere are dependent on solar radiation. Extreme ultraviolet light is absorbed by the residual oxygen and becomes electrically charged, with increasing molecular motion. Fast molecular motion is known as heat, so even though a household thermometer would register temperatures below zero in the thermosphere, it is considered hot, sometimes reaching over 1500 Celsius during solar maximum. Since there are fewer molecules in the thermosphere, the amount of thermal energy per cubic centimeter is lower than it is at the surface--there is not enough contact between molecules to transfer heat. The Sun's 22 year cycle has now been shown to be linked with Earth's climate. Although solar energy does vary over the course of a sunspot cycle, that variance amounts to less than onetenth of one percent, so how are the increases and decreases in thunderstorm activity explained? Earth is an electrically charged body that interacts with ions permeating space. Electricity from space is also injected into the thermosphere from charged particles emitted by the Sun, speeding along massive Birkeland currents through a closed circuit. When solar winds are at a minimum, the electric currents decline in amperage, thereby decreasing the strength of our planet's magnetosphere. As the magnetosphere declines in strength, it is less able to deflect energetic ions arriving from deep space known as cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are charge carriers, and those ions are able to reach the troposphere. Collisions between charged and neutral particles drag air molecules along with them influencing low level cloud cover. More clouds reflect more radiation from the Sun back to space--clouds are white because they are acting like mirrors to all forms of visible light. More reflection means less solar energy, more cloud cover, and so on. The correspondence between the Sun's electric field strength, cosmic rays, Earth's magnetosphere, cloud cover, and climate are continuing to be investigated. Electric Universe advocates insist that there should be more funding devoted to understanding the connection between Earth and our primary. "The knowledge gained since 1896, in radio-activity has favoured the view to which I gave expression in that year, namely, that magnetic disturbances on the earth, and aurora borealis, are due to corpuscular rays emitted by the Sun." -- Kristian Birkeland "The Norwegian Aurora Polaris Expedition 1902-1903, Volume 1, Part 1" Stephen Smith
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The Aurora Borealis from the International Space Station (ISS). Credit: ISS Science Officer Don Petitt.
Things that Go Bump in the Light

(Dec 18 2009
The northern aurora contains regions that sometimes emit energetic bursts of light. "It seems to be a natural consequence of our points of view to assume that the whole of space is filled with electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds." -- Kristian Birkeland The curtains of blue, green, and red that hang down from the sky like wind-wavering veils of color have both puzzled and entranced observers for countless millennia. In 1621, Pierre Gassendi called the shimmering curtains of light seen in the Arctic the Aurora Borealis after Aurora, the Roman goddess of dawn, and Boreas, the Greek name for the north wind. 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 charged particles ejected from the Sun, conventionally called the solar wind, are captured by our planet's magnetosphere, and along with ions generated by Earth itself, collect in a plasma sheet within the magnetotail, where they are held together by Earth's magnetic field. Solar ions follow Earth's magnetic field down into the poles, causing atmospheric molecules to emit light: red from oxygen at high altitudes, then green from oxygen lower down, along with blue from nitrogen. According to a press release from NASA's Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission, large areas of the Aurora Borealis are sometimes seen to create intense bursts of light called substorms. Such bursts have long been a puzzle to astrophysicists, but now team members think they finally have a solution: "plasma bullet collisions." THEMIS scientists propose that small, fast-moving aurorae "crash into" the large-scale The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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auroral complex that moves slowly. An auroral "knot" of plasma speeds in from the north and the two formations collide, releasing an abrupt flash. How is Earth's magnetotail involved in these "collisions?" Larry Lyons of UCLA, one of the team's leading researchers, believes that the knots move in conjunction with a plasma jet traveling through the magnetotail. Plasma waves and instabilities are generated when the jet reaches the magnetotail's inner boundary. Radar stations in Alaska and Greenland have detected return signals from streams of plasma in Earth's upper atmosphere just before the aurorae collide. The five THEMIS spacecraft repeatedly fly through the magnetotail and have also confirmed the existence of plasma streams speeding toward Earth. It is those packets of field aligned charged particles that are called plasma bullets. Strong electromagnetic disturbances are observed when a bright aurora is seen. In 1903, Kristian Birkeland's Arctic expedition discovered that electric currents from the Aurora Borealis flowed parallel to the auroral formation. Since electric currents move in a circuit, and since the auroral glow seemed to be caused by events in space, he proposed that the currents flowed down from space at one end of the auroral arc and back out to space at the other. In 1973, the magnetometer aboard the U.S. Navy satellite Triad found two gigantic electric current sheets carrying a million amperes or more. One plasma sheet descended from the aurora's morning side and the other ascended from the evening side. Since Birkeland's research predicted those currents linking Earth with space, they are called Birkeland currents. Today, Birkeland's polar electric currents are known as auroral electrojets; they are connected to electric currents that follow the geomagnetic field into and away from the Arctic region. They are the "new" discovery made by NASA scientists who continue to ignore Birkeland's work. Although the words "plasma" and "currents" are used in the press release, they are coupled with "impacts," "collisions," and "streams." The light bursts from colliding aurorae are said to be the result of "magnetic reconnection" events. As the theory states, the solar wind "stretches" our magnetic field like a rubber band. When it "snaps back" the over-stretched magnetic field lines initiate a powerful explosion when some of the "magnetic energy" is converted to heat and light. As was discussed in a previous Picture of the Day, how the energy is released, as well as what starts the process, are still controversial subjects. Energy in nature cannot be destroyed, as the conservation of energy law states. When electricity powers a motor, it is converted to kinetic energy. When friction stops motion, its kinetic energy converts to heat. Magnetic energy is also thought to reappear in different forms. Some becomes heat, increasing the velocity of plasma ions and electrons. Some changes to visible light. Again it seems that space scientists are reversing cause (electric currents) and effect (magnetic fields). They downplay or deny the importance of the electrical processes and ignore the work of plasma pioneers like Kristian Birkeland. New discoveries are really confirming the experiments done by others more than 100 years ago. Stephen Smith
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The Flame Nebula. Image from the VISTA telescope. Credit: ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit
VISTA's First Light

(Dec 16, 2009)
A new telescope designed to see objects in visible and infrared light has just come online. The Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) began operations a day after its December 11, 2009 dedication ceremony. NGC 2024, otherwise known as the Flame Nebula, was among those objects recorded during its first light. The Flame Nebula is located in the constellation of Orion, just below the three visible stars that make up its belt. Of the three stars that comprise Orion's sword, one of them is actually the Orion Nebula, a celestial object that has been the subject of past Picture of the Day articles. Both the Flame and Orion nebulae are part of the Orion Molecular Cloud complex that also includes the Horsehead Nebula, the Barnard-30 star-forming region, M43, and M78. Normally, the Flame Nebula is obscured by an opaque cloud of dust. However, VISTA's supercooled infrared detection apparatus (frozen at - 200 C) can "see through" the cloud, because it is sensitive to the infrared light being emitted by warmer gases and dust behind the dark veil. High resolution images confirm that the nebula is similar in structure to others that have been identified in these pages as electrically active phenomena. What is a nebula? Consensus opinions state that a star in the latter stages of its evolution will experience violent upheavals as its supply of hydrogen fuel diminishes and the "ash" of heavier elements accumulates in its core. Before the star reaches its final white dwarf stage, it is thought that the disequilibrium induced by the fusion of those heavier nuclei causes the dying star to eject The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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vast quantities of matter--effectively "sloughing off" its outer layers. It is this expanding cloud of dust and gas, illuminated by the senescent star at its center, that astronomers detect. The name "planetary nebula" was assigned to the glowing formations early in the days of telescopic observation. They appeared to be round, with a faint greenish tinge, looking similar to Uranus, so it was assumed that they might also be gas giant planets. Planetary nebulae come in all shapes and sizes: round, elliptical, interlocking rings, or nested cylinders. They often exhibit long tendrils, symmetrical hourglass shapes, and bubbles within their structures. According to conventional theories, those features are the result of shock waves, or stellar winds blowing off the parent star, crashing into the slower material ahead of them. In the case of the Flame Nebula, the unmistakeable appearance of twisting Birkeland current filaments is clearly visible bisecting the center of the image. The overall configuration is an hourglass, not a sphere, and the shapes within the nebula correspond to the filaments, helices, and pillars that electrical discharge in plasmas create. In the laboratory, plasma forms cells separated by thin walls of opposite charge called double layers. Could separation of charges also take place in nebulae? That question might require centuries to answer, since the only way to detect a double layer in space is by flying a probe through one. However, everywhere in our own Solar System cellular structures separated by double layers abound: the Sun's heliosphere, comet tails, and magnetospheres are all examples of charge separation in plasma. Although no definitive answers are yet forthcoming, Electric Universe advocates assume that plasma will behave in the same way whether in the laboratory, or in a formation like the Flame Nebula. Electric double layers resulting from charge separation in space prompted Nobel laureate Hannes Alfvn to suggest that they be considered their own class of celestial object. If that were so, the mysteries that confound astronomy today would become substantially less quixotic. Stephen Smith
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A red giant star rises over an imaginary horizon. Artist: James Gitlin.
Seeing Red Giants

(Dec 14, 2009)
Many red giant stars exhibit variations in their luminosities over periods of several months to a few years. Recent observations "show that all the possible explanationsfail." Of course, what consensus astronomers think is possible excludes the possibilities from dissenters and other sciences. The consensus model attributes the luminosity variations to mechanical pulsations: the star expands and contracts, growing brighter and dimmer, its light output bouncing like a lid on a boiling pot. The boiling pot is the assumption that defines the consensus: a star is a gravitationally bound and internally heated ball of gas. Complicating the consensus model is a longer-period secondary variability in some of the stars. As well, the stars eject an abundance of matter or surround themselves with expanding rings. Its hard to stretch the Victorian-era theories of gravity and gas around those observations, and the sharp details of the new observations have poked holes in the theories coherence. The Electric Universe is one of the dissenters: a star is an electromagnetically bound and externally powered discharge in plasma. A red giant is a star without a photosphere. Instead of the high-current-density arcs, or anode tufts, that radiate heat and light at high temperatures from the "surfaces" of stars like the Sun, a low-temperature chromosphere has expanded to scavenge enough electrons to maintain the red giants discharge. Without a photosphere, the star lacks the regulatory mechanism that maintains a constant output in sunlike stars. (See "Transistor Action at the Solar Surface" in The Electric Sky by Donald Scott, p. 96.) Variations in the supply current cause the chromosphere to expand and contract, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The same effect occurs on the Sun above the (regulated) photosphere. The corona is exposed to the unmoderated supply current, and its luminosity varies accordingly. Since the Sun is much smaller than a red giant, the current density at the corona is much larger and the radiation is in the ultraviolet and x-ray range. In those wavelengths, the corona is dim at solar minimum and bright at solar maximum. The chromosphere of a red giant is cool, so it is loaded with molecules and dust (clumps of molecules). It acts as an anode in the discharge, and the molecules and dust are positively charged. They act as charge carriers in the same way that protons do in the hotter discharge current (called, in consensus theory, a "wind") of the Sun. Astronomers see this flow of material and call it mass ejection, ignoring its electrical nature. The acceleration of the charge carriers away from the anode--a characteristic that contradicts the idea of mechanical mass ejection--is due to the electric field. Naturally, as the driving voltage varies, the current--and hence the loss of matter--varies. The rings seen around some red giants appear when the dusty and molecular plasma of the positive current collects in the toroidal or ring currents that form around the discharge axes. A persistent current requires a circuit, otherwise the positive charges build up at one end and the negative at the other until the electric field between them cancels out the driving voltage and the current stops. The presence of other elements in the circuit along with the red giants chromosphere can produce oscillations in the current. Those other elements are such things as double layers, which May be invisible and which have capacitive properties, and the galactic Birkeland currents that act as transmission cables, which have inductive properties. Thus the periodic variations in the red giants luminosity are neither unexpected nor difficult to explain: Our radio and television technologies are based on the fundamental ability of capacitors and inductors to cause oscillations in current flows. These circuits can be traced in the spiral arms and magnetic fields of galaxies and between galaxies. The Electric Universe insight that a star is a plasma discharge in an external circuit provides a vision of the cosmos that is the diametrical opposite of the consensus vision. In the latter, the cosmos is a scattering of isolated specks in a vast emptiness; in the former, it is an interconnected web of coupled circuits. Mel Acheson
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Pantineur en Hollande ("Skaters in Holland") by Johan Barthold Jongkind.
The Global Problem of Turbulence Cooling

(Dec 11, 2009)
Could the widespread use of windmills be responsible for recent observations that the European continent is rapidly cooling? [Chairman] "This session of the Rotterdam Congress on Global Turbulence Cooling in the year of our Lord 1647 will now come to order. [Gavel strikes] Before the initial period of testimony and investigation begins, the chair recognizes brief opening remarks by Mijnheer de Dokter Jut Om Brom, the leading expert on windmill effects in climate change. "Mijnheer Om Brom has been studying the significant lowering of European temperatures since 1612, and has concluded that the then recent introduction of windmill pumping stations around the Netherlands, with their subsequent adoption in other countries as grain processors and irrigation devices for croplands, has led to an increase in wind turbulence throughout Europe and Western Asia. "Dutch scientists have been sounding the alarm about global turbulence cooling since it was realized in the last decade that a decline in cereal grain production, as well as the freezing of previously clear winter shipping lanes, is causing food shortages and population shifts to become serious threats to future prosperity. "Mijnheer Om Brom if you please." [Applause from the panel and from the assembly] [Om Brom] "Thank-you Mijnheer President. Thank-you members of this august body. As you all know, the windmill has come to symbolize the technological achievements of the Dutch inventive spirit. With the windmill, new lands have come to exist, raised up out the ocean, itself. The outstretched sails of a great wooden windmill represent the triumph of ingenuity over the forces of Nature that resist our growth. Other cultures have created new uses for the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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windmill, increasing the quality of foodstuffs, and developing more efficient ways to cultivate their land holdings. "However, with the windmill has come an unforeseen circumstance. As this chart indicates, temperature readings over the last thirty years from the steps of Saint Laurens Church right here in Rotterdam, show a steep decline when compared to those taken in the middle of the last century by the previous clergymen. "A team of internationally funded research scientists are now suggesting that it is the windmills that are causing this downward trend because of additional air turbulence generated by the vanes. As can be demonstrated by these graphed equations, turbulence is a direct result of spinning vanes and propagates outward, influencing the movement of surrounding airflow patterns. "These equations have been vetted by a number of independent study groups who agree that, with some adjustments for North Sea ice increases, along with a slightly warmer Mediterranean Ocean, the turbulence causes regional cooling. Although the models are complex, it is indisputable that human-made windmills will soon result in a global cooling crisis. "As the airflow becomes more chaotic, it is unable to hold sufficient heat, allowing that heat to dissipate. When heat dissipation increases, turbulence increases, resulting in an ever greater heat loss. We expect that within the next century, perhaps within the next ten to twenty years, turbulence will become so great that nonstop cold winds will cause an overall freezing of our country, eventually chilling the remainder of the continent." [Chairman] "Very disturbing conclusions, Mijnheer Om Brom. What do you suggest as a course of action?" [Om Brom] "I have no other conclusion to offer than that an immediate program of windmill reduction be instituted. Also, because the major contributors to global turbulence are those who create the windmills, sell them and install them, I think that those nations who make the most use of windmills should be required to offset that use by buying 'turbulence credits' from non-windmill nations. In that way, the non-windmill using countries May continue to increase their economic development, while not contributing to further turbulence. "Here is my Spanish colleague, Mijnheer Don Quixote to explain his views. He has already begun a private program that he hopes will result in fewer windmills in his own country. He has need for additional funding in order to carry that cause further." [Chairman] "The chair recognizes Mijnheer Don Quixote." [Don Quixote] "Gracias Senor Presidente. I have long desired to leave my village and take up the profession of knighthood, for I am spurred on by the conviction that the world needs my immediate presence. The order of knight-errantry was instituted to defend maidens, to protect widows, and to rescue orphans and distressed persons. Neither fraud, nor deceit, nor malice has yet interfered with truth and plain dealing." [Chairman] "I understand, Mijnheer Quixote, that you have been engaged especially in a campaign to destroy as many windmills as you can find. It is a strong stand, yet May not be the most effective political posture." [Don Quixote] "Truly I was born to be an example of misfortune, and a target at which the arrows of adversary are aimed." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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[Chairman] "Is it your contention that these facts about global turbulence are true and deserve the maximum response?" [Don Quixote] "Facts are the enemy of truth. God, Who provides for all, will not desert us; especially being engaged, as we are, in His service." [Chairman] "Thank-you Mijnheer Quixote. And thank-you Mijnheer de Dokter Om Brom." Stephen Smith Thanks to Cj Ransom for the idea. Editor's note: Don Quixote's words are from the book, "El Ingenioso Hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha" by Miguel de Cervantes.
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UV image of a 100,000 kilometer exploding solar filament (July 19, 2000). Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO.
Solar Breeze
(Dec 07, 2009)
The intensity of the Sun's magnetic field and solar wind have declined to a record low level. On August 25, 1997, NASA launched the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite on a mission to monitor energetic ions coming from the Sun, as well as higher energy particles (cosmic rays) thought to be arriving from intergalactic space. ACE is in orbit around the L1 LaGrange point approximately 1,500,000 kilometers from Earth and will remain there until 2024. Scientists hope that data from the spacecraft's onboard sensors will help them understand how the Solar System formed, including how the solar magnetic field moderates incoming high-speed ions. Several research groups have been investigating a possible link between our climate and cosmic rays. During periods of high activity, energetic pulses on the Sun eject charged particles in the billions of tons. They are normally slow moving, requiring about 24 hours to reach Earth. Known as Coronal Mass Ejections (CME), an indication of their arrival is an intensification of the aurorae. Although the Sun is in a relatively quiescent state with few sunspots visible, it occasionally erupts with solar flares that can reach incredible velocities. As a matter of observation, they continue to accelerate as they move away from the Sun. What explains this counterintuitive process? Sunlight reaches Earth in approximately eight minutes. A solar ejection arriving in 30 minutes must be moving at more than a quarter of the speed of light. In the consensus view, such velocities are a profound mystery, yet a gigantic CME was observed on January 17, 2005, that reached our planet in less than half an hour. How do CMEs accelerate to 75,000 The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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kilometers per second or more? Plasma physicist Tony Peratt wrote: "...electric fields aligned along the magnetic field direction freely accelerate particles. Electrons and ions are accelerated in opposite directions, giving rise to a current along the magnetic field lines." Rather than shock fronts or so-called "magnetic reconnection events," the solar wind receives its impetus from an electric field that emanates from the Sun in all directions. The easiest way for charged particles to accelerate is within such a field. The Sun's e-field extends for billions of kilometers, ending at the heliospheric boundary, which the twin Voyager spacecraft are just now beginning to penetrate. The "mysterious" acceleration of positively charged solar wind particles is an electrical phenomenon that is predicted by the Electric Sun model. Solar flares are labeled C, M, or X: light, medium, or powerful. The January 17 CME was rated X3. However, on September 7, 2005, an X17 CME impacted Earth's magnetosphere, knocking out radio transmissions and overloading power station transformers. A veritable cosmic tornado of positive ions poured into the electrically charged environment of our planet. Is it a coincidence that hurricanes Katrina and Rita occurred on either side of the second largest X-flare ever recorded? In 1997, Henrik Svensmark and Eigil Fris-Christensen published "Variation of Cosmic Ray Flux and Global Cloud Coverage a Missing Link in SolarClimate Relationships" in which they argue for the Sun's mediating influence on Earth's climate. Essentially, the greater the number of high-energy ions that enter our magnetic field, the greater will be the cloud cover. When the Sun enters a quiet phase in its 22 year cycle, more charged particles are able to reach Earth because the solar magnetic field is not strong enough to deflect them. As they encounter our watery atmosphere, they cause clouds to form. Similar to an old-fashioned cloud chamber, when fast moving ions fly through a region of high humidity a track of condensation appears. It was those threads of tiny droplets that were once used to monitor subatomic particles produced by linear accelerators or "atom-smashers." Mike Lockwood and Claus Frhlich issued a paper in 2007 that contradicted any idea of a heliocentric influence on cloud cover. Although they acknowledge that it might have had a small effect in the past, they assert that humanity's industrial activity is so great that it overshadows a solar connection. Of course, they completely ignore the role of electricity in space and contend for purely mechanistic and chemical interactions. To Electric Universe theorists, the relationship between incoming high-speed protons from CMEs and increased storm activity, coupled with the analysis offered by Svensmark and FrisChristensen, is not coincidental. Since water is a dipolar molecule, the fact that ions attract water vapor seems indisputable. Stephen Smith
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Aerial view of Factory Butte, Utah. Photographer unknown.
Craters and Buttes Part Two

(Dec 04, 2009)
Craters often have flat bottoms and forty-five degree slopes. Buttes often exhibit fortyfive degree shoulders and flat tops. Crater morphology was discussed in part one of this article. Meteor Crater, Arizona was used to illustrate various anomalies associated with craters, in general. Factors such as steep walls, flat floors, and electrically induced fulgurites (glassified minerals) led to the conclusion that craters on Earth result from lightning strikes of incredible violence. Lightning of strength sufficient to excavate craters that measure up to 100 kilometers in diameter is no longer active on our planet, although it might exist on some of the Solar System's many moons. Something else that might have been caused by past bursts of intense plasma activity on Earth are buttes, also called mesas, or tepuis. How do craters and buttes relate to one another as the children of catastrophic parentage? Could the same force excise holes in the ground, as well as pile up giant mounds of material, transmogrifying them into layered mountains adorned with embossed Lichtenberg figures as seen in the image at the top of the page? A fulgamite, or lightning blister, develops when an electric discharge pulls charged material from the surrounding area, incidentally dragging the neutral matter with it. A large enough electric arc will act like an enormous plasma tornado, with an extremely low pressure region in the center enclosed by powerful electromagnetic fields. It is this central vortex that can exert forces that crush and melt dust and other substances until they become stone. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The most notable fulgamite in the Solar System, apart from the largest one, Olympus Mons, is probably the "face on Mars." Another, except found on Earth, is the Brandberg Massif. As Electric Universe theorist Wal Thornhill wrote: "An arc struck to an anode tends to 'stick' in one place, causing much melting and often raising a circular blister, called a fulgamite. Fulgamite scars on lightning arrestors are bell-shaped with a circular crater, or craters, at the summit. They often rise steeply from a circular depression or 'borrow pit,' with many rings. This should sound familiar to any keen observer of Mars. Olympus Mons has all of these strange features, which do not fit the volcano model. The giant volcanoes on Mars are in fact massive fulgamites!" No one knows how lightning might behave when it is scaled up to continental or planetary dimensions, since activity on that level has never been observed. However, the forensic evidence left behind on Earth, Mars, the Moon, and every other rocky body in the Solar System seems to indicate that it will do the same thing that it does when it is tamed and confined in laboratory plasma experiments. Mars is a desiccated wasteland, preserved in a low pressure deep-freeze. The winds that blow there might move at over 100 kilometers per hour, but the atmosphere is so thin that the dunes found on the vast desert world might be transported a meter every thousand years. The Mars Exploration Rovers can "feel" no wind, only the gentlest breath of a breeze. Therefore, no erosion issues are present to disguise the effects of past electrical scarring on its surface. A particular kind of crater found on Mars is called a "rampart crater." Rampart craters are found on top of upraised, wide stoney formations that have vertical walls. In many cases, they have central mountain peaks similar to those that are commonly seen on Earth's Moon. In other cases, the center of the crater is dominated by oddly shaped scallops cut into the floor that crisscross one another. Mars might be the best place to look for the signs of electricity's "pulling" force. There are regions covering thousands of square kilometers where giant mounds of loose regolith have been turned to stone and then had their summits ripped out almost down to bedrock, leaving conical shells. Perhaps all craters are fulgamites with their tops electrically eroded. Depending on the power, an electric arc might leave the fulgamite intact before leaping upward to complete a circuit with whatever it was that initiated the leader stroke. In that instance, there will be no crater on top. Electric Universe pioneer Ralph Juergens explained the structure of Tycho Crater on the Moon in electrical terms: "The visual evidence suggests that triggering electrons for the Tycho discharge were assembled by means of an atmospheric-breakdown process that drew them from numerous distant points in all directions and hauled them over the surface to a common collection point. On the far side of the Moon are several more long-rayed craters, presumably marking sites where much the same thing happened; these, too, are located in highland terrain." A plasma leader stroke descending towards the surface of a planet might cause oppositely charged rocks and sand to gather from hundreds of kilometers, leaving Lichtenberg trackways that point to where a secondary return stroke is building up, awaiting a discharge The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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trigger. As the electric current flow reaches up to meet the leader stroke, the materials mound up, but being similarly charged, create repulsion, so the mound will be loosely formed at first. When a certain critical threshold is reached, the two electric filaments meet and the secondary stroke jumps upward, pulling the center of the mound out with it, excavating it like a rotating auger of fire. The reason that craters have raised rims is that they are all that remains of the original mound of loose material. Once the discharge occurs, thermal and magnetic effects fuse the remnants into solid stone. Stephen Smith
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Centaurus A (NGC5128). Credit: ESO/Y. Beletsky
A Twist in the Ring of Centaurus A

(Dec 02, 2009)
A new infrared image of the Centaurus A galaxy reveals a ring of stars inside the visually obscuring dust around its core. Astronomers assume the ring is the remnant of a smaller galaxy that merged with the larger one. The press release reports: "What the astronomers found was surprising: There is a clear ring of stars and clusters hidden behind the dust lanes, says Jouni Kainulainen, lead author of the paper reporting these results. Further analysis of this structure will provide important clues on how the merging process occurred." Providing, of course, that the familiar assumptions of the past apply to this very unfamiliar object. How quickly we forget: Half a century ago, radio astronomy was developing in Australia because American astronomers, sure that it would be a waste of time and resources, would not allow such activities. Their familiar assumptions ruled out anything in space that would generate radio waves. Next came x-ray astronomy with another "what the astronomers found was surprising." After that came infrared astronomy and press releases such as this one. Surprise, followed by reasserting familiar assumptions, has been the one constant activity of astronomers. "Merging" is now the fashionable round conceptual hole into which square pegs of data are pounded. A cursory familiarity with the fundamentals of plasma cosmology immediately suggests an entirely unsurprising, in fact expected, explanation. Active galaxies especially--and Centaurus A (CenA) is indeed active--display the characteristic axial jets and transverse toroid of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive unstable plasma discharges.
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At the center of CenA is a thread of radio and x-ray emission, running roughly perpendicular to the ring of stars in the image, with knots of brighter luminosity in it. Farther away are knotty filaments, rotated a bit toward the north. In deep images, a spike of low luminosity extends beyond the filaments. Radio maps record strong lobes of radio emission that flare far from the galaxy to north and south. Furthermore, a dozen active galaxies stretch along the same line thru CenA for over twenty degrees. These include radio and X-ray galaxies, Seyfert, spiral, elliptical, and peculiar galaxies, with redshifts ranging from .005 to .130. Additionally: "The bright Abell clusters of galaxies in this large region of the sky [a 40-by-40-degree survey area] are distributed in the same characteristic way as the bright and active galaxies that belong to CenA!" The redshifts of these Abell clusters occur in two ranges: "Six with .011<z<.017 and seven with .035<z<.055. Redshift discretization is typical of galaxies with intrinsic redshifts." [Halton Arp, Seeing Red, p. 147-8] Having delineated the axial jet, swept into a spiral in this case by the presumed eighth-turn rotation of CenA during its ejection activity, we can now identify the ring of stars in the ESO image with a discharge toroid. Laboratory high-energy discharges generate toroid, or ring, currents around the axis of the discharge. The toroids flatten and, as the current increases, warp and curl at their edges. "The edges curl in and out and upwards and downwards to the current flow." -- Anthony L. Peratt, "Characteristics for the Occurrence of a High-Current, Z-Pinch Aurora as Recorded in Antiquity," IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. 31, No. 6, December 2003, pp. 1195-6. The stars in the ring inside CenA have been pinched out of just such a toroidal current. The twists up and down at the far edges indicate an advanced stage of discharging. This conclusion is supported by the spiral line of ejections and the fact that the oldest objects have already evolved from the "knot" phase, through the "Abell cluster" phase, and into the "companion galaxy" phase. Mel Acheson
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Meteor Crater (a.k.a. Barringer Crater), Arizona.
Craters and Buttes Part One

(Nov 30, 2009)
Craters often have flat bottoms and forty-five degree slopes. Buttes often exhibit fortyfive degree shoulders and flat tops. It would seem to be inevitable that craters are formed when an object strikes some other solid surface and explodes, blasting material up and out, leaving a somewhat conical hole. That is the accepted explanation for locations such as Meteor Crater. Consensus opinions state that Meteor Crater was formed when a chunk of nickel-iron approximately 50 meters in diameter, weighing 300,000 tons, slammed into the Arizona desert at a speed of 12 kilometers per second. The object is thought to have detonated with a force equal to 2.5 megatons--almost as large as early hydrogen bomb tests conducted in the Pacific. Previous Picture of the Day articles have indicated, however, that there are several anomalous features associated with craters on Earth, as well as on other celestial bodies. In the case of Meteor Crater, the 300,000 tons of nickel-iron has vanished. Despite years of extensive drilling and exploration, all that could be retrieved was a handful of tiny iron spherules scattered throughout the surrounding terrain. No large fragments have ever been found. According to the Electric Universe hypothesis, there is another way for craters to form. Rather than kinetic energy and thermal expansion, an electric arc discharge could have carved the crater in the blink of an eye, disintegrating the rock strata and sending it up the secondary discharge channel, sorted according to mineral content. Evidence for the electric discharge hypothesis would be a stratification reversal in the debris that was scattered by the event. Daniel Barringer, for whom the crater is also named, wrote: "Different types of rocks in the rim and on the surrounding plain appeared to have been deposited in the opposite order from The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive their order in the underlying rock beds."
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Anomalies in Meteor Crater are found in other craters around the world. There is a significant quantity of glassified minerals inside the pit and in the rim walls, including dense, hard, transparent quartzite, generally uniform in texture, without any graining or intrusions. It looks similar to the famous Egyptian "desert glass" discovered in the Great Sand Sea of Africa, as well as the fractured, multi-meter thick sheets of fused silica that splashed over the rim of Popigai Crater in Siberia. There are brachiated trenches cut into the landscape around Meteor Crater, and around other circular formations on Earth. The many moons of Jupiter and Saturn, as well as Earth's Moon, reveal so-called "sinuous rilles" intersecting, bifurcating, and encircling large craters. It is as if the craters and the rilles require each other's presence, since there are few examples where the two are not present together. Electric discharges create Lichtenberg figures (dendritic channels) by following the paths of least resistance. Electricity finds its way through the rock strata due to conductivity. The current flow ignores gravity and blows out meandering river-like structures that climb hills and descend into valleys. Many times, they start or end with craters. What was it that initiated a spark of such colossal dimension? Where could a lightning stroke large enough to generate forces equivalent to our mightiest weapons originate? Some electrical theorists speculate that a meteor did provide the trigger for the thunderbolt's release, but not in a mechanical way. Instead, as a previous Picture of the Day suggested, the meteor will begin to experience plasma flow instabilities on its exterior, while current surges penetrate the nickel-iron core. The meteor will build up a huge potential as it penetrates deeper into the electromagnetic fields of Earth (or any other body with a plasmasphere). If the current flow becomes too extreme, the metallo-crystalline matrix of the meteor will destabilize and breakdown in a violent outburst of electricity. A lightning bolt leader will reach from the disintegrating bolide to the ground, while the upward secondary stroke completes the circuit. Others see things differently and assign the formation of Meteor Crater to that age of terror when the catastrophic encounters with our planetary neighbors caused worldwide cataclysms, including resurfacing large areas of our planet. Stephen Smith
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Radio image of Smith's Cloud from the Green Bank Telescope. Credit: Bill Saxton/NRAO/AUI/NSF.
Dark Mode Galaxies

(Nov 23, 2009)
In an Electric Universe, it stands to reason that some galaxies will not be energetic enough for stars to form. A recent press release announced that a cloud of hydrogen gas known as Smith's Cloud, massive enough to be considered a galaxy itself, May have collided with our own Milky Way galaxy at some time in the past. According to an analysis of its trajectory, it is again on a collision course with one of our galaxy's spiral arms. What held the mass of the cloud together after it penetrated the heart of this galaxy? Why were the gravitational forces insufficient to dissipate a cloud that is less dense than a laboratory vacuum? The only answer, as a paper from the University of Sydney, Australia explains, is that it contains approximately 100 times more mass than was previously thought. Another dark galaxy example is VIRGOHI 21. It does not shine in visible light--no stars are there--but hydrogen gas glows in radio waves, so its existence was revealed when a chance scan by the Arecibo Observatory saw it. So-called "dark galaxies" are apparent evidence for dark matter, since their radiation profiles do not show high enough emissions of electromagnetic energy. Since Zwicky's Coma Cluster calculations in the 1930s seemed to indicate the galaxy cluster contained 400 times too little luminous matter for it to hold together, dark matter has been used to explain almost every galactic anomaly. How does gravity bind the edges of galaxies into a disk? They should be denser at the core and then gradually fade into wispy boundaries, yet many have rims of tightly knit stars and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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gas. Some have coherent structures like arms or bars that also exhibit almost solid-looking borders. How can galaxies spin so fast without flying apart? The only alternative that is offered in the scientific press is that gravity acts differently as conditions change. No mention of electricity and its powerful fields and forces. Only dark matter is allowed to account for the "mysterious" observations, or a bending of sacred gravitational formulae is invoked. Electric Universe advocates see things differently. Recognizing that 99% of the Universe is plasma, the premise inherent in any analysis must be based on the coherent activities of electricity in space. The electrical properties of plasma can easily overwhelm gravitational forces. Dark matter is an excuse for the failure of gravitational theories. "From looking at how galaxies rotate, we know that dark matter must be present, as otherwise these gigantic structures would just dissolve," said an astronomer employed by the Very Large Telescope array in Paranal, Chile. However, laboratory experiments and particle-in-cell simulations run on advanced supercomputers have shown that both the structure and angular momentum of galaxies are predictable results when plasma interactions are considered. If electricity and its attractive force 39 orders of magnitude greater than gravity were taken into account, the need for ad hoc addenda to gravity models would be unnecessary. It is not the galaxies but the theory that would "just dissolve" if the data was considered objectively. The electric currents streaming through the radio clouds are in "dark mode" and are invisible, like dark matter. Unlike dark matter, dark mode currents, otherwise known as Birkeland currents, can be initiated in a laboratory. Dark currents are an energetic source of microwave (radio wave) radiation. From what we can see of the Universe, most of the time the Birkeland current filaments flowing through ionized clouds of hydrogen create z-pinch effects and other plasma instabilities. Stars (isodense balls of slow-motion lightning) form along them. Since the power for each galaxy comes from electricity flowing through great circuits in space, sometimes the levels are too low for glow mode or arc mode discharges to occur. If that is so, the galaxy will remain dark with a chance for a brighter future. Stephen Smith
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Early in its mission, the Mars Exploration Rover A "Spirit" looks back at its own tracks. Credit: NASA/JPL.
The Spirit is Willing

(Nov 20, 2009)
The Spirit rover has reached an impasse. Is this the end of its mission? On June 10, 2003, NASA launched a robotic science package called "Spirit" on a mission to travel across the surface of Mars. Less than a month later, on July 7, 2003, its identical twin "Opportunity" left the launch pad at Cape Canaveral on a six month journey to the Red Planet. The Spirit and Opportunity rovers were named by Sofi Collis, age 9, in an essay contest sponsored by the Lego company. Hers was the winning entry chosen from 10,000 submissions. Spirit has been on the surface of Mars for nearly five years. Its original parameters were for a mission duration of no more than three months, however it was almost immediately funded for an additional five months. The fact that it has now lasted ten times longer than initially anticipated demonstrates both the quality of its construction and the quality of the information it continues to send. Before the Mars Exploration Rovers, there was little known about the surface of Mars. Viking 1 and Viking 2 soft-landed 33 years ago, but had no capacity for movement. No other experiments were successfully placed on the surface until the Pathfinder mission with the wheeled remote vehicle called "Sojourner," after the nineteenth century abolitionist Sojourner Truth. Pathfinder returned the first 3D images of Mars. Spirit landed in a crater over 170 kilometers in diameter called Gusev. The crater was chosen by the navigation team because it appeared to be the remains of a crater lake, including a runoff channel. Planetary scientists hoped that it would provide evidence that liquid water was able to exist out in the open in the now frozen desert planet's past. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Spirit was the first space probe to take a high resolution picture of another planet. After bouncing several times across the rocky terrain inside a nest of airbags, when the ship finally came to rest, just before the rover was deployed, the cameras looked back at the effect of its several impacts. Its first target when it drove off the landing platform was the depression in the center of the image, later called "Sleepy Hollow." The landing site proved to be unrewarding. Despite what looks like a riverbed entering Gusev crater there was nothing but basalt, probably the most common rock in the Solar System. The mission team referred to Gusev as a "basalt prison." The only recourse was to drive the rover to the "Columbia Hills" (memorializing the Columbia space shuttle tragedy) just visible on the horizon. It meant a three month trip. On the way, Spirit saw what was, for Electric Universe advocates, a significant phenomenon: dust devils whirling through the Martian dust. A press release from the time stated: "When humans visit Mars, they'll have to watch out for towering electrified dust devils." The reason for the headline was that the dust devils seemed to be glowing like fireflies as they swept past the rover. In particular, the bottoms of the whirlwinds appeared to be continuous electric discharges. In a previous Picture of the Day, it was shown that the tops of the towering vortices are also lit up. The electric discharges on Mars form what can become gigantic dust devils. Electrically charged dust storms, spinning at hundreds of kilometers per hour, create intense magnetic fields that tend to confine charged particles and accelerate them around the vortex at high speed. Rapid acceleration, coupled with high voltages in the dust causes the electric glow. As Electric Universe theorist Wal Thornhill wrote at the time: "Spirit is moving about in an area where there are frequent dust devils. The dust devils are not simply rotating winds caused by rising warm air. They are the form lightning takes in the thin Martian atmosphere. So they are a great hazard to surface craft, with their powerful electrostatic and electromagnetic effects. Just as the Galileo spacecraft suffered repeated computer glitches when it flew too close above the plumes of the electrical jets on Io, it is possible that Spirit has become a lightning rod and suffered internal arcing with possibly serious consequences for its onboard electronics. I sincerely hope not!" Perhaps an electrical environment that was more intense in the past is also responsible for another of Spirit's discoveries. As the rover traveled through an area of deep powder in 2006, its rear wheel became jammed, causing it to drag. The ground was churned up, uncovering some bright material just below the surface which turned out to be magnesium sulfate. The presence of sulfur in the Solar System has been suggested in past articles as a sign of electric discharges converting the oxygen in water-ice to sulfur. Spirit has been stuck in a patch of soft ground for several months. It is hampered by its malfunctioning wheel, so has been unable to get out. Mission operators are going to attempt another maneuver that might extricate the hapless vehicle, but hopes are not high. If Spirit is unable to extricate itself, the mission will end as is. Whether it continues to wander the hills and valleys of Mars, or whether its lonely vigil fades out in the lee of a sandstone cliff, Spirit will long be remembered by the writers of these pages. Stephen Smith
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Crustal magnetism on Mars. Credit: NASA/University of Toronto.
Planetary Paradigms
(Nov 18, 2009)
A new mission designed to study the Sun's electrical relationship with Mars will soon be launched. Sometime in the morning on a day between November 18 and December 7, 2013, NASA will launch the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission. Otherwise known as MAVEN, the project will investigate the upper atmosphere of Mars, the ionosphere, and the dynamics of solar wind interactions. Onboard the spacecraft will be several instruments to monitor various phenomena that could provide valuable information to Electric Universe investigators: Solar Wind Electron Analyzer to measure ionospheric electrons. Solar Wind Ion Analyzer to measure the magnetosheath ion density. Langmuir Probe to determine ion escape wave heating and extreme ultraviolet input from the Sun. Ultraviolet Spectrometer to measure characteristics of the upper atmosphere.
Although there are other sensors included with the science package, these four are primarily designed to gather data about electrical activity between Mars and the Sun. MAVEN data will help to determine what effect on the planet the loss of carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and water vapor from its atmosphere to space has had over the eons, perhaps providing clues as to its possible habitability in the past. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The equatorial diameter of Mars is approximately 6793 kilometers, about half that of Earth. Its average temperature is minus 63 degrees Celsius, compared to Earth at 13 degrees Celsius. The atmospheric density on Mars is equivalent to standing on top of a mountain six times taller than Mount Everest. Scientists speculate that four billion years ago, Mars lost most of its atmosphere. How is not known, but several theories have been put forward. An asteroid impact might have exploded with such force that it blew the atmosphere away. A torrent of charged particles blazing out from the Sun could have eaten away the atmosphere over millions of years, leaving Mars as it is today. It is believed that Mars is covered with a global layer of permafrost because the annual mean temperature of the soil is so low. It is far colder in the northern and southern latitudes: so cold that carbon dioxide gas freezes into a solid, covering the landscape with dry ice. The atmosphere is so thin that water-ice will sublime directly into vapor. Therefore, say planetary scientists, any water left over from the more temperate period in the history of Mars "must be" bound up with thick icy soils, or locked in frigid underground vaults. MAVEN is scheduled to remain in Mars orbit for about one year. At the low point in its elliptical orbit, it will be just 125 kilometers above the planet. At its high point, it will be more than 6000 kilometers out, therefore the mission team hopes to sample the atmosphere more thoroughly than in the past. Why does so much carbon dioxide remain when most of the other gases are gone? With the observations from MAVEN, perhaps some other pertinent questions will be answered. What is the relationship to planetary atmospheres and the behavior of an electric sun? Can present conditions on Mars provide examples of the electrical connection? Do present conditions on Mars offer analogues that can help us find clues to the catastrophic events in the planets recent past? The history of the planets is difficult to determine. As these pages have attempted to point out over the years, each of them took part in several catastrophic events. The most recent of those events left its mark incised on planetary bodies, as well as on the human psyche. Mythology, art, and religion can all be traced back to that time of terror when the gods fought each other in the sky. Stephen Smith
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Lightning strikes the space shuttle launch platform (STS-8). Credit: NASA MSFC, KSC, JSC
Gamma Gamma Hey

(Nov 16, 2009)
Gamma ray frequency electromagnetic radiation has been detected in terrestrial lightning strokes. On June 11, 2008, NASA launched the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope (formerly GLAST) on a mission to identify the location of intergalactic gamma ray bursters. Otherwise known as GRBs, they generate intense energies detectable from millions of light-years away. Since gamma rays are unable to penetrate the ozone layer (except those with the highest energies), however, Fermi is in a low orbit that takes it out of Earth's atmosphere. According to a recent press release, scientists have been confronted with yet another surprising find: 17 gamma ray flashes have been detected in lightning from terrestrial thunderstorms. As the team analyzing data from the satellite noted, the gamma ray frequency "could have been produced only by the decay of energetic positrons, the antimatter equivalent of electrons." As Karl Popper once observed, though: "No matter how many instances of white swans we May have observed, this does not justify the conclusion that all swans are white." An electric discharge in plasma creates a tube-like magnetic sheath along its axis called a "double layer." If enough current flows through the circuit, the sheath will glow, sometimes forming other sheaths within it. Double layers form when positive charges build up in one region of a plasma cloud and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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negative charges build up nearby. A powerful electric field appears between the two regions, which accelerates charged particles. The electric charges spiral in the magnetic fields, emitting x-rays, extreme ultraviolet, and sometimes gamma rays. As physicist and Electric Universe advocate Wal Thornhill wrote: "In the Electric Universe model, there is no antimatter forming antiparticles. An electron and a positron are composed of the same charged sub-particles in different conformations. They come together to form a stable neutrino, emitting most of their orbital energies in the process. They do not annihilate each other. In that sense a neutrino embodies both the electron and the positron. It can have no antiparticle. The bookmakers would be wise not to bet on the Standard Model of particle physics." The electromagnetic field beneath a thunderstorm increases (up to 10,000 volts per meter) and stores energy from the surrounding environment like a capacitor. A "wind" of charged particles blows toward the storm. In other words, a current flows into the cloud base. Surrounding air is pulled along with the current flow and creates powerful updrafts that sometimes rise into the stratosphere. Lightning is a plasma and creates a powerful electromagnetic pulse across a wide range of frequencies as it releases the charge build up in a storm cloud. Thunderheads May be several thousand cubic kilometers in extent, yet all of their stored electrical energy travels down a discharge channel no wider than a man's waist. The z-pinch effect inside a lightning bolt's vortex causes rapid ionization, as well as particle acceleration fast enough to generate gamma rays. Stephen Smith
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Faint, dark band colors Saturn's moon Tethys. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.
Red-Faced Worlds
(Nov 13, 2009)
Some of Saturn's moons are slightly red in color, as are other bodies in the Solar System. "Mars the red planet" is a familiar phrase. The planet exhibits a faint yellowish-red color when seen with the naked eye, and its rusty surface hue is visible through the lenses of robotic rovers traveling across its landscape. Iapetus, one of Saturn's more enigmatic moons, is notable for a reddish-black deposit covering one hemisphere. Hyperion's heavily cratered surface is also dusted with what appears to be the same "soot" that covers Iapetus. The material piles into drifts inside some of Hyperion's deeper craters. According to a recent press release, new maps of Mimas, Enceladus, Rhea, Dione, and Tethys show them all to have patches of red to some degree. All the new maps indicate that, except for Mimas, they are all redder on their trailing hemispheres and tend to be more intense in the center of the disk. Although the leading face of the moons is also red, it is not as strong Scientists from the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston admit that the pattern on both hemispheres is "difficult to explain" because only one hemisphere or the other would normally be affected. Bombardment by a train of meteors, or particles from Saturn's rings, should accumulate on the leading hemispheres. However, it is most likely a plasma, in the form of high energy ions that is flowing into the moons from their supercharged electrical parent that is contributing to the coloration. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Electrical theorists argue that Saturn moves within the plasmasphere of the Sun and interacts with the Suns electric field. Since planets and moons in the Solar System are charged bodies that are not isolated in space, it is to be expected that they transact electrically with each other. In the image at the top of the page, a dark equatorial stripe is faintly visible across the leading face of Tethys. The stripe is bright at ultraviolet wavelengths, but dark in the infrared. Mimas shares a similar feature, a dark band stretching more than halfway around its circumference. The moons emit ionic plumes because of their position in Saturns circuit. The ring formation around Rhea is probably the remains of pulverized rock and ice that billions of watts of electricity created when they catastrophically passed through the moons conductive strata at some time in the past. More than one quarter of Phoebe's mass has been removed and has been distributed throughout the Saturnian system. The reddish-black soot covering the other inner moons of Saturn most likely came from Phoebe. Similar discharge phenomena can be seen on Jupiters moon Europa, including the red color of the material. Close-up images reveal narrow darker deposits that trace the path of subsurface electric discharges. It is those discharges that altered Europa's surface composition, transforming the water ice into other materials. Some of the altered material created the coloration. Europa's red color is due to oxygen atoms from water ice forming a sulfur atom. On Mars, the volume of sulfur in the environment is high, contributing to its ruddy complexion, but the oxides of iron that abound there appear to be the primary influence. Recently, observations of the dwarf planet Haumea's reflected brightness revealed the presence of a dark spot on the dimmer side. The spot also has a reddish tint that could be due to a concentration of compounds that reflect red light. Haumea revolves around the Sun in an orbital path out past Neptune and into the farthest reach of Pluto's orbit. A previous Picture of the Day considered other remote objects called Centaurs. Along with Mars and the moons under discussion, they are also colorful. Some are green and some are blue, but the primary color is a brick or rust-red. The Electric Universe suggests a reason for the different colored planets and moons, as well as for the different chemical compositions. Stars are formed when cosmic Birkeland currents twist around one another, creating z-pinch regions that compress plasma. Laboratory experiments have shown that such compression zones are likely candidates for star formation. Stars that are under extreme electrical stress May will split into two or more daughter stars, thereby reducing each one's electrical potential. Further activity May result in the ejection of stars with too little electrical energy to glow, so the resulting objects will be gas giant planets in dark mode. Gas giants, in turn, will eject rocky objects from their plasma cores if there is a disequilibrium. All of the daughter objects in orbit about their parents are connected to them in vast electric circuits. Those circuits were once energized to an awesome extent and carried material from one to another along cosmic electrical transmission lines called Birkeland currents. The charged nuclei of ionized iron, oxygen, sulfur flowed along those currents between the celestial bodies in an exchange of elements. Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Starburst galaxy M82 combining images from the Hubble Space Telescope and the WIYN telescope on Kitt Peak, AZ. Credit:Mark Westmoquette (University College London), Jay Gallagher (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Linda Smith (University College London), WIYN//NSF, NASA/ESA
Where the Star Winds Blow

(Nov 11, 2009)
Radial filaments within galactic "superwinds" identify them as plasma phenomena. "If a man does not know what port he is steering for, no wind is favorable to him." -- Seneca The irregular galaxy M82--otherwise known as the Cigar Galaxy--forms a pair with M81, Barnard's Galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. M82 is also referred to as a "starburst galaxy," because it is thought to form new stars at a rate 10 times greater than the Milky Way. Rapid star formation is said to have dramatically affected M82. So called "stellar winds" from new stars and the shock waves from supernovae have caused hot hydrogen and nitrogen (with temperatures more than 10 million Kelvin) to fan out from the galactic core for several thousand light years. A recent press release from the Chandra X-ray Telescope identifies the superheated gases as a galactic "super wind." According to the tenets of Electric Universe theory, galactic evolution can be explained in terms of large-scale plasma discharges that form spinning wheels of coherent filaments. Stars in galaxies tend to coalesce in long arcs like beads on a string, one of a hundred mysteries that conventional cosmology must confront. No gravity-only theory can explain star formation, in general, but the barred spirals and the tremendous elliptical whirlpools that congregate in million-light-year clusters are beyond any conventional definition. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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When plasma moves through a dust or gas, the cloud becomes ionized and electric currents flow. When electricity pushes through any substance it forms a magnetic field. One aspect of magnetism in plasma is that it creates what are sometimes called "plasma ropes." Magnetic fields surround the plasma, confining it into a coherent system known as a Birkeland current. Birkeland currents are ionic filaments that transport charge great distances through space along their tubular interiors. The tubes are really double-walled, folded layers of charge separation that isolate the regions of opposite charge, keeping them from neutralizing each other. In previous Picture of the Day articles, we noted that many structures in the Universe are active energy sources, such as M82. Such galaxies are often observed to eject charged matter from their poles. Plasma cosmologists have long known that the ionic lobes extending far above the poles of "radio" galaxies are the signature of Birkeland currents. Almost every body in the Universe displays some kind of filamentation. Comet tails are often in pairs, one dusty and one composed of "stringy" ion filaments. Planetary nebulae resolve into intricate webs. Herbig-Haro stars and energetic galaxies emit jets that resolve into braids. The spiral arms of some galaxies look "hairy" with threads of material extending from them. Every element in a galactic circuit radiates energy, and it must be powered by its coupling with larger circuits. The extent of those larger circuits is indicated by the observation that galaxies occur in strings. Written by Stephen Smith from an idea suggested by Jim Johnson
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Asteroids Ceres and Vesta
Dawn Approaches the Asteroid Belt

(Nov 09, 2009)
A new mission to explore the largest asteroids in the Solar System. On September 27, 2007, NASA launched the Dawn spacecraft on a mission that will take it into the asteroid belt, where it will study two of the largest planetesimals in orbit between Mars and Jupiter, Ceres and Vesta. Dawn is so named because it will be observing objects thought to have existed since the dawn of the Solar System. "Asteroid" was first coined by William Herschel and means "star-like." Ceres was the first asteroid discovered in 1801 by Guiseppe Piazzi and the largest known, with a diameter of approximately 950 kilometers. Since no spacecraft has visited Ceres, its size estimate is determined by combining data from various telescope observations. Ceres compares in size to Saturn's moons Tethys and Dione and might look similar to Dione, with craters and ridges, although Ceres is about 15% smaller. Ceres has recently been added to the roster of "dwarf planets" along with Pluto--Ceres being the only one within the asteroid belt. Vesta, the first one of the Dawn mission's targets, could also be added, something that data from the space probe will help to determine. Vesta is the second largest asteroid, with a diameter of approximately 530 kilometers. It was found in 1807 by Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers. Using Saturn's moons for scale again, Vesta compares to Enceladus or Mimas in size. There are indications that Vesta has experienced some powerful collisions in the past, since more than one large crater marks its surface. One of the craters near Vesta's south pole is 460 kilometers in diameter, more than 80% of the asteroid's size. The crater is close to 13 kilometers below the mean elevation of the terrain, with a rim about 6 kilometers above. There is an 18 kilometer high central peak, as well. Why did an impact that removed more than 1% of the asteroid's mass not blast it into pieces? The "rubble pile" theory of asteroid composition was created to help explain the mass anomalies that have been seen in asteroid crater studies. Other asteroids, as well as small The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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moons, exhibit craters that should have exploded them into fragments when they were hit. The only suitable explanation, according to gravity-based models, is that they are loosely compacted. It is presumed that they act like big sand piles and absorb the impacts without shattering. They have no hard crust to begin with so they haven't fractured despite repeated pounding. The Electric Universe theory of asteroid formation does not require that one object smash into another one for there to be craters. Electric arcs can gouge surfaces and scoop out material, accelerating it into space, leaving clean, deep pits. Comets also exhibit surface features that are the same as those observed on asteroids, so the conclusion is that the two are really one thing and not "dirty snowballs" versus rocky bodies. Plasma arcs do not disturb the surrounding surfaces when they are used in industrial applications. Based on laboratory analysis, that is what has occurred on Vesta and on all the asteroids, moons, and planets of the solar system: plasma discharge erosion. Planetary scientists ignore electrical explanations, which rectify the anomalies in other theories, because they know almost nothing about plasma and electric currents in space. Electricity can create the very things they are sending out probes to study Stephen Smith
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Chandra and Spitzer composite X-ray/infrared image of the Cepheus B nebula. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/K. Getman et al., IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA/J. Wang et al.
How Are Stars Born?

(Nov 06, 2009)
It is commonly assumed that stars are gravitationally compressed hot gas. "Is it a fact--or have I dreamt it--that, by means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great nerve, vibrating thousands of miles in a breathless point of time?" -- Nathaniel Hawthorne What are the stars? The question might seem self-evident, since we 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 holds the planets in their orbits. Its core of fusion fire sends energy on a million-year journey before the radiation is emitted from its surface, so dense is its interior. How are stars formed and by what agency are they ignited? The answer, according to accepted astrophysical theories, is gravity. At some time, billions of years before any particular shining star was born, it started out as a wispy cloud a thousand times less dense than the most rarified mist. One of the questions that astronomers have been asking for many years about the process is what caused such insubstantial clouds to condense? Star formation is initiated according to two main theories. First, the gaseous cloud might cool down from whatever high temperature it once possessed (although what event heated the cloud is not elucidated), thermal energy falls off, allowing gravity to assert itself on the individual particles and the cloud falls in on itself. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Second, the explosion of a supernova (or intense bursts of radiation from a nearby star) might generate shock waves that pass through the proto-stellar cloud, forcing the particles to collide and clump together. Gravity then takes up its familiar position, eventually pulling the cloud into a structure dense enough for fusion to take place. According to a recent press release from the Marshall Space Flight Center and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, there is reason to believe that radiation from neighboring massive stars could be the most common method for pushing the nebular clouds into collapse. The Cepheus B nebula is approximately 2400 light-years from Earth, and is composed primarily of hydrogen gas. As astronomers reckon age, there is supposed to be a large population of young stars bordering a region where a massive star's radiation impinges on the cloud. Infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope appears to show "protoplanetary disks" around many of the stars, indicating (according to theory) that they are young, since older stars would have already absorbed the dust and gas. Older stars would not exhibit the specific infrared frequencies that are supposed to indicate disks. In this paper we will not take up stellar ages and the conventional viewpoints that determine them. Suffice to say here is that stellar diagrams that attempt to establish age according to color and temperature are missing important points. If other electrical factors are added, temperature and brightness become a matter of externally applied electric currents and not internally generated fusion energy. The differences in the two concepts are not trivial, especially when they are used to explain other observations. It is an entirely new paradigm. Regardless of whether it is shock waves or "radiation pressure," the energy that drives the effects in conventional theories is kinetic and mechanically induced. In fact, lowering the thermal activity is how the first theory suggests stellar formation begins. The second theory requires a star 20 times more massive than the Sun to irradiate the cloud from close up for millions of years. In the Electric Universe, gravity, density, compression, and mechanical phenomena give way to the effects of plasma. The stars are not hot, dense balls of hydrogen being crushed into helium and electromagnetic radiation by gravitational pressure. Rather, they are isodense balls of plasma--a form of slow-motion lightning--with all the fusion taking place on the surface. Since they are the same density throughout, with no superdense fusion cores, their mass estimates are most likely being seriously overstated by papers written from the consensus. The Electric Universe definition of "plasma" is not the conventional one of "ionized gas." It is that confused apprehension of plasma that falls back on ideas about gas behavior and thermal ionization. "Plasma," as theorist Mel Acheson wrote, "is an emergent (i.e., higher-level or statistical-level) orderliness of complex electrical forces: such properties as filamentation, long-range attraction and short-range repulsion, braiding, characteristic velocities, formation and decay of plasmoids, and identity of properties at different scales." Electric stars aren't begotten in nebular clouds, their progenitor is charge separation. Everything we see in the Universe--99.99% to be more precise--is ionized to some degree, therefore it is plasma. Positive ions and negative electrons move within plasma in ways not governed by gravity, although gravity might cause some heavy positive ions to create a charge surplus in one volume of space over another. When that happens, a weak electric field develops. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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An electric field, no matter how weak, will initiate an electric current that generates a magnetic field. Those fields interact with the magnetic fields generated by other currents. In images from space, as well as in high-speed photographs of plasma activity in the laboratory, those currents are seen to form twisted pairs of filaments, called Birkeland currents. Birkeland currents follow magnetic field lines and draw charged material from their surroundings with a force 39 orders of magnitude greater than gravity. Magnetic fields pinch the ultra-fine dust and plasma into heated blobs of matter called plasmoids. As the effect, called a "z-pinch," increases, the electric field intensifies, further increasing the z-pinch. The compressed blobs form spinning electrical discharges. At first they glow as dim red dwarfs, then blazing yellow stars, and finally they might become brilliant ultraviolet arcs, driven by the electric currents that generated them. Stephen Smith
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Interior structure of the Crab Nebula, thought to harbor a rapidly spinning pulsar. Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University).
Pulsar Convolutions
(Nov 04, 2009)
Can stars rotate faster than a power tool? On June 11, 2008, NASA launched the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope (formerly GLAST) on a mission to map extremely high frequency electromagnetic energy across the sky. Although gamma rays are said to travel up to billions of light-years through space, they are unable to penetrate Earth's upper atmosphere, so Fermi is in an orbit outside the regions of greatest density. According to a recent press release, scientists from the University of California Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics have been able to identify 16 new pulsars using the signature of their gamma ray emissions alone. In the past, pulsars were usually discovered by monitoring radio waves, whereas Fermi has found what have been deemed "radio quiet" pulsars. Prevailing theories of stellar evolution describe pulsars as neutron stars that are rotating at high speeds. A neutron star is theorized to form when a star eventually collapses at the end of its life cycle, no longer able to resist the gravitational forces that draw it down into its own center. As the star contracts, it spins faster and faster, similar to what happens when an ice skater's arms are drawn in close: angular momentum increases, resulting in faster rotation. The magnetic field surrounding a neutron star is said to become focused at each pole until an intense, narrow beam of radio waves shines out from the poles like twin beams of a lighthouse. If the beams are not pointed directly at Earth, they are not detected. Consensus opinions assume that there is a large population of neutron stars in the galaxy, so an The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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assumed population of radio-quiet pulsars must also exist. A neutron star is so compressed that all the electrons have been crushed into the nuclei, combining with the protons to form neutrons. The neutrons are then packed so tightly that the empty space between particles is also eliminated. The intense magnetic and electric fields surrounding pulsars are supposed to accelerate charged particles to near light speed, and it is those particles that generate gamma ray emissions. The Crab Nebula pulses 30 times per second. That means the star rotates 30 times per second, but there are pulsars with frequencies of 716 hertz. The forces generated when billions of megatons spin as fast as a power drill means that the stars should tear themselves apart, except enough mass is added to the theory for gravity to hold it together. Another possibility, one not considered by contemporary astrophysicists, is that electrical oscillations are causing the rapid flicker of pulsars. The regular frequency is not mechanically generated. Instead, it is the capacitive, resistive and inductive electrical environment around the star. Compacted matter and extreme rotation are not necessary. Electricity traveling through circuits provides a coherent explanation that is consistent with commonly accepted electromagnetic theories, as well as with laboratory experiments. Stephen Smith
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Putative stellar "bow shocks." Credit: NASA, ESA, and R. Sahai, JPL.
Stars in Collision Part 2

(Nov 02, 2009)
Astronomers have recently discovered a band of energetic neutral atoms around the sky. This discovery supports the hypothesis that the Sun captured a previously independent Saturnian system, in which Saturn was the brown-dwarf primary for the planets Earth, Mars, and Venus. Part 1 described the first kind of electric star, the anodic star, formed at the focus of a z-pinch. The sheath around such a star would have the shape of an hourglass, as is seen in planetary nebulae. Recent observations of energetic neutral atoms indicate that the Suns sheath also has such a shape. What about the observations of comet-like stars? These are seen in the tangled high-energy "short-circuit" discharges of so-called star-forming regions. If a star that has a lower positive charge (with respect to the galactic plasma) enters the sheath of a second star that has a higher positive charge, the first star will lose its interaction with the galactic plasma and begin to interact with the plasma inside the second stars sheath. The first star will now have a negative charge with respect to the second. It will become a cathodic star and behave as do other negatively charged bodies in an anode sheath, such as comets. It will develop a coma and a tail. This is the second kind of electric star. Furthermore, it will no longer be subjected to the strong electromagnetic forces of a z-pinch. Most of the voltage difference between a star and the galactic plasma is contained within the double layers of the sheath. Inside the second star's sheath, in what corresponds to the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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positive column of a discharge tube, the electric field is small. Gravity May become the dominant force. However, the weak electric field and the cometary discharge of the first star combine to aid capture and stabilization. The first star begins to orbit the second, becoming a binary companion or a gas giant planet. Judging by the number of observed comet-like stars, such capture is not uncommon. Its probably a safe assumption that a proportional number of stars in low-energy dark mode conditions are also captured. In other words, capture May be a frequent occurrence in an electric universe. This is to be contrasted with the case in a gravity universe, in which capture is virtually impossible: First, stars are only tiny sparks in the immensity of space. For example, at a scale of one inch to one astronomical unit (the distance of the Earth from the Sun), the nearest star would be four miles away and the Sun would be the size of a dust mote, about a hundredth of an inch. The chance of intersecting orbits is insignificant. Second, if the orbits did intersect, they would be apt to do so at significant angles to each other. Relative velocities would be large. Near-collision orbits would be hyperbolic, and the two stars would zip past each other with little interaction, never to return. If one actually scored a bulls-eye hit on the other, one or both bodies would be destroyed. Third, if the orbits touched each other tangentially, relative velocities would be low, but gravity would act to perturb the orbits for less interaction, not for capture. If electrical capture is common, it lends credibility to such Saturnist models of the recent history of the Solar system as that described by Dwardu Cardona in his book God Star and its two sequels. The body that became Saturn was a brown dwarf star moving alone in the galaxy with Venus, Mars, and Earth held in the axial jet above its pole--a low-energy counterpart of Herbig-Haro stars. It was drawn toward the Sun along the same galactic current. When it entered the Suns sheath, the electrical readjustment caused flaring and the disruption of the axial alignment of planets. Proto-Saturn lost its stellar radiance and its planets, and the bodies soon settled into quasi-stable orbits among the rest of the Suns planets. Mel Acheson
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First image of neutral oxygen and hydrogen at the interstellar boundary. Credit: University of New Hampshire/Boston University.
Stars in Collision Part 1

(Oct 30, 2009)
Astronomers have recently discovered a band of energetic neutral atoms around the sky. This discovery supports the hypothesis that the Sun captured a previously independent Saturnian system, in which Saturn was the brown-dwarf primary for the planets Earth, Mars, and Venus. With gravity, there is only one kind of star: condensed. A cloud of gas collapses into a tiny ball until nuclear fusion reactions heat it to incandescence. (Never mind that the clouds angular momentum--which it must have to generate a planetary accretion disk later on--will stop the collapse long before it becomes a tiny ball.) With electricity, there are two kinds of stars: anodic and cathodic. The anodic is the most common. It forms in a z-pinch in galactic Birkeland currents. The star acts as an anode within a discharge that is driven by an electron-dominated galactic current. The Sun is the closest example, and space probes enable us to take measurements that can test and articulate the model. Most stars are driven, like the Sun, by current densities in dark mode discharge. Its called "dark" only because it doesnt radiate in the visible portion of the spectrum. In radio and x-ray wavelengths, it "shines." However, the structure of the z-pinch that generates and maintains the star is better seen in planetary nebulae and supernova remnants. The nebulae are driven by current densities in glow mode. We can see the structure of the z-pinch in visible light. The galactic current channel is composed of concentric tubes of current filaments. The tubes pinch down in the region in which the star forms, taking on an hourglass shape. Near the star, electromagnetic forces produced by the current squeeze the plasma into The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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bubbles. We see the initial stages of this process in the coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on the Sun. Toroidal, or ring, currents form around the star in its equatorial plane, and double layers (bright "knots") May appear in the helical "jets" (which are also Birkeland currents) that often emanate from the stars poles. Since the star is positively charged with respect to the galactic plasma, a sheath forms around it. With the gravity model of stars, the sheath is understood as the shock front between the stellar wind (assumed to be particles "boiled off" the hot star) and the interstellar gas through which the star is moving. Therefore, it must have a teardrop shape, compressed on the leading side and trailing off on the following side. If it were visible, it would look like a comet, and comet-like condensations have been observed in star-forming regions, apparently confirming the model. However, recent observations by the IBEX satellite undermine the confirmation. IBEX measures the number and intensities of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) coming from all over the sky. ENAs are generated when fast-moving positive ions (primarily protons) acquire an electron and become electrically neutral (a hydrogen atom). As ions, the particles are confined to spiral along the Suns magnetic field, but the instant they combine with an electron they fly off in a straight line. In the gravity model, the most likely place for solar wind protons to acquire an electron is in a collision with a hydrogen atom in the sheath. If the sheath has a teardrop shape, ENAs should be more or less evenly distributed around the sky. The IBEX observations revealed a band of increased ENAs that is perpendicular to the galactic magnetic field. In the electric star model, this is precisely the location where the Suns neutral sheet current would interact with the galactic electron current in the z-pinch. ENAs most likely acquire their electrons from the galactic current. Mel Acheson
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Shallow depressions carved into the Utopia Planitia region on Mars. Note they are crossed by concentric cracks. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
A Pattern of Forces
(Oct 29, 2009)
Areas of Mars larger than Texas are wrenched and twisted, with deep canyons and sharp fissures, yet they are scoured clean of rocks and dust. In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles about the geology of Mars, powerful electric arcs were theorized to have once impacted the surface, creating many of the features observed by orbiting cameras. Sinuous rilles, flat-floored craters, "railroad track" patterns in canyons, intersecting gullies with no debris inside them, giant mesas, and steep-sided ravines are all evidence for the activity of electricity on a massive scale. The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) carrying the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) entered orbit around the Red Planet in 1997. Among its first discoveries were outcrops of layered rock extending for hundreds of kilometers through the Schiaparelli Basin. The same formations were seen running up the walls of Valles Marineris. Imaging analysts from NASAs Johnson Space Center announced the discovery of mounds on Mars that they have suggested might be the remains of hydrothermal vents. They have a similar appearance to some structures found in the Australian Outback, so researchers think they could have similar origins. Both the layering of the rock strata and the shape of the mounds are seen by planetary scientists as having been caused by erosion in the same way that geography on Earth is eroded. Since Earth is seen today to be eroded by wind and water, they surmise that such processes occurred on Mars. Modern science has retained the long-hoped-for desire that Mars could be the cradle of different life forms that arose and evolved in a separate ecology. As the overall theory states, the planet must have gone through a stage when there were oceans of liquid water on the surface. This implies that Mars once might have retained an atmosphere dense enough in oxygen for life to respire in the open. However, there is disagreement in the scientific community about whether such volumes of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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water could ever have existed on Mars. In the March 5, 2007 edition of Scientific American, it was reported that most of what has been interpreted as water-based erosion on Mars could have come from "dry avalanches" of dirt. The authors expressed serious doubts about whether observations have demonstrated any effects caused by liquid water. Allan Treiman, a geologist from Houston's Lunar and Planetary Institute wrote: "The idea of it being liquid water was a very reasonable hypothesis to start with. From my standpoint liquid water hasn't been proved at all." The large-scale structure of Mars with its continent-wide canyon, gigantic volcanoes, thousand-kilometer-wide craters, fractures, plateaus and blasted wastelands of crushed stone was most likely created a short time ago. Vast clouds of plasma and their associated lightning discharges probably contributed the energy necessary for the terrain to be sculpted so quickly. As electric current passes through a solid body it can erode material from it, or deposit material on its surface where an arc makes contact. The pits or craters left by electric arcs are usually elongated circles because the arcs strike at right angles to the surface while they move. Material in the bottom of a crater will probably be electrically heated, burned, and melted. If the surface is positively charged, an arc will tend to stick in one place, resulting in increased melting, while the electrical forces lift the surface to form a "lightning blister," or fulgamite. Fulgamites appear as "domes" on Venus and as pedestal craters on Mars. An even larger scale example is Olympus Mons. If the surface is negatively charged, electric arcs will tend to move rapidly across the surface after striking and carving out a crater. Small craters on the rims of larger ones are signs of this effect. Sometimes, as electric arcs travel, they will cut chains of craters. If the craters overlap, the result will be a steep-sided trench with scalloped edges. When electric currents pass through a plasma they are twisted into a helical pattern as the forces attempt to balance themselves within the magnetic turbulence that is created by the interaction. Mars has a weak magnetosphere, .00125 that of Earth, and it is almost directly exposed to intense positive charges coming from the Sun. As the Electric Universe theory argues, at some point in the past the intensity of those forces increased and traveled through the planet from pole-to-pole in a powerful electric circuit. That formidable event excavated billions of tons of material from the north polar region, while at the same time layering a similar volume of material on the south pole. During the discharges, Birkeland currents cut deep canyons at the north and south poles, while simultaneously drawing surface debris into curvilinear ridges that run parallel to them. The result was the "fossils" at both poles of a planetary electric vortex that engulfed Mars, as well as the thousands of slot canyons and scalloped pits covering Utopia Planitia. Stephen Smith
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NGC 6822 "Barnard's Galaxy." Credit: Julie and Jessica Garcia/Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF.
Scraps of Cosmic Electricity

(Oct 19, 2009)
Lab discharges throw off wisps of plasma. So too do intergalactic discharges. Barnards Galaxy is a loose assemblage of a few million stars. (In contrast, the Milky Way is estimated to have several hundred billion.) Because of its shapelessness and small size, its classified as an irregular dwarf, one of several dwarf galaxies in the Local Group, a cluster that includes the Milky Way. It lies beyond the center of the Milky Way from us, about as far away as its more famous big sister--or perhaps its mother--M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. The origin and evolution of dwarf galaxies are not well understood by conventional theory. Speculations attribute them to "close encounters with or digestion by other galaxies." Gradually over millions of years, the feeble caress of gravity is alleged to disturb clouds of gas. The gas collapses into stars, the pressure triggers nuclear fusion, and the stars burn themselves into explosions that send off "ripples of heated matter." The results are the "regions of rich star formation and curious nebulae" that dot the image. In the Electric Universe model, Barnards Galaxy is understood in the context of intergalactic plasma discharges--a cluster-sized lightning bolt--from M31. The pinch effect of the current pulls in material from the intergalactic medium as well as "jetting" material from galactic cores. It confines and condenses this material into the hydrogen clouds, dwarf galaxies, and highredshift quasars scattered along a line from the spin axis of M31 toward the Milky Way. (See the "mother" link above.) As we know from lab experiments, such discharges are messy. They twist around and throw off wisps of plasma. Those heteromacs tend to reproduce at smaller scale the same evolution of instabilities that are seen in the larger-scale channel. At the galactic scale, those wisps would be the irregular dwarf galaxies around the periphery of the primary discharge channel. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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They move in response to the electromagnetic forces generated by the discharge, which can be many orders of magnitude greater than gravitational forces. In consequence, the velocities of the galactic wisps May be quite different from what would be expected--or explainable-from gravity. Keeping gravity as the only operative force requires the invention of large amounts of unseen "dark matter" to make up the difference. These discharges have high voltage differentials, not only along the primary current channel but also within the many induced secondary and tertiary channels along which stars form. The differentials accelerate charged particles just as a particle accelerator does in a lab. In regions of increased density where collisions are apt to occur, such as at the surfaces of stars, nuclear fusion occurs and heavier elements build up. The species and amounts will vary with such factors as the power of the current, so the stars in each wisp May have a different composition. This has been observed to the puzzlement of conventional theorists. Although the Electric Universe model is conceptually more accurate at explaining and predicting observations, it is not as well suited to mathematical elaboration as conventional theories. Electrical parameters and such things as double layers often require in situ measurements to quantify them. The Electric Universe theorist must be comfortable with open questions and with the humility of "I dont know." Electrical explanations May not engender Emperors of Astronomy to promulgate mathematically precise Ultimate Answers, but neither will the theorists be embarrassed by having the nakedness of obsolete and bankrupt theories disclosed. Mel Acheson
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Location of the Large Hadron Collider, CERN, Switzerland.
Say What?
(Oct 16, 2009)
The Large Hadron Collider has met with a few unforeseen accidents. Could they be a bizarre case of sabotage? Particle physicists began thinking about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) early in the 1980s. The LHC's predecessor, the Large Electron Positron Collider (LEP) would soon be coming to the end of its useful life, and a higher energy device was needed to investigate the so-called Higgs boson, a yet to be seen component in the theory of quantum mechanics. However, it was in 1994 that the project was finally approved by the 20 nation membership of CERN, inaugurating the start of engineering and design work. The LHC occupies a 27 kilometer long, circular tunnel, straddling the border between Switzerland and France. Its powerful electromagnets are designed to compress and accelerate a narrow stream of protons, split it into dual, counter-rotating beams, and then collide those beams head on. Full power to the magnets was scheduled for mid-2007, with the first collisions to begin shortly thereafter. On March 27, 2007, one of the focusing magnets failed when a high-pressure test was conducted. A chain of events resulted in the 20-ton magnet shifting off its foundation, filling the tunnel with helium gas and dust, and causing damage to 24 other magnets. The accident has meant waiting an additional two years until November 2009 before they will restart the system. At the time of the accident, Pier Oddone, Fermilab's director, admitted to being "dumbfounded" that they had missed a "simple balance of forces" in the design, as well as in The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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four engineering reviews. This latest accident, while the most costly by far ($21 million for repairs), is not the first one visited on the LHC. The alarm systems repeatedly generate false alarms, alarm avalanches, and incorrect alarms. Major project failures have occurred, resulting in the cancelation of physics experiments. Increasingly high computer resources have been required to remove signal noise. The design is so delicate it requires extreme quiet. A 600 kilowatt cryogenic compressor was accidentally destroyed. Fires have broken out. These and numerous other delays and annoyances have caused two theoretical physicists to write a paper suggesting a reason. No one but one of the paper's authors, Holger Bech Nielsen, of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, can put it more succinctly: "It must be our prediction that all Higgs producing machines shall have bad luck... Well, one could even almost say that we have a model for God." It is their guess, said Dr. Nielsen, "that He rather hates Higgs particles, and attempts to avoid them." In other words, either God or some other force in the future is sending negative influences back through time, so that the discovery of the Higgs boson can never take place. Nielsen and Masao Ninomiya of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyoto, Japan, are authors of several papers discussing this unorthodox theory: "Search for Future Influence From LHC," for instance. Influences from the future attempting to prevent something from taking place in the past--our present--to ensure the creation of that future? The discovery of the Higgs boson is, according to Nielsen and Ninomiya, so antithetical to the future's existence that the future is protecting itself by causing the machines capable of finding the particle to fail or never be built. As mentioned in a previous Picture of the Day, it is not the intent of the Thunderbolts Project to unduly criticize those who earn their daily bread in the employ of University laboratories or government-backed research institutes. In this case, though, to have Dr. Nielson, one of the originators of string theory, and a respected theoretician, publish a paper that seriously considers time travel and clairvoyant effects from a preexisting future to be a reason for the failure of machines like the LHC smacks of irony. Stephen Smith
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Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech/A. Verbiscer, University of Virginia.
Saturn Loosens its Belt

(Oct 12, 2009)
Another ring, larger than anything expected, has been discovered around Saturn. On August 25, 2003, NASA launched the Spitzer Space Telescope into an Earth-trailing, heliocentric orbit as part of the Great Observatories program. The Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray observatory, and the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory are the other three space-based platforms in the program, designed to resolve distant objects at various wavelengths. Spitzer is the infrared partner in the quartet--seeing objects in the 5.3 to 40 micron wavelength range. One of the most intriguing new discoveries from Spitzer is the presence of another ring around Saturn, something completely unexpected. The new ring is canted 27 degrees from the main ring plane and is in a retrograde orbit around the giant gas planet. It is also quite large. As Anne Verbiscer from the University of Virginia commented: "This is one supersized ring. If you could see the ring, it would span the width of two full moons' worth of sky, one on either side of Saturn." he vast belt of material ends at 18 million kilometers from the planet and is 12 million kilometers wide. It is also much thicker than the main rings: 2.5 million kilometers from top to bottom. The thickness measurement is an approximation, since the ring is so diffuse. One of Saturn's moons, Phoebe, orbits within the new ring and is, itself, circling its parent in a retrograde orbit. Some scientists speculate that the ring is generated from Phoebe as its surface ices are eroded by impacts over millions of years. Phoebe is another tiny moon, 220 kilometers in diameter, half the size of Enceladus. Its gravitational acceleration is a mere .05 meters per second squared. The majority of Saturn's The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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other moons are highly reflective of visible light, but Phoebe is as black as coal, making it one of the darkest objects in the Solar System. NASA scientists describe Phoebe as "very strange" and probably a captured moon. Many of Saturn's moons seem to be partially covered with reddish-black "soot." Iapetus, Dione and Hyperion are all dusted with the same dark reddish substance. In previous Picture of the Day articles, it was theorized that they were darkened by particles ejected from Phoebe. The plasmasphere of Saturn electrifies its environment, causing dark-mode plasma discharges to impinge on its family of moons. Enceladus, Dione and Tethys are all electrically active, flinging vast quantities of charged particles into space. Each moon is connected to its parent and to one another through cosmic electrical circuits. Planets with magnetic fields can trap fast-moving particles to form giant electrified clouds, more accurately called electric currents. NASA scientists have noted that Saturn's magnetic field bends around Enceladus "due to electric currents generated by the interaction of atmospheric particles and the magnetosphere of Saturn." Further flattening of the plasma torus on the sunward side demonstrates an electrical (not mechanical) effect is occurring between Saturn and the Sun. Bodies immersed in plasma are not isolated, they are connected by circuits, just as Phoebe is connected to Saturn. Most of the time they are not in equilibrium because they are in unstable conditions. The majority of them are moving across the plasma filaments that exist in the Solar System and in the plasmaspheres around planets. Currents in plasma contract into filaments and the force between filaments is linear, so the electromagnetic fields created by them are the most powerful long-range attractors in the Universe. The simplest, most straightforward explanation for the new ring is charged particles spewing from Saturn's moons. There is no need to conjure numerous impact events over the eons. We predict that investigation over time will show that the active sources of charged particle streams from Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, and Phoebe all move across their surfaces. Stephen Smith
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Energy, electric field strength, and charge density as a function of radial distance from the Sun's surface. Credit: Don Scott from The Electric Sky.
Impulse Control
(Oct 09, 2009)
Magnetic reconnection events in miniature are said to heat the Sun's corona. As usual, there is no mention of Kristian Birkeland's great discoveries. Heliophysicists do not know why the temperature of the Sun's corona is millions of degrees hotter than the surface. Based on the thermonuclear fusion model, as distance from the surface increases the temperature should decrease. It is a matter of simple thermal emission mechanics: temperature decreases with the square of the distance. According to a press release from the Goddard Space Flight Center's Solar Physics Laboratory, scientists have determined why: "nanoflares." According to astrophysicist James Klimchuk: "They [nanoflares] occur within tiny strands that are bundled together to form a magnetic tube called a coronal loop." Within the magnetic filaments, as the theory suggests, small bursts of impulsive energy from the "reconnection" of "unresolved strands" inside the coronal loops are responsible for heating the corona. It has long been thought that the corona's multimillion degree temperature resulted from continuous or "steady" heating, as previously mentioned. That hypothesis would see coronal loops of a certain temperature as having a specific density. Observations by the Hinode satellite indicate that coronal loops are of substantially greater density than earlier proposals assumed, however. In an Electric Universe, the "anomalous" density found in coronal loops, along with the unexplainable 10 million degree Celsius temperature of the corona--compared to the 5000 The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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degree Celsius temperature of the surface (the photosphere)--is easily explained when Birkeland currents are considered. An electric current creates a magnetic field (the stronger the current, the stronger the magnetic field). In some regions of the photosphere, horseshoe-shaped magnetic loops of plasma extend for thousands of kilometers out through the chromosphere. It has been recently discovered that those coronal loops are made up from bundles of rotating tubes. Those "flux tubes" are Birkeland currents. Within Birkeland currents, electrical activity creates charge separation, forming what Hannes Alfvn called "double layers" in the plasma. A principle aspect of Birkeland currents is that they follow magnetic fields. Powerful currents create an electromagnetic torus that causes the coronal loops to grow. If the current flow in the loop increases beyond a certain limit, the double layer will be destroyed, causing the energy stored in it to explode with tremendous force. So, rather than a new idea, nanoflares are a misinterpretation of Birkeland current filaments. There is a certain amount of confusion when it comes to any theory of solar behavior that does not include electrical activity. Failing to recognize the fundamental structure of coronal loops and how they correspond to the electromagnetic behavior of Birkeland currents (the "strands" described by Klimchuk, et al.) has led to another ad hoc mechanism designed to preserve the legitimacy of theories whose time has long since passed. It is not the intention of Picture of the Day articles to engage in bitter opprobrium, or to unduly criticize those who make their living in conventional science. However, the institutionalized dismissal of important foundational work by Kristian Birkeland and Hannes Alfvn deserves criticism. Their experiments in the laboratory, as well as their field work, led to a consistent and more appropriate hypothesis: it is electricity that powers the Sun and not internal nuclear fusion reactions. Written by Stephen Smith from an idea suggested by Jim Johnson
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"Tiger stripes" in Damascus Sulcus, Enceladus. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute Universities Space Research Association/Lunar & Planetary Institute.
Son of the Sky

(Oct 07, 2009)
Enceladus continues to confirm the electrical nature of its topography. Saturn's moons are difficult to categorize, let alone explain. As previous Picture of the Day articles point out, they vary in composition, orbital inclination, size, and mass. With 61 moons now identified, Saturn appears more like a miniature Solar System with its own influences apart from the Sun. Enceladus takes its name from Greek mythology. The son of Ouranos, he was one of the Gigantes, or Titans, who were overthrown by Zeus and his minions. It is perhaps an ironic name, since it is a tiny world only 494 kilometers in diameter. Its gravitational acceleration is about 10% of Earth's 1g field, so a long jump by Carl Lewis might conceivably put him into a low orbit, provided there could be some way for him to survive a temperature of -201 Celsius (and the vacuum). Enceladus was discovered by William Herschel in 1789. Past Picture of the Day articles have proposed that the serpentine trenches, cut like swirling ribbons across the surface, are not due to the tidal stresses from Saturn's gravity, but probably result from crawling discharges of electric current. The so-called "tiger stripe" terrain, out of which jet plumes of warm water vapor, are most likely manifesting a weaker version of the massive electrical activity that once carved and punctured Enceladus with magnetically confined plasma beams. The consensus opinion from planetary scientists is that the tiger stripe features are most likely caused by "shear heating" as lateral faults in the crust are set in motion by Saturn. Water vapor escapes the cracks and is dissociated by the intense environment, whereupon it flows along the flux tube connections with Saturn, injecting immense clouds of charged particles into its plasmasphere. It is not our contention that the large formations on Enceladus are being actively cut and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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distorted today. It is possible that they are the remains of the aforementioned massive plasma discharges from Saturn or the proximity of some other charged object that at some time in the past initiated the circuit. Today, the remnant electric fields are continuing to modify Enceladus with "dark mode" discharges, but the effect is less dramatic. Electric arcs can produce braided rope-like trenches when plasma filaments move across a surface. Gouges can be created without the lateral surface movement required by fracturing. Do the images transmitted from the Cassini-Equinox spacecraft reveal any lateral displacement? Can fracturing experiments in any laboratory on Earth form the braided seams on the surface of Enceladus? In the image at the top of the page, the main channel is bordered by ridges that rise to 150 meters. The central culvert is 250 meters deep. These are relatively large structures, considering the small size of the moon. It is easiest to get an idea of what is happening on Enceladus by comparing it to another moon in the Solar System: Europa. Although the plumes on Enceladus are comparable to another of Jupiter's Galilean moons Io, with its traveling "volcanic caldera," the dual-ridge faults, the supposed subsurface ocean of liquid water, and the broad, smooth valleys make it more like Io's bigger sister. Some rilles on Europa are 70 kilometers wide and travel 3000 kilometers through the landscape--almost 30% of its equatorial distance. The rilles have parallel sides and a constant width over their length. As with Enceladus, it was suggested by the Galileo spacecraft's mission specialists that tidal forces are responsible for them. However, tides, acting on the moons irregular surface, would not be able to maintain a uniform displacement over that distance. Interestingly, the Europa team referred to it as having "a surface that looked as if it had been clawed by a tiger with talons several kilometers wide." Both worlds, described in similar fashion, demonstrate the effect of "surface lightning" as it rips great furrows for hundreds of kilometers, throwing out material to either side. Electric currents below the surface would have caused electromagnetic induction heating, thus accounting for the ice rafts on Europa. The same phenomenon could have also affected Enceladus, bringing about warmer areas in and around the tiger stripes, along with the dark current disintegration of the ice into water vapor. Stephen Smith
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Streaming gases in NGC 4402 distort its shape into a bowl. Credit: H. Crowl (Yale University) and WIYN/NOAO/AURA/NSF.
Cometary Galaxies
(Oct 05, 2009)
Some galaxies exhibit broad tails, as well as bright comas of gas surrounding a central nucleus. What is a comet? An astronomer might remark that a comet is a small, fragile, irregularly shaped object composed mostly of water ice and dust, along with carbon and silicon-based compounds. "Dirty snowballs," as Fred Whipple described them in 1950. Consensus opinions continue to support the theory after almost 60 years. According to Whipple's proposal, as a comet approaches the Sun the "hot" solar wind transforms the solid nucleus directly into a vapor through sublimation, bypassing the liquid phase. Material from the nucleus begins to expand outward, forming a cloud of gas and dust otherwise known as the coma. Sunlight and the solar wind interact with the cloud to form a long tail. However, ask an Electric Universe advocate what a comet is and a different answer will be forthcoming. Comets spend most of their time far from the Sun where the charge density is low. Since comets move slowly, their electric charges reach equilibrium with the weak, radial solar electric field. When a comet falls in to the inner Solar System closer to the Sun, however, its nucleus accelerates into regions of increasing charge density and varying electrical flux. Polarity and charge characteristics in the nucleus respond to the increasing solar forces, forming a coma (charge sheath) around it. Discharge jets flare up and move across the surface very much like the plumes of Jupiter's moon, Io. If the internal charge imbalance becomes too great, the nucleus May explode like an overcharged capacitor, breaking into fragments or vanishing forever. Similar effects are most likely responsible for meteoric The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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explosions in Earth's atmosphere, such as the one that occurred over Tunguska in Siberia. Surprisingly, a recent article describing the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission highlights two different galaxies within the Virgo Cluster that seem to exhibit comet-like characteristics. As NGC 4522 and NGC 4402 move through the intergalactic medium, they are being distorted by "strong winds." Astrophysicists say that the galaxies are plowing through gas and dust, so are experiencing "ram pressure." On Earth, ram pressure is known as "drag," and results from air friction. In the case of the Virgo Cluster, researchers suggest that its mass of hot gas and dust is acting in the same way, forcing the material in both galaxies back against their apparent motion and causing them to form comas and tails, as well as a distinct rounding of their forms in the direction of travel. Another galaxy cluster, Abell 2667 contains a galaxy that is also undergoing "ram pressure stripping" of its structure. In fact, it has been named "The Comet Galaxy." According to JeanPaul Kneib from the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille: "This unique galaxy, situated 3.2 billion light-years from Earth, has an extended stream of bright blue knots and diffuse wisps of young stars driven away by the tidal forces and the ram pressure stripping of the hot dense gas." In past Picture of the Day articles, shock waves, hot gas, and collisions in deep space have been discussed. They are often used to describe the phenomena that create high-frequency electromagnetic radiation in the cosmos. From gamma rays down through x-rays and extreme ultraviolet, conventional theories have relied upon gravity and acceleration as the only way for them to be produced in space. In other words, kinetic energy alone, without recourse to electrical explanations, is responsible for what we see and detect with our instruments. This situation is born from the gravity-only theory of cosmic evolution. Since comets hold a highly negative charge, they attract the positively charged solar wind ions, accumulating an immense envelope of ionized hydrogen, up to millions of miles across. Perhaps galaxies embedded within their clusters experience something similar. Perhaps cluster cores generate significant streams of charged particles that flow outward much like the solar wind. If galaxies within a cluster are oppositely charged from the cluster core, the core will pull them in toward the region of greatest charge density: they will experience "anomalous velocity." If there are regions of charge separation within a galaxy (such as NGC 4522 or its companion), then the material that is the same polarity as the cluster core will be blown back and away, again much like the coma and tail of a comet in the Solar System. Electrical connections exist throughout the Universe. From the smallest scale atomic interactions to the largest scale cosmic conglomerations, electricity provides the power and demonstrates its activity in plain sight. Stephen Smith
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Newly discovered multi-ringed basin on Mercury. Credit: NASA and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Final Flyby
(Oct 01, 2009)
Yesterday, the MESSENGER spacecraft flew close by Mercury in preparation for a 2011 orbital insertion. On August 3, 2004, NASA launched the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) experiment from the Cape Canaveral facility on a 7-year mission to study the Sun's closest companion. On January 14, 2008, MESSENGER performed its first flyby of Mercury, coming within 200 kilometers of the surface. The spacecraft executed another close order flyby, once more coming within 200 kilometers of the planet on October 6, 2008. Its third flyby maneuver on September 29, 2009, provided MESSENGER with its last gravity assist, essential for a trajectory that will allow it to be the first satellite of Mercury on March 18, 2011. Ordinarily, it would have only taken a few weeks to send the MESSENGER mission directly to Mercury. In order to save fuel, thereby saving launch weight, it had to follow a path that included a flyby of Earth, two flybys of Venus, and this last of three flybys past Mercury. Mercury is a relatively small planet, 4878 kilometers in diameter. Jupiter's moon Ganymede and Saturn's moon Titan are both larger. Mercury resides at a mean distance of 57,910,000 kilometers from the Sun, so a year on Mercury lasts a mere 88 days. Since it rotates once every 58.6 days, the planet completes three rotations for every two orbits. Temperatures on Mercury can reach a blazing 427 Celsius at noon. Mercury receives an average of nine times more radiation at its surface than the Earth, is bathed in searing heat, and is bombarded by charged particles from the Sun, so how can it The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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possess a thin but detectable atmosphere? This question is a conundrum for planetary scientists--a planet with such a weak gravity field (only 38% of Earth), and under such intense solar irradiation, should not retain even the smallest remnant of an atmosphere. The answer is that Mercury is probably a relatively young planet, perhaps as little as 10,000 years old, or younger. If that is the case, then the presence of an atmosphere is not surprising. During the last MESSENGER flyby of Mercury, electromagnetic flux tubes were found, connecting the planet's weak magnetic field directly to the Sun with gigantic filaments of electric current. In April of 2009, NASAs THEMIS satellites found similar "electrical tornadoes" above the Earth at the interface between the magnetosphere and the ionic wind from the Sun. Known as Birkeland currents, they are familiar to plasma physicists and Electric Universe proponents. It is those helical electrical transmission lines that confine plasma and allow electric currents to flow over great distances. The presence of electric currents flowing like giant tornadoes into Mercury hint at a time when those currents might have been far more powerful. As mentioned in a Previous Picture of the Day, there might have been a period in Mercury's history when those helical currents were energized to the glow mode or the arc mode stage. If that happened, then the surface of Mercury would have been the scene of gigantic electric discharges blasting out craters, cutting vast chasms, and rearranging the atomic structure of the planet's crust over large areas. Multiple basins found on Mercury, just as on several other celestial bodies, are probably formed when electricity erodes material from the surface where the arcs touch down. The pits or craters left by electric arcs are usually circular because the electromagnetic forces constrain them to strike at right angles to the surface. If an electric arc is composed of two filaments rotating around a common center, the surface will be excavated by a plasma "drill bit," leaving steep sides and a "pinched up" rim of debris. If several filaments are involved, the plasma beams will often cut one crater within another, sometimes with one or more smaller craters on the rims. Structures like the unnamed multi-ringed basin shown at the top of the page, as well as the altered materials in the craters, could be part of what has been left behind after the increased electrical energy through Mercury's structure dissipated. Another example of possible electric discharge activity on the surface of Mercury is a crater 110 kilometers in diameter just seen by MESSENGER, with an unusual curled trench carved into its shallow, bowl-shaped floor. How does the Electric Universe hypothesis account for the volumes of information returned by missions such as MESSENGER? The Electric Universe provides simple yet surprising answers to that question in such publications as, "Astronomical Myths of Mercury and the Sun," by Wal Thornhill, and several previous Picture of the Day articles. When MESSENGER enters orbit around Mercury, it is likely that additional observations will confirm our hypothesis. Stephen Smith
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Saturnian equinox. Note the extremely narrow ring shadow. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.
Spring Has Sprung

(Sep 28, 2009)
Saturn has started this new season with some surprises. On August 11, 2009, Saturn's rings turned edge-on to the Sun, something that happens once every 15 years as Saturn revolves. When the rings cross the equatorial plane, they cool down considerably--dropping more than 50 Kelvin in the last five years. Many things about Saturn have changed in the 29 years since the two Voyager spacecraft passed by the giant gas planet. Saturn's magnetosphere grew larger by more than a million kilometers and then contracted, only to begin expanding again. The spokes in Saturn's B ring disappeared and then reappeared. The equatorial thunderstorm (known as the Dragon Storm) that raged continuously broke up, moved toward the poles, and then erupted again a short while ago in the lower latitudes. The most likely explanation for the storms on Saturn is that they are equivalent to sunspots. As the Sun changes its behavior over the course of a 22 year cycle, the electrical output that connects it with its family of planets varies. If Saturn's Great White Spots, Dragon Storm, and ring spokes are driven by the same galactic Birkeland currents that drive the Sun, they should get stronger and closer to the equator as the sunspot cycle oscillates. It appears that that is just what has happened over the past three decades. It is significant that the increases to the energetic phenomena on Saturn are occurring irrespective of whether the sunspot cycle is at maximum or minimum: the Sun is exhibiting large-scale electrical effects although it has just passed solar minimum. It was suggested in a previous Picture of the Day that it is the change in magnetic orientation that could be the key, rather than the strength of the solar magnetic field. In 2008, scientists from the Max Planck Institute discovered partial rings around the gas planet in a nearly invisible collection of small arc segments. Using the Cassini-Equinox magnetospheric sensors, the team found two areas near Saturn where highly energetic electrons suddenly drop out, presumably because something is absorbing them. The magnetospheric imager detected lower energy emissions from the ion torus that The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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surrounds Saturn when the ring arc segments are oriented between Cassini and the electron flow. The region of absorption is almost 3000 kilometers wide, so Cassini mission analysts speculate that there could be unseen rings in several bands. The invisible rings are most likely another manifestation of the electrical environment that exists near Saturn. What Cassini is detecting most likely supports the charged particle stream hypothesis originally proposed by Kristian Birkeland in 1913. He wrote: "It seems almost incredible that such a ring of cosmic dust should be able to exist for ever, so to speak, without other governing forces than gravitation..." Seen from our planet, the view of Saturn's rings during equinox makes them invisible. However, Cassini is in orbit around Saturn 20 degrees above the ring plane. As NASA puts it, that "novel illumination geometry" causes objects above the rings to cast shadows across them. Cassini photographed the shadows from several of Saturn's moons, but also saw the shadows cast by something new: vertical structures embedded in the rings. Planetary scientists already knew about material sticking out of the rings in a few places, but until Saturn reached its equinox it was not possible to measure how high these "ridges" are. Saturn's main rings are approximately 140,000 kilometers wide, but were only thought to be between 10 and 30 meters thick until the discovery of the vertical "walls" extending along the edges of some rings. Some of the other newly found formations are ripples over four kilometers high. How did these strange clumps, undulations, and ridges form? According to theories presently under consideration, it is collisions and shock waves that were and are the culprits. The gravitational attraction of so-called "shepherd moons" is also said to be responsible. As some moons, such as Daphnis, move up and down through the ring plane, they do disturb the motion of the ring particles. However, as was discussed in another Picture of the Day article, Saturn's rings and moons are electrically charged objects moving within its vast plasmasphere. The instabilities inherent in that system most likely contribute to the formation of unusual features. As shepherd moons pass close to the rings, their effect is not like a turbulent wind, which would be expected when a gravitational field's torque effects act on a cloud of fine particles. Instead, sine waves, perpendicular "braids," and cylindrical arcs are seen. Some are multiply woven, like those in the remote F-ring. More data needs to be recovered, but Cassini continues to provide an embarrassment of riches for Electric Universe advocates, and a box of puzzles that consensus opinions cannot assemble. Stephen Smith
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Aurora Australis over the Bellingshausen Sea. Photographer unknown.
Hitched to a Star
(Sep 25, 2009)
Our fortunes are inextricably linked to the Sun's activity. This is a principle tenet of Electric Universe theory. Now that is the wisdom of a man, in every instance of his labor, to hitch his wagon to a star, and see his chore done by the gods themselves. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson Many Picture of the Day articles discuss the linkages between galactic electric currents, solar electric currents, and terrestrial electric currents. Earth is connected to a circuit that flows through the cosmos, but that circuit is difficult to perceive. Recently, a research team from UCLA announced the discovery of a "previously unknown" mechanism for transmitting energy from the Sun into Earth's magnetosphere. Charged particles called the solar wind erupt from the Sun in all directions, but how the electric charge is transferred to the magnetosphere is a mystery. Natural processes depend on energy input of some kind that then changes from one form to another: chemical energy is released by fire, which is then changed into heat energy that can boil water and drive pistons with kinetic energy. Consensus views also suggest that this holds true for the geomagnetic relationship between the Sun and Earth. According to scientists, when the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) slants to the South there is faster "reconnection" between interplanetary and terrestrial field lines, initiating a rapid release of magnetic fields and plasma from Earth's sunlit side. How this happens, as well as how it begins, are still controversial subjects. In nature energy cannot be destroyed, as the conservation of energy law states, instead it changes state. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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For example, when electricity powers a motor and spins a shaft, the electromagnetic force is converted to kinetic energy through angular momentum. It is thought that so-called "magnetic energy" can also reappear in different forms. During "reconnection" events, conventional viewpoints say that some of the magnetic energy becomes heat, increasing the velocity of plasma ions and electrons that drive electric currents in a circuit linking the plasma sheet with Earth. Said Larry Lyons, UCLA professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences: "We all have thought for our entire careers--I learned it as a graduate student--that this energy transfer rate is primarily controlled by the direction of the interplanetary magnetic field." Astrophysicists have found that the IMF can fluctuate in both intensity and orientation. When the UCLA team analyzed radar measurements of the ionosphere, auroral substorms were seen in that part of Earth's upper atmosphere ionized by solar radiation. The results surprised them. According to Lyons: "Any space physicist, including me, would have said a year ago there could not be substorms when the interplanetary magnetic field was staying northward, but that's wrong. Generally, it's correct, but when you have a fluctuating interplanetary magnetic field, you can have substorms going off once per hour." In the electric Sun hypothesis, there is no "magnetic reconnection," so there is no mystery. The Sun is an anode, or positively charged electrode in the vast electric motor of the galaxy. The cathode is an invisible "virtual cathode," called the heliosphere, at the farthest limit of the Sun's coronal discharge, billions of kilometers from its surface. This is the double layer that isolates the Sun's plasma cell from the galactic plasma that surrounds it. In the Electric Universe model, most of the voltage difference between the Sun and the galaxy occurs across the heliospheric boundary sheath. Inside the heliopause the weak electric field centered on the Sun is enough to power the solar discharge. As the theory states, an e-field focused on the Sun accelerates charged particles: the faster they accelerate, the stronger the field. It is that change in particle acceleration that causes the IMF variability and the changes to the electrical input to Earth's magnetosphere. Written by Stephen Smith from an idea submitted by Thane Hubbell
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Magnetic supergranules (30,000 kilometers in diameter) make a mosaic of the Sun's disk in ionized calcium light. Credit: Gary Palmer.
Heliophysics
(Sep 23, 2009)
Scientific research into the Sun's composition and behavior has lead to a new branch of astrophysics. The Sun has been the subject of intense research by Electric Universe advocates. Books such as The Electric Sky by retired Professor of Electrical Engineering Don Scott, The Electric Universe by Dave Talbott and Wal Thornhill, and many other independent articles and peer-reviewed papers, have detailed a growing accumulation of data in support of the electrical connection between the Sun and its family of planets, especially Earth. Over the last several years, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), along with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), have launched numerous scientific instruments into Earth orbit, as well as other more remote destinations in hope of detecting and analyzing the various ways the Sun's energy influences our planet The Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) ACE is studying the charged particles streaming from the Sun, along with those arriving from deep space and beyond. ACE is in orbit around LaGrange point L1, where the Earth and Sun are in gravitational equilibrium. L1 provides ACE with an unobstructed view of the Sun's ionic wind, its magnetic field, and those particles emitted by the farthest galactic regions. ACE should remain operational until late in 2024. Cluster II Discovering the interaction between the solar wind and the magnetosphere is Cluster's primary goal. Four identical spacecraft are flying a tetrahedral formation in a highly elliptical The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Earth orbit. Cluster is currently collecting information about how solar wind particles enter the Earth's atmosphere through magnetic funnels at each pole. The four probes are also checking the solar wind's interaction with our magnetosphere, and the behavior of plasma in the magnetotail during auroral substorms. Fast Auroral SnapshoT Satellite (FAST) FAST is performing a number of functions, including an investigation into how electrons and ions are accelerated and form the aurora; whether parallel electric fields are causing the ions to accelerate, and how those fields are sustained; how radio waves and other emissions are created during the aurora; and how the accelerated ions couple to larger scale energy sources in Earth's magnetosphere. The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) IBEX is set to discover how the solar wind interacts with the interstellar medium. IBEX is designed to investigate four fundamental questions: What is the global strength and structure of the termination shock? How are energetic protons accelerated at the termination shock? What are the global properties of the solar wind flow beyond the termination shock and in the heliotail? How does the interstellar flow interact with the heliosphere beyond the heliopause? The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) SOHO is probably the most familiar mission to readers of this page. It has been in orbit around LaGrange point L1 since December 1995. SOHO is equipped with 12 scientific instruments, among which are the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT), and the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment (LASCO). Both devices have provided a wealth of images and data that confirm the Sun is accelerating charged particles through the means of a voltage drop extending outward from its surface. Hinode (Solar-B) The Hinode (Japanese for sunrise) was launched on September 22, 2006. The onboard X-ray telescope (XRT) and the EUV imaging spectrometer (EIS) are analyzing X-ray and ultraviolet light from the Sun in order to determine the heating mechanism and dynamics of the solar corona. Hinode hopes to resolve some key issues in heliophysics: Why does a hot corona exist above the cool atmosphere? What drives explosive solar flares? What creates the Sun's magnetic field? Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) Two almost twin spacecraft--one flying in front of Earth in its orbit, the other following--are tracking the flow of energetic material that occasionally erupts from the Sun. So far, they have returned richly detailed information about Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) through their special 3D orientation in space. CMEs are the most powerful solar event in the Sun-Earth connection, yet space scientists know nothing about their origin or what causes them to form their complex structure. It is hoped that STEREO's 3D perspective will help them to understand their nature. Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions During Substorms (THEMIS) The five spinning THEMIS probes contain comprehensive packages of plasma and field instruments needed to determine the cause of geomagnetic substorms. In April of 2009, NASAs fleet of THEMIS satellites detected vast electrical tornadoes about 40,000 miles above the night side of Earth. Gigantic energized twisters, the size of the earth or larger, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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channel electrically charged particles at speeds of more than a million miles per hour along the ionosphere's twisted magnetic field, where they power the auroras. With all of these instruments active at the present time, and 8 more satellites designated as space weather observatories scheduled for launch in the next five years, the opportunities for Electric Universe theories to be supported will continue to increase. Stephen Smith
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Bright spokes across Saturn's B ring. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute (01/29/09).
Wheeling Spokes
(Sep 21, 2009)
Spokes have not been seen in Saturn's rings for years. What caused them to return? Radial shadows extending across Saturn's ring plane, called "spokes," were first detected by the twin Voyager spacecraft as they flew past the giant planet in November 1980 and then in August 1981. However, when Cassini-Huygens entered orbit around Saturn in July 2004, the spokes were gone. Five years later, the now renamed Cassini-Equinox high resolution imagers have seen the spokes again. Space scientists have been fortunate to live in these times. Since the launches of Voyagers 1 and 2, a twenty-two year solar cycle has run its course and another has begun. Saturn has completed an entire orbital revolution around the Sun, so the ring plane has oscillated up and down over that time because of its equatorial tilt. The Hubble Space Telescope has been reengineered and fitted with optics the likes of which were not even imagined when it was launched in 1990. Unprecedented images of the Saturnian system using its cameras, as well as other new telescopes, have confirmed the Electric Universe hypothesis time after time since those days ten and twenty years ago. For example, between November 2007 and February 2008, scientists were monitoring the largest lightning storm ever seen in Saturn's turbulent atmosphere using Hubble and other ground-based telescopes: 3500 kilometers wide, with lighting discharges 1000 times more powerful than anything found on Earth. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Recently, a group from the Austrian Academy of Sciences has discovered another lightning storm that is the longest lasting yet recorded, lasting almost eight months, so far. Using the Cassini-Equinox Radio and Plasma Wave Science instrument, Dr. Georg Fischer and his team discovered radio wave emissions from isolated locations in Saturn's lower latitudes called "Storm Alley." This May be a reemergence of the powerful "Dragon Storm" discussed in previous Picture of the Day articles. Could there be a connection between the solar cycles, Saturn's orbital position, the spokes, and the lightning discharges? The Electric Universe theory provides a consistent explanation for most of the discoveries that planetary scientists confess are "puzzles" and "due to processes that are poorly understood." For example, the spokes are caused by radial discharges from Saturn's magnetosphere into its ionosphere across the ring plane. The rings are composed of large chunks of material, but they contain a high percentage of ultra-fine dust that is easily ionized. Dusty plasma tends to concentrate the discharges in the plane of the rings. The finely divided ring particles become oppositely charged and move out of and above the rings. What reason is there for Saturn's magnetospheric discharges then and now? In the 1980s, the Sun's electric activity, the solar sunspot cycle, was at its maximum. Today the solar cycle has just passed its minimum phase. It is known that the activity of solar maximum creates electrical effects on Earth: brighter auroras, disrupted power transmission, and satellite communication problems. Are the spokes of Saturn an expression of the sunspot cycle? Do they appear at solar maximum and minimum because that is when the magnetic polarity reverses on the Sun and Saturn is at a specific orientation? Further analysis of data from Cassini May provide answers to those questions. Saturn occasionally breaks out with a "great white spot" three times larger than Earth. From an Electric Universe perspective, intense electric discharges deep in Saturn's atmosphere cause vertical jets very similar to the sprites in Earth's upper atmosphere. Saturn's electrical connection to the current flow in the Solar System can explain most of the effects that Cassini and other science packages have discovered on and around Saturn. Stephen Smith
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Credit: NOAA/Space Weather Prediction Center(SWPC)
Riding the Solar Cycle

(Sep 18, 2009)
New studies are confirming the connection between Earth and the Sun. Recent Picture of the Day articles have addressed the many issues that make understanding the Sun exceptionally difficult. There are serious dichotomies between the consensus viewpoint about solar activity and the Electric Universe viewpoint. In particular, the hypothesis popularized in Professor Don Scott's book, The Electric Sky is diametrically opposed to the thermonuclear hypothesis first described by Sir Arthur Eddington in 1926. It is in just the past few years that planetary scientists and meteorologists have begun seeing the effects of the Sun on our climate. Now, according to scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), analyzing sunspot records for the past 100 years has revealed a pattern of effects that have not been incorporated into climate models because they were not previously recognized in the data. It appears that the Sun's 11 year cycle of increased and decreased output is linked to the severity of weather events, such as hurricanes or droughts. Although solar energy does vary over the course of a sunspot cycle, that variance amounts to less than one-tenth of one percent, far too little to account for the intensity seen in storm systems or the increased regions of drought. The amplification of the solar energy's influence on Earth's climate could not be explained through current theories, so another solution was suggested. As the new theory explains, increased solar energy output during maximum sunspot production warms up the tropical stratosphere since sunlight impinges most directly on our planet close to the equator. Other The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive factors are involved, but the ultimate conclusion is that the atmosphere warms unevenly, becoming hotter near the equator and cooler in the higher latitudes.
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This uneven thermal distribution causes increased atmospheric convection, resulting in greater tropical precipitation. Combined with convection, the extra solar energy heats the waters of the Pacific Ocean, where, it is said, more clouds form in an area where they are normally absent. The clouds then flow west along the more powerful convection currents (the trade winds), where they increase the effects of the stratospheric heating. As with most other theories, the climate model suggested by the NCAR investigators is based on kinetic energy: heat and the movement of the atmosphere. Nowhere in the scientific press is it acknowledged that electric currents and the strength of the ion flux from the Sun are the primary drivers of climate fluctuation. As Electric Universe theorist Wal Thornhill wrote: "A star is the focus of a galactic 'glow discharge.' The electrical energy that courses through the solar system and powers the Sun is a subtle form of energy that all of the planets intercept to some degree. Planets orbit within this discharge and intercept some of the electrical energy. Planets are minor 'electrodes' within a stellar discharge envelope. The electrical energy is delivered to stars and planets in the manner of a simple Faraday motor." Since water is a dipolar molecule, the effect of ions as attractors for water vapor was evident. That and Wal Thornhill's information about thunderstorms acting as "leaky capacitors" leads to the observation that there are enormous fields of ions in transparent haloes around clouds: Electric Clouds It is now evident that those ion fields are linked to the cosmic ray connection illustrated by Henrik Svensmark in his work with cloud chambers. From The Cloud Mystery website: "One effect of solar changes [sunspots] is to vary the number of cosmic rays reaching the Earth from the Galaxy. In 1995 Henrik Svensmark, also in Copenhagen, began to wonder if the cosmic rays could affect cloud cover. When he compared satellite observations of clouds with the varying counts of cosmic rays from year to year, he found an amazing link. A stronger Sun and fewer cosmic rays meant fewer clouds and a warmer world. Friis-Christensen agreed with this explanation for the Sun's role." Stephen Smith
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"Water Lilies" flame fractal. Artist: Roger Johnston
Big and Little Science

(Sep 16, 2009)
What science produces is neither universally true nor real, but is created by the observer and is relative to his predispositions and equipment. As a result, it is not complete but selected, not objective but subjective, and not unique but partial. This produces an observer-created reality, says physicist Roger Jones, in which "the observer and observed ... cannot be broken down into independent components" because "the observer has an uncontrollable and non-removable effect on what is observed." The result, according to physicist Arthur March, is that "what is perceived is...the effects brought to light by this procedure," effects which "are created by this process." This means that the scientist each time he observes creates something new, for, as physicist John Wheeler says, "this is a participatory universe." The scientific observation is therefore less a picture of reality than a sort of mirror in which the observer sees himself, which makes the physical world a product of human consciousness. To physicist Fred Wolf, when we look at the universe "We are looking at ourselves," and to Garry Zukav "we cannot eliminate ourselves from the picture...physics is the study of the structure of consciousness." "We can only see nature blurred by the clouds of dust we ourselves make," says physicist Sir James Jeans, for whom for instance a rainbow is not an independent object up in the sky but a subjective creation in the observer's mind: "Each man's rainbow is a selection from his own eyes ... from an objective reality which is not a rainbow at all." The creation of scientific data is therefore caused mainly by two factors. The first is the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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equipment used, which influences how the data is created. As John Wheeler says, "When we change the observing equipment...We have...A phenomenon that is new," and second, by the pre-existent mental constructs of the observer, which influence how the data is interpreted. That is why Jeans says that the attributes we give to physical objects are "mere articles of clothing...draped over the mathematical symbols; they did not belong to the world of reality." To Einstein "Time and space are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live." Scientific theory is therefore neither absolute nor correct, but a compromise which "shows us something about reality in the only way we can get at reality." Similarly, David Bohm speaks of energy streaming from both the observer and the observed. "The phenomena are the result of the intersection...from the same reality," but it "has no clear meaning" because what is unambiguous is misleading and only "the ambiguous is the reality." These specialists insist that in science the observer is omnipresent, which led physicist and astronomer Arthur Eddington to the astonishing assertion that, in science, "the mind has by its selective power fitted the processes of Nature into...a pattern largely of its own choosing; and in the discovery of this system of law the mind May be regarded as regaining from Nature that which the mind has put into Nature." Proof is therefore circular in science, with events being considered real only if they correspond to what we already believe. To Jeans the laws of science "are a description, not of nature, but of the human questionings of nature," and they "tell us nothing about nature, but only something about our own mental processes." Similarly, physicist Heinz Pagels asks, "Are theories 'out there'?" and answers "I don't think so. Theories are inventions," while physicist Werner Heisenberg puts it much more simply: "Science is made by men." In addition, scientific language, whether mathematical or lexical, suffers from the same defects, it is not real but only a "symbolic means of representing the world," "a dangerous instrument to use," "a symbol definable only in terms of other symbols." Opinions about reality therefore exist only in the scientist's mind and "need not," in Jean's words, "resemble the objects in which they originate," and therefore "it is no longer objective nature itself but nature in relation to the human observer that becomes the material studied by physics." On top of that, the scientific report is also a fabrication, for it does not describe what happened but what should have happened and makes no reference to feelings or trial and error. To analysts Broad and Wade the "scientific paper is as stylized as a sonnet" and its framework "is a fiction designed to perpetuate a myth." It is also socially conditioned, riddled with personality and culturally relative, which is why Schlegel says that "science is altogether a human activity," while Karl Popper adds that in science "the authority of truth is the authority of society." All the steps in the process called science are colored by the human touch. These insights led Einstein to the belief that, with the exception of the measurement of the speed of light in a vacuum, every observation is inescapably conditioned by the observer's frame of reference. It led Niels Bohr to his principle of complementarity, (that no single observation can contain all the possible descriptions of a phenomenon), and it led Werner Heisenberg to his uncertainty relation, which states that not all the properties of a subatomic object can be fully investigated by one observation at the same time. To these men scientific knowledge is severely limited or created and subjective, which led Eddington to doubt the reality which science creates. To him, what he calls the "external The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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world" is a human artifact, a structure created as "an answer to a particular problem," and "We refuse to contemplate the awful contingency that the external world, after all our care in arriving at it, might be disqualified by failing to exist." For these reasons both David Bohm and Niels Bohr see the creation of science as similar to the creation of poetry, and Roger Jones insists that, in science, "whatever it is that we are describing, the human mind cannot be parted from it." What these men are saying is that, surprisingly, human involvement is the most influential tool of science and we can therefore never know what the world is like in itself apart from us as observers. "Physics," says Eddington, "is a world contemplated from within...What the world might be deemed like if probed in some supernatural manner by appliances not furnished by itself we do not profess to know." What is left for science, therefore, is to talk about what it sees. That is all that science is. Einstein believed that in today's science "there is no ultimate theory, no...ultimate fact about the stuff the world is made of," there is only talk, which is why Einstein said that "physical concepts are free creations of the human mind." This was forcefully reiterated by Harvard astrophysicist Bruce Gregory, who said that in science "What is real is what we regularly talk about" and therefore "When we create a new way of talking about the world, we naturally create a new world." Physics is a conversation about nature, says Gregory, or, as Bohr put it, "It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns only what we can say about nature." I close therefore with Schlegel's provocative statement that "The natural world is not so much a fixed structure, waiting to be symbolically reproduced in our science, as it is a complex source of experience which can be described in various and alternative ways." That is the best that the scientific investigation of nature can achieve. It can get no closer to reality than that because in science, to use Bohm's felicitous phrase, "the observer is the observed." Science can yield accurate phenomenological data of the act of observation, but has no tools with which to perceive the ultimate reality that underlies the phenomena, a reality of which, to quote French physicist Bernard d'Espagnat, science can get only "fleeting reflections." As physicist Fred Wolf put it, "the whole universe comes into existence whenever we observe it" and therefore "we are the artists in the game of the universe." More than that, the universes which we create depend not only upon our choices of observation but also upon the order in which we carry them out, and it is therefore our choices and our sequence of analysis which "create the alternative possibilities as realities." To Wolf, as a result, scientific "reality is a matter of choice" and "the real is mainly determined by thought...The world we live in depends on the pictures of that world we paint in our minds" and how we paint it is determined by desire. As Heinz Pagels puts it, "Human intention influences the structure of the physical world," which is not a picture of the real, but a creation deriving from our interactions with it. As a consequence, fundamental matter becomes to us a fluid, varying, imprecise, uncertain and unmeasurable realm and we cannot discover if there is anything more graspable beneath. That is the only kind of knowledge about the fundamental universe available to us with our present methods, and our ultimate knowledge of any branch of science turns out to be equally imprecise and uncertain. In all of its fields we have derived many partial subjective The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive truths but no fundamental ones, nor is there the prospect of any. There is nothing but ignorance. Professor Irving Wolfe Excerpts from a speech given to the 1994 Velikovsky Symposium.
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For the full text of Professor Wolfe's speech, as well as those delivered by other participants, see: http://www.kronia.com/symposium_papers.html
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The Rocky Mountains near Vail, Colorado. Credit: Michael Steinbacher
Suddenly
(Sep 14, 2009)
Geologists say mountains were formed gradually over millions of years. Native peoples say their ancestors saw mountains form in their lifetimes. Its a choice between speculation and hearsay. The uniformist/gradualist revolution erased the concept of suddenness from the geological vocabulary. Because a person tends not to see what he doesnt have a concept for, geologists for two centuries couldnt see evidence for suddenness as suddenness. Immanuel Velikovskys books, Worlds in Collision and Earth in Upheaval, hit geologists like a 2x4 between the eyes of a somnolent mule. Velikovsky got kicked into the mud of crackpotism for it, but the hit got geologists attention. After the mule settled down, the concept of suddenness reappeared: Alvarezs asteroid, Clube and Napiers comet, Gould and Eldredges punctuationism, mass extinctions, lava floods (and Bretz water floods), climate disruptions, fossilized asphyxiation, and deposits of shredded plants and animals. Strata could now be seen not as gradual accumulations of sediment but as sudden deposits during catastrophic events. Breaks between strata now could represent unknown times of little activity--the uniformist interludes between cataclysms. As each sudden event shortens the timeline of its duration, it also undermines the timeline connecting to other events. Suddenness is devouring geological time; no time will be left for gradual orogeny. Modern geology needs "sudden" narratives for mountain building--more in line with the legends of mountains appearing on what had been, before a time of "commotion," a plain. (See, for example, pp. 419-425 in Flare Star by Dwardu Cardona.) The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Strata would not accumulate in horizontal beds and then be folded and eroded into mountains over millions of years. Instead, strata would be deposited or formed in place as we see them over centuries or decades--or maybe days. In an Electric Universe, the process could be analogous to electrostatic painting. It could be a scaled-up version of sand dune formation: the role of electricity in constructing dunes is only beginning to be investigated. It would be good to find some maverick geologist who can run an electric current through a pile of sand and turn it into granite and basalt, especially without melting it. It would be good to find an artist whose creative eye can visualize ridges of mountains deposited like sand dunes from a global hurricane of dust and debris. It would be good to find a plasma physicist who can describe electric currents snaking over and through the Earth during episodes of planetary instability. No orthodox geologist will admit this; his career would be terminated. But the history of ideas gives no concern to the conceits of men and their careers. The puffed-up pretensions of one eras science soon (in historical time) become the wind-blown rags of another eras superstition. The only serious error is taking the ideas too seriously. Mel Acheson
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The center of the Milky Way in multiple wavelengths. Low x-ray bands in red, medium bands in green, and high bands in blue. Credit: NASA/UMA/D.Wang et al.
Frozen Fires
(Sep 11, 2009)
The Chandra X-ray Telescope has puzzled astronomers with the discovery of abnormally high temperatures at the core of the Milky Way. A news release announcing this image of the center of the Milky Way stated that the x-ray spectrum of the gases is consistent with a cloud of "hot gas" that varies from 10 million degrees Celsius to as much as 100 million degrees. This result was unexpected and difficult to explain. According to consensus opinions, shock waves from supernova explosions are the most likely explanation for heating the 10 million degree gas, but no one can explain how the 100 million degree gas is heated. "Ordinary" supernova explosions are not sufficiently powerful, and heating by high-energy particles produces the wrong x-ray spectrum. Another Chandra image of the star cluster Trumpler 14 shows about 1600 stars and a diffuse glow from hot multimillion degree x-ray producing gas. Any material that has a temperature of millions of degrees is not a gas--it is a plasma. After more than a century, laboratory investigations have established the fact that plasma has electrical properties, and can conduct electricity. The flow of electricity through a plasma forms Birkeland filaments, double layers, and electric current instabilities. Each formation is capable of accelerating charged particles, releasing x-rays. In fact, they can accomplish that feat without having a million degree temperature, just a strong electric field. The region within 900 light-years of the Milky Way Galaxy's core is shown in other images threaded through with glowing filaments more than 100 light-years long. The latest radio telescope probes of this region show that the filaments are associated with pockets of starformation. The exact mechanism for creating the filaments remains to be discovered, but modern astronomers suggest that one possibility is the collision of winds blown off by individual stars. Plasma cosmologists expect temperature discrepancies in our galaxy (among others), because laboratory plasma experiments indicated that they should exist. Hannes Alfvn, in the introduction to his book, Cosmic Plasma, points out examples of plasma behavior in his The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive lab that astronomers were not aware of:
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"The plasma exhibited striations, double layers, and an assortment of oscillations and instabilities. The electron temperature was often found to be one or two orders of magnitude larger than the gas temperature, with the ion temperature intermediate." What Chandra found at the core of the Milky Way is plasma that behaves exactly the way it behaves in experiments on Earth. Some laboratory measurements show temperatures ten to a hundred times higher than simple kinetic effects can produce ("wind collisions" and shock waves). If astronomers had known of the lab results, and taken them as seriously as they take theories of hot gas, they wouldn't have been surprised. Stephen Smith
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A diagram of the "electric Sun." Illustration from Don Scott's book, The Electric Sky.
Solar Magnetic Polarity Reversal

(Sep 09, 2009)
The solar magnetic polarity reversal with every 11 year sunspot cycle has baffled solar physicists since its discovery. Electric current structure in the Electric Sun model provides a simple explanation. The Sun rotates more rapidly at its equator than near its poles. The magnetic fields near sunspots reverse polarity from one eleven-year sunspot cycle to the next. These and many other observed phenomena associated with the Sun give strong indication that a high level of electrical activity is at work on and above the surface of our local star. It should be clear that the standard model is at least incomplete if not totally wrong in its description of the Suns structure. Astronomers defend this standard model by saying that all the processes they describe have been performed in the laboratory and are well known. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mankind has been doggedly struggling for over half a century to create a sustained nuclear fusion reaction in the laboratory. We have not even come close to doing it. It May not even be possible. The only experiment that has been performed that fuses hydrogen into helium and liberates tremendous amounts of energy is the hydrogen bomb. That reaction is almost instantaneous. Recently discovered inherent instabilities in the plasma that is generated by the process May make it impossible to control it and make it occur continuously. Just to assume that such a sustained process is alive and well in the Suns core is a stretch. In his [Hannes Alfvns] model, electric current passes through both poles of the star. It then flows in long tubes emanating from the star. A secondary leakage current that flows on or just below the Suns surface, back toward the equator from each of the poles, can explain another The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive one of the "mysteries" the Sun poses for solar astrophysicists.
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It is highly likely that such a current system has already been discovered. Stanford University recently announced, "Scientists using the joint European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft have discovered jet streams or rivers of hot, electrically charged gas (plasma) flowing beneath the surface of the Sun. They also found features similar to trade winds that transport gas beneath the Suns fiery surface." Rivers of plasma are electric currents. Currents cause magnetic fields. We have just discussed the coronal loops omega shaped arches in the Suns magnetic field that extend up out of the photosphere into the lower corona. Eugene N. Parker correctly calls the coronal loops "bulges" in the Suns magnetic field. He states: "The bulges emerge through the surface of the Sun, forming bipolar magnetic regions, or magnetically active regions, with lengths up to 200,000 km. The bipolar fields have opposite signs on opposite sides of the equator, and the algebraic signs of the fields reverse from one 11-year [sunspot] cycle to the next." The image above shows a possible explanation of this phenomenon. According to Alfvns stellar circuit, the main solar electric current flows into (or out of) each pole of the Sun. Making use of the "right-hand rule," we can visualize the directions of the encircling magnetic fields created by that current. If the strength of this current is increasing, the magnetic field will strengthen as well. Such time varying magnetic fields can induce secondary currents as shown in the figure. The secondary current will only exist when the magnitude of the linking magnetic field is growing or shrinking. This effect is utilized here on Earth in AC transformers and so is called transformer action. If a secondary current filament is flowing southward from near the Suns north pole and it is on or just beneath the Suns surface, a looping magnetic field will emerge to the east of the current creating a north magnetic pole there. (Right thumb directed toward the south, fingers emerging up out of the surface on its east side.) The loop will move out above the Suns surface and then return down into the surface forming a south magnetic pole to the west of the current. Recall that a "north magnetic pole" is a region where the magnetic flux emerges from a solid. In the Suns southern hemisphere, the secondary surface current is flowing northward toward the solar equator. The resulting magnetic field will emerge (north magnetic pole) to the west of the current and return down to the surface (forming a south magnetic pole) to the east of the current. Thus the action described by Parker ("The bipolar fields have opposite signs on opposite sides of the equator.") follows directly from Alfvns circuit. Of course, the locations of the subsurface currents shown in the image above are speculative at this point. These reversing magnetic fields provide a classic example of a phenomenon that cannot be understood without reference to the electric currents that produce it. Regardless of the direction of the main driving current coming into the Sun, the eleven-year reversal of the magnetic loops can be explained by transformer action. If the main magnetic field that induces the surface currents is growing in strength, the surface current will point in one direction. If the main magnetic field starts to weaken in intensity, the secondary (surface) current will reverse direction. Consequently the magnetic polarity of the loops will also reverse. Notice that this mechanism does not require the main solar driving current itself to reverse direction, only to vary in amplitude. It also does not depend on the direction of the primary current. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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On June 3, 1999, the European Space Agency announced that the Suns magnetic field is getting progressively stronger. Thanks to the unprecedented overview of solar magnetism provided by the ESA-NASA spacecraft Ulysses, a team at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford has been able to work out the recent history of the Suns magnetic behavior. According to calculations by British scientists, the strength of the Suns magnetic field has doubled during the Twentieth Century alone. This finding May help to clarify the Suns contribution to climate change on Earth. The hydrogen helium fusion model does not explain this phenomenon. The above material was taken from The Electric Sky, a groundbreaking book by Dr. Donald E. Scott Contributed by Michael Armstrong
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The Aurora Borealis. Credit: USAF/Joshua Strang.
Inside the Aurorae

(Sep 07, 2009)
There has been a long history of resistance to the electrical Birkeland current explanation for polar aurorae. Now there should be no doubt. For those who have never experienced them, auroras consist of fluctuating light manifestations seen against or below the sky in the extreme north--and southern latitudes. These scintillating lights can take the form of diffuse patches or dancing streamers, bouncing arcs, shifting rays and, quite often, ephemeral hanging draperies which seem to sway in an unfelt wind. One of the most magnificent, if somewhat eerie, of natural phenomena, these lights can, and do, appear in varying shades of red, yellow, green, blue and purple. The rapidity of their ever changing glittering behavior makes them a difficult subject to capture in still photography. Their life-like nature, however, could not but capture man's imagination. Eventually it became quite evident that the aurora borealis, or northern lights, had a tendency to disrupt compass readings, a situation which had become something of a threat to navigation. In 1740, Anders Celsius, the inventor of the centigrade scale named after him, had already interpreted the aurora as an electromagnetic phenomenon when he, too, repeatedly noticed that a big compass needle on his desk changed its orientation every time an aurora appeared in the sky above Uppsala, Sweden. So did his brother-in-law, Olaf Peter Hiorter, who spent the entire year between 1741 and 1742 observing compass needles going awry at each appearance of the lights. In 1861, Benjamin Marsh also "endeavored to show that an auroral streamer is a current of electricity which, originating in the upper portions of [the] atmosphere and following upward the magnetic curve which passes through its base" reaches "far beyond the supposed limits. of the atmosphere." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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And again in 1883, Selim Lemstron, a professor from Finland, reported the relationships he had presumed to exist between auroras and electrical activity. He accomplished this by artificially producing a "low-level aurora" that stretched to 400 feet above ground through a vast electrical apparatus he installed on top of a hill near Kultala, Finland. At the time, this was considered "the only known experiment that successfully reproduced the properties of the aurora on a large scale." Yet even so, electrical or otherwise, no one had yet managed to discover what it was that actually caused these scintillating lights. This new contender was the Norwegian Kristian Olaf Birkeland (1867-1917), whom we have had occasion to mention earlier in passing. From his base in Christiania, later renamed Oslo, Birkeland devoted a great portion of his life to an intensive investigation of the baffling aurora borealis. During this period of his life he mounted expeditions to remote icy regions, carting instruments and survival equipment up steep crags, setting up camps in the most dismal of weathers, in order to be able to study the phenomenon at first hand. Having been instructed in electromagnetism early in his career, it is not surprising that he, too, sought an electromagnetic solution to the creation of the auroras. In this he was additionally motivated by the work of William Crookes in England who had established that cathode rays in gas-discharge tubes can be deflected by a magnet. Birkeland therefore wondered whether electrons--which is what cathode rays really amount to--could be ejected by the Sun toward Earth. If such electrons could be captured by Earth's magnetic field, he reasoned, chances were they would be directed toward the poles. As these electrons flowed through the upper atmosphere might they not even glow just as could be seen in laboratory discharge-tubes? That was the kernel of Birkeland's theory, which was laughed out of court by just about every one of his scientific colleagues. One saving grace, which in the long run saved just about nothing was the acceptance of his theory by the English physicist Sydney Chapman. But even this did not last long. Having been warned by others that an electric current flowing from Sun was an impossibility, Chapman ended up declaring Birkeland wrong in his assumptions. Even later, when Hannes Alfven went out of his way in replicating Birkeland's terella experiments for him, Chapman refused to change his mind. Having spent the final days of his life in a study of the zodiacal light, some say Birkeland died of mercury poisoning inhaled during his long hours in laboratory experimentation. Most agree that he died, at the age of fifty, "broken in spirit and in intellect, disheartened by the harsh reaction to his theory." Forty-four years had to pass before Birkeland could be vindicated. It all started in 1961 when, on its way to the Moon, the Soviet Lunik 2 spacecraft encountered a stream of electric particles flowing from the Sun. But so reluctant were western scientists in accepting such evidence that they branded the Soviet data unreliable out of hand. The following year, however, the same stream of "electrified gas," traveling "at speeds ranging from 300 to 700 kilometers a second," was recorded by the instruments aboard NASA's Mariner II spacecraft while on its way to Venus. It was the first indication of what was later termed the "solar wind." Further evidence was collected in 1966 by a U.S. Navy navigation satellite which consistently recorded magnetic disturbances on almost every pass it made over Earth's polar regions. "Since 1967 scientists have been looking at the satellite data in relation to phenomena such as the Northern Lights, rediscovering Birkeland's extraordinarily prophetic theories and completely reassessing his work. Today, he is credited as the first scientist The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive to propose an essentially correct explanation of the aurora borealis, supported by theoretical, observational, and experimental evidence."
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The vertical currents that reach earth through the interaction of the so-called solar wind were, in 1967, designated as, "Birkeland currents" by Alex Dessler. As they have now become understood Birkeland currents constitute helical plasmas that can be produced in laboratory experiments, but that can also stretch over vast distances in the immensity of space. Such a galactic Birkeland current recently discovered has been dubbed the Double Helix Nebula, which has unfortunately been described as a twisted magnetic flux tube. As Donald Scott has however indicated, it can "clearly be seen as a pair of helical current filaments in a plasma." Nevertheless, as Lucy Jago noted: "rejection of his theories probably slowed the advance of geomagnetic and auroral physics for nearly half a century." Contributed by Michael Armstrong The above material was taken from the book Primordial Star written by Dwardu Cardona, available from MikaMar Publishing.
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The Sun's changing magnetic field. Credit: SOHO - EIT Consortium, ESA, NASA.
Magnetic Disconnection
(Sep 04, 2009)
Problems with various theories could be resolved if mistaken identity were considered. It has been proven in courts of law over the centuries that the worst possible witnesses are often those who were present at the scene of the crime. There are documented cases of people being held for crimes they didn't commit because one or more eyewitnesses swore under oath that they were the perpetrator. It becomes known only later when overwhelming evidence, such as DNA, proves that the convict could not have done what was claimed. Often, the problem with mistaken identity is one of prejudice. Suspects are categorized by their racial profiles, their affiliations with radical groups, previous behavior, or association with those who are known lawbreakers. Lacking a confession from some other individual, law enforcement personnel are sometimes unable to prevent themselves from focussing on guilt by association, or circumstantial evidence. Assistant District Attorneys do not last long without convictions. Similarly, professors at prestigious universities are compelled to follow "party lines" and to be prolific in their output of published articles. In order for funding to continue, the physics department must conduct experiments and turn out a steady stream of Ph.Ds for the scientific establishment in the military and the commercial sectors. Their experiments are usually expensive and take months to set up, so the funders expect results that will profit them in some way. LIGO and the Large Hadron Collider are two of the most notorious in a long list of experiments that are searching for phantoms. When research groups are faced with a lack of evidence for their theories (the "confession"), they too resort to circumstantial investigations. One such case is magnetic reconnection--one The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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of the best examples in modern physics of ad hoc theorizing when there are no witnesses. According to a recent news release, one of the major obstacles with nuclear confinement fusion is that the plasma stream within the reactor suffers from magnetic reconnection events, creating instabilities that cause the reaction to stop. Since no one has the slightest idea how or why this hypothetical process works, how magnetic lines of force separate and recombine, no one can suggest a way to prevent it. It is a critical hinderance to further development in the thus far fruitless 60 year attempt at manufacturing a thermonuclear fusion power system. This is not the first time that magnetic reconnection has been used as an excuse when observational data is missing. Today, it is a common "explanation" for Earth's aurorae. As the consensus view states, the magnetosphere surrounding Earth stretches and deforms like a teardrop because it is being bombarded by a powerful stream of charged particles from the Sun. As the field is pushed on the sunward side, it is stretched out on the other side of our planet, where the field lines are said to "unravel" and "flap like a flag waving in the wind." According to the theory, when those magnetic field lines cross and "reconnect" through some unknown mechanism, they are supposed to detonate, releasing large quantities of heat, light and electrical energy. That power flows down the field lines into Earth's poles, where it causes the air molecules to glow with brilliant auroral colors. The potential energy that ignites the aurorae is said to be "stored" in the magnetic field lines. Magnetic field lines cannot be the storehouse for magnetic energy because the field lines are no more real than the arrows that are used to describe an electric field, or the curved lines that trace out a sine wave. Those are character symbols, just as magnetic field lines are symbols that describe a magnetic field's schematic. A magnetic field acts as a continuum--it is not quantized into discrete bands. To say that magnetic field lines can cross, or flap, or break and reconnect is tantamount to saying that weather diagrams can produce rain. Kristian Birkeland is not only spinning in his grave, he is doing cartwheels. Strong magnetic disturbances are detected when a bright aurora is seen. It was in 1903 that Kristian Birkeland's observations led him to propose that electricity powered the aurorae, flowing parallel to the formation. Since electric current moves through a closed circuit, and since the currents and the glow seemed to be caused by processes in distant space, he theorized that the circuit's beginning came down from space at one end of the auroral arc and looped back out to space on the other end. In 1973, the U.S. Navy satellite Triad flew through this electrically charged layer. The onboard magnetometer found two electric currents in gigantic sheets, each carrying a million amperes or more, one descending on the auroral zone's morning side and one ascending on the evening side. Since Birkeland's research had predicted the currents that link Earth with space they were called Birkeland currents. It is a case of mistaken identity for scientists to create a theoretical entity called "magnetic reconnection" when the forces and effects can be easily associated with solid evidentiary conclusions. Rather than electromagnetism acting in ways that are beyond the prevailing theories, why not use the evidence gathered by Birkeland more than a century ago as the explanation? It is the unfortunate character of modern research institutions that they cling to what has been pontificated from above and follow the well-worn path. That tendency goes so far as to ignore information, carefully documented by a dedicated scientist, in favor of fantastical speculations about what has never been seen. Stephen Smith Further reading: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Real Properties of Electromagnetic Fields and Plasma in the Cosmos, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 35, NO. 4, AUGUST 2007 http://members.cox.net/dascott3/IEEE-TransPlasmaSci-Scott-Aug2007.pdf
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The Trifid Nebula. Credit: ESO/Chandra X-ray Observatory.
The Trouble with the Trifid

(Aug 31, 2009)
What is reasonable is often determined by what is familiar, traditional, consensual. Before space probes and adaptive optics, all that astronomers had to study were twinkles in the night sky. So astronomy was almost entirely theoretical--twinkles in the minds eye. There were few opportunities to test the conceptual twinkles in a laboratory. Space probes took the laboratories to the planets and to the spaces in between. New "optics" removed the twinkling and "looked" with all the wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. The steady glare of data revealed the errors of the theoretical twinkles in astronomers eyesbut the familiarity, tradition, and consensus had crystallized in astronomical institutions like silver grains on a photographic plate: The old theories continued to twinkle in the eyes and to outshine the new twinkle in the skies. Tradition twinkles again in the press release for ESOs latest image of the Trifid Nebula. Turning a blind eye on a centurys research into the properties of plasma, the press release describes the nebula as "gas...heated by hundreds of scorching young stars until it emits the red signature light of hydrogen..., just as hot neon gas glows red-orange in illuminated signs..." Neon signs are, of course, plasma powered by electricity, and they are "hot" only in the sense of being electrified, not because they are "scorching." A similar twinkle of tradition obscures astronomers vision of the blue region at the top of the image. Its called a "reflection nebula," in which "dusty gas scatters the light from nearby, Trifid-born stars." This explanation was reasonable, or at least familiar, when reflection was the only mechanism known for producing polarized light that had a spectrum similar to nearby The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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stars. Later, the invention of the synchrotron contributed another possibility: blue polarized emissions of field-aligned electric currents twisting along magnetic fields. The dark filaments that divide the nebula into thirds, hence giving it its name, Trifid, are called "gases and dust." They will "collapse and form new stars" due to "gravitys inexorable attraction." This twinkle of explanation is entirely pretense. Its contradicted not only by observations but also by traditional theory itself: Clouds of gas can collapse only if they have no angular momentum and no magnetism. However, for "some unknown reason," all such clouds do have angular momentum and magnetism, usually a lot. As one astronomer has commented, "Astronomy has a spin problem." This is not a problem when the electrical properties of plasma are recognized: Birkeland currents generate spin, and the z-pinch effect is efficient at coalescing matter into filaments, disks, and dense spherules. One plasma physicist has called Birkeland currents the "vacuum cleaners of space." The traditional pretense of gravitational collapse then follows Alices rabbit into the wonderland of "rising density, pressure and temperature inside these gaseous blobs will eventually trigger nuclear fusion, and yet more stars will form." Arthur Eddington, who proposed the internal thermonuclear power source for stars nearly a century ago, May be forgiven for his pretentiousness. That Birkeland currents can transmit electrical power over interstellar and intergalactic distances was not yet known. Just as earlier astronomers had imagined the Sun to be a large campfire and then a large coal fire because those were familiar sources of light and heat, so Eddington could be expected to bring the newly discovered source of thermonuclear fusion reactions into the fold of the familiar. If he had been friends with Thomas Edison or Irving Langmuir instead of with Albert Einstein, he might have got a different twinkle in his eye, one that would have complemented instead of contradicted the space age discoveries. The final twinkle of the press release is the "finger of gas pok[ing] out from the cloud, pointing directly at the central star... This is an example of an evaporating gaseous globule." From a plasma point of view, its an example of a stellar-scale comet--but not the familiar consensuscomet of sublimating dirty snow: its an electrical discharge sheath formation in the galactic current that powers the nebula. The stars that form in the tiny centers of the discharge pinches gain the notice of our eyes with their twinkling, but they are the least important of the vast electromagnetic structures in the plasma that fills what we traditionally call the vacuum of space. Mel Acheson
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Thousands of dune-like features wend across the face of Titan. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cassini-Equinox.
Fingerprinting Titan
(Aug 28, 2009)
What formed these dunes that stretch for thousands of kilometers? Dune formations have been found in four locations in the Solar System: Earth, Mars, Venus, and Titan. In one instance the average temperature ranges from between 15 and 17 degrees Celsius, with an environment rich in liquid water. In another case, the average temperature is minus 50 degrees Celsius with no liquid water at all, while an average of 460 degrees Celsius on a scalded lava planet makes up the third scenario. The surface temperature on Titan averages minus 180 degrees Celsius. It is so cold that if water were present it would be more like rock and would not contribute to any chemistry on the frigid world. What force can create patterns of fine particles heaped into regular piles, some hundreds of meters high, despite the disparity in environments? On Titan, the so-called "dunes" are quite large, being visible from the Cassini orbiter thousands of kilometers away. They are also well-defined, almost solid-looking waves that pass over craters and around what are called on Mars "yardangs." The dunes appear to follow the prevailing wind patterns on Titan that blow a mere 8 kilometers per hour, but they also have some unusual characteristics that May mean they are not wind-generated in the conventional sense. Many of the dunes look like fingerprint patterns--they have whorls and arches that are crisscrossed by other ripples in a perpendicular arrangement, looking almost exactly like the dune fields found along the coast of Namibia. On Earth, dunes are found only in the driest places. The sand grains and dust must be able to slide freely over one another for the dunes to pile up and move across the landscape. Strong winds are usually required to move the sand. In some places, such as Australia's Simpson The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Desert, sand dunes have become fossilized and immobile, although they cover thousands of square kilometers. Whatever deposited the sand there was unable to move it again, so they have crusted over, plants have taken root, and gullies have formed. It has been speculated by mission team members that Titan is "wet" with hydrocarbons. In fact, when the Huygens probe landed on Titan, it sank slightly into a somewhat friable surface. NASA planetary scientists described it as "like wet snow," or "loose clay," or more significantly, "dry sand." There was detectable methane in the area surrounding the probe, but it quickly dissipated--presumably because of the heat emanating from the lander. In such deep cold, the temperature of an ice cube would act like a cigarette lighter on the surroundings. If Titan were wet, despite its low gravity, the winds (really no more than gentle breezes) would not be able to accumulate material into long dunes. Any moisture would cause the dust to become sticky and any larger grains would be mired in the slush. With such minimal wind speeds recorded by the Huygens lander, it stands to reason that Titan is dry, despite claims from NASA that there are "lakes" of liquid ethane and methane on its surface. So, if Titan is dry and there are craters with folded rims and wide, flat bottoms (often with more than one tier or concentric basin), parallel fractures, large domes similar to those on Venus, and Lichtenberg figures (called river channels by the Cassini team) incised into the terrain, then perhaps a better explanation for what happened to Saturn's planet-sized moon might be found by considering Mars. On Mars the dunes have been identified with electric arcs. When the discharges excavated material from the strata, they blew it upward along the path of current flow where it then fell away, forming what are called "wind streaks." Because the dust is most likely charged on Mars, the particles can be attracted or repelled from one another, depending on their polarity. Therefore, they will align themselves in much the same way that iron filings will align themselves with the magnetic field of a bar magnet. It is possible that that is the mechanism behind the dune structures on Titan, as well. In the equatorial latitudes of Titan is a great "sand sea" called Belet. If, like Earth, Venus, and Mars it represents the fragments of rock strata that were destroyed by electric discharge activity and then ionically deposited in masses of sand larger than the State of Michigan, it is probably the source for the dunes and streaks of fine dust. Streaks and dunes have also been discovered on Venus. Most of the time, they are associated with craters and sinuous rilles; the edges of both formations are often dusted with dark or light colored grains. Titan's dunes are so similar that we predict "blueberries," or other spherical pebbles and stones, May be found if a rover-type lander ever pays a visit there. Dry, cold, covered with sinuous rilles, gigantic craters, chaotic topography, and thousandkilometer ridges of piled-up dust 500 meters high, Titan is one more example of catastrophic devastation among the Sun's family in the recent past. We should breathe a sigh of relief that those processes no longer take place in this time of calm and peace between the storms. Stephen Smith
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The Earth/Sun Lagrange points with an L2 Lissajous orbit illustrated. Credit: NASA.
The Planck Mission

(Aug 26, 2009)
Third try pays for all. On May 19, 2009, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched both Planck and the Herschel Long-Wavelength Space Observatory together on top of an Ariane 5 delivery system. Both spacecraft entered orbit around Lagrange point L2 and began operations a short time ago. Although each is a separate mission, their individual placement at L2 made it more efficient to launch them as a combined package. The five Lagrange points shown above represent two stable and three unstable positions. L4 and L5 are stable: an object placed there will remain in position indefinitely, with no need for periodic orbital adjustments. L1 offers a clear view of the Sun, so the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Satellite (SOHO) was placed there. The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), on the other hand, occupied L2 because it places Earth between it and the solar disk, which is why Planck has also been set in that location. Later, in 2014, L2 will be occupied by the James Webb space telescope, as well. Planck is designed to analyze the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) with greater precision than either of its predecessors, the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) and WMAP. COBE is no longer operational, but WMAP continues to scan the sky. However, is WMAP providing accurate information, and is the recent map showing the distribution of temperatures in the early Universe nothing but an illusion? The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) was launched June 30, 2001, from Cape Canaveral in an attempt at understanding some unusual telemetry returned by COBE in 1992. Big Bang theory does not account for the areas of anisotropy seen first by COBE The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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because matter and energy should be evenly distributed. The WMAP survey verified COBE's results. In a previous Picture of the Day, we quoted EU theorist Wal Thornhill: "If Arp and others are right and the Big Bang is dead, what does the Cosmic Microwave Background signify? The simplest answer, from the highly successful field of plasma cosmology, is that it represents the natural microwave radiation from electric current filaments in interstellar plasma local to the Sun... Instead of the Cosmic Microwave Background, it is the Interstellar Microwave Background. That makes sense of the fact that the CMB is too smooth to account for the lumpiness of galaxies and galactic clusters in the universe." So, in reality, there is no temperature fluctuation from the earliest days of the universe shining in microwaves down from the heavens. However, the problems with CMB measurements from COBE and WMAP are far greater than we considered in that previous article. Coupled with previous observations by Thornhill and others, the CMBR appears to get most of its energy signature from a rather surprising place: Earth itself. According to papers recently published by Pierre-Marie Robitaille of Ohio State University's Department of Radiology, many oversights and offhanded errors crept in to the data from WMAP. The team did not fully calibrate the FIRAS spectrophotometer before launch, many possible error sources in the calibration protocol were zeroed out, and no account was taken of thermal emissions from Earth's oceans--which turns out to be the likely source of so-called "cosmic" microwave radiation. Quoting the WMAP critique: "All of the cosmological constants which are presented by the WMAP team are devoid of true meaning, precisely because the images are so unreliable. Given the tremendous dynamic range problems, the inability to remove the galactic foreground, the possibility of generating galactic ghosts through 'cleaning', the lack of signal to noise, the lack of reproducibility, the use of coefficients which fluctuate on a yearly basis, and the problem of monitoring results on a cosmological timescale, attempts to determine cosmological constants from such data fall well outside the bounds of proper image interpretation." Stephen Smith
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Kilometer high dust devils with glowing tops are visible in this image at middle right and upper left. Credit: Mars Global Surveyor/Malin Space Science Systems.
Mars Lights and Lightning

(Aug 24, 2009)
More electrical activity has been detected on the Red Planet. According to a previous Picture of the Day, Martian aurorae have been discovered that are centered on regions near the South Pole. Although Mars has no intrinsic magnetic field, it does possess concentrated bands of crustal magnetism in its lower latitudes. Electric Universe explanations notwithstanding, planetary scientists do not know what caused the peculiar magnetized stripes that seem to focus on a specific point in the south, or why the auroral events should be associated with them. Recently, NASA investigators announced that they have detected "non-thermal radiation" from the Martian surface. Since the energy readings were independent of the surface temperature, and occurred during one of the giant dust storms that sometimes rage through the southern plains, the assumption is that they are evidence for lightning discharges. The dust storms that occasionally engulf an entire hemisphere of Mars have been discussed several times in the past. They have been identified with dust devils--really tornado-like whirlwinds whose tops are higher than Mt. Everest--that appear to draw finely divided dust up through thousands of funnels and carry it for hundreds of kilometers. NASA scientists assume that the synchrotron radiation they detected was caused by electric charge build up in the sand grains that subsequently discharged as lightning, but that May not be the case. What causes Martian dust storms and why are they electrified? The air is 100 times thinner on Mars and averages 75 degrees colder than Earth. The environment appears to be bone dry, with only some suggestive experiments by the Phoenix lander to indicate the possible The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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presence of water ice. Yet Martian dust storms are larger than any seen on Earth. Occasionally, when Mars is closest to the sun, dust obscures the whole planet. When NASA studied dust devils in the Arizona desert in order to understand more about the ones that have been seen on Mars, they found an electric field of up to 10,000 volts per meter associated with dust devils on Earth. The normal fair weather electric field at the Earth's surface measures 100 volts per meter. This suggests that dust devils on both Earth and Mars are atmospheric electric discharge phenomena similar to the electric breezes produced by "ionic wind" air purifiers In the Electric Universe theory, no collisions from bouncing sand grains are necessary. Charge separation already exists in the atmosphere. Without clouds like those on Earth to send lightning down to ground level, the electric discharges on Mars form giant whirlwinds that are part of an interplanetary electrical circuit. It is that same circuit that drives weather systems on Earth. If this is true, then Martian "dust devils" and those on Earth are both illustrations of how electricity behaves in the solar system. Electrons spiraling in a magnetic field will emit synchrotron radiation, the most common type of "non-thermal" radiation. Whirling, electrically charged dust storms, spinning at hundreds of kilometers per hour, create intense magnetic fields that tend to confine the charged particles and accelerate them around the vortex at high speed. Rapid acceleration, coupled with high voltages in the dust causes the electric glow seen recently on Mars. Stephen Smith
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Left: Stanley Miller with his famous electrical experiment. Middle: Comet Hale-Bopp. Right: Frankenstein (modified image). Credit: Left: NASA. Middle: E. Kolmhofer, H. Raab; Johannes-Kepler-Observatory. Right: Boris Karloff, Universal Pictures.
Frankensteins Comet: Sparks of Life?

(Aug 21, 2009)
Perhaps Dr. Frankenstein was on to something. Dr. Frankensteins monster is brought back to life in James Whales 1931 film adaptation, with the help of a high-voltage electricity discharge passing through his cold lifeless corpse. Today, doctors use electricity to shock a stopped heart back into action too. In 1953, Stanley Miller and Harold Urey at the University of Chicago published a paper entitled "Production of Amino Acids Under Possible Primitive Earth Conditions." The pair explain how they sealed a sterile flask containing just four inorganic chemicals, water, methane, ammonia, and hydrogen, and then used electrodes to create artificial lightning in the vapour. After a week of operation, the scientists discovered that a soup of organic compounds, the building blocks of life, were created, including amino acids, sugars and lipids. Five amino acids were originally detected, but a recent reanalysis found a total of 22, the most common being glycine. Perhaps comets best mimic the Miller-Urey experiment? The inorganic chemicals in the Miller-Urey experiment have all been detected in comet nuclei, and just recently, so has the amino acid glycine. We know that the Miller-Urey experiment required artificial lightning to produce its amino acids, so perhaps glycine on comets is evidence of electrical activity too no problem in an Electric Universe. Contributed by Ian Tresman Further reading: First Discovery Of Life's Building Block In Comet, Science Daily (August 18, 2009). The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090817143602.htm The MillerUrey experiment (on Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller-Urey_experiment The Electric Universe: Comet
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Martian Auroras
(Aug 19, 2009)
Mars has no global magnetic field, so the fortuitous discovery of an aurora event near the south pole surprised astronomers. Terrestrial auroras are thought to be generated when the Earths magnetic field deflects solar wind particles to the magnetic poles. The particles are somehow accelerated along magnetic field lines, and when the lines dive toward the surface, the particles collide with atoms in the atmosphere, causing the atoms to emit light. Indications of thousands of aurora events turned up in a review of space probe data. Reviewers constructed a map of occurrences and found that they clustered around the margins of magnetic patches on the surface. The patches are thought to be crustal rocks that have preserved magnetic fields acquired from an ancient global field that has decayed. Why they occur almost entirely in the southern hemisphere is not understood. Theorists speculate that the solar magnetic field lines, which are thought to be "frozen" into the solar wind, "break" and reconnect to the crustal field lines, "flinging" electrons to high energies. Its "a physical process still not understood." Astronomers might begin to understand if they did some homework in the pages of the plasma science journals. Magnetic field lines are symbolic representations of what in reality is a continuous measure of magnetic force. The lines are a convention to indicate the direction of the force at each point in space, and their spacing indicates the strength. But the lines, being imaginary constructs, cannot "freeze" or break or reconnect or "fling" anything. Attributing actions to imaginary constructs is a lazy excuse for failing to describe actual mechanisms that, in this case, have already been described by others. Charged particles streaming in the same direction as the magnetic field constitute "field aligned currents," or Birkeland currents, named after the Norwegian scientist who, in the late The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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19th century, first proposed their existence as the cause of auroras. Birkeland currents generate "double layers" along their paths as the current fluctuates. Double layers are regions of electrostatic charge separation maintained by the forces in the current. Strong electric fields build up between the layers, and charged particles that flow into these regions are accelerated to high energies. Its no wonder astronomers fail to understand: they have reversed cause (electric currents) and effect (magnetic fields), they have denied the existence or downplayed the importance of the electrical processes, and they have asked the wrong questions. The magnetism in the patches is reinforced by, if not entirely generated by, the current channels that enclose the patches. Because a persistent current must be part of a larger circuit, astronomers should be asking why the currents are especially strong in the southern hemisphere, and where do they go. Wheres the rest of the circuit? The Electric Universe suggests that the answer likely has something to do with the different planetary configuration indicated by the cosmogonic stories of prehistoric peoples. Common themes and images found in ancient cultures around the globe point to electrical interactions between Earth and Mars, in which Earths northern polar region and Marss southern polar region were swept by an electrical vortex similar to what May be seen today, at much higher energies, in the penumbras of sunspots. Its likely that crustal rocks from Earth could be electrically deposited on Mars and heated. If they cooled below the Curie point before the current and its accompanying magnetic field completely decayed, they would retain the magnetism. Since Mars has no global magnetic field in which the spots would appear merely as local deflections, they stand out as foci for aurora events. Mel Acheson
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Apparatus for testing the properties of 'radiant matter' (Crookes 1879).
Happy Birthday "Radiant Matter" Plasma!

(Aug 17, 2009)
August 22, 2009 this week will mark the 130th anniversary of the identification of "radiant matter" or "plasma" as the fourth state of matter in 1879, by English scientist, Sir William Crookes, (1832-1919). Sixty years earlier, Michael Faraday had postulated "radiant matter" as "purely hypothetical." On 17 January 1816, Faraday delivered a series of lectures to the City Philosophical Society, one of which was titled "Radiant Matter." He wrote: "If now we conceive a change as far beyond vaporisation as that is above fluidity, and then take into account also the proportional increased extent of alteration as the changes rise, we shall perhaps, if we can form any conception at all, not fall far short of radiant matter" By 1819 Faraday considered: "Matter classed into four states solid, liquid, gaseous, and radiant which depend upon differences in the essential properties. [..] I have purposely avoided mentioning the radiant state of matter, because, [it is] purely hypothetical.." On Friday August 22, 1879, Crookes delivered a lecture titled "On Radiant Matter," to the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Sheffield, England. Crookes wrote: "To throw light on the title of this lecture I must go back more than sixty years to 1816. Faraday, then a mere student and ardent experimentalist, was 24 years old, and at this The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive early period of his career he delivered a series of lectures on the General Properties of Matter, and one of them bore the remarkable title, On Radiant Matter. "... the experimental results are obtainable to which [are] so distinct are these phenomena from anything which occurs in air or gas at the ordinary tension, that we are led to assume that we are here brought face to face with Matter in a Fourth state or condition, a condition as far removed from the state of gas as a gas is from a liquid." "... they assume properties so novel and so characteristic as to entirely justify the application of the term borrowed from Faraday, that of Radiant Matter."
Among other properties, Crookes discovers that: "Radiant Matter is deflected by a Magnet" and "If the streams of Radiant Matter carry an electric current they will act like two parallel conducting wires and attract one another ; but if they are simply built up of negatively electrified molecules they will repel each other." It was nearly 50 years later, in August 1928, that Irving Langmuir coined the term "plasma." Contributed by Ian Tresman Further reading: The life and letters of Faraday (1870) Jones, Henry Bence, 1814-1873 http://www.archive.org/details/lifelettersoffar01joneuoft On radiant matter: a lecture delivered to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at Sheffield, Friday, August 22, 1879. Crookes, William, Sir, 1832-1919 http://www.archive.org/details/onradiantmatterl00croorich
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Sirius A and its faint companion, Sirius B. Credit: Hubble Space Telescope/NASA/ESA, H. Bond (STScI) and M. Barstow (University of Leicester).
Siriusly Red
(Aug 14, 2009)
As has often been pointed out, by definition the uniformitarian creed precludes the very real possibility of rare and radical changes in nature. Since the late 19th century, most geologists have fondly embraced the adage of the British lawyer and geologist, Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875): The present is the key to the past. Its nave implication is that all phenomena that ever happened in nature still occur today and can be observed. Historical evidence is valuable precisely because it offers an even better key to the past than present-day analogues: eye-witness accounts. A prime application of the historical method concerns the colour of Sirius A or Canis Majoris, the brightest star in the night sky. Sirius appears bright white today, but as the English amateur astronomer, Thomas Barker (1722-1809), first pointed out in 1760 was emphatically qualified as red in many classical texts. Poetical passages aside, Seneca commented that Sirius was of a deeper red than Mars, while Ptolemy labeled the star "reddish" and grouped it with five other stars, all of which are indeed of red or orange aspect. Even as late as the 6th century CE, the Gallo-Roman chronicler, Gregory of Tours, could label the Dog Star rubeola or reddish. It is claimed that the earliest unambiguous reference to Sirius as a white star is found in the pages of the Persian astronomer, Abd al-Raman al-Suf (903-986 CE). What to make of all this? The paradox has sparked a prolonged and fairly intense debate, which has led to a fair number of publications, including Noah Broschs recent book Sirius Matters (2008). The evasive explanation that Siriuss red traced to a simple textual error is easily refuted by the eminent authority of Ptolemy and Seneca as well as the observation that the same attribution is attested in a number of other cultures. For example, the Pawnee, of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the North American Plains, associated each of the four intercardinal points with a colour, a type of weather, an animal, a tree, and a star. The southeastern corner was the domain of red, the "Red Star" which might be the planet Mars and the wolf, explicitly linked to Sirius. Another suggestion, that an optical illusion accounts for the confusion, seems merely a red herring. It May be so that the star, to the unaided eye, often appears to be flashing with red, white and blue hues when near the horizon, but such scintillations would not have deluded such a skilled observer as Ptolemy. The belief in a red Sirius was clearly genuine. But how can it be reconciled with the white hue seen today? Two Canadian archaeoastronomers, David Kelley and Eugene Milone, followed a rather more promising direction: "We conclude that the bulk of the evidence supports a literal red Sirius interpretation Thus, the discovery that the bright star, Sirius, was once described as red, when it is now clearly white, May light up formerly obscure paths of stellar evolution." The trouble is that, on the current astronomical model of stellar evolution, no shift from red to white is possible over such a short time. In 1985, the German astronomers, Wolfhard Schlosser and Werner Bergmann, concluded that Sirius B, the faint binary companion of Sirius A, had been a red giant in Antiquity. If correct, there must indeed be some hitherto "obscure paths" of stellar behaviour. With some exasperation, Kelley & Milone posed the questions: "Are there any instances in which stars have undergone shorter time scale changes than evolutionary time scales would require? How then could it have been a red giant only 2000 years ago? How reliable are the reports of a color change? Are we interpreting the reports correctly?" It is not that scholars have not tried. Remaining faithful to the accepted model of stellar change, Kelley & Milone experimented with the idea that a diffusion of hydrogen from the top layer into a lower layer of carbon inside the star could have triggered "a thermonuclear runaway that would lead to a retracing of the stars evolution back through the red giant branch, and making the star that became Sirius B to appear as much as 100 times more luminous than Sirius A." While such a red state could in theory be sustained for "hundreds of years," a "major impediment" is "a 100:1 brightness ratio of a red giant to Sirius A," which "would make it brighter than Venus at that planets impressive maximum, but its brightness is recorded by Ptolemy, and there is no evidence for any great change in the overall brightness of the Sirius system." This obstacle effectively falsifies the idea. A second thought-experiment is that the circumstellar matter moving from one star to the other May occasionally dim its companion "and thus the system as a whole, as well as redden it." The objection here is the lack of evidence that any such nebulosity has taken place in recent times. All of this should have raised a red flag for the validity of the thermonuclear model of stellar evolution. Before the development of this model, and of the so-called Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, in the early 20th century, scientists had no compunction to speculate that stars May occasionally change in brightness as novae do as well as in hue. In fact, the answer must allow for recurrent fluctuations, as a white colour for Sirius has occasionally been reported in earlier times. The renowned Chinese historian, Sm Qin (140-86 BCE), produced an astrological statement to that effect: "When the Wolf changes colour, there will be much piracy and theft." His western colleague, Hephaestio of Thebes (4th century CE), allowed for a clear variation: " if Sirius rises bright and white and its The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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appearance shines through, then the Nile will rise high and there will be abundance, but if it rises fiery and reddish there will be war." Manilius and Avienus, meanwhile, reported a seablue colour for the star. If the behaviour of stars is controlled electrically, the puzzle receives an almost instant solution. In his book The Electric Sky, the American electrical engineer, Donald Scott, offers a masterful refutation of the accepted theory of stellar evolution. A list of counter-examples of this theory includes Sirius. On the substitute electric star model, the behaviour of stars as "balls of electric plasma" is determined by the intensity of electrical input. Repeated changes could have resulted in nova-like fluctuations in colour and brightness, which May have ended in a binary pair resulting from fissioning. Clearly, the entrenched idea that stars are fueled by nuclear fusion and evolve in a uniformitarian manner can no longer be taken as read. Contributed by Rens Van Der Sluijs
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The Bubble Nebula, NGC 7635. Original image Credit: Eric Mouquet.
A Bubble of Obsolete Presumptions

(Aug 12, 2009)
The Bubble Nebula illustrates how revolutionary progress in theoretical understanding changes our perceptions of the universe. Before space telescopes and modern telescope technology, astronomers photographed rings of dim light. They called them planetary nebulae. Under the accepted presumptions about exploding stars, they concluded that the rings were spherical bubbles of hot gas. The appearance of the ring was due to edge-brightening, the increase of luminance from viewing a greater depth of gas at the edge of a sphere. Then new telescopes and technology enabled astronomers to get a more detailed look. The details contradicted the spherical model. Astronomers found filaments, bright spots, braided threads, overlapping rings, rings stacked along an axis common with the star, hourglass shapes, coaxially aligned tubes of evenly spaced filaments. It became apparent that the structures were cylindrical and that they pinched down to slender necks in the vicinities of the central stars. Often, a small disk or ring could be detected around the star (which was usually a binary) in its equatorial plane, like a donut on the stick of the cylinder. Standard gas dynamics and gravity theories were hard-pressed to account for these observations. Even magnetohydrodynamics, which incorporated some aspects of magnetic theory, was "surprised"--an attributive that became commonplace as the observations flooded over the traditional presumptions of astronomy. Ad hoc patches and casuistic exceptions have torn the once-beautiful coherent fabric of astronomy and astrophysics into an ugly ragbag of clashing and frayed excuses. The promise of a new coherent theory has risen from the accumulating findings of the handful The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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of electrical discharge investigators over the past century. Electrical discharges in both laboratories and nature display just this kind of cylindrical filamentary structures, which are called Birkeland currents. The hourglass shape, with all the accompanying aspects of planetary nebulae, has been well-studied and is called the Bennett Pinch or the z-pinch. The field has come to be known as plasma physics, and its application to phenomena in space is called plasma cosmology, which is an accepted discipline among the many recognized by the Institute of Electric and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). A close examination of the image of the Bubble Nebula (above) reveals many of these characteristics. (Color image here.) One needs to keep in mind that the image is looking almost exactly down the axis into the funnel of the hourglass, and therefore the cylinder of current (or cylinders: these are often double, as in the aurora) will appear as a circle. At the upper right, the ring is doubled or even tripled. That May indicate two or three regions of increased density that the current passes through on its way toward the central star, or it could reveal a double coaxial tube structure typical of Earths aurora. (Planetary nebulae May be thought of as stellar aurorae.) In either case, each ring segment is composed of evenly spaced bright spots connected by dim radial filaments. These mark the individual Birkeland currents that compose the sheet current of the tube. They can be traced both inside the ring, as they run down to the center of the hourglass, and outside it, running as straight as the ideal geometrical line. The bright patch and curlicue on the left side of the ring May be a diocotron instability in the current sheet. These instabilities are commonly seen as the swirls that develop in the aurora. If the nebula is a large (on a stellar scale) pinched current, it carries more than enough power to supply the radiation "load" of the central star. Hence, the star is likely powered by electricity through coupling with the nebular discharge current, rather than by internal nuclear fusion. At the other end of the argument, the nebular current cant cease to exist beyond the limits of its optical glow. It must be part of a circuit that winds through the galaxy. Electrical couplings between circuits at different scales, from superclusters of galaxies to planets and even to their weather, tie the universe into a unitary organic electrical structure and provide the coherent theory of cosmology that modern astronomy has lost. Traditional astronomy is likely to go the way of the old astrology, and the future study of the stars will be done in the Plasma Cosmology division of IEEE. Mel Acheson
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The zodiacal light with an aurora, facing east on the morning of September 2, 2003. Dominic Cantin.
The Unwavering Truth about the Zodiacal Light

(Aug 10, 2009)
Too often, standard textbooks and dictionaries do not offer a realistic picture of what is known about a given scientific subject. As they tend to suppress anomalous evidence, the illusion of solid proven fact is then allowed to lull the minds of the critical and the curious and slow down the progress of science. The zodiacal light is a case in point. This little-known phenomenon is a roughly triangular cone of light, produced by sunlight reflecting off a cloud of minuscule dust particles, of cometary origin, that is scattered across the ecliptic plane. At mid-latitude, the light is often mistaken for a false dawn, as it is best seen in the east preceding the dawn or in the west following the evening twilight in respectively spring and autumn. As the glow is so faint 10,000 times weaker than that of a strong aurora it is not very surprising that, in Europe, the zodiacal light was only discovered in 1683 by the Italian astronomer, Giovanni Cassini (16251712), while the classical philosophers do not seem to have known it at all. That there is more to the zodiacal light than reflected sunlight follows from a spate of eyewitness accounts of pulsations and other unexpected fluctuations observed in it. Cassini himself had noted intermittent variations in the brightness of the light and concluded after just ten observations that the axis of the zodiacal light rose and sank not with the ecliptic, but with the equator of the sun. The intrepid explorer and pioneer of geomagnetism, Alexander, baron von Humboldt (1769-1859), witnessed similar perturbations during his travels in South America: "I have occasionally been astonished, in the tropical climates of South America, to observe the variable intensity of the zodiacal light. As I passed the nights, during many months, in the open air, on the shores of rivers and on llanos, I enjoyed ample opportunities of carefully examining this phenomenon. When the zodiacal light had been most intense, I have observed that it would be perceptibly weakened for a few minutes, until it again suddenly shone forth in full brilliancy. In some few instances I The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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have thought that I could perceive not exactly a reddish coloration, nor the lower portion darkened in an arc-like form, nor even a scintillation, as Mairan affirms he has observed but a kind of flickering and wavering of the light. Must we suppose that changes are actually in progress in the nebulous ring?" Until today, dithering scientists have not addressed the question in unison, but a number of inquisitive scholars did at least acknowledge the challenge. Kristian Birkeland, Norway's most famous auroral researcher, was gripped by the problem. Birkeland was confident he had witnessed oscillations in the zodiacal light and was eager to measure these, prompting his impulsive departure to Sudan to study the phenomenon. Birkelands suspicion was that the pulsation in "the intensity and shape of the light surely testifies to an electric origin " Indeed, it would have to be "akin to the pulsation which is sometimes seen in auroral lights and the oscillations in terrestrial magnetism." Birkeland buttressed this impression with the testimony of George Jones (1800-1870), a chaplain of the United States Navy who had had a marked interest in the zodiacal light. On one occasion, Jones reported "a swelling out, laterally and upwards, of the zodiacal light, with an increase of brightness in the light itself; then in a few minutes, a shrinking back of the boundaries, and a dimming of the light; the latter to such a degree as to appear, at times, as if it was quite dying away; and so back and forth for about three quarters of an hour " Birkeland accepted that a substantial constituent of the zodiacal light was due to reflected sunlight, yet also reasoned that some of the light is produced in the same way as the aurorae by an excitation of particles. Unfortunately, although his terrella experiments seemed to support this hypothesis, he was never able to measure the oscillations. Naked-eye observations of pulsations, fast moving waves, a temporary invisibility and unexpected parallaxes in the zodiacal light continued to be made, sometimes on timescales of a few days. In 1990, the zodiacal light was seen to brighten following a fairly vigorous auroral display. This led at least one modern researcher, the late Neil Bone (1959-2009), to admit that "the diffuse glow of the zodiacal light, produced mainly by reflection of sunlight from myriads of small particles in the inner solar system does have some association with auroral effects." Clearly, the mystery of the zodiacal light has not yet been fathomed and there is much to be learned. In modern terms, does Birkelands proposed explanation in terms of corpuscular rays or streams of electrons emitted from the equatorial plane of the sun translate to a direct influence of the solar wind on the zodiacal dust? In that case, space scientists ought not to vacillate, as, before long, so little dust will be left that the zodiacal light itself, unless replenished, will become a thing of the past. Though it May still be long before the dust settles on the scientific debate, now is the time to act and obtain the measurements Birkeland had so much desired to make. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Carpet designs depicting traditional patterns.
Memories of Plasma
(Aug 05, 2009)
What do oriental carpets, craters and rilles, ancient mythology, rock art and plasma configurations have to do with each other? Along with others they are all pieces of evidence in a composite picture of catastrophe in ancient times. A Thunderbolts correspondent commented recently: "Most Every carpet from New Mexico has its version of these same designs." Another correspondent wrote: "I think your observations are spot-on. I was in Turkey some seven years ago and was flabbergasted to see many of these configurations appear on carpets. The designs are well-studied and have names in the literature. Most of these, especially the tree of life with seven branches etc., are based on ancient traditions, according to the information I received. Intriguingly, a number of patterns match petroglyphs found in Turkey, dating from prehistoric times. I dont know if the continuity of the tradition can be demonstrated all the way back to those petroglyphs, but it has to be there." In the opinion of many investigators who are well-versed in both the science of plasma dynamics and the record of ancient myth from around the world, it is possible that the traditional patterns that rug weavers have used for more than a thousand years are representations of plasma discharge phenomena. Such representations have been passed down for generation after generation. The circle with a square pattern in the center of one carpet at the top of the page is a quincunx, for example. The demands of interplanetary discharge and the EU explanation for electrical scarring on the Earth, planets, moons and asteroids of the Solar System are stark, dramatic, and daunting to most willing to consider these ideas: 1. There must be a source for the powerful discharges beyond ordinary lightning. 2. The source must be external to the scarred body, i.e., another planet or moon. 3. The planets and moons must be charged to different levels. 4. The sources must have come close enough for their double layer sheaths to make The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive contact. 5. These interactions require changes in planetary orbits from what we see now. 6. There are huge energy relocations necessary for orbital changes.
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7. The energy relocations could only have caused havoc and catastrophe for an involved Earth. 8. These catastrophes should have left significant and unmistakable evidence. 9. These phenomena could have been witnessed and experienced by ancient people. 10. These catastrophes might have left significant and unmistakable "soft" evidence such as myths and mythological archetypes, symbols, artwork and graphical material. 11. Some of these phenomena May have taken place in the last few thousand years. If these speculations are true, there must be some race-wide psychological condition that produces all the disparate mythologies, religions, fragmented time periods assigned for actual developments. These are only the most basic requirements; each one has other significant ramifications. Why even consider the coherence, or even any individual item, requiring such different conditions? Because the evidence is actually there in all aspects and all cases. The group of scientists, scholars and researchers behind thunderbolts.info has been laying the groundwork primarily in the physical sciences for just such consideration for the last 5 years. While the group is not ignorant of the challenge to established modern mythology, and the science edifices in cosmology, geology, paleontology, anthropology, chronology, archaeology, biology, etc., we know there is a vast reservoir of collected information concerning every one of the above requirements and these sundry academic disciplines. We cannot but go forward and explore these avenues. Contributed by Michael Armstrong
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Supposed distribution of dark matter in the Universe. Credit: NASA/UNC
The Adler Report

(Aug 03, 2009)
Contributing editor Dr. Thomas Wilson recently drew attention to an article in the Journal of Physics A (JPA) that purported to place direct limits on the mass of earthbound dark matter and that presented a misleading interpretation of confidence intervals. After reading Dr. Wilson's article, as well as the original JPA paper, Dr. Jeremy DunningDavies, Senior Lecturer in Theoretical Physics in the Department of Physics at the University of Hull, England, sent a protest directly to Professor Patrick Dorey, the JPA editor, concerning material of such dubious quality being accepted for publication. The reply and subsequent communications are related below. Readers are encouraged to review the detailed commentary, but the outcome is easily summarized. Drs. Dunning-Davies and Wilson pointed out basic errors in Adler's article to the referees. They also objected to a lack of correct review at the Journal that resulted in sensational claims propagating into the popular media. As expected, the referees reacted emotionally to the criticism and rejected the comments for publication. In summary, the entire process can be described as: * A "fast-track" article was published with misleading interpretations of data in a mainstream physics journal, probably because it mentioned dark matter in Earths immediate neighbourhood (i.e. sensational claims). * Referees missed these basic errors, indicating a failure of the review process. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive * No one besides Drs. Dunning-Davies and Wilson responded to the errors, revealing a general blindness in scientific critical thinking. * Mainstream popular science media published and expanded on the "findings," demonstrating a lack of critical thinking in the science media. * When a critical review of the article was submitted, the referees reacted emotionally and rejected an alternative view, showing a lack of professional scientific conduct. ++++ Dear Jeremy Dunning-Davies,
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Many thanks for your message concerning the FTC by Adler. I'm sorry for the slow reply, but we wanted to dig out the original referee reports, which took longer than expected. All I can say is that the referees were all respected workers in related fields, and were happy with publication. So I think that procedures were correctly followed. On the other hand, if you do feel that important points were missed which deserve to be brought to wider attention, you would be very welcome to submit a "comment" to the journal at jphysa@iop.org (which would also be refereed, of course). With best wishes,Patrick Dorey. ++++ Dear Professor Dorey, Thank you so much for taking all the trouble you obviously have taken over my letter. I assure you it is appreciated. I feel I should state, though, that I never had any real doubt that correct procedures had been followed. I'm rather more concerned that some referees don't actually do the job they're supposed to do and, on occasions, if something appears to conform to conventional wisdom, they will accept it on the nod, so to speak. I will indeed look at the Adler paper again and May take up your suggestion to submit an official comment. Thank you once again, Jeremy Dunning-Davies. ++++ Editor's note: As a result of the above email exchange, the following response article was submitted to JPA by Drs. Wilson and Dunning-Davies: Some comments on Placing direct limits on the mass of earth-bound dark matter By Stephen L. Adler, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 41 (2008) 412002 Abstract: Claims made concerning limits on the mass of possible earth-bound dark matter in a recent paper by Stephen L. Adler are examined afresh and doubts are raised. In this short article by Adler, it is claimed that a method is introduced for calculating the maximum amount of dark matter that must be present in the space between the Laser Geodynamics Satellites and the Moons orbit. The method suggested is deceptively simple. The author indicates that this quantity of dark matter is given by subtracting the values of the product of the universal constant of gravitation and the mass for the earth and the moon from the value of the same product for the two combined. This is summarised in equation (4): The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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GMdm = GMcombined GMe GMm . Published data is then used to give an estimate of the expected answer. The first query concerns the alternative method for determining the moons mass by studying the orbit of a close passing asteroid which is influenced by both the gravitational field of the moon and that of the earth. It is pointed out that, from such an analysis, one May find an accurate figure for the ratio,
where Me and Mm denote possible contributions from earth-bound and moon-bound dark matter. Hence, to a first approximation
where = Hence, GMm Due to this relationship, one must enquire as to why the third term on the left-hand side of equation (5) is as it is. However, if this equation is correct, the claim following equation (7) is certainly of dubious validity since, to arrive at this result, so many approximations have been made. Therefore, the claim of a potential one percent accuracy must be open to doubt. A numerical evaluation then follows and this raises even more serious queries. Firstly, each of the separate values of the product GM is found by different methods, each involving different sets of assumptions. The figures are then manipulated in different ways, again with implicit assumptions, before the final calculation. After all this, the GM for dark matter is found to be 0.00010.0016 which, on dividing by the value of GM for the earth leads to a ratio of (0.34)10^-9. Based on this, it is asserted that there must be a mass of dark matter less than 410^-9 times the mass of the earth in the volume of space considered assuming G constant. There are two problems we can see with the conclusion above. The first problem concerns the statistical significance of 0.00010.0016. The second problem concerns the assertion that there must be a mass of dark matter less than 410^-9 times the mass of the earth in the volume of space considered. Lets consider each in turn. Adlers value for the combined Earth-Moon GM is 403,503.2357 0.0014. If for comparison we add the separate Earth and Moon values and use standard interval calculations to get the new error, we get 403,503.2356 0.0011. If you look at these two values with error bars on a chart, the second summed value fits perfectly within the 95% confidence error bars of the original combined value. Theres no significant difference between the two values. Yes, you can do some misguided mathematical calculations to derive a difference value of 0.0001 ("in the noise" so to speak), but its not meaningful. Consider now the ratio (0.34)10-9. Adler uses this value to assert there is at most 410-9 times the mass of the earth in the volume of space considered. However, it follows that -3.7 is The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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as statistically valid as +4.3. The best that May be deduced is that there is a 95% likelihood of there being, or not being, any dark matter in the stated volume of space. Were not sure that is really very interesting; certainly not a result justifying a Fast Track Publication. Whatever ones belief on the existence, or not, of dark matter, probably the most important comment in the paper occurs in footnote 5, where the author comments that the analysis in the paper is based on purely gravitational considerations. It must always be remembered that other forces could be exerting influences also. Finally, although this paper seems to have been lauded in both the Scientific American and the American Scientist, apparently because it lends credence to the notion that dark matter exists, it has to be acknowledged that other reasonable explanations exist for the other observed effects to which those articles refer in the context of this one by Adler. ++++ The initial response from the journal, together with subsequent correspondence, now follow: Ref: A/315310/COM/973 Dear Dr Dunning-Davies.TITLE: Comment on "Placing direct limits on the mass of earth-bound dark matter" AUTHORS: Dr Jeremy Dunning-Davies et al Your comment submitted to Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical has now been refereed and the referee report(s) are attached.I am sorry to tell you that the referee(s) have recommended that your comment should not be published in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, for the reasons given in the reports. Your comment has therefore been withdrawn from consideration.I would like to thank you for your interest in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical. Yours sincerely Daniel Heatley and Paul Fishman - Publishing AdministratorJournal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical Article under review for Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical Comment on "Placing direct limits on the mass of earth-bound dark matter" -Dr Jeremy Dunning-Davies et al ID: A/315310/COMBOARD MEMBER'S REPORT ============================ I do not view this article as appropriate for the Journal, and it should not be sent out for normal refereeing. The tone of the article is quite inappropriate, and the article really seems to be attacking Dr Adler's article on the grounds that it received publicity in Scientific American and the American Scientist. The technical criticisms that the current authors bring up against Dr Adler's article are wrong. Dr Adler's key conclusion in his article is the quite proper and perfectly correct statement that that "the mass of earth based dark matter lying between the moon's orbit ... and the LAGEOS orbit ... must be less than 4 x 10^{-9} of the earth's mass, AT A 1-SIGMA CONFIDENCE LEVEL''. (my emphasis) The current authors have set up a "straw man" by systematically ignoring all of Dr Adler's cautionary qualifying statements, and have effectively attacked statements he did not make. This comment is utterly inappropriate for publication. ++++ Dear Miss Gillan, Thank you for your communication. However, I feel I must raise some queries over the decision not to accept the comments by Dr Wilson and myself. I originally wrote to Professor Dorey about the original article by Adler, pointing out that, in that article, nothing concrete had been proved and it did not reflect well on the journal that it had been accepted for publication with such seeming undue haste. His reply is reproduced below and, as you can see, he states The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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that I'm welcome to submit a comment which would be refereed! Hence, the submitted comment should have been refereed. Also, it's unclear from the Board member's comments why our criticisms are considered "wrong." He doesn't explicitly indicate where we are in error when we state that Adler's mathematical conclusion equally implies both the positive presence of dark matter as well as the nonsensical notion of the negative presence of dark matter (a negative value for the dark matter mass). The response seems to be rather emotional and, quite frankly, gives the distinct impression that he knows they've been caught out. Further, if criticism such as ours is to be stifled, how can true science be expected to progress? In the comment we submitted, there is very obviously no setting up of a 'straw man'; we have commented only on statements contained in the original article. I really think the Board member concerned should read what was actually written and not what he imagines was contained in the comment. Emotional reactions to submissions - because that is what has occurred here - have no place in science and only serve to bring the journal concerned into disrepute. Hence, I am asking that this submission be reconsidered, possibly by Professor Dorey personally. Yours sincerely, Jeremy Dunning-Davies. ++++ Subject: Re: Fw: Final decision on your article from J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. A/315310/COM/973 Dear Dr Dunning-Davies, Thank you for your email.Our procedure with all Comments is for them to be initially refereed by a Board Member. If the Board Member recommends that the Comment be considered further, then a Reply is invited from the original author. In this instance the Board Member did not recommend further consideration, however I wish to assure you that this is all in line with our procedure and indeed with the information provided by Patrick Dorey. We consider Comments to be an important forum in the journal and as such, we entrust the refereeing of them to Board Members. I am sorry that you felt the report to be inaccurate, however after further consultation, I must inform you that this decision is final. I wish you success with publishing your findings in a more specialised journal. Yours sincerely, Rebecca Gillan ++++ Dear Miss Gillan, Thank you for your reply. However, I must confess it only serves to bring J. Phys. A into further disrepute, particularly since the apparent correct procedure does not conform to what Professor Drury originally stated. Also, the Board member's comments simply don't stand up, in the same way that Adler's original article doesn't stand up. I realise none of this is your fault but this attitude by scientific morons makes you wonder why anyone pursues open-minded scientific investigations. Yours sincerely, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive Jeremy Dunning-Davies. ++++ Final comments by Wilson and Dunning-Davies:
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The correspondence Jeremy Dunning-Davies subsequently had with Journal of Physics A is included in full and graphically illustrates, we feel, the attitude being displayed towards independent thought in science today particularly if that independent thought disagrees, or even appears to disagree, with accepted conventional wisdom. We would, however, point out that the disagreement expressed by us was with some sloppy statistical analysis; the fact that dark matter was involved was really irrelevant to the criticism and possibly shows how vulnerable these people really feel their position to be. This must surely be regarded as a very worrying attitude to find existing at such a level in what is supposed to be scientific publishing. In all, this has been a disappointing if not predictable exercise. However, it is important that the educated public and professional scientific community continue to raise these criticisms. In the absence of a functional review process, it is even more important for all of us to cast a critical eye on everything we read in journals and the media in general. Contributed by Dr. Jeremy Dunning-Davies and Dr. Thomas Wilson
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Animation of the solar wind interacting with the atmosphere of Venus. Credit: ESA/C. Carreau
Venus: Flame Broiled Pressure Cooker

(Jul 29, 2009)
How long has there been hell on Venus? Early in the morning of November 9, 2005, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Venus Express orbiter on a mission to map the cloud-shrouded planet. On April 11, 2006, the spacecraft entered orbit around Venus, began transmitting data, and has been doing so since. ESA's mission was prompted by the many unanswered questions about Venus: 1. What force drives the atmospheric movement? 2. How does the atmosphere circulate? 3. What are the clouds in the lower atmosphere made of? 4. Was there ever any water in the atmosphere? 5. Does internal radiation influence the planet? 6. Is there volcanic or tectonic activity? Space probes have been investigating Venus since 1962, with 23 missions to date. However, the vast majority of those missions failed to achieve their objectives. Most either disintegrated while attempting to land on the surface or simply did not return data after orbital insertion. Venus Express was one of the good ones, and has accumulated more than three years of observations, primarily the face of the cloud tops lit by the Sun's intense ultraviolet light, but radar instruments have also produced images that reveal chaotic surface features. A new topographical map of the south polar region was released to the press just recently, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive combining more than 1000 individual images.
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Many of the structures seen on Venus have no analogues to anything found on Earth, such as the gigantic domes, the so-called "arachnoids," and "coronae." There are places that do look like Earth in some ways, though--broad, flat-topped landforms bordered with steep dropoffs resemble the continental shelves and ocean basins found on our planet. On Venus, of course, there is no water in the basins and the highland regions are red hot and barren. The atmosphere of Venus also contains corrosive hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acids in small amounts, along with hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride. If those chemical reagents react with the sulfuric acid that is also present, then hydrofluoric and fluorosulphuric acids will form, which are able to dissolve almost any type of rock. According to conventional thinking about the cosmogony of the Solar System, Venus condensed out of the same primordial cloud as the rest of the planets billions of years ago. How long it has possessed its current atmosphere is open to question, but that it has been as it is for at least 300 million years is agreed to for the most part. That means the surface of Venus has been subjected to an onslaught of chemical erosion for hundreds of millions of years. After all those millions of years, it is expected that layers of sand or dirt from the weathered basaltic surface would have piled up in various locations around the planet, particularly inside craters, or in the lowlands against the sides of canyon or cliff walls. There appears to be no sign of any significant erosion, however. As the Russian Venera landing craft discovered, the surface of Venus is nothing but bare rock, with a little debris inside the cracks. This is a significant anomaly for which no one has offered a theory: how can Venus be both old and young? If its entire surface has been renovated in the last 300 million years, what caused that to happen? A surprising observation by the Venus Express orbiting radar package is a confirmation that the tallest mountain peaks exhibit high radar reflectivity. The interpretation given by mission specialists is that the highest elevations are coated with a semiconducting material. It is not known what particular mineral it might be, but it could be pyrite or magnetite. According to Electric Universe theorist Wal Thornhill, the increased radar reflectivity is because the highest elevations on Venus are shining with St. Elmo's Fire, a plasma phenomenon. It is well understood that plasma is an excellent reflector of electromagnetic radiation, such as radar. The greater the current density in the plasma, the greater the reflectivity. Venus (or, at least its surface) is evidently young and still retains the characteristics it once had as a comet, visible to our forebears. As Wal Thornhill wrote: "Venus, with its cometary tail, is evidently still discharging strongly today after a recent cometary past noted globally by ancient witnesses. Venus was described variously as a hairy star or bearded star and a stupendous prodigy in the sky. Today, Venus comet tail operates in the dark discharge mode and is invisible. It can only be detected by magnetometers and charged particle detectors." Stephen Smith
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The Jonkershoek mountain peaks, Stellenbosch, South Africa. Credit: Danie Gouws
Geological Narratives
(Jul 27, 2009)
Where did mountains come from? For centuries, the narrative of choice was, "God did it--catastrophically." In 1785, James Hutton replaced that narrative with the principle of "the present is the key to the past." God became optional, and the story became more intricate, if less dramatic: Processes that we witness today, acting gradually and uniformly over millions of years, deposited sediment in layers on the bottoms of oceans and seas. The layers of sediment solidified into strata of rock; the strata were uplifted into peaks and eroded into valleys; and the detritus was recycled into sediment. In 1978, Luis Alvarez interrupted the narrative of "gradual and uniform" with a few episodes of drama: An asteroid, perhaps several, had collided with the Earth and caused mass extinctions. This twist in the plot violated the integrity of gradual and uniform quotidian processes. The collision of Comet SL-9 with Jupiter in 1994 seemed to bring cosmic collisions within the purview of "the present," but the "gradual and uniform" story line had been irreparably broken. Geology again became catastrophist, but this time without God among the characters. God had been the mechanism, the energy, in the old catastrophism. The new catastrophism was entirely mechanical and suffered from the lack of an adequate mechanism. Impacts could not account for the growing number of facts that were now interpreted as catastrophic: not only craters but also extinctions, lava floods, global soot, and climate anomalies. Time spans were shortened, and actions had to be more vigorous. Mechanical processes lacked sufficient vigor. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Recognizing that the universe is composed mostly of plasma introduced a new character to the plot. Plasma is electromagnetically active, and the forces can exceed the strength of mechanical forces such as gravity by trillions of orders of magnitude. Plasma processes can provide practically unlimited vigor. Strata can be deposited in days or hours instead of centuries or millennia--and the layers need not be horizontal. Craters and canyons can be excavated in similarly short periods, and the debris can be lifted into space or pulverized, sorted, and deposited elsewhere. Studies in comparative mythology have identified the ancient gods as planets and the thunderbolts that they hurled at each other and at the Earth as plasma discharges. We see similar phenomena today at larger scales throughout the universe in the jets and flares of stars and galaxies. At a planetary scale, we have the possibility of explaining geological formations and biotic successions with vigorous and fast-acting electromagnetic mechanisms that incorporate bodies of evidence excluded from presently accepted theories. One such body of evidence is the collection of legends and myths from around the world. A number of legends have been confirmed as accurate reports of geological events, such as the Aboriginal legend that located several peaks which are now under water off the coast of Australia. If legends about locations are accurate, legends about orogeny cant be dismissed out of hand merely because they seem unfamiliar with respect to the consensus narrative. Many legends describe the appearance of mountains on previously different terrain. Dwardu Cardona documents many of these legends in his book Flare Star. Native tribes in North America, for example, relate that the Cascades now occupy what had been a grassy plain. Were those mountains electrically deposited during the catastrophe that ended the Pleistocene Ice Age? Their present altitude is dated to that epoch. Were they deposited as dust and fused into rock, in similarity with electrical painting technology? Was the process similar to the formation of sand dunes? No experiments have been conducted to determine if electric mechanisms play a part in dune dynamics, despite the discovery of large electric fields in dust devils. As the difficulties and contradictions in consensus catastrophism grow more unmanageable, theories of plasma catastrophism grow more promising. Because plasma phenomena are scalable, the mechanisms of plasma geology can be investigated under controlled laboratory conditions, something unavailable to "gradually over millions of years" mechanics. Theoretical, experimental, and interpretive work has barely begun. The field is wide open to adventurous scientists. Mel Acheson
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Aerial view of Upheaval Dome, Utah. Credit: Michael Steinbacher.
Upheaval Dome
(Jul 24, 2009)
Salt dome, meteor impact, or neither? In several previous Pictures of the Day, the catastrophic nature of geological formations around the world were compared to the conventional analysis based on gradual processes of erosion, uplift, and faulting. In nearly every case, the slow formation hypothesis was found wanting. In particular, structures in the American Southwest exhibit signs that they could have been created in an amazingly short time. The stone escarpments have vertical sidewalls, flat tops, and valleys wide and deep between them. Where there are peaks they are often sharp, with many spiky protuberances sticking up from their summits. These spikes are sometimes exotically shaped, looking like stacks of fused boulders or a thicket of pillars. There are often multiple, alternating layers of rock that have been sculpted in regular, repetitive patterns covering thousands of square kilometers. Erosion through wind and water is a chaotic process because the movement of air and water molecules aren't predictable. It is certainly the case that erosion has and is taking place everywhere in the world. However, erosion causes blurring and softening of the landscape, by no means does it cut like a knife, or excavate like a posthole digger. Upheaval Dome is one such geographical formation that is difficult to account for with standard theories. It is more than two kilometers wide from rim to rim and is nearly half a kilometer deep. It was once thought to be a collapsed salt dome because there are many salt domes in the Canyonlands National Park region. According to the theory, a vast inland sea once covered the central portion of the United States approximately 300 million years ago. As time passed, the sea evaporated, leaving the dissolved salts behind in a thick crust. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Over millions of years sediments were deposited that subsequently compressed into thick layers of rock--sandstone layers in the case of Upheaval Dome. The weight of the overburden gradually pushed the salt deeper into the earth. Since salt is not as dense as sandstone, the pressure caused it to become buoyant, whereupon it rose through weaker layers until it pushed, or "heaved" the overlying strata into a dome. As the sandstone eroded, it uncovered the salt and exposed it to the same corroding effects that, over more millions of years bored into the easily dissolved mineral, causing it to collapse from within. However, there is no definitive evidence that an accumulation of salt exists beneath Upheaval Dome. Recently, another theory has suggested that the Dome was formed in a so-called "rebound" event when a meteor crashed to Earth 60 million years ago. The original impactor is long gone because of weathering, but the appearance of shattercones discovered by the late Gene Shoemaker (for whom the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was named) in the sandstone layers around the central mound has convinced most geologists that it is an astrobleme, or "star wound." Shattercones form when impact forces are transmitted through the rocks, creating conical shapes of varying size that have v-shaped grooves cut into them. It is theorized that explosive shock waves punch out shattercones in much the same way that a pellet gun will leave a conical hole in your bay window. Shattercones of enormous size are found in and around a similar circular formation called Vredefort Dome, 100 kilometers southwest of Johannesburg, South Africa. In fact, Vredefort and Upheaval Domes share many similar characteristics. They are both multi-ringed craters with uplifted central peaks. They both display evidence for immense flows of melted rock that contain chunks of unmelted rock within. Both contain "shocked quartz" grains: quartz crystals that are internally fractured, again supposedly due to shock wave transmission. Electric Universe theorists have suggested in the past that electric arcs cut crater walls and transport large volumes of material through electrodynamic forces. Electric currents flowing through the rock strata cause the rock to pulverize, much like a pyroclastic flow from a volcano. Once the current stops, the material consolidates into rock-hard mounds with high, steep faces. Electric arcs cause subsurface blasts, as demonstrated by tachylites found in the rims of both domes. The concentric rings are reminiscent of similar multi-ringed formations discovered in other regions around our planet, as well as on other planets and moons. Perhaps a big rock from space is no more conclusive a theory than a collapsed salt dome. Stephen Smith Editor's note: All images courtesy Michael Steinbacher. Visit Michael's web page for more geological images, as well as to see his complete portfolio. Contact Michael Steinbacher to arrange personal tours of the desert Southwest.
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Doppler image of hydrogen gas in galaxy M33. Credit: NRAO and the Very Large Array.
All in the MOND

(Jul 22, 2009)
Astronomers continue to search for reasons why galaxies do not conform to gravitational theories. In a previous Picture of the Day article we noted that NASA scientists have determined that both of the Pioneer spacecraft are off course by more than a hundred thousand kilometers. At the time, investigative team members remarked that they had no explanation for the navigational deviation, so many speculations were offered about what "mysterious" forces could be acting on the most distant of artificial objects. Multidimensional space, dark energy, dark matter "friction," and other ironic theories such as "gravity affecting antimatter differently" were offered to the scientific press as "explanations" for the deceleration. In September 1998 the same inexplicable "tug" seemed be acting on the now defunct Ulysses spacecraft as it swung through the Solar System in a high orbit over the Sun's poles. Ulysses exhibited an anomalous acceleration toward the Sun when radio signals from Earth were returned from an onboard transponder. A Doppler shift in the frequency of the return transmission indicated a variance greater than could be accounted for by known mechanisms--as of today, no one in the conventional science community can provide a solid explanation for it. Telemetry from NEAR-Shoemaker, the Galileo mission to Jupiter, Cassini-Equinox, the Rosetta cometary probe, and the MESSENGER mission to Mercury reveal similar discrepancies. Astronomers are baffled by this information because standard theories of motion in the cosmos rest within a gravitational model. Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND), a theory developed in the early 1980s by Mordehai The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Milgrom, was also suggested as a possible reason for the effects on the various space probes, although Milgrom himself feels that MOND is far too diffuse a force to affect such small objects. Perhaps the suggestion is no more inexact than those previously mentioned. However, on the large scale, according to MOND theory, gravity can vary depending on acceleration. Since the velocity measurements of some stars at the edges of various galaxies seem to demonstrate greater speeds than they should, Milgrom proposed that gravity can alternate between two states: one where its influence falls off with the square of the distance-Newtonian gravity, and one where its force is linear, declining with the distance--MOND. According to a recent press release, anomalies in the rotational velocity versus the gravitational binding of stars within galactic orbits May not require the existence of dark matter to provide additional attractive force. MOND was offered as an alternative to cold, dark matter's inferred gravity field. Since stars on the outskirts of galactic disks revolve at greater-than-apparently-possible velocities, they "must be" experiencing the effects of an unseen and undetectable mass. In short, a volume of dark matter exists in and around many galaxies that is five times the volume of normal matter. It is the invisible matter that is exerting itself so strongly. See the Picture of the Day "Detecting the Undetectable" for more information. Both of these phenomena, the deceleration of space probes in the Solar System, as well as the unexpected stellar velocities in galaxies, can be explained by one thing: electricity flowing through dusty plasma. As a spacecraft travels through the interplanetary medium it builds up a negative charge differential with respect to the positive charge of the Sun. The Sun's weak, radial electric field, extending outward for almost a light-day without diminishing, and generated by the movement of charged particles known as the "solar wind," draws the negatively charged object back toward itself. The linear attributes of MOND gravity theory are a powerful hint at what might actually be taking place in galaxies as well as star systems. Since electric forces can scale by many orders of magnitude, the weak, radial electric field of the Milky Way galaxy, for example, is most likely doing the same thing to the stars at its outer boundary as the Sun is doing to the charged objects within its sphere of influence. The Sun is not keeping its family of planets in lockstep by gravity alone, its electric field is also acting in an additional, if not principle manner. It is the e-field of the galaxy that is keeping the stars in orbit around the nucleus with the addition of the far less powerful gravitational field. If e-fields and electrical transmission over star-spanning distances would be given their due, MOND, dark matter and all the other ad hoc Big Bang theories would vanish. Stephen Smith
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The five galaxies of Stephan's Quintet. Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/CfA/E.O'Sullivan); Optical (Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope/Coelum)
Another Fogged Image of Stephans Quintet

(Jul 20, 2009)
This new image of Stephans Quintet is befogged with the same obsolete commentary as previous images: the foreground galaxy, collisions, shock waves, and heat. The foreground galaxy (bottom left) is believed to be in the foreground solely because of the consensus belief that redshift is a measure of distance: The foreground galaxy has a redshift of z=0.0026; the others range from z=0.019 to z=0.0225. The consensual conclusion is that the foreground galaxy is 250 million light-years closer than the others. This belief in redshift as a cosmic meterstick has been disproved since the 1960s, but facts seldom affect institutionalized belief systems. Unremarked is the fact that the differences in redshift of the background galaxies place them (under consensus belief) farther from each other than the foreground galaxy is from the Milky Way. Does that make the foreground galaxy a member of our Local Group? Apparently, the illusion of foreshortening with distance works on beliefs as well. Another fact thats consistently overlooked is that the bright HII (ionized hydrogen) regions in the background galaxies are about the same size as those in the foreground galaxy. Since its also believed (consensually) that HII regions tend to be of similar size, the consensus has simply ignored the fact. Perhaps the dark matter in the foreground galaxy is positioned exactly right to magnify the HII regions beyond through gravitational lensing. The long tails on both the foreground galaxy and the one immediately above it are mentioned and then dismissed as due to "complex interactions in the past." The interactions must have been complex in the extreme to have affected the foreground galaxy. A characteristic of consensus astronomy is a flight into tunnel vision: attention is narrowed to The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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single objects or even to parts of objects and larger connections are disregarded. So with the long tails. On deep images, both tails trail off, in parallel, far toward a large active galaxy, NGC 7331. Radio observations reveal a bridge of radiation that follows the path of the tails and connects Stephans Quintet with the active galaxy. The bridge continues on the opposite side of NGC 7331 to a cluster of quasars, which coincidentally have similar redshifts to the high-z members of the Quintet. This is obviously another instance of paired ejection from an active galaxy. Of course, whats obvious to one eye is not to another because eyes tend to see what they believe. Its no shock that consensus eyes are blind to the facts of ejection pairs. Another consensual blind spot covers a high-z quasar that lies in front of the upper left galaxy. According to its redshift, the quasar should be billions of light-years behind the galaxy and therefore as invisible as dark matter. The galaxy is full of dust, completely opaque, and displays an energized region leading right up to the quasar. When scanning this galaxy, consensus astronomers blink in unison. The ridge of x-ray radiation in the core of Stephans Quintet is consensually ascribed to gas heated by shock waves from colliding galaxies. At 70 million Kelvin, the heating is truly shocking. Overlooked is the fact that long before such a temperature is reached, the gas has been fully ionized into a plasma in which electrical and magnetic forces dominate. The 70-million figure is an artifact of runaway extrapolation from a theory about solids. In reality, the x-rays are synchrotron radiation from high-speed electrons (an electric current) spiraling in a magnetic field. Since temperature is based on random motions and the electrons are aligned in the magnetic field, the concept of temperature is not even relevant. A final observation that appears not to have been mentioned before concerns this x-ray ridge. Stephans Quintet is considered to be a "compact cluster," of which several thousand are known. George Abell catalogued many of them before x-ray observations were possible. A review of several of them shows similar ridges of x-ray radiation across their cores (and here and here). Others show simply a spot. If these compact clusters are fragmenting quasars on their way to becoming companion galaxies around the parent active galaxy from which they were ejected, the x-rays delineate the central pinch in the parents ejection circuit. Ridges of radiation show up in clusters whose axis is inclined to our line of sight; the spots result from our looking "down the barrel" of the discharge. Mel Acheson
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The rings and moons of Uranus. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Field of STScI.
Son of Gaea
(Jul 15, 2009)
One of the largest planets in the Solar System is also one of the most enigmatic. Uranus is the coldest planet in the Solar System at -224 Celsius. The refrigerated dwarf Pluto is colder, but by consensus it has been relegated to the planetesimal category and no longer qualifies as a fully fledged planet. No one knows why Uranus is so cold--colder than its more remote neighbor Neptune at -214 Celsius. Neptune lies at a mean distance from the Sun of 4,504,300,000 kilometers and Uranus at 2,870,990,000 kilometers, so it receives four times less solar radiation. However, astronomers think that the low temperature anomaly on Uranus could be due to its rotational vector. Uranus is tipped on its side by 97 past vertical, prompting scientists to speculate that the gas giant was involved in a massive collision sometime in its early history. It is also thought that colliding with that other large object might have released much of its heat, although the precise mechanism for how a collision can cool down a planet remains a mystery. Uranus does not radiate a great deal of energy in the infrared wavelengths, so its interior is much colder than that of Jupiter, for instance. Based on observations by the Keck telescope, Jupiter's infrared signature corresponds to an internal temperature of approximately 29727 Celsius, whereas the internal temperature of Uranus is about 4727 Celsius. If the Sun were to disappear tomorrow, Jupiter would still be visible as a faint, reddish glow, but Uranus would be almost invisible against the black background of space. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Like its other gas giant siblings, Uranus has a complex system of rings in orbit with a bevy of satellites. Currently, there are 27 known moons circling the planet, ranging in size from Miranda (470 kilometers in diameter) to Titania (1578 kilometers in diameter). The most unusual thing about the rings and moons is their placement. Uranus is revolving around the Sun while lying on its side, and its moons and rings are also orbiting along with it in the same orientation. Instead of circling the planet near the plane of the ecliptic, they are inclined from the vertical by 97, perpendicular to the rest of the Solar System. However, there are several small moons that orbit in the "correct" angle of inclination, crossing from axial pole to axial pole, as well as moving in a retrograde fashion. Why this is so is not known, although it has been suggested that these moons were "captured" by Uranus and did not evolve with it out of a hypothetical nebular cloud. The rings of Uranus are similar to those around Saturn and Jupiter. Neptune possesses a system of rings as well, but they are thin and only partial, appearing more like ring segments or arcs than a complete set of bracelets. There are at least 13 rings around Uranus, with the potential for more as the refurbished Hubble Space Telescope turns its new eyes on the planet. The magnetic field generated by Uranus is probably the most unusual aspect of a planet whose structure is dominated by eccentricities. Unlike Saturn, whose magnetic poles are aligned almost exactly with its axial poles, or Jupiter, whose field is offset from vertical by a mere 10, the magnetic poles of Uranus are offset at a slant from its rotational axis by 60. Neptune exhibits a similar field offset, with the majority of the field strength concentrated in one hemisphere--like Uranus. Why Jupiter and Saturn have intense magnetic fields, while Uranus and Neptune have weak fields is not understood by conventional astronomers or by Electric Universe theorists. In the Electric Universe model, however, there is no dependence on internal composition, such as an iron core acting as a dynamo, or a compressed core of metallic hydrogen creating the field through rapid rotation. What is most likely occurring is that the rapid rotation of charged particles in the plasma making up the giant planets is creating a powerful surge of electromagnetic energy. It is common knowledge that a rotating electric current will produce a magnetic field. All four gas giant planets spin at enormous velocities for their sizes. Uranus is 51120 kilometers in diameter, yet it completes one rotation in just under 18 hours. Recently, a current sheet was found connecting Uranus with its moon Miranda, feeding current into the auroral field, proving that there is an electric circuit within the Uranian system. In fact, the magnetosphere of Uranus extends out beyond its farthest moon and is wide enough to encompass its entire ring system. It is to be hoped that outlining the problems and anomalies associated with one of the coldest of the cold places in existence will motivate more interest and more investigation. We have made little attempt to explain what is found on Uranus because explanations have yet to be forthcoming--electrical conditions usually require in situ measurements. So far, only one space probe has visited Uranus, and the Earth-based telescopes on the ground and in orbit have just recently been upgraded to the point where sharper images can be synthesized. We can only wait for more data. Stephen Smith
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Aerial view of the Wollangambe crater central cone structure. Credit: Garry Maxfield.
Wollangambe Crater
(Jul 13, 2009)
Did an asteroid impact form this crater in Australia's Blue Mountains? The continent of Australia has been the subject of many Picture of the Day articles. The terrain found in several regions exhibits features that are not readily explainable using conventional theoretical analysis. Wilpena Pound, Uluru, the Olgas, and the coastal morphology itself seem to disprove a gradual process of deposition and erosion over millions of years. Instead of growing at a slow and steady pace, many of Australia's landmarks appear to have rapidly evolved at some point in the recent past. Among those anomalies are several large craters scattered through the landscape. Gosses Bluff crater and Wolfe Creek crater are probably two of the most well-known. However, as noted in a previous article about Gooches crater just west of Sydney, many formations are not listed in impact site databases. Information found in local maps or among the people living in the area will occasionally suggest that something other than vulcanism or water flow created them. A case in point is Wollangambe crater. Although some published articles refer to it as an "ancient asteroid impact," it is not shown in any major list of Earth impact sites. The Planetary and Space Science Centre (PASSC) database does not show it, nor does it appear in The Astronauts Guide to Terrestrial Impact Craters or the listing found at the Lunar and Planetary Institute. The area surrounding Wollangambe is impressive to even a casual observer. The crater itself is about two kilometers in diameter, with an uplifted central mound dominated by a shallow depression. Nearby is a similar structure known as Mountain Lagoon--again a hummocky uplift with a central depression in its peak. In the case of Mountain Lagoon, there is a lake within the depression, whereas Wollangambe's central lowland is marshy. Straight valleys extend outward in all directions throughout the surrounding area. Most are The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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bone dry with no sign that they were ever carved by water erosion. The linearity of the valleys is in itself not unusual. What is unusual is that there are places where steep valleys meet at definite angles: primarily three of the valleys will intersect at 120. In one location, five straight valleys radiate from a central confluence. What can cut valleys 900 meters deep through the hardest sandstone in this fashion? Certainly water cannot be the active agent since there is no way that it can move straight through the stone outward from a common center. Another example of bizarre terrain is Mount Banks. What makes it so unusual is that almost half of the mountain has been sliced away by a vertical escarpment with no debris at its base. There are no talus slopes underneath the vegetation that correspond to the megatons of rock that are missing. Rather, there are 45 "shoulders" of solid rock at the base of the cliff that climbs vertically for almost 1000 meters. Similar formations can be found in the desert southwest of the North American continent and in association with the famous "tepuis" of Amazonia. A new way of seeing Australia should be considered. In the last few years, the Picture of the Day has included scores of articles addressing that need. The gradualism that dominates geological theories today can only account for these observations by ignoring key points. As has been pointed out many times, where is the material that was "eroded" from Australia's landscape? In some locations there are flat plains extending for thousands of square kilometers completely stripped of all overburden, exposing nothing but barren bedrock. Here and there in those flat wastelands are sandstone monoliths standing in torrid isolation. Vertical cliffs running for hundreds of kilometers look as if they were formed yesterday in some cases. They are composed of layers that include sandstone and ironstone built up into mountains that have been cut in half. In many instances the traveler might be reminded of Martian geography because of the aridity and the layered sandstone. Regardless of where one looks in Australia, there are ever greater puzzles to unlock. Written by Stephen Smith from information provided by Garry Maxfield. Editor's note: Garry Maxfield lives and works in North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is an avid bush trekker, having grown up in the Blue Mountains. From an early age he had an interest in astronomy and geology, but found the answers provided by conventional science to be unsatisfying. While investigating the newly discovered "sprites" and "elves" electrical phenomena, he discovered the Thunderbolts website. This article is a result of his field work.
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A schematic of successive branching in an originally one-dimensional filament (left), producing heteromacs (centre), turning the filament into a fractal (right). A. B. Kukushkin and V. A. Rantsev-Kartinov, Moscow, Russia.
The First 'People' in Space

(Jul 10, 2009)
According to some traditions, in a previous era, before the flood or some other global disaster, the earth was inhabited by a race of strange creatures exhibiting a mixture of human and animal traits. This abstruse tradition once prevailed in virtually every culture. Myths and legends frequently describe these hybrid beings as ancestors, portrayed as animals acting in the way of people. For example, the Kato people, of Mendocino County, California, related that the first people "all had animal names, and later, when Indians came to live on this earth, these first people were changed into the animals which bear their names." The Huichol, of central Mexico, concurred: "In the beginning of time people were mostly animals, serpents, jaguars, and mountain lions gods, animals, and ancient people being one." The Mocov, of Argentina, averred: "In primeval times animals were people and they spoke. Later they were transformed." The Shilluk, of the Upper Nile region, stated that there was an early time when "men were masquerading as animals," and so on. Examples can be multiplied ad infinitum. Mythologists with a taste for gene-borne racial memories might lean towards the view that such traditions commemorate mankinds evolutionary kinship with primates and other mammals. However, this would violate the integrity of the mythical theme, for the primordial race of myth is of a wholly different order. The creatures are often depicted as repulsive monstrosities, far removed from any biological reality. In western New Mexico, for instance, the Zui specified a number of amphibian and reptilian features in the countenance of these first people: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"Men and the creatures were nearer alike then than now: black were our fathers the late born of creation cold and scaly their skins like those of mud-creatures; goggled their eyes like those of an owl; membranous their ears like those of cave-bats; webbed their feet like those of walkers in wet and soft places; and according as they were elder or younger, they had tails, longer or shorter. They crouched when they walked, often indeed, crawling along the ground like toads, lizards and newts; like infants who still fear to walk straight, they crouched " These curious ancestors are frequently accorded the faculty of great magical power, like that of gods or mighty shamans. A "very widespread" tradition among the tribes of New South Wales, Australia, was "that the earth was originally peopled by a race much more powerful, especially in the arts magic, than that which now inhabits it. The Wathi-wathi call them Bookoomuri, and say they were famous for fighting, hunting, &c., and were eventually changed into animals " Along the Thompson River, of British Columbia, one used to be told that, "The beings who inhabited the world during the mythological age, until the time of the transformers, were called sptkL. They were men with animal characteristics. They were gifted in magic, and their children reached maturity in a few months." In comparative mythology, cross-cultural patterns lead the way. A vital clue to the nature of these mystifying and apparently radiant beings is the complete interchangeability of the first animals or people with stars. Practically universal is the conviction that the stars, including the sun and the moon, dwelled on earth before taking up residence in the sky. The Makiritare, of Venezuela, provide an example in case: "In the beginning, the night sky was empty, black. The Stars were people. They lived on the Earth " The Chamacoco, of Paraguay, recall "the time when the sky was near There was no sun and no stars; all these were living among the people. Sun and Moon lived like human beings " "In those days the sun and the moon and everyone were human beings and lived on this earth" add the Sikuani, of eastern Colombia. Yet, such stories are neither about real animals nor about actual celestial bodies. A Mongolian variant of a Buddhist creation myth portrays the first living beings, amoeba-like, as luminous floating entities, blessed with the gift of longevity, that multiplied through a simple process of splitting: Though the people lived on the surface of the earth, they did not employ feet when moving about, but floated through the air. They did not feed on the impure terrestrial foods, but on the pure Ssamdhi-food, and they were not born from the body of a mother, as there was yet no gender distinction between male and female, but through emanation. For seeing they required neither the sun nor the moon, as they saw everything by means of their own radiation. Nor was the designation human used for them at the time, as their common name was living beings. Perhaps even more perplexing, though a crucial piece of the puzzle, is the widespread tradition that all forms of life originally jostled for space on a narrow piece of earth dominated by the axis mundi, in its form as a sky-reaching tree, mountain, pillar, and so on. The Waorani, of equatorial Amazonia, contended that bobehu or the giant Ceiba tree (Ceiba pentandra) "contains all forms of life All that was alive dwelled in the giant tree " Prominent in the mythology of Kiribati, Micronesia, was "the First Tree, the Ancestor Sun, and ancestors grew from it these heroic beings, sprung from the branches and roots of a single ancestral tree." On Sumatra, the Toba Batak knew a tree of life, "reaching from the underworld into the upperworld and at the same time we read that all men, animals, birds, fishes, etc., have originated from it." What is more, these entities derived their sustenance from the sky column, earning it the familiar title of tree of life; Sikuani storytellers, for instance, would point out that The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Kalievrnae, the tree of life, was once the only repository of food in the world. Traditions of this kind, though all preposterous at first, make sense as attempts to describe certain curious plasma forms that appeared on the screen of the sky at a time when the earth experienced intense electromagnetic disturbances. Over the past decade, scientists at Russias Kurchatov Institute have made much headway in the modeling of so-called "selfsimilar skeletal structures" that arise in electrically discharging plasmas in various fusion devices, in space and during "severe weather phenomena." They defined heteromacs as "strongly twisted magnetic flux ropes," almost closed, that emerge in heterogeneous magneto-plasma configurations and turn an initially single filament into "a fractal, dendritic structure." Kukushkin and Rantsev-KartiNov envisioned the development of "cellular, and bubble-like clusters" from these heteromacs as a possible concomitant effect of a highly enhanced aurora such as might have developed during the Neolithic or the Early Bronze Age. If true, these forms might be the bizarre creatures universally identified in mythology as the ancestors. The physical attachment of the heteromacs to the central z-pinch plasma column strongly reminds of the universal belief that the first people dwelled in the direct vicinity of the axis mundi, while their battle for space reflects the fractal capacity of infinite growth. The same disaster that caused the collapse of the plasma column also annihilated this first brand of people. Rens Van der Sluijs
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The North auroral oval. Credit: NASA, NSSDC, Holzworth and Meng.
Ring of Ice, Ring of Fire

(Jul 08, 2009)
Everyone knows the Ice Age was a time when the Earth cooled, glaciers moved down from the North, and the mammoths froze. However, everyone is mistaken. Lands in the Arctic get little precipitation, and a mile or more of ice is a lot of water. Before it can fall as snow, it has to evaporate from the ocean and be transported. John Tyndall, a prominent British physicist, realized in 1883 that a mountain of ice in the North requires a lot of energy everywhere else, which means heat. An ice age requires not a cooler climate but a warmer one with a cold spot where the ice is. That lands near the pole were warm and ice-free during the Ice Age has been known--and ignored--since the 1700s. Tools and other signs of human habitation are (conventionally) at least 30,000 years old. Pleistocene remains indicate that extensive grasslands supported large populations of many animal species. This warm climate stretched across the northern parts of Siberia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, while land to the South was buried under thousands of feet of ice. Further south, beyond the ice, the warm climate again asserted itself. Glacial scratches in rock show that the ice moved not from the pole but from a number of localized sources. It melted back in a similar way, retreating to local high points from all directions, not generally from south to north. It all but disappeared during the ensuing interglacial period. The mammoths and the other species now discovered melting out of the permafrost flourished for another several thousand The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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years before being quick-frozen in the pure of flesh, fiber, and gravel that covers the Arctic today. A correct map of the data shows that the ice occurred in a ring around the pole. In his recent book Primordial Star, Dwardu Cardona correlates this ring of ice with the ring of the aurora, such as in the image at the top of the page showing the auroral oval taken by the Ultraviolet Imager (UVI) onboard the NASA satellite "Polar" on April 4, 1997. With nearly the same diameters, the ring of fiery plasma that makes up present-day auroras would shine its ghostly light on top of the ring of Pleistocene glaciations. The present-day aurora is almost transparent, but plasma toroids (called conventionally accretion disks) around flaring dwarf stars are dusty and opaque. Given the situation described in Cardonas previous volumes, God Star and Flare Star, the Pleistocene sun would have been such an episodically flaring brown dwarf star. Presumably, auroral toroids in such an environment would also be dusty and opaque. Because Earth and the brown dwarf would have been aligned on the same axis, as we see with the "jets" in Herbig-Haro stars, the Pleistocene sun would have been immobile at the north celestial pole. The opaque auroral ring would have cast a permanent shadow onto the Earth at precisely the location of the glacial ring. The cold temperatures in the shadowed lands would keep the precipitation from warmer lands beyond from melting, and a ring of ice would have accumulated beneath the ring of auroral fire. Mel Acheson
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The Wild Hunt of Odin. Artist: Peter Nicolai Arbo. Courtesy Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, Norway.
Riders of the Night

(Jul 06, 2009)
The Wild Hunt is a name for the spectacle of an often frightful troop of hunters seen to move across the sky or on the surface of the earth. The members of the hunting party often have a ghostly aspect, including among their ranks the disembodied souls of lost family members, tortured saints or other legendary characters, as well as horses and dogs. The hunted game is seldom seen and the mysterious throng do not engage with their stunned witnesses. European reports of the procession reach back to the Middle Ages and May well have existed long before. The tacit assumption that the Wild Hunt was an entirely delusional concept is challenged by theorists who explain the baffling theme as eyewitness accounts of ritual processions performed by secret societies consisting of initiated, male members. The historical evidence that such Mnnerbunde existed is quite strong and the proposition certainly throws light on cases where the hunters were really seen to move on earth. This cannot be the whole story. For one thing, the sacred rites of such initiation cults typically sought to reenact certain mythical events, so what was the original template for enactment of the Wild Hunt? The leader of the host was often identified as a mythical or legendary character, such as Woden or Arthur. The spectral band was usually observed to move through the heavens, not on earth. Finally, analogues are known from many other cultures. In Malay tradition, hantu si buru refers to the phantasmal 'huntsman and his dogs, while the Mori, of New Zealand, cast the storm god Twhiri-mtea as the wild huntsman in the raging host. The impression that a specific celestial phenomenon is at work is strengthened if the definition is widened from hunting troops per se to other swarms of spectral beings Hecates band of departed spirits, Indras terrifying retinue of rock-hurling Maruts, trains of theriomorphic fertility demons such as Satyrs, Nymphs and Gandharvas, and phantom armies The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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such as reported throughout history. Folklorists like to relate such heavenly ghost armies, riding forth on windswept nights, to the mythology of the thunderstorm, but thunder and lightning as we know them do not give the impression of a large congregation of filing spirits. Clearly, the hunt for the heavenly hosts is still on. To cut to the chase, observations of the aurora borealis and its southern counterpart offer a far more promising solution. It is no secret that the polar lights were often perceived in terms of marching hordes. In medieval Europe, chroniclers referred to them in such terms as Acies cruentae, bloody ranks, Acies militum, ranks of soldiers, Acies diversorum colorum, ranks of different colours, Cohortes peditum, cohorts of foot soldiers, exercitus equitum, army of horsemen, hostes sanguinei, bloody enemies, and so on. At dawn on 14th, October 908 CE, the Chinese reported the emergence of "a vapor like a great crowd of human figures all lying bent over" in the west. The popular belief that the souls of the dead reside in the northern lights is too well-known to require fresh documentation. Descriptions of this kind were most likely inspired by auroral rays and bands showing rows of discrete rayed filaments that, conjointly, form meandering curtains. The vertical rays would easily remind of banners, lances, spears or swords, while the red blood is caused by the excitation of molecular and atomic oxygen at heights of between 250 and 1000 kilometers above the earth. In keeping with this, it cannot be coincidental that the Wild Hunt was usually seen at night and showed a propensity for the darkest nights of winter, between Christmas Eve and Epiphany, just when the aurorae are most frequently observed. On occasion, however, the hunters appeared by day and so do auroral manifestations. At about 3:00 PM on Thursday, 2nd. November 1893, the Norwegian Arctic explorer and scientist, Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930), witnessed "a remarkable display" that began with a vision of "light clouds swept together like a cloud of dust rising above a distant troop of riders. Then dark streamers of gauze seemed to stretch from the dust-cloud up over the sky a little higher up, farther from the sun glow, they grew white and shining, like fine, glistening silver gauze." Despite initial doubts, Nansen eventually concluded that "they were northern lights, changing gradually in the southwest into dark cloud-streamers, and ending in the dust-cloud over the sun. Hansen saw them too, later, when it was dark. There was no doubt of their nature." With all this, it is surprising that an auroral interpretation of the Wild Hunt is seldom, if ever, voiced by modern scholars. In pursuit of the Wild Hunt and associated motifs, the hypothesis of a distinct category of polar light exemplifies an approach one might call the plasma mythology of contemporary transient events. This is concerned with strands of folklore and mythology that are not directly anchored in the mythology of creation, but suggest intermittently recurring events even in the contemporary age. From a methodological point of view, it is useful to distinguish themes of this type from grander ones that relate to the supposed creation and destruction of the world, to a bygone age of the gods or golden age, when our environment had a different appearance than it has today. As a rule, global elements in the mythology of creation benefit from the hypothesis of extremely rare and drastic fluctuations in the state of the earths ionosphere and magnetosphere. On the other hand, more recurrent themes without a clear link to illud tempus are better understood in relation to remarkable though less sporadic electromagnetic The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive phenomena, such as the aurorae, lightning including ball lightning, meteors, earthquake lights, comet tails, and so on. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Display of the Southern Lights seen at Wellington, New Zealand 24 November 2001. Paul Moss
Divining the Meaning of the Aurora

(Jul 03, 2009)
Few natural phenomena have elicited such deep emotions from human observers as the polar lights. Across the centuries, people have been profoundly moved and inspired when exposed to the spectacular dance of plasma filaments across the night sky. Indeed, witnesses of the aurorae have not infrequently confessed to a sense of the numinous. Following an unforgettable manifestation of the lights on Tuesday, 28th. November 1893, the Norwegian Arctic explorer, Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930), remarked: "There is the supernatural for you the northern lights flashing in matchless power and beauty over the sky If one wants to read mystic meanings into the phenomena of nature, here, surely, is the opportunity." Later, during the winter of 1911, the British explorer, Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912), repeatedly enjoyed the celestial pageant of the aurora australis while sailing south towards Antarctica on the Terra Nova. Reflecting on an outpouring of auroral activity seen on Sunday, 21st. May of that year, Scott resorted to the metaphor of life in his struggle to adequately depict the event in words. It almost seemed to him that the aurora was imbued with a vital force: "There is infinite suggestion in this phenomenon, and in that lies its charm; the suggestion of life, form, colour, and movement never less than evanescent, mysterious no reality." For Scott, seeing the agility, the versatility and the rapidity that characterised the majestic appearance of the southern lights bordered on a religious experience: "It is the language of mystic signs and portents the inspiration of the gods wholly spiritual divine signalling. Remindful of superstition, provocative of imagination." Playfully, the pioneer wondered whether aliens might be involved: "Might not the inhabitants of some other world (Mars) controlling mighty forces thus surround our globe with fiery symbols, a golden writing which we have not the key to decipher?" Joking aside, the distinct impression of the aurorae as a marvellous, almost supernatural force entrenched itself in the captains mind. Less than a year before his tragic death, on The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Thursday, 22nd. June, the adventurer was celebrating midwinter with his party, when he was treated to "the most vivid and beautiful display that I had ever seen fold on fold the arches and curtains of vibrating luminosity rose and spread across the sky, to slowly fade and yet again spring to glowing life." His notes, which were discovered afterwards in the ice and published posthumously, offer a glimpse into a mind that, far from jocular, had grown ever more stupefied with the spiritual effect the lights could exercise on a human being: "It is impossible to witness such a beautiful phenomenon without a sense of awe the appeal is to the imagination by the suggestion of something wholly spiritual, something instinct with a fluttering ethereal life, serenely confident yet restlessly mobile. One wonders why history does not tell us of aurora worshippers, so easily could the phenomenon be considered the manifestation of god or demon." Why not indeed? Could it be that the worldwide repository of mythical and other religious traditions is actually replete with descriptions of auroral events that have so far escaped attention? That universal beliefs about the nature of the gods and goddesses, legendary ancestors, and dragons are really brimful of references to the lights? That folklore, traditional dance and iconography are all heavily charged with memories of the aurorae so hoary with age as to go well-nigh unnoticed? This is, in effect, precisely what is found. The growing scientific understanding of the earths electromagnetic environment has made it possible to recognise an important substratum of auroral observations in the mythological system of virtually every known culture. Much in the descriptions of the gods, their fabulous habitats, their creation of this world and their temporary sojourn on earth can be meaningfully analysed as concealed reports of near-earth plasmas developing in glow and arc modes as the earths ionosphere and magnetosphere experienced unimaginable disturbances. The mountain of the gods, the tree of life, the pillars that supported the sky, the ladder or arrow-string to the sky, dragons, thunderbirds, the turtle that supported the earth, the tailbiting snake that surrounded the earth, layered heavens and underworlds, the sentinels of the cardinal directions, the primordial race of animal-like beings, the stationary sun or morning star these and many others are global motifs belonging to the so-called age of creation or age of the gods that can be explained as symbolic descriptions of discrete plasma forms seen above the horizon during episodes of this prolonged high-energy-density auroral storm. If the relatively mundane aurorae witnessed today can provoke such distinct visions of spirituality in the soberminded likes of Fridtjof Nansen and Robert Scott, how much more stirring must have been the highly energetic aurorae hypothesised to have occurred at the dawn of civilisation, which is estimated to have been at least an order of magnitude more intense? Scott concluded his diary entry for that day with the words: "To the little silent group which stood at gaze before such enchantment it seemed profane to return to the mental and physical atmosphere of our house." It would seem that the Stone Age ancestors of mankind could not return to their homes as if nothing had happened. Instead, they were induced to institute enduring cults and rituals, compose lasting sacred narratives, and design perpetually hallowed images in commemoration of the erstwhile presence of the divine in their midst. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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3D image of the Sun's south pole. Credit: Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft.
Tales of Brave Ulysses

(Jul 01, 2009)
The end of an 18 year mission in polar orbit around the Sun. "You thought the leaden winter would bring you down forever, But you rode upon a steamer to the violence of the Sun." -- Eric Clapton and Martin Sharp June 30, 2009 was the last operational day for the Ulysses spacecraft. Launched from the space shuttle Discovery on October 6, 1990, Ulysses was designed to study the Sun's heliosphere and its polar environment. Ulysses was sent out to Jupiter, where it performed a gravity boost maneuver that also sent it upward, above the plane of the ecliptic and back toward the Sun. The resulting orbit placed it in a heliocentric ellipse that takes it from over 800 million kilometers at aphelion (greatest distance), to less than 200 million kilometers at perihelion (closest approach), so that every six years Ulysses makes a pass over both poles of the Sun. Between its launch date and its mission end date, Ulysses will have traveled over nine billion kilometers. One of the more interesting encounters during its long journey was with comet McNaught out near the planet Mars. Ulysses found that the solar wind speed was being changed by McNaught's ion tail. The speed of ion flux was reduced from approximately 700 kilometers per second to 350 kilometers per second. Mission specialists were surprised by the fact that the solar wind could be affected by such a small object at such a great distance from the Sun. Another observation was that the amount of dust blowing in to the Solar System had increased substantially over the last few years, more than triple what it once was early in 1997. The Solar System is constantly bombarded by dust particles, but because the Sun's magnetic field is so strong, most of it is deflected around a zone shaped like an elongated bubble that extends outward well beyond the orbit of Pluto. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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However, the Sun goes through a cycle of electromagnetic fluctuation that lasts 22 years, so the force field is most likely reduced during times of low solar activity, allowing more charged particles to pass through. In fact, there are times when the Sun seems to funnel ionized interstellar dust along a localized region of increased electric current flow at the poles. In 1994, Ulysses found that the temperature of the coronal hole at the north pole was several percent lower than the temperature of the south pole coronal opening. During its last pass back over the poles, after the 11 year reversal of the solar magnetic field, the temperature variation was found to have reversed. Could this be an indication of the electric current flow magnitude? The current flow out of the Sun is balanced by the current flow into it, so perhaps the changes in temperature are indicative of the magnetic field polarity and the strength of the electric field. If the Sun is connected to the rest of the galaxy by Birkeland current "transmission lines," then fluctuations in its electrical characteristics are most likely demonstrating the fluctuations in current arriving from the Milky Way's electric generator. Since the magnetic field aligns charged particles, thereby reducing their random motion, regions with greater field alignment will appear cooler than regions of lower intensity. Another surprise for the NASA and ESA teams operating the spacecraft was the extremely energetic events detected on the Sun during its time of solar minimum. The Sun's periods of high and low energy mean that large solar flares or coronal mass ejections are not supposed to take place during times of low activity. However, near the end of 2007 when the Sun was supposed to be at its most quiescent, Ulysses found solar storms--intense outbursts of radiation in the form of charged particles--erupting from the south pole. Richard Marsden, ESA's Ulysses Project Scientist and Mission Manager wrote at the time: "Particle events of this kind were seen during the second polar passes in 2000 and 2001, at solar maximum. We certainly didn't expect to see them at high latitudes at solar minimum! Charged particles have to follow magnetic field lines, and the magnetic field pattern of the Sun near solar minimum ought to make it much more difficult for the particles to move in latitude [from the equator]." The legacy of Ulysses should be an increased awareness that current models of solar behavior suffer from a lack of electrical theory being applied to the observations. The fact that there have been no interpretations of the data in the light of electric fields and current flow into and out of the Sun--other than an acknowledgement that "streams" of particles and "blowing" dust are moving through the system in unexpected ways--means that the gulf between consensus views of the Sun and the Electric Universe viewpoint will remain for the time being. More information isn't the answer. The answer is a better model in which to fit that data. Stephen Smith
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Northern limb of "stellar remnant" RCW 86. Credit: ESO/E. Helder & NASA/Chandra
Ballistic Cosmic Rays

(Jun 29, 2009)
The European Space Agency announces that cosmic rays are caused by supernova shock waves. A recent press release from the European Southern Observatory announces that "a unique ballistic study" proves that cosmic rays are caused by supernova shock waves bumping particles to near light speed. One author of the study noted that astronomers have thought that for a long time, raising the question among skeptics whether the study proves instead the bias of belief: one tends to see (and to prove) what one believes. The author concludes: "that proves it." Upon critical examination, "proves it" is found to mean that its allowed by my theory, so if I exclude all other possible theories mine has to be true. One has to wonder: if these particle accelerators in the Milky Way are so "very efficient," the particle physicists at the Large Hadron Collider should replace their inefficient electromagnetic device with one based on the new ballistic laws of electromagnetism. The particles can be accelerated by directing shock waves from explosions to bump them to high velocities. Farther down the ballistics totem pole, dentists can replace their inefficient x-ray machines that generate x-rays by accelerating electrons with electric fields, substituting the new machines that work with tiny but powerful shock waves. Your next x-ray wont just buzz, itll bang. The efficiency of transfer of energy from shock waves to particles and the number of particles so affected can only be determined by counting the number of cosmic rays and guessing the number of supernovae that could produce them. The theory must take as its initial assumption the conclusion it is said to prove, hence proving that tautologies aretautologous. Filaments. Pairs of filaments. Pairs of filaments spiraling around each other. Pairs of pairs of twisting filaments. Anyone familiar with plasma will immediately recognize them (in the image The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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above, as in almost any image of a so-called supernova remnant) as Birkeland currents. Only an astronomer in intellectual free-fall with his eyes squeezed shut could fail to see plasma. And so astronomers see "gas" and "ballistics" where plasma researchers see electric currents, double layers, and electric fields. Its probably significant that the press release uses the term "particles" exclusively, never "charged particles," despite mentioning that they are protons. When these twisted structures were first discovered, some astronomers tried to explain them with a physics of twisted shock waves. They never mentioned Birkeland currents. The physics was more twisted than the shock waves, and the astronomers moved on to more tractable problems. Now a few astronomers are beginning to refer to Birkeland currents but only with the assumption that they "dont do anything." But Birkeland currents do "do things." The studys author is correct to note that "the energy that is used for particle acceleration is at the expense of heating" but is mistaken to append "the gas, which is therefore much colder than theory predicts." Its not gas, its plasma, and the study is using the wrong theory. Birkeland currents are also known as field-aligned currents because the electric field of the current is aligned with the magnetic field. Charged particles are therefore accelerated in the direction of the field. Their random motion--which is what temperature measures--is reduced; therefore the plasma which they make up appears "colder" than would be expected from their being bumped by a shock wave in gas. Perhaps its not the cosmic rays that have gone ballistic but the astronomers. Mel Acheson
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On the bottom of Shalbatana Vallis, Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU
Lake Shalbatana
(Jun 26, 2009)
As is so often the case, what is familiar becomes the basis for explaining the extraordinary. "Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink." -- Samuel Coleridge, The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner In June of 2007 scientists from the University of California suggested that they had found "confirmations" for the Martian liquid ocean hypothesis. Their analysis of Martian topography seemed to show two "shorelines" extending for thousands of kilometers, although the oceans have been gone for over two billion years. In another more recent press release, a team from the University of Colorado announced that they also found "shorelines," although in this case they are supposed to have bordered a large lake that existed around the same time as the oceans, a little over three billion years ago. Chief scientist Gaetano Di Achille wrote: "This is the first unambiguous evidence of shorelines on the surface of Mars. The identification of the shorelines and accompanying geological evidence allows us to calculate the size and volume of the lake, which appears to have formed about 3.4 billion years ago." The lake is thought to have been 130 square kilometers in area and almost 1500 meters deep. The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) entered orbit in 1997 with extremely high resolution The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive cameras onboard. Some of the first few images revealed huge outcrops of layered rock extending for thousands of kilometers through the Schiaparelli Basin and out into Valles Marineris. Hundreds more images uncovered rock layering in other locations: particularly craters and giant cliff walls with extensive faulting and pitting. The layers with similar thickness prompted NASA scientists to conclude that the strata in Schiaparelli Basin is actually sedimentary, and might have built-up in water and then been eroded by wind.
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It is believed that Mars is covered with a global layer of ice because the annual temperature of the soil is approximately minus 50 Celsius. It is so cold in the northern and southern latitudes that carbon dioxide freezes into solid dry ice. Any water "must be" bound up with the icy soils or locked in underground deposits, otherwise the thin atmosphere would cause water-ice to sublime directly into vapor. In the last few years, several Mars missions have sought to confirm the existence of water in some form or another on the Red Planet. Although there have been reports of clouds and lowlying fog, and the Phoenix polar lander is reputed to have detected water just below the surface, there has been nothing definitive that can stand up to close scrutiny. For example, although the now defunct Phoenix lander is said to have found visual evidence for water, the probes used to test for water in the soil returned a null reading. The soil was nonconductive, indicating no water molecules. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which resumed operations after a software glitch shut down its systems on June 2, 2009, found what were said to be giant glaciers under mountainous piles of rocks and dirt near the Hellas Basin region. Several other locations in the lower Martian latitudes are thought to harbor ice deposits as large as those in Antarctica, if the radar images taken in November 2008 are interpreted correctly. The MRO uses its radar to penetrate a few meters below the Martian surface so that it can look for variations in reflectivity. The deeper the radar penetration before it bounces back, the less dense the intervening material. Based on the strength of the return signal, the MRO's computers determined that it matched the signature of ice just beneath a shallow covering of rock, much like a glacier on Earth. The only way that Mars researchers can imagine a radar signal's behavior is to be guided by their tests of the instrumentation. If a radar signal takes X amount of time to bounce back, it is passing though sand. If it takes Y amount of time to return, it is passing through pure ice with a thin coating of rocks. The fact that the radar signal matches a pre-loaded configuration is not necessarily an indicator of finding the desired elements. There could be factors on Mars that are so unlike those here on Earth that the radar could be acting in ways that were unanticipated, making ice the nearest match. It is feasible, however, that there are ice deposits on Mars that were created when it underwent whatever planetary catastrophe it was that significantly altered its surface. In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles about the geology of Mars, we speculated that powerful electric arcs once excavated the planet in the recent past. These plasma discharges left behind sinuous rilles, flat-floored craters, "railroad track" patterns in canyons, intersecting gullies with no debris inside them, giant mesas with Lichtenberg "whiskers" and steep-sided ravines. Lightning of sufficient power can compress material in the discharge channel and accelerate it along with the negative charge, forming a jet. If the jet contains water vapor, it is possible that liquid water molecules or even ice might form inside the spinning Birkeland filament due to zpinch effects. If this phenomenon were to be scaled up to planetary dimensions, the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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increased electric discharges might have formed increased quantities of ice particles that clumped together and fell back into the frozen piles of debris that MRO's imagers allegedly detected. It is still too early to tell. New Mars missions are being planned that will place robotic vehicles near the areas of greatest potential. Some will collect samples and then launch them back to Earth. If what we find on Mars took place in the presence of interplanetary lightning bolts and was not the result of ice or water moving across the surface, should we rethink what we see on Earth? Perhaps those electric arcs formed the ice deposits on Earth, as well, and not some climatic fluctuation of whatever shape. If such is the case, then the changes in climate occurring today could be the last stages of a readjustment after an upheaval not so long ago. Stephen Smith
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Latest image of the quiet Sun from the SOHO satellite. Credit: ESA/NASA
Solar Electricity
(Jun 24, 2009)
Ideas about the Sun based on fusion reactions in a dense core do not fit the observations as well as those based on electricity. In a recent Picture of the Day about Solar Cycle 24 and the lack of sunspots in a relatively quiet solar disk, it was noted that sunspots are not well understood by astronomers. Furthermore, their bizarre electromagnetic displays are not readily explainable by models of solar activity that rely on radiant emissions from thermonuclear energy. The Sun demonstrates that electrical and magnetic properties dominate its behavior. Almost 70 years ago, Dr. C. E. R. Bruce offered a new hypothesis about the Sun. Being an electrical researcher, as well as an astronomer, Bruce proposed that the Sun was a discharge phenomenon: "It is not coincidence that the photosphere has the appearance, the temperature and spectrum of an electric arc; it has arc characteristics because it is an electric arc, or a large number of arcs in parallel. These arcs quickly result in the neutralization of the accumulated space charge in their neighbourhood and go out. They are not therefore stable discharges, but May rather be looked upon as transient sparks. Arcs thus continually appear and disappear. It is this coming and going which accounts for the observed granulation of the solar surface." -- C. E. R. Bruce A New Approach in Astrophysics and Cosmogony. Years later, in 1972, the late Ralph Juergens wrote a series of articles suggesting that the Sun is not an isolated body, but is the most electrically active object in the solar system--the focus The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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of a radial electric field extending outward almost to the next star system. Juergens was the first one to link electricity in the Solar System to the galactic circuit and to theorize that the Sun might have an external power source. In the electric Sun hypothesis, the Sun is an anode, or or positively charged "electrode." As previously mentioned, the cathode is an invisible "virtual cathode," called the heliosphere, at the farthest limit of the Sun's coronal discharge, billions of kilometers from its surface. This is the double layer that isolates the Sun's plasma cell from the galactic plasma that surrounds it. In the Electric Universe model, most of the voltage difference between the Sun and the galaxy occurs across the heliospheric boundary sheath. Inside the heliopause the weak electric field centered on the Sun is enough to power the solar discharge. The visible component of the glow discharge occurs above the solar surface in layers. In the chromosphere, at 500 kilometers above the surface, the coldest temperature exists: 4400 Kelvin. At the top of the chromosphere, 2200 kilometers up, the temperature rises to about 20,000 Kelvin. It then jumps by hundreds of thousands of Kelvin, slowly continuing to rise, eventually reaching 2 million Kelvin in the corona. The Sun's reverse temperature gradient agrees with the glow discharge model, but contradicts the idea of nuclear fusion energy trying to escape from within the Sun. The discovery that a "solar wind" escapes the Sun at between 400 and 700 kilometers per second was a surprise for the nuclear theory. In a gravity-driven Universe, the Sun's heat and radiation pressure are insufficient to explain how the particles of the solar wind accelerate past Venus, Earth and the rest of the planets. Since they are not rocket powered particles, no one expected such acceleration. According to the electric Sun theory, an electric field focused on the Sun accelerates charged particles: the faster they accelerate, the stronger the field. But as noted, the interplanetary electric field is extremely weak. No instrument would be able to measure the voltage differential across 100 meters, but the solar wind acceleration over tens of millions of kilometers does confirm the Sun's e-field, enough to sustain a drift current across the Solar System. Within the spatial volume, the implied current is sufficient to power the Sun. In 1979, Dr. Earl Milton composed a paper titled, The Not So Stable Sun in which he wrote: "In order to maintain a stable sheath between the photosphere and the corona a great many electrons must flow downward through the sheath for each ion which passes upward. The solar gas shows an increasing percentage of ionized-to-neutral atoms with altitude. Some of the rising neutral atoms become ionized by collision. Some fall back to the solar surface. The rising ions ascend into the corona where they become the solar wind. The descending gas flows back to the Sun between the granules--in these channels the electrical field is such that ions straying out from the sides of the photospheric tufts flow sunward, and hence the electrons flow outward. The presence of these channels is critical to the maintenance of the solar discharge" Stephen Smith
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Nebula RCW49. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/E. Churchwell (University of Wisconsin)
Nebular Currents
(Jun 22, 2009)
Electric Universe theory proposes that most of the Universe is behaving according to the laws of plasma dynamics. In every science journal discussing the behavior of planetary nebulae, the prevailing description of regions like RWW49 usually involves gases and dust "blowing" through them, as well as "winds" created by "shock waves" from exploding stars. In many cases, such as RCW49, the nebula is described as "star forming," because intense points of x-ray radiation, or extreme ultraviolet, indicate to astronomers that new thermonuclear fusion reactions have begun within the cloud. The Electric Universe sees things differently. Plasma, not hot gas, is flowing through space. The physics of electric currents apply, not the physics of winds. Within the shell of a planetary nebula are one or more plasma sheaths, or "double layers," that act like capacitors, alternately storing and releasing electrical energy. The current flow alternately increases and decreases within the sheaths inside and outside the shell. Charged particles in motion constitute an electric current which take the form of plasma filaments. An electric current is accompanied by a magnetic field that wraps around the current filament and diminishes linearly with the distance from it. An electric current filament in plasma May create a double layer along its axis. Positive charge builds up on one side and negative charge on the other side of the double layer. A strong e-field exists between the two charge layers and if enough current is applied the double layer will glow, but it is otherwise detectable only by its emission of radio noise. Double The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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layers and current filaments form in the circuit that threads through the galaxy. They are mostly invisible because of their low current density, but the magnetic fields they produce can be mapped by radio telescopes. A neon lamp that emits light only at the excitation frequency of a specific gas is a more correct model for nebulae. Electricity passing through neon gas causes it to form a plasma and to glow a pale yellow. Other gases, such as oxygen or hydrogen, produce blue and red light, while heavier elements emit their own colors. Plasma behavior is unfamiliar in many ways. It is often difficult to see plasma as completely different from a gas. Plasma's similarities to gas are overshadowed by its failure to correspond with gas kinetics. Since more than 90% of the light frequencies from planetary nebulae are in the ionized oxygen range, they should be thought of as oxygen discharge tubes and not balls of gas. Ideas like this are unfamiliar to astronomers who think in absolute terms of gravity and mass-they seldom think about charges. They think of moving charges from the Sun as a "solar wind" instead of an electric current. They think of charged particles impacting a planet or moon as a "rain" instead of an electrical discharge. They think of charged particles moving along a magnetic field as a "jet" instead of a field-aligned Birkeland current. They think of abrupt changes in the density and speed of charged particles as a "shock wave" instead of a double layer that can even explode. As astronomer Amy Acheson wrote: "Its been over 300 years since Newton encountered his apple, and his conception of gravity, now modified by Einstein and supplemented with similar mechanical theories of solids, liquids and gasses, has become the popular vision of space--an almost-empty universe of self-contained bodies. And now its been 100 years since Birkeland encountered his aurora, and his conception of electric currents in space, developed by such pioneers as Irving Langmuir and Hannes Alfven, has been a footnote to standard theory, rarely called upon except to explain the occasional curiosity in space." It's about time that the simple more straightforward explanations are remembered and not the arcane, overly complex hyperbole that seems to be the standard for scientific papers today. Stephen Smith
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The Moon's north pole (lower right). Credit: Galileo Mission/NASA/JPL
Reconnoitering the Moon

(Jun 19, 2009)
New lunar missions will look for water and study the Moon's composition. The Moon is about to be thumped. On June 18, 2009 NASA launched the LRO/LCROSS mission to look for water on the Moon. Accomplishing the task required that three separate components launch together: a Shepherding Spacecraft, a Centaur rocket, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The LRO is designed to orbit the Moon for a year, looking for possible future landing sites and analyzing the lunar environment with a number of instruments, including a high-resolution digital imager. Since LRO will be in a polar orbit only 50 kilometers high, it is hoped that water might be found in the deep craters located near both poles. LRO separated from the other two spacecraft approximately one hour after launch, with a scheduled lunar orbital insertion on June 22, 2009. The remaining two vehicles comprise the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), which will arrive at the Moon much later. The LCROSS Centaur rocket will first be guided several times around the Earth so that it can pick up speed. Each 38 day orbit, as they swing past at a 90 degree attitude to the Earth/Moon system, Earth will impart a gravitational acceleration to LCROSS until it reaches a velocity greater than the bullet from a hunting rifle. The Shepherding Spacecraft will then separate from the rocket, following it to its planned intersection with the Moon. The Centaur will impact the Moon, where it is expected to blast out subsurface compounds that NASA scientists hope will contain water ice. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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On January 25, 1994, NASA launched the Deep Space Program Science Experiment satellite, also known as Clementine. Its primary mission objective was to map the Moon in visible and ultraviolet light, so that the various minerals that make up the lunar regolith could be identified. After the data was analyzed, scientists announced that the south pole of the Moon contained pockets of water ice shielded from the Sun by shadows cast from the walls of deep craters. The information sparked a renewed interest in lunar colonization because the water ice could be a source of hydrogen, making it available for fuel and other uses by potential human explorers. Water can be split into oxygen and hydrogen with electricity, so solar panels could be transported to the Moon and used to create breathable air and drinkable water, along with fuel for the return journey. At the time, some researchers questioned the accuracy of Clementines observations, or at least their interpretation. They suggested that the instruments May have seen reflections off the steep sidewalls of the craters and not ice deposits. Since the radar signature came from both brightly illuminated and darkly shaded areas of Shackleton crater, specifically, the reflection probably came from rocks and other debris rather than ice. The LCROSS Centaur has been aimed to hit the Moon near the north pole in this case, with its Shepherding Satellite close behind. The Shepherding Satellite will fly the same trajectory as the Centaur rocket, analyzing the explosion's debris plume while plummeting toward the surface. After four minutes, the satellite will also hit the Moon, raising its own plume of material. The LRO will make several passes over the impact region, looking for the signature of volatile compounds escaping from the craters left behind by its two companions. The Japanese spacecraft Kaguya, whose two year mission recently ended, found that the south pole craters contain no ice after all. On September 14, 2007, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced that the floor of Shackleton crater was 183 Celsius, but that Kaguya's onboard Terrain Camera, with a 10 meter resolution, showed no bright, highly reflective patches. The researchers noted that the small excess of hydrogen ions recorded by instruments on previous missions was most likely implanted in the regolith by the solar wind. It is hoped that LRO/LCROSS will help to settle the issue. As we have written in past Picture of the Day articles, the search for water on the Moon will most likely fail. The Moon was not formed by innumerable strikes from high-velocity space rocks or thousands of comets out of a hypothetical Oort Cloud. No water was brought to the Moon by millions of cometary ice balls. The morphology of the Moon shows the signs of electric discharge machining as we have argued many times. No water-bearing impactors formed the terrain there. Rather, it was electricity that carved the Moon, and any water that might have once existed there was dispersed into space by the energy released in the events. Stephen Smith
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Neptune's clouds zip around the planet. Credit: NASA/Hubble Space Telescope
Electric Wind
(Jun 15, 2009)
It is the planets farthest from the Sun that have the fastest winds. The average annual wind speed on Earth is approximately 56 kilometers per hour, with a maximum of 372 kilometer per hour gust recorded on Mount Washington, New Hampshire in 1934. On December 17, 1997 the US Weather Service recorded a maximum non-tornadic wind gust of 378 kilometers per hour on the island of Guam. Some isolated wind phenomena, such as tornadoes and hurricanes, can sustain average velocities of 480 and 320 kilometers per hour for short periods. The maximum 24 hour speed record of 205 kilometers per hour from 1934 still remains, however. Atmospheric forces of that degree are enough to knock down heavily reinforced buildings, scour concrete roads away, blow cars and trucks around like leaves, and leave farmland completely denuded, including the topsoil. Meteorologists are not sure how tornadoes form, but they are often associated with lightning storms. It seems that the key to understanding tornadoes is to think of them as rapidly rotating electric discharges. Just as copper wires carry electrons for power transmission, so do tornadoes. The difference is that electrons are moving at several centimeters per hour in a wire, while flying around at many meters per second in a tornado. The result is that the tornado forms an enormously powerful electromagnetic force field called a "charged sheath vortex." It is commonly believed that weather is driven on Earth primarily by the Sun's thermal influence on the atmosphere. As we rotate beneath our primary, gases and dust absorb solar radiation at varying rates and in varying degrees. When any particular region heats up, the air The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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expands and loses density, creating a relative low pressure area. Cooler air, being denser, will naturally flow into the bottom of the warm, low pressure region, causing an upwardly rotating convection cell to form. Most weather systems on Earth are thought to be based on that simple kinetic explanation: winds blow when the cooler, denser air flows into the warmer, buoyant air. The kinetic model of weather does not take into account the fact that planets much farther out in the Solar System have sustained winds that make those on our planet seem like gentle breezes. The average wind speeds on the gas giant planets are fantastic. Jupiter's winds clock at 635 kilometers per hour around the Great Red Spot; Saturn's average wind speed is up to 1800 kilometers per hour; Uranus 900 kilometers per hour; and Neptune comes in at 1138 kilometers per hour. On Neptune the winds are blowing through an atmosphere that measures minus 220 degrees Celsius. Why is it that the most remote planets, receiving small fractions of the solar energy bathing Earth, are able to convert that small fraction into much larger effects? As mentioned in a previous Picture of the Day, Earth is a small charged body moving in a large cell of plasma, so physical phenomena on or near the planet must take the electrical nature of plasma into account. Contemplating the larger picture will help to add new details to the study of everyday phenomena, such as the weather. Perhaps lightning also powers the wind. Neptune has some of the strongest winds of any planet in the Solar System, yet it is farthest from the Sun--its frigid atmosphere contradict the thermal model of air movement. Perhaps hurricanes, tornadoes, and even prevailing winds are electrical in nature? The Electric Universe hypothesis agrees with conventional theory that wind is movement of air molecules, but that there are other explanations. What are those other agents of movement? If conventional theory explains wind solely as the result of convection and gas kinetics, Electric Universe proponents insist that electric discharges also generate wind. Electromagnetic forces in plasma move and accelerate charged particles, so collisions between charged and neutral particles drag the neutral air molecules along with them. Close observation of laboratory arc discharges reveals that an electric "wind" surrounds and often precedes an electric arc. The plasma discharge sweeps up the surrounding air along with the charge carriers, or ions. The wind appears as inflows and updrafts as well as outflows and downdrafts. It can lift dust particles and erode surfaces. By analogy, we must then question the accepted explanation of thunderstorms as being caused solely by convection of hot air and the climatological movement of winds by the Sun's heat alone. By Stephen Smith
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Dual bands of ultraviolet light mark streams of plasma circling Earth's equator. Credit: NASA IMAGE Satellite/University of California Berkeley.
Plasma In Three Dimensions

(Jun 12, 2009)
Plasma is often described as the fourth state of matter. Since it makes up more than 99% of the Universe, it should be reckoned the first state. It was in September of 2006 that a major premise of Electric Universe theory was confirmed: Earth weather is electrically connected to the ionosphere. Since electricity always flows in a circuit, if the ionosphere connects to Earth's magnetosphere then it connects to the circuits of the Solar System, as well. Although the general premise is probably thousands of years old--that Earth is somehow an electrical entity--it has only been in the last 100 years that scientists have given serious credence to the possibility that we could be living in a dynamic Solar System where electricity plays an important role. Earth's polar aurorae are further evidence of this connection, as are high-altitude discharges known as red sprites and blue jets. Sprites and jets carry charge distribution from lower atmospheric layers into the ionosphere. They are usually seen high above thunderstorms, so high that the storm is sometimes below the horizon when the phenomenon occurs. Space shuttle flights have recorded the glow from sprites and jets as they launched upward toward space. They are essentially reverse lightning bolts--beginning as powerful upward strokes that rapidly diminish into small filaments--and seem to be closing the circuit between the cloud tops and the ionosphere. The electric charges flowing out of the Sun, on the other hand, travel down magnetic flux tubes that have also recently been discovered. These "magnetic tornadoes" are several kilometers wide and allow electric currents to flow directly from the Sun into the polar regions, generating visible light, radio waves, and x-rays. The power generated by an auroral substorm is far greater than what human beings can The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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create with every coal-burning, oil-fired, or water-driven means combined. These currents are comprised of widely separated, low density charged particles and are called Birkeland currents. Despite the low current density, the volume of charge is so great that there is an extremely high overall current flow, over a million amps. It is common among planetary scientists to talk about plasma, but to do so in a way that makes its electrical nature seem to be of little import. Solar "wind," "a rain" of charged particles, ionic "impacts," "clouds of ionized gas": such terms are meant to convey the inertial aspects of plasma and reduce it to nothing more than hot gas and dust. Because astrophysicists are convinced that electricity is not a factor when dealing with objects in space, the fact that plasma can act with forces 39 orders of magnitude greater then gravity is virtually ignored. An electric discharge in plasma creates a tube-like magnetic sheath along its axis. If enough current flows through the circuit, the discharge will cause the sheath to glow, sometimes creating a number of other sheaths within it. The sheath is called a "double layer." Double layers form when positive charges build up in one region of a plasma cloud and negative charges build up nearby. A powerful electric field appears between the two regions, which accelerates charged particles. The electric charges spiral in the magnetic fields, emitting x-rays, extreme ultraviolet, and sometimes gamma rays. Every world in the solar system is a charged body orbiting in a plasma. There are many ways in which plasma interacts with dust or atmospheric gases no matter how hot or cold they are. Spacecraft sent to other planets, as well as satellites orbiting our own planet, have detected aurorae, lightning, tornadoes and dust devils. Large magnetic fields have been detected in galaxies, and those fields indicate that Birkeland currents flow in circuits through them. The current-induced magnetic forces pull the currents into filaments, twist the filaments around each other, and then "pinch" the galactic plasma until the internal pressure balances the magnetic constriction. Stars will form like beads along a galactic wire, that wire being a Birkeland current filament. Volcanoes on Earth have been found to "spit lightning" from their vents. Global dust storms on Mars are shown to be fed by thousands of sky-high funnels. Further into the solar system remote instruments are finding radio noise, electrified comets, spokes in Saturns rings and many other modes of electrical activity. It is rare to read a report in a science news magazine that discusses the electrical nature of plasma and its role in the Universe. As more instruments capable of measuring the plasma environment of space are built and more sensitive detectors are sent out to the various planets, moons, comets, and eventually, nebulae, the Electric Universe paradigm will only gain more support. And that is not hot gas. By Stephen Smith
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Schematic diagram of Earth's magnetosphere. Credit: NASA
Celestial Bodies On Their Guard

(Jun 10, 2009)
Long before western scientists formulated the laws of gravity and electromagnetism, skywatchers grappled with the question how the planets were able to move independently from the fixed stars. In ancient Greek cosmology, the definition of these wandering planets usually included the sun and the moon. Interestingly, some of the speculative answers provided by early thinkers ring curiously true from the perspective of current scientific knowledge. As the planets seemed to have a will of their own, it was easy to assume that they possessed a divine soul which guided them on their course. This was the opinion expressed by the anonymous Athenian Stranger in Platos dialogue The Laws: "The suns body is seen by everyone, its soul by no one. And the same is true of the soul of any other body This soul every man is bound to regard as a god." But where was the invisible soul, which apparently "drives round the sun," located with respect to the visible body? The Stranger could think of only three possibilities: "That either it exists everywhere inside of this apparent globular body and directs it, such as it is, just as the soul in us moves us about in all ways; or, having procured itself a body of fire or air (as some argue), it in the form of body pushes forcibly on the body from outside; or, thirdly, being itself void of body, but endowed with other surpassingly marvellous potencies, it conducts the body." In other words: the soul pervades the entire body, steers it externally by means of a physical force such as "fire or air," or controls it by some other, immaterial means. More than two thousand years anon, the search for the driving force of planets as well as the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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sun is still on and the fundamental questions remain the same as the ones posed by Platos mouthpiece. As far as the sun is concerned, its apparent motion is no longer a problem on the heliocentric model, but the source of the power that sustains its brilliance remains to be established. The prevailing paradigm holds that the sun is powered through nuclear fusion reactions taking place in its interior. In postulating a self-sustaining mechanism that "exists everywhere inside of this apparent globular body," this approach conforms to the first of the solutions offered by the Stranger. Theorists familiar with the role of plasma and electromagnetism in space point at the many weaknesses of this model and propose that the sun May be externally powered through current-conducting cables known as Birkeland currents. This type of model rather fits the Strangers third option that of an extraneous force, "itself void of body," that nonetheless exercises control. No soul is required to account for the orbiting movement of the planets either. Nevertheless, planetary scientists have discovered that almost every planet in the solar system does have an invisible companion a protective surrounding bubble that shields the body from external electric fields. This bubble is known as a plasmasheath or a magnetosphere. A magnetosphere deflects the onslaught of the solar wind, which is a stream of plasma radiating out from the sun. The understanding that a violent solar wind causes temporary distortions in the shape of the magnetosphere, leading to aurorae and other effects in the ionosphere, reminds of the Strangers notion of the soul as "a body of fire or air" that "pushes forcibly on the body from outside." While the impinging force of the solar wind is not responsible for the motion of planets across the ecliptic, one might say that the fate of a planet, including the earth, is controlled to a large extent by the external action of the "body of fire or air" that is the solar wind. In hypothesising that each planet has an invisible guardian spirit, the Athenian Stranger anticipated perhaps by chance the modern discovery of protective, invisible magnetospheres surrounding planets. Indeed, the solar wind produces its own bubble around the sun, the heliosphere, which encapsulates all of the planets and protects the entire solar system from damaging influences from the winds of interstellar space. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Artist's impression of Jupiter-sized planet HD 189733b. Credit: ESA, NASA, Frdric Pont (Geneva University Observatory)
Extra-Solar Habitable Zones

(Jun 08, 2009)
Could there be Earth-like planets circling other stars in our galaxy? HD 189733b is not an Earth-like planet. It is larger than Jupiter and circles so close to its parent star that the atmosphere reaches more than 800 degrees Celsius. HD 189733b represents the majority of worlds that have been discovered revolving around other stars. Most of them are located in close orbits, and most of them are gas giants. The primary reason for the large number of planets in this group is the detection methods used to find them. Astronomers started out looking for planets around other stars by analyzing how the stars were moving. It was thought that a star with a planet swinging around it would show minute changes in its spectrum as it was pulled side-to-side by gravitational inertia. As the planet's mass pulled on the star, it would create a "wobble" in the spectrum. Based on the size of that wobble, a determination of the planet's mass could be made. Since the initial instrumentation was not as sensitive as later versions, it was the larger more gravitationally influential planets that were located first. Now, there have been more than 300 planets discovered, some with an Earth-like mass. The Kepler mission, a one-meter-diameter NASA space telescope that will launch March 5, 2009, will use a new technique to count Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones around other stars. When a planet passes in front of a star, the starlight should dim slightly. Kepler will search for that subtle flicker, with complete data analysis available sometime in 2013. It is expected that Kepler will more than double the catalog of extra-solar planets. According to the Electric Universe theory, planets ought to be found around other stars. There is a mechanism that causes planetary birth and subsequent electrical interactions during close encounters with other bodies. Stars "give birth" electrically in a discharge from their charged interiors. Since stars are not powered by hydrogen fusion but by incoming electric The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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currents, whatever fusion does take place is most likely taking place close to or on the surface. There is no super-compressed, intensely hot core, radiating energy from thousands of kilometers deep inside. Instead, heavy elements are synthesized in the exterior plasma discharges and then "precipitate" into the star's interior like a rain of metal atoms. According to EU physicist Wal Thornhill: "External electrical or gravitational stresses on a star May cause some of its internal positive charge to be offset from the center of the star. And since like charges repel, the offset charge will tend to accelerate toward the surface. It is a form of internal lightning. This process May lead to the expulsion of a substantial portion of the positively charged interior of the star. The visible result is a nova, or star-wide lightning flash, as electrons in the stellar atmosphere rush toward the emerging positively charged matter. The ejected material constitutes a powerful electric current, which generates its own magnetic field. That magnetic field constricts the charged matter to form a jet. The leading matter is neutralized and stops accelerating, causing the following charged matter to pile into it. So is born a companion star or gas giant planet. This explains why so many stars have been found to have extremely close-orbiting gas giant planets." As orbits adapt to a new stable configuration, dust, stones and boulders arriving from space or blasted from distant parts of the same body are deposited. Plasma etching, combined with ionic discharges, are responsible for rounding the rocks, scattering them uniformly across the landscape, and leaving "flow streaks" from electrical "winds." Blowing gases and flowing liquids require action over long spans of time. Electrical erosion, caused by forces billions of times stronger than mechanical forces, can achieve observed effects in short times. Electric Universe advocates predict that when it becomes possible to send probes to other star systems like our own, we will most likely find similar planetary systems in orbit around them. The electric forces that formed and energize this planet most likely formed the exoplanets, so it is expected that we will find Earth-like planets sooner or later. Stephen Smith
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False color image of Caloris Basin (orange) on Mercury. Credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Arizona State University / Carnegie Institution of Washington
What Are Little Planets Made Of?

(Jun 05, 2009)
Color images of Mercury reveal an unusual blend of mineral compounds in its surface structure. The planet Mercury is 4878 kilometers in diameter. The moons Ganymede and Titan are both larger, while Earth's moon is slightly smaller. Mercury orbits the Sun at a mean distance of 57,910,000 kilometers--a year on Mercury lasts a mere 88 days. Since Mercury rotates every 58.6 days, the planet completes three rotations for every two orbits about the Sun. Close proximity to the luminary means that temperatures on Mercury can reach 427 Celsius when the Sun is at its zenith. Being two-thirds closer to the Sun, Mercury receives an average of nine times more radiation at its surface than does the Earth. The searing heat, as well as intense bombardment by charged particles from the Sun, pose a dilemma for planetary scientists: Mercury has a thin but detectable atmosphere. How a planet with such a weak gravity field (only 38% as great as Earth) and with so much "erosion" by solar radiation can retain the smallest remnant of an atmosphere is a mystery. As we discussed in a previous Picture of the Day about Saturn's moon Titan, weak gravity fields are not supposed to be able to keep atmospheric gases from leaking away into space. Ancient moons are thought to be airless deserts because whatever gas they once held has long since been "weathered" away by the solar wind. Ions tend to drag gases and dust away from the moon, like a stream of water dissolving a riverbank. Gradually, the atmospheric density falls to zero and nothing remains to protect the surface from meteoric bombardment or coronal mass ejections from the Sun. According to consensus opinions, this is why so many moons look alike and why they have no atmospheres: they The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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have all undergone similar evolution over billions of years. Titan, and now Mercury, have called such presumptions into question, however. With Titan, mission engineers have speculated that there is some form of gas generator on the moon, replenishing its frigid methane atmosphere. On Mercury, where cold is not the issue, the solar wind is thought to be powerful enough to knock particles off the surface rocks, leaving the ions to recombine suspended in near orbit, weakly held by the gravity field. Since the molecules are not able to persist, satellite probes like MESSENGER can detect them during its planetary flybys as they leak away. The MESSENGER mission has also constructed images such as the one at the top of the page using eleven different color filters on its Wide Angle Camera (WAC). By combining the information from infrared, visible red, and violet filters, then running it through arbitrary red, green, and blue channels, a false-color impression of Mercury's surface composition can be displayed. While the colors are not truly what would be visible to the unaided eye, they allow geologists to visualize the variations in chemical distribution as well as how various features correlate to mineral concentration. For example, Caloris Basin appears to be composed of geologically different material than its surroundings. The supposed impact craters within the basin demonstrate that their rims and floors are made of something else entirely. Perhaps the dark blue substance came from volcanic events after the impacts, or perhaps it is the remains of the impactors themselves that we see. Presently, no one is sure which minerals correspond to which colors, so it is difficult to be certain of what past events caused what. In April of 2009, NASAs THEMIS satellites found "electrical tornadoes" about 60,000 kilometers above the Earth at the interface between Earth's magnetosphere and the solar wind. During the most recent MESSENGER flyby of Mercury, similar flux tubes were found, connecting its magnetic field directly with the Sun through twisting Birkeland current filaments. Birkeland currents are well-known to plasma physicists and Electric Universe proponents. They act as cosmic transmission lines through space, confining plasma within their vortices and allowing electric currents to flow over great distances. As we have suggested in the recent past, rather than reckoning celestial bodies like Titan or Mercury to be geriatric denizens of a wizened Solar System where whatever catastrophes that might occur have long since run their courses, it is more reasonable, given the anomalies detailed for many years in the Thunderbolts Picture of the Day, to think of them as youthful members of a dynamic ensemble. Mercury is probably a relatively young planet and May have come to its present orbit and circumstances within the last 10,000 years. If that is the case, then the presence of an atmosphere of whatever density would not be surprising. The presence of electric currents flowing like giant tornadoes into Mercury hint at a time when those currents might have been far more powerful. There might have been a period in Mercury's history when those helical currents were energized to the glow mode or the arc mode stage. If that happened, then the surface of Mercury would have been the scene of gigantic electric discharges blasting out craters, cutting vast chasms, and rearranging the atomic structure of the planet's crust over large areas. Caloris Basin and the altered materials in the craters could be part of what has been left behind after the increased electrical energy through Mercury's structure dissipated. Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Extreme ultraviolet light image of two active regions on the Sun. Credit: SOHO (NASA and ESA).
The New Solar Cycle

(Jun 03, 2009)
The twenty-fourth recorded sunspot cycle is off to a slow start. "Thermonuclear fusion powers the Sun." The phrase is no longer spoken with any implied question, it is explicitly stated as fact by conventional astrophysicists from every university or research institute. The commonly accepted nuclear power source for the Sun is due to core temperatures high enough for hydrogen ions to combine into helium nuclei and excess energy, according to theory. The Sun then radiates that energy into space in the form of x-rays, as well as visible and extreme ultraviolet light. Heavier ionized atomic nuclei are also emitted, forming the solar wind. However, a growing number of independent scientists, engineers, and researchers insist that the popular theory is wrong. They say that the Sun is an electrical phenomenon and not strictly fed by nuclear fusion; it is a localized glow discharge through plasma and is fed by electric currents flowing through the galaxy. According to the electrical model of stars, the Sun acts like the "anode" or positively charged electrode in a circuit, while the "cathode" or negatively charged electrode is not an object, but is "virtual" and located far beyond the planetary orbits. The virtual cathode is known as the "heliopause": in electrical terms, it is a double layer separating the plasma that surrounds the Sun from the galactic plasma in which the Solar System is immersed. Sunspots are not a well understood phenomenon from the fusion stand point. It is known that magnetism is involved with sunspot activity, because gigantic loops and whorls of plasma can often be seen connecting two or more of them, held in place by the spiraling magnetic fields. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Why or how that magnetism is at work on the Sun remains unclear in consensus opinions. Filaments and "fibrils" can be detected with high resolution photographic equipment in the penumbra, or darkened cores of sunspots. The swirling plasma spirals look more like electromagnetic tornadoes than anything else. This is one example where understanding the difference between hot gas (which does not contain charged particles) and plasma (which does contain charged particles and can be electrically active) could provide some illumination: sunspots are not the result of gas convection modified by magnetism, sunspots are electrical structures. For conventional theory, sunspot penumbrae remain a mystery: the standard solar model does not predict such structures. The electric model does predict them. Electric discharges often appear as long twisting filaments. Because they are funnels of glowing plasma they appear darker in their centers--convection cells would appear darker on their cooler edges. In the electrical model the sunspot cycle is most likely a result of fluctuations in the electrical power supply from the local arm of our galaxy. As the varying current density and magnetic fields of huge Birkeland current filaments slowly rotate past our solar system, they apply more or less power to the electrical circuit that lights up our daytime sky. Rather than a weak Sun, the lack of sunspots here at the beginning of Solar Cycle 24 is most likely due to a weaker current flow through the galaxy. Stephen Smith
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Titan's south polar region (bottom left). Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Cassini Equinox Titan Update

(Jun 01, 2009)
Almost a year into its extended mission, Cassini continues to reveal Titan's chaotic, enigmatic surface. On October 15, 1997 NASA launched the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft on a mission to explore Saturn and its family of moons, particularly Titan. It was the largest payload ever sent out to deep space, weighing almost six tons. It needed most of the seven year journey to Saturn for gravity boosts from Venus, Earth, and Jupiter because it could not carry enough onboard fuel to blast straight out to its target. As it was, the proposed decade-long flight, with engine burns, instrument usage, and radio transmissions to Earth, required that it carry several kilograms of plutonium as its primary power source. On January 14, 2005 the Huygens probe separated from its mothership and successfully landed on the frigid moon. In June of 2008, the official mission timeline came to an end. It was renamed Cassini Equinox to commemorate the change of seasons on Saturn as the Sun passed through Saturn's equinox and began to illuminate the giant planet from the North. For the four year term of its original mission, Saturn was lit from the South, so NASA engineers are taking advantage of this rare opportunity. Cassini recently flew close by Titan, and on June 6, 2009 its cameras will once again trace out a swath of radar images as it skims past the planet-sized moon at a distance of 965 kilometers from the surface. It is expected that the same low-lying regions NASA scientists refer to as "lakes," as well as the dendritic channels referred to as "river valleys," will dominate the conversation once the images are analyzed. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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For years NASA has maintained that Titan's predominantly methane atmosphere has to be constantly replenished somehow, because so much of it is destroyed by sunlight. If the moon is as old as current theories propose, with that much leakage the atmosphere should have entirely evaporated long ago. The only mechanism that astrophysicists could imagine as a source was oceans of liquid methane beneath the dense cloud cover. The Huygens lander quickly dispersed that idea when it touched down on what appeared to be a flat, rock-strewn plain. No methane droplets were detected falling from the sky, or precipitation of any kind for that matter, and no pools of methane were seen anywhere within its field of view. Instead, orbital images confirmed a dry surface when vast areas covered with dunes several meters high were seen. The dune fields, along with evidence for deeply carved channels over several hundred square kilometers, demonstrated that forces other than flowing liquids had been at work on Titan. One of the principle tenets of Electric Universe theory is that the Solar System has been the scene of catastrophic encounters between charged planetary bodies at sometime in the recent past. Electric fields interacting with gigantic clouds of plasma caused major disruptions both in orbital arrangements and geological stability among the planets and moons. Indeed, many new objects May have been added to the mix in the form of cometary bodies scaling down in size from something as big as Venus to particles small enough to make up Saturn's rings. If it can be suggested, based on the presupposition that Electric Universe proposals are correct, that Venus is a new member of the Solar System, then why not apply the same theory to Titan? If Titan is a relatively new addition to Saturn's system of some 60 moons, then the fact of its methane atmosphere does not indicate replenishment, but youth. There simply hasn't been enough time for Titan to lose its atmosphere--its atmosphere has only recently been created. Titan is second only to Venus in its atmospheric density. However, what also prompted planetary scientists to come up with the "replenishment" theory to account for it is that Titan is too small, with too little gravity to hold an atmosphere so dense. Assumptions from conventional theories of Solar System evolution are invalid when it comes to Titan if it is billions of years old. If, like Venus, Titan is not an ancient member of an even more ancient system of planets, but is a new member of an entirely remodeled system that has come about recently, then new ways of describing its structure and behavior must be considered. A principle advocate of Electric Universe concepts, Wal Thornhill, has written several articles and offered many opinions about Titan and its place in an electrically charged Solar System: "We must therefore allow that Venus and Titan May both have new surfaces if planets and moons are not formed through accretion by impacts billions of years ago. The 'befuddlement' and 'mystery' May prove to be the result of an unquestioned belief in that [billions-of-years-ago] hypothesis. Predictions based on that story have had no success in the space age. So we May be confident that planets did not accrete from a solar nebula." Electrical activity on a scale sufficient to carve out craters and mountain ranges is something that is never reported in the conventional press. When it comes up at all, in a comments section or a blog, the idea is often mocked or banned more than it is given any consideration. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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When there is room in the thoughts of reasonable people to apply easily understood elements of electrical theory to observations that otherwise elicit confusion when plugged into standard models, there will be more clarity of perception. Observations do not create new theories, observations are inserted into parameters that are previously established according to a hypothesis. The Electric Universe hypothesis provides a more complete picture when the images and data from probes and telescopes are inserted into it. The primary reason it is not considered a viable model is the time element involved. It is a foregone conclusion among its opponents that the Solar System is much as it was since its initial formation billions of years ago. To consider a 10,000 year time frame is tantamount to blasphemy. As has been publicized in these pages many times, though, a change in thought often occurs when it is least expected. When the time for change comes to pass, change is inevitable. The growing number of adherents to the Electric Universe conception of how the cosmos operates means that further changes to human thought are coming soon. Stephen Smith
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Location of the planetary nebulae in the outskirts of the giant galaxy Messier 87 and in the intergalactic space around the centre of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2
Not Seeing Whats Not Believed

(May 25, 2009)
New observations to measure the outer halo of the galaxy M87 find that it isnt there. Another unexpected result fails to elicit acknowledgement that the theory predicting the halo has been falsified. "This is an unexpected result," one observer commented. "Numerical models predict that the halo around Messier 87 should be several times larger than our observations have revealed. Clearly, something must have cut the halo off early on." Clearly, another possibility is that the models are wrong. But modern astronomy doesnt look for possibilities; it prescinds from them with excuses to defend dogma. Missing stars are the least problem with M87. Missing--that is, ignored--observations make up much of the data. The increasing power of astronomical telescopes and institutions has been accompanied by a narrowing of fields of view, data sets, and minds. Since the Big Bang came to dominate astronomical theories, unexpected findings are updated with narrower-field observations that exclude the anomalous objects or the objects are omitted from maps and discussions. What cant be believed in accordance with accepted theory is not to be seen. M87 is a large, bright galaxy in the Virgo Cluster, which is the apparent center of the Local Supercluster. With the advent of radio astronomy in the 1960s, M87 stood out as the brightest radio galaxy in the cluster. To the south of it lies the brightest radio quasar in the sky, 3C273, with 40 times the redshift of M87. Almost exactly between them is the brightest galaxy in the cluster, the active elliptical M49. Along the line connecting these three bright objects are smaller galaxies, compact clusters, and quasars with higher redshifts. When x-ray telescopes came into use, they revealed an s-shaped filament of x-ray emission connecting M87, M49, 3C273, and the discrepant high-redshift objects sprinkled between them. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Both 3C273 and M87 have narrow jets of luminosity almost identical in length extending from them. A narrow filament of hydrogen with a redshift about the same as the Virgo Clusters extends beyond the end of 3C273s jet. Aligned along M87s jet are small elliptical galaxies, xray sources, and quasars with higher redshifts. Around the alignment is an oval of spiral galaxies with higher redshifts than M87. The "missing outer parts" region around M87 is actually filled with twisted threads of radio emission. This is shrugged off as an effect of "the small coreenergizing its whole galactic neighborhood." But in view of the x-ray connections throughout the entire Virgo Cluster, the opposite is true: the threads trace the electric currents that power the galaxy, its core, and its jet. (See the diagram illustrating electric galaxy development toward the end of "Cosmology in Crisis--Again.") An ultraviolet survey of all quasars in the northern sky found them concentrated around the Virgo Cluster. The association went unnoticed. Astronomer Halton Arp remarks in his book Seeing Red: "This is primary observational data--simply catalogued positions of quasars--just photons as a function of x and y. And yet it seems to have made no impression on most astronomers who insist on believing that quasars are evenly spread out in the far reaches of the universe." Measurements of their Faraday rotation, which is a rotation of polarized light in proportion to the amount of magnetized plasma it passes through, revealed that quasars with redshifts around 2 had a third as much rotation as quasars with redshifts around 1. (If redshift indicated distance, objects with twice the redshift should show twice the rotation.) This finding indicated that the higher redshift quasars were fainter and located closer (on the near side of the cluster) than the lower redshift ones. In addition, the values were almost all negative, which meant that the intergalactic magnetic field was systematically oriented in one direction and that it had about the same strength as the field in galaxies. After initial surprise at this unexpected result, it "went missing." The papers reporting and discussing these findings were rejected, delayed, or published in minor journals. Each observation was treated as a separate anomaly--set aside, dismissed with a makeshift excuse, or simply ignored. The systematic correlations and repetitions of the observations were disregarded. Certainly, one or two anomalies are not enough to cast doubt on a theory, but when anomalies preponderate and ad hocisms proliferate, the theory is apt to be wrong. "It seems the toughest thing for scientists to grasp--that a cherished paradigm like the big bang can be wrong." Arp wrote: "In view of all the other evidence known to show that quasars, and 3C273 in particular, belonged to the Virgo Cluster, I gloomily came to the ironic conclusion that if you take a highly intelligent person and give them the best possible, elite education, then you will most likely wind up with an academic who is completely impervious to reality." [Emphasis in original.] The image of the fearless scientist dispassionately following the objective truths of careful observation into new regions of discovery turns out to be a pretense for timorous formalists whose observations and thoughts are fashioned to conform to peer opinion.
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Saturn's rings almost edge on. Also note from left to right: Enceladus, Dione, Titan and Mimas (just above the ring plane). Credit: Hubble Space Telescope.
Vanishing Rings
(May 20, 2009)
Saturn's rings will soon disappear from view. What force created and sustains them? Every fourteen or fifteen years, Saturn's rings become invisible to telescopes on Earth. The reason is that the planet is tilted on its axis by 27.4 degrees. Since the ring plane is titled at the same angle, as Saturn revolves around the Sun in its 30 year orbit, it gradually shifts its perspective, bringing the rings into visual alignment with the equator. Saturn's main rings, including gaps, are approximately 416,000 kilometers wide, but are estimated to be a mere 50 meters thick, possibly as little as 10 meters. This means that even the most powerful Earth-based telescopes can detect only a thin wire extending across the planetary disk when they are edge on. Modern astronomers postulate that Saturn's rings were formed in one of three ways. Some believe that they are the icy leftovers from the original nebular cloud out of which the planet condensed. Others suggest that the orbit of a small moon gradually brought it too close to the giant planet, whereupon it was torn apart by tidal forces. Still others believe that the rings were created when a moon was destroyed by the impact of an asteroid, leaving the fragments behind in their own orbits. Regardless of the way they were formed, they are theorized to be over four billion years old--almost as old as the Solar System. What sustains the rings is still a mystery to astrophysicists. If they were formed billions of years ago, then without being fed new material they would have been drawn down into Saturn's gravitational maelstrom and destroyed. It is thought that micro-meteorite impacts "erode" material off some small moons and eject it into orbit, where it is slowly sorted by Saturn's gravity field into thousands of individual bands. The rings continue because some The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive moons are getting smaller all the time.
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However, the Electric Universe hypothesis sees things differently. In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles about the plasmasphere around Saturn, it was noted that planets and moons do not exist in an electrically neutral environment. Saturn, in particular, has a family of moons that exhibit electric discharge machining on a vast scale, as well as features within its atmosphere that could be characterized as lightning discharges. The aurorae on Saturn emit intense radio waves and the planet is surrounded by a torus of plasma that emits x-rays and extreme ultraviolet light. Saturn seems to display many aspects that are predicted by the Electric Universe theory, including the shape of its rings. In 1913 Kristian Birkeland wrote: "It seems almost incredible that such a ring of cosmic dust should be able to exist for ever, so to speak, without other governing forces than gravitation..." Planets with magnetic fields can trap hot particles to form giant electrified clouds. NASA scientists have noted that Saturn's magnetic field bends around Enceladus "due to electric currents generated by the interaction of atmospheric particles and the magnetosphere of Saturn." Further flattening of the plasma torus on the sunward side demonstrates an electrical (not mechanical) effect is occurring between Saturn and the Sun. Gravity-only models of the solar system insist that Saturn's rings can only be created, held and shaped by the activity of "shepherd moons" and angular momentum. Instead, we should look to the electrical force that is orders of magnitude more powerful. Stephen Smith
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The surface of Comet Wild 2 (left). Saturn's moon Phoebe (right). Credit: NASA/JPL
Comet Crystals
(May 18, 2009)
Comets are said to be composed of "dusty ices." Why have crystalline structures that require high temperatures been found in them? NASA scientists launched the Stardust mission on February 7, 1999. Its primary task was to collect dust particles from the coma of comet Wild 2 and then return to Earth. Fuel savings meant that the capsule required a gravity boost, so it returned to Earth orbit from deep space after almost two years of travel time. As it flew by the home planet, it was accelerated back out to its aphelion, 400 million kilometers from the Sun, reaching a distance greater than any other solar-powered spacecraft. So that mission specialists could test the camera operation and other instrument packages, Stardust briefly encountered the 4-kilometer asteroid Annefrank on November 2, 2002 at a distance of 3000 kilometers while moving at 7 kilometers per second. Although the dust collectors on board were open to space, no material collection was expected in the vicinity and none was achieved. After a five year journey, Stardust finally intersected Wild 2's orbit on January 2, 2004, passing through its coma at the metaphorical hair's breadth distance of 240 kilometers. The aerogel dust-capture system worked perfectly, scooping up fine bits of rock and trapping them inside for their return journey to Earth on January 15, 2006. Although the spacecraft traveled more than a billion kilometers over a 7 year time span, the mothership successfully released its payload and the parachutes deployed, cushioning the precious cargo for a soft landing in the Utah desert. The aerogel was delivered to a thrilled team of researchers for analysis. That's when the surprise and shock began. Minerals such as anorthite and forsterite were found embedded in the aerogel--compounds that form only at extremely high temperatures--along with olivine. Perplexed scientists wondered how an object that was supposed to be a remnant from the early nebular cloud out of which the Solar System condensed, and that should have been kept in frozen hibernation The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive in a theoretical "Oort cloud" billions of kilometers from the Sun, could exhibit crystalline structures that would require a blast furnace to create. Stardust mission team leader Donald Brownlee said at the time:
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"In the coldest part of the solar system weve found samples that formed at extremely high temperatures." Now, according to a recent paper in the science journal Nature, a mechanism by which such high temperature crystals might form has been announced. A team led by Attila Juhsz from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy examined the light emitted by EX Lupi, thought to be a young star in the constellation Lupus. EX Lupi is a variable star, meaning it periodically brightens over a several month period. After one energetic pulse in 2008, the infrared spectral signature of the star seemed to indicate that some of the orbiting dust had been changed from a glasslike substance to one that is similar to what was seen in the spectrum of comet Wild 2: high temperature crystals. The unfortunate part of the observation is the conclusion that was reached. Among astrophysicists, the consensus opinion is that stars like EX Lupi undergo energetic eruptions because they gravitationally drag material from their surroundings and accumulate it on their surfaces. The added mass compresses to the point where it explodes in a thermonuclear reaction and the stars "go nova." Note that this is quite different from a supernova explosion where a star casts off its outer layers due to a disruption in its hypothetical core fusion reactions. The supposed nova on EX Lupi is said to have heated the glasslike matter around the star until it became "thermally annealed" and changed its physical structure into harder crystals like the forsterite discovered in the coma of Wild 2. In other words, it is the old standby of gravity, heat, and shock waves that are responsible for what is observed. Electric Universe advocates see things differently. Stars and comets share common characteristics because they are both born of similar parentage. Stars are nodes in vast electrical circuits connected by Birkeland current filaments within galaxies. Planets, moons, asteroids, and comets are electrically charged and exist within a radial electric current that surrounds stars like our own Sun. Comets, specifically, have nothing to do with an ancient nebular cloud of cold gas and dust that became gravitationally unstable and collapsed into the Solar System of today. Comets and their asteroid sisters are relative newcomers to the solar family and might have been blasted out of larger bodies by tremendously powerful electric discharges in the recent past. They are not "snowballs" or blobs of muddy slush, they are solid, rocky, cratered, electrically charged objects. When Stardust arrived at Wild 2, it found that the coma contained the "signature" of water vapor, although the distribution was anomalous. The farther from the surface of the comet, the greater the amount of vapor, surely a result that is diametrically opposed to the theoretical model of sublimating ices jetting out from the nucleus. So what was the "water vapor?" Whatever water or hydroxyl compounds that can be found in cometary comas is created there because ionized oxygen from the comet reacts with hydrogen ions streaming out from the Sun. No "jets" of water vapor spew from comets, and no icy plains have ever been observed. It is electric effects that are seen--discharges and arcs form the comet phenomena. Similarly, stars do not oscillate in brightness or energy output because they are accumulating The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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excess mass. They do so because they are experiencing an increased electrical input from the galaxy. The electric current flowing into the star causes it to change its discharge behavior. It might go from a stable and (what is for it) "normal" glow mode to a more intense arc mode state. The greater current flow might cause z-pinch regions around the star where its plasma could then be reformed into different chemical compounds. It is more likely that processes involving plasma are responsible for the changes in stellar spectrograms. So, in conclusion, The Sun and comets are part of one electrically active circuit that is occupied by many different regions of charge distribution. The Sun receives its power from the protean electric generator we call the Milky Way. Accordingly, planets and other bodies exist within a flow of charged particles constantly streaming from the Sun. As any first year electrical engineering student knows, a stream of charged particles is an electric current. Stephen Smith
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Interacting ring galaxies designated as Arp 147. Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio (STScI)
Faster Than Light: Part Two

(May 15, 2009)
If distance calculations based on redshift are inaccurate, what does that mean for the consensus opinion about the age or the size of the Universe? In the 1960s astronomers discovered quasi-stellar objects, better known as quasars. They have extremely large redshifts, implying that they are located near the farthest edge of the observable Universe. Quasars are referred to as "quasi-stellar" because they are relatively small, often little more than a light-year in apparent diameter, at their assumed distance, yet emit so much energy that they are thought to be the most powerful continuously radiant objects in the Universe. The only other active energy sources detectable at such vast distances are gamma ray bursters (GRB). However, GRBs last for mere minutes, whereas quasars shine continuously in output. They remain as bright as when then were first discovered. Some astronomers soon found that many quasars are associated with spiral galaxies (like M82) and appear to be near the galaxy instead of billions of light-years distant. Based on other data, such as quasars' anomalous apparent brightness when compared with their redshifts, Hubble's expanding Universe theory was called into question. Long before the quasar problem arose, though, Edwin Hubble himself was moved to suggest that inflation might not have taken place in the "early" Universe. He thought that new observational data was necessary in order to decide whether it was definitive. In 1947, he was waiting for the new 200-inch telescope at Mt. PaloMar to be built: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive "It seems likely that redshift May not be due to an expanding Universe, and much of the speculations on the structure of the universe May require re-examination... We May predict with confidence that the 200-inch will tell us whether the red-shifts must be accepted as evidence of a rapidly expanding Universe, or attributed to some new principle of nature." Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Vol. 59, No. 349.
Unfortunately, nothing definitive has resulted from astronomers working with the Hale telescope or the many space-borne telescopes that have been launched since then. Instead, redshift and inflation have become something of a dogma among the astronomical community and new, ever more arcane mathematical excursions have been added to the mix, as was discussed in part one. Although many observations contradict the consensus view, and have been doing so for 40 years or more, those data are ignored or marginalized. High redshift quasars, as previously mentioned, are found in axial alignment with galaxies that possess substantially lower redshift. Indeed, they are sometimes connected to those lower redshift galaxies by "bridges" of luminous material. Halton Arp was the lone voice among a crowd of scientists who conformed to the standard Big Bang model when he began to publish papers that did not demonstrate that inflation--or the Big Bang hypothesis--was valid. As Edwin Hubble predicted, Arp's research using the 200-inch Hale reflector demonstrated "some new principle of nature." One of the more interesting images that substantiates the need for a revised cosmology is NGC 4319 and its companion quasar, Markarian 205. Arp called attention to the fact that the lower redshift galaxy is physically connected to the higher redshift quasar. A filament between the two objects violates the measured distances because no such connection should be possible. After all, NGC 4319 (from redshift calculations) is said to be about 600 million lightyears from Earth, while Markarian 205 is around a billion light-years away. If these objects are physically connected they must reside locally with each other at the same distance from Earth. The discrepancy in their redshifts has to be from some other factor not related to their distances--there must be something intrinsic to their makeup that leads to the deviation. Arp assembled a Catalog of Discrepant Redshift Associations that describes anomalous structure or physical links among objects with radically different redshifts. Some of the observations show quasar pairs being ejected in opposite directions from active galaxies. This led to the so-called ejection model of galaxy formation. In brief, high redshift quasars around galaxies, such as the aforementioned M82, are the "daughters" of the mature galaxy. Their various redshifts do not indicate distance, but age from the time of ejection. Arp speculates that the redshift measurement of quasars is composed not of a velocity value alone, but also depends on what he calls "intrinsic redshift." Intrinsic redshift is a property of matter, like mass or charge, and can change over time. According to his theory, when quasars are ejected from a parent galaxy they possess a high intrinsic redshift, z = 2 or greater. As the quasars move away from their origin within the galactic nucleus, their redshift properties begin to decrease until they reach somewhere near z = 0.3. At that point, the quasar resembles a galaxy, albeit a small one. The inertial moment of ejection is eventually overcome and the mass of the quasar increases while the speed of ejection decreases, until it The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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May become a companion galaxy. It is in that way that galaxies form and age, evolving from highly redshifted quasars, to small irregular galaxies, and then into larger barred spirals. Other examples of fast-moving quasars in front of slower moving galaxies, or connected to them with luminous filaments, have been observed. NGC 7603, for instance, a distorted spiral galaxy with a single arm, is joined by that arm to a smaller companion with a much higher redshift. Within the bright material of the arm are two other objects, each with redshifts different from the galaxy pair. There is nothing conclusive in the mainstream scientific journals about Arp's data as of this writing. His telescope time was cut off many years ago by the decision makers who allot that time to various research groups. His revelations concerning problems with consensus dogma were considered too intolerable, so he was summarily censured by his peers. However, the evidence he continues to gather and promote ought to make us stop and think: is the Big Bang dead? How big and how old is the Universe if redshift readings are not reliable indicators of distance? Stephen Smith
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Cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation projected onto a sphere. Credit: NASA/WMAP
Faster Than Light: Part One

(May 13, 2009)
How big is the Universe? How old is it? Today, cosmology is dominated by the Big Bang theory. The theory's major premise is that there was once a void containing no matter, no space, and no time. For some reason not explained by the scientists who support the theory, an irruption of energy from another realm of existence replaced the void with what eventually became the present Universe. The Big Bang theory was postulated because the astronomer Edwin Hubble, using the 100inch telescope at Mt. Wilson observatory, believed that he had observed remote galaxies receding from the Milky Way. The most surprising piece of his recorded data was not the recession itself, but the high velocities associated with his measurements. According to his calculations, some galaxies were traveling away from his observatory at thousands of kilometers per second. Hubble arrived at his conclusion because of what was later to be called the "redshift" of light frequencies in spectrograms from his galactic images. Adapting the Doppler effect (named for the Austrian physicist Christian Doppler, who came up with the idea in 1842) to the spectra of various galaxies, Hubble thought that the change in location of particular elemental signatures called Fraunhofer lines (for the German physicist Joseph von Fraunhofer) indicated that the lightwaves had been shifted toward the red end of the spectrum by an apparent recessional velocity. Fraunhofer lines are supposed to occur at specific frequencies identified in the spectrum by The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the kind of element that is absorbing the light. If they are in a different location, then they have been Doppler-shifted because of the element's acceleration. This forms the backbone of galactic-scale distance calculations and the supposed speed of recession that the galaxies display. Using this system of "redshift" some galaxies are measured to be moving away from Earth at an unbelievable 90 percent of light-speed. All that we see and experience is supposed to have been born in the Big Bang explosion, so the original inertia imparted to the Universe came from that preternatural event. Since the distances and the recessional velocities of objects are correlated with a time-scale, something like a galaxy or a quasi-stellar object (QSO) that is 10 billion light-years away is also thought to be as it was 10 billion years ago. Astronomers are seeing ancient light that has been traveling through space for 10 billion years before finally impinging on their detectors. The current estimate for the age of the Universe is 13.7 billion years, based on data from powerful telescopes that are supposed to be capable of detecting galaxies that approach that distance from Earth. As mentioned, distance and time are thought to be related to each other because of redshift, so as far as we can see into the Universe provides information that determines how old we perceive it to be. In other words, the diameter of the observable Universe should be approximately 27.4 billion light-years. There is a conundrum associated with that figure, however. According to a current press release, the Universe is thought to be 156 billion light-years in diameter and not 27.4 billion! How can this be? The answer, according to theoretical physicists, is inflation. Astrophysicists of the recent past were dismayed when their observations seemed to indicate greater complexity in the early Universe than should exist. As the principle of inflation states, though, it is not merely the acceleration from the Big Bang that is affecting the spectra of remote galaxies and QSOs, but that the space in which they are embedded is expanding. If it requires X amount of time for a galaxy to form and the Universe is Y years old, then a galaxy should not exist at time-distances less than Y minus X. When such formations were seen, as far as the relevant theories are concerned, some other explanation had to be added to the Big Bang hypothesis to account for them. So, objects that appear to be redshifted to extreme distances May not be as old as their spectra suggest: they are moving along with the expansion of space. Indeed, as the inflationary theory proposes, they are not as old as they appear to be, they are simply "farther away." This dichotomy seems to demand that the early Universe was expanding faster than the speed of light, since its "size" is more than 11 times greater than its age. Edwin Hubble's observations of galactic distances versus speed of recession led to another quandary: galaxies that are far enough away would move so fast that their velocities would exceed the speed of light. This is known as the universal horizon, or the Hubble radius. It is the point beyond which our instruments can never see, because the light from over that horizon will never catch up to the greater than light speed expansion of space. The theory of Special Relativity (SR) does not allow any object to reach the speed of light, let alone exceed it, so how do space scientists deal with the dilemma? They do so by ignoring the restrictions of SR and resorting instead to the General Theory of relativity where such restrictions do not exist. Since no information can be transmitted from beyond the Hubble radius, no violation of relativity occurs. How did these twists and turns in ideas, as well as the warping of time and space come about? They are the direct result of the assumption that redshift correlates with distance. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Modern cosmological systems are all built, without exception, on that assumption. What if Hubble's original premise was flawed? What if redshift is really a red herring? Where then shall we turn for an explanation of what we observe? We turn to the work of Halton Arp, an astronomer whose reputation should be at least the equal of Edwin Hubble's. Stephen Smith
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Birth horoscope of the cosmos according to Hellenistic astrology, showing a linear conjunction of the seven planets spanning across seven constellations of the zodiac. Courtesy Meredith Garstin.
Joining the Dots Part Two: The Dating Scene in the Sky
(May 08, 2009)
Ancient astronomers from the Hellenistic world to China believed that the cosmos is ravaged by deluges and fires whenever the five naked-eye planets, the moon and the sun meet in a linear conjunction. Modern astronomers baulk at this notion of a Great Year for essentially two reasons. The first objection, that planetary conjunctions cannot produce any noticeable effects on earth, is challenged when the role of the solar wind and planetary magnetotails is taken on board, as previously discussed in part one. What about the second objection a chronological discrepancy between traditional dates given for such conjunctions and the modern findings of retro-calculation? For ancient chroniclers working within the framework of a Great Year theory, the most recent turning-point in this cycle functioned as an era base for the present historical age. Though most ancient estimates for the present era base are now lost in time, at least one has survived. In the traditional chronology of Hindism, the present age is the Kaliyuga, the beginning of which was dated by the famed Indian astronomer, ryabhaa (476-550 CE), to the 17th/18th. February 3102 BCE, when all seven traditional planets were in conjunction in 0 Aries. Intriguingly, this date roughly agrees with two comparable calendar bases in Latin America. The British Mayanist, Sir Eric Thompson (1898-1975), deduced that the Long Count of Mayan astronomy commenced on 11th/12th. August 3114 or 3113 BCE. In 1644, the Spanish historian, Fernando de Montesinos, outlined a Peruvian account of history involving nine eras The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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governed by rulers called Pachacuti, that must have had its beginning date in 3061 BCE. Though these calendar bases were not demonstrably associated with a linear conjunction of planets, they were almost certainly linked to astronomical movements and are close enough to ryabhaa's estimate to suggest an underlying truth of some sort. Time and again, modern commentators have pointed out that ryabhaas date for the most recent great conjunction does not correspond to astronomical reality, as "a mass conjunction did not take place" at that time. Armed with the evidence of retro-calculations, nowadays performed with software programmes, Bartel van der Waerden, Rupert Gleadow, Anthony Aveni, David Pankenier, Bruce Masse and the pair of David Kelley and Eugene Milone all dismissed the traditional date on this ground, suspecting that "the conjunction of 3102 B. C. was not observed, but calculated" as if the fact of calculation is a sufficient explanation for the perceived error and proposing various alternative dates on which similar mass conjunctions would have occurred. Despite the best intentions of these archaeoastronomers, none of their solutions are entirely satisfactory. On one hand, it is not clear whether their retro-calculating efforts concentrated exclusively on apparent linear conjunctions, as seems to be the case, or whether actual alignments, including the earth itself, were also considered. On the other hand, the proposed solutions typically do not involve all the traditional seven planets or present them only in a loose grouping, rather than the single, straight line stipulated by the ancient theoreticians of the Great Year. To a truly open and curious mind, the refutation of ryabhaas date for the latest Great New Year on chronological grounds carries very limited weight, for the simple reason that the orbits of the planets during the 3rd millennium BCE and earlier are not known with certainty. Retro-calculations, for all their mathematical genius, provide not a smidgen of proof without a control set of observational data. The earliest extant records of orbital measurements of the planets date from Hellenistic Mesopotamia, while ephemerides recording the positions and phases of the sun and the moon reach back a few more centuries. For the 2nd millennium BCE, the evidence for planetary orbits boils down to a handful of possible descriptions of eclipses, the interpretation of which is fraught with difficulties of a philological and an astronomical kind. Before that, all evidence for detailed astronomical observations evaporates entirely. Without any data checks, the mathematical extrapolation of current orbits to the distant past is a futile exercise, not only because it rests on the logical fallacy that the present is the key to the past, but also because Newtons law of gravity applied to the solar system predicts chaos in the term of a few million years at most. Indeed, the limited set of information conveyed by ancient scientists includes some very credible indications that planetary orbits did shift within the span of human history. For example, the Roman intellectual, Varro ( 27 BCE), is on record with the claim that Venus "changed its color, size, form, course, which never happened before nor since." Needless to say, even the slightest adjustment in Venus orbit would nullify any retro-calculations for the relevant period. To allow that orbital changes, however so subtle, have occurred in the recent past is not necessarily to endorse traditional dates for the time of creation or the cosmic New Year. For that, one would need to know how ryabhaa arrived at his date. The nub is the obstacle presented by the prevailing intransigent attitude towards the role of electromagnetic forces in the orbital dynamics governing the solar system. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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An electromagnetic theory of the great conjunction cannot only shed light on the traditional link with a world-devouring fire, but actually predicts subtle shifts in planetary orbits as well. In his proposed model of Electrically Modified Newtonian Dynamics (EMOND), electrical theorist Wallace Thornhill has recently argued that, when an electric charge exchange transpires between adjacent planets, orbital adjustment and stabilisation are the inevitable consequences: "If the mass of an inner planet is reduced by charge exchange with the next outer planet, the orbital radius of the inner planet must decrease proportionally to conserve energy. Similarly, the outer planet must gain mass and its orbit expands to conserve energy." An electromagnetic perspective on the workings of the solar system expects orbital adjustments at times of linear conjunction, when plasma tails interact with each other. If that May be granted, the use of retro-calculations to verify traditional dates for the most recent turning of the Great Year is invalidated and a greater reliance can be placed on traditional dates, provided that these did not themselves root in more ancient equivalents of retrocalculation. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Linear conjunction of the five naked-eye planets. April 28, 2002, at 21.17 in Great Britain. David Smith
Joining the Dots Part One: Fireworks on New Year's Day

(May 06, 2009)
Can there be any truth in the traditional linkage of a total conjunction of planets and universal disaster or is this just arrant nonsense? "All that the earth inherits will be consigned to flame when the planets, which now move in different orbits, all assemble in Cancer, so arranged in one row that a straight line May pass through their spheres. When the same gathering takes place in Capricorn, then we are in danger of the deluge." This statement is attributed to the Babylonian priest, Bl-reuunu (3rd century BCE), better known as Berossus, and epitomises the once widespread astronomical concept of the Great Year. From the Roman Empire to China, ancient philosophers defined the Great Year as a large cosmic cycle, completed when the five naked-eye planets, the sun and the moon appear in linear conjunction. It was thought that such complete conjunctions occasioned cosmic catastrophes devastating floods and fires that destroyed the preceding cosmos and inaugurated a new world. Standard astronomical models do not acknowledge any mechanisms accounting for global tides or fires in response to planetary conjunctions. While the tidal effects of the moon are satisfactorily explained with gravity, the same force cannot demonstrably be made to work for the planets, as has often been pointed out. The crux is that this dismissal rests on the antiquated perception of interplanetary space as a vacuum, in which gravity is the only operational force. With the coming of the Space Age, this simplistic paradigm has been incontrovertibly refuted. It is now known that most of the interplanetary space, and of the entire cosmos, consists of plasma and almost every body in the solar system is enclosed in a plasma sheath, technically a double-layer structure that The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Teardrop-shaped magnetotails, which are structurally comparable to the comas and ion tails of comets, extend out into space from the earth, Venus, and most other planets. These are often so long as to extend to the orbit of the next planet, sometimes tickling the protective sheath around that object as they point away from the sun. The solar equivalent to these planetary magnetospheres is the solar wind, which is ultimately responsible for auroral displays on the earth and on other planets. The physical composition and the interaction of these magnetospheres are extremely complex and scientists are only just beginning to get a handle on the subject. What is already clear, however, is that the possibility of the sun or any of the planets influencing the electromagnetic weather on another body is no longer so remote. As the plasma sheaths of different bodies brush against each other in the ecliptic plane, they effectively complete a giant electric circuit, allowing a transfer of electric charge between adjacent planets. Such discharging offers a straightforward explanation for the forgotten Pythagorean conviction that comets arise when planets form linear conjunctions. Can it also account for the destructions by fire and flood the ancients believed would happen when the planets line up? To find out, it is necessary to make a careful distinction between apparent linear conjunctions as seen from a viewpoint on earth and actual linear conjunctions in space. Insofar as some or all the naked-eye planets are regularly seen to arrange themselves in linear conjunctions, ancient astronomers might have based their ideas concerning a Great Year on observation. The approximate conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Mercury and the rising sun stretched out over a number of constellations on the 15th. April 2002 is comparable to the so-called thema mundi or cosmic birth chart outlined by Hellenistic astrologers, in which the seven traditional planets span across the entire starry sky. Could such apparent lineups of planets have inspired associations with transient events of the kind envisioned by the likes of Berossus? In theory, current knowledge about the solar wind and the windsock behaviour of planetary magnetotails allows that a lineup of bodies in the solar system might cause extremely violent disturbances of the geomagnetic field. For such a magnetospheric explanation to work, however, the linear arrangement of the moon, the sun and the five naked-eye planets cannot have been apparent, as, in that case, the plasma tails of these bodies could not line up to produce a closed electric circuit. Also, the earth would have to be physically displaced outside the string of planets, yet if it was to experience any of the resulting fireworks, it must have been caught in the crossfire itself. As the earths ionosphere would be loaded to excess with charged particles, an outburst of auroral activity might go some way towards explaining the reported conflagration of the world. The requirement of a real linear conjunction of planets, including the earth, in true state fits better with Berossus intimation that the "gathering" of the seven players occurred in a single constellation, but results in a visual separation of the exterior planets on the night side and the interior planets on the day side, in solar transit. The ancient authorities on the subject of the Great Year all lived at times when astronomy was advanced enough to distinguish apparent visual arrangements in the sky from inferred physical models of reality. That a great conjunction triggers destructive interplanetary storms fits into the segment in The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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time when astronomers first became interested in the periodicities of planets. The idea May have received its ultimate inspiration from mythical memories about a time when comets and meteors were rampant, when the world suffered in flames, and when stars and planets saw an apparent reorganisation that followed the breakup of a previous linear arrangement of bodies. In the real world, a linear alignment of planets with the solar wind May sometimes have coincided with an exceptionally intense discharge event. The above is not to suggest that planetary conjunctions must always precipitate cosmic discharging or bad weather on earth far from it. It is easy to think of complicating factors that help to explain why, for example, the conjunction of 2002 did not wreak any havoc. For one thing, many congregations of planets May simply be loose enough to allow sufficient leeway for plasma tails to miss the sheaths of other planets. The role of coronal mass ejections warrants investigation are these a required cause or a consequence of the fireworks accompanying a great conjunction? What are the restrictions on the orientation of the solar wind on such occasions? Finally, the intensity of electric discharging during conjunction must be modulated by the initial charge differential between the bodies involved, but this will vary over time, gradually being cancelled out during quiescent periods, when no extraneous forces impinge on the system. The bottom line is that ancient speculations about a link between catastrophic events and planetary movements present a challenge that is well worth renewed attention. In this particular case, plasma physics offers an intellectually palatable way to vindicate the astrological claim that the antics of the planets can affect the conditions of life on earth as a whole. The role of concomitant effects, such as the repositioning of the geomagnetic field, tsunamis and earthquakes, also invites further consideration. As a theory of cosmic time, the ancient notion of a Great Year May thus be rescued from the dustbin of scientific theorising. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Mercury's Rembrandt Basin. Credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Smithsonian Institution / Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Unveiling More of Mercury's Secrets

(May 04, 2009)
The innermost planet is continuing to provide scientists with new, unexpected revelations. Of primary concern to researchers studying the planets is the question, "How did those planets come to be as we find them?" Perhaps the secondary question is, "Are the causal forces that created them continuing to act today?" For most scientists investigating the issues, those questions are answered in similar ways. Cosmogony is explained by gravity and the compression of hot gas and dust. A primordial nebular cloud consisting of various mineral grains and gaseous combinations began to slowly draw itself together because an external influence initiated a change in its dynamic equilibrium. That influence might have been the shock wave from a supernova explosion or the close passage of another object with sufficient gravitational attraction. Whatever it was, the minute particles within the nebula were moved to join into larger and larger clumps that eventually contracted to a point where they began to burn with fusion fires and form a new star. Around that newly born star, an "accretion disk" formed eddies where more of the remnant material condensed, slowly accumulating mass until molten planetary lumps or giant conglomerations of gas came into being. Continuous surface bombardment from other nebular condensates on the rocky proto-planets formed craters of all sizes, added water, formed a variety of atmospheres, and created the conditions that caused the Solar System to become what it is today. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Many of the planets and moons--because they lack the eroding action of weather, or are at temperatures near absolute zero--remain as they were when the last of that bombardment occurred. Earth's Moon, for instance, is said to have existed for untold millions of years with its surface features little different today than they were in that remote natal epoch. Its craters, rilles, and mountains are preserved in a practical freeze-dried vacuum. Specialists in planetary evolution are satisfied that asteroids are no longer impacting members of the Solar System with the same frequency as they did in the beginning. The Sun has not changed its radiant output by any extreme measure since its steady illumination began, and its family of planets and moons have been in their orbital tracks without anything more than minor fluctuations for billions of years. It is a mature, quiet, and stable congregation, without any untoward events other than the occasional meteor shower or cometary passage. It is not an illogical theory, despite its age. Given uniformitarian parameters and the gradual decrease in cataclysmic reformation as the nebular cloud was swept up by the planets, especially the gas giants, it stands to reason that what we see today is a museum piece from the deep past. Planets might have "captured" other planetesimals, thus acquiring new moons, or some moons might have been destroyed when they strayed too close to a powerful neighbor, but most are where they have always been. Erosion on Earth has changed its geological features, but the same mountains and oceans are still here--in different places and with different forms, but mountains are still mountains and oceans are still watery repositories. In order to construct an alternate theory of the Solar System, especially a new theory of planetary evolution, it is necessary to first assume different engines of change and a more rapid morphology. The theories put forth by Electric Universe physicists are couched in those unique assumptions. At the outset it must be made clear that catastrophic evolution cannot be merged with gradualism. If the Solar System is a four-billion-year-old antique, then there is no way for a hypothesis that calls for recent restructuring to coexist. A new way of seeing the Universe must first be adopted. That new way of seeing has elicited hundreds of Picture of the Day articles dealing with the Solar System. Catastrophic encounters, changing orbital relationships, gigantic clouds of electrified plasma carving planets like hot knives, and atmospheric exchanges between worlds are theorized to have taken place, the last episode occurring in the recent past. The exact time is almost impossible to determine, but it is most likely to have been within the last 10,000 years--well within the historical memory of humanity. How does the Electric Universe hypothesis account for the volumes of information returned by missions such as MESSENGER? Previous Picture of the Day articles have described some of the features on Mercury as electrical in nature. They are similar to those found on Mars, as well as the Moon. Bright rays extend outward from several large craters on Mercury, similar to those seen around Tycho Crater on the Moon. Based on a discussion of that structure by the late Ralph Juergens, we concluded that rayed craters on Mercury are not the result of explosive ejecta, but are the signs of a powerful electric current dragging loose rocks and dust toward the center of a discharge region where a bolt of electricity leaped upward to space. This opinion is diametrically opposed to consensus opinions about their formation. Multiple concentric rings are found on Mercury, just as on several other celestial bodies. When electricity passed through them it eroded material from the surface where the arc The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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touched down. The pits or craters left by electric arcs are usually circular because the electric forces constrain the arc to strike at a right angle to the surface. An electric arc is composed of two (or more) filaments rotating around a common center, so the surface was excavated by a plasma "drill bit," leaving steep sides and a "pinched up" rim of debris. If several filaments were involved, the plasma beams would have cut one crater within another, often with one or more smaller craters on the rims. Rembrandt Basin exhibits those characteristics. Another example of electrical effects in Rembrandt is the etched furrows radiating outward from the center. Earlier images of Caloris Basin show the same kind of etching. In 2007, Dr. C. J. Ransom performed an experiment at Vemasat Laboratories in Fort Worth, Texas. He exposed a thin layer of magnesium silicate to a 120 milliamp, 12,000 volt discharge for five seconds. In that short period, he produced radial gouges in the substrate similar to what has been found on Mercury. Dr. Ransom's experiments serve to demonstrate the scalability of electrical activity. There are more examples from MESSENGER that reveal Mercury's catastrophic past. The spacecraft has flown by the blazing hot planet twice now, with one more flyby scheduled for September 2009, before settling into orbit on March 18, 2011. It is certain that additional evidence supporting the new Electric Universe paradigm will come to light. Stephen Smith
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Left: Portrait of Plato from a 4th century BCE original. Courtesy Musei Capitolini, Rome. Right: Portrait of Aristotle. Courtesy Musei Vaticani, Vatican City.
An Aristotelian Hangover
(May 01, 2009)
The astronomers responsible for the news feeds in our tabloids seem to have a profound disliking for the idea that the solar system, including the earth, has suffered catastrophic changes within the past few thousand years. This intellectual preference is never explicitly stated. It rather acts on the unconscious mindsets of theoreticians, for example when evidence for cratering on the planets is immediately, without a second thought, relegated to the eventful early days of the solar system; when the possibility of unpredictable fluctuations in the planetary orbits is tacitly ignored; or when the pioneering work of plasma physicists like Kristian Birkeland or Hannes Alfvn does not rate a mention in standard textbooks on astronomy. What causes otherwise intelligent thinkers to shut off their minds for alternatives that seem genuinely possible, if not perfectly viable? A conspiracy? Ill will? Naivety? Or an intellectual blind spot? From a historical point of view, the legacy of Aristotle May prove very instructive. In his dialogues, Aristotles teacher, Plato, had happily speculated about cyclical episodes of destruction both on earth and on a cosmic level. One of his main interests was to incorporate ancient traditions about a reversal of the sun, a worldwide flood or a consuming fire into models that made scientific sense. For Plato, the realm of absolute, immutable perfection was not that of the stars and planets, but lay outside the material world altogether. His junior, Aristotle, would have none of this. Downplaying any traditions about global floods and fires, Aristotle regarded the spheres of stars and planets themselves as unalterable, immune to any form of decay or change. To such lengths would he go that even comets were removed from their place among the planets and relegated to the elemental region below the moon, where meteors and auroras belong! If Plato had no qualms to contemplate catastrophes, Aristotle was an out-and-out uniformitarian thinker a contrast lucidly discussed by the British historian, Peter James, among others. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Intriguingly, this change in sentiments seems to have repeated itself on a larger scale among post-medieval scholars in Europe. When Renaissance savants first rediscovered Greek literature, Platonic philosophy was all the mode, often tinged with Gnostic or Hermetic notions. During this time, the likes of William Whiston and Sir Edmond Halley felt no compunction to entertain the thought of comets precipitating the global flood of Noah or the tilting of the rotational axis. The seeds for change were sown when Gottfried Leibniz, a cardiac Aristotelian, declared with overweening confidence that natura non facit saltus, nature does not make a leap, and worked with zeal on the theory of a great continuous chain of being that would join all forms of life. This anti-catastrophist attitude snowballed into a movement culminating in the 19th century in the paradigms of steady evolution championed by Charles Lyell, Charles Darwin and a host of minor figures, which overshadowed any remaining catastrophists completely. On a big-picture view, the course of western science since then can be seen as an on-going effort to liberate the study of transient events in space from the obfuscating clutches of latterday Aristotelians. The reality of meteorite falls continued to be denied as late as 1833. Sunspots long sat uncomfortably with many who preferred an unblemished sun and Herschels claim that sunspots May have an effect on terrestrial weather and climate continued to be vociferously opposed even in the early 20th century. More recent developments in astronomical theory can be seen in the same light. Comet impacts remained taboo until Alvarez & Alvarez identified iridium in the extinction layer of the Dinosaurs in 1980. When comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 visibly impacted on Jupiter in 1994, any illusions that impacts only occurred millions of years in the past were firmly dispelled. Nevertheless, many astronomers carry on minimising the odds that the earth is hit by a NearEarth Object (NEO) but for how long? Evidence that the solar system is a highly structured electromagnetic apparatus continues to roll in and it May not be long before the full implications of a universe driven by plasma must be faced by all. Mathematicians deserve much of the blame for the Aristotelian inertia that has obstructed progress for so long. Leibniz was a mathematician; the findings of Richard Carrington and Kristian Birkeland, since proven true, were mainly opposed with mathematical arguments; and todays astronomers have a penchant for such mathematical fantasies as string theory, black holes, Big Bang analysis, and so on, which prevent any genuine understanding of the universe. This state of affairs is hardly surprising. By nature, mathematicians are attracted to numerical precision, regularity and a cosmos running with a clockwork stability. For those with an instinctive visceral aversion to phenomena that are irregular, unpredictable or hard to measure and calculate, a universe with cometary intrusions, planets prone to orbital adjustments and stars of which the age and distance cannot be confidently inferred must be a nightmare. Who is to say nature cares about a propensity for human number games? A scientist deserving of the name must bow to observational evidence and accept that good observations and traditions take precedence over theoretical preferences. Maths must be ancillary, not dominant, as the intellectual stupor of the Aristotelian outlook gives way to a Platonic curiosity and acceptance of what is. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Artist Impression of Birkeland current filaments, A.K.A. "space tornadoes." Credit: Andreas Keiling/UC Berkeley
Space Tornadoes Cause a Stir

(Apr 29, 2009)
The idea of a giant radiant pillar rising up from the earth to the sky would have sounded too fantastic to be true until recently. In April of 2009, NASAs fleet of THEMIS satellites detected vast electrical tornadoes about 40,000 miles above the night side of the earth, on the boundary between the solar wind and the earths magnetosphere. Since the 1990s, a handful of plasma mythologists had assumed the former existence of a stupendous, luminous sky column that was visible from almost every part of the earth. The evidence for this was the prominent place allotted to this axis mundi or world axis in detailed cosmological traditions from hundreds of cultures dotted around the globe. The column was widely portrayed as a prodigious mountain, tree, rope, bridge, ladder or pathway and was universally characterised by notions of centrality, vitality, vorticity, and luminosity: the conspicuous position it occupied in the firmament earned it an association with the navel, heart or centre of the world; its agility made it seem as if it was imbued with life, like a giant divine creature breathing life into the surrounding cosmos; its filamentary extremities were subject to warping and twisting, while the column itself was seen to be entwined by spiralling filaments frequently compared to snakes; and the splendour of the light it emitted repeatedly invited comparison to the sun and to lightning. Scores of mythical traditions from all inhabited continents detail the eventual collapse and disappearance of this mighty lightning-like pillar. The Maya of Valladolid, Yucatn, recalled the existence of "a road suspended in the sky" over the peninsula: "For some reason this rope was cut, the blood flowed out, and the rope vanished forever." The Mocov, of the South American Gran Chaco, reported that the tree Nalliagdigua, which The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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was "so tall that it reached from the earth to the sky," was felled by "an old woman." A preBuddhist tradition of Tibet related the downfall of dmu-thag, the "spirits rope" or "spirits ladder" joining the layered heavens, which the mythical kings used to traverse: "As a result the two worlds have remained for ever parted." The motif of axial disruption received little attention from comparative mythologists in general, but it did inspire researchers exploring the role of plasma in mythology to conclude that our ancient forebears had witnessed a transient event whose magnitude has not been rivalled in the past 3,000 to 5,000 years. The model required a scientific mechanism to be plausible. Insofar as any energetic plasma activity in the upper part of the earths atmosphere is classified as auroral by definition, an auroral storm of unprecedented intensity seemed to be at the root of the traditions. Too often, specialists in human traditions still conceive of the solar system as a sterile, Copernican region, in which planets, comets and asteroids are the only bits of matter traversing an otherwise absolute vacuum with clockwork precision. This view is long obsolete in science. It is now clear that the solar wind conveys charged particles from the sun towards the earth, where the geomagnetic field deflects them to the night side of the planet. Occasional leaking into the ionosphere through giant apertures then sparks bursts of auroral display. The solar system emerges as a finely structured framework of electromagnetic forces, currently quiescent except for the occasional coronal outburst of the sun. The exact mechanism of plasma transmission remains a vexing puzzle, however. Ever since solar weather was identified as the ultimate cause of geomagnetic fluctuations, scientists suspected that solar plasmas reach the ionosphere through plasma cables known to plasma physicists as Birkeland currents but the existence of these remained hypothetical. In a groundbreaking discovery, NASAs five THEMIS aircraft, designed to measure the magnetic field of the earth, have now identified giant swirling space tornadoes, the size of the earth or larger in diameter, that channel electrically charged particles at speeds of more than a million miles per hour along twisted magnetic field lines into the ionosphere of the earth, where they power the auroras. Stretching thousands of miles into space and exceeding the earth in diameter, these whirling vortices are clearly the modern equivalent of the hypothetical Birkeland currents that spawned human stories about a past resplendent sky column. Structurally akin to the hypothesized axis mundi that dominates the worlds creation myths, these "space tornadoes" are highly dynamic, funnel-shaped and current-carrying structures governed by the same laws of plasma physics and prone to the same types of changes in morphology and behavior that account successfully for the mythical traditions. The difference between the mythical column and the tornadoes observed today appears to be one of scale only: an unusually strong bombardment of charged particles onto the ionosphere could have triggered the formation of a single collimated Birkeland current, of a semipermanent nature, that was susceptible to a type of plasma instabilities known as Peratt Instabilities. Crucially, the electric discharging occurring on this occasion will have been intense enough for the dark plasma of the tornadoes as well as the solar wind to switch to glow or indeed arc mode, forcing the dazzling likeness of these space marvels onto the unprotected eyes of living beings on earth. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Nearby Barnard Dwarf Galaxy (NGC 6822). Credit: P. Massey (Lowell Obs.), G. Jacoby, K. Olsen, C. Smith (NOAO/AURA/NSF) & T.A. Rector (NRAO/AUI/NSF)
Dwarf Galaxies Pose Big Problems

(Apr 27, 2009)
The swarm of small galaxies orbiting the Milky Way are too few and out of place, according to astronomers. The Milky Way galaxy does not travel alone, it is accompanied by dozens of smaller galaxies with a more diffuse and irregular structure. According to a recent press release, there are too few dwarf companions in orbit, as well as issues with their locations. Instead of being distributed in a spherical shell, they lie in the same plane as the galactic disk. As consensus theories of galaxy evolution predict, there should be hundreds of dwarf galaxies surrounding the Milky Way, since they are thought to have evolved through multiple collisions with other smaller galaxies. The remnants that were not absorbed into the Milky Way became the globular clusters and dwarf galaxies. Astronomical observations do not support the theory, however, prompting scientists to question the fundamental assumptions of Newtonian gravitational models. The theory of dark matter was introduced many years ago because there appears to be too little visible material in galaxies to prevent them from coming apart. In fact, visible matter is said to make up only a small fraction of the Universe with over 95% being undetectable, inferred by its gravitational interaction with normal matter. The gravitational attraction of the stars and gas is thought to be too weak for galaxies to retain their shapes as they spin. The stars within the dwarf galaxies seen circling the Milky Way move too fast for anything other than the gravity from dense clouds of dark matter to be influencing them, although this creates a conundrum for astronomers. It is that speed and the "presence" of dark matter that are causing them to question Newton's The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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gravity theory. Since galaxies and their dwarf allies are the putative leftovers from smaller galaxies crashing into each other in the remote past, there should be no dark matter in them. So, it is actually the collision of those two cosmological theories that is creating the darkness in the argument. If the Electric Universe theory is given credence there is no confusion and no need to rely on a hypothesis that requires the existence of a substance in vast amounts that cannot be seen. Galaxies are not simple gravity-based structures that obey the laws of mechanics and momentum. They are not whirlpools of stars whose only reliable way to remain bonded together depends on a force that is extremely weak when compared to electromagnetism, for example. Electricity has been found to be over thirty-nine orders of magnitude more powerful as an attractive force than gravity. As physicist Anthony Peratt demonstrated in his supercomputer analyses of galaxy formation, it is electricity flowing through dusty plasma that is responsible for the births of stars and galaxies. Since the activities of electrically conductive plasma can be scaled up by many powers of ten, galaxy clusters and superclusters are probably the result of electric current flow, as well. Such flows of electricity are commonly called Birkeland currents after their discoverer, Kristian Birkeland. When Birkeland currents interact, they tend to twist around one another in a helical formation. A cross sectional analysis of the helices in laboratory experiments reveals the familiar barredspiral shape of a galaxy. Considering Peratt's hypothesis, galaxies are most likely electrical in nature--electromagnetic forces act on them with such power that gravity can be ignored when discussing their shapes and behavior. Electricity flows through a galaxy like the Milky Way along the polar axis and then out through the spiral arms. There is most likely a circuit across the galactic disk that divides, flowing upward and downward back into the poles. This circuit receives its driving power from Birkeland currents that connect the galaxy with the rest of the Universe where, presumably, billion-light-year long strands of magnetically confined electric filaments are transmitting power from one end of space to the other. As the intergalactic Birkeland currents move through the center of the Milky Way, they May also generate a toroidal particle beam at the edge of the disk, which would energize a ring of stars. Observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey have uncovered such a ring in the form of a separate structure that surrounds the galaxy at a reported distance of 120,000 light years. Since the dwarf galaxies are also rotating in the galactic plane along with the ring, it seems logical to conclude that one force is acting on both. Electromagnetism, being substantially more powerful than gravity, causes the ring of stars and the dwarf galaxies to be aligned at right angles to the axial intergalactic magnetic field. The speed of the stellar motion-considered anomalous by the consensus view--is also explained by the stronger force of electromagnetic attraction. In conclusion, the "unusual behavior" of stars and galaxies can be explained if astronomers would use their instruments to look for the signature of electricity in space. There are extremely sensitive detectors in orbit right now that are capable of increasing awareness, but instead they are being used to generate more mysteries. The electric motors of the galaxies could have been mapped years ago. Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"Nothing yet. How about you Newton?" Credit: Gary Larson
Imagine Another Wet, Rocky Planet

(Apr 24, 2009)
Geocentrism hides in the assumptions that support conventional astronomy. The result is unexpected observations and failed predictions. A recent ESO (European Southern Observatory) press release announced that the "lightest exoplanet" ever discovered is orbiting a nearby red dwarf star. The planet has less than twice the mass of the Earth, and its "year" is about three days long. It is, "very likely, a rocky planet." Another planet in the same system orbits within the stars "habitable zone" and "could even be covered by a large and deep ocean." Or not. Lets back away from the philosophical chasm over which these speculations are suspended and check whats anchoring the cantilevered assumptions that support them. What astronomers observed were variations in the spectrum of the light from the star. The rocks and oceans and habitable zones extend from assumptions about how gravity organizes matter. Gravity extends from assumptions about mass. Mass, it turns out, is simply not anchored. Astronomy is founded on a sensory bias: we see motion. With a few comparison tools--a ruler and a clock--we can measure position and distance and can directly calculate velocity and acceleration. Sight is our only "astronomical" sense. All others are "local," terrestrial: for example, we sense force with muscles and measure it with hands-on comparison tools such The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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as springs and balances. Hence, the physics of early astronomy--of Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Kepler--was kinematics, motion without muscle. Newton connected motion and force with a mathematical relationship and therewith introduced dynamics. But the muscle--and measurement of forces--was still confined to the Earth. So talk of forces in space was derived from theory and assumptions: quantities were calculated, not measured comparatively. This method was so successful at predicting the visual measurements of importance in past centuries that the difference between calculated values and directly compared measurements was forgotten. The difference is one of assumptions. The big assumption that got away was the matter of mass: specifically, that matter and mass were equivalent and therefore interchangeable concepts. Matter, like force, is a thing that we sense "on location"--something that we bump into. Mass, on the other hand, is a term of proportionality in an equation that relates measurements of muscle sensations to measurements of eye sensations--of force to distance or motion. In mathematical form, m = F/a. Matter is physical and sensible; mass is abstract and nonsensible. The confusion of the two fools us into thinking that Newtons equations explain matter. Since force is only measured on the Earth, the determinations of mass and of other quantities that involve mass, such as the gravitational constant, G, are necessarily geocentric. When astronomers calculate forces in space, they crunch geocentric numbers. On Earth, physicists can compare measurements of force with measurements of motion in the same setting to calculate the ratio--mass. In space, astronomers must calculate forces from measurements of motion and the assumption that mass works the same as on Earth. Even on Earth, mass doesnt work the same from one experiment to the next. "The two most accurate measurements [of G] have experimental errors of 1 part in 10,000, yet their values differ by 10 times that amount. So physicists are left with no idea of its absolute value." "Earths Magnetic Field Boosts Gravity," New Scientist, 22 September 2002. If we transpose variables in the equation for gravitational force to collect measured quantities on one side and derived ones on the other, we have Fr^2 = GMm. That the measurements differ means that GMm varies while the (experimentally controlled) quantity of matter remains unchanged. When applied to astronomical bodies, it means that calculations of mass tell us nothing about the matter associated with the mass. Within the solar system, whats expected for the mass of planets based on other assumptions about qualities of matter (chemical composition, density, etc.) is surprised by observations: Saturn seems to be missing a lot--its calculated density is less than water; Mercury seems to have a surplus--the excess is disguised in a bloated iron core; comets are made out to be fluff--despite looking like rocks. Outside the solar system, whats expected isnt even close to whats observed. White dwarf stars and neutron stars appear to have so much more mass than matter can encompass that new forms of "collapsed matter" have been invented to save the theory. Galaxies, in turn, appear so anorexic in their outer parts and so obese at their cores that occult forms of "dark matter" and "black holes" have been conjured. Modern astronomy has abandoned the physical and sensible world for an abstract universe of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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non-sense. It has become noted more for its sensational press releases than for its critical evaluations of results. Who can doubt that fame and fortune are directly attracted to hype? Thats politics and religion, not science. Whats needed is a better understanding--any understanding--of the anchor for cantilevering assumptions. Whats the physical basis for the abstraction we call mass? Why does matter respond to force with different motions? Whats this thing we call gravity that lies unexplained and uninvestigated behind a merely descriptive equation? One clue is our (again geocentric) predilection to think of matter as solids, liquids, and gases. Our space-age forays away from the Earth have given us ample evidence to realize that matter is plasma, which usually has far-reaching electrical effects. The Electric Universe is one pioneering investigation of how knowledge of plasma can modify Newtonian dynamics to provide a sensible, and therefore testable, theory of mass. It in turn leads to a more accurate and coherent--and "space-centric"--understanding of astronomical matters. Mel Acheson
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Comet SOHO 6 meets its doom. Credit: Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).
Sungrazers
(Apr 22, 2009)
Some comets fly in close to the Sun and then loop back into the outer reaches of the Solar System, with unusual results. Comets are described as "dirty snowballs" by the astronomical community, despite images returned from space probes such as Giotto and Deep Impact that show them to have blackened, cratered, and fractured surfaces. No snowy fields, high albedo crust, clouds of water vapor, or other indications of icy conditions have been observed. In fact, Giotto's close approach to Halley's comet revealed it to be the blackest object ever seen, with isolated energetic plumes erupting out of a dense nucleus. The Deep Impact mission encountered comet Tempel 1 in June 2005, and launched a projectile designed to strike the surface with the force of an artillery shell. While research team members at the time wondered if they would see anything of note, Electric Universe theorist Wal Thornhill predicted several results that subsequently proved correct, validating his ideas about the electrical nature of comets. Tempel 1 was thought to correspond with the conventional theory of comet evolution. Comets are supposed to be cold remnants from the primordial nebular cloud out of which the Solar System is theorized to have condensed. They are said to be "leftovers" that did not consolidate into large planetary bodies, so they remain orbiting the Sun at a distance of several billion kilometers in perpetual deep freeze. The remote sphere of debris is occasionally perturbed by a passing planetoid or a wandering star, whereupon several of the fragments lose their orbital equilibrium and begin to fall inward The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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toward the Sun. As they gain proximity to solar radiant emissions they heat up, which causes their icebound surfaces to sublimate, forming a coma that is gradually pushed back by the solar wind. The elongated coma forms a tail. However, Tempel 1 resembled an asteroid more than anything else. A large crater, boulders, and cliffs were plainly visible--nothing like the prevailing theory of snowballs and steam vents. Although water was discovered in the comet's environment, there was far too little ice on the surface to account for it. Other comets have defied convention, as well. Shoemaker-Levy 9 exploded into shards when it crossed Jupiter's powerful magnetosphere, but the freshly broken pieces did not expel any of the volatile compounds astronomers hoped to see. When Deep Space 1 flew by comet Borrelly in 2001 it was found to be hot and dry instead of cold and wet. The Stardust mission to comet Wild 2 discovered a great deal of dust nearby, but no trace of water could be found on its surface. Sungrazers tend to reaffirm the Electric Universe opinion about comets. If comets are the remains of electrical events that took place early in the life of the Solar System, then their "anomalous" behavior can be easily explained. Since there is a radial electric field from the Sun permeating the Solar System, as comets come closer to its greater charge density they experience a breakdown in their electrical equilibrium and begin to glow. The charged material, or plasma sheath, surrounding the cometary nucleus is accelerated out and away, sometimes forming a tail millions of kilometers long. The increased electric charge that comets accumulate as they near the Sun is demonstrated by sungrazers. Since the Sun's e-field is a dynamic structure, it changes in strength and size depending on the electric currents flowing into it from the galaxy. It is in a state of constant flux, requiring only a small trigger for it to discharge violently. Such discharges are known as solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CME). Comet NEAT swung close by the Sun in 2003, apparently initiating a CME eruption that appeared to impact the comet. Astronomers at the time discounted any relationship between the two events because of the size differential between the comet and the Sun. However, several other sungrazers have been associated with violent flares. One event can be a coincidence, two can be long odds, but three or more can not be dismissed as mere oddities. When comet 96P/Machholz circled the Sun, it came so close that if it were composed of ice with a small percentage of rock and dust it would have certainly disintegrated. It did not rapidly dissipate, however. Instead, its intense charge differential caused a gigantic CME to discharge from the Sun, blasting out for millions of kilometers. The electrical connection between comets and the Sun seems certain. If that is the case, then the electrical connection between the Sun and its entire family of planets and moons is certain. Changes in solar input and output can affect the environments of every member in that family: weather, orbits, magnetic fields, and surface features. Climate change, for example, rather than being an anthropic phenomenon, is doubtless an aspect of the electrical connection between Earth, the Sun, and the galaxy. Stephen Smith
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Composite image of galaxy cluster MACSJ0717.5+3745 from HST and Chandra. Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/IfA/C. Ma et al.); Optical (NASA/STScI/IfA/C. Ma et al.)
Hot Gas vs. Electric Currents

(Apr 17, 2009)
Astronomers have detected a strand of galaxies and gas flowing into a remote cluster. The predominant cosmological hypotheses within which most astronomers conduct their research are based on a gravity-only paradigm. Moving masses and heat are the only factors allowed to operate in their Universe. Electric charge is sometimes considered, but it is usually negligible in its effect, if it has an effect at all. In previous Picture of the Day articles, we complained that charged particles streaming from stars like the Sun are called a "wind" instead of an electric current. Ions accelerated by a magnetic field are referred to as "jets" instead of the collimated transmission of electrical energy through space, while changes in the density and speed of charged particles are almost always deemed to be "shock waves" and not the mark of double layers that can store and dissipate electricity, or even explode. Exploding double layers in the consensus view are either supernovae--the violent death of stars whose thermonuclear processes have reached a critical stage, or stars that have shed their outer shells of gas and dust, emitting x-rays and extremely high frequency ultraviolet light. One recent example of that view is a press release from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory website. According to the article, a 13-million-light-year-long surge of galaxies, gas, and dark matter is streaming into the center of the galaxy cluster shown at the top of the page. That is not the most "remarkable" aspect of the occurrence, however. MACSJ0717 represents the collision of four separate galaxy clusters over five billion light-years from Earth that will eventually become one exceptionally massive cluster. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The region is thought to be incredibly hot because the molecules of gas and dust are crashing into each other, resulting in x-rays flashing out from the blue color-coded regions. Cheng-Jiun Ma from the University of Hawaii, one of the authors of a paper about the observation, described the cluster integration as a strictly mechanical phenomenon: "Since each of these collisions releases energy in the form of heat, MACSJ0717 has one of the highest temperatures ever seen in such a system." Several computer simulations have been developed over the years so that what is unobservable "billions of light-years" away can be modeled on the desktop. It comes as no surprise that the observations appear to match the simulations. The same ideas used to construct the computer algorithms are also in the minds of those working with the instruments. Building a device that is designed to see what has been simulated is how modern science works. Mathematical formulae make both possible. Perhaps the lack of knowledge regarding electricity in space can account for the opinion that gases colliding produce x-ray and other energetic emissions. After all, perception comes through training and education, so without exposure to the theories of Kristian Birkeland and Hannes Alfvn regarding the behavior of electricity flowing through plasma no perception of its behavior can exist in the mind's eye. Alfvn said: "The cosmical plasma physics of today ... is to some extent the playground of theoreticians who have never seen a plasma in a laboratory. Many of them still believe in formulas which we know from laboratory experiments to be wrong . . . several of the basic concepts on which theories of cosmical plasmas are founded are not applicable to the condition prevailing in the cosmos. They are 'generally accepted' by most theoreticians, they are developed with the most sophisticated mathematical methods; and it is only the plasma itself which does not 'understand' how beautiful the theories are and absolutely refuses to obey them..." Stephen Smith
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Galaxy cluster RDCS 1252.9-2927. Purple color indicates x-ray emissions. Credit: X-ray NASA/CXC/ESO/P.Rosati et al. Optical: ESO/VLT/P.Rosati et al.
Dark Power
(Apr 15, 2009)
Astrophysicists speculate that the early Universe was powered by dark matter annihilation. According to modern cosmologists, the Universe is composed primarily of dark matter. More than 95% of all that exists is unseen and undetectable by the most sensitive instruments yet devised. Researchers from the University of Michigan have recently taken this idea to its extremes, claiming that the earliest stellar formations were (and perhaps still are) driven by Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPS) instead of thermonuclear fusion reactions. A quote from a paper written by a team from the Ann Arbor campus states the case ironically: "We studied the behavior of WIMPs in the first stars and found that they can radically alter the stellar evolution. The annihilation products of the dark matter inside the star can be trapped and deposit enough energy to heat the star and prevent it from further collapse." Their premise is based on several assumptions, not the least of which is the age and size of the Universe. Current estimates conclude that it is 13.7 billion years old because redshift measurements from galaxy clusters seem to indicate they are located at enormous distances from Earth. Since the redshift theory associates time with speed and distance, the greater the redshift, the greater the distance and the farther back in time the measured object must be. Consensus hypotheses about age and distance allow astronomers to propose many ideas that are built on the aforementioned assumptions, one of which is that the first stars formed The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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soon after the Big Bang and subsequent expansion of the Universe. The Big Bang Universe is 13.7 billion years old, so the first stars are no longer around. However, there is sufficient confidence in the theory that computer simulations can be written and models of what took place in that primordial era can be studied. The galaxy cluster image at the top of the page is said to represent a time almost nine billion years ago, since redshift calculations place its central structure approximately nine billion light-years from Earth. It is so remote in space and time that it can be placed at a period when the first stars were in their maturity. As the majority of astrophysicists maintain, that means it coalesced out of many sub-clusters when the Universe was dominated by cold dark matter. During that early epoch, stars must have contained high concentrations of dark matter, since theory states that dark matter densities were significantly greater than they are today. Due to that line of thought, an entirely new physical model has arisen with ramifications for the way scientists in the near future will investigate how stars and galaxies operate. Another quote from the University of Michigan researchers makes clear what some of those ramifications are: "The first stars to form in the universe are a natural place to look for significant amounts of dark matter annihilation, because they form at the right place and the right time. They form at high redshifts, when the universe was still substantially denser than it is today, and at the high density centers of dark matter haloes." Dr. Naoki Yoshida, Nagoya University in Japan and Dr. Lars Hernquist at the HarvardSmithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, created a program that simulates "what they know" about the early Universe in order to study those conditions. Their simulations revealed that gravity created small variations in materials that were then extant, including dark matter, causing it to condense into "proto-stars" that slowly accumulated additional matter until they became large enough for dark matter interactions to generate enough heat and initiate radiant output. Volker Bromm, Assistant Professor of Astronomy at the University of Texas, Austin puts it this way: "We must continue our studies in this area to understand how the initially tiny protostar grows, layer by layer, to eventually form a massive star. But here, the physics become much more complicated and even more computational resources are needed." A recent article in Physical Review D puts a more ironic stamp on this bizarre line of "reasoning." Scientists from the Institute for Advanced Studies, the Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, and Harvard University present a theory that includes dark matter annihilation products, a new force carrier, a way for dark matter to disintegrate into electrons and positrons, and a way to account for the ionization observed in deep space. It is these concepts that prop up the current scientific pronouncements about "dark stars" that shine from dark matter annihilation, as well as the computer simulations that are supposed to be "confirming" the environment in which those so-called dark stars can exist. Dark and dark and dark--Electric Universe proponents wonder if there will ever be any light from the heavily funded institutions that are supposed to be the pinnacle of scientific research. As physicist and Electric Universe theorist Wal Thornhill recently reiterated: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"I suggest we stop wasting tens of billions of dollars searching for new particles and forces invented by mathematicians chasing fame and a Nobel Prize and spend one percent of that sum investigating the dense plasma focus. Science used to be about simplification. It is the way of the Electric Universe. It is the way out of science's black hole." Stephen Smith
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Granite multi-ringed structure, Sahara Desert, Libya. Credit: NASA/Landsat 7
Jebel Arkenu
(Apr 13, 2009)
Some of the world's most unusual geography can be found across North Africa. Could it have been created by massive electric discharges in the recent past? The Libyan Desert is an empty wasteland and can support no human habitation. The central portion is exceptionally arid, where it rains less than once in thirty years. It is so dry and barren that NASA chose it as an experimental base of operations for the Viking lander project, since they considered it to most closely resemble the conditions on Mars. There are no roads or tracks, just the great open void. Previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles have described the strange landscapes across the African continent, as well as their anomalous attributes. Giant craters, deep cracks in the Earth, and lightning-like Lichtenberg figures etched into the terrain all point to events that do not lend themselves to uniformitarian explanations. In 1932, British surveyor Patrick Clayton was the first European to explore the area where the borders of Egypt, Libya, and Sudan meet. As he crossed the Great Sand Sea, he ran over something that made crunching noises under his wheels. It turned out to be silica glass. The Geological Society of Egypt invited L.J. Spencer, a mineral expert from the British Museum, to visit the site in 1934. His expedition spent nine days collecting glass. During that time, he found that it existed in a limited area: 130 kilometers north-to-south and 53 kilometers east-to-west. However, it has since been determined that the glass can be found in two areas, one of which is oval-shaped, and the other a circular ring 21 kilometers in diameter. Strangely, the center of the ring contains no glass. Kebira Crater, a giant stone circle in the Great Sand Sea over thirty kilometers in diameter, has been theorized to be the source for the "desert glass" that has baffled scientists for many years. In fact, the glass caused much confusion among archaeologists when Tutankhamon's tomb was discovered. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The pectoral jewel adorning his sarcophagus contained a large piece of the greenish-yellow desert glass. The fused silica bauble was of such purity that modern glassmakers are not capable of creating it. What secret arts did the ancient Egyptians possess that enabled them to exceed the abilities of modern technicians? When Kebira Crater was discovered, a hypothetical source for the glass came to light. As a Picture of the Day article from that time speculated, the crater might have been formed by an electric arc that impacted the desert with such power that the sands were fused into glass. Other ring-shaped and dome-like structures rise out of flat, wind-swept plains in areas that can be reached only with extreme difficulty. As has been pointed-out in the past, most of these formations exhibit upraised, sharply delineated rims, knife-edged ridges, flat bottoms, and wildly brachiated channels running through them or covering the surrounding countryside like thousands of large rivers that have turned to dust. One of the more surprising aspects of the Jebel Uweinat uplift region, in which Jebel Arkenu can be found, is how closely it resembles the Western Desert in the United States. One example of that similarity is Shiprock, New Mexico. Shiprock is reputed to be a pluton of basalt that hardened deep down below the surface where it solidified. Eons of time passed while the surrounding sedimentary rock was blown away by the wind, revealing the pointed monolith. Lava dikes extend outward at 120 degree angles from the peak for several kilometers. The same jagged tops, the same "lava dikes" with extremely narrow cross-sections, and the same flat-topped mesas with solid forty-five degree "shoulders" are found in the Sahara. Of course, explanations that describe both features are limited to vulcanism, weathering, meteors striking the surface, or subsurface plutons of basaltic lava that hardened beneath the ground and were subsequently revealed when the softer sedimentary layers were eroded from around them. There are some observations that do not seem to fit with the millions of years that geological gradualism requires. Erosion is a blurring and rounding process. Conical mountain peaks are said to slowly reduce into flattened mounds and finally wear down to the level of the plains out of which they rose. Steep, vertical walls are supposed to gradually become shallow slopes, and v-shaped river valleys must give way to meandering flood plains. If the mesas, gullies, pillars, spikes, and ridges have all been exposed to wind and rain for millions of years, why are they still so sharp, steep and well-defined? Jebel Arkenu itself is notable for its spiral-shaped interior. There are no known natural forces other than spinning electric vortices that can excavate spiral forms with uplifted central peaks. Many of those are found on the Moon and others have been observed on Mars. Since the primary thesis put forward by Electric Universe adherents is that a cataclysmic encounter with some other electrically charged body took place less than 10,000 years ago, or perhaps sooner, then the "fresh" appearance and lack of erosion is explainable. It is time for another perspective on geology. There are some geologists who are beginning to question the slow-motion theories that dominate the sciences today. Since planetary scientists have witnessed comet fragments colliding with Jupiter, vast ionized plumes erupting from Io, and volcanoes spitting lightning, it seems reasonable to insist that theories involving fast acting forces of change be considered along with those that require millions of years. Written by Stephen Smith from an idea submitted by Klaas Geertsma The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Mt. Redoubt volcanic eruption. Credit: J. Warren, Alaska Volcano Observatory.
Plasma Volcanoes
(Apr 08, 2009)
The recent eruption of Mt. Redoubt in Alaska calls to mind the skeptical imperative to doubt again the accepted explanations of vulcanology. "If I hadn't believed it, I never would have seen it with my own two eyes." -- Dr. James C. Kroll What we see is influenced by what we presume, so the skeptical scientist will make an effort to see things that arent readily explainable. Common things to see around volcanoes are steam and ash plumes, pyroclastic flows, and lava rivers. Less common things are rotation of the plume, lightning around the column, and waterspouts or dust devils downwind under the plume. Since the invention of the seismograph, a sub-discipline of seismic study has developed. The consensus explanations for volcanoes have lumbered into our modern world from the Age of Mechanics, when slide rules were state-of-the-art and things worked by bumping into each other. Convection is king: Hot, buoyant magma rises through cracks in rocks from the "magic mantle," that mythical realm far below ground that generates excuses for mysterious phenomena on the ground. When the magma ruptures the surface, steam and ash boil into the sky. Shear forces generate eddies, which become vertical and coalesce to impart rotation to the plume. Friction between ash particles generates static electricity, which discharges as lightning around the eruption column. Seismic signals are exclusively from displacements and mark out the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive extents of magma chambers beneath volcanoes.
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The Age of Plasma, when computers are taken for granted and things work by electrical transmission, suggests more agile explanations. Discoveries from space and in plasma labs guide theories: A volcano could be the result of underground "lightning." Peratt and Dessler favorably compared the "volcano" Prometheus on Jupiters moon Io to the plume of a plasma focus device. The contours of the plume indicated that the center of discharge was about two kilometers below the surface. Because Io has no atmosphere, the plasma plume displays its pristine shape. On Earth, convection May alter the shape. Mechanical forces do have their places, although with the advent of plasma those places must be tested to separate reality from lumbering presumptions. Rotation May be driven by the circular forces in the Birkeland currents of the plume. Consensus explanations have begun calling the copious lightning around many eruption columns "lightning sheaths." Although they are not referring to the double-layer sheaths of plasma physics, the term May be appropriately carried over. The question of interest then becomes the inverse: Why do some ejection columns not exhibit a lightning sheath? The occurrence of waterspouts and dust devils under plumes raises an interesting question for both consensus and plasma models. No one thought about electricity in respect to these phenomena until questions about the Martian dust devils led NASA researchers to measure electric fields near Arizona dust devils--and found strong ones. Although reflexively ascribed to triboelectricity (from friction), the plasma connection begs for further investigations. Seismic signals are also an open question. If speaker wires from a hi-fi are inserted into a flame (for example, into the mantle of a Coleman lantern), the flame will "make music." This is the principle behind once-popular plasma speakers. Because both magma and the crystals in rocks are forms of plasma, the explanation for seismic signals can no longer exclude the possibility that they are transduced between acoustic and electromagnetic modes. Are ideas of Earths "liquid core" and "magic mantle" simply artifacts of outdated premises? Are the mechanical deep layers of the Earth instead electrical double layers that convert pressure and displacement waves into electrical waves and back again? Do the "quake signals" that supposedly delineate magma chambers actually indicate coronal discharges around an underground plasma focus? Modern instruments are capable of testing explanations with greater rigor than is being done. The complacency of geologists is not due to a lack of technology but to a lack of scientific skepticism. Geologists unquestioned assumptions May well be hiding plasma volcanoes. Mel Acheson
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The northern lights, sketched by a member of the Chukchi nation, Siberia (1889-1899 CE).
The Coming of the Sky Dancers

(Apr 06, 2009)
The message is increasingly clear: auroras can be extremely violent events. Todays auroras are a relatively peaceful phenomenon whether they take the form of gently dancing curtains of light, a quiescent, reddish cloud, or spectacular rays of light, they are more likely to enthrall than terrorise the people watching from polar latitudes. Appearances can be misleading, as scientists are finding out in recent years. Modern research on the potential effects of intense solar Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) on the earth and an ever-growing awareness of the possibility of extreme geomagnetic storms seem to rekindle interest in the so-called Carrington Event of 1859, when "skies all over planet Earth erupted in red, green, and purple auroras," causing severe damage to the telegraph networks of the time. Between then and 1958, altogether 6 well-documented auroras were strong enough to be visible within 30 or indeed 20 of the equator. Crucially, various peoples have preserved memories of the potential intensity of the polar lights. Motifs that specialists in folklore and religions routinely dismiss as quaint curiosities of a superstitious past can equally be read as cultural adaptations of genuine and reliable recollections of natural events. Such motifs typically postulate an intimate connection of the auroras with divine beings or ancestors and times when the world passed through a phase of destruction and renewed creation. For example, in North America, the northern lights are commonly conceived as a display of the gods dancing across the firmament. The Ottawa people, of Michigan, Ontario, and Oklahoma, regard the auroras as a sign of the presence of the creator, Nanahboozko, who retreated to his "permanent home farther north" in the wake of the creation. For the Klamath, of southern Oregon, the polar region was also the place whence the creator had come originally: "Long, long ago Kemush created the world. Morning Star called him from the ashes of the Northern Lights and told him to make the world." The original inhabitants of southeast Australia, when interviewed during the 19th century, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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displayed a marked fear of the southern lights. To the Wotjobaluk, of central-western Victoria, as well as the Ngarigo, closer to Canberra, the aurora "signified that, at some great distance, a number of blacks were being slaughtered, and that the Aurora colour is the blood rising up to the sky." Upon its appearance, the Kurnai, of the Gippsland region, would be "shouting such words as Send it away; do not let it burn us up." Far from being overly imaginative fantasies arising from the red hue of the Aurora Australis, such visceral reactions rooted in traumatic memories of a time when the aurora "filled the whole space between the earth and the sky," precipitating floods, collective madness and the final departure of the creator from the earth. The latter, known as Mungan-ngaua or our father,' "long ago lived on the earth," but when the ancestors of the Kurnai provoked him, "he sent his fire, the Aurora Australis, which filled the whole space between the earth and the sky. Men went mad with fear, and speared each other, fathers killing their children, husbands their wives, and brethren each other. Then the sea rushed over the land and nearly all mankind was drowned. Mungun left the earth, and ascended to the sky where he still remains." Like the Ottawa, the Kurnai regard the contemporary, tranquil auroras as signs of the gods ongoing watch, explaining it as "Mungans fire." Francis Eagle Heart Cree (1920/1921-2007), elder and song keeper of the Ojibwe, North Dakota, often used to tell about the northern lights that his people referred to them as the ancestors; that our day corresponds to their night and vice versa; and that many ancestors had been literally drawn up into the sky in order to live on in the lights. In June 2003, during the preparations for the so-called Thirsty Dance performed in the Turtle Mountains, Francis revealed that there had been a time when the northern lights were all over, much larger and all-encompassing, and would come closer to the ground, touching it frequently. According to him, todays thunders, lightning and northern lights are what remain from a time "when the Thunderbirds hovered overhead and carried away the ancestors if you threatened or got too close to them. the earliest songs came from them, not the animals. The pulsing, reverberant, humming, chanting Ooowwwmmm, hiii, heyyy, . . . is the sound the Thunderbird auroras made." During this era, the whole atmosphere was active and animate, and the few plasma phenomena we see today are mere remnants of the "Sky Dancers" of olden times. Coming from a man who was never exposed to formal western education and stood in an age-old, unbroken lineage of cultural continuity, this testimony forms a striking parallel to the Australian belief that the polar lights used to be much more powerful in the past. At a time when scientists begin to ponder in earnest the possibility of extremely violent solar storms triggering geomagnetic disturbances on a scale that is hard to imagine, human traditions such as the ones cited above deserve to be heard. Elsewhere we have argued that many familiar motifs of global creation mythology are explicable as aspects of a high-energy density auroral storm that took place in the early Holocene. To this indirect evidence one could add these direct reports of increased auroral activity during the age traditional societies would call that of creation and of the gods. In memoriam: Francis Eagle Heart Cree. With thanks to Nicholas Vrooman. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Bode's Galaxy (M81, left) and the Cigar Galaxy (M82) in Ursa Major are thought to harbor black holes. Credit: Panther Observatory, Johannes Schedler
BlackMax and Black Arts

(Apr 03, 2009)
Black holes are undetectable by any instrument, so a computer simulation has been created for the Large Hadron Collider to act as a substitute for observations. "Our esteem for facts has not neutralized in us all religiousness. It is itself almost religious. Our scientific temper is devout." -- William James It is said that in the deepest reaches of space live electromagnetic monsters whose sole duty in the cosmic hegemony is to devour matter and inertia, sucking it down into an infinitely deep maw that masticates space as well, crushing it until nothing, not even a memory remains. Those fantastic, insatiable colossi, inhabiting the most frightening dreams of existence, are known as black holes. Black holes begin their demon-lives as big innocent stars, tumbling along in their galactic nurseries with no indication that they will eventually become infected with attributes that will turn them into gluttonous fiends, consuming their neighbors and blasting out sterilizing beams of radiation that are capable of destroying worlds. Pulses of high-frequency gamma rays, beams of intense ultraviolet light, and belches of explosive energy that span the breadth of the Universe are said to mark their mordant habitations, while gravitational forces beyond our ability to measure, or conceive, exert their might on the tensile strength of time itself, twisting it into a hopelessly tangled Mebius knot, where past and future have no meaning. What could cause mere stars, said to be commonly born from nebular progenitors, to suddenly take on a terrible aspect and become the dark monsters of astronomy? According to the modern science of astrophysics, it is gravity that exerts its influence on the stellar mob and leads some of them down paths of ferocity. That mild-mannered agency of succor, that gentle-seeming impetus, holding matter in place and permitting Mother Earth to clasp us close and cover us with her life-giving atmospheric blanket, can assume another face and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive another affect.
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Gravity also possesses a fiendish visage, along with a might that can overcome all other forces and all resistance, even the most compacted and rigid material that our imaginations can create. Gravity can pull inward so violently that no outward repulsion prevents it from compressing large stars down to points of zero volume and infinite mass--computational entities sometimes described as "singularities" by astrophysicists. Gothic descriptions notwithstanding, a singularity is a point where some factor in an equation becomes infinite, while another factor approaches zero. For example: Lim 1/x = x-->0 This is the classic problem of dividing by zero. When factor "x" drops to nothing, dividing 1 by the limiting factor produces an infinite result. Most children are taught in elementary school that dividing by zero is not proper numerical manipulation. Instead, a flight into the mathematical fantasy of General Relativity was required, where master calculators allowed black holes to become the reified monstrosities that so enamor modern cosmologists and astrophysicists. Cosmologists use the singularity product to describe conditions that existed before the Big Bang, while astrophysicists use it to overcome almost any problem that appears in galaxy studies. Galaxies spin too fast for a certain theory? There must be a black hole hiding somewhere inside, providing additional, unseen gravitational power. Galaxies emit tremendous quantities of light energy or cosmic rays? There has to be a black hole inside the core, sending out lightyears long jets because matter is being compressed and superheated before it falls down into infinite darkness. What else could it be? Due to the inherent difficulties associated with black hole observations in space--not even light can escape their putative event horizons--Case Western Reserve University physicists have turned to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as a possible means for detecting and studying black holes. It is hoped that full-scale operation of the LHC will generate enough power for protons to collide, releasing particles into the ATLAS detector. ATLAS acts like a camera, documenting the many different entities that are predicted to erupt from the proton-proton collisions inside the LHC. A software algorithm known as BlackMax is supposed to simulate the particles that will be detected when hypothetical "microscopic black holes" are formed by the fragmented protons. LHC physicists hope that BlackMax will provide an indication of how those particles will be distributed should black holes form in the collider. Of course, BlackMax, being a computer simulation, is constructed along theoretical lines. A theory of particle distribution was first proposed, then those theoretical parameters were incorporated into the software program. Theoreticians hope that, along with the Standard Model of particle physics, BlackMax will enable them to figure out if the isotropic spray of proton collision fragments conforms to how black holes are supposed to behave when they fall apart. The zealous attempt to confirm the existence of black holes appears to have no bounds. No expense is too great, no imaginary construct is too ironic, and no machine is too large for mathematicians to use. The desperate search for that which can neither be seen nor felt has little in the way of governing principles. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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One of the greatest ironies in the LHC black hole study is that the physicists are forcing units of positive charge together. In other words, they are generating a beam of electricity, splitting it, and then sending it back on itself as if it were a collection of little balls instead of a waveform. They then analyze what they believe are even tinier little balls that are somehow contained within the particles, as if they are components within a shell. Instead of streams of charge potential, the ATLAS detector is supposed to be collecting images of the tiny pieces of proton as they whizz by. This example of ironic science--that is, science based on mathematical principles that can only be tested indirectly according to abstract theory--is doomed to failure from an empirical standpoint. No concrete, pragmatic data will be revealed; instead a self-fulfilling prophecy is all that will arise. If BlackMax proves to be useless, all that is necessary is to write another program that will simulate foregone conclusions with greater attention to detail. This May be done any number of times until the data matches the theory closely enough. The physicists can then announce that black holes have been detected and they act like thus and such. Another announcement might be that the particles seen by ATLAS confirm the theory of how they should be distributed, therefore the theory must be correct. Regardless of the outcome, it is sure to be an exercise in circular reasoning and affirmation of the consequent. Stephen Smith
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The Triangulum Galaxy (M33) in ultraviolet light. Credit: Galaxy Evolution Explorer/NASA/JPL-Caltech.
A New Look at Near Neighbors - Part Two

(Apr 01, 2009)
The standard model and the Electric Universe model paint fundamentally different pictures of how galaxies are formed and driven. In Part One of this article, the Electric Universe theory's proposal that magnetic fields are integral to galaxy formation was examined. A galaxy originates through the Bennett pinch of two or more Birkeland currents which also trap interstellar gas as they rotate inwards towards each other. Star formation begins in the galactic core created by the interstellar plasma trapped between the Birkeland filaments. However, what is found when magnetic fields are measured in some galaxies? Rainer Beck made extensive observations of galactic magnetic fields and put some focus on M31 and M33 In a recent paper summarizing his observations: "Ordered fields with spiral structure exist in grand-design, barred, flocculent and even in irregular galaxies. The strongest ordered fields are found in interarm regions, sometimes forming 'magnetic spiral arms' between the optical arms." These magnetic fields tracing the spiral arms are established by current flowing through them, both from the intergalactic circuit feeding the galaxy, as well as from homopolar action of the galaxy itself. The magnetic fields Beck mentions exist because the spiral arms behave as large Birkeland filaments. In a separate paper, Beck looks at the magnetic fields in M31. The Andromeda galaxy is dominated by a magnetic ring (or torus), whose magnetic field is radially oriented. As Beck states, there is no existing explanation for this magnetic ring. However, one can imagine that The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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homopolar motor action is driving the rotation of charged plasma at a distance from the galactic center. The moving plasma ring (i.e. electric current) establishes a magnetic field that further pinches the rotating charged torus, which further strengthens the field. Synchrotron radiation from the ring illuminates the ring in the radio spectrum. M33 has no such magnetic ring. However, as the Electric Universe model predicts, it displays a magnetic spiral structure, with the greatest magnetic polarization between the visible spiral arms. Similar structures are seen in other galaxies, NGC 6946, for example. The work on NGC 6946 is also by Beck, where he identifies large scale magnetic fields in the spiral arms: "Three more magnetic arms are discovered in the outer galaxy, located between HI arms. The RM structure function confirms large-scale coherent fields. The observed anti-correlation between the fields pitch angles and the RM values is a possible signature of helical fields." The ordered spiral arrangement of the magnetic fields, coupled with the dynamo signature overlaid on the spiral structure, aligns well with the postulated galactic circuit described in Part One. In the standard model a super-massive black hole in the galactic core is deemed essential for driving the gravitational formation of a galaxy. In contrast, the Electric Universe model views the galactic core as an incidental result of interstellar plasma trapped between two or more Birkeland filaments. In 2001, a paper by Merritt et al. proposed that M33 lacked the super-massive black hole required by the standard model. However, the authors did not completely lose faith and postulated a central black hole, but one that is over three orders of magnitude smaller than the theory requires. The stellar orbital velocities near the core are far too low to support the presence of a compact mass equivalent to the "typical" super-massive black hole. If thats the case, then how did the galaxy form in the standard model? A quote from an article about the discovery states: "Douglas Richstone of the University of Michigan, who has been a prominent champion of the role of black holes in galaxy formation, said he did not understand how bulgeless galaxies like M33 could have formed without a supermassive black hole. 'I think it's a problem for the black hole story,' he said." EU theory predicts that the rotational energy of a galaxy is influenced by the currents flowing radially in the galactic plane, but does not require a specific rotational velocity profile. Depending on the magnitude of the radial current, there will be different rotational velocity profiles. This is similar to what is observed with stars. Stars with greater current densities are observed to have higher rotational velocities. In essence, there are some fundamental distinctions between the two models: The standard model requires the rotational velocity of a galaxy closer to the core to exhibit a steep rise (i.e. a compact body in the form of a supermassive black hole must reside in the galactic core). The Electric Universe model has no requirements on the velocity profile close to the core. The standard model requires a flat rotational velocity towards the edge of the galaxy, indicating a dark matter halo. The Electric Universe model has no such requirement, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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and can explain different velocity profiles based on varying electric current densities. The Electric Universe model requires galaxies to exhibit coherent large scale magnetic fields, these will be particularly evident around active star forming regions, and will trace the spiral arms. The standard model has no such requirement and would predict younger galaxies to have no coherent magnetic fields.
Some obvious galactic features can be used to test the validity of the two theories. Have there been galaxies observed without "supermassive black holes" or without "dark matter"? Yes, there have and this should cause the community to rethink the validity of the model, but they have not. Have there been galaxies observed with magnetic fields exhibiting patterns predicted by the Electric Universe model? Yes, there have, and in addition there have been no galaxies observed without magnetic fields. However, the astronomical community appears to have an infinite capacity to ignore unwelcome data. It is not uncommon to discover articles where observations obviously falsify the standard model (as in the paper mentioned above) but the researchers simply claim there is more to learn. That is undoubtedly true, but they are being disingenuous by not grappling with the major issues uncovered by those findings. The wheels of change do turn slowly, but they turn nonetheless. If the history of science has shown us anything, it is that scientific dogma does not survive very long after its main supporters pass away. In the meantime, a coordinated and formalized study of the electrical properties of the Universe itself must wait. This is a shame, since there have never been better tools available for studying the magnetic and electric properties of the Universe. Tom Wilson
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The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) in ultraviolet and infrared. UV: Galaxy Evolution Explorer; Infrared: Spitzer Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A New Look at Near Neighbors - Part One

(Mar 30, 2009)
A fundamental difference between the standard cosmological and Electric Universe models lies in their views about how the Universe was assembled over time. According to the standard model, some time after the Big Bang gas and dust clouds organized into stars, stellar clusters, then black holes which merged into super-massive black holes. The super-massive black holes were seeds that gravitationally assembled surrounding gas, dust, and stars into in all the various galactic shapes and sizes. Dark matter halos are also thought to have played a role in gravitationally organizing galaxies. The Electric Universe model takes a very different approach. There was no Big Bang, no distinct creation event, and the Universe is as it always was: 99.999% plasma. Over time, the cosmic plasma organized into cells, as plasma will do, separated by differences in matter and charge densities, bounded by double layers. Along the boundaries between these cells, filaments and sheets organized into Birkeland currents. The Universe self-organized due to the electromagnetic properties of plasma. As explained by Peratt (1986), these filaments are very efficient at concentrating matter and "scrubbing" material from the surrounding environment. Galaxies were formed along the filaments, and this explains the chains of galaxies that seem to reside as pearls on a string. Large masses of galaxies also formed along the original plasma cell boundaries, explaining the large scale "Great Walls" and the grand sheets of galaxies that have been observed. In the standard model, galaxy dynamics are driven by gravity alone. Where there are rotational profiles that cannot be accounted for by visible matter, dark matter halos are invoked to shore up gravity. Galactic magnetic fields are incidental, and are believed to build up over time from small magnetic "seeds" (again, bottom up). The standard model is also comfortable speaking of magnetic fields without concomitant electric currents. In the Electric Universe model, the rotational energy of galaxies derives partially from gravity (where the core exhibits a solid body rotational dynamic), but also from electric current fed to galaxies by electrical "transmission lines" between them. In essence, the galaxies behave like a homopolar motor driven by the varying current density it receives. Galactic magnetic fields are generated by electric currents that are integral to their formation and ongoing dynamics. There would be no galaxies without coherent magnetic fields spanning their entire structure. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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It is worth a few words here to summarize some very important seminal work in the paper by Anthony Peratt mentioned above. In his study, Peratt performed particle-in-cell computer simulations of Birkeland current interactions. The results illustrated how plasma dynamics lead to galactic structures evolving from double radio galaxies, to radio quasars, to ellipticals and then to spiral galaxies. This paper is thick with insight. There are some papers that you can read over and over and continually find new gems, this is one of those papers. As Peratt's simulations revealed, a galaxy evolves as two (or more) Birkeland currents moving together with an attractive force proportional to the inverse of their linear distance (note it is not the inverse square law). In astronomical observations, the two Birkeland currents are detected as radio "lobes" due to synchrotron radiation. As the two pinched Birkeland filaments come close to each other, intergalactic plasma is trapped, forming an elliptical core at the geometric center between the two filaments, which later becomes the nucleus of the galaxy. Magnetic fields between the filaments condense and aggregate the intervening plasma, raising its internal energies. The elliptical core at this point is analogous to a radio quasar. The two Birkeland filaments (also concentrating matter within their magnetically pinched volume) torque around each other, changing the morphology of the core plasma (flattening the ellipse) and eventually evolving into trailing arms as electric current, axial to the arms, flows into the core of the galaxy. At that point the two Birkeland filaments merge with the core. So the core of a galaxy derives from whatever intergalactic plasma was trapped between the two (or more) Birkeland filaments and the arms of the spiral derive mostly from the pinched Birkeland filaments themselves. The rotating Birkeland filaments impart the initial rotational momentum to the galaxy-sized plasma structure. As the charged plasma structure rotates, there arises a concomitant magnetic field with a typical "dynamo" signature. Current continues to run through the galaxy along the equatorial plane as part of a larger intergalactic circuit. This current as it passes through the magnetic field mentioned above drives further rotational energy as the galaxy responds as a homopolar motor. This is what drives the "anomalous" rotational velocities observed in the outer parts of galaxies. The galaxy is also a homopolar generator, with the conductive plasma in the galactic disk sweeping through the same magnetic field. This sets up axial currents running through the galactic axis and stretching outwards to loop back along the equatorial plane. These axial currents extend to double layers over the galactic poles. These polar double layers accelerate charged particles to high energies resulting in "jets" above and below the galaxy. Further magnetic fields arise in the galaxy as a result of the intergalactic current running in along the equatorial plane. The current running radially along the equatorial plane create local magnetic fields that squeeze the plasma into Birkeland filaments. This brings definition to the spiral arms. Further filamentation and higher current densities power star formation in the spiral arms. Considering these very different viewpoints, a bottom up gravitational aggregation versus a top down electromagnetic organization, observations of the galaxies around us should let us decide upon the validity of one model versus the other. After all, the galaxies we observe should bear the marks of their history and the forces that drive them. As it happens, two of our nearest galactic neighbors, M31 (Andromeda) and M33 (Triangulum), are very well studied due to their proximity. This makes them excellent The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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candidates for comparing the relative explanatory power of the two models. There are some interesting attributes to these two galaxies that are worth discussing considering the models discussed above: M31 and M33 both have magnetic fields, similar in strength, but qualitatively different in morphology. M31 has a distinct and very coherent magnetic ring about 33,000 light-years in radius. M33 has a more irregular magnetic field, where the field strength seems to trace the spiral arms. M33 has been said to lack a super-massive black hole at its core (that is to say, the rotational velocity decreases closer to the galactic core).
Examining these findings, as well as drawing upon Peratts simulations, along with similar work in the standard model, will challenge both models. It is important for theoretical models to be challenged, since it can ultimately improve their explanatory framework. However, the validity of a model often rests on whether these types of challenges alter the model in its detail, or whether the challenge undermines fundamental assumptions. Obviously, the former allows improvement while the latter should inspire a more fundamental shift in beliefs. Tom Wilson
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Comet seen at Julius Caesars death (44 BCE), closely associated with the planet Venus. Yellow marble, from Tunisia. Courtesy Muse de lArles et de la Provence Antique, Arles, France.
Velikovskian Chaff and Wheat: Venus

(Mar 27, 2009)
Science progresses in a variety of ways. One way that science progresses is through a careful evaluation of arguments advanced by earlier scholars in the field. For the sake of academic honesty, this has to be done in a completely dispassionate manner. The work of pioneers, Nobel-prize winners and other prestigious people cannot be judged by different standards than that of the least noticed postgraduate student. The maverick Russian-American polymath, Immanuel Velikovsky (1895-1979), deserves recognition for his pioneering statements about the role of electromagnetic activity in space and the importance of catastrophic events even in historically recent periods. Yet science has no place for worship and it is incumbent on modern researchers to scrupulously evaluate each of Velikovskys many claims in the light of current knowledge. One of Velikovskys boldest ideas was that the planet Venus is a relative newcomer in the solar system: during the mid-2nd millennium BCE, it would have erupted from the interior of the planet Jupiter and have inflicted damage to the earths atmosphere and biosphere with its conspicuous cometary tail before settling in its present orbit and shedding its appendage. How does this analysis fare when approached today with an open but a sternly critical mind? To begin with the negative end of the spectrum, many of the sources Velikovsky cited in support of the Venus theory need to be axed. Of the numerous ethnic traditions of catastrophic import he cites, involving darkness, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, celestial combat and an inversion of east and west, hardly a single one bears any apparent connection The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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to Venus or the 2nd millennium BCE. The entire discussion of the comet Typhon, though important in its own right, really bears no relationship to Venus, except, perhaps, for the very tenuous chronological association implied in the contrived chronicles of a much later date. Moreover, Velikovskys observation that "in the third millennium only four planets could have been seen, and that in astronomical charts of this early period the planet Venus cannot be found" has been proven plain wrong. Though "astronomical charts" or, indeed, any form of astronomy did not yet exist prior to the 2nd millennium BCE, incontrovertible evidence for Venus existence has been uncovered in Mesopotamian records dating from the 2nd half of the 4th millennium BCE onwards. Sumerian texts of this early date plainly identify the goddess Inanna as a "star" associated with the morning and the evening. Egyptologists are agreed that the sb dwt or the morning star abundantly mentioned in the Egyptian Pyramid Texts, finalised in 2200 BCE, is the planet Venus. While Velikovskys claim of a recent Venus was reasonable and worth testing, it has now been falsified and must be binned. If anything, Venus is the first one of the planets to be mentioned in the Mesopotamian literature. Nevertheless, from the perspective of historical sources, at least three of Velikovskys conclusions concerning Venus must be salvaged and can be strengthened with much additional evidence. First, Velikovskys citation of the Roman intellectual, Varro, to the effect that Venus "changed its color, size, form, course, which never happened before nor since," presents a genuine puzzle to modern historians of the solar system. The citation itself is unambiguous and not suspicious, but it needs to be resolved exactly how and when Venus colour, appearance and movement were modified. In addition, the so-called Venus Tablet of Ammiaduqa (7th century BCE?), which presents the oldest known set of Venus observations, remains a mystery. Specialists are urged to investigate whether the data given in the tablet could consistently describe not the present orbit of Venus, but any other course the planet might have followed. Second, Velikovskys argument that Venus once sported a cometary tail stands up to close scrutiny and can be buttressed with a mass of additional evidence. In modern terms, a plausible explanation for the ancient testimony would be the assumption that Venus large magnetosphere had acquired a visible glow in historical times, at a time when the inner solar system was brimming with electrical activity. Third, Velikovsky rightly drew attention to the voluminous body of mythical traditions concerning the birth of the morning star. The spectacular ascent to heaven of the feathered serpent, Quetzalcoatl, in Aztec mythology, is a textbook example for this motif. However, Velikovsky hopelessly muddled the issue by force-fitting this mythical event into the 15th century BCE. In reality, the birth of the morning star represents one of the final chapters in the global cycle of creation mythology. In the traditions of numerous cultures, the background to the story is the transfer of mythical beings such as gods and ancestors from their original home on the earth into the sky, where they live on in the form of celestial bodies. When the protagonists of the myth were thus placed in the sky as stars and planets, the hitherto dark sky was for the first time illuminated and the process of creation reached completion. This episode bears a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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close relationship to the collapse of the polar column and is best evaluated on a par with the mythology of the axis mundi as a whole. It cannot be isolated from this narrative context. In conclusion, Velikovskys conviction that Venus originated no earlier than 1500 BCE is untenable. Nevertheless, more robust than ever is the case that Venus has experienced a recent change in its orbit, however slight; that it featured a filamentary tail; and that its first appearance formed part of the complex chain of events anciently known as creation.' Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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A sampler of planetary nebulae. Credit: University College, London and Xiaowei Liu.
Which Nebula is Real?

(Mar 25, 2009)
What is a theory? What is science? What is reality? Doing philosophy is like sculpting fog. The abstractions to be investigated have ambiguous and shifting forms, and their traces are the vortices left by human thought in evening mists. Most scientists most of the time are well-advised to eschew it. It has little relevance for working within the boundaries of accepted theories. However, the history of science shows that progress involves long stretches of development couched within boundaries that are interrupted by episodes of theory change. During the quiet times, accumulating data and modified ideas, along with new instruments and many other influences, push scientists toward the boundaries. They begin to trespass beyond them. Outside the boundaries, the fog sculptures come alive and bite. Some theories go extinct; others proliferate and come to dominate the scientific ecosystem. Careers change. Textbooks are replaced. Grants go to other projects. For the astrophysicist, an electron is a particle of matter with momentum that is described in part by Newtons laws. It goes "bump" in the night sky and causes shock waves and hot gas in planetary nebulae. The nebulae are explosions of stars that are burning themselves up with internal fusion fires. For the plasma physicist, an electron is a unit of charge in an electrical current that is described in part by Maxwells equations. It is part of an electrical circuit that causes planetary nebulae to emit synchrotron radiation, to show bipolar symmetry, to have hourglass shapes, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive to develop toroidal currents around the central star, to display polar jets, and to oscillate in energy output. The nebulae are z-pinches in galactic electrical circuits.
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So what is an electron, really? What is a planetary nebula, really? As long as the two physicists stay inside the boundaries of their respective theories, the questions dont arise. The answers are presumed by each theorys axioms of what is real. The criteria of acceptability for each theory (What constitutes evidence? What constitutes an explanation?) dont apply to the other theory. Cross-theory debates can only end in pleonastic proclamations of what is "really real": "Is not!" "Is too!" Outside the boundaries, the two theories meet in an evolutionary survival landscape: Its a jungle out there. Criteria of selection are extra-scientific. The question becomes one of market share. How many people are attracted by the promise of a new theory? How many become curious about things that a new theory might enable them to do? How many are bored with the old one and feel that its labyrinthine adjustments to novel data and ideas are a nuisance? Philosophers worry about how there can be progress toward understanding a hypothetical ultimate reality when the history of science is a succession of contradictory theories, each of which was considered "real" in its heyday. Progress can be understood in other than teleological terms: Biologists understand evolution as a bush that grows bigger at each season but has no "final form" that predetermines each seasons growth. In the same way, the progress of science doesnt need the hypothesis of ultimate reality. Each theory can have its time to be real, to be a "best fit" within a larger intellectual ecosystem, without having to live forever. The electron as particle and the nebula as explosion have been useful theories. Eventually, there comes a time when its just time to die. Mel Acheson
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The hole where the Earth is joined with the sky according to the contemporary Maya of Yalcob, Yucatn. Credit: J. R. Sosa, Cosmological, Symbolic and Cultural Complexity Among the Contemporary Maya of Yucatan,' in A. F. Aveni (editor), World Archaeoastronomy, Cambridge, 1989, 130142: 140 Figure 9. 10
Closing Gaps--In Our Knowledge

(Mar 23, 2009)
Traditional knowledge seems to have a knack for anticipating Space Age discoveries by centuries, sometimes millennia. This type of knowledge, shared by a larger populace and carefully handed down through generations, must be carefully distinguished from the private theories of individual thinkers. The precocious accuracy of the latter opinions must often be illusory and can be put down as a stroke of luck in the lottery of proto-scientific thought. Democritus (460-370 BCE) May have correctly predicted the existence of atoms, but Leucippus (480-420 BCE) was simply wrong in assuming that the earth is shaped like a drum. As far as popular traditional notions about the cosmos are concerned, however, the convergence with cutting-edge discoveries of modern science can often be quite unsettling, leaving us groping for ways to understand how they could have known.' Scientists have known for some time that charged particles from the sun impinge directly onto the magnetic field of the earth through the activity of the solar wind. The magnetosphere of the earth is loaded with plasma, which occasionally erupts in auroral displays that can be enjoyed or feared at polar latitudes. The general concept is understood, but much of the detail of these complex processes remains to be discovered. For a few years now, it has been known that the transfer of plasma from the solar wind is not a permanent, steady process, but highly intermittent, dynamic, and bursty.' So-called flux transfer events, or FTEs, were thought to take place when the magnetic field of the sun points south and temporary holes in the fabric of the magnetosphere of the earth allow this to be loaded with plasma. In November 2008, space physicists announced evidence that such cracks arise when the solar magnetic field is directed to the north, contrary to the expectation. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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NASAs five THEMIS spacecraft "discovered a breach in Earths magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist. Solar wind can flow in through the opening to load up the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms." Analysts from the University of New Hampshire remarked that this opening was four times wider than the earth itself and more than seven earth diameters long, while the influx of particles was likewise "an order of magnitude greater than what we thought was possible." A computer simulation revealed that two holes frequently develop in the magnetic field of the earth, "...one at high latitude over the Northern hemisphere, and one at high latitude over the Southern hemisphere. The holes form over the daylight side of Earth, on the side of the magnetic shield facing the sun." It is believed that the openings form above the earths equator and then roll over to earths winter pole, which is in the north in December and in the south in July. The holes close as rapidly as they open, NASAs current estimate being that the two fields of the sun and the earth "briefly merge or reconnect,' forming a portal through which particles can flow" approximately "every eight minutes." The perplexity expressed by scientists upon this discovery testifies that these colossal gaps in the geomagnetic field are also massive gaps in current knowledge. It is all the more puzzling, then, to find that traditional societies from different parts of the globe have long believed in celestial portals that open and shut at dangerous speeds. An earlier Picture of the Day concerned the widespread motif of an aperture in the fabric of the sky, that was often linked to the north pole the hole at the pole.' Curiously, peoples on both hemispheres held that such sky holes open and close with great rapidity, not unlike the Symplegades of classical mythology. As part of their initiation rituals, prospective shamans of the Wiradjuri people, of southeast New South Wales, Australia, used to believe that they were led upwards by their spiritual guides to the celestial abode of the supreme god Baiame. From an anonymous medicine-man or doctor of the kangaroo totem of the Muri subclass of this nation, interviewed before 1887, comes the following account: "We went through the clouds, and on the other side was the sky. We went through the place where the doctors go through, and it kept opening and shutting very quickly." Just so, the Tsimshian, of northern British Columbia, observed prior to 1909 that the sky, "a beautiful open country," "is reached through the hole in the sky , which opens and closes." The Buryat are an ethnic minority in Siberia, who envision the sky as a giant inverted kettle that alternately lifts up and comes down to the earth; when the cover of the sky is raised, an opening arises between its rim and that of the earth.' A similar belief was subsumed in the esoteric tradition of Hindism. According to this, the universe consists of three layers, the earth, the air or atmosphere, and the sky, that look like bricks with a perforation in the centre of each. As the soul of the visionary ascends towards the sky, each of the three holes must be cleared to make way: "When the person goes away from this world, he comes to the wind. Then the wind makes room for him, like the hole of a carriage wheel, and through it he mounts higher." In this metaphysical brand of Hind belief, the "wind" behaves suspiciously like what is now called the solar wind. Were these traditional societies describing the holes through which flux transfer events take place? Certainly, it is hard to think of other phenomena in the natural world that could have inspired these traditions, attested in Australia, North America and Asia alike. Can such holes The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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ever be observed with the naked eye by human beings on earth? If it took scientists this long to discover their existence and even today the magnetic portals have not been observed directly, is it not outrageous to suggest that pre-scientific cultures knew of them? It is impossible to tell at present. Perhaps electromagnetic activity in the inner solar system exceeded todays values by orders of magnitude in order for flux transfer events to become part of the experiential horizon of humanity. Perhaps shamans have at times been able to condition their minds in ways that enabled a direct experience of events transpiring in the ionosphere. All of this remains highly speculative for now, but the fuel of scientific discovery is to ask provocative questions. It is certainly hoped that flux transfer events will earn a prominent place in the agenda of plasmamythological research. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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ARP 261. Credit ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), Paranal Observatory.
A Lamentation for Arp 261

(Mar 20, 2009)
ESO has released another image of another instance of standard-theory hermeneutics. The several space bureaucracies have become adept at discovering peculiar celestial objects that send them back to the drawing board only to draw the same idea again. The press release begins with a spark of curiosity: "Sometimes objects in the sky that appear strange, or different from normal, have a story to tell and prove scientifically very rewarding. This was the idea behind Halton Arps catalogue of Peculiar Galaxies that appeared in the 1960s." The press release neglects to mention that one reward of Arps catalog was the questioning of the expanding universe hypothesis--a challenge that was suppressed by the political prohibition of questioning established answers. The press release remarks that "...the image proves to contain several surprises," but this soon proves to be only a rhetorical remark: The next paragraph sweeps the surprise into the standard bin of "colliding galaxies" before anyones pulse can get in a faster beat. Curiosity is soothed back into unquestioning somnolence by parroting approved answers. That makes for a short press release, so the piece is filled out with repetitions of standard repetitiousness about supernovae and stars. What if curiosity were not patronized into conformity? What if the questions were encouraged to explore the surprises in defiance of the answers who seek to constrain vision with their tunnels of acceptability? What else could Arp 261 be? Instead of "clouds of gas and dust" that "crash into each other," there could be cells of plasma driving electromagnetic forces throughout the system. Gravitational forces and gas The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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phenomena could be insignificant. Instead of colliding galaxies, Arp 261 could be a single barred spiral galaxy disrupted by a surge in its galactic circuit. The "bright new clusters of very hot stars" could be high-current discharges along spiral-arm Birkeland cables. The loop of bright clusters at the center of the image in the upper arm contains filaments that seem to converge. If the clusters were moved to the point of convergence, they would make the arm a continuous spiral: Perhaps the loop is the result of a double layer that exploded in the surging current. Modern astronomers busy themselves applying accepted theories to new observations in deliberate disregard for the unexpected. They May as well reprint previous papers, close the telescopes, and save the taxpayers pennies. Theyve ceased looking for new ideas and have become technicians of the rote. Astronomy has become a science of answers, of "secure knowledge," of ritual. It can be contained on a hard drive. Its a science for robots or parrots. Answers are victories that soon become dead leaves of reminiscence, dry pages of textbooks and scriptures. A science for humans is a science of questions, of learning, of possibilities and opportunities. Its aim is not to fold the unquestioned into the envelope of the given but to learn new words and to write new narratives. Arp 261 is part of a lexicon that for too long has been neglected. Mel Acheson
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Supposed dark matter distribution in the Bullet Cluster, 1E0657-558. Credit: HST/Chandra X-ray telescope/Spitzer Space telescope/Magellan telescope.
Dark Matter Recreations - Part Two

(Mar 18, 2009)
A great mathematical edifice in the form of the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (CDM) standard cosmological model has been built on shaky underlying assumptions. An integral component of the standard model is non-baryonic cold dark matter (CDM). While there is abundant mathematical content about CDM, how much does that translate into real physical understanding? The CDM is based on six primary parameters, and a great deal of quantitative astronomical activity is currently focused on determining the values for those parameters. However, it is important to note that the CDM model has a number of problems: there is no clue yet what particles comprise "non-baryonic" CDM, no explanation for the underlying physical nature of dark energy, and to a large extent it is really a "parameterization of ignorance." In part one of this article we reviewed a paper by Xu and Siegel about dark matter in our solar system. Siegel cited previous papers by others that claimed to categorically establish dark matter as a physical reality. The references included observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the power spectrum of the Universe, and colliding galaxy clusters. Siegel lists a key paper by Kamatsu et al (2008), a highly mathematical paper. Yet hidden under the dense computations is a set of assumptions concerning the cosmological model. The 5-year WMAP data used by the paper needs to be understood first. This is not data about dark energy, or dark matter, or spatial curvature, it is data about the temperature of the background cosmic radiation. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Through long term measurements, the WMAP study has accumulated a higher resolution image of the cosmic background radiation that radiates at about 3 Kelvin. Roughly isotropic, in detail it is slightly anisotropic. Determining the parameters for the CDM model is based on fitting theoretical predictions on a measured power spectrum. The determination of the CDM parameters from the WMAP data is essentially a curve-fitting exercise with all the hazards that come with the use of complicated, highly parameterized mathematical models. Regardless, one key point is that redshift data is fundamental to the interpretation in the context of the standard model. As it happens, redshift is not directly related to distance. Halton Arps book, "Seeing Red: Redshifts, Cosmology and Academic Science," effectively refutes the long-held assumption about redshift as evidence for an expanding Universe. Without redshift and the Hubble parameter (a basic parameter in the CDM model), then all the intricate mathematical superstructure of the standard model collapses. One cannot overemphasize the magnitude of Arps accomplishment or the extent of his ill-treatment by the astronomical community. In support of the power spectrum of the Universe, Siegel cites another mathematical paper that uses redshift data from the Luminous Red Galaxy survey. The power spectrum is best described as an attempt to map the power per unit volume of space. To quote an interesting discussion of power spectra and the cold dark matter model: The galaxy power spectrum is determined "...by performing galaxy redshift surveys and computing the clustering of galaxies as a function of scale size. This produces a set of correlation functions which essentially define the probability of another galaxy occurring within a radius of X from a given galaxy." Therefore, the power spectrum work supporting the standard model and CDM is also based on the assumption that redshift translates into recessional velocity (or rather its close cousin, redshift velocity) and distance. As pointed out above, this is a shaky foundation for the standard model. Regarding colliding galaxy clusters, Siegel points to Clowe et al.(2006). In this paper, Clowe reports on an approach to directly observe dark matter through a unique arrangement of matter in the Bullet Cluster (1E0657558). Clowe makes a number of fundamental assumptions that color the interpretations. Perhaps the most important assumption is that most of the mass of the clusters is dark matter. Clowe also assumes that between 1% and 2% of the galactic mass is stellar matter and that 5% to 15% of the mass is plasma. We are left to assume that the remaining 83% is dark matter (which is certainly different from the 22% predicted by the CDM model, so this is not even internally consistent). In essence, he is looking for what he already assumes is present, which is dangerous territory for an objective investigator. Next Clowe assumes that galaxy clusters behave like collisionless particles, but the "fluid-like" X-ray emitting plasma experiences ram pressure. Therefore the plasma is concentrated along the collision plane while the stellar matter passes through. In essence there is a physical separation of the intracluster plasma and the stellar and dark matter. The intracluster plasma is not fluid-like, it is a plasma. The plasma Clowe is referring to probably has a density in the range of 10^-19 to 10^-20 kilograms per cubic meter, which is about 1 atom in every cubic centimeter. This plasma will organize according to electromagnetic forces, not gravitational forces and it certainly does not qualify as a fluid. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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As Professor Don Scott points out: "You do not need to place your electric coffee maker at a lower level than the electrical wall outlet into which it is plugged so that electrons can flow downhill into it. Charges in a wire constitute a (dark mode) plasma and gravity has nothing to do with their motion." The entire double cluster is permeated with plasma. The notion that the "dark" portions on the two sides are plasma-less is unwarranted. It happens that the plasma in the central area is under greater current density and is in glow mode (up to X-ray energies). As Electric Universe commentator Mel Acheson points out in an earlier article about the Bullet Cluster: "From an electrical vantage point, the Chandra x-ray image clearly shows the bellshaped terminus and following arc of a plasma discharge 'jet'. The strong magnetic field of the current causes electrons to emit the x-ray synchrotron (non-thermal) radiation captured in the image. Synchrotron radiation is a normal electrical discharge effect." Therefore, if there has been no preferential sorting of plasma along a collision boundary, then a primary assumption of the paper is called into question. Concerning weak gravitational lensing, this technique is rife with statistical pitfalls and other errors. In addition, weak gravitational lensing is dependent on distance calculations usually based on redshift. In descriptions about the CDM model, there are assertions about the models accurate predictions. However, it is important to note that over time the model has been mathematically tuned to match observation. There are many observations it does not predict, most notably the large scale structure of the Universe. Even what is more important, its entire mathematical foundation rests on a single assumption, that higher redshift equals greater distance. This is not the case, as Arp has made abundantly clear. Halton Arp has held the telescope there for his peers to observe the real Universe, but they have turned away in favor of mathematical recreations. In an interesting philosophical aside, if 96% of the Universe is unobservable dark matter and dark energy, then why bother looking at the real thing anymore? Perhaps this is the unfortunate logical dead-end to a CDM model. Tom Wilson
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Superclusters (red) and supervoids (blue). Credit: University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy.
Superclusters and Supervoids

(Mar 16, 2009)
Regions of space more than 500 million light-years in diameter are said to reveal dark energy influences. Are astronomers misinterpreting distance and size measurements? "I have always believed that astrophysics should be the extrapolation of laboratory physics, that we must begin from the present Universe and work our way backward to progressively more remote and uncertain epochs." Hannes Alfvn Astronomers from the University of Hawaii recently claimed to have found "evidence" for socalled "dark energy" that is theorized to cause the hypothetical expansion of the Universe at a rate beyond that imparted by the Big Bang. Their research is based on an analysis of data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), along with information from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). According to astrophysicist Istvn Szapudi of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu: "We were able to image dark energy in action, as it stretches huge supervoids and superclusters of galaxies." A little over ten years ago, astronomers found that redshift observations of remote galaxies seemed to indicate the Universe is expanding faster today than it did in the past. So that cherished Big Bang cosmology theory could accommodate the anomalous redshift observations, the existence of a force that exerts negative pressure on gravitational fields was proposed. However, "negative gravity" was not a concept which they were prepared to defend, so they later referred to the force as "dark energy" because, like "dark matter" it cannot be detected with any instrument. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive Enzo Brachini from the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) wrote:
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"This implies that one of two very different possibilities must hold true. Either the Universe is filled with a mysterious dark energy which produces a repulsive force that fights the gravitational brake from all the matter present in the Universe, or, our current theory of gravitation is not correct and needs to be modified, for example by adding extra dimensions to space." Rather than accepting that "anomalies" in their observations exist because the Big Bang theory is faulty, scientists like Szapudi and Brachini resort to increasingly arcane addenda involving extra dimensions a l string theory, or that space itself is being pulled and twisted like taffy. In a previous Picture of the Day about the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB) data from the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope in New Mexico, we commented on the discovery of a "cosmic void" in the structure of the Universe based on the detection of a lower temperature region in space. As the "redshift-equals-distance" theory indicates, the "void" extends for almost a billion light-years. It is these "supervoids," in conjunction with multiple galactic superclusters, that led the University of Hawaii investigators to believe they had confirmed dark energy activity. CMB data is thought to reveal a Universe that contains areas (superclusters) where increased density imparts gravitational energy to microwave emissions from deep space. Conversely, lower density regions (supervoids) weaken the received signals, because there is reduced gravitational mass available. Looking at the microwave frequencies from the VLA seemed to show 500 million light-year-wide expanses where microwave radiation possessed a larger energy curve than it should exhibit. Szapudi wrote: "...if dark energy causes the universe to stretch out at a faster rate, the supercluster flattens out in the half-billion years it takes the microwave to cross it. Thus, the wave gets to keep some of the energy it gained as it entered the supercluster." Princeton University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists wrote that galactic expansion "...is forcing us to consider the possibility that some cosmic dark energy exists that opposes the self-attraction of matter and causes the expansion of the Universe to accelerate." Although, Berkeley scientists also admit: "The Universe is made mostly of dark matter and dark energy and we don't know what either of them is." In other words, two of the most active investigations in physics could be based in false premises about how the Universe is made and how it should behave. Plasma physicists have known for years that plasma makes up 99.99% of the Universe. It is a fascinating convergence that the volume of gravitational mass invented to save Big Bang cosmology is the same as the mass of plasma that is overlooked. From the perspective of the Electric Universe theory, electric currents drive the galaxies and their associated stars. It has been demonstrated in laboratory experiments that Birkeland current filaments form structures that resemble spiral galaxies. Birkeland currents have a longer-range attractive force than gravity by several orders of magnitude, diminishing with the reciprocal of the distance from the current axis which could account for the anomalous The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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movement of stars as they revolve around the galactic core, as well as the anomalous acceleration of galaxies in deep space. As physicist and Electric Universe advocate Wal Thornhill points-out: "It's not that most of the matter and energy in the universe is dark, but that most cosmologists are totally in the dark about the real nature of the universe." Stephen Smith
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Supercomputer simulation of the Milky Way's putative "dark matter halo." Credit: University of California, Santa Cruz.
Dark Matter Recreations - Part One

(Mar 13, 2009)
There seems to be a growing cadre of theoretical astronomers who are focused on mathematical recreations centered on dark matter without observations or data to interpret. In June 2008, Universe Today published a report from astronomers Siegel and Xu, predicting about 10^20 kilograms of dark matter in our Solar System that was accreted over the last 4.5 billion years. Quoting Siegel in the original paper: "Overall, we find that dark matter in our Solar System is far more important than previously thought. Due to gravitational three-body interactions between dark matter particles, the Sun, and the planets, a significant amount of dark matter winds up gravitationally bound to our Solar System, resulting in density enhancements between two and five orders of magnitude, depending on the distance from the Sun." The paper begins by asserting dark matter as a reality, without any doubt as to its existence. Siegel begins the paper by citing evidence in three key areas that support the existence of dark matter: First, cosmic microwave background (CMB) evidence; second, galactic power spectrum analyses; and third, galaxy cluster collision evidence. In part two of this article we will examine this underlying evidence in some detail. However, summarizing the Electric Universe position about the initial dark matter assertion, the underlying "evidence" for dark matter is not so much actual data, but the cosmological interpretations overlaid on actual data. The real observational data is red shifts, galactic distances, and cosmic background temperature gradients. All else is inference. The approach Siegel and Xu took in computing the amount of dark matter in the solar system The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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was based in the assumption that there is a certain dark matter density in the interstellar space surrounding the Solar System. They used a value of 0.009 solar masses per cubic parsec (one cubic parsec equals 9.78 cubic light-years), which amounts to about 7 x 10^-20 kilograms per cubic meter, or about 10 to 100 times the density assumed for "regular" interstellar matter. They then used relatively straightforward calculations to compute the volume of space the Solar System encountered in its 4.5 billion year history. With that, they were able to calculate the gravitational capture of the dark matter given the relative velocities of the planets, the sun and the dark matter itself. Without getting into too much detail, they were able to estimate a dark matter density profile with respect to distance from the sun and the different planets. According to Xu and Siegel, the Solar System has captured about 10^20 kilograms of dark matter over its 4.5 billion year history. Questions that should always be in the forefront when reading any scientific report include: how valid are the underlying assumptions for the work, and how useful is it for understanding the Universe? Putting 10^20 kilograms of matter into context reveals it to be vanishingly small with respect to the Solar System as a whole. This amount of mass falls somewhere between the third and fourth largest asteroids (Vesta and Hygiea, respectively). The determination does nothing to explain Solar System dynamics or the anomalous behavior of space probes. How this vanishingly small amount of matter translates into "a significant amount of dark matter" is difficult to understand. The key, according to Siegel, is that the dark matter density near the Earth (3.3 x 10^16 kilograms per cubic astronomical unit) is now shown to be four orders of magnitude greater than the background halo density. This statement is confusing. Translating the dark matter density close to the Earth into kilograms per cubic meter results in 10^-17 kilograms per cubic meter. Remember the interstellar dark matter density was 7 x 10^-20 kilograms per cubic meter, which looks like 2 to 3 orders of magnitude. Regardless, Siegel claims this "discovery" will help dark matter investigators because they'll "know where to look." However, by definition, dark matter is unobservable so it is unclear how this benefit will be realized. A different viewpoint demonstrates that these investigators have based a paper on assumptions about dark matter drawn from earlier papers that are themselves based on different types of assumptions about dark matter and the cosmological model. There is assumption layered on assumption to the point where there is no longer any need for actual data or observations. It seems to be enough at this point to construct a Universe and Solar System that astronomers no longer actually observe in favor of mathematical recreations involving dark matter densities and so on. In the end, this work has led to a conclusion that a vanishingly small (one might say meaningless) amount of dark matter has accumulated in 4.5 billion years. Im sorry, I do not find this enlightening. I encourage astronomers like these authors in question to go out on a clear night with a simple optical telescope and take a good look. They will see a Universe that is brightly lit throughout the electromagnetic spectrum, with electrically active plasmas stretching between our Sun and the planets, as well as between the stars and galaxies. During the day using a solar filter, they will see the electromagnetic activity of our own Sun The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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tossing immensely hot filaments of plasma into space. With bigger telescopes, like Hubble, they can see intricately arrayed Birkeland filaments winding through planetary nebulae. The heart of our galaxy is brightly lit in a sparkling electromagnetic rainbow driven by powerful electrical currents carried on intergalactic transmission lines. The Universe is not an abstract mathematical construct of dark matter halos, black hole singularities or geometrically perfect neutron stars. It is filled with electric currents flowing through chaotically beautiful Birkeland filaments. These chaotic filaments are notoriously difficult to squeeze into linear differential equations, but theyre there just the same. Just go look. Tom Wilson
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Exploding double-layer CRL 618. Credit: Susan Trammell (UNC), HST, ESA, NASA.
A Twist of Plasma
(Mar 09, 2009)
Crisscross filaments are seen expanding outward from a red giant star. Are they hot gas or streams of charged particles? Complex jets of material are being ejected from CRL 618 in the form of rings, knots, and twisted streamers of glowing gases. The overall shape of the so-called "planetary nebula" reveals two gigantic, bifurcated jets emerging from the star, indicating the beginnings of a helical shape. According to prevailing theories, red giant stars expand outward because they have "burned" most of their primordial hydrogen and have entered another stage of life where they are consuming the helium that was created in thermonuclear fusion reactions. As hydrogen atoms fuse into helium, the helium (being heavier than hydrogen) sinks into the stellar core, where it accumulates over millions, if not billions, of years. Once the star has exhausted its hydrogen fuel supply, it contracts because radiative pressure is no longer sufficient to overcome the gravitational force that is always trying to pull the star's outer surface down into its core. As the contraction continues, the internal pressure rises and the star heats up once more, until the temperature is high enough for helium to fuse into carbon. So that it can radiate the energy produced by helium fusion, the star expands its surface area into the red giant phase. After the stellar core material reaches the stage where it can no longer fuse into heavier elements, the current model of stellar evolution predicts that the star will shed its outer surface layers and reveal its hot, dense core, gradually becoming a white dwarf. During that progression, tremendous volumes of glowing dust and gas surround the star, often forming braided streamers and helical "tornadoes" in space. These "cosmic slinkies" are known to Electric Universe theorists as Birkeland currents. An electric discharge in plasma creates a tube-like magnetic sheath along its axis. If enough The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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current flows through the circuit, the discharge will cause the sheath to glow, sometimes creating a number of other sheaths within it. The sheath is called a "double layer." Double layers form when positive charges build up in one region of a plasma cloud and negative charges build up nearby. A powerful electric field appears between the two regions, which accelerates charged particles. The electric charges spiral in the magnetic fields, emitting xrays, extreme ultraviolet, and sometimes gamma rays. In the above image of CRL 618, it is the double layers that are glowing, exposing the distinct boundaries between sheaths. Since electric currents flow along the sheaths, the filaments (Birkeland currents) attract one another over long distances but repel each other when they get too close. Rather than coalescing, they twist around each other, ultimately growing into long, electric "transmission lines" in space. Planetary nebulae, therefore, should be thought of as gas discharge tubes that are many light-years long. The consensus view of planetary nebulae is based on explosive shock waves through clouds of hot gas. Since thermal and kinetic events are chaotic, by definition, any light from those events should exhibit multiple frequencies. However, as in CRL 618, over 90% of the light is seen in a small range of frequencies, mostly from ionized oxygen. As Hannes Alfvn observed, the universe has become "...the playground of theoreticians who have never seen a plasma in a laboratory. Many of them still believe in formulae which we know from laboratory experiments to be wrong." Alfvn reiterated that point throughout his life: the underlying assumptions of cosmologists today "are developed with the most sophisticated mathematical methods and it is only the plasma itself which does not understand how beautiful the theories are and absolutely refuses to obey them." Stephen Smith
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"Fossil dunes." Simpson desert, Australia. Credit: Ammoncarmel.com
Megaripples
(Mar 06, 2009)
From Antarctica to Namibia, giant, immobile "dunes" appear to be similar to those seen on Mars, Venus and Titan. A previous Picture of the Day article about the strange formations found in an area of Eastern Washington called the Channeled Scablands addressed the kilometers-long ripples that march through the landscape with hundreds of meters between their crests. Rather than being deposited by floods of water, it was suggested that they could have been formed by electric discharges. Other examples of dune-like formations have been discussed, except they have been seen on other planets, such as Mars, as well as on Saturn's planet-sized moon, Titan. Along with the extraterrestrial examples, Australia's Simpson desert contains 1240 parallel, unmoving "string dunes" that run for over 300 kilometers. They are not typical aeolian features, because they appear to be unaffected by the hot winds that frequently blow through the region--they do not travel. They are also associated with deep striations that are not easily explained through conventional geology, unless it is assumed that some processes occurred in the past that are no longer as active today. It is possible that the dunes and the gullies are old enough that they correspond to the last interglacial periods when flowing water is supposed to have eroded Australia however, they do not have the appearance of great age. The dunes, especially, appear to be rather young. Appearances alone, are not sufficient evidence for any theory. However, one would think that exposure to the elements for tens of thousands of years would etch some sign into their faces, yet they look like they were recently created. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Namib desert also reveals thousands of square kilometers that are covered by hardened ridges that are covered by a thin veneer of sand. Instead of being dunes, per se, they are actually solidified stone that look as if a violent wind blew across molten magma, setting the ripples in place. One place where such hardened waves are found is Antarctica. Stone ripples are there, but even more anomalous snow dunes can also be seen. In 1997, the Canadian Radarsat satellite photographed gigantic megadunes 100 kilometers long, with separations of two kilometers between crests. Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center and a glaciologist at the University of Colorado theorizes that it is the katabatic (or downhill) winds that shape the snow dunes. As air cools at the higher altitudes, it becomes denser and slides down the continental rise "...like maple syrup sloughing off a pancake." As the frigid air flows down over the ice sheet and hits the plateau, it begins to waver. The slight rippling of the air over centuries of time gradually assembles the dunes, according to Scambos and his colleagues. Antarctica is the world's driest desert and the ice packs on at less than a half inch per year, so if wind and minute ice crystals are causing the snow dunes to form, no one can see it happening. Indeed, a comparison of images from the 1960s with more recent radar scans demonstrates that they have not changed shape or moved out of position for nearly 40 years. As we have asked in several previous articles, what force can produce similar effects with disparate materials in such varied environments? Perhaps electricity flowing through conductive substances has a role to play. The many faces of electricity have not yet been uncovered. There are aspects to its activity that are still poorly understood. It is not the intent of these papers to provide definitive answers to these questions, but to provide a possible alternative to the gradualism that underlies geological theories today. Stephen Smith
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The Leo Ring system. Optical (left) and hydrogen emission regions (right). Credit: NRAO/AUI
The Leo Ring

(Mar 04, 2009)
Since its serendipitous discovery in 1983, the Leo Ring has presented a number of problems for the conventional model of galaxy formation. The Leo Ring is about 35 million light-years away, 620,000 light-years wide, and is apparently orbiting a pair of galaxies in the Leo Group, M105 and NGC 3384. It is fairly evenly spread but exhibits some clumpiness as shown in the figure above. The Ring has been mapped most thoroughly in its southern portions close to the bright M96 galaxy (bottom right of the picture above). The Leo Ring is clear evidence of extensive intergalactic matter, which in itself is relatively controversial. Additionally, it is intergalactic matter which in its clumpier regions approaches densities equivalent to interstellar matter within galaxies. This is highly unusual indeed and indicates there is likely more of this type of intergalactic matter if we look for it correctly. In the numerous journal articles written about this structure (mostly contributed by Stephen Schneider, who discovered the Leo Ring), there has evolved an accepted view that the Leo Ring is composed of "pristine" gas from the early days of the Universe after the Big Bang. This assumption derives from an as yet untested hypothesis that the matter comprising the Leo Ring is low in metallicity (elements heavier than hydrogen or helium). Observations over the years have revealed no star formation in the Leo Ring, except for a small, very dim dwarf galaxy (Leo Dwarf A). However, a recent study (Thilker et al., 2009) observed the Leo Ring in ultraviolet light (UV) using the NASA Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). The investigators detected UV emissions within distinct substructures in the Leo Ring, indicating recent star formation. However, the star formation appears to be confined to small dim dwarf galaxies. The confusing part for the investigators is that such dwarf galaxies The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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(often observed as satellite galaxies around larger galaxies) are usually dominated by dark matter. In this case, there is no evidence for dark matter. Elsewhere weve discussed how dark matter is inferred from galactic dynamics. If the rotational velocity of a galaxy is greater than can be explained by its observable mass, then dark matter is assumed to contribute the missing mass. However, in the case of the dwarf galaxies in the Leo Ring, their dynamical masses seem to agree relatively well with the mass estimated from luminosity. There is one other confusing attribute of the Leo Ring. The rotational velocity of the Leo Ring itself is estimated at about 80 km/s, which means it orbits the two central galaxies about once every 4 billion years. That means if only 13.7 billion years has elapsed since the Big Bang, then the Leo Ring has orbited at most about three times. How could gravitational forces have smoothed the matter in the Ring in only three (or less) revolutions? Interestingly, this issue is rarely mentioned in the various articles about the Leo Ring. To Schneiders credit in his 1989 paper, he mentions this as a key puzzle about the structure: "It is difficult to imagine a way of spreading it around the ellipse via differential rotation in less than a few orbital periods." In the same paper, Schneider speculates that M96 might be shaping the ring by orbiting around the outside, cleaning up gas. But the orbital period of M96 is on the order of 10 billion years, so that leaves a conundrum as well. One of the other investigators of the Thilker et al. paper above, Schiminovich, had this to say about the Leo Ring: "The ring spins just once every 4 billion years or so and the gas May have had to take several orbits to become so evenly spread." This is confusing, since Schiminovich would probably support the theory of a Big Bang occurring about 13 billion years ago. We can only infer that by "several" Schiminovich means twice. The Electric Universe model would take a different view of the Leo Ring and the newly discovered dwarf galaxy formation: The "gas" in the Leo Ring is actually plasma, though in dark mode with very low current density. The plasma is not "primordial" and could of a similar metallicity as other interstellar matter, unless Marklund Convection has "sorted" it into relatively pure hydrogen and helium. The Leo Ring plasma is under very low electrical stress, resulting in very low rotational velocity for the dwarf galaxies (e.g. the Leo Dwarf A has a rotational velocity less than one tenth of the much brighter M105 galaxy). The low electrical stress also produces low rates of star formation and a notable lack of X-ray emission. The Leo Ring plasma might have organized over billions of years through mostly electromagnetic forces, possibly through weak magnetic fields permeating the unusually closely packed cluster of galaxies in the Leo Group. The study by Thilker et al. has prompted discussions about different types of galaxies, some with dark matter and others without dark matter. However, a different view is that there are galaxies under more or less electrical stress. Those under higher electrical stress will exhibit higher rotational velocities than can be explained with gravity alone. Interestingly, those galaxies under higher electrical stress will show brighter X-ray sources in The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the region outside of the visible matter in the galactic ring. Note that X-ray emissions in outer galactic rings (where rotational velocities are higher than gravity can support) tend to be used for dark matter computations. The dark matter model will not die easily though. As Thilker says: "I think the bulk of evidence from previous studies still strongly supports the role of dark matter in shaping the well-known galaxy population." Understand the logic here. Thilker has just reported on galaxy formation completely contradicting the dark matter halo model and yet concedes his findings do not really impact the conventional wisdom about dark matter. One wonders where the clear thinkers and scientific rebels have disappeared to in the astronomy community. Let us hope there are more Halton Arps out there somewhere. By Tom Wilson
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Dunes on Mars with an unusual orientation. Credit: MRO/University of Arizona.
Ionic Tempest
(Feb 27, 2009)
Wind is said to have created many geological formations on Mars. What kind of wind? Mars presently has an atmosphere that is less than 1% of Earth's atmospheric density at sea level. It is composed almost entirely of carbon dioxide, although nitrogen and argon make up about 3%, with trace elements less than 1/10%. The temperatures on Mars vary from a maximum of 20 C (68 F) and a minimum of -140 C (-220 F). The atmosphere is so thin that blowing winds exert almost no pressure on robotic rovers that are traversing the surface. So how could they gather piles of sand and dust into dunes that can reach 800 meters high? The consensus opinion among planetary scientists explains wind through atmospheric convection and gas kinetics. Since most theories of geophysical processes on other planets are based on the idea that what happens on our planet should be used as the model for what happens elsewhere, there is no other way for wind to act in the minds of investigators studying other planets and moons. Researchers are constrained by their presumptions, so dunes on Mars "must be" similar to dunes on Earth. From an Electric Universe perspective, it is not heat transfer and pressure differentials alone that cause the atmosphere to move, electric discharges also generate wind. Electricity flowing through plasma accelerates charged particles that can drag neutral gas and dust along with them. Electromagnetic forces create "electric winds" that, depending on the scale of the effect, can reach exceptional velocities. There is mounting evidence that tornadoes and hurricanes on Earth are not generated through simple convection, but are the result of strong electromagnetic forces in a plasma The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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vortex. The spinning shapes are reminiscent of helical Birkeland currents that are sometimes seen in gaseous nebulae. On Mars, large dust devils are observed, sometimes rising thousands of meters into the sky. Their electrical component is evident by the scorched trackways they leave burned into the dusty surface. A similar manifestation of electric forces--on a much larger scale--could explain the weird dune fields on Mars. As Electric Universe theorist, Wal Thornhill proposed, closer examination should reveal the dunes to be "solid, glassified sand, rather like that found in dry soil following a lightning strike." Indeed, the Opportunity Rover's wheels left sharp-edged impressions as it rolled through extensive dune fields, breaking through a top crust. This supports the glassification hypothesis. A Martian dust storm obscured an entire hemisphere several months ago. However, Opportunity reported only small pressure increases and minimal sand accumulation. This lends credence to the idea of "blowing" dust on Mars being caused by electrostatic discharges, rather than through the movement of its rarified atmosphere. An ionic storm sometime in the recent past must have scoured immense amounts of material from the surface of Mars, gathering it into piles that are not oriented to prevailing wind patterns, but follow the line of charge transfer as it blew across the landscape. After the discharge passed, the heaps of ionized material instantly solidified in the same way as a volcanic pyroclastic flow will immediately harden into stone after it stops moving. By Stephen Smith
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West African dust plume over the Atlantic. Credit: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Dust in the Wind

(Feb 25, 2009)
Dust particle alignment May have a significant impact on atmospheric models. A recent report describes an unexpected alignment of Sahara dust grains in the atmosphere above La Palma in the Canary Islands. The vertical alignment of the dust grains is caused by electrical polarization by the Earth's electric field. The article published February 10, 2009, describes the discovery in a way that makes it seem recent and serendipitous. It was made after mounting the PlanetPol polarimeter on the William Herschel Telescope (part of the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes). However, these observations (by the same investigators) date back to at least 2007, when a paper on this topic was published in the Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Journal (Ulanowski et al, 2007). The original paper is a good analysis of the dust alignment and models the dynamics of the dust grains assuming gravitational forces, the fluid flow of the surrounding atmosphere, and the electric field strength. The polarization of the dust particles was "unexpected" and seems to be the first observation of its kind. However, it should not be surprising given different fundamental assumptions. Earth carries a net charge relative to its local electrical environment in space. In essence, the Earths atmosphere is a capacitor with a radially oriented, variable electric field. It has been shown that atmospheric conductivity is decreased with haze, particulates, water vapor, etc. The electric field over part of the capacitor is intensified by these effectors. The fair weather electric field at the Earths surface is about 120 volts-per-meter. It is interesting that the investigators estimated that the electric field orienting the Saharan dust grains was on the order of 2000 volts-per-meter (the E-field below dust storms can be many thousands of volts). If the dielectric properties of the Earths atmosphere are changed by the presence of the dust particles, creating a less conductive dielectric, then the electric field The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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strength will build locally. The electric field strengths can be considerable, as high as 20,000 volts-per-meter at ground level during dust storms, even tens of kilometers from the storm (Kamra, 1972). It seems that a side effect of the electric field enhancement in particulate clouds is the polarization of the dust grains. This polarization changes the radiative properties of the atmosphere in ways not included in current climate models. In addition, the electric field strength also enables the dust grains to travel great distances. For example, to take an excerpt from Ulanowskis paper: "Interestingly, it appears that some hitherto unknown atmospheric process counteracts gravitational settling of larger atmospheric dust particles (Maring et al., 2003), as models of long-range dust transport often underestimate the larger particle fraction (Colarco et al., 2003, Ginoux et al., 2001), and dust samples collected after fallout events show that large numbers of "giant" dust particles (larger than 62.5 micrometers) can be carried thousands of kilometers from their source (Middleton et al., 2001)." A widespread and inherent electrical field in the Earths atmosphere that is altered by the traveling dust cloud might be part of the missing answer. In essence, the cloud of dust particles maintains an increased electric field in its locality simply by altering the conductivity of the Earths atmosphere. It carries its enhanced electric field with it. In fact, the electrical field effects of the dust cloud extend beyond its locality and can influence the conductivity of the atmosphere kilometers away, as was mentioned above. It is likely that similar mechanisms are at work on Mars. Regional dust storms are not uncommon on Mars, but occasionally the regional storms organize into planet-wide events. The mechanism where dust particles increase the electric field through their presence, allowing more dust particles to become suspended, is an example of what engineers would call a positive feedback loop. In the proper circumstances, a small number of regional storms could combine, greatly altering the electrical field strength not just locally, but to a large extent beyond the storm itself. There is a widespread reinforcing effect that feeds on itself, and this is the nature of a positive feedback loop. There has been some work done on the potential electrical properties of Martian dust storms and dust devils but all these studies begin with the assumption that the electric fields are generated locally through charge separation. Obviously, none have approached the problem from the perspective that an ambient electric field exists between the planets surface and the outer reaches of its atmosphere. I would propose installing polarimetry equipment in a subsequent Mars lander to observe the polarization properties of particulate matter in the Martian atmosphere. One would predict that the particles are aligned along an "unexpectedly" strong electric field in the middle atmosphere. It is remarkable the degree to which scientists in various fields are surprised by the electrical nature of the Universe. I also find it interesting that our physical sciences have become dominated by a mindset that allows for only local causality rather than allowing for a broader connectedness. It took a very long time for conventional wisdom to accept that the Earth was electrically connected to the Sun. The logical next step in accepting that electricity flows between a star and its planets is allowing that the Earth exists in a lively electrical environment in its orbit around the Sun. That electrical environment reaches right down to the biosphere, impacting our climate both directly and indirectly. By Tom Wilson The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Radio lobes extending from the "active galaxy" Centaurus A. Credit: Optical: Hubble Space Telescope, Radio: the Very large Array.
Noisy Space--Electric Space

(Feb 23, 2009)
A recent press release announced the measurement of background radio noise over six times what was "hoped for" based on data from a NASA-funded high altitude helium balloon. Space scientists from NASA and UC Berkeley recently announced that the Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission (ARCADE) findings uncovered unexpectedly high radio emissions from the cosmic background. There is no mistaking the unmitigated surprise from the investigators at this discovery. The researchers had expected to identify weak background radio noise from early star formation after the Big Bang. However, in the words of the principle investigator, Alan Kogut: "Instead of the faint signal we hoped to find, here was this booming noise six times louder than anyone had predicted." According to the investigators, there are no theories to explain the unusually high background signal level. But what if the space between galaxies is a source of synchrotron radio emissions? Built to rise to 120,000 feet, ARCADE is the first instrument sensitive enough to detect this radio signal. The radio receivers are immersed in 500 gallons of liquid helium, which keeps them at 2.7 Kelvin (2.7 degrees above absolute zero) to enhance their sensitivity. In determining background radio noise, the researches must subtract out known sources to arrive at a true background value. This is difficult, besides being rife with assumptions and potential errors. However, what if the space between galaxies is not "radio-neutral" and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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theres a source they have not allowed for? What if the galaxies are formed, powered and connected by Birkeland currents stretching billions of light-years? These field-aligned Birkeland currents are a predictable and inevitable formation of diffuse plasma. The currents are proposed to have magnitudes ranging up to a billion billion Amperes (Peratt, 1990). According to Peratt (1990), the diameter of a typical current can be in the range of 100,000 light-years and separated from a neighboring current by about the same distance. The length of the currents (based on laboratory analogues) can be upwards of 10 billion light-years with an average length of 100 million light-years. As Peratt points out in his paper, the currents, which coalesce and twist around each other into "magnetic ropes," are not observable themselves. But they can be detected by the matter that they pull in to form filaments along their lengths. Very tenuous cosmic plasma will selforganize into a cellular plasma structure with filamentary surface currents that concentrate diffuse matter. It is reasonable to predict that the unusually high background radio noise observed by ARCADE should be higher than expected because there is a potential source that has not been subtracted out: the intergalactic Birkeland currents. As long as astronomers continue to visualize galaxies as separate islands in space, they will miss a large piece of the puzzle. There is an immensely large volume of space between the galaxies that could be electromagnetically active. The Birkeland currents between the galaxies emit synchrotron radiation, not nearly as intense as the more energetic z-pinches of the galaxies and stars, but there nonetheless. As Philip Lubin, one of the team members of the ARCADE study, said: "The universe continues to amaze us and provide us with new mysteries. It is like a large puzzle that we are slowly given pieces to so that we can eventually see through the fog of our confusion." A large part of that confusion arises from not learning from our terrestrial aurora that Birkeland currents across a wide scale of magnitudes are a very active component of the electrical life of the Universe. By Tom Wilson
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Credit: Jesse Allen. Data courtesy of GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS and the U.S./Japan Aster Science Team
The Kondyor Massif

(Feb 20, 2009)
Geologists say it is an intrusion of igneous, or volcanic, rock that pushed up through overlying layers of sediment. Electric arcs provide a better explanation. A six-kilometer-wide circle of rock contrasts with the surrounding topography in Northern Siberia. It looks like a crater formed by the impact of a stone from space or an extinct volcano, but neither explanation seems to fit more detailed observations. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASAs Terra satellite observed Kondyor Massif on June 10, 2006. A three-dimensional image of the formation was created in order to provide an indication of its proportions. There is little vegetation within the ring of rock as the ASTER image reveals. A river flows out of the massif on the north side, fed by rainwater collecting within the uplifted rim. An interesting feature of the river is that it appears to cut through the rim of the massif at one point, as if it adopted a channel that was present before the river began to flow. The geological term for such an anomaly is "superimposed topography." In other words, the river and its bed seem to be inserted into the terrain, rather than developing with it. Kondyor Massif is unique not just because of its unusual structure, but for the mineral veins within it: gold, silver, and platinum are mined there by the Russian government. Previous Picture of the Day articles about the Siberian Traps and Popigai Crater noted that northern Russia possesses rich diamond, copper, nickel, and coal deposits. Popigai is one of the world's most profitable diamond resources and includes one of the most concentrated examples of nickel-bearing ore in the world. Kondyor is not an impact crater, per se, because the hallmarks of electrical activity are present. Circular formations all over the world are usually taken to be signs that an asteroid or The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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a meteoroid struck with sufficient force that a hole was mechanically blasted out of the strata, leaving behind a crater as forensic evidence. However, most (if not all) of these patterns display characteristics that call into question the prevailing interpretation. As we have written in the past, the Manicouagan Impact Structure and Kebira Crater (100 kilometers and 39 kilometers in width, respectively) do not fit the asteroid hypothesis. Concentric rings surround central uplifts; the interiors are wide and flat, with no blast debris; and neither formation has been "punched" into the Earth. Rather, they both resemble the circular formations visible on the Moon and elsewhere in the Solar System. If there were no forests surrounding the Kondyor Massif, it would resemble Terra Sirenum on Mars. One of the most striking aspects to the large circular formations on Earth is that heavy metal mining takes place in all of them. The Sudbury Structure in Canada is a copper and copper sulfate mine. Popigai, as has been noted, is a nickel mine, and Manicouagan is a source for lead, copper, silver and gold. In western Canada, lying along a giant arc that stretches from the Great Lakes to northern Saskatchewan, uranium is found in abundance. Much of the mining takes place underneath what were once large circular lakes that have been drained to accommodate operations. What do these observations indicate? From an Electric Universe perspective, the presence of heavy metals is a result of neutron capture from an interplanetary thunderbolt. When electric discharges erupt into space, they do so because they are attracted to an oppositely charged leader that descends from the sky. Kondyor Massif is round, with an upraised rim and deposits of heavy metals, because electric currents flowed into the center of the formation on their way to meet a descending leaderstroke from another charged object. Ions responded to the intense electric field and dragged the surrounding rock and soil with them toward space. Meanwhile, the center of the main arc erupted in a titanic pillar of electric fire. The crater rim was uplifted and then fused in place, while the inrushing dendritic channels pulled the most electrically conductive minerals together into a consolidated mass. The rotating arc then left a shocked peak in the center of the maelstrom. Kondyor is one of the remnants from circular augers of plasma that repeatedly devastated Siberia in the recent past. Written by Stephen Smith from an idea suggested by Michael Steinbacher.
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The Carina Nebula. Credit: 2.2 m ESO/MPG telescope, La Silla Observatory, Chile.
Carina Breakdown
(Feb 18, 2009)
The Carina Nebula cant be seen. Natural eyesight, unaided by technological enhancements such as telescopes, doesnt respond to the meager glow. Telescopes narrow our natural vision, magnify the glow, and respond to "extrasensory" wavelengths. We shape the instrumental responses into simulacra of natural responses and make sense of them in relation to prior experiences, presumptions, and theories. Most astronomers presently make sense of the Carina Nebula according to gravity and meteorology: They see a cosmic perfect storm. It is a region of short-lived giant stars, stellar explosions, fast winds, shock waves, and mechanically twisted lines of frozen magnetic force. The friction of the gravitationally driven turbulence generates radiation from radio waves to xrays. Electric Universe proponents make sense of it through plasma phenomena: They see a catastrophic short-circuit in the galactic power grid. Entangled Birkeland currents interrupt the interstellar power flows, and the inductive energy of the "transmission lines" flows into the break. The filaments of current jump into glow mode and provide a backlight of aurora-like curtains. Foreground filaments still in dark mode reveal their spiral and braided structures (for example, the dark DNA-like structure to the right of Eta Carinae, the brightest star in the lower left). Magnetic fields generated by these currents pull in and concentrate surrounding plasma, pinching bits into new stars--the cosmic counterpart of ball lightning. Clusters and lines of stars appear throughout the nebula. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Primary currents induce hierarchies of subsidiary "leakage" sparks, filling light-year size regions with parallel filaments of "coronal hair." (Examples are in the dark nebulosity at bottom center and in the glowing fans at upper left center between the two yellow stars.) Tubular discharges--interstellar electrical tornadoes--twist through the chaos (at upper left, for example). Instabilities evolve through petroglyph-like forms, such as the seven-rung "ladder" in the dark filament to the right of Eta Carinae. The sudden burst of energy along these currents feeds supernova-size exploding double layers (the bubble-like forms scattered around the region). These and other double layers accelerate electrons and ions to relativistic velocities. The electrons spiral in the magnetic fields and emit high-energy synchrotron radiation. Slower electrons emit radio waves. The high-energy ions escape as cosmic rays. The making of sense leads to new responses, which eventually require new sense to be made. Therefore, science is ever provisional. Any proper scientific understanding of the Carina Nebula will keep in mind the question: How much of it still cant be seen? By Mel Acheson
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"Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View." Sculpture by Cornelia Parker, 1991.
Dark Matter Hiding in the Margins

(Feb 16, 2009)
Astronomers and astrophysicists are so keen to identify cold dark matter that almost any argument is accepted in the physics journals and the popular science media without apparent critical reasoning. A recently published paper in the Journal of Physics A by Adler (2008) calculates the maximum amount of cold dark matter that must be present in the space between the Laser Geodynamics Satellites (LAGEOS) and the Moons orbit. Adler asserts that there is at most the equivalent to 4 x 10^-9 of Earths mass of dark matter in that volume (2.4 x 10^16 kilograms). This scientific journal article was reported on the Scientific American and the American Scientist websites, among others. Unfortunately, the writers and editors seem not to have read the original paper and were more concerned with sensational headlines about dark matter than responsible science reporting. Still worse, the editor of the Journal of Physics A didnt seem to pay much attention to the paper. What Adler does is deceptively straightforward. He uses published measurements for the gravitational parameter (GM in units of kg^3/s^2, the product of the gravitational constant G and the objects mass) for the Earth alone, the Moon alone, and the Earth and Moon combined. After subtracting the values for the Earth alone and the Moon alone from the value of the two combined, what is left must be dark matter. Adler's value for the combined GM parameter is 403503.2357 0.0014. His value for the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Earth alone is 398600.4356 0.0008, and his value for the Moon alone is 4902.8000 0.0003. Each of these gravitational parameters is derived using a different method with different sets of assumptions, and are then "tweaked" in different ways (with implicit assumptions) before the final calculations. In the end, Adler finds the GM for dark matter to be 0.00010.0016. By dividing this value by the GM for the Earth, the result is a ratio of (0.3 4) x 10^-9. Based on that result, he asserts that there must be a mass of dark matter less than 4 x 10^-9 times that of the Earth in that volume of space (G assumed to be a constant). There is a deep flaw in the proposal that the difference in these values is statistically significant. What has been found is that the GM value selected for the Earth-Moon combination versus the separate GM values for the Earth and Moon alone agree well within their stated tolerances. Alternatively, the value for the combined Earth-Moon GM is 403503.2357 0.0014. If for comparison the separate Earth and Moon values are added using standard interval calculations to get the new error, the value is 403503.2356 0.0011. Looking at these two values with error bars on a chart, the second summed value fits perfectly within the 95% confidence error bars of the original combined value. There is no significant difference between the two values. This error in reasoning is immediately followed by another statistical sleight of hand. Adler computes the dark matter-to-Earth GM ratio of (0.3 4) x 10^-9. From this he uses only the positive side of the 95% confidence interval to assert there is at most 4 x 10^-9 the fraction of Earths mass in dark matter between Earth and the Moon. This is really misleading. The positive side of a confidence interval has no more statistical significance than the negative side. It is 0.3 plus or minus 4, not just plus. That means -3.7 is as statistically valid as +4.3. The best that he can propose (if we can ignore the error in assigning a statistically insignificant difference to dark matter at all) is that there is a 95% likelihood of there being or not being any dark matter in that volume of space. That is not really so enlightening. However, the fundamental errors he makes in interpreting these calculations does not stop the flights of fancy in the Scientific American article one bit: "Based on current data, Adler estimates in the October 17 Journal of Physics A that at most some 24 trillion metric tons of dark matter lies between Earth and the moon. Such a dark matter halo might explain the anomalies seen in the orbits of the Pioneer, Galileo, Cassini, Rosetta and NEAR mission spacecraft. Adler also speculates that dark matter could exert dramatic effects on the four gas giants in our solar system-Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. If these massive worlds have gravitationally captured dark matter, then dark matter particles could smash into them--rare events but enough to heat up the gas giants and account for why the insides of these planets (and even Earth) seem hotter than known mechanisms can explain. It might also account for why Uranus seems anomalously cold--the planet is bizarrely tilted, perhaps because of a colossal impact, and Adler surmises that this collision might have knocked away most of the dark matter cloud that might typically have heated Uranus." Its difficult to know where to start with a critique of the Scientific American article. First, the writer obviously did not read the paper, or if he did, he has no grasp of confidence intervals. Second, the amount of mass under consideration is comparatively tiny. Twenty-four trillion metric tons is not even a very big asteroid. Its not even in the top 10 of asteroid masses. So how this is meant to explain spacecraft orbital anomalies is not clear. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive Allowing for similar dark matter "halos" around the other planets, it will not exert any significant gravitational force on the Pioneer spacecraft.
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Third, theres the speculation about Uranus. By definition, dark matter does not interact with "regular" matter. So how a collision with Uranus would have "knocked away" dark matter is difficult to understand. Adler correctly states that there are anomalous temperature phenomena associated with Venus, Saturn and other planets. The Electric Universe model uses observational data of electrical currents in space to propose hypotheses about these temperature anomalies. Wal Thornhill used the Electric Universe model to correctly predict that Saturn would have hot North and South Poles (even though the North Pole was in total darkness for over 15 years). Comparing this to Adlers ideas, how would dark matter collisions preferentially heat the North and South poles? The Electric Universe model also predicts the spacecraft orbital anomalies. Space probes develop a negative charge as they move through space. As Wal Thornhill discussed in "A Mystery Solved," in the weak but steady electric field of the Sun negatively charged spacecraft will experience a small "anomalous" acceleration toward the Sun. Those employed by our scientific establishment, as well as scientific reporters, should be held to a high standard of critical thinking. In addition, the readership must not take any assertions from the scientific community at face value. A scientific theory is best assessed by its ability to provide testable predictions of the Universe around us. By adopting an attitude that asserts a theory is no longer open to being falsified, we have moved from science to faith. The Electric Universe movement encompasses a wide range of testable models and propositions to explain the world around us. It is also about empowering an educated public to demand better science from our scientists. Contributed by Tom Wilson
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Exploding Double Layer N 63A in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Credit: NASA, ESA, HEIC, and the Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA). Acknowledgment: Y. H. Chu and R. M. Williams (UIUC).
Double Layer Detonation

(Feb 11, 2009)
Rather than thermonuclear explosions, supernovae are what Hannes Alfvn called them: exploding double layers. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a relatively small, irregular galaxy approximately 168,000 light-years from Earth. The distance is approximate, because different parallax values are obtained when different measuring sticks are used. Within the LMC is an object commonly referred to as a "supernova remnant," since the prevailing theories of stellar evolution prescribe a particular kind of death when stars are extremely massive. They are short-lived, as consensus opinions state, converting their mass into radiant energy at a furious rate, through a process of nuclear fusion. Once their nuclear fuel is exhausted, a process begins that ends with the star imploding and blowing off its outer shell of gas and dust. The exploding star that created the N 63A remnant is thought to have been 50 times more massive than the Sun. So-called stellar winds from the giant star generated a "wind-blown bubble," according to a report from the Hubble Space Telescope news release archive. The supernova is said to have exploded inside the bubble, leaving a clear region that contains small clouds of cast-off material that the winds could not blow away--similar to smokey swirls inside a soap bubble. It has been a long-standing tenet of astrophysical theories that supernova shock waves are responsible for the formation of other stars when they meet clouds of gas in nearby nebulae. The gases are compressed along the expanding wavefront, acquiring the angular momentum The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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and gravitational boost needed to begin condensing. According to the Nebular Hypothesis, once that condensation reaches a critical point, stars are born. However, an analysis by the Hubble team concluded that the shock wave generated by N 63A is moving too rapidly through the expanding gas clouds, impacting the "cloudlets" and tearing them apart. They are not destined to last long. There is hope in the future, though. Star formation is supposed to be occurring in the LMC at 10-15 light-years from N 63A. NASA contends that, a few million years from now, the ejected stellar gases flowing with the shock wave will arrive at the star forming region with reduced energy, initiating areas of nebular collapse, and creating new stars and planets. Astronomers have no idea why stars eject clouds of gas and dust that eventually become other stars. The primary reason for the conundrum is that stars are made of plasma, not gas and dust. A star is the focal point for Birkeland currents that flow along circuits through the galaxy. An electromagnetic z-pinch can squeeze plasma with such force that it rapidly compresses into a star, forming a toroidal current around the equator. Current density flowing into the zpinch causes the plasma in the new star to erupt in an arc-mode discharge. The Electric Universe explanation is that we are looking at plasma structures when we look at nebulae or supernovae, and they behave according to the laws of electric discharges and circuits. Instead of mechanical action and imploding gas, N 63A was created when an influx of electric current exceeded a critical value and was unable to maintain a stable connection with the galactic circuit. The break in the circuit caused the star to short-out and explode, just like an electric circuit here on Earth can suddenly explode when too much current flows through it. As we have written in many Picture of the Day articles, we do not live in a mechanistic universe where things happen only when there are explosions, shock waves, compressed gas, rebound, expansion or other kinetic and gravity-based forces. Rather, the universe is a seething cauldron of electrical energies that exceed the powers of gravity and inertia by several orders of magnitude. It is electric currents in plasma that makes up what we observe. Rather than an expanding shock-front, the features shown in the Hubble image are lit by electricity passing through dusty plasma. The x-ray radiation is typical of that given off by ions accelerated by an electric discharge. Written by Stephen Smith from an idea submitted by Eric Aitchison
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"Active galaxy" Centaurus A Credit: Optical: ESO/WFI; Submillimetre : MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A.Weiss et al.; X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/R.Kraft et al.
Seeing Down Tunnels

(Feb 09, 2009)
Most modern telescopes, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, are afflicted with "tunnel vision": their fields of view are extremely narrow. In this they reflect the mindset of the astronomers who use them. The narrow vision is justified by the assumption that celestial objects are isolated, and the assumption is justified by the vision that excludes outlying objects. As one pundit has remarked: "Inside this circular cage of logic the gerbil of astrophysics begins to run." An example is Centaurus A (Cen A), a nearby active galaxy that was the first radio source discovered at the end of World War II, when no astronomer imagined that radio waves could come from the sky. A recent composite image (above) shows the dusty disk around the equator and the radio lobes and x-ray jets along the axis. What it doesnt show are the radio lobes and braided emission filaments that extend along the axis for almost 10 degrees across the sky. Stretching twice as far along the same line are a dozen other active galaxies--Seyferts, spirals, and ellipticals--that have redshifts ranging from slightly more than Cen A to 250 times as much and more. If the Hubble effect truly indicated an expanding universe, these galaxies would be scattered as isolated bodies from 13 million light-years away to nearly 2 billion light-years away. Their alignment would have to be coincidental--a coincidence that borders on impossible. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Another thing that the image doesnt show is the "supermassive black hole" that astronomers assume must be there to generate all the energetic phenomena that they see: speeds in the jets of half the speed of light, copious synchrotron radiation, strong magnetic fields, and shock waves. That the energetic phenomena could be caused by another mechanism lies outside the field of their imaginations. The image does show several clues to such another mechanism: The dust lane is filamented, and the filaments appear to be braided, especially at the left and right extremities. This is a characteristic of electric currents in plasma, called Birkeland currents. Tiny twisted hair-like structures extend perpendicularly from the disk. These are typical of coronal discharges from high-voltage currents. The axial discharges along with the equatorial disk mark out the structure of Alfvns proposed galaxy circuit that would power a plasma focus mechanism in the core. That mechanism would repeatedly eject highly charged high-redshift plasmoids along the axis. As each plasmoid moves toward charge equilibrium, its mass would increase and its redshift would decrease until it evolves into a companion galaxy--as is occurring along the line of ejected objects. Such an explanation that encompasses a view of actual plasma behavior would correct the presently accepted myopia that refuses to see whats there and insists on seeing what isnt. By Mel Acheson
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A map of the major galaxies surrounding the Milky Way. Credit: J. Bullock, M. Geha, R. Powell
From Ptolemy to Dark Matter - Part 2

(Feb 06, 2009)
Fundamental assumptions have an overwhelming influence on how we interpret and discuss new observations. Beginning with the assumption that gravity is the dominant force in galactic dynamics generates complicated models to compensate for the missing piece of the puzzle. Similarly, assuming that the Earth is the center of all things creates models that are required to compensate for that initial assumption. Indeed, it is interesting to consider some of the properties of the Ptolemaic system with that of the new dark matter paradigm. In the Ptolemaic system, the dynamics of the solar system were driven by spheres that are invisible. In the dark matter system, galaxy dynamics are driven by multiple invisible haloes (envisioned as oblate spheroids) surrounding the galaxy. The dark matter haloes cannot be directly observed. It is their indirect action on the dynamics of the galaxy that is observed, much like the Ptolemaic spheres were inferred by the motion of the heavenly bodies. The number of dark matter halos and subhaloes for a Milky Way-type galaxy can be quite high, as some recent computer modeling shows. The "Via Lactea" (Latin for Milky Way) project provides "high resolution Milky Way dark matter haloes simulated on NASA's Columbia and ORNL's Jaguar supercomputers." Obviously, if cold dark matter in an actual galaxy cannot be observed, the best thing to do is to create an artificial universe to do experiments instead. The most recent Via Lactea simulations show that there are about 10,000 dark matter subhaloes in the Milky Way galaxy. The computational power available to Diemand et al. has also allowed them to "resolve" fine structure in the dark matter haloes. Their images of the concentric shells of dark matter around the simulation galaxy Via Lactea are eerily similar to Ptolemaic models for the solar The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive system.
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One wonders what Ptolemaic astronomers might have "discovered" if given access to NASAs funding and supercomputers. How well would they have refined their equant values to derive more accurate predictions? How many spheres would the planets have acquired? In their model there were about five spheres per planet. With NASAs Columbia supercomputers, they would have been able to model with greater precision and perhaps they would have "discovered" 10,000 celestial spheres per planet instead of just five. Perhaps they could have resolved finer granular structures in the sub-spheres? Computer modeling work aside, the influence of the Gravity Assumption is insidious in the way it colors the reporting of new findings of real galaxies. In a recent report, researchers infer from the measure of galactic masses that there is some "minimal mass" for small satellite galaxies around the Milky Way galaxy. The original paper describes velocity measurements that were extended out to about 0.3 kilo-parsecs (kpc) from the center of each galaxy. The paper reports that "...all 18 dwarf galaxies are consistent with having a dynamical mass of 10^7 solar masses within 0.3 kpc of their centre." Another way of stating this is that all 18 dwarf galaxies are consistent with having similar dynamical measurements of velocity within 0.3 kpc of their center. The equation to derive mass uses radius (about 0.3 kpc for each galaxy), the gravitational constant (G), velocity and mass. So, if mass was found to be relatively constant across these 18 galaxies, it means that the velocity measurements were also relatively constant across these 18 galaxies. It is relatively easy to derive the rough velocity dispersion associated with a galaxy of 10^7 solar masses and radius of 300 kpc. In fact, it works out to an order of magnitude of 10 km/s. This agrees well with a paper by Walker et al. (2007) where they focused on the velocity dispersion among seven of these same Milky Way satellite galaxies. They found that the velocity dispersions of these seven galaxies were all in the range of 10 km/s. Very importantly, in all these small galaxies the velocity dispersion was very flat from about 100 parsecs to beyond the visible matter in the galaxy (> ~1000 parsecs). So, the question is really why do all these satellite galaxies have similar rotational velocities? It is not about mass. Mass is based on the assumption that gravity dominates the dynamics. The real observational quantity here is the relatively constant value for velocity dispersion amongst these satellite galaxies. Using the ideas of Alfvn above, one might assume that these satellite galaxies are formed in the z-pinches of Birkeland currents experiencing similar current density, thus generating similar rotational velocities. For example, imagine in the figure at the top of this article that the Milky Way is formed in the z-pinch of two large intertwining Birkeland filaments. Surrounding these two larger twisting filaments are smaller filaments self-organized into like-sized filaments twisting in pairs around the larger core filaments. This is a way that Birkeland currents can organize themselves which explains the eerily perfect hexagonal shape of Saturns north pole and many hexagonal craters. These like-sized peripheral filaments will have like-sized current densities. It would follow that the peripheral filaments would twist and form z-pinches creating smaller "satellite" galaxies. In essence, these peripheral filaments are "mopping up" the remaining dust and matter left over from the z-pinch in the core filaments that formed the Milky Way. The amount of luminous mass in the galaxy has no effect on the inherent rotational dynamics The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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of the driving Birkeland current. The electromagnetic forces of the plasma filaments dwarf the gravitational potential of the matter captured in the z-pinch. The masses of these satellite galaxies are quite different from each other because there is no dark matter making up for gravitys inability to drive these rotational velocities. Their rotational velocities are quite similar because they are driven by similar Birkeland currents that exhibit similar rotational energies. One is likely to assume that the sun revolves around the Earth because the Earth is solid and does not appear to move. In the past, our everyday experience led us to make that fundamental assumption. It took us several hundred years to overcome the strength of that perception. Similarly, we have no everyday sense of the scale of electromagnetic plasma forces at work in galaxies or our own solar system. Gravity dominates our view of the cosmos because gravity dominates as a force in our everyday existence. It May take us a long time to let go of gravity as an important organizing force at the cosmic scale. Contributed by Thomas Wilson
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A map of the major galaxies surrounding the Milky Way. Credit: J. Bullock, M. Geha, R. Powell
From Ptolemy to Dark Matter - Part 1

(Feb 04, 2009)
Fundamental assumptions have an overwhelming influence on how we interpret and discuss new observations. One such assumption that shapes our accepted view of the Universe is that gravity dominates the motion of galaxies. It is difficult to change these types of fundamental belief systems. For example, in the time of the Hellenic astronomer Claudius Ptolemaeus, it was a widely held fundamental assumption that the Earth was the center of the cosmos. In fact, there were many good reasons to believe it. The stars, the sun, and the planets visibly move across the sky and the Earth obviously feels very solid and fixed. According to the best thinkers at the time, the heavenly bodies were positioned on invisible spheres with as many as five spheres per planet. By allowing for spheres within spheres, one could explain the retrograde movement of the planets. To its credit, much was explained with this world-view. With Ptolemys sophisticated use of epicycles, deferents, and the innovative introduction of the equant, the Ptolemaic system was very successful at predicting such things as the precession of equinoxes as well as planetary motion (more so than the Copernican system when it was first developed). However, by the sixteenth century, Galileos observations of the phases of Venus were completely incompatible with the Ptolemaic system. Subsequently, Keplers prediction of the transit of Venus in 1631 was a great success for the heliocentric, Copernican view of the solar system. Not to be unnecessarily provocative, but there are interesting similarities between the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Ptolemaic paradigm and the current theories surrounding Dark Matter and galaxies. Just as there were good reasons to believe in invisible celestial spheres driving a Geocentric Model, there are reasons to believe in invisible spheres (called "haloes") of dark matter surrounding galaxies. It all has to do with how the mass of a galaxy is measured. One popular approach to compute galactic mass is the orbital method. In the orbital method, the rotational velocity of stars (the red shift of radio waves from hydrogen gas around the stars) is used to infer the mass of the galaxy. The math is relatively straightforward: once the stellar orbital velocity (or "velocity dispersion" for the galaxy) and the distance from the center of the galaxy that contains the mass in question are measured, then it is easy to solve for mass. However, the math only includes gravity as the potential energy source for the system. The problem that begets dark matter is as follows. When the mass of a galaxy with this gravity-only approach is derived, there is more computed mass than visible matter. That is, the sum of the mass of all the stars and visible dust in the galaxy is far less than the mass derived with the Orbital Method. If gravity drives the rotational velocity of the stars in the galaxy, then there must be hidden mass in the form of invisible dark matter. What if gravity is not the dominant force driving the rotational velocity of galaxies? Today, asking this question is like asking a learned astronomer in 1550, "What if the Earth is not at the center of the cosmos?" Asserting that gravity is not a dominant dynamical force in the motion of galaxies is just as shocking to astronomers of our current time. However, there is good evidence that supports the notion that electromagnetic forces in plasma act on the cosmological scale. Hannes Alfven (Nobel Laureate for his work in plasma physics), proposed that galaxies reside in immense, gyrating, Birkeland currents that convert large-scale electromagnetic forces into rotational energy in a galactic system. In turn, leakage currents in the galaxy are converted into rotational energy in star systems. Seminal work by Anthony Peratt (e.g. see Snell and Peratt, 1995) has shown that the flat rotational curve of galaxies is well modeled by plasma simulations without the need for dark matter. All the observations of the galactic core, the intense X-rays, gamma rays and rotational energies could be explained with sufficient current densities driving the galactic system (Peratt, 1986). The typical flat rotational velocity curve of a galaxy does not indicate hidden dark matter mass, it indicates that another force is at work. This is why deriving the mass of a galaxy using equations that only include gravity as the source of potential energy leads to problems. Additional electromagnetic forces are at work that drive the galaxy like an electric homopolar motor (see a summary in Donald Scotts book "The Electric Sky"). Contributed by Thomas Wilson
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Artist's conception of a black hole. Credit: NASA.
Lightning, Sticky Tape, and Black Hole Observations Part 2

(Feb 02, 2009)
Embarrassingly little is known about terrestrial lightning, although it strikes the Earth about 3 million times per day. In 2003 it was proven that lightning emits X-rays and gamma rays a short time before the visible flash. The first such study in Nature reported a very interesting time correlation between the X-ray transmission and the optical/UV transmission. To quote the original report: "They measured intense bursts of X-rays, gamma rays and fast-moving electrons - just before each visible flash. The bursts typically lasted less than 100 microseconds. I think it's really exciting, said co-researcher Martin Uman. We didn't expect to see anything at all, and then, all of a sudden, with almost every lightning stroke, we had Xrays." Like the astronomers, even lightning experts are sometimes surprised. A good reference source on lightning reads: "It has been recently revealed that most lightning emits an intense burst of X-rays and/or gamma-rays which seem to be produced during the stepped-leader and dart-leader phases just before the stroke becomes visible. The X-ray bursts typically have a total duration of less than 100 microseconds and have energies extending up to nearly a few hundred thousand electron volts" Lightning is not the only plasma arc phenomenon with this X-ray/optical light correlation. One of plasma's unique aspects is that it is scaleable. Another report describes X-ray emission preceding optical emissions in a series of observations of 80-cm sparks produced in a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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laboratory. Like other plasma phenomena, the behavior is complicated. In most of the cases, the X-ray emissions occurred during the pre-discharge activity in the gap. In some cases, X-ray emissions occurred in the pre-discharge phase as well as with a weaker peak during the voltage collapse across the gap. However, in all cases the X-ray and optical/UV emissions were closely synchronized events. It gets better though. Static discharge sparks caused by ripping up sticky tape generates Xrays as well. I really cannot do better than the original abstract by Camara et al. (2008) (their references are removed, please see the link for the relevant citations): "Relative motion between two contacting surfaces can produce visible light, called triboluminescence. This concentration of diffuse mechanical energy into electromagnetic radiation has previously been observed to extend even to X-ray energies. Here we report that peeling common adhesive tape in a moderate vacuum produces radio and visible emission along with nanosecond, 100-mW X-ray pulses that are correlated with stickslip peeling events The intensity of X-ray triboluminescence allowed us to use it as a source for X-ray imaging. The limits on energies and flash widths that can be achieved are beyond current theories of tribology." The astronomers and lightning experts shouldnt feel too bad. Tribologists get surprised by the Electric Universe, too. So how does this discussion of black holes, sticky tape, lightning, and the cross-correlation of X-ray and optical emissions all come together? Heres an Electric Universe interpretation of the GX 339-4 and Swift J1753.5-0127 observations. Donald Scott has proposed that a star spins faster under greater electrical stress. When the current density is high enough (current per unit area) and the rotational period reaches a threshold value, the star will physically rupture into two parts. The relative sizes of the two parts will be based on the initial conditions in what is essentially a classic chaotic process. This is a catastrophic high energy event accompanied by a bright X-ray burst (these bright Xray bursts allowed the discovery of Swift J1753.5-0127 in 2005 and XTE J1118-480 in 2000). The average current density for the system will decrease due to the increase in surface area for the two bodies combined. However, these bodies will be orbiting very closely to each other (as is observed) and will likely continue an energetic electrical exchange for some time. One could predict that the plasma between the two bodies might periodically flash into arc mode, because the electrical exchange is so energetic The electrical arcing would resemble any other arc event (be it lightning, an 80-cm spark or the tiny sparks caused by peeling normal adhesive tape) in showing a complex interplay between X-ray/gamma ray emissions and optical/UV emissions. This is exactly what is observed in these "black hole" systems. So the Electric Universe artists impression is different. We can imagine two stellar bodies that have ruptured from a single Electric Star, one of which May have a current density high enough to radiate as a sun like our own star. The other star could be darker, unable to go past normal glow mode because it lacks sufficient current density. Without a photosphere, the star would have only a corona with its X-ray emission; it would be a white dwarf. There is no black hole. Between these two closely spaced, mutually orbiting stellar bodies might be periodic electrical arcing. This electrical arcing might exhibit closely The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive synchronized, and complex, X-ray and optical/UV emissions.
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Interestingly, Ghandi in the report above even refers to the accretion disk as "intense energy flows of electrically charged matter." This is rare admission of electricity by a mainstream astronomer. Hes right. It is electrically charged matter. However, the dominant role of electricity in the evolution and ongoing dynamics of binary systems is still missing in his interpretation. In a philosophical vein, it is noteworthy that the conventional view is one of a black hole consuming a normal binary companion. Essentially, this is a destructive event. The black hole will consume its binary and then eventually evaporate and go "poof" in a splash of gravitational waves. In contrast, the Electric Universe interpretation is one of creation. The fissioning of the original star creates a new binary or is the beginning of a new planetary system. Following this line of reasoning a little further, it is interesting to contrast these schools of thought, Gravity versus Electricity, from another philosophical perspective. As it happens, the gravity-dominated paradigm is rich in dark models and metaphors. Black holes, dark matter, and dark energy are unknowable entities. Light does not escape black holes, so they are unobservable; dark matter and dark energy are by definition unobservable. Accepting these abstractions as reality means accepting that about 99% of our Universe is unobservable and unknowable. Beyond that idea being just depressing, it is scientifically unsatisfactory and a philosophical dead-end. In the Electric Universe, 99% of the Universe is plasma: observable, measurable plasma. This is a state of matter we can replicate in a lab and study. We see it every day in the lightning and the aurora of our terrestrial skies and in the static electricity when we take off our sweaters. The Electric Universe paradigm speaks of light, of "coronae," "glow mode," "sparks," "lightning," and so forth. The two paradigms did not set out with these dark and light metaphors a priori. The metaphors evolved after the fact. However, it is interesting how the two metaphorical systems evolved so differently. For instance, in different languages light is often associated with knowledge: a bright idea, a brilliant concept, illumination. In contrast, ignorance is often burdened with dark metaphors: a dim fellow, the Dark Ages, a "cloud of ignorance." In the Electric Universe there are no hidden things we cannot know. The Universe is there in all its electrical nature for us to see and discover and understand. Yes, the Plasma Universe is complicated and chaotic in its behavior and will not be bludgeoned into a set of field equations on a T-shirt. It is predictable, measurable and knowable with proper experimentation and scientific methodology. In the Electric Universe movement, we eschew the Gravity-Dominated view that we are doomed to be ignorant about 99% of our Universe. We choose the opportunity to know. We choose the light. Contributed by Thomas Wilson Tom Wilson has a PhD in cell biology but for the last 16 years has been posing as an Electrical Engineer in the semiconductor industry.
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Cloud-to-cloud lightning. Photographer unknown.
Lightning, Sticky Tape, and Black Hole Observations Part 1

(Jan 30, 2009)
There is an endless supply of astronomical and astrophysical reports with "surprising" findings. However, the observations fit within the Electric Universe paradigm. A recent report in October 2008 concerns the close correlation of X-ray and optical light emissions from two black hole candidates: GX 339-4 and Swift J1753.5-0127. Each system is theorized to have a black hole in orbit around a normal star. This report describes how these systems were observed in X-ray and optical light at the same time. The surprise was that the optical light and X-ray emissions were closely synchronized to each other and obviously coupled to a common physical cause. This observation completely contradicts current theory which predicts that X-ray and optical emissions result from entirely different mechanisms in these black hole binaries. What well show below is that the synchronized X-ray and optical emissions, both in their nature and timing, correspond very well to what we now know about terrestrial lightning as well as plasma arcs at even smaller scales. Lets break down this analysis by looking at the black hole binary systems in question, understanding the data and observations, discussing briefly some relatively new things weve learned about terrestrial lightning and other electrical arc phenomena, and then seeing how it all ties together. GX 339-4 was first discovered in 1973 and is considered a black hole candidate (BHC) due to its X-ray emission patterns (which, following circular reasoning, were similar to other BHCs). GX 339-4 is a binary system where the black hole is thought to orbit its dim companion star about once every 1.7 days. The optical counterpart was only discovered in 1982 when it flared very brightly at the time. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Swift J1753.5-0127 is also theorized to be a candidate for a black hole simply because of its X-ray emissions. It was discovered in 2005 when a particularly violent X-ray outburst was picked up by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope in 2005. In July 2008, Zurita et al. determined that the BHC orbits around what is likely a main sequence star with an orbital period of 3.2 hours. Again, it is a "transient X-ray" black hole binary with an optical counterpart. It is important to note that no one has observed a black hole. Theres an X-ray source thats been mapped to a location in the sky. Everything else: black holes, accretion disks, thats all interpretation. Ignore the artists conception in the report for a moment and understand what is really being observed here. Theres an X-ray bright spot that flickers in X-ray wavelengths, and that is assumed to be a black hole with an accretion disk (because that was assumed in another paper by someone else). As it happens, theres an optical counterpart (something seen in the same location in the sky in visible wavelength) for this X-ray source. So we see a bright spot in optical and we see a bright spot in X-ray. These bright spots "shimmer" in X-ray and optical light in about the same place in the night sky. So be careful with these artists conceptions of accretion disks and so on. No one has seen that. Both systems are believed to be two bodies separated by a few million kilometers. That is very close, well within Mercurys orbit relative to the Sun for example. Theory dictates that the X-rays originate in an accretion disk formed around the black hole fed by heated matter pulled out of the optical counterpart (a star like our sun). The optical light is thought to be a secondary product of X-rays energizing the surrounding gases. However, the findings completely rule out that model. The investigative lead, Poshak Gandhi, states: "Instead the variations in the X-ray and visible light output must have some common origin, and one very close to the black hole itself." In the original report on GX 339-4, Ghandi et al. show that, over their nights of observation, the optical peak lagged the X-ray peaks by about 150 ms. The authors in their discussion begin to hypothesize about reconnecting magnetic field lines, dense magnetized blobs falling towards the black hole, etc. I wont get into "reconnecting magnetic field lines" and the physical implausibility of that idea. However, there are other sources on this website that discuss that particular fiction in some detail. Similar cross-correlation between the timing of the X-ray and optical emissions were also noted for Swift J1753.5-0127. In this case there was an optical dip that preceded the X-ray peak followed by a weak optical peak. In another report on X-ray transient XTE J1118-480, Kanbach et al. (2001) found that the optical peak lagged the X-ray peak by about 0.5 seconds with an odd "precognition blip" before the X-ray. Durant et al. state at the end of their article that "...there exists a causal link between the optical emission and the X-ray emission." I would like to propose that this causal link is probably something a lot like lightning. Contributed by Thomas Wilson Tom Wilson has a PhD in cell biology but for the last 16 years has been posing as an Electrical Engineer in the semiconductor industry.
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Ariel, a small moon of Uranus. Credit: Calvin J. Hamilton
Ariel's Cicatricial Visage

(Jan 28, 2009)
Every moon in the Solar System has been sculpted by violent episodes of electric discharge machining. What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? -- William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 1 Scene 2 August 20, 1977, NASA launched the Voyager 2 spacecraft on a twelve-year mission to explore the outer planets. Voyager 2 crossed the termination shock marking the edge of the Solar System on July 10, 2008, and will soon be considered an interstellar spacecraft once it penetrates the Sun's heliosheath. During its closest approach to Uranus in January 1986, Voyager 2 recorded several images of the giant planet's family of moons and found them to be scenes of cataclysmic devastation, with giant craters, wide and deep valleys, and long, sinuous cracks, or rilles extending for hundreds of kilometers. Among those ravaged bodies is Ariel, whose surface features resemble those found on many moons in the Saturnian system. Ariel is pockmarked with craters ranging from five to ten kilometers across--almost undetectable in the image above--however, a few craters measuring 20-30 kilometers across are visible. The crater dimensions might seem small, but considering Ariel's equatorial diameter of 1160 kilometers they are comparatively large. Conventional understanding proposes that Ariel has been the scene of intense geologic activity in the past several million (if not billion) years. The rilles and offset slip faults are said The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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to have been caused by slow crustal movements similar to those which are theorized to cause earthquakes. This process requires that Ariel was born long ago, along with its parent and siblings, from a primordial nebular cloud. The parochial nature of scientific theories demands that the forces experienced on Earth are to be used as models for the formations observed elsewhere and that eons of time are necessary for them to mature. However, since there is no evidence whatsoever that a moon like Ariel was once subjected to tectonic activity--other than the aforementioned conservative scientific tendency--the Electric Universe theory states that the idea should be turned on its head: structures we see in space should be used as models for what is found on Earth. Since similar patterns are observed wherever our instruments are focused, a reasonable hypothesis would demonstrate how airless, frozen bodies hovering near temperatures close to absolute zero can compare to hot, wet planets. Of all the cosmic forces under consideration in consensus scientific reports about the universe, electricity is given little credence, although it is 39 orders of magnitude more powerful in its effects than gravity. Heating a solid, or cracking it, is as nothing when compared to energizing it with a multi-trillion joule proton beam. How does the electric force manifest itself? One remarkable example is the bright-edged crater to the left of the central scar: it is hexagonal, much like craters on nearly every celestial body in the Solar System, Earth included. How can the detonation of a colliding rock cause a hexagonal crater? No experiment has been able to demonstrate a polygonal shape left behind after an explosive event. Explosions (such as that from a meteor impact) do not aggregate constituent particles into stable configurations; they induce chaotic behavior that leaves little in the way of identifiable forms. As has been pointed-out in several previous Picture of the Day articles, hexagons are created when intense particle beams touch down on a solid surface. Researchers studying the issue have found that beams of electricity flowing through plasma create a central column surrounded by concentric cylinders. The cylindrical current filaments exhibit long-range attraction and short-range repulsion braiding that result in evenly spaced vortices surrounding the column. As the filaments rotate around one another, a preferred hexagonal cross-section forms within the innermost column. The steep-walled scarps crossing Ariel are reminiscent of those on Saturn's moons Enceladus, Tethys, and Dione, or Jupiter's moon Europa, or Hadley Rille on the Moon. It could also be said that the great Rift Valley on Earth shares some characteristics with the long chasms that span other worlds. Enceladus, Mars, Mercury, Ganymede: these and many others compare to the morphology of Ariel. Size is not important; mineralogical composition is not important; temperature or distance from the Sun are not important; what is important are the electric currents flowing through space and their interactions with clouds of plasma. Lightning bolts of immense size and power can be generated that are capable of incinerating any matter, or tearing it to pieces in electrodynamic vices. The resulting scars and craters are the remnants of those cutting and piercing forces. By Stephen Smith
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A modern shaman or brujo. Courtesy Museo de Sitio Tcume, Peru
Do Chinese Whispers Affect Myths?

(Jan 27, 2009)
The proposition that creation myths and cosmological traditions worldwide carry information about conditions and events that once prevailed on earth May seem risky at first. The implication is that an unbroken chain of oral transmission must have connected these historical circumstances, and the earliest reports of those circumstances have been uncovered by scholars today. From the perspective of a modern, literate society, it would seem unwise to rely on notions that have survived in oral form for prolonged periods of time. After all, even when conveyed with the best of intentions, the spoken word is susceptible to subtle gradual distortions of the "Chinese whispers" type. Perhaps contrary to intuition, mythological data in the most original context actually prove surprisingly reliable. This is because mythological traditions can neither be equated with random storytelling nor be analysed in terms of ordinary verbal communication. Mythological tradition belongs in a different cognitive category that is geared towards a maximal effort of faithful preservation. This is accomplished in three different ways. First, as often observed by historians of religion, myths in their original setting are treated with a high degree of sanctity. These are not just any stories, but are uniformly considered as sacred information by members of a traditional society. The deep respect and awe people used to have for myths acted as a safeguard against alteration. Second, within many cultures the task to preserve the sacred traditions intact was delegated to a class of professional tradition keepers. Whereas members of the normal population would often have deficient knowledge and understanding of the mythology, an unbroken succession of priests, shamans, chiefs or other notables would help guarantee the accuracy of transmitted information. Rote learning, sometimes of large chunks of "spoken text," formed The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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And third, in practically every known society, myths concerning the origin and the workings of the world were backed up by a set of rituals and visual symbols that effectively served as another "check" on efficiency and truthfulness. All traditional knowledge would be continuously and cyclically rehearsed and implanted in the conscious memory of the participants of ritual initiations and other holy festivals. To a much larger extent than for the general populace, the education of novice keepers of the sacred lore would be especially steeped in rites and symbols impregnated with the same mythical knowledge. The following examples will illustrate this reverent attitude towards myth. When the American author and traveller, George Catlin (1796-1872), visited the Mandan people, of Dakota, he noted that the indigenous account of creation "is told with great gravity by their chiefs and doctors or mystery-men." Sir Arthur Grimble (1888-1956) was a British explorer who spent many years on Kiribati, Micronesia. In one of his books, he told of a local woman who "told me the myth of mans expulsion from the Happy Land of Matang. Fifteen years later, when she was well over seventy, I took the script back to her for checking. She repeated the story at that second sitting word for word as she had given it before, and I complimented her on the feat." Yet far from taking pride in this achievement, the woman "replied soberly (I took down her words), Sir, and shall it be otherwise? Each karaki (history) has its own body from the generations of old. These are the words of our grandfathers fathers, and thus we pass them on to our childrens children. How should I change the words that my grandfather gave me as the contents of my mouth?" The same earnest and respect are found associated with myths in hundreds of other societies and examples could easily be enumerated. Of course, despite such efforts of preservation, aspects of myths have changed. Inevitably, obsolete concepts and words would sometimes be replaced by others that made more sense, unintelligible content would occasionally be clarified in terms that May have been more widely off the mark than intended, and story elements May have been conflated and confounded especially at times of social stress, as when the fabric of society was in danger of collapse. Nevertheless, the comparative method employed in modern mythological research is a powerful tool to identify shared motifs that must trace back to the past. The detailed level of cross-cultural agreement that emerges is a persuasive witness to the overall reliability of the mythical record. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Cassiopeia A double layer explosion. Image in twelve-times ionized silicon light. Credit: NASA/CXC/GSFC/U.Hwang et al
The Comeback of Cas A

(Jan 23, 2009)
Phenomena and their explanations are moving targets. Whats considered to be a phenomenon changes over time and requires a new explanation. If an explanation lasts long enough to enable us to do something with it, its a good explanation. Often the explanation will contain the seeds of its own overthrow: it will enable us to make new instruments and observations that contradict the explanation and reveal the phenomenon to be something other than what we considered it to be. The nature of considering--the ways that nerve activation evolve in our bodies--ensures that there will always be other possibilities for categorizing phenomena and explaining them. An illustration is Cassiopeia A (Cas A) in the image above. Before modern instruments, astronomers found a few objects like Cas A: a ring of light around a central star. Since astronomical imagination was limited to mechanical explosions, the objects obviously were exploded stars. Few people doubted the accepted explanation that the ring of light was caused by limb brightening of a sphere of hot gaseous debris thrown off by the explosion. The puzzle to be solved was imagining a mechanism that could produce the astronomical amount of energy required to blast so much matter so far from the gravitational center with so large a velocity. Compared with the explosions that were imagined to cause ordinary novas and flares, these were super-explosions. The events were named supernovas and the rings were called supernova remnants (SNRs). It all made sense. Now modern instruments are bringing a rain of observations to sprout the seeds of overthrow. The ring is a cellular structure of plasma filaments. The filaments "flicker" over periods of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive about a year, and they emit cosmic rays and synchrotron radiation. They contain strong magnetic fields, and their velocities are too slow. Inside the ring are a disk and several jets composed of material that is enriched with such elements as silicon and iron.
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Many more objects like Cas A have been discovered, and the modern image has diverged from what was imagined. It is no longer a SNR. The libraries of explanation that burden the name of supernova are obsolete. A new name is required for the new phenomenon, and a new explanation must be imagined. Judging from similar objects that are observed at different angles, the ring of Cas A is a region of brightening in an hourglass-shaped interstellar Birkeland current as it pinches down to power the central star. In Cas A, were looking down the axis of the current. Discontinuities and leakage discharges generate webs of filaments with instabilities that flicker like lightning through clouds. In close-up views of the regions at upper left and near the center, the braided spiral structure of Birkeland-current filaments is apparent. In the video of images spanning several years, the braids appear to twist around each other. Bright knots of instabilities emerge and fade. Fluctuations in the currents generate double layers, and the strong electric fields act as particle accelerators. Electrons and ions are boosted to speeds that are comparable to that of light. The ions escape as cosmic rays; the electrons spiral in the magnetic fields of the filamentary currents and emit synchrotron radiation. Neutral atoms May be swept along with the ions and generate shock waves--in exactly the opposite causal relationship from what is imagined for SNRs. Nearer the center of the pinch, a toroidal (disk-like) current collects charge from the larger circuit. Occasional discharges produce narrow jets: because they are electrical currents that generate their own pinching magnetic fields, the jets tend to be self-collimating over long distances. The attractive force of the pinch effect in Birkeland currents causes them to act like cosmic vacuum cleaners: they sweep up surrounding material. The influx of that material depends on ionization potential. Where the outward gas pressure from the increasing concentration of material balances the inward transport, elements with that ionization potential build up. The process is called Marklund convection. It sorts elements into enriched regions, such as the iron and silicon concentrations in Cas A. Flares are the result of double layers that form and explode in one or a few of the Birkeland currents in a stars corona or photosphere. Those double layers arise from current surges that are generated in local instabilities. Novas and supernovas May be double layers that explode from the entire surface of a star. They are like cosmic sparks that "jump the gap" when instabilities switch off the current in galactic Birkeland filaments. The sudden interruption of current in such transmission lines will cause the energy that is distributed throughout the circuit to be dumped into the spark that bridges the gap. The resulting explosion will dissipate more energy than was originally present in the circuit element that "blew"--in this case, the star. The expansion velocities of these whole-star exploding double layers respond to the forces of the surging currents within them. Double layers explode more like a rapidly expanding balloon than like a firecracker: the force of expansion acts continuously in the layer instead of impulsively from an origin. Velocities cannot be treated as if they were the ballistic results of an initial explosion. They can speed up or slow down from moment to moment. This kind of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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non-ballistic behavior is typical of prominences and coronal mass ejections. That Cas A has velocities which are "too slow" for the estimated energy of a ballistic explosion is no surprise for an exploding double layer. Supernovas and their remnants were appropriate explanations for a universe that was imagined to consist of gas and gravity. But the past century revealed a universe that consists of plasma and electricity. Now we need explanations that are appropriate for it. Thanks to Wal Thornhill for his review and comments. By Mel Acheson
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Artist's conception of a pulsar. Credit: Douglas Triggs
The Weakening Gravity-Dominated Cosmos Theory

(Jan 21, 2009)
Neutron stars and their rapidly spinning pulsar manifestations are among the most outlandish creations bogging down modern astrophysics. Neutron stars were first proposed as a theoretical possibility in 1933 by Baade and Zwicky. In seeking an explanation for the energy released by supernovae (a term coined by Zwicky), they proposed that a supernova was the result of a normal star transitioning to a neutron star. They calculated that the supernova energy could be explained by the equivalent transformation of a stellar mass to energy following Einsteins E=mc^2 equation. Baade and Zwicky's new theory was founded on the assumption that the only energy available to a star is in the star itself. Unfortunately, at that time, no one understood that a star could be part of an immensely long electrical transmission line storing vast amounts of energy. However, in the late 1930s, Oppenheimer and Volkoff produced a theoretical equation of state that validated the neutron star concept. Ironically, despite this early theoretical work, even today there is no acceptable equation describing the state of neutron stars. Regardless, in 1968, shortly after the first pulsar was discovered, Thomas Gold proposed spinning neutron stars as a mechanical explanation for the pulsed radio emissions. Over the forty years since the spinning neutron star model has been proposed for pulsars, the astrophysics community has been regularly forced to update the rotational speed limit and has met with a long list of "surprises" in new observations. There have been a number of issues: pulsars spinning faster than theoretically believed possible (XTE J1739-285 at 1122 Hz) pulsars spinning more slowly than theoretically predicted (PSR J2144-3933, once every 8.5s) The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive pulsars with too much mass, in the wrong orbit, and with the wrong binary companion (J1903+0327)
All these observations were contrary to predictions but have not been credited as falsifying the accepted theory of pulsars. However, some of the most important predictions with neutron stars and pulsars concern their role as gravitational wave generators (as predicted by the General Theory of Relativity). Indeed, millisecond pulsars (whose theoretical upper speed limit of ~750Hz is supposedly throttled by the gravitational waves they generate) are significant gravitational wave generators. Luckily, the $400M LIGO installation is built to measure just such gravitational waves from pulsars and neutron stars (not to mention black hole collisions). So if inspiralling neutron stars, or millisecond neutron stars, do not generate gravitational waves, either Zwicky and Baades vision of neutron stars is wrong or Einsteins General Theory of Relativity is incorrect, or both are wrong. LIGO has had some recent opportunities to observe gravitational waves. In 2007, the KonusWind Integral, Messenger, and Swift gamma-ray satellites observed a gamma-ray burst (GRB) that originated in the direction of M31, the Andromeda galaxy, located 2.5 million lightyears away. GRBs are thought to be the result of two ultra-massive objects (like black holes or neutron stars) coalescing. Theory predicts that a GRB should have a gravitational wave counterpart. The GRB was within LIGO's measurement range and should have produced gravitational waves within the instruments limit of resolution. There were no gravitational waves. This, of course, was heralded as a success in that the non-detection was itself informative--although the fact that the information falsified the theory was disregarded. A similar "non-detection is good" argument was put forward when the LIGO was brought to bear on the Crab Nebula pulsar, PSR B0531+21. The Crab Pulsar shows more "deceleration" than other pulsars, so energy release through gravity waves was proposed as a dominant mechanism for its "braking." In an excerpt from one report: "LIGO scientists monitored the neutron star from November 2005 to August 2006 and looked for a synchronous gravitational-wave signal using data from the three LIGO interferometers, which were combined to create a single, highly sensitive detector. "The analysis revealed no signs of gravitational waves. But, say the scientists, this result is itself important because it provides information about the pulsar and its structure." And another surprisingly positive view from the same report: "This is an exciting result which adds to LIGO's continuing success. The project has allowed us to study the Crab Pulsar in a new and unique way and has provided us with some fascinating information," says Professor Keith Mason, Chief Executive of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, which funds UK involvement in gravitational waves. In fact, LIGO, in its several years of operation, has never registered a single gravitational wave even when theory predicted it should. So of course plans are proposed to build a more sensitive Advanced LIGO that will be 10x more sensitive than the original LIGO. In such an instrument, theoreticians predict gravitational waves will be detected daily by the time its operational in 2014. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The dogged adherence to gravitational waves and neutron stars in the face of falsifying data has reached a point where one could agree to fund such a device if the failure in detecting gravitational waves in 2014 would cause the astrophysical community to consider a Universe that includes the obvious presence of electrical currents in space. Donald Scott, in his book "The Electric Sky," argues the impossibility of neutron stars and proposes an electrical alternative to their periodic electromagnetic pulses. He postulates that pulsars are oscillator circuits. The regular frequency is not mechanically generated by spin rates but instead is the product of the capacitive, resistive and inductive attributes of the stars electrical environment. Indeed, simple relaxation oscillator circuits, using resistor-capacitor (RC) or inductor-capacitor (LC) pairings have been used by electrical engineers for decades. A regular, periodic electrical oscillator is very easy to construct from a simple RC or LC circuit. Such oscillators can be variable frequency oscillators (VFOs) that are tuned by the capacitive loading. An electrical model for pulsars was proposed in a seminal work by Peratt and Healy (1995). If one abstracts the electromagnetic oscillation from the mechanical system itself, one finds there is no such thing as the "wrong" frequency, or the "wrong" kind of radiation, or the "wrong" binary companion, or the "wrong" mass. Instead, the focus becomes the electrical nature of the entire system. One begins to study instead the current density for the pulsar or pulsar binary. Then the problem May be broken down by quantifying the absolute current density, the capacitive and resistive values in the system, the magnetic fields generated by the inductive interaction of a binary pair. Much as Hannes Alfvn has done for the sun and the galaxy, circuit diagrams May be drawn to describe the oscillator circuit responsible for single and binary pulsars. Just as Wallace Thornhill has made successful predictions about electrical phenomena in our solar system, a list of predictions for pulsars based on an Electric Universe model needs to be written. LIGO will never detect gravitational waves. Black holes and neutron stars do not exist. There are no mass densities great enough to test General Relativity at that scale. And what is to be gained from testing General Relativity when it merely describes gravity in unphysical geometric terms and doesnt explain it? LIGO II (or its equivalent) will likely be built and it will not detect gravitational waves. If the gravity-dominated view of the Universe collapses, it will be from failures on many theoretical fronts. One key theoretical front will be the failure to detect gravitational waves. Another will the failure of General Relativity. There is no cosmological electromagnetic event hitherto explained by black holes, neutron stars, or their various collisions that is accompanied by gravitational waves. In addition, over the next few years there will be increasing evidence of electrical currents at an immense scale in our own solar system. Probes like Cassini and others continue to amass large quantities of data and images substantiating the role of electricity in space. Change is coming. Contributed By Thomas Wilson
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A representation of Quetzalcatl, the Feathered Serpent of Aztec tradition. Volcanic stone (1300-1521 CE) Philadelphia Museum of Art
Dragons--All Between The Ears?

(Jan 19, 2009)
There is no shortage of theories about the nature of dragon mythology, but for some reason a celestial or atmospheric origin is seldom considered. Typical explanations range from pure, unbridled imagination to a hard-core cryptozoological insistence that dragons are real and belong in the category of "living fossils." A longtime favourite is the assumption that dragons are essentially Dinosaurs, whose existence was either inferred by traditional cultures from the accidental discovery of fossils or was mysteriously kept alive for millions of years in archaic memories hardwired in the limbic segment of the brain. The latter idea of a "brain dragon" enjoys some popularity in academe and comes very close to a stimulating thought-experiment proposed in 2000 by Florida anthropologist, David Jones, in his book An Instinct for Dragons. In a nutshell, Jones argues that the "brain dragon" reflected in myths was not modeled on Dinosaurs, but on a compressed racial memory of the three main predators that used to prey on our primate ancestors: raptorial birds, big cats, and snakes. Jones fundamental observation which he unfortunately takes little care to document in depth is that dragons are frequently depicted with attributes taken from all three categories of vertebrates the flexible, scaly body of a snake, the wings and talons of a bird of prey, the characteristic face of a panther or lion. It is an original and intriguing idea, presented in a very readable format, but does it work? At first blush, Jones model makes much sense of the visual appearance of the dragon as well as the deep innate fear the monster has elicited around the world. Nevertheless, the match between the evolutionary psychology of primates and the content of dragon mythology is by The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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no means as close as Jones suggests. For one thing, the emotional response to the dragon was not universally expressed in terms of fear. In countless cases, the dragon was held in high esteem and portrayed in affectionate terms as an instrument of creation, the original receptacle of all life forms, or a benign force in the heavens. This is even the case in non-centralised societies organised in bands and tribes, that did on Jones theory not yet "tame" the dragon. In addition, Jones capitalisation on birds of prey, felid carnivores and snakes is biased in its selectivity: depending on where one lived, animals such as bears, wolves, scorpions and spiders posed just as much of a threat to early primates, yet were not incorporated in the standard prosopography of the dragon. Moreover, many trademark themes associated with dragons receive no elucidation from the assumption of a "brain dragon": the cosmic dimensions of the dragon, the dragon as the primordial container or enclosure of all waters, the dragons egg identified as the visible cosmos, and the propensity of the dragon to form a circle, tail-in-mouth, or entwine itself in pairs. An impressive array of traditions situate the dragon in the sky, where the creature is variously identified as the rainbow, the lightning flash, the Milky Way, the tail of a comet, auroral arcs, the ecliptic band, the morning or evening star (!), or the constellation Draco. Throughout the entire study, Jones makes no mention of the dragons intricate relationship with the firmament or the fabric of the cosmos. Indeed, a closer look at the narrative of the dragon combat directly contravenes the neurological theory in strong terms: the ubiquitous mythical motif of a warrior-hero residing in the belly or the maw of the dragon prior to victory could never have arisen as a reflex of primate experiences with predators, as nature must have selected for animals that did not end up in the clutches of eagles, panthers or constricting snakes. No monkey gobbled up by a predator could live to tell the tale and pass it on to offspring. Though Jones does devote a chapter to the theme of the dragon combat, which he explains as an expression of advanced progress in the political level of civilisation, the quintessential myth of the swallowed hero, which is at the heart of dragon mythology, does not rate a mention. Intriguingly, Jones original starting point can be taken in an entirely different direction. If it May be granted that the archetype of the dragon rests on a class of conspicuous atmospheric phenomena, what can the dragons avian wings, leonine manes and ears, and serpentine torso tell us about its origins? The tails of comets and auroral arcs, which are the likeliest source of dragon reports in historical times, are both formed of plasma. The signature of energetic plasmas is a notable degree of filamentation. On the rare occasions when plasma filaments present themselves to the human eye, the impression is that of "hairs," "rays," "streamers," or "spikes." If mythical dragons were really the expression of active plasma formations witnessed in the sky, the radiant "feathers" of the "feathered serpent," adding to its avian aspect, and the "whiskers" and "manes" of its catlike head, receive a natural explanation in the filamented appearance of such plasmas. As argued on these pages and elsewhere, plasma physics has the potential to illuminate many other aspects of dragon mythology, including the motifs listed above. The image of the dragon probably originated in the external, natural world, as Jones contends, yet the prototype is more likely found in cosmic plasmas seen at times of extreme geophysical duress than in a hazy, confused memory of threatening vertebrate rivals. This is The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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not to rule out that such predators could have left a lasting imprint on the "mindset" of primate ancestors. If they did, it is conceivable that such deeply rooted fears played a role in the mental process of mythologising the extremely violent plasmas hypothesised here. When confronted with the extraordinary spectacle of a plasma filament in glow discharge mode, producing instability effects that are very hard to capture adequately in language, human beings May well have been reminded of the wild animals that roam the air, the forest, or the desert and as they struggled to apply the metaphors of such animals to the complex images displayed on the celestial screen, any subconscious associations of terror would have left their marks on the coloration of the resulting "myth" and its narrative context. Contributed by Rens Van Der Sluijs
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A bronze statuette of Zeus wielding the lightning. Sanctuary of Dodona, Greece. Courtesy of the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece
Is Lightning the Strongest Creative Force?

(Jan 14, 2009)
To have stories about the creation of the world is probably one of the "universals" in human culture worldwide. How are such stories to be interpreted? Modern stories of creation, generally called "theories," tend to spring from the imaginative power of the intellect and include such varied concepts as the Big Bang and the evolution of life. As science progresses through a succession of competing paradigms, some of these theories will be thrown out, while others will continue to prove viable. The principal difference between such modern theories and mythical accounts of creation is that the latter base their authority not on reasoning, but on a close adherence to tradition. Creation myths are passed on as eyewitness accounts, not as speculative discourses. Their highest merit is not logic, but adherence to the original versions. A detailed comparative analysis of creation myths highlights a remarkable degree of agreement about the most salient aspects of this "creation." Clearly, the referent of these traditions was something that was once obvious and relevant to the whole of mankind. So what exactly is it that is remembered in these global reports? An attractive possibility is that creation myths tell the story of a turbulent episode in prehistory, when a combination of atmospheric and geological forces drastically altered the appearance of the familiar landscape. Provided that this is done with sufficient scholarly rigour, the treasure trove of the worlds creation myths can be mined for useful information about the nature, the development, and the scope of that environmental crisis. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Lightning plays a decisive instrumental role in a large number of creation myths. In some cases, an extraordinary flash of lightning is said to have enabled the lifting up of the "sky," which had originally been far too close to the earth for comfort. One tradition from the Pueblos, of New Mexico, relates that the deity, whom they called Sun Father, "sent the lightning to make an opening between the two worlds. The earth shook and trembled." It was only then that the earth could dry up and the familiar luminaries could first be discerned in the firmament. Ka-Ka-Pitka, or "Two Crows," was a priest of the Arikara, Dakota, who reported that the lightning was the device by which the first living creatures were transported to the earth: "Atuch seems to have made men and the animals up above in the sky where he lives, and when he was satisfied with what he had made, he resolved to place them upon the earth. So he called the lightning to put them on the earth, and the lightning caused a cloud to come, and the cloud received what Atuch had made. But the lightning, acting as he always does, set them down on the earth with a crash, and as the ground was still wet with the water that had covered it, they all sank into the soft earth." On the island of Borneo, the Ngayu Dayak held that the clouds, the vault of heaven, mountains and cliffs, sun and moon, and various sacred creatures were all produced from the lightning that resulted from the clashing together of a primordial pair of deities. In Kiribati, one of the archipelagoes of Micronesia, a professional storyteller, Taakeuta of Marakei, described the formative work of Naareau, the creator, as a memorable type of lightning, operating when the sky had just been elevated and needed to be attached to the "horizon": "He ran, he leapt, he flew, he was seen and gone again like the lightnings in the sides of heaven; and where he stayed, there he pulled down the side of the sky, so that it was shaped like a bowl." This impression is reminiscent of the contention that "God" made all things "like lightning," a phrase the Abaluyia people, of western Kenya, used to describe the gods great power and the speed of accomplishing his intentions. Their neighbours, the Vusugu, likewise narrate that "God" formed the sky and its supporting pillars, as his abode, "without assistance and like lightning." "They say that its substance is a mystery, that heaven is always bright by day and night, and that it is a place of scintillation.'" While the differences between such story-lines deserve careful consideration, it is fair to conclude that various societies on earth associated the events of cosmic creation with conspicuous forms of lightning. To the same genre arguably belongs the Indo-European motif of a celestial being that employs a "thunderbolt" as a club or spear in his endeavours. In Vedic mythology, the creative power of Indras vajra or "lightning sceptre" is enunciated beyond doubt. In the Hellenic world, Zeus kerauns or "thunderbolt" dominates the scene, but figures less clearly as the instrument of creation. Nevertheless, the philosopher, Heraclitus of Ephesus (535-475 BCE), must have had Zeus fiery implement in mind when he declared that "a thunderbolt steers all things." His aim May have been to "upgrade" the hoary myth of Zeus lightning weapon, using terms of natural history that were acceptable to intellectuals in his own time. In the future, the twentieth century will almost certainly be looked upon as a scientific Dark Age, during which the pervasive role of electromagnetic activity in space was systematically suppressed by the scientific orthodoxy. As the spectre of this period begins to recede and scientists make great headway in unravelling the complexities of the geomagnetic field and its The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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interaction with the solar wind, a window is opened for a promising, new exploration of traditional creation mythology. Traditions such as the sample given above underscore the possibility that energetic plasmas in the inner solar system played a prominent role in the not too distant past, at a time of cosmic instability, and May even have appeared to sculpt the surface of the earth. Contributed by Rens Van Der Sluijs
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Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae is thought to contain some of the oldest known stars. Credit: ESO/VLT
How Old Are The Stars?

(Jan 13, 2009)
A new technique for dating the evolution of stars depends on knowing the age of our own Sun. Why do stars form where they do? What are the conditions that cause them to come into existence and what makes them age? These are some of the fundamental questions asked by astronomers as they attempt to understand the universe, its history and its fate. If the stars are born and die according to certain measurable factors, then analyzing those factors might help to design a "clock" that can be used to establish the age of any star. Currently, according to scientists, we can accurately determine the age of our own Sun and no other star, because we can study it in great detail and stardust from within the solar system can be brought to Earth and analyzed. As consensus viewpoints state, that makes the Suns age a fundamental model to calibrate readings from other stars and determine their ages. Recently, NASA announced the Kepler Mission, built to explore extrasolar planetary systems with a Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) science package. One result that astronomers hope to gain from Kepler is ultraprecise brightness measurements of nearby solar-type stars that will enable an analysis of lowest-order stellar oscillations. This technique is known as "asteroseismology," the name derived from "helioseismology," or the study of wave propagation inside the Sun. Analysis of the oscillations are expected to reveal the state of the core of a star, which is the part that is thought to change most in structure as the star ages by fusing hydrogen into helium. By combining this information with other data like mass and chemical composition, it is thought possible to say how old the star is. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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However, there is a problem. Present understanding of stellar aging relies on studying globular clusters of thousands of stars in the Milky Way. It was accepted that such stars were formed together and share the same composition and age. But the Hubble Space Telescope has shown that the stars have multiple populations of stars with different compositions. Again, as the Electric Universe model points out, astronomers are taking a model of the Sun that has difficulty in explaining some of the most obvious features of the Sun and applying it to other stars. As the Electric Star hypothesis reveals: "there is no reason to attribute youth to one spectral type over another. We conclude that a star's location on the HR diagram only depends on its size and the electric current density it is presently experiencing...its age remains indeterminate regardless of its mass or spectral type. This is disquieting in the sense that we are now confronted by the knowledge that our own Sun's future is not as certain as is predicted by mainstream astronomy. We cannot know whether the Birkeland current presently powering our Sun will increase or decrease, nor how long it will be before it does so." We do not know the age of our own Sun! A report in Science (2 Jan 2009) sums up: "Overall, the situation for determining stellar ages is still sobering, and progress has been slow. It has reached the point where cosmologists claim better precision for their measurements than we can for the ages of the nearest and brightest stars. The challenge of determining an accurate age for a star therefore remains outstanding." Helioseismology has thrown up its own set of unresolved problems too. In fact, the origin of the oscillations remains unclear. As one astrophysicist remarked, "..the flute does not produce music unless one blows in it, so to speak. Therefore one is led to the question: who is blowing the pipe?" The answer is simple for an Electric Sun: The bright photosphere is a plasma discharge phenomenon subject to electrical pulsations and changes in size (another major puzzle for the standard model of the Sun). If this is true then helioseismology applied to the standard model of the interior of the Sun is worthless. And more conundrums for researchers are confidently predicted when asteroseismology data is returned by the Kepler Mission. By Wal Thornhill
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STEREO Satellite image of the Sun's coronal arcs.
Adhering to Fusion
(Jan 09, 2009)
Thermonuclear fusion reactions from deep in the core are said to drive the Sun. It has become so commonplace an assumption that most solar physicists say, "What else could it be?" "I am aware that many critics consider the stars are not hot enough. The critics lay themselves open to an obvious retort; we tell them to go and find a hotter place." -- Arthur Eddington According to spectrographic analysis, the Sun is composed primarily of hydrogen gas (71%), with 27% helium and the remainder thought to be minute percentages of oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, carbon, and six other elements. Although every element on Earth can be seen in a spectrogram of the Sun, those 12 make up 99.9% of its mass. The Sun is 1,390,000 kilometers in diameter, with a mass approximation of 1.98 X 10^30 kilograms. The temperature measured at its surface is 5800 Kelvin and is estimated to be as high as 15,600,000 Kelvin in the core. As conventional models suggest, the Sun must generate outward radiation pressure or gravity would compress it into a relatively tiny, solid ball. The theory states that an energy source must exist inside the Sun, acting as a counter force to gravitational contraction. It seemed to Sir Arthur Eddington in his classic work, The Internal Constitution of the Stars, that only nuclear fusion could produce radiative energy sufficient to prevent the Sun from collapsing "under its own weight" and last for billions of years. Since the processes by which scientists describe those fusion reactions were not mathematically modeled until years after Eddington's theory, it was more a statement of faith at the time than it was a result of experimental research. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Hypothetically, how does the Sun produce heat and light enough to sustain life on our planet at a mean distance of 149,476,000 kilometers? When the Sun condensed out of the nebular cloud that is supposed to have been its nursery, the gases were compressed by gravity until they reached temperatures greater than tenmillion Kelvin. At that temperature, hydrogen atoms are disrupted into individual protons and electrons, leaving the protons free to collide with one another. It is these initial proton collisions, it is said, that are the first step in a reaction called the proton-proton (p-p) chain. When protons collide at those high temperatures, they are moving fast enough to fuse into other particles: deuterium, a positron and a neutrino. Deuterium is a proton-neutron combination, while a positron is a positively charged electron. Neutrinos are similar to electrons, except they do not carry an electric charge, and are almost massless. Being neutral, they are not affected by the electromagnetic forces that affect electrons. The second stage in the p-p reaction is the formation of a helium-3 nucleus when the deuterium captures another proton, while at the same time emitting a gamma ray. A helium-4 nucleus and two neutrinos are the end results of the reaction, although it can follow one of many different reaction paths. In reality, as Electric Universe theorist Wal Thornhill points out, stars reside within plasma sheaths perhaps as great as a light-day in extent. They are the borders between the electrical influence of the stars and the currents flowing through the galaxy. As Wal wrote: "The Suns plasma sheath, or 'heliosphere' is about 100 times more distant than the Earth is from the Sun. To give an idea of the immensity of the heliosphere, all of the stars in the Milky Way could fit inside a sphere encompassed by the orbit of Pluto. The Suns heliosphere could accommodate the stars from 8 Milky Ways! It is clear from the behavior of its relatively cool photosphere that the Sun is an anode, or positively charged electrode, in a galactic discharge. The red chromosphere is the counterpart to the glow above the anode surface in a discharge tube. When the current density is too high for the anode surface to accommodate, a bright secondary plasma forms within the primary plasma. It is termed 'anode tufting.' On the Sun, the tufts are packed together tightly so that their tops give the appearance of 'granulation.'" The stars receive their power from outside, not inside. Any nuclear reactions are taking place on the surface of the Sun and not in its core. The solar wind is an electric current connecting the Sun with its family of planets and with its galactic clan, so the 90-year-old theory of fusion firing the solar furnace needs to be reexamined. By Stephen Smith
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Galaxy DLA-3C286. Credit: H.W. Chen/University of Chicago
A Magnetic Problem with "Protogalaxies"

(Jan 07, 2009)
It seems that it doesnt matter how far out in space we choose to observe, there are galaxies, fully formed galaxies organized in higher level structures that stretch for billions of parsecs. As if this hasnt been enough evidence to undermine the standard model, there was new information gathered in 2008 that must create even further misgivings. The issue involves galactic magnetic fields. The accepted "mean-field-dynamo" theory held by establishment astronomers asserts that a magnetic field in a galaxy evolves from a "magnetic seed" and builds over the course of billions of years. Young galaxies have no coherent magnetic fields, but over time, a magnetic field "spins up" that spans the galaxy. The mechanism by which this occurs is not well formulated. However, this model predicts that galaxies observed at sufficient distances should have weak magnetic fields compared to our own galaxy. This assumes a Universe that is about 13.7 billion years old, so that if we look at galaxies 6 to 8 billion light years away, they are comparatively young. Over the course of 2008 there were two separate reports (one in July, the other in early October) of galaxies 6-8 billion light years away with magnetic fields at least as powerful as that found in our own galaxy. In one report, the magnetic field in the distant "young" galaxy was about ten times the strength of that in the Milky Way. As usual, the reporting scientists expressed surprise at their findings. The research teams actually used different approaches for measuring the magnetic field strength in the different galaxies. Simon Lillys group reporting in July performed analyses on a number of galaxies using Faraday Rotation data derived from the polarization of light from The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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quasars behind the galaxies in question. Lilly used FR quasar measurements generated by Philipp Kronberg from the University of Toronto. Alternatively, the group led by Arthur Wolfe measured the magnetic field in a single galaxy using the Zeeman Effect, where an absorbing gas in a magnetic field splits absorption lines symmetrically. Some of Wolfes comments are interesting and indicative of a general mindset in the astronomical community. Here are excerpts from the October report: "Astronomers have made the first direct measurement of the magnetic field in a young, distant galaxy, and the result is a big surprise. "Looking at a faraway protogalaxy seen as it was 6.5 billion years ago, the scientists measured a magnetic field at least 10 times stronger than that of our own Milky Way. They had expected just the opposite." The authors assume this is a "protogalaxy" simply because of its distance. However, the relative strength of the magnetic field (10x) is interesting. In reading some source data elsewhere the exact number is a magnetic field of B = 84 G in DLA-3C286 (the galaxy in question) at z =0.692, using the same Zeeman-splitting technique that revealed an average value of B = 6 G in the interstellar gas of the Milky Way. So, actually the value is >10x the Milky Way's magnetic field measurement. In the picture credited to HW Chen above, it is tempting to infer that there are prominent jets emitted by DLA-3C286 consistent with the magnetic field findings. "'This new measurement indicates that magnetic fields May play a more important role in the formation and evolution of galaxies than we have realized,' said Arthur Wolfe, of the University of California-San Diego (UCSD). 'Our results present a challenge to the dynamo model, but they do not rule it out.' "There are other possible explanations for the strong magnetic field seen in the one protogalaxy Wolfe's team studied. 'We May be seeing the field close to the central region of a massive galaxy, and we know such fields are stronger toward the centers of nearby galaxies. Also, the field we see May have been amplified by a shock wave caused by the collision of two galaxies.'" It is clear that observations have directly contradicted the mean-field-dynamo model, yet investigators have trouble letting go of the theory in the face of data. The argument about shock waves and galaxy collision is just embarrassing and perhaps can be forgiven in the light of the sheer usefulness of the data. In a New Scientist report the language is more balanced. "Magnetic fields are difficult to model, so they tend not to be incorporated into cosmological simulations. But if it turns out more such galaxies are scattered about the early universe, 'it might mean we have to rewrite all the models of galaxy evolution because magnetic fields play a big role.'" The quote is from Rainer Beck, not involved in the research but an astronomer at the MaxPlanck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany. Beck is clearly allowing the observations to shape his logical assessment of the mean-field-dynamo model. "The team next plans to measure the magnetic field of an even more distant backlit galaxy - one that would have had just 1 billion years or so to spin up its field. If the galaxy has a similarly strong field, 'I'd say that would be very difficult for the dynamo theory,' Wolfe says." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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According to the Electric Universe theory, the observations were predictable. Galaxies are formed along immensely powerful Birkeland currents where magnetic z-pinches play a critical role in shaping galaxies and, in turn, the star systems within them. Therefore, all galaxies will have magnetic fields whose strengths will vary depending on the Birkeland currents that power them. So the observation of galaxies 6-8 billion light years away with powerful magnetic fields is completely in keeping with the Electric Universe model, because magnetic fields are integral to galaxy formation and their ongoing dynamics. This research should be closely monitored, but the EU model makes a clear prediction. Wolfe and his colleagues will find a magnetic field spanning the next galaxy they directly measure with the Zeeman effect. Galaxies do not "spin up" magnetic fields, its the other way around. As long as astronomers and astrophysicists continue with a conceptual framework that does not include electrical forces acting at the cosmological scale, they will continue to be surprised by their observations. Ultimately, the really interesting phenomenon to observe in all this is the human ability to cling to belief systems in the face of overwhelming data. The Electric Universe movement is an exciting opportunity to witness a single explanatory framework driving paradigm shifts across multiple disciplines. Contributed by Thomas Wilson
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An image of the Aurora Borealis from the space shuttle Atlantis (STS-117).
Magnetic Breaches
(Jan 05, 2009)
Astrophysicists are often surprised by observations because their theories are inadequate to explain them. NASA launched the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission on February 17, 2007. The spacecraft continues to monitor Earth's magnetosphere so that planetary scientists can figure out how intense ion storms are created. It is important to understand these explosive outbursts in our planet's magnetic field, because they disrupt communications, overload electrical transmission lines, and cause radiation emissions that can reach the ground. According to conventional theory, when the magnetosphere "suddenly releases vast amounts of stored solar wind energy," the aurora becomes widespread, intense, more disturbed, and charged particles (electric currents) flow at higher energies. These so-called "substorms" begin in small regions of the magnetosphere but enlarge within minutes, enveloping an immense area. Full-blown magnetic storms are rare, but smaller substorms in the polar regions are more frequent, sometimes hours apart. Recently, NASA researchers announced that THEMIS discovered a "breach" in Earth's magnetic field larger than anything seen before. Project scientist David Sibeck said: "At first I didn't believe it. This finding fundamentally alters our understanding of the solar windmagnetosphere interaction." A strong magnetic disturbance is usually observed when a bright aurora is seen. The field can be greater than that from a magnetic storm but on a local scale, fading more quickly toward the equator. In 1903, Kristian Birkeland's observations in the Arctic led him to propose that electricity energizing the aurora flowed parallel to the auroral formation. Since electric current The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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flows in a closed circuit, and since the currents and the glow seemed to be caused by processes in distant space, he theorized that they came down from space at one end of the auroral arc and back out to space at the other. In 1973, the U.S. Navy satellite Triad flew through this electrically charged layer. The onboard magnetometer found two electric currents in gigantic sheets, each carrying a million amperes or more, one descending on the auroral zone's morning side and one ascending on the evening side. Since Birkeland's research had predicted the currents that link Earth with space they were called Birkeland currents. According to the scientists from THEMIS, the "breach" started when magnetic fields from the solar wind wrapped around the magnetosphere and cracked it open. The "cracking" was induced by "magnetic reconnection." Space physicist Wenhui Li from the University of New Hampshire was quoted as saying: "The opening was huge--four times wider than Earth itself." Another New Hampshire researcher, Jimmy Raeder said: "10^27 particles per second were flowing into the magnetosphere--that's a 1 followed by 27 zeros. This kind of influx is an order of magnitude greater than what we thought was possible." Physical processes require an energy input that then changes from one form to another. Consensus views also suggest that this holds true for geomagnetic substorms. It is no accident, according to scientists, that they take place when the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) slants to the South. The southern orientation means faster "reconnection" between interplanetary and terrestrial field lines, initiating rapid release of magnetic fields and plasma from Earth's sunlit side. How this energy is released, as well as what starts the process, are still controversial subjects. Energy in nature cannot be destroyed, as the conservation of energy law states, it changes from one form to another. When electricity powers a motor, it is converted to kinetic energy. When friction stops motion, its kinetic energy converts to heat. Magnetic energy is also thought to reappear in different forms. Some becomes heat, increasing the velocity of plasma ions and electrons. Some of the energy ends up driving electric currents in a circuit linking the plasma sheet with Earth. Don Scott's commentary about magnetic reconnection should be kept in mind when reading reports from NASA about Earth's interaction with the plasma stream (commonly called the solar wind) and electromagnetic energy radiating from the Sun: Magnetic field lines are only convenient concepts, nothing more. They are not loci or contours of constant magnetic flux density (field strength). They just indicate the fields direction. In regions where they are close together the field is stronger than where they are widely separated. Therefore, sketching magnetic field lines can help us visualize the shape and strength of magnetic fields. They can help us to sketch the net result (vector sum) if and when two or more fields interact (are superimposed on each other). We can only draw magnetic field lines (in cases not involving permanent ferromagnetic magnets) by considering the electric currents that create those fields. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Magnetic lines of force do not actually exist in three-dimensional space anymore than lines of latitude or longitude do. If a field moves from one instant to another, we cannot use "streaming video" to watch a given line move and change shape. This is because we must redraw a complete set of lines at each instant. It isnt the same line that has moved, it is the field that has changed. The two sets of lines describe the field at those two different times. Magnetic lines of force do not move anymore than lines of longitude do. A determined unwillingness to recognize this fact has led to the idea that lines move toward each other, touch, merge, and then release energy. I have said many times that this last notion, if applied to circles of longitude that come together and "merge" at Earths poles, could be proposed as causing gravitational energy releases at those locations.
There is no such process as "magnetic merging" or "reconnection" of magnetic field lines in the real world. Written by Stephen Smith from an idea submitted by Mark Love
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Great Trango Tower, Pakistan. One of the highest vertical faces on Earth.
How Long Ago? Part Two

(Jan 02, 2009)
Geologists continue to depend on theories that were first proposed in the seventeenth century, or perhaps by the ancient Greeks. Erosion: the process of eroding or being eroded by wind, water, or other natural agents. From erode, gradually wear away (soil, rock, or land): the cliffs have been eroded by the sea. Most children are taught simple geological theories when they enter elementary school. The principles of wind and rain are presented as the "natural processes" that take millions of years to create the various landscapes in which we live. Rain is not the harmless fall of water droplets gently tapping on the windowpane, but is a carbonic acid solution that is dissolving the very bedrock, converting it into atmospheric carbon dioxide and mineral salts that wash down to the sea. This "weathering" is said to have been wearing away the mountains for several hundred million years, since rain began to fall on this planet, much like it is doing today. The blowing breezes carry minute dust motes that crash into cliff faces, chipping away at their adamantine permanence with inexorable power, slowly reducing them to powder. Vertical walls become long slopes; steep valleys are gradually ground down into meandering river valleys; sharp mountain peaks slump into flattened hills and then slip back into the topography out of which they were formed. Giant boulders are split into pebbles by water freezing inside cracks, expanding as it freezes The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive and pushing the cracks farther apart with every seasonal cycle. After millions of years the boulders get smaller and smaller, accumulating in riverbeds, piling up into mountains of gravel, creating vast sandy beaches or desert dunes that cover entire countries.
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Since the earliest days of Electric Universe theory, a suspicion has existed in the minds of its investigators that something was wrong with the "long, slow" view of geology. Because fossils are dated based on the rock layers in which they are found, a uniformitarian view of geology influences the understanding of how life began and evolved on Earth. If the rock ages are wrong, fossil ages are wrong, as was discussed in part one of this paper. Great Trango Tower is an example of contradictory morphology when it comes to the consensus view of erosion. It is composed of granite and rises to 6286 meters above sea level. One of its distinguishing features is the world's highest nearly vertical drop--1340 meters. Only Mount Thor on Baffin Island is considered to be purely vertical, with a fall of 1250 meters straight down. These gigantic, supposedly eroded massifs are peculiar because they show little debris at their feet. Great Trango and some of its tall cousins are thought to be "plutons," magma intrusions that melted their way up into sedimentary rock strata and then solidified before breaking the surface. They have been subsequently exposed because the softer sedimentary rocks layers in which they were once encased have been eroded away. The reason that they appear to be so sharp and new is thought to be due to the overburden of sediments that kept them "protected" from weathering. The idea seems reasonable, but it suffers from logical inconsistencies. First, the sediments are nowhere to be seen. The lakes in the area are not filled with silt, although they are refreshed each year by snowmelt and have no outlets. If they have been the catch basins of runoff containing eroded particles for "millions of years" one would expect them to have been clogged-up eons ago. Second, the peaks have to have been exposed for millions of years by now, because they are completely unburied. They have been acted on by freeze and thaw, feeling the full force of hurricane winds, subzero temperatures, and bombardment by sandy grit for thousands of centuries, yet they appear as if they emerged from their stone prisons a short time ago. In a previous Picture of the Day about the mountains of Patagonia, similar oddities were examined. Lakes with no outlets; vertical cliffs accentuated by terraces stepping up their sides; multiple layers; flat-topped mesas with shotgun-patterned potholes on top; cleanfloored, narrow valleys; amphitheater-like "blind canyons"; and mountain ranges in concentric rings are manifestly contrary to conventional thinking. Electric Universe theorists postulate that between 5000 and 10,000 years ago (perhaps sooner), the Earth and its sister planets were engulfed in a catastrophic interplay of celestial forces that have not been seen since. Clouds of electrified plasma and electric arcs described by the ancients as "thunderbolts of the gods" dissected the continental geography, creating what traditional theories say are ages-old structures in an instant of time. Sky-high tornadoes of fire writhed across the face of the Earth, excavating canyons, ocean basins, and river valleys. Lakes like inland oceans were vaporized along with their attendant flora and fauna, leaving nothing but scorched and naked stone behind. Those plasma vortices formed intense electrodynamic fields that compressed and lifted material out of the surrounding region. The resulting "fulgamites" are mistaken for intrusions when they are actually extrusions. The Brandberg Massif, Shiprock, New Mexico, and Uluru were given as The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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examples of that phenomenon in past Picture of the Day articles. There is much more that could be written regarding the conflict between observation and theory that seems to dominate science today. There is a need to overcome preconceptions and adopt an approach that takes into account all parts of the observation rather than ignoring those that do not fit the theory. By Stephen Smith
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250-million-year-old Cryolophosaurus ellioti bone found in Antarctica. Image courtesy of David Elliot.
How Long Ago?

(Jan 01, 2009)
When presented with the Electric Universe theory and the planetary catastrophes that might have occurred in the past, a commonly evoked question is: When did it all take place? There are beds of coal covering millions of square kilometers all over the world. They vary in thickness and composition, as well as in the material combined with them in situ. Insects, leaves, tree trunks, rocks of every kind, and the bones of animals from hundreds of species abound--some say human bones have been found in a Pennsylvania coal seam. There are carbonized trees standing upright in some coal deposits, although how they extend downward through so many "geological ages" is a mystery to paleontologists, since the layers are said to progress through eons of time: 250-500 million years ago. There are forests of mineralized trees under some of the deepest ice in Antarctica. Cores drilled through the ice sometimes contain scorched and petrified wood fragments. Mineralized trees cover large areas of the American prairie, a so-called "petrified forest" encompassing thousands of specimens. Not forgetting to mention the bones of animals in unbelievable numbers entombed within sedimentary deposits hundreds of meters thick alongside their fossilized forest home. Fish skeletons in shoals that could number in the millions of individuals pose in frozen postures, as if they are swimming through a matrix of sandstone. What force could bury a school of fish covering thousands of square kilometers in an instant, leaving their skeletons in lifelike positions, fins extended, mouths open, as if they were killed and turned to stone in between one breath and another? How could it keep them whole, without being disarticulated or crushed? Trilobites, sauropods, pterosaurs, cycads, ginkgos, clams, dragonflys--all preserved for what is said to be millions, hundreds of millions, and even billions of years in a variety of minerals. Some fossils, unlike the fish that appear as if they are still swimming, are broken and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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disjointed, or scattered over a wide area. Some are entangled in heaps almost as tall as mountains, with multitudes of different species all mixed together in a grisly zoological assemblage. Combined in giant solidified piles with splintered trees and shredded leaves, one is hard-pressed to find a singe intact skeleton amidst the chaos. When did the animals meet their dooms? When did the forests burn, freeze and then succumb to their very tissues being replaced by stone? How accurate is the system used to date the fossil forests and animal graveyards? One of the most basic assumptions in the development of an accurate "calendar" by which events could be dated was that the Earth is an isolated celestial body that does not interact with other bodies. Another assumption is that radioactive decay rates are constant, Earth's energy cycle has received no additional input since the radioactive elements were formed, or no alteration to its electrical or magnetic fields have taken place. That means geologists can "rely on" a smooth, continuous clock ticking off the millennia at a measurable rate. Is that the case, however? Is there evidence that the radiometric dating methods that scientists use with such confidence can change? Cosmic rays or electrical discharges could increase the percentages of C-14 ("radiocarbon") in living organisms. If the remains of those organisms were dated using the standard radiocarbon ratios, they would appear to be much younger than they are, or much closer to the present era than they should be. Conversely, if an increase in radioactively neutral carbon isotope were to accumulate in our biosphere from burning forests, from cosmic dust, or from extensive volcanic eruptions, anything dated following whichever particular cause would appear much older. No definite timeline can be constructed using the dating methods traditionally thought to produce accurate results. It seems possible that plasma interactions with Earth and other charged bodies in space, or the impact of ion beams from a vast cloud of plasma on our biosphere could disrupt all the elemental changes that are used to date rocks: uranium changing to lead; potassium changing to argon; or samarium changing to neodymium. Therefore, the Earth could be much younger than the billions of years commonly ascribed to it. It is equally possible that it is much older than is thought. Until some radical new discovery is made, no one can be sure. By Stephen Smith
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The Bridge over Chaos by John Martin. Illustration to Book X, 312 of Paradise Lost (1827). Christ's College Old Library
Before the Beginning

(Dec 29, 2008)
Thomas Hobbes wrote that life in a state of nature was "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Ancient legends from around the world spell out the nature of that state before the beginning of society and civilization. The legends are called creation myths because they describe the beginning of time, of the dividing of heaven from earth, of social organization, even of the distinguishing between good and evil. They are told as if the narrator were an eyewitness to the creation eventand they often tell about a prior state. From around the world, they converge on a picture of nature that would have appalled even Mr. Hobbes. "But in those days we lived where there were thickets and barren rocks; we had no villages, no cities, no temples. We lived in clefts of the rocks and holes in the ground. We ate roots that we pulled up out of the ground, or else we fought with the foxes for the dead things they were carrying away. No one bore rule amongst us, and we knew nothing of duty or kindness of one to another." Inca legend "Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was indiscriminated chaos. All that existed then was void and formless." Rig Veda "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was chaos, and there was darkness over the abyss." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive Genesis--Mitchell translation
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The same themes are repeated in Phoenician and Greek cosmogonies and in Taoism in China. They appear in the narratives of the tribes of Oceania and of the Pima of Arizona. The Hopi clarify the question of just how dark the darkness was by calling it a "dark purple light." Other legends relate that something glowed dimly within the darkness "like a glow-worm" (Linga Purana)--an orb "lit by the reflection of his own inner self" (Mbay legend). Many legends speak of the "waters" or "sea" of chaos that preceded creation. They say that the chaos "whirled." Except for the whirling chaos, nothing moved: There was no Sun, no Moon, no stars. There was no day or night, no year, no seasons. There was no way to tell time. There was no reason to tell time. There was no concept of time. The beginning--the creation--was the beginning of time and space, of form and change. It was the beginning of society and civilization. Perhaps it was the beginning of consciousness. "Before the beginning" stories from every society exhibit these themes: darkness without Sun or Moon or stars, whirling chaos, something that glowed, no civilization, timelessness. The only reasonable explanation for this commonality is that the stories derive from events experienced in common around the world. In God Star, Dwardu Cardona compiles these themes and develops an explanation for the underlying events that is based on space-age discoveries in astronomy and plasma physics. The explanation needs further development and testing. It should inspire a search for alternative explanations that, like it, May provide a physical basis for making sense of the global themes of ancient stories. Modern theories that project todays sky unchanged into the past must necessarily dismiss the stories of a different beginning as a coincidence of nonsense. Therewith they dismiss the legacy of our ancestors and leave us mystified that rational creatures could have evolved societies that are darkened by so much that seems irrational. Increasingly, they must dismiss or deface the data from space probes and telescopes. Therewith they turn science from discovery to apologetics. The insights of God Star restore the terror and awe of a history that can illuminate the darkness of the modern world. By Mel Acheson
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Lake of the Woods and the Aulnea Peninsula. Credit: Satellite Impressions.
Lake of the Woods

(Dec 24, 2008)
Located on the border between Canada and the United States, this formation appears to indicate electric scarring. As has been reported in several previous Picture of the Day articles, the Earth has apparently been the scene of intense bombardment from space. According to the prevailing geological opinion, scars found on every continent and under the waters of every ocean are the result of big rocks impacting the surface and mechanically blasting out the material, leaving craters behind. The Electric Universe hypothesis offers another perspective on the observations. Several factors come into play that are not available to the consensus theories of geophysics because the lexicon of descriptions available to them does not include electric arcs or traveling subterranean electric discharges. There are, of course, many possible explanations for craters, canyons, escarpments, mountains and ocean basins, but once the electric force is included in the search for those explanations an entirely new way of seeing the world becomes possible. In this realm, that of deep background and the origination of basic theoretical foundations, the viewpoint expressed in these pages must be considered diametrically opposed to the gradualism that dominates science today. Rather than basing opinions on the slow, steady, familiar processes of erosion--temperature changes, rain, windblown sand, ice and snow--the proponents of Electric Universe theory are The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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attempting to reclassify geophysical processes as rapid, catastrophic, and world-changing. In many cases, the almost unimaginable must be acknowledged: gigantic formations like the Grand Canyon or Manicouagan Crater were created in a time period that encompasses the historical memory of humankind. This new paradigm means that words like "crater," for example, must be stripped of all previous assumptions that are stimulated by it. One almost immediately thinks, "volcano," or "meteor," when the word is used. As previously stated, catastrophism should be part of a new way to see the world, and volcanoes or meteor strikes are indeed catastrophic, but geological theory consigns them to the "rare" or "infrequent" category. When was the last time a volcano blew-out a 100kilometer-wide crater, for instance? Considering the presumption of an electric discharge, a better description might be "circular formation" rather than "crater," and Lake of the Woods certainly displays those features that have been described elsewhere as electrical. Concentric rings and radial force patterns are immediately evident, as well as the scalloped edges of the southwestern shoreline. A primordial characteristic of electric arcs is that they spin. They are composed of multiple independent plasma current filaments in a collimated beam. The independent filaments are attracted to one another in a linear relationship, but are prevented from coalescing because of electrostatic repulsion, which also causes the filaments to form twisted-pairs, or Birkeland currents. Electrical engineers use twisted-pairs of wires because it is the most efficient means of transferring electrical energy with least loss. A spinning electric arc will machine down through the strata like an auger of fire. In the picture at the top of the page, the spin pattern is preserved in the southern edge of the lake. The three-lobed bays that twist in a northerly direction are intriguing, as are the many islands that follow multiple chords like outwardly expanding waves across a wide area. Lake of the Woods is 110 kilometers long and up to 95 kilometers wide. It has an area of approximately 4472 square kilometers and more than 14,000 islands, so it is by no means small. Due to its location, it could be considered among one of the lesser cousins to the Great Lakes and could have been formed alongside them in a single cataclysmic event. In an upcoming Picture of the Day, the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence Seaway will be analyzed for their origin in the paradoxical fires of creation and destruction that the thunderbolts of the gods present. In general, the lake basins around the world should be reconsidered and not too readily consigned to faith in 200-year-old theories. Written by Stephen Smith from an idea submitted by Brad Bensen
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Giant crater in Titans northwestern highlands. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Titan Tells More Strange Tales

(Dec 19, 2008)
Images from Cassini are said to reveal deltas, river channels and now ocean basins filled with super-cooled hydrocarbons. Does electricity play a role on Titan? Recent data from the Cassini-Huygens mission has been interpreted to reveal oceans of ethane in one case occupying an area as large as 26,000 square kilometers. It is in Titans north polar region that the largest bodies of "liquid" are supposed to exist. Cassini-Huygens has been analyzing information from the planet Saturn and its family of moons for almost four years. One of its primary targets has been Titan, the largest moon in the solar system and the only one with an atmosphere. We have written many times in the past about Titan and its bizarre topography, as well as the electrical connection that it shares with its giant parents plasmasphere. Now, based on an analysis of data from 19 separate flybys of Titan, the case for liquids flowing on the surface is being given greater credence. In fact, the volume of hydrocarbon precipitates is now being predicted to be far greater than what was previously reported. In an image centered at 70 degrees north latitude there are features suggesting a "...coastline and numerous island groups of a portion of a large sea." By comparing surface feature coordinates taken between 2005 and 2007, scientists found that several of them have moved from their previous positions by as much as 30 kilometers. Because Cassinis synthetic aperture radar is able to see through the normally opaque cloud cover that obscures Titan from optical instruments, geographical landmarks were mapped and then compared to archived telemetry from earlier flybys. The unexpected dislocation is being attributed to the "disconnection" of Titans crust from its core by an intervening layer of liquid that enables the 50 different markers to "slide" around more easily than if they were connected by solid buttresses. The grid-plotted formations The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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included "river valleys," mountains, canyons and other terrain that would normally be slow to change in just two years of observation. NASA researcher Bryan Stiles, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, wrote: "We believe that about 100 kilometers (62 miles) beneath the ice and organic-rich surface is an internal ocean of liquid water mixed with ammonia." But is the interpretation of radar telemetry accurate in this case? Could the movement of river valleys and canyons be something else entirely? In a previous Picture of the Day it was noted that flowing methane (or ethane) has never been found on Titan and that the entire line of reasoning follows from an assumption without foundation. The so-called "river valleys" on Titan do not look as if they were carved-out by flowing liquids. We predicted then that a close examination of the images would demonstrate that the channels go uphill and downhill not like the action of a moving stream that would always be downhill. In reality what we see on Titan are examples of "sinuous rilles" and are the result of electric discharges. Titan is an electrically charged body that is constantly bombarded by an intense ionic storm from Saturn. It shares many characteristics with its cousin moons, Io and Europa, that orbit the planet Jupiter: a particle fountain from its poles, a toroid of charged particles in a sheath and exchanges of massive electric charge. In the Picture of the Day about the volcanoes on Io, the fact that the calderas of several "hot spots" moved by several kilometers in a few short months was attributed to the plasma beams that complete an electric circuit with the moon and Jupiter. It is the points where plasma discharges from Jupiter touchdown on Io that are glowing with such intensity. Similar electrical phenomena could be influencing Titans geology. Polar banding suggests that streams of charged particles are circling the planet-sized moon very much like electrons and positive ions circle the Earth in opposite directions. In other words, there is a plasma ring surrounding Titan that is influencing its geology and its weather. Electric Universe theorist Wal Thornhill wrote: "The idea that Titan May have a considerable amount of low density liquids or ices came originally from calculations of its density. However, estimates of the composition of celestial bodies assume that we understand the real nature of gravity. We obviously don't. So there is no reason to assume that the gravitational constant, 'G,' is the same for all bodies in the universe, particularly when it is the most elusive 'constant' to measure on Earth. So we cannot be confident about the calculated ratio of rock to ices on Titan. But the presence of methane in Titan's atmosphere seemed to require an ocean of liquid hydrocarbons as a reservoir that could provide a source of that gas lasting for the conventional age of the solar system. The radar image (above) of Titan fits more closely with some of those returned by the Magellan Orbiter from dry and rocky Venus. The methane puzzle has not been solved." By Stephen Smith
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NGC 2264 The Cone Nebula with the blue stars of the Christmas Tree cluster. Credit: ESO
Electric Baubles in the Night

(Dec 17, 2008)
Lights on a Christmas tree depend on electric power. So do the lights in space. The Christmas Tree cluster contains about 40 stars and lies in the constellation Monoceros, along with the Cone Nebula. Both were discovered by William Herschel between 1783 and 1786, although the Cone Nebula was named by L. S. Copeland. One of the most interesting features in the nebula is the fir tree-shape extending upward from the bottom of the image shown above. It appears to be crowned with a blazing ornamental star at its apex. The gases and dust making up the general structure of the nebula are lit by the ultraviolet light being emitted by the "hot, young stars" that make up the cluster. As is commonly thought by astronomers, hot gas is supposed to radiate ultraviolet light--it must be so since the idea of electricity lightning up the stars just like the string of lights on a Christmas Tree is foreign to conventional understanding. Many nebulae are labeled "star-forming regions" because stellar ignition is dependent on condensation out of a cloud of molecular gas and dust. Most astronomers assume that a shock wave of some kind is necessary for the cloud to collapse. Supernova blasts are said to begin the initial collapse and to "seed" the region with larger clumps that will cause more dust to be attracted to them, as well. NGC 2264 is another story told about the birth and death of stars in the womb of gravity and inertia, but key ingredients are missing from the mix. Where is electricity and the electromagnetic wave guides needed to power the stars? Both are ignored in favor of thermonuclear fusion reactions taking place in the super-compressed hydrogen cores of new The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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stars. However, why does the heated gas collapse instead of dissipating, as thermodynamic physics would insist? The Electric Universe theory relates a more reasonable account. Instead of "hot gas and compressed dust," it is plasma and magnetic fields that form the electric stars. Birkeland currents power the galaxy and prevent plasma from dispersing inside their multi-light-yearlong helical coils. When the electric current density inside the filaments gets high enough, the plasma that carries the current begins to glow and to "pinch" into plasmoids that eventually become the stars. When the electrical stress is low and the plasma contains a lower concentration of dust, only the stars in a nebula "light up" in arc-mode discharge. Where the electrical stress is greater, as in the Christmas Tree cluster, curling filaments, jets, and the surrounding "gas" clouds can also light up. Of course, dust clouds can reflect the light from nearby stars, but NGC 2264 illustrates the characteristic filaments and cell-like behavior seen in plasma laboratory experiments. The light in the nebula is produced by electrical discharge, so it is not unusual for ultraviolet and even x-rays to be generated by the intensity of the stellar arcs. The correct understanding is that a nebula is a laboratory "gas-discharge tube," similar to a neon light, which emits light due to the electrical excitation of the gas. So it seems that both the Christmas Tree in the living room and the Christmas Tree cluster operate in very similar ways: both are plugged-in to an electrical circuit. By Stephen Smith
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A star in the Peony Nebula could be 3.2 million times brighter than the Sun. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Potsdam Univ.
"Hot Hot Hot!"

(Dec 15, 2008)
The brightest star is now joined by one of the hottest. Luminosity and temperature evaluations ignore the electric star hypothesis, however. NASA scientists monitoring the Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) recently announced finding a candidate for the hottest star ever discovered. KPD 0005+5106, a "white dwarf" star, measures an incredible 200,000 degrees Celsius, based on an analysis of ultraviolet light in the star's spectrum. In comparison, the Sun is approximately 6000 degrees Celsius. White dwarfs are commonly referred to as being very hot, exceeding 10,000 degrees, and they are supposed to be stars near the end of their lives. If the star was born with several times the mass of our own Sun, then it is theorized to undergo increased heating after it exhausts its primary nuclear fuel and to collapse under its own gravity. Such superheated white dwarfs are therefore exceedingly rare, since they are said to pass through that phase in a short time. The photosphere of KPD 0005+5106 is reported to be so intensely hot that it is glowing in ultraviolet light frequencies. FUSE researchers say that the phenomenon has never been seen before. The statement is not surprising because "hot gas" does not normally emit ultraviolet light unless it is feeding the flame of an arc welder. In a previous Picture of the Day article, a review of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (H-R) demonstrated that critical information about stellar environments is ignored when attempting to classify stars into a chronological chart. Their births in a "nebular cloud" and their deaths from heat loss or supernova explosions are illustrated and their characteristics codified based on brightness, redshift and total mass, but charge density and current flow are not charted. According to consensus opinions, this "stellar main sequence" describes what happens to stars as they age. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Since astronomers and other specialists are not mapping the current flow through space and its influence on stellar evolution, they have seriously overstated the case for the gravitational model of the cosmos. No information as to the electrical input or output of the stars is considered when the various conventional theories are debated. By failing to give credence to the electrical interaction of stars with their galactic environment, an entire line of investigation remains fallow. In The Electric Sky, retired professor of electrical engineering Dr. Don Scott provides a fresh look at the plot of stars on the H-R diagram. Scott proposes that the mass, temperature and luminosity of stars are not the only factors that should be considered when describing the life cycle of the stars. The most important factor in any star's characteristics is the current density in Amperes per square meter (A/m2) at the star's surface. If the incoming current density increases, the surface gets hotter, radiates shorter wavelengths (from red toward blue) and becomes brighter. Therefore the strength of the current density impinging into its surface, and the star's diameter, are responsible for its absolute brightness. Some stars have been found that are too cool and too small for atomic fusion to take place. Stars are supposed to be at least 75 times the mass of Jupiter for fusion reactions to occur. Now stars that are too hot and bright for their positions in the sequence are causing astronomers to revisit their theories of nebular birth. As the Electric Star hypothesis suggests, though, by including electricity in cosmological equations the puzzles that arise with new observations will be resolved. Don Scott: "In the Electric Star model, there is no minimum temperature or mass requirement. If a brown or red dwarf is operating near the upper boundary of the dark current mode, any slight increase in the level of current density impinging on any portion of the surface of that star will shift this plasma into the normal glow mode. This transition will be accompanied by a rapid change in the voltage rise across the plasma of the star's upper atmosphere. Maxwell's equations tell us that such a change in voltage can produce a strong dynamic electric field and a strong dynamic magnetic field. If they are sufficiently intense, dynamic electromagnetic fields will produce x-rays. [or ultraviolet editor]." By Stephen Smith
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The multi-ringed Mare Orientale Basin on the Moon. Credit: NASA/UNM
Multi-Ringed Basins
(Dec 12, 2008)
Lunar formations resemble those found on other planets and moons. Could they be the result of similar electrical events? Mare Orientale is located on the western rim of the Moon, making it difficult to see from Earth. It has a nearly complete concentric ring structure with a surrounding basin of mare material. The mare is bounded inwardly by steep scarp and topped by sharp massifs. Maunder crater lies nearby in the northern region, while to the southeast is Kopff. Montes Rooks lines its eastern edge. As time has progressed, and more evidence for electrical scarring on the various bodies in the Solar System has become known, it is now possible to categorize particular features that are found "out there," as well as here on our planet. One of those categories could be called "multi-ringed basins," because many different locations on other worlds besides our own share this common feature. All of them have flat inner plains with vertical cliffs encircling the interior, such as Renoir Basin on Mercury. Some of those cliffs are several kilometers high. A secondary plain that will sometimes have a deep outer perimeter, like a v-shaped canyon, is another common feature. Surrounding that secondary plain will be another ring of cliffs, often higher than the inner ring, with a more gradual drop-off extending outward from the central structure. In some of the larger basins that pattern is repeated several more times, with shorter cliffs and broader plains, until they finally merge into the bedrock. They are found (in no particular order) on Ganymede, Tethys, The Moon, Mercury, Callisto, Miranda, Earth, Venus, Mars, and most likely other locations soon to be discovered. When The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive future space probes are sent to explore the moons and planets, it is probable that more of these multi-ringed basins will be found.
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What created the basins? Was it the impact theory as favored by consensus opinion? Did gigantic mountains of rock strike all the bodies listed above? Did a 10-kilometer-wide meteor impact Earth and excavate the multi-ringed Chicxulub crater that supposedly killed-off the dinosaurs? Laboratory experiments with electric currents in plasma show that the currents can appear in three modes: dark, glow and arc, depending on the voltage and charge density. The arc mode, which has a very high charge density, is used for precision machining in metal. The degree of current filamentation depends on the density of the medium through which the current passes. With similar current flows, one passing through a vacuum (or a thin atmosphere) produces a columnar channel that spins around its axis. In the glow mode, this channel looks like a tornado of fire. The same current, if it travels through a thick atmosphere, branches into filaments. These filaments form concentric circles around the primary axis. When electricity passes through a solid body it erodes material from the surface where the arc touches down. The pits or craters left by electric arcs are usually circular because the electric forces constrain the arc to strike at a right angle to the surface. An electric arc is composed of two (or more) filaments rotating around a common center, so the surface is excavated by a plasma "drill bit," leaving steep sides and a "pinched up" rim of debris. If the filaments are sufficiently separated, the bottom of the crater, as the material is removed, will be electrically heated, possibly burned, and then melted flat. This explains why so many of the inner regions of multi-ringed formations are so often dark. The abundance of small craters that appear on the rims of the larger rings testifies to the probability of electric arc discharges. As the arc travels, it punches out a chain of craters. If the craters overlap, the result is a steep-sided trench with scalloped edges. The arc can cut a trench and then jump some distance away before cutting another one. It is possible that the origin of the multi-ringed basins is not due to asteroid or comets impacts billions of years ago, but to the action of interplanetary electric arcs, burning hot and explosively violent. By Stephen Smith
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Exotic geological formation in Namibia. 2107S 1433E Credit: Google Earth
Confronting the Dragon

(Dec 10, 2008)
It has the body of a snake and the head of a lion. It has legs that end in clawed feet. It often has wings: it flies, or at least it comes from the sky. It breathes fire. Its an absurd creature, and the stories can be dismissed as the fantasies of idle primitive minds. Except The stories come from Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica, from England to Australia. They emerge from the time before recorded history. They are part of a voluminous literature of stories that are called myths and legends. All are absurd. Together with rock art, they constitute the oldest heritage of our species: they come from where we came from, and they give context to who we are and why we are who we are. They have a regularity, like sunrise and sunset, but a regularity that is chillingly alien. How could all these apparently unconnected societies tell essentially the same story and draw essentially the same figures with many of the same specific details? Curious minds want to know why--not the why of the dragon, of the individual stories and images, but the why of global absurdities. The intelligibility to be understood is the consilience of myths and petroglyphs everywhere. That they are stories and images of nature satisfies the "global" part; the "absurdities" part cannot be dismissed by saying that ignorant primitives, who lived in and were more The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive dependent on natures regularities and vicissitudes than the knowledgeable experts today, didnt know what was really happening.
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The ancients were smart enough to trace the path of Venus and to predict her appearances. Why, then, did they identify her with a dragon? By the time of written histories, among cultures that are recognized to have had astronomies, the planets were identified with the mythical gods and the legendary heroes. Was this an arbitrary identification? If so, why were the same identifications made around the globe? Were the identifications instead differentiations from prior undifferentiated unities? For the ancients, the stories were not fabulous: they were real. Reynolds Price remarks in the introduction to A Palpable God: "If we call them untrue, we must call them insane. They are plainly not deceitful..." They are "eyewitness reports of external events." They were told to provide consolation: narratives of origins and causes. We modern people also tell stories of origins and causes: a big bang from which the universe gradually expanded, evolution by selection of random mutations, plate tectonics that slowly grind continents together. Our stories are different, not because were smarter but because our lives--and their origins and causes--are different. Our nature is different. We are born from and into a nature of continuity, uniformity, gradual change--a universe without dragons. Except In plasma labs, plasma dragons again breathe fire and roar deafeningly. Plasma instabilities contort discharges into the same forms pecked into ancient rocks. Space telescopes take pictures of axial columns and ouroboroses in other stars and galaxies. Space probes measure the electric currents that make up similar features around the Earth. If the power in the Earths currents were to increase sufficiently, these currents would begin to glow. We might then see a nature similar to what the myth-makers saw. The mythical stories are provincial in that they tell about only one state of nature--a cataclysmic one. In the same way, modern stories--the big bang, evolution, plate tectonics-are provincial, telling about only one state of nature--a stable one. However, we see in plasma labs, in space, and in the ancient past that nature has several states. We need new stories--new theories--that can tell us about the origins and causes of this multistate nature. We need new stories that can console us as we struggle to live lives that seem to bridge these dual and dueling states. By Mel Acheson
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Thirty-thousand kilometers above the South Pole of Venus at a wavelength of 365 nanometers. Credit: Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) on ESA's Venus Express.
First Star I See Tonight

(Dec 08, 2008)
The light from Venus resembles frequencies seen in an electric discharge through ionized gas. New images from the European Space Agency's Venus Express are said to reveal a "mysterious" chemical that absorbs ultraviolet light. The variation in molecular density causes the Venusian clouds to absorb different frequencies of UV light, creating the bright and dark zones seen in images from space. Ultraviolet light reveals cloud structures and how the 300-kilometer-per-hour wind creates turbulence and layering within them. Infrared imaging relates the differences in temperature in the cloud tops, as well as how high they are above the surface. The ultraviolet studies indicate that the dark bands in the atmosphere are areas where the temperature is highest, while the bright banding at mid-latitudes exhibits a cooler temperature. Infrared measurements reveal a surprising fact: the clouds in both the dark and the bright zones on Venus are at approximately the same altitude. A recent study reveals that the different temperatures and dynamic conditions in the clouds are supposed to cause the global ultraviolet display. However, no one knows the exact nature of the chemical that absorbs ultraviolet light. Could it be that Venus is behaving in a way that consensus opinions do not address? The signals sent back from Venus Express, as well as those from previous missions, are typical of what is seen in a gas discharge tube. The Magellan orbiter detected highly reflective The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive mountain peaks on Venus, prompting one Electric Universe theorist to describe them as wearing coats of "St. Elmo's fire." Other measurements taken from orbit show that only 2% of sunlight reaches the surface, although landers on the surface saw a landscape lit up as if the sky were glowing. Furthermore, Venus radiates twice the energy it receives from the sun. The atmospheric layers are also uniform in temperature from dayside to nightside, despite the planet's slow rotation.
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If Venuss atmosphere is being heated and driven electrically, what is feeding current into it? The planet has no significant magnetic field and no magnetosphere, but it does possess an ionosphere and a plasma tail with "stringy things" (Birkeland currents). Hannes Alfvn has described Birkeland currents as "power cables" capable of transmitting electrical energy over vast distances. From the Electric Universe perspective, the solar electrical circuit generates a "leakage current" across Venus. The planet and its atmosphere act as a load in the circuit, converting some of the energy into heat, light and motion. Venus is a charged body immersed in an electrical circuit connected to the Sun, as plasma physicists have known for decades. This means that Venus experiences an invisible cometary style discharge to the solar electrical environment: a plasma tail that astronomers describe as "comet-like." Electrical energy also powers the intense UV airglow, also known as "ashen light." An electrical explanation for Venuss anomalous light, heat and atmospheric motion is to be preferred after realizing that the solar system is composed mostly of plasma that can conduct enormous quantities of electricity. By Stephen Smith
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Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere May conceal a rocky core say astronomers. Credit: NMSU/NASA
What is Truth?
(Dec 05, 2008)
Astronomical research in the virtual realm instigates foregone conclusions. The Thunderbolts Picture of the Day has never considered questions that involve the search for subjective meaning in the universe to be necessary when analyzing the observations that NASA and other research groups provide. It is enough in most instances to draw correspondence between the theories proposed in peer-reviewed journals and the concepts embodied in Electric Universe hypotheses. The so-called anomalies in consensus opinions tend to disappear in most cases when EU theory is brought to bear on the questions. A recent article in the scientific press highlights the disparity between the conclusions that should be drawn from observations and those that are drawn from within the imagination. "Jupiter has a rocky core that is more than twice as large as previously thought, researchers announced today." On its face the headline is not unusual and seems to indicate that evidence has been uncovered supporting a previously held theory. Not only that, the previous theory is tacitly assumed to have been correct because new information is enabling them to amplify its conclusions. However, when the announcement is fleshed-out the headline has no basis in evidence at all: "Burkhard Militzer, a geophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues ran computer simulations to look at conditions inside Jupiter... With information gleaned from these simulations, the researchers developed another The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive computer model..." The subtitle of a previous Picture of the Day read:
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"Extreme magnetic fields in space are said to be caused by the high-speed rotation of neutron stars. One of many cases where a theory is built on the incorrect assumptions of another theory." The University of California press release continues: "The large, rocky core implies that as Jupiter and other giant gas planets formed 4.5 billion years ago, they grew through the collision of small rocks that formed cores that captured a huge atmosphere of hydrogen and helium." Once more NASA scientists are constructing a will-o'-the-wisp out of the ectoplasm generated by a previous excursion into computer models and equations. The way that "simulations" are used to describe hypothetical conditions as if the algorithms are actualities instead of the other way around is a symptom of the upside down methods that are being employed in the research community today. This begs our initial question: "What is truth?" In the "correspondence view" of truth, any statement is true if it corresponds to factual reality. An assertion such as "there is a red fox in the garden" is true only if there is "actually" a red fox in the garden. In this case, the corollary is not true. Saying "there is no red fox in the garden" does not correspond to a true condition of fact when the red fox is standing amidst the verge. The correspondence view requires that statements can be proven false if they disagree with "real" conditions. The EU hypothesis rests its premises in that foundation, so there is no mention of the beginning of things--no speculation into the origin of the universe or where the energy comes from that sustains it. Reflecting once more on the press release about Jupiter, how does one create conditions within computer simulations that can be proven to agree or disagree with real conditions inside its chaotic atmosphere? Do we now construct manifold algorithms that demonstrate how Jupiter's core is not big and rocky? What then? On what basis can the theoretical model ever be tested when no man-made object can survive the conditions inside Jupiter no matter which theory is used? The most important issue separating the Electric Universe from conventional views is that evidence based in laboratory experiments can be used to support EU theories of cosmogony. The mainstream sinks its foundations in ground where computer models and complex equations are used for support. It is this philosophical divergence that inhibits the general acceptance of plasma and electricity as active agents in space. By Stephen Smith
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NGC 1365 supposedly harboring a supermassive black hole in the center. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/INAF/Risaliti; Optical: ESO/VLT
Vampire Astronomy
(Dec 03, 2008)
A complex central network of filamentary structure spirals down to the center of the galaxy. Astronomers say it provides new insights into super-massive black holes. It is more likely that it demonstrates electrical effects. If John Wheeler hadnt invented black holes, Bram Stoker would have had to. These vampires of deep space suck the mass out of any star or hydrogen cloud that wanders within their reach, and the x-ray shrieks of their dying victims transmit gravitational dread across the cosmos. High-tech telescopes can image the mangled remains of the corpses and plot the decaying energies of their final electromagnetic wails. They have bewitched both the popular and the scientific imaginations. But these are not creatures of natural physics; they are supernatural monsters that have been created from dividing by zero. In November of 1915, Karl Schwarzschild worked out a solution to Einsteins gravitational equations. A year later, David Hilbert worked out a similar solution, which has since been called the Schwarzschild solution, but he made a couple of errors. His solution "differs in the range of values allowed for the incorrectly assumed radius variablethat enabled the black hole to be obtained. The variableis in fact not a radius at all, being instead a real-valued parameter by which the true radiiare rightly calculated." Several mathematicians pointed out these errors in the ensuing years, but their objections were ignored and their work was buried in neglect. Work on the Hilbert solution culminated in the unnatural object that, in the 1960s, John Wheeler branded a black hole. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive In recent years, Stephen J. Crothers, a kind of "black hole slayer" from Australia, has published papers that disinter Hilberts errors. The standard "Schwarzschilds solution" is usually given as:
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The standard interpretation is that r is the distance from the center of the gravitating mass, m. With sufficient mass that is sufficiently compacted, the gravitational force will be stronger than all forces that oppose it, and the mass will become infinite as r goes to zero--a black hole. But this entails dividing by zero, a forbidden move. Schwarzschilds actual solution was:
R is the distance from the center of the gravitational field and r is a parameter of the curvature of the space. In Euclidian space, R=r. But the space of General Relativity--and of black holes-is non-Euclidian. In Schwarzschilds actual solution, as r goes to zero, R--the actual distance variable--goes to , a non-zero number. There can be no point mass and therefore no black hole. Black holes, like vampires, are purely figments of imagination. So what are astronomers looking at when they see black holes? They observe an explosion of energy where there isnt enough gravity to generate it. Because they are ignorant about plasma phenomena, they cant imagine anything but gravity that might produce such energy. Electricity, which could generate such energy, is taboo, and so they must resort to the sorcery of division by zero. By Mel Acheson
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"The Thinker" by Auguste Rodin
How Should We Presume?

(Dec 01, 2008)
The burden of proof is on gravity theorists to explain some mechanism that suppresses the large initial electromagnetic energies and then enables the weak force of gravity to build them back up again. Several astrophysicists have told me that, although plasma cosmology appears interesting, they wont consider it until proponents can prove that some mechanism can produce charge separation in space from neutral matter on an astronomically significant scale. At first thought, the presumption that neutral matter is the starting condition appears reasonable. Its consistent with our everyday experience, and it fits with our other physical theories. Its compatible with "secure knowledge." Until the space age, human experience was almost exclusively that of neutral earth, air, fire, and water. Except for a few intermittent events such as lightning, plasma phenomena occur only in the high-energy domains of outer space. The concept of plasma didnt exist until the twentieth century. Investigations of plasma phenomena in the past century now confront us with another possibility. Weve become aware that most of the observable universe is composed of plasma. The starting condition could just as well be separated charges, and what we observe is the consequential charge combination (not recombination). Consilience with the "already known" is a circular argument because our other physical theories are also based on this presumption. After removing tautologies, "reasonableness" reduces to "familiarity" and parochialism. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Geology provides an illustration of this bias. The formations on Earth have been exclusively described in terms of mechanical action, and the resulting facts are turned back to justify the presumption. A river flows down a valley, and the valleys existence and form are attributed to the waters erosion acting over a long time. Then the existence of the valley and the river as the only apparent instrumental agency is thought to justify the attribution. Stephen Smith, in many Thunderbolts Pictures of the Day, has examined these formations in the light of a presumption that plasma forces May have caused them. The valley could have been formed in a short time by planetary-scale electric arcs, and the river would have been opportunistically "captured." After all, we see similar formations on planets and moons that dont have, and probably never had, water. The electrical presumption is as general as the mechanistic one: the ocean floor May be understood as the scar of an Earth-engulfing plasma discharge, a small-scale version of what we see in planetary nebulae, and the water subsequently collected at the bottom. Changing the familiar presumption changes the familiar landscape into an unfamiliar one. Awareness of the "bias of familiarity" then provokes a second thought. The bias arises not from where we live but from the peculiar limits of our senses. Plasma activity proclaims itself largely in frequencies such as radio and x-ray that lie outside the sensitivities of our senses. We are unfamiliar with plasma because we are blind to it. Modern astrophysicists are in this sense correct to claim that 90% of the universe is undetectable "dark" substances. Their error is to fill in the blank with mathematical extrapolations from familiar theories and to leave their thinking blind to plasma. The space age has provided us with instruments and techniques that extend our senses to detect plasma. We are now able to experiment with it in laboratories. Our thinking tends to remain stuck in familiar habits and ideas, however. We must make an effort, sometimes a great and frightening effort, to root out our familiar presumption and to adapt our thinking to an unfamiliar new empirical foundation. Every instance of familiar "secure knowledge" and "already explained" phenomena must be reevaluated in terms of the unfamiliar, insecure, and nascent presumption of electrical activity. We cannot ignore electrical activity until someone proves that it can be derived from mechanical assumptions; we must prove empirically where it doesnt exist. This leads to a third thought. After witnessing the limitations of one presumption, we should be humble about placing confidence in another. Because of the way our senses and thoughts operate, there is a gulf between looking and seeing, and presumptions are the bridges between them. When the things we look at change, we need to see them differently. And when the things we see change, we need to look at them differently. In both cases, we need to build new presumptions and not to delude ourselves that the thoughts of our own making are the makings of some immutable god of objectivity. Objective realities--and science has gone through several in its short history--can then be seen as the makings of cognitive craft. They are artifacts of our presuming. This insight can enable us to decide to consider several presumptions. We can decide to test them to discover their limitations and their promises. We can decide always to begin again to presume anew. By Mel Acheson
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Optical image of the Vela pulsar region. Credit: NOAO/CTIO
Magnetic Monsters
(Nov 26, 2008)
Extreme magnetic fields in space are said to be caused by the high-speed rotation of neutron stars. One of many cases where a theory is built on the incorrect assumptions of another theory. Several Picture of the Day articles have addressed the problem of neutron stars and how they affect the progress of astronomical investigation. According to electric star theory, neutron stars belong in the same category with invisible pink unicorns. Deficits in gravity-only cosmology made the neutron star hypothesis necessary in order to defend gravity's ostensibly endless powers. Neutron stars were proposed as the answer to pulsar behavior. Pulsars are stars whose brightness fluctuates over a short period of time. Pulsars are important to astrophysical models because they are used as measuring tools. Those with "known" distance, coupled with variations in their luminosity, are thought to be road markers in space, so that the distances of other stars with similar characteristics can be determined. Pulsars are described as "light houses" with beams of energy concentrated at specific points. Consensus gravitational theory demands that any new information conform to the tenets of the theory rather than the other way around, so a rotational mechanism was proposed for the pulsations. When the spin of a pulsar brings its beam inline with telescopes on Earth, a flash of light is visible. However, when the rotation rates of some pulsars were measured at once per second or less The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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(even with many times the mass of our Sun), "neutron stars" were fabricated. Only a super dense material like neutronium was thought able to withstand those rotational speeds. Neutronium is a hypothetical material that has had all of its electrons smashed down into the nuclei, where the protons and electrons combine into neutrons. "Magnetars" are anomalous stars identified as x-ray pulsars (AXP) or soft gamma repeaters (SGR). They are said to be created by neutron stars with magnetic fields measuring over 10^15 Gauss. For comparison, the Earth's magnetic field is about one-half Gauss, so these "magnetic pulsars" are surprisingly powerful sources. It must be stressed, though, that the evidence is indirect and no neutron star has ever been observed. What is observed are intense magnetic fields sometimes pulsing in a fraction of a second. Some magnetars have also been detected emitting gamma ray bursts ascribed to "star quakes" in the ultra-hard surface of the neutron star. Because the mass per unit volume is so great, any rapid movement in the crust generates intense "magnetic reconnection," thereby producing gamma rays. It is not necessary to reiterate the problems with magnetic reconnection except to say that it is also one of the class of imaginary constructs created by astrophysicists in an attempt to explain energetic events without sufficient gravity It is a well-established fact that magnetic fields are induced by electric currents. Therefore, there must be an electric current generating the intense fields in the magnetar. It is also indisputable that the feeder current must be part of a circuit, since persistent electric current must flow in a completed circuit. The Electric Universe hypothesis requires no collapsed stars or rotational speeds so great that ordinary matter could never take the strain. The oscillations in magnetars (or pulsars, in general) are caused by resonant effects in electric circuits. The sudden release of stored electrical energy in a "double layer" is responsible for the occasional outburst of gamma rays. The outburst begins with a sudden peak of energy, and then declines gradually, like a stroke of lightning. Don Scott, author of The Electric Sky, recently wrote: "The 'neutron star' is simply yet another fantasy conjured up, this time, in order to avoid confronting the idea that pulsar discharges are electrical phenomena. A nucleus or charge free atom made up of only neutrons has never been synthesized in any laboratory nor can it ever be. In fact, a web search on the word 'neutronium' will produce only references to a computer game--not to any real, scientific discussion or description. Lone neutrons decay into proton/electron pairs in less than 14 minutes; atom-like collections of two or more neutrons will fly apart almost instantaneously." It seems more likely that we are witnessing in magnetars an immense concentration of electricity being focused by some kind of "plasma gun." As the current flows through clouds of dusty plasma it concentrates forces because of the Biot-Savart effect, drawing itself together and forming helical zones of immense compression known as "z-pinches" or "Bennett pinches." Stars form in the compression zones, and depending on how much current is flowing through the circuit the star's magnetic field will be greater where there is more current. By Stephen Smith
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Supernova remnant Sagittarius A East (bright yellow) in the center of our galaxy. Credit: NASA/Penn State/G.Garmire et al.
Black Holes Stretch the Truth

(Nov 24, 2008)
Instead of being supermassive bends in space and time, black holes bend to the whims of astronomers. According to a recent press release: "...outbursts from the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy generate material that is stretched as it orbits near the gravitational behemoth." Black holes continue to elude detection by the most powerful telescopes and radiation sensors, but the consensus community insists that they exist because they can be inferred by their effect on matter and energy. It is assumed that matter falling into the intense gravity well of a black hole is accelerated and subsequently compressed until it is ultimately destroyed inside the so-called "event horizon." Sagittarius A* is said to be a supermassive black hole (SMBH) residing in the center of the Milky Way, approximately 26,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. It is the closest SMBH, so it is used for baseline hypotheses about them. More than 95% of all galaxies are thought to harbor one or more SMBHs because the spectra from gas and dust in their centers exhibit similar characteristics. Frederick K. Baganoff of MIT wrote: "Sagittarius A* is unique, because it is the nearest of these monster black holes, lying within our own galaxy. Only for this one object can our current telescopes detect these relatively faint flares from material orbiting just outside the event horizon." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive The radiation signature from Sagittarius A* comes from gas ejected by nearby stars, according to conventional thinking. The material orbits the black hole at a faster and faster rate as it gradually spins closer to a point with four million times the mass of our sun. The emissions in x-rays and ultraviolet light are interpreted by astronomers as gas heating up from molecular collisions in the rotating disc.
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Since electricity in space is ignored as an interpretive medium, the gravitational attraction close to the black hole would prevent anything from escaping unless it were moving at half the speed of light. That velocity is 100 times faster than the .05% that was observed, so scientists think that gas orbiting the black hole is being stretched out instead of being ejected. In a recent press release from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers announced that black holes exhibit similar behavior regardless of their mass. Whether they are ten times the mass of a typical star or many millions of times more massive, they rip normal matter apart and draw it into regions where the so-called laws of physics no longer apply. Black holes are theorized to twist space and time so that velocity calculations yield impossible solutions. Matter inside of a black hole occupies no volume at all, yet retains gravitational acceleration so great that not even light can escape its attraction--they are "black" because they cannot be detected with optical telescopes. In several previous Picture of the Day discussions about black holes and their influence on the universe, we determined that the descriptive terminology used by researchers is itself problematic, relying on highly speculative explanations derived from loose interpretations. Ambiguous lexical labels such as space/time, multiple universes, singularities, infinite density and other ideas that are not quantifiable have introduced irony into what should be a realistic investigation into the nature of the universe. Another fictional source for the energetic phenomena we see in space is gravitational tides. Some flares and x-ray jets spewing from galaxies are thought to be caused by stars traveling too close to their central supermassive black holes. Heat generated by molecular collisions causes the gas to glow in x-rays. As theories indicate, gamma rays also explosively burst out when matter eventually falls into the black hole. X-rays and gamma rays in space are not created in gravity fields. Laboratory experiments most easily produce them by accelerating charged particles through an electric field. No gigantic masses compressed into tiny volumes are necessary, and they are easily generated with the proper experimental models. There are other factors that should be considered when analyzing data from space before resorting to super-dense objects and antimatter explosions as their cause. There is no experimental evidence that matter can be compressed to "infinite density." Compression zones (z-pinches) in the plasma filaments form plasmoids that become the stars and galaxies. Electricity is responsible for the birth of stars, and when the current density gets too high the double layers in the circuit catastrophically release their excess energy and appear as gamma ray bursts or x-rays or flares of ultraviolet light. Infrared and x-ray telescopes have confirmed the existence of a plasma-focus plasmoid at the core of the Milky Way. This high-energy electrical formation is the heart of the galactic circuit. Since dust blocks visible light, viewing the core has not been possible until the advent of telescopes that can "see" infrared and x-ray light, which can penetrate dust. The x-ray radiation from the plasmoid is typical of that given off by highly excited stars, indicating extremely strong electrical stress. The strong electrical field in the plasmoid acts as a particle The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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accelerator. Electrons accelerated to high speeds will spiral in a magnetic field and give off xrays. In a galactic circuit, electrical power flows inward along the spiral arms, lighting the stars as it goes, and is concentrated and stored in the central plasmoid. When the plasmoid reaches a threshold density, it discharges, usually along the galaxys spin axis. This process can be replicated in a laboratory with the plasma focus device. The discharge forms a jet of neutrons, heavy ions, and electrons. The neutrons decay to form concentrations of matter that appear as quasars. Electromagnetic forces confine the jet to thin filaments that remain coherent for thousands of light-years. The jet usually ends in double layers that extend for many times the size of the galaxy and radiate copiously in radio frequencies. The diffuse currents then flow toward the galaxys equatorial plane and spiral back toward the core. In the electric star hypothesis, no concentrated gravity from hypothetical super-compacted objects and "singularities" is necessary. Classical "laws" of electromagnetism are more than able to create the phenomena we see, without recourse to the supernatural physics of SMBHs. Expulsion disks are common in such energetic systems rather than "accretion" disks. Plasma discharge events are commonly known to generate high-energy UV light. The more electrical current the higher the frequency of light will be emitted. Supply enough power to the arc and x-rays and gamma rays are generated. By Stephen Smith
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Chandra image of the Crab Nebula. Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/F.Seward et al
The Consensus and the Crab

(Nov 21, 2008)
Gravity is a weak force, and it can generate only a dribble of energy. Yet throughout the universe we see floods of energy. The consensus of opinion among astronomers is that the energies of the universe can only come from gravitational mechanisms. Because the force of gravity, and therefore its energy, is directly related to mass, the floods of energy require enormities of mass. Because the consensus opinion holds that magnitude of mass is equivalent to amount of matter, many of the floods of energy require more matter than can fit into the observed sizes of their sources. Consensus opinion takes recourse in boosting densities: by ignoring all that is known empirically and much that is known theoretically about the compression of matter, the consensus opinion can believe that however much matter is needed can be crammed into the available volume. The coincidence of such super-densities with the requirements for gravitational production of observed energies is accepted as prima facie proof that the consensus opinion is, in fact, a fact, despite the circular reasoning. This is the fact that makes the central star in the Crab Nebulas inner x-ray structure (above image) a pulsar. The press release for this new image states matter-of-factly: "The nebula is powered by a rapidly rotating, highly magnetized neutron star, or pulsar The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive (white dot near the center). The combination of rapid rotating [sic] and strong magnetic field generates an intense electromagnetic field that creates jets of matter and antimatter moving away from the north and south poles of the pulsar, and an intense wind flowing out in the equatorial direction."
A neutron star has so much matter squeezed into it that the electrons have been squeezed into the nucleus to combine with the protons there and form neutrons. The uncharged neutrons are then packed together, as congested as commuters at rush hour. The pulsations of the pulsar are attributed to a hot spot on its surface that sends a flash of radiation with each rotation of the star. Its operation is analogous to a lighthouse light, back when such lights were mechanically rotating devices, before they were converted to electrically pulsed lamps. The Crab Nebulas pulsar pulses 30 times a second. This would mean that the star rotates 30 times a second. This would mean that the centrifugal force is stronger than the stars gravity which would mean that the star tore itself apart a long time ago, except that consensus opinion crammed in additional matter to bump up the mass sufficiently to increase the gravitational force enough to hold it together. Of course, another possibility, one not considered by consensus opinion, is that, as with modern lighthouses, electrical oscillations make the pulsar blink. Super-dense matter and super-fast rotation arent needed. The x-ray structure--the jets and rings and sharp boundaries of the diocotron instability around the periphery--are common characteristics of plasma discharges as is the strong magnetic field, the origin of which consensus opinion neglects to explain. Externally driven electrical circuits provide a unified and coherent explanation that is consistent with electromagnetic theory and laboratory investigations. Its an explanation that doesnt require exceptions, circular reasoning, or a consensus of opinion. By Mel Acheson
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Ionized star-forming region RCW120. Credit: ESO/APEX/DSS2/SuperCosmos
So Hot You're Cool, So Cool You're Hot

(Nov 19, 2008)
Clouds of ionized gas and dust in space are not heated up by gravity, they are compressed by electrical forces and emit synchrotron radiation. A recent press release from the European Southern Observatory explains that this image shows "an expanding bubble of ionized gas," shown here in red. The bubble is assumed to be generated by the ultraviolet radiation from a central star. It has caused a "shock wave" that "sweeps up a layer of the surrounding cold interstellar gas and cosmic dust. This layer becomes unstable and collapses under its own gravity into dense clumps, where new stars are born." The gas and dust has a temperature only 23 degrees above absolute zero (23K). This temperature is determined by the submillimeter wavelengths of the radiation, shown here in blue, and the assumption that the radiation is produced by thermal processes. Anyone who is familiar with plasma will immediately recognize that "if its ionized, it aint gas." And if it aint gas, a shock wave is not likely to trigger gravitational instability and collapse. The filaments and knots indicate the "pinch" activity of the much greater electromagnetic forces of Birkeland currents. The roughly concentric and radial filaments prompt one to suspect that we are looking "down the barrel" of an interstellar Birkeland "cable," which is pinching down in an hourglass form to create and to power the central star. The instabilities are not those of gravitation, which have never been shown convincingly to cause collapse. They are plasma instabilities, which have been shown in lab demonstrations not only to pull in material and to compress it but also to The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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set it spinning. (Removing and imparting spin at exactly the right times in exactly the right amounts is an insurmountable obstacle in theories of gravitational collapse.) From a plasma perspective, the temperature is also open to question. Consensus astronomy talks a lot about unobservable things like dark matter and dark energy, but it talks hardly at all about observable synchrotron radiation, which is what most celestial radiation is. Thermal radiation is produced by random collisions of atoms, and its "peak" wavelength is a measure of the temperature of the atoms. Synchrotron radiation is produced by electrons moving along a magnetic field. Moving electrons are also known as an electric current, and a current moving along a magnetic field--a "field-aligned current"--is also known as a Birkeland current. Its therefore not surprising that a universe composed almost exclusively of plasma, which organizes itself into Birkeland currents, should principally emit synchrotron radiation. Of course, synchrotron radiation gives no indication of temperature: indeed, since it comes from a non-random process, "temperature" is not even defined. By Mel Acheson
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Impression in the Martian soil of the robot scoop onboard the Phoenix lander.
Footprints on Mars
(Nov 18, 2008)
The significance of life on other planets leaves many unanswered questions. (Note: This flight of science fantasy below was originally published in 1976. The recent image from the Phoenix Lander, however, is real.) The universal feeling that man is unique has been challenged by the final photographs sent by Mariner IV just before her solar energy package failed. The last twelve photographs showed the usual Martian landscape and a set of footprints clearly discernible in the Martian dust. Scientists and government leaders from all over the world are gathering to discuss what action is to be taken. The Communist Bloc Countries, headed by the USSR, are considering a joint venture to land a large exploration party on Mars within the next year. The United States, backed by her allies, is opposed to this plan; preferring to orbit a space station for observation and communication. Whatever decisions are made as to the course of action, questions arise that need to be answered. The fact that the footprints were not discovered until just before the power pack went dead has led some scientists to deliberate that it was a purposeful act on the part of the owner of the footprints. Mariner IV has been on the Martian surface for the past twelve months, an obvious intruder to any inhabitants. Was it an accident or was it an intentional act that caused them to wait this long to make their presence known? The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Theologians have been expounding for two thousand years that man is unique in the universe, made in the image of God. It is clearly evident from the broad, three-toed footprints that whatever left those tracks was definitely not in the image of man. Unless other explanations can be found, it is certain that Christians (and other religious groups) will have to alter their way of thinking and admit to the possibility that they are not alone in the universe. Two questions come to mind: Are the creatures on Mars capable of thought and reason; are they made in the image of God? A complete exploration of Mars is imminent. The question now is, how do we explore it? Do we go in peace or do we go armed to the teeth ready to do battle with whatever or whomever we May encounter? Certainly the first expedition will be armed to some extent, but how far are we willing to go in the use of arms? If the history of exploration on the North American continent is an example, then any inhabitants of Mars will not stand much of a chance. The Inca, the Aztec, and the American Indian can attest to that. Vital questions remain to be answered. Is there an intelligent race on Mars, or were the footprints left by a member of another exploring party from a civilization beyond our galaxy? If this is the case, what are they doing on Mars? It would not have taken them long to realize by the existence of Mariner IV that another intelligent race was close at hand. Finally, what will their intentions be? The final answer to any situation cannot be known until all the facts are known. Let us hope that after we have analyzed all the facts and have determined what course of action to take that the final solution will be a mutual one for us and whomever we encounter on Mars. Written in May 1976 Richard H. Smith (1932--2002)
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The Eagle Nebula (M16). Credit: ESA & the ISOGAL team
Cold Dust Or Glowing Plasma

(Nov 12, 2008)
Rather than frigid clouds of dust and gas, spiraling filaments suggest electric currents in space. Dust at a temperature near absolute zero shows up in the infrared image above as a blue fog deep in the heart of the Eagle nebula. The Eagle nebula is an active "star nursery" located in the constellation Serpens, approximately 7000 light-years away. It is a multi-spectral cloud of gas mixed with microscopic particles of dust. The consensus view is that cold dust is a necessary ingredient when stars condense out of nebulae. When gas and dust start to collapse into a new star it naturally warms up and radiates energy. As the theory states, outward pressure is created that opposes the inward force of gravity. If the outward force wins and overcomes the force of gravity, the atoms in the gas will never be compressed enough to undergo nuclear fusion. However, if the dust in the nebula is cold enough, it allows the heat created in the gravitational collapse to be radiated away, therefore a new star can ignite. On the other hand, when the Electric Universe theory is considered, cold nebulae are evidence of electrical activity even at temperatures near absolute zero. Bipolar symmetry is typical of most nebulae, and most of them are dense enough to emit light because they are extremely hot in some regions. But the middle of the Eagle nebula is cold: radio measurements indicate the dust clouds around the inner part are only one degree above absolute zero. We are able to see the center of the nebula because dust particles reflect light The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The filamentary structure of the "fingers" and the way the filaments spiral away from the central stars indicates Birkeland currents, named after Kristian Birkeland, who first proposed their existence in the late 1800s. These currents form scalable tubes of plasma that can transmit electric power all around the galaxy. Electromagnetic forces sometimes cause them to pinch down to smaller and smaller sizes. Plasma confined within the center of the pinch is crushed and increases in current density until the so-called "z-pinch" produces a star. Plasma surrounding the star will often glow as an "emission nebula," but in some conditions of opacity and density the surrounding plasma can be cold, as in the Eagle Nebula, revealing its presence only in infrared light. Conventional astronomers do no know how stars throw off clouds of gas and dust that eventually become other stars because stars are not made of gas and dust. A star is the focus of Birkeland currents that make up circuits flowing around the galaxy. The electromagnetic pinch that squeezes plasma into the star also forms a toroidal current around the stars equator. The density of the current causes the plasma in the ring to glow. The Electric Universe explanation is that we are looking at plasma structures when we look at nebulae, and they behave according to the laws of electrical discharges and circuits. Instead of mechanical action and cold gas, the Orion Nebulas radiant new stars were created in a boost of electric current. It is not necessary to prevent young stars from heating up by shielding them in cold dust. The electrical sheath around a new star receives input from the galactic Birkeland currents in which it is immersed and gets pushed into the "glow" discharge state. Gravity has little if anything to do with the processes of star formation. By Stephen Smith
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"Young stars" in NGC 346 within the Small Magellanic Cloud. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Nota (STScI/ESA)
Feeding Habits
(Nov 10, 2008)
The nebular hypothesis is brought out once again to explain how stars are born and age. In 1755 the German philosopher Immanuel Kant proposed that the Sun and the planets of the solar system were originally formed out of a cloud of dust and gas floating in space. Over eons of time, the cloud condensed because the gravitational attraction between particles caused them to clump into larger and larger lumps. Each lump became the center of even greater attractive force, drawing them all together and causing them to cluster into a mass. The mass gradually attained so much gravity that it squeezed the gases and dust down into a small, hot ball. As the ball became hotter and began to rotate from the angular momentum contained in the original cloud, it attracted more and more material into its mounting gravitational field, until finally igniting in a nuclear fusion reaction. The hypothesis fails to explain how the planets possess about 97% of the total angular momentum in the solar system when their combined mass is less than one-tenth of one per cent of the Sun's mass. Some astronomers have attempted to boost the theory by suggesting that the Sun has an undetected companion star on a long, parabolic orbit that takes it beyond our instruments. This binary companion makes up the missing inertia that deflates the nebular hypothesis. In the early 1900s the tidal hypothesis was suggested as an alternative, even though it requires a catastrophic encounter with an unknown star from outside the solar system. Billions of years ago, says the theory, the Sun passed close enough to another star that a portion of the stellar material from both was pulled out. The solar plasma cooled while it The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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entered orbit around the Sun and slowly formed the planets. In that way, the problem of angular momentum is solved by the action of another star. In a recent announcement from the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), stars are supposed to have been captured "feeding" on the protoplanetary discs out of which they are said to be born. The Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) used high resolution spectroscopy and interferometry to take images of dust falling into stars as well as a "wind" from the nebular disc, implying that material was also being ejected. Dust has been observed moving through nebulae, but until now the kinetic motion of the component gases has not been visualized. As the news release states, astronomers have found evidence for matter falling into the star in two cases, and for mass outflow in four other stars. More analysis is needed to determine what is causing the two different conditions. Dust has also been observed so close to one star that it should have evaporated long ago. Since the dust remains in orbit, the conclusion is that gas somehow shields the dust from the star's energy. The new studies have not answered any questions about the nebular hypothesis and the tidal variant. All of these measurements are not designed to test the nebular theories, they are designed to discover what mechanisms are involved. No one questions the theories themselves, only how they are expressed in various environments or with varying degrees of energy input. None of these star systems are well-explained by various nebular theories. It is time to develop a new theory. This new theory should take into account that most of the universe is made of plasma and obeys different rules than a gravity-only universe. The new theory should consider that the gas giants and their moons were formed as separate systems. The new theory should also take into account the possibility that our solar system (and presumably others) has experienced a history of catastrophic cosmic births and changing planetary orbits. By Stephen Smith
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Shackleton crater near the south lunar pole. Credit: AMIE/ESA Smart-1 Orbiter.
The Barren Moon Born Out

(Nov 07, 2008)
The Japanese SELENE mission has confirmed the Moon is a desert wasteland. A renewed interest in lunar colonization was motivated by the Clementine spacecraft after it entered orbit around the Moon in January 1994. When the mission data was analyzed, scientists announced that the south pole of the Moon contained pockets of water ice shielded from the Sun inside deep craters and covered by insulating rocks and dust. NASA launched the Deep Space Program Science Experiment satellite (Clementine) because the abundant water could be a source of hydrogen. Although NASA lost the spacecraft due a thruster malfunction, it was able to perform a substantial portion of its mission to map the surface of the Moon. When Clementine supposedly detected water ice in Shackleton crater at the south pole on the Moon, it was thought that establishing a Moon base had taken one step closer to becoming a reality. The goal of a manned lunar base has been held in abeyance since the sixties because of cost and scaling problems. In order to provide life support for even a small group of astronauts the space vehicle would have to be enormous. Carrying the oxygen, food and water necessary, not to mention a habitat with sufficient psychological stimulation for an extended stay on the Moon, is beyond our current technology. Launching the payloads into space would mean a project too costly to contemplate even if it were technically feasible. Water ice can be split into oxygen and hydrogen, so solar panels could used to create breathable air, potable water and fuel to power the machinery. Also, areas of the south pole not far from some permanently shadowed craters are mountainous regions in permanent The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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sunlight, known as "peaks of eternal sunshine," so a continuous energy source would be available provided the base were built on the mountaintops. Lunar regolith contains compounds that would enable astronauts to make the fuel for a return journey, so it was hoped that an extensive cost saving could be realized because no fuel except that required to reach the Moon need be carried onboard. A much smaller booster would also mean larger crew quarters and more science experiments. However, a team of researchers questioned the accuracy of Clementines data. The instruments might have detected reflections off the steep crater walls and not ice deposits. Since the radar signature came from both brightly illuminated and darkly shaded areas of Shackleton crater, it probably bounced off rocks and other debris rather than ice. Now, the Japanese spacecraft Kaguya finds that the south pole craters contain no ice after all. On September 14, 2007, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE) on a multiyear lunar orbit mission. Otherwise known as Kaguya, a nickname from Japanese folktales, the SELENE spacecraft is designed to provide data for future landing sites and to analyze the surface. Upon lunar orbit insertion, Kaguya released two sub-satellites, Okina and Ouna. One of the remotes will act as a relay for the main equatorial imaging system and the other as an additional radar platform in polar orbit. The floor of Shackleton crater was measured at 183 Celsius, but the Terrain Camera, with a 10 meter resolution, showed no bright, highly reflective patches. The researchers noted that the small excess of hydrogen ions recorded by instruments on previous missions was most likely implanted in the regolith by the solar wind. As we have written in past Picture of the Day articles, the search for water on the Moon is most likely a forlorn hope. The Moon does not present features caused by innumerable strikes from high-velocity space rocks or thousands of comets out of a hypothetical Oort Cloud. Lunar structures and terrain are the result of powerful electric discharges at some time in the relatively recent past. The morphology of the Moon and the south pole in particular shows the signs of electric discharge machining as we have argued many times. No water-bearing impactors formed the terrain there. Rather, it was electricity that carved the Moon, and any water that might have once existed was obliterated by the energy released in the events. By Stephen Smith
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Ripples in Endurance Crater. Credit: NASA/Space Science Institute/Opportunity Rover
Martian Ripples
(Nov 06, 2008)
An analysis of Mars Orbiter Camera images suggests an explanation for the ripples that cover large areas of Mars. Recently, NASA investigators announced that the "strange ripples of sand" covering thousands of square kilometers on Mars might have been created by wind. However, information from the Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, as well as older mission catalogs, casts doubt on that conclusion. The ripples are known as Transverse Aeolian Ridges (TAR) and were seen on the Martian surface as long ago as November 1971 when Mariner 9 (the first spacecraft to enter orbit around another planet and for which the giant chasm Valles Marineris was named) returned what were, for its day, high resolution images of the surface. Now, after analyzing thousands of images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera, the TARs appear to be more prevalent in the southern latitudes, although they tend to cluster 30 degrees north and south of the equator. One other interesting aspect is that they occur under two conditions: near extremely large barchan-type dunes composed of dark, grainy material, often found in conjunction with tightly layered topography, and in the bottoms of craters, regardless of size. It is assumed that sand dunes on Earth form because wind and rain tear apart the rocks over eons of time, thus providing that large volume of sedimentary dust particles necessary for deserts like those in Namibia, or Egypt, or anywhere else, to form. Next, high winds are needed to lift and carry the small bits of sediment and eventually pile them up in drifts. Sand dunes on Earth are normally seen to move across the landscape in that way, through wind action. Enormous volumes of soil, in the millions of tons, are transported around the planet every year because of common weather patterns. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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When planetary scientists find sand ripples or dunes on other planets, the natural assumption is that similar activity created what look to be similar formations. Although the environment that currently exists on Mars is not conducive to Earth-like erosion, the landforms are so much alike that the conclusion is that Mars was once capable of sustaining winds and rain. However, is projecting what we see on Earth onto other worlds be the right way to go? Or should we be using the evidence accumulated from other worlds as a guide for what might have happened here? Sand dunes and ripples do not move around Mars, at least as far as any observations can demonstrate. From the time of the Viking orbiter until the HiRise camera system, no dunes have been seen to move at all despite several planet-wide dust storms. Some research has suggested that a small dune on Mars might take more than a thousand years to move a meter. This is due to the low pressure of the Martian atmosphere--not enough force needed to push the particles can be generated by the speed of the wind if the atmosphere in which it blows is close to a vacuum. Since the Mars Rovers have been unable to "feel" any wind even during the storms, support for the electric dust storm model advocated by Electric Universe proponents gains ground and Earth-based models of weathering on Mars breaks down. In fact, some dune formations on Mars appear to be frozen in place with a crusty surface that looks as if it has been eroded. Electrical theorists predict that the more scientists learn about these formations the less plausible the traditional explanations will become. False color images of dune formations in Rabe crater from the THEMIS camera, for example, provide important information about the relative hardness of different surface areas. "Hardness" is deduced from overnight surface temperatures, the warmer temperatures indicated in red, and the cooler ones indicated in blue. Considering that criteria, the crests of the so-called "dunes" are significantly harder than the valleys between them. Such a revelation is certainly counterintuitive if they are windblown features. Most formative processes on Mars seem to bear little actual resemblance to textbook geology. The lack of movement and the hardness of the dunes (and the ripples) suggests that they were solidified and have remained in place since they were initially formed. In other words, they were glassified and fused together into immobile structures while retaining the appearance of loosely piled sand. Cathode sputtering and subsequent electrical deposition of the finely divided material onto oppositely charged regions across the surface could explain the ersatz dunes. There is also the fractal-like reduction in scale when considering ripples and dunes. Even small dune "tendrils" have smaller ripples. Dune crests like those in Rabe crater can be 200 meters high, while the tendrils are no more than ten centimeters but with the same morphology. What aeolian process can account for this progressive fractal reduction in scale? In electrical terms this is no anomaly since plasma discharges are scalar across many orders of magnitude. NASA scientists often refer to what they find on Mars as "mysterious" or "puzzling" with long years of research and contemplation ahead of them. We predict that the reason for the confusion is the problem of reverse application. Earth should not be used to explain the solar system. The geological patterns found elsewhere deserve alternative viewpoints. The entire issue of Martian ripples is a case in point. By Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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One of the last images from Phoenix. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
The Phoenix Expires

(Nov 03, 2008)
Winter means the end of life for the Phoenix Mission. Have its mission objectives been fulfilled or is more information necessary? Temperatures continue to fall as Mars enters its winter months. A frigid -96 degrees Celsius was recorded a couple days ago, with continued drops expected until the northern latitudes begin to precipitate carbon dioxide snow. Eventually, the lander will be buried completely in dry ice, but its functions will cease long before that time as the batteries drain due to a lack of sunlight. Consensus opinions state that Mars was once a "warm, wet world millions of years ago." Due to some slow geological changes or alterations in its orbit, Mars changed from a hospitable planet to the cold, barren wasteland that it is today. However, planetary scientists hoped that water might remain in the polar regions because the Odyssey orbiting observatory detected the signature of hydrogen in that region, although it was probably neutrons and gamma rays released by cosmic rays and not water vapor. It is an assumption that the detected hydrogen came from water molecules escaping beneath the surface crust. The hydrogen May have been "implanted" electrically by the solar wind, or molecules other than water were transferred to Mars from another celestial body. Phoenix landed in the high Martian latitudes on May 25, 2008, while the northern Sun was above the horizon all day. It touched down in what was supposed to be a patch of ice so that the lander could dig several shallow trenches to find and analyze water just below the surface. The experiments were designed to uncover evidence for life by revealing carbonbased chemistry within the soil samples. At present, no biochemistry has been found, despite The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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baking the samples at almost 1000 degrees Celsius so that volatile compounds would be driven off and detected by the spectrographic analyzer. On June 19, 2008, small chunks of a white substance were seen in the bottom of a shallow excavation dug by Phoenix and remained for two days before disappearing. In a Picture of the Day about the discovery, it was predicted that the material was some kind of mineral-magnesium sulfate perhaps, or silicon dioxide--because those compounds are found in abundance in other areas on Mars. The Martian rovers Spirit and Opportunity both found deposits of white minerals mixed with iron oxides and sulfur. The fact that the small white pieces vanished means they were not mineral compounds, but the question of whether they were water ice remains open. On July 31, NASA announced that they had discovered water in the soil samples that had been delivered to their ovens. However, readings taken on September 4, 2008, by a conductivity probe stuck into the ground indicated that the soil is completely dry. The key evidence for water ice on Mars is those small chunks of sublimating material. Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, College Station told reporters that the disappearing chunks could not have been carbon dioxide ice because that material would not have been stable for even one day as a solid. Since four different probe measurements found no conductivity consistent with water in the soil, then it might have been solid carbon dioxide, or dry ice, that was initially dug up by the lander. Carbon dioxide is a dielectric insulator, so no current would flow through it, leaving the prongs of the soil analyzer reading no electricity. Aaron Zent, team leader for Phoenix's thermal and electroconductivity probe wrote: "If you have water vapor in the air, every surface exposed to that air will have water molecules adhere to it that are somewhat mobile, even at temperatures well below freezing... All the measurements we've made so far are consistent with extremely dry soil. There are no indications of thin films of moisture, and this is puzzling." Dry ice melts like regular ice at -57 Celsius if the vapor pressure at its melting point is about five atmospheres. At a vapor pressure of one atmosphere dry ice sublimes at -78 Celsius, which is lower than its melting point, so it changes from solid to vapor because the additional four atmospheres of pressure is missing. The average daytime temperature on Mars during the last three months has been -31 Celsius and the lowest nighttime reading has been -80 Celsius with extremely low pressure of around 8.5 millibars (Earth sea level pressure is approximately 1013 millibars). Could other environmental factors have influenced the time it takes for dry ice to sublime? Making it difficult to determine the rate of sublimation? If that was the case, then the initial white chunks might have been something other than water, but with no definite recourse to dry ice. Both NASA and Electric Universe proponents must wait for another mission and additional information since Phoenix will cease operations within a few weeks. By Stephen Smith
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A fractured region near Cairo Sulcus on Enceladus. Credit: NASA/JPL Space Science Institute.
Enceladus Cracks and Creaks

(Oct 31, 2008)
New images from the Cassini orbiter reveal structures on Enceladus that seem to have an electrical origin. The Cassini mission team says the picture "shows the myriad of faults, fractures, folds, troughs and craters that make this Saturnian satellite especially intriguing to planetary scientists." The detailed portion, shown above, of the so-called "broad belt of complex, interwoven fractures" reveals them to be deep, steep-walled chasms with loops in their twining pattern. Planetary scientists immediately identified these features as "fractures." They do look superficially similar to tectonic faults and areas of crustal compression on Earth. Although Earth is more geologically diverse than any other body in the solar system, projecting earthbased doctrines onto alien landscapes starts to lose coherence when confronted with surface features like those on Enceladus. Traditional geology has excluded electric discharge as the most direct and complete explanation for the scarring patterns observed globally on Enceladus, so the eons-long processes that are theorized to have created what they see on Earth are said to do the same things there. However, these features on a tiny rock with no atmosphere were never anticipated by theory. Cassini recently flew close by the superheated geysers erupting from the south polar region of this frozen moon. One of the focal points of its trajectory was the "tiger stripe" sources of hot vapor erupting into space and contributing to Saturn's rings. Because of several anomalous aspects to the plumes of gas jetting out of the tiger stripes, those who favor the Electric Universe hypothesis have always advocated a systematic comparison of textbook The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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geology with electric discharge theories. Electric arcs excavate surfaces in ways that cannot be duplicated by slow geologic process. Grooves and trenches left by arcs will typically reveal little or no residual material within the trenches, as if a claw simply descended from above to scoop material away. Arcs can produce entwining rope-like trenches where undulating discharge filaments move across the globe. Gouges are cut lateral to the surface without the crustal movement required by fracturing. No lateral displacement (which will show up most obviously where one trench angles across another) can be observed on the surface of Enceladus. It bears repeating that the hot poles of Enceladus were a surprise to NASA investigators. "This is as astonishing as if we'd flown past Earth and found that Antarctica was warmer than the Sahara," said John Spencer, an astronomer from the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado. A NASA news release announced: "The rare occurrence of liquid water so near the surface raises many new questions about this mysterious moon." Cassinis imaging team leader, Carolyn Porco said: "We realize that this is a radical conclusion--that we May have evidence for liquid water within a body so small and so cold. However, if we are right, we have significantly broadened the diversity of solar system environments where we might possibly have conditions suitable for living organisms." Scientists jumped to the conclusion that liquid water beneath the surface must be responsible for both the temperature anomaly and the jets because solar heating and internal heating are the only energy sources that are allowed in their theories. Solar heating is completely inadequate because the moon is so far away from the Sun. Although the south pole of Enceladus is warmer than "it should be" it is still 261 degrees below zero Celsius. So-called "tidal kneading" from Saturn fails because the theory has no explanation for why the effect is limited to the southern hemisphere. It appears that the same problems that cometary jets pose are confronting the Cassini mission. It also appears that they are using the same shaky theory of narrow surface vents above a subsurface chamber of hot water. There is no evidence for such vents, either on comets or on Enceladus. Electric Universe theorist Wal Thornhill has suggested that the hot jets move across the surface because they are being created by electric discharges. The electric arcs that produce the jets are creating the observed channels as they excavate material from the surface and accelerate it into space. A parallel to the Enceladus plumes is provided by the "volcanoes" on Jupiters moon Io. The bright plumes on Io have moved many kilometers across the surface during observation over a few decades, excavating material and accelerating it upward in jets that precisely match the predictions of a "plasma gun" model. The jets on Enceladus originate from the deep tiger stripe channels that look similar to those that can be found on Jupiters moon Europa. The tiger stripes are part of a vast and intricate complex of channels on Enceladus that match perfectly the behavior of electric arcs in simple laboratory experiments. By Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Diagram of dark energy influence on the universe. Credit: NASA/HST
Is the Universe Recession Proof?

(Oct 29, 2008)
Cosmologists are no closer to solving the dark energy problem. In 1998, two astronomical research teams independently discovered what is now called "dark energy." Saul Perlmutter of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Brian Schmidt from the Australian National University projects each led the two teams who discovered that the Hubble Constant, a uniform expansion rate imparted to the universe from the Big Bang explosion, was accelerating. Certain concepts, like redshift and gravity, are fundamental to the Big Bang hypothesis. According to theory, light shifts toward the red end of the spectrum because an object is moving away. Because objects interpreted to be at great distances move away faster than objects nearer to Earth, the universe is expanding. The usual understanding is that galaxies are all moving away from each other because the universe is growing larger. Another important principle is that the universe is gravity-driven. If gravity is the only controlling force, then the expansion set in motion by the Big Bang must be slowing down--an inescapable conclusion based on gravitational attraction. However, Perlmutter and Schmidt realized from the study of Type 1a supernovae that the expansion of the universe was not slowing down, instead it was accelerating. When the astronomers plotted redshifted "velocities of recession," the figures suggested that the expansion rate of the universe is greater today than in its early days. In order to analyze the influx of computer data from telescopes around the world and out in space, the GRavitational lEnsing Accuracy Testing 2008 (GREAT08) PASCAL Challenge, a group of 38 scientists from 19 international institutions, hopes to solve the riddle of dark acceleration in the Hubble Constant by 30 April 2009. Because the data is primarily images of supernovae and their spectrographs, the computational requirements could be distributed The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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across a wide assortment of disciplines--some not necessarily in the astronomical realm. By making use of distributed processing, astronomers can unburden their own computer resources and use any number of voluntary subscribers for assistance. Who knows, in the near future your computer May be helping to remove image artifacts from Hubble Space Telescope data. But is all this effort necessary? Even some NASA scientists are questioning the existence of dark energy. What is the more likely explanation for the supernovae anomalies that led to the dark energy theory? Cosmologists made their first mistake when they ignored electricity as a significant force in the cosmos. For example, Supernova 1987a, the closest supernova to Earth ever studied, exhibits unmistakable signs of electrical discharge. Size, color, and luminosity reveal nothing about a star's age. A red giant star is big because there is low electrical stress in the star's connected circuit. A blue-white star, on the other hand, is under extreme electrical stress--so much so that it could explode due to a breakdown in its double-layer envelope or due to electrical fissioning. No assumption about a star's age can help when trying to determine if it will explode. In fact, one aspect of high-energy plasma discharges is that they can produce redshifts that have no connection to recessional velocity. The Supernova Legacy Survey discovered that the brighter supernovae were more common in the past and that they were about 12% brighter 8 billion years ago than they are now. No one knows why the early universe had more of the Type 1a supernovae. One observation does show a compelling clue: the brighter starbursts are found more often where there is a high rate of star formation. As the Electric Universe postulates, more stars are born where there are greater flows of electric current. That current flow could also initiate a greater number of stellar explosions with anomalous luminosities and high redshifts. That would make highly charged, nearby objects undergoing electrical discharges to look like remote, high redshift supernovae that are too bright for their distance. One can imagine the theoretical problems that would result from that misinterpretation. By Stephen Smith
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Painting Credit: John Trumbull
Plasma Politics
(Oct 27, 2008)
The flood of new data during the space age has also inundated astronomers with surprises. New instruments have acquired images and measurements that traditional theories about gravity and gas didnt expect. The data hasnt "made sense" until exceptions or additions or revisions have been made to the theories. But insights into the behavior of plasma have made sense of the data--without modifications. A new field of study has arisen: Plasma Cosmology is a part of the worlds largest professional organization, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) In a similar manner, the data of ancient art, artifacts, and narratives (myths and legends) havent made sense in any comprehensive way. The familiar ideas of common natural events, social structures, or shamanic hallucinations have provided scant intellectual satisfaction in explaining individual myths and designs. But the obvious similarities of themes around the world in different and independent societies have gone begging to be accounted for. Again, the data hasnt made sense, insights into the behavior of plasma have made sense of the data. "Making sense" is not "proving" the hypothesis. Hard and ongoing work of testing--against further data and alternative hypotheses--is still required. One researcher, Rens van der Sluijs, has proposed that this application of plasma principles to ancient historical data be called Plasma Mythology. As happened with plasma cosmology, plasma mythology turns accepted explanations on their heads: "Durkheim's and Dumzils assertion that many myths reflect aspects of human society The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive are on target, although they were not inspired by those aspects, but acted as models for them. Jungs archetypes and Lvi-Strauss binary structure exist and operate in the mind as suggested, but were the imprint rather than the origin of the myths."
The implications of this new awareness of plasma touch almost every traditional field of study with the promise (or threat, depending on ones appetite for adventure) of revolution. For example, imagine a new field of Plasma Politics. Traditional theorists such as Rousseau and Locke have sought the origins of civil society in a "state of nature," envisioned as present conditions from which social and governmental aspects are excised. (For a more modern overview of this idea, see Part I of Robert Nozicks Anarchy, State, and Utopia.) Individuals band together for trade and protection. In response to the different efficiencies and expediencies of the individuals various attempts to do this, certain patterns of order will emerge as dominant. Locke and Rousseau attributed that order (of civil society) to a "compact or "contract" among the members of the society, prompting a number of individuals to ask to see the original document with their signatures on it. But after Adam Smith--and more modern theorists such as Ludwig von Mises in economics and Stuart Kauffman in biology--the idea of emergent order in complex systems (Smith called it an "invisible hand") provides a more useful understanding than attributing order to a mysterious "intentional design." Plasma politics, to stretch Thomas Paines contention, puts it "in our power to begin the world over again." The original state of plasma nature was quite different from the presumed present-state-sans-society: It was a nature engulfed in a global thunderstorm of god-like intensity. The social and political orders that arose from this original cataclysmic state did not emerge by way of invisible hands but in compulsive-obsessive commemoration of fists that smote the Earth and humanity haphazardly. Trade with and protection from other humans were secondary. After the gods and their thunderstorm went away, people were left to trade and to defend themselves in a context of memorials and rituals that no longer had justification. The institutions of civil society would not emerge as entirely rational responses to a reasonable nature but as "guilt-ridden and fear-driven" quasi-rational responses to an unreasonable, absurd nature. In the shadow of plasma mythology, the task of plasma politics is not to explain how civil society arose from generally peaceful individuals with unalienable rights but to explain how it evolved from global trauma and capricious violence. By Mel Acheson
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Infrared image of Holmes 17P. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Cometary Filaments
(Oct 22, 2008)
The Spitzer Space Telescope has returned remarkable images of Comet Holmes 17P, revealing structures that appear to confirm the electrical nature of comets. An October 2007 Picture of the Day described the behavior of Holmes 17P and noted that many of the observed phenomena could be explained by an electrical theory of comets. Since these pages were first published, Electric Universe theorists have challenged the prevailing "dusty snowball" cometary theory. Comets becoming active at long distances from the Sun-sometimes as far out as Neptune's orbit--contradict the idea of a frozen ball of ice that only grows a tail or emits jets of gas when it gets close enough for the Sun's heat to sublimate its surface. Hale-Bopp, a naked-eye comet that hung for weeks like an exclamation mark in the 1997 sky, was still active four years after it left the inner solar system. When it was farther from the Sun than the orbit of Uranus it was almost two million kilometers in diameter. It displayed a coma, a dust tail, and an ion tail more than a million kilometers long. Solar radiation will not melt ice at that distance, otherwise the moons of Saturn and Jupiter would be bone dry, so astronomers were unable to explain it. In August of 2007, Comet Linear broke apart during its closest approach to the Sun. When the cloud of debris was analyzed, astronomers were surprised to find that it contained about 100 times more rocky material than ice. The European Space Agency's Giotto probe met Halley's Comet on March 16, 1996. Among several discoveries, the comet was found to be covered with a black crust. Bright jets of ionized gas, or plasma, blasted out from its surface in three highly localized areas. Water was The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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present in Halley's coma, but according to Horst Uwe Keller of the Max Planck Institut fr Aeronomie: "We discovered that a comet is not really a 'dirty snowball' since dirt is dominant, not ice. Instead of being spherical like a warm snowball, a comet nucleus is elongated. The physical structure of a comet's interior is defined by its dust content rather than its ice content." Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 fragmented into several large pieces that plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere during the summer of 1994. It was hoped that the remnants of the fractured nucleus would expose fresh ices that would then sublimate. Spectrographic results from the Hubble Space Telescope showed no evidence for volatile gases in the debris clouds around the fragments. Auroral emissions were also detected in the atmosphere of Jupiter after the impact of fragment K, something that was unexpected and then attributed to "snowplow" effects as shock waves pushed the atmosphere aside. Now, with the latest news release from Spitzer about Holmes 17P, scientists are again confounded by the workings of comets. "The data we got from Spitzer do not look like anything we typically see when looking at comets," said Bill Reach of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at Caltech. What are called "streamers" have been found inside the shell of gas and dust that makes up the haze around the comet's nucleus. Spitzer team members have not yet determined why the twisted threads of material continue to point in the same direction. They remain in the same alignment as they had since their initial formation. Despite several months of travel, they have not rotated to stay aligned with the Sun. As has been discussed in previous Picture of the Day articles, the braided filaments are the sign of helical Birkeland currents. Outbursts like those on Holmes 17P are how Electric Universe theorists expect comet tails to be produced. Because electric discharges are capable of removing solid material from surfaces, no volatile gases exploding out of "trapped pockets," then pushed away by radiation pressure, are necessary. A comet will produce a tail when electrical stress reaches a critical point and its plasma sheath starts to glow. Irrespective of its composition, a comet will obey the fundamental behavior of charged objects interacting with one another. A comet's tail is created when its electric charge is struck by solar discharge plasma, conventionally called the "solar wind." As a comet approaches the Sun, its nucleus moves through envelopes of increased charge density. Its surface charge and internal polarization, developed in deep space, respond to the Sun's charged environment, changing its electrical potential. As it moves away from the Sun, a comet's electrical balance with respect to the outer solar system will be different than when it was on its inward trajectory. If it meets another electrified plasma field of some kind it could begin to discharge again. What more electrically dynamic region than the one that exists around the gas giant planets? Recent revelations about comets are more easily understood within the electric comet theory than within theories that depend on gravity and sublimation. The black, burned nuclei; the craters and rocky landscapes instead of ice fields; the narrow, energetic jets; the ion tails pointing toward the Sun; the sulfur compounds that require high temperatures to form; and the abundance of ultra-fine dust all point to electricity as their common source. Most important of all, water vapor is more prevalent farther away from the nucleus than close in--surely the exact opposite of what should be found if water ice and frost are what drive cometary jets. The faster a comet's electrical environment changes, the more likely that flaring and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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fragmentation will occur. It seems probable that Holmes 17P is traveling through conductive strands of plasma that are energizing it enough for its "shell" to enter a glow-mode discharge state. The filamentary steamers are significant evidence for that contention. By Stephen Smith
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The southern end of the Dead Sea. Credit: NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.
The Dead Sea

(Oct 20, 2008)
The lowest spot on Earth has been the scene of literary cataclysms involving the destruction of cities in rains of fires. Could electric discharges have inspired those stories? Yam Hamelakh, "The Salt Sea," is the Hebrew name for the Dead Sea. It is called "dead" because nothing can live in brine that contains ten times more salt than the ocean. It is 68 kilometers long by 11 kilometers at its widest point. The surface of the Dead Sea lies 420 meters below sea level, making it the lowest elevation on Earth. The waters reach a maximum depth of 330 meters. Salt has long been associated with the Dead Sea. Because polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and other materials manufacturing use salt from the Dead Sea in the chemical streams feeding production lines, the level of the great saline lake has been falling rapidly in recent years. Reports vary, but a drop of more than one meter per year has been measured in the center. Israel has been expanding its use of the Jordan River (the source of water for the Dead Sea) for growing crops in the desert, so the pressure of irrigation, coupled with the increased demand for salt by the chemical industry, means that evaporation ponds and diverted water flow are affecting the region more today than in previous years. Current geological theories describe the Dead Sea as part of a rift structure extending from The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Turkey down to the eastern portion of the Rift Valley in Africa. Scientists say that bedrock on either side of the Dead Sea rift was once connected before whatever geological event tore the strata apart. The eastern side of the lake is characterized by extensive faults, extinct volcanoes, and abundant hot springs, indicating some heat source that continues to be active. Although the Dead Sea is said to part of a geologic rift system, the exact origin of its unique environment remains unsettled. Most geologists believe it to be the result of faulting in some form or another--whether from vertical displacement or from horizontal crustal movement and overlapping tectonic plates has not been determined. It is thought to have formed over 20 million years ago during extensive Miocene era tectonic activity. But the age estimate is open to question. Rather than being created 20 million years ago at the end of the Tertiary Period, there is cogent evidence for an age younger than 50,000 years, with some geophysicists placing the date closer to the end of the last Ice Age 12,000 years ago. How to explain such variations? By calculating the amount of magnesium flowing into the Dead Sea from various sources, then determining the amount actually present in its waters, the 50,000 year estimate is found. However, increased flow from the Jordan River in the past, as well as increased activity from thermal springs surrounding the sea, could dramatically reduce that figure. When the proportions of sodium and magnesium in the Jordan River are compared with those elemental ratios in the Dead Sea, the derivation is a mere 6000 years. However, since inflow from sources on the bottom of the inland sea cannot be estimated (although water levels seem to show that submerged sources exist), the Dead Sea's age could be less than that, perhaps 5000 years. That puts its formation within the time of historical record keeping. One well-known story from the Dead Sea locale is that of Lot's wife turning into a pillar of salt during the catastrophic destruction of two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. Apart from the narrative contained in the Hebrew bible, classical historians also described the "cities of the plain" and their sudden obliteration. The Torah relates: "And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar." But then: "The Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground." Tacitus wrote that Sodom and Gomorrah were obliterated by a thunderbolt: "Not far from this lake lies a plain, once fertile, they say, and the site of great cities, but afterwards struck by lightning and consumed. Of this event, they declare, traces still remain, for the soil, which is scorched in appearance, has lost its productive power. Everything that grows spontaneously, as well as what is planted by hand, either when the leaf or flower have been developed, or after maturing in the usual form, becomes black and rotten, and crumbles into a kind of dust." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive "Jove, who shak'st with fiery light The world, deep-sounding from thy lofty height. From thee proceeds th' etherial lightning's blaze, Flashing around intolerable rays. Thy sacred thunders shake the blest abodes, The shining regions of th' immortal Gods. Thy pow'r divine the flaming lightning shrouds With dark investiture in fluid clouds."
In The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus, Zeus (Jove) is described as:
Perhaps the ancient narratives describing destructive lightning "from heaven," or launched by Zeus of the Thunderbolt, might be based in an actual event that electrically machined the Dead Sea. By Stephen Smith
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"Storm Alley" in Saturn's southern latitudes. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.
Saturn's Raging Storms

(Oct 16, 2008)
Cassini has detected immense hurricanes surging through Saturn's atmosphere since it began observing the planet in February of 2004. What force energizes these tempests? Recent images from the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft have shown that the north pole of Saturn is similar to the south pole: both locations are home to spinning vortices on a colossal scale. In the South, say mission specialists, a persistent whirlpool of clouds demonstrates "upwelling" of heat from deep beneath the planet's frigid outer atmosphere. A new image from Cassini reveals regions beneath the clear surface atmosphere, rising and condensing into puffy clouds similar to those in a hurricane on Earth. The "eye" of the southern vortex is said to indicate the colder surface gases are being drawn down into the warm interior, completing a heat transfer mechanism. Why the cyclonic rotation is confined to the south pole is not understood, since the hurricanes on Earth draw their power from warm water as they move across the ocean. Andrew Ingersoll from Caltech said: "Its like seeing into the eye of a hurricane. Its surprising. Convection is an important part of the planets energy budget because the warm upwelling air carries heat from the interior. In a terrestrial hurricane, the convection occurs in the eyewall; the eye is a region of downwelling. Here convection seems to occur in the eye as well." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In the North a hexagonal formation outlining a central maelstrom remains unexplained. Despite wind speeds of 530 kilometers per hour inside the hexagon and 500 kilometers per hour outside, the hexagon does not appear to move except with the planet's rotation. The north polar hexagon was seen in perspective by both Voyager probes as they flew by the gas giant in November 1980 and then in August 1981, so it is a long-lived phenomenon. The imaging team continues to analyze data in hopes of finding a method by which convection can arrange and maintain a six-sided formation in a spinning cloud layer. To this day NASA scientists have been unable to come up with an explanation for another one of Saturn's strange features, the ultraviolet auroral light seen at mid-latitudes in the atmosphere. The ultraviolet light is also accompanied by x-rays glowing from the ring plane and from regions within "Storm Alley" shown at the top of the page. Since it is electrons and positive ions that cause aurorae on Earth, and those are always at higher latitudes, Voyager analysts entered the observation into Saturn's "big book of puzzles," in hopes that future missions will be able to figure it out. A particularly significant entry in that big book are the giant white spots that also appear in mid-latitudes on Saturn. Another is the so-called "dragon storm" that Electric Universe theorist Wal Thornhill associated with the white spots. The massive "thunderstorm," as the Cassini team describes it, has remained fixed in one location since 2004, creating winds in excess of 1700 kilometers per hour and continuous discharges of lightning 1000 times more powerful than anything on Earth. Wal Thornhill wrote: "Like Jupiter's Great Red Spot, the dragon storm on Saturn seems to be a long-lived storm center that occasionally flares up. The clock-like regularity of the radio emissions from storms on Saturn is used to judge the great planet's actual rotation rate beneath the clouds. But this behavior is enigmatic. Why should an electrical storm attach itself to a particular spot on a planet's surface, particularly when that surface is thought to be liquid?" These inexplicable hot storms on Saturn, the polar vortices with their (apparently) stable configurations, megalightning, ultraviolet light and x-rays from low latitudes, and winds blowing at a thousand kilometers per hour point to a single cause for all the effects. Add to those observations the "spokes" of the ring system, the plasma torus around Saturn, as well as Saturns radiation belt, and we are left with an electrically active planet that is part of a circuit connecting the Sun and its plasma sheath, the heliopause. By Stephen Smith
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The Coma Cluster of galaxies. Credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
Filaments and Fireballs

(Oct 13, 2008)
Recent images of the Coma Cluster from the Subaru Telescope reveal galactic filaments connecting bright "knots" of ionized gas. According to redshift calculations, the Coma Cluster is a sphere of galaxies 3.5 million light years in diameter over 300 million light years from Earth. The cluster is one of the most compact mass accumulations in the observable universe with more than 1000 galaxies grouped together inside a haze of gas and dust that has been measured at a temperature of 100 million Kelvin. Astronomers continue to ponder the intense x-ray emissions blaring out from Coma's central region, a finding that has, thus far, eluded theoretical explanation. Scientists analyzing data from the Subaru Telescope recently announced the discovery of a "thread-like structure" emerging from RB199, one of the larger elliptical galaxies inhabiting the cluster. The filament extends approximately 260,000 light years from RB199 and contains groups of stars in close association that are enclosed by glowing, ionized shells. Researchers refer to these rapidly moving star cluster knots as "fireballs," because they look like flaming projectiles shooting out from the galaxy. What caused the compact clumps of stars to form? One proposal was that gravitational "tidal forces" pulled stars and gas out from RB199 as another galaxy passed close by. Another suggestion was based on the movement of the galaxy toward the center of the Coma Cluster. As it accelerated into the central mass of the cluster, the blow-back force could have pushed the formations out and away from the direction of travel like a cosmic comet tail. However, neither conjecture was able to accommodate the characteristics of the stars and the knotted gas whose temperature was found to exceed tens of million Kelvin. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Subaru team finally concluded that RB199 is being affected by "ram pressure" as it "crashes into the center" of the galaxy cluster. It is actually friction from the Coma Cluster's hot gases interacting with the galaxy moving at almost 2000 kilometers per second that formed the long filaments. Gas and dust scraping against each other stripped material off RB199 and created the superheated stellar fireballs. Dr. Michitoshi Yoshida, the Subaru team's lead investigator said: "The team is confident that our study of these phenomena leads to a better understanding of the gas stripping processes in galaxy clusters, and the effect of clusters on the evolution of individual galaxies." Irony aside, wind socks, shock waves and collisions are often used to describe phenomena that create high-frequency electromagnetic radiation in the cosmos. Since the beginning of advanced astronomy, conventional theorists have relied on gravity and acceleration for the production of gamma rays, x-rays and extreme ultraviolet light in space. Hydrogen gas compression is supposed to create enough transfer of momentum that it reaches temperatures greater than the cores of some stars. In other words, it is the high temperature of the gas that makes it glow so brightly. In previous Picture of the Day articles, we noted that many structures in the universe are active energy sources--some galaxies eject charged matter out from their poles, or leave long braided tails extending for thousands of light-years. Smaller formations (stars and planetary nebulae) have hourglass shapes composed of tightly bunched filaments. Such filamentary structures are known as Birkeland currents. Plasma cosmologists have long known that the filaments extending from active "radio" galaxies to the "radio lobes" far above their poles are the signature of Birkeland currents. Almost every body in the universe displays some kind of filamentation. Venus, for example, has a tail composed of what NASA scientists call "stringy things." Comet tails are composed of "stringy" ion tails. The glow from planetary nebulae resolve into intricate webs. The jets of Herbig-Haro stars and energetic galaxies are often resolved into braided filaments, and the spiral arms of some galaxies look "hairy" with threads of material extending from them. All those filaments are Birkeland currents, but they only represent the visible portion of an entire circuit. The rest of the circuit May generate magnetic fields that can be mapped, so the map will indicate the extent of the circuit. Every element in a galactic circuit radiates energy, and it must be powered by its coupling with larger circuits. The extent of those larger circuits is indicated by the observation that galaxies occur in strings. In conclusion, it seems apparent that the filamentary knots exploding outward from RB199 are another example of electricity in space forming glowing "fireballs" of plasma in the electromagnetic pinch zones of cosmic currents. By Stephen Smith
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Bright rays extend from Mercury's Kuiper crater. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Kuiper Crater's Rays

(Oct 10, 2008)
The latest images from the MESSENGER mission reveal a planetary surface similar to Earth's Moon. Are both bodies the progeny of one electrical parent? The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft has completed its second flyby of the planet Mercury on its way to an orbital insertion in 2011. Features not previously seen in such detail are found in the latest images. For example, many craters on the far side of Mercury, such as Kuiper, are surrounded by bright linear deposits called "rays." The rays are reminiscent of those that radiate outward from Tycho, a giant crater on Earth's Moon. Tycho and Kuiper are similar in their morphology and in size. Tycho is approximately 85 kilometers in diameter while Kuiper measures 65 kilometers. Just like Tycho, Kuiper crater exhibits a mountainous formation in the center. Central peaks in circular depressions on planets and moons are theorized to be the result of subterranean material "rebounding" after an asteroid impact. The strata is said to become molten, heaving up like waves in water and then instantly freezing in place, forming a pinnacle and multiple ridges that outline the perimeter. The brighter ray material is thought to be different in composition from the surrounding plains because it was blasted out from deep beneath the crust and is "unweathered." The floor of Kuiper crater is flat and smooth, again much like Tycho, with periodic undulations The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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that could indicate frozen ripples left behind when the molten surface re-solidified. However, an impact hypothesis fails to find support in hypersonic pellet experiments or in the evidence from atomic explosions. Not even hydrogen bombs create flat, melted crater floors. A closer examination of the bright surface rays around Kuiper crater reveals smaller craters mixed in with the shallow streamers--a phenomenon much like that seen on the Moon. In fact, many of the rays terminate in small craters. According to conventional analysis, the tiny craters around Tycho (most too small to be resolved with Earth-based telescopes) are "secondary impact points" created by larger chunks of crust interspersed amidst the dusty debris thrown out from the initial strike. Because Mercury has no atmosphere and no magnetic field to shield it from the Sun, it May be possible to describe it in terms that have previously been applied to the Moon. If the craters and rays so prominent there can be explained by electrical activity, then Mercury's features might also be illuminated by that electrical hypothesis. Ralph Juergens has been mentioned several times in previous Picture of the Day articles, with many Electric Universe concepts based on his work. In an initial 1974 treatise that took issue with the consensus opinion regarding lunar formations, he wrote: "...not only the presence of the secondary craters in connection with 'each ray element,' but their placement always 'at the near end,' poses a problem for the ejection hypothesis. Is it conceivable that larger objects randomly mixed with fines in ejecta streams would always manage to drop to the surface just at the inner ends of fallout patterns produced by the fines? The strange proportions of Tycho's long rays seem allbut-impossible to reconcile with ejection origins. Enormous velocities of ejection must be postulated to explain the lengths of the rays, yet the energetic processes responsible for such velocities must be imagined to be focused very precisely to account for the ribbon thin appearance of the rays." Juergens surmised that Tycho crater was a lightning scar--the touchdown point for a plasma discharge between two electrically charged celestial bodies. The hard, smooth, radarreflective floor of Tycho, as well as the lack of depth to its rays, indicated to him that kinetic forces from mechanical impact were not sufficient to explain those attributes. According to Juergens, Tycho's rays are the paths that electrons formed when the secondary discharge erupted into space, completing a circuit with the lighting leader stroke. It is probable, based on that analysis, that rays around craters are not ejected material that flew outward from an impact event, but are the mark of charged particles rushing inward toward the center, dragging fine dust along with them because of attractive forces. Rays, central peaks and flat floors are not the only peculiar aspects to craters observed on Mercury, Earth's Moon, and other smaller moons circling the gas giant planets. Concentric rings like bulls-eye targets are another. In Picture of the Day articles about Jupiter's moon Callisto, Saturn's moon Tethys, and Mercury itself, multi-ringed basins have been shown to be a signature of electric discharge machining (EDM). The latest images from MESSENGER display other concentric craters, such as Vivaldi, in addition to the more well-known Caloris Basin. Regarding EDM effects on planetary bodies, especially Mercury, Electric Universe theorist and author Wal Thornhill wrote: "In the case of the interplanetary thunderbolt, we are talking about billions of amperes The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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(giga-amperes). Such a powerful current will magnetically pinch down to produce circular ringed craters and features like Caloris. Current flows radially between the current cylinders through the surface layers causing melting and etching of the crater floor or basin. So, paradoxically, a more sustained but widespread (and therefore lesser current density) discharge was probably responsible for the huge Caloris basin. The pattern of fractures on the floor of Caloris basin is similar to the radial and concentric discharge patterns seen in the dense plasma focus device where the discharge current is forced to flow radially between two concentric conductors." Taken together, it is more likely that Mercury's strange terrain is not so strange after all. What appears unusual to the consensus scientific community is readily explicable if electricity is considered to be one of the forces involved. Whenever conventional scientists admit to being puzzled, or whenever "unexpected" results are returned by space probes, it is a sure bet that they are not taking into account the power of the force that steers the stars. By Stephen Smith
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"Pagoda" formation in Gooches crater. Credit: Garry Maxfield.
Gooches Crater, Australia

(Oct 08, 2008)
Northwest of Sydney, Australia are straight-cut sandstone canyons and circular formations. Could they be evidence for electrical discharge? The Australian continent exhibits some of the more unusual geological formations on Earth. Giant sandstone monoliths rise out of a region in the middle of the continent called the Red Center, revealing rock matrices with anomalous striations, gouges, and scallop-shaped edges. The surrounding landscape is flat and relatively featureless, although there are brachiated channels that appear as if kilometer-wide lightning bolts descended and carved the terrain. The majority of the dendritic "drainages" are dry and provide little evidence for water flow as the formative agent. The East coast of Australia is marked by elliptical cutouts, stretching from Noosa Heads in the north all the way down to Eden in the South. The arc-shaped beaches are reminiscent of the Carolina Bays on the eastern seaboard of the United States. Both geographical territories display another attribute in common: deep bays that cut inland for several kilometers, also with treelike structures known as Lichtenberg figures. King's Point, Jervis Bay, Gymea Bay, and Sydney Harbor itself are much like Chesapeake Bay, Virginia. Although the majority of geologists describe bays and their associated estuaries in terms of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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erosion--the slow, steady wasting of the coastline because of ocean activity or the movement of great rivers flowing down to the sea--some are isolated from the ocean by narrow, enclosing bars. Also, some have no rivers flowing into them. In previous Picture of the Day articles, it was suggested that electric arcs could have chiseled the bays and drainages into the terrain during a catastrophic event a few thousand years ago. Approximately 100 kilometers inland from Sydney Harbor is the Wollangambe Plateau, a designated wilderness park located in the Blue Mountains. One place in Wollangambe with strange formations is Gooches crater. Gooches crater is unique for its many vertical sandstone cliff walls and haystack-shaped structures known locally as "pagodas." The pagodas are situated within the rim wall of Gooches crater but are an isolated grouping that appears to have been separated from the cliff face by whatever force created them. One of the unique aspects of the pagodas is their multiple layers of sandstone interlaced with a harder mineral often referred to as "ironstone." There is another place far from Australia in the Nevada desert where comparable sandstone figures called "beehives" are located: the Valley of Fire. However, the beehives are not layered with harder ironstone sheets. The ironstone is found in close association with the more abundant sandstone, often enclosing it in an oblate casing. Sometimes the ironstone casings are hollow inside and fall out of the pagodas like eggs. Other hollow shapes with characteristics resembling ironstone pipes remain in situ, but crack open, or break into pieces, again showing their empty interiors. It seems likely that the ironstone forms are actually fulgurites caused by gigantic lightning strikes. If the structures in Gooches crater (and eastern Australia, in general) were caused by plasma discharges on a scale that can no longer be seen on Earth, then what caused the discharges? There must have been some charged object near enough to our planet for divergent electrical potentials to equalize one another. Since electricity flows in circuits, there had to have been some other terminal out of which the current arose or into which it flowed. Perhaps it was an asteroid hundreds of kilometers in diameter. Perhaps it was another planetary body. At this juncture, divorced as we are from the remote past, we will probably never know for sure. What is left to us, for example, are stories told by the aboriginal people that have inhabited Australia for thousands of years. The Yolngu tribes have chronicled lightning as an energy burst arising from the land. Gods as tall as mountains who strode across the sky were also said to have created Australia and taught the story of creation to its inhabitants. It is possible that the ancient creation myths, not only from Australia but from all over the world, are talking about the energies released by planets in catastrophic conflict. When gods ruled the world and white-hot lightning serpents as wide as the sea did battle with each other during an archaic theomachia, they might have left the scars of their "god-battles" etched into the topography of every continent. Written by Stephen Smith from information provided by Garry Maxfield.
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Cosmic bubble structure in Abell 520. Credit: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss
Bubble Magnets
(Oct 06, 2008)
Astronomers say that exploding bubbles of magnetic energy might have helped form galaxy clusters. A little over fifty years ago, before space shuttles, before the Hubble Space Telescope, and before satellite technology, electricity in space was not considered. Because the first teams of space scientists were "steely eyed missile men" with backgrounds in aeronautics and chemical fuel reactions, when evidence for electric current flow around Earth was found it was called a "radiation belt." Although Kristian Birkeland had conducted experiments almost fifty years before the first science package was launched into Earth orbit, electricity remained unfamiliar to researchers conditioned to think in terms of gravity and mass. They had no concept of charged particles generating filamentary structures that could interact and create energetic phenomena-Birkeland's terella research and his study of Earth's aurorae were forgotten. That lack of familiarity continues today when moving charged particles from the Sun are called a "wind" instead of an electric current. Charged particles impinging on a planet or a moon are referred to as a "rain" instead of an electrical discharge. Ionized particles moving within a helical magnetic field are called "jets of hot gas" instead of field-aligned flows of electricity. When abrupt changes in the density and speed of charged particles are observed, those changes are called a "shock wave" instead of a double layer. Birkeland continues to fret from beyond the pale. Magnetic fields in space can be detected more easily than electric currents, so modern The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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astronomers think that the fields are fragments left over from the Big Bang. They write a blank check based on that conclusion to explain how the primordial structures that make up the universe were formed. An analysis of data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory seems to indicate that "bubbles" over 60,000 light years in diameter are slowly percolating out of galaxy clusters. Within this cosmic fizz are supposed to be intense magnetic fields that are released when the bubbles burst. Research teams speculate that the fields detected in remote galaxy clusters are caused by the bursting bubbles. Galaxy clusters are thought to be made of individual galaxies embedded in hot gases and dark matter, so astronomers were surprised to find the bubbles, or cavities, within the overall x-ray emissions detected by Chandra. Inside most of the cavities are bright radio sources that could be caused by the explosion of highly energetic particles, but the cause of the explosions and the source of the particles is not known. Even so, according to Brian McNamara from Ohio University: "We've known for the past 15 to 20 years that magnetic fields exist [in galaxy clusters], but we didn't understand how they got there. This could be a viable mechanism." The fact that moving charges constitute an electric current and that those currents generate magnetic fields has been known since the days of Michael Faraday. However, since "perception is reality," as the saying goes, a lack of knowledge means a lack of vision. As previously stated, charged particles in motion constitute an electric current and that current is wrapped in a magnetic field. As more charged particles accelerate in the same direction the magnetic field gets stronger. That is a familiar idea to electrical engineers, but when astronomers find magnetism in space they are mystified. They resort to ironic ideas about galaxy-wide voids with magnetic fields frozen inside them. Another fact that is not considered when attempts are made to explain structure in the universe (or smaller-scale planetary examples) is that for charged particles to move, they must move in a circuit. Hannes Alfvn, the father of plasma cosmology, identified several interacting circuits in the Earth's magnetosphere. One of those circuits forms the polar aurorae due to electric current effects linking the Sun with our planet's charged environment. On the largest scale of all, the universe, larger energetic events are not explained by reference to local conditions. The effects of an entire circuit--which May encompass clusters of galaxies--must be considered. For this reason, while the consensus scientific worldview only permits isolated galactic "islands" in space, the Electric Universe hypothesis emphasizes connectivity with a vast network of electrically active "transmission lines." That spatial wiring is composed of Birkeland currents. Loops and filaments suddenly expand and explode, throwing off massive bubbles of plasma that can accelerate to near light-speed. Jets from opposite poles of a galaxy end in energetic clouds emitting copious radio and x-ray frequencies. These are facts based in plasma science and not the traditional theories of gas kinetics, gravity, or particle physics. Astrophysicists see magnetic fields, but they do not perceive the underlying electricity, so they are at a loss to explain them. Plasma behaves in unfamiliar ways. Its similarities to hot gas are overshadowed by its differences. It is habitual perception that makes it difficult to see plasma as something different. By breaking free from a priori assumptions, the unfamiliar behavior of plasma will become familiar and astronomers will perceive a new universe. By Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Computer simulation showing concentrated points of energy "texture" in the Virgo Cluster deep field.
Greater and Greater Attractors

(Oct 03, 2008)
Galaxy clusters are being pulled by a force emanating from "beyond the horizon" of the universe. Could electrified plasma be the culprit? An analysis of data provided by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) appears to indicate an unknown gravitational mass lying over the cosmic event horizon. Far past any current instrument's detection ability is something with a force exceeding the combined mass of whole superclusters, inexorably drawing them out into the darkness. Said Alexander Kashlinsky from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center: "The distribution of matter in the observed universe cannot account for this motion." According to astronomers, the universe itself is expanding at an ever accelerating rate. Estimates for the rate of expansion vary, but contemporary theories suggest that galaxies are receding from us because they started out receding from us due to an inflationary event imparted by the Big Bang. Current estimates put the figure at approximately 71 kilometers per second for every 3.3 million light-years. This supposed dilation of space/time is called the Hubble flow, or the Hubble constant. In the 1960s however, detailed redshift calculations of the galaxies near the Milky Way seemed to show a large-scale motion superposed on the Hubble flow. The Local Group, the Virgo supercluster, the Hydra-Centaurus supercluster, and other galactic superclusters are moving at 600 kilometers per second toward the constellation Centaurus. Scientists describe the motion as "a great river of galaxies" that is flowing into the gravity well of some gigantic gravitational source over 216 million light-years away. The massive structure is known as the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive Great Attractor.
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The Great Attractor is thought to be composed of dark matter because it cannot be seen with any telescope. Astronomical observations uncovered a galaxy cluster known as Abell 3627 in the general vicinity, but found ten times too little visible matter for the effect. It is interesting that astrophysical studies demonstrate unexpected movement whenever new instruments with improved vision are implemented. Almost from the start of modern astronomy it was found that the Andromeda galaxy is hurtling toward the Milky Way at over 320,000 kilometers per hour. Consensus opinion states that only gravity can exert the force necessary for Andromeda's speed, although there appears to be insufficient luminous matter between the two galaxies to account for it. A mass of ten Milky Way galaxies would be required to accelerate Andromeda, scientists postulate, but it remains unseen to this day. As time progressed, better telescopes and computers were constructed. Lo and behold redshift measurements of galaxies in the Local Group showed them flying toward the center of the Virgo cluster at nearly two million kilometers per hour. The Virgo cluster is 50 million light years from Earth and contains two giant elliptical galaxies, M84 and M86, but whatever is tugging on that incredible mass remains invisible. In order to explain all these combined redshifts, a group of objects called the Great Wall (or the Centaurus Wall) in which the Great Attractor is embedded was theorized to be the motivating factor. However, the Great Wall does not possess enough mass density to influence structures like superclusters. These various surveys (along with other data) led to the theory of dark matter. Now another force, only this time orders of magnitude more powerful than the Great Wall and its Great Attractor scion, is thought to exist so far away from Earth that it is outside the range of our most powerful telescopes. In keeping with the terminology that has become familiar to astronomers the unseen power has been dubbed "dark flow." Alexander Kashlinsky: "The clusters show a small but measurable velocity that is independent of the universe's expansion and does not change as distances increase. We never expected to find anything like this." How many times are reports from respected scientists, operating complex devices designed to test their theories, going to begin or end with the words, "we never expected this?" Notwithstanding the problems associated with redshift, previous Picture of the Day articles about WMAP, galaxy clusters, and gravity-only cosmology have elucidated a force extant in the universe exerting an attractive power 46 orders of magnitude greater than gravity: electricity. Each "puzzling" discovery by research scientists reinforces the tenets of plasma cosmology and serves to differentiate it from the imprecise predictions of consensus models. As astronomer and Electric Universe theorist Mel Acheson wrote: "Clusters of galaxies are pinches in a supergalactic Birkeland current. The usual morphology of a Birkeland current is a double helix, or a hierarchy of double helices. With greater resolution, each filament of a current is, at a smaller scale, a tube of filaments which, in pairs, tend to spiral around a common axis." Forces exerted by electrified plasma contained in the twisting filaments of Birkeland currents dominate the universe. They circulate in a cosmic circuit that flows into our field of view and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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then out into the void with long-range attraction between them. Therefore, the most probable "Great Attractors" are those filaments of electrified plasma with billions-of-trillion-times more intense fields of influence than gravity. No doubt the universe is larger than what we can observe at this moment because more sensitive tools have continued to reveal greater depths. Out of those depths rise electrical energies rivaling Zeus in his might. It is there we should look for our explanations and not to centuries-old hypotheses conceived in a time when none of today's observations were possible. By Stephen Smith
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View of Yaki Point with periodic cliff formations.
The Grand Canyon: Part Two

(Oct 01, 2008)
Simple observation of the Grand Canyon's geological formations calls the water erosion hypothesis into question. A few variables in an electric discharge can produce a wide variety of shapes and patterns. The polarity makes a difference, so cathode discharges create different patterns than those from an anode. When we speak of charged planets imbedded in the sun's plasmasphere, they May be positively charged or negatively charged--the important factor is whether they touch one another. When the teardrop shaped double layers, or Langmuir sheaths, surrounding planets come close enough a discharge connection is made. The nature and strength of an interplanetary discharge might depend on a number of factors: charge accumulation, potential, conductivity of the surface strata, and current flow. If electric current discharges stick to a surface they tend to rotate around a point and leave a circular crater with a raised center area. If the discharge is narrow and intense like a lightning bolt, it will leave a deep, sharp cut in the substrate and the material will be accelerated away from the point of contact. Where the electric arc contacts and runs along or under the surface, Birkeland currents might create a rille, or canyon-shaped excavation. Often, this type of discharge forms a series of overlapping craters, imparting a sculpted effect to the canyon wall with periodic notches in the rim. Finally, the discharge energy dissipates and forms a kind of "wash" that is generally lower in elevation than the initial touchdown point. In any heavy discharge the surrounding terrain swells and becomes uplifted. In that case, the result is a "blister" or raised area called a fulgamite. The size and shape of the fulgamite depends on the underlying material properties as mentioned above. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Grand Canyon's tributaries are generally short with little evidence of the necessary water flowing into the ends from the high desert floor. The jagged tributaries are deeply cut and are characterized by nearly vertical walls. They join the main canyon at right angles, a distinctive sign of electric discharge phenomena. Another unusual aspect to the Grand Canyon is the "islands" that rise up from broad bases to the rim level. They are delicate in comparison to the size of the canyon. They are close to the canyon walls and demonstrate parallel stratigraphy. How the water flow remained diverted around these islands, or how erosion over millions of years could have created them without undercutting and subsequent collapse is difficult to explain. In conclusion, the lack of eroded debris cannot be passed over lightly. Not only is a vast amount of material from the Grand Canyon missing, but a much greater amount of material is missing from the same general area. Zion, Bryce Canyon, Monument Valley, Canyonlands, and the Colorado Plateau have been extensively eroded. Rock and soil has been removed to a depth of more than a kilometer. The top strata of the Grand Canyon makes up the bottom strata of Zion, and the top of Zion continues to the bottom of Bryce Canyon. The region of missing material is known as the Great Denudation. Together with the Grand Canyon the volume of missing debris amounts to tens of thousands of cubic kilometers. How can this be? Contributed by Michael Armstrong
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The Grand Canyon from space. Credit: Rick Searfoss, retired Space Shuttle commander
The Grand Canyon: Part One

(Sep 29, 2008)
The Grand Canyon is approximately 400 kilometers long, 28 kilometers wide, and almost two kilometers deep. Could erosion by the Colorado River be the only factor in its formation? The face of the earth presents many problems for geologists, not the least of which is that the Grand Canyon is supposed to have been formed by the Colorado River. As recently as six years ago geologists were working with four different and mutually exclusive models of the canyon's creation. At a special meeting they managed to winnow the four theories down to two--neither one of them satisfactory--with more than one reason to refute them both. One geologist noted that the only way the Colorado River could have carved the canyon is if it came out of the sky. A few basic facts are necessary to gain a perspective. The Grand Canyon is surrounded by an elevated landscape with the canyon running through it from east to west. The underlying rock strata in the region rises and falls over an area known as the Kaibab Upwarp, while the river descends through an elevation differential of 2100 meters. Water does not flow up over a mountain range nor does it run sideways along sloping terrain, so all theoretical models that insist on water erosion propose that the entire area was slowly uplifted at the same rate as the river eroded the canyon. This process is said to have taken place in a time span of between four million and 400 million years. The geological models also incorporate natural dams across the river channel that caused reversals in the river flow and were then subsequently breached, allowing the river to resume its previous course. However, a pertinent objection to that theory is that there is no evidence The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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water flowed back into the ends of the giant side channels that join the chasm with the river. Perhaps the most significant challenge to the prevailing theories is the disappearance of almost 1300 cubic kilometers of material that is supposed to have been washed downstream-there is no large delta at the mouth of the Colorado River containing the debris. Satellite images, as well as pictures taken by astronauts in orbit, seem to indicate that the Grand Canyon is an enormous Lichtenberg figure, in other words, a gigantic lightning scar. As the Electric Universe hypothesis suggests, electric discharge machining (EDM) might account for the Canyon's appearance: steep walls, thousands of layers, brachiated side canyons at practically every scale, and periodic, hemispherical "nips" cut into each rim. Geologists possess few tools that can help them understand planetary scars caused by EDM because there are no courses in electricity needed to obtain a degree. But electrical engineers and plasma physicists are taught that charged objects immersed in electric fields develop protective sheaths known as Langmuir sheaths, named after plasma pioneer Irving Langmuir. The sheaths isolate the charged objects (or plasma clouds) from one another in envelopes made up of double layers. If the charged objects are planets, then they are normally surrounded by tear-drop-shaped, double layer plasmaspheres. It is known from laboratory experiments that if two charge sheaths touch one another there is an exchange of electrical potential until they reach equilibrium. If the current flow is large enough, there will be a visible arc and a flash, otherwise known as a lightning bolt. The planetary scarring hypothesis interprets the laboratory experiments using a scaled-up approach. If the smaller charge sheaths interact in a certain way, then the larger planetary plasmaspheres will act in similar fashion, releasing gigantic lightning bolts. Discharges of such magnitude are capable of stripping rock and gas from a planet with far greater energy than the comparatively puny force of gravity. Since the rim edges of the Grand Canyon are sharp and do not show much erosion, then an argument could be made for a recent formation. It is therefore possible that the Grand Canyon, as well as the entire Southwestern region was recently etched with EDM forces on a colossal scale in an encounter with another planetary body. The surface biota, soil and rock, and most of the water was obliterated. A Birkeland current in contact with the Earth might act like a rotating augur, drilling deeply into the bedrock, removing the material, and accelerating it up and away from the point of contact. The effect might be thought of as an electric vacuum, charging the debris in an expanding electric field and then blasting it upward through the power of like-charge repulsion. EDM effects in machine shops strip uniform layers from the substrate while leaving essentially a vertical wall and a flat, new surface. In an interplanetary EDM, the rotating current would tend to lift up sections of strata that would leave a terraced effect and layered appearance, much like what is seen in the Grand Canyon. Contributed by Michael Armstrong
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Spiral Galaxy M74 (NGC 628) thought to resemble our own galaxy. Credit: NASA/HST
Misplaced Mavericks
(Sep 26, 2008)
Why do stars in the Sun's local neighborhood vary in their chemical composition? They should all be products of the same nebular cloud. In a recently published paper, scientists from the University of Washington described a newly created computer simulation that might provide support for the conventional theory of galaxy formation. For many years astronomers have devoted resources to the question of why the stars nearest the Sun do not share the same chemical makeup. The Milky Way galaxy is currently thought to contain almost a trillion stars in orbit around a common center of gravity. As with all other galaxies, it is theorized to have condensed out of a "nebular cloud" thousands of light-years in extent with a more-or-less homogeneous blend throughout--only minor variations in its elemental composition are supposed to have existed. Hydrogen, helium, and some trace elements in the form of micro-fine dust are said to have clumped together, organizing into a great whirlpool-like structure that started spiraling inward due to gravitational influence. As the gas and dust continued to condense, eddies formed in the gravitational vortex, crushing the material together into extremely hot, dense spheres. When the temperature and pressure reached a critical point, hydrogen fusion reactions ignited at the cores of the new stellar orbs and the galactic disk began to shine. Because the initial cloud was theoretically undifferentiated overall, other stars in proximity to the Sun should all be cut from the same cloth and contain similar chemical constituents. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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However, surveys of the nearest 6000 stars reveal that they are all very different from one another: some with more helium than their ages will allow, some with more iron than they should have, and other compositional oddities that could not previously be explained. Stars are said to age according to a well-established process that involves consumption and fusion. Hydrogen fuses into helium and helium into heavier elements until the nuclear fuel is exhausted through radiative output and the star implodes, throwing off its outer layers. More massive stars collapse into neutron stars, while stars that are less massive gradually darken into cool, red shadows of their former glory. Therefore, a star's age is determined by its temperature and luminosity, so the Sun's stellar companions are all thought to be different ages. In fact, they are supposed to vary in age to such an extent that astronomers think they were not even born in the same place or at the same time. The new computer simulation was constructed to model the hypothetical evolution of a galactic disk over its multi-billion year lifespan. Astronomers have found that the simulation produced stellar movements that seem to indicate the Sun and other stars could have been born far from where they are currently located. This might account for the discrepancy in their blend of elements and why many of them appear to be traveling along paths that are more elongated than they "should be." The proposed solution is that the spiral arms of the Milky Way appear and disappear as it changes over the eons of its existence. Stars like the Sun take about a million years to complete one revolution around the center of the galaxy, and during that time they might have felt a push or a pull from one or another of the arms. If the spiral arm happened to be ahead of the star at a close enough distance, then it might have imparted a gravitational pull, accelerating it into a higher, more elongated orbit farther away from the galactic center of gravity. Conversely, if the star travelled ahead of a spiral arm, it might have been pulled from behind into a lower orbit. Previous Picture of the Day articles have taken exception to most of the theories set forth by the scientific consensus. Galactic and stellar evolution due to accretion and gravity-only models of compaction, thermonuclear furnaces in stellar cores, age-relevant data compiled from stellar brightness and color, and gravitational acceleration by congregations of loose-knit spiral arms have all been vigorously opposed by the electric model of stars and galaxies. According to consensus theory, the "stellar main sequence" is a chart of what happens to stars over long periods of time. No information about the electrical input or output of stars is considered when the various conventional theories are debated. By not bringing the electrical interaction of stars with their galactic environment into the picture, an entire line of investigation is never considered. Astronomers and other specialists are not mapping the current flow through space in order to determine its influence on stellar evolution. Because of that oversight, they constantly overstate the gravitational model of the cosmos. Retired professor Dr. Don Scott wrote that the absolute brightness of a star depends on the strength of the current density impinging into its surface, along with the star's diameter. As current density increases the star becomes hotter and brighter, glowing bluer and whiter. If the current flow into the star decreases, the star becomes red and cools down. So using magnitude and color to determine a star's age is a false premise. Anthony Peratt, in his particle-in-cell simulations of plasma reactions, has demonstrated that galaxies are not formed by rarified wisps of gas and dust gradually falling into their own gravity wells. His models of galactic evolution reveal that electrically conductive plasma is The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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able to create the shapes of spiral galaxies without resorting to gravity-specific influences. Peratt's work with high-energy electric discharges indicates that the composition of stars in galaxy evolution is due not to where they were born, but to how they were born. In plasma cosmology and cosmogony, the stars are created in the compression zones of galaxy-spanning Birkeland currents. Such currents actually draw charged material along their filaments from across vast distances in space. As two (or more) filaments begin to twist around one another because of the long-range attractive force, the z-pinch effect crushes the interstellar plasma into galaxy-shaped masses. In consideration of the work done by Don Scott and Anthony Peratt, the variations in stellar chemistry as well as their velocity differences are more probably explained by the plasma hypothesis. It is the electrical forces that are active in space and not the gravitational shuffling of locations that causes the differences among the stars. By Stephen Smith
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Galaxy cluster MACS J0025.4-1222. Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/Stanford/S.Allen); Optical/Lensing (NASA/STScI/UC Santa Barbara/M.Bradac)
Cluster Coupling
(Sep 24, 2008)
The image above reveals the merging of deception and prejudice. The press release accompanying the image explains that it shows the collision of two galactic clusters, which separates gas from mass: "Using optical images from Hubble, the team was able to infer the distribution of the total mass (colored in blue)--dark and ordinary matter--using a technique known as gravitational lensing. The Chandra data enabled the astronomers to accurately map the position of the ordinary matter, mostly in the form of hot gas, which glows brightly in X-rays (pink) The separation between the material shown in pink and blue therefore provides direct evidence for dark matter." The deception lies in the blue glow juxtaposed with the pink: The pink came from detection of x-ray radiation; the blue came from computer modeling of a belief. The prejudice lies in equating that belief with "direct evidence." This merging has accompanied the ostracism of critics and dissenters and the neglect of data that is contrary to, even contradictory of, the consensual faith. The credo of falsification is recited in public and flouted in practice. The "technique" of gravitational lensing has become a desperate ploy to defend an uncritical and institutionalized faith in obsolete mechanistic theories against the space-age discoveries of electrical and magnetic activity in the previously unsuspected plasma that fills space. Acknowledging that the universe is composed not of hot gas but of plasma provides direct The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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interpretations of the image: The blue glow of computer-generated "faerie dust" disappears. The remaining images of optical and x-ray radiation indicate the proliferation of ejections, pinches, and other instabilities in plasma discharges. These phenomena can be generated and observed in labs and need not be taken on faith in extrapolations from theories whose applicability is doubtful. Because the belief that redshift indicates distance has been discredited by observations of connections between high-and-low-redshift objects, the distance and therefore the size and energy of this cluster is likely much less than the faithful declaim. The "narrow vision" of modern astronomers and their instruments blinds them to this clusters likely association with a nearby active galaxy, from which it May have been ejected. With the faith-based deception and prejudice removed, we are able to see this image as a cluster of cosmic "sparks" flying from a galactic size "thunderbolt" of plasma. By Mel Acheson
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Stone arch in Morro da Igreja, Brazil. Credit: pilottoregis.
Natural Arches
(Sep 22, 2008)
Most geographical features on this planet are theorized to be the ancient remnants of wind and rain acting over thousands of centuries. Could they actually be young and created by electricity? Previous Picture of the Day articles have dealt with unusual structures on this planet: stone monoliths, craters, canyons, and many other formations that are not easy to explain from a conventional perspective. Some appear to have been cut into the rock by a hot knife, and some to have been pulled up and out of the ground as if a tremendous force gripped the stone and yanked it skyward, leaving mounds and needle shapes behind. Another item in the long list of topographical anomalies from around the world is the arches carved into cliffs and mountaintops on every continent. They are located in dense jungles, deserts, and seaside locales, so they must be formed through some process that can act in a similar fashion irrespective of the environment or the altitude at which they are found. The arches pierce through any type of mineral one cares to imagine: limestone, sandstone, or dolerite. An examination of sites with the hardest igneous slabs like Okno Ohniste in Slovakia to those with the softest sediments like Sugarloaf Arch in the Gilf Kebir wasteland of Egypt demonstrates their striking similarity. Many arches share several other unique aspects: for example, there is no large stone debris from the aeolian processes that are said to have eroded them in arid regions. Although the wind is supposed to blow the fine particles away, large blocks should also have broken free but they are absent in practically every case. In other areas where there is a substantial amount of rainfall, the arches are selectively bored through the cliffs. The question that naturally comes to mind is why neighboring cliffs, identical in composition, oriented in the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive same direction, and with matching exposure to the rain, do not also have arches?
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There are other atypical arches that stand in solitude with square-shaped openings and no large boulders littering the landscape around their openings. One such is the unnamed arch in the Morro da Igreja mountains of Brazil, alone on top of a solid limestone peak with no remnant rocks, large or small, around its base. Another much monumental solitary arch with a square hole is Torghatten in Norway. Torghatten is itself a monolithic stone tor drilled through-and-through by a tunnel 160 meters long, 35 meters high, and 20 meters wide. According to legend, it was created by Hestmannen's arrow when the king of Smna blocked its path with his hat. The hat fell to the ground and at the moment the sun rose, everything turned to stone. Cerro Autana in Venezuela is another stone monolith with a tunnel hewn clean through its structure. The 1400 meter tower is composed of solid quartzite, exhibiting a distinct twist all the way up from its base to its table-top summit. The cavern within the silicon dioxide matrix is an enormous geode, 430 meters long and 43 meters high that cannot be explained by simple erosion or chemical disintegration. Since the Electric Universe hypothesis identifies electricity as the formative agent for these geological configurations, they might be found elsewhere in the solar system. Mars might have them, but because the images available to us are taken from spacecraft in orbit, only the top portions of what could be arches are visible. So far, no roving vehicles have landed near the crevasses or the kilometers-high mountains on Mars, so it is possible that future missions will uncover more puzzles to unravel. As we have postulated in past articles, electric discharges with energies equivalent to thousands of hydrogen bombs going off all at once might have created the deep chasms and vertical heights that we see--not just on Earth but on other planets as well. The same energetic events could have also electrically machined the arches, vaporizing the strata and carrying the material away in a vortex of plasma. By Stephen Smith
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SCP 06F6you don't see it, then you do and then you don't. Credit: NASA/HST
What the Heck is it?

(Sep 19, 2008)
An image from the Hubble Space Telescope has astronomers baffled once again. The Supernova Cosmology Project (SCP) recently announced the discovery of a "mystery object" that does not fit with observational data compiled by the Sloan Deep Sky Survey (SDSS). According to Kyle Barbary, an astrophysics graduate student with U.C. Berkeley and lead author of a paper appearing in The Astrophysical Journal, the observation is: "...inconsistent with all known supernova types, is not matched to any spectrum in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey database" of vast numbers of objects. "We suggest that the transient May be one of a new class." As Barbary and his colleagues indicate, the closest they can come to the characterists of SCP 06F6 are quasars whose "hot gas" envelopes absorb radiation emissions at specific frequencies. However, a spectrographic analysis of the newly found object reveals nothing recognizable to the team. They are unable to determine if it is in our own galaxy or somewhere much farther out in deep space. One speculation suggests that the radiation profile could be from gases falling into an undetectable supermassive black hole (SMBH). As gas collides with material orbiting within the intense gravity field generated by the SMBH, it becomes superheatedoften to temperatures exceeding ten million Kelvinand is heavily ionized. Indeed, one absorption line was identified as Fe X (ten-times ionized iron) that is often seen in the Sun's corona during a solar eclipse. Could this clue be pointing to what has actually been observed? Ten times ionized iron is atomic iron with ten of its electrons stripped away. Conventional theories propose that the ionization occurs when the iron atoms collide with other atoms because the solar corona is at such a high temperature. The energetic collisions positively charge the iron, making it an excellent conductor of electricity. Charge separation occurs in The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the Sun's corona (and presumably in other stars), forming double layers in the plasma. It is the explosive collapse of double layers that causes solar flares and other phenomena to erupt so violently. In these pages we have often referred to Hannes Alfvn and his quotation about double layers in space. He was of the opinion that they should be considered a new class of celestial object because they are known to produce gamma and x-ray bursts when they explode. (Alfvn, H., "Double layers and circuits in astrophysics," (1986) IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science ISSN 0093-3813, vol. PS-14, December 1986, pages 779-793). Space is filled with cells and filaments of plasma, some radiating in arc-mode and some radiating at frequencies that are invisible to the naked eye. Electromagnetic forces in plasma are much more powerful than the "gravity-only" force that prompts modern cosmological theories. Because Birkeland current filaments connect cosmic bodies in circuits like lightyears-long transmission lines, an overload response to surges in the flow of galactic electricity could be what astronomers are seeing in SCP 06F6. An invisibly radiating star might have split due to electrical fissioning in order for the larger surface area to accommodate the increased current. In a previous Picture of the Day about V838 Monocerotis, a similar mechanism was described. Plasma physicist Wal Thornhill wrote: "After 100 years of neglect, an electrical model of stars is just beginning to emerge. It is an engineers view that offers a coherent understanding of our real place in the universe (cosmology) and practical insights for the future exploration of space. If the Sun shines as an electric light plugged in to the Electric Universe, the objective tests become obvious. Perhaps, with a real understanding of stars we May reach childhoods end in the cosmos." By Stephen Smith
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Credit: NASA, Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, Burst and Transient Source Experiment
In Space No One Can Hear You Scream

(Sep 17, 2008)
Astronomers say that a gamma-ray burst from the edge of the universe signaled the birth of a black hole. Astrophysicists have described gamma-ray bursts (GRB) as the merging of neutron stars or the high frequency light radiating from supernova explosions. Now, according to a recent paper published in the prestigious science journal Nature, GRBs are said to be the "scream" from a black hole's birth. The SWIFT satellite's Burst Alert Telescope first saw GRB 080319 on March 19, 2008. The optical component accompanying the beam of gamma radiation was so intense that it could have been seen by anyone looking up at that exact point in the sky, even without a telescope, despite calculations that indicate it was over 7 billion light-years away! Jonathan Grindlay, the Paine Professor of Astronomy at Harvard and current Chair of the Harvard Department of Astronomy at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told reporters that this GRB is "the birth pangs of a black hole. This is the scream." And, "[It is] more than halfway back to the Big Bang and the origin of our universe." The GRB happened 3 billion years before the solar system was formed, according to conventional cosmological theories, because of the redshift equals time and distance assumption. Since light requires a certain amount of travel time at its 299,792 kilometer-persecond speed, the longer it takes to arrive the farther away and the farther back in time the source must be. Extreme forms of supernovae are said to emit gamma-ray bursts. As astrophysicists speculate, those same supernovae often occur in stars containing many times the mass of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive our own Sun and cannot stop their collapse once their fusion cores implode. Due to that inexorable plunge into an intense gravitational field, it is theorized that the supernovae remnants form black holes. Irrespective of the process, it is not known how a supernova explosion and the subsequent collapse into a black hole generates a GRB.
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The estimated size of a gamma-ray burst depends on its distance, as previously stated. So, what does that mean for GRB measurements? The first few GRBs were found in galaxies with high redshift some seeming to emanate from as far away as 12 billion light years. If the galaxies were actually that far away, the energies observed in such gamma-ray flashes would be beyond any supernova, so a hypothetical cosmic entity known as a hypernova was created, salvaging the redshift-indicates-distance theory. As Electric Universe cosmologists conclude, however, another explanation for GRB intensity is that redshift is not actually an indicator of distance and GRBs are occurring in nearby galactic neighborhoods. As Mel Acheson proposed in his latest Picture of the Day, it is likely that some galaxy clusters are not so far away, are not so large and are probably not merging. In that same way, GRBs are not unimaginably powerful, not coming from the edge of a speculative expanding space/time continuum, and are not the birth pangs of a black hole. If GRBs are located nearby they are less energetic and plasma discharges in the form of exploding double layers could impel the gamma-ray bursts in ways that can be explored though laboratory experiments. Rather than relying on mathematical phantoms like black holes, neutron stars and hypernovae, why not create real, testable hypotheses and work them up with real, physical models? Standard cosmological theories are hard-pressed to match models with observations. X-rays from ion excitation, a range of energy curves, and (sometimes) gamma-rays are properties of lightning bolts. Computer simulations demonstrate that plasma phenomena are scalable over several orders of magnitude they behave in the same way and illustrate basic premises whether in atoms or galaxies. Perhaps GRBs are really flashes of cosmic lightning erupting from electrified clouds of plasma on an immense scale. By Stephen Smith
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Galaxy Cluster Abell 1689. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/E.-H Peng et al; Optical: NASA/STScI
Abell Clusters: Would You Like Them Here or There?

(Sep 15, 2008)
(with apologies to Dr. Seuss and Sam) Telescopic images of Abell 1689 serve to separate the expanding universe from the plasma universe. The image above is a composite of x-ray data (purple) from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and optical data (yellow) from the Hubble Space Telescope. The data is first processed by computers--a deliberate activity--and then again by human minds--an activity usually taken for granted. Just as the first process requires software, the second requires theories. And different theories, as different software, produce different interpretations. The Chandra press release summarizes the expanding universe interpretation. The cluster is "2.3 billion light years away" and "massive." It "shows signs of merging." "Hundred-milliondegree gas" emits x-rays. The "long arcsare caused by gravitational lensing of background galaxies." The cluster has "the largest system of such arcs ever found." Astronomer Halton Arp rejects the expanding universe theory but retains the idea that gravity is the principle force acting in the universe. He writes in Seeing Red: "Are there other clusters of galaxies which look like the cluster at the center of our Local Supercluster, the Virgo Cluster? Everyone believes there are many--and 4,073 of them are listed in the revised northern and southern Abell Catalogue. Everyone--myself included--thinks instinctively of galaxy clusters as galaxies like our The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive own seen at great distances." But accumulating anomalies undermined Arps instinctive thought:
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Abell clusters have few normal galaxies. Most cluster galaxies are peculiar or distorted; many are "just star piles." They tend to group around nearby active galaxies--just as Quasi-stellar Objects (QSO) do. Plus, they tend to occur in lines. Plus, the lines are the same ones marked out by QSOs and jets. Plus, the clusters are often paired across the nearby active galaxy with similar redshift values on each side--again just like QSOs. Cluster galaxies display no Hubble relationship. The redshift-apparent magnitude relation for normal galaxies is the basis for claiming a redshift-distance relation and hence an expanding universe. The expected dispersion is about 0.1 magnitude in brightness and 50 km/sec in Doppler-interpreted redshift. Abell clusters show up to 4 magnitudes of variation in brightness (corresponding to a variation in luminosity among member galaxies of 40 times) and up to 30,000 km/sec in velocities (requiring them either to be exploding instead of merging or to be stretched out over billions of lightyears into Fingers of God pointing at the Earth). The x-ray radiation patterns around them show elongations toward and bridges to nearby active galaxies. If the arcs were gravitationally lensed background QSOs, their numbers should increase with fainter magnitude. Instead, the numbers level off. A survey of the lensed objects in this cluster whose redshifts have been measured shows that most fall within redshifts of 1.0 to 3.5, with a maximum at 2.5. Only a handful fall around 5.0.
Significantly, this cluster lies toward the southeast end of x-ray and radio filaments that twist through the Virgo Supercluster. Arp, without ruling out plasma discharge effects, thinks that QSOs are ejected from active galactic nuclei. They gain mass, slow down, and grow brighter as they age (and decline stepwise in redshift) out to about 400 kiloparsecs (with redshifts around 0.3). Here they often fragment into BL Lac objects and start to fall back toward their parent galaxy. They continue to gain mass and hence to slow down, reducing their redshifts, as they become companions to the parent. Therefore, Abell clusters are not "galaxies like our own seen at great distances" but small, immature galaxies and wisps of matter associated with nearby active galaxies. Plasma cosmologists, without ruling out ejection effects, think QSOs and clusters are pinches in the polar component of a galactic circuit. There is little evidence that they move (or dont): The sequence of properties with respect to distance from the active galaxy could be an effect of decreasing electrical stress. Abell clusters are simply not pinched as strongly or as coherently as QSOs. Plasma pinches display both radial and concentric filamentation: Whether the filaments radiate in visible light depends on whether the current density places them in glow mode or dark mode discharge. The large number of concentric arcs in this cluster are striking, but unremarked are the number of galaxies whose disks are also aligned in concentric arcs: their axes would be aligned radially to the clusters center. Presumably, the galaxies are pinches in The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the radial Birkeland currents connecting the arcs with the center. Notably, some of these "arc aligned" galaxies are double, calling to mind the fact that Birkeland currents tend to pair up. Many clusters show "radial arcs," a bit of data that contradicts gravitational lensing theory but which theorists pass over as being "not fully understood." Ring currents connected to the central electrode by a radial current are expected in plasma discharges. Examples range from the Dogleg Galaxy (NGC 1097) to the flux tube connecting Jupiter and the plasma torus (read: ring current) in which the satellite Io orbits. Not only are the clusters small and nearby, their galactic forms May not be differentiated into stars: Whether the spiral morphology of interacting Birkeland currents breaks up into smaller pinches depends on the electrical properties of the discharge. The circular morphology of this cluster is likely due to our viewing it along its axis. The Birkeland current (also called a field-aligned current) in which it is pinched probably has an hourglass shape. We see the concentric arcs and radial alignments because we are looking "into the funnel." From the side, it would appear more like its smaller-scale cousin, the planetary nebula. The Bullet Cluster probably shows us the side view. Needless to say, the x-rays are not emitted by "hot gas" but by plasma, that is by electrically accelerated electrons that spiral in the polar magnetic field (hence the "field aligned current") and emit synchrotron radiation. The plasma May or May not be "hot," that is, contain particles that randomly collide. In either case, Abell 1689 is near, dim, not massive, and not merging. By Mel Acheson
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Satellite image of Uvs Nuur in central Mongolia. Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
The Uvs Nuur Basin

(Sep 12, 2008)
A giant lake-filled caldera in Mongolia could indicate electric arc machining on a massive scale. Steep valleys containing rivers that dry up each summer characterize the deserts of Central Asia. Large enclosed basins are filled with lakes, one of which, the Caspian Sea, is more like an inland ocean and is classified as the largest enclosed body of water in the world. The surface of the brackish Sea is 28 meters below sea level with a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometers and a maximum depth of about 1025 meters. It has no outlet to any ocean. In western China, one of the deep depressions is more than 154 meters below sea level and is also filled with brackish water. Uvs Nuur is located near the northern boundary of the Central Asian steppes approximately 50 degrees north latitude by 90 degrees east longitude. Along with several other small lakes, it is encircled on all sides by mountains. Large rivers run down into the lake but no rivers flow out. The high mountains act as a rain shadow, blocking moist air from entering the basin, and leave Uvs Nuur drier than lands to the north of the range. The effect is evident in the image above, taken by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), flying on NASAs Terra satellite. The northern side of the Tannu Ola Range ("god-spirit mountains") is greener than the deserts The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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in the south. The mountains also form a barrier between the forests in Siberia and the grassy prairies that dominate Central Asia. Since little rain falls in the basin, rivers flowing into the lake refresh the wetlands each season. White streaks crossing the desert are probably evidence for the seasonal streams that flow when snow melts in the spring. In a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day about the mountains of Patagonia, similar enclosed lakes with no outlets were described. Because they are filled by snowmelt from the mountains, and have existed for thousands of years since the last Ice Age, it is a wonder that they have not been clogged with sediments. Yet the lakes have sandy shorelines and are relatively free from bottom deposits, despite the extreme erosion that has presumably affected the mountains. When Bob Ballard explored the bottom of the Black Sea, a semi-enclosed lake, he was surprised to find little sediments and even more surprised to find evidence for an inundated civilization. Similarly, Uvs Nuur is free of deep sediments, although it is supposed to be a remnant from a vast inland ocean that covered most of Central Asia. Rather than being formed by melting glaciers and 12,000 years of time, it seems possible that the entire Mongolian lake complex, stretching for a thousand kilometers across Asia, is the result of gigantic electrical discharges from space. Electrical theorists have postulated unstable planetary orbits in the recent past, causing periods of intense plasma interactions. When lightning bolts with energies in the billions of watts strike the Earth, rocks are vaporized and blasted into space, leaving pyramidal mountains and deep, wide holes in the strata. A signature of that activity would be lack of debris covering the surrounding landscape, and smooth valley floors. The excised material would have been removed in a way that is similar to plasma surface cleaning. Other Pictures of the Day articles have described events on Mars that carved out Arabia Terra, Valles Marineris and other structures. Now we ask once again whether major features on Earth, including the below-sea-level lakes of Asia, were cut by cosmic thunderbolts. By Stephen Smith
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Left: Asteroid 2867 Steins. Right: Ferrous oxide puck hit by an electric discharge. Credit: Left: OSIRIS Team MPS/UPM/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA Rigiht: C.J. Ransom/VEMASAT Labs.
Rosetta Sees a Stone Called Steins

(Sep 10, 2008)
An asteroid with an enormous crater prompts another question of why it was not destroyed by the "impact." "Because in the beginning was the plasma." -- Hannes Alfvn in his Nobel Lecture on December 11, 1970. On March 2, 2004, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Rosetta Cometary Probe on a rendezvous mission with 67 P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, a short period comet that will enter perihelion in August of 2015. One year after launch, Rosetta received a gravity assist from Earth in order to boost its speed and conserve fuel. In February 2007, Mars kicked-up the space probe's velocity and swung it back around Earth again, where it was accelerated toward an encounter with Asteroid 2867 Steins. In November 2009, Rosetta will circle the Earth for the last time in order to receive its final push into deep space. In May of 2014, Rosetta will awaken from deep space hibernation and enter orbit around 67 P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The spacecraft will release a science platform called Philea, which will attempt a soft landing and assess the cometary nucleus as it begins to generate a coma and tail. Rosetta will be in orbit around the comet during the entire year of its inward journey, monitoring Philea and analyzing the coma. The mission will end when the Sun's energy fries the spacecraft. 2867 Steins is a small, irregular body with a maximum diameter of six kilometers. Based on information received from the Rosetta OSIRIS imaging system, a pair of craters was found with a combined diameter equal to more than 20% of the asteroid's volume. Mission specialists are "amazed" that the 2-kilometer "impact site" did not blast Steins into tiny fragments. According to H. Uwe Keller, the OSIRIS camera team's lead investigator, Steins is probably shattered throughout its interior because of the shockwaves from whatever obliterated its The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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parent body eons ago. As conventional theories of asteroid formation propose, the big craters and the string of seven smaller craters probably came about when that primordial parent experienced its death paroxysm. Current asteroid composition and formation estimates are largely based on the anomalous cratering that each one exhibits. Images of Asteroids 253 Mathilde, 243 Ida, and 433 Eros reveal them to be heavily pock marked with craters large and small, prompting scientists to speculate that they are really loose conglomerations of rocks and soil, rather like a big gravel pit in space. Because they were not blown apart from meteoric impacts, say astrophysicists, they most likely "absorbed" the energy in the same way as a pile of sand will cushion the shock when hit by a stone. But does the gravel pit hypothesis fit the facts or should we look for one that does not depend on revision each time some new discovery sends a spanner into the works? The electrical history of the solar system includes intensely energetic events and violent interactions between charged planets and moons. Electric arcs can remove material with ease as is evinced by the experiments conducted by Dr. C. J. Ransom of VEMASAT Laboratories. Plasma discharges can excavate surface depressions, scoop out material, and explode it into space, leaving cleanly cut features. Electric discharge machining (EDM) accomplishes the same thing on a smaller scale in manufacturing processes. EDM plasma arcs are used because they do not disturb the surrounding surfaces. Based on laboratory analysis, that is what has occurred on 2867 Steins and on all the asteroids, moons, and planets of the solar system. At the outset, however, planetary scientists exclude the electrical explanation which rectifies the anomalies in other theories because they know almost nothing about the forces involved except to parrot: "if there's electricity in space it doesn't do anything." It never occurs to them that electricity can create the very things they now struggle to understand. By Stephen Smith
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Orbit of centaur object 2060 Chiron. Credit: Osamu Ajiki (AstroArts) further modified by Ron Baalke (JPL).
Multi-Colored Centaurs
(Sep 08, 2008)
Many different classes of celestial bodies are orbiting the Sun. Some have unique color combinations that might provide a clue as to their origin. In the deepest regions of the solar system, billions of kilometers from the Sun, are several asteroid-sized icy rocks that have been difficult for astronomers to classify. In a previous Picture of the Day article about Kuiper Belt Objects, it was noted that the largest of the planetoids, including Pluto and Charon, are described by conventional theories as nebular condensates left over after the major planets formed. Scientists have detected other chunks of "debris" like Chiron, a centaur-class planetoid 170 kilometers in diameter, by using larger, more sensitive telescopes. Centaurs take their group name from Chiron, the tutor of Achilles, a mythical half-man, half-horse. Something that makes the centaurs so interesting to researchers is the colors that have been deduced from luminosity measurements. Most are dull gray, but there are some blue-green centaurs and 5145 Pholus is rust-red. Nothing in the current theoretical lexicon prepared the astronomers for the color variance. As conventional theories propose, centaurs could originate in the Kuiper Belt. Neptune's gravity might be strong enough to perturb the orbits of some KBOs, pulling them out of the Kuiper Belt's main region about 500 billion kilometers from the Sun and sending them into proximity with the other gas giants where they are slung into eccentric orbits Because of their orbital instability, they are thought to stay near the outer planets for only a few tens of million years. Theories based on their elliptical orbits indicate that some centaurs could eventually be ejected from the solar system entirely, whereas the gas giant planets might consume others. Other centaurs are speculated to fall into the inner solar system where they transform into short-period or Jupiter-family comets. The Jupiter-family comets move at high velocities, revolving every 20 years or less, with most The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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solar orbits taking about 8 years. Some astronomers have suggested that the short-period comets might also be accelerated back into the outer solar system if they catch a "gravity boost" from Jupiter, once again becoming centaurs. Chiron itself manifests a coma of gas and dust whenever it reaches its closest approach to the Sun, although it does not grow a tail. Various centaurs exhibit this anomalous behavior, so they are sometimes referred to as asteroid/comets. Centaurs are very faint even with a 10-meter optical telescope, so spectrographic analysis is impossible. However, by passing the gathered light through three different filters a ratio of brightness in the three bands reveals the spectral energy distribution, which is interpreted as color. Why do the centaurs have such color variations? No one is sure at this point. Surface composition is one theory, and deposition of external material from "meteor polishing" is another. The Electric Universe suggests a reason for the different colored centaurs as well as for the different chemical compositions that make up rocky planets and moons. In a plasma cosmogony hypothesis, the stars are formed when cosmic Birkeland currents twist around one another, creating z-pinch regions that compress the plasma into a solid. Laboratory experiments have shown that such compression zones are the most likely candidates for star formation and not collapsing nebulae, which is the 18th century theory to which astrophysicists still cling. When the stars are born, they are most likely under extreme electrical stress. If such is the case, they will split into one or more daughter stars, thereby equalizing their electrical potential. Electric Universe theorist Wal Thornhill wrote: "The fission process is repeated in further electrical disturbances by flaring red dwarfs and gas giant planets ejecting rocky and icy planets, moons, comets, asteroids and meteorites. Planetary systems May also be acquired over time by electrical capture of independent interstellar bodies such as dim brown dwarf stars. That seems the best explanation for our fruit salad of a solar system. Capture of a brown dwarf requires that the dim star accommodate to a new electrical environment within the plasma sheath of the Sun. The brown dwarf flares and ejects matter, which becomes planets, moons and smaller debris. The dead dwarf star becomes a gas giant planet. "This is not the 4.5 billion year evolutionary story of the clockwork solar system taught to us in Astronomy I. There is no primordial nebular stuff of which all objects in the solar system were formed at the one time. The stuff of which stars are made has been differentiated and altered by plasma discharge processes. All stars produce heavy elements in their photospheric discharges, which alters their internal composition with time. And the stuff expelled electrically from inside stars and gas giants is further modified elementally, chemically and isotopically." The reason that there is so much variability in the solar system is because z-pinch compression is so powerful and plasma discharges are so energetic. Centaurs are colorful because they might have been ejected out of different gas giant planets. Optical instruments show that Neptune has a green color, Uranus a blue, Saturn a pale yellow and Jupiter a rusty red. Could the centaurs be exemplifying their parental traits? By Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Galactic clusters said to be merging. Credit: ESO PR Photo 24/08
Merger or Spin-off?
(Sep 05, 2008)
Are clusters born in a process of "galactic cannibalism" or out of the strongest progenitive force in the universe, electricity? A recent ESO press release presents images of four galactic clusters (above) that are claimed to provide "unique and powerful validation" of the proposal that clusters form by the merging of small galaxies into larger ones. Based on the pre-space-age assumption (since disproved but unacknowledged) that the ubiquitous shift toward lower frequencies of lines in the spectra of galaxies, called redshift (symbolized by the letter z), is a measure of distance, these clusters are calculated to be about four billion light-years away. Adding the assumption that everything we observe is flying debris from an initial Big Bang explosion, the clusters are considered to be about the same age. With these assumptions, the clusters can be arranged in age (from the Big Bang). This sequence indicates that galaxies in the older clusters are brighter and therefore are more massive than those in the younger clusters. The older galaxies (on the left) also have bright companions, which are declared to be merging with them. That the observations validate the theory is undeniable. Unfortunately, the validation is circular. The observed data of the four clusters are interpreted in the light of the assumptions. Different assumptions of different proposals would give different interpretations, which then would validate the different proposals. This codependency of observation and theory is one reason that verifying a theory doesnt prove that its true. Also, the validation is fallacious. A logical fallacy originally noted by Aristotle is affirmation of the consequent, which can be illustrated as follows: A implies B. B is true therefore A is true. By claiming that the proposal is true because a consequence of the theory has been observed, astronomers (and other scientists) overlook other possible explanations for the consequent. The logical fallaciousness does not mean that the theory cannot be useful, but it assures that science will always be provisional. Furthermore, its unique validity exists only insofar as competing proposals can be excluded from consideration. The consolidation of space research under the hegemony of NASA has promoted such exclusivity, but competing proposals continue to struggle for survival on the margins. "If astronomy were a science," as a notorious competing astronomer once said, emphasis would be on testing the assumptions of alternative proposals against each other rather than on proclaiming self-congratulatory and sterile validations. So, the "unique and powerful validation" is unmasked as wanton and a weak pleading. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Several competing theories propose that galactic clusters are not merging systems but genealogical systems. Because high-z objects have been observed in association with, even connected to and in front of, low-z objects, the high-z objects would be much closer than their cosmological distance (which is based on assuming that z indicates distance). They would therefore be much less luminous and massive than cosmological-distance calculations indicate. The frequently observed arrangement of these high-z objects around the low-z ones suggests that the high-z ones are "offspring" of the low-z "parents." One theory proposes that they are newly created matter that has been ejected from the parent. Other theories propose that they are "plasma-gun" ejections or that they form in pinches in the axial discharge of a galactic plasma circuit. As the newborn objects age, their luminosities and masses change in a stepwise periodicity. The image above is not a time sequence of merging galaxies but a family portrait of proliferating galaxies. The unique and powerful validation of the image supports the competing proposals as much as it does the standard consensus one. By Mel Acheson
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The Electric Universe. Credit: Mel Acheson
War of the Worldviews

(Sep 03, 2008)
In the consensus view, the structure of the observable universe is depicted by a filigree of galaxies filling the void with a foam of bubbles. In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles, we have taken issue with the current theories of large-scale structure that are based on cosmological distance assumptions. Rather than interpreting a galaxys redshift to be an indicator of its distance, Halton Arp and others have shown that this assumption is untenable. Redshift is more likely an indicator of ancestry. If all the errant galaxies on the consensus depiction are brought back to their "genealogical distances," what would the view of the observable universe look like? The Electric Universe proposes that clusters of galaxies are pinches in a supergalactic Birkeland current. The usual morphology of a Birkeland current is a double helix, or a hierarchy of double helices. With greater resolution, each filament of a current is, at a smaller scale, a tube of filaments which, in pairs, tend to spiral around a common axis. We can assume, based on rough approximations, that every galaxy, QSO, Abell Cluster, x-ray or radio-emitting cloud in the direction of the Virgo Supercluster is located in that supercluster. The Local Cluster, which includes the Andromeda galaxy (M31), M33, the higher-redshift dwarf and peculiar galaxies extending along the spin axis of M31, as well as the hydrogen clouds along that line (with which the higher-redshift objects are interacting), and including our Milky Way galaxy, appears to be an outlying member of the Virgo Supercluster. On the opposite side of the sky lies the Fornax Supercluster, an apparent mirror image of the Virgo Supercluster. If we assume that it is approximately the same size as the Virgo The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Supercluster, its smaller angular diameter would indicate that it is farther away. If the Fornax and Virgo Superclusters are pinches in the same largest-observable-scale Birkeland current, there could be more superclusters beyond Fornax and Virgo, but they would be obscured by Fornax and Virgo. Perhaps there would be other Birkeland currents, with pinched superclusters along them, running parallel to the Fornax-Virgo filament, but they would be too far away and too faint for us to see with present instruments. We can imagine an infinite progression of such filaments or an arbitrary end with the one we see (in part). The part of the one we see must be part of a circuit, but from whence it comes and to whither it goes we can again only imagine. Somewhere there must be a generator or a coupling with another circuit, which leaves speculation piqued but unconstrained. By Mel Acheson
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The Aleutian Islands from space. Credit: NASA/MODIS Satellite
Island Arcs
(Sep 01, 2008)
Most island chains rest on foundations that are arc-shaped and include tall volcanic mountains. Are they evidence for a traveling electric discharge? The Aleutian Islands reach out from the Alaskan coast for 2800 kilometers, extending all the way to Kamchatka in northeastern Siberia. The islands curve along a convex path toward the south and are said to ride on a tectonic plate whose boundaries stretch northward from the Wrangell Mountains. Conventional geological theories propose that island arcs are created when oceanic plates are either subducted under another tectonic mass or crash together as they slowly travel around our planet. The tectonic plates might also include "accreted" crustal material, known as terranes, from other plate boundaries, which would make the plate more "buoyant," causing it to ride over the edge of a neighboring plate. Other plates that are composed of strictly oceanic crustal material are said to be of greater density, so they descend below the less dense continental slabs. These regions occur around the northern and western Pacific plate where the North American, Eurasian and IndoAustralian plates are being "dragged down" into the mantle. Because both plates sometimes include continental material (the Indo-Australia subduction zone under the Eurasian plate, for instance) the theory continues to evolve as more research is conducted. No one is actually certain about how the process proceeds. As the prevailing theory of sea-floor spreading states, however, volcanic islands rise from the ocean floor due to subduction of the oceanic plates. Water-bearing minerals release their vapor when the subducting plate melts as it approaches the mantle, causing plumes of molten The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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magma to rise up towards the surface. The magma then erupts along the moving plate margin and is extruded onto the ocean floor where it slowly grows an arc-shaped island chain. The Hawaiian Islands are often used as an illustration for how a "hot spot" on the edge of an overriding plate can form island arcs. In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles about various anomalies associated with continental formation and sea-floor spreading, several aspects of the theory were called into question. The most important problem with the theory of plate tectonics is that the power required to move continental landmasses around has not been adequately explained. Thermal convection is said to circulate heat energy from the Earth's interior, but there has been no process developed for how the spreading began. Why did it take almost 2.5 billion years for the crust to begin cracking and melting? Other issues that have not been addressed include: the existence of spreading zones without corresponding subduction zones into which the crust can sink, a theoretically lower-density plate sinking under the Alps, sediment anomalies in the mid-Atlantic basin, and continental rock that is thick and elastic under mountain ranges yet thinner and more brittle than the oceanic crust in the spreading zones. In the Picture of the Day article about the Sea of Japan, it was noted that the Japanese archipelago and the deep ocean trench that borders its eastern edge follow a sinusoidal path. Upon closer inspection, other island groups appear to have similar morphology: the islands of Oceania, the Caribbean Islands and the Bahamas (including Key West) are three examples. While these island chains are visible above the surface of the sea, it is necessary to consider those seamounts that do not break the surface as well. There are many instances where topographical maps of the ocean bottom describe arcshaped configurations. Indeed, the Aleutian Islands reveal many unusual underwater formations: backward-curling loops, dual-ridge canyons, criss-crossing fractures, and wide, flat plains with terraced, vertical walls. No matter how many times slow-motion, uniformitarian geological theories are tortured, they have never adequately accounted for these features. As these pages have repeatedly shown, planets and moons exist within the electric fields of space. In times past, it is possible that those fields were much stronger in their influence than we experience today. Another highly charged object from space could have approached close enough to induce electric discharges between itself and the Earth. If the power involved was great enough, the plasma bolts could have lasted for minutes or even hours, traveling through Earth's conductive strata with catastrophic results. Mountainous uplifts, compression of the lithosphere, trenching, cracking, folding, tilting and other deformations in the Earth's surface are most likely not due to incremental changes over hypothetical million-year time spans. Instead, island arcs with their attendant volcanoes and steep, deep canyons were probably created in much the same way as the other large-scale formations we see, through the agency of planetary lightning bolts and corona discharges. By Stephen Smith
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X-ray profile of Galactic Cluster 2XMM J083026+524133 Credit: G. Lamer et al.
Clusters and Cosmological Constants

(Aug 29, 2008)
A distant cluster of galaxies is said to confirm the existence of undetectable energy. Not a single reference is made to the most powerful known force in the cosmos: electricity. Astronomers working with the European Space Agency's XMM Newton X-ray Telescope have discovered a grouping of galaxies in the outer most reaches of the universe containing more than 1000 times the mass of our own Milky Way. The image above is said to reflect the appearance of the cluster as it was during a relatively early epoch in the evolution of the universe. Because the speed of light is used as a benchmark for defining cosmological distance calculations, the shifting of Fraunhofer lines into the red end of observed electromagnetic spectra determines "recessional velocity." As standard theories dictate, the faster an object recedes from our observation platforms the further away it is because the primordial Big Bang explosion imparted an initial impulse that is causing the universe to expand. Using these theoretical parameters, a faster recessional velocity means greater distance, which means an earlier time period. According to Georg LaMar and his colleagues from the Astrophysikalisches Institut in Potsdam, massive galaxy clusters with such high redshift are rare when they shine so brightly at x-ray wavelengths. As the ESA press release states, the presence of "hot gas" encompassing the cluster with temperatures of 100 million Kelvin makes J083026+524133 the most energetic x-ray source at z > = 1 redshift 100 times brighter than any other galaxy cluster at that distance. Such a massive cluster with a 7.7 billion year age estimate is thought to confirm the existence The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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of dark energy because dark energy causes acceleration in the expansion of the universe. That acceleration makes it more difficult for massive clusters like J083026+524133 to hold together in more recent times because the dark energy expansion wants to tear them apart. Astronomers made this disconcerting find ten years ago that the universe is expanding faster today than it did in the past. In order to accommodate anomalous redshift observations the existence of a force that exerts negative pressure on gravitational fields was proposed and later called "dark energy" because it cannot be detected with any instrument. Enzo Brachini from the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) wrote: "This implies that one of two very different possibilities must hold true. Either the Universe is filled with a mysterious dark energy which produces a repulsive force that fights the gravitational brake from all the matter present in the Universe, or, our current theory of gravitation is not correct and needs to be modified, for example by adding extra dimensions to space." Presumptions are difficult to overcome, particularly when they represent the sine qua non of thought within a specific discipline. The inability of conventional researchers to understand several factors hampers their ability to grasp the fundamental nature of the cosmos. The quoted comments from a respected scientist employed by ESO, as well as those from the XMM Newton team, are a perfect example of the absurd conclusions that can be drawn when electrified plasma in space is ignored. Two of the most pressing issues in the modern approach to understanding the universe are the adherence to redshift as the only tool for estimating distances and ages of stars and galaxies, and a lack of knowledge when it comes to electricity. First, in order to advance the catalogue of knowledge it often requires one's reputation and livelihood be placed on the block and the axe allowed to fall where it may. It takes real courage to buck the system and stand on one's convictions despite antagonism. Such is the case with Halton Arp, one of the grand masters in the field of astronomical research. Dr. Arp earned his place at the top of his field through years of research and many lonely hours on cold mountain peaks documenting far-flung celestial objects. As his galactic compendium grew, he noticed that there was something wrong with conventional time-speeddistance calculations he found objects with higher redshift values in front of objects with lower redshift. Surely, such a conundrum should have immediately called into question the very nature of that "cosmological constant." If redshift is not an indicator of distance, J083026+524133 May not be so far away and therefore not so massive or bright. As Arp and his colleagues have repeatedly shown, taking in a wider field of view often reveals similar objects on the opposite side of a nearby active galaxy. Many of these high-redshift pairs are connected across the galaxy with a bridge of radiating material. Theories of an expanding universe, dark matter, and dark energy depend on the XMM Newton's (and other observatories) extremely narrow field of view and how the data is selected. The story of Halton Arp's experiences with the scientific community has been documented many times in these pages. Suffice to say, a respectful and open-minded reception from astronomers and astrophysicists was not to be the result of his discovery. Rather than accepting his observations, Dr. Arp's papers were barred from publication and his telescope The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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time was canceled. He was shunned by colleagues and ignored by the community at large one of the most shameful chapters in a book filled with instances of shoddy treatment and blind resentment. Second, by referring to material with a temperature of 100 million Kelvin as "hot gas" astrophysicists are highlighting their complete ignorance of plasma and its behavior. No atom can remain intact at such temperatures electrons are stripped from the nuclei and powerful electrical fields develop. The gaseous matter becomes plasma, capable of conducting electricity and forming double layers. In 1986, Hannes Alfvn, in a NASA-sponsored conference on double layers in astrophysics, said: "Double layers in space should be classified as a new type of celestial object (one example is the double radio sources). It is tentatively suggested that x-ray and gamma ray bursts May be due to exploding double layers. In solar flares, [double layers] with voltages of 10^9 volts or even more May occur, and in galactic phenomena, we May have voltages that are several orders of magnitude larger." Plasma is the first state of matter and makes up more than 99.99% of all that we observe in the universe. Cosmological redshift has been shown to be a property of matter and not one of velocity. It is far past time that scientists actually look at what they see with critical eyes. By Stephen Smith
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The faint outline of a possible impact site surrounded by a network of dendritic channels. Credit: Kevin Evans Southwest Missouri State University/SRTM
The Weaubleau-Osceola Structure

(Aug 27, 2008)
Many craters on Earth, as well as other planets and moons, point to the action of electric arc machining and not to asteroid impacts. The Weaubleau-Osceola impact site has confounded geologists since they began to ponder its origin in the early 1950s. The rock strata surrounding the location is compressed and uplifted with pervasive faulting. The extensive fields of breccia convinced most researchers that there had once been extreme volcanic events and other terrestrial processes most did not consider an impact source until much later. Combining visual clues from satellite mapping of Missouri and Illinois, as well as a physical analysis of the minerals in the area, Kevin Evans and his colleagues at SMSU May have subsequently discovered the fourth largest "impact structure" in the United States the Manson Impact Structure in Iowa being the largest (35 kilometers in diameter). Because the Weaubleau-Osceola crater is 19 kilometers wide, it remained hidden in plain sight. It wasn't until Evans reviewed a thumbnail image of the larger features from combined U.S. Geological Society maps that he saw the eroded outline of the formation. Evans remarked: "I drove to Osceola to visit the site after I had found it through computer mapping. Thats when I saw the polymict breccia and other tantalizing features. A week or so later, half of the department, geology students and faculty, were poring over the roadcuts and quarry exposures." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Polymict breccias are conglomerated minerals of differing composition that display a halfmelted and fused interior. The matrix will often include quartz and other extremely hard and dense materials fractured into knife-edged fragments that are nonetheless imbedded in the stone. They appear to have been broken and then frozen in place without any sign of melting similar to the stones mixed with cement that makeup concrete. Although polymict breccias can form in other ways (according to standard theories) such as compression waves and heat from a volcanic explosion, the majority of breccias from the site indicates an impact event. Another significant but anomalous feature of Weaubleau-Osceola is the folded limestone rock beds that surround the central impression. Folds and faults are putative examples of tremendous shockwaves that travel through the crust after a hypothetical asteroid strikes the Earth. The pressure front is said to cause the strata to behave as a liquid for a brief instant, pushing outward like a wave in the ocean. Once the wavefront passes, the layers of stone instantly freeze in place. If the formations are in a precarious position the wave crest overhangs a void, for instance the stone will crack from gravitational forces and display massive faulting. Sandstone is the primary surface layer on top of the breccias surrounding the crater and is thought to be 310 million years old, as scientists understand geological history. The limestone formations below the sandstone overburden correlate to a date of approximately 340 million years, making Weaubleau-Osceola (supposedly) about as old as Popigai crater or the Manicouagan Impact Structure. The limestone and breccia appear to have eroded before the sandstone formed on top, so the crater is thought to be much older. Dr. Evans writes: "One of the truly amazing aspects of the Weaubleau-Osceola impact site is that it was more or less hermetically sealed following the event, give or take a few million to tens of millions of years ... amazing for [a structure] more than 300 million years old." In rocks just outside the original crater wall boundaries, peculiar configurations known as shattercones are found in abundance. The striated conical structures can be very small or can be of great length. In the quartzite crystals surrounding the Sudbury, Canada Impact Structure (250 kilometers in diameter) are shattercones that are more than two meters long. Graphing the original positions of the cones, their apices invariably point toward the central crater floor. The cones can, in effect, denote where the energy was released. Shattercones make craters like Weaubleau-Osceola incompatible with volcanic sources as was once advocated. The crater might also belong to a chain of craters that have been found in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. Two other members of the chain are in Decaturville and Crooked Creek, Missouri. Flynn Creek and Wells Creek, Tennessee could also belong to the "serial impact" sites known as the 38th parallel anomaly. As we have noted in previous Picture of the Day articles about Electric Discharge Machining (EDM) and the effect of plasma arcs on planets and moons, the fact that many of these crater-like formations are lined up across the countryside points to the activity of a gargantuan traveling electric discharge. At each touchdown point the arc could have burned a crater with distinctive morphology: a wide, flat bottom, a central peak, or, perhaps, multiple peaks as in the Flynn Creek formation, indistinct outline (or tear-drop perimeter), accumulation of melted slag piled into megabreccias filled with conglomerated minerals and many other identifying characteristics. One of those characteristics is the plethora of stone spheres found on open ground near the crater and as far away as the Ozark Mountains. Geologists theorize the "Missouri rock balls" The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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are chert concretions. When the asteroid struck the Earth, they say, it blasted up gravel-sized pieces of shale that fell back into wet ground containing silica-rich solutions. Over ages of time the silica was deposited in layers, causing the nodules to grow like pearls in an oyster. In another Picture of the Day about the "mysterious" stone eggs of China, a hypothesis was offered that explained the spheres in terms of electric arcs compressing soil and gravel inside the Bennett pinches of twisting Birkeland currents. Tremendous electrodynamic forces actually force the ingredients into shape, crushing them together with pressures that are difficult to achieve even with the most powerful hydraulic rams. The Lichtenberg trackways that outline the Weaubleau-Osceola Structure are another defining example of electricity acting on a planet-wide scale. Such trackways have been linked to Chesapeake Bay, the coast of Greenland and the formation of underground caverns. From the Electric Universe perspective, it is more likely that electricity carved out these shapes in moments of time a short while ago, relatively speaking. It is possible that the memory of humanity on this planet carries with it the remains of eyewitness accounts that our ancestors passed down to us in the form of myths and fables. Their experiences changed the human imperative and began a journey into the future that is probably quite different from what it once was. By Stephen Smith
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Galaxy NGC 1275. Credit: NASA, ESA and Andy Fabian (University of Cambridge, UK)
Forever Blowing Bubbles

(Aug 25, 2008)
The Hubble Space Telescope team refers to the active elliptical galaxy NGC 1275 in the nearby Perseus Cluster as a "magnetic monster" with a black hole at its core. However, the filamentary structure indicates electrical activity. NGC 1275 "blows bubbles" and drags filaments of "cold gas" into the surrounding "multimillion degree X-ray emitting gas" according to astronomers. Magnetic streamers, or filaments, are said to confine the cold gas. The filaments are "a challenge for astronomers" to explain why they havent evaporated in the hot gas or collapsed into stars from their own gravity or been disrupted by tidal forces from other galaxies in the cluster. The filaments are calculated to be 200 light-years thick and up to 20,000 light-years long (assuming that the galaxy is at its "cosmological redshift distance"). As has become usual when confronted by such filamentary structures, astrophysicists meet the challenge by dropping onto the explanatory stage the deus ex machina of magnetism without acknowledging that electric currents generate magnetic fields. (Such an acknowledgement, of course, would undermine the consensus dogma that Gravity is God.) But even in consensus dogma, a "multi-million degree X-ray emitting" substance cant be a "gas" it is plasma. Only by ignoring the properties of plasma, which have been known and demonstrated in labs for a century, can astrophysicists maintain their fantasy. An awareness of plasma requires, at least, comparison of the "bubbles" with Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) on the Sun. As the current that is driving a double layer (DL) increases, the DL becomes unstable and expands, often accelerating, as it gets larger. The current along the DL generates a magnetic field that pinches the plasma within it into a thin filament. Because The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the forces that confine the filament are self-generated at each point along the filament, it is unaffected by the much weaker forces of evaporation, gravitational collapse, and tidal disruption. It can remain coherent over distances that are orders of magnitude greater than its thickness. The Electric Universe proposes a bigger picture: An active galaxy is the center of a plasma pinch in an intergalactic current. The X-rays are not being emitted from a "hot gas" but are synchrotron radiation emitted by electrons spiraling in the direction of the magnetic field. Instead of a black hole powering the emissions and filaments, there is a plasma focus mechanism powered by the intergalactic current. Because plasma phenomena are similar at all scales, NGC 1275 would be a galactic-scale version of a planetary nebula. The rough circular symmetry we see is due to the galaxys orientation with its axis along our line of sight: Were "looking down the barrel" of an hourglass-shaped electrical discharge. By Mel Acheson
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Pluto and its three moons Charon, Hydra and Nix. Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JHU/APL), A. Stern (SwRI), and the HST Pluto Companion Search Team
Kuiper Belt Objects

(Aug 15, 2008)
According to astronomers and their theories about the Solar System, the space beyond Neptune is getting stranger all the time. Near the end of the 18th Century the nebular hypothesis was born. It grew in popularity for more than 100 years and then appeared to die in the early 20th. The cause of death was said to be contradictory evidence and careful analysis of the premises, leaving no foundation for its continued existence. However, after vigorously applying new modifications of the theory so that black hole physics could also remain alive, it experienced a resuscitation of sorts and continues with us to this day. The hypothesis suggests that the Solar System condensed out of a cloud of molecular gases and dust in a period measuring billions of years. Eventually, the dust and gas shrank to the point where compression heating started a nuclear chain reaction in the dense ball of hydrogen and helium at the center of the cloud, giving birth to a new star. As the material continued to be gravitationally attracted toward the center of the ever-shrinking mass, it formed a structure called an accretion disc circling its equatorial plane. Much like the rings of Saturn, only much more dense and far larger, the accretion disc extended out beyond the orbit of Neptune. During the collapse phase of the Solar System's evolution, according to scientists, eddies and whirlpools of matter formed in the ring of dust and gas. Those eddies grew larger as they attracted more material into them, slowly sucking in larger and larger particles, then pebbles, then boulders, until hundreds of millions of impacts from nebular condensates gradually formed the planets. The theory was later amended in order to explain the origin and "holding area" for the many The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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comets that enter the Solar System every year. The Oort Cloud is supposed to be a giant nimbus of small fragments left over from those early days when the Sun was a newborn star. It is said to be a spherical region enclosing the Sun at a maximum radius of about 5 trillion kilometers and contains billions of objects, some as big as small planets, but most around the size of a medium asteroid. Closer in to the Sun is another region of primordial planetoids called the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt theory is the creation of astronomer Kenneth Edgeworth from Ireland and also separately by American astronomer Gerard Kuiper in 1951. The first Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) was discovered in 1992. Sometimes known as "trans-Neptunian Objects" dozens of KBOs the size of small moon-sized planets have recently been added to the Solar System's repertoire of family names. Eris is the largest KBO, approximately 5% larger than Pluto and is located 1.4 trillion kilometers from the Sun. Eris has its own small moon called Dysnomia. Quaoar is about 6 billion kilometers from the Sun and also revolves in the region of the Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto's orbit. Quaoar is the third largest KBO, half the size of Pluto and about as large as Pluto's moon Charon. The fourth largest KBO yet discovered is Varuna, which is about 40% as large as Pluto. After the recent vote by the astronomical community, Pluto is no longer considered a planet and has been relegated to the status of KBO, making it the second largest such object in the Solar System. So, Eris, Pluto, Quaoar, Charon and Varuna are the five largest Kuiper Belt Objects. There is a kink in the order and arrangement of the so-called KBOs, however. An object called Sedna has been discovered in an orbit that is much farther out than the grouping that includes Quaoar and Varuna. Sedna is large, about as big as Pluto, but it is nearly 10 trillion kilometers from the Sun, making it too far away to technically be considered a Kuiper Belt Object. The theory has yet to accommodate Sedna other than to say that it might be from the Oort Cloud and not the Kuiper Belt. In passing, it must be noted that the Star Dust cometary mission demonstrated that the existence of comets in such a far away and frigid nursery as the Oort Cloud was impossible because of the minerals found in the coma of Comet Wild II. Their presence indicates that the comet formed in a much hotter environment than what the hypothetical Oort Cloud could provide. On January 19, 2006, NASA launched the New Horizons spacecraft, a mission designed to explore the outer solar system, including Pluto, Charon and recently discovered Kuiper Belt Objects. When New Horizons gains its mission objective sometime in 2015, Electric Universe theorists expect the researchers to be surprised. Because the nebular hypothesis reached preeminence before scientists realized that 99 percent of the universe is plasma, the conclusions derived from the hypothesis are therefore not connected with real observations. By Stephen Smith
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Supernova remnant G1.9 + 03 (left). Location within the 2 Micron All-Sky Survey (right). Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/NCSU/S.Reynolds et al.); Radio (NSF/NRAO/VLA/Cambridge/D.Green et al.); Infrared (2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF/CfA/E.Bressert)
Two Views of a Supernova

(Aug 13, 2008)
The cornerstone assumptions of conventional theories about supernovae and their remnants were set in place before space-age discoveries revealed the fault lines of data that were shifting beneath them. The image above is a composite of two images taken 12 years apart. The object is a supernova remnant that lies only about a thousand light-years from our galaxys core. It has been named G1.9+0.3. The blue image, from 1985, is in radio "light;" the orange image, from 2007, is in x-ray "light." Clouds of gas and dust that circle the galaxy's core obscure the "visual light" from G1.9, but radio and x-ray wavelengths can penetrate those clouds. Conventional theories understand G1.9 as the debris from an internally powered star that exploded. "The debriscrashes into surrounding material, generating a shell of hot gas" that radiates x-rays and radio waves. By measuring the distance between the two images, conventional theorists can calculate that the explosion must have occurred about 140 years ago, making it the most recent supernova explosion known in our galaxy. (It was not observed because the galactic clouds hid it from view on Earth.) But this calculation is troubling because it results in an "unprecedented expansion speed"--nearly 5% the speed of light--and the "most energetic electrons" ever measured in a supernova remnant. The discovery that space was permeated with cells and filaments of plasma overturned the "empty space" cornerstone assumption. The discovery that electromagnetic forces in plasma could be many times stronger than gravity fractured the "gravity-only" cornerstone. The discovery that Birkeland-current filaments could connect cosmic bodies into hierarchies of coupled circuits threatened to replace the "internally powered" cornerstone with an "externally powered" one. Only theorists dogmatic adherence to the obsolete assumptions preserves them. The Electric Universe understands G1.9 as an overload response of the central star to a surge in the galactic circuit that powers it. The entire star was engulfed in an exploding double layer (DL), a larger-scale version of the exploding DLs that we call flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on the Sun. Most likely, the original star fissioned into two unequal bodies in The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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order to present a larger surface area that would accommodate the increased current. See the electric description of V838 Mon. Exploding DLs accelerate as they expand, unlike conventional explosions whose debris moves in an inertial response to the initial impulse. Calculations from later debris movements to determine the time of explosion are therefore much less reliable: G1.9 is apt to be more recent than 140 years. Because DLs accelerate charged particles, fast electrons are expected. As well, the electrons will spiral in the magnetic field and emit synchrotron radiation. Conventional theorists calculate a "gas temperature" from the energy of the radiation, assuming that the radiation comes from particle collisions, as in a glowing iron bar. But synchrotron radiation has little to do with temperature: the "gas" is really plasma, and the radiation is powered by electricity, not heat. Space age instruments have furnished abundant data showing that supernovae remnants and their lower-energy siblings, planetary nebulae, are not spherical "shells." They tend to have an hourglass shape, showing bipolar symmetry. The circular ones only appear so because we are seeing them along their axes.
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Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI
The Cat's Eye Catspaw

(Aug 11, 2008)
The Cats Eye Nebula displays an abundance of plasma-discharge properties that leave standard gravity-and-hot-gas theories floundering. The standard explanation of all so-called planetary nebulae, of which the Cats Eye is an example, is "star death." As a star burns itself up, it evolves into a red giant that "boils off" a relatively slow-moving wind. At a critical stage, it collapses into a white dwarf, blowing off its atmosphere at a high speed. The high-speed wind catches up to the previous low-speed wind, collides with it, and produces shock waves that form bubbles, hot gas, and x-rays. Astronomers have come to realize that the expected spherical shells of gas are actually hourglass-shaped structures and that the few spherical forms are the result of viewing them "looking down the barrel." Various ad hoc hypotheses are appended to account for this bipolar symmetry, the filamentary structures, and other anomalous features. The Electric Universe understands the Cats Eye to be a far-from-equilibrium electrical discharge in plasma. The evenly spaced radial filaments with concentric rings of increased luminosity are typical of the plasma focus discharge mechanism. The filaments tend to pair up, and several exhibit the braiding that develops as pairs of filaments spiral around their common axis. The central "bubble" region, in red (optical) and blue (x-ray), marks out the rough "double helix" of Birkeland currents along the axis of the hourglass form. The axis is slightly tilted and perhaps "bent" to the line of sight. As is typical, the visible "ends" of the double helix are forked. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Thin double layers separate the cells of plasma from each other, and these double layers accelerate charge carriers, primarily electrons, to high velocities. In the blue region, these fast moving electrons spiral along the magnetic field and emit x-ray synchrotron radiation. Standard theorists often misinterpret this high-energy radiation as collisional emissions from a hot gas. The image shown is the central region of the nebula. Outside this region lies an outer shell of the hourglass form with even more pronounced filamentation. The ring of luminosity that has formed where the threads of current have pinched down to a threshold of current density emphasize the view "down the barrel" of the discharge.
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Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/W. Forman et al.; Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF/W. Cotton; Optical: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and R. Gendler
The Braided Filaments of Galaxy M87

(Aug 08, 2008)
The electrical nature of the first "galactic jet" observed by Curtis in 1918 has been confirmed once again. Recent Chandra X-ray Observatory composite images of M87, a large active galaxy in the Virgo Cluster, have revealed the braided, filamentary nature of its "jet." Such braiding is the signature of Birkeland currents in space. Electromagnetic forces pinch the current channels into long filaments in defiance of gravity and gas laws. Multiple currents attract each other when they are far apart but repel each other when they are close, resulting in pairs of filaments spiraling around their common axis. This process can repeat, producing "cables" of pairs of pairs and so on. The cables are efficient carriers of electrical energy over long distances. For example, the long filament to the lower right is over 100,000 light-years long. Strong electrical fields in such galactic sized currents accelerate charge carriers to near light speed. The galaxy's magnetic field causes them to emit synchrotron radiation from radio frequencies to x-ray frequencies. With modern instruments such as radio and x-ray telescopes, we can now "see" that galaxies are much larger and more active objects than we imagined when all we could see were the tiny spots of light that our unaided eyes could detect. Because the electrical circuits that power the galaxies are somewhat chaotic, they can produce "hot spots," kinks, and various instabilities. "Blobs" of increased luminosity along the jets appear not to be moving despite the high speeds of the charge carriers. (See discussion, Section VII D, p. 657, Peratt, "Evolution of the Plasma Universe, Part 1," in IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. PS-14, No. 6, Dec 1986.) The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The western Pacific basin showing intersecting plate boundaries and sinusoidal subduction zones. Credit: NASA Visible Earth
The Sea of Japan

(Aug 06, 2008)
As the Electric Universe theory suggests, arc-shaped geographic segments on other planets are the result of ion beams cutting into the surface. Evidence exists for a similar process on Earth. According to the vast majority of papers published by geologists, and also by planetary scientists looking into the evolution of other worlds, forces that are familiar to us all have acted to create the features that we see both on Earth and in those extraterrestrial environments. Earth has rain that is supposed to have formed the river valleys and filled the oceans over millions of years, so on Titan, for example, there must also be some kind of liquid and long periods of time to explain the perceived existence of channels and basins in a place where the temperature is hardly greater than space itself. The surface appearance of Jupiter's moon Europa is said to be the result of ice rafting and compression-cracking because the Arctic Ocean forms similar structures during its winter freeze. From that apparent similarity the theory of a Europan ocean has been educed, which has resulted in more theories about how liquid water can exist in a climate of less than minus 200 C. That line of thinking led to the theory of tidal "kneading" on Europa and from there to a decoupled crust of surface ice that obeys the mechanical laws of convection, expansion and subduction whenever its morphological development is discussed. The Electric Universe theory indicates that we should work backwards from the way that The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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conventional geological thinking would have us do. Electricity permeates space and acts with great force over long distances. Previous Picture of the Day articles about the aforementioned moons Titan and Europa have described another mechanism for producing what satellite imagery has revealed and that is electrical etching. Therefore, rather than using Earth as a model for the Solar System and looking for questions to answer out there based on what we observe down here, we should use the Solar System as a model for Earth. If electric discharge machining was so violently involved with how the moons are shaped, then it might also have acted to shape the Earth. The Sea of Japan is another example of geography on Earth that is not easy to explain through standard models of planetary evolution. It is known as a "back-arc basin" according to the theory of plate tectonics. Continents slowly add new crust onto their margins when all kinds of subduction zone collisions take place. The western United States is supposed to have grown by a third or more along its boundary when it accreted many of these "exotic terranes" which traveled 3000 kilometers or more to build California and Nevada (probably parts of Alaska and Utah as well). Lesser continental collisions do not necessarily cause terrane accretion, but they assemble complex crustal formations by crushing together backarc basins and magmatic arcs over eons of time. The Sea of Japan is said to be an example of what happens when one of the basins becomes inverted and forms an arc-shaped mountainous island chain. For more information about the theory of plate tectonics and how the continents were created see the Colorado Department of Geology home page. There are characteristics that point to electric discharge machining as a possible origin for the Sea of Japan. The Galileo spacecraft sent back images of giant looping "fractures" on Europa called "flexi" that, in the case of Sidon Flexus, extend for over 1600 kilometers. The island chains that make up Japan and the Philippine archipelago merge with seamounts and other underwater ridges further to the north and south so that they sketch out a cycloid just like the cycloid rilles on Europa. In fact, the underwater component bifurcates and continues to exhibit sine wave structure until it dead ends just north of Australia. There are dual-ridge faults along the eastern edge of the Japanese coast that plunge thousands of meters deep into the crust. The same kind of "faulting" was also discovered on Europa (and now on Saturn's moon Enceladus), leaving Electric Universe theorists referring to them as "lightning trenches" cut into the surface rather than fractures from internal dynamics. Perhaps the deep ocean trenches on Earth were also sculpted by external lightning and not by cracks and stresses coming from inside the planet. Many Picture of the Day expositions have pointed to cosmic forces combining with the electric fields of Earth so that massive clouds of ionized plasma swept across the terrestrial lithosphere. Those ion storms cut canyons, raised continents, leveled mountains and vaporized billions of tons of rock and water along with their attendant biota. The power in those explosive events could easily have made the Sea of Japan at the same time it was forming the Mountains of Patagonia, the Zagros Mountains or the Scandinavian Peninsula. By Stephen Smith
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Cassini image illustrates the diffuse nature of Saturn's rings. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Saturn's Invisible Rings

(Aug 04, 2008)
Data analysis from the Cassini space probe reveals that there might be more rings around Saturn than meet the eye. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute have found what might be partial rings surrounding the giant gas planet in a nearly invisible collection of small arc segments. Using Cassini's onboard magnetospheric sensors, the research team found that there are two areas near Saturn where highly energetic electrons suddenly drop out presumably because something is absorbing them. In March 2008, the Cassini team reported a similar discovery using the same instrument, except then it was to announce a ring structure orbiting the moon Rhea. Moons absorb subatomic particles such as electrons. When the magnetospheric imager sensed a fall in the energy emissions from the toroid of ions that surrounds Saturn, the conclusion was that some other object invisible to optical instruments might be acting like the rings around Rhea. When the proposed ring arc segments are oriented between Cassini and the electron flow, the readings suddenly fall to zero. Because the region of absorption is almost 3000 kilometers wide, Cassini mission analysts speculate that there could be unseen rings in several bands. Researchers surmise that the ring segments are probably being supported by material that is eroded from the surface of some small moons by meteor impacts. The resulting dust could be flung into the plasmasphere around Saturn in much the same way as debris from Tethys and Dione (as well as Phoebe and Iapetus) is being drawn into the great Saturnian electrical The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive circuit. As Elias Roussos of Max Planck said:
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"What's odd is that these inferred ring arcs still remain undetected in Cassini images, while the rings at Janus, Epimetheus and Pallene orbits, thought to form under the same process, are visible. This means the dust grains making up these two different classes of rings have different characteristics and sizes. However the reason behind this difference is a mystery." One of the most important reasons that information sent from Cassini is so often described as "mysterious" or "baffling" to NASA scientists is that they see each of the reports as a separate phenomena instead of seeing a suite of individual aspects that describe one source. Electricity provides a single point of investigation into the "anomalies" that have been observed within Saturn's field of influence: hot spots at the poles, mega-lightning, the spokes that seem to float above the ring system, the plasma torus, Saturns radiation belt, the ultrafast rotation of Saturns atmosphere and X-rays shining from the rings. The invisible rings are most likely another manifestation of the electrical environment that exists near Saturn. Planets with magnetic fields can trap hot particles to form giant electrified clouds. NASA scientists have noted that Saturn's magnetic field bends around Enceladus "due to electric currents generated by the interaction of atmospheric particles and the magnetosphere of Saturn." Further flattening of the plasma torus on the sunward side demonstrates an electrical (not mechanical) effect is occurring between Saturn and the sun. What Cassini is detecting most likely supports the charged particle stream hypothesis. In 1913 Kristian Birkeland wrote about Saturn's rings: "It seems almost incredible that such a ring of cosmic dust should be able to exist for ever, so to speak, without other governing forces than gravitation..." Gravity-only models of the solar system insist that Saturn's rings can only be created, held and shaped by the activity of "shepherd moons" and angular momentum. Instead, we should look to the electrical force that is orders of magnitude more powerful. By Stephen Smith
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Starburst galaxy NGC 3310. Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Acknowledgment: G.R. Meurer and T.M. Heckman (JHU), and C. Leitherer, J. Harris and D. Calzetti (STScI), M. Sirianni (JHU)
Stoking the Star Maker Machinery

(Jul 30, 2008)
Scientists working with four of the most sensitive observatories ever built have discovered a galaxy that seems to contradict theories of cosmic evolution. Astronomers from Caltech using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, Japan's Subaru Telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Clark Maxwell Telescope recently announced that they have found a distant galaxy that is creating stars at an anomalous rate, over 400 times faster than the Milky Way. Nick Scoville of Caltech is quoted as saying: "The incredible star-formation activity we have observed suggests that we May be witnessing, for the first time, the formation of one of the most massive elliptical galaxies in the universe." Combined observations from all four telescopes, especially infrared images from James Clark Maxwell, indicated that the so-called "Baby Boom" galaxy was shining brightly in highfrequency infrared and low frequency radio waves. According to standard theories, when stars ignite they emit light in the ultraviolet range and disgorge vast quantities of dust from the nebular clouds out of which they condensed. Because young stars are intensely hot, the radiant energy from their exuberant consumption of nuclear fuel heats up the surrounding dust cloud, causing it to glow like a comparative ember in the distance. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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An analysis of the new galaxy's redshift places it at 12.3 billion light-years so its infrared brightness (implying a significant population of young stars) makes it a special class of galaxy called a "super starburst," much more active than NGC 3310 for example. NGC 3310 is a "starburst galaxy" thought to be giving birth to new star clusters faster than most galaxies in the catalog, but it is still slow compared to the newly tagged super starburst. New images show several hundred star clusters representing the formation of up to a million stars in a process that is stated to take less than 100,000 years. Along with hundreds of clusters, individual highly luminous stars can be seen. The overall time period for the formation of the entire elliptical is calculated to be less than 50 million years based on 4000 star birth events per year. All of the time span estimates, the distance calculations and the ages of the objects under consideration are based on the premise that galaxies and stars are compressed out of diffuse clouds of dust and gas that coalesce under the influence of gravitational attraction. The material reaches a temperature sufficient to cause the hydrogen and helium at the core of the compacted spheres to undergo thermonuclear fusion and start the process that leads to a new star (or a new collection of stars). If gravity, density and thermal shock are considered without considering the concepts embodied by Electric Universe theories then it makes sense that the measurements are interpreted as they are. Rather than each new remote observation being identified with "extraordinary properties" or "baffling results" or "mysterious events," it seems like it would make more sense to add the electrical properties of matter in its plasma state to the theoretical formulation and sew up the loose ends. Electrical energy is orders of magnitude more powerful than gravity. "Plasma ropes" that comprise Birkeland currents attract one another over distances in a linear relationship rather than through the "square-of-the-distance" proportions of gravity. That makes Birkeland currents the most powerful long-range attractors (and also short-range repulsors) in the universe. Electric currents flowing through dusty plasma beget and sustain the stars and the galaxies. The divergence between the Electric Universe model and the standard model is based on plasma, which comprises 99% of the universe. Plasma tends to obey the laws of electromagnetism, so gravity and kinetic interactions are subsidiary. The celestial bodies and their interactions are to be understood principally in terms of electrical circuits. By Stephen Smith
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Crater and rille in Mare Serenitatis. Credit: NASA/JPL/Apollo mission archive
Missing Matter-Missing Discharge

(Jul 28, 2008)
This third Picture of the Day in the series of contrasting visions compares two views of craters and rilles. The image above shows a crater and a rille on the Moon. The presently accepted theory posits that the crater was caused long ago by the impact of an asteroid-size body. The rille is the remains of a lava tube whose roof collapsed, also long ago. Astronomical bodies, whether asteroids or planets or even stars, are miniscule with respect to the volume of space in which they move. The chances of collision are remote. The probability of close approach is increased if the bodies move on similar orbits, but then their mutual gravity acts to prevent collisions, as we see for example with the "double planet" situation of Earth and Moon or Pluto and Charon. But if there were more bodies long ago, and if there were a long time interval, remote chances of collisions could have accumulated. Craters that have been identified as impact structures on the Earth have failed to yield significant remains of the impactors. Perhaps the incoming bodies exploded or were vaporized. The amount of debris around the craters appears to be a fraction of the volume excavated. Perhaps the force of the impact explosion scattered most of the debris far from the crater. Also, the shape of the crater-flat floor, terraced walls, and steep central peak-is unlike craters produced in lab impacts and explosions. Perhaps the physics of asteroid-size impacts is different from that of lab experiments. Collapsed lava tubes on Earth have rubble piled on their floors. But rilles have clean floors. They also have narrow sinuous grooves incised into the floors. Few rilles have outflows of material that would be expected if lava had once flowed through them. But again, time heals all wounds, and with enough time, under conditions that no longer exist, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive impact scars and lava tubes might come to have an unexpected look.
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The Electric Universe posits that the crater was caused long ago (but not that long ago!) by a planet-size electrical discharge. The shape of the crater corresponds to the shapes created by electrical discharges in labs, and the lack of debris corresponds to the electrical cleaning of spark-discharge machined surfaces. The rille is the remains of a subsurface discharge that probably accompanied the craterforming one. The discharge channel excavated the narrow sinuous groove in the floor, and the shock effects of the discharge blasted out the wider clean valley above it. The shape corresponds to the shape of scars left by lightning strikes to the surface of the Earth. No one has seen an electrical discharge of a size to produce a lunar crater and rille, but spacecraft have discovered low-energy currents between bodies, for example the "flux tubes" connecting Jupiter and its moons or the "stringy things" in Venus's elongated sheath. Perhaps long ago (but not that long ago!) the planetary circuits experienced a surge that caused discharges. The missing matter in impacts and debris is matched with the missing discharges. But in contrast to the mismatch between lunar craters and lab impacts, the effects of the missing discharges can be reproduced in miniature in labs.
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Left: Fornax A photographed in visible light. Right: Radio telescope images reveal giant lobes of matter. Credit: Left: Hubble Heritage Rigiht: Ed Fomalont (NRAO) et al., VLA, NRAO, AUI, NSF
Empty Space--Electric Space

(Jul 25, 2008)
This is the second Picture of the Day in a series that contrasts the vision of presently accepted theories with that of an Electric Universe. The tiny oblong of light in the upper center of the image on the left is of a galaxy recorded in the wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation to which our biological visual apparatus responds. That apparatus is adapted to interpreting its signals in the context of conditions on the surface of the Earth. In consequence, other than the pinpoints of light that make up the galaxy, we assume that we see nothing because nothing is there. This "default interpretation" of biological adaptation is a selection effect that biases our consideration of possible explanations. Because electromagnetic radiation can have wavelengths far outside the tiny range of human visual response, the visual data on which presently accepted theories are based constitutes a small and, as it turns out, unrepresentative sample. We see an aggregation of matter. Because we see nothing nearby, gravity must be pulling the aggregation toward its center of mass. The theory of gravity dictates that energy and energy density must increase toward the center, and we see that this is true. Our "default" explanation has been verified. But the space age introduced instruments that expanded our biological vision by detecting the other wavelengths. With our new "eyes," we saw that the empty spaces were laced with filaments and clouds of high-energy x-ray and gamma radiation. The entire sky was "fogged in" with low-energy microwave radiation. Where we saw darkness and emptiness at night, our new telescopes saw brightness and fullness and structure. The image on the right is of the same galaxy recorded in radio wavelengths. Threads of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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radiation extend along the spin axis of the galaxy to fields of radiation far from the galaxy that are much larger than the galaxy. The Electric Universe sees this entire structure as a pinch in a cosmic Birkeland-current circuit. Induced secondary circuits generate rotation with spiral or ring structures in the equatorial plane and axial ejections with radio-noisy double layers at the boundary of the galactic sheath (magnetosphere). So, is this "really" an electric galaxy instead of a gravity galaxy? Our biological defaultinterpretation apparatus has developed and has been refined over a long time. Our technologically enhanced sensors are recent, and we still "translate" their output into a biovisual format that we inevitably interpret in some default manner. It's unlikely that first attempts at a new interpretation will be optimal adaptations to the new senses. The Electric Universe, as one of several new visions, provides useful contrast with the old to invigorate the neglected scientific question, What else could it be?
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The Andromeda galaxy in infrared and in x-ray light (blue). Credit:AAAS/Science with ESA XMM-Newton and NASA Spitzer data.
Dark Matter-Dark Currents

(Jul 23, 2008)
In his now-famous 1962 essay, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn proposed that the common idea of scientific progress as a continuous, albeit bumpy, approach toward the truth or toward reality failed to explain particular historical episodes that were discontinuous. Kuhn wrote: "[S]cience has included bodies of belief quite incompatible with the ones we hold today." These beliefs were "produced by the same sorts of methods and held for the same sorts of reasons" as are today's beliefs. And this "makes it difficult to see scientific development as a process of accretion." He goes on to describe "revolutions" in science, and he notes that theories on opposite sides of a revolution are "incommensurable." Because the worldview of a theory colors the facts, selects the problems to be solved, and defines the acceptability of solutions, there are no scientific criteria to justify judging one theory to be closer to the truth than another. Nevertheless, scientists do judge one theory to be "more true" than another. At times of revolution, this judgment is transferred from an accepted theory to a novel theory, and pieces of the old theory are reinterpreted in the light of the new worldview to be precursors to the new more true theory. What are overlooked are non-scientific criteria for choosing one theory to be more apt or The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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useful with respect to evolving goals and cultural conditions. While theories cannot legitimately be judged by the standards of another theory, they can be compared with respect to the problems, performance, and promise of each one judged by its own standards. This is the same kind of judgment that a cook uses in the produce department when deciding whether to buy turnips or asparagus. The facts, the problems, and the potential solutions are incommensurable among theories, but scientists' interest and curiosity, shaped by the surrounding conditions of life in a particular time and place, lead them to decide among the offerings. Recourse, then, is not to facts or to compatibility with some "already known" but to differences in vision and promise. This series of Pictures of the Day will contrast such differences between presently accepted theories and Electric Universe theories. The image above is of the nearby spiral galaxy in Andromeda. From the viewpoint of gravity theories, what you don't see is more important than what you do. A black hole at the center of the galaxy pulls in matter and squeezes it until it explodes with a superabundance of radiation. A halo of dark matter surrounds the galaxy and causes the stars in the spiral arms to revolve at the same velocity. The quasars, small galaxies, and gas clouds that stretch out along the rotation axis far from the galaxy are coincidental alignments of background objects. The blue shift of the galaxy indicates that it is moving toward us. From the viewpoint of an Electric Universe, what you don't see also is important. A plasma focus mechanism at the center pulls in current and squeezes it until it explodes in a superabundance of radiation. The pinch effect in plasma currents causes filaments to form, and these you can see. A persistent current can only exist in a circuit, so the spiral arms are "feeder" currents that complete the circuit to the center. These currents are in "dark mode" and therefore are invisible, like dark matter. But unlike dark matter, dark mode currents can be investigated in a lab. Lab dark currents are a source of copious microwave radiation; so, the cosmic microwave background radiation, which the Big Bang theory identifies as a distant remnant of its secular "Genesis story," is likely a microwave "fog" generated locally by the web of currents in our own galaxy's spiral arms. Because these currents are also subject to the pinch effect and to concomitant instabilities, stars (cosmic ball lightning) form along them. Since electrical forces, not gravity, drive them, they all have the same velocity. The plasma focus at the center repeatedly discharges its accumulating charge by ejecting blobs and streams of plasma along its spin axis. Because the electrical stress among these blobs varies in a resonant, step-wise manner, their radiation shows a quantized variation of redshifts. The blueshift of the galaxy, one quantum step from the sequence of redshifts that ends with the Milky Way at zero, indicates that the Milky Way May be one of the first objects ejected from the Andromeda galaxy.
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Star cluster M4. Credit: Kitt Peak Observatory
Red Clusters
(Jul 21, 2008)
The light from remote globular clusters should be blue according to theory because the further away one looks the further back in time one sees. It seems as if each new observation from the Hubble Space Telescope or the Chandra X-ray Observatory adds fuel to the Electric Universe fire. Funded research groups, on the other hand, are constantly finding new stellar entities or peculiar galaxies that require them to attach addenda to existing theories. Now astronomers are faced with yet another observation that they are "struggling to explain." A recent announcement from the Hubble team states that there are clusters of stars orbiting another galaxy over a billion light years away that aren't behaving as conventional understanding suggests rather than being blue-white they are red. Scientists use a measuring rod for the universe that is based on expansion out of a primordial explosion, they believe that the further out into space they look they are seeing the universe as it was closer to the beginning. Because objects located at 1.2 billion light years are supposed to be as they were 1.2 billion years ago, the expectation is that any stars that are observed at that distance should be youthful, near the beginning of their lives, with rich supplies of hydrogen fuel. In that case, the stars ought to be burning hot and blue, radiating high frequency x-rays and extreme ultra-violet light. Globular star clusters are normally found in a halo around galactic nuclei. They are thought to be structures that have been gravitationally attracted to the host galaxy because many of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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them have the appearance of age they have large populations of red stars that are supposed to be old stars. Some theories speculate that the clusters might have been ejected from a host galaxy, or that they formed in conjunction with a host galaxy. No one can be sure, but the ratio of blue stars to red stars is commonly used to indicate an overall age of one cluster in respect to other similar globular clusters. As the Hubble press release pointed out, however, many clusters in a remote galaxy are filled with stars that appear much too red for them to be so young. According to Jason Kalirai of the University of California, Santa Cruz they found 195 clusters in the galaxy with, perhaps, thousands more too dim to see right now. Because current models rely on the principles outlined above, they did not expect the star clusters to be 20% redder than predicted. In an assessment of the discovery, Kalirai is quoted as saying that it could be an unexpectedly metal-rich population of globular clusters, or that the stellar models are incorrect. Although it is a frank admission from an honest investigator, the third possibility is that the theory is simply incomplete and not incorrect. In a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day we referred to Dr. Don Scott's book The Electric Sky, and showed how he improved the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram of stellar evolution by adding another scale to the horizontal axis: Current Density at the Star's Surface. In so doing, how stars appear when viewed through optical telescopes or x-ray detectors will not be dependent on age and distance, but on the amount of energy flowing into the star from the surrounding environment. The greater the electric current, the hotter and brighter the star will appear. Stellar evolution is supposed to follow a path that depends on how various stages of thermonuclear fusion transform hydrogen into heavier elements. The mass of a star and its spectrum contribute to understanding how old it is because the ratio of different elements is supposed to provide an idea of how long it took to convert its original mass into those other elements. As stars accumulate heavier elements in their cores, they fluctuate in output when their temperatures change due to changes in the fusion reactions taking place. They turn red as one phase ends because the atmosphere expands and the outflow is spread over a larger area, and then they turn yellow or white again as another element starts to fuse into still heavier atoms. However, another of the Hubble team members is quoted as saying, "It's possible there's something about stellar evolution we don't understand." The best conventional explanation that has been forthcoming, at this point, is that there is some intervening cloud of material that acts like a filter, absorbing blue light. Since the star clusters they found are located at such a distance, and they are so faint to begin with, the bluer stars could be hidden behind the clouds. As Don Scott wrote: "In the ES model, perhaps the most important factor in determining any given star's characteristics is the strength of the current density in Amperes per square meter (A/m2) measured at that star's surface. If a star's incoming current density increases, the arc discharges on its surface (photospheric tufts) will get hotter, change color (away from red, toward blue), and get brighter. The absolute brightness of a star, therefore, depends on two things: the strength of the current density impinging into its surface, and the star's size (the star's diameter)." So, in reality, the Hubble research team has not discovered anything that is particularly out of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the ordinary. The stars in the globular clusters are merely obeying another aspect to the cosmic energies that permeate the universe: electricity. It is possible that they are not as far away as they appear. They May not be nearly as old as the team thinks because they are not behaving according to gravity and redshift theories but according to theories of plasma cosmology. By Stephen Smith
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A detail from the Hubble Ultra Deep Field image. Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team
Frozen in the Dark

(Jul 16, 2008)
A new theory states that dark matter might prevent stars from aging normally and preserve them for billions of years. According to astronomers, the universe is almost 14 billion years old. It started out with a bang an explosion occurred and all of existence came into being. Scientists do not know why or how space, time, energy and matter were created in the so-called Big Bang, but they speculate that within the first second protons, neutrons and electrons condensed from a sea of undifferentiated interactions. When the universe began, as the theory states, it was approximately 10^32 Kelvin, far too hot for any material substance to be present. Three minutes later, the temperature had fallen to one billion Kelvin and the proto-atomic particles formed the first nuclei that would eventually become atoms. The next major change in the development of the universe came about after another 300,000 years when it cooled down to 3000 Kelvin, permitting electrons to orbit those initial nuclei and form atomic hydrogen. As the cooling period continued the temperature of the universe gradually fell to a point where atomic hydrogen was able to combine into molecular hydrogen and begin transforming into the structures and objects that we see today. Stars born in that early period were so hot and dense that they lived for a mere 100,000 years, consuming their hydrogen and fusing it into helium and other heavier elements. According to a recent announcement from the Paris Institute for Astrophysics, however, some of those early stars might actually still exist within our own Milky Way galaxy. The preserving factor? Dark matter might have dampened stellar fusion to such minimal activity that the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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aging process of those stars was suspended and they stopped evolving. The original stars are known as population III stars and, as the press release states, many of them could have formed within vast clouds of dark matter that preserved them for a practical eternity. According to Gianfranco Bertone of the Paris Institute: "These stars can be frozen for timescales longer than the age of the universe." If dark matter particles called Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPS) are made from heavier versions of normal matter, they might be drawn down to stellar cores through gravitational attraction. The dark matter could then act like other thermonuclear phenomena and undergo violent collisions with normal particles, emitting radiation and elementary fragments that appear to be based on conventional theories of stellar evolution. Dark matter would put a halt to nuclear fusion and "freeze" the star in its aging process for hundreds of thousands of years. Once the dark matter was burned up the star would then go back to fusing hydrogen into helium as prevailing theories assert. Bertone's research team speculates that if the first stars ignited near galactic cores where dark matter is unusually dense they might have been preserved indefinitely: "There could be conditions in the early universe where stars form in big enough reservoirs of dark matter to last until the present day." Indeed, dark matter might have the ability to bring dead stars back to life. If a white dwarf (the supposed husk of a yellow star like the Sun) entered a dense dark matter cloud, it might actually begin to burn dark matter and start to shine as if it were a white star. Some researchers suggest they could become many times brighter than before. Building a theory on another theory and relying on the conclusions of one speculation to prop up the conclusions of another is tantamount to science fiction. In the case of "dark matter burners" and stars almost as old as the universe we are dealing with a step-by-step descent into sheer irony. Since dark matter is unseen and undetectable and has been inferred from mathematical manipulations, could it be that something else is taking place? From the perspective of the Electric Universe theory galaxies and stars are all driven by electric currents flowing through dusty plasma. Birkeland currents create Bennett pinches in electrical vortices where compressed plasma forms glowing spheres most in arc mode but some perhaps remaining in a dark mode discharge state. As we have mentioned in previous Picture of the Day articles, dark matter is an ad hoc addendum that is designed to protect the Big Bang theory. Plasma theorists have grown weary of mathematical legerdemain and are waiting for cosmologists to start thinking about empirical observations rather than continuing on this path toward mysticism. Dark matter (and by extension, dark energy) has been imbued with powers and abilities far beyond the scope of experimental research. The case for dark matter can be thrown out if electricity is considered a formative factor in what has been observed in space. By Stephen Smith
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Exotic terrain on Jupiter's ice moon Europa. Credit: NASA/JPL/Galileo Mission
Europa's Unsettled Poles

(Jul 14, 2008)
It appears as if the north and south poles on Jupiter's giant moon are no longer located where they originated. Scientists have been studying images returned by the Galileo spacecraft for almost ten years now. The images transmitted from Jupiter's moons, in particular, revealed structures that seem to defy conventional geological theories. Why is Callisto covered with craters? Why does Ganymede possess a magnetic field? Why does Europa appear to be covered with water ice that is floating on a vast ocean? A May 15, 2008 article in the science journal Nature announced that Europa seems to have experienced displacement of its north and south poles on more than one occasion. Some close-up observations of its surface reveal giant circular and arcuate formations that researchers interpret as coming from faults in the crust. As prevailing opinions suggest, Europa's surface is a multi-kilometer deep shell of water ice floating on a salty sea. The "decoupled" surface undergoes periodic deformation because movement of the ice creates stress cracks, allowing gigantic rafts to form. The ice rafts supposedly move freely around the moon, pulling apart from one another and then crashing into each other as they are disturbed by heat coming from the interior. In general, Europa is thought to have a hot core because the gravitational forces from Jupiter are said to be stretching and squeezing the moon, creating enough friction to melt the subsurface ice. Crustal displacement due to convection in the liquid layer is responsible for the development of "strike slip faults" that do not conform to the predictive models, according to Alyssa R. Sarid, a graduate student at the University of Arizona, and her advisor Richard Greenberg. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive "With its thin ice shell over a global ocean, Europa is unique. The strike-slip motion provided the key to what has been going on," Sarid reported. Greenberg agrees: "What this suggests is that nothing keeps the thin ice shell of ice covering Europa from sliding around -- it is free to slip and slide over the underlying ocean. The result is the first confirmation that the crust does wander relative to the poles of rotation."
In 1989, a theory was published about the potential for Europa's poles to wander over the surface. "Tidal friction" was tapped as the perpetrator interior heat makes the ice at the equator thinner than at the poles. Europa's rotational momentum pushes thicker polar ice toward the equator carrying the geographic poles with it. Sarid and Greenberg's research concludes that the ice laid down millions of years ago at the poles is now oriented 30 degrees closer to the equator. The implication is that the processes taking place on Europa are invisible to direct observation since they require immense periods of time for their actions to produce significant effects. What kind of experimental project could confirm this hypothesis? Cracks more than a kilometer deep stretch across the moon from horizon to horizon. Dual ridges bracket flat-bottomed faults and wide, dark bands trace out swaths of contrasting material over two thousand kilometers long. The proposition is that Europa is much like the Arctic Ocean here on Earth and the features we see here can be translated to those we see there. Continental drift and plate tectonics assumptions are used both to explain what has been discovered on Europa and to use Europa as confirmation of the theory, a technique known as "bootstrapping." However, as previous Picture of the Day articles have demonstrated, Europa could have reached its present shape in a short period of time and in the relatively recent past. The looping rilles on Europa have no analog to ice cracks on Earth. When ice breaks it is chaotic and affected by variations in thickness and composition so repetitive patterns over long distances should not be expected. Yet, repetitive patterns are observed on Europa, especially in the cycloidal rilles called "flexi." The swirls and loops that cover the moon might lend themselves to duplication in the laboratory using plasma discharge equipment, although at present there are no known experiments of that nature scheduled. It seems evident, though, that whatever happened on Europa in the past is not happening today (thus the long time scales required by standard theories). Greenberg's team from the University of Arizona is building an edifice on top of unstable foundations. Ice is far more homogeneous than rock, so surface discharges on Europa might have excavated the straight trenches. If electric arcs were released in the presence of a magnetic field parallel to the surface, circles or partial circles might be cut into the lithosphere. Claiming that rotation, gravity and melting ice are what shaped Europa and are slowly continuing to do so beyond the limits of our perception means that important factors are being ignored by scientists analyzing observational data. As long ago as 2005, the Thunderbolts team commented on the ironic nature of NASA investigations but they seem to be continuing in the same vein today. "What is needed in the case of Europas surface mysteries is not an arbitrary computer-generated 'solution', but practical experiments to test a new hypothesis. Can electrical discharges produce the rille patterns seen on Europa? The required experimental work is easily within reach if NASAs investigators will follow evidence already in hand. The resulting insights could change the direction of planetary science." By Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Twin asteroid 1999 KW4. Credit: Cornell University, Arecibo telescope radar images.
Binary Asteroids
(Jul 11, 2008)
What causes asteroids to split apart? Scientists have been studying small planetoids called Near Earth Objects (NEO) for the past thirty years. Some concerns have arisen about whether large space rocks could strike our planet since current theories suggest that one of them caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. The Earth has supposedly been struck many times by asteroids and comets, so astronomers have been tracking as many objects as they can find to see if any of them cross the plane of Earth's orbit. As the catalog of objects has increased, about 15% of the asteroids discovered are binary. That is, they are two objects orbiting one another around a common center of mass. A recent press release announced that such pairs could result from the effects of sunlight causing an increase in the spin-rate of an asteroid. Since they are said to be loosely compacted "rubble piles," the angular momentum on the equator increases to such a degree that loosely conglomerated rocks are thrown out of the mass and form another loosely compacted rubble pile in orbit about the first. In the image at the top of the page, Asteroid 1999 KW4 Beta is thought to have been thrown out of its parent, Alpha, because of the notable equatorial ridge that surrounds the asteroid. It The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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resembles a much smaller version of Saturn's moon Iapetus and in fact has a lenticular shape reminiscent of another moon, Atlas. Of course, the rubble pile theory of asteroid composition was created to help explain the mass anomalies that have been seen in asteroid crater studies and in such experiments as Deep Impact, along with the regolith migration found on Itokawa and Eros. Because the gravity on asteroids is minute, what looks like banding, landslides and layering of surface rocks has been theorized to be from micro-meteor impacts shaking the asteroids. Over long periods of time, the shaking sorts the materials by size and density in the same way that a jar of sand and pebbles will sort itself when it is shaken. Some asteroids (and moons) have craters that should have shattered them into fragments when they were hit by whatever took away one third of a hemisphere or punched a hole more than halfway to the other side. The only suitable explanation, according to gravity-based models of asteroid behavior, is that they are loosely compacted; when they are hit by other large objects they act like big sand piles and absorb the impacts without shattering. They have no hard crust to begin with so they haven't fractured despite repeated pounding. The electric model of asteroid formation does not require that one body crash into another one for there to be craters. Electric arcs have the ability to cut surfaces, scoop out material and then accelerate it into space, leaving clean cuts, deep pits and chaotic topography. The effect is commonly called electric discharge machining (EDM). Comets also exhibit surface features that are the same as what has been seen on asteroids, leading Electric Universe theorists to speculate that the two are really one thing and not "dirty snowballs" vs. rocky bodies. If the electrical stress does become too great within an asteroid when it enters the magnetosphere of a planet like Earth, for instance, it May explode into tiny fragments that burn up. If the electrical stress is not too great as an asteroid flies through another e-field it might split into two large pieces instead of exploding. The same equalization of potential could take place but leave behind a pair of orbiting twins that continue on their way. A theory of electrical fissioning might provide a more reasonable hypothesis than sunlight and angular momentum, although the sunlight theory has the advantage of acceding to the billionyear timescale that dominates science today. Everything takes so much time that the numbers no longer have meaning and is relegated to a past so remote that it is unimaginable. To say that sunlight requires a billion years to spilt an asteroid is science; yet saying that a bluebird can do it is a myth. But given a billion year old bluebird, who knows? People are typically uncomfortable with events that happen quickly in a large frame of reference. Floods, earthquakes and lightning are frightening and unpredictable when they take place on the scale of cities and counties. No one wants to imagine that such things could take place on the planetary or stellar scale. However, each of the phenomena that we consider in these pages interrelate in ways that make the conclusion compelling: electricity forms most of what we see in the Solar System and beyond. By Stephen Smith
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Pingualuit Crater, northern Quebec, Canada. Credit: NASA/Jesse Allen, Landsat/University of Maryland Global Land Cover Facility.
The Canadian Shield

(Jul 07, 2008)
Northeastern Canada is fractured and scoured down to bedrock in many places with almost no vegetation growing. Thousands of lakes and rivers inhabit channels that appear to have been carved first and then adopted by them. Whenever Spring returns to the Northern Hemisphere, the Maritime Provinces of Canada continue in frozen hibernation, melting slowly because the exposed bedrock does not warm up quickly in the sunlight. Nearly the entire eastern half of Canada, including Hudson Bay and the Great Lakes, is composed of criss-cross fracture lines, deep rifts, loose piles of gravel and pebbles that extend for hundreds of kilometers, and parallel ridges with lakes between them that have no outlets. The landscape is said to date from the end of the last Ice Age some 15,000 years ago when glaciers moved across North America in sheets covering the continent. The inexorable weight of the ice ground down the surface topography and left gouges and grooves in the rock while it pushed the debris ahead of itself or carried it away in suspension, dropping the material far from its origin when the ice finally melted. In a previous Picture of the Day article about the Manicouagan Impact Structure in Canada, the unique geography in the region was explained by the action of electric arcs machining down into the rock strata, leaving circular formations and sinuous rilles as evidence for their explosive passage through the layers. The lack of debris in the crater, vertical sidewalls, the shallow, flat bottom and glassified breccias were also considered to be evidence that supports an electric arc theory better than most theories of glacial erosion. The term "shield" comes from the fact that the area looks like a Viking shield although it is more of a horseshoe-shape, overall, considering Hudson Bay and the outlet to the sea. Gold, copper and nickel mines are scattered throughout the Northwest Territories and Kimberlite pipes have also been exploited for diamonds, making the mineralogical composition similar in many ways to Siberia where another crater the same size as Manicouagan can be found. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Observations from the Canadian Shield seem to add additional support for electricity as a possible formative agent in North American geography and not just the movement of ice and volcanic eruptions. Asteroid impacts are proposed when features such as Manicouagan are discussed since there are no other alternatives for most geologists to consider. The catastrophic origin of some landforms is acknowledged in most circles but the electrical component is never given any thought since the arrival of a giant rock from space seems more preferable than the arrival of a giant lightning bolt from space. This attitude demonstrates a bias toward familiar ideas since we now know that small lightning bolts from space (sprites) arrive more often than small meteoroids from space. If the lakes with no outlets have been in existence since the end of the last Ice Age and they presumably filled with melt water, why are their shores bedrock with thin soils and not much sediment on their bottoms? The ice should have left tons of sediments behind when it melted away. If the melting ice left giant piles of gravel across the flat plains when it melted, why not on the bottom of deep depressions that are now lakes? Did the ice not contain any debris over so large an area? How does ice leave marks that cross over and under each other? The fault lines that cover the Canadian Shield are often at ninety degrees to one another and the resulting lakes are square-shaped cutouts in the stone. There are also some triangular lakes because the fractures meet at a forty-five degree angle. Did the ice sheets change direction as they pressed down on the land in their southward flow? Craters like Pingualuit are punched into the terrain at intervals, as well: once again, bowl-shaped, steep-walled, with no localized debris field and no deep sedimentary deposits on the bottom. The focus of an ion beam large enough to cut out and take away sedimentary deposits weighing billions of tons is not easy to contemplate. The energy requirement is so great that there appears to be no way that it can be generated what could launch a bolt of lightning that powerful? Indeed, what could launch hundreds or thousands of such bolts? The surface of our planet bears witness to catastrophic events in the not so remote past, despite uniformitarian views that assume slow, steady effects. Craters are declared to be ancient and not recent. Mountain ranges and valleys are asserted to be older than the memory of man and not newly minted out of a destroyed and remade previous world, despite the mythology and folk tales that relate eyewitness accounts how and when it was minted. However, if we look outward we can see that our planetary neighbors also bear the scars of forces that are difficult to explain. The moons that circle them are half-melted balls of slag peppered with hexagonal craters and scarps 10 kilometers high that cut through other terrain like a hot knife. There are millions of asteroids of varying sizes and the ones that have been observed closely bear similar markings. From planetoids like Ceres down to beads the size of a pinhead, craters and cracks are found in glassified blobs that appear to have been put through a blast furnace. The same glassified spherules with the same appearance as the ones collected from the Moon, for example, are scattered all over the Earth. The shocked spherules of crystal that are found inside meteorites are of similar appearance. Is there a way to explain so many observational similarities in so many environments at so many scales? That is one crucial issue that the Electric Universe hypothesis continues to explore. By Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Composite image of spiral galaxy M81. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Wisconsin/D.Pooley & CfA/A.Zezas; Optical: NASA/ESA/CfA/A.Zezas UV: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA/J.Huchra et al.; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA
Supermassive Problems with Black Holes

(Jul 02, 2008)
A gravitational point source more than 70 million times the mass of the Sun is theorized to inhabit this galactic core. Are scientists misinterpreting their own observations? In a recent press release from the Chandra X-ray Observatory astronomers announced that black holes exhibit similar behavior regardless of their mass. Whether they are ten times the mass of a typical star or many millions of times more massive, they tear matter apart and forcefully draw it into unknown regions where the so-called physical laws of our universe no longer apply. Black holes are said to cause space and time itself to twist and warp so that the past becomes the future and velocity calculations yield impossible solutions. Matter inside of a black hole occupies no volume at all, yet retains gravitational acceleration so great that not even light can escape its attraction thus they are "black" holes because they cannot be detected with optical telescopes. Although they are impossible to observe directly over 90% of galaxies in the universe are said to harbor these perilous maws. In several previous Picture of the Day discussions about black holes and their influence on the universe we determined that the descriptive terminology used by researchers is itself problematic, relying on highly speculative explanations derived from loose interpretations. Ambiguous lexical labels such as space/time, multiple universes, singularities, infinite density and other ideas that are not quantifiable have introduced irony into what should be a realistic The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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investigation into the nature of the universe. Scientists working with Chandra have also concluded that black holes can form with an intense electric field as they collapse into infinite darkness. It is thought that gamma ray bursts are generated when the e-field in a dying star is converted into electron and positron (anti-matter electrons) pairs in less than a trillionth of a nanosecond. Copious groups of anti-particles interact and annihilate each other, releasing electromagnetic radiation that propagates outward at the speed of light. The extremely high light frequencies are seen as a gamma ray burst on Earth along with an "afterglow" of ultraviolet and x-ray emissions. Since explosions of such magnitude are impossible under conventional models of matter and energy the Chandra team has concluded that something new must be added to the mix; that "something" is electric charge, although it is electric charge in a bizarre disguise. Gamma ray observations imply matter and anti-matter annihilation but the formation of electron-positron pairs due to gravitational compaction is a theoretical fantasy. Another fictional source for the energetic phenomena we see in space is gravitational tides. Some flares and x-ray jets spewing from galaxies are thought to be caused by stars traveling too close to their central supermassive black holes where they are torn apart by tidal forces. Most of the star's gas escapes the black hole, but a small quantity is captured by the immense gravity and forms a rotating disk. Closer to the black hole, heat generated by molecular collisions tears the atoms apart and the disk of gas glows in x-rays. When matter eventually falls into the black hole gamma rays explosively burst out. It must be asked whether there is a consistent way to explain what we see in space along with a way to demonstrate those explanations in the laboratory? X-rays and gamma rays in space are not created in gravity fields. Laboratory experiments most easily produce them by accelerating charged particles through an electric field. No gigantic masses compressed into tiny volumes are necessary and they are easily generated with the proper experimental models. There are other factors that should be considered when analyzing data from space before resorting to super-dense objects and anti-matter explosions as their cause. There is no experimental evidence that matter can be compressed to "infinite density." How stars form supernovae is not clear. Supernovae do not form spherical shells when they explode; they form glowing bipolar plasma formations like an hourglass. No one knows what triggers a black hole to suddenly gobble-up matter in its "accretion disk" within a few months. As we have noted in the past, Hannes Alfvn identified the "exploding double layer" as a new class of celestial object. It is double layers in space plasmas that form most of the unusual structures we see. Stellar explosions, jets, rings, and glowing clouds these are all examples of electricity flowing through dusty plasma confined within Birkeland currents that stretch across the light years. Compression zones (z-pinches) in the plasma filaments form plasmoids that become the stars and galaxies. Electricity is responsible for the birth of stars, and when the current density gets too high the double layers in the circuit catastrophically release their excess energy and appear as gamma ray bursts or x-rays or flares of ultraviolet light. By Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Strange weathering in basalt lava deposits. Credit: Mike Weiss
Antarcticas Dry Valleys

(Jun 30, 2008)
Not all the Southern Continent is frozen. It has areas like other deserts in the world: barren, dry and lifeless. Antarctica is known for being an ice-bound continent covered with glaciers and sheets of ice four kilometers deep. Its only long-term inhabitants are seabirds, seals, whales and a particular brand of research scientist with a penchant for new discoveries in extreme environments. However, an analysis of satellite imagery around the South Pole revealed that there are some areas in the Wright Valley, for example, that are entirely free of ice and have rivers flowing through them. A previous Picture of the Day article about the giant Wilkes Land crater suggested that the continent has been catastrophically altered by electrical events and not by the slow action of glaciers and Ice Age effects alone. The crater could have been created in similar fashion to Manicouagan or Popigai before Antarctica froze at the beginning of the last ice age. Some observations seem to show that the glacial debris is younger in appearance than the time estimates demand, and some of the charred forests that lie buried under the ice burned up so quickly that they are carbonized in place. They look as if a lightning bolt or some other electric discharge hit them suddenly. The electrical forces that were unleashed May have actually caused the continent to freeze, the forests to burn and the animals to die and become fossilized in a short period of time. Antarctica not only possesses one of the largest craters on Earth, it also has some of the largest stone monoliths found on any continent. Murray Monolith is much like the dolerite structure in Tasmania called Cradle Mountain. Another is horseshoe-shaped like the Massif des Bauges in France. Stone blocks such as Mount Conner in Australia and Table Mountain just outside of Cape Town, South Africa resemble those in Antarctica, as well. One interesting aspect to the Wright Valley is that dolerites scattered throughout the area look The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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different than simple weathering can explain. Dolerite is basalt lava that is hard enough to resist the erosion, which is how standard geological theories explain the stone monoliths. Underlying lava rocks are harder than the surrounding sedimentary deposits so plutons, or lava plugs, are left behind after wind and rain dissolves the softer material. Because dolerite tends to erode by freeze-thaw fracturing, pinnacles caused by weathering in the vertical cracks are often found on top of basalt and granite plutons. The formations on top of the hilltops in Wright Valley defy that convention as the image at the top of the page demonstrates. They have a half-melted and drilled appearance, with sharp-edged holes and fluted wings of stone flowing down that are distinctive to Antarctica but have characteristics similar to those on Ben Bulben in Ireland or on the summit of Angel Falls in Argentina. In every environment where isolated mountains of rock are located, anomalous "erosion" patterns are also found. The relationship between the two is unlikely to be random since it occurs in disparate locales and temperature ranges. Rather than being anomalies, these patterns should be considered signs that a single event spawned significant changes at a variety of scales in rock strata all over the world. By Stephen Smith
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"Dodo-Goldilocks" trench dug by the Phoenix Lander. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University
The Search for Water on Mars Continues

(Jun 20, 2008)
No indications of water vapor are in the soil samples excavated by the Phoenix lander. On June 11, 2008, NASA conducted the first experiment designed to detect water on Mars. After digging what the researchers from the University of Arizona refer to as a "practice trench" approximately seven centimeters deep, the robot arm onboard Phoenix tipped the sample into the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer. Although there was a false-start due to clumping of the rock dust, the TEGA was finally able to bake the material at 35 C in an attempt to drive off any volatile compounds, especially water vapor. No water was detected. After the first evaluation, the soil was heated to 175 C, but to no avail. William Boynton, team leader in charge of the TEGA package, said he was not surprised by the null result because the sample "sat out in the Martian sun for several days" and any water ice most likely sublimed into the thin atmosphere. Early next week, researchers will command the TEGA to raise its oven temperature to 1000 C so that any water "chemically bound" to the compounds in the soil will be released. Said Boynton: "We expect there's a high probability that we would find minerals with chemicallybound water, which would release their water at higher temperatures." They also hope that the mass spectrometer package will see traces of sulfur dioxide or carbon dioxide in the mix, an indication that water once reacted with the minerals on Mars. A piece of the white substance in the bottom of the trench was left by the robotic scoop, so The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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NASA will be watching it to see if it changes over time. It might be ice according their hypothesis, so if it shrinks in size it could be due to sublimation. The atmosphere on Mars is so dry and so tenuous that ice will not enter its liquid phase out in the open but instead evaporates into gas. As previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles have stressed, there is probably no water on Mars so the white chunk is most likely broken from a layer of salt or from other minerals like those discovered at lower latitudes. The forces that dumped the deposits on Mars were global. Phoenix mission analysts are in a "wait and see" mode but we predict that the small wedge of rock will not sublime. Phoenix will soon begin digging another trench in one of the polygonal shapes that are visible for many kilometers around its landing site. Planetary scientists have suggested that the polygons are similar to what can be found in the Arctic tundra where "frost heave" sorts stones and permanently frozen ground into regular contours. Expansion and contraction of subsurface ice could have done the same thing on Mars, so NASA has preserved the location while they conducted their practice drills in less crucial real estate. Mars is rich in silicon dioxide and magnesium sulfate. Both chemical compounds are white and crystalline so they look something like ice when formed into slabs. The Opportunity rover found expanses of silicon dioxide (quartzite) covering many square kilometers as it slowly made its way to the rim of Victoria Crater. NASA scientists refer to Martian quartzite blocks as "cobbles" and "pavement" because they resemble sidewalks and concrete roadways here on Earth. The Spirit rover suffered a breakdown in one of its drive wheels about two years ago, causing it to drag rather than roll smoothly. The mechanical failure was actually a boon in one respect as the wheel plowed through the dust and sand it uncovered a layer of bright white soil that was subsequently identified as magnesium sulfate. Neither rover detected water, although some observations led the science teams to believe that water once existed on Mars. Spacecraft in orbit around the Red Planet have returned images of what appear to be water features. Previous Picture of the Day articles have taken issue with that interpretation, however. "Ancient glaciers," "oceans" and "fast flowing torrents" of water probably never existed on Mars. NASA scientists do not concede that electricity is capable of creating structures and terrain that look like they were carved by liquid, so no other hypothesis is available to them. The remnant topography on Mars is not rounded or softened as if by a deluge, nor does it conform to slow weathering by rainfall or blowing dust. The formations are sharp, angular and fresh looking, as if they were sculpted quickly and with tremendous force. The northern latitudes, in particular, appear to have been obliterated. In fact, Electric Universe theorist Wal Thornhill has written that the northern region of Mars was the scene of a cosmic plasma storm that electrically sputtered millions of square kilometers out of the crust, subsequently redistributing the finely divided dust all over the rest of the planet as well as hurling it into space. In such a cataclysmic event, all the water ice that might have once existed on Mars would have been disintegrated and blasted away, never to return. By Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Palouse Falls, Eastern Washington. Photographer unknown.
The Channeled Scablands

(Jun 18, 2008)
Some researchers have theorized that hundreds of megafloods in a cycle ranging over thousands of years formed the scars in Washington State. Electricity could have carved the region in minutes. On September 20, 2005, National Public Broadcasting sponsored a NOVA television documentary, "Mystery of the Megaflood." The program elucidated a theory for how Eastern Washington State was scoured down to the bedrock, leaving formations that geologists find difficult to explain from a uniformitarian perspective. Rather than relying on traditional models of slow, progressive erosion, a catastrophic hypothesis was proposed. As the theory suggests, during the end of the last ice age, approximately 12,000 years ago, a flood of water taller than mountains swept down through valleys and drainage channels, moving at 120 kilometers per hour. The force of the water was so great that it washed away the forests, the topsoil and any signs of civilization that might have existed in its path. Nothing remained except humps of basalt lava, dry canyons, waterfalls that today have no water and deep chasms that mark where the colossal flow etched into the rocks. NOVA based their program on a theory originally published by J Harlen Bretz in 1925. It was Bretz who referred to the area as The Channeled Scablands because he thought that mounds of dolerite scattered throughout the Grand Coulee territory resembled crusty scabs on the flat plain. Along with fellow geologist J.T. Pardee, Bretz became convinced that the Columbia River Plateau has been the scene of not one but hundreds of floods that periodically erupted from a now dried up lake that collected behind a glacial dam. Bretz proposed that a glacier blocked the mouth of an ancient river valley and the runoff from melting ice gradually filled it with water, forming what is now known as the extinct Lake Missoula. As the water grew deeper theorized to be nearly 300 meters deep the pressure on small cracks in the ice dam forced it to crumble and fail all at once, discharging as much as 60 cubic kilometers of water per hour out over the landscape. Bretz and Pardee formulated their theory of flooding because the prevailing opinions among scientists of their day did not seem to fit the observations that they made in the field. The two researchers conducted extensive surveys throughout Oregon and Washington, finding The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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anomalous terrain and evidence that seemed to demand an alternative to the gradualism on which their scientific discipline was based. Large boulders, some weighing many thousands of kilograms, known as glacial erratics, are supposed to have been carried by ice for many kilometers before it melted away, dropping the burden of stones and gravel on top of rock strata that is different in composition from the material that was frozen into the icy matrix. Bretz and Pardee did not think that frozen water was responsible for the boulders they found. Instead, they suggested that liquid water rolled and floated the stones downstream, depositing them at the point where the flow diminished enough for them to fall out of suspension. Erratic boulders are found all over the world. In some cases they lie scattered in fields or stretched out in long lines and are often accompanied by piles of loess (silt and clay supposedly ground up by glaciers and then blown into deep deposits by the wind). Giant sandbars of gravel and glacial till, ripples 30 meters high and 150 meters between crests that march for kilometers across terrain that is desert-like today, and "potholes" 100 meters in diameter and 50 meters deep are also located near them. It is fortunate that some scientists were (and perhaps are) willing to consider explanations that differ from those that have been established for more than 200 years. It is unfortunate that the proposed alternatives do not take into account electrical activity as a formative agent in structures such as those revealed by the Channeled Scablands. We have considered the scarring of planets and moons in many previous Picture of the Day articles. Lightning bolts orders of magnitude more powerful than anything seen on Earth today could have created the topography that Bretz and Pardee ascribed to ice dams and flowing water. As the Electric Universe theory explains, Mars has been subjected to similar electrical jolts that etched its surface with gigantic "skylights" (much like the potholes found in the Scablands), deep canyons with multiple side branches at right angles to the main channel, coulees, dry falls, terraces and other features that can be found on Earth. Due to their close resemblance to terrestrial physiography, the Martian formations are thought to be extremely old and cut by water millions of years ago. Electricity is never considered part of the equation when geological theories are presented. Bretz, Pardee and NASA scientists have missed a vital clue in the search for answers to the puzzles of planetary scarring. By Stephen Smith
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Planetary Nebula SuWt 2. Credit: NASA/Hubble Space Telescope
Little Star Lost

(Jun 16, 2008)
Astronomical theories predict that a planetary nebula in the constellation Centaurus should harbor a white dwarf star at its center. However, such a star cannot be found. NASA scientists are on the hunt for a missing star. A recent press release from researchers operating the Hubble Space Telescope has described SuWt 2 as a luminous ring of dust and gas with hourglass-shaped longitudinal discharges. Astrophysicists expected the nebular material to be shining because of extreme ultraviolet radiation from a white dwarf star at its center. However, no such star is there and the ultraviolet light has not been detected. The nebular ring (or spherical shell) does contain a pair of stars in orbit about a common center of gravity, moving at a velocity of one revolution every five days. The stellar pair is more than 100 times brighter than the Sun and nearly three times hotter. Although the stars are so hot and shine so brightly, the radiation is not powerful enough to energize the nebula. As NASA investigators assume, only a flood of ultraviolet light, such as that from the missing white dwarf, could do that. Since their initial discovery 200 or more years ago, planetary nebulae have demonstrated behaviors and characteristics that are not easy to explain. They exhibit helical loops, rings, bubbles, jets, lobes and many other features that seem to trump standard theories. They are said to be composed of hot gas and owe their morphology to the influence of shockwaves from exploding stars or the pressure from stellar winds blowing through them. In some cases, the nebular forms are described as "like a windsock" inflated by a strong breeze. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Astronomical theories do not yet have a mechanism for the nebular clouds and energetic emissions that have been found. They do not know how stars "shrug off" their outer layers or how they eject lobate structures from their polar axes. The reason for the misunderstanding is that nebulae are composed not of hot gas, but of plasma. Gases obey the laws of kinetic motion: molecules bump into each other due to thermal energy or they are accelerated by the impetus imparted by other fast-moving particles. Plasma behaves in accordance with the laws of electricity rather than Newtonian physics. Stars are created within Birkeland currents that flow in a great circuit through the galaxy. The Bennett pinch effect squeezes plasma inside these cosmic "transmission lines" in space, igniting stars and forming toroidal currents around the stellar equators. It is actually the electrical current density that causes the plasma in nebular rings and shells to glow. According to the Electric Universe hypothesis, SuWt 2 is actually an hourglass-shaped toroid viewed in perspective. The binary star in the center of the nebula generates a current sheet along the systems equatorial plane that astronomers have misidentified as a stellar wind. The Birkeland currents pass through regions of greater density in the disc of gases around the twin stars, causing the disc to light up in a bright ring like a searchlight illuminating clouds in the sky. As the publicized observations have confirmed, the ring is not lit by ultraviolet radiation. Dr. Charles Bruce, a member of the Electrical Research Association in Great Britain, observed many similarities between planetary nebulae and electrical discharge phenomena over 60 years ago. (See Bruce, C.E.R., The Extension of Atmospheric to Space Electricity in Problems of Atmospheric and Space Electricity, 1963. Editor: Coronti, S.C.) Because plasma in laboratory experiments forms cellular structures separated by thin walls of oppositely charged layers (called double layers), it is probable that the same thing happens in nebulae. Asserting that case will be impossible for many decades to come because there is no way to be absolutely sure without placing a Langmuir probe into a nebula and measuring the electric current differential. However, examples of plasma behavior in space that correspond to laboratory observations include magnetospheres, comet tails, x-rays from Saturns rings, and the Suns photosphere. As Hannes Alfvn wrote: "...space in general has a cellular structure', although this is almost impossible to observe unless a spacecraft penetrates the cell walls (current sheets). This means that in distant regions, we cannot hope to detect the cell walls directly. Nor can we tell the size of the cells. It is unpleasant to base far-reaching conclusions on the existence of a structure which we cannot detect directly. But the alternative is to draw farreaching conclusions from the assumption that in distant regions, the plasmas have properties which are drastically different from what they are in our own neighborhood. This is obviously far more unpleasant than our inability to detect distant cell walls. Hence, a thorough revision of our concept of the properties of interstellar (and intergalactic) space is an inevitable consequence of recent magnetospheric discoveries." -- Hannes Alfvn, Cosmic Plasma, Chapter II, Electric Currents in Space Plasmas In the nuclear view, a planetary nebula is the result of a dying star that has exhausted its hydrogen/helium fuel supply and collapsed under gravitational compression. The stellar implosion rebounds off the core, throwing massive amounts of star stuff into space. But, as The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Don Scott makes clear in his book, The Electric Sky, a planetary nebula results from electrical overload in a star a normal star flaring up from abnormal electrical stress. The observed filamentary, cellular and toroidal structures are characteristic of plasma behavior. By Stephen Smith
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Wesley Doggett (left) and Willard Bennett (right) with Strmertron tube. Credit: NCSU Special Collections Archive
Happy Birthday Willard Bennett

(Jun 13, 2008)
Willard Harrison Bennett, a notable scientist and inventor and for whom the Bennett pinch, or "z-pinch," is named, was born June 13, 1903. As a jet of water flows, the surface tension causes the stream to constrict, and the jet forms beads or droplets. One sometimes sees this in a stream of water from a garden hose. In 1992, Chief Researcher at the Kurchatov Institute, Boris Trubnikov, noted that water beading is a good analogy for the observed pinching of plasma jets in the laboratory as well as the pinching of cosmic plasma in nebulae. In plasma, the pinching is due to the selfgenerated magnetic field compressing the jet unevenly along its length. The pinch is sometimes called a z-pinch because the magnetic field lies along the z-axis and the beading is sometimes referred to as a sausage instability because of its shape. In 1905, James Arthur Pollock and Samuel Barraclough at the University of Sydney proposed that the distortions in a length of copper piping used as a lightning conductor were due to the pinch effect. The phenomenon has also been suggested to be the cause for pinching in bead lightning. Pinching metal is demonstrated in the laboratory by placing an aluminum can in a coil of wire and sending a short pulse of high electric current through the coil. The magnetic field that is generated will crush the can into a characteristic hourglass shape. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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As cells of cosmic plasma move relative to each other they generate currents and magnetic fields that also cause them to produce jets that pinch and bead. It is perhaps no coincidence that when astronomer Walter Baade first distinguished individual stars in the Andromeda Galaxys core he described them as like "beads on a string." The Ant Nebula, which glows like a plasma-filled fluorescent light tube, has a characteristic hourglass pinch in its middle. Willard Harrison Bennett first investigated pinches in plasmas in the 1930s. He was able to work out a relationship between the plasma density and current (the so-called Bennett relation), and pinches are sometimes called a Bennett pinch. Bennett also invented a device called the Strmertron tube. With it, he created analogues for all the plasma stream formations in space, including the toroids of charged particles known as the Van Allen radiation belts that surround Earth. Dr. Willard H. Bennett was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1991 for his invention of the Bennett radio frequency mass spectrometer. Contributed by Ian Tresman
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Strange glow on the lunar horizon. Credit: NASA/Surveyor 7
Lunar Dust Levitation

(Jun 11, 2008)
Static electric charge might help to explain the glowing haze sometimes seen rising 100 kilometers above the Moons horizon. Between May 1966 and January 1968, NASA launched the Surveyor missions to the Moon. Each Surveyor spacecraft weighed approximately 450 kilograms and was designed to softland on the lunar surface, riding the tip of a retrorocket descent engine. Surveyor 7 made one of the most intriguing discoveries when its onboard camera detected a faint glow in the lunar night, hovering over the horizon. In 1998, the Lunar Prospector was launched from Cape Canaveral with gamma-ray spectrometer, alpha particle spectrometer, neutron spectrometer, magnetometer and electron reflectometer instrumentation. During several orbits, the spacecraft detected a surprisingly high voltage change as it passed through the magnetotail extending outward from Earth. The magnetotail is actually a part of the plasma sheath that envelops the Earth. The Moon passes through it once a month at full moon phase and the electric differential was found to occur during that passage. The Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field that is trapped inside a cometary plasma tail that actually stretches well beyond the Moon's orbit. The Earth's magnetospheric tail points away from the Sun due to the high-speed ions streaming from the Sun. The movement of the Moon through the ionized plasma affects the materials in the lunar regolith. Electrons accumulate and produce a negative charge on the ultra-fine dust particles, causing them to repel each other and drift off the surface. Charge differential between the day and night side of the Moon might actually generate an ion "wind" flowing from the negatively charged night side into the more positively charged sunlit side. The negative charge on the bright surface during daylight is moderated by the photoelectric phenomenon, while it tends to build up in the darkness, forming static electricity. The charge variation between the two hemispheres has been measured at more than 1000 volts. Earth's cometary plasma cocoon changes shape and power as electric currents from the Sun bombard our planet. It is sometimes described as a "flag waving" because of somewhat The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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regular oscillations in the field. This means that the Moon does not simply pass through the magnetotail once and briefly, but that electric charges will brush the surface several times during each monthly encounter. Electric currents exist in space and their effects are varied, depending on the environment. According to the Electric Universe hypothesis, electric currents from the Sun influence Martian weather by initiating gigantic dust storms and "super twisters" larger than Mt. Everest. These filamentary structures are much like those found on Earth, except larger because the ameliorating atmosphere on our planet does not exist on Mars. In a previous Picture of the Day, activity inside tornadoes and in the magma discharges from volcanoes was found to be of electrical origin. The levitating dust and the faint glow on the lunar horizon are most likely because the Moon has no atmosphere at all, so the electric charges have greater impetus. The Electric Universe model suggests that transfer of electricity between the Earth and the Moon via the Earth's conducting plasma tail also applies to more distant Mars. Global dust storms on Mars seem to occur preferentially at opposition, and Earth's magnetotail has been detected approaching Mars. Like the Moon, Mars has no magnetosheath, so the same "tail effect" could occur on Mars, where it would influence the thin atmosphere. This would also explain the enigmatic "blue clearing" of the Martian atmosphere when viewed telescopically at opposition. The "blue clearing" refers to a blue atmospheric glow that normally renders surface features on Mars invisible through a blue filter. By Stephen Smith
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Cradle Mountain with Dove Lake in the foreground. Credit: touringtasmania.info
Cradle Mountain, Tasmania

(Jun 09, 2008)
Australias wild country exhibits some of the most unusual geology found anywhere on Earth. Could the dolerite structures in Tasmania be electrical formations? The Island of Tasmania in the south of Australia is one of the most provocative spots on Earth. The remarkable diversity of plant life and the unique animals found nowhere else have provided scientists of every stripe with near-ideal conditions for study. The ecology is isolated, with little incursion from transplanted animals, although the rats that stowed away on early ships and the cats that were subsequently imported to kill the rats have had a dramatic (and sometime devastating) impact on the native animals. Cradle Mountain might qualify as another example of the mysterious stone monoliths that are found on every continent (and under the sea). Unlike other Australian formations that are composed entirely of sandstone and a loose conglomerate of quartzite, sandstone, seashells and a collection of whatever minerals are found in the surrounding area, Cradle Mountain is a solid chunk of dolerite, or congealed basalt lava. Tasmania illustrates violent geologic activity that took place "millions of years ago" according to conventional models. The mountainous uplifts, the deep, steep-sided gorges, the "needles" of stone that rise out of the ocean around its circumference and the many crater lakes found in the interior are said to be the remains of volcanic eruptions due to the movement of tectonic plates. Indeed, lava flows that buried valleys and snuffed-out jungles and forests are easy to see. The difficulty with the observation is that the features appear to be exceptionally fresh rather than extremely ancient. How do sharp needles of stone and vertical cliffs enclosing flat-bottomed channels come to exist through the slow process of erosion? The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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As most geologists propose, the erosive action of wind and rain tends to "melt" rock formations because rainwater is a weak form of carbonic acid and wind carries grains of dust that grind away at the stone over eons of time. Sharp points become blunted mounds; vertical walls become gently sloping hills, while river valleys mature from canyons into shallow meanders in a broad flood plain. It is counter-intuitive, therefore, to find youthful topography in a location that should have matured into old age millennia ago. Cradle Mountain, in particular, is crowned with rock formations that seem to defy the elemental forces that are attempting to dissolve its very structure. Upright columns of dolerite stand like Easter Island statues in the rain. As standard mineralogical studies seem to indicate, basaltic lavas are often found eroded into columnar forms with a tendency to split into vertical fractures. On mountain peaks that are exposed to alternate freezing and thawing, the rainwater supposedly seeps into cracks in the stone where it freezes and expands, forcing the rock apart into slabs. Or, water finds the path of least resistance in the stone, carving vertical cracks ever deeper until, eventually, the rock falls apart. In our Picture of the Day about the tepuis of Amazonia, we reported that on many of the summits rock formations that look more like abstract sculpture gardens are abundant. Stone points, thickets of tubular palisades and upraised, columnar "hands" with multiple fingers demonstrate that weathering cannot be the primary cause. How does erosion leave behind stacked stone towers with many layers, sharp edges, mushroom-shaped caps and fine detail? Figures such as those should have softened long ago. Cradle Mountain is crowned with an incredible number of similar oddities. The mountain, itself, resembles the South American massifs so closely that they could be cousins. Dove Lake is one of many such "crater lakes" that can be found in the region. It is a bowlshaped lake, very deep, scooped out of the bedrock. Around the lake are vertical cliffs that seem to indicate that Dove Lake is actually the bottom of a larger crater that is several kilometers in diameter. Lake Willis is another bowl-shaped lake located high above Dove Lake. Its overflow runs down into Dove Lake as a spectacular waterfall. Crater Lake, Lake Lilla and others are similar in shape. A particularly interesting detail is that these lakes appear to have been created by a kind of shotgun blast from space. They are clustered together, have nearly identical morphology and are "punched" into the strata, leaving it visible as multiple layers. How did the Australian landforms come to be? If what has been taught since Lyell and Agassiz is correct, they were formed by glaciers, volcanism, erosion and other slow, steady, predictable forces that are supposed to be occurring invisibly all around us all the time. But if the Electric Universe hypothesis of planetary scarring is correct, they might have been created in an instant and in the recent past. By Stephen Smith
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The Large Magellanic Cloud. Infrared image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI
Half-Massed Star
Jun 06, 2008
Red supergiant stars and mysterious streamers of gas make the Large Magellanic Cloud a fertile ground for scientific speculation about its attributes. Of course, no mainstream theories include electricity as a formative agent. European observers have known the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) since the time when Ferdinand Magellan attempted a circumnavigation of the globe in 1519. Of course, Australian Aboriginal people as well as other groups south of the equator have known about their existence since time immemorial. According to standard astronomical distance calculations, the LMC is 160,000 light-years from Earth and is referred to as a "dwarf galaxy," one of a few that orbit the Milky Way. In the image at the top of the page, the Spitzer Space Telescope has resolved the LMC with astonishing detail. Hundreds of thousands of objects can be seen: "cool, old stars" in the blue regions and "hot, young stars" in the bright regions. The blobs of gas and dust that appear reddish in the image are glowing with the heat generated by the stars inside them, according to astronomers. One puzzling aspect to the LMC is the long tail of hydrogen gas that flows out behind the galaxy (as well as from the SMC). Some researchers suggest that the gas (called the Magellanic Stream) formed because tidal influences from the Milky Way drew material out in a gravitational tug. Others have speculated that the hydrogen was cast off due to gas pressure as the Clouds accelerate through the thin mist of gases that encompass our Galaxy. "We've been left with a real mystery," said Gurtina Besla from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in September 2007. In future studies, Besla and her associates plan to use "n-body" calculations to determine how the Magellanic Stream was formed. From the perspective of the Electric Universe hypothesis, however, making use of formulae that rely solely upon Newtonian dynamics will not provide an accurate representation of the hydrogen stream. Ignoring the long-range attraction and short-range repulsion interactions from electric currents flowing through the dusty plasma means that forces far more powerful than gravity The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Recently, the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) announced another puzzle in the LMC, a gigantic star that appears to be far less massive than it should be. WOH G64 is an example of a red supergiant star (according to the conventional interpretation of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram) and is over 2000 times the diameter of our Sun. Said Keiichi Ohnaka, who led the team investigating the unusual star: "Previous estimates gave an initial mass of 40 times the mass of the Sun to WOH G64. But this was a real problem as it was way too cold, compared to what theoretical models predict for such a massive star. Its existence couldn't be explained." After analyzing observations from the ESO-sponsored Very Large Telescope Interferometer, Ohnaka and his colleagues think that the star is surrounded by a ring of (comparatively) dense gas and dust instead of a shell, meaning that the star is not nearly as bright as was once thought. Because they believe that the luminosity of the star is not as intense, it must therefore be less massive than they originally thought. WOH G64 is truly gigantic, if conventional concepts are accepted. If placed in the location of the Sun, its diameter would exceed the orbit of Saturn. The newly discovered ring of dust that encloses the star extends outward for up to 250 Astronomical Units (AU) and May contain as much as nine solar masses of material. Ohnaka reports that the star could be in a severely unstable condition and could be undergoing extreme losses of mass. In fact, the star is estimated to be one-third smaller than initial estimates. Could these observations and measurements have a different interpretation? One that relies on the behavior of flowing electric current? As we have maintained in several Picture of the Day articles, rings, "bubbles" and spherical shells of glowing matter surrounding stars are the signature of electrical activity. Close examination of the LMC, as well as nearby stars that are enclosed by a luminous haze, reveal filamentary structures that are hourglass shapes rather than toroids or spheres. The structures are composed of plasma, not gas, and they possess magnetic fields that cause the plasma to emit synchrotron, along with thermal radiation. Thermal radiation is "mechanical" and is due to the rapid molecular movement, while synchrotron radiation is emitted from ionized particles in a helical magnetic field. Electric currents in plasma are usually expressed through Birkeland current filaments. The observed ring shapes are actually circuits coupled to the hourglass-shaped currents. The currents create vortex structures along their outer edges that gradually morph into distorted wisps and curlicues of glowing matter. The distorted filaments have been observed in laboratory experiments as well as in the aurorae on Earth (and other planets, such as Jupiter). The ring of material surrounding WOH G64 is actually a diochotron instability. Stars, galaxies, nebulae, and planets are all moving through plasma in space and are affected by electric currents. Basing cosmological theories on compressed gas, shockwaves, winds, and so-called "billiard-ball physics" demonstrates that a serious lack of understanding exists within the astronomical community. Perhaps any degree in astronomy should include courses in plasma physics and electrical engineering. By Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Scandinavian Peninsula from space. Credit: NASA GSFC/Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team
The Norwegian Fjords

(Jun 02, 2008)
What cut the colossal trenches into the coast of Norway? Could it have been glaciers or should electrical forces be considered? Northern Scandinavia is probably the most rugged terrain on Earth. It is a peninsular landmass extending outward from the Asian continent for 2000 kilometers and is notable for the enormous number of deep fjords carved into its northwestern edge. Some of the chasms plunge 800 meters deep with cliff walls 1000 meters high. Many are more than 100 kilometers long Sognefjorden being the longest at 204 kilometers. In some places, it is more than 1300 meters deep with surrounding mountains of equal height. Preikestolen ("Pulpit Rock") overlook provides a spectacular scenic view that is unrivaled, except, perhaps by the Yosemite National Park formations. Preikestolen looks down from 600 meters on deep, clear water, however, rather than a dry landscape. It is similar in structure to the great monolith, El Capitan a vertical granite wall with little (if any) rock debris below or covering the surrounding terrain. Because most geologists consider the fjords to be glacial in origin, it is theorized that the ice cut the inlets and then "bulldozed" the material ahead of their advance, eventually dumping it into the ocean. According to conventional understanding, fjords May be shaped by their locations in preglacial valleys. The overall nature of the bedrock into which they are carved or fissures and faults in the Earth's crust might also have contributed to their formation since ice flows tend to seek the path of least resistance. Often, the valley floors on either side, near the channels, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The sea entrances are in shallow water populated by small islands. The deepest portions are usually located far from the mouth of the fjord where, as geologists posit, the glaciers that once filled the valleys carved more deeply into the Earth. An intriguing aspect to the western coast of Norway is that the fjords, when viewed from space, look like nothing less than innumerable, multiply brachiated Lichtenberg figures. In the image at the top of the page, thousands of fjords are visible as a filigree that divides into finer and finer detail, a signature of lightning-type discharges. Those discharges must have been unimaginably powerful. They are matched to the east by mountain ranges and inland peaks that reflect the incised forms on the coast, except in reverse: they are embossed upon the landscape. In our Thunderbolts Picture of the Day article about anomalous terrain on Mars, such attributes were identified as "dendritic ridges" trackways caused by gigantic plasma bolts striking the slopes of Olympus Mons. Another region that begs further comparison with Scandinavia is the Siberian Traps and the Putorana Plateau in Russia, an area of some 600,000 square kilometers dominated by the same kind of Lichtenberg figures that cut into western Norway. Are they related? Could the same process have created both topographies? One interesting fact that supports the Electric Universe hypothesis is that eastern Greenland reveals thousands of fjords just like those in Norway. It appears as if tremendous forces gripped the high latitudes of Earth and wrenched pulverized masses of stone out of the surface in powerful, vertical electric fields. Coupled with traveling currents of electricity in the manifold trillion-joule range, the subsurface materials were literally exploded into space or thrown to the winds for thousands of kilometers, resulting in todays geography. An almost unbelievable piece of evidence remains for our contention that Earth has been visited by catastrophes that reshaped its continents and, perhaps, opened the Atlantic Ocean basin within the memory of human beings on this planet. The Scandinavian Peninsula May be the fossilized vortex of a helical plasma beam that engulfed Siberia, Finland, Norway, Sweden and other locations in a cloud of electric fire powerful enough to change the world. In a previous Picture of the Day article, polar vortices on Mars were presumed to be the remains of plasma beams that did nearly identical damage to the Red Planet. The northern latitudes were simply wiped away, leaving nothing but a blasted desolation many kilometers below the mean elevation of the planet. A side-by-side comparison of Scandinavia and the North Pole on Mars is revelatory. By Stephen Smith
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Japan's Hinode solar telescope observes Alfvn waves in the Sun's corona. Credit: Hinode/JAXA/NASA
Hannes Alfvn: the Maverick Plasma Astrophysicist

(May 30, 2008)
100 years ago today on May 30th, 1908, Hannes Olof Gsta Alfvn was born in Norrkping, Sweden, about 100 miles southwest of Stockholm. Hannes Alfvn is considered one of the founding fathers in the field of plasma physics. He described himself as a dissident scientist and maverick, and attitudes towards him are ambivalent. On the one hand, he received the 1970 Nobel Prize in physics for applications of his work in different areas of plasma physics. On the other hand, some of his contributions to science have been either ignored, forgotten, or unacknowledged. After obtaining degrees in theoretical and experimental physics and in mathematics, Alfvn was awarded a doctorate for his thesis, "Investigations of the Ultra-Short Electromagnetic Waves." He soon moved into electronics and astronomy, however, after becoming interested in cosmic rays and in 1933 having his paper published in the journal Nature. All of his subsequent work was guided by the principle that all new theories must be consistent with experimental results from the laboratory, since the laws of Nature must apply everywhere. In 1937 Alfvn suggested that interstellar galactic space was permeated by ions (a plasma) and could also carry electric and magnetic fields. By 1942, Alfvn had devised a theory regarding the origin of the Solar System from a cloud of ionized gas, and he noted "electromagnetic forces have been more important than mechanical forces."
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Hannes Alfvn on a postage stamp from the Republic of the Congo
Around this time, Alfvn revisited the work initiated by Kristian Birkeland on the Earth's aurora. As a result he developed the guiding-center approximation, a way to approximate the motion of a charged particle in a magnetic field. At that time it was taking two weeks to make the calculations. He also developed the concept of frozen-in magnetic field lines, which is widely used today but which Alfvn later warned can be highly misleading. This work led to Alfvn's basic formulation of plasma physics, magnetohydrodynamics, which is the study of electrically conducting fluid dynamics. Alfvn first predicted that waves could occur in plasmas in a letter in Nature in 1942, but it was largely ignored or disputed on the grounds that if such waves existed, Maxwell would have noted them. Then in 1949, Alfvn gave a lecture in Chicago that Enrico Fermi also attended. Fermis reputation was such that when he nodded in agreement with Alfvn's presentation, the next day the world acknowledged that such waves existed. Alfvn also predicted (with Nicolai Herlofson) cosmic synchrotron radiation, which is characteristic of electrons moving in magnetic fields. He also proposed a mechanism by which a moving gas can be ionized when it reaches a certain speed, called the critical ionization velocity. He also predicted the existence of rings around Uranus. Alfvn earned a number of accolades, including the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1967), the Nobel Prize in physics (1970), the Gold Medal of the Franklin Institute (1971), and the Lomonosov Medal of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1971). In his name was created the Hannes Alfvn Medal. He also created the Alpha-Centauri medal, to be given to the first person who is able to prove whether the star Alpha Centauri is made of either normal matter or antimatter. Alfvn was married to Kerstin Erikson (1910-1992), and they had five children together. He died in 1995 at the age of 86. Further reading: Hannes Alfvn biographical memoirs: (Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 150, No. 4, 2005.) http://www.aps-pub.com/proceedings/1504/150412.pdf "Hannes Olof Gosta Alfven. 30 May 1908-2 April 1995," R. S. Pease; S. Lindqvist, in The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, Vol. 44, Nov. 1998 (Nov., 1998), pp. 219. http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/content/f3207q54p22x3362/fulltext.pdf Hannes Alfvn (1908 - 1995), Alfvn Laboratory, Sweden. http://www.alfvenlab.kth.se/hannes.html Hannes Alfvn bibliography: http://www.plasma-universe.com/index.php/Hannes_Alfv%C3%A9n_bibliography Contributed by Ian Tresman
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An early image of Mars from the Phoenix lander. (The white object in the distance is the lander parachute.) Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
The Phoenix Awakens

(May 28, 2008)
A new robotic platform is now on the surface of Mars searching for signs of life in the northern latitudes. Will it find what it seeks? "Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more!" -- William Shakespeare, King Henry V, Act 3. Scene 1 In a bold move that harkens back to the 1970s, NASA has soft-landed a science station on Mars using retrorocket descent engines. The last successful mission making use of such technology was the Viking lander/orbiter combination that placed two spacecraft on the surface of Mars in 1975. On May 25, 2008, 7:53 PM Eastern Daylight Time, radio signals confirmed that Phoenix was on the ground at 68 degree N latitude, 233 degrees E longitude. On Earth, the coordinates would correspond to the Northwest Territories in Canada, close to the Arctic Ocean. Launched in August of 2007, the Phoenix mission is so named because it was rebuilt from the Mars Surveyor 2001 lander. Since the Phoenix is a mythical bird that rises from the pyre of its own death, the new name seemed appropriate. Mars Surveyor 2001 was placed in storage after the Mars Polar Lander failed to return data in 1999. No one is sure what happened to the Polar Lander, but it is assumed that it disintegrated during the landing sequence or upon impact. NASA officials decided to mothball the Surveyor package while they conducted an operational review of their organization and methods. The Phoenix is designed to sample the Martian soil and determine if there is water ice just below the rocks and dust in the northern latitudes. According to most conventional opinions about Mars, it was once a "warm, wet world" although that was "millions of years ago." Due to The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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some kind of geological change (or another unknown agency), Mars became the scorched and disfigured planet that we see today. However, planetary scientists have not given up hope that water might remain in the polar regions, frozen in situ for all those millions of years. Phoenix will dig down into the soil and then transfer the material to an onboard oven where it will bake the sample and drive out any volatile compounds. A spectrographic analyzer will then see if there are any biochemical components that could indicate the presence of life. First and foremost will be the attempt at confirming Mars Odysseys discovery that ice might be present in the colder regions near the north pole. "Discovery" May be stretching the point, however. What Odyssey actually detected was the signature of hydrogen in the form of neutrons and gamma rays released by cosmic rays. It is an assumption that the hydrogen is in water molecules beneath the surface. The hydrogen May have been "implanted" electrically or molecules other than water were transferred from another celestial body. According to the Electric Universe analysis of recent solar system history, the search for water, especially in the north, could be a forlorn hope. Forces that are not easy to comprehend have shaped Mars. The higher latitudes (except for the polar icecap) are several kilometers below the elevation of the southern hemisphere. As we have discussed in previous Picture of the Day articles, the reason for the discrepancy is Electric Discharge Machining (EDM) on a massive scale. Mars has been the scene of planet-wide cataclysmic destruction. The Hellas Basin in the south is nine kilometers deep and 2100 kilometers wide. It is surrounded by a ring of uplifted terrain, similar to ringed structures on the other planets and moons. The ring is two kilometers high and extends 4000 kilometers from the center of the crater. One puzzling aspect to the giant scar is that the debris one would expect to have been blasted out of it is missing. Where did it go? Into space. In the north are smooth, dusty plains that extend as far as the eye can see. No mountains, no hills nothing to break the monotonous landscape except a few craters and the Tharsis Montes chain of "volcanoes" that rise up near the edge of the vast polar desert. It is probable that the event or events responsible for the extant Martian topography scoured all organic compounds from the planet, vaporized any water that might have existed there and permanently sterilized the environment with a highly energetic plasma beam. In that case, water is most likely not present in any abundance. By Stephen Smith
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An x-ray pulsar pulls matter from its stellar companion. Artistic rendition: NASA/Dana Berry
Predictions, Falsifiability and the Standard Model of Stellar Evolution

(May 26, 2008)
New information about an odd pair of stars has contradicted the expectations of astronomers and called into question the Standard Model. Several Thunderbolts Pictures of the Day articles have covered the topics of variable stars, neutron stars and magnetars from the standpoints of electrical engineering and plasma physics. Reports have repeatedly demonstrated the surprise and bewilderment exhibited by astronomers at heavenly objects that have defied various theoretical expectations. Now it seems that the discovery of a pulsar with a sun-like companion has once again puzzled astronomers and threatened to falsify the Standard Model. But, is such a thing possible? Can theories be "falsified" any longer, in accordance with the scientific method? Or is real science outdated? In one recent article, a radio astronomer wrote: "The big question is -- how in the heck did this thing form, because it doesn't follow our standard models of how these things form," astronomer Scott Ransom of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia, said. "If you were to ask any astronomer if we would have found a system like this, they would have said no. So this is a very big surprise." (Emphasis added). If the findings about the pulsar/sun-like star pairing are correct, it is a major blow to conventional theories. The discovery was definitely not anticipated, and more to the point, appears to have been excluded as a possibility under previously adopted assumptions. The astronomical communitys surprise is once again echoed in another article, as is the failure to predict the major features of this system: "Our ideas about how the fastest-spinning pulsars are produced do not predict either The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive the kind of orbit or the type of companion star this one has," said David Champion of the Australia Telescope National Facility. "We have to come up with some new scenarios to explain this weird pair... What we have found is a millisecond pulsar that is in the wrong kind of orbit around what appears to be the wrong kind of star. Now we have to figure out how this strange system was produced." (Emphasis added).
Astronomers are apparently grasping at straws in their attempts to explain this unexpected stellar pairing and orbital geometry. If Karl Poppers contention is believed, that falsifiability is the test for whether a theory is scientific or not, then this recent series of news releases appears to have falsified the Standard Model. The question now is whether that fact will be acknowledged, or whether astronomers will simply sweep another predictive failure under the rug. (See Popper, Sir Karl R., Conjectures and Refutations, London: Routledge and Keagan, 1963, pages 33-39). How many predictive failures are required before a theory can be falsified? According to Popper, the threshold is "one." One concrete contradiction is sufficient to falsify a theory and require that a new one be considered. If the Standard Model is falsified, what happens to the theories based on it such as red dwarves, supernovae, neutron stars, pulsars and black holes? Can the existing theories be salvaged, or must different alternatives be considered? Are the two options mutually exclusive, or should the field of cosmology be opened to viable competing theories and outside criticism? It is time to consider other theories that May have greater predictive success, even if it requires reexamining a number of foundational assumptions about stars and the universe in general. If electrical engineer Don Scott and plasma physicist Wal Thornhill are correct, then radically different hypotheses based upon plasma and electrodynamics should be applied to astronomy and cosmology. Theories need to be in accord with data from space and with principles about plasma and electricity gleaned from decades of research in the lab. More than 99% of the matter in the universe is plasma. Plasma is highly conductive, though not perfectly so, and there is no reason to believe that it behaves differently in space than it does in the laboratory. There is no reason to carry forward the incorrect notion of an electrically neutral universe in the face of contradictory evidence everywhere we look in space. Contributed by Michael Gmirkin.
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Solar flare seen through a hydrogen-alpha filter. Credit: Big Bear Solar Observatory
Colossal Flare Erupts from EV Lacertae

(May 23, 2008)
An explosion thousands of times greater than anything seen on our Sun has been detected bursting from a neighboring star. In a March 19, 2008 press release, NASA officials from the Goddard Space Flight Center announced that their SWIFT satellite detected a stellar flare with x-ray emissions larger than anything they expected to witness from such a "normal" star. An artists rendition was created in order to illustrate what the flare might look like. Launched in November of 2004, SWIFT is designed to detect the output from Gamma Ray Bursters (GRB) that are said to light up with energies near the billion-electron-volt range. In previous Picture of the day articles, the GRB phenomenon has been shown to be local to the Milky Way and not as energetic as astronomers believe. Rather than incredible explosions from "the edge of the universe," what they see are moderately sized detonations from "exploding double-layers" within our own galaxy. (Alfvn, H., "Double layers and circuits in astrophysics," (1986) IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (ISSN 0093-3813), vol. PS-14, December 1986, pages 779-793). Because the instruments onboard SWIFT are sensitive to lower-level radiation, as well as gamma rays, it has the ability to "see" other high-frequency electromagnetic radiation (EMR) bands. Coupled with the WIND satellites equipment, NASA is conducting a scan for EMR from 10,000 electron volts to 100-billion electron volts. Thus, the combined resolution of both instruments enabled them to locate EV Lacertaes x-ray blast in our local stellar The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In a giant "lightning flash" of x-rays, stellar flares discharge vast quantities of matter (moving at relativistic speeds) in mere seconds. One of the major questions that astrophysicists have yet to answer is how flares create such highly energetic emissions? Earlier last century, Hannes Alfvn found a clue when he was contracted by the Swedish Power Company to investigate some serious accidents that had occurred. A few of the rectifiers used in the power transmission circuits had exploded for no apparent reason. When the rectifiers shorted-out more energy was released than was contained by the plasma flow inside them because the power from the entire 900 kilometers of transmission line instantly passed through the devices. The result was a catastrophic failure and extensive damage. Alfvn identified the cause as unstable double layers within the plasma flow. The circuit connecting EV Lacertae (and other stars) is of unknown length, but probably extends for thousands of light-years. How much electrical energy might be contained in such magnetically confined "transmission lines"? No one knows, but astronomers are continually "surprised" by the incredible detonations that they observe from galactic jets, supernovae and stellar flares. It will serve all students of cosmic electricity to remember Alfvns comments: "Double layers in space should be classified as a new type of celestial object (one example is the double radio sources). It is tentatively suggested that x-ray and gamma ray bursts may be due to exploding double layers." See in locus, above. By Stephen Smith
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Enceladus transits Saturns enigmatic moon Rhea. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.
Ring Around Rhea

(May 21, 2008)
Many of Saturns moons exhibit phenomena best associated with plasma physics. A faint ring of dust and rock has been found orbiting Rhea confirming the searing effects of electric discharges. Scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California recently announced the discovery of a "debris ring" surrounding Saturns frigid moon, Rhea. The Cassini space probe, currently orbiting Saturn, discovered the signals that indicate a potential ringed debris field in 2005 with its Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument when the anion flux from the giant planet was seen to abruptly cutout on each side of Rheas disk. Geraint Jones, lead author of a paper that appeared in the March 7, 2008 issue of the journal Science wrote: "Until now, only planets were known to have rings, but now Rhea seems to have some family ties to its ringed parent Saturn." It comes as no surprise to find that Rhea has joined its sister moons in "flinging" great quantities of material into space. In a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day article about the "active" moons Tethys and Dione, features attributed to asteroid impacts were found to be the points where flowing currents of electricity touched down and wrenched particles into space. Today there is a less energetic process going on, but matter is continuing to be attracted along a circuit path to the plasmasphere of Saturn. Contemporary electrical interactions between celestial bodies are nothing like what must have taken place in the past. Rheas surface is fractured and carved in ways that point to surges of energy that were great enough to nearly destroy the moon. There appear to have been explosions big enough to rock the planetoid, but there are no boulders or blocks of stone that would be expected as a result of them. However, If electric arcs decimated the moon in the relatively recent past, the rock and ice were probably vaporized, torn apart into small pieces and then ejected into space. The ring of debris surrounding Rhea is most likely a clue to those events. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Electrical theorists argue that Saturn moves within the plasmasphere of the Sun and interacts with the Suns electric field. Because planets and moons in the solar system are charged bodies that are not isolated in "empty" space, it is only to be expected that they would transact electrically with their primaries. The simplest, most straightforward explanation for the ionic plumes emitted by Tethys and Dione is electric discharge due to their position in Saturns circuit. There is no need to conjure implausible inertial dynamics ("tides" or "gravitational kneading") to account for these remarkable events. By that same token, the possible ring formation around Rhea is the remains of the pulverized rock and ice that billions of watts of electricity created when they catastrophically passed through the moons conductive strata. By Stephen Smith
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Hoags Object glares balefully across the light-years. Credit: Hubble Heritage
Is Hoags Object a Dense Plasma Focus?

(May 19, 2008)
What force swept away the stars and formed this 120,000 light-year-wide ring in space? This could be one of electrical energys protean forms. There are places in the cosmos where stars form up into ranks that stretch in lines for thousands of light-years. Elsewhere, rings of stars can be found encircling compact structures that have been measured at over 10,000 light-years in diameter. Art Hoag discovered the galaxy that bears his name in 1950 and by conventional redshiftequals-distance calculations, it is approximately 183 megaparsecs away in the constellation Serpens. The ring of "young" blue stars is notable, as is the dense core and the hovering swarm of globular clusters that lie in the center of the formation. There is an obvious swirling shape that radiates outward in the same way as that from the Cartwheel Galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. The filaments that connect the core with the ring in the Cartwheel Galaxy are missing in Hoags Object, although they could be radiating in dark current mode. The Milky Way Galaxy contains over 200 billion stars in its spiral arms and its nucleus. There have also been recent observations by scientists from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) indicating that a torus of additional stars is surrounding the Galaxy at a distance of 120,000 light-years. Most of the stars discovered by SDSS are invisible to visual platforms because they are in the same plane as the Galaxy, itself. However, the stars have been detected using infrared and x-ray instrumentation that can "see through" the obscuring dust. So, what causes galaxies to develop rings? The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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According to Heidi Jo Newberg, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: "When we find large groups of stars formed into rings it's an indication that at least part of our galaxy was formed by a lot of smaller or dwarf galaxies mixing together." Her colleague in the project, Brian Yanny of FermiLab wrote: "This ring of stars May be what's left of a collision between our Milky Way and a smaller, dwarf galaxy that occurred billions of years ago." His conclusion is that gravity from dark matter is sustaining the ring of stars around the Milky Way. By definition, those same forces are what cause the more dramatic structures like Hoags Object to appear galactic collisions over billions of years moderated by gravity and unknown energies. Is there another way to address the issue that takes into account the electricity that flows through the cosmos and the magnetic fields that it fosters? It is possible that the stellar haloes are actually examples of a dense plasma focus penumbra with Hoag's Object being the most dramatic example. Images taken from experiments using a "plasma gun" offer a direct analogue to the "pinch zones" surrounding the discharge from Hoags Object. In 1960, Hannes Alfvn published a paper in which he proposed a mechanism for the formation of structures in space that does not depend on gravity alone. He wrote: "The earth, the sun and many stars possess general magnetic fields. It is possible that interstellar clouds are magnetized, that spiral arms have regular magnetic fields, and that galaxies also have general magnetic fields. Even if the views of different authors are still conflicting, it seems reasonably certain that interstellar matter is usually magnetized. This makes is likely that there should be some very general process which produces magnetic fields in fluid bodies as different as the earths fluid interior, the stars, and interstellar matter. The energy required for magnetization can easily be drawn from the kinetic energy of internal motions, but the difficulty is to find a workable mechanism from the production of magnetic fields." -- Hannes Alfvn, "On the Origin of Cosmic Magnetic Fields," Royal Institute of Stockholm, October 28, 1960. The dense plasma focus device, or "plasma gun" provides the precise mechanism by which cosmic electric currents can influence the evolution and morphology of space structures, whether they be moons or galaxies (See Peratt, A. L. and Dessler, A. J. "Filamentation of Volcanic Plumes on the Jovian Satellite Io." Astrophysics and Space Science (ISSN 0004640X), vol. 144, no. 1-2, May 1988, p. 451-461). Birkeland current filaments are the "transmission lines" through which electricity is conducted in the universe. Just as the helical strands from the core of Galaxy NGC 3079 are an indication that electricity is discharging from its nucleus, the swirling toroids that constrain the "young" hot stars in the halo of Hoags Object are a red flag to Electric Universe theorists. One of the signature phenomena in a dense plasma focus is the helical strands of energy that surround a powerfully radiating arc-mode discharge and a dark-current torus. The strands are helical magnetic fields that confine the electrified plasma and act like power lines in space Birkeland current filaments, in other words. That phenomenon is present In the plasma gun discharge that makes up Hoags Object. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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It May be that there are 28 filamentary strands (or 56, or 49 or some other number discussed by Alfvn, Thornhill, Peratt and others) in the penumbral cloud of stars and nebulae that have been energized by the gun the exact count is difficult to determine in the images that are available. But, with the other factors and the way that electricity behaves when it flows through magnetically confined plasma, the Electric Universe model of galaxy formation appears to have been lent further credence by this observation. By Stephen Smith
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Hectares of fractured quartzite blocks litter the Martian surface. Credit: NASA/JPL/Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity
White Mars
(May 14, 2008)
Mars is so often referred to as "The Red Planet" that we forget about the abundance of white rocks and expanses of sidewalk-like pavement. How does electricity relate to the geology of Mars? Mars is largely composed of iron and silicon, with massive quantities of oxygen bound into the soils and bedrock. Although much like Earth geology in some respects, the crust is low in aluminum, one of the most common elements on our planet. Because the atmosphere on Mars is so tenuous sometimes described as standing on top of a mountain six-times higher than Everest it lacks the ability to aggressively attack the Martian lithosphere. On Earth, water vapor in the atmosphere forms a weak carbonic acid solution when it mixes with CO2 and that helps to wear away the rocks. On Mars, such erosion is impossible for several obvious reasons, not the least of which is that there is no open water on Mars or in its atmosphere. The presence of iron oxide in several different forms indicates that something not taking place on any large scale today did take place at some time in the past. When that past imposed its influence on Mars depends on which of many suppositions are evoked. Some often speculate that there was once a dense, oxygen-rich atmosphere that allowed for "rusting" of the iron in its crust to take place. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Others have said that there were oceans of open water on the surface that helped to form the hematite nodules in their trillions that cover nearly a whole hemisphere (perhaps more). Whatever the source, Mars has hematite dunes a kilometer high, giant cracks that go on for hundreds of kilometers with their bottoms covered in hematite ripples, seas of hematite dust tens of meters deep swallowing craters a hundred kilometers in diameter many of them associated with slabs of silicon dioxide. Once more, the question of oxidation arises in respect to the silicon on Mars. Silicon dioxide is commonly known as sandstone or quartzite. Our Picture of the Day article about the famous tepuis in the three-corners region of Amazonia revealed a structure known as Cerro Autana, a towering monolith rising from the jungle. It is honeycombed with caves and tunnels that penetrate deeply into the rock face. Inside Cerro Autana is a cave 430 meters long and 44 meters high made entirely of quartz in other words, an enormous geode. In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles about Mars and the association of hematite nodules, otherwise known as "blueberries," with large spans of cracked, cobblestone-like rubble, we concluded that there might have been some kind of elemental transmutation on the Martian surface. Electrical energy, flowing underground through selectively conductive materials, can produce many effects, among them the change of one element into another. In the picture at the top of the page is a sample of what other effects might be observed. The striated and layered quartzite is sharp-edged and broken into angular polygons. The fissures running through the chaotic pile are filled with hematite dust. Close up images of the layered chunks show thousands of raised nubbins all over the exterior. When electric currents of gigajoule magnitude explode through the rock strata they blast the material out, forming great trenches. The debris falls back, creating big piles of distorted and half-melted minerals with no sign of how they could have been eroded into their present appearance. Because the transmutation of elements through the z-pinch effect in the flow of electric current is not given any consideration in conventional theories, there are few avenues of experimentation left open. Precipitation and chemical recombination appear to be the main arguments put forward by Mars research scientists, so their theories about its evolution are often inconsistent. Relying upon hypotheses that ignore electromagnetic forces will always produce erroneous conclusions. By Stephen Smith
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Combined visible and infrared images of M104. Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Kennicutt (University of Arizona), and the SINGS Team Visible: Hubble Space Telescope/Hubble Heritage Team
The Sombrero Galaxy

(May 12, 2008)
An "accretion disk" of dark dust and gas surrounds this mighty collection of 400 billion stars. It is electrical energy that powers and shapes these features. M104 is probably the most spectacular representation of "lens-shaped" galaxies that has been produced by any telescope. Originally discovered by Pierre Mchain in 1781 and then added to Messiers famous catalog in the same year, M104 remains a centerpiece of scientific investigation after more than 300 years. William Herschel independently rediscovered M104 in 1784. The Sombrero Galaxy is actually much larger than what can be seen in the image above. The galaxy is surrounded by a halo of stars, dust and gas that indicate it May actually be an elliptical galaxy that contains a more robust interior configuration. Shorter time exposures reveal distinct spiral arms radiating from the center and it is referred to as a "spiral galaxy" by astronomers. M104 is surrounded by globular clusters in the hundreds a much richer population than our own Milky Way or most other observed galactic bulges. Astronomers have long maintained that galaxies are clouds of hydrogen gas and intergalactic dust that have been compressed by gravity until they coalesce into glowing thermonuclear fires. In the recent past, the community has also proposed that the centers of most galaxies contain black holes of unbelievable magnitude. It is the activity of these "gravitational point sources" some as powerful as the gravity field from 200 million stellar masses that causes the galaxies to spin, globular clusters to spawn, tremendous jets of gamma and x-rays that span thousands of light-years to appear, and (among many other features) "radio lobes" that are larger than the galaxy out of which they discharge. As most conventional researchers have noted, the fact that galaxies and other celestial The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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objects spin is attributed to the early formation of their structure. A galactic embryo is said to possess an angular momentum that increases as it begins to fall into its own gravity well. In an oft-repeated illustration of how this occurs, we can visualize an ice-skater doing a pirouette. As the skaters arms are drawn in closer to the body, the spin-rate increases. Thus, as the galaxy begins to contract the acceleration of the cloud increases, causing spiral arms to form, a disk of material to begin surrounding the central nucleus and globules from eddycurrents within the gases to condense into stars. This all occurs because the spin in the cloud overcomes the gravitational attraction through centrifugal force, throwing material outward like a drop of paint on a spinning platter. The Electric Universe model does not permit the condensation of galaxies from cold, inert hydrogen and specks of zircon no bigger than an molecule. So, what are galaxies? In 1981, Hannes Alfvn presented his hypothesis for "electric galaxies." He said that galaxies are actually very much like a device invented by Michael Faraday, the homopolar motor. A homopolar motor is driven by magnetic fields induced in a circular aluminum plate or some other sufficiently conductive metal. The metal plate is placed between the poles of an electromagnet that causes it to spin at a steady rate proportional to the input current. The meter attached to the wall in most backyards that determines monthly electric bills is a homopolar motor. So, what does this mean for galactic genesis and evolution? Galaxies exist within an inconceivably large filamentary circuit of electricity that flows through the cosmos from beginning to end. There is no way to know where this current flow rises, or to what electrode it is attracted, but we see the effects of its electromagnetic fields in the magnetism and synchrotron radiation that permeate space. That electricity organizes itself within fields of plasma that are sometimes larger than galaxy clusters. The plasma is composed of neutral atoms, but a small fraction of electrons, protons and other charged particles are also present. Those particles, and the charge-neutral ones they sweep along with them, are driven by the larger electromagnetic field to form "pinches" of matter. As many of the plasma pioneers have pointed-out, plasma isolates its charges within "doublelayers" folded inside helical tubes called Birkeland currents. As the currents propagate, their mutual attraction causes them to "pinch" into tighter and tighter helices. In Electric Universe theory, the clusters that formed in the pinch zones of Birkeland current strands around M104 show it to be extremely active. The large number of clusters and a distinct "homopolar disk" are a sign of electrical activity. Filaments exist everywhere: from sparks that leap from doorknob to fingertip after walking across a nylon carpet, to flashes of lightning, to collimated "jets" of x-rays that erupt from the axes of galaxies (and stars), to the cosmic "strings" of superclusters that make-up the largescale structure of the universe. To elicit such displays the forces of gravity and inertia alone appear to be insufficient. The primal electrical energy source is orders of magnitude more powerful than gravity. The "plasma ropes" that comprise Birkeland currents attract one another over distance in a linear relationship, rather than through the "square-of-the-distance" proportions of gravity. That makes Birkeland currents the most powerful long-range attractors (and also short-range repulsors) in the universe. Electric currents flowing through dusty plasma beget and sustain the galaxies. By Stephen Smith
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Jupiters main ring. Credit: NASA/JPL Galileo Mission
Shedding Some Light On Jupiter

(May 05, 2008)
Jupiters rings were unknown until about thirty years ago. Recent data analysis from the Galileo spacecraft reveals electric currents flowing around the planet, just as EU theorists predicted. A recent announcement by scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA and the University of Maryland states that Jupiters rings are actually electrically charged. Douglas Hamilton, a planetary scientist from the University of Maryland wrote: "On Jupiter's day side, the sunlight charges the dust particles positively, while on the night side the particles carry a negative charge. Different charges react differently to Jupiter's magnetic field, leading to changes in particle orbits, and when conditions are right, even the tilt or inclinations of the ring particles change." Jupiter's rings are formed out of a thin sheet of material encircling the planet. The ring structure is quite diffuse, making observations difficult unless they are in correct alignment with the Sun. The outer radius begins at 129,000 kilometers, almost the same distance as the moon Adrastea. The four small moons, Metis, Adrastea, Amalthea and Thebe, are said to influence the structure of Jupiters rings in the same way that the "shepherd moons" of Saturn govern the shape of its huge ring formation. More than four years ago Picture of the Day articles addressed the "volcanic" plumes on Jupiter's moon Io and demonstrated that they are plasma discharges from the moon to the gas giant. Some planetary scientists later began to acknowledge the electrical connection between them when Io's "footprint" was seen in the polar aurora on Jupiter. In fact, all four of Jupiters largest moons were discovered to leave their marks in the aurora in the shape of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"tails" flowing within the plasma column. Later, when NASA launched New Horizons on a mission to study Pluto and Charon, the "plumes" of Tvashtar, a gigantic volcano on Io, were found to be filamentary in structure with indications that they are actually corona arc discharges from the electric "hot spots" linking the moon with Jupiter. Astronomers suggested that "tides" on Io from the "kneading" effect of Jupiters gravity cause the charged particles to be released in the "volcanic" plumes. The particles then flow as an electric current to Jupiter. Since electricity does not flow in one direction the one-way connection cannot be correct, so how is the electricity moving between Io and Jupiter? Conventional theories assume that the universe is electrically neutral, so when observational evidence confirms electrically active plasma for instance, localized phenomena no matter how improbable are invoked. Tidal forces and volcanoes are presented as the cause for the activity seen on Io and the evidence for electric circuits is ignored. In the case of Jupiters rings, the same thing is happening. The ring charge is said to be caused by sunlight and shadow rather than by an electrically active circuit between Jupiter and the Sun. Jupiter is connected with the Sun and the Sun is connected with the Milky Way and the Milky Way is probably connected with the Local Group and then with the Cluster and so on and so on. That idea is what forms the basis of Electric Universe Theory that all things throughout the cosmos are composed of electrically quasi-neutral conducting plasma extremely diffuse on the large-scale but capable of transmitting currents powerful enough to energize stars and the galaxies. An electrical interaction between Jupiter and its moons means that they are charged bodies and are not electrically neutral. Jupiter exists in a dynamic electrical relationship to the Sun and it is now known that charged particles from the Sun and not "electric dynamos" power the planetary aurorae. Just like the aurorae, the ring system on Jupiter is probably behaving in similar fashion to what is seen on Saturn, so a similar explanation is most likely correct. The gas giant planets all have rings in some form or another. The plasma torus that surrounds each of them and the electric currents flowing along the polar axes and then out the equatorial plane are the likely cause for their persistence. No one knows for sure how planetary ring systems are formed and maintained, but rather than seeking the answer in strictly mechanical action electricity and current flow through dusty plasma will provide more reasonable explanations. By Stephen Smith
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Galaxy M87 x-ray jet erupting from an ersatz black hole. Credit: NASA/Hubble Heritage
A Sea of Holes
(May 02, 2008)
"The black holes of nature are the most perfect macroscopic objects there are in the universe: the only elements in their construction are our concepts of space and time." Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar A recent announcement by scientists from the Max Planck Institute has added another wrinkle to the fabric of black hole physics, the ejection of a "supermassive" black hole from its parent galaxy. Researchers in the department of Extraterrestrial Physics measured what appear to be gravity waves from the so-called "ejection event." According to conventional cosmological theories, black holes are formed when a star with a mass approximately five times that of our sun uses up its thermonuclear fuel and collapses under the force of its own gravity. Because the equations that describe gravity can be manipulated in irrational ways, some solutions imply that such a large star can contract into a zero volume containing infinite inertial mass. Astrophysicists have contended for years that black holes are real and that their effects can be observed, although they are invisible to detection. As the theories suggest, black holes possess a gravitational attraction of such intensity that not even electromagnetic radiation can escape the event horizon. Thus, no direct evidence of a black holes existence can be measured, only the hypothetical effects of the extreme gravity. Such effects are said to be gamma ray emissions, x-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation from the gases and dust as they are compressed into smaller and smaller spaces before The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive being drawn down into oblivion.
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According to the team from Max Planck, gravity waves of colossal magnitude spread out from Quasar SDSS J092712.65+294344.0 as it ejected a few hundred million solar masses of gravitational energy from its nucleus. Gravity waves are another theoretical construct with no observational evidence to confirm their existence. They are inferred by the detection of broadspectrum emission lines from the hot gas that surrounds the black hole an indication of gravity waves compacting the gas as they ripple through the region. But is that what is actually happening? The research teams observations are of Doppler-shifted Fraunhofer lines in the spectrum of J0927. Due to "red-shift equals distance and speed" calculations, the "accretion disk" of matter surrounding the black hole is said to be moving at 2650 kilometers per second. The acceleration is presumed to be from the "recoil" of two black holes colliding, causing them to rebound and fly out of their parent galaxy as a single, supermassive combination of the two. In previous Picture of the Day articles, we have taken issue with the very idea of black holes and the indirect "evidence" for them that has been presented by the scientific community. Any substance with a "multimillion-degree" temperature is not a gas but is ionized plasma. What the Max Planck scientists fail to realize is that the x-rays they are seeing is synchrotron radiation and not the incandescent glow of hot gas. The x-rays (and the gamma rays and ultraviolet light) are due to electrons spiraling along helical magnetic fields. J092712.65+294344.0 is under extreme electrical stress as are all quasars. For the quasar to emit such incredible energies through simple gravitational compression, the dust and gas would have to be so dense that it would exceed the amount of material a galaxy can contain. However, the research team at Max Planck are mathematicians, which allows them to work through densities without limit. The "black holes" whose effects are supposed to be influencing time and space throughout the universe are convenient ways to explain away the amazing forces of electric currents permeating space. By Stephen Smith
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Left: Maibaum, Gestratz, Landkreis Lindau 7th August 2005 Allgau at Wikimedia Commons. Right: Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Maypole (1816-1818) Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin The Yorck Project, 2002
Bringing in the May

(May 01, 2008)
The Maypole epitomizes the spirit of the religions that prevailed in northern Europe before Christianity was adopted and provides an ideal test case for the methodology employed in a comparative study of myth and ritual. The annual festival of cutting down the Maypole tree in the forest and setting it up in the town square has survived in some places and was revived in countless others, mostly in southern Germany, northeastern France, and western Czechia. But unfortunately, despite the resilience of the symbol, as little is known about the Maypoles origins and symbolism as of the lost Germanic religions themselves. It is imperative for all scholarly theories to distinguish rigorously between two processes of reasoning, known as induction and deduction, with corresponding "bottom-up" and "top-down" approaches to data. While the results suggested through deductive analysis often square nicely with those obtained through inductive analysis, intellectual stalemate is reached at other times. The Maypole, as well as its colleague, the Christmas tree, and countless other aspects of post-medieval folk tradition, exemplifies such an impasse. A careful historian of religion adhering to a bottom-up approach to his research collects as much data as possible on Maypole festivities then draws his or her conclusions based on these findings alone, working backwards in time. He or she finds that the Maypole has not been attested any earlier than the late Middle Ages and vanishingly little information survives regarding the function or significance of the symbol. Just what was the Maypole meant to signify? The inductive thinker reaches a dead end and, erring on the side of caution, is bound to describe the Maypole as a recent folklore item of uncertain origins and uncertain meaning. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Scholars allowing a top-down approach to their data, on the other hand, place the phenomenology of the Maypole in a comparative context. Close typological parallels between "modern" Maypole festivities and traditional practices known from other cultures suggest to them that, in origin, the ritual of the Maypole represents a north-European variation on the universal practice of tree and pillar cults. More specifically, recent research into the comparative mythology of the so-called axis mundi or world pillar identifies a number of striking correspondences between worldwide traits of this mythical sky-pillar and the way European people adorn and treat their Maypoles today. A ring and fluffy "crown" seen at the apex of the Maypole compare to similar rings and feathery tops representing the "hole at the pole" at the pinnacle of the cosmic tree. Variegated ribbons suspended from the top of the Maypole are similar to the ropes and spiralling filaments attached to symbols of the sacred tree in other cultures. The circumambulatory dance of the celebrants around the Maypole, in the course of which the ribbons are plaited together around the pillar, is just like the circular dances universally performed around cosmic trees. The ascent of the Maypole by someone who then dispenses "goodies" from the top to the crowd is reminiscent of pole-climbing rites observed in numerous cultures. And the symbolic union of the "king and queen of the May" is inseparable from the hieros gamos or "holy marriage" consummated by a divine pair at the summit of the axis elsewhere. Deductive reasoning, then, suggests that the Maypole is best analysed as an example of the axis mundi. Which approach is right? Although the two lines of reasoning followed here seem contradictory, there is no reason for dismay. From an epistemological point of view, it is ultimately irrelevant whether a hypothetical statement is reached through inductive or deductive reasoning. What matters is that hypotheses concerning the past must be graded according to relative probability. Certainly, the possibility that Maypole rituals trace back to the same source as countless other traditions of holy trees and pillars is the most persuasive explanation for the phenomenon in town today. The hypothesis gains even further probability in an interdisciplinary context, as the listed characteristics for the sacred pole dovetail to a fine level of detail with the modelled behaviour of a high-energy auroral pillar that people May have seen in the polar skies towards the end of the Neolithic period. From the perspective of the traditional societies of north Europe, the arrival of Spring could not have been represented better than through a replication of the towering column that reputedly embodied budding life in all its manifestations at the legendary time of creation. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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The Pillars of Creation. Credit: J. Hester, P. Scowen (ASU) HST/NASA
Pillars of Desolation
(Apr 30, 2008)
Rather than being a "stellar nursery" the famous dust clouds in the Eagle Nebula May have already been destroyed. On November 2, 1995, NASA released the now-famous image of M16, the Eagle Nebula, in the constellation Serpens. Jeff Hester, an astronomer from Arizona State University, was quoted as saying: "For a long time astronomers have speculated about what processes control the sizes of stars -- about why stars are the sizes that they are. Now in M16 we seem to be watching at least one such process at work right in front of our eyes." Star-forming regions within nebular dust clouds have been discussed many times in previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles. The prevailing opinion among astronomers is that stars are created from the collapse of such clouds through gravitational attraction the Nebular Hypothesis. The theory seems plausible because astronomical images portray what appear to be clouds so dense that they are opaque to visible light and span tens of lightyears. What is not usually mentioned in the press releases is that the nebulae are composed of gases and dust a thousand times less dense than a puff of cigarette smoke. The Hubble Space Telescope photographed the similarly diffuse three pillars in 1995 using its optical sensors, but according to observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope a shock wave from a nearby supernova May have already destroyed them. In fact, the Pillars of Creation May have ceased to exist about 6,000 years ago since there are several candidates for such explosions scattered throughout nearby space. Because stellar ignition is dependent on compressive forces, most astronomers conclude that shock waves of some nature are The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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necessary for the nebular clouds to condense. Supernova blasts are supposed to provide the impetus needed for the initial collapse and to "seed" the region with larger granules that will cause more dust to be attracted to them, as well. Thus, nebulae are deemed "star-forming regions." Apparently, Spitzer has confirmed that there is an arc-shaped wavefront of luminous material moving through the Eagle Nebula. Because of the distance involved, the infrared radiation being emitted from the shell of expanding gas is visible as it was 2000 years ago, so in "real time" it has already impacted the Pillars. The visible-light from the supernova might have been seen on Earth about that time as a "new star" in the night sky. Conventional theory suggests that the compression wave from the supernova as we see it now will both destroy the cloud formations in M16 and begin the process of star birth from the ashes of their destruction. But, has science actually increased knowledge with theories such as these? Or has it spun an elaborate tale based on the slimmest of evidence? The birth and death of stars is illustrated in such stories of gravity and inertia, but they are missing key ingredients that provide continuity to the plot. Where is electricity and the electromagnetic wave guides needed to conduct the current? Both are ignored. How does the heated gas collapse instead of dissipate, as thermodynamic physics would insist? The Electric Universe theory relates a more reasonable account. Instead of "hot gas and compressed dust," it is plasma and magnetic fields that form the electric stars. How does this work? Birkeland currents power and shape the galaxy and are constricted by the magnetic fields they generate. Hot gases and dust are prevented from dispersing inside their multi-lightyear-long helical coils. When the current density inside the twisted filaments gets high enough the plasma that carries the current begins to glow and to "pinch" into plasmoids that eventually become the stars. When the electrical stress is low and the plasma contains a lower concentration of dust, only the star "lights up" in arc-mode discharge. Where the electrical stress is greater, as in the Eagle Nebula, disks, jets, and the surrounding gas clouds can also light up. Of course, dust clouds can reflect the light from nearby stars, but these glowing plasma formations show the characteristic filaments and cell-like behavior seen in plasma computer simulations. By Stephen Smith
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3D Anaglyph of Arabia Terra. Credit: NASA/Malin Space Science Systems
Martian Water Features

(Apr 28, 2008)
Structures on Mars that resemble Earths hydrothermal vents or eroded mounds have sparked renewed interest in water flowing over the Red Planet. Are they evidence for scars from electric arcs instead? Recently, analysts from NASAs Johnson Space Center announced the discovery of mounds on Mars that might be the remains of ancient hydrothermal vents. Because they have a similar appearance to fossilized "mound springs" in the Australian Outback, researchers have theorized that both structures could be of similar origin. Hydrothermal vents were a startling discovery for scientists when the first deep water exploration of the mid-ocean ridge was conducted. The surprise was not that the vents were spewing black, mineral-rich water at over 300 degrees Celsius but that there were colonies of living organisms surrounding them and thriving in a frigid environment a thousand meters or more beneath the sea. Since conventional geological theories suggest that the ocean bottoms have changed places with the high places on Earth over millions of years, the formations that were once in the deep are now located on mountain tops or in torrid deserts. Formations like the Australian mounds are thought to be the remains of hydrothermal vents that were once active on the bottom of an ancient sea. A few of the mound springs in Australia retain connections to underground water sources and continue to flow after millions of years. Some of them are nothing more than circular The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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discolorations that identify striations composed of different chemical composition. According to the theory, hot mineralized water that once jetted out from the vent left ring-shaped crosssections as the eruptions lost their geothermal energy and shut down after eons of existence. When the land and sea changed places, the fossilized vents relocated to the desert. Modern science has retained the long-hoped-for desire that Mars could be the cradle of different life forms that arose and evolved in a separate ecology. As the overall theory goes, in order for what has become the subtext of nearly every presentation about Mars to exist, the planet must have gone through a stage when there were oceanic quantities of liquid water on the surface. This idea also implies that Mars once retained an atmosphere dense enough in oxygen (and a moderating gas) that life could respire in the open. However, there is disagreement in the scientific community about whether such volumes of water could ever have existed on Mars. In the March 5, 2007 edition of Scientific American, it was reported that most of what has been interpreted as water-based erosion on Mars could have come from "dry avalanches" of dirt. The authors expressed serious doubts about whether observations have demonstrated any effects caused by liquid water. Allan Treiman, a geologist from Houston's Lunar and Planetary Institute wrote: "The idea of it being liquid water was a very reasonable hypothesis to start with. From my standpoint liquid water hasn't been proved at all." Some features cannot be the result of water erosion. Since theyre found within the so-called "alluvial fans" that seem to indicate deposits left behind by deltas or other aquatic action, then the backbone of that theory has a serious flaw. Another often-overlooked aspect to what is happening on Mars is the electrical activity that can occur when dry mountains of dust move as a large mass The supposed water runoff from the rims of large craters or down the slopes of giant volcanoes is probably not the result of melting ice from beneath the surface dust but from falls of dust down slope. The blackened tracks left by such falls provide evidence for their electrical origin and not an aqueous one. The large-scale structure of Mars with its continent-wide canyon, gigantic volcanoes, thousand-kilometer-wide craters, fractures, plateaus and blasted wastelands of crushed stone was most likely created a relatively short time ago as we have contended for many years in these pages. Planetary scientists are beginning to see the signs of catastrophe on the small scale. Now, they must lift their eyes to the heights and consider the origin of what they see in the cliffs and ridges. By Stephen Smith
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The Putorana Plateau in northeastern Siberia. Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, NASA/MODIS.
The Siberian Traps

(Apr 23, 2008)
Basalt lava two kilometers deep is said to have come from a "mantle plume" eruption. Could it be another sign of planetary electrical discharge? In a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day, one of the largest astroblems on Earth, Popigai Crater, was described as a scar that was created by electricity blasting the terrain in multitrillion-watt arcs of cosmic fire. Indeed, rather than meteorite impact sites, the majority of large craters are most likely electrical in origin rather than the result of kinetic shock. The word "trap" is from the Swedish for "stairs." Thus, the Siberian Traps are a stepped feature meaning that the terrain does not rise and fall in a gradual slope but is uplifted in gigantic blocks that resemble a staircase rising toward the north. As we have previously written, similar geologic structures are found elsewhere. Some cover thousands of square kilometers with anomalous terrain, erratic boulders, glassified spherules of stone, Lichtenberg trackways and many other chaotic signatures of electrical activity. According to conventional geologic theories, the Siberian Traps are the remains of volcanic eruptions that took place at the end of the Permian Age, around 250 million years ago. Scientists consider it to be the largest volcanic event on Earth in the last half-billion years. The amount of lava released during the theorized million-year time period is truly staggering an area two million square kilometers (five-times larger than Texas) in extent is covered with basalt deposits two kilometers deep. A so-called "mantle plume" has been suggested as the method by which magma melted the crust and then erupted through the Siberian Craton. Mantle plumes are thought to rise from the core-mantle boundary roughly 3000 kilometers beneath the surface of the Earth. They are The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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presumed to be gigantic convection cells, cycling heat from the core and providing the energy that drives plate tectonics, allowing continental movement over the thinner crust. Some geophysicists object to the theory, however. Under Siberia is the old Archaean structure. From the Greek word arche ("beginning" or "first"), standard theory says the Archaean era is the "primal" era on Earth. It began four billion years ago and lasted for 1.5-billion years. It is "primal" because it was then that small continental landmasses began to form. Later, the "microcontinents" began to coalesce into the large formations that we see today. Our article entitled "The Expanding Earth Debate" took issue with some of these ideas because there are too many presumptions in the mantle plume theory. First, no known mechanism has ever been proposed for the melting of the crust due to phase changes in the mantle. How did the mantle acquire the excess heat? Second, the Archaean rock is too thick for a plume to heat it enough to melt it into magma and force it to the surface. The geochemistry of the basalts in the area is also inconsistent with the theoretical process. Third, there is no evidence of uplift in the sedimentary rocks a characteristic that should be expected from a mantle plumes expansion. So, what did happen in Siberia? The great explosion in 1908 that flattened millions of trees is the record of a tiny episode in Siberias history, although it could be that the detonation was the result of an electric arc jumping from a charged object entering the field of Earths giant capacitor. Popigai crater is another example of lightning-type excavations, except Popigai is 100-kilometers in diameter and lies on the edge of the Siberian Traps near the city of Norilsk. One interesting technical point is that the area surrounding Norilsk produces one-fifth of all the worlds nickel. Nickel is often associated with presupposed meteor impacts, although the origin of the high concentrations within them is not known. It seems likely that northern Siberia was the location of lightning strikes as big as half a continent that might have occurred in relatively recent times. The incredible power of those strikes excavated billions of tons of material and redistributed it all over the world glass spherules from Popigai are found as far away as Great Britain. The arcs uplifted the Putorana Plateau and carved its summit with Lichtenberg figures, as well as leaving semi-circular mountain ridges composed of basalt that march out from the center for hundreds of kilometers. Unusual geomagnetic anomalies are found all over the region an unmistakable sign of electric currents flowing through the strata. By Stephen Smith
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Composite view of Galaxy M83 in Hydra. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/VLA/MPIA
Star Formation in the Southern Pinwheel

(Apr 21, 2008)
The extended arms of M83 appear to show active star-forming regions where they should not exist. Does this help to confirm the Electric Universe theory? NASA launched the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) observation platform on April 28, 2003. Originally planned as a 29-month mission, NASA has since recommended that the mission be extended until the fuel cells are exhausted and no further course adjustments can be made. Recently, NASA announced the discovery of stars bursting into ignition far from the "normally" active regions where conventional science says such events should occur. Because stars are said to evolve from collapsing clouds of hydrogen and helium and to derive their energetic emissions from thermonuclear processes, there needs to be concentrations great enough for the stellar nebulae to gravitationally compress the gases until they fuse into heavier elements. M83 defies that convention because scientists have found that the spiral "arms" of the galaxy thousands of light-years in extent exhibit high-energy x-rays and extreme-ultraviolet light that seem to confirm the high temperatures necessary for star-birth. In order to validate their observations, the GALEX mission specialists turned to the Very Large Array (VLA) for help. In the image at the top of the page, the combined shots from GALEX and the VLA show lengthening of the galactic arms beyond what is seen in visible-light. Using other data obtained from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the arms shine with an intensity that cannot be adequately explained merely through the mechanical compression of molecular hydrogen. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day, we paid tribute to a pioneer of plasma science, Winston Bostick. Bostick is noted for his work with laboratory-scale plasmoid experiments and the construction of a dense-plasma focus device. One of his major contributions to astrophysics is the controversial hypothesis regarding the way that galaxies mature from initial quasi-stellar (QUASAR) conglomerations of plasma. Bostick saw the universe as a continuous process of current flow through tenuous plasma that forms its substance, so his analysis of galactic behavior is based in electricity. Against a background magnetic field, the current flows in the form of invisible (dark current) cosmic Birkeland current filaments. The induced rotation of Birkeland current pairs, where they intersect, is responsible for the formation and rotation of a galactic disc, such as M83, and the production of the characteristic spiral arms. Current flows in from the extra-galactic environment from the edges of the disc where it then twists upward and downward along the rotation axis in response to the generated magnetic field. It then completes its circuit by spiraling back down to the edge of the disc. Birkeland currents enable electricity to move great distances through space in a manner analogous to power transmission lines on Earth. Plasma is compressed within the vortical filaments in long lines extending out from the galactic nucleus - sometimes the "lines" are seen in galactic images as "bars" that spin at right angles to the current flowing out of the central bulge. It is in the most dense current flows where stars form. The stars shine not because of gravitational forces, but because of the electric nature of the universe and the way that moving plasma behaves in a magnetic field. Written by Stephen Smith from information provided by Wal Thornhill
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Stone spheres awash in the surf of New Zealands South Island
New Zealands Moeraki Boulders

(Apr 18, 2008)
Strange round nodules of solid stone are found on a beach in New Zealand. Are they "concretions" precipitated over eons? Or is electricity a better explanation? There are many anomalous objects buried in mountains, drowned in oceans or scattered across the landscape that are not adequately explained through conventional theories. In previous Picture of the Day articles, we have identified several unique sites where stone spheres have been discovered washing out of hillsides or embedded within a sandstone matrix. 40 kilometers south of Oamaru, New Zealand, is a beach where hundreds of calcium carbonate spheres have fallen out of a cliff face and rolled down into the water. They range in size from small nodules to giant balls over 4 meters in diameter. Said to be the result of slow growth around a nucleus, the spheres are referred to as "concretions" and are thought to be the result of tiny amounts of mineral precipitation taking place over 65 million years. The Moeraki Boulders come from within a hillside that has been cut into by weathering. The various mineral layers are composed of mudstones and the nodules appear to have grown in place. The layers often surround them like nacre surrounds a foreign object to form the pearl in an oyster, yet the spheres are not part of the layers. If the surrounding material is dug away, the stone balls will fall out of their cavities because they are not attached to the inner wall. Another Thunderbolts Picture of the Day described glassified spherules, created by C. J. Ransom in his VEMASAT laboratory, proving that lightning strikes might be a way by which stone eggs form. When NASA reported the discovery of "blueberries" on Mars, Dr. Ransom The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive shot rock dust and soils with high voltage electric discharges. His results look remarkably similar to the Martian blueberries and to other such accumulations of stone balls on Earth.
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Electric arcs of great power will smash matter into the center of a vortex and crush it into spherical shapes. It May also melt the material to a greater or lesser degree. Because of these "z-pinch" zones of compression, several kinds of "stone ball" might result and they will be composed of different substances, depending on their location. For example, there are Moqui balls iron spheres with sandstone cores, cannonballs, blueberries, thunder eggs, Apache tears and geodes. Many of them are hollow inside. What else besides electrical compression can account for the variety of substrate, the oftenpressurized interiors of the spherules or the fact of their spherical shape in the first place? If the stones formed in place due to precipitation, they would be domes with flat bottoms. If they were in motion when they formed, they would be lozenge-shaped, like river rocks, or bulletshaped either way, they would not retain a rounded shape. It seems likely that the Moeraki Boulders were left by giant electric arcs as they passed through the southern landscape of New Zealand, excavating the canyons, uplifting the stone tors and creating many other unusual geological formations there. Written by Stephen Smith from an idea submitted by Klaas Geertsma
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Left: A pot from the Naqada II period, Egypt. Right: A cosmic diagram from Mangaia, Polynesia, published in 1876.
A Potted View of Ancient Geometric Imagery

(Apr 17, 2008)
Pottery from the classical world is replete with mythological imagery, so much so that classicists treat the familiar images on black and red Attic ware as a respectable class of "witnesses" to myths otherwise known from texts. Since the onset of human history, creative artisans have decorated pots and vases with whatever occupied their minds. In some cases, pictures found on vases represent traditions not attested in any of the texts at our disposal and even these are taken into account by scholars as respectable sources. Much the same is true for other societies as well as, presumably, the abundant pictures found on prehistoric pots, where the accompanying myths themselves can no longer be retrieved. "Abstract" or "geometric" patterns are particularly common on pottery from the Neolithic period and the Bronze Age. While circles, spirals, crosses and the like will often not have had any deeper meaning than a purely decorative fantasy of the painter, such forms May in some cases represent phenomena featured in the artists mythological and cosmological worldview. For example, even today cross-shaped patterns are in countless cultures linked to the four cardinal directions. One reason to believe that many "abstract" patterns on prehistoric pots denoted cosmological concepts are the striking similarities found between these shapes and recurrent traits of ancient cosmological thought systems. An example of the often close linkage is shown above. The curious image on the left adorns a vase from the Naqada II period of prehistoric Egypt, dated to 3500-3200 BCE. The image on the right is a 19th century drawing of the cosmos as perceived by the indigenous people of Mangaia, one of the Cook Islands in southern Polynesia. The visiting missionary-cum-anthropologist William Wyatt Gill explained that the Mangaians associated the nine concentric arcs with ten layered heavens and the segmented "balloon" below it with an "underworld" called Avaiki, comprising the "root of all existence" at the very The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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bottom, a series of six superimposed internal divisions in the middle, and the surface of the earth at the top. The visual similarity between these two images is striking. Is it conceivable that the Egyptian painter responsible for the adornment of the Naqada II vase was inspired by a comparable "cosmogram," on a par with the "cosmic drums," mandalas and mappae mundi of later ages? The idea May not seem quite so potty if both images ultimately traced to a complex configuration once seen in the sky. Plasma physicist Dr. Anthony Peratt has recently been modeling a high-energy-density aurora that must have been observed towards the end of the Neolithic Period coming in from a south polar direction. Laboratory experiments and computer simulations bear out that this aurora, arguably recorded in millions of "geometric" petroglyphs worldwide, during one of its stages displayed a morphology quite like the images reproduced above. Interdisciplinary collaboration also suggests that the formative history of this aurora encapsulates what traditional societies across the globe collectively remember as the events of creation. It looks like these people interpreted the complex movements and arrangements of conspicuous plasma filaments in the sky as the organization of space by mythical gods and ancestors. Strings of bead-shaped plasmoids of varying sizes gave rise to countless variations on the themes of stacked heavens, hells, and ancestors or cosmic "eggs" and "coconuts" from which the world emerged in illo tempore. The interpretation of the image on the Naqada vase in terms of a prehistoric super-aurora May jar with archaeologists in the absence of any positive evidence for the meaning of the picture and rightly so. Yet, on a speculative level, the analogy with similar cosmological and mythical imagery on human artifacts worldwide inspires confidence that the prehistoric painter was engaged in more than idle doodling. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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HiRISE image of Stickney Crater on Phobos. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
Is Stickney Crater an Impact Feature?

(Apr 14, 2008)
Stickney crater is almost half the diameter of Phobos itself. Why did the impact not shatter this small moon? The color picture above is a composite from two pictures taken about 10 minutes apart in order to give the 3-dimensional aspect. A recent Picture of the Day described some of the large-scale formations on Phobos, especially Stickney Crater, but this more dramatic picture, which has recently become available, deserves another showing because it portrays the distinctive features of an Electric Discharge Machining (EDM) event with greater clarity. The smaller, later craters on the rim deserve special attention. This is the pattern that one would expect to see in a discharge event, since the initial strike from the plasma bolt would be the most energetic and later, smaller discharges would preferentially strike the higher feature-the rim. The clean machining of the crater part way up on the inside of the rim is another distinguishing mark of EDM. How can this feature be part of an impact? Images of Phobos reveal prominent streaks and grooves, some of which are running up and over the rim of Stickney Crater. These also are features expected from this kind of EDM event. Some of them are in directions that are not radial and some have course changes, which leads to the question: "Would these two phenomena ever be expected in an impact event?" As to the streaks and grooves, The Astronomy Picture of the Day for April 08, 2008, says: "Even though the surface gravity of asteroid-like Phobos is less than 1/1000th Earth's gravity, streaks suggest loose material has slid down inside the crater walls over time. The origin of the curious grooves along the surface is mysterious but May be related to The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive the crater-forming impact." But the same question remains: "Is this the sign of an impact event?"
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Rather than being indicative of a meteor crashing into the surface, the many other pits and small craters that dot the landscape are to be expected in an EDM event. In the scenario of interplanetary discharges envisioned in the Electric Universe hypothesis, Phobos could hardly have escaped being caught in the crossfire. Stickney Crater mirrors those on other comparably sized asteroids such as Eros and Mathilde, as well as the moons Mimas and Tethys. Contributed by Michael Armstrong
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Ascent of the Blessed by Hieronymus Bosch circa 1490. Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Italy.
The Spirit of Mythology Part Two

(Apr 11, 2008)
Why does the mythical axis mundi a cosmic tree, mountain or pillar feature so prominently in traditional descriptions of "heaven" or "paradise," the place where souls go after death or during a mystical vision? The desirable abode of a radiant "sun god" at the apex of the axis mundi, a widely documented theme, is indistinguishable from the celestial "paradise" inhabited by a congregation of blessed souls. "Up on the Astrolabe Range," to quote a Papuan belief, "there blooms invisible to mortal eye a great and gracious tree, in and around which dwell for ever, free from care and happy, all those who have lived good lives ere death claimed them." The Dayak people, of Borneo, envisioned the land of the souls as a large settlement enclosed by seven mountains, within its midst a "strikingly large tree," Bating Garing, that possesses the property of rejuvenation. The Maya of Yucatn, similarly, envisioned the destination of those that had behaved well as "a most delightful place where nothing would cause them sorrow and where there would be rich food and drink in abundance, and a cool, shady tree that they call yaxch (the silk-cotton tree), in the shade of whose branches they would all rest and be in peace forever." Just why did traditional societies in such diverse places conceive of the starry sky and the axis mundi as prime destinations for posthumous or "questing" souls? Certainly, the answer must take into account the remarkable similarity between the cosmic axis as a radiant pillar surmounted by gods and the "tunnel of light, reaching to Deity" as perceived in a typical NearDeath Experience (NDE) or Out of Body Experience (OBE). So close is the connection that some ancient reports can be read as indicative of both. In Platos description of the vision of Er the Pamphylian, for instance, Er, along with a host of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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other souls, transcends into the sky where he observes a spectacular pillar of light, "most nearly resembling the rainbow, but brighter and purer." This adamantine column formed the central shaft of the universe, to which all planets and stars were attached as to a spindle whorl. Neo-Platonists, Gnostics and medieval hermeticists continued to position the illuminated soul on a miraculous radiant pillar that doubles as an auroral axis mundi and a "tunnel of light" marking the near-dead condition of the mystics enthralled soul. As late as the 15th century, Hieronymus Bosch could depict the souls of the dead being led by angelic beings towards heaven through a tube of light. But what does this tell us? Reductionist supporters of a psychological theory of myth May be inclined to explain the entire mythology of the axis mundi as an embellished set of reports of Near-Death Experiences. This approach is invalid for two reasons. Firstly, worldwide descriptions of the axis mundi imply a level of consistent detail and an internal chronological history that cannot be derived from "tunnel visions," which are relatively poor in recurrent detail. Secondly, creation myths seem to form the original context on which later impressions of the cosmic itineraries of the soul were based. A "contemporary" belief that souls turn into stars is almost certainly a development from earlier creation myths in which the stars were formed from "people" that had formerly lived on earth. Examples of the latter motif are abundant. The tunnel seen in Near-Death Experiences lacks a perceived link with the creation of the world and is "timeless" in that sense. This leaves the possibility that Near-Death and Out of Body Experiences could in ancient times simply have been secondarily associated with cosmological notions about the stars and the axis mundi. They would have reinforced the impression that the axial pillar, though vanished at the end of the "Golden Age," could somehow still be accessed by the "enlightened" souls of the dead and the visionaries. A detailed structural analysis of traditions about the axis mundi and the "creation of the world" in general suggests that the prototype was a complex high-energy-density auroral configuration produced during a violent geomagnetic storm towards the end of the Neolithic period. If true, this sky-reaching column as well as its many constituents were really formed of glowing plasma. Considering the surprisingly life-like properties of plasmas in high-energy environments, it should perhaps not come as a surprise that traditional cultures worldwide portray this axis as a veritable "lifeline," a "tree of life," the embodiment of primordial life, and the original repository of life forms. This animated nature could explain the intimate association between the axis and a world of "souls," clarifying in the process why human societies have always tended to imagine souls to be like glowing, gaseous clouds or sparks not unlike little stars. On a far more speculative note, the electric nature of the nervous system invites the possibility that whatever the "soul" is, it May indeed bear a relationship to plasmas interacting with the geomagnetic environment. Could there be more to the ancient tendency to depict a human being as a microcosmic replication of the universe, whose spinal column corresponded to the macrocosmic polar axis? Intriguing though these possibilities are, scientists will ultimately have the last word on the nature both of the soul itself and of the "hallucinatory" trajectories of light the soul May follow in its course. The truly inquisitive spirit secures enlightenment not through revelatory visions or inspired guesses, but through reliable research methods. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Human souls ascending a ladder on an illustration of St. John Climacus ( 606 CE), The Ladder of Paradise
The Spirit of Mythology Part One

(Apr 09, 2008)
The soul is one of the most complex subjects in the study of religion and mythology, both in terms of its nature and its behaviour. On an empirical level, it is a task for biologists, such as physiologists and neurologists, to determine whether human beings, as well as other forms of life, have a soul, what this soul is made of, how it relates to consciousness, intelligence, memory and personality, and whether it survives the death of the physical body. Yet quite apart from such scientific enquiries into the physical nature of the soul, traditional human perceptions of the soul and its peregrinations can be studied independently as a branch of philosophy or the history of ideas; in doing so, it quickly transpires that a vast continuum connects some of the crudest mythological beliefs about the soul to the most sophisticated expressions of mysticism in a surprisingly uniform set of "archetypal" motifs. A helpful distinction separates traditions concerning the "pre-mortal" and the "post-mortal" fates of the soul: while mystical experiences allow living people with a visionary gift a window to the world of the soul, the body of beliefs describing the wandering of disembodied souls after death has been characterised as "funerary mythology." Accounts of the "other world" reached after death cannot be verified scientifically, but The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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scientists May illuminate aspects of visionary enlightenment, for example by demonstrating that particular categories of people are more prone to such experiences, including people suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy, hypersensitive people, people on a rhythmicallyinduced trance, or people on the verge of death through torture, a traffic accident or other forms of extreme exhaustion. To the comparative mythologist, it becomes quickly apparent that the imaginary landscape through which the discarnate souls of both living and dead people are believed to move tend to have a strong celestial or astral aspect. The popular understanding that the souls of the dead go to heaven corresponds to a deeply ingrained and practically universal belief that such souls somehow make their way into the night sky, where they traverse the Milky Way or are turned into stars. For example, the Tiwi people, of Bathurst and Melville Islands in the Northern Territory of Australia, contend that "the spirits of the dead" are carried to "a utopian upper world or tuniruna, blessed with adequate rainfall and abundant food. Some groups imagined it as a land of beautiful flowers that never faded. and we see them as stars shining through holes in the cover." Just as the axis mundi as a cosmic tree, mountain or pillar connecting the poles is the pivot of the material world in traditional cosmologies, so it is identified as the principal conduit of souls in countless traditions throughout the world. The Maya of Yucatn, for instance, claim that the souls of the dead ascend a tree by means of a ladder made of vines or climbers. The Mocov people, of Paraguay, hold that "the souls of the dead go up to the earth on high by the tree which joins us to heaven." Just so, the Guaran and the Carib believed that the disembodied soul ascends "the tree of heaven," planted in a garden, at the top of which it will meet its creator, called Tamoi or Tamu. Old World counterparts to such beliefs tend to relate to the experience of the ascetic rather than the deceased. Thus, Vedic texts portray the ascent of the spirit to heaven in terms of climbing a tree: "As one would keep climbing up a tree by steps he keeps ascending these worlds." The prophet Mohammed is believed to have passed the sidrat al-muntah, a celestial tree, during his famous ascent through the heavens. The Christian mystic, John of Ruysbroeck ( 1381 CE), declared that the mystic "must climb into the tree of belief," which, undoubtedly, was modelled on the image of the cross of Christ as the tree of life. And within Judaism, enlightened souls enjoyed a "psychonautic" journey along a similar column: "There is an upper and a lower Paradise. And between them, upright, is fixed a pillar; and by this they are joined together; and t is called The Strength of the Hill of Sion. And by this Pillar on every Sabbath and Festival the righteous climb up and feed themselves with a glance of the Divine majesty till the end of the Sabbath or Festival, when they slide down and return into the lower Paradise." Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Theoretical fusion reactions in supergiant stars. Credit: Universe Review
Stellar Dumbbell (May Illustrate Electric Fissioning

(Apr 07, 2008)
A pair of stars orbiting one another at high speed and close proximity surprises conventional astronomers. In the Electric Universe, such phenomena are expected. Ohio State University astronomers and other cooperative agencies from around the world have recently announced that a pair of super giant yellow stars has been discovered orbiting so closely to one another that they are exchanging material with each other. When the first such system was discovered in the Holmberg IX galaxy, some 13 million light-years away, it was thought to be rare until another one was found almost immediately afterward. In the second case, the "yellow supergiant eclipsing binary" was found closer to home in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Kris Stanek, an astronomy professor at Ohio State, wrote: "We didnt expect to find one of these things, much less two. You never expect this sort of thing. But I think this shows how flexible you have to be in astrophysics. We needed the 8.4-meter LBT [Large Binocular Telescope] to spot the first binary, but the second one is so bright that you could see it with binoculars in your back yard. Yet, if we hadnt found the first one, we May never have found the second one." The unexpected nature of the discovery is due to the standard theory of stellar evolution. As stars are born and begin to age, they go through stages of development that correspond primarily to their rates of fuel consumption. When stars ignite, they contain hydrogen and helium that immediately begin to transform into heavier elements because nuclear fusion takes place in their cores lighter elements are fused together due to heat and gravitational compression. As the theory states, if the star is large enough and contains enough fuel it will reach the "red supergiant" phase before it becomes a supernova. The largest stars burn their initial fuel charges at a rapid pace over the eons and fluctuate between hot and cool, depending on what element is being fused. Hydrogen becomes helium, which becomes carbon and so on. As the star collapses, allowing gravity to compress the core and once again burn the heavier elements, it heats up and enters a blue-white stage. Once the star accumulates enough iron atoms the nuclear reaction stops; the star implodes and throws off its outer layers. The yellow phase is not supposed to last long enough for the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive star to reach that end, yet that is what astronomers believe they are witnessing.
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The Electric Star theory explains things differently, so the discovery is not a surprise. Not only is the conventional view of luminosity vs. spectral class overturned by its premise, the Electric Star hypothesis predicts that binary star systems at every stage of luminosity should exist. As Don Scott, author of The Electric Sky writes: "In the ES [Electric Star] model the important variable is: current density (Amps/sq m) at the star's photospheric surface. If a star's current density increases, the arc discharges on its surface (photospheric granules) get hotter, change color (away from red, toward blue-white), and get brighter. The absolute luminosity of a star, therefore, depends on two main variables: current density at its effective surface, and its size (the star's diameter). Therefore, let us add a new scale to the horizontal axis of the HR diagram: 'Current Density at the Surface of each Star'. Consider moving from the lower right of the HR diagram toward the left. In so doing we are moving in the direction of increasing current density at the star's surface." What astronomers have actually done is help to confirm the hypothesis by providing image data that supports another aspect of ES theory: stellar fissioning. As Don Scott writes: "If a sphere of fixed volume splits into two smaller (equal sized) spheres, the total surface area of the newly formed pair will be about 26% larger than the area of the original sphere. If the split results in two unequally sized spheres, the increase in total area will be something less than 26%. So, to reduce the current density it is experiencing, an electrically stressed, blue-white star May explosively fission into two or more stars. This provides an increase in total surface area and so results in a reduced level of current density on the (new) stars' surfaces. Each of two new (equal sized) stars will experience only 80% of the previous current density level and so both will jump to new locations farther to the lower-right in the HR diagram." By Stephen Smith
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Supernova remnant 160,000 light-years away. Credit: NASA/CXC/NCSU/K.J.Borkowski et al.
N132Ds Electric Arc

(Apr 02, 2008)
A bubble of x-rays generated by high-energy oxygen ions is said to be from a supernova explosion. However, it appears more like an electric discharge through dusty plasma. In a recent announcement from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, a bubble of expanding gases from a stellar explosion is creating a spherical shockwave that is traveling through the surrounding interstellar dust at extremely high velocity. According to scientists, the shockwave has formed a "shell" of compressed gas where temperatures are so high that it is generating several frequencies of X-rays. In the image at the top of the page, red indicates low-energy xrays, green is moderate-energy and blue is high-energy. One unusual aspect to this particular supernova remnant is that it is rich in oxygen isotopes, something not normally present in interstellar nebulae or "gas bubbles." It is the explosion of such large stars that is supposed to be responsible for the creation of all the elements in the universe beyond the simplest isotopes of hydrogen and helium. Indeed, the vast majority of what makes up planets, moons and planetesimals (presumably) orbiting other stars was forged through fusion as they "burned-up" their hydrogen fuel and converted it into heavier elements. Once the process created enough iron "ash" in the core, the star no longer supported its thermonuclear engine and it exploded, throwing the atomic debris into the galaxy. It is that hypothetical process that produces shockwaves in giant dust clouds, initiating further star formation as a chain-reaction in the galaxy. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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As we have written in many prior Picture of the Day articles, however, we do not live in a strictly mechanistic universe where things happen only when there are explosions, shockwaves, compressed gas, rebound, expansion or other kinetic and gravity-based forces. Rather, the universe is crackling with seething energies that exceed the powers of gravity and inertia by many orders of magnitude. It is electric currents in plasma that makes up what we observe. It is responsible for the abundant oxygen that is revealed in the green regions of N132D. Rather than an expanding shockfront of gases, the features shown in the Chandra image are lit by electricity passing through the dusty plasma. The x-ray radiation is typical of that given off by highly excited stars, indicating extremely strong electrical stress. The electric current generates x-rays when it passes through heavy ions in the plasma. In an Electric Universe, all stars synthesize heavy elements in the concentrated plasma discharges of their photospheres. Supernovae are the result of a star effectively "throwing a switch" in the galactic circuit. The result is the same as an unintended circuit break in an earthly power grid where the stored electromagnetic energy in the entire circuit is suddenly focused at one point. By Stephen Smith
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Wilpena Pound. Flinders Range, South Australia. Photographer unknown.
Wilpena Pound
(Mar 31, 2008)
The Flinders Range contains some of the most unusual geological formations in Australia. Indications of gigantic electric arcs are unmistakable. In several previous Picture of the Day articles we have considered the geological history of the Australian continent and found that there are several disconformities in the appearance and structure of many formations. The famous "Red Center" is particularly noteworthy because Uluru, Kata Tjuta and other monolithic stone tors stand in isolated grandeur above the relatively flat landscape. The Flinders Range is a rugged outcrop of sandstone and quartzite that begins about 250 kilometers north of Adelaide and stretches for 800 kilometers. The mountains are extensively folded and fractured, with several deep gorges cut through them. One of the most unusual features in the range is Wilpena Pound, a natural amphitheater of stone covering 83 square kilometers, with interior dimensions of 11 kilometers by 8 kilometers. The conventional view of the Flinders Range sees it forming over 650 million years ago as sediments in a now extinct ocean. Earth movements pushed the materials upward into a dome-shape that has been subsequently worn down through the natural processes of erosion by wind and water. Over the millennia, the surrounding peaks have diminished and the hills and valleys have vanished into the dust and sand of the great desert. As the standard theory goes, although Wilpena Pound appears to be the remains of a meteor impact the overall shape and the stratigraphic composition do not support that idea. As has been pointed out in the past, however, erosion does not possess the allencompassing power for change that modern geology asserts. In our Picture of the Day about Shiprock, New Mexico the dual-ridge faults, the curved gullies that stretch out from a common center, and the sharp ridges with sine wave undulations incised into them were all said to be the remains of lightning bolts of continental dimension cutting into the topography like a plasma knife. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Within Wilpena Pound is the Edeowie Gorge. A striking example of vitrification can be found there, since the gorge reveals sheets of pale yellow glass buried under the sandstone overburden. The glass is extremely pure with no admixture of soils or mineral inclusions, very much like the Egyptian "desert glass" that is found in the Great Sand Sea near the Libyan border. Both glass deposits also contain dark wisps of iridium and tiny bubbles of cristobalite features that point to the application of exceptionally high temperatures when the glass was created. The desert glass is associated with an enormous crater called Kebira that was recently discovered by analyzing images taken from earth-orbit. The 32-kilometer-wide depression is said to be the ancient remains of an asteroid impact, but there is little indication of a crater and there are multiple sharp peaks in its center. Such attributes have been discussed elsewhere and have been theorized to be from electric arcs fusing the sands into molten glass and then blasting the chunks outward over a wide area. Taken together, the fused sand, the scalloped edges of the ridge surrounding Wilpena Pound, the iridium, the raised rim, the curvilinear gullies and the other geological anomalies all point to electrical activity as the causative agency for its creation. The conventional geological viewpoint is insufficient when it comes to explaining the many bizarre landforms in Australia. By Stephen Smith
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The Moons southern latitudes. Credit: NASA/Clementine Mission
The South Lunar Pole

(Mar 28, 2008)
Future manned missions to the Moon are slated to land in the polar regions because large deposits of water are thought to exist there. On January 25, 1994, NASA launched the Deep Space Program Science Experiment satellite, Clementine, with a dual mission objective: map the surface of the Moon in visible and ultraviolet light and then leave the lunar environment for a rendezvous with the Near Earth Object (NEO), 1620 Geographos, a five-kilometer-long asteroid that occasionally crosses orbits with our planet. Unfortunately, a rocket booster became stuck in the "on" position after Clementine left the Moon, causing it to spin wildly out of control and exhaust its fuel supply. Shortly after the mission data was analyzed, scientists announced that the south pole of the Moon contained pockets of water ice shielded from the Sun by shadows cast from the walls of deep craters and by a covering of insulating rocks and dust. This announcement sparked a renewed interest in lunar colonization, because the abundant water could be a source of hydrogen. Establishing a base on the Moon has been the ultimate goal of lunar exploration since the 1960s when the United States put the first human beings there. For forty years, that goal has been held in abeyance because of cost and scaling problems. In order to provide a small band of explorers with life support while they conduct their surveys on the surface, the space vehicle would have to be enormous. Just to construct a cargo transporter that can carry the oxygen, food and water for an The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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extended stay is beyond our current technology. Blasting such loads into space would mean building something ten times the size of the old Saturn V system a project too costly to contemplate even if it was technically feasible. When Clementine supposedly detected water ice on the Moon it was thought that the solution to one of the major obstacles to a moon base had been found. Water can be split into oxygen and hydrogen by applying electricity, therefore solar panels could be transported to the Moon and used to create breathable air, potable water and fuel to power the machinery. Also, some areas of the south pole might be in permanent sunshine so a continuous energy source would be available to crack the ice into its constituents and keep the colony powered up. A team of researchers has questioned the accuracy of Clementines data and suggested that the instruments May have seen reflections off the steep sidewalls of deep craters and not the signature of ice deposits. Since the radar signature came from both brightly illuminated and darkly shaded areas of Shackleton crater, the reflection probably came from rocks and other debris rather than ice. As Donald Campbell wrote in the science journal Nature: "Any planning for future exploitation of hydrogen at the Moon's South Pole should be constrained by this low average abundance rather than by the expectation of localised deposits at higher concentrations." Ice on the Moon could have come from cometary fragments over millions of years, according to conventional theories. Comets and asteroids supposedly hit the Moon by the million early in its history. The objects that formed Shackleton crater and the rugged topography in the south left behind great loads of water vapor that quickly condensed and precipitated on the cold walls of the craters after the impacts. The frozen water vapor was protected from sublimation when the dust thrown out by the explosions settled back to the surface, covering over the ice and compressing it. As we have written in past Picture of the Day articles, the search for water on the Moon is most likely a forlorn hope. The Moon does not present features caused by innumerable strikes from high-velocity space rocks or thousands of comets out of a hypothetical Oort Cloud. Rather, lunar structures and terrain are the result of powerful electric discharges at some time in the relatively recent past. Physicist and Electric Universe pioneer Ralph Juergens wrote the following: "Explaining a crater floor of bare, once-molten rock in terms of the conventional impact theory is a little difficult. One must resort to ad-hoc theorizing to the effect that something perhaps the shock of the postulated impact explosion melted a considerable volume of rock at some depth, and that following the explosion this material welled up to engulf the crater floor and flow around obstructions encountered there; otherwise, debris from the explosion itself could be expected to clutter the crater floor. Impact theory offers no reason, however, to expect such a sequence of events, and nothing in terrestrial experience with crater-producing explosions supports the idea. "...Though an electric discharge might be thought of as taking place in a very brief span of time, an interplanetary discharge must surely be an event of greater duration than an impact explosion; the long- distance flow of current would persist beyond the instant of any initial touchdown explosion, and ejecta that chanced to fall back into the crater thus produced could be swept away or melted in place." The morphology of the Moon and the south pole in particular is indicative of the features The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Juergens described. No water-bearing impactors formed the terrain there. Rather, it was electricity that carved the Moon and any water that might have once existed was obliterated by the energy released in the event. By Stephen Smith
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Artists rendition of galactic system 3C321 X-ray jet deflection. Credit: NASA/STScI/G. Bacon
Galactic Deflection
(Mar 26, 2008)
Combined observations seem to indicate an active jet of high-velocity particles deflected from the edge of another galaxy. Could electrical interaction be the cause? NASA recently announced the discovery of two galaxies orbiting a common center but with a twist: the larger of the two is firing a jet of energetic material out of a black hole directly at the edge of its smaller neighbor. "We've seen many jets produced by black holes, but this is the first time we've seen one punch into another galaxy like we're seeing here." said Dan Evans, a scientist at the HarvardSmithsonian Center for Astrophysics. According to conventional astronomical theories, jets from massive black holes (said to reside in the center of most galaxies) emit copious amounts of radiation, especially X-rays and gamma rays. These extremely energetic electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light, transporting energy far from the black holes and initiating effects on large-scale environments. The 3C321 phenomenon represents the first time a "jet" has been observed to "impact" another galaxy. Learning more about jets is a key goal for astrophysical research. "We see jets all over the Universe, but we're still struggling to understand some of their basic properties," said coinvestigator Martin Hardcastle of the University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. "This system of 3C321 gives us a chance to learn how they're affected when they slam into something - like a galaxy - and what they do after that." In conventional galactic models, there is no "edge" to a disc of stars revolving around their common center. The stars are loosely bound together by the force of gravity and are more like a swarm of bees than like a solid object. In that sense, the stellar swarm would not deflect a stream of hot gas and dust; it would be absorbed and diffused throughout the structure. So it The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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must be asked, off what are the high-energy particles bouncing? In the Electric Universe model of stars and galaxies the cosmos is a manifestation of plasma in its multi-various forms. There is no neutral matter in the universe no conglomerations of smoky gas, no wisps of unionized dust everything is electrically active and behaves as a plasma should behave. Pioneering researcher Hannes Alfvn found that stars (and galaxies) are part of electrical circuits and are influenced by the magnetic fields that are generated by them. In the presence of electric currents, gravity gives way to electromagnetic forces that are incomparably more powerful, accelerating matter away from a star or a collection of stars. It is through that mechanism that "jets" of matter are fired from the poles of stars or from the active galaxies. Plasma physicists have experimentally confirmed that a toroidal magnetic field confines an electric discharge. The magnetic field keeps the charged particles from dispersing. Similarly, magnetism and electric circuits within galaxies hold the stars together, magnetically, so its neighbor May electromagnetically repel the jet from the larger galaxy in 3C321. By Stephen Smith
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Left: Dry river valley in southern Yemen. Right: Chesapeake Bay, Virginia. Credit: Left: NASA Space Shuttle Right: Landsat 7.
Dendritic Channels
(Mar 24, 2008)
These large-scale structures are amazingly similar, yet one is located in the driest desert and the other is an ocean inlet. What could create these features in such disparate environments? In several past Picture of the Day articles we have discussed features on Mars that should be interpreted as something other than ravines from liquid runoff or as wind-carved canyons. The slopes of Olympus Mons, the gigantic "volcano" that dominates the Northern Hemisphere of Mars, are covered with mountain-high ridges that exhibit a branch-like structure. They appear to flow down the sides of Olympus Mons, sometimes submerged in a thick layer of iron oxide dust. The tendril-shaped, embossed formations are called "dendritic ridges" because of their tree-like structure. In the image at the top of the page, there is a remarkable duplication of the Olympus Mons dendritic ridges, except in reverse. Rather than being raised above the surrounding terrain like those on Mars, these figures are deeply incised into the strata, hundreds of meters deep in both cases. The Yemeni formation is located in one of the driest regions on Earth, where there is less than a centimeter of precipitation in ten years. Chesapeake Bay is located in one of the wettest regions, where there is almost a meter of precipitation in a year besides being inundated by the Atlantic Ocean. Chesapeake Bay is thought to be the result of an impact event that took place 35 million years ago, because there is geological evidence for a 90-kilometer crater buried beneath the breccias and sediments near the lower Bay. Its proximity to another strange feature of the Eastern Seaboard, the Carolina Bays, lends credence to the impact theory since the bays are The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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also thought to be the remnants of a "meteor storm" that crashed into the coast long ago. The multitude of small inlets and side channels that snake their way off the main artery, as well as the lack of a large delta or heavy sedimentation in the bottom of the canyon that makes up the bay bring the impact theory into question, however. The surrounding topography suggests that some other force that can instantly vaporize rocks and organic material, as well as leave melted-looking valleys and dual-ridge faults, May have contributed to Chesapeake Bays origin. That force is electricity. The dry gullies (wadis) and steep cliffs in Yemen appear to be fossils carved by tremendous floods after the last Ice Age. According to conventional theories, as the glaciers melted the runoff from the coastal mountains carved a drainage system. When the ice was gone, the melt waters disappeared and the filigree-shapes remained as a vestige from a wetter era with a more temperate climate. Since the last Ice Age is supposed to have ended 15,000 years ago, the sharpness of the cuts into the stone and the fine detail that can be seen in the thousands of "finger canyons" that branch out in all directions belie a watery birth. Lichtenberg figures have been highlighted in these pages many times. They are the forking shapes that lightning bolts make when they strike the Earth or some man-made material. Their unique configuration can be seen in acrylic blocks that have been instantly charged with thousands of volts at high amperage, leaving a tracery of the electrical pathway visible in the otherwise transparent plastic. It seems possible that lightning bolts of sufficient power could do the same thing to minerals in the Earth on a continental scale. Indeed, Martian topography demonstrates "erosion" patterns like those in Yemen. The same multi-branched canyons, steep walls, flat bottoms, sinuous rilles and rims with scallop-shaped cutouts are so much like the ones in Yemen that transplanting Mars to Earth or vise-versa would be undetectable. If Chesapeake Bay were located in an area with no water and no precipitation, it would look very much like its dry cousins on Mars or its arid brother here on Earth. By Stephen Smith
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The ruins of Mohenjo-Daro in the Sindh province of Pakistan. Image: Arvind Garg
Mohenjo-Daro
(Mar 21, 2008)
Some have suggested ancient technology glassified these Indus Valley ruins but electricity is a more plausible explanation. Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent region are thought to be the "birthplace" of civilization and the central focus for human culture dating back to the beginning of recorded history. No one knows for sure just how old the generalized composite that we call "society" really is both because of archeological deficiencies and because of radiometric disconformity but one of the oldest sites is located in the Indus Valley of Pakistan and appears to date from around 3000-2500 BCE. There are many ways to date ancient artifacts and there are just as many ways to interpret the results from those techniques. It is not the purpose of this paper to address the difficulties inherent with using carbon 14, tree-rings, stratiographic distribution, or any other methodology when attempting to place artifacts or habitations within a chronological sequence. Other articles have addressed those issues, as well as previous Picture of the Day discussions about radioactive decay rates and how external, ionizing sources can change isotope ratios. There is one intriguing aspect to Mohenjo-Daro that sets it apart from most ancient ruins. It is the one anomaly among several at the site that has caused some researchers to suggest that there might have been forces unleashed in the past that are comparable to modern weapons. Walls, pottery and other items found in the city have been turned into a kind of ceramic glass, indicating that they were exposed to heat close to 1500 degrees Celsius. Evidence of ionizing radiation has also been found in some of the burial sites. The oldest myths of the Hindu religion, itself one of the oldest religions in the world, speak of gods flying in vehicles composed of dazzling light and intricately carved platforms called vimanas, that waged war with one another using energy beams of incredible power. In the Hindu religious text known as the Mahabharata, there is a description of one such vehicle: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive "Gurkha flying in his swift and powerful Vimana hurled against the three cities of the Vrishis and Andhakas a single projectile charged with all the power of the Universe. An incandescent column of smoke and fire, as brilliant as ten thousands suns, rose in all its splendor. It was the unknown weapon, the Iron Thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and Andhakas."
Many speculations have been forthcoming about what the vimanas were or what the Iron Thunderbolt might have been. Some of the more imaginative examples see UFOs and alien spacecraft waging war against the backdrop of primitive humanity, leaving behind a mythological image of gods and demons in conflict. Since the old races were unable to comprehend the idea of technologies on such a vast scale, the only alternative was to invest the phenomena that they observed with divine power. Rather than presupposing a visitation from a super race of extraterrestrials, it is more probable that natural events although orders of magnitude beyond what we experience today imprinted themselves on the psyches of our ancestors and inspired the reports of gods in the sky. Several past Pictures of the Day dealt with gigantic geological formations all over the world and with craters exceeding 100 kilometers in diameter. In some cases, the craters are associated with glass spherules or large chunks of pure silica lying in broken pieces all over the desert floor. The fact that the Egyptians considered the "desert glass" from the Great Sand Sea to be sacred and used it to adorn their religious icons is significant because the vitrified walls of Mohenjo-Daro are also said to originate in the wars of the gods, or theomachia. What could account for fields of broken glass shards like those in Egypt, large sheets of glass like "Darwin glass" from Australia, vitrified stone walls in Scotland and the fused pottery and melted ramparts of Mohenjo-Daro? In all these cases, it was probably gigantic plasma discharges in the form of lightning bolts and electric arcs that melted the ruins and fused the soils into glass. The timeframe is probably impossible to determine with any accuracy at this late date, but it seems evident that humanity had reached a high level of sophistication before being exposed to these cataclysmic events. By Stephen Smith
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2nd century CE marble statue of Heracles based on a Greek statue of 450 BCE. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain
Gods in the Flesh Part Two

(Mar 19, 2008)
The celestial marvels witnessed by our ancestors instilled a picture of superhuman involvement in the greatest events of mythology. As seen in part one, classical thinkers followed two strategies to justify the "humanity" of their major gods despite the clear astronomical nature of the latter: they would either adduce a story of catasterism, explaining how a certain "human being" was once placed in the sky as a star or a planet, or they would redress the celestial connotations of such gods as "scientific accomplishments" of the people they had been supposed to be. As a further example of the latter, Uranus, the first supreme sky god in Hesiods system, was downgraded to a humble scientist: " Since he was a careful observer of the stars he foretold many things which would take place throughout the world; and for the common people he introduced the year on the basis of the movement of the sun and the months on that of the moon, and instructed them in the seasons which recur year after year. Consequently the masses of the people, being ignorant of the eternal arrangement of the stars and marveling at the events which were taking place as he had predicted, conceived that the man who taught such things partook of the nature of the gods, and after he had passed from among men they accorded to him immortal honors, both because of his benefactions and because of his knowledge of the stars; and then they transferred his name to the firmament of heaven, both because they thought that he had been so intimately acquainted with the risings and the settings of the stars and with whatever else took place in the firmament, and because they would surpass his benefactions by the magnitude of the honors which they would show him, in that for all subsequent time they proclaimed him to be the king of the universe." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Although the disavowal of theism, implicit in Euhemerism, comes a step closer to a modern understanding of the "gods," the fallacy at the root of this theory is exposed by the almost ridiculous abundance of early and virtuous astronomers the Euhemerists ended up with. Moreover, hardly any human society have dispensed with the astral component of myth entirely; no matter how persistently artisans and ritual actors modeled the gods on human beings, traces of the cosmic nature of these entities nearly always survived. Even Plutarch, in fairness, recorded the opinion of "... some who without reservation assert that Osiris is the Sun and Isis is none other than the Moon," while heaping scorn on Euhemerus, who "... drew up copies of an incredible and non-existent mythology, and spread atheism over the whole inhabited earth by obliterating the gods of our belief and converting them all alike into names of generals, admirals, and kings, who, forsooth, lived in very ancient times and are recorded in inscriptions written in golden letters at Panchon, which no foreigner and no Greek had ever happened to meet with, save only Euhemerus." In a structural way, the deathblow to Euhemerism is given by the comparative approach to mythology, as increasingly refined sets of intercultural parallels help to filter out universal motifs from incidental, secondary and local additions. Clearly, worldwide motifs such as a divine creator of the sky or a giant being upholding the sky with his arms are not satisfactorily explained on the postulate of a separate real historical person for each individual case. A much more economic interpretation is that such motifs trace to forms and movements once observed in the sky by the people that devised the myths. Yet in that case, why did people worldwide tend to depict these gods in terms of human beings? A combination of two different factors May be at work here. Firstly, anthropologists point out that the concept of "ancestor" was a fuzzy one in most traditional societies, where the "totem" ancestor of a tribe or clan could be anything from a mammal, a bird, a plant, or a rock, to an actual human being. Inherited myths of the deeds of such diverse ancestors all modeled on celestial apparitions May only secondarily and by degrees have been interpreted as human ancestors in the modern, "meaningful" sense. Secondly, on-going interdisciplinary investigation suggests that the high-energy density auroral pillar accountable for much of "creation mythology" in various stages of its evolution showed a distinct human likeness. The column itself, bifurcated at its top and bottom ends and featuring radiant orbs at its apex and bottom, would have struck human observers as a giant luminous "man" looking down from the highest heavens. And the multitudes of glowing sparks emitted in this configuration would have vacillated in appearance between "stars" and little people frolicking in the sky. With this in mind, Euhemerism May be vindicated in the sense that many of the plasmatic prototypes of the gods and goddesses looked somewhat like human beings. But of course this is still very different from Euhemerus more down-to-earth belief that real people formed the first deities. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Statue of the Egyptian god Osiris from between 664 and 332 BCE.
Gods in the Flesh Part One

(Mar 17, 2008)
As the main deity of the funerary cult, Osiris is shown as a mummy wearing the atefcrown and holding the crook and flail as his royal insignia. But why is the god portrayed as a human being? As is well known, anthropomorphy is a trait shared with all prominent members of the ancient Egyptian pantheon, often in combination with animal features. Likewise, ancient civilisations such as the Babylonians, the Hittites, the Greeks, the Persians, the Indians, the Chinese and the Aztec all widely painted, sculpted and described gods and goddesses in terms of human beings. This raises the question to what extent members of these cultures actually envisioned their gods as humans? Euhemerus of Messene (4th century BCE) was a Greek mythographer credited with the view that the supernatural tales and characters featured in mythology were really exaggerations of mundane historical events. While his work has not withstood the ravages of time, various classical writers of the Imperial period reflected the opinion that the gods were really just extraordinary human beings. For the Greek essayist, Plutarch ( 120 CE), for example, Osiris was merely a "good king": "One of the first acts related of Osiris in his reign was to deliver the Egyptians from their destitute and brutish manner of living. This he did by showing them the fruits of cultivation, by giving them laws, and by teaching them to honour the gods. Later he travelled over the whole earth civilizing it without the slightest need of arms " The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In commemoration of Euhemerus contribution to the theory of myth, scholars customarily brand "Euhemerism" every type of "historicizing" theory of myth that has been proposed since Antiquity. To varying extents, these include more recent champions of mythology such as Robert Graves, Joseph Fontenrose, Samuel Kramer and Thorkild Jacobsen, who would argue that characters such as Gilgamesh or Heracles had been flesh-and-blood kings. But is Euhemerism a valid and useful explanation of the phenomenon of deity? Does the "man" hypothesis successfully explain the content of ancient myth? It has to be conceded that historical events have at all times and places been coloured by mythical imagery. Quite a bit of mythological poetry was woven around the death of Julius Caesar or the birth of Gautama Buddha, for instance, but in these and most other cases it can be demonstrated that the mythical motifs attached to these events had existed long before. Actual historical persons have sometimes been deified, but never did the motif of apotheosis itself originate with these people. As far as we can tell, the mythology in the form of "archetypes" has always preceded its application to worthy specimens of Homo sapiens. A vital indication that mythical "archetypes" themselves never took their cue from the lives and times of human beings is the profound astral nature of the deities, ancestors and heroes sported in world mythology. Euhemerists have generally responded in two different ways to the undeniable celestial association of the gods and goddesses. Their first resort was to catasterism, the belief that deceased people or their souls went up to the sky and turned into a star, a planet, a comet or a meteor. A second popular apology in the classical period was the reinterpretation of sky-related elements in myth as garbled memories of the scientific accomplishments of the divine" humans. For example, Lucian of Samosata (2nd century CE) was credited with the belief that Phaethon, the son of the sun god who set the world ablaze, was just an early stargazer, who died while investigating the course of the sun. And the Greek historian, Diodorus of Sicily (1st century BCE), treated Atlas, the giant mountain-like bearer of the sky, as an early star watcher: "They also say that he perfected the science of astrology and was the first to publish to mankind the doctrine of the sphere; and it was for this reason that the idea was held that the entire heavens were supported upon the shoulders of Atlas, the myth darkly hinting in this way at his discovery and description of the sphere." Hesperus, the evening star, was a king... "distinguished above the others for his piety, justice to his subjects, and love of mankind," who "...having once climbed to the peak of Mount Atlas, was suddenly snatched away by mighty winds while he was making his observations of the stars, and never was seen again; and because of the virtuous life he had lived and their pity for his sad fate the multitudes accorded to him immortal honours and called the brightest of the stars of heaven after him." Neither argument is acceptable from a modern point of view and gods such as Osiris, Atlas and Hesperus were clearly based on celestial phenomena from the start. What, then, led ancient societies to portray these gods as human beings? Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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So-called "dark energy" is said to influence the large-scale structure of the universe as theorized by cosmologists in this computer model. Credit: James Wadsley, McMaster University
Detecting the Undetectable

(Mar 10, 2008)
"Dark matter" is inferred by anomalous gravity readings from deep space. "Dark energy" is said to accelerate the expansion of space itself. The Electric Universe theory is a much better fit to the observations. In previous Picture of the Day articles about the existence of "dark matter" we noted that it is primarily an add-on, or ad-hoc theory, so that the current gravitational model of the universe can be preserved. The lack of matter that can be observed in the universe has always presented a problem to the underlying concept of "big bang cosmology." According to conventional theories, it was the big bang that brought all matter and energy - including gravity - into existence. Every modern cosmological theory starts with the theory at its core. According to conventional physics, without adding dark matter to the equation there is not enough gravity in the matter that can be observed in the universe to account for galaxies bunching together. Also, without sufficient mass, the galaxy clusters should have slowed down considerably over the last few billion years and not maintained such wild recessional velocities, some of which approach 90% the speed of light. In fact, much to the perplexity of standard gravity-only views of the universe, the more remote galaxies look like they are actually accelerating away from the Milky Way. Astronomers first postulated a dark or cold or exotic form of matter when they noticed the stars at the edge of a spiral galaxy revolving at the same angular speed as stars closer to the center. But according to Newtonian mechanics stars further away from the center should be moving more slowly. Therefore, astronomers assumed dark matter, not observable by current The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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instruments, was imparting extra speed to the stars. Investigators have also tried for years to reconcile the amount of mass in the universe with how fast the universe is expanding. Their only recourse has been to invent the existence of another undetectable force, "dark energy." Princeton University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists write that galactic expansion "is forcing us to consider the possibility that some cosmic dark energy exists that opposes the self-attraction of matter and causes the expansion of the universe to accelerate." However, Saul Perlmutter, leader of the Supernova Cosmology Project at Berkeley Laboratory has said: "The universe is made mostly of dark matter and dark energy and we don't know what either of them is." In other words, two of the most actively pursued problems in physics could be based in erroneous ideas about how the universe is made and how it should behave within the confines of those ideas. But even conventional theorists dont agree with one another about dark matter and dark energy. For example, if the universe is based on the prevailing theories of Einstein and gravity is the bending of time and space around any object with mass, then dark matter and dark energy are merely illusions. The misunderstanding of Einsteins space/time curvature has necessitated the creation of a new effect because the application of the theory is incorrect. That idea was first suggested in 2006 by a team of Italian researchers who analyzed rotational curves from several galaxies and thought that dark matter and dark energy were not necessary with their new approach. Even so, there is no need to resort to a super-application of Relativity Theory in order to understand why the required percentages of dark matter and dark energy are so familiar. It is often written in the popular press that dark matter makes up "25% of the universe" or that dark energy makes up "75% of the rest of the universe." To anyone familiar with plasma physics, it is well known that plasma makes up 99.99% of the universe. It is a fascinating convergence that the amount of gravitational mass invented to save conventional theory is the same as the amount of ionized plasma that is overlooked. Perhaps the theoreticians should look to a science that is basic and foundational rather than inventing brand new sciences and arguing about which is more feasible. From the perspective of the Electric Universe theory electric currents drive the galaxies and their associated stars. It has been demonstrated in laboratory experiments that twin Birkeland current filaments can create structures that resemble spiral galaxies in the magnetic vortices at their intersection. The Birkeland currents have a longer-range attractive force than gravity diminishing with the reciprocal of the distance from the current axis which could account for the anomalous movement of stars as they revolve around the galactic core. So, it is the movement of electricity through plasma in space that tends to initiate the effects that we can observe with space-based telescopes and confirm in ground-based research laboratories. It is the electric currents in the cosmos and their associated magnetic fields that should be our focus and not the search for the undetectable. By Stephen Smith
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Eta Carinae stellar objects in X-ray and visible light. Image Credit X-ray: NASA/CXC/GSFC/M.Corcoran et al. Optical: NASA/STScI.
When Winds Collide

(Mar 07, 2008)
Astronomers report X-ray emissions from a region where the "wind" from two massive stars compresses the gas. Could electricity be a better explanation? Wind socks, bow shocks, shockwaves and collisions are often used to describe the phenomena that create high-frequency electromagnetic radiation in the cosmos. From gamma rays down through X-rays and extreme ultraviolet, conventional theories have relied upon gravity and acceleration as the only way for them to be produced in space. Compression of hydrogen gas and dust is supposed to create enough transfer of momentum that it reaches temperatures greater than the cores of some stars. In other words, it is the high temperature of the gas that makes it glow so brightly. The CHANDRA satellite has detected streams of charged material pouring out of the Crab Nebula, emitting X-rays as they go. It was long thought that nebular clouds or the expanding gases of supernova explosions could not be sources of those frequencies, since the bubbles were supposed to be areas where gases were losing kinetic energy and cooling off. However, several "mysterious" observations have called into question the underlying principles of standard theory. In a recent announcement, for example, astronomers have now noted that the two giant stars in Eta Carinae are blowing off "intense winds" of such velocity that the collision of the wave fronts generates X-rays where the shells intersect. This takes place through kinetic shock even though the researchers acknowledge that the "wind" is ionized particles. According to researchers, as electrons bounce back and forth in the magnetic fields they are accelerated until they collide with low-frequency photons and give them an energy boost, creating the X The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In previous Picture of the Day articles, we noted that many structures in the galaxy are active energy sources. Some of them eject charged matter out from their poles, or leave long braided tails extending for light-years, or have hourglass shapes composed of tightly bunched filaments. A more detailed image of Eta Carinae reveals the distinctive hourglass shape that results from intense plasma discharges. The Eta Carinae binary system appears to have a mass 150-times that of the Sun and to be shining with four-million-times the brilliance, which indicates the high current density of the stellar z-pinch. It is well known that one shouldnt look directly at an electric arc without eye-protection since the brilliant blue-white light is also a source of intense ultraviolet light that can damage the cornea. In the same way, the arc light from Eta Carinae is so bright that it is generating X-rays powerful enough to be detected from 7500 light-years. Eta Carinae also erupted with a flash of visible light, brighter than the Moon, in the 1800s. It then faded from visibility until 1941 when it slowly began to brighten to a naked-eye object, where it remains today. The variability of the binary stars behavior can be attributed to changes in the circuit brought about by the motions of the two giant stars at the heart of the system. Eta Carinae, rather than being an example of "billiard ball physics" and "wind socks" in space is a remarkable confirmation of the Electric Star hypothesis. By Stephen Smith
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Clay tablet from the city of Sippar (circa 700 -- 500 BCE). Probably the earliest mappa mundi or "world map" in existence. Babylon is marked in the centre. An inscription describes the ring as marratu or 'bitter river'.
The Circular Ocean: a Round Up

(Mar 05, 2008)
It is probably fair to say that the cosmological systems described by traditional societies around the world contain more features that do not make sense from a modern perspective than ones that do. Contemporary members of indigenous societies will dwell on the phenomena of sunrise and the cycle of the moon and point out the Milky Way and a few notable constellations, but these statements are far outweighed by the excessive interest shown in a bevy of anomalous features. Worldwide motifs such as the stony or metallic composition of the sky, four stanchions supporting the sky, a hole at the pole, a navel of the earth, a dragon below the surface of the earth whose contortions cause earthquakes, a tree, mountain or pillar at the centre of the earth, a giant thunderbird at the top of this column, or the superposition of nine heavens like a stack of pancakes pose so many challenges to specialists, from anthropologists to archaeologists and from philologists to art historians. The sanity of the thousands of such testimonies is not in any doubt, possibly even overshadowing the intelligence displayed in modern western views on the cosmos. As exactly the same puzzling traits populate the most ancient descriptions and depictions of the "world" in abundance, a more plausible solution is that these remarkably consistent reports preserve memories of forms and fixtures that were once really observed in the heavens. The theme of an ocean following the circular perimeter of the earth is widespread, and in quite a few cases, the enclosing body of water is itself envisioned as a "ring" or river. The Egyptians had such a concept, portraying the god Osiris in his "watery" aspect as the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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personification of the circular ocean: " you are hale and great in your name of Sea; behold, you are great and round in <your name of> Ocean; behold, you are circular and round as the circle which surrounds the w-nbwt ," says a spell in the Pyramid Texts. The Greek historian Herodotus bemoaned his compatriots for "foolishly" perpetuating the myth of the circular ocean, in the face of current knowledge: "And I laugh to see how many have ere now drawn maps of the world, not one of them showing the matter reasonably; for they draw the world as round as if fashioned by compasses, encircled by the river of Ocean, and Asia and Europe of a like bigness." But the concept remained popular for millennia afterwards, in countries far outside the sphere of Greek influence. As an example, the people of Benin contended until recently that "the water surrounds the earth around its entire convex surface." And the Pueblo people of New Mexico "believe the earth to be circular and surrounded on all sides by the ocean." As with many other instances of "erratic" features of traditional cosmography, scholars have tried to explain the theme of the circular ocean as springing from more or less obvious and spontaneous observations of nature. For example, the Dutch orientalist Anton Wensinck clarified: "The primitive eye starts from what it observes: the seashore presents the unlimited sight of the ocean; this means that the ends of the earth are surrounded by the ocean." And John Pairman Brown, a modern savant, offers: "Since the bottom of the sky-vault is obviously a perfect circle, so must be the plane of earth and water that it encloses." Yet, for all the confidence expressed in such sentiments, the circularity of the horizon May on a closer inspection perhaps seem less "obvious" than these writers suggest. Although the impression of roundness May certainly present itself to people familiar with other geographic environments than mountainous ones, they might as well imagine the expanse of land or sea they see to extend indefinitely in all directions, especially in cultural contexts that have not yet embraced a spherical model of the cosmos. And why would forest-dwellers such as the Warao or the Shipibo-Conibo, who have never toyed with the idea of a spherical earth, envision a round horizon? The apparent rotundity of the horizon May at best have served ancient societies as a confirmation of their cosmological beliefs, while early guesses about the distribution of water will have influenced the notion of a flowing world ocean. A strong indication that something else is going on is the ingrained tendency of ancient cosmographers to equate the round ocean with the coiled body of a serpent, tail in mouth, that is technically known as an ouroboros. From Latin America to equatorial Africa and from Oceania to the Judaic tradition, the entity surrounding the earth is perceived as a dazzlingly bright "feathered" serpent coil of an aquatic composition. Preliminary findings suggest that the theme of the circular ocean as well as the ouroboros link with the circular ocean are roughly restricted to the equatorial zones of the earth for the time frame between 5,000 and 3,000 BCE. This suggests that, in these areas, the plasma ring responsible for the related body of mythology appeared close enough to the horizon to suggest its physical identity with the known oceans bordering the land. In addition, other traditions imply or enunciate that the "earth" of the mythical age was a region in the sky rather than the earth known as such today. In the mythology of the Iroquois, of New York State, for example, "the earth was the thought of the Indian Ruler of a great island which floats in space." The modern earth was only "formed" at a later point in the process of creation. Such considerations help to establish that the prototype of ideas such as The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive the "round ocean" could really be in interplanetary space rather than on earth in the strict sense.
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Close cooperation with physicists modeling plasma instabilities in laboratory conditions has led to the conclusion that the ouroboros of world mythology corresponds in virtually all its details to a so-called diocotron instability. Research has revealed that the ouroboros is intimately associated with the "world axis" or axis mundi. This suggests that the round ocean, along with the full list of anomalies given above, finds its ultimate explanation in a configuration of high-energy density plasma structures formed in and above the earths ionosphere at a time of increased auroral activity, most likely in the late Palaeolithic or early Neolithic period. Far from an amusing figment of imagination, the circular ocean appears to belong to a largely forgotten but nonetheless genuine "sky world" revealed when electromagnetic forces dominated the physics of the near-earth environment. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Anomalous Trajectories
(Mar 04, 2008)
Scientists are puzzled by unexpected acceleration in several unmanned spacecraft as they flew toward the Sun. In a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day article about the so-called "Pioneer anomaly," we noted that NASA scientists have determined that both Pioneer 10 and 11 are off course by more than a hundred thousand kilometers. Mission specialists admitted that they had no explanation for the navigational deviation so many speculations were announced to the press about what "mysterious" forces could be acting on the tiny probes. As long ago as September 1998, however, the same enigmatic forces were also reported to be acting on the Ulysses spacecraft that is currently in a high orbit through the Solar System. In that case Ulysses demonstrated a sunward acceleration when radio signals from Earth bounced off a transponder onboard the solar observatory and indicated a Doppler shift in the frequency of the return transmission. The induced frequency shift was greater than could be affected by any known mechanism and no one in the conventional science community can yet account for it. More space probes are now being added to the mix. After examining telemetry from NEARShoemaker (now resting on the surface of Asteroid Eros), the Galileo mission to Jupiter, Cassini-Huygens (one part each orbiting Saturn and the other resting on the surface of Titan), the Rosetta cometary probe and the MESSENGER mission to Mercury, a similar discrepancy has been detected. John Anderson, a retired astronomer currently on assignment to NASA, recently wrote: "I am feeling both humble and perplexed by this. There is something very strange going on with spacecraft motions. We have no convincing explanation for either the Pioneer anomaly or the flyby anomaly... We should continue to monitor spacecraft The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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during Earth flybys. We should look carefully at newly recovered Pioneer data for more evidence of the Pioneer anomaly. We should think about launching a dedicated mission on an escape trajectory from the solar system, just to look for anomalies in its motion." Astronomers are baffled by this situation because the standard theories of motion in the cosmos rest within a gravitational model. In fact, gravitational theory is considered by cosmologists to be the most useful way of explaining the way that the universe behaves, as well as being one of its greatest mysteries. Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) is one of the more exotic ideas proposed for how the spacecraft are being affected by these subtle changes in speed and direction. Perhaps it is no more exotic than suggesting multi-dimensional space, dark energy, dark matter friction and other non-falsifiable theories like "gravity affecting anti-matter differently." This is yet another in a long line of speculative ideas that must be concocted when no thought is given to the positive charge that resides in the Sun. The Suns positive charge sets up a steady electric field in the plasma of interplanetary space that attracts negatively charged objects back towards it. In another Thunderbolts Picture of the Day, we discussed "backstreaming electrons" as evidence for the Suns electric field. When spacecraft are launched into Earth orbit, or out to explore the other planets, they gather a negative charge as fast-moving electrons build up on the surface. Typically the shell of a satellite can gain hundreds or thousands of volts relative to its plasma environment. As Wal Thornhill discussed in "A Mystery Solved," in the weak but steady electric field of the Sun negatively charged spacecraft will experience a small "anomalous" acceleration toward the Sun. Scientists seem much too eager to invoke "new physics" when the first requirement is to choose the right model. Then the "old" physics will do. Perhaps today "new physics" has too much appeal in the frantic scramble for a Nobel Prize.
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Multiple craters with dark haloes. Credit: NASA/JPL/Northwestern University
More from Mercury

(Feb 29, 2007)
The latest images by the MESSENGER spacecraft indicate how similar Mercury is to other bodies in the solar system that have been scarred by electric arcs. On August 3, 2004, NASA launched the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) experiment from the Cape Canaveral facility on a 7-year mission to study the solar systems innermost planet. On January 14, 2008, MESSENGER performed an initial flyby of Mercury, coming within 200 kilometers of the torrid world. Since interplanetary probes are designed with power conservation in mind, they use a highly compressed stream of data, which takes time to decode. Some of the images are as late as February 27, 2008, with more coming. Once the spacecraft settles into orbit around its target world, a long-term study of Mercurys plasmasphere, its magnetic field and its surface materials will begin. Meanwhile, the geology of Mercury is intriguing to space scientists because it provides them with a number of "mysteries" and "processes that have yet to be understood." Complex chains of craters and melted pits extend outward from terraced depressions over 60 kilometers wide. The flat bottoms and the vertical sidewalls have been presented in past Picture of the Day articles as signs that they were created through electric discharge machining (EDM) and not because of meteor impacts on the surface. Although large pieces of rock impacting the surface of Mercury is not an unreasonable theory, the signs of EDM are more prevalent than the signs of kinetic shock through the strata. Most of the debris on the surface of Mercury appears to be chunks of fallback material that was The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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blown out by the explosive energies of plasma discharges. Ordinarily, as in the image at the top of the page, the craters have little if any ejecta surrounding them. The crater field shown above is generally lacking in boulders or smaller breccias despite the surrounding haloes of blackened terrain. Indeed, a close examination of some of those concentrations of craters reveals them to be woven together in patterns that criss-cross and braid themselves over and under one another. They all lie along the path of flat-topped mesas that rise above deep chasms cutting across the landscape without regard to the elevation. Many times the chasms slice right through the middle of a crater and its central mountain peak as if they werent even there. Giant escarpments rise above V-shaped canyons and continue their way along the mountain tops and hundred-kilometer ridges that hulk around the planet. The long cliffs of Mercury are a feature that can also be found on Saturns moon Dione. Whether it is on Dione, Mercury, Ganymede, Mars or Venus whenever we send satellites or rovers to examine the geology of other celestial objects, more and more evidence mounts in support of the Electric Universe and the electric discharges that have shaped the surfaces of solid bodies. Mercurys magnetic field is another enigma for NASA investigators. It is believed that Mercury generates a magnetic field in the same way as the Earth does, through a rotating "dynamo" at the core of the planet. Mercury is unique in that it has such a weak field for the size of its core less that 1% as strong as Earths magnetic field. One theory is that Mercury has a solid outer shell that prevents the core from turning freely, thus reducing its momentum transfer into electromagnetism. Another theory suggests that Mercurys slow rotation keeps the magnetic field in a weakened state. Mercury rotates in 59 Earth days, making it the planet with the slowest rotation next to Venus. It is more likely that the problematic 'dynamo' theory of planetary magnetism is wrong.' A charged, slowly rotating body will produce a weak dipole magnetic field By Stephen Smith
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Gnostic depiction of the Ouroboros. Codex Venetus Marcianus, 299 (2325) 11th century CE
Myth as Metaphor
(Feb 27, 2007)
The beginning of mythology as the study of myth traces back at least to Classical Antiquity, when Greek and Roman philosophers tried to fathom the "meaning" of their mythical heritage. One of the most popular interpretations of myths during the Imperial Age was that they were originally construed as metaphors conveying deeper truths about the world around us. While much consensus was found in functional characterizations of the gods such as Ares-Mars for war or Artemis-Diana for the hunt, efforts were also made to uncover the symbolical meaning of more specific mythical narratives. A popular myth, lifted from the cycle of creation mythology, was the account of the Titan Cronus-Saturn devouring his own offspring in order to retain his position as king of the gods unchallenged. His downfall transpired when he was tricked into swallowing a stone instead of the juvenile Zeus, allowing the latter to grow up and deliver Cronus his long-deserved comeuppance. The story had been known at least since Hesiod (8th or 7th century BCE) and it was not long afterwards that Cronus name was confused with chronos, the Greek word for "time." In the Orphic tradition, "Time" was personified as one of the main protagonists of creation. The folk-etymological identification of Cronus with "Chronos" then allowed for an attractive metaphorical explanation of Cronus cannibalism: the story symbolically signified the way time "eats" or takes away all things it has earlier produced. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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This explanation was given, for example, by the Roman grammarian, Macrobius, who wrote: "It is said that Saturn used to swallow his children and vomit them forth again, a myth likewise pointing to an identification of the god with time, by which all things in turn are created, destroyed, and brought to birth again." Probably drawing on earlier Phoenician creation stories, the Orphics also envisioned "Time" in the form of a cosmic serpent winding itself around the universe. When the first astronomers began to model the universe as a sphere rotating on an axis, this serpent was linked with the outer circumference of the cosmos or with the ecliptic band. The ancient Near Eastern image of the ouroboros or tail-biting serpent, which had existed long before in Egypt, was then used to represent this cosmic serpent wound around the earth. To the ancient thinkers, it was no coincidence that Saturn, the planet associated with Cronus, happened to be the outermost one of the planets, relatively close to the perimeter of the cosmos, and so the emblem of the tail-biting dragon eventually attached itself to Cronus, too. The symbolical explanation of Cronus infanticide and cannibalism as the destructive property of time could then be extended into an expression of the cyclicity of time: time turns back on itself and what has been before will be again. As the full circuit of the outermost sphere of the cosmos was believed to take a year measured with the passage of the signs of the zodiac the year in particular was singled out as the entity personified in the figure of Cronus. And so "Saturn himself" developed into "the author of times and seasons," according to Macrobius, while the African savant, Martianus Capella (5th century CE), described how Saturn held "In his right hand a fire-breathing dragon devouring its own tail a dragon which was believed to teach the number of days in the year by the spelling of its own name." The case of Cronus is only one example among hundreds of the metaphorical approach to myth that became so popular during the Renaissance and long afterwards. But is this popularity really justified? On closer inspection, symbolical "explanations" of the type discussed here are really the most facile mechanism one could think of when it comes to illuminating the origins of mythical motifs such as Cronus cannibalism or the ouroboros. While there is, of course, some logic in the chain of ratiocination reconstructed above, the metaphorical explanation does not even begin to clarify the cosmogonic significance of the context in which the myth originated. At best it accounts for only a tiny segment of the myth, leaving unexplained why the cyclicity of time had to be represented by a snake, what Cronus subsequent regurgitation of his children meant, how his eventual defeat by Zeus and his exile to an island at the ends of the world are to be understood, or what the role of Zeus thunderbolt in the primeval battle might stand for. Apart from that, the myths (which were thus rationalized) typically had regional variants or earlier versions that were less amenable to such rational explanations or not at all. The story of Cronus consumption of his children has a predecessor in a fragmentary Hurrian story, written in cuneiform script, in which Cronus counterpart hardly qualifies as an example of "cyclical time." The ouroboros is a worldwide motif in mythology and ancient cosmologies, that in some societies developed into a symbol of time, as in the classical world, but elsewhere served as a form of the "circular ocean" or bore no particular significance at all. The bottom line is that abstract, metaphorical meanings found in ancient myths are likely to be secondary developments, as the myth itself was never formed for the purpose of conveying those particular meanings. If cosmological myths and myths of creation originally The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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commemorated changes in the electromagnetic environment of the earth, as contended on this forum, it stands to reason that the symbolism of these myths is of an altogether different nature. These myths are indeed symbolic, not literal descriptions of what happened there were no actual "feathered serpents" and "sky-scraping trees" in the air but the symbols were based on visual similarity to the cosmic prototypes rather than functional similarity to the contemplated nature of time, eternity, and so on. As the original, catastrophist nature of these myths was consigned to oblivion, rational thinkers everywhere began to search for the missing "meaning" of the stories they were left with, assuming "lessons" and "parables" where there had not been any in the first place. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Left: Jupiters moon Europa. Right: Saturns moon Enceladus. Credit: NASA/JPL
Impending Enceladus Encounter

(Feb 25, 2008)
Cassini is about to make one of the closest approaches by a space vehicle to any moon in the Solar System. What are the expectations? On March 12, 2008, the Cassini space probe will fly over the south pole of Saturns moon Enceladus at a distance of 30 kilometers from the surface, whereupon it will accelerate and move up to a distance of 120 kilometers. Its primary mission is to analyze the plumes of vapor that rise from so-called "tiger stripe" cracks that dominate the southern hemisphere, feeding a constant stream of ions into the plasmasphere of its giant parent. In a June 13, 2007 European Space Agency release it was announced that two other moons of Saturn, Tethys and Dione, are "flinging great streams of particles into space." The Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) made the discovery when data from Saturn revealed that a torus of charged particles surrounds the planet, trapped within its magnetic field. So far, three moons have demonstrated connections with a vast electric field that links them to Saturn. We predict that other moons within the Saturnian system will reveal similar galvanic coupling as more data is received. When the Cassini spacecraft began its investigation of Saturns moons, NASA scientists noticed that Saturn's magnetic field bends around Enceladus. But their misunderstanding of plasma behavior led them to insist that the effect is mechanical and not electrical, since electric currents in space "don't do anything." An abstract found in the prestigious journal Nature confirms the prevailing attitude: "we show that the most likely explanation for the heat and vapour production is shear heating by tidally driven lateral (strike-slip) fault motion with displacement of 0.5 m over a tidal period. Vapour produced by this heating May escape as plumes through cracks reopened by the tidal stresses. The ice shell thickness needed to produce the observed heat flux is at least 5 km. The tidal displacements required imply a Love number of h2 > 0.01, suggesting that the ice shell is decoupled from the silicate interior by a subsurface ocean." A similar interpretation of the "geysers" can be found in the February 12, 2008 issue of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Astronomy Magazine where JPL scientists theorize that "pinball physics" is the best way to explain how water and ice erupt from Saturns sixth largest moon. As the article states: "Shooting up through crooked cracks in the ice, the particles ricochet off the walls, losing speed, while the water vapor moves unimpeded up the crevasse. The vapor reboosts the frozen particles as they pinball off the walls, carrying them upward." So it is internally generated heat from "tidal friction" and "ricocheting" molecules of water producing temperatures in excess of 275 Kelvin that account for the plumes of Enceladus. From the perspective of an Electric Universe, no explanation will be sufficient until it is acknowledged that the polar hot spots on Enceladus are due to a continuous flow of electric current into the moon. Hot poles are found in places where no conventional astrophysicist ever expected to find them: Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune all possess anomalous heat signatures emanating from their vertices when, according to conventional understanding, they should be among the coldest places in the Solar System. In a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day we referred to a statement by EU theorist and author Wal Thornhill: "if NASA will look they will find that the jets [vapor plumes] move across the surface. And in their motion across the surface, the electric arcs that produce the jets are creating the observed channels as they excavate material from the surface and accelerate it into space." With these facts in mind, what can Cassini expect to encounter when it flies through the hypothermic effluvium escaping from the moon? An ice fragment no larger than a grain of salt could injure the spacecraft if it impacted a super-cooled detector or a vital connection with its power source. Using the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS), the NASA team interpreted the amount of starlight absorbed by the vapor plumes in the area of greatest density and determined that they are a thousand times less dense than those that could cause damage, so there should be no concerns. Cassini has been in orbit around Saturn since July 1, 2004. As it made its way into the electrically active environment of the monstrous gas giant it slowly equalized its charge potential with that of Saturn and its surroundings. It can be expected that it is now at equilibrium with the ionized potential of the system so there should be no arcing between the spacecraft and Enceladus as it passes through the rarified vapor that is being drawn upward from the moons fractured pole. There is the remote possibility that Cassini will make contact with a Birkeland current filament that is excavating material out of the moon, but the coincidence would be surprising. For all intents and purposes, there will be no effect on Cassini when it encounters Enceladus at its closest approach. "The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust." -- Arthur Schopenhauer By Stephen Smith
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The ion tail of Venus. Credit: Jeff Hecht, New Scientist Magazine May 31, 1997.
Venus' Tail of the Unexpected

(Feb 20, 2008)
Ancient peoples report that the planet Venus once had visible "ropes" stretching out to the Earth. Could a plasma glow discharge have been the cause? The "induced magnetotail" that points away from Venus in the direction of the earth is a teardrop-shaped plasma structure filled with "a lot of little stringy things" that was first detected by NASAs Pioneer Venus Orbiter in the late 1970s. In 1997, Europes Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) Satellite showed that the tail stretched some 45,000,000 kilometres into space, more than 600 times as far as anyone had realized and almost far enough to "tickle" the earth when the two planets are in line with the sun. "In this sense," scientists write, "Venus can be likened to a comet, which has an induced magnetotail of similar origin." Intriguingly, as has been abundantly documented on this forum, human societies outside the mainstream of western science have long associated the morning or evening star with just such a conspicuous "rope" or "string." Particularly explicit are some examples drawn from the near-contemporary cosmology of native Australian communities. The Ringu-Ringu people of central Queensland, "call the star Venus mimungoona or big eye" and assert that "no water exists in the star, but there are ropes which hang from its surface to the earth, by means of which the dwellers visit our planet from time to time, and assuage their thirst." And Manoowa Wongupali, a spokesman of the Jumbapoingo people of Milingimbi, to the northeast of Darwin, gave an explanation of the rising of the morning star in which a string of feathers features prominently: "When the two spirits Naikala and Birrowarr want to speak with spirits in other countries, they throw the pul pul, the tuft of white feathers, which is the morning star, into the sky and, when it is daylight, they pull the morning star, on the end of its string, down again to Buralku, the island of the spirits of the dead. The morning star on the end of its string lies coiled up in the dilly bag of one old man spirit. This dilly bag, called Battee, is the mother of the morning star. It is the womb. The tuft of white feathers, the morning star, is the child looking out of the dilly bag. And the string, coiled in the dilly bag, is the cord by which the child is joined to its mother." It goes without saying that "traditional" societies can only have learned about Venus plasma tail if the latter has at one time been visible to the unaided human eye. Certainly, the modern scientific understanding of the tail allows for the possibility that it plasma discharged, attaining The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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a visible glow mode, at a time when the sun produced an extremely enhanced outflow of ions. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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The Orion Nebula in infrared and in x-ray light (blue). Credit:AAAS/Science with ESA XMM-Newton and NASA Spitzer data.
The Electric Fires of Creation

(Feb 18, 2008)
Million-degree plasma in the Orion Nebula comes not from the kinetic excitation of cold gas, but from the electric currents of space. For many years astrophysical theories of stellar and galactic development have been relegated to the processes of mechanical action. Everything we see and all the forces that shape the evolution of the incredible structures we have discovered have been attributed to the collapse of cold gas through gravitational influence. Conventional viewpoints attribute galaxies, stars, planets, comets and stardust itself to the whirling vortices of compressed matter. Compression heats gas as it is drawn together by gravity, as the theory suggests. Clouds of hydrogen a thousands times less dense than a puff of smoke are somehow able to elicit an inflow toward a common center, creating a region of increased density that coaxes even more material to collect there and so on. Eventually, the atoms within in the gas cloud can no longer resist the inward attraction it falls into the well of nuclear fusion, converting the hydrogen into helium and releasing a self-sustaining storm of radiation. A star is born. In that same way, an object that emits x-rays, gamma rays and ultra-violet light is said to result from violent compaction when a star reaches the point where its energetic output can no longer resist the influx of inertial mass. Nuclear fusion has reached the end of its potential and the stellar envelope implodes in what can be described as a "gravity crash." The rebound from that cataclysm forces the stars outer layers to explode into space, forming emission nebulae, matter jets and bubbles of heavy elements that expand outward for thousands of light-years. If the star is large enough, the resulting explosive event is described as a supernova the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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stars savage death drives gravity waves into the gas clouds of nearby proto-stars, compressing the hydrogen gas and beginning a secondary cycle of star-birth. With the invention of more powerful telescopes and our ability to place sensitive detection apparatus into Earth orbit, astronomers are finding that the more simplistic explanations from the past are in need of revision. Rather than space being permeated with cold, dark clouds of hydrogen gas, alone, there are vast areas where "hot plasma" is transporting power over many parsecs. In a recent announcement by the European Space Agency (ESA), the XMM-Newton x-ray satellite observatory has revealed the presence of "flowing plasma" at over one million Kelvin in the Orion Nebula. The discovery was a surprise, because the research team never expected to find such "hot gas" there. Said Manuel Gdel, a member of the research team: "We didn't look for it - we actually found this diffuse emission by chance while looking at the many stellar x-ray point sources in the field. As previous researchers have not reported diffuse x-ray emission from such star-forming regions but were rather arguing against its presence, we were indeed surprised to find such prominent emission across large regions of the nebula." Gdel, Manuel, Briggs, Kevin R., Montmerle, Thierry, Audard, Marc, Rebull, Luisa, and Skinner, Stephen L. "Million-Degree Plasma Pervading the Extended Orion Nebula." Science, Vol. 319, 18 January 2008. The Orion Nebula is approximately 2.5 light-years in diameter and is thought to be an active region where the nebular gasses are condensing into stars. In fact, at last count, over 700 new stars are said to be forming within the nebula. Stars of all types are considered sources for x-ray emissions (and many stars within the Orion Nebula do shine in x-rays), but no nebula is supposed to posses the energetic potential necessary for their production. According to the ESA, the investigators believe that they "know" what is producing the plasma: it is the collision of "high velocity winds emitted by stars." In other words, the flurries of gas blowing off the stars in the heart of the nebula induce heat through kinetic "shock waves" that raises the temperature in the environment to millions of degrees. Once again, although conventional scientists use the term "plasma" they really mean hot gas with no reference to an electrical component. As the XMM-Newton scientists said: "The hot gas and the X-rays that it emits interact with the cool, molecular environment in which stars form. It May influence the environment of stars for example, circumstellar accretion disks in which planets form by contributing to the ionization of those disks. Such effects need further study, though." No further study is required when one considers the Electric Star hypothesis, however. Instead of mechanical action (heated gas), the Orion Nebulas radiant emanations are due to a boost in the current that powers the central stars. The electrical sheath that is normally invisible receives additional input from the galactic Birkeland currents in which it is immersed and gets pushed into the "glow" discharge state. The increased flux density pulls matter from the star and from the surrounding space into filaments that ignite the nebular gasses electrically. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The idea that gas can be heated until it gives off x-rays without any electrical effects, or that a "wind" of ionized particles is not an electric current, or that the only way to accelerate ions is through mechanical shock is frankly ludicrous. It betrays a desire to hold on to outmoded theories despite the evidence of observations. "Sometimes I think that astronomy is not so much a science as a series of scandals." -- Halton Arp. Written by Stephen Smith from an idea suggested by Milt Hays Jr.
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A schematic diagram of the Sun-Earth magnetospheric connection. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech
A String Theory for the Sun

(Feb 15, 2008)
Filamentary Birkeland currents transport electrical energy from the Sun to Earth and the rest of the Solar System. Could ancient human beings have seen this phenomenon visible in their skies? The auroras are caused by an intermittent bombardment of charged particles, which travel from the sun to the earths ionosphere in a stream called the solar wind. This was first proposed in the early 20th century by the Norwegian plasma physicist, Kristian Birkeland, and is now universally accepted. In honour of this pioneer, the exact conduits through which ions reach the earth are called Birkeland currents. The existence of these twisted filamentary bundles of magnetic fields that transport ions through space along their length was only empirically confirmed in 2007, when NASAs fleet of THEMIS spacecraft announced to have detected "giant magnetic ropes that connect Earths upper atmosphere to the Sun" in the earths magnetopause. Solar wind particles are believed to flow in along these ropes, "providing energy for geomagnetic storms and auroras." To put it bluntly, modern scientists have found that the sun has an electrical plasma connection that tapers towards the earth's magnetic poles and causes electromagnetic storms. Curiously, ancient mythical and cosmological traditions have long anticipated the discovery of the solar wind and its Birkeland currents when they spoke about "ropes" and "strings" tying the earth to the sun. In the mystical tradition of India, the three worlds earth, air, and sky are attached to the sun by means of a string "by which the Devas first strode up and down these worlds, using the Universal Lights as their stepping stones." In a remarkable analogy to the modern comparison of this stream to a "wind," Hind sages affirmed: "By the Gale, indeed, O Gautama, as by a thread, are this and yonder world and all The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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beings strung together. Even as the thread of a gem might be threaded through a gem, even so is all this strung thereupon to wit, Gandharvas, Apsarases, beasts, and men," causing Deity itself to declare: "All this is strung on Me, like rows of gems upon a thread." The sun does "string these worlds to Himself by the thread of the Gale of the Spirit." The identification of this "sun pillar" running through the three worlds with the polar axis of the universe makes good sense considering that the suns charged particles stream into the earths ionosphere at the auroral ovals around the poles. If it May be granted that the Indian concept of this sun rope rooted in knowledge of the solar wind, the latter must at some point have revealed itself in an unmistakable, visible form. Is it conceivable that at some time during the early Holocene extreme solar weather produced such excitation that the plasma in the solar wind entered a visible glow mode, if not arc mode? If so, a substantial segment of ancient sky lore that was hitherto obscure receives some much-needed illumination. Many corners of the world bear witness to the theme of a heros "noosing" of the sun. "When the sun had formed in the sky," say the Bella Coola people of British Columbia, Canada, the creator "connected it with the earth by means of a long rope, which kept the two at a measured distance from each other and prevented that the earth would sink into the ocean." While an early commentator, Richard Andre, deemed this notion "Bemerkenswert" ["remarkable"], he would never have imagined that such age-old folklore motifs could conceal some ephemeral observations of space that scientists are only now beginning to rediscover. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Grosvenor Arch named for Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor National Geographic Society president (1903-1954). Credit: the Hood-Morris family.
Southern Utahs Catastrophic Past

(Feb 13, 2008)
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and other wilderness preserves reveal the signs of electric discharge machining on an immense scale. In our continuing investigation into the geological features of planet Earth, we find that one of the most important regions to consider is the Four Corners area where the borders of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona meet. In a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day article we mentioned in passing the giant sandstone tors of Monument Valley, Arizona. Such monolithic structures are said to be millions of years old and are commonly thought to be the result of erosion from wind and rain. There are difficulties with such a theory, however not the least of which is that the layered strata are uniformly carved without regard to the hardness or the permeability of the rocks involved. The contours of the gigantic buttes and buttresses are invariably shaped in sweeping curves that meander through the landscape for hundreds of miles. Interspersed with the vertical ridges (most with their bases surrounded by thirty-degree "shoulders") are ancient coneshaped vents and deep canyons containing terraces and thin fractures in the rockface. The formations, particularly those found in the Canyon de Chelly region, are somewhat reminiscent of Martian geography. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the Capitol Reef National Park provide remarkable examples of stone monoliths, valleys, arches and cliffs that cannot be easily explained by the terrestrial forces of weather. Because figures on Mars resemble those we find here on Earth, and Mars has virtually no atmosphere and no water, what force can sculpt The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive the shapes we find in the landscape of both planets?
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Domes and other uplifted terrain can be found in many places on Earth. The Brandberg Massif is one example of a gigantic stone mound that rises out of flat topography, surrounded by incised striations and Lichtenberg figures burned into the rocky overburden. In Grand Staircase-Escalante there are smaller relatives to the gigantic Massif, like Navajo Sandstone Dome. Situated in the Navajo Mountains of Utah, near the park, it is only one of many unique features found there. The 120-meter rounded mound of solid rock is crowned with a 35-meterdeep, circular pocket filled with bright orange sand. From the center of the depression rises a 12-meter column of white sandstone. Also found in the local environs are the "reefs" for which Capitol Reef National Park is named. These curvilinear, dual-ridge structures are comparable to those in the Massanutten Mountains of Virginia, or the Zagros Mountains, Iran. We have also noted that "lava dikes" that sweep away from the central complex in similar fashion surround Shiprock, New Mexico. So many examples of bizarre landforms could be listed that it would require dozens of articles just to describe them. A small sample includes: The Temples of the Sun and Moon Chimney Rock Cobra Arch Cathedral Valley Toadstool Hoodoo The Wave
"It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious." -- Alfred North Whitehead By Stephen Smith
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Clark University group photo September 1909. Front row left to right: Sigmund Freud, Stanley Hall, Carl Gustav Jung. Back row left to right: Abraham A. Brill, Ernest Jones, Sandor Ferenczi. Credit: Sigmund Freud Museum.
But What About Jung?

(Feb 11, 2008)
"But what about Jung?" is one of the first questions people typically ask when confronted with the possibility that ancient myths commemorate high-energy electromagnetic storms. The elaborate psychological theories propounded by the Swiss Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) in the early 20th century have left an indelible impression on the popular understanding of myth and symbol even today. The upshot of Jungs prolific writings on the subject is that the recurrent archetypes expressed in myths as well as dreams spring from a universal reservoir of potential forms he called the collective unconscious. Perennial motifs such as the old hag, the soul, the trickster, the round dragon and dragon combat emerge spontaneously from this inexhaustible repository at any time and place. In other words, Jung argued that the fundamental themes of world mythology, including creation mythology, have an internal, psychological origin. How does this theory relate to the recent proposal that glowing plasmas observed from the earth formed the impetus to early myth making? Essentially the same question can be asked for the intellectual legacy of two other giants of comparative mythology Sigmund Freud and Joseph Campbell. The father of psychoanalysis, Freud (1856-1939) originated the concept of an individual unconscious mind, which Jung would later seize upon and extend with a collective component. Freud famously contended that mythical motifs such as the story of Oedipus reflected repression of factors in someones psychosexual development. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Campbell (1904-1987), meanwhile, followed Jungs ideas rather uncritically and, not producing any peer-reviewed work of his own, spent a lifetime expounding it, albeit in an eloquent and appealing way. Does the plasma theory of myth contradict the work of Freud, Jung and Campbell? Before this question can be answered, it must be pointed out that Jungs theory of archetypes and the collective unconscious, for all its erudition and elegance, is really little more than an armchair philosophy that is some way removed from the gravity and sanctity with which the cosmic themes of myth were imbued in their original settings. The theories of Freud, Jung and Jungs unoriginal follower Campbell make a mockery of the earnest manner with which representatives of ancient societies as well as traditional societies of more recent times handled the subject of myth. With the most profound conviction, creation myths in their original social context were invariably reported to be true historical and earth-shaking events. The best that Jungian scholars can make of this wisdom is that these well-versed shamans, chiefs and traditional storytellers could not distinguish puerile sexual fantasies and images seen in dreams from genuine cosmic events; as if they were all wrong about their strong emphasis on the cosmic scale and setting of creation stories. Freud and Jung effectively declared the reality-claim of creation myths a delusion, if not a lie. Although the sincerity and also the ingenuity of both thinkers is not in doubt, the plasma theory of myth certainly scores a point in accommodating the historicity of creation myths in the real world, pinpointing external, not internal causes to mythical content. It bears little surprise that the primary interest of both scholars though perhaps not of Campbell was the human mind, not mythology, as both harnessed myth to illuminate psychology, and not vice versa. This, in itself, is telling enough. The collective unconscious theory was not just thought provoking; it was also thoughtprovocative. The existence of such a state or entity has never been demonstrated and it is really no more than a sophisticated disguise of a question mark. Upon checking Jungs published evidence for the collective unconscious, it appears that the archetypal motifs did not emerge spontaneously from the psyches of his patients. Instead, they could very easily have entered their minds through mundane education and interests. No credible evidence warrants the existence of such a mysterious reservoir of ideas somewhat like Platos hypercosmic realm of ideas from which myths arise. On the contrary, archetypal myths are ubiquitous because their electromagnetic prototypes were observed worldwide and were commemorated in a thousand art forms. But not all is lost. Although the Jungian paradigm of the collective unconscious does far less justice to the nature of world mythology than the plasma theory, many of the specific cases Jung as well as Freud and Campbell adduced to illustrate psychological resonance in myth are credible enough. The overarching theory May be wrong, but much of the evidence is still valuable and informative. As an example, the archetypal myth of the birth of the warrior-hero describes how the youngster was at first concealed in a dark enclosure, floating on a stream of water, then emerged from this egg or basket amid an outpouring of light or lightning. Jungian scholars explain this birth-and-exposure myth with the psychological trauma of birth, reflecting ones first memories as a fetus in a dark womb filled with amniotic fluids followed by the rending of the womb, the first breath and the severance of the umbilical cord. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The reconstruction of this archetypal birth myth is beyond doubt and the comparison with the birth trauma is striking; though hard to prove, it is attractive to think that some of the mythmakers recognized this symbolism and wove it into their poetry. But does the birth trauma successfully account for the origins of the myths in case? To answer yes to this question would be to deny the cosmogonic setting and the astral significance the story is given in countless ancient sources. A far more economic explanation is that the metaphors of a child, a womb, amniotic fluid, and an umbilical cord were chosen to reflect the active plasma in the sky precisely because the formations seen produced these associations in the minds of eye-witnesses on earth. Therefore, the psychological matches discussed in Jungian literature illuminate the psychology embedded in the choice of symbols picked to label and describe the celestial goings-on. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Close up ultraviolet study of the Sun. Credit: SOHO/NASA/Max Planck Institute
Spicules Complete the Circuit

(Feb 08, 2008)
Colossal Birkeland currents conduct the Suns energy out into space but also pull electrons back into its poles. On August 25, 1997, NASA launched the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft carrying several high-resolution sensors and monitors designed to sample low-energy solar emissions, as well as high-energy particles arriving from intra-galactic space. From its location at LaGrange point L1 ACE has been analyzing the solar wind for the last ten years (almost a complete solar cycle), providing real-time "space weather" reports about geomagnetic storms. Onboard the ACE satellite is the Solar Wind Electron Proton Alpha Monitor (SWEPAM) which is designed for direct scrutiny of coronal mass ejections (CME), interplanetary shockwaves and the detailed solar wind structure. Using advanced three-dimensional interpretive instrumentation, SWEPAM will coordinate its observations with the Ulysses probe, currently in polar orbit about the Sun at approximately 673,191,000 kilometers distance.One of the more unusual discoveries by the ACE/SWEPAM mission is an electron depletion in the solar wind due to "backstreaming electrons" flowing into the Sun from the surrounding space. These electrons are not in sync with the newest theories of the Suns activity, since the conveyance of electric charge is not considered apropos by astrophysicists. Consequently, they are left with a mystery when electrical activity presents itself in ways that they do not expect. In the conventional view the Sun is accelerating electrons out and away from its surface through a process akin to amplified sound waves. Referred to as "p-modes," they supposedly cause the energetic pulsations in the solar photosphere as they bounce around the Suns interior. When they travel upward through wave-guides called magnetic flux tubes they push the "hot gas" outward in giant structures called spicules. The spicules rise thousands of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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kilometers above the photosphere and carry the hot gasses (plasma) with them. According to Bart De Pontieu and his colleagues at the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab, the flux tubes are acoustic chambers focusing the "p-modes" and intensifying their sound energy. Some researchers have described this process in ways that allow them to see the Sun as a giant bell, ringing with vibratory energy. In such a theoretical model, how could sonic forces then influence a reflective process that draws negative electric charge back into the Sun? Thus the "mystery" surrounding the electron flow returning to the Sun from space. In 1979, Ralph Juergens wrote, The Photosphere: Is it the Top or Bottom of the Phenomenon We Call the Sun? In that seminal work, he first proposed that solar spicules are actually the way that the Sun re-supplies its electrical potential and maintains its photospheric double layer. In the image at the top of the page, an unmistakable twist can be seen in the largest spicule, identifying it as a Birkeland filament. In past Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles, we have noted that these towering filaments are responsible for the transmission of electrical energy throughout the Sun, the solar system and the galactic environment. As Professor Don Scott, electrical engineer and author of The Electric Sky recently wrote in a private communication: "In order to maintain the double layer above the photosphere that causes almost all the observed properties of the Sun, a certain ratio of the number of outgoing positive ions to the number of incoming electrons must exist. Quoting from Ralph Juergens: In a much cited classical review paper of 1929, Irving Langmuir demonstrated that a double sheath (DL) is stable only when the current densities of the positive-ion and electron flows across [through] it are properly related. The ratio of the electron current into the tuft to the positive-ion current out of the tuft must equal the square root of the ion mass divided by the electron mass, which is to say: (electron current / ion current)^2 = ion mass / electron mass = 1836. Thus electron current / ion current = 43. "So there needs to be a lot more (43 times as many) electrons coming down through the DL as there are positive ions moving outward. Where do they come from? "In that same year (1979) Earl Milton composed a paper titled, The Not So Stable Sun in which he wrote: "In order to maintain a stable sheath between the photosphere and the corona a great many electrons must flow downward through the sheath for each ion which passes upward. The solar gas shows an increasing percentage of ionized-to-neutral atoms with altitude. Some of the rising neutral atoms become ionized by collision. Some fall back to the solar surface. The rising ions ascend into the corona where they become the solar wind. The descending gas flows back to the Sun between the granules - in these channels the electrical field is such that ions straying out from the sides of the photospheric tufts flow sunward, and hence the electrons flow outward. The presence of these channels is critical to the maintenance of the solar discharge. Here we have an explanation for the spicules, huge fountains that spit electrons high into the corona. "In my (Don's) opinion this also explains what causes sunspots. Wherever the #p/#e ratio is not maintained, the DL collapses - the photospheric tufts disappear. So we get a spot in that location." By Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Paumotu Concept of the Heavens.
Peopling the Mythical Landscape

(Feb 07, 2008)
Creation myths from all corners of the world describe the involvement of people with the events of creation, as if human ancestors had actually witnessed the formation of the world. One of the long-standing puzzles of mythology concerns the role of people in ancient traditions. Philosophers within the literalist Judeo-Christian tradition have long scratched their heads over the question how the author of the creation story contained in Genesis 1, reputedly Moses, could have known about the things that had transpired before the formation of Adam on the sixth day. But a similar dilemma is posed by the creation accounts of illiterate societies around the world. The drawing shown above was made in 1869 by Paiore, a man from the Paumotu group of islands in Tuamotu, Polynesia, to illustrate the ancestors role in the lifting up of the layered heavens at the time of creation. The Toba Batak people, of Sumatra, describe the condition of the world prior to creation as if people somehow already existed to witness this state of chaos: "In the very beginning, in by-gone times, when the middleworld in which we live did not yet exist, there was only the sea; there was one sea and there was a thick darkness, (so dense that) people could not see their hands before their faces." The Navaho, of Arizona, relate how the first people declared that "We must have light" to bring an end to this perpetual night. "The first three worlds were neither good nor healthful. They moved all the time and made the people dizzy." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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And speaking of the distant time when "The whole world was sky" and "There was just light," long before the "separation between Sky and Earth," the Makiritare, of Venezuela, observe that "the people were always happy. They had life. They couldnt die." Ancestors play a prominent role in creation myths worldwide, closely interacting with the gods in a distant epoch Eliade called illud tempus or that time. But does this really mean that creation myths contain genuine information about the prehistoric activities of mankind? Just who are these people who ostensibly lived even before the gods undertook the work of creation? The question has traditionally been treated as a chronological problem, to the effect that human beings according to myths worldwide have existed as long as the world itself. To take that seriously would mean either that humans are really billions of years old or that the world is really just a few thousand years old two alternatives that are equally absurd and unscientific. On a catastrophist paradigm, the conundrum can be resolved far more easily. Two complementary and often overlapping solutions present themselves. First, if the mythical set of events collectively known as creation stories is not really about the absolute physical origins of the universe, the earth and life on earth, but about the latest in a series of catastrophic episodes in the recent history of the planet, accompanied by major instabilities in the geomagnetic field, it becomes only natural that ancient descriptions of these turbulent events read like eye-witness accounts. If the acts of creation were really cosmic occurrences happening during the Holocene, the prehistoric races of mankind would have observed what transpired. Interpreting these drastically transformative events as the creation of a new earth and a new sky perhaps in a historical succession of such events the paradox of people seeing how the gods made the world, including mankind itself, would present itself inevitably. And second, the people that were apparently engaged in supernatural activities, such as an ascent to the sky by means of the axis mundi, need not really have been human beings of flesh and blood. Euhemerism is an early school of mythology that held that the protagonists of the ancient myths the gods and certainly the ancestors were really human beings whose deeds had been exaggerated. Yet in a way, it would be nave to interpret such ancestors literally as members of the species Homo sapiens, tantamount to explaining the cosmological role of the feathered serpent or the ouroboros in reptilian terms. This impression is easily dismantled from the anthropological perspective of totemism. Traditional societies almost without exception identified and worshipped their legendary ancestors not only in the form of human beings, but of animals, plants and countless other aspects of nature, based on a fundamental belief that humans are really animals and vice versa. Thus, a wallaby clan in indigenous Australia would regard themselves as wallabies, sprung from a wallaby ancestor, and so on. Against this background, traditions about ancestors and early people need not necessarily refer to real people after all. The people populating the mythical world at the time of creation are characterised by two key features: They are as easily situated on the surface of the earth as in the sky, moving up and down along the axis mundi and in close rapport with the gods. And they are often interchangeable with the stars, being described as the stars at the time they still lived on earth or, conversely, as people before they turned into stars. The universal obsession with myths of catasterism springs from the archaic idea that the stars The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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are sky people opposed to us earth people, who had to die and go to heaven to reach that state. Making the shortest shrift of Von Dniken-like scenarios involving aliens coming down from space, this analysis offers the promising insight that the people of creation were actually luminous forms seen in the sky. It has been proposed that the axis mundi, along with other archetypal features of the mythical landscape, was a semi-permanent formation of glowing plasma seen in the earths atmosphere and ionosphere at a time that the geomagnetic field suffered from severe instabilities. The people observed in and around the world axis who are also described as seeds, ancestors, animals, stars and so on will have been little sparks of glowing plasma that were emitted by the central column like meteors issued in meteor showers. Both in the laboratory and in space, plasma has been known to behave in a surprisingly lifelike way, as if imbued with a will of its own. The surprisingly life-like properties of these little blobs of star-like lights will have contributed to their incorporation into human memories as the first people doing divine deeds in the era of creation. With the progression of time, the actual ancestors, who were the anonymous earth-bound eyewitnesses to the plasma spectacles, will have been confounded with these more proactive and rather less ordinary celestial ancestors. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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"The Spider" near the center of Caloris Basin on Mercury. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Mercurys Araneidal Terrain

(Feb 04, 2008)
"Spiders" appear where you least expect them. Some are found on Mars and now they have been seen on Mercury. Are electric discharges responsible for both? In our last Picture of the Day article about Mercury, the chaotic topography and the massive cratering was attributed to some kind of extensive plasma discharge in the past. Images from the MESSENGER spacecraft, however, reveal a scarred surface that has undergone Electric Discharge Machining (EDM) and ion beam erosion on a massive scale, although Mercury is not experiencing that level of flare-up today. So-called "spiders" are found on Mars in abundance. They are concentrated in south polar latitudes and appear when the deposits of carbon dioxide frost sublime back into gas during the Martian summer. The morphology of the various spider-like features exposes their positive and negative impressions in the rocky terrain that is buried every winter by dry-ice precipitation. Some "spider" formations are raised above the mean elevation of their surroundings, while others are deeply cut into the bedrock. Venus exhibits a similar pattern of branching, filamentary trackways called "arachnoids." They are massive in extent, some covering several hundred kilometers, and closely resemble giant Lichtenberg figures. Previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles reported that NASA scientists believe the Martian "spiders" could have been created by liquid erosion, perhaps water flowing in "dendritic drainage channels" over the now bone-dry planet. But what to do about "drainage" The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive on planets whose surface temperatures exceed 400 degrees C?
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On Earth, structures very much like those on Mars and Venus (and now Mercury) can be seen in arid environments where rain and wind erosion cannot be the cause of such remarkable scenery. Spider Crater in Australia appears to be the namesake for what we see on the other planets it is located in a region where EU theorists propose that giant electric arcs touched down and excavated the landscape. The "spider" on Mercury is found within the enormous Caloris Basin. Recent telemetry from MESSENGER indicates that the multi-ringed "impact structure" is larger than previously measured by Mariner 10 almost 1600 kilometers in diameter. One intriguing aspect of Caloris is that it contains two offset rims with multiple "rayed" craters inside its boundaries. As Electric Universe author and speaker, Wal Thornhill wrote: "The huge ringed basin is an electrical scar. One of the characteristic features seen in cathodic electrical cratering, and inexplicable by impact, is terracing of crater walls. Another is the concentric ringed structure accompanying the blisters found on lightning arrestors following a lightning strike. Electric discharges always hit a surface vertically to form neat circular craters, often with flat melted floors. Impacts do not. Impacts cause little melting but extensive collateral damage. Cosmic discharges take the form of rotating pairs of Birkeland filaments, which drill into a surface to form rotary and corkscrew patterns." Thus the dual offset rims of Caloris Basin and the superficial rays confirm what the eminent physicist Ralph Juergens also identified as electrical effects. Written by Stephen Smith from an idea suggested by Thane Hubbell
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Saturns north pole with ring shadows. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.
Saturns Thermogenic Vertex

(Feb 01, 2008)
Once again Electric Universe theorists predicted "mysterious" heat signatures from Saturns poles. In a recent press release, NASA scientists have admitted their surprise at finding a hot north pole on Saturn. Although the northern latitudes of Saturn have been hidden from the sun since 1995 and summer is just beginning, the temperatures are equivalent to those radiated from the south pole. According to Glenn Orton, one of two scientists monitoring the infrared spectrometer onboard the Cassini spacecraft: "We had speculated that the south pole hot spot was connected to the southern, sunlit conditions. Since the north pole has been deprived of sunlight since the arrival of winter in 1995, we didn't expect to find a similar feature there." Cassini mission specialists have speculated that the glow from Saturns north pole appears to be caused by convection currents carrying heat from warmer southern climes. As Leigh Fletcher, planetary scientist from Oxford University, said: "The hot spots are the result of air moving polewards, being compressed and heated up as it descends over the poles into the depths of Saturn. The driving forces behind the motion, and indeed the global motion of Saturn's atmosphere, still need to be understood." Previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles demonstrated that Saturns south pole is hotter than can be explained by the relatively dim sunlight that it receives. Because the mechanical view of the anomalies in the south fails to explain the increased temperature The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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there, Electric Universe proponents suggest that another source for the energy input must be considered and that is electricity. One of the most bizarre configurations discovered on Saturn is the hexagon that dominates its north pole. The formation was originally seen by cameras onboard the twin Voyager spacecraft that flew by Saturn in November 1980 and then again in August 1981. NASA researchers continue to refer to the structure as "unexplained," since the convective interpretations of Saturnian weather do not include mechanisms by which clouds can organize themselves into polygonal shapes. For many years researchers studying the issue have known that beams of electricity flowing through plasma produce a central column surrounded by concentric cylinders. The cylindrical current filaments exhibit long-range attraction and short-range repulsion braiding that result in evenly spaced vortices surrounding the column. As the filaments rotate around one another, a preferred hexagonal cross-section forms within the innermost column. Hexagonal craters can be seen etched into the surfaces of planets and moons. Weather patterns, such as hurricanes on Earth, also exhibit hexagonal "eyes" that defy conventional explanation. The hexagon at Saturns north pole is another example of electrical activity in the solar system on a tremendous scale. Electricity moves along Birkeland current filaments that electrically connect the Sun with its family of planetary bodies. The energy flows most strongly into the giant gas planets because their charge differential with the Sun is greater than that of their smaller, rocky cousins. The "electric Sun" is what drives the energetic meteorological phenomena on Saturn (and the other planets). Electrical circuits power the Sun and initiate the "anomalous heating" that has been found on Saturn, as well as on the other gas planets that have been examined Jupiter and Neptune display "hot poles" just like Saturn. Once conventional science sees the question in electrical terms, the many puzzles with which they are confronted will become clear. Such issues as "climate change" on Earth and the "double-eye" vortices on Venus and Saturn will be illuminated. Theories regarding the "hot poles" on Enceladus, Titan and Io will also benefit from acknowledging the principle tenets of the Electric Universe. By Stephen Smith
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Plasma pioneer Irving Langmuir
Happy Birthday Irving Langmuir

(Jan 31, 2008)
Nobel Prize laureate and one of the pioneers of plasma science. Born over a century ago on January 31, 1881, in Brooklyn, New York, Langmuir's research into ionized gasses led him in 1928 to apply the word "plasma" because they reminded him of some of the properties of blood plasma. In the 1920s, Langmuir discovered the double layer, an electrostatic structure that May appear in a plasma, consisting of two layers of oppositely charged ions. Langmuir's electrodes used to probe and study gas discharges are named after him: Langmuir probes. In the Forward to the Collected Works of Irving Langmuir, C. Guy Suits noted that "One striking feature of his research method was its instrumental simplicity [H]is own experiments were almost invariably simple and uncluttered. He seemed positively attracted to simple experimental techniques, in refreshing contrast to what sometimes appears to be a fashionable reliance on impressive and expensive complexity of research equipment." Langmuir's lifelong scientific papers were to have been published in a three or four volume compendium, but the quantity of his papers proved to be much greater than anticipated, and the resulting "The Collected Works of Irving Langmuir" was published in 12 volumes in 1961. Langmuir won the 1932 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work in surface chemistry. He died in 1957. Further Reading: http://www.plasma-universe.com/index.php/Irving_Langmuir Contributed by Ian Tresman The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Asteroid 2007 TU24. Credit: Arecibo/Greenbank Observatory
A Miss is as Good as a Mile

(Jan 30, 2008)
Despite "doomsday" fears of an asteroid collision, TU24 has once again faded into obscurity without any dramatic developments. On October 11, 2007, the Catalina Sky Survey detected the first sign of a Near Earth Object (NEO) dubbed 2007 TU24. The initial orbital calculations seemed to show that the 250-meter chunk of space rock had a slim chance of passing close to our planet possibly within the orbit of the Moon. However, the most recent data indicates that it flew by Earth at a distance of approximately 538,000 kilometers half again as far as the Moon on January 29, 2008, at 3:33AM EST. Scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, analyzed the newest data from the Goldstone Solar System Radar telescope and determined that there is no chance the asteroid will ever come within striking distance of the Earth. Previous Picture of the Day articles note that asteroids and large meteors are rarely, if ever, going to impact the Earth in the first place. In the Electric Universe view, any object coming far from the earth will carry a different charge. As it encounters lower layers of the Earth's plasma sheath, the voltage between the object and the layer could abruptly increase and the object begin to visibly discharge. At first it would be surrounded by a "glow discharge," a diffuse luminescence similar to St. Elmos fire or to high-altitude "elves." As the voltage rises, the discharge would jump to "arc" mode and the object would become an electrode at the focus of upper-atmospheric charge. At this point material would begin to ablate in a sputtering process as well as from velocitycaused air friction. If the current flow becomes too extreme, capacitive discharges within the meteor will cause a violent outburst of electricity with sudden bright flashes. The meteor is now called a "bolide," or flaring meteor. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Electrical effects within semi-metallic objects prompted some Electric Universe correspondents to wonder if such a flare (or a glow discharge) might appear during the 2007 TU24 flyby. The short answer is that the object is far too small, plasma in space is far too diffuse, and its encounter with Earth was at too great a distance for any such phenomena to appear. 2007 TU24 followed closely on the heels of Asteroid 2007 WD5 which was predicted to smash into the surface of Mars on January 30, 2008. As of January 11, however, the odds were reduced to a 1-in-10,000 chance that there would be a Martian catastrophic event. Once again, we predict that there will be no visible effects of any kind as 2007 WD5 proceeds past Mars and back into the depths of space. By Stephen Smith
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Ocean floor topography. Credit: NASA/SEASAT
The Worzel Deep Sea Ash

(Jan 28, 2008)
Sediment samples indicate that there is a layer of nickel-rich ash covering the bottom of all the worlds oceans. Could cosmic plasma discharges be responsible? The bottom of the ocean is assumed to be a dark, cold and relatively stable environment. Barring the effects of occasional earthquakes, little activity occurs and it remains in a kind of stasis, with a constant "rain" of organic detritus and inorganic minerals falling through its depths. How, then, can we explain the discovery of high nickel concentrations in the abyssal clays? Nickel is not considered a component of seawater since its concentrations are so low, and it is rare even on land. In 1949, Professor Hans Pettersson led the first Swedish deep-sea expedition on board The Albatross. Equipped with instruments equivalent to any universitys laboratory, Pettersson and his crew extracted long cores of ocean sediments and examined their contents. What they found contradicted the theoretical assumptions of meteoric nickel drifting to Earth. Since nickel is a component of most terrestrial meteorites, the amount being deposited on Earth can be determined by counting the meteors flaring in the night sky and estimating the mass of each object as it burns up in the atmosphere. Scientists of Petterssons day computed the average nickel content to be around two percent per meteor. However, when compared with the Professors core samples, the estimate turned out to be a thousand times too low. He wrote: "Recent figures, published in Watson's excellent book, Between the Planets, show that down to the faintest meteors so far studied, over ten thousand million per day enter the atmosphere, and even this figure must be taken as a minimum for the total numberNone of them reaches the Earth's surface. Instead they are converted into meteoric dustabout five metric tons or 5000 kilograms per day." Petterssons samples indicated a value closer to 10,000 metric tons per day, a figure that he considered "most enigmatic" because it implied that sometime in the past the Earth encountered a short-duration torrent of meteors. In fact, several far-ranging masses of nickeliron May have bombarded our planet. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Since the oceans were (and are) thought to be hundreds of millions of years old, the accumulation of meteoric ash must be considered over long time periods. According to Pettersson, since the fall of space debris presumably took place in days rather than millennia, he considered that his estimate of a thousand-time increase should rather be an "astronomical figure." His conclusion was based on determining the age of the oceans a factor that, almost 60 years later, has not yet been established. In 1958, LaMar Worzel of Columbia University set sail on The Verma to investigate the seafloor. He discovered that the meteoric dust layer, or ash, was evenly distributed over the entire ocean bottom. The glassified substance was spread in a layer of "remarkable uniformity" and could not have been from a volcanic eruption except the eruption of volcanoes all over the world in a simultaneous paroxysm. The other possibility was that the ash blanket came from outer space perhaps the collision of a large comet with Earth. Spectrographic analysis of The Verma Expedition deep sea cores: SiO2 CaO FeO Al203 Na2O TiO2 MgO Total
Clay above 59.00% 0.96% 3.20% 15.80% 4.30% 0.42% 2.25% 85.91% Worzel Ash 75.00% 0.88% 0.66% 13.90% 3.90% 0.20% 0.03% 94.64% Clay below 40.00% 3.20% 5.20% 15.80% 4.40% 3.52% 0.52% 72.78% Modern theories of astrophysics portray comets as accreted material from the very beginning of our solar system. They are described as "dirty snowballs" and are said to number in the trillions, occupying a halo of "leftovers" called the Oort Cloud. However, recent information from the Stardust spacecraft reveals that the makeup of Comet Wild 2 is similar to that of rocky planets and asteroids. In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles about comets, we predicted that they are not the icy slush and primordial elements that conventional science describes but are recent denizens of the solar system. As we have further suggested, comets could be debris that was hoisted into space by the electrostatic force of interplanetary plasma discharges. Such a violent catastrophe might also have stripped millions of tons of rock from the surface of another planet, such as Mars. The electrical activity could then have projected a stream of ionized dust along the axes of gigantic Birkeland currents toward the closest node in the circuit, whereupon it would have been deposited in a process akin to cathode sputtering. That second node in the circuit was the Earth, according to Electric Universe theorists. In conclusion, it May be that Pettersson, Worzel and the Stardust mission team are describing pieces of an event that changed the very nature of our planet and the solar system. That event was the close encounter of Earth with another charged planetary body or bodies. The resulting exchanges of electrical energy excavated craters, scorched entire hemispheres, cut miles-deep canyons and transferred megatons of material from one body to another. The Worzel ash layer is probably a remnant of that transfer. By Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Left: Tvashtar "volcanic plume" on Io. Right: Solar prominence. Credit: Left: NASA/New Horizons mission. Right: NASA/Marshall Spaceflight Center.
Filamentary My Dear Watson

(Jan 25, 2008)
Phenomena throughout the visible universe exhibit features that are twisted and "stringy." From plume to prominence it is plasma interactions that we see. In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles, there have been many instances where we have identified formations cut in stone or puffed-out in clouds of ionized gas that are not easily explained by conventional theories. Two such figures are shown at the top of the page. One is said to be a volcano erupting on the surface of Jupiters active moon Io. The other is a massive flaring eruption from the sun. How do both events relate to one another when they occur in such disparate environments? Every world in the solar system is a charged body orbiting in a plasma. There are many ways in which plasma interacts with dust or atmospheric gasses no matter how hot or cold they are. Spacecraft sent to other planets, as well as satellites orbiting our own planet, have detected auroras, lightning, tornadoes and dust devils. Volcanoes on Earth have been found to "spit lightning" from their vents. Global dust storms on Mars are shown to be fed by thousands of sky-high funnels. Further into the solar system remote instruments are finding radio noise, electrified comets, spokes in Saturns rings and many other modes of electrical activity. When plasma moves through a dust or gas, it tends to ionize the material and cause electric current to flow. As was demonstrated by Faraday more than a century ago, when electricity pushes through any substance a magnetic field is created. One aspect of magnetism in electrified plasma is that it creates what are sometimes called "plasma ropes." The magnetic field surrounds the plasma, confining it into a coherent system known as a Birkeland current. Birkeland currents are ionic filaments that transport charge great distances through space along their tubular interiors. The tubes are really double-walled, folded layers of charge separation that isolate the positive and negative potential, keeping them from interacting and neutralizing each other. The suns energy moves through the solar system in Birkeland currents for billions of miles as The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the solar wind a name that is, unfortunately, inadequate in its strictly mechanical definition. In reality, there is a storm of ions blasting out of the sun along gigantic filaments that prevent the discharge from dissipating as it goes. Electric Universe theorists insist that galactic evolution can also be explained in terms of large-scale plasma discharges that form wheels of coherent filaments. Why stars in galaxies tend to coalesce in long arcs like bright beads on a line is one of a hundred mysteries that conventional cosmology must confront. No gravity-only hypothesis can resolve the issue of star formation, in general, but the structure that has been seen within the barred spirals and the tremendous elliptical whirlpools that congregate in million-light-year clusters continues to elude definition. As Don Scott, author of The Electric Sky and from whom the title of this paper was stolen, wrote about the way plasma acts in the universe: "Plasma phenomena are scalable. Their electrical and physical properties remain the same, independent of the size of the plasma. In a laboratory plasma, of course, things happen much more quickly than on, say, galaxy scales, but the phenomena are identical -- they obey the same laws of physics. In other words we can make accurate models of cosmic scale plasma behavior in the lab, and generate effects that mimic those observed in space. It has been demonstrated that plasma phenomena can be scaled to fourteen orders of magnitude. (Alfven hypothesized that they can be scaled to 28 orders or more!) Electric currents flowing in plasmas produce most of the observed astronomical phenomena that remain inexplicable if we assume gravity and magnetism to be the only forces at work." By Stephen Smith
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Left: Two plasmoids in a magnetic field producing similarities to the shape of barred spiral galaxies. Right: Winston H. Bostick makes the news headlines in 1956.
Bosticks Plasmoids
(Jan 24, 2008)
On December 12, 1956, the front page of the New York Times announced: "Physicist 'Creates' Universe in a Test Tube; Atom Gun Produces Galaxies and Gives Clues to Creation." Just over 50 years ago, plasma physicist Winston H. Bostick made the kind of news headlines that many a scientist dreams. In his laboratory experiment Bostick created a simple "plasma gun" consisting of a 4-inch diameter glass jar around which he wound a wire carrying an electric current that created a small magnetic field. Most of the air was removed from the jar and two titanium wires were connected to a high-voltage, high-current electric power source. On flicking the power switch, a 10,000 ampere electric current passed through the titanium wires, instantly vaporizing them and creating a puff of ionized gas (a plasma) travelling at 450,000 miles per hour. Bostick noted that the puffs of plasma formed distinctive shapes that resembled galaxies at various stages of aging and formation. Bostick called his laboratory produced plasma entities, "plasmoids." Over the next thirty years, Bostick, a Professor of Physics at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, investigated plasmoids further and found that "not only the morphology [shape] but the controlling dynamic elements, electric and magnetic fields, are the same in the laboratory as in the galactic phenomena." Bostick's theory describes galaxies as analogous to series-wound homopolar generators (a kind of motor) that convert gravitational energy of rotation into increasing magnetic energy that causes galaxies to expand away from each other. Furthermore, Bostick suggested that such a model could produce a concentration of current perpendicular to the galactic disk that The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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would be a cosmic-sized "plasma focus" a device that produces high energy, relativistic (near the speed of light) particle beams, or jets. Winston H. Bostick was born in 1916, and died January 19, 1991, at age 74. Further reading: http://www.plasma-universe.com/index.php/Winston_H._Bostick http://www.plasma-universe.com/index.php/Plasmoid Contributed by Ian Tresman
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Saturns stricken moon Mimas. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Mal de Mimas
(Jan 21, 2008)
What could blast a crater 130 kilometers wide without destroying this moon? The answer might be electricity. Saturns moon, Mimas is another of those "mysterious" objects that inhabit the solar system. Its appearance reminds one of the fanciful "death star" from a popular movie several years ago. The single giant crater that dominates one hemisphere is unique in that it is one-eighth the diameter of the moon itself. If a similar-sized crater were formed on Earth it would cover almost half of the Pacific basin. In our previous article about Tethys, a sister moon to Mimas, the disproportionately large features craters, deep canyons and kilometer-high cliffs reflect violent activity that could have destroyed the 1000 kilometer-wide moon. Why such enormous shocks do not disrupt the material bodies on which they have been discovered is another mystery that baffles planetary scientists. Very much like the Odysseus Multi-Ring Structure on Tethys is Herschel crater. Named after Sir William Herschel, who discovered Mimas in 1789, the hexagonal astroblem is 130 kilometers wide with a towering central peak. Such craters are theorized to form when asteroids impact the surface and explode, blasting the material into space. One standard explanation for why so little debris remains behind is that the moons, like Mimas, have little gravitational attraction so the remnants of the explosive events arent retained in the vicinity. It sounds like a reasonable hypothesis until one examines the craters The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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on large planets like Earth and Mars. Many hundred-kilometer-wide "impact sites" on Earth also demonstrate little eruptive fallback their flat-bottomed floors and steep sidewalls are swept clean, although glassified breccias are often incorporated into the rims and walls. To NASA mission specialists the most labyrinthine puzzle of all, however, is the shape of Herschel crater: it is a hexagon. How can the detonation of a colliding rock cause a hexagonal crater? No experiment has been able to demonstrate a polygonal shape left behind after an explosive event. Explosions do not aggregate constituent particles into stable configurations; they induce chaotic behavior that leaves little in the way of identifiable forms. The answer to how immense craters with similar morphology can develop with straight-sided hexagons is found in plasma discharge experiments. For example, Wal Thornhill explained the enigmatic hexagonal cloud feature on both Jupiters and Saturns north pole by referring to vortex instabilities seen in the lab during electron beam experiments. (See "2008--Year of the Electric Universe.") He writes: "Given the almost unlimited scalability of plasma phenomena, it is not surprising that there are galaxies exhibiting hexagonal structure within a circular arc (NGC 7421, NGC4676A) and diocotron instabilities in their spiral arms (NGC 3646). (The arcs are formed electrically not by collision). In addition there are circular and hexagonal structures within the spiral arms (the Hodge object in NGC 6946)." In previous Picture of the Day articles, we have attempted to provide evidence for plasma discharges on planets and moons. Lightning bolts, diffuse glow-mode clouds of energetic particles and rotating Birkeland currents are suggested as causative agents for the bizarre conditions on celestial bodies, like Mimas. It appears as if Mimas might have been caught in the grip of a titanic particle beam that excavated Herschel crater and the other geological features incised on its face. Due to the plasma instabilities in the discharge, a hexagon was cut deeply into its crust. When the electrical energy was withdrawn, Herschel crater remained a "fossilized" geometric shape permanently burned in. By Stephen Smith
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Unnamed crater with "concentric fill" in the northern Martian highlands. Credit: NASA/HiRISE.
Martian Glaciers
(Jan 18, 2008)
Fluvial effects and aeolian processes are said to have eroded the surface of Mars and sculpted its topography. Could it actually have been electric discharges? Mars represents a new frontier in the history of science. No celestial body, not even the Moon, has been so extensively studied in so many ways. From the days of Giovanni Schiaparelli's observations to the arrival of remotely controlled robotic platforms wandering its surface, Mars has been a source of mystery as well as enlightenment when it comes to explaining the origin of the solar system. One of the greatest mysteries about other planets is whether liquid water exists in their alien environments. Water is not sought on other worlds in order to slake the thirst of future explorers or to grow the crops they might plant, but to assist in the search for life in the universe. Since water sustains our ecology here on Earth, it is presumed that water is essential for the establishment and the continuance of life in other circumstances. For that reason, the primary mission of satellite-based imaging systems around Mars, for example, is to look for evidence that water exists in the open or to confirm that it once flowed freely across the surface. Barring that evidence, it is hoped that research experiments will find subterranean water or frozen blocks of ice in areas that are shielded from direct sunlight. The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) carrying the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) entered orbit in 1997 with the highest-resolution instruments that could be built and flown during that period. One of its first discoveries was huge outcrops of layered rock extending for hundreds of kilometers through the Schiaparelli Basin, as well as down the walls and out onto the floor of Valles Marineris. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Hundreds of MOC images reveal rock layering in many different settings: craters, canyons and giant scarps dominated by faulting and pitting. Uniform layers with similar thickness suggest to NASA scientists that the strata in Schiaparelli Basin is actually ancient sedimentary rock that might have been built-up in water and subsequently eroded by wind. Dark drifts of sand occur at the base of the cliffs and light-colored "windblown ripples" are prominent on the flat floor of the multi-kilometer-wide sink. It is believed that Mars is covered with a global layer of permafrost because the annual mean temperature of the soil is approximately 50 below zero centigrade. It is far colder in the northern and southern latitudes - so cold that carbon dioxide gas freezes into a solid and blankets the terrain with dry ice. Therefore, say planetary scientists, any water "must be" bound up with thick icy soils or locked in frigid underground vaults, because the atmosphere is thin enough for water-ice to sublime directly into vapor and vanish. Since ice rather than liquid water is thought to predominate, it "must have been" Martian glaciers rather than Martian floods that excavated some of the anomalous terrain that we see. Periglacial landforms occur on the margins of glaciers. They often appear as polygonal fractures, stone circles, wide pits, scalloped cliffs and dirt-covered mounds of ice. Such features "naturally" appear when ice between soil grains melts and then re-freezes from season-to-season. Expansion and contraction cycles force the material to sort itself according to density and size, according to conventional science. The Viking mission satellites hinted at some large geological structures that looked like they might be of periglacial origin. The resolution of the Viking cameras was too low for any specific details to be analyzed, however. The MOC instruments provided a better view, although Mars Global Surveyor reached the end of its battery-life on November 6, 2006. Now it is HiRISE that is providing grist for speculations about water on Mars. On Earth, glaciers are theorized to create characteristic varves, moraines and loess. Each type of deposit seems to require that mountains of ice, acting like slow-motion bulldozers, push enormous mounds of soil and rock ahead of their billion-ton flanks. In so doing, the gravel and sand is supposed to be sorted by the glacial movement and piled-up into distinctive formations. In the image at the top of the page, the bizarre contraction and folding on the floor of a 12kilometer shallow crater is said to be from glaciers flowing down the crater wall and compressing the rocks and sand into bands and folded striations. But is that what has actually taken place? What else besides glaciers could act with compressive force and sort the material into cohesive layers? But we might also add - blacken it and squeeze it into "dunes" with deep channels etched into their slopes? In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles about the geology of Mars, we have identified the signature of powerful electric arcs that once impacted the surface. The incredible energy released by plasma discharges took the form of sinuous rilles, flat-floored craters, "railroad track" patterns in canyons and craters, intersecting gullies with no debris inside them, giant mesas with Lichtenberg "whiskers" and steep-sided ravines wending through landscapes dotted with circular uplifts. If what we find on Mars took place in the presence of planetary lightning bolts and was not the result of ice or water moving across the surface, should we re-think our ideas about similar observations here on Earth? By Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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300-kilometer scarp on Mercury with crater chain. Credit: NASA/JPL/Northwestern University
Messages from Mercury

(Jan 16, 2008)
A new mission to the planet Mercury is designed to answer some 30-year-old mysteries about its scorched surface. On august 3, 2004, NASA launched the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) experiment from the Cape Canaveral facility on a 7-year mission to study the solar system's innermost planet. On January 14, 2008, MESSENGER performed an initial flyby of Mercury, coming within 200 kilometers of the torrid world. On March 8, 2011, MESSENGER will enter orbit around Mercury and begin a multi-year analysis of the surface, the magnetic field and the planet's core. Mercury, like most bodies in the solar system, has a weak magnetic field but research scientists have no idea how its being generated. Earth has a strong field that helps to protect us from the sun's ionic bombardment, but Mercury has no such protection. It receives a continuous blast of radiation and atomic particles that is almost 1000 times greater than what is measured at the Earth's surface. A magnetometer on the satellite should help resolve where the magnetic field originates. Modern theories suggest that a rotating "dynamo" of molten metal exists inside Earth and that is how our magnetic field is created. Mercury is thought to have a molten core as well, but no one knows if it is working like Earth does or if the field is part of the crust, like Mars. No one understands how a molten core exists on Mercury since the planet appears cold and dead. The molten interior should have cooled off eons ago. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The last spacecraft to explore Mercury was Mariner 10 during its tour of it and Venus. Mariner 10 flew near Mercury in 1974 - March 29, September 21 and then again on March 16, 1975. However, because there was no orbital insertion, only about 45% of the surface was revealed by the onboard instruments. Because MESSENGER is designed to orbit Mercury, mission specialists hope to find answers to other mysteries left unanswered for the last 34 years. Based on its calculated high density, Mercury is believed to be almost 75% iron surrounded by a thin shell of silicon-rich rock. Conventional theories of planet formation have no explanation for such a configuration. If it formed in the same proto-planetary nebula as the rest of the solar system, say geophysicists, then the abundance of iron remains a conundrum because the ratio of iron to silicon is opposite to the other rocky planets. By interpreting the surface mineralogical signature of spectrographic data that MESSENGER will provide scientists hope to decide whether Mercury was overheated by the sun or was nearly shattered by an impact--either event removing most of the silicon from the developing planet. The Electric Universe provides a simple yet surprising answer to these mysteries in "Astronomical Myths of Mercury and the Sun." One of the most intriguing features on Mercury is the Caloris Basin, a 1300-kilometer "impact" blemish that supposedly caused shockwaves to pass entirely through the planet. On the opposite side of Mercury are bizarre folds and uplifts that are said to be from the antipodal compression of the crust as the tremendous pressure partially melted and then re-solidified the strata. The Caloris Basin resembles other multi-ringed "impact" structures we have previously discussed in other Picture of the Day articles. Shattered and chaotic landscape is only one aspect of Mercury's strange environment. There are sinuous rilles and cliff-faces that cut through craters. The craters are often hexagonal in shape, have flat-floors and central peaks or bumps. There is a marked lack of debris surrounding the craters, leaving open the question of what happened to the millions of tons of material that must have been blown out by meteorite explosions. Sinuous rilles, such as the Rupes Scarp, have long been considered by Electric Universe theorists to be evidence that electric arcs have struck planets. As MESSENGER gradually settles-in to its 2011 orbital observation more data should help to demonstrate that Mercury's structure and features could be the result of electrical activity on a enormous scale. By Stephen Smith
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Dust devil near the Onyx River, Antarctica. Credit: Warren Dickinson
Mars or Earth the Devils are Electrified

(Jan 14, 2008)
Martian dust devils exhibit startling electrical properties. Electric whirlwinds have also been identified on Earth. As long ago as March 2005, Electric Universe advocates wrote about the surprising discovery of dust devils spinning across the Martian deserts. The Spirit Rover returned several images of large, glowing funnels raking across the flatlands, leaving darkened trackways behind. Since the atmospheric density on Mars is so low (less that one percent that of Earth), the question arose of how a strong "wind" can carve the soil and leave multiple tracks that can be seen from space? We might also ask how the global dust storms are energized by such a rarified vapor of frigid carbon dioxide gas? The conventional theory of dust devil formation on Earth describes a vortex of warm air that begins as a horizontal "rotator" near the ground. As the spinning air gains momentum, it "stands up" vertically, forming a cylindrical cloud of dust that twists its way over the surface, gathering more debris as it goes. As it increases in strength, it tightens its diameter like an ice skater drawing in her arms. As it contracts, the dust storm spins faster and faster. However, on Mars there is no vortex of spinning air to move into a vertical orientation and form the dust devil. Yet, there are funnels that climb thousands of meters into the sky on Mars and engulf nearly a whole hemisphere with their burden of sand and other small particles during certain parts of the year. A better explanation for dust devil formation on Earth as well as Mars could very well be electricity. Recent announcements by atmospheric scientists have claimed that "saltation" is generating the electric fields that they found years ago in the dust devils of Arizona. "Saltation" means The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the intermittent, leaping movement of particles of sand or gravel, as from the force of wind or running water. In other words, the sand particles are believed to be generating electrical charges close to 10,000 volts per meter by rubbing against each other. In several previous Picture of the Day articles, we have pointed out that it is not necessary to postulate strictly mechanical activity for the electric charges that have been found in dust devils. To get the electric field, conventional researchers believe, there has to be "charge separation" that requires collisions of sand and soil particles. It is those collisions, they say, that causes the larger particles to become positively charged and the smaller ones to become negatively charged. The wind then disperses them into regions of sorted sizes, creating an electric field. In the Electric Universe theory, no collisions from bouncing sand grains are necessary. Charge separation already exists in the atmosphere. Without clouds like those on Earth to send lightning down to ground level, the electric discharges on Mars form giant whirlwinds that are part of an interplanetary electrical circuit. It is that same circuit that drives weather systems on Earth. If this is true, then Martian "dust devils" and those on Earth are both illustrations of how electricity behaves in the solar system. By Stephen Smith
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Popigai Crater. Credit: Ronald W. Hayes Landsat/PASSC
Popigai Crater, Siberia

(Jan 07, 2008)
The infamous Tunguska crater is not the only site in Siberia where tremendous highenergy events have taken place. Many Picture of the Day articles have addressed the so-called "impact craters" that pepper our planet like the wounds from a hot poker. Bizarre landforms and anomalous blast features have implied that other factors could influence their formation. Libya's Kebira Crater, Canada's Manicouagan Impact Structure and the Wilkes Land Crater in Antarctica point to forces beyond the strictly mechanical (heat, shock and gravity), providing a backdrop for theories of electric blast effects. In the Russian wilderness, 120 kilometers from the Arctic Ocean, is a crater that rivals the largest ever discovered. Popigai is over 100 kilometers in diameter and provides evidence that it could have been excavated in an instant by a plasma discharge of planetary proportions. Popigai and Manicouagan are both considered to be the fourth largest craters on Earth. Only Vredefort (300 kilometers), Sudbury (250 kilometers) and Chicxulub (180 kilometers) are larger. Popigai's topography and geological unconformities are striking. The bedrock within the site was forced downward and outward, shattering into megaton blocks that were subsequently thrust away and piled up along the crater rim. Some of the largest fragments were thrown over 70 kilometers from the crater. The rim material was then sliced away exposing a cross section of the contorted strata with embedded giant stone blocks. Gneiss deposits were fused into a glass-like compound that covers the floor of the crater and appears to have splashed up and over the crater rim. The molten glass inundated several hundred square kilometers of the surrounding terrain with a thick layer capping the chaotic The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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breccias. Meltrock over 600 meters deep has been found mixed with suevite, a type of stone thought to be produced when large bolides strike the Earth. Suevite is found in many other locations around the world and supposedly indicates a thermal stress great enough to compact and fuse the soil and rock into a conglomerate containing "shocked" crystals. The micro-fractures are the result of overpressure through the crystalline matrix. Samples taken from the Popigai crater all contain shocked grains and tiny craters, evincing the extreme conditions that resulted in their formation. One of the more interesting features of Popigai is that diamonds are found in and around the crater environs. The pressure waves released by whatever phenomenon caused the crater are thought to have compressed the graphite within the gneiss formations and instantaneously transformed it into diamond. The blast that created the precious gems also threw them over 150 kilometers to the east, where they can be found loose in the soils and the rivers. Their value is great enough that it is very difficult to explore the region because the Russian government has built diamond mines and processing centers nearby. Diamonds are primarily found in deep chimneys called "Kimberlite pipes" that reach down into the Earth for several kilometers. They received that name from the Kimberly region of South Africa, where diamond mining was first instituted on a large scale. Kimberlite can be found in Canada and India, as well. In fact, the Hope Diamond, probably the most famous gemstone ever discovered, was from an Indian Kimberlite pipe. Popigai's vicinity is rich with diamondbearing Kimberlite. The most mysterious aspect to diamond formation is the speed necessary for them to crystallize before they assume their layered phase and become simple graphite. Conventional theories suggest that diamonds begin their journey over 250 kilometers below the surface in the incredible heat of subterranean pressure cookers. Recent analysis shows that the diamonds must travel from the upper mantle at over 180-kilometers-per-hour in order to achieve crystallization. Kimberlite pipes are theorized to be the offspring of hypervelocity bolide impacts, and they are, indeed, associated with craters and other non-uniform geological structures. As we have pointed-out in the past, however, it is not large rocks from space that generate these anomalies, it is lightning bolts with trillion-joule heat that most likely shaped the topography we see. Glass spherules from the Popigai event have been found everywhere on Earth, especially on the bottom of the Indian Ocean. Small glassified spheres are one hallmark of plasma discharges and have been compared with those discovered on Mars. Just like their distribution on Earth, the "blueberries" on Mars cover thousands of square kilometers and exist in the trillions. Along with the diamonds, near-vertical crater walls, the flat floor, the mega-breccias, the giant stones sliced in half as if by a laser and the glassified overburden, there is the problem of age. Despite being dated at over 250-million years, Popigai retains a freshly cut appearance. Perhaps a better proposal is that a titanic "thunderbolt of the gods" produced both the diamond-bearing Kimberlite and the morphology of large craters. By Stephen Smith
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Left: 3mm crater electrically etched in sandstone. Right: 150 meter Martian "skylight." Credit: Left: C. J. Ransom, VEMASAT Labs. Right NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Martian Skylights in the Laboratory

(Jan 04, 2008)
Deep cylindrical pits on Mars are not easy to explain. Small-scale plasma discharge experiments could offer some clues to their formation. In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles about unusual geological structures on Mars, we have included craters, canyons, dunes and many other features that do not readily correspond to contemporary theories about their evolution. Dunes that do not align with the direction of the prevailing winds and that do not show any movement after years of observation are odd. Other anomalies include crater rims with steep vertical walls and kilometer-deep canyons with no outflow channels. On the slopes of Olympus Mons, often mistakenly called the largest volcano in the solar system, are several large holes that seem to be excavated vertically for hundreds of meters. On Earth some volcanoes have similar "pit craters" on their flanks. They have no connection to fumaroles or lava chambers so they are thought to be from gas pockets that collapsed, leaving sinkholes behind. However, with the recent awareness that plasma activity is involved with volcanic eruptions on Earth it should also be considered when dealing with Mars. The same activity May have occurred there, but if so, it must have been billions of years ago when the last volcanic eruptions took place there. If the "skylights" are that old, surely they would not look like they were dug into the surface a short time ago. As we have written elsewhere, Olympus Mons has all the characteristics of a lightning blister, or fulgamite, but on an incredible scale. If small blisters have been found on spark arrestors after a lightning strike on Earth, one can imagine the size of the burst that hit Mars and formed the Tharsis Montes volcanoes - Olympus Mons in particular. The giant mound is covered with raised dendritic ridges flowing down its sides like hardened Lichtenberg figures. The caldera chiseled out of its summit is unlike the volcanic vents found anywhere on Earth the same dendritic ridges outlining its foundation are also molded into those cliff faces. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In the image at the top of the page, an enhanced Martian skylight is compared to a crater blasted into Arkansas sandstone by Dr. C. J. Ransom's electrical apparatus. A one-second spark from the discharge terminal drilled into the stone, forming a crater almost identical to the large version from Mars. The cracks, the helical path downward into both craters, the "rubble" on the bottom and the hemispherical nips taken out of both rims are quite evident. Craters and pits such as these vary enormously but they all possess the distinguishing features of electrical arc machining. An arc will usually contact the surface at a 90-degree angle and typically will consist of one or more discharge channels that rotate around an empty center. If the electric arc remains stationary for a period, it will carve out a circular crater. Most of the surface material will be lifted away and the edge will have a sharp rim. If the current passing through the surface varies, the depth and diameter of the crater May vary, causing terraces to be cut into the walls. All of those characteristics can be seen in both "pit craters" - C. J. Ransom's laboratory example and the example from Mars. Perhaps the other examples on Earth should be evaluated differently? By Stephen Smith
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Hi-resolution topographic map of Mars. Credit: Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA)
Born out of Hell

(Jan 02, 2008)
Scientists theorize that sulfurous compounds from ancient volcanoes helped warm up Mars and form the now extinct Martian oceans. Could electricity be a better explanation? Speculations about the existence of liquid oceans on Mars have existed for centuries. Images from orbiting cameras supposedly confirmed that water once flowed on the surface of the now frozen and barren planet so the Mars Expeditionary Rovers A and B were sent for a close up look at the evidence. So far, after several years of traveling the Martian wasteland, no confirmation either way has been forthcoming. Some discoveries, such as the presence of olivine deposits on the surface, seem to preclude the existence of water on Mars since olivine is readily dissolved and dispersed in water. Any large deposits would have been washed away eons ago if there had been large quantities of liquid. Contrary theories have been presented that ignore specific mineralogical objections in favor of a larger view. Scientists from the University of California at Berkeley recently suggested one of the more interesting "confirmations" for the liquid ocean hypothesis. Although the oceans have been gone for over 2 billion years, their analysis of Martian topography seems to indicate that two "shorelines" extending for thousands of kilometers have been overlooked in past analyses of satellite imagery. As their theory states, crustal folds have obscured the true shape of the fossil coastline as the planet deformed during a change in its spin direction in the past. Due to some kind of imbalance in the mass distribution inside Mars the planet tilted over by at least 50 degrees on its rotational axis and caused distortions in the crust. Changes in thermal balance and increased exposure to the solar wind caused a lot of the water that once occupied the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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changing ocean basins to be lost. However, one-fifth of the Martian surface was once covered with water so there "must be" more water remaining, locked-up in the rocks or buried underground in giant blocks of ice. Another recent announcement states that "greenhouse gases" in the form of carbon dioxide with large percentages of sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, also contributed to the presence of liquid water oceans on Mars. Today, the average temperature on Mars is 46 degrees below zero C (-51 degrees F) with a mean surface atmospheric pressure equivalent to standing on top of Mount Everest. The atmosphere is frozen, dry and thin to the point where water would immediately sublime and disassociate, so somehow it must have been thicker and warmer in the past. The remaining carbon dioxide atmosphere points toward an older version of the planet with greater density containing more of the gas, according to conventional understanding. The problem is that no amount of carbon dioxide in the evolution of any planet is sufficient to warm up the atmosphere by itself. Coupled with the absence of carbonate-rich rocks in Mars, a mechanism for preventing their formation while at the same time increasing the atmospheric pressure and accelerating the "greenhouse" effect remained elusive. Now scientists are speculating that the volcanoes on Mars once erupted with tremendous quantities of sulfurous gases, acidifying the then extant oceans and preventing the formation of carbonates. Mars has a lot more sulfur than Earth (which also contains large deposits of carbonate rock), so the sulfuric acid dissolved away the limestone beds, for instance, while at the same time acting as a booster to the "greenhouse" environment. Earth and Mars are presumed to have been similar in the past so many explanations for why the two planets diverged into their disparate natural settings have been offered. It is not surprising that electricity in the form of plasma discharges and lighting bolts has never been considered in the development of each world, but the observational evidence that we have offered in the Thunderbolts Picture of the Day and New and Views sections of this site is compelling. As Electric Universe author and physicist Wal Thornhill wrote: "The idea of former oceans and rivers existing on Mars came from the many scoured channels and the flat, low terrain in the northern hemisphere. This marked hemispheric dichotomy is inexplicable by any known geological or astronomical effect. It has never occurred to geologists that the agent involved was electrified plasma. Why should it? Astrophysicists tell them that we live in an electrically neutral universe in which cosmic charge separation is impossible. But if that single assumption is incorrect everything changes. If the visible universe suffers cosmic charge separation then we have a source of energy to build and shape galaxies, light stars, give birth to planets, organize stable orbits and leave the resulting scars of electrical transactions on all solid bodies." Written by Stephen Smith from an idea submitted by James Parker
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2007
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Mont Aiguille and Grand Veymont punctuate the ridges of Vercors. Credit: George Ceky
The Vercors Plateau

(Dec 28, 2007)
Aciculate peaks and curvilinear ridges outline giant circular depressions in the French Alps. What could form such fresh-looking, sharp-edged massifs? In our ongoing series about stone monoliths around the world, we turn our attention to Europe and the colossal formations that make up the French Alps. In particular, Mont Aiguille (Needle Mountain) is much like the structures from the Amazonian region of South America that were discussed in a previous Picture of the Day. Flat-topped mesas are common throughout the southwestern United States, as well as in the Amazon. Arizonas Monument Valley includes elevations that almost exactly mirror those found in the Alps, although they are composed of different rock matrices. Those in Arizona are sandstone tors with sharply delineated sidewalls and those in the French Alps, such as Mont Aiguille, are composed of limestone. According to geologists, the mountainous uplift known as Massif du Vercors dates from the Variscan era when Laurasia and Gondwana collided, forming the supercontinent of Pangaea. As conventional theories indicate, the consolidation of the two landmasses caused a mountain-building event that folded the crust and initiated a metamorphic phase in the development of the Alps. Volcanic activity during this metamorphic period caused a restructuring of the pre-Variscan iron-rich rocks into the hard, magnesium-rich composition that now exists. Mountains such as Mont Blanc and the Massif du Bauges are said to be the remains of plutonic intrusions that have subsequently eroded into the shapes we see today. However, the inconsistencies with traditional mountain-building scenarios and the conventional dictates of volcanic deformation leave much to be explained. The Vercors Plateau also contains many caverns that are sculpted in similar fashion to those in other mountain ranges. Choranche Caves is only one example of several in the Massif Central region. We have brought to light the possibility that they might have their origin in electrical activity. Those in the Alps could The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive have been formed in the same way.
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Many of the so-called plutons have "eroded" into shapes that defy orthodox explanation. One example is probably the most famous monolithic structure in the Swiss Alps: The Matterhorn. The Matterhorn is a pyramid-shaped, limestone monolith resting on top of strata that is not consistent with its morphology. In fact, when compared with the overall stratigraphy surrounding it, The Matterhorn is inverted and twisted. It appears to have been wrenched out of the ground, wrung by incredible forces and then thrown back to Earth approximately 500 miles east of where it was originally located. What could create a titanic pyramid of solid rock, toss it like a pebble and then stand it on its head? Fronting The Matterhorn and near Mont Blanc is a circular dome-shaped bulge that is reminiscent of the large mounds that we have highlighted in other Picture of the Day articles. Shapes that appear identical to The Matterhorn can be found in other countries, but on a much smaller scale. In the Cumbria Lake District of Great Britain is a pyramid of stone that resembles its larger cousin so closely that it is known as Matterhorn Rock. A trek through Coniston Fells in the north of England will reveal other such strange rock-shapes. The Alps, in general, follow a sweeping curve through the European Continent. Perhaps the electric arcs that May have cut the Arabian Sea and transformed the African Continent crushed and twisted Europe too. In time, more examples of possible plasma discharge scarring should come to light. Written by Stephen Smith from an idea submitted by Klaas Geertsma
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Tomb painting depicting Ra with a sun disc. Thought to be circa 1200 B.C.E.
A Case for Mistaken Identity

(Dec 26, 2007)
Ask anyone who has even a modest knowledge of mythology to name the Egyptian sun god and they will probably point to Ra. And why not? Is that not what we have been taught by historians and archeologists? James Frazer spoke plainly when he echoed this dictum: "That Ra was both the physical sun and the sun-god is of course undisputed." And yet, if one were to conduct an in-depth study of this Egyptian "physical Sun" and "sungod" one comes to the realization that, except for the fact that Ra shone brightly in the sky, the characteristics and even motions attributed to this entity do not fit the role of the Sun. For example, Ra was often lauded as "Lord of the Circles" and as "he who entereth [or liveth] in the circle." He was described as "the sender forth of light into his circle" and as the "Governor of [his] circle." What is the Circle that the hymns allude to? Egyptologists will immediately say that the Circle of which the hymns speak was the Egyptian Duat (or Tuat), a word that means "the Underworld." That May be so, but Egyptologists since the time of Wallis Budge have conceded that the Duat was away beyond Earth and in the sky. The Duat as a ring surrounding a celestial object comes from the hieroglyphic determinative of the name "Duat" itself, depicted in the texts as a star surrounded by a band or circle. It is thus obvious that whatever Ra signified it was a celestial body that resided within a circle or band or ring. Does the Sun send forth its rays into a circle? Does it reside in a ring? Under certain conditions, a ring known as a parhelion (sundog), formed through atmospheric refraction, surrounds the Sun. But not only is this apparition too rare for Ra to have earned the title of "Governor of his circle" and/or "Lord of the Circles" it is also a phenomenon that is The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive restricted to northern regions and hardly, if ever, seen at the latitude of Egypt. The Egyptians themselves attributed Ra to the god Atum and in fact, this deity is often referred to in Egyptian documents as Atum-Ra. This god bore a specific and strange characteristic - Atum was honored as a sun of night.
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Students of Egyptian mythology have long grappled with the exact meaning that lies hidden beneath this strange characteristic of Atum. The best that Wallis Budge could offer by way of an explanation was that Atum was the Sun after it had set. By this he meant to imply that the Egyptians worshipped the Sun even when it was absent from the sky. Sun worship at night, however, makes for an incongruous institution. As seen in the image at the top of the page, the god Ra is often surmounted with a red or golden disc that is not inappropriate if the Sun is truly being represented. In the liturgies dedicated to him, however, Ra is described as having shed a green, rather than a golden, light: "Thou hast come with thy splendours," states a hymn to Ra, "and thou hast made heaven and earth bright with thy rays of pure emerald light." In another hymn we read: "O Ra...thou dost rise in the horizon of heaven and sheddest upon the world beams of emerald light." Not only did this celestial object shed a green or emerald light, it was green. "Hail Green One" was how the Egyptians lauded Ra. Consider further the motion of the celestial object called Ra. In a statement found in one of the Coffin Texts, the deity is addressed with these words: "You shall go up upon the great West side of the sky and go down upon the great East side of the earth." Is not this contrary to what the present Sun does? Does the Sun today "go up" in the west? Does it "go down" in the east? Nor is this particular Coffin Text the only one in which the motion of Ra is in reverse to that of the present Sun. More than that, when sailing in his boat, Ra is said to move down at dawn and "upstream" at night, which is again contrary to what we see the Sun doing in our sky at present. One does not have to be an astronomer to realize that a celestial body described as being green, shedding a green light, shining at night, encircled in a ring or series of rings, "going up" in the west at night and "going down in the east" at dawn cannot have been the Sun. Mythologists, who usually gloss over these characteristics when they do not ignore them altogether, owe us an apology for having presented Ra as the Sun and Sun-god of ancient Egypt. Other attributes of the Egyptian Ra also contradict identification with our present Sun, but the above should suffice to make the point. The question, of course, is: If not the Sun, what could the celestial object that the ancient Egyptians venerated as Ra have been? Contributed by Dwardu Cardona, author of "God Star"
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A trio of interacting galaxies known as "The Bird". Credit: Henri Boffin European Space Agency (ESO)
The Bird is the Word

(Dec 24, 2007)
"Do astronomers really prefer to elaborate obsolete theoretical assumptions rather than make new discoveries?" Halton Arp in Seeing Red. This object - or these objects, depending on how you want to "see" (understand) them - lies west of the teapot's handle in the constellation of Sagittarius, at the edge of the Milky Way's central bulge. The object has been named The Bird because astronomers were looking for something familiar to see. If you're looking for tidal distortion, you'll see it. If you're looking for Birkeland current braiding, you'll see it. The high redshift (z=0.049) means that the object (or objects) is 650 million light years away if you believe (with the astronomical consensus) that redshift is proportional to distance. Or it means that the object is young - if you believe (with Halton Arp and collaborators) that redshift is proportional to age. Or it means that the object is the early stage of a plasma discharge instability - if you believe (with plasma cosmologists) that redshift is proportional to current density/electrical stress. If it is far away and moving under gravitational forces alone, the object is giving off heat, radiating energy far in excess of what we know local matter can produce: It is an ultraluminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG). If it's young and not so far away, it is again a ULIRG, but this time an under-luminous infrared galaxy. If a plasma discharge, it May be stupefyingly close. It is on the outskirts of the "big zap" of the Milky Way's central plasmoid, where the driving Birkeland currents pinch down and current densities become unstable. (One might well recall Hannes Alfvn's description of the exploding rectifiers in the Swedish power transmission The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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lines that filled the rectifier rooms with "fat sparks.") Because plasma instabilities tend to produce similar forms at all scales, plasma galaxies can be big or small, thousands of light years across or thousands of kilometers across. The Bird could be merging galaxies in the middle distance of the universe, or it could be an unstable leakage current - flying sparks - from the core of the Milky Way. In daylight, with trees and buildings around, one still has difficulty judging the distance of a pinpoint of light. When staring into space in the blackness of midnight, one can only guess at the distance based on what one believes. The limits of belief determine the limits of vision, and fervency separates the speculation that The Bird is far away from the speculation that it is within our own galaxy. Reasons and facts, excuses and analyses come afterward. The initial choice of belief emerges from an underlying attitude, either from allegiance to custom or from willingness to risk unconventional speculation in hopes of discovering a new world. Space age instruments are looking at objects that customary beliefs did not expect to find. Xray, radio, and infrared telescopes have given astronomers new eyes with which to look at the sky, but they still see with the old visions. The Bird challenges astronomers to adjust their attitudes, to be scientists instead of technicians and to become pioneers instead of apologists. Contributed by Mel Acheson
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Image of an anomalous bright patch in Mare Vaporum. Credit: Leon Stuart.
Transient Lunar Phenomena

(Dec 21, 2007)
The Moon is dominated by gigantic circular structures where unusual luminous discharges have been observed. Are they indicative of past electrical events? Human beings have long looked up at and wondered about the Moon. Our forebears probably pondered its origin and its influence, perhaps seeking a purpose for the pale, shining orb that now dominates the night sky. For more than a thousand years, reports have circulated about events on the Moon that should not appear on a "dead" celestial body. Various accounts describe glowing clouds in red and green, or sudden outbursts of yellow flares and intense flashes of light. Such observations do not accord with conventional theories. Because the Moon is thought to have lost all its heat to space more than a billion years ago and it has no magnetic field to speak of, violent activity should not be taking place on its surface today. For this reason, astronomers and astrophysicists have discounted "transient lunar phenomena." Since most of the sightings by single individuals received no corroboration and no images were recorded until recently, the incidents were said to be apocryphal or deliberately misleading. However, some serious attempts have been made to link historical narratives with physical impacts: "There was a bright new moon, and as usual in that phase its horns were tilted toward the east; and suddenly the upper horn split in two. From the midpoint of this division a flaming torch sprang up, spewing out, over a considerable distance, fire, hot coals, and sparks. Meanwhile the body of the moon which was below writhed, as it were, in The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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anxiety, and, to put it in the words of those who reported it to me and saw it with their own eyes, the moon throbbed like a wounded snake. Afterwards it resumed its proper state. This phenomenon was repeated a dozen times or more, the flame assuming various twisting shapes at random and then returning to normal. Then after these transformations the moon from horn to horn, that is along its whole length, took on a blackish appearance." Jack B. Hartung (1976). "Was the Formation of a 20-km Diameter Impact Crater on the Moon Observed on June 18, 1178?" Meteoritics 11:187-194. Meteors are one hypothesis for the abrupt appearance and disappearance of lunar scintillations, although Hartung's proposal has met with skepticism. Another consideration is that radiant lunar displays do not originate with the Moon. It is reasonable to assume that unfavorable conditions could result in false impressions. Earth's atmosphere is notorious for distorting the images from ground-based telescopes, so some reflective or refractive discrepancy might intrude into the data. Equipment resolution or the visual acuity of eyewitnesses could also be factors if the observations occur near the limit of crisp apprehension. Because some TLP's are said to shimmer like a wavering candle, investigators suggest that the Moon has pockets of gas trapped just below the surface. Moonquakes or landslides might cause one of the cavities to rupture, allowing the escaping gas to jet out into the sunlight where it is seen as a hazy column of brightness against the dark regolith. The majority of such "flames" are associated with the edges of lunar maria which geologists think are ancient volcanic regions. In the image at the top of the page is one of the first photographs of a TLP from within the "Sea of Vapors". The Ina Structure is another area where explosive outgassing is supposed to have taken place, but standard theories place its age at over three million years so its influence on modern accounts is suspect. That leaves open the question of whether transient phenomena on the Moon are in fact real. The question was answered by a recent statistical breakdown indicating the evidence for them and the reports about them are authentic. What could the explanation be for their appearance? One theory that bears close examination is related to electrostatic charging and discharging of materials on the surface. Triboelectric charging of particles or electrostatic levitation of dust near the lunar terminator might give rise to some luminescence visible to observers on our planet. Several lunar surface features seem best identified with electrical scars from catastrophic encounters in the recent past, so remnant electrodynamic forces might linger in the Moon's environment to this day - especially since the Moon's orbit takes it in and out of the charge sheath that extends outward from Earth. Further fascinating reading from Ralph Juergens about the electrical interactions between the Moon and other planetary bodies in the past can be found in the Kronia.com library. By Stephen Smith
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Copper statue of the god, Agni. Bihar, India - 11th century.
The Nature of Nature Gods

(Dec 19, 2007)
Ancient mythology ascribes godlike identities to the forces of nature. Could they be representations of plasma phenomena? No dictionary of mythology will waste any words defining Agni as 'the god of fire', the living force of nature encapsulated in any and all natural manifestations of fire, ranging from the cozy hearth fire at home to the most devastating lightning strikes observed outside. But just how much does such a standard definition of a mythical god tell us? To qualify a mythical and religious character such as Agni primarily in terms of his common appearance in nature, not in terms of his activities in myth, is a reflection of the so-called 'nature school' of myth. This school saw its heyday in the late 19th century but has left an indelible stamp on the popular understanding of mythical entities today, as reflected in dictionary entries. Starting from the assumption that each mythical deity in each culture originated as a metaphor for some aspect of the natural world or of human society, countless familiar definitions arose. Do Zeus, 'the sky god', Hephaestus, 'the fire god', Helius, 'the sun god', Poseidon, 'the sea god', Aphrodite, 'the goddess of love', Artemis, 'the goddess of hunting', and Ares, 'the god of war' reflect anything of the way the ancients themselves looked at these gods? With a complex 'fluid' subject such as mythology, it is better to identify historical tendencies and geographic patterns than to offer facile over-generalizations. Greek thinkers from the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Hellenistic period (4th century BCE) onwards certainly tended to compartmentalize the realms of nature and culture into sections that would neatly correspond to divinities on a one-to-one basis. Some Roman mythologists famously took this to extremes, naming specific gods for the most nuanced aspects of any conceivable activity in life. But these rational efforts really reflect no more than a contrived and secondary systematization of the unfathomable welter of overlapping and contradictory data mythology really is. The comparative mythologist knows that the closer you look at the cult and myth of any given god or goddess, the greater the discrepancy between the straightforward dictionary definition and the 'facts'. The further one goes back in time, the stronger the following two tendencies. Firstly, the boundaries between different deities disappear and many begin to look like duplicates of each other. And secondly, the ancient texts rarely make an effort to 'define' their gods in terms of nature definitions. Instead, one is just offered detailed stories of the 'deeds' and 'looks' of these gods. The archaic state of mythology gives the strong impression that the worship of deities had little to do with a conscious attempt to categorize nature. Instead, it directly flowed forth from a series of extremely impressive, arguably traumatizing experiences mankind had had with forces of nature rarely experienced today. From the start, the 'gods' and 'goddesses' were merely labels for recognizable and active forces observed in a dangerously active sky. It was only long afterwards that people looking at a quiescent sky began to extract rational paradigms from the jumble of remembered customs and traditions they had inherited. While the customary dictionary definitions of deities are not exactly wrong, they tend to detract from the mythical events in which these gods are merely actors. Whoever can suspend any preconceived ideas about the 'nature of the gods' and listens in to the myths themselves will repeatedly be drawn to the cycle of creation myths, in which the axis mundi or world axis plays the prominent role. In the earliest Vedic texts, Agni surely signifies fire, but this is specifically the column of fire and smoke that rose up from the altar that symbolically marked the 'navel of the world': "Eager he rises like the new-wrought pillar which, firmly set and fixed, anoints the victims." This vaporous column is none other than the tree of life: "The other fires are, verily, thy branches; the Immortals all rejoice in thee, O Agni. Center art thou, Vaivnara, of the people, sustaining men like a deep-founded pillar. The forehead of the sky, earth's center, Agni became the messenger of earth and heaven." In recent years, an interdisciplinary study of mythology and plasma physics has suggested that highly uncommon electromagnetic events observed in the earth's atmosphere and ionosphere could successfully account for a large segment of the visual content of ancient creation mythology. In view of this, it May prove fruitful for future mythologists not to concentrate so much on the individual 'biographies' of the gods as on the 'bigger picture' of the mythical events themselves, specifically on the visual templates suggested by crosscultural mythical archetypes. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Lightning illuminates a towering anvil cloud. Credit: Nicholas T
Electric Clouds
(Dec 17, 2007)
Cloud formations often exhibit structure that could be the result of something other than blowing winds. Does ionized plasma actually shape the clouds? "Thunderstorms are not electricity generators, they are passive elements in an interplanetary circuit, like a self-repairing leaky condenser. The energy stored in the cloud condenser is released as lightning when it short-circuits. The short-circuits can occur either within the cloud or across the external resistive paths to Earth or the ionosphere. The charge across the cloud condenser gives rise to violent vertical electrical winds within the cloud, not vice versa." -- Wal Thornhill, 2004 In a recent press release, scientists from the Weizmann Institute and the Goddard Space Flight Center announced that a mysterious zone of previously undiscovered particles fills the airspace around clouds. Ilan Koren of the Weizmann Institute wrote: "The effects of this zone are not included in most computer models that estimate the impact of aerosols on climate. This could be one of the reasons why current measurements of this effect dont match our model estimates." In 1999 and then in 2002 NASA launched the Aqua and Terra satellites as part of an ongoing project to study aerosol distribution around the world. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) packages onboard each of the satellites are designed to operate like "eyes in the sky," analyzing the various frequencies of visible light reflected by objects below. Because different targets like lakes, mountains or clouds return different spectral signatures, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive those reflections can be categorized and the source of the signal identified. In particular, MODIS looks for the spectra of particulates and gasses that are thought to influence the climate changes known as "global warming."
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What appears to be clear blue sky around clouds, such as in the image above, is actually a region of particles that do not correspond to water vapor or the pollution-induced gasses that investigators expected to see. Since clouds have a high albedo and scatter polarized light from their outer margins, it is challenging for the MODIS research team to detect anything near them. So that glare from specular distortion does not obscure their results they avoid scanning an area about one kilometer distant from cloud boundaries. Scientists know of the hazy halo of particles that is sometimes visible around individual clouds, but the discovery of elevated aerosol levels encompassing the entire expanse was unexpected. Whole sections of sky are filled with particles. However, after analyzing data from thousands of observations the researchers found that the concentration of aerosols systematically increased closer to the clouds. In order to determine if their measurements were accurate the investigators sought the assistance of another NASA-sponsored research group to confirm their observations. The Aerosol Robotic Network is a collection of automated platforms installed around the world. The devices reduce glare effects as they measure the volume and size of aerosols between the instruments and the sun. When a cloud blocks the sun, the instruments take no scheduled readings, which provides an indirect measure of the clouds presence. Ilan Koren noted: "We found that the region affected by this cloud field 'twilight zone' extends to tens of kilometers beyond the identified cloud edge. This suggests that 30 to 60 percent of the atmosphere previously labeled as 'cloud-free' is actually affected by cloud-aerosol processes that reflect solar energy back into space." Ions attract water in the atmosphere instead of through the commonly described process of neutral dust motes building up raindrops through a process of condensation. They May also charge the dust hanging in the air making it more attractive to water vapor. The Earth is an electrically charged body within the stream of ions permeating space and holds an electric field at its surface of 50 200 volts per meter. The electricity from space is carried by the barrage of ionic particles emitted by the sun as the "solar wind" and speeds along massive Birkeland currents through the circuit. Because water molecules are electric dipoles and are attracted to an opposite polar charge, such as that on another water molecule, they will clump together and align themselves within the Earths "fair weather field." No "seeds" are necessary for water vapor to form clouds. The electromagnetic field beneath a thunderstorm increases (up to 10,000 volts per meter) because it acts like a capacitor, storing energy from the surrounding environment. Observations have shown that a "wind" of charged particles blows toward the developing storm, which could be interpreted as a current flowing into the base of the clouds. The surrounding air is pulled along with the current flow and creates the powerful updrafts that sometimes rise into the stratosphere. It might be the flood of ions into and out of clouds that is forming the "twilight zone" of unidentified particles that so mystifies the scientific community. By Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Roraima Tepui. Parque Nacional Canaima, Venezuela. Photographer unknown
The Amazonian Tepuis

(Dec 14, 2007)
Mysterious mountain-sized stone blocks tower over the jungles of Venezuela and Bolivia. Could they be electrical uplifts? In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles, we presented a possible scenario for various stone monoliths around the world. We theorized that they are the result of electrical uplift within the spinning vortices of titanic Birkeland currents. Compression zones known as Bennett pinches, or Z-pinches, crush whatever material is within them into solids, leaving sandstone and granite blocks behind. In the three corners region of the Amazon rise formations of incredible strangeness and beauty. Called "tepuis" (mesas), they are sandstone monoliths similar to those we formerly discussed. Roraima Tepui, the tallest of the Venezuelan sandstones, reaches nearly 3000 meters above the cloud tops. "Roraima" means, "Mother of Waters" in the language of the Pemon Indians who live in Paratepui and who act as guides for trekking expeditions. The description is apt because several rivers flowing into Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana originate on or near its summit. It was the first of the tepuis to be climbed 100 years ago and was probably the inspiration for Doyle's "The Lost World." On top of Roraima Tepui is The Crystal Valley, a steep depression containing chunks of quartz in glittering piles. They can be gathered by the handful like crushed ice. The tepuis are distinctive in other respects, as well. Because of their steepness and inaccessibility, the structures have developed unique ecologies that vary from one another and from the overall flora and fauna in the jungles at their feet. Although there are strange creatures living on the tepuis, there are no dinosaurs as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle hoped. The most famous tepui is Auyana, a 675 square kilometer monolith, out of which gushes the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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highest waterfall on Earth, Angel Falls. Also called Saltos Angel, the falls plummet 807 meters in a misty veil. Jimmy Angel accidentally discovered the falls that bear his name in 1935 while flying through the Devil's Canyon region. In 1937, he and an exploration team attempted to land on top of Auyuna, but crashed into the boggy loam. A 1000-meter vertical descent and an eleven-day slog through the wilderness brought them out with news of the site. There are other aspects of the tepuis that bear close examination. They are honeycombed with caves and tunnels that penetrate deeply into the rock faces, revealing formations like those we considered in another Picture of the Day. Inside the Cerro Autana tepui is a cave 430 meters long and 44 meters high made entirely of quartz. An enormous geode, in other words. Our Picture of the Day about Ben Bulben revealed strange rocks perched like stacked columns of loose boulders on many monolithic granite mounds. Logan Stones represent the mysteries surrounding the origin of mountainous, isolated towers. On top of the tepuis, such as Roraima, are structures that make conventional explanation all but impossible. Perhaps Kukenan is the most bizarre of the tepuis. The sandstone massif is visible from Roraima and has a waterfall fit to rival Angel Falls. The shapes carved into its walls and its flat top are beyond anything we have yet described. Sweeping arches, abstract sculptures, and giant fulgurites are everywhere. Because stone monoliths the world over - granite, sandstone or other minerals notwithstanding - exhibit the same geological phenomena, perhaps they were carved by the same force: electric arcs billions of watts hot. By Stephen Smith
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Right: Kristian Birkeland on the 200 Kroner note. Top left: Cassini image of Saturn's rings. Bottom left: Birkeland's terrella simulating Saturn's rings.
Happy Birthday Kristian Birkeland

(Dec 13, 2007)
Kristian Birkeland was called the first space scientist because of his pioneering experiments in the early 1900s. December 13, 2007, marks his 140th birthday. "It seems to be a natural consequence of our points of view to assume that the whole of space is filled with electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds." -- Kristian Birkeland. Kristian Birkeland is noted for his investigation into the cause and nature of the Earth's aurora. In 1902, he embarked on an expedition to the Norwegian polar regions with scientific equipment to observe, measure and record the Northern Lights. Based on his observations, Birkeland hypothesized that electric currents in the atmosphere whose source was the Sun itself powered the aurora. On returning to the University of Oslo, Birkeland set about testing his ideas. He built a vacuum chamber and placed a magnetized metal ball called a terrella inside it, representing the Earth. Birkeland electrically charged the terrella and the chamber at varying magnitudes and polarities and observed how the terrella behaved in its artificial atmosphere. Birkeland wrote: "The magnetic globe was then made the cathode in the vacuum-box, and experiments were carried on under these conditions for many years. It was in this way that there gradually appeared experimental analogies to various cosmic phenomena, such as zodiacal light, Saturn's rings, sun-spots and spiral nebulae." In 1908 and 1913, Birkeland published two volumes of his work, which includes mathematical models and images that appeared both to support his theories and to model aspects of comet tails, the Sun and planetary rings. The scientific world largely rejected his findings. To help fund his expeditions and research, Birkeland applied his physics to technology and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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industry. In 1901, he patented an electromagnetic gun and set up a company, Birkeland's Firearms. After successfully constructing a 10-meter-long, 6.5-centimeter calibre cannon firing 10-kilogram iron projectiles that "always hit their target," he planned a version that could fire a 500 kilogram projectile at 500 meters per second, but it proved too expensive. In 1939, Hannes Alfvn promoted Birkeland's ideas in his own theory of magnetic storms and of the aurorae. In the mid-1960s, satellites discovered magnetic disturbances in the aurora which some scientists argued supported Birkeland's theories. In 1973, the navy satellite Triad detected the magnetic signatures of electric currents in the aurora, finally vindicating Birkeland's theory of the aurora after 65 years. Further reading: http://www.plasma-universe.com/index.php/Kristian_Birkeland The Northern Lights: The True Story of the Man Who Unlocked the Secrets of the Aurora Borealis (2001) by Lucy Jago Contributed by Ian Tresman
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The Ladder of Angels, a representation of Jacob's dream. Credit: The Yorck Project
The Ladder to Heaven

(Dec 12, 2007)
To Jews and Christians Jacob's ladder is just as familiar as Buddha's sky ladder is to Buddhists. Could they be images of electrical phenomena? The mythological symbol of a ladder extending from Earth to heaven appeared in a dream to Jacob, son of Isaac, at Beth-El. The icon of a cosmic stairway on which angels move up and down between the earth below and Yahweh at the top is recorded in the Hebrew bible. The same imagery is found in Buddhist literature and is presented as the Great Sage at his final coming, descending once more to the earth. Within the major world religions, the image of the sky ladder is little more than a vestige of a motif that played a far more prominent role in ancient cosmologies worldwide. In ancient writings and arts, the major gods and goddesses of early pantheons are frequently seen to employ such cosmic ladders in the course of their mythical careers. Shamash and Nergal, the sun god and the war god of ancient Babylonia, traveled from the underworld to the sky on a cosmic stairway; Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent of Aztec tradition, reputedly came down from the highest heaven by means of a ladder; and visionaries and shamans resort to a similar sky ladder on their cosmic peregrinations. Repeatedly, traditional cosmological systems testify to a conspicuous ladder or stairway that used to connect heaven and earth in the distant past age of the gods. While the catastrophic disruption of this umbilical life-line does not allow "modern" people to see it for themselves anymore, mystics and medicine men continue to claim the ability to visualize and transcend this column. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The ladder to heaven, traversed by deities and legendary heroes; or the disembodied souls of the dead and the enlightened souls of the living, has always served as a prime example of what mythologists call the axis mundi. But at no time has this ingrained trait of world mythology made so much sense to a group of scientists as in the past decade. The realization that virtually all cross-cultural properties of the cosmic axis are explicable as descriptions of an unprecedented auroral storm that must have hit the Earth during the transition from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic era, has been revealed through an analysis of "geometric" petroglyphs. At that time, the stream of charged particles impinging on the earth's magnetosphere precipitated the formation of a giant collimated plasma tube, called a z-pinch by plasma physicists, which glowed with such intensity that contemporary human eye-witnesses long after continued to describe it as a radiant, lightning-like gateway to heaven. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Chinese jade disc symbolizing the sky. Credit: Rens Van der Sluijs
The Hole at the Pole

(Dec 10, 2007)
The disc's roundness obviously squares with the common understanding that the sky is circular, if not spherical. But why does it have such a conspicuous aperture in the middle? Shown here is a so-called bi disc, a Chinese jade disc with a hole in the middle. Such discs, often with a pockmarked surface identified as a rice grain pattern, have been produced in China at least from the Neolithic period (2500 BCE) onwards, particularly in the region of Shanghai in southeast China. Certainly during the Zhu and Hn dynasties (12th century BCE to 3rd century CE), they symbolized the sky or the cosmos. Chinese cosmology prominently features the region of the pole star as the center of the cosmos. Yet, surely the Chinese did not envision a gaping hole at the celestial pole? The idea of a hole in the fabric of the circumpolar sky May not have been attested directly in Chinese sources, but abundant traditions from many other parts of the world, such as the Chukchi in northeastern Siberia, postulate precisely that. The Old Turks used to call the pole star a smoke hole of the sky. Communities throughout North America subscribed to a belief in "the hole of the sky," which at least the Lakota and the Blackfoot people specify as being situated "in the northern circumpolar star world." Gods and goddesses, legendary ancestors and heroes, and the souls of shamans alike are often imagined to use the cosmic hole as a gateway between worlds, a door or window without which there is no way denizens of the sky can travel to earth and vice versa. Stargazers May have a hard time trying to figure out just what aspect of the heavenly north The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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pole could have prompted the popular folkloristic image of an opening in the sky. A crucial pointer is the repeated association of the hole with the axis mundi or world axis: the tip of the tree, mountain, pillar, ladder or rope that ties the regions of the universe together passes through the hole in the sky, and not infrequently the column itself is presented as a hollow object, too. The Maya people of Yucatn, for example, describe "seven celestial planes, each with a central hole through which the cosmic Ceiba tree extends its branches ." The sky hole emerges as a property of the complex morphology of the axis mundi. Intensive collaboration between plasma physicists, electrical engineers and comparative mythologists has recently led to the hypothesis that the mythology of the world axis is convincingly explained as a high-energy auroral z-pinch that formed on the boundary between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic periods, at a time of profound geomagnetic instability. At times of intense electric flux, this auroral column could have appeared to human eyes as a colossal hollow tube. Visible particles traveling through this tube could have been conceived as animated mythical entities voyaging between the extremities of the cosmos. In this light, the perplexing notion of a hole in an otherwise solid firmament gains plausibility and strikes one for its accuracy in the face of common sense observation of the heavens today. Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
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Selenite crystals 12 meters long. Naica Mine, Mexico. Photographer unknown.
Electric Caverns
(Dec 07, 2007)
Conventional geologists claim that water sculpts the interior of caves over eons of time. Could electricity have formed some of them in an instant? PreviousThunderbolts Picture of the Day articles have addressed the evidence for electrical scarring on Earth. We have suggested that many formations are not the result of geological forces acting on stone with slow, steady modification but are the result of massive plasma energies on a scale that defies convention. Electric arcs and glow-mode discharges May have excavated canyons, carved-out craters and pulled gigantic uplifts out of the ground, compressing them into features such as Shiprock and the Brandberg Massif. The same powerful strokes that May have carved the Grand Canyon out of living rock could have created other structures that are normally thought to be from liquid erosion: caves and caverns. As electric discharges pass through rock strata, they follow the path of greatest electrical conductivity. They sometimes leave extraordinary evidence of their passage in the form of Lichtenberg figures etched into soils and rocks. They are filamentary and feathery in appearance, with finely divided tendrils at their leading edges. The branching configuration results from the electric current dissipating as it travels through the material, seeking its most conductive pathway. Another unique aspect to plasma is that it forms "tufts" and "blooms" of electricity as the current erupts out of the discharge electrode. Tufts can be seen in the "plasma sphere" devices that are marketed to the consumer. Of course, the most common example of a plasma discharge is a lightning bolt. Huge caverns are found everywhere on Earth. While it is true that soft limestone is easily The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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dissolved by the weak carbonic acid solution that constitutes rainwater, the majority of caverns contain mineralogical samples that cannot be defined through the corrosive action of rain or flowing water, leaving open the possibility that some other force was involved. In the image at the top of the page an almost unbelievable demonstration of our primary hypothesis can be seen. The recent discovery of Giant Crystals Cave in the Naica Mine of Chihuahua, Mexico has stunned scientists. The cave is filled with mineral deposits of enormous size, as well as with delicate flowers and wisps of crystal so fine that a breath will shatter them. The crystalline shapes are formed out of semiconductor materials: selenite, calcium carbonate, silicon dioxide and lead sulfides. The crystal matrix shown above is an example of the "spray" that might have been created when a powerful electric current exploded out of the rock face into a void beneath the surface. The nuclei of charged particles could have been carried along with the current flow and either ionized by the passage of electricity, or forced out of solution within the solid medium. The filaments of energy flew out of a central point and then crossed empty air seeking the path of least resistance, whereupon they continued into the stone, impacting at multiple locations. Wherever the electric arcs passed they left behind consolidated crystals condensed along their interior trackways. One significant aspect to Giant Crystals Cave is that it is bone dry, with little evidence to imply that it was melted out of the rock by flowing water. Coupled with the lack of moisture, we find nothing in traditional scientific theory that explains how water causes the precipitation of 12meter crystals along all orthogonal axes. Jenolan Caves near Sydney, Australia is another instance where formations exist that are difficult to explain according to standard theories. Clear helicites grow everywhere with mindboggling shapes that defy gravity. Some of the chambers within the cave complex are etched with Lichtenberg figures and upright columns of translucent gypsum crystal. Fulgurites, or the fused trackway of lightning bolts through refractory minerals, are common in Jenolan and in most other caverns. Could stalactites and stalagmites found therein actually be the remains of fulgurites? As we have suggested in the past, some geographical features, like rivers, May have "adopted" discharge channels after they were excavated by a plasma blast. Perhaps drops of water roll down stalactites after their formation as fulgurites? Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico is filled with formations that are nearly identical to Jenolan and the Naica Mine. It is a moist cave, but the water flow is isolated and does not reach many areas where there are significant anomalies. Along the floor and up the walls in one of its vast rooms are thickets of gypsum blossoms like small crystal bushes. Merely walking too close is enough for them to collapse with tiny tinkling sounds. Lechuguilla possesses "boreholes" as well. One of the largest is a horizontal tunnel that penetrates for miles into the rock. The LeBarge borehole exhibits what Electric Universe theorists might call a helical shape - the sign of a spinning electric arc blasting out the material as it spiraled through the strata. In another part of Mexico is Sotano de las Golondrinas, or Cave of Swallows. It is a favorite place for B.A.S.E. (Buildings Antennas Spans Earth) jumpers because it is 875 meters deep. The Cave of Swallows is similar to the "skylights" that have been discovered on Mars. Electric arcs as lighting bolts are mainly vertical strikes. They are filaments of charged The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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particles rotating around an empty center with multiple energetic strands. A lighting bolt averages 1.5 X 10^11 watts in a spilt second as it blisters through the air. They will sometimes form craters if they hit sufficiently conductive surfaces since they spin down into the material. If they hit a resistive layer, they will spread out and create shallow Lichtenberg figures. Since the Electric Universe model predicts electricity from space, could the holes, caverns, caves and tunnels we find here on Earth be the forensic evidence left by the "thunderbolts of the gods"? Written by Stephen Smith from an idea submitted by Eric Aitchison
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Ithaca Chasma, Tethys. Credit: NASA/JPL Cassini-Huygens Mission
Tumultuous Tethys
(Dec 05, 2007)
Tethys has seen cataclysmic events in the past that have left it scarred and fractured. Could electric arcs have caused the damage? In the ongoing investigation of the Cassini orbiter's discoveries, the moon Tethys well represents our hypothesis that the Saturnian system (and the solar system in general) has experienced colossal plasma discharges in the past. Wherever we look there are the signs of electric discharge machining, cathode sputtering, anode blisters and sinuous channels deeply entrenched into the various bodies. Tethys is 1071 kilometers in diameter, yet its surface features are disproportionately large in comparison to its size. Saturn's other moons exhibit the same difficulties with scale " moons of relatively small mass with craters and canyons that are hundreds of kilometers wide. Two such features on Tethys are Ithaca Chasma and the Odysseus Multi-Ring Formation. Odysseus Crater is 450 kilometers wide, with steep walls defining its outer boundary. The interior of the crater is flat with broad terraces marked by a prominent circular mountain range in the center. The "crown of Odysseus" rises to more than five kilometers in height and is 140 kilometers in diameter. According to NASA scientists, the complex structure of this remarkable basin is due to the "rebound" of material after an asteroid hit the moon. The intense shockwaves passed through Tethys and reflected back off its far side, raising the central mound and forming the many rings that give the crater its name. Odysseus resembles the Asgard Multi-Ring Structure found on Jupiter's moon Callisto. On closer inspection, however, Odysseus appears to be spiral-shaped and not a concentricity. Ithaca Chasma is a canyon over 1000 kilometers long and approximately 100 kilometers wide The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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in some places. The enormous fissure is cut two kilometers deep into the surface of this ruined moon. How Tethys escaped being obliterated by the force of an impact sufficient to excavate these two structures is a mystery to conventional science. In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles, we have considered the question of giant impacts into small celestial bodies and have concluded that the cause might not have been the impact of a big rock, but the touchdown of electric discharges. Mechanical shock, fluid dynamics and other Newtonian forces are not capable of selectively blasting objects and not destroying them in the process. In other words, how can the collision of forces transmit energies so powerful that they crack Tethys like an egg, but leave it intact? Around the equator is a dark band of surface material that is lower than the mean elevation of the terrain surrounding it. Mission specialists believe it is a region of larger granules or ice crystals giving the surface a less reflective aspect. The dark band is more readily seen in the infrared spectrum. Many of Saturn's moons seem to be partially covered with black "soot." Iapetus, Dione and Hyperion are all dusted with the same dark substance. In past commentary about those moons we have theorized that they were darkened by particles from Phoebe, the blackest object in the solar system. The plasmasphere of Saturn electrifies its environment and instigates plasma discharges on its family of moons. Enceladus, Dione and Tethys are all electrically active, flinging vast quantities of charged particles into space. Each moon is connected to its parent and to one another through cosmic electrical circuits. Tethys proves to be another example of electricity in space. By Stephen Smith
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Sacajawea Patera, Venus. Credit: NASA/JPL Magellan Mission
Aphrodite's Blazing Mane

(Nov 30, 2007)
Lightning bolts have "unexpectedly" been discovered arcing through the atmosphere of Venus. Electric Universe advocates predicted such activity long ago. A recent announcement by the European Space Agency (ESA) has called attention to the "surprising" electrical activity taking place on the planet Venus. Electric discharges were detected in the planet's upper atmosphere by the Venus Express orbiter that has been circling the cloud-shrouded orb since April 11, 2006. The discovery was completely unexpected because, until now, the density of the Venusian atmosphere was thought to prevent the formation of lightning bolts. According to Dr. Donald Gurnett, a physicist at the University of Iowa and a member of the Cassini-Huygens mission team: "If lightning exists in the Venusian atmosphere, it is either extremely rare, or very different from terrestrial lightning. If terrestrial-like lightning were occurring in the atmosphere of Venus within the region viewed by Cassini, it would have been easily detectable." The Cassini spacecraft circled Venus on its way to explore the Saturnian system. In order to save fuel, NASA engineers sent Cassini on a trajectory that flew it twice around Venus so that it could receive a "gravity assist" from the planet. During those flybys, Cassini monitored the cloud tops and found no evidence that Earth-like lightning was taking place. However, the mission specialists did realize that the discharges on Venus could be of a lower frequency than lightning on our planet because radio signals cannot penetrate the ionosphere The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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at frequencies below one megahertz. Therefore, they were unable to make a definitive statement about plasma discharges. Now, Venus Express has found low-frequency EMR that appears in bursts lasting fractions of a second. Called "whistlers," the bursts are considered a sure sign of electric discharges. A whistler is an extremely low-frequency electro-acoustic wave that is normally generated by lightning. They are called "whistlers" because they demonstrate a characteristically decreasing frequency falloff in detection equipment. In some short-wave radio transmissions, the whistle can be heard while tuning between stations. With the detection of "whistlers," scientists can now make that definitive statement: "We consider this to be the first definitive evidence of abundant lightning on Venus," said David Grinspoon from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. In a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day, we noted that the optical spectrum of Venus resembles that of a gas discharge tube similar to a neon lamp. Astrophysicists are unable to explain the contradictions that inevitably result when trying to explain the data based on greenhouses and smog, but the electrical explanation covers all the bases. Indeed, the atmospheric composition of Venus seems to require the presence of intense lightning in order to form the sulfurous compounds that are present. No chemistry on Earth or Venus can explain the depth and density of the sulfuric acid clouds and abundant carbon dioxide. Venus radiates in the infrared with twice the energy it receives from the sun, so there must be a source for that heat. Venus has an extremely weak magnetic field and no magnetosphere but it does possess an ionosphere, so it is an electrically charged body. The ionosphere is prickly with Birkeland currents that carry electricity from the "solar wind" (actually a stream of ions ejected by the sun's electromagnetic field) into the Venusian environment. With so much electrical energy pumping into it, it May be that the planet is constantly charging and discharging with an infrared glow. Birkeland currents act as transmission lines moving energy from the sun and planets over the entire solar system and ultimately, throughout interstellar space. Venus is not really separate from the sun, but acts as an element in the vast electrical circuit that powers the stars. Plasma discharges in that scenario are not so "unexpected." In the image at the top of the page, many examples of electric discharge machining can be seen. The crater rim is elongated and clearly shows the marks of multiple rings. There are sinuous rilles in the surrounding terrain much like those on Mars, the Moon, Europa and other celestial bodies. We have theorized many times in these pages that such formations are the result of tremendous lightning bolts that seared them into the surface like a plasma torch. Because of the observational data and the ideas put forth by such luminaries as Langmuir and Alfven, lightning on Venus was both expected and predicted by Electric Universe theorists. By Stephen Smith
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The Wilkes crater site compared to the Chicxulub crater. Credit: Ohio State University
Antarctica: Fire and Ice

(Nov 28, 2007)
A large crater has recently been discovered underneath the ice of Antarctica, sparking theories of an asteroid impact. Could there have been electrical forces involved as well? The word "Antarctica" comes from the Greek, antarktikos and means "opposite the Arctic." It has a total land area of almost 14.5 million square kilometers, making it the third smallest continent after Europe and Australia. It currently ranks as the coldest place on Earth with the highest average winds. Because rainfall only occurs along the coast, it is also the world's largest desert. Nearly the entire continent is covered in ice, so finding structures hidden underneath it has been impossible until the development of ground-penetrating radar technology such as the Mass Concentration Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE). With it, Ohio State University scientists have been able to see many formations, including a crater measuring 483 kilometers wide. As the gravity map shown above indicates, the Wilkes Land crater is twice as large as the Chicxulub crater in Mexico, which is thought to be responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The Wilkes Land crater is estimated to be 250 million years old and along with a 200-kilometer diameter crater called Bedout off the Australian coast is theorized to have caused the greatest die-off of all time, the Permian extinction. The extinction of flora and fauna over a large area will always be a mystery regardless of what theory is used to create experiments or to explain evidence. But supposing the impact of a space rock to be the causative event in each situation relies too heavily on coincidence. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Massive die-offs, ice ages, speciation and geological features are all attributed to meteors and asteroids by modern convention. One might ask what space-borne stones cannot do. In a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day, we analyzed the problems associated with asteroid impacts including the so-called "extinction" evidence. In particular, the Chicxulub crater was attributed to something other than an asteroid: "The electrical origin of the Chicxulub crater and surrounding geology resolves all of the contradictions in the evidence... The primary crater-producing discharge could have excised the rock inside the crater and left a central peak without shattering the underlying rock. The electrical current, lasting longer than the forces of an impact, would have melted large amounts of material and formed vast clouds of spherules, a key signature of electrical discharge." Under the standard model, Antarctica has been frozen since the last ice age, almost 30,000 years ago. But the various anomalies like the youthful age of the glacial debris and the charred forests that lie buried under the ice speak of a cataclysm that might have been caused by a tremendous electric discharge. The electrical forces that were unleashed May have actually caused the continent to freeze, the forests to burn and the animals to die and become fossilized in a short period of time. If catastrophes that could electrically machine a 483-kilometer crater into the Antarctic continent have occurred, then radioactive decay rates could have changed. If plasma discharge phenomena actually jumped to Earth from an encounter with an unknown object, the isotope ratios could also have changed. There are no "clocks" left intact by which we can establish when the encounter took place, so making claims of an extinction at a certain time is untenable. The best we can do is to say that the evidence points to electric arcs as the causative agent for the Antarctic crater. Perhaps the future will bring discoveries that will enable us to establish timelines and dates, but that time is not now. By Stephen Smith
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False-color image of Manicouagan Crater topography. Credit: NASA/USGS
Manicouagan: Impact Crater or Lightning Scar?

(Nov 26, 2007)
A giant ring-shaped crater in Canada seems to be the result of a meteor strike. Could electrical scarring be a better explanation? In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles about so-called meteor impact sites on Earth, we pointed out that the features in and around the craters can be more readily explained if forces other than mechanical shock and thermal stress are considered. Some of the more important considerations are the lack of impact debris, multiple concentric rings, glassified spherules, shallow depressions and steep sidewalls. One of the largest such structures on Earth is found in Quebec, Canada. Manicouagan crater's coordinates are N 51 23' W 68 42'. The crater is approximately 100 kilometers wide with a central uplift region 25 kilometers in diameter. Its age is thought to be over 200 million years. The uplifted central plateau rises almost 500 meters above the surface of the annular lake that fills-in the ring-shaped structure and the peak is close to 800 meters. The crater's name comes from the Manicouagan River that flows nearby and means, "the place where there is bark." The name apparently refers to the manufacture of birch bark canoes. According to standard geological theory, a relatively fine pattern of striations indicates that much of the material surrounding the crater has been scoured away by glacial erosion. Almost one kilometer of overlying rock is supposed to have been removed, including the crater's original rim that enclosed an area three-times greater than the current topography. The raised central plateau is composed of igneous and metamorphic rocks that are resistant to erosion so little of it was worn down according to conventional thinking. In the image at the top of the page, analyzing the topographic slope in the north-south The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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direction created the shaded colors. Northern slopes are rendered bright and southern slopes are dark. The colors are related to height: green indicates the lowest elevations, increasing with yellow, red, and magenta, to blue at the highest elevations. The overall structure is similar to Libya's Kebira crater - although Kebira is 31 kilometers in diameter, much smaller than Manicouagan. Because the two formations are like other craters with similar morphology, we May use the same qualitative techniques for investigating their origins. Around the Manicouagan site are minerals that seem to indicate tremendous shockwaves have passed through the strata. In many layers, biotitic mica is found in "kinked bands." Shattercones also exist in the layers surrounding the crater. Shattercones are the result of overpressure through the rock, causing it to compress in distinctive v-shaped formations. Most geologists believe that shattercones are undeniable evidence for the meteoric impact scenario, so their presence provides confirmation for the theory. Melted rocks and fused breccias are also thought to be confirmation for the theory, since craters in other parts of the world reveal the same effects. But can the impact of a big rock moving at 45,000 kilometersper-hour be the cause of these various phenomena, or should we look to electrical forces for the answers? Shattercones can be construed as evidence for electric discharges through the stone. A discharge powerful enough to form a 100-kilometer crater would be sufficient to generate shattercones pointing to the blast origin. It is significant, therefore, that shattercones in the Vredefort Dome, South Africa, point downwards and to different points of origin. In an impact crater, the shattercones should point upwards to a single point. The Vredefort Dome is evidence for a traveling underground blast like that expected from a rotating Birkeland current. There is another possible mechanism that produces the characteristic pattern of a "shattercone." In other Picture of the Day articles about Mars, shattercone patterns of incredible size were illustrated. We have identified the formations as dendritic ridges and their shape is remarkably similar to those in Manicouagan. Shattercones May be Lichtenberg figures preserved in the stone. Lichtenberg figures have been addressed many times in these pages. They are the remains of electric discharges through solids and they leave behind singular shapes in the material after their passage. Lightning strikes on pavement and in soils leave Lichtenberg figures carved into them by the explosive current flow. Based on the presumption of an electric discharge, Manicouagan ought to display those features that have been described elsewhere as electrical. One example is the layering of distributed debris. A spinning electric arc will machine down through layers of soil, blasting the melted slag across a wide area as it snakes through the terrain. In fact, some of the geologically unique minerals around Manicouagan have been found in Great Britain as tiny glassified stone droplets. Surrounding the crater are several sinuous channels, additional evidence that the impact hypothesis cannot explain. In general, most of the so-called meteor craters around the world should be reconsidered from an electrical perspective. The Merewether Impact Structure, the Iturralde Impact Structure and many other sites could be of electric discharge origin and not where big rocks fell from space. By Stephen Smith The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Rilles through Crater De Gasparis. Credit: ESA SMART-1/Space-X, Space Exploration Institute
Back to the Moon

(Nov 21, 2007)
China and Japan have placed satellites in lunar orbit, with India and the United States to follow. Will new data confirm the Electric Universe hypothesis? On September 14, 2007, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE) on a multi-year lunar orbit mission. Otherwise known as Kaguya, a nickname from Japanese folktales, the SELENE spacecraft is designed to provide data for future landing sites and to analyze the surface. Upon lunar orbit insertion, Kaguya released two sub-satellites, Okina and Ouna. One of the remotes will act as a relay for the main equatorial imaging system and the other as an additional radar platform in polar orbit. As long ago as 1974, electrical engineer and researcher, Ralph Juergens identified many problems with the standard interpretations of lunar topography. Juergens focused on two major structural features on the Moon and described the inadequacies in the accepted theories of their formation. A previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day discussed the bright rays of Tycho Crater (and other craters) and proposed that they are not the mark of meteoric impact ejecta but are the sign of a plasma discharge. The plasma arcs excavated the crater, but first they drew electrons from halfway around the Moon to form the initial "leader stroke" into space. That explains why the bright rays converging on Tycho do not point to the crater's center. The powerful "return stroke" that traveled back along the conductive pathway and formed the crater had moved on in that brief instant. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Another set of features identified by Juergens as electrical phenomena is the "sinuous rilles" that wend their way through the lunar landscape. Because the Moon exhibits very little geological activity, Juergens thought that the rilles might have formed in a catastrophic event that left its forensic evidence behind. The Moon has no atmosphere, so its surface is similar to a vacuum-sealed and freeze-dried environment, perfectly preserving any remains like fossilized imprints. Using his specific insights, Juergens knew that the rilles, in particular, could not have been created by the collapse of lava tubes or by liquid flowing across the surface. When a lava tube collapses, the roof caves in and leaves heaps of debris clumped on the floor. Such debris is missing from the rilles. Flowing liquids erode the sidewalls of canyons and gullies in certain ways and create deltas of sand and mud downstream. There are no outflow channels or deltas associated with lunar rilles. Coupled with the fact that the rilles travel uphill and downhill without regard for the steepness of the terrain, Juergens concluded that they were electric discharge trackways: "The electric field between anode and cathode must build to an intensity great enough to 'pull' electrons from the cathode by sheer force - tearing electrons from nonconducting lunar crustal materials and in numbers sufficient to trigger an interplanetary discharge... In a flash, the tiny breakdown point becomes a breakdown path propagating itself outward from the starting point, turning this way and that as the intense field at its tip probes for weaknesses in the rock strata." As more information has come in from various telescopes around the world and from spaceborne systems, the same features seen on the Moon have been discovered on the moons of other planets and on the planets, themselves. Since Juergens' day, there have been Venus probes, Mars rovers, a Saturn orbiter, a mission on its way to Pluto and several more voyages of exploration into space. They have provided the Electric Universe hypothesis with an embarrassment of riches while causing the conventional theorists to invent new "corrections" for the standard theories of solar system evolution. The cameras onboard Kaguya are of a resolution much greater than anything previously launched, so they will be providing a more detailed map to explore. The spacecraft also contains gamma ray detectors, charged particle detectors, radar scanners, IR detectors and HDTV optical imagers. In the next few months, we predict that new images and telemetry will help to confirm the theories of an early EU proponent, Ralph Juergens, who has lent inspiration to new generations of investigators. By Stephen Smith
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Excess electron density over North America in 2003. Credit: Anthea Coster & John Foster MIT.
Electric Space Weather Baffles Scientists

(Nov 19, 2007)
Atmospheric researchers are puzzled by a "newly discovered form of space weather" observed over the African continent. "...We've seen the smoke, but where's the smoke stack?" This "strange" and "new" phenomenon is the "ion plume" -- a form of electrified "gas" (plasma) in Earth's atmosphere that is so high above ground it makes contact with space itself. (See NASA -- Strange Space Weather Over Africa) Scientists are taking the discovery quite seriously. In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, over 100 scientists and students have converged this week to discuss the ion plume and its profound ramifications for many scientific disciplines. The electric plumes were first discovered a few years ago over North America, when one appeared during a geomagnetic storm and noticeably affected GPS signals. According to NASA, this was a "plume of excess electron density." The plumes form in Earth's ionosphere, reaching upward into space, for reasons that have mystified atmospheric scientists. For answers, investigators are turning toward Earth's magnetic equator, which passes along the sub-Sahara. The Earth's ionosphere is an outer region of the atmosphere that contains a high concentration of free electrons. Since scientists have observed electrical properties of the ionosphere for more than 100 years, why should they find the plumes' discovery "strange?" Answer: The plumes behavior indicates something that scientists have resisted for many decades -- that the Earth itself is a charged body moving in a plasma medium, and interacting electrically with its plasma environment. In the electric view of the Solar System, the Sun The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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becomes a central player in the electrodynamics of planetary behavior. And exchanges between the Sun and Earth can be seen as the answer to numerous mysteries that have accumulated over decades. This common disregard for electricity has a long history. More than 100 years ago, one of the electrical pioneers, Kristian Birkeland, proposed that the auroras were part of an electrical exchange between Earth and the Sun. But by the middle of the 20th century, traditional dogma in astronomy had virtually precluded that possibility. Then, a few decades later, our satellites detected UNDENIABLE streams of charged particles from the Sun entering Earth's upper atmosphere to provoke the auroras. Until that point, it had been blindly asserted that Earth's magnetosphere must be an impenetrable envelope, "squeezed" by the solar wind, to induce auroral activity. Now it is known that electrical events occur when clouds of charged particles -- Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) -- erupt from the Sun. If the eruption is intense and Earth is in the path of these charged particles, the result will be a proton storm, with potential serious disruptions of communications on Earth. And this arrival of protons provokes a response from the ionosphere in the form of electron concentrations (plumes) rising into space. In other words, it is an electrical TRANSACTION -- a CURRENT -- connecting the "negative" earth and the positively charged Sun at the center of the Solar System. (For background on the electric Sun, click here) Investigators compare the ion plumes to "smoke billowing out of a factory smokestack," but this analogy is quite misleading. Electrified plasma is not akin to smoke at all. The plumes do not float up and then dissipate like smoke from a chimney. In gravitational terms, the escape velocity from Earth is 25,000 MPH -- not a plausible achievement by a charge-neutral gas like smoke. But charged particles barely notice gravity, if at all. The vastly more powerful electric force rules them. The researchers do recognize the electrified nature of the "gas" (plasma), but are very careful in their choice of words. In fact, the investigators do not offer any explanation for what they are seeing. In an electrically neutral Solar System, no explanation exists, because within this framework, electrical transactions across cosmic distances are inconceivable! What occurred when they first observed the ion plume is this: "...an explosion on the sun had hurled a cloud of magnetized gas -- a CME -- toward Earth. The plume formed when the CME hit, triggering a strong geomagnetic storm. The plume consists of ionized air at high altitude moving from Florida to Canada at a speed of 1 km/s (2200 mph)." It must be emphasized that the mechanical principles of atmospheric circulation will never account for this anomalous transport at such velocities. But in electrical terms, charged particles are not restricted by standard gas kinetics. And in fact, in plasma discharge phenomena we frequently see charged particles accelerated to near light speed. Another science story on the "mysterious plumes" indicates that they May seriously disturb air travel, obviously increasing the stakes for investigators who don't understand how or why the plumes form. The New Scientist news service reports: "Mysterious plumes of plasma at the edge of the Earth's atmosphere are threatening airline navigation by throwing off GPS positioning information by up to the length of a football field. But a poor understanding of how the plumes form means that accurate forecasts of the phenomena -- which would allow GPS users to plan around them -- are The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"...at least some of the disruptions are due to giant plumes of charged particles, or plasma, that form in response to the solar outbursts in the Earth's ionosphere, a region filled with ions at the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space. The concentrated plasma in the plumes diverts and delays satellite communications, such as GPS signals." We see here a profound illustration of the potential human cost of ignorance. And this ignorance amounts to little more than the momentum of historic dogma, which has excluded electricity from space. To put these new findings in perspective, it is only necessary to see Earth as proponents of the Electric Universe see it. The electrical theorists recognize the Earth as a self-repairing, "leaky" capacitor (a capacitor is a device for accumulating and storing electric charge.) A capacitor is made of two conductors separated by an insulating medium. When charge is placed on one conductor, it attracts charge of the opposite polarity on the other conductor. As a result, an electric field is set up between the conductors, a reservoir of electrical energy. Applied to Earth, this means that the atmosphere serves as the insulating layer between two conductive regions " the solid Earth is the negatively charged region, and the external environment of Earth is the more positively charged region. And the electrical activity of the Sun affects the balance between the two regions. Of course, Earth's atmosphere is not a perfect insulator, and leakage will occur, particularly in response to disturbances from the arrival of "proton storms." Sadly, scientists investigating the "mysterious" plumes seem unaware that across many disciplines, similarly "surprising" discoveries in our Solar System reveal the same underlying pattern. From the energetic outbursts of comets, to the electric plumes of the Jovian moon Io, to towering, electrified "dust devils" on Mars, to explosive jets from Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, we see planets, moons, and comets interacting electrically with their plasma environments. No interpretation of these "anomalies" will work that does not include the recognition of a few basic facts: The earth, like all of the planets, is a charged body. The Sun has an electric field, and it interacts electrically with the planets. The Sun is not powered by some mysterious, internal "nuclear furnace," but rather externally by electric currents flowing along the arms of the Milky Way. 99.9% of the universe consists of PLASMA, a nearly perfect conducting medium that has been found to exhibit strong electrical properties, almost always ignored by astronomers. All of space is teeming with charged particles.
We live in an electrically dynamic universe, a reality confirmed almost daily by "surprising" and "mysterious" discoveries such as the electric "ion plumes" over Earth. Written by Michael Goodspeed
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False color mage of sulfur-bearing rock. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell University
Sulfurous Mars
(Nov 16, 2007)
Sulfur has been found on Jupiter's moons Io and Europa. MER A Spirit has recently discovered several deposits on the Red Planet. How does electricity factor in? If we could stand on Mars unencumbered by spacesuits and take a deep breath what would we smell? Oddly enough, one thing that would be instantly noticeable is the odor of spent gunpowder or a burned match head. Mars contains rich deposits of sulfur. Sulfur was first detected on Mars in 1976 by the twin Viking landers. Chrsye Planitia and Utopia Planitia revealed a remarkable similarity between soil samples from the two sites, despite being more than 6000 kilometers apart. Vikings 1 and 2 detected sulfur compounds of up to 3% by weight in the fine dust. This led mission engineers to speculate that Mars has had several "homogenizing events," such as massive dust storms, that have mixed the soils into uniform beds. As the MER A Spirit traveled through an area of deep powder on the way to "McCool Hill" in 2006, its rear wheel became jammed, causing it to drag instead of spin. The locked wheel churned the ground, uncovering some particularly bright material just below the surface. A chemical analysis revealed the underlying soil to be high in magnesium sulfate, what we commonly call "Epsom salt," a white, crystalline compound. The majority of the sulfur on Mars is bound up with iron and magnesium into sulfates that seem to indicate a "long soak in water." According to mission specialists, the magnesium sulfate accumulation indicates that the mineral either formed in the presence of water or remained submerged for a long time after formation. Since Mars was presumed to be a wet planet at some time in its past, the sulfates have provided theorists with potential The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"These salts could have been concentrated by hydrothermal liquid or vapor moving through the local rocks," said rover science team member Dr. Albert Yen, a geochemist at JPL. "Mars The Wet Planet" is a theory that has become ever more popular because orbiting satellites and ground-based rovers have observed features that cannot be created from wind erosion - especially in light of new conclusions that the atmosphere on Mars is so thin that it would take a thousand years to move a "sand dune" a few meters, according to the October issue of Physical Review E. On Mars, deep channels, mesas, ripples and other structures are thought to be the remains of water flowing on the surface, sculpting the terrain in the same way as water is believed to erode planet Earth. Since the theory proposes that there were oceans of water on Mars (although it was "millions of years ago"), the chemicals that form in the presence of water here are presumed to have formed on Mars by the same process. Despite the contradictory evidence of mineral deposits that would be destroyed by water, such as olivine, the flowing water hypothesis continues to guide theories of Martian geology. In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles, it was suggested that electric arcs could have played a major role in forming what we see on Mars today. A careful investigation into Valles Marineris, Olympus Mons, Argyre Planitia, Arabia Terra and both Martian poles has demonstrated strong support for the electric discharge theory. In other articles, we concluded that those same electric discharges on Mars could have transmuted silicon into iron and reformed silicon dioxide rock layers into the vast fields of hematite spherules that litter the landscape. Because electric arcs are capable of such transmutation effects, it has also been suggested that Jupiter's electrically active moon, Io, has experienced the transmutation of oxygen from water ice into sulfur, resulting in the gigantic sulfur "volcanoes" that Mar its surface. In reality, according to EU theorists, the "volcanoes" on Io are the touchdown points where the plasmasphere of Jupiter completes its electrical circuit with the moon. The sulfur on Io and the sulfur on Mars could be from the same cause. Neither Io nor Mars have plasma sheaths, which would take up the stress of solar wind or Jovian electric currents far above their surfaces. Instead, the currents impinge directly. If they were stronger in the past, all the chemical compounds that have been attributed to water May have come about as the current flow pulverized the materials, compressed them in z-pinch zones, exposed them to intense shock and magnetic force fields, and then finally deposited them in layers following rapid cathode sputtering. A sulfurous smell is sometimes reported after thunderstorms have passed. The lightning bolts are strong enough, apparently, to change some of the oxygen in the atmosphere into sulfur that burns to become sulfur dioxide, a strong-smelling compound. After an "electric dust devil" passes by on Mars that same stench could be present. If our theory of gigantic electric arcs large enough to carve Valles Marineris is correct, a great deal of sulfur May have also been created in that cataclysm and spread around the planet. By Stephen Smith
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Supernova remnant RJX1713.7-3946 with contours indicating gamma ray production. Credit: JAXA/HESS Takaaki Tanaka
Cosmic Ray Guns

(Nov 14, 2007)
The "shock fronts" of exploding stars passing through gas clouds are said to create cosmic rays. Could electric discharges be a better explanation? In the November 4, 2004, issue of Nature, NASA and a joint Japanese research team announced the discovery of gamma rays from supernova remnant RXJ1713.7-3946. The data introduced the first ever image created by analyzing the flashes of light produced by energetic photons impacting Earth's atmosphere. The High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS), a four telescope array in Namibia, detected Cerenkov radiation resulting from gamma ray collisions with nitrogen and oxygen atoms at altitudes of more than 20 kilometers. When electrically charged particles move through space, they generate electromagnetic radiation (EMR) that is carried by photons. Should the particles accelerate to a high enough velocity, they will emit frequencies that we call gamma rays. In the supernova remnant cloud, ions are being accelerated so rapidly that they exceed the speed of light through the gas, leaving their high-energy photons (gamma rays) behind. This creates a magnetic "shockwave" in the gas that manifests itself as flashes of blue light called Cerenkov radiation. Now, with new information provided by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the Suzaku Xray Satellite, the high-energy photons are theorized to be the signature of cosmic rays coming from the same sources. Cosmic rays are ionized particles from fragmented atoms, leaving free electrons and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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positively charged nuclei. The majority of cosmic rays are single protons, but nuclei as heavy as uranium have been detected. As standard theory states, heavy particles are accelerated to relativistic velocities by unknown forces and then whipped out into the galaxy like a shotgun blast, scattering in every direction. Most cosmic rays are at low energy levels " less than one billion electron volts - so when they hit atoms in Earth's atmosphere they initiate small secondary showers of particles and are absorbed before they reach the ground. RXJ1713.7-3946 was chosen for observation by the Japanese team because of the historical data from other resources, including the Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared instruments, and because of the gamma ray discovery by HESS. Using Chandra's much higher resolution, isolated points of x-ray emission have also been seen within the cloud that rise in intensity and then fade away rather quickly. The magnetic fields have been calculated to be stronger than the current theory predicts. According to Yasunobu Uchiyama of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA): "Magnetic field strength lies at the heart of cosmic-ray acceleration theory. Previous estimates of magnetic fields in supernova remnants were based on indirect arguments. In our study, we determine the magnetic field in a direct manner." Although the mention of magnetic fields and ionized gas has entered into the discussion of cosmic rays and their associated EMR, the connection between the theories and the data is tenuous. The theory does not identify the strong electric fields in sheaths around stars as the cause of cosmic ray acceleration.Rather the cause is said to be the compressive effect of "shockwaves bouncing particles around like pinballs" until they are sped up to their incredible velocities. In the Electric Universe, there is another mechanism for cosmic ray production and that is the "exploding double layer." Irving Langmuir first described a double layer in 1929. It forms when electric current flows through plasma and is treated as a circuit element that dissipates energy. The flowing current multiplied by the voltage across the double layer determines the rate of dissipation. Hannes Alfvn described a double layer as: "... a plasma formation by which a plasma - in the physical meaning of this word protects itself from the environment. It is analogous to a cell wall by which a plasma - in the biological meaning of this word - protects itself from the environment." At times, a double layer May actually cutoff the current flow in the circuit causing a catastrophic rise in voltage across the double layer. The powerful energy release of the "exploding double layer" is sometimes observed in power transmission switchyards when a circuit breaker is opened incorrectly. Alfvn, in a NASA sponsored conference on double layers in astrophysics in 1986 (NASA CP 2469) said: "Double layers in space should be classified as a new type of celestial object (one example is the double radio sources). It is tentatively suggested that x-ray and gamma ray bursts May be due to exploding double layers. In solar flares, DL's with voltages of 109 V or even more May occur, and in galactic phenomena, we May have voltages that are several orders of magnitude larger. Examples are given of possible galactic DL voltage differences of 10'2 V. This means that by a straightforward extrapolation of what we know from our cosmic neighborhood, we can derive acceleration mechanisms The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive which brings us up in the energy region of cosmic radiation."
Thornhill, in a recent IEEE paper suggested (following Alfvn's prediction of double layers occurring above the Sun's poles) that the two smaller axial rings of Supernova 1987a are actually glowing double layer phenomena. In other words, supernovae are a catastrophic stellar electrical discharge. A hallmark of double layers is their variability, or flickering, which would match the observation that "isolated points of x-ray emission have also been seen within the cloud that rise in intensity and then fade away rather quickly." Meanwhile astrophysicists, untrained in the physics of double layers, treat supernovae remnants as a problem in fluid dynamics, using mechanical shockwaves to provide the observed cosmic ray energies. It is an approach that Alfvn warned, more than half a century ago, is doomed to fail. Hopefully, future missions will uncover more evidence that points to electricity in space as the cause for so many of the effects we see. Plasma is the first state of matter and makes up more than 99.99% of all that we observe in the universe. It is far past time that scientists actually look at what they see with critical eyes. By Stephen Smith
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Edge-on image of Saturn's F-ring. Credit: NASA/JPL Cassini-Huygens mission.
Kinks in Saturn's Rings

(Nov 12, 2007)
Braids and twists in the rings of Saturn suggest activity in addition to gravitational attraction. Could electricity be one of the formative agents? Saturn's F-ring was discovered by Pioneer 11 during its 1979 flyby of the giant planet. When the Voyager 1 space probe passed by Saturn in November of 1980, it returned stunning pictures of Saturn's rings that were completely unanticipated. Two of the most intriguing discoveries were the "spokes" seen drifting above the ring plane and the twisted and interlaced structure of the F-ring. Voyager 2's higher resolution camera found five separate strands in a region with no braiding and one small section where the F-ring was twisted. Additional polarized light images of the brightest F-ring filaments proved them to be subdivided into at least ten smaller strands. The twists in the ring are theorized to be gravitational perturbations caused by one of two "shepherd moons," Prometheus. The Cassini-Huygens mission placed an observation platform in orbit around Saturn, designed to last until mid-2008. Several images of the F-ring seem to indicate a helical structure that twists around a central cylinder, rather than a braid. There are what look like three toroidal shapes visible in the image at the top of the page, with the tips of many others visible along the strand. In the center of the three helical filaments is a bright, rotating tube that shows where the forces have become concentrated. In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles about the plasmasphere around Saturn, it was noted that planets and moons do not exist in an electrically neutral environment. Saturn, in particular, has a family of moons that exhibit electric discharge machining on a vast scale, as well as features within its atmosphere that could be characterized as lightning discharges. Its aurora are an intense radio-emitter and the planet is surrounded by a torus of plasma that emits x-rays and extreme ultra-violet light. Saturn seems to display many aspects that are predicted by the Electric Universe theory, including the shape of its rings. Bodies immersed in plasma aren't isolated, they are connected by circuits. Most of the time they are not in equilibrium because they are in unstable conditions. The majority of them are moving across the plasma filaments that exist in the solar system and in the plasmaspheres The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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around planets. Currents in plasma contract into filaments (which are really sheets of doublelayers folded into tubes) and the force between filaments is linear, so the electromagnetic fields created by the filaments are the most powerful long-range attractor in the universe. In 1913, Kristian Birkeland conducted his now-famous experiment where a small, magnetized iron globe was placed in a vacuum and used as the cathode in electric discharges. As he wrote about Saturn's rings: "It seems almost incredible that such a ring of cosmic dust should be able to exist for ever, so to speak, without other governing forces than gravitation..." Plasma physics experimenter, author and theorist Wal Thornhill wrote in agreement with Birkeland's work: "As shown in [Birkeland's] laboratory experiments, the inflowing [conventionally] electric current forms a plasma donut where the electrical energy is stored. It is that energy that drives the winds and lightning on Saturn...In fact, Saturn has two plasmoids. One is outside the rings, the other inside the rings. Discharges to Saturn must cross the rings." Rather than relying on the gravity-only model of the solar system and its insistence that Saturn's rings can only be created, held and shaped by the activity of "shepherd moons" and angular momentum, we should look to a force that is orders of magnitude more powerful: electricity. By Stephen Smith
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Qinghai Lake one of the largest salt-water lakes in the world. Credit: NASA/USGS
China's Mysterious Iron Pipes

(Nov 09, 2007)
A large number of strange iron cylinders and rusted scraps of iron have been found in western China. Could they be evidence of electrical activity? In a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day, we discussed the bizarre "stone eggs" found in China, as well as many other places around the world. We noted in one instance that the sandstone nodules from the Utah desert are often encased in iron shells. In our contemplation of Martian geology, based on the information gleaned from the Mars Exploration Rover B, iron oxide and silicon dioxide have been discovered intimately bound up together in almost every sample taken. Ripples and "dunes" of hematite extend for hundreds of kilometers in conjunction with silicon dioxide "pavement" or "cobbles" - flat, etched slabs of white stone with regular polygonal cracks in the structure. The iron oxide ripples lie on top of the stone blocks. The Electric Universe theory May help to explain the strange formations found everywhere we look on Earth. In the case of stone spheres that have been uncovered in the U.S., Asia and Australia, it appears as if they were "condensed" out of the surrounding mineral deposits. Lightning discharges striking the Earth and traveling through the strata just below the surface May have created the stone nodules through compression forces. In plasma physics, such compression zones are called "z-pinches." As electricity travels through plasma (some stone could be considered a form of solid The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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plasma), it begins to spin in a helical pattern. Two strands of energy will twist around one another gradually coming closer together because of "long-range attraction." But due to shortrange repulsion," never touching. The twin channels of current flow ultimately come close enough that the space between them is magnetically crushed into a tiny volume. Any substances between the twisted pairs of plasma will also be crushed into spherules of varying sizes, depending on the strength of the discharge. China's stone spheres, those from Bosnia and Costa Rica, as well as other places, are probably the remains of those electric currents forming z-pinch nodules like grapes on the vine. But what about the trackway of the electricity through the stone and soil - the "stems" that hold the grapes? Could the "iron pipes" from Mongolia and elsewhere be the signs of such an event? In 2002 a group of Chinese archaeologists investigated a cave on Mt. Baigong in the Qinghai province of Tibet. Located on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau at over 3600 meters, Mt. Baigong is noted for a "pyramid" standing on its summit. Although archaeologists and anthropologists have not adequately studied the pyramid, its general appearance is one of natural forces at work and not man-made. It is irregular and exhibits no stonework or tool marks. One of the most interesting findings there are the iron pipes scattered in rusty broken bits around the terrain. A small cave within the pyramid reveals dozens of the pipes embedded in the floor and angling out of the walls. They range in size from 10 centimeters up to 40 centimeters. They are reddish-brown and closely resemble the color of the surrounding rocks. On the shore of Lake Toson, additional cylinders are found, some as small as a toothpick. None of the cylinders are filled with debris or hardened sediments despite being reported as very old. China is not the only place where such rusted iron cylinders are located. There are "Louisiana cylinders" from an area near a gigantic salt dome just south of New Orleans and "Navajo pipes" from the same region in Utah as sandstone "Moqui marbles." Could the cylinders be the stems on which the "stone grapes" grew? Electricity forms hollow tubes as they penetrate a charged substance like plasma. The spinning Birkeland currents are charge sheaths that have folded around into a vortex, creating a double-layer that carries electric current. These "tubes" of electricity May have left behind the mark of their passing by transmuting the silicon dioxide of Mt. Baigong (and the Navajo sandstone formation) into the coarse, oxidized cylinders of hematite that have so confounded scientists. In fact, the Baigong pipes contain up to 30% silicon dioxide in their matrix. By Stephen Smith
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"Ponytails" of dust stuck on the wall of Melas Chasma. Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Dust Braids in Melas Chasma

(Nov 07, 2007)
The edges of cliffs and canyons on Earth often display talus slopes caused by erosion. But they start small and become wide, not the other way around! Melas Chasma is part of the gigantic Valles Marineris complex that scars the face of Mars. It is a tributary canyon with different minerals arranged in what appear to be sedimentary layers. Because of its unique geological features, Melas Chasma has been tapped as a possible landing site for NASA's future Mars Exploration Rover (MER) projects. The terrain within Melas Chasma is thought to result from water and wind erosion acting on the stone for billions of years. According to the prevailing theories about Mars, the 4000 kilometer-long trench of Valles Marineris appeared when the Martian crust was stretched by catastrophic volcanism early in its history. Something caused the interior of Mars to expand and cool, leaving behind a series of giant cracks along the equator. Later, during the "wet phase" in its evolution, water flowed through the channels, eroding the tributaries and compacting the sedimentary layers. After eons of time, Mars somehow lost its water and turned into the lifeless, blasted wasteland that we see today. Mars presently has an atmosphere that is less than 1% of Earth's atmospheric density at sea level. It is composed almost entirely of carbon dioxide, although nitrogen and argon make up about 3%, with trace elements less than 1/10%. The temperatures on Mars vary with a maximum of 20 C (68 F) and a minimum of -140 C (-220 F). The atmosphere is so thin that blowing winds exert almost no pressure on rovers that are traversing the surface. Despite a dust storm several months ago that obscured an entire hemisphere, the MER B Opportunity reported light pressure increases and a small amount of sand accumulation. It The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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survived the storm quite well and continues to return images. This lends credence to the idea of "blowing" dust on Mars really being caused by electrostatic discharges from the polar regions. "Electric dust devils" look like they are carrying dust with them thousands of meters into the sky and hundreds of kilometers through the landscape. In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles about the Martian surface, we identified anomalous features that are not easily explained by wind erosion, even if there were strong winds on Mars. Around Victoria crater's rim and throughout the ocean of hematite ripples covering Meridiani Planum are structures that can be more readily explained if electricity was involved in their creation. The Martian geography could have been transformed into the contours that look so mysterious to conventional scientists by electric current flowing through the silicon dioxide rock and iron ores that make up the planet's crust. A case-in-point is the wall of Melas Chasma shown at the top of the page. It is part of a larger image that the Mars Orbital Camera (MOC) took during a flyover in 1999. The "dust braids" are the strangest of the formations, appearing to be long tendrils that overlap one another. Some of the braids have filaments of white stone crossing over them at right angles. In other cases, the dark iron oxide is visible underneath the wavering white stone formations. It looks as if the iron oxide dust was drawn together into long cords, bunched into a braded shape and then pulled beneath the silicon dioxide rock. The larger braids appear to have been "parted" and then twisted like thick locks of hair. They then fall away into thinner and thinner strands until they become branching terminations like lightning bolts. The lightning bolt channels - Lichtenberg figures - merge into the black ripples of stone further down and away from the braids. The Lichtenberg figures are the key to how these braided ropes of iron oxide were formed: they are the trackways of electric discharges that gathered the dust and stones into alignment with their magnetic fields and glassified them permanently into place on the wall of the chasm. Scientists have been calling the ripples that form below the fingers of the Lichtenberg figures "dunes" and see their formation on Mars to be much the same as on Earth. Mountains wear down into sands that are then blown around by winds until they accumulate into deposits that bear distinctive characteristics. One of the biggest problems with the "dune" theory in this case is that the bottom of Melas Chasma is solid rock - the black ripples are not sand deposits at all. There is a "dust devil" blowing through Melas Chasma in the large MOC image. The mushroom-shaped, glowing top is well contrasted with the dark background, so we can say for certain that it is what NASA scientists have called a "dust devil" and not a cloud of some kind. Also, its shadow is visible to the left of the glowing puff. If this is a rapidly rotating windstorm, hundreds of meters high, traveling through a field of dunes made up of sand and dust, then why is it leaving no track as it goes? There is no trace of its path visible anywhere. The explanation must be that the "dunes" are not sand and dust and the "dust devil" is not a whirling wind, but is an ion storm - a rotating electrical vortex. If electricity is considered a viable option for explaining the features on Mars rather than wind and water, then more sense will be made of the "mysteries" that defy convention. By Stephen Smith
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Lightning storm around the Surtsey, Iceland volcanic eruption. Public domain image.
Space Aliens Blamed For Electric Universe

(Nov 05, 2007)
Misunderstood history has a way of repeating itself, or so the clich goes. According to a recent article from the website World Net Daily, a report leaked from within the Italian government blames a series of "inexplicable" fires that erupted in a Sicilian village in 2004 on "space aliens." The report states that an unknown "static electric charge" was the source of the fires, and that "unnatural forces" -- presumably unleashed by ETs -- are the most likely culprit. These findings are the apparent result of a $2 million investigation by Sicily's Civil Protection Agency (funded by the Italian government), which reportedly included the participation of a NASA scientist. The World Net Daily article reads: "Leaked copies say the bizarre fires were 'caused by high-power electromagnetic emissions which were not man-made and reached a power of between 12 and 15 gigawatts.' "The report also references a possible UFO landing close to Caronia where 'burned imprints which have not been explained were found in a field.'" The full article May be read here Initially, popular opinion in Italian culture was that the fires were created by "demonic" forces. And since no other "unknown force" seems readily to blame, "aliens" have become the culprit of choice. Many credible individuals have reported UFO sightings, and our purpose here is not to dismiss anything out of hand. But we can feel very confident that in this instance, "space alien" theories are an unnecessarily esoteric explanation for what is most likely a perfectly natural, yet poorly understood, phenomenon. From the Electric Universe perspective, the Earth, like all of the planets in our solar system, is an electrically charged body. We are in continuous electrical relationship with the Sun, which The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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is the focus of a glow discharge, receiving its power EXTERNALLY from galactic currents. We see sprites and giant jets that reach from Earth TO space -- lightning above the clouds that was considered absurd until it was definitively validated in the early 1990s. The basis to suspect a natural, electrical origin of the fires is quite extensive, and many reasonable explanations can be proffered. Some 2004 reports suggested that the Italian fires were due to a combination of piezoelectricity (electricity produced by mechanical pressure on certain crystals) and/or an underground electromagnetic field. Other reports note that the fires continued well after electricity to the area had been cut off. Mobile phones and disconnected fuse boxes reportedly burst into flames, and even the locking systems of cars mysteriously blocked up, adding to the suspicion that mysterious electromagnetic forces were at work. ET May not be the source of the apparent electromagnetic forces, but something else from space well could be. The earth is electrically dynamic, and when it encounters other charged bodies, such as comets and meteors, electric discharges can occur, sometimes with catastrophic results. In the Thunderbolts series The Comet and the Chicago Fire, presented was the possibility that the terrible conflagration was caused by the close passage of fragments from Comet Biela (whose nucleus "mysteriously" split in two in 1845). Among the oft-forgotten facts around the case: Simultaneous conflagrations -- each a case of apparent "spontaneous combustion" -erupted hundreds of kilometers apart in three different states -- Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois. (Mrs. O' Leary's cow must have been quite busy, indeed!) In 1852, when Biela's twin comet-heads reappeared, a BRIGHT JET was seen between the two heads, which were over 2 MILLION KILOMETERS apart; On November 27, 1872, Professor W. Klinkerfues of Berlin, calculated the trajectories of a major meteor shower (several thousand meteors an hour), and concluded that they were the remains of the comet. Witnesses of the fire reported fire descending from the sky, descending balloons of fire, buildings exploding with fire when no fire was yet present (and many other instances of "spontaneous combustion"), fusing of fireproof building material, colorful flames running along cornices of buildings (a typical description of "St. Elmo's Fire" witnessed in electrical storms), and a rain of fire and sand from the sky.
Since at least one of Biela's comet heads had presumably disintegrated by 1871, it is only reasonable to question whether Earth's orbit May have encountered the debris. (To read the full three-part series click here). Electromagnetic effects from comets, meteorites, and meteor fireballs have been heavily discussed on the Thunderbolts site. Scientists do not really understand why bolides flicker, flare up, and explode as they streak toward the Earth. Nor do they understand why some meteors are accompanied by electrophonic sound that is simultaneous with their flaring up. See The Peekskill Meteor. The possibility of the Earth having an electrical interaction with a meteoric intruder should certainly be considered by the Italian investigators, at least before they began speculating The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive about aliens experimenting with electromagnetic weaponry!
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Another natural explanation for the fires might be volcanism, since the nearby Eolian Islands is one of the most volcanically active zones in Europe. In the Electric Universe hypothesis, volcanoes are dynamically related to the electric Earth. In fact, the World Net Daily report mentions an electrical volcanic effect as the possible causative agent of the fires: "One natural hypothesis that had been considered was electrical energy related to volcanic activity beneath the land's crust being released near the village. Supercharged ions, it was speculated, might then spark the fires once meeting up with electronic devices in the homes. "'The cause of the fires seems to have been static electric charges,' Tullio Martella, the head of Sicily's Civil Protection Agency told the New York Times in 2004.' What we don't understand is why there were these static electric charges.'" Volcanic eruptions are sometimes accompanied by spectacular displays of lightning, but the cause is poorly understood, and new discoveries have only deepened the mysteries. A recent news story reports on a study into volcanic electrical phenomena occurring in the eruption of Mt. Augustine in Alaska. The website LiveScience.com writes: "The lightning in a volcanic eruption occurs because the ash and other debris blasting out of the volcano are highly charged... Though lightning was known to occur in the debris clouds above the volcano, the researchers found an EARLIER phase of volcanic lightning that had never before been observed and occurred right at the volcano's mouth just as it began erupting." [Emphasis added] In other words, the lightning preceded the supposed "charge separation" process from friction that has traditionally been claimed to occur in billowing volcanic clouds. One of the researchers described this phase of the volcanic lightning as "big sparks maybe going just from the mouth of the volcano up into the column that's shooting out of the volcano, and then some lightning that went upward from the top of the volcano up into the cloud that was forming." (See Lightning Strikes from the Mouths of Volcanoes) These observations add direct support to the claims of the electrical theorists, who emphasize that the electric field of the Earth is an indispensable environment for both volcanoes and volcanic lightning. As pointed out by plasma scientist Anthony Peratt, magma is conductive plasma. A jet of magma will short-circuit the electric field through which it is moving. So of course, it should not surprise us to discover electrical arcing along the column of erupting material. (See Volcanic Lightning) The irony in all of this cannot be lost to those who have followed the Thunderbolts project, and its attempt to reconstruct catastrophic (electrical) events in human history. The ancients witnessed stupendous plasma discharge displays in the sky, and could only attribute the events to supernatural deities and other mystical intelligences. Today, well-documented (but poorly understood) natural electrical phenomena are being viewed in much the same light. Even more disturbingly, 21st century official science seems much more inclined to indulge in bizarre, unprovable esoterica and "metaphysical mathematics" -- including black holes, dark matter, dark energy, string theory -- than they are in exploring the real-world disciplines of plasma science and electrical engineering. A new "enlightenment" is needed to pull our species from a dark age more likely to harm us than any "alien weaponry." And the light that can guide us is a real-world understanding of electricity. Written by Michael Goodspeed The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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False-color image of Barnard-30, an active "star-forming region" in Orion. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/D. Barrado y Navascus (LAEFF-INTA)
New Stars from Orion's Head

(Nov 02, 2007)
An energetic nebula in the constellation of Orion seems to be a stellar birthplace and nursery because of "collapsing gas clouds." But could electrical causes be producing the effects? Look toward the East on any dark winter night and you'll see the constellation Orion, the Hunter. The stellar grouping includes two of the more unusual astronomical objects that have been identified: the red giant star Betelgeuse and the Orion Nebula. The Orion Nebula is faintly visible to the naked eye as the second star in Orion's sword. It looks somewhat fuzzy because it is not a star but a multi-light-year-wide cloud of interstellar dust and gas. The astrophysical community sees several formations within the nebular cloud to be star-forming regions because they have detected high frequency light from many active areas. Gamma rays, x-rays and high-frequency ultra-violet are being emitted by what have been termed "cosmic eggs" because they appear to be the glowing tips of condensed gas balls that have "ignited" in fusion reactions. The image from the Spitzer Space Telescope is not from that familiar nebula, however. At the head of Orion, near the bright star Lambda Orionis, is another smaller cloud called Barnard30, where scientists have discovered polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons interspersed with the gas and dust. When wood fires, stoves or other devices are not hot enough, some of the fuel is only partially burned, so its chemical properties are changed into a polymer without being completely carbonized. How the process works in space is not understood because no fire can burn there. The chemical compounds have been detected in Barnard-30 by their infrared signatures, however, along with water vapor and oxygen. According to the standard model, new stars and hydrocarbons must be the result of a compression wave passing through the cloud. A supernova explosion "millions of years ago" in another part of the galaxy is what pushed the Barnard nebula (and other nebulae) into action, making stars and organic chemicals. At no time does electricity enter in to the discussion. "Hot gas" is used instead of the word "plasma." Researchers will occasionally admit that gas is plasma, but they mean "hot neutral gas" when they use the term. All analysis The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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of the nebular clouds is based on kinetic models of gas behavior and not on the mathematics of electrified plasma. An electric discharge in a plasma cloud creates a double layer, or sheath, along its axis. Positive charge builds up on one side and negative charge on the other. A strong electrical field exists between the sides and if enough current is applied the sheath will glow, but it is otherwise invisible. Electric currents flow along the sheaths. In plasma, electric currents spiral into filaments, or double layer tubes. The filaments attract each other, but rather than merging they spiral around, gradually pinching down into arc mode discharges. Stars are born to such electrical parentage and not to the sterile hope of gravitational attraction. The correct model for a nebula is a neon lamp that emits light only at the excitation frequency of that specific gas. Electricity passing through the tube causes the neon plasma to glow a pale yellow. Astronomers say a shock wave from a supernova is able to initiate many frequencies of light due to the heating of compressed gas. But, since more than 90% of the light from planetary nebulae is in the frequency range of ionized oxygen, then they should be thought of as oxygen discharge tubes and not as balls of gas. Astronomers have infected physicists with the "hot gas" theory, causing a 50 year failed experiment with nuclear fusion. Squeezing hot gas into a volume small enough for fusion to take place has not worked and we predict that it will never work. The theory of star formation through fusion reactions is untenable so utilizing the theories of plasma behavior might be a more productive path. By Stephen Smith
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Trajectory of Holmes 17P in the constellation, Perseus. Credit: Tom Ruen
Comet Holmes 17P Startles Astronomers

(Oct 31, 2007)
The recent million-fold brightening of Holmes 17P has put another dent in conventional comet theory. Should the "dirty snowball" hypothesis be discarded in favor of electrical activity? Astronomers recently announced the unexpected brightening of a small comet as it passed through the constellation Perseus. Called Holmes 17P, the comet began a significant energetic outburst on October 24, 2007. At that time, observers reported that it had begun to increase in luminosity "for no apparent reason." Overall, it gradually brightened from 17th magnitude to about 2.5, bringing it into naked-eye visibility. Edwin Holmes discovered the comet that bears his name on November 6, 1892, as he was observing the Andromeda galaxy. The comet was apparently experiencing a similar increase in brilliance during that time, since Holmes reported it to be of approximately 5th or 6th magnitude. A historical narrative providing several highlights in the story notes that the comet is periodic, orbiting the sun every 6.9 years and staying between Mars and Jupiter. In a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day article about the fissioning of Comet West in 1976, we noted that comets tend to split or to undergo anomalous displays when they are approaching their farthest distance from the sun. Because conventional theories of the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive solar system based exclusively on gravity expect disruptions only at close approaches to the sun, the activity of comet West was a surprise.
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Comet Linear defined another mystery in July of 2000 when it actually blew apart. The strangest thing about its fragmentation was that it occurred at a distance of over 100 million kilometers from the sun and not when it passed by during perihelion. As a matter of observation, the majority of cometary disruptions take place when they are far from the sun. Another counter-intuitive reflection is that so-called "sun-grazer" comets do not break apart despite approaching to within 50,000 kilometers of the sun's surface in some cases. The large comet Hale-Bopp, also did not obey the standard theory of cometary activity. Four years after its encounter, in a region past Jupiter's orbit, the comet displayed an ion tail, several jets of bright material spewing into space and a glowing coma. The "dirty snowball" theory cannot account for such activity at distances where solar energy emissions are so weak that ice will not melt. If solar heating were responsible for cometary discharges at such distances, then all the frozen moons of Jupiter would be as dry as deserts and would look more like our own moon than the icy bodies that they are. If the sun's warmth is not the impetus for HaleBopp's display, then what is it that provides the energy for supersonic blasts of dust and ice when it is so far away? Comets spend most of their time far from the sun where the charge density is low. Because comets move slowly, their electric charges reach equilibrium with the weak, radial solar field. As they get closer to the sun, however, their nuclei speed into regions of increasing charge density and varying electrical flux. Their polarity and charge characteristics respond to the increasing solar forces, so a coma (charge sheath) forms around them. Discharge jets flare up and move across the surface very much like the plumes of Jupiter's moon, Io. If the charge imbalance becomes too great, the nuclei May explode like an over-charged capacitor, breaking into fragments or vanishing forever. By Stephen Smith
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El Capitan, a giant granite monolith in Yosemite National Park. Credit: Mike Murphy
Stone Monoliths - Part Two

(Oct 29, 2007)
Colossal stones, some as large as mountains, could be physical evidence for interplanetary lightning bolts on Earth. In our last installment about the immense solitary stones that can be found on Earth, we identified several of them in Australia and Europe that could be the remains of tremendous electric arcs. The magnetic fields created from such forces May have lifted the sediments and other materials from the surrounding landscape, crushed it in compression zones capable of squeezing sand into stone, and left behind a solidified mass. Some extraordinary formations are located in areas where there is nothing but flat desert for thousands of square kilometers. Sometimes they are made from several minerals that are actually melted together into a solid, although the various crystals retain their shapes. Granite is an example of different minerals that have been fused into a single stone and then laid down in enormous beds - although there are almost as many different kinds of granite as there are deposits. Granite is composed of feldspar and quartz, but usually contains mica and hornblende as well, providing a characteristic sparkle. Granite decomposes into soils that are well drained and high in mineral nutrients, making places like California ideal for agriculture. Since the Sierra Nevada mountains are granite uplifts, the erosion of the peaks has supposedly washed down the rivers over millions of years, forming the sediments in the Central Valley, "America's breadbasket." Two of the most recognizable formations in North America can be found in the Sierra Nevada mountains. El Capitan, along with its opposite number, Half Dome, are Yosemite National Park's famous stones. Both are solid granite monoliths that rise a thousand meters above the valley floor. According to conventional geological theories, they are magma intrusions that formed deep underground millions of years ago. The magma did not erupt but instead The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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hardened into granite. The intrusions were exposed after millennia of weathering. During the last ice age, glaciers supposedly slid down into the valley, eventually slicing the faces of El Capitan and Half Dome into their present shapes and creating the Yosemite valley. Another example of an anomalous, mountain-sized uplift is Stone Mountain, Georgia. Once again, the standard explanation sees Stone Mountain as the remains of a granitic magma intrusion into softer limestone sediments that subsequently wore away, uncovering the domeshaped pluton after millions of years. Some other figures of this kind are Dellenbaugh Butte, Stone Mountain in North Carolina and another "El Capitan" in the Guadalupe Mountains of Texas. "Overlying rock strata" is a theory similar to "dark matter." It was invented so that the theory would work and not because of observational data. Long eons of geologic time and the slow course of wind and water picking single grains off the face of a granite colossus until it resembles Half Dome is a theory whose time has passed. Ice has never been demonstrated to break and crush mountains into spires and mounds. Wind and rain dash themselves against the formations like bugs on a windshield, but that doesn't mean weather or insects created the shapes. Instead of eroding down, they could have been electrically pinched up. As previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles have noted, however, in every place we look on Earth and the rest of the solar system there are mountains, valleys and basins where highly energetic plasma discharges May have blasted the terrain. The stony mountains with sharp peaks and steep slopes that exhibit no debris from erosion and the vast fields of "dunes" that look more like hardened ridges than wind-blown sand are possible results of those impacts. Stone monoliths provide more clues to that potentially violent and relatively recent past. By Stephen Smith
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Atlas, a small lens-shaped moon of Saturn. Credit: NASA/JPL Cassini-Huygens mission.
Atlas, Saturn's Lenticular Moon

(Oct 26, 2007)
If the equatorial ridge of Iapetus suggests electrical activity then Atlas reveals the potential extremity of that force. In several past Picture of the Day articles, we have discussed the electrical origin of Saturn's moon, Iapetus and compared it to formations found on Earth. The equatorial ridge that girdles the moon is indicative of compression effects that occur when current flows through plasma or electrically conductive solid objects. The z-pinch (or Bennett pinch) phenomenon forces the material into a smaller and smaller volume, squeezing it into a characteristic distortion at right angles to the energy flow. The structure of Atlas, one of Saturn's smallest moons, exhibits a dramatic example of that potential power. Richard J. Terrile discovered Atlas after analyzing images returned by the Voyager 1 spacecraft during its flyby of Saturn on November 12, 1980. Atlas was named after one of the mythological Titans, the son of Iapetus. It is 40 kilometers long by 20 kilometers wide and rotates around its flattened plane. Atlas appears to act as a "shepherd moon" to Saturn's A ring along with its sibling, Pan, sharpening the edges of the ring and maintaining its width. Conventional theory proposes that Atlas was formed through a process of accretion. The tiny body probably originated as a piece of space debris that was captured by Saturn's enormous gravity. As it passed in and out of Saturn's ring plane, its miniscule gravitational field attracted particles from the rings and deposited them on the surface of the moon. Supposedly, this 'particulate drizzle' has built-up the edges of Atlas, creating the moon's exceptional shape and erasing any trace of cratering. It has also left a thick deposit of dust uniformly distributed over its surface obscuring the 'original' form. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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As we have noted in the past, Saturn and its ring system is not a neutral environment but is highly charged and electrically active. The rings possess many features that cannot be explained by gravity alone, or the influence of the many moonlets orbiting with them. The "spokes" that seem to hover above the ring plane, the thousands of bands that are sorted by their chemical composition, the x-ray light that they emit - all of those characteristics decry the standard explanations for their inconsistency. Since Atlas exists inside the electromagnetic fields of its parent then its influence on Saturn's rings could be considered an electrical phenomenon, as well. Present theories propose that "shepherd moons" push and pull the individual rings as they orbit together. Atlas and Pan orbit just outside and just inside the A ring. As they play catch up with each other in their orbits, they alternately push the ring particles in toward Saturn and then pull them out and away, keeping the ring stable. The gravitational fields of the two moons May also create the Encke Gap, as the theory states. The Electric Universe model sees the Saturnian system differently. The charged moons and the charged rings are alternately repelling and attracting each other as they move through the plasma sheath surrounding Saturn. Electric discharges from the giant planet might be what created the rings and moons in the first place, so electricity in its myriad manifestations could be responsible for their arrangement. At some point in the past, according to EU theory, Saturn experienced a violent upheaval that saw plasma discharges and incredibly intense auroral curtains sweep through the solar system. Any celestial bodies within the range of the outburst would have been hammered by powerful currents, bombarded with intense radiation, heated and half-melted and then blasted with lightning bolts as big as continents. All of that energy could have created the distinctive shape of Atlas, as well. By Stephen Smith
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The Tharsis volcanoes superimposed on a map of the United States. Credit: NASA The Red Planet # 10
The Tharsis Montes Volcanoes

(Oct 24, 2007)
Volcanoes on Mars should not be found in chains similar to those on Earth since no crustal plate movement exists there. Could electricity be a factor? Scientists from the University of Arizona and the Goddard Space Flight Institute recently announced that the volcanoes located in the Tharsis Montes region on Mars might not be extinct after all. Because the four gigantic craters are near one another and three of them run in a chain, scientists thought that they must have been created in the same way that standard theories explain crater chains. According to the lead author of a paper appearing in Geophysical Research, Jacob Bleacher, that might not be how it happens on Mars. Olympus Mons, Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons and Arsia Mons could have a moving column of magma beneath them. Volcanoes on Earth form when the plates that make up the Earth's crust move over upwelling magma plumes, according to standard theories. Rising magma naturally seeks out the weakest fractures that allow it to erupt onto the surface, or under the ocean. Island chains May appear if enough lava deposits build up and create steep-sided mountains whose tops break the waves. On Mars, however, there is no evidence that the crust moves. No plate boundaries exist so there should be no line of volcanoes similar to the Hawaiian Islands, for instance. In order to explain the Tharsis anomaly, Bleacher and his colleagues have postulated that the plume of magma is what moved rather than the crust. "We thought we could take what we learned about lava flow features on Hawaiian The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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volcanoes and apply it to Martian volcanoes to reveal their history. The problem was that until recently, there were no photos with sufficient detail over large surface areas to reveal these features on Martian volcanoes. We finally have pictures with enough detail from the latest missions to Mars, including NASA's Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor, and the European Space Agency's Mars Express missions." In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles about the Martian volcanoes, Olympus Mons in particular, we theorized that the shape of the escarpments and the surrounding topography indicates that they could have been made by enormous plasma discharges that impacted the planet. The force of the electric current raised the giant mounds and carved out their distinctive calderas. As Electric Universe theorist Wal Thornhill points out: "Olympus Mons, 25 kilometres high, is NOT the highest volcano in the Solar System. It is a giant raised electrical blister with characteristic superimposed circular craters at the summit. It is the kind of blister seen on metal lightning arrestor caps after a strike." If electric currents of such magnitude influenced the geography of Mars, could they have done something similar on Earth? Is it the theory of plate tectonics and its relationship to volcanism on our planet that should be reconsidered, rather than inventing a new theory because new observations do not support the old one? Written by Stephen Smith from an idea submitted by Michael Goodspeed
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Ben Bulben, County Sligo, Ireland. Credit: Andrew C. Parnell
Stone Monoliths
(Oct 22, 2007)
On every continent are examples of isolated stone mountains that are not easy to explain from a conventional standpoint. Could they be the remnants of prodigious electric arcs? In our recent Thunderbolts Picture of the Day about Australia's Big Three, we described Mount Augustus in Australia, a sandstone monolith that could be the largest example of these singular formations. Mount Augustus, or Burringurrah to the local Wadjari people, is an asymmetric anticline whose composition differs markedly from the underlying rock strata. Ben Bulben is an example of another isolated monolith, or tor, that can be found on every continent. They all share very similar morphology, although they are composed of different minerals. Mount Augustus, for instance, is made up of rocks and pebbles of various sizes cemented together by exceptionally hard sandstone. In other areas of Australia, such as Bald Rock, the great blocks of stone are actually granite that is also resting on top of dissimilar minerals. The geology of Ben Bulben is quite different, however. It is composed of Darty limestone (which makes up the Darty mountains) and shale, overlying Glencar limestone. Ben Bulben is the headland of the Darty mountains, sloping gradually upward until the flat-topped mesa and steep, regularly carved cliff face stop at the edge of the ocean. The change from Ben Bulben shale to Glencar limestone in the monolith is dramatic - the boundary layer is paper-thin. In other areas of the world, such as Pea de Bernal in Mexico or the Rock of Gibraltar in Europe, the single stones appear to be metamorphic, indicating a powerful energy source that drew the material in the mountains together as well as melted and reformed their mineralogical composition. The Rock of Gibraltar is composed of metamorphosed limestone and chalk. The Strait of Gibraltar itself demonstrates some remarkable topography and could mark an area where Earth-grazing electric arcs touched-down and sculpted the region. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Several other smaller monoliths can be found in Europe: the Logan Stone on top of Black Tor in Dartmoor and the King Arthur Stone in Cornwall are two of the most famous. At the summit of Mam Tor is another example of oddly piled stones and columnar formations. In other spots around the world can be found very large monoliths that are unlike the surrounding geography or geological formations. In Africa, we have written that the Brandberg Massif could be a gigantic fulgamite that was molded and upraised by electrical forces beyond imagination. Other examples are Aso Rock in Nigeria and Ben Amera in Mauritania. Both are lone monoliths that appear to have been pulled up and out of the surrounding countryside. In future Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles, we will look at more of the unusual geography of Earth and how it relates to the theory of the Electric Universe. North America possesses quite a few large, rounded and isolated rock formations that bear closer examination: El Capitan in California, Devil's Tower in Wyoming and Stone Mountain, Georgia are three examples of the strange terrain that we will investigate. Written by Stephen Smith from an idea submitted by William Curry.
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MER B Opportunity sees the bottom of Victoria crater. Credit: NASA/JPL
Victoria's other Secrets

(Oct 19, 2007)
After months of delay and near disaster, Opportunity is rolling into Victoria crater. The signs of possible electric discharge events are increasingly apparent. The latest of the dust storms that periodically engulf Mars has subsided and Opportunity is beginning an analysis of Victoria crater. After being kept on the rim for almost two years, the MER has returned several images of the inner walls. The walls are composed of shattered layers and the sloping surface that it is following downward is very similar to the "cobbles" discovered in the plains of Meridiani. In a previous Picture of the Day, we wrote that the silicon dioxide rocks and their association with hematite ripples, or "dunes," might be indicative of strong electric currents that surged beneath the surface. Those currents probably generated very powerful magnetic fields that could have ripped the rock into ultra-fine dust and compressed it into hematite "blueberries." The image at the top of the page demonstrates the effect such currents might have if they struck and stuck as it were, like a giant lightning bolt lasting perhaps a few seconds, burning in one spot. We have taken notice in past articles that Victoria crater exhibits many anomalies if it is considered from a strictly impact-oriented scenario. Space-based image platforms have revealed it to have many attributes reminiscent of other craters on Mars that are thought to be electrical in nature. Mars is not alone in that regard, since other planets and moons share similar features. The MER A Spirit and the MER B Opportunity have provided researchers with a tremendous advantage, because they have enabled comparisons between space and surface perspectives. Victoria crater's structure has been viewed from space and it could possibly be electrical in origin. The images from Opportunity have added weight to the Electric Universe theory by uncovering more planetary scarring evidence in the crater floor. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The most obvious is the fine structure that remains engraved on the bottom. No explosive blast ever recorded has left such a pattern behind. No, the craters that explosions make are far more disrupted and far more chaotic in all respects. They do not leave melted and solidified ripples with knife-edged ridges like huge, serrated teeth. Assuming an explosion could occur resulting in a field of such half-melted ripples, it definitely would not create upraised Lichtenberg figures embossed across all the slip faces like lightning discharge trackways in reverse. Victoria's "dunes" appear more as if they are splashes of glassified material that has been energetically forced away from a violent center and then immediately re-solidified. Because the surface composition of Mars is high in silicon dioxide, a primary constituent of glass, the appearance of the ripples is not so strange. In close up images, it looks as if the crater walls are composed of breccias that have been compacted and then sheared off like they were cut by a laser. An impact event, such as from a meteor, would not cut the rubble pile after blowing it out of the hole. Rather, the material would remain in broken chunks scattered all over the landscape. The terrain surrounding Victoria is relatively clear of blast debris, though small, glassified spherules, dust and larger granules have piled up in regular patterns of layered ripples for hundreds of square kilometers. Victoria May have other secrets to reveal. The Mars Exploration Rover mission has been extended for two more years. Opportunity is sure to uncover more mysteries for science to explain. In the meantime, the latest data has provided us with years of research and a chance for greater insight into Martian morphology. By Stephen Smith
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Storm clouds over Uluru. Photographer unknown
Australia's Big Three

(Oct 1, 2007)
In the center of Australia are three of the strangest rock formations found on Earth. Were they formed in a slow, steady process of erosion, or did immense electric currents pull them together? Once again in our investigation of Earth's anomalous geography, hiding in plain site as it were, we find examples of what might have been concentrated electrical force applied over regions of continental dimension. In Australia's vast empty center are three giant tors that are astonishing for their size. They bear the marks of electric discharge machining and are associated with violent disruption over a wide area. Although Mount Augustus is sometimes considered the largest monolith in the world, it stands alone in its locale and is not closely associated with the big three. Previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles described structures in Africa and the United States that are very similar to those in Australia. Our conclusion was that they could be the result of highly energetic plasma discharges, so the Australian massifs May also be of electrical origin. The giant stones are also located in close proximity to one another. Their names and locations are: Uluru - 25 11' 10" S X 130 58' 32" E Mount Conner - 25 29' 48" S X 131 53' 56" E Kata Tjuta - 25 17' 46" S X 130 45' 46" E
From before the time of recorded history, the Australian Aboriginal people have considered this part of the country where the big three are located to be sacred. The land is inculcated in The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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their creation stories as the place where gods and planets intersected. Called the Dreamtime, it is the prehistoric period when life and humanity came into being and these formations played a major role. Many places are forbidden to outsiders and there is a growing movement that seeks to bring more of the Aboriginal lands back under their control. Of the three, Uluru (previously called Ayers Rock) is probably the most familiar. It has been romanticized in literature as well as analyzed in documentaries for many years. Yet, it continues to defy conventional explanation. Uluru is composed of conglomerated stones and gravel, cemented by a matrix of sandstone. It is 3.6 kilometers long by 2 kilometers wide and rises to 345 meters above the plain. On top, it displays striations with narrow ridges running parallel, along with crater chains and clusters of deep potholes in the "shotgun blast" shape often found in the "inverted terrain" of Patagonia. The overall shape of Uluru and the fractured topography surrounding it are suggestive of images sent from Mars orbit: scalloped edges, polygonal patterns cut into the rock, dunes, raised mounds, and small craters. The second structure among the three is Mount Conner, or Attila. It is eighty-eight kilometers east and slightly south of Uluru and can be distinguished in one view by its flat tabletop and horseshoe shape. In other views, the mountain resembles a fist or a great pile of gigantic, rounded sandstone blocks. Mount Connor is 859 meters above sea level and is 300 meters higher than the surrounding desert. Like its two cousins, the mountain is composed of similar sandstone conglomerate. Nearby are two ridges that extend in sweeping arcs for many kilometers on either side. It also possesses a rich Aboriginal history and cultural heritage. The last of the big three is Kata Tjuta (also called the Olgas), located 25 kilometers west of Uluru. Kata Tjuta is the largest of the three geologic anomalies, comprising 36 sandstone conglomerate domes. The highest point is Mt. Olga, rising to 546 meters. Like Uluru, it is sacred to the Anangu people and features predominantly in their spiritual rites even to this day. Covering 22 square kilometers, Kata Tjuta is the largest of the three monoliths. It is composed of the same sandstone matrix surrounding a conglomerate of rocks and gravel. Because these objects are so similar in size, shape and composition, it must be asked what forces could create them? The standard explanation is that they were formed from alluvial deposits laid down over eons of time, gradually forming sedimentary rocks. After hundreds of millions of years, the formations were exposed through erosion after wind and rain removed the overburden grain by grain. As we have written in past Pictures of the Day, there is the distinct possibility that these formations were created in a relatively short period of time not so long ago. The action of electric arcs moving through rock strata could have gathered all the materials extant in the Australian outback into these creations. Electromagnetic forces are generated when electricity flows and magnetic fields will ultimately compress the bits and pieces into a solid mass. Rocks, gravel and sand could become solidified blocks of sandstone conglomerate. By Stephen Smith
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Sorted banding of surface materials on Itokawa. Credit: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Particle Sorting on Asteroid Itokawa

(Oct 15, 2007)
Scientists report that impact vibrations are causing rocks and gravel on the surface to sort themselves by size. But is the mechanical vibration theory correct? On May 9, 2003, the Japanese space probe, Hayabusa, was launched from the Kagoshima launch facility toward the asteroid, 25143 Itokawa. Its planned mission was to land on the surface of the asteroid and return to Earth with a sample of the soil. The spacecraft did land on the asteroid, but due to some instrument malfunction, it was twice unable to gather samples. Despite the loss of telemetry from the spacecraft, however, Hayabusa did manage to take off and begin its return journey to Earth, due to arrive in 2010. Recent findings by a team of researchers from the University of Tokyo and the Arizona-based Planetary Science Institute announced that "regolith migration and sorting" is occurring on Itokawa. In close up images of the asteroid, the materials are aligned and segregated, with larger rocks sitting on top of smaller gravels. The stones and pebbles appear to congregate in bands along the surface as well, leaving some areas with a finer composition and others with an accumulation of larger fragments. As the asteroidsand cometslive their lives within the electric currents that pass between the stars, they exhibit similar formations and overall topography. As we have written in past Picture of the Day articles, some have craters so large that, if formed by impact, it is a mystery why they were not blown to pieces. There are also gouges and groves and parallel cliffs that defy conventional explanation. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The proposed mechanism for the granule separation effect is vibration from the impact of small meteors. The vibrations cause the granules to segregate from the shaking and form layers, with the heavier material on top, gradually decreasing in diameter and density toward the bottom and sides. Just as the raisins will rise to the top of a box of raisin bran when you shake it, the larger objects within Itokawa's loose surface deposits supposedly rise to the top from the repeated shocks. A previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day analyzed images from the Hayabusa spacecraft's high-resolution cameras and described the electrical nature of the asteroid's surface. Itokawa's makeup surprised the investigators, because it is far less dense than was expected. From the perspective of an Electric Universe model, however, the debris that characterizes many asteroids and comets can be easily explained. Electrical sorting could be taking place on Itokawa - very much like the sorting of Saturn's rings into thousands of bands. Small rock particles can float on an ionic 'wind' that moves them away from the area of strongest plasma flux density, so some areas of the asteroid are covered with fine particles. Larger pebbles and gravel could also be dragged along due to the conductive material in them and form debris fields that are perpendicular to the electric charges. Because many common materials also possess "semi-conductor" properties (silicon dioxide, for example), magnetic fields will attract them differently. Therefore, because of variations in electrical resistivity, it appears as if the granules on Itokawa's surface are being sorted by their ability to carry electric charges. By Stephen Smith
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Tiny craters in Meridiani Planum. Credit: NASA/JPL Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity
Mars in Miniature
(Oct 12, 2007)
Mars exhibits many formations whose shapes are independent of size. Could the scalar nature of electrical discharges be the reason? Previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles discussed the large dune fields on Mars, the channels carved into them and the craters with which they are associated. In many instances where standard geological and astrophysical theories have come to no conclusions, we have concluded that electricity is the one unifying factor that explains how they all May have formed. Most of the structures have been examined through the use of satellite imagery returned from orbital cameras, so there has been a need to look at the surface more closely. The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) B, Opportunity, has been surveying the Martian terrain for more than three years. On its way to the rim of Victoria crater, it rolled through fields of dark dunes and white, polygonal blocks of stone. The stone blocks have been dubbed "cobbles" or "pavement" because they are so flat compared to the undulating piles of gravel that surround them. The flat stones are unique in many respects: They are split in regular polygons with wide cracks that are most often filled with hematite "blueberries." They exhibit fractures that radiate in concentric arcs from what appear to be hollow impact zones. They appear to have been roughly etched, or eroded away on top, but the cracks have edges that are sometimes razor-sharp. Many are undercut. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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They seem to have been sliced off at ground level from large blocks composed of the same material. The big chunks also contain blueberries in great concentration. In the image at the top of the page, there is a small crater visible in the edge of a dune with another even smaller version further in the distance. The crater in the foreground is less than half a meter in diameter. The one in the background is less than three centimeters deep. Both craters are smooth and undistorted with rounded rims and no blast debris, so they can't be micro-meteor impacts. Criss-crossing the foreground crater are dark streaks. The edges of the dune are scalloped and striated. A closer look reveals that they are covered in small dendritic ridges. The dunes look compacted and solid, rather than wind-blown and frangible. The wheel tracks left by the MER have well-defined edges as if they rolled through damp sand. The grains are relatively large and uniform in size and are mostly iron oxide. The dunes are layered with light and dark bands. There are bright edges on many of the small ridges that lead down to etched channels.
It is unusual that dark hematite is so intimately bound up with white silicon-dioxide rock. Could there be a connection between silica and hematite? Could the same electric arcs that are thought to have carved the Red Planet transmute elements - reforming the atomic structure of silicon (with 28 particles in its nucleus) into that of iron (with 56)? In the space-based images of Mars there are craters measuring hundreds of kilometers in diameter with dune fields 800 meters high that have identical structure to these one-meter ripples. On Mars the large and the small, as well as the light and the dark are starkly defined. Are they two results of one cause? By Stephen Smith
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Artist's conception of Tyrannosaurus rex. Credit: The Field Museum. Painting by John Gurche
Tyrannosaurus Rex: Prima Ballerina

(Oct 10, 2007)
A recent announcement states that the huge carnivore could outrun the fastest man, sustaining speeds of thirty kilometers an hour for short periods - while perched on six toes. Scientists at the University of Manchester have reported calculations that indicate the massive meat-eater Tyrannosaurus rex was a much faster runner than was previously thought. According to Dr. Bill Sellers, a member of the university's Life Sciences department: "Previous research has relied on data from extant bipedal models to provide clues as to how fast dinosaurs could run. Such calculations can accurately predict the top speed of a six-tonne chicken but dinosaurs are not built like chickens and nor do they run like them. Our research involved feeding information about the skeletal and muscular structure of the dinosaurs directly into the supercomputer so it could work out how the animals were best able to move." For centuries, since the first taxonomic classification of a dinosaur skeleton, scientists have been debating unique aspects in their biomechanical construction and how they worked to keep the animals alive. One difficulty with dinosaur biomechanics was their tremendous weight and the effort required to move in a one-g gravity field. The average Tyrannosaurus rex was presumed to weigh approximately 6000 kilograms. That is almost as heavy as the heaviest elephant that has ever been recorded and should provide a scale on which to judge the athletic prowess of the dinosaur. Elephants have been reported to run at speeds of thirty kilometers an hour, although "run" is not precisely accurate. Elephants tend to move at what looks like a fast walk. Since they are the only animal with four knees and hardly any toes to speak of, their biomechanics could be considered the best way to support their massive weight. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The elephant requires four legs to distribute that weight and is hesitant to step down any incline steeper than thirty degrees or lower than two feet, evidently for fear of tripping. If an elephant were to fall over and roll down a small hill, it would be crushed by its own weight and die. Indeed, some larger specimens cannot get up, unaided, if they lie down. What does that mean for our giant, reptilian friend pictured at the top of the page? There she is, trumpeting her victory, one foot up with her chin in the air, apparently having just run down a smaller animal to eat. Could that image we all carry with us from childhood be a complete fantasy? Twenty-eight kilometers an hour is not fast compared to the speed of a bison that can run near sixty, or a bears fifty kilometers an hour. Indeed, the latest theoretical understanding of dinosaurs was that they were dynamic animals, with a well-developed ability to process oxygen in huge lungs and with warm blood. For an animal that stood as tall as three men, with twelve-inch-long, knife-like teeth, weighing as much as five horses, one would think such a creature was not made to slowly shuffle after its prey. How do we break this dilemma? On the one hand, there is a carnivorous, predatory animal that is only capable of what would appear to be a slow walk for its size - some research has suggested that they could not have run even as fast as eleven kilometers an hour - versus an animal that seems to have been more suited to an active, hunting lifestyle. In 1994, researcher Ted Holden conceived a brilliant solution to the problem by postulating the existence of a less powerful gravitational field during the time in which the dinosaurs lived. According to Holdens theory, the lower gravity meant that the appearance and behavior of the dinosaurs which is such a conundrum when they are placed in our current environment becomes completely normal and not unlike the behavior of animals built for one-g acceleration. Holden's problem was with the sauropod dinosaurs, some as big as twelve elephants, necks stretching twenty meters. His contention, after a careful scalar analysis based on muscle diameter and strength-to-weight ratios, was that the sauropods could not have supported their own weight let alone walked around, or lifted their heads off the ground. Holden referred to it in passing, but it seems as though Tyrannosaurus rex, carrying 6000 kilograms of weight on two legs and perched like a ballerina on her tiptoes, would have had the same problem. And let us not forget leaping on her prey, rolling with it to the ground, grappling it into her jaws and then getting back to her feet, without arms. If gravity's influence is controlled through an electric dipole effect, it should be more properly defined. It is not the intention of this paper to present an analysis of electric gravity except to propose that gravitational fields can change with a changing electromagnetic field. In the Electric Universe, gravity is not the warping of space-time that Einstein taught. Instead, it is a variable with many inputs that define its overall field of influence. As Henri Poincar wrote in Science and Method: "What we call mass would seem to be nothing but an appearance, and all inertia to be of electromagnetic origin." By Stephen Smith
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NGC 4550, part of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. Credit: University of Washington
NGC 4550: Galactic Bi-directionality

(Oct 09, 2007)
Counter-rotating stars and Newtonian dynamics provide galaxies with stable gravitational geometry, according to a recent publication. But is it electricity that determines galactic shapes and stability? Dr. Vera Rubin, the eminent astronomer and research scientist, was asked in the most recent issue of Physics Today to reflect on her discovery that NGC 4550 consists of stars that orbit in opposite directions within the galactic plane. Dr. Rubin writes: "I took the first spectrum of NGC 4550 at the PaloMar 200-inch telescope in 1989 with the double spectrograph...But from the first look at the spectrum, I had a vague sense that each stellar absorption line was double! After further study, I recognized that I had found a galaxy in which stars orbit, some clockwise, some counterclockwise, in the same disk...Our preliminary model suggested that shortly after the initial stellar disk of NGC 4550 formed, a substantial amount of captured gas settled to the plane...Yet we still do not understand its formation." Dr. Rubin interpreted NGC 4550's "double lines" as a velocity-induced Doppler-shift. This has convinced her and many others in the astronomical community that the galactic arms of NGC 4550 (and a few other galaxies) contain stars that are moving in counter-rotation to one another. It is as if there are two discs of material overlying each other, one moving east and one moving west. From the perspective of conventional astronomy that relies on gravitational theories of galaxy formation and rotation, the question of counter-rotating stars is a complete mystery. There is The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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no known mechanism that will allow this phenomenon other than influence from an external force. As the theory states, it is through the impetus of spinning gasses created from the collapse of a gigantic cloud of hydrogen that stellar motion arises. In NGC 4550, the stars that appear to be moving in the other direction are thought to have formed from another cloud of gas that "settled" onto the pre-existing galaxy. Since modern cosmogony demands that all structures we observe came about through the gravitational compression of a gas cloud, electricity is not considered when describing the unique formations and activity that are observed. Although no one knows how electricity flows through galaxies, it seems apparent that it does. In an electromagnetic field, induced by electric currents, particles with positive charges move in one direction and negative charges move in the other. Plasmaspheres exist around all objects in space, whether they be comets or galaxies, and they exhibit longitudinal and latitudinal electron flux, regardless of the directionality. In those circumstances, Birkeland currents begin to rotate, pinching themselves down into filaments. The stars are thought to appear as compressions in the ions flowing through the coaxial Birkeland filaments. The stars ignite as strings of pearls in complex new pinches. Multiple directions of current flow could mean that stars form with their orbits independent of the gravitational effects exerted by the galaxy. Their arc mode discharges could actually be shining along the filamentary sheets of Birkeland currents that energize the spiral arms of NGC 4550. As electrical theorist, Wal Thornhill has written: "Stars are formed efficiently in a cosmic plasma discharge known as a Z-pinch. A Zpinch electromagnetically scavenges diffuse matter over a large volume of space with a force that diminishes directly with distance, not the much weaker square of the distance due to gravity. The Z-pinch forms a string of separate plasmoids, which become stars. It is the Z-pinch effect that generates the intense winds seen coming from star forming regions. As the discharge weakens and becomes unstable the stars are scattered like buckshot from their linear arrangement. The initial linear configuration could explain why some nearby stars tend to have similar axial alignments to that of the Sun." Plasma physics as applied to cosmology and the evolution of galaxies is a relatively new paradigm. In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles, we have described how the theory of the Electric Universe May be applied to galactic morphology. In time, the theoretical science will gain confirmation through observation and new ideas will affect a shift in scientific reasoning. By Stephen Smith
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Comet McNaught. Photo by its discoverer, R. H. McNaught, Siding Spring Observatory
Comet McNaught Modulates the Solar Wind

(Oct 05, 2007)
A deceleration in the solar wind velocity has been detected by the Ulysses space probe. Could the electrical effects of a single comet be the cause? A recent announcement by the University of Michigan has astronomers wondering at the strong influence from comet McNaught on the velocity of the ionic bombardment emitted by the sun. Called the "solar wind," the steam of energetic ions is not really a wind but is primarily a collection of atoms whose electrons have been stripped from the nuclei, leaving positively charged particles. The charged particles are accelerated to high velocities approximately 750 kilometers per second within the solar system, radiating out in the direction of the sun's magnetic field. On October 6, 1990, the space shuttle Discovery launched the Ulysses spacecraft on a mission to study the sun's north and south polar magnetic fields. Because it is in an unusual orbit at such high latitudes, Ulysses encountered comet McNaught while it was passing near the planet Mars. Stretching approximately 160 million kilometers from its nucleus, the comet's charged tail seems to have reduced the solar wind velocity and caused a stir among scientists. According to Dr. Michael Combi, a University of Michigan space science professor: "This was very surprising to me. Way past the orbit of Mars, the solar wind felt the disturbance of this little comet. It will be a serious challenge for us theoreticians and computer modelers to figure out the physics." The Solar Wind Ion Composition Experiment (SWICS) found that the tail had slowed the solar The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive wind to half its normal speed. The solar wind would usually be about 700 kilometers per second at that distance from the sun, but inside the comet's ion tail, it was less than 350 kilometers per second.
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The physics are not so challenging to the proponents of an Electric Universe. Cometary ion tails always point away from the sun, because comets are the foci of electrical discharges in a weak, radial solar electric field. As they gradually move closer to the sun, their electric charges become increasingly negative with respect to the solar plasma. Comets lose mass in the form of extremely fine dust and negatively charged ions through a process called cathode sputtering, so their disturbance in the solar plasma is far greater than can be explained by inert objects. The negative charge in the comets and in their tails attracts nearby solar wind protons, decelerating them in the vicinity and causing an overall deceleration of the solar wind. Unfortunately, most astronomical investigators are unfamiliar with the electrical component to our sun's environment (and the environment of space itself), so they fail to explain the evidence. Said George Gloeckler, second author of a paper on the findings published October 1, 2007, in Astrophysical Journal: "The benefits of such an observation are important, they constrain the interactions of such comets with the sun, including how the comets lose mass. They also examine the question of how a sudden injection of neutral and cold material interacts with hot solarlike plasmas." As we have written in previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles, electrically neutral bodies do not exist in the universe. Mistaking plasma for hot gas and adhering to traditional gravity-only explanations is what prevents the proper understanding of comets and why they act the way they do. It also explains why the solar system continues to confound standard theories. By Stephen Smith
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Sixteen-kilometer-high equatorial ridge on Iapetus. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cassini-Huygens Mission
Iapetus Rising
(Oct 03, 2007)
The Cassini space probe recently made another close flyby of Saturn's strange, warped moon. Do these images confirm its electrical attributes? The closest images of Iapetus ever taken were recently sent to Earth from the Saturnian system. Cassini flew to within 5000 kilometers of its target, resolving features as small as ten meters. In our previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles about this enigmatic moon, the resemblance to some earthly formations was noted. Specifically, the physical appearance of Moqui Marbles found in the deserts of Utah. The striking similarity can be seen in the equatorial ridges that are visible on both - stone balls as big as small eggs and a moon hundreds of kilometers in diameter. Some places on Iapetus are coated with what appears to be frost, covering many kilometers. The material has not been identified as actual water ice, but that has been postulated as the most likely candidate. Scattered over the white background are dark splotches similar to those discovered on Hyperion and perhaps arising from the same source: Saturn's moon Phoebe, the blackest object in the solar system. In the close up views of Iapetus, more features have been identified that mark it as an anomaly in conventional circles. The surface is smooth as if it is composed of solidified bedrock with no breccias and little in the way of dust or pebbles. However, the abundant craters of every size are a sign that there has been some kind of activity violent enough to The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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resurface the entire moon. The shape of the craters as they rise up with the terrain is also distinctive. In a standard Newtonian impact scenario, craters should form as conical holes with a blanket of blast debris surrounding the rims, sorted from largest to smallest particles depending on distance from the explosion. On Iapetus, there is a decidedly different landscape. The craters are clean and most are found in collections, as if a shotgun blast struck the area. In locations where the topography has been tilted, such as near the gigantic mountains called the Himalayas of Iapetus, the craters are stretched and pulled as if they have been partially melted and then immediately reformed. They have flat bottoms and perpendicular walls, indications that they were cut into Iapetus by electric discharge machining (EDM) and not blasted out of it. Another distinctive indicator of EDM on the surface is the bright crater rims and the smaller craters surrounding the larger ones. As Cassini continues its exploration of Saturn and its many offspring, more discoveries and more evidence for the electrical scarring of planets and moons will be presented. By Stephen Smith
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The small town of Konari, Iran and the Mand River. Credit: Landsat-7 USGS
The Zagros Mountains, Iran

(Oct 01, 2007)
According to standard theory, wind and water are the only forces that can explain the features observed in this startling image. Could electricity have played a role? In our previous observations of the Earth's electrical scarring, the mountains of Patagonia, Shiprock, New Mexico, Lake Victoria and the Brandberg Massif all reveal features that closely resemble electric discharge machining, or EDM. One of the most dramatic examples of possible EDM on Earth is an area in southwestern Iran known as the Zagros mountains. Evidence of human habitation has been found there from as early as the Neolithic period. Archaeological teams from around the world have shown it to have been a major center of trade and political dominance for nearly as long as human history, itself, though the mountainous country is up to seven thousand meters high. Susa and Chogha Mish have been unearthed in modern Khuzestan, two cities that were important to the entire region as agricultural and financial districts. The Landsat-7 satellite, operated by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), has been mapping the Earth's resources and historical sites for many years taking the reins from its predecessors that first went up to space in 1972. Landsat-5, for example, has just completed its 125 thousandth orbit of the Earth. Many of our previous articles have made use of information provided by the Landsat series. Found in the region of the Zagros mountains are gigantic V-shaped ridges that extend for hundreds of miles. They are extant at every scale and are cleanly cut into the solid rock of the mountain range. In the image at the top of the page such features can be seen rising up from The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the valley floor in regular, tile-like patterns of polygonal steps each one describing an arc several hundred miles wide. Within the mountainous uplifts are hemispherical shapes that appear to be craters cut in half by titanic forces. In and of themselves, the Zagros mountains are exceptional geological formations that have been under reported for their distinctive nature, such as the "salt glaciers" that ooze from the mountain like plastic rock. However, there are other areas on Earth that display contours almost identical to those in Iran. Massanutten mountain, Virginia and the San Rafael Swell, Utah, each possess the characteristic dual-ridge valleys and arc-shaped headlands with radiating Lichtenberg figures seen in Iran. They are composed of giant, chevron-shaped blocks that suggest they were carved rather than molded by volcanism or eroded by wind and rain. More relevant is the proximity of the Zagros mountain range to the huge discharge trackway that has cut into southern Yemen. In the case of Massanutten mountain, Chesapeake Bay is practically identical in overall configuration, except that the Atlantic Ocean has occupied the scar of Chesapeake, while the one in Yemen retains its pristine appearance. Both Yemen and Virginia look like they were hit by lightning bolts as big as those cast by Zeus himself. Are the same cosmic thunderbolts responsible for excavating and sculpting the Zagros Mountains? By Stephen Smith
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Neptune's South Pole. Credit: NASA/JPL Voyager Mission
The Hot Pole(s) of Neptune

(Sep 28, 2007)
Neptune's south pole is hotter than the rest of the planet. Could the north pole be just as hot? In a recent announcement by the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), scientists studying the surface of Neptune with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) have discovered a ten degree Celsius temperature difference above the rest of the planet's deep cold. In the prestigious journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, Dr. Glenn Orton et al. write: "Radiatively-driven elevated temperatures at Neptune's south polar tropopause create an avenue for methane gas transport out of the troposphere where it is effectively segregated by coldtrapping elsewhere on the planet. This should establish a latitudinal distribution of stratospheric CH4 which peaks at the south pole. Its northward gradient will be shallow if the rate of the equatorward transport is more rapid than the rate of downward diffusion. This implies that the seasonally-driven methane leak will be located at its north pole some 80 years from now." In the standard model of solar system interaction with the sun, thermal radiation is the only mechanism available that can explain the heat coming from Neptune's pole. Because the scientific community does not possess the thermal emission spectra for Neptune from even as short a time as 40 years ago, they are limited to observational evidence collected by recent instrumentation. ESO's VLT, for example, was completed and put online in May of 1998. Neptune's northern summer will have to wait for another 80 years before it can be confirmed that methane is leaking from the north pole. Meanwhile, with measurements of the south-polar summer's methane and temperature variations, the cause is presumed to be the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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sun heating the entire hemisphere of a gas giant planet 49,500 kilometers in diameter from 4.486 X 106 kilometers away. Presumption would seem to require something more like amazement that such a tiny pinpoint of light in space - little more than a bright star from Neptune's perspective - could stimulate this large effect. Hot poles and intense electrical aurora have been detected on Saturn, Jupiter, Io, Enceladus and many other celestial objects within the solar system. In past Picture of the Day commentary, the various discharge effects have been shown to be charged plasma. The planets are constantly fed with electrical energy, as the Electric Universe theory posits. The influx of ions generates heat and light - very much like the aurora on Earth, except orders of magnitude larger. It is that connection with the solar heliopause that helps to generate the heating of Neptune's poles. Another significant observation that has not been included in the published theoretical model of Neptune's polar thermocline, however, is the "hot spots" that can be seen in higher latitudes moving through the stratosphere. The conventional explanation is dismissive in that it sees only the "upwelling of gas" from deeper within the giant planet. In a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day, we took notice of the mysterious white spots, three times larger than Earth, that sometimes appear in the upper atmosphere of Saturn. Our explanation then could be applicable to this observation of "hot spots" on Neptune: electric discharges. Massive lightning bolts could be going off deep below the clouds on Neptune, creating radio noise and colossal eruptions of ionized gas (plasma) into the upper reaches of its atmosphere. Such lightning discharges could create the electrical conduits, or Birkeland currents, that would allow a direct plasma connection from the planet to space. Thermal imaging equipment sees the tops of such currents coming up from below and interprets them as radiant heat. Because the phenomena we observe on Neptune have no analogue anywhere else in the solar system, according to ESO scientists, no explanation from conventional theory can be used to make sense of the data. Moving the confirmation of one's hypothesis out to 80 years from now, when Neptune's north pole comes into view, is not the most convenient way to test it. There is a better way to model planetary behavior without resorting to a constant barrage of ad hoc theories created while looking at the display screen. In the Electric Universe model of Neptune, "hot spots," "hot poles," winds blowing at a thousand kilometers an hour, confined bands of atmosphere with little internal turbulence, and many other actual observations would suggest that we are witnessing an electrically active planet that is part of the circuit connecting the sun and its plasma sheath, the heliopause. By Stephen Smith
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Galaxy ESO 137-001 with its 200,000 light-year-long tail Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/MSU/M.Sun et al; H-alpha/Optical: SOAR (MSU/NOAO/UNC/CNPq-Brazil)/M.Sun et al
The Tail of a Galaxy

(Sep 26, 2007)
Glowing hydrogen ions and x-ray light illuminate this image of a galaxy more than 200 million light-years from Earth. The helical tail and point-source symmetry seem to indicate a plasma instability of truly astronomical proportions. NASA and the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope recently announced the discovery of a galactic filament extending outward on a scale that has never before been observed. Said Ming Sun of Michigan State University: "This is one of the longest tails like this we have ever seen and it turns out that this is a giant wake of creation, not of destruction." Her colleague, Megan Donahue agrees. "This isn't the first time that stars have been seen to form between galaxies, but the number of stars forming here is unprecedented." It May be that the galaxy ESO 137-001 shown here is "plunging into" galactic cluster Abell 3627 and the speed of its passage May be "stripping gas" from it as it passes, but there is another force to consider that makes more sense of the observations than mere friction and gravitational interaction: electricity. As we have written in past Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles about galactic filaments, the cause and effect being observed in the Chandra and SOAR images are the helical Birkeland currents that form when electricity flows through dusty plasma in space. The "tail" in the above illustration was imaged in the wavelengths of optical light and x-ray emissions. According to the astronomers, newly created stars that have recently collapsed out The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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of the hydrogen gas cloud that ESO 137-001 disturbed and compressed are producing the xrays. Fusion has begun transmuting hydrogen into helium. As standard theory dictates, heat from gravitational compaction is more than enough to initiate the reaction. It is because of stellar fusion theory that scientists have been spending 50 years and billions of dollars building arcane devices, trying to replicate the process they believe is taking place in stellar cores. The inherent difficulty with the attempt is the instabilities that occur in plasma, naturally. Plasma under pressure and high temperature threatens to destabilize every microsecond. Some plasma toroid machines are trying to squeeze the beam of ions into a tightly confined, pencil-thin stream, so that it will sustain the temperatures necessary for atomic fusion. The problem that arises over and over again is akin to squeezing a bicycle innertube filled with air down into a smaller diameter. Because the pressure cannot be evenly applied to the entire innertube all at once, little bubbles keep popping out of the tube's sidewall. The same thing happens in plasma-beam confinement. The plasma keeps "popping out" of its magnetic "bottle" and contacting the chamber walls, whereupon the fusion reaction stops instantly. If the astrophysicists and astronomers would sit down together with electrical engineers and plasma physicists, they would understand that ESO 137-001 is exhibiting electric z-pinch effects because of the rotating Birkeland currents in the "tail." One of the hallmarks of plasma foci is that they glow in high-energy x-rays, gamma rays or ultra-violet, depending on how much current is available. They tend to form regions of extremely high density where the ions are actually forced together into "plasmoids" - doughnut-shaped bubbles that retain their individual shape. Such a thing could also be happening at the greatest scale imaginable: clusters of galaxies thousands of millions of light-years in extent, forming gigantic whorls of energetic ions suddenly igniting with the force of a star. Written by Stephen Smith from an idea contributed by Timothy Letendre
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Credit: NASA/Viking 1 Orbiter
Fantastic Phobos
(Sep 24, 2007)
Conventional theory states that Phobos has been marred by repeated meteor impacts, but could electricity have played a significant role? Phobos is the largest of the two moons of Mars. Deimos is so small that studying its surface has been problematic for astronomers because it cannot be readily observed from Earth. Only the Viking 2 orbiter captured close up images. Phobos, on the other hand, has been examined by Earth stations and by satellites sent to Mars orbit. In the image above, Stickney crater is visible - a ten kilometer-wide excavation that is nearly the size of Phobos. In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles, objects with craters almost as large as themselves have been discussed. As we pointed out, the "impact" craters should have blasted the asteroids into fragments, but little sign of the collisions is visible other than the craters. In the case of Phobos, the moon is 28 by 20 kilometers in size, so the crater is nearly half as big! By what scientific measure can we conclude that smashing the moon with an impact of that size will not destroy it? Some astronomers have reported that the striations and fracture lines evident around Stickney demonstrate that the moon did undergo severe shock and that it was distorted by the impact of whatever formed the crater. However, on closer examination it was revealed that the striations are, in reality, chains of small craters. No "fracture lines" are visible - no cracks as if from a titanic shock wave passing through the moon's body. In fact, the area surrounding the crater is rounded and smooth with no large blast debris (although the moon is covered with almost a meter of finely divided dust). Because Phobos is in the same size range as some asteroids such as Mathilde, Eros and Ida, and it exhibits features like the relatively gigantic craters that are endemic to those The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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bodies, what is the common event that creates such similar structures without obliterating the objects in the first place? The answer is electricity. In past reviews of Mars, for example, we have shown that it appears to have been immersed in a plasma flame sufficiently large to gouge out Valles Marineris, Olympus Mons and Arabia Terra in a relatively short period. Gigatons of rock and dust were literally ejected from the planet and thrown into space at escape velocity. Blocks of stone as large as Manhattan Island look like they fell from a great height and shattered on impact, leaving fields of enormous boulders with sharp, angular edges covering hundreds of square miles. Could it be that Phobos, Deimos, Ida and the rest are also the remnants of that overwhelming cataclysm? In our potential scenario, the thunderbolts that carved up Mars threw these big chunks of its crust into orbit, as well as into long ellipses around the sun. While ramming through the electrical fields involved with the EDM process, they were smoothed and eroded by the arcs. The result is that Phobos and the asteroids mentioned are covered in dust, have little or no large boulders, are defined by huge craters and look like they're half-melted. Phobos does have one unique boulder, but its placement and size are a distinct anomaly. In conclusion, Phobos and Deimos appear to be the remains of a catastrophic event that electrically devastated their parent planet, leaving them as wandering orphans forever looking down on what was once their home. By Stephen Smith
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Left: Martian "dunes." Right: Sikhote-Alin meteorite. Credit: Left: NASA/HiRise. Right: Russell Kempton
Exploding Bolides
(Sep 21, 2007)
Meteors sometimes detonate with forces approaching a nuclear blast as they flash through the atmosphere. Is it friction? Or does electricity play a role? In past Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles, we have written that many features found on Mars could be the result of electrical scarring. The source of the titanic thunderbolts that have excavated billions of tons of material from Mars remains inconclusive, but the discharging of electric arcs from above the surface appears to be the mechanism by which formations like the "dunes" of Proctor crater in the left-hand image are created. Because the Proctor crater "dune field" is approximately 50 kilometers long and 20 kilometers wide, the fact that it resembles the Sikhote-Alin meteorite is extraordinary. Since the Proctor crater formations are immobile structures that have not changed shape in five or more years of observation, it suggests that they are not wind-blown sand or dust. In fact, the solidity of the surface is remarkable, with large boulders and acres of pebbles scattered among the 800 meter high slopes. Another factor to consider is that both the "dunes" and the meteorite exhibit features that could be characterized as Von Karman Vortex Street instabilities. When electrically conductive plasma passes over a solid surface, it will sometimes form distinctive patterns that are similar to those found in fluid dynamic experiments. The plasma "sticks" to the exterior of whatever is experiencing the ion flux and carves more deeply for a few milliseconds (or minutes depending on scale), leaving the representative impression of its passage fossilized into the object or landform. It May be that the plasma acts in ways that are The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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similar to the auroral curtains here on Earth, except that they hang low enough for their wavering, lambent flame to begin electric discharge machining (EDM) of whatever they are touching. In that same way, as a meteor makes contact with the Earth's giant electric circuit, it begins to experience plasma flow instabilities on its exterior, while the current surge penetrates the nickel-iron core. The meteor acts as a conductor for the electric fields, thus building up a huge potential as it penetrates deeper into the electromagnetic vortex of our planet. If the current flow becomes too extreme, the metallic matrix of the meteor will destabilize and the crystals will breakdown in a violent outburst of electricity. The meteor is now called a "bolide," or flaring meteor. Bolides are observed to begin their flare-ups at very high altitude, far above the atmospheric density that could possible initiate a friction-based heating and spalling of their substance. Recent announcements by Chinese investigators have confirmed that some bolides begin to glow at an altitude of 200 kilometers! By any measurement there is insufficient atmospheric density that high in the mesosphere - it is for all intents and purposes a practical vacuum, except for electrically conductive plasma. Our understanding of plasma behavior is limited to historically recent discoveries by brilliant men and women. Dr. Anthony Peratt has made significant advancements in that understanding in just the last ten years, so it should not be too surprising that the information has not been disseminated as thoroughly within the scientific community as it should. Perhaps in time, the impact of plasma dynamics will be felt and acknowledged by those who have hitched their wagons to the notion of mechanical action as the only force acting on space-borne bodies. By Stephen Smith
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The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram by stellar temperature, color and luminosity. Credit: Mike Bolte, University of California, Santa Cruz
Old Star, New Star, Red Star, Blue Star

(Sep 17, 2007)
Does a star's color determine its age? Or does the electrical input flowing through galactic circuits determine how brightly they shine? Dr. Donald Scott has recently published a book, The Electric Sky, in which he takes a new look at the plot of stars on the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram. Dr. Scott writes that the mass, temperature and luminosity of stars are not the only factors to consider in how they present themselves or how they came into existence in the first place. According to standard theory, the "stellar main sequence" is a chart of what happens to the stars over time. From their formation in the gravitational collapse of a 'nebular cloud' to their deaths from heat loss or explosion in supernovae, the stars can be plotted and their characteristics codified through observation of brightness, redshift and total mass. No information as to the electrical input or output of the stars is considered when the various conventional theories are debated. However, not bringing the electrical interaction of stars with their galactic environment into the picture leaves an entire line of investigation fallow. Because astronomers and other specialists are not mapping the current flow through space and determining its influence on stellar evolution, they have seriously overstated the case for the gravitational model of the cosmos. As Dr. Scott has written: "In the ES [Electric Star] model, perhaps the most important factor in determining any given star's characteristics is the strength of the current density in Amperes per square meter (A/m2) measured at that star's surface. If a star's incoming current density The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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increases, the arc discharges on its surface (photospheric tufts) will get hotter, change color (away from red, toward blue), and get brighter. The absolute brightness of a star, therefore, depends on two things: the strength of the current density impinging into its surface, and the star's size (the star's diameter). Therefore, we add another scale to the horizontal axis of the HR diagram: Current Density at the Star's Surface." There are stars that violate the standard model of stellar evolution. Stars that are too cool and too small for atomic fusion to take place in their cores have caused astronomical researchers to scramble for explanations. Since stars are supposed to have a mass of at least 75 times that of Jupiter for fusion reactions to occur, another speculative mechanism for what powers them has been suggested: gravitational collapse. In other words, gravity is pulling the cold, dark star into greater compaction, which must be what is creating the additional heat and xray emissions. On July 11, 2000, the Chandra observatory detected x-rays being generated by a small brown dwarf star. As U.C. Berkeley professor Gibor Basri wrote: "[The flare] could have its origin in the turbulent magnetized hot material beneath the surface of the brown dwarf. A sub-surface flare could heat the atmosphere, allowing currents to flow and give rise to the X-ray flare - like a stroke of lightning." Professor Basri has, perhaps, come closer than anyone else in the conventional community toward comprehending what the Electric Star theory elucidates. For such a 'cold', small object to emit x-ray light, a huge electric discharge is required! Dr. Don Scott once more: "In the ES [Electric Star] model, there is no minimum temperature or mass requirement. If a brown/red dwarf is operating near the upper boundary of the dark current mode, any slight increase in the level of current density impinging on any portion of the surface of that star will shift this plasma into the normal glow mode. This transition will be accompanied by a rapid change in the voltage rise across the plasma of the star's upper atmosphere. Maxwell's equations tell us that such a change in voltage can produce a strong dynamic electric field and a strong dynamic magnetic field. If they are sufficiently intense, dynamic electromagnetic fields will produce xrays." In conclusion, young stars might be red stars and old stars might be blue. The critical component in the equation is the current density flowing into them from inter and extragalactic space. By Stephen Smith
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Galaxy Cluster CL0024+17 with an overlay showing a supposed dark matter ring. Credit: NASA, ESA, M. J. Jee and H. Ford et al. (Johns Hopkins University)
Dark Understanding of Matter

(Sep 14, 2007)
Images from the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed a so-called "ring of dark matter" circling a galaxy cluster. Does dark matter exist? Or is electricity a better explanation for the structure of the universe? In a recent announcement, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) reported the discovery of something in deep space that seems to confirm previously inferred observations of "dark matter." Although "dark matter" cannot be seen or detected by instruments, its existence has been hypothetically considered a necessary aspect of cosmology because, as ESA scientists put it: "Our own galaxy should have fallen apart by now," said Frederic Bournaud, an astrophysicist with the French Atomic Energy Commission (Commissariat a l'energie atomique). "So dark matter - this unseen force - is somewhere keeping it glued together." The gravitational force exerted by this unseen and undetectable material is sustaining not just our galaxy, but all galaxies. Astronomers have long been dismayed by the lack of matter that can be observed in the visible universe. According to conventional theories, it was the "big bang" that brought all matter and energy - including gravity - into existence, so their postulates about dark matter must fit within the confines of that hypothesis. Every modern cosmological theory has the "big bang" at its core. For many years, investigators tried to reconcile the lack of mass, particularly in galaxy clusters, with the expansion of the universe and the acceleration of that expansion. There is, apparently, not enough gravity available in observed matter to account for the excess speed and the consolidation of both individual galaxies and their bunching together. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In 1933, Fritz Zwicky was studying the Coma Cluster of galaxies and found that his calculations for orbital acceleration and stellar mass within it was off by a factor of about 160. He concluded that there must be something invisible to his instruments somewhere within the cluster that was holding it together. His hypothesis was supposedly confirmed in 1979 with the discovery of 'gravitational lensing' (another theory of Dr. Zwicky) and the "twin quasar" QSO0957+561 A. In the image at the top of the page, the blue rays are actually a map of distortions in the shape of the galaxies within the cluster. The distortions are like ripples on the surface of a lake, according to astronomers. As the ripples shift over the stones and plants, they cause their shapes to deform because the light from above passes through regions of varying density. In the same way, NASA scientists think, the ripples in a dark matter halo are what is passing through CL0024+17. This conclusion is an artifact of Zwicky's "gravitational lensing"; since it is actually instability in the gravitational presence of unseen matter that is supposedly, 'bending light' around and through the galactic cluster over five billion light-years away. Since "dark matter" is unseen and undetectable and can be analyzed through inference alone, could it be that something else is taking place? Something that NASA and the ESA observers have failed to consider as an active force? That "something" is electricity. Because "there is electricity in space, but it doesn't do anything" is the mantra of current cosmological and astrophysical theories, then the mysteries of the universe will continue to rely on explanations that seem to have more basis in fantasy than reality. From the perspective of the Electric Universe theory, the clusters of galaxies, the galaxies themselves and their associated stars are all driven by electric currents flowing in dusty plasma over immeasurable distances. Birkeland currents create z-pinch compression zones between the spinning magnetic fields in the electrical vortex. The compressed ions form spheres of glowing plasma - some in arc mode, some in glow mode and some with variability between the two states. Circuits of electricity pouring into them from outside power the stars and galactic wheels. What should we expect to see in their shapes and behavior in that case? Around the galaxies and throughout the cluster will be Birkeland filaments that slowly fluctuate in their intensity, causing mass density variations that might be interpreted as gravitational effects. The plasma in which the galaxies exist creates radial magnetic fields as the current flows, interconnecting each galaxy with its neighbor and forming electrical bridges between them. Double layers form in plasma as the electrical charges isolate themselves from one another. They May break down if too much current flows in the circuit. In that instance, there will be a "supernova." Around the galaxies and clusters will be toroids, or rings of charged plasma. They are detectable in extreme ultra-violet, x-ray and gamma ray light.
In the Hubble image of galaxy cluster CL0024+17, all of those phenomena May be witnessed. There is no need to resort to things that do not exist in order to explain the things that do exist. By Stephen Smith
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The plaque attached to Pioneer 10 now billions of miles from the sun. Credit: NASA/JPL
The Pioneer Anomaly

(Sep 12, 2007)
Scientists have found a small but significant deceleration in the Pioneer spacecraft as it makes its way through interstellar space. What could be slowing it down? For the last three years, NASA analysts have reported a slow but steady "tug" on the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft as they head outward in opposite directions from the sun. Based on the gravity-only model of the universe under which observational research is constrained, the research team has no explanation for what has been termed the "Pioneer Anomaly." Pioneer 10 was launched from Cape Canaveral on March 2, 1972 on a primary flyby mission to Jupiter. It was the first spacecraft to reach Jupiter and return close up images of the giant planet. Its last signal was received on January 23, 2003 when it was almost 8 billion miles from Earth. Until the faster moving Voyager 1 space probe overtook it, Pioneer 10 was the most remote object man-made object in space. Pioneer 11 was launched April 5, 1973, on a similar mission, except that it was sent in the opposite direction to the sun's motion through the galaxy. Unlike Pioneer 10, which moved into a trajectory taking it upward and out of the plane of the ecliptic, Pioneer 11 headed for Saturn and the more remote regions of the solar system, passing within 21,000 kilometers of Saturn's cloud tops. On November 30, 1995, Pioneer 11 reached the end of its power supply and was silenced forever. The effect that concerns NASA scientists is the distance calculations for both probes. Each appears to be off course by several hundred thousand kilometers and no one can quite figure out why. Suggestions for the cause of the observed deceleration have been illuminating: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive Dark matter is acting like a friction medium, creating drag. Multi-dimensional space is acting on the probes in ways that are not understood. Gravity is not behaving as theory suggests it should behave. Dark energy is being observed in its anti-gravitational activity. A new hypothesis called, "quantum kinetics" theorizes that sub-atomic forces are acting on the probes in unexpected and undetectable ways.
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In a previous Picture of the Day article about WMAP and the cosmic microwave background, we wrote that the "hole in space" astronomers have detected is nothing more than an illusion resulting from theories that advocate a big bang cosmology. In the case of the Pioneer anomaly, a similar intellectual blindness is overwhelming the ability for conventional observers to see what is actually happening. As the litany of "possibilities" grows more esoteric, they move ever more distant from the truth of the matter: electric currents in space. Doppler shift methodology is used in the Pioneer 10 observations. Every so often, microwave signals are beamed at the spacecraft in order to time the return signal. The distance the probe has traveled can be determined through time-speed-distance calculations. The discrepancy amounts to a tiny but measurable amount. According to our current 'understanding' of gravity, over the last 34 years both Pioneer 10 and 11 should have traveled more that 400,000 kilometers further than they have actually flown. As NASA investigator Slava Turyshev states: "This inability to explain the anomalous acceleration of the Pioneer spacecraft with conventional physics has contributed to the growing discussion about its origin." However, as long ago as March 20, 2002, electrical theorist, author and speaker Wal Thornhill wrote: "After launch, a spacecraft accepts electrons from the surrounding space plasma until the craft's voltage is sufficient to repel further electrons. Near Earth it is known that a spacecraft May attain a negative potential of several tens of thousands of volts relative to its surroundings. So, in interplanetary space, the spacecraft becomes a charged object moving in the Sun's weak electric field. Being negatively charged, it will experience an infinitesimal "tug" toward the positively charged Sun. Of most significance is the fact that the voltage gradient, that is the electric field, throughout interplanetary space remains constant. In other words, the retarding force on the spacecraft will not diminish with distance from the Sun. This effect distinguishes the electrical model from all others because all known force laws diminish with distance. The effect is real and it will have a fundamental impact on cosmology and spacecraft navigation because Pioneer 10 has confirmed the electrical model of Stars!" By Stephen Smith
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Left: human stem cells. Right: Tycho supernova remnant. Credit: Left: Ping Wu, M.D., Ph.D. University of Texas. Right: NASA/CXC/Rutgers/J. Warren & J. Hughes et al. Chandra observatory.
Bio-plasma Physics Anyone?

(Sep 10, 2007)
Irving Langmuir coined the word "plasma" to refer to an ionized gas, because the way in which the electrified fluid carries ions and electrons reminded him of how blood plasma carries red and white corpuscles. Regular readers of the Thunderbolts Picture of the Day will recall our comparison of living plasma with the electrified, space-borne kind. Perhaps the analogy is more serendipitous, or maybe even inspired, than we might imagine. The right-hand image at the top of the page is the remnant of the giant Tycho supernova. On November 11, 1572, Tycho Brahe, the eminent Danish astronomer, first noticed the "new star" (stella nova) in the constellation Cassiopeia. The luminosity of the celestial wonder was intense enough to rival the brightness of Jupiter, eventually reaching the intensity of the planet Venus in the night sky. The shell of expanding material is about 20 light years across, five times the distance from Earth to the nearest star. The left-hand image was obtained with an inverted light microscope displaying a group of human neural stem cells around 10 nanometers in diameter, or about .000000001 meters. Without the image credits who could tell which is which? The supernova is approximately 10 trillion trillion times larger than the cells, or 1025 times. In 1986, Hannes Alfvn first suggested that electrified plasma might be scalar: "The basic properties of a plasma are likely to be the same in different regions of cosmic plasmas. The linear dimensions of plasma vary by 1027 in three jumps of 109." Earlier in his career, in 1979, Hannes Alfvn also wrote: "Space in general has a 'cellular structure [with] regions of different magnetization, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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density, temperature, electron velocity distribution and even chemical composition. Examples are: the magnetopause and magnetotail sheets, the heliospheric equatorial sheet." While Alfvn was not referring to actual biological cells, the shape of the supernova remnant would have come as no surprise. In a May 2000 issue of the American Journal of Physics, Mituo Uehara et al, authored a paper in which they suggested that plasma physics should be considered a part of biological investigation. "Plasma physics can be useful in the investigation of the physical properties of living cells. Concepts like charge neutrality, Debye length, and double layer are very useful to explain the electrical properties of a cellular membrane. It is hoped that examples of physics applications to biology can be useful in giving students of physics courses new motivations to study physics and to carry out interdisciplinary studies." So, do astrophysicists have anything in common with cell biologists? They do in the electric plasma universe. Contributed by Ian Tresman
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A galaxy plot indicating the theoretical "cold dark matter" structure of the universe out to 1.8 billion light-years. Credit: M. White, University of California, Berkeley.
Holes in Space
(Sep 04, 2007)
In the gravitational model of the universe, "dark matter" attraction pulls galaxies into filaments. Birkeland currents could be a better explanation. A recent announcement in the astronomical journals and popular press identifies an area of space as a "huge hole" completely empty of matter and energy. "Not only has no one ever found a void this big, but we never even expected to find one this size," said researcher Lawrence Rudnick of the University of Minnesota. The hole isn't really a hole, it is an area of space where the temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is lower than the surrounding region. Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson inadvertently discovered the CMB in 1965 in the now fabled experiment where they detected noise in the signal coming from a radio receiver they were building. After cleaning out pigeon nests from the horn of the radio receiver and rewiring the system from top-tobottom, the noise persisted. Finally, after weeks of investigation into the cause, the noise was identified as coming from every region of the sky and not from their receiver. The "noise" was later to be called the "remnant signal from the beginning of the universe" because it appeared to be radiating uniformly at a microwave frequency corresponding to a temperature of 2.7 degrees above absolute zero (- 275.7 degrees centigrade). Since the expanding universe theory had been popularized by Gamow in 1948 as an initial zero-point energy field inflating into the space-time that we experience today, the electromagnetic energy created in that event should have cooled and dimmed over the billions of years since it came into being. The discovery by Penzias and Wilson confirmed the hypothesis (as well as several other competing hypotheses). The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Now, after analyzing data from the Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico, a drop in temperature has been detected. According to the "redshift-equals-distance" theory, the "void" extends for almost a billion light-years. "Although our surprising results need independent confirmation, the slightly colder temperature of the CMB in this region appears to be caused by a huge hole devoid of nearly all matter roughly 6 to 10 billion light-years from Earth," Rudnick said. The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) was launched June 30, 2001, from Cape Canaveral in an attempt at understanding some unusual telemetry returned by the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite in 1992. Temperature fluctuations appeared in the data, which seemed to mission specialists as if there were regions of lower mass density in the universe. Since the Big Bang theory did not account for such areas of anisotropy matter and energy should be evenly distributed - an instrument was manufactured with higher resolution detectors. The WMAP survey verified COBE's results. The Electric Universe (EU) theory has an entirely different way of addressing these matters. It does not rely on unseen and undetectable matter whose existence can only be inferred. It does not violate its own gravitational cosmology by inventing an anti-gravity force so that galactic acceleration can be explained. Instead, EU theory states that what we see in the universe is what we get. The electric currents flowing through ionized gas and dust provide the energy for the stars and present themselves in straightforward and understandable ways without resorting to arcane sophistry. As author and EU theorist Wal Thornhill points out: "If Arp and others are right and the Big Bang is dead, what does the Cosmic Microwave Background signify? The simplest answer, from the highly successful field of plasma cosmology, is that it represents the natural microwave radiation from electric current filaments in interstellar plasma local to the Sun. Radio astronomers have mapped the interstellar hydrogen filaments by using longer wavelength receivers. The dense thicket formed by those filaments produces a perfect fog of microwave radiation - as if we were located inside a microwave oven. Instead of the Cosmic Microwave Background, it is the Interstellar Microwave Background. That makes sense of the fact that the CMB is too smooth to account for the lumpiness of galaxies and galactic clusters in the universe." So, in reality, there is no temperature fluctuation from the earliest days of the universe. There is no CMB and there is no anti-gravity accelerating matter in the distant cosmos to almost the speed of light. Birkeland currents flowing through plasma in mega-parsec filaments ignite the stars and form spinning galactic pinwheels as far out as our instruments can see. By Stephen Smith
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The Crab Nebula pulsar, a theoretical neutron star. Credit: NASA/CXC/ASU/J. Hester et al.
Stars that Bend Time

Aug 31, 2007
A University of Michigan press release announces "warped space-time" around a socalled "neutron star." Could electricity provide a better explanation? The smeared lines of an iron spectrum have given NASA and University of Michigan astronomers another mystery to solve when it comes to explaining the universe. Using the XMM-Newton and the JAXA/NASA x-ray observatories, high-velocity particles in orbit around Serpens X-1 seem to indicate relativistic effects. According to Sudip Bhattacharyya of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center: "This is fundamental physics. There could be exotic kinds of particles or states of matter, such as quark matter, in the centers of neutron stars, but it's impossible to create them in the lab. The only way to find out is to understand neutron stars." Part of what they are trying to understand is the observation of spectral lines from "hot iron atoms" that appear to be orbiting close in to the surface of the neutron star. As interpreted by conventional theory, the spectra indicate that some of the material is moving at over 40 percent light-speed. Since iron atoms glow at certain optical frequencies when heated to their incandescent state, there should be dark lines within the specular distribution of the color bands. Called Fraunhofer lines, they mark places within the spectrum of any material where the emission energy is absorbed, leaving a dark line within the band of color generated by a prism. Because Fraunhofer lines are supposed to occur at specific frequencies identified in the spectrum by the kind of element that is being absorbed, if they are in a different location, then they have been Doppler-shifted because of their acceleration. This forms the backbone of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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galactic-scale distance calculations and the supposed speed of recession that the galaxies display. Using this system of "redshift" some galaxies are measured to be moving away from Earth at an unbelievable 90 percent of light-speed. The velocity assumption is derived from a gravity-only version of the cosmos. A supermassive object composed of tightly packed neutrons is the only mechanism that could provide the gravitational strength needed for the iron ions to achieve such fast orbits. In a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day, an analysis of neutron stars revealed that the science behind their hypothetical existence does not support the very idea of such objects. As we have previously written, a foundational concept in nuclear physics is the "island of stability." Plotting the number of neutrons against the number of protons in the nuclei of all elements demonstrates that the ratio is about one-to-one for light elements and one-point-five-to-one for the heavy ones. An atomic nucleus outside the range will spontaneously decay so that it reaches a stable configuration and remains in equilibrium. If there are too few neutrons, the atom will emit protons in order to stabilize and vise-versa. A nucleus - or star - composed of neutrons alone would be completely unstable and would immediately decay. The hot iron that has been found around the Serpens X-1 stellar phenomenon is most likely the result of electrical discharge action on and around the star. Stars exist as anodes in a galactic circuit that causes the majority of them to blaze in arc mode. No "millions of continuous H-bomb explosions" are taking place at the core and the observational data leads to the conclusion that they are actually giant balls of plasma. The information gleaned from the Hinode spacecraft and other science experiments observing the sun has confirmed that understanding. If we continue to invent ad hoc conjectures to save theories that do not directly explain new observations, then we will never discover the true nature of the "thunderbolt that steers the heavens." By Stephen Smith
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Thousands of sorted bands in Saturn's rings. Credit: NASA/JPL
Saturn's Plasma Ring

(Aug 29, 2007)
A toroid of charged particles around Saturn could indicate electrical discharges from the planet. In a recent press release about Cassini's unusual findings in its exploration of Saturn, NASA officials announced the discovery of "hot particles" surrounding the planet in a toroid, or doughnut-shaped, ring. The most peculiar aspect to their findings was that it is not symmetrical. "It's curious that Saturn's ring current isn't symmetric," said Don Mitchell, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University who helped examine the images beamed back to Earth. "We think the solar wind is squishing the sunward side of the ring current, kind of like a wind sock." A similar torus of particles surrounds Earth with electrons moving eastward and positive ions moving to the west. These charged particles are, in reality, plasma and the motion around the Earth constitutes an electric current. The 'doughnut' of plasma around Saturn is the same effect. According to the press release, planets with magnetic fields can trap hot particles to form giant electrified clouds. However, as we have noted in these pages, from an electric universe perspective, the warm rilles and hot poles of Saturn's moon Enceladus are electrically heated and vapor is being electrically "machined" from where the current flowing through it returns to Saturn's sheath circuit. The oxygen and hydrogen in the water vapor are probably what feeds charged particles into Saturn's plasmasphere. NASA scientists have noticed the "bending" of Saturn's magnetic field around Enceladus "due to electric currents generated by the interaction of atmospheric particles and the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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magnetosphere of Saturn." But their blind spot with regard to plasma behavior leads them to insist that the electric currents "don't do anything." The distortion of the torus on the sunward side indicates that an electrical (not mechanical) effect is occurring between Saturn and the sun. By referring to it as a "wind sock," Cassini mission specialists are betraying their ignorance of electricity in space " especially the currents that flow through space-borne plasma. Electrical theorist Don Scott comments: "Yes they refuse to acknowledge that moving electrical charges constitute an electric current (there are no 'wind socks' in space). There is a significant density of electrons and ions in 'empty' space however. Magnetic fields do not trap 'hot' particles any better than they do cold particles. When did you ever see a bar magnet attract cigarette smoke, for example? Magnetic fields can only affect streams of electric charges (currents)" Another of the distinctive features thought to be "mysterious" by the data analysts is a clump of electrified particles synchronized with the planet's rotation. "Saturn is a big fast rotator. The clump seems loosely hooked to the planet, yet rotates with it," Mitchell said. "It May be connected with Saturn's ring current, but we just don't know. This is something we're working very hard to figure out." Don Scott comments once more: "I wish them luck. I do feel they would stand a better chance of it if they would drop the 'wind sock' mindset and begin to recognize how magnetic and electric fields interact with streams of charge. Nearby electric current can distort a magnetic field. A congestion of electric charge May be due to a concentrated electric field along some particular radius vector emanating up from the planet." Every so often Saturn breaks out with a 'great white spot' three times larger than Earth. Standard models of Saturn and a gravity-only cosmos cannot explain such a periodic outburst, but an intense lightning discharge deep in the atmosphere could cause vertical jets very similar to the sprites in Earth's upper atmosphere. Electrical effects and its connection to the current flow in the solar system can explain most of the effects that Cassini and other science packages have discovered on and around Saturn. As we reported in a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day: "The solar cycle connection explains not only the changes in lightning patterns on Saturn, but also the expanded magnetosphere and the (now) missing spokes. The higher electrical stress throughout the solar system in 1980/1981 would have compressed Saturn's magnetosphere and created the dark spokes. (The spokes revolved to the tune of Saturn's magnetic field rather than to gravity's rules, suggesting they were electrical discharges across the rings. And each separate spoke began when Saturnian "dawn" reached the longitude associated with the long-lasting equatorial storm.) The lower stress of solar minimum allows the magnetosphere to relax, the spokes to fade, and the "storms" to migrate toward higher latitudes." By Stephen Smith
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Mira: The Tale of a Giant Star

(Aug 27, 2007)
The light-years long plume of ionized gas from this red giant star provides evidence suggesting its electrical nature. NASA launched the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) spacecraft on April 28, 2003 from the Cape Canaveral launch facility in southern Florida. Equipped with advanced near and ultraviolet detectors, GALEX was scheduled to remain in orbit for about 29 months studying galaxies in the hundreds of thousands. The mission has been extended and GALEX continues to return images such as the one of Mira, a red-giant star with a trail of material extending from it for about 13 light-years. In previous Thunderbolts Pictures of the Day, several different kinds of objects with long "tails" have been considered. From galactic-scale objects such as Centaurus A, to hot-bright stars, to planets, to comets it seems as if everything we study exhibits an energetic component that is very difficult, if not impossible, to explain according to conventional theories. It seems as if every new observation requires a new piece be added to the theory, or a revision, or an admission of complete bafflement. It is the heart of science to say, "I don't know" and then proceed from that platform of ignorance into discovery. NASA scientists say, "we know how the universe works - it's gravity, baby and that's it." Or, "there is no electricity in space and even if there were, it isn't doing anything," as one correspondent claimed. Except that the things and events they record with their instruments deny such assertions. Mira is a case in point. The star, Mira, is in reality a pair of stars orbiting a common center: a binary star. Mira A is a red giant star and Mira B is most likely a white dwarf, or perhaps a more normal star in the sequence, the data is still being considered. Mira A is a variable star and was the first one discovered that was not the remnant of a "supernova" explosion. As has The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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been previously considered in these pages, such double stars (and other multiple star systems) are indicators that excessive electrical charge has resulted in stellar fissioning. The same process can also explain the supernova phenomenon, except on a more dramatic scale. As stated by NASA in the news release about Mira: "'I was shocked when I first saw this completely unexpected, humongous tail trailing behind a well-known star,' said Christopher Martin of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. 'It was amazing how Mira's tail echoed on vast, interstellar scales the familiar phenomena of a jet's contrail or a speedboat's turbulent wake.' Martin is the principal investigator for the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, and lead author of a Nature paper appearing today [August 15, 2007] about the discovery ..." Once again, the investigative team ignores the most all-pervasive component to our galaxy-plasma. Plasma makes up 99% of all that we see in the universe. In a plasma tube, electrons can be excited by the current flow into florescence and give off ultraviolet light. The mission team at NASA thinks the high-frequency emissions are from another source: "Astronomers think hot gas in the bow shock is heating up the gas blowing off the star, causing it to fluoresce with ultraviolet light. This glowing material then swirls around behind the star, creating a turbulent, tail-like wake. The process is similar to a speeding boat leaving a choppy wake, or a steam train producing a trail of smoke." According to Martin, et al there is a far-ultraviolet spectrum as well, and it means something else in addition to fluorescence: "The process providing the best fit to the grism image is H2 emission. It also produces no detectable counterparts at other wavelengths. The far-ultraviolet emission cannot be fluorescence of H2 excited by the ambient interstellar ultraviolet radiation field because this fails to produce the observed brightness by more than a factor of seven. Rather, we propose that the emission is excited collisionally by the interaction of H2 in the cool wind wake with hot electrons in the post-shock gas resulting from the bow shock that also entrains and decelerates the wind." Preferring to explain the energetic emission of ultra-violet light and the expulsion of what for all intents and purposes is a jet of material being ejected from Mira as "speedboat wakes" and "contrails" and "smoke'" they miss important clues about what is actually causing both manifestations: electrical transmission across vast distances through Birkeland currents in ionized, dusty plasmas. Since wakes, contrails and smoke all tend to spread out as they move away from the source, the tail streaming back from Mira cannot be a mechanically produced phenomenon. Mira's tail is highly organized along its entire 13 light-year length into what appears to be a twisted helix, an indication that it May indeed be a Birkeland current. By Stephen Smith
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Gigantic cycloid rilles on Jupiter's moon Europa. Credit: NASA Voyager II
The Expanding Earth Debate - Part Three

(Aug 24, 2007)
New conjectures about Earth expansion and crustal deformation of Jupiter's moon Europa have been offered in favor of the "expanding Earth" theory. But what has actually happened to Europa? As we continue to investigate the two main theories of continental formation currently under discussion on various message boards and in several science forums around the net, some May notice that we are deliberately ignoring several concepts. The "hollow Earth" hypothesis, theoretical mirror-matter creation, electro-gravity and other detailed aspects to the Expanding Earth theory are not germane on this level. In future Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles, we will consider the electrical nature of gravity and other suppositions. Visual artist Neal Adams has produced a short video in which he attempts to prove Earth expansion using the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa as a template. Adams believes that the "fit" of Europa's blocks of surface material along the edge of giant rifts extending for hundreds of kilometers demonstrates the principle. Because S. Warren Carey affected no concern for the means by which the Earth expands, Adams has proposed a new idea in which he details how matter is created and added to the volume of our planet and, presumably, other planets. At this stage of our examination, we will use the video created by Neal Adams as primary documentation and address its problems and assumptions directly. First, the video clip does not put the images in perspective with the rest of the terrain. The large swaths that cover the surface of Europa are characterized by features that cannot be The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive attributed to spreading - spreading from some kind of tectonic activity notwithstanding. 1. They all exhibit braided formations at varying scale. Nothing in the geomorphology of deep-mantle zones can explain braided topography. 2. The curvilinear sweep to the swaths suggests the sinusoidal track of electric discharges rather than canyons that were formed by cracks in an expanding crust. Similar explanations from plate tectonics theorists regarding crustal deformation and surface folding are also refuted by the observational data. 3. In many places along the swath, as the camera pans up, there is obvious evidence that the terrain on either side is underneath the ice, not separated by it. Shallower impressions of an elongated raised mound and the smoothed-over edges of a dual-ridge fault are immediately apparent as the pan begins. The appearance is that of erasure and blurring of terrain caused by the larger swaths, not cracking, eruption and freezing due to chasms in the expansion zones. 4. Spreading cannot occur in rifts at either side of another rift as in the video and leave behind ridges along the fracture, thousands of meters high. Spreading relieves tensional energy; it does not compress the crust. 5. The end of the video animates the removal of a triangular block from one side of a swath, whereupon it is lifted across the boundary to fit against the edge of its twin. Since the crust was broken into blocks and explosively thrown out from the center of the discharge track way as the electric arc passed, then broken pieces, with ridges and canyons intact, are expected to have fallen back to the surface. Suggesting that they were separated into discrete blocks because Europa's crust is spreading misses the observational cues.
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The geological configurations of the giant black swaths on Europa reveal their braided shapes. In many cases, there is the impression of a huge, cylindrical column of helical filaments branded into the surface that wraps almost entirely around the planet. The scorched swaths are long parallelograms 50 kilometers long and 20 kilometers wide, connected along their short sides by narrow dark bands at approximately 45 angles. Most of the contours along the perimeter in these features have been contorted, erased and overlaid with others of similar nature. Areas covering thousands of square kilometers are shattered into blocks with identical form. How did they all spread out over this planet-sized moon? In previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles about Europa, it was shown many times that electric arcs playing across Europa in swirling, wavering blooms of plasma or in huge bolts of lightning are a more satisfactory explanation for what we see. Plate Tectonics and Earth (planetary) Expansion theories are insufficient and resort to far more inscrutable mechanisms in the accomplishment of their purposes. In the Electric Universe, what we see is what we get. Ordinary processes that we can use for experimental confirmation or falsification of ideas are available to us without recourse to a universe that must make use of creation ex-nihilo and movement without mechanism. By Stephen Smith
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A close-up image of the mysterious channels that dominate the surface of Jupiter's "fractured" moon, Europa. Credit: NASA/JPL
The Expanding Earth Debate - Part Two

(Aug 23, 2007)
Problems with subduction theories are causing increased interest in theories of expansion. But expansion is also problematic, and the answer May lie elsewhere, in the evidence for electrical scarring of planets and moons. Modern solutions to the enigma of continental motion on Earth include what geologists call sea-floor spreading. A necessary counterpart to sea-floor spreading is what happens to the additional crust that is formed by the upwelling magma. Jupiter's icy moon Europa is considered to be an example of such cracking, drifting and consolidation. Hypothetical processes on our planet are projected onto the Europan geography and said to explain the furrows, dual-ridge faults, darkened swaths and innumerable looping rilles that Mar its surface. Conventional understanding of how the Earth's continents were formed and why they appear to fit together along their shelf boundaries suggests that there is a graduated flow of heat coming from the interior. It is believed that the core of our planet has remained liquid for the several billion years since its inception due to heat from radioactive decay. A rotating liquid iron core supposedly drives the electromagnetic fields and which keeps the material of Earth's mantle in a fluid state. Huge convection zones within the mantle circulate that heat upward to the bottom of the crust, where it melts weak points in the thinnest parts. The weakest seams in the crust are located along the mid-ocean ridge that circles the planet in a north to south direction. At some point in the deep past, all the continents were joined together along the mid-ocean The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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spreading zone into the ancient supercontinent, Pangaea. Some literal breaking point was reached in stability and it began to be forced apart, forming the continents of today. Over eons of time, the pieces of the original landmass have been sliding into each other as they make their way around the circumference and are forced together on the other side of the world. In places where the fractured blocks meet, some are continuing to be dragged under other blocks. According to the theory, these "subduction zones" are the reason that more earthquakes occur along the crustal plate boundaries and why there are more volcanoes located on or near the fractures. Problems associated with the current theory are as follows: 1. The power required to move continental landmasses around has not been adequately explained. If the power comes from thermal convection from the core of the planet, then heat energy equivalent to molten iron in the billions of megatons has been radiating from the interior for almost 4 billion years. There has been no process developed or seriously proposed for the initial spreading. 2. No consistent models of relative plate motion have been created. Spreading zones surround some places, such as the plate boundaries of Antarctica and Africa. Where are the so-called subduction zones needed for the recycling of the old crust? 3. The density paradox. Continental rock is supposed to be lighter than the oceanic crust into which it is extruded so that it accretes on the edge of the oceanic plate and doesnt immediately sink back into the mantle. What causes the crust to become so dense that it then sinks under its own weight into a subduction zone and then back into the mantle? And why is a theoretically lower density plate sinking under the Alps? 4. Rocks other than oceanic sediments have been found in the deep trenches of subduction zones. Older material rather than younger has been found in trench slopes off Japan. Sediment anomalies have been found in the mid-Atlantic basin. 5. The elasticity paradox. The current theory requires that the continental rock be thick and elastic under mountain ranges, yet thinner and more brittle than the oceanic crust in the spreading zones. In order to provide a theory that resolves some of these problems S. Warren Carey's book, Theories of the Earth and Universe: A history of dogma in the Earth Sciences was published in 1988. Carey's two premises are that there is a continuous process of creation going on in the Earth's interior and that the Earth is receiving new matter from space in a normal process of accretion. As a result, this planet is approximately 50% larger than in was during the Age of Dinosaurs, for example. Carey did not provide an explanation for how matter was formed out of nothing in the Earth, nor did he consider it a problem. In his eyes, the nature of the question was more fundamental: "As a geologist, I insist that the Earth has expanded, and leave it as a cosmological problem of the whole universe. Hence I do not see it as a problem specifically for the Earth, or for the solar system, but for the Universe and Cosmos." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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However, just as with Plate Tectonics theory, the current Expanding Earth theory has its difficulties, as well. 1. How do mountain ranges form if there is no compression of continents? No folding or uplift would be expected on a globe that has no points of contraction. The Expanding Earth theory states that the crust of the planet thins at certain points when the Earth expands, allowing the mantle material to balloon upward where it cools, forming a gravity slope. The elevated crustal blocks crack and slowly slide down, forming mountains and other structures that are said to originate due to tectonic folding and uplift. However, no mechanism to explain such phase changes in the mantle material has been forthcoming. 2. The Earths crust is presumed to have been continental silica-alumina (sial) with ocean bottom crust only forming later as Pangaea began to crack apart 200 million years ago. No reason is given for why there was so much time needed for the process to begin. Nor is a source identified for the required energy. 3. The rapid increase in expansion speed to 8 millimeters per year over the last 200 million years remains unexplained. Although the number of published objections to Earth expansion is not as great, their fatal nature is by no means diminished. In order for Carey's theory to work, it was necessary for him (and the Plate Tectonics school, as well) to add new processes and invent arcane energies that remain unclear. In part three, we will examine the reasons why electric discharge machining might be the answer to these mysteries. By Stephen Smith
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Credit: NASA/JPL
The Expanding Earth Debate - Part One

(Aug 20, 2007)
Images of Jupiter's moon Europa have sparked interest in an unusual theory. Are some celestial bodies, including Earth expanding? Or is electricity a better explanation? What is the origin of the Earth? How long has it existed? How did it come to be the celestial body that we inhabit today? These and similar questions have been on humanity's mind since we began to think. As the process of scientific investigation has developed and instrumentation invented, the structure and behavior of our planet has been deduced and theories affirmed to explain our evolution. For the past 100 years or more, scientific advancements have revealed features on Earth and other planets that seem to indicate the crust is cracking and spreading in a continuous movement. Many hypotheses have been put forward to explain the observations. In this series, we will look at two: Plate Tectonics, or sea floor spreading and the Expanding Earth. "Continental drift" was an attempt to explain the observation by many explorers and cartographers since the days of Magellan that the edges of the continents seem to fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. In 1915, Alfred Wegener formally proposed that the continents were moving around on the surface of the earth, alternately cracking apart and crashing together over millions of years. He did not explain how they moved, or what force could be involved, only that the observations supported his contention. Over time, paleontologists found that some continents, now separated by oceanic gulfs, contained fossils on or near their coastlines that were identical. The conclusion was that the extinct animals had once lived side-by-side on one giant landmass, so the theory of Pangaea was created. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Glaciers and other geological processes such as volcanic rock correspondence on continental shelves were also considered confirmations that there has been a breakup of one single continent over a long period. Later, discoveries that the bottoms of the oceans were marked with "magnetic striping" and that the magnetic poles of the Earth seem to wander from place to place and reverse themselves periodically lent credence to the theory. If the continents do not move, how did the poles move? The "continental drift" theory gradually metamorphosed into a new version in which the continents were like gigantic corks bobbing on a molten ocean. According to the theory, continents are supposedly built from lighter elements and the mantle made of denser materials - sial and sima are the two substances said to enable the continents to slide around. It is now known that the two materials are not separated in layers, but gradually merge into each other near the mantle boundary. Since the continental "roots" extend down into the interior of the Earth for upwards of 700 kilometers, the force required to move those billions of tons is so improbable that plate tectonic models have been developed that depend on unsuspected crustal "subduction zones" and not on movement (for example: Lowman, P. D., Jr. Plate tectonics with fixed continents: a testable hypothesis-I. Journal of Petroleum Geology 8:373-388). Just as with Wegener, though, evidence is lacking for such zones. In the nineteenth century, at least three different reasons for the alignment of the continents were proposed. 1. Thermal Expansion the Earth is being heated because of its internal radioactivity, or because of some other external force yet unseen, and increases in size because of its thermal coefficient of expansion. 2. Aether Absorption some kind of energy that we havent yet identified is absorbed by the Earth and changes into matter, causing it (and presumably other bodies) to expand. This theory relies on versions of mechanical gravity or Le Sage gravity. 3. Mass Creation in an unknown process involving the creation of matter from nothing, there is an addition of material to the inner shell of the Earths crust, causing it to expand like an inflating balloon. Recently, S. Warren Carey's Mass Creation theory has gained prominence in some circles as a viable alternative to the theory of Plate Tectonics. Because of the problems with subduction and the apparently random distribution of magnetic stripes on the ocean bottom, Plate Tectonics is coming under increasing pressure. In part two we will consider both theories in contrast and how Jupiter's moon Europa has been used to support both, By Stephen Smith
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Credit: NASA/JPL
Chaotic Callisto
(Aug 17, 2007)
Another of Jupiter's moons provides evidence for planetary electric discharge events. Just as the Cassini mission's images and data analysis provided substantial evidence for the electric universe hypothesis, Galileo performed the same service in the exploration of Jupiter. Launched October 18, 1989, Galileo had been delayed for several years while NASA underwent a top to bottom housecleaning following the Challenger space shuttle explosion. On September 21, 2003, the spacecraft was deliberately sent into the cloud tops of Jupiter, where it is was incinerated. Because of the discovery on Europa of a possible water ocean underneath the ice, NASA did not want Galileo to randomly rove around the system and possibly collide with Europa after its fuel supply was exhausted. In order to protect the Europan ecology, NASA decided to destroy it. The four Galilean moons - the ones originally discovered by the famed Italian astronomer are the largest and have been imaged more often by more instruments than any others. As a member of the Jovian system, Callisto appears to bear the marks of many huge electrical jolts. Of course, the incredible number of craters on this moon could be considered anomalous and their shape and arrangement seem to support that idea, but there are many other qualities of this beaten body that are difficult to explain. The gigantic ring of ridges that dominates the trailing hemisphere of Callisto marks out a circle some 1056 kilometers in diameter. Known as the Asgard Multi-Ring Structure, it consists of concentric rings that outline a bright central feature. A large, domed crater named Doh in the center of the bright plain is unusual. Rather than having a depression in the center of the crater, 50 kilometer-wide Doh contains a huge mound-shape, cut through with deep channels. More then anything else, this feature is reminiscent of the large fulgamites, similar to Olympus Mons, that have been discussed in past Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Valhalla Basin is another point to consider in the electric theory of Callisto's topography, as well as the enormous crater in the southern hemisphere. At 200 kilometers in diameter, its rays extend outward hundreds of kilometers across the surface very much like the lunar crater, Tycho. As has been noted several times in past Pictures of the Day, the morphology of such rays can be traced to electrical effects. There is another crater that should also be listed in this compilation of anomalies on Callisto, and that is Har. The Har crater is a 50-kilometer-wide double ring with another 20-kilometerwide crater centered on its rim. This formation has been tentatively identified with others as the scar of an electric arc discharge because it has a central mound with parallel striations running through it beyond the far rim. The multiple smaller craters are often tear-drop shaped and occur in long chains, another characteristic of cathode discharges to an oppositely charged surface. Callisto's surface is more knobby than the other moons in the solar system. There are areas of hundreds of square kilometers exhibiting few craters but vast fields of rounded spires sticking out of the surface. In other areas, the spires are tilted and angular, as if they are the tops of material that has been fused into the faceted shapes. Such formations can be found in some areas of the African desert, as well as on Mars. If similar structures are found on dry and frozen planets with virtually no atmosphere, but also on our habitable planet, where water and oxygen are plentiful, what creates these features in such dissimilar environments? The answer seems to be electric discharge. By Stephen Smith
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Ganymede, the third moon from Jupiter and the largest planetary satellite in the solar system Credit: NASA/JP
Ganymede Bears Witness

(Aug 15, 2007)
The solar system's largest moon shows signs of what could be electric scarring. Is plasma discharge responsible for the topography we see? Jupiter and its moons have been the destination of several remote observation platforms launched over the last three decades. Beginning with Pioneer 10 in 1973 and including the most recent visit by New Horizons this year, seven different camera packages have flown past the planet and many of its moons. Of all the moons, Ganymede is possibly the most exotic, with a wild mix of topography, fractures, craters and sinuous rilles. Ganymede is unique among moons in that it has a magnetic field surrounding it, something even Mars does not possess. In December 1995, the Galileo spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter. During a flyby of Ganymede at an altitude of only 838 kilometers, Galileo discovered a dipole magnetic field very much like the one surrounding Earth. As with Io, the signature of Ganymede's flux tube, the electric current that connects it with Jupiter, can be seen in the aurora at the poles. With a mean diameter of 5262 kilometers, Ganymede is the largest moon orbiting any planet and is the fourth largest rocky object after the planet Mars. The magnetic field is supposedly being created by the moon's core in a "dynamo" of sorts - once again like the Earth's core is supposed to be generating its magnetic field. There is an ambiguity, however. Ganymede's core is too hot to hold on to permanent magnetism. But Ganymede is so small that, according to conventional astro-geology, it should have cooled off billions of years ago and should not have a liquid core in the first place. The ad hoc explanation that NASA scientists have announced creates its own conundrum, though. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The moon once May have been much closer to Jupiter, so it was alternately compressed and stretched by the tidal forces of the planet's gravitational field. The constant kneading of the moon kept its core liquid for much longer than if it had formed in its present orbit. If that were the case, then what forced an object bigger than the planet Mercury to move into a new orbit? Was any thought given to a mechanism for moving several quintillion tons of rock and ice a few thousand kilometers against the force of Jupiter's gravity? Of course, the most obvious aspect of Ganymede's bizarre nature is its surface and the manifold examples of apparent electric discharge machining (EDM). Previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles presented evidence for the hypothesis by showing how crater chains form on Ganymede and other planets and moons. Another likely example of EDM is the huge circular structure dominating an entire hemisphere. Within the darkened circle, several bright craters are arrayed in a spiral shape that gradually decreases in diameter toward the center. Some craters have rays extending outward for several kilometers in all directions. Several have one or more nested concentrically within the other. Such features require a chain of unlikely coincidences if mechanical impacts are to explain them, but EDM creates such scars naturally. Could the magnetic field of Ganymede be related to the electrical phenomena that have scarred and transmogrified it? If Ganymede was indeed closer to Jupiter at some point in its past and was then wrenched from orbit and thrown thousands of kilometers further out from the tidal grasp of its parent, could the force that was responsible for that event have been electrical in nature? Was the moon gripped by an electrodynamic field large enough to imprint its core with permanent magnetism? What effect does the electrical connection with Jupiter have on Ganymede today? NASA plans more missions to the moons of Jupiter in the next ten years. As more data is returned from a growing number of deep space probes, perhaps the evidence for electric effects will help to increase awareness for electricity in space. By Stephen Smith
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Shiprock New Mexico. Credit: Louis J. Maher, University of Wisconsin
Shiprock New Mexico

(Aug 13, 2007)
Just as Africa's geography displays evidence for electrical discharge machining, so does the American Southwest. In recent Thunderbolts Picture of the Day accounts, we have described a number of locations around the world where the giant scars from electric arcs May be found. Some of those structures are uplifts, isolated within a large expanse higher than the surrounding plain. One of those uplifts is found within the deserts of New Mexico and reveals the telltale characteristics of a fulgurite. Orthodox theory considers formations like Shiprock to be volcanic intrusions called plutons, though in truth volcanoes and 'volcanic intrusion' are not presently understood. As the theory goes, some sort of geological activity causes magma to move closer to the surface, perhaps to form a volcano or a sub-surface pool of molten rock. After the active phase has passed, the magma within the underground chamber cools and hardens, forming a plug of solidified lava. Due to the slow and steady progress of erosion over millions of years the surrounding landscape wears down and is blown away, uncovering the now solid stone which is more resistant to the erosion that wore away the softer strata. In an electric universe, however, Shiprock and similar forms are suggestive of electric arc impacts. Fulgurites are created when an electrical discharge strikes the ground and fuses material from the surrounding area, forming an underground impression of the stroke. An accumulation of solidified soil and sand is left behind. After the fulgurite is formed, later more diffuse electrical erosion strips the landscape down to below the level of the fused material, exposing the hardened formation. A significant aspect of Shiprock's surroundings is the web of "lava dikes" that stretches out from the base of the prominence into the desert. Thought to be part of the eruptive event(s) that formed the structure, the dikes are ridges of metamorphic rock left behind by the erosion The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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of softer overlying sediments. According to standard geology, they are fingers of magma that melted their way along the weak points of the sedimentary layers and then solidified when the volcano became extinct. Examples of such lava dikes are found on Mars, as well. Because Mars does not have the atmospheric density necessary for much erosion and has no running water, it suggests that the dikes formed in some way other than weathering. They have all the earmarks of dual ridge trenches with unusual ripples that flow alongside. In past Picture of the Day articles, trenches of similar morphology have been identified with electric arc discharges. There is more evidence for our theory of Shiprock's electrical birth. The formation is not alone in the desert, it is surrounded by other similar structures. There are tortuous valleys with scalloped edges cut into the area as well as Lichtenberg figures and fields of stone spheres very much like the "blueberries" on Mars. By ignoring these specific observations, it appears that the conventional explanation will never be complete. By Stephen Smith
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Lake Victoria from space. Credit: NASA/USGS
Lake Victoria
(Aug 10, 2007)
Lake Victoria May be among the largest electrical formations on Earth. Surrounding the lake are several circular structures and other features similar to those found on other planets and moons. The geography in this area (and the rest of Africa) strongly suggests electrical influence. In other Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles, evidence was presented indicating that many features in Africa are the result of plasma arcs excavating the surface and forming what we see today. The Brandberg Massif, Kebira Crater, the Richat Structure and others could very well be the scars from electric discharge machining (EDM) in an earlier, electrically active phase of solar system history. As we have investigated these formations more closely, it appears that the same kind of power May have helped to create Lake Victoria, as well. In conventional geological theory of plate tectonics, the continents are floating on a layer of molten rock several miles beneath the Earth's crust. The higher density of the magma and the lower density of the continental rock makes them able to move around on the face of the planet, sometimes colliding and sometimes pulling apart. Huge areas called, "subduction zones" pull vast blocks of sedimentary rock down into the hot interior where they melt into the magma. As the crustal blocks above the melt zones heat up, volcanoes form and erupt the subducted seafloor sediments out onto the land in the form of lava, creating a cycle of destruction and reformation. The prevailing theory claims that the Great Rift arose because the same force that causes subduction is also causing the ocean bottom and other areas around the planet to crack and spread apart, forming new crust. Because of huge convection currents in the thermal balance of the magma, the continental masses move apart as well as crash together In and around the Rift Valley vicinity are the largest volcanoes in Africa and the world, including Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro. Some are extinct and the majority have not erupted The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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for hundreds of years. All of them represent what geologists call, "shield volcanoes" that occur over spots that are particularly hot, with magma unusually close to the surface. Mt. Kilimanjaro and the others are really multiple volcanoes that have merged together into larger structures. There are very large fractures beneath the peaks from which the original eruptions took place, similar to the long fracture volcanoes in Hawaii. Those African peaks include Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Elgon, Mt. Meru and many others. They are all located on top of a dual-ridge fault that circles Lake Victoria. One very interesting aspect of the fault is that it begins as a bifurcation in the Afar Depression, loops back on itself as the Western Rift Valley, forms Lake Victoria and then travels to the south, where Lake Malawi fills-in the huge crack. Near Mt. Meru are sharply cut dendritic ridge or "Lichtenberg" figures that cover hundreds of square miles. Mt. Meru, itself is very unusual in that is a half crater with a sharply pointed central peak. In the Mountains of Patagonia article, such formations were presented as forming from large electric arc discharges, since no volcanic eruption would ever leave a needle-sharp peak in the blasted remains of a half-crater. Certainly Mt. St. Helens did not leave any such basalt monolith behind. Because Lake Victoria is a circular feature in the midst of a kilometer-deep trench, surrounded by the largest volcanoes in the world, with what appear to be city-wide lightning trackways carved into the rocks in many places. it seems more reasonable to conclude that electrical forces created the Lake and the Rift Valley, just as they produced many other large circular features we have previously described. By Stephen Smith
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The Brown Dwarf 2M1207 and its Planetary Companion. Credit: VLT/NACO
Small Star with a Large Planet

(Aug 08, 2007)
Stellar jets from a brown dwarf provide new support for the electric star model. A recent Thunderbolts Picture of the Day article discussed the emission of x-ray jets from what NASA scientists call a "neutron star." Such an observation was thought to be impossible, because only a black hole is theorized to have enough gravitational force for matter to be compressed and accelerated to such an extent. In order for that level of high-frequency electromagnetic radiation (EMR) to be produced, a gravitational acceleration close to the speed of light was thought to be necessary. But as we noted, the star Circinus X-1 has defied that requirement. Now, however, the paradox has reached the extreme. Scientists at the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) have announced the discovery of "outflow" from an object only 24 times the mass of Jupiter. "This leads us to the tantalizing prospect that young giant planets could also be associated with outflows," according to Emma Whelan and her colleagues. In conventional theory stars called, "brown dwarf" are unable to sustain thermonuclear fusion because they are too small. Because of that size limitation, the output from such low-powered stars is constrained by the relatively low gravitational field and should not be producing energetic EMR. Yet 2MASS1207-3932 is disobeying the rule. Although, in standard theory of stellar evolution it is not understood how any star produces jets of x-ray or gamma light, it is thought necessary for the star to be undergoing hydrogen fusion. Without the radiant emissions from such processes, no output should be created that extends several billion kilometers into space and that moves multiple kilometers per second. In the electric star hypothesis, however, radiant output is expected from the objects we The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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observe. Whether they are in arc mode, glow mode or dark mode all objects in the universe are electrically connected to one another along circuits of current flow that permeate the cosmos. Orthodox astronomers report galactic clusters emitting jets of matter along invisible axes and galaxies, themselves jetting material hundreds of light-years outward from their poles. Super-compressed objects not precisely identified but mathematically quantified as "black holes" have jets; "neutron stars" have jets; and now, even brown dwarf stars have jets. 2M1207 demonstrates that there is no need to continually invent unsubstantiated theories to explain astrophysical phenomena. Its companion object suggests that the two are the outcome of stellar fissioning that often occurs when one object is experiencing too heavy an electrical input for it to maintain integrity as a single body. In that case, when the object splits electric current density is more uniformly distributed over a larger surface, thus establishing equilibrium with the galactic environment. We have written in these pages many times about the reasonable viewpoint that electricity is causing the "mysterious" events reported by astronomers and space scientists. Electric currents heat and accelerate ionized gas to high speeds, exciting the plasma and generating intense magnetic fields. The EM field strength can produce "pinches" along those current filaments, forming plasma instabilities that emit ultra-violet, x-rays and other high-frequency radiation. By Stephen Smith
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Titan's continent-sized bright feature, Xanadu. Credit: NASA/JPL Radar Image
Titan Tells Strange Tales - Part Two

(Aug 03, 2007)
Saturn's largest moon reveals extraordinary features that continue to baffle planetary scientists. Therefore new ways of interpreting these features must now be explored. The closer one gets to Titan, the farther from familiarity one goes. Titan ranks fifth among the rocky planets, with a diameter of 5150 kilometers. It is larger than Mercury (4878 kilometers), the Moon (3474 kilometers) and Pluto (2274 kilometers). Of all the moons in the solar system, only Ganymede is larger than Titan, with a mean diameter of 5262 kilometers - a mere 112 kilometers difference. However, what makes Titan stand out from all the other moons is that it has an atmosphere - something even Ganymede doesn't have. No one knows why Titan has an atmosphere or what sustains it in such a low-gravity environment. The primary constituents are nitrogen - over 80% - and methane. The atmosphere is very dense, which is another mystery for NASA analysts. Over the eons of time that Titan is supposed to have been in existence, the low gravity and intense cold should have contributed to the reduction of atmospheric density and not its maintenance. According to standard theories, the reason for the tenuous atmosphere on Mars and the lack of atmosphere on most moons is that they lack the gravitational attraction necessary to keep gases clasped tightly to them. Many objects supposedly form with atmospheres, but if they aren't large enough, they lose it to space. Once a body reaches a watershed point of atmospheric decline, the stream of high-energy particles from the sun accelerates the process until most of what remains is dragged away. It is possible that Titan's atmosphere is constantly being replenished. An area near a significantly brighter region known as Xanadu, a continent-sized area of chaotic terrain, has a red spot - NASA scientists have been wondering what it means for the last three years. It is thought to be one of several things: a "cryovolcano" spewing out warm material from the interior, the remnant heat from an impact event or the top of a mountain range that is covered The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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in a radar-reflecting substance, making it appear brighter than the surrounding terrain. From an electric universe standpoint, the mountain tops May be glowing with a St. Elmo's Fire form of plasma, making them highly reflective of radar light, just as the mountains on Venus appear exceptionally bright. Titan is certainly the most intriguing member in the panoply of sisters and brothers orbiting their enormous parent planet, Saturn. Now numbering sixty siblings, Saturn's moons have provided astrophysicists and astronomers with dumbfounding images that stretch the boundaries of credulity. Several Thunderbolt Picture of the Day articles have addressed the challenges imposed by those images and discovered they all share characteristics that could have been generated by one thing: intense plasma discharges in the form of gigantic electric arcs. Huge craters with folded rims and wide, flat bottoms - often with more than one tier or concentric basin and smaller craters around the edges, parallel fractures, large domes and "sand dunes" covering many square kilometers are like those discovered by the HiRISE mission currently orbiting Mars. Past Thunderbolts articles have linked those observations to rotating currents of electricity carving the structures out of solid rock, pulverizing the debris into dust and larger granules, and then piling it up in glassified drifts sometimes hundreds of meters high. On Titan, the so-called "dunes" are also quite large, being visible from the Cassini orbiter thousands of kilometers away. They are also quite distinct with well-defined, almost solidlooking ripples and waves that pass over craters and around what are called on Mars "yardangs." The dunes appear to follow the prevailing wind patterns, but they also have some unusual characteristics that May mean they are not wind-generated in the conventional sense. Many of the dunes look like fingerprint patterns - they have whorls and arches that are criss-crossed by other ripples in a perpendicular arrangement, looking almost exactly like the dune fields found along the coast of Namibia that extend nearly as far as the border with South Africa. Once again, on Mars the dunes are theorized to be the result of electric arcs forming patterns that are very similar. When they excavate material from the strata, they blow it in upward along the path of current flow where it then falls away, forming what are called "wind streaks." Because the granules are charged, they are attracted or repelled from one another, depending on their polarity. Therefore they will align themselves in much the same way that iron filings will align themselves with the magnetic field of a bar magnet. Such streaks and dunes are found on Venus, as well. Most of the time, they are associated with craters and sinuous rilles - the edges of both formations are often dusted with dark or light colored grains. Titan's dunes are so similar that we predict "blueberries," or other spherical pebbles and stones May be found if a rover-type lander ever pays a visit. Cassini is scheduled to make several more passes by Titan, a few will be as close as 1000 kilometers. Hopefully, more information will provide more evidence in support of the electrical nature of its topography and its relationship with Saturn and its neighboring moons. By Stephen Smith
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Saturn's moon Titan. Credit: NASA/JPL
Titan Tells Strange Tales - Part One

(Aug 01, 2007)
Cassini's close flyby of Saturn's largest moon reveals features that continue to baffle mission scientists. The Cassini-Huygens mission was launched October 15, 1997 on a seven-year voyage to Saturn and its largest moon, Titan. Few remember the furor generated by the spacecraft's power source, 33 kilograms of plutonium. Environmental groups and the ACLU attempted to have the liftoff canceled because an explosion of the Titan IV-B Centaur launch vehicle would have scattered the highly toxic compound over populated regions in Florida near Cape Canaveral. With the Huygens landing vehicle attached, Cassini was the largest interplanetary space probe ever launched. It is 6.7 meters high, four meters wide and weighs 5712 kilograms. Because it was designed to remain in orbit around Saturn for almost five years, NASA determined that plutonium was the only sufficiently long-lasting material with enough energy per cubic centimeter so that the cameras, rocket engines and gyroscopes could remain active for all that time. Fortunately for all concerned, there was no accident on launch day and Cassini has been in orbit around Saturn since June 30, 2004. On December 24, 2004, the Huygens lander separated from Cassini and began a twenty-day journey to Titan. As it entered the atmosphere, Huygens reached a speed of nearly 20,000 kilometers per hour relative to the surface of the moon. Parachutes kept the probe stable long enough for it to slow down and begin a two and a half hour descent to the frozen surface. The first pictures from Huygens revealed a surface covered with pebbles suspended in an icy slush. NASA scientists speculate that Titan was cold enough for hydrocarbon compounds to precipitate and "rain down" in the form of liquid methane, perhaps collecting in huge lakes of liquefied natural gas The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"The rain on Titan is just a slight drizzle, but it rains all the time, day in, day out. It makes the ground wet and muddy with liquid methane. This is why the Huygens probe landed with a splat. It landed in methane mud," said Christopher McKay, a scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. As a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day pointed out, however, the dark areas in the radar images show the usual circular scalloped edges, typical of cathode arc machining of a surface. These can be compared directly to the scalloped scarring on Jupiter's moon Io, which also display flat, melted floor depressions. Electrical theorist Wal Thornhill writes: "Such floors would be expected to give a dark radar return. The fact that the 'lakes' have only been discovered in the polar region and are associated with electrical 'rilles' and fulguritic 'dunes' also suggests an electrical origin through powerful auroral currents in the past." If Titan exhibits features that compare to other bodies in the solar system that are far hotter and far more "geologically" active, would that indicate this supposedly cryogenic world is more like incandescent Venus than a frozen ball of ice? Cassini has discovered water jets erupting from the surface of Enceladus and other streams of charged particles being emitted from Dione and Tethys. Will Titan eventually be included with this group of electrically active bodies? Electricity is the only known force that can give rise to all of the phenomena that we observe on planetary bodies. Indeed, objects in space that have been imaged by groundbased observatories or by space-borne science platforms demonstrate the irrefutable nature of that fact. In part two we will examine several other discoveries that give Titan a place among the strangest of the objects in the solar system. By Stephen Smith
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Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO
The X-Ray Jets of Circinus X-1

(Jul 30, 2007)
The Chandra X-Ray Observatory observes energetic emissions from the collapsed remnant of a stellar explosion. Can an electrical explanation provide a better scenario? Recently, the Chandra observatory sent back images of what scientists are calling a " neutron star" radiating massive amounts of energy into space. The radiation is in x-ray wavelengths, which non-electrical theories can only interpret as being generated by matter that is extremely hot and moving very fast. So an extraordinary means for how that much energy could be produced in a relatively small space must be proposed. NASA and University of Wisconsin researchers write: "The neutron star, an extremely dense remnant of an exploded star consisting of tightly packed neutrons, is seen as the sphere at the center of the disk. The powerful gravity of the neutron star pulls material from the companion star (shown as the blue star in the background) into a so-called accretion disk surrounding it. Through a process that is not fully understood, a jet of material moving at nearly the speed of light is generated. A high percentage of the energy available from material falling toward the neutron star is converted into powering this jet." Even though scientists have little understanding of what is going on in the case of Circinus X1, they rely on gravity-only viewpoints for explanation. In the image at the top of the page, the emissions are shown in red, green and blue, representing low, medium and high energy xrays. Two lobes of the jets are visible in the upper right, separated by about 30 degrees. The lobes are thought to be the result of precession in the star, causing a wobble that creates the two jets as it oscillates. Because the extreme density of the neutron star influences the intense gravitational field around it, the oscillation causes waves in the material being ejected. In standard astrophysical models, black holes were supposed to be the only objects in space The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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that could compress matter to the point where it would be accelerated to relativistic speeds and release high-frequency electromagnetic radiation. The fast-moving photons would be expelled from the two poles of the black hole and glow brightly as gamma ray or x-ray light. Now, with the discovery of Circinus X-1, a theoretical model for neutron stars achieving that level of energy output has been proposed. The difficulties associated with black hole theories notwithstanding, previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles have touched on the subject of neutron stars and discussed the various problems associated with them. Primarily, neutron stars violate the "Island of stability" principal. Plotting the number of neutrons against the number of protons in the nuclei of all elements demonstrates that the ratio is about one-to-one for light elements and one point fiveto-one for the heavy ones. An atomic nucleus outside the range will spontaneously decay so that it reaches a stable configuration and remains in equilibrium. If there are too few neutrons the atom will emit protons in order to stabilize and vise-versa. A nucleus composed of neutrons alone would be completely unstable and immediately decay. In the electric star hypothesis, no exotic objects like neutron stars and no unproven forces such as concentrated gravity from hypothetical super-compacted objects and "singularities" are necessary. Electricity is more than able to create the phenomena we see from Chandra and other orbiting space stations. The two "lobes of the jet" can be viewed more simply as a glowing plasma cone seen in profile (the Red Square nebula, for example). It is the configuration of a plasma z-pinch, seen in supernovae remnants and planetary nebulae. Expulsion disks are also common in such energetic systems. It is an assumption to call them "accretion" disks. Plasma discharge events are commonly known to generate high-energy UV light that is damaging to the eyes - from electric arc welders, for instance. The more electrical current supplied to the arc, the higher the frequency of light will be emitted. Supply enough power to the arc and x-rays and gamma rays are generated. Electricity is the force powering the stars - the more electricity that flows in to the star, the greater the effect on its output, causing powerful bursts of energy that are detected by instruments, like Chandra. The stars are anodes in a huge galactic circuit and the standard models for their behavior will always fail to adequately explain the observations. By Stephen Smith
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Saturn's moon Rhea. Credit: NASA/JPL
Rhea the Battered Ice Ball

(Jul 27, 2007)
Saturn's moon Rhea exhibits a vast complex of craters. On closer examination the craters pose repeated challenges to common theory. Rhea is another of Saturn's moons that bears examination in light of electrical theories. Rhea's mean diameter is 1528 kilometers, so it is medium-sized in Saturn's family of moons. Even though it is so small, the entire visible surface of Rhea is covered in craters. One large "impact basin" is 360 kilometers across, which probably makes it the most cataclysmic event in the moon's history, considering anything larger would have blasted it to rubble. One of the most interesting features of Rhea is the large, bright splotch that covers almost one entire hemisphere. Because it resembles the rayed structures found on Earth's moon, scientists have attributed its formation to an asteroid explosively hurling subsurface debris outward in long ejecta blankets. As previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day articles have noted, however, rayed formations are more likely to be the result of electric arcs and not impacts. The rays surrounding the large central crater are not deep but look more like a thin layer of dust without the gradual sizing of the granules as they recede from the point of impact. They were probably deposited by an "electric wind" as the plasma arc reduced the surface rocks to fine powder and then floated it away as ionized particles. The bright rays on Rhea appear to have been created in the same way. Cassini's initial flyby in 2004 discovered two craters with unusual formations in their centers. Nearly all craters on Rhea occur in multiples, the majority of the larger ones are in pairs with The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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many smaller craters distributed around them non-randomly. A surprising aspect to their arrangement is that they are found on the rims of the large craters, corresponding to what happens in electric discharge machining (EDM) when a spark will "stick" to one spot for a split second, carving small craters as the main discharge rotates within the large one. The two peaks in the centers of the craters are another example of EDM. It is highly unlikely that an impact of a space rock could ever create such a formation. In fact the typical shallow, flat floors of the craters, together with central bumps, provide a perfect match with the pattern produced by plasma physicist C J Ransom in his laboratory arcing experiments. Another eye catching feature on Rhea is an oval-shaped crater approximately 115 kilometers on its longest axis. The conventional explanation is that it was formed when a meteor at some remote time, billions of years ago, struck the moon and scooped out the crater along its direction of travel. If that explanation is accurate, then where is the gouge that should be at the bottom? Why is the leading rim not built up from the movement of rock and ice as the meteor exploded through it at a shallow angle? And why is the crater -and all the craters surrounding it - flat on the interior with sharp, perpendicular walls? If they were made by meteor impacts, shouldn't they be rounded and have raised lips? These are only a few of many huge structures that indicate Rhea did not undergo a slow, steady formation out of a nebular cloud, but probably moved through rapidly evolving conditions as electric arcs tore its surface. What has been left behind is the record of those conditions in the form of fractures, chaotic terrain and gigantic caldera as big as the state of Oregon, but with no debris. Despite what appears to be explosions large enough to rock the planet, there are no fragments - no big boulders or blocks of stone that would be expected from explosive impacts. If the craters and rilles were formed by giant electric arcs, then the rock and ice was probably vaporized or turned into tiny grains and thrown into space. By Stephen Smith
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The deeply cratered surface of Saturn's moon Phoebe. Credit: NASA/JPL
Explaining Phoebe's Giant Spiral

(Jul 25, 2007)
What could have created the giant logarithmic spiral carved into Saturn's small but enigmatic moon? Saturn's outer moon, Phoebe is very small, only 220 kilometers in diameter. Its gravity is a mere .05m/s2, compared to the 9m/s2 we experience here on Earth. While the majority of Saturn's other moons are quite reflective of visible light, Phoebe is as black as coal, making it one of the darkest objects in the solar system. Based on data collected by Cassini, NASA scientists describe Phoebe as "very strange" and probably a captured moon, rather than having formed along with its parent planet. Said Torrence Johnson, a Cassini team member at JPL: "And what it's told us is that it's a collection of ice and rock and probably carbonaceous compounds. We believe this object has many characteristics in common with things like Pluto and (Neptune's moon) Triton in the outer solar system. In other words, it's a first look at one of these denizens of the outer solar system that we've (seen previously) only from afar." A number of huge craters mark Phoebe's surface, making it look very much like the heavily cratered surfaces of some asteroids. Just as one must ask why the asteroids were not destroyed by the impacts, one must ask why Phoebe was not blown apart by whatever "impact" events excavated these craters. Phoebe's dark surface is also reminiscent of comet Wild 2's surface, revealed when the Stardust probe made its close approach on January 2, 2004. The dark, cratered terrain on both bodies gives them the appearance of twins, contrary to the expectations of NASA observers that Wild 2 would have a "snowball" composition. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Images from the Cassini spacecraft depict a moon that has features like those found on others we have mentioned in recent articles. Some look very much like the craters on Mars, with similar morphology. The crater rims have alternating striations, with steep gullies running down one side and hard edges that appear as if they were cut into the rock and ice. What appear to be rounded boulders lie inside some of the craters as well as in the faces of the crater walls. A closer examination casts doubt on the notion that the largest crater could have been created by an object smashing into Phoebe. The alternative--formation by plasma discharge-is well supported. The most obvious evidence is the spiral-shaped crater rim and the steeply carved cliffs. These are not features expected under the impact hypothesis. The visual evidence is consistent with a huge electric arc cutting a long chain of craters into one hemisphere, ending in the winding curve and the narrow canyon walls. Of course, the shallow craters, the overlapping rims and the lack of impact debris are also important considerations in the theory of electrical effects, not only on Phoebe but the rest of Saturn's moons as well. As electrical theorist Wal Thornhill recently wrote: "The electric universe model explains the craters as Phoebe's birthmarks. It is a model supported by examination of spark-machined surfaces. Just as stars are observed to do, gas giant planets May also expel a jet of matter during periods of electrical instability. Accretion of matter in the jet is mediated by the electromagnetic pinch effect and electrostatic deposition. Both of these mechanisms are far superior to accretion by impacts (tending to shatter and scatter instead of to accrete). Electrostatic deposition easily creates the layering seen in all rocky objects to date. Electrical discharges between the parent and departing child carve out the circular craters. Because they are not formed by a sudden mechanical impact, the craters are neat and do not cause disruption to adjacent craters or fill them with debris as we see on Phoebe." By thinking only in terms of meteor impacts, landslides and other familiar geological forces, NASA is ignoring the one possibility that makes all the disparate features we see cohesive: an electrically dynamic solar system in its formative phases, when cosmic thunderbolts carved the surfaces of planets and moons. By Stephen Smith
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Saturn's deeply cratered moon Hyperion, as imaged by the Cassini probe in 2005. Credit: NASA/JPL
Homing in on Hyperion
(Jul 23, 2007)
The Cassini space probe to Saturn has observed dark organic deposits inside craters on the small moon Hyperion. Now, new evidence suggests the material May have come from another moon--Iapetus. We have featured Hyperion in past Thunderbolts Pictures of the Day because of the anomalous cratering and sponge-like texture of its surface. But another mystery has arisen. Recent images acquired by the Cassini space probe reveal dark organic deposits collected in the bottom of some its craters. No one knows what the actual materials are except in terms of their elemental composition, though NASA scientists have emphasized that they are all necessary components for life. An irregular celestial body with approximate dimensions of 328 x 260 x 214 kilometers, Hyperion is smaller than Dione, Tethys or Iapetus, which have all been the subjects of recent Pictures of the Day commentary because they appear to exhibit electric discharge effects. The many unusual craters, steep conical walls and tubular excavations on Hyperion all point to multiple disruptive events that have carved the moon into its present cavernous shape. Craters of varying sizes cover its entire surface, some measuring several kilometers in diameter. And this poses once more the question we we have asked in the past. How does an object of such a small size and of such a porous nature sustain multiple impacts blasting out craters nearly as large as the object itself, without being blown apart? In reflecting on images taken in Cassini's close approach, NASA scientists have suggested that Hyperion May have acquired its dark-stained material from its sister moon, Iapetus, though the means by which this May have occurred are far from clear. On September 10, Cassini will once again make a close flyby of Iapetus, and the scientists will be looking again for answers to the question. The probe with return once more on October 21, 2007. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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From the standpoint of the Electric Universe theory, transportation of charged dust and gas (more accurately called plasma) between planetary bodies is not a unique condition. It has been considered in these pages many times as an explanation for the collection of sulfur ions from Io in Jupiter's plasmasphere and for the exchanges of atmosphere between Titan and Saturn. Since Hyperion and Iapetus are both orbiting within Saturn's intense electromagnetic field, and Iapetus shows evidence of massive excavation by electric arcs, the dusty debris expelled from its surface could easily find its way along a charged pathway to its neighbor Hyperion. So far, Enceladus, Tethys and Dione have all been found to be "geologically active," though just a few years ago it would have been considered absurd to apply that phrase to Saturn's small moons. In the Electric Universe proposed by Wal Thornhill and his colleagues, the present activity is largely electrical, all pointing to past events that would have been orders of magnitude more energetic. The sputtering of dust that we see today pales by comparison with the violent events of Saturn's past. And it is this ancient activity within the Saturnian system that will account for the abundant scars dominating all of Saturn's moons. By Stephen Smith
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Credit: NASA
The Tortured Landscape of Iapetus

(Jul 20, 2007)
Recent close up images of Saturns moon Iapetus underscore its catastrophic past. In a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day, the strange equatorial bulge around Saturns moon, Iapetus was discussed. The similarity between it and several types of "concretion" found here on Earth suggest that they all May have been formed in electrical events that act on several scales. As Cassini continues to gather data, more evidence that electric discharge machining May have excavated Iapetus has been seen. By way of background, Iapetus is only 1436 kilometers in diameter, with a surface temperature close to absolute zero. The Voyager II mission originally photographed it as the spacecraft passed by on August 22, 1971. Although it is a small moon, Iapetus has several extremely large craters, one of which exhibits a distinct bulge in the center, with another crater at the top. Iapetus resembles its sister moon, Dione in many ways, such as bright cliffs and abundant shallow craters with central peaks and no blast debris. In the above image, the large crater is 600 kilometers in diameter. The smaller crater, half buried by the landslide is 120 kilometers wide. The crater wall, presumably out of which the landslide fell, has been estimated at 15 kilometers in height. NASA describes this as being a strictly geologic feature: "Landslides are common geological phenomena on many planetary bodies, including Earth and Mars. The appearance of this landslide on an icy satellite with low-brightness cratered terrain is reminiscent of landslide features that were observed during NASA's Galileo mission on the Jovian satellite Callisto. The fact that the Iapetus landslide traveled many kilometers from the basin scarp could indicate that the surface material is very fine-grained, and perhaps was fluffed by mechanical forces that allowed the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive landslide debris to flow extended distances."
Since the small crater is buried by debris left by the landslide, it stands to reason it is younger than the slide. One problem with estimating the ages of these formations is that they all appear to be fresh, with little or no distortion to the crater rims, despite the conventional explanation that they were caused by the impact of other high velocity bodies. Another anomalous feature is that the debris doesnt look like it fell from the cliff face; it looks like it was moved, as if by a giant bulldozer, from below the lower right of the smaller crater up against the cliff wall that it shares with the large crater. It was stopped by the cliff, rather than being its source. Given that Iapetus has a surface gravity only a tiny fraction of the Earth, what mechanical force is powerful enough to scoop up many cubic kilometers of material and move it laterally up against a cliff face as if it were a giant wave breaking on the rocks? In instances of such features on other planetary bodies, like Mars, it was theorized that electric arcs cut the crater walls and transported large volumes of material through electrodynamic forces. Large currents, flowing through the rock strata, cause it to break loose and pulverize, moving along the surface in a process called, "fluidization." Once the current stops, the material consolidates into a glassified mound, similar to an alluvial fan on Earth, except with a high, steep face. If the smaller crater was formed by impact there should be no landslide material, it should have been blasted away by an explosion above the surface, as the standard explanation for crater formation seems to demand. Neither would the rim of the crater form a truncated circle. An electric arc causes a subsurface blast (as demonstrated by tachylites found in the rim of South Africas Vredefort Dome, for example) and in the case of the Iapetus crater, the arc tried to cut into the tall pre-existing wall and undercut the cliff, causing it to collapse into the newly formed caldera. The smaller crater is misshapen because there was more material to cut into at the cliff face. It seems evident that NASA will continue to ignore electricity as an active agent in the outer solar system. Although magnetospheres and ionized plasmas are acknowledged to exist and to even cause certain interactions, no astrophysicist will suggest that plasma could be responsible for the craters, rilles and steep escarpments that we see. Such attributes are found wherever we look and wherever we send our probes. In places of hard vacuum, exceptional cold or extreme heat, the same process seems to have been at work. What else besides electricity can produce all of the same phenomena in so many different environments? By Stephen Smith
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Credit: NASA Magellan Mission
Venus the Bright Planet

(Jul 19, 2007)
Venus reflects light from the top of its deep cloud layer, but space probe data indicates that the surface is also highly reflective. Venus has been the evening star for several months, now. As it begins to move away from its place in twilight skies and take up a position as a familiar dawn companion, the morning star, some interesting facts and puzzling questions about our so-called "sister planet" are worthy of consideration. The image at the top of the page was sent from Venus by the Magellan spacecraft in September of 1991. Magellan circled Venus in a polar orbit for four years until contact was lost on October 12, 1994. Its primary mission was to use an onboard synthetic aperture radar imaging system and shoot high resolution video of the planets strange topography. Balcher crater (center of above image), is approximately 35 kilometers in diameter. Its unique because the raised central formation, similar to those found in other craters, has been cut in half by some kind of violent tectonic force. On November 9, 2005, The European Space Agency launched the Venus Express mission from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The spacecraft was designed to help answer other intriguing questions about the solar systems second planet: 1. Why are some areas on the surface so reflective to radar? 2. Is there presently volcanic or seismic activity on the planet? 3. How do the complex global dynamics of the planet work? The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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4. What causes the super-fast atmospheric rotation and the hurricane-force winds? 5. What maintains the double atmospheric vortex at the poles? Coupled with information collected by the Magellan Mission, the ESA program should provide planetary scientists with enough data to ponder the unusual environment of Venus for years to come. However, because mission scientists are unaware of how the electrical environment of Venus influences the geologic processes and the bizarre terrain that we see, they are not able to provide complete explanations for the complex issues that face them. In past Thunderbolts Pictures of the Day, we have explored some of those issues. Many of the mountains on Venus have peaks that shine very brightly in radar. Although the reason for the strange brightness is a mystery for NASA, from an electric universe standpoint, the mountain peaks are glowing with a form of "St. Elmos Fire." St. Elmos Fire is a plasma phenomenon, similar to static electricity, and charged plasma reflects radar like a mirror. Therefore, the high albedo of the mountains May be the result of that discharge. Enormous areas of the planet are cut by "nova," or deep grooves, that extend outward radially from an area of parallel fractures. Analysts from NASA and ESA both have identified these formations as the remains of volcanic upwelling. At some time in the past, underground magma partially melted and swelled the surface. After a period of time, the magma subsided, the surface cooled and contracted, leaving behind a network of fractures. As we have noted in the past, however, these features resemble nothing more strongly than lightning scars called, Lichtenberg Figures. Other complex structures called "coronae" are oval formations that are characterized by rings of ridges and troughs that cut through radial cracks, very much like the striations in the "novae." Coronae are often found in association with so-called "pancake volcanoes" wide, flat domes that cover hundreds of square kilometers. Electrical theorists explain such structures, also including "shield volcanoes" and "pedestal craters," as the result of gigantic plasma discharges. Such electric forces pull material toward the center of the vortex as they carve out craters and channels through the surrounding area. After the electric arc has passed, a raised mound of debris, often with a moat surrounding it, will be left behind. Some of the raised mounds can be very large, such as Olympus Mons on Mars, or the Eistla Region on Venus. Theories of how Venus was formed and how its surface was blasted and abraded must include the ways that electricity behaves in various circumstances. In the high density atmosphere of Venus, electric arcs will carve out topography similar to that found elsewhere in the solar system, but it will bear unique attributes. For example, highly energetic discharges will leave deeply entrenched formations, as well as swirling structures called, "arachnoids" that bear a resemblance to "spiders" found on Mars, but are far larger and more pronounced. Realizing that all the planets and moons we have explored are probably marked by catastrophic events from a recent past will guide our research toward a more appropriate understanding of why they exhibit such conventionally odd morphology. By Stephen Smith
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Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.
Dione's Tortuous Cliffs

(Jul 13, 2007)
Saturn's moon, Dione, exhibits some unusual geological formations that May indicate electrical forces at work. As the Cassini spacecraft continues to explore the environment around Saturn, more close up and detailed images reveal that its moons have experienced what might be called, "catastrophic" events in the past. As mentioned in a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day, Dione and Tethys were found to be active worlds, similar to Enceladus, spewing streams of particles into the plasmasphere of Saturn. Titan, another large moon, has landforms on its surface that suggest to NASA observers that there May be flowing liquid ethane rivers or hydrocarbon lakes present. Although the idea is speculative, it illustrates how strange the moons of the outer solar system really are. On Dione, several bright cliffs are visible, wrapping around it and extending for many kilometers. In a flyby animation, the camera focuses on those features and shows that they have a braided shape, often cut through craters and intersect other cliffs. Because Dione has no atmosphere and is only 1126 kilometers in diameter, it was thought to be geologically inactive. But then the plumes of charged particles were found erupting from a number of hot spots on its surface. In the Electric Universe hypothesis, these plumes are plasma discharges that are ejecting material into space, just as on Jupiter's moon Io. It's likely that conditions existed in the past where that activity was much more energetic, forming the etched terrain that we see today. The grooves and canyons run parallel to each other. They have sharp rims and begin abruptly The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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with no gradually eroded look to them. They have side canyons running off at ninety-degree angles and craters along their length, often in chains. The craters are shallow with no debris around them and have central peaks very much like craters found on Earths Moon and on other planets, such as Mars. In past Picture of the Day articles, such formations have been identified with electric discharge machining. Because the moons of Saturn orbit within its plasmasphere and exchange electrical energy with one another, electricity must be considered whenever we observe unusual morphology. Projecting earthly geologic forces and the slow progress of erosion onto other planets and moons misses the point. Wind and rain erode our planet and presumably create canyons and valleys. But when no wind or rain exists such as on Dione how do we explain the fresh looking and unique topography that defies convention? And should we then also question the assumption that wind and rain alone have sculpted the Earth? By Stephen Smith
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Credit: Bernie and Jay Slotnick/Adam Block/AOP/NOAO/AURA/NSF
The "Mysterious Arms" of M106

(Jul 11, 2007)
According to NASA scientists, a 45 year old mystery has been solved using gravitational theories. But have conventional ideas failed to consider the most powerful force in the universe? Messier Deep Sky Object 106, or NGC 4258 is pictured above. The bright tracery of a "star forming region" can be seen around the galactic equator, extending in two barred-spiral arms that stretch out from the center. However, in a recent Chandra x-ray image, other spiral structures can be seen that don't align with the spinning plane of the galaxy. Furthermore, another arm, also not in the same orbital plane with the other two is visible in radio images taken by the Very Large Array. The NASA imaging team from the University of Maryland has been quoted as saying: "But in radio and X-ray images, two additional spiral arms dominate the picture, appearing as ghostly apparitions between the main arms," says team member Andrew Wilson of the University of Maryland. These so-called "anomalous arms" consist mostly of gas. "The nature of these anomalous arms is a long-standing puzzle in astronomy," says Yang. "They have been a mystery since they were first discovered in the early 1960s." The additional arms are unexplained because they occur along the paths of highly energetic particles being ejected from the galaxy's central region. However, when two such pairs of jets were discovered, tipped at thirty degrees from the plane of the galaxy, the puzzle deepened because no galaxy has been observed with two active jets occurring at the same time in different alignments. Because of that difficulty, the original surmise that a black hole was responsible for the energetic emissions was abandoned, although a black hole is still thought to be the source for most of the energy coming from the galaxy. Now, with these new observations, the hypothesis has shifted to shock waves traveling through the gas and dust in the "anomalous arms." The violent expansion of the shock waves The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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heats the gas to such a degree that it generates x-rays strong enough for the Chandra experiment to detect. "One of the predictions of this scenario is that the anomalous arms will gradually be pushed out of the galactic disk plane by jet-heated gas," says Yang. "The XMMNewton spectra show that X-rays are more strongly absorbed in the direction of the northwest arm than in the southeast arm. The results strongly suggest that the southeast arm is partly on the near side of M106's disk, and the northwest arm is partly on the far side." Using archival data from the Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope, scientists compared data from 2001 with more recent images and determined that the heat is being absorbed by warm gases along the axis of the galactic arms in M106. How many more times will NASA observers ignore the obvious conclusions to their observations and admit that electrical forces are creating the x-rays and the "mysterious" arms that they see? By relying on gravity and "hot gas" as their only recourse for explanations, the effects of charged plasma in space are not given credence. Therefore Birkeland currents and their twisting formations when they pass through ionized plasma are not mentioned. Nor is the way that x-rays and other high energy emissions are generated by the pinch effects in such currents discussed. Electricity in space is discounted as a source for observations, because astrophysicists aren't trained to consider it. By ignoring that information even more mysteries will be created instead of answers and more problems will be produced instead of solving the old ones. By Stephen Smith
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Left to right: Navaho rug; sacred design of the Dayak or Iban of Sarawak; head of the Polynesian deity Tiki Credit:(Navaho rug) Wal Thornhill, (Dayak) Alex Pollard, (Tiki) Cindy Lea Clark
Memories of the "Squatter Man"

(Jul 09, 2007)
Many symbolic patterns around the world can now be seen as variations of the global "squatter man" or "stick man" first documented by plasma scientist Anthony Peratt. They are stylized derivations of a plasma discharge configuration seen in the ancient sky. The "squatter" or " stickman" figure is a ubiquitous symbol found in nearly every culture. It is often confused with a crude, distorted version of the human form. Some cultures speak of it as the big red man in the heavens. Below is a simple illustration of a three-dimensional plasma discharge form appearing above ancient sky worshippers, inspiring a vast array of mythical interpretations. The laboratory verified configuration includes a transparent "champagne glass" form above, a transparent "hollow donut" (when seen edge-on), and the "squashed bell" form below, all joined by an axial spine running down from the "head" of the figure.
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When appearing in the heavens, this plasma discharge column--the axis mundi of world mythology--evolved through a series of "plasma instabilities" documented in high energy laboratory experiments. Seen here are examples (left to right) from Armenia, United Arab Emirates, Spain, Arizona, and Guina.
As we have noted in previous Pictures of the Day, a columnar discharge current breaks up into a string of sausage-like cells--usually 7 to 9 in number--which evolve into donut-like ring currents (toroids). The stacked toroids flatten into disks, and their edges fold away from the disk plane--upward in the top toroids and downward in the bottom ones. The form that we see as the "Stickman" is the culmination of a late phase, as a number of the flattened toroids fold up to form the stickman's head. This squatting figure is one of the more stable (longer-lasting) plasma "instabilities," and in this phase it was the the brightest and most terrifying component in a configuration of stunning impact on human imagination. The discharge form was recorded on stone by all human communities that witnessed it, and it influenced sacred designs across several millennia. (See, for example the Chinese Longevity Symbol.) Often, as in the colorful images above, the designs will explain themselves through comparative analysis. But it is also helpful to remember that the configuration was visually alive. The "arms" of the celestial figure, for example, were not stationary but dynamic toruses, "warping" or folding upward, then downward, then upward again. The archetypal form can be seen in widely varied compositions. And as plasma discharge experts would be the first to point out, this includes innumerable "secondary" design elements, including the bi-polar "thunderbolt" loosely indicated in the Navaho rug design:
See David Talbott and Wallace Thornhill, Thunderbolts of the Gods, pp. 21ff. and 52ff. Contributed by Michael Armstrong
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This image of Victoria Crater shows the route followed by the Mars rover Opportunity during its exploration of the rim, as NASA scientists sought the safest path for its entry into the crater. Credit: NASA/JPL
Victoria Crater--A Prediction

(Jul 06, 2007)
As the rover Opportunity descends into Victoria Crater on Mars, what new surprises will it reveal? We believe it likely that the so-called "sand dunes" on the crater floor will reveal glassified crests--the telltale signature of electric discharge. In a July 3rd, 2007 New York Times article, NASA announced that the Mars exploration rover, Opportunity, will soon begin its descent into Victoria Crater. Opportunity has been perched on the rim of the crater for several months now as the mission command team planned the best way to safely re-deploy it down the steep slope. Opportunity is one of two mobile research platforms now on the surface of Mars. A twin vehicle, Spirit, is continuing to roam the Martian surface as well. Together, the rovers have provided new tests of the electrical hypothesis. Opportunity was the first vehicle to reveal the vast numbers of bb-sized spherules on the surface, dubbed "blueberries." Plasma physicist C J Ransom later replicated these spherules in the laboratory by blasting hematite with an electric arc. The rovers have caught electrified dust devils in action, revealing the undeniable glow discharge at their base; and remarkably, they have demonstrated how electrostatic cleaning works to the advantage of the rovers, "miraculously" clearing the solar panels of dust. But Opportunitys images of crater morphology May be the most tantalizing of all the new data supplied by the rovers (a subject we will explore in this series of articles). In previous Thunderbolt Pictures of the Day, we suggested that the "dunes" at the bottom of the crater were sculpted electrically. Opportunity has already been to the bottom of Endurance Crater, revealing fascinating details about its dune field, whose form is remarkably similar to that seen in the centers of other craters on Mars. Viewed close up, the smooth The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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texture looks nothing like the present grainy floor of the crater. The formations exhibit gravitydefying folds. Indeed, by all appearances the grains simply settled into the valleys between stable, exotically configured crests. And the tendrils at the end of several dunes show what look like "cathode whiskers," a well documented feature of electrical effects. As far back as October 16, 2006, after Victoria crater was first photographed by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HIRISE), electrical theorist, Wal Thornhill wrote: "I would suggest that the "sand dunes" are the result of the central arc spots, forming overlapping circular depressions... Certainly, the orthogonal ridges have more in common with a corona discharge pattern than they do with sand dunes. They May therefore be solid, glassified sand, rather like that found in dry soil following a lightning strike. Such glassified sand is known as a "fulgurite." It is noteworthy that the Apollo astronauts found clumps of glass-crusted soil near the centers of small (1 to 5 foot) craters on the lunar surface. It raised a stir because the glass was a surprise. In addition, orthogonal lineaments in the lunar soil were reported. They cannot have been there for long." So, rather than being created "millions of years ago" by a meteorite impact, it is likely that the geology of Victoria Crater will add further support for what so many lines of evidence have already suggested: sculpting of the Martian surface by electric discharge. NASA May persist in attributing what it has discovered on Mars to "wind erosion," "meteor impact," "floods of water," and other conventional processes. But until NASA scientists acknowledge the power and far-reaching effects of electric arcs and electric winds in the Martian past, no popular theory will sufficiently explain the observations.
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Lake Cheko in the Siberian region of Tunguska has recently emerged as a candidate for an "impact site" linked to the famous Tunguska explosion of 1908. Credit: www-th.bo.infn.it/tunguska / University of Bologna
New Tunguska Crater Found?

(Jul 05, 2007)
A team of Italian scientists has announced seismic evidence of what could be meteor fragments beneath Lake Cheko in Siberia--the first "solid evidence" of a Tunguska asteroid. On June 30, 1908, a massive explosion detonated in the skies over Tunguska in northern Siberia. The resulting shock wave flattened some 60 million trees across 2000 square kilometers. The blast was heard hundreds of miles away and the cloud of dust colored the skies of the Northern Hemisphere for months afterwards. The first expedition to investigate the region could not locate any sign of an impact event, nor did it recover any meteoric fragments. A later expedition, however, did uncover magnetite globules and various forms of silicate globules embedded in the earth and in the trees. Most scientists eventually settled on either an icy comet explosively vaporized before reaching the surface, or a small rocky asteroid exploding in the atmosphere and leaving no appreciable fragments. But the absence of definitive evidence for an impact invited many exotic theories--ranging from "mirror-matter" or a tiny "quantum black hole," to an exploding alien craft or a Nikola Tesla experiment gone awry. In past discussions of the Tunguska event, our Picture of the Day editors have suggested electric discharge between a small comet or asteroid and the Earth. That suggestion was based on a wide variety of recorded physical effects and the testimony of human witnesses. More recently, however, a team of Italian researchers has suggested that the 164-foot deep Lake Cheko, five miles northwest of the epicenter of the blast, could be the site of an impact by a meteor or a fragment of the body responsible for the devastating Tunguska event. The team reported that 3D sonar images of the lakes bottom indicate that it is funnel-shaped, something that might be expected of both an impactor and an electric discharge. Using The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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seismic detectors, the University of Bologna scientists discovered an area of greater density beneath the lake, noting that this could indicate the remains of a meteor. "When we looked at the bottom of the lake, we measured seismic waves reflecting off of something," said Giuseppe Longo, a physicist at the University of Bologna in Italy and co-author of the study. "Nobody has found this before. We can only explain that and the shape of the lake as a lowvelocity impact crater." According to a report on the Space.com web site, however, some physicists are skeptical about the small size of the Lake Cheko crater. "We know from the entry physics that the largest and most energetic objects penetrate deepest," said David Morrison, an astronomer with NASA's Ames Research Center. Morrison wondered aloud why only a fragment of the main explosion would reach the ground to make a relatively small crater, while the greater portion would not create a larger main crater. But Alan Harris, a planetary scientist at the Space Science Institute, points out that, in 1947, the Russian Sikhote-Alin meteorite created 100 small craters. Some were 20 meters (66 feet) across. A site in Poland also exists, he explained, where a large meteor exploded and created a series of small lakes. "If the fragment was traveling slowly enough, there's actually a good chance [the Italian team) will unearth some meteorite material," Harris said. The researchers will return to Tunguska this summer with plans to drill beneath the bottom of Lake Cheko, hoping to find a meteorite. From an Electric Universe perspective, if the Tunguska explosion was the result of an electric discharge, a meteor fragment May indeed be found, pointing to the source of the discharge. But more likely, the increased density beneath the lake could be the signature of the electric arc that excavated the depression, producing the fused sands and soils of a fulgurite. By Stephen Smith
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Credit: Mars 3D from data provided by the Mars Global Surveyor
The Martian Polar Vortices

(Jul 02, 2007)
Recent image data from Saturn and Venus illustrate the twin vortices that exist in the spinning gases of their poles. Could similar "spin patterns" be found elsewhere in the Solar System? The entire south pole of Mars is shown in this image, created with data provided by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, flying on the Mars Global Surveyor robot satellite. The image area is about 500 kilometers across. A similar image of the north pole is also available. In a larger view of the south pole, the area surrounding the ice cap is peppered with craters, many of them several kilometers in diameter, most notably, the formation in the upper left that exhibits a dome-shaped central feature within a crater. The dome-shaped feature is unique for its size, but appears to be an exact analog for many images of "blueberries" embedded within a rock matrix. A case for the electrical nature of such formations has been made in past Pictures of the Day and we will return to this topic in future articles. The south polar deposits on Mars cover an area bigger than the State of Texas about 430,000 square kilometers. Of particular interest are the dual, swirling arcs that mark the paths of the ridges, buried under the carbon dioxide frost and water-ice deposits visible at both poles. For all intents and purposes, the twin spiral shapes at the Martian poles are representative of the electric dipole effect that has been demonstrated at the poles of both Venus and Saturn. The hardened rock strata, preserving the shapes of two counter-rotating currents indicates that the crust of Mars experienced, and May be continuing to experience, electric forces. As has been noted in a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day, the electricity in the Martian environment is what gives rise to the dust storms that form in this region, feeding their huge, spinning flow. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive "The abundant circumpolar pits in the south lack the raised rims expected of impacts. They exhibit the alignments of so-called 'secondary crater chains.' There are no such things. All linear arrangements of craters are the result of an arc moving across a surface. Both the pits beneath and the delicate layering are the kinds of things we should expect if the south polar deposit was electrically deposited."
In August of 2003, electrical theorist, Wal Thornhill wrote:
When electric currents pass through a plasma they are twisted into a helical pattern as the forces attempt to balance themselves within the magnetic turbulence that is created by the interaction. Because Mars lacks a substantial magnetosphere (1\800th that of the Earth), its surface is almost directly exposed to intense positive charges coming from the sun. At some point in the past the intensity of those forces increased to a titanic level and traveled through the planet from pole-to-pole in a huge electric circuit. That formidable event excavated billions of tons of material from the north polar region, while at the same time layering a similar volume of material on the south pole. During the discharge event(s), the Birkeland currents carved the deep canyons at the north and south poles, while simultaneously drawing together the surface debris into the curvilinear ridges that run parallel to them. The result was the "fossils" (at both poles) of a planetary electric vortex that engulfed Mars. By Stephen Smith
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Credit: Epoch Times
China's Stone Eggs

(Jun 29, 2007)
The recent discovery of large stone spheres in China brings to mind the mysterious accumulation of similar orbs in various locales. Experimental evidence suggests they May have been created by high-energy electric arcs. Ancient civilizations have endowed stone spheres with godlike characteristics. Many of them have been elevated on plinths and worshipped as messengers from heaven. From Greece, Rome, Arabia, and many other locations, there is evidence that the spheres either "fell from heaven" or were formed in mysterious and possibly catastrophic events. A crew of road-builders unearthed the Chinese stone spheres, located in the Hunan Province, while digging the foundations for a new highway. The stones are of various sizes and are so numerous that the hill in which they were discovered was called a "stone egg mountain." Other deposits are located in the Shennongjia Nature Reserve Area of Hubei Province, adjacent to Hunan. A similar grouping of stone spheres has been found in the Bosnian pyramid structure. Also ranging in size from a few inches to several feet in diameter, the spheres are remarkably similar to ones found buried in Costa Rica. Those spheres are thought to have been carved by the Olmec civilization, because they are often resting among huge stone heads, artifacts attributed to the Olmecs. The purpose of this article is not to uncover the origin of particular objects, but to identify a unifying principle that will provide a possible reason for how such objects form. Most conventional theories ascribe their formation to the slow accumulation of minerals and are deem them to be "concretions" of carbonate or other water-soluble compounds. Since many The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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stone balls are found "weathering out" of sedimentary deposits, the theory was proposed as the only possible explanation for them. However, as electrical theorist, Mel Acheson, has pointed out: "So when did the concretions form? And why are they spherical? If they form in place from a liquid or plastic state, gravity would squash them into a dome shape. If they form while moving through a resistive medium, friction would change their shape. The forces that formed them must have been spherically symmetric." So, we should look elsewhere for the cause one that takes into account their symmetrical structure. In a previous Thunderbolts Picture of the Day, a description of glassified spherules, created by Dr. C. J. Ransoms experiments with high voltage discharges, lent credence to the theory of lightning strikes as the means by which stone eggs form. Based on research into the shape and size of so-called, "blueberries" on Mars, Dr. Ransom exposed samples of rock dust and soils to high voltage electric discharges. His results are remarkably similar to the Martian blueberries, and to other such accumulations of stone balls on Earth. Electric arcs tend to gather matter within the center of a vortex and "pinch" it into a sphere which May be subjected to a greater or lesser degree of melting. Because of their vortical nature, such "z-pinches" create zones of compression, thereby forming several kinds of "stone egg": Moqui balls iron spheres with sandstone cores, cannonballs, blueberries, thunder eggs, Apache tears and geodes. Many of them are hollow inside. And mysteriously, geodes found in Illinois and neighboring regions of Iowa and Missouri are filled with oil under pressure. So, where did the Chinese stone eggs come from? It May well turn out that the best explanation is the one that geologists have yet to consider: that they came from the center of a whirling vortex of electrically charged plasma that penetrated into the depths of the hill and fused the contents into large, round nodules. By Stephen Smith
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Credit: Peter Potterfield, MountainZone.com
The Mountains of Patagonia

(Jun 27, 2007)
Long-standing theories of mountain uplift have never adequately explained the towering vertical features we often observe. But the picture changes when researchers consider the possible role of the electric force. Southern Argentina is spectacular. In fact, the entire South American continent is dominated by extreme topography; lava fields, deserts, needle-sharp mountain peaks and craters. There are many theories about how the region developed such unusual terrain, most based on longterm volcanism and glacier scouring. However, several examples of such topography have been imaged on Mars and other planetary bodies. Could that suggest a similar process of formation regardless of where they're found? In conventional geological terms, Patagonia exhibits landscapes that are millions, if not hundreds of millions of years old. The Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre mountain peaks, shown above, are part of an extensive uplift formation caused by the continuous folding and compression of the continent. As authors Mariolina and Giorgio Ardrizzi write: "Scholars believe that the origin of such a fragmented geography like that which can be seen at present along the Patagonian fjords and those of the Tierra del Fuego, can be put down to four main factors: the meeting of the oceanic plate with the continental shelf; complex exogenous phenomena, especially of erosion by water that took place during the pre-Tertiary periods; a period of intense glaciation, that started in the last 2 million years and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive ended 14,000 years ago with the last glaciation; complex geological phenomena, especially bradyseisms and earthquakes, which made the ground sink opening a breach to the waters of the ocean that went kilometres up the ancient valleys."
There are some characteristics that bring into question the age of the features, however. Many of the landforms include rivers that empty into lakes with no outlets. If the lakes are part of such ancient geography, why have they not been filled-in with debris from the eroding mountain ranges that surround them? The mountain ranges, such as Cerro Torre are composed of basalt. They formed when lava flows engulfed thousands of square kilometers, some reaching over nine thousand meters thick. Standard theories of formation fail to explain the terraced flanks of the valleys carved into the mountains. Some of them are blind canyons with hemispherical shapes that contain sharply pointed central peaks. The peaks are carved in terraces just like the canyon walls, another attribute that is very difficult to explain. How can a sharp "volcanic" peak demonstrate the same kind of terracing as the canyon wall? Once again, there appears to be no debris remaining from the eroded lava. The valleys and canyons are thousands of meters deep, but the talus slopes are very small, there are no boulders on the valley floor, and no huge heaps of gravel or glacial moraines are apparent. Where has all the eroded material gone? Another unusual feature of the basalt cliffs is the pothole shaped depressions incised into the top of the ridges. The holes contain water, but they have no rivers feeding them and they have no outlets. Although they are most likely filled in spring by snowmelt, their rims are sharply defined and do not appear to be eroded by wind or water. Another unusual aspect to their structure is the scour marks that cross over them. Electric discharge machining could provide an explanation. In the historic phase of planetary instability envisioned by electrical theorists, planets were engulfed by electric discharge. In periods of intense arcing a trillion kilowatt bolt of lightning could have shattered and vaporized the rock, lofting it toward space, leaving the terraced cliffs and deep holes bored into the ridges. A hallmark of such activity would be the lack of debris and the smooth valley floors. The excised material would have been removed in a process akin to industrial plasma surface cleaning. Previous Thunderbolt Pictures of the Day have described theories of such events on Mars that carved out Arabia Terra, Valles Marineris and other structures. Now we must ask whether major features on Earth, including the sharply sculpted mountains of Patagonia, are remnants left by cosmic thunderbolts. By Stephen Smith
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Credit: NASA/USGS
The Brandberg Massif

(Jun 25, 2007)
The deserts of Namibia hold many unusual geological structures that stretch the imagination and defy conventional explanation. Are electric discharges responsible for their formation? The continent of Africa reveals a history of violent upheaval and colossal forces. Irrespective of their source, the features that can be found in many places exhibit faults, folds and craters. Conventional theories would place the origin of said features in the distant past and in the lap of continental drift theory and/or plate tectonics. But, do those theories, involving time periods that span billions of years, really tell the tale of what appears to be fresh, relatively unworn geology? The Brandberg Massif is a circular, dome-shaped structure that rises 2573 meters above the flat plains of Namibia and encompasses an area of 650 square kilometers. Its huge size means that it acts as a "rain shadow," wringing moisture from the clouds and preventing precipitation in the desert. The monolith is described as being over 120 million years old and the remains of a granitic intrusion that "punched through" the Earths crust. The USGS comments: "The mountain's volcanism has long since stilled, but the granite core left behind apparently glows red in the light of the setting sun. The formation is a remnant of a long period of tumultuous volcanic and geologic activity on Earth during which the southern super-continent of Gondwana was splitting apart." Found in the vicinity of the Brandberg Massif are parallel grooves and ridges that extend for hundreds of miles, Lichtenberg figures covering an enormous area, multiple craters with strange morphology, and dunes that do not move. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Parallel grooves, or striations, abound in the solar system: on Mars, on Venus (the hottest spot), and on Enceladus (a profoundly cold body). If those patterns have been discovered in such various environments, an explanation that includes that variability must be considered. Lichtenberg figures are named after Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. They form when lightning bolts strike some material on Earth it can be soil or even human tissue. They have also been generated artificially in blocks of acrylic plastic. Many Lichtenberg figures have been discovered in the south polar region of Mars and have been discussed in previous Thunderbolt Pictures of the Day as Martian Spiders. Once again, if the topography surrounding the Brandberg Massif and the Massif, itself exhibits structural details that have been uncovered on other planets and moons, then the conventional account falls far short of the observations. By describing the birth of the Massif as an event that emerged gradually in the distant past, scientists are neglecting the observational evidence that the formation is, in reality, a fulgamite of titanic proportions that May have formed suddenly. A fulgamite, or lightning blister, develops when an electric discharge draws material from the surrounding area and compresses it in the center of a spinning electric vortex, leaving a mound-like formation behind. The most notable fulgamite in the solar system, apart from the largest one, Olympus Mons, is probably the "face on Mars." Because the Brandberg Massif rests within an area that reflects the action of gigantic electric arcs, it could very well have formed in a breathtakingly short period of time and not in millions of years. By Stephen Smith
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Credit: NASA Voyager 2 Mission
Triton's "Ice Geysers"

(Jun 22, 2007)
Triton, the largest moon of Neptune, exhibits plumes of nitrogen spewing from frozen "geysers" or "cryo-volcanoes" near its south pole. While scientists struggle to comprehend them, analogous plumes and jets elsewhere in the solar system suggest that the answer May be obvious. On August 20, 1977, NASA launched the Voyager 2 mission on a multi-year journey to the outer solar system. Twelve years after launch, on August 25, 1989, Voyager 2 was the first spacecraft to return close-up images of remote Neptune, now officially recognized as the most distant planet from the Sun (due to the downgrading of Pluto to a Kuiper Belt Object). One of the greatest surprises of the Voyager mission occurred on the flyby of Neptunes largest moon, Triton. To the astonishment of planetary scientists, the cameras revealed active geyser-like eruptions spewing nitrogen gas and dark dust particles straight up, eight kilometers into space. The stunned NASA investigators called these eruptions cryogenic "ice volcanoes," and for almost two decades they have struggled to understand them. Some theorists have attempted to leverage heat from the Sun into a plausible source of the required energy. Thus, JPL scientists suggested that, "Trapping of solar radiation in a translucent, low-conductivity surface layer (in a solid-state greenhouse)could provide the required energy." But others at the University of Hawaii speculated that, "heat released when frozen molecular nitrogen shifts from one crystalline state to another May fuel the geysers." Are these exotic proposals really plausible candidates? When Electric Universe proponents hear theoretical guesses of this sort, they see a casual disregard for the patterns of space The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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age discovery. How many unexpected geysers will we have to see in the solar system before planetary scientists begin to ask the obvious questions? On Triton, several occurrences of geysers were identified in the south polar region. As seen in the picture above the plumes have left behind wind streaks and fan-shaped dark deposits radiating from the point of eruption. The geysers, darkened cavities, and associated streaks are eerily similar to features on Jupiters moon Io, which have been cogently explained as electric discharge effects. In a recent Thunderbolts Picture of the Day, we noted the association of highly enigmatic "dalmation spots" and geysers in the south polar region of Mars, and in our continuing series on Martian south polar events we have emphasized the apparent role of charged particle beams excavating ice, and provoking massive geyser activity. We wrote: "If the dark spotting on Mars south polar ice is indeed caused by charged particle streams, one of the first things we should look for is an active response of the surface to these events. Since the dark spotting is occurring in the Martian south polar spring, that would be the time to look for signs of energetic activity--not unlike the so-called "volcanic" plumes of Jupiters closest moon Io, or the "geysers" of Saturns moon Enceladus." NASA scientists, by their disinterest in electricity, have ignored a compelling pattern. When observing events in Neptunes super frigid domain, they do not even think of Io, or Enceladus, or Mars, because the geologic condition of Triton is so different. They have not realized that these differences pose virtually no issue under an electrical interpretation. By Stephen Smith
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Credit: Advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE) on board ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft
The Reiner Gamma Formation

(Jun 20, 2007)
The Moon is a "dead body," according to modern theories of the solar system; it long ago exhausted any remnant heat that it retained from its birth. It has no magnetic field and it does not radiate, except to reflect the light that it receives from the sun. But, could electrical forces have recently shaped the lunar surface? The birth of the Moon is still being debated in scientific circles: is it a captured body? Is it the result of a cataclysmic collision of the Earth with another celestial object? The Reiner Gamma formation, shown above, is a conundrum for those who insist on slow, uniform cooling and a relatively stable lunar environment. The swirling pattern of bright material is located in Oceanus Procellarum, near Reiner crater. It is one of three such swirls on the Moon the other two are on the far side, near Mare Marginis and Mare Ingenii. Another of these formations exists in the solar system, on the planet, Mercury. The theories of Reiner-Gammas formation abound, but none have been tested, or confirmed through observation. Among the prevailing theories are: a) high velocity comet impact; b) seismic activity; c) latent magnetic fields from large, rayed craters nearby; d) magnetic storms from the sun; e) lunar volcanism (e.g., El-Baz 1972; Schultz and Srnka 1980). A high velocity comet impact would not have left a mere surface deposit of powdered debris. There would have been folding of strata along the rim of the impact crater, as well as large boulders and other rock deposits from the blast effect. Those features are missing. Seismic activity/lunar volcanism could explain the dust-like deposits that appear to have "settled out" from the cloud of an eruption event. However, there is no volcanic vent, nor large crack out of which the material could have been ejected. Further, lunar quakes of sufficient magnitude have never been detected by instrument packages left behind by various Apollo missions to The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Recent magnetic data suggest a link to impact-related magnetism because the swirls in Mare Ingenii and near Gerasimovich crater are associated with relatively strong magnetic anomalies antipodal to some of the young impact basins such as Imbrium and Crisium (Hood 1987; Lin et al. 1988; Hood and Williams 1989; Halekas et al. 2001; Hood et al. 2001; Richmond et al. 2005). According to scientists, Reiner Gamma is a surface deposit, similar to the powdered rock rays extending from lunar craters like Tycho (Hood et al. 2001). Similar ray shapes are also visible in the images from Mercury. But, does that tell the whole story? Or does it even hint at a proper interpretation of the observations? As previous TPODs have demonstrated, the rayed features from craters are not the result of explosive ejection, but are the remains of electric discharges moving across the lunar surface. According to Ralph Juergens, one of a few scientists who, during his lifetime, acknowledged and explained the electric cosmos: "Its all-but-impossible to reconcile with ejection origins. Enormous velocities of ejection must be postulated to explain the lengths of the rays (of Tycho), yet the energetic processes responsible for such velocities must be imagined to be focused very precisely to account for the ribbon-thin appearance of the rays." Latent magnetic fields are part of the formation (as well as those in Mare Marginis and Mare Ingenii) and were measured by the Magnetometer/Electron Reflectometer (MAG/ER) experiment onboard the Lunar Prospector spacecraft in the 1990s. Measurements of the remnant magnetism in the lunar crust were taken by observing the magnetic reflection of electrons from the Moons surface. The differences are small, but the evidence points to a variable strength magnetic field imprinted on the Moon. Since magnetism is a result of electrical currents, then the swirling pattern of the formation May be the result of an external electrical influence. Swirls, arcs and curlicues are found on every rocky body in the solar system, as well as on most of the ice-bodies. An explanation for the swirling path of Reiner Gamma must include the features of varying scale that are found on the other moons. According to electrical theorists, a common explanation for each of the geo-morphological features that we have illustrated is that the planets and moons exist within an electric universe. Each solar system object is normally insulated within its individual charge sheath. However, when those sheaths touch, electric charge is exchanged. Therefore, we find that the moon, Io, which orbits within Jupiters plasma sheath, is undergoing continuous electrical bombardment from its parent planet. Reiner Gamma is one more example of surface scarring in an electrically active Solar System. The braided appearance and the deposits lack of depth suggest rotating Birkeland currents, draped over the surface, creating a filamentary and pleated look to the light-colored field. The shape of the deposit is suggestive of the auroral curtains that can be seen in the skies of Earths polar regions. Reiner Gamma May be the result of similar activity by energetic streamers from the sun or another charged body. By Stephen Smith
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Saturns moons Tethys and Dione Credit: NASA/JPL
Saturn's Electric Moons

(Jun 18, 2007)
We have long contended that "geysers" on Saturns moon Enceladus are part of the electrical circuitry of Saturn. Now NASA has announced new evidence that Saturns moons Tethys and Dione are part of this same circuitry. In previous Thunderbolts Pictures of the Day, we presented several examples of how Jupiters highly charged, electric environment creates features on the planets small moon Io that cannot be adequately explained by conventional scientists. The observed phenomena are deemed "mysterious," and they appear to contradict the theory of an electrically neutral solar system. Similarly, Jupiters moons Ganymede and Europa electrically influence the gas giants plasmasphere. The Cassini-Huygens mission was launched from Cape Canaveral on October 15, 1997. Its primary mission was the exploration of the Saturnian system, including its atmosphere, its rings, its magnetosphere and a number of its moons. Although Titan was the highest priority, the mission has brought many surprising discoveries, and among the greatest of these have been the icy plumes erupting from the south polar region of Saturns moon Enceladus. The image above shows two more of Saturns moons, Tethys (left) and Dione (right). Both are now known to be actively interacting with the electric field of their parent body. In a June 13, 2007 European Space Agency release it was announced that the two moons are "flinging great streams of particles into space." The discovery was made by the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer, when data from Saturn revealed that the ionized gas (actually a plasma) surrounding the planet was trapped within its magnetic field and (to use NASAs archaic expression) being "squashed into a disc." The language used by NASA scientists continues to amuse plasma experts. The ESA release notes that Saturn rotates at a very high speed for its size and mass, and from this the investigators deduced that the ionized material is forced out mechanically. "Just like a child on a fast-spinning merry-go round, the trapped gas feels a force trying to throw it outwards, away from the centre of rotation." According to the report, the instruments found that when the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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material is removed more tenuous and hotter plasma enters the empty regions within the field. That additional plasma has been traced to the active moons. ("Tethys and Dione as sources of outward-flowing plasma in Saturns magnetosphere": J. Burch, J. Goldstein, W. Lewis, D. Young, A. Coates, M Dougherty and N. Andr. Nature, June 14, 2007). As in other instances of electrical discoveries in planetary environments, NASA scientists can only see internal pressure, centrifugal force, and "gas flow." Of course, they are aware that plasma makes up more than 99% of the visible universe, but they have yet to consider the role of charge distribution within the plasma of space. Instead, a charge-neutral solar system is held up as the sine qua non of theoretical speculation. In contrast, electrical theorists argue that Saturn moves within the plasmasphere of the Sun and interacts with the Suns electric field. Planets and moons in the solar system are charged bodies. They are not isolated in "empty" space, but "converse" electrically with each other. Because Enceladus, Dione and Tethys all move within the plasmasphere of Saturn, it is only to be expected that they would transact electrically with their primary. The researchers who make up the Thunderbolts team have been asserting for many years that plumes, geysers, and jets rising from the moons of gas giants are plasma discharges. NASAs investigators seem unable to comprehend the observational evidence, preferring to describe the activity on these moons as forms of "volcanism." That is why they were caught by surprise when the Galileo mission revealed that the plume of Prometheus on Io had moved more than 80 kilometers (50 miles)! The simplest, most straightforward explanation of the charged particles spewing from the icy moons of Tethys and Dione is electric discharge, so there is no need to conjure implausible internal dynamics to account for these remarkable events. We predict, therefore, that investigation over time will show that the active sources of charged particle streams from Enceladus, Tethys, and Dione all move across the surface. By Stephen Smith
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The two images above, both from the Mars Orbiter Camera, suggest a direct relationship between mysterious dark spots on Martian south polar ice and "geysers" ejecting dark material to be distributed on the ice. Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS
Mars' South Polar Dark Spots and "Geysers"

(May 25, 2007)
It is now known that "geysers" are active on the planet Mars in its southern spring, and there are many reasons to believe that the cause is electrical. In previous installments in this series we have noted several remarkable and unexplained events and surface features on Mars, all explicable as electrical phenomena: Hundreds (or more likely thousands) of "dust devils," in close congregation, feed the billowing clouds of regional dust storms on Mars; these vortices cannot be caused by the mechanics of neutral wind circulation. But as we have observed more than once, it is the fundamental nature of charged particle beams to provoke vortical motion. Unexplained ravines run down the south-facing embankment of a massive "sand dune" in Russell Crater, with no evidence of flowing debris, but exhibiting a form that matches the trough cut by a proton beam in a simple electrical experiment. Scalloped terrain at the crest of the Russell Crater "dune" suggests a plasma "pinch" of charged particle streams arriving to carve the cleanly cut ravines; the ravines themselves show no evidence for the "landslide" explanation of these alcoves along the dune crest. Dark nodules on the back side of the dune crest remind us of the fused blisters on a lightning arrestor, all in strategic alignment with the south-facing ravines; Many of these aligned nodules are joined by mysterious shallow channels suggestive of charge redistribution in response to focused discharge activity. Farther to the south, abundant but implausibly aligned dark patches, called "dalmatian spots," pervade the south polar ice--all consistent with the patterns of aligned electric discharge columns.
Features such as these--and there are many more to be taken into account-- direct our attention to a rational principle you will not hear discussed by NASAs planetary scientists: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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when clearly associated features provoke disconnected or incompatible explanations, the explanations are not trustworthy. When the same features match the patterns logically expected from a new theoretical perspective, it is not reasonable to ignore that new vantage point. If the dark spotting on Mars south polar ice is indeed caused by charged particle streams, one of the first things we should look for is an active response of the surface to these events. Since the dark spotting is occurring in the Martian south polar spring, that would be the time to look for signs of energetic activity--not unlike the so-called "volcanic" plumes of Jupiters closest moon Io, or the "geysers" of Saturns moon Enceladus. Our image for today compares two conditions seen in the polar region of Mars. On the left we see the dark "dalmatian spots," known to be associated with a distribution of darkened material across much of the south polar ice cap. On the right is a complex of features known to be involved in the creation of dark spots. In recent years NASA has released several stories discussing the activity of Martian south polar "geysers" (see NASA artist rendering below) and offering highly speculative explanations for them. As strange as it May seem, however, NASA scientists do not see geysers in such images, only the darkened "wind streaks" left by geysers. In fact, to the best of our knowledge, while NASA scientists speculate frequently about south polar geysers and their resulting "wind streaks," no one employed by NASA has ever claimed to have witnessed a geyser in action. In the large library of south polar images, accumulated over the past ten years, there is indeed a great potential for confusion between enigmatic dark streaks on the south polar terrain and the active events ("geyser") that create them. Yet in this particular instance, the picture itself removes any doubt, since the erupting material can be seen falling back to the surface. We are not simply looking at dark streaks on the surface, as NASA spokesman have repeatedly claimed. It is a bit curious that the NASA illustration of conjectured geysers (below) looks remarkably similar to the plumes in this very MOC image. Perhaps the artist did look at pictures of active geysers. But in recent years we have found that NASA scientists spend very little time scrutinizing the wealth of Martian images, and far too much time conjuring theoretic models and simulations to defend "acceptable" interpretations-- even when the pictures themselves categorically exclude these speculations.
NASAs explanation of south polar "geyser" activity will provide a good example, which we shall take up next. While the imaging technology is superb, the organizations widely publicized theory fails every reasonable test. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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This perspective view of two large craters south of Coprates Catena in Valles Marineris exaggerates depth in order to give a clear impression of the "crater within a crater." Credit: Photo courtesy of Michael Gmirkin and NASAs World Wind 3D visualization software.
Bull's-Eye Craters
(May 23, 2007)
Impacts that "hit the bulls eye" of a previous impact are "high-odds" improbable. But lightning--even planet-scale lightning--can strike twice in the same spot. One of the principal claims of the Electric Universe model is that many features on the surfaces of rocky bodies are scars left by electrical activity. A crater is produced when an electrical arc, consisting of two or more Birkeland currents rotating around a central axis, "sticks" to one location and "drills out" a circular depression. Because electrical forces constrain an arc to strike a surface at a right angle, the crater will tend to be circular. Because the forces are distributed cylindrically, the crater will tend to have steep sides and a flat floor. Electrical forces lift debris from the surface, leaving no rim or a rim of "pinched-up" material. The properties of flat floor, steep edge, and removal of debris are why electrical etching has been developed into the industrial process of electrical discharge machining (EDM). If the rotating currents do not touch at the central axis, they will leave a "peak" of undisturbed material. A sudden change in current or in current density, due to pinching forces in the arc or to the influx of charge-carrying debris, May cause the arc to "shrink" to a smaller diameter, leaving a terrace around the wall. Because the arc is maintained for an appreciable time by a continuous electrical current, melting of surface materials May be extensive. In contradistinction, craters formed by mechanical impact tend to have rounded floors and rims. Because the forces are distributed spherically, debris is thrown out of the crater ballistically and deposited radially in a gradation of fineness and volume. The energy of the impact is dissipated in shock displacement of material: solids will "flow" as if liquefied and suddenly "freeze" when the impulsive force drops below a threshold. Very little melting occurs. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Careful inspection of rocky-body craters discloses their conformity with EDM. The two craters in the above image are a variation on the EDM theme. They display the typical flat floors, steep sides, and pinched-up rims. They have terraces around their walls. But instead of central peaks, they have central craters. Two more craters that are similar lie to the southwest. Our colleague Michael Gmirkin, in pointing these craters out to us, has christened them "bulls-eye craters," in reference to the middle concentric circles of a dart board, emphasizing the difficulty of hitting the precise center consistently. Under the impact interpretation, central craters could only be caused by a second impact that coincidentally struck exactly in the center of the previous impact. The impactors that created the craters would have to hit a perfect "bulls eye" to create this effect. It might happen once. Twice in close proximity is extremely unlikely. But four times in the same neighborhood stretches the meaning of "coincidental" beyond the covers of the dictionary. If the arcs that machined the large craters persisted until they pinched down into a very small diameter, or if a second return stroke followed the ionized path left by the first and persisted long enough, the central peaks (if they were not already machined away) would have been "drilled down," perhaps even to a depth below the original craters floors. Such an event would not be the norm, but several "bulls-eye craters" in a particular area would not be surprising. It May be significant that the four examples noted here lie on the plain just south of Valles Marineris, the largest EDM channel (from a traveling arc) in the Solar system.
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The image above has been rotated 90 degrees clockwise and processed by the "auto contrast" function in Photoshop to accent the curious placement of dark spots on the south polar "frost" of Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS
"Dalmatian Spots" of Mars' South Pole

(May 21, 2007)
Mysterious dark spotting on Mars south polar ice cap provides numerous clues to the nature of electrical events in the region. But NASA scientists show no interest in the charged particle streams that, evidence suggests, continually alter the surface. For almost nine years now, planetary scientists have commented on strange events occurring in and around the south pole of Mars. Theyve expressed curiosity, puzzlement and amazement. Theyve offered theories, then retracted them, as cameras returned better images and the mysteries grew. The picture above was returned by the Mars Orbiter Camera in 1999. The picture shows a "dune field" located at 61.5S, 18.9W, as it appeared on July 1, 1999. For planetary scientists such spots seen on "defrosting" polar dunes were a new phenomenon, unseen by previous spacecraft missions to Mars. They came to be known as "dalmatian spots." According to NASA investigators: "The patterns created by dark spots on defrosting south polar dunes are often strange and beautiful The spots are areas where dark sand has been exposed from beneath bright frost as the south polar winter cap begins to retreat." This explanation of the dark spots is not sufficient. Many instances could be given showing ice being progressively removed to expose dark surface material. But what is the mechanism removing ice so selectively at discreet spots, often reaching deep into the ice to produce distinct cavities (a subject of the Picture of the Day to follow in this series)? The authors of the NASA caption write: "No one yet knows why the dunes become defrosted by forming small spots that grow and grow over time. No one knows for sure if the bright rings around the dark spots are actually composed of re-precipitated frost. And no one knows for sure why The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive some dunes show spots that appear to be "lined-up" (as they do in the picture above)." Eight years after this caption was written, the mysteries have only deepened. But still we can find no mention by NASA of electrical possibilities. Could electric discharge be excavating the spots on the ice? Discharge frequently occurs in discrete columns, as in the discharge experiment photograph on the left. (Many variations on the basic pattern could be given). Here, the image was recorded through a transparent electrode, and the white spots are the discharge itself. (See "Static and dynamic two-dimensional patterns in self-extinguishing discharge avalanches," by W. Breazeal, K. M. Flynn, and E. G. Gwinn, Physical Review E, August 1995.) Is it common for discharge streamers to "line up" in a fashion that could account for the loose alignment of dark spots on the Martian ice pictured above? The authors of the laboratory investigation noted here report that when discharge spots stand in close proximity the regions between them tend to fill in to give the appearance of "beads on a string." The result is a general appearance of striping, as seen on the left. (On the surface of Mars, innumerable striping effects are in fact among the most perplexing enigmas.) In laboratory discharge many different striping patterns occur under different conditions. The sample given on the lower left is from a paper by Lifang Dang et al.,"Observation of spiral pattern and spiral defect chaos in dielectric barrier discharge in argon/air at atmospheric pressure" Physical Review E 72 (2005).
The lining up of discharge columns is commonly seen in the Earths auroras (north polar aurora below left, and Aurora Australis below right). Of course the electrical cause of auroral activity underscores the logical priority on the study of spotting concentrated in the polar regions on Mars. Of the known physical events whose effects on surface materials can be studied, is there anything other than electric discharge that can account for the details observed on the Martian surface? In the case of Earths aurora, the atmosphere serves to insulate the surface substantially from the discharge activity of the aurora. But this is certainly not the case with the planet Mars, whose rarified, but electrified atmosphere would be more accurately called a plasma. Moreover, as we've noted in discussing global dust storms on Mars, the planets elliptical orbit means that it travels much farther through the radial electric field of the Sun, adding greatly to the potential for electrical activity on the planet.
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Until the cause of the dark spots on the ice is explained, it is not rational to separate this issue from equally enigmatic dark spots observed elsewhere on the planets surface--as on the "sand dunes" of Russell Crater observed in our latest Pictures of the Day. Surely, in a search for answers, one cannot justify ignoring similar unexplained patterns just because of a dubious theoretical assumption ("no electricity in space"). In this TPOD series, we intend to show that by simply following a line of electrical investigation that NASA has ignored, one Martian mystery after another will find its logical explanation.
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The picture above is from a giant HiRISE image of a towering "sand dune" in Russell Crater on Mars. Depicted is the crest of the dune, looking like no dune on Earth and posing numerous enigmas for planetary scientists. Credit: NASA/JPL/HiRISE
The "Dark Spots" of Russell Crater

(May 18, 2007)
The latest close-up images of the Russell Crater 'dunes' offer new opportunities to test the electrical hypothesis. Among the mysteries: dark nodules occupying the crest of a giant dune from which unexplained "gullies" emerge. In the previous TPOD in this series, we presented a small section of a very large, high resolution HiRISE image titled "Channels on Dunes in Russell Crater." Pictured above is a small segment of the dune crest featured in the image. (This is the area enclosed in the red square in the thumbnail of the full image below). For anyone browsing the huge HiRISE image, it should be immediately clear that the dunes of Russell Crater present feature after feature that will never be reconciled with NASAs earlier expositions on the mysteries. No possibility remains for reducing the "dunes" to wind blown sand in an electrically neutral atmosphere, or the "gullies" to erosion by fluid flow. In their attempts to explain the channels by fluid erosion, NASA scientists isolate one enigma from all of the others. Our claim, on the other hand, is that every feature previously noted (here and here), down to the most finite etching of the surface, will find its explanation in electric discharge and electrostatic sculpting. The crest of the formation, we contend, has served as a "lightning rod" for electrical activity. The ravines defy the principles of fluid erosion because they were cut by "streams" of charged particles. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In the portion of the image shown here, the scalloped appearance of the crest stands out, but not as an isolated feature. While standard theory will see "avalanches," we envision cylindrical arrays of current filaments acting on the crest, to be pinched down into more narrow plasma columns that carved some of the more prominent gullies (pictured below). Clearly the activity was complex, but there is every reason to be confident in the electrical interpretation of the scene as a whole. Our claim is that this interpretation will account precisely for what NASA scientists have consistently overlooked. Of course, anything we offer at this early juncture must be taken as tentative, but we are confident that the more closely the images are examined, the more convincing will be the electrical explanation.
It is evident, for example, that the action of charged particles created a region of charge imbalance a short distance beneath the crest. Here, charge redistribution is apparent in the filamentary and braided ribbons running horizontally along the embankment. It is apparent that something akin to St. Elmos Fire left its embossed signature on the surface--a feature so far from standard theory that NASAs investigators seem not to have even seen it. A small portion of the braided filaments is highlighted by the arrow in the image below. What is such a feature doing on a "sand dune"?
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive "Distinct dark spots are located near where the channels seem to originate."
In its description of the scene, the authors of the HiRISE page write: And that is all they have to say. But is it really possible to separate the dark nodules configured on the crest from the embossed braiding running along the embankment close to the crest? If the crest was the focal point of discharge, at times diffuse and at others focused by plasma pinching, the dark spots in the picture above could be one of the best tests of the electrical hypothesis. Seen electrically, they are the focal points of diffuse discharge, where surface material was fused into dark, but more reflective, glassified clumps, a counterpart to the bumps and blisters on lightning arrestor caps. Look closely throughout the highest-resolution HiRISE image and you will see subtle spidery filaments radiating from the darkened clumps, as might be expected of charge redistribution in the form of Lichtenberg figures--a key observation to which we have already alluded in our earlier discussion of Martian spiders, and one to which we shall return with greater clarity in the present series. Closely associated electrodynamically are the shallow ravines neatly etched into the surface and connecting the dark nodules, in a process that mysteriously ignored the (relatively) minuscule dunes they cut across. These secondary, but undeniably organized ravines emphasize the importance of seeing the dark spots in terms of dynamic connection. Logically, the ravines cannot be isolated from the events that created the nodules. In narrow-angle close-ups its easy to see random placement of the nodules, but when the scene is viewed in its larger context, it is clear that their placement is not random. Consider the large HiRISE "browse" image here. This image makes clear that the tiny ravines (which can only be seen in the highest-resolution image)--and the dark nodules they connect--are aligned in the direction of the spectacular ravines running down the embankment to the lower left. How, then, can one justify an approach that attempts to explain the ravines in improbable isolation from the other, equally "mysterious" features of the region?
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The image shown here is just a small segment of a very large HiRISE image of the mysterious channels running down a "sand dune" in Russell Crater on Mars.
The "Gullies" of Russell Crater on Mars (2)

(May 16, 2007)
Thanks to a recent high-resolution image taken by the HiRISE instrument, it is now clear that conventional "explanations" of the Russell Crater channels have failed. More alive than ever: the electrical interpretation. The most recent and highest-resolution image of the ravines of Russell Crater (the subject of our Picture of the Day for May 14, 2007) are now in. For a critical observer, a close-up look at the formations should eliminate once and for all the idea that these "gullies" were created by fluid erosion. The huge HiRISE image can be accessed selectively by zooming in on any region. The HiRISE image provides stunning new support for an electrical interpretation. Channels cut by electric discharge machining will often produce associated non-random cratering and crater chains, now revealed by this latest image. Though the ravines all run downhill, the higher resolution images show that they do not consistently follow topography in the fashion of fluid flow. In electrical terms, that is not surprising. The channels reveal no breeches of levee walls and no outflow at their termination. Within the channels themselves, no evidence can be found of sediment or debris being carried along by fluid. Many of the channels terminate in cleanly cut craters. The "fishbone" formations below the channels find counterparts in lightning scars (as illustrated in a forthcoming TPOD). Finely cut transverse grooves along the channel walls are diagnostic of the filamentary coronas of electric arcs. The miniature, patterned "dunes" on the vastly larger "dune" are diagnostic of electrostatic sculpting. Dark spotting and darkened The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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nodules scattered about the region point directly to surface effects of positively charged particle beams in the laboratory. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that every defining feature of the Russell Crater anomalies, though challenging standard theory, has an undeniable analog in electric discharge scarring. Of course, these considerations are not on the mind of the specialists analyzing the image, because they are still bound by the "electrically neutral solar system." Here is what the HiRISE team has to say about the dramatically enhanced view of the ravines: "Hundreds of enigmatic small channels are seen to carve into the slopes of these dark sand dunes lying within Russell Crater on Mars. These features were previously identified as gullies in images from the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on Mars Global Surveyor, but the higher resolution HiRISE image brings out many new details and mysteries." And yet, immediately after this acknowledgment an imprisoning theoretical assumption rears its head. "The channels extend from near the top of the dunes to their bases, indicating that some fluid material carved into the sand. The channels commonly begin as smaller tributaries joined together, suggesting several sources of fluid." It seems that obsolete assumptions still condition todays scientific observations, so that in the case at hand everything remains an anomaly: "Distinct dark spots are located near where the channels seem to originate. Several channels appear to originate at alcoves. Several of these channels have sinuous middle reaches while others are straighter. Further down slope, some channel edges appear elevated above the surrounding terrain, particularly in the lower reaches. The channels seem to terminate abruptly, with no deposition of material, unlike at the bases of some other gullies on Mars that are not on dunes." It is a tragedy that planetary scientists, working with stunning technological achievements, are constrained from seeing what is before them. The authors of the HiRISE page write: "One hypothesis for the origin of the channels, which has previously been proposed by the MOC team, is that CO2 (or maybe H2O) frost is deposited on the dunes in shadows or at night. Some frost May also be incorporated into the internal parts of the dunes due to natural avalanching. When the frost is eventually heated by sunlight, rapid sublimation triggers an avalanche of fluidized sand, forming a gully. HiRISE will continue to target small channel features such as these and May return to search for any changes over time." Browse the massive HiRISE image for yourself. Do you see evidence of avalanching? We can see none--though across every inch of the image we do see the patterns of electrical discharge. But there is much more evidence to consider. If electrical activity created the ravines under discussion, it is highly unlikely that the effects would be limited to these particular anomalies. What can the Russell Crater dunes reveal to us about the pervasive enigmas lying farther to the south, including the mystery of the Martian spiders? (See stories here, here and here.) Electrical events occurring today on Mars May indeed change forever our outdated ideas about planetary evolution. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The long filamentary channels seen here lie on a towering "sand dune" in the Martian Russell Crater. Though most NASA scientists see these channels as fluid-carved "gullies," investigators with the Malin Space Science Systems say "Their origin is unknown, although it is known that they tend to occur only on slopes facing southward." Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
The "Gullies" of Russell Crater on Mars

(May 14, 2007)
A bizarre complex of channels, lying on the south-facing bank of a "sand dune" in Russell Crater on Mars, directs our attention to something planetary scientists have long ignored--pervasive electrical activity on the planet. In recent years much evidence has accumulated to suggest that electrical events unknown to mainstream science are "business as usual" on Mars. We have recently discussed outbursts of massive dust storms mysteriously related to global warming on the planet. We have also cited "impossible" assemblies of tightly packed dust devils feeding the billowing clouds of regional storms. In this TPOD series on Mars, we intend to show that present electrical activity on the planet is carving surface features of sufficient size to be seen from space. This activity, though incomprehensible in traditional geologic terms, is not just a further validation of the "Electric Universe"; it also offers new lines of evidence that can illuminate the earlier catastrophic history of the planet. One of the mysteries to be solved lies about 55 degrees south, on an immense "sand dune" in Russell Crater. The channels are fresh and show virtually no deposition of circulating dust from the Martian atmosphere. They remain a mystery, so long as one applies conventional assumptions. The first enigma presented by the ravines is the surreal appearance of the entire complex--an The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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anomalous but repeated pattern. Numerous "tributary" networks, each a virtual copy of its neighbors, feed sharply defined channels running down the embankment. The bizarre repetition of a single pattern appears to defy all familiar erosional regimes. Fluid flow is typically subject to much more random tributary systems and irregular, non-systematic distribution. In contrast to normal fluid flow, most of the ravines maintain a consistent width, then terminate abruptly, each traveling roughly the same distance as the others. Each gully presents levees that neither grow nor diminish along their path. No breach of ravine walls is evident. No indication of outflow, typical of liquid flowing down a steep incline, can be seen. Unusual but recurring patterns standing side by side are a good indication that an unusual answer is called for. In this case, that means an answer outside the rules of random topography and fluid erosion. Recurring patterns are, as well demonstrated in decades of laboratory research, extremely common in plasma discharge behavior. And since plasma discharge appears to be directly involved in generating the dust storm and dust devil activity previously noted, it is certainly reasonable to ask whether these remarkable channels might also find an electrical explanation. A fascinating counterpart to the Russell Crater gullies occurred in an experiment by Bill Beaty, a nationally distinguished and award-winning electronics hobbyist. He produced a trough in a layer of carbon dioxide "fog" by directing beams of protons at the layer from a human hair about 1/4 inch long. Below is a photo of one of the troughs, revealing a remarkable similarity to the enigmatic Martian ravines, including the "levees" and abrupt termination.
But why should we believe that something so far from conventional geologic references as beams of positively charged particles could be responsible for the channels under consideration? There are, in fact, dozens of reasons to consider this possibility--all interconnected and all pointing to something that NASA scientists have yet to take into The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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account--a charged planet moving on a modestly elliptical orbit (significantly more elliptical than Earths) within the electric field of the Sun. Planetary scientists do not understand why the highly filamentary channels of Russell Crater tend to lie on south-facing slopes of massive "dunes." But this is actually another clue suggesting the electrical nature of the formations. Our data, the primary subject of this TPOD series, suggests that positively charged particles from the Sun are entering the Martian ionosphere and following magnetic field lines to the surface. (NASA scientists are finding that localized magnetic fields are much more prominent in the southern hemisphere than the northern hemisphere.) In the absence of a substantial insulating atmosphere, such ion or proton beams could indeed account for the troughs in the Russell Crater "dune" field. As we have repeatedly emphasized, a new theory must be judged by its predictive power-- its ability to account for things left unexplained by prior theory and its record of success in anticipating discoveries that flatly contradict earlier assumptions or catch "official" science by surprise. Electrical theorists do not consider the standard descriptions of the Russell Crater "gullies" to be plausible. Rather, they have viewed these troughs as a "bundle of predictions" awaiting confirmation. Working from general to specific, the electrical interpretation suggests the following: 1. Reliable explanations for atmospheric and geologic events on Mars will come from a practical understanding of electric discharge effects; 2. Plasma discharge--from electrostatic sculpting, to particle beam effects and spark machining--is altering the surface of Mars year by year. 3. The channels on Russell Crater dunes are not the result of flowing liquid; 4. When viewed more closely no evidence of flowing liquid will be found; 5. When viewed more closely it will be seen that the channels do not follow topography in the fashion of flowing liquid; 6. Since the channels are carved into a smooth surface (i.e., a surface not strewn with boulders and rocky rubble), the immediate surroundings should have preserved more subtle evidence of particle beam activity, electrostatic sculpting, and glassification; 7. Cratering in connection with channel formation must be anticipated, particularly at the starting points and terminations of the channels; 8. The events creating the troughs are almost certainly connected to other enigmatic events in the immediate vicinity and in the larger region of the southern hemisphere; Our reading of the evidence is readily testable. If that reading is correct, then things happening today on the surface of Mars May well present one of the most promising breakthroughs for the Electric Universe hypothesis. What will happen to planetary science if principles virtually ignored for a century or more emerge as inescapable fact?
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Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Electric Io Revisited
(May 11, 2007)
Evidence continues to mount that the "volcanoes" on Jupiter's moon Io are exactly what we have been calling them: "electric discharge plumes." On January 19, 2006, NASA launched the New Horizons spacecraft, a mission designed to explore the outer solar system, including Pluto, Charon and recently discovered Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO). In order to test the space probe's onboard science packages before the planned July 2015 encounter with Pluto\Charon, NASA trained their instruments on Jupiter and some of its moons, especially Io. In previous Thunderbolt Pictures of the Day, several confirmed predictions about the electrical activity on Io have been discussed, notably, the intense electric arcing between the moon and its parent body, Jupiter. More recently, NASA scientists discovered a secondary electrical connection between Jupiter and its moon, Europa. In the last several days, new images of Io have verified those confirmed predictions, adding weight to the electric discharge hypothesis. In this image of the Tvashtar volcano near the north pole of Io, a detailed picture of the volcanic plume, extending 290 kilometers above the surface was observed. As NASA reports: "The remarkable filamentary structure in the Tvashtar plume is similar to details glimpsed faintly in 1979 Voyager images of a similar plume produced by Io's volcano Pele. However, no previous image by any spacecraft has shown these mysterious structures so clearly." Emphasis added. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In truth, from a conventional perspective, the filamentary structure of this and other volcanic plumes on Io will never be adequately explained. The astrophysicists and astronomers who analyze these images have begun to gain ground, however, since New Horizons has returned stunning examples of the electrical connection with Jupiter. Part of the caption accompanying the image at the top of this page reads: "On the left side of the disk, near Io's equator, a cluster of faint dots of light is centered near the point on Io that always faces Jupiter. This is the region where electrical currents connect Io to Jupiter's magnetosphere. It is likely that electrical connections to individual volcanoes are causing the glows seen here, though the details are mysterious" Emphasis added. Once again, NASA analysts see the truth before their eyes, acknowledge the electrical activity in the Jovian system, but fail to draw the logical conclusion. The electrical circuit on Io is concentrating the intense bombardment from Jupiter into several "plasma guns," or dense plasma foci. As noted plasma physicist Anthony Peratt observed: "The apparent filamentary penumbra on Io May be the first direct verification of the plasma gun mechanism at work in the solar system." By Stephen Smith
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The picture above is a section of a larger image released by the THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System) team of the Mars Odyssey Mission. It depicts energetic streamers rising from the margin of the south polar ice cap.
Martian Dust Devils--Prediction Confirmed

(May 09, 2007)
It can now be stated with confidence that massive dust storms on Mars are fed by great congregations of "dust devils"--confirming our claim registered some 18 months ago. In our Picture of the Day for November 9, 2005, "When Dust Storms Engulf Mars," we asserted a claim flatly contradicting the theoretical assumptions of conventional astronomers, meteorologists, and planetary scientists. Taking a pointer from Wallace Thornhill, we asserted that the global dust storm that engulfed the planet Mars in August and September of 2001, involved a packed assembly of "dust devils" carrying great volumes of Martian dust into billowing clouds. Since publication of that TPOD, a review of dust storm images from the Mars Global Surveyor and from THEMIS, together with a systematic study of related phenomena on Mars, has confirmed that our statement was accurate. And yet it is also clear that the concept of compact "dust-devil congregations" could only appear absurd to conventional schools. In standard theory an atmospheric vortex requires a vastly larger circulation of wind, a condition that precludes what seems clearly to be seen in edge-on pictures of "storm fronts" on Mars. The image above, released December 30, 2003, shows apparent vortices (a word that would not be used by NASA scientists) rising into billowing clouds from the margins of the south polar ice cap in the Martian summer. The caption accompanying the release, reads: "Like billowing smoke from a brush fire, clouds of dust are seen streaming off the edge of the Martian south polar cap. The southern hemisphere is in the middle of its summer season and experiencing a multitude of small dust storms like this one. The net effect is an increasingly dusty atmosphere across the whole planet and with it, warmer atmospheric temperatures." Here again, as noted in our May 7 TPOD, planetary scientists imply that it is the raised clouds themselves that produce the warmer temperatures. For this claim there is simply no evidence. But the dramatic rise of temperature simultaneously with large regional, or global storms, cannot be disputed. It is the cause that remains a mystery to NASA scientists. Another stunning image of a south polar storm front was taken by the Global Surveyor--
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The site of the image is located near 87.0S, 170.6W. The area shown is about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide. In this instance the caption is more explicit than in the THEMIS release, though there is no mention of vortices here either. "This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows an example of a south polar dust-raising event caught by the narrow angle camera. The small, somewhat circular features at the lower right of the frame are pits in the Martian surface. Moving from the bottom to top of the image, first there is a view of the pitted surface, followed by a zone of long, thin streamers of dust being lifted from the surface, followed by--at the top one third of the image--the billowy clouds of the dust storm. This image is important because it shows long, thin streamers of dust actually being raised from the Martian surface to feed the dust storm." We have left the mention of the "pitted surface" in this quote because it bears directly on our forthcoming analysis of the relationship between compact dust devil activity, dust storms and an array of other Martian mysteries. But it must be understood that this relationship of dust devils to massive dust storms on Mars is not restricted to the southern polar region. A spectacular edge of another storm--44.9N, 8.7E--can be seen here. For now, however, we are particularly interested in events in the vicinity of Mars south pole, a region presenting many of the most enigmatic features seen on any planet or moon. Indeed, "inexplicable" activity is occurring at this very moment. As we intend to show, a simple and coherent explanation is possible. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In late June, 2001, the Hubble Telescope revealed the first stirrings of a dust storm in a small region of the Hellas Basin on Mars. For several days the storm alternately grew, then retreated. Then it exploded and quickly boiled out of the Hellas Basin, spreading both north and east. Within a few weeks it had covered the whole planet.
Martian Global Warming

(May 07, 2007)
Climate change on Mars May be happening more rapidly and dramatically than on Earth. As in the case of terrestrial "global warming," however, the electrical connection is still being ignored. According to NASA scientists, the planet Mars has been steadily warming for at least the past several decades--and this warming is occurring at a pace that could destroy the planets southern ice cap in the foreseeable future. The scientists say that the warming is similar to that of the Earth over roughly the same period. This possibility, in turn, could have major ramifications for the "global warming" issue. Since there is no evidence of living organisms contributing to temperature changes on Mars, current observations and measurements raise the distinct possibility that natural phenomena, largely overlooked in the "global warming" debate, could be contributing to rapid changes in planetary climates. But while NASA scientists acknowledge the mystery of warming on Mars, they continue to blur the relationship of cause and effect. When a research team of scientists from NASA's Ames Research Center, together with the U.S. Geological Survey, compared images of Mars taken by the Viking missions in the 1970s to pictures taken a quarter century later by Mars Global Surveyor, they found something interesting. "The surface was noticeably darker in the new pictures," said Lori Fenton, a planetary geologist at the Carl Sagan Center, who worked with Ames scientists on the project. The scientists believe that changes in surface reflectivity -- known as albedo -- are caused by wind-driven dust storms that occasionally sweep the entire Martian surface. Plugging in a climate model developed at Ames, the research team said the changes in surface reflectivity The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive could account for a 1 degree Fahrenheit rise in the surface temperature of the planet.
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At this point, the critical questions are far more urgent than mere speculations. What is causing the winds? What is creating the darkened dust? What is excavating dust from the surface (both light and dark) and raising it in spectacular tornadic columns? What is selectively depositing darkened dust across the surface of Mars, often in exotic patterns that are inconceivable under electrically neutral conditions? What is the relationship of such activity to unexplained events in the Martian polar regions (e.g., mysterious "spiders," "Dalmation spots," "wind streaks," and "Swiss cheese," and much more)? In a paper published in the journal Nature, Fenton and her team attribute the warming of Mars to strong winds caused by variations in radiation and temperature across the Martian surface. These winds, according to Fenton, stir up giant dust storms, trapping heat and raising the planet's temperature. We have discussed the global Martian dust storms previously on these pages. NASA scientists have yet to address the most fundamental question. How does an atmosphere less than one percent as dense as Earth's remove dust from the soil and accelerate it into massive clouds circling the planet up to 40 miles or more above the surface? The more we learn about these storms the more clearly they challenge the assumptions of both meteorologists and planetary scientists. In the great Martian dust storm of the summer of 2001, the entire planet was immersed, and the storm did not subside for several months. As the storm clouds began to surround Mars, temperatures rose a stunning 40 degrees C -- a case of "instantaneous global warming" that left planetary scientists scrambling for answers. Yet for decades we were told, that a cloud of this sort would cause cooling (as in astronomer Carl Sagans Doomsday event, the "nuclear winter"). Today, new images of Mars continue to pour in, many in stunningly high resolution, Already dozens of earlier statements by NASA scientists, in answer to Martian mysteries, have been either thrown into doubt or categorically eliminated. As we see it, the underlying questions and contradictions involve three interconnected threads that we intend to explore at length in coming weeks. 1) What is the relationship of "global warming" on planets to the behavior of the electric sun; 2) Can present activity on Mars provide new clues to this electrical connection? 3) Does the present activity on Mars offer analogies that could help us understand the higher energy events in the planets not-sodistant past?
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Credit: THEMIS instrument. Image courtesy of NASA/JPL/Arizona State University.
More Martian "Lava Tubes"

(Mar 19, 2007)
When planetary scientists see complex channel networks on Mars, they typically think of collapsed lava tubes. But now, it is the lava tube theory that is collapsing, under the weight of unjustified assumptions. In considering the Martian surface features above, the first requirement is to see the network of depressions as depressions. For some observers this May require training the brain to recognize that the light is coming from the left. The original caption to the above image released by the THEMIS team states unequivocally that "the deep channels likely began as subsurface lava tubes whose roofs collapsed as pits developed over them. Examples of this process are clearly evident throughout the scene. Also present are relatively straight graben that crosscut many of the channels and pit chains." It is dismaying to see how routinely planetary scientists ascribe channels and chains of craters on the Martian surface to "collapsed lava tubes." But their limited tool kit allows for no other explanation. In the same way, steep parallel-walled "sunken" terrain that doesnt fit into the "collapsed lava tube" theory is, with no attention to anomalous details, attributed to faulting and labeled as "graben." From the caption noted above, it does not appear that the awkward intermingling of categories caused NASA scientists to pause and look more closely. But is there evidence of any collapse at all in these images? Many of the Martian features are shallower than would be expected from a collapsed roof of a lava tube. And where is the rubble? The floors of collapsed lava tubes on Earth invariably display heaps of jagged debris. Where are the caves opening to the underground "tubes"? Thousands of similar channels and crater chains can be observed on Mars, but we have found only one arch and no openings to The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the underground vents that the explanation requires. (If any reader of this piece knows of an exception, we would be grateful for a correction.) The common feature of collapsed lava tubes on Earth is the cave allowing visitors to peer into that part of the tube which has not collapsed. See "The Moon and its Rilles (2). Geologists define a "graben" as the subsidence of a surface due to parallel faults. In the picture above, the direction of the supposed "grabens" is noted by blue arrows. Is there any useful terrestrial analog that would justify a theory of grabens and collapsed lava tubes superimposed in this way? By all appearances, the processes creating the one neither affected, nor were affected by, the existence of the other. Either pre-existing grabens were incapable of deflecting the flow of lava, or the lava flowed uphill and downhill, ignoring gravity. We also see an abundance of "lava tubes" intersecting and overlapping in ways that criticalminded observers, giving attention to detail, will surely see as preposterous. Our knowledge of collapsed lava tubes came from the geology of our own planet. But where on Earth do we see anything remotely like this tangled network of "lava tubes"? With the advent of the HiRISE project, NASA will have plenty of opportunity to look at the terminations of candidate channels from angles that will provide a good view into the theorized caves--if they are there. While we are not ready to make categorical predictions, we suspect they will be consistently disappointed. And when it comes to the depressions imaged above, we confidently stand by the prediction that no openings will be found, no matter how closely HiRISE scrutinizes the region. Many terminations are clearly visible, and they are constituted of sharply and smoothly cut cliffs, with no openings to caves. For such anomalous features on Mars we have given the name "pits, scoops, and gouges," to emphasize an undeniable implication: material has been removed by forces acting on the surface from above. We do not believe it is rational to ignore the one force--electricity--which, acting on a surface from above, can remove material to produce the very observed patterns: scooped out depressions, crater chains, and extended channels. Though it can be very difficult to get planetary scientists to consider the role of cosmic currents in the past, a thousand different evidential threads do, in fact, point in exactly the same direction. But if misdirection in planetary science is occurring at the scale we believe, the problem will require at least a few investigators to look more deeply. Thanks to Michael Gmirkin for much of the factual content in this submission.
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Plumes of icy material extend above the southern polar region of Enceladus. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Enceladus Plumes Explained?

(Mar 16, 2007)
A new NASA hypothesis, said to account for the mysterious "geysers" on Saturns moon Enceladus, presents a familiar paradox. What is the value of a model that rests entirely on imagined processes hidden from view? It was about a year ago that we reported on NASAs quest to resolve the mystery of the highspeed jets erupting from the surface of Saturns icy moon Enceladus. The jets are focused on the south polar region of the moon, which was supposed to be the coldest place on a longdead body. Enceladus is just 504 kilometers in diameter too small to support significant internal heating. NASA scientists, however, work within a narrow frame of reference. If dynamic activity observed on planets, moons, and comets cannot be explained by solar radiation, just about the only thing left to account for it is something going on beneath the surface. Reflecting on the mystery of the Enceladus plumes, the Cassini mission co-investigator John Spencer stated: "This is as astonishing as if we'd flown past Earth and found that Antarctica was warmer than the Sahara." Similarly, a NASA news release announced: "The rare occurrence of liquid water so near the surface raises many new questions about this mysterious moon." In response to this, we wrote: "Water so near the surface? All we can see is ice on the surface--and icy plumes 480 kilometers high. But conditioned perception declares that liquid water must be present under the surface (like a Yellowstone geyser), in order for it to erupt in high-speed jets. The prior theoretical framework remains untouched even in the face of a stunning surprise." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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If any more evidence is needed to confirm the intense grip of theoretical assumptions today, it is given to us by the most recent speculation announced by NASAs Cassini mission, entitled "A Hot Start Might Explain Geysers on Enceladus." The report announces a new model developed under the direction of Dr. Dennis Matson, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. This model, laying one speculation upon another, proposes that, "Deep inside Enceladuswe've got an organic brew, a heat source and liquid water..." The new hypothesis attributes the imagined internal heat to "the rapid decay of radioactive elements within Enceladus shortly after it formed." This, according to NASA, "May have jumpstarted the long-term heating of the moon's interior that continues today." "Enceladus is a very small body, and it's made almost entirely of ice and rock. The puzzle is how the moon developed a warm core," said Dr. Julie Castillo, the lead scientist developing the new model at JPL. "The only way to achieve such high temperatures at Enceladus is through the very rapid decay of some radioactive species." A layperson reading these comments May not be aware of the strains this "puzzle" places on planetary science. In trying to explain energetic jets from the icy moon, NASA scientists have had to resort to events so remote in time and so far from view as to have no testable component. Contrast this with the electrical explanation offered by Wallace Thornhill and his colleagues. Here, the proposed electrical discharge events will be easily confirmed if NASA will simply look for them. They will be seen in the movement of the discharge across the surface, the channels carved into the surface by the discharge, the acceleration of ejected material, and the localized surface heating and extremely high temperatures of the focused arcs themselves. The latter feature, predicted exclusively by the electrical model, requires only that the thermal instruments capture the discharge activity at sufficient resolution. The findings will immediately exclude all prior attempts to explain the plumes through an internal heat source. Of course, the electric interpretation of the Enceladus plumes does not stand in isolation. It is the perfect complement to other electrical events occurring on Saturn itself and evidenced across the landscape of Saturns largest moon Titan. For background on electrical activity on Saturn, see Saturns Monstrous Polar Storm, Electric Lights on Saturn, and The Electrical Heating of Saturn. And for background on Titan, see Methane Lakes on Titan, and Titan and its Rilles. Additionally, it is worth remembering that the inability of NASA scientists to see the evidence for electrical activity on Enceladus is, in many ways, a replay of the difficulty other NASA scientists had in seeing the electrical activity on Jupiters moon Io, even after eminent astrophysicists and plasma scientists (Thomas Gold, Anthony Peratt, and Alex Dessler) had given them sound scientific reason for seeing this electrical activity.
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Photograph taken from a helicopter by M.L. Coombs; courtesy of AVO/USGS.
Alaskan Volcano Spits Lightning

(Mar 14, 2007)
Recent observations of volcanic lightning add new support to the claims of electrical theorists, that volcanoes are dynamically related to an electric Earth. The cause of volcanic lightning is poorly understood. Traditionally, geologists have assumed that the cause is similar to that of lightning in thunderstorms: Tiny particles rub against each other in a turbulent flow of air, and the larger particles, which move slower, are charged to a different polarity from the smaller particles, which move faster. The two groups of particles would accumulate in separate regions, and the voltage difference between them would produce lightning. But this is an assumption that is not supported by theory or the facts. It is part of a general confusion that continues to haunt the sciences of geology and meteorology today. New discoveries have deepened the mysteries of volcanic lightning. A recent news story reports on a study into volcanic electrical phenomena occurring in the eruption of Mt. Augustine in Alaska. The website LiveScience.com writes: "The lightning in a volcanic eruption occurs because the ash and other debris blasting out of the volcano are highly charged... Though lightning was known to occur in the debris clouds above the volcano, the researchers found an earlier phase of volcanic lightning that had never before been observed and occurred right at the volcano's mouth just as it began erupting." In other words, the lightning preceded the supposed "charge separation" process from friction that has traditionally been claimed to occur in billowing volcanic clouds. One of the researchers described this phase of the volcanic lightning as "big sparks maybe going just from the mouth of the volcano up into the column that's shooting out of the volcano, and then some lightning that went upward from the top of the volcano up into the cloud that was forming." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The report is ambiguous in speaking of "highly charged" debris rather than of moving ash and dust "separating charge." "Charged debris" is much closer to the language that would be used by the electrical theorists. They consider the electrical activity to be a consequence of a preexisting electric field that is short-circuited by a conductive medium. The observations in this study add direct support to the claims of the electrical theorists, who emphasize that the electric field of the Earth is an indispensable environment for both volcanoes and volcanic lightning. As pointed out by plasma scientist Anthony Peratt, magma is a conductive plasma. A jet of magma will short-circuit the electric field through which it is moving. So of course, it should not surprise us to discover electrical arcing along the column of erupting material. If measurements could be made, we would expect to find the arcs connecting subterranean currents with ionospheric currents.
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This image of Saturns south polar aurora is an artistic rendition, converting ultraviolet data into the nearest visible color. Credit: NASA, ESA and A. Schaller, STScI-PRC05-06b
The Electrical Heating of Saturn

(Mar 12, 2007)
Astronomers have recently discovered that their earlier "explanation" for anomalous heating of Saturns upper atmosphere doesnt work. The temperatures of the upper atmospheres of giant planets have long presented a conundrum to astronomers. They are hotter than can be explained by absorbed sunlight, and other attempts to explain the temperature anomalies in mechanical terms have met with failure. The electrical theorists suggest that such problems will persist as long as astronomers ignore electricity. Since the giant planets display spectacular auroras at their polar regions, scientists believed that these auroras generated heat that was somehow directed toward the planets' equators. On Earth, a similar mechanism (magnetic energy in the magnetosphere) is claimed to drive the Northern Lights and heat the upper atmosphere. But according to a report last month in the journal Nature, the proposed mechanism would actually COOL Saturn's upper atmosphere at the lower latitudes. Thus scientists must deal with an energetic meteorological phenomenon for which they have no ready explanation. "This unexplained 'energy crisis' represents a major gap in our understanding of these planets' atmospheres," the scientists write. "We need to re-examine our basic assumptions about planetary atmospheres and what causes the observed heating," said study team member Alan Aylward of the University College London. Proponents of the Electric Universe welcome this candor, though it does not go far enough. The "basic assumption" that has directed the space sciences for nearly a century is the belief that space is electrically inert. Most astronomers and meteorologists still do not realize what The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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has already been demonstrated by recent discoveries of the Earth-Sun connection: charge exchange is continuous, and the auroras are just one effect of the ongoing electrical transactions. The planetary theater is, in fact, filled with electrical circuits across the conducting plasma medium. It is the electric model of the Sun that will enable us to understand the highly energetic meteorological phenomena we see on many planets in our solar system. In this view, electrical storms on planets including Earth -- are fed by interplanetary currents focused largely on the Sun. The increases in solar output, together with the incoming currents directly intercepted by planets, can charge up the planetary ionospheres the outcome being "anomalous" heating of the upper atmospheres. Once we see the issue in electrical terms, it becomes clear that scientific inquiry on other questions will continue to be misguided until the electrical component is acknowledged. It is well past time for scientists to revisit the debate on "global warming" on Earth, for example, since virtually all published articles in the debate have ignored the crucial role of the electric Sun.
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Top: Image from NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope of galaxies NGC 2007 and IC 2163. Below: rock art images from North America (top row) and Easter Island (bottom row)
The "Galactic Mask" Unveiled

(Mar 09, 2007)
NASA scientists tell us that two "colliding galaxies" in the constellation Canis Major are responsible for the amazing, mask-like structure shown here. But experts in plasma discharge might suggest a different conclusion. In a supposedly expanding universe still rushing outward from the Big Bang, one would think that the vast reaches of space are an unlikely place for "fender-benders." Yet the word "collision" is extremely common in scientific press releases these days, as astronomers grasp for explanations of galactic events in faraway places. It is gaseous collisions that generate the X-rays, radio waves, and synchrotron radiation detected throughout the cosmos, they tell us. The picture above shows the galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163 in the constellation Canis Major in what astronomers are calling a "cosmic smash up." The structure's unique appearance has led investigators to dub it "The Galactic Mask." They say the mask's "eyes" are the galactic cores, and its "feathers" are the galaxies' star-filled spiral arms. Vassar College astronomer Debra Elmegreen, the lead author of a paper on the observations, said of the image: "This is the most elaborate case of beading we've seen in galaxies... They are evenly spaced and sized along the arms of both galaxies." MSNBC's Cosmic Log website, describing the scientists' observations, tells us that the beadlike structure of the spiral arms is caused by "gravitational pressures (squeezing) gas and dust into new clusters of stars." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive The website also reports:
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"Theres one particularly bright bead on the left side of the mask -- so bright it accounts for 5 percent of the total infrared emissions coming from both galaxies... Elmegreen's team thinks the stars in this dense, dusty cluster might have merged to become a black hole." "To form a black hole that's outside the disk of the galaxy is a real surprise, if in fact that's what it is," said one of the research team's co-authors. Experts in plasma discharge phenomena will use a much different language to describe the image. For decades, advanced research into plasma discharge instabilities has documented formations precisely matching galactic structures seen in space. As noted in an earlier TPOD, "Plasma Galaxies," plasma scientist Anthony Perratt, using particle-in-cell computer simulations, has demonstrated the evolution of galactic structures under the influence of electric currents. Through the "pinch effect," parallel currents converge to produce spiraling structures. Dual, interacting currents can, in fact, present an appearance surprisingly similar to that of the twin eyes in the "Galactic Mask" seen above. To see the connection between plasma experiments and plasma formations in space, it is essential to understand the scalability of plasma phenomena. Under similar conditions, plasma discharge will produce the same formations irrespective of the size of the event. The same basic patterns will be seen at laboratory, planetary, stellar, and galactic levels. Duration is proportional to size as well. A spark that lasts for microseconds in the laboratory May continue for years at planetary or stellar scales, or for millions of years at galactic or intergalactic scales. Laboratory discharge experiments have documented all of the features of the "Galactic Mask" above. Indeed, the very words used in the article could have been taken from the lexicon of plasma scientists describing plasma discharge instabilities: "string of pearls," "beads on a string," "feathers," and "mask." In plasma discharge terms, the evenly spaced "beading" along spiraling arms is a perfect example, but of the "pinch effect" that, in plasma cosmology, gives birth to stars. In a more familiar setting, the same plasma pinch produces the oft-observed beading of lightning. On the other hand "gravitational pressure" supplemented by imagined "black holes" placed wherever energies are too high to be explained through old-fashioned gravity, can offer almost nothing to test scientifically. How, then, can the theories ever fail? The explanatory power of plasma discharge becomes even more interesting when one begins to consider new evidence that our early ancestors witnessed strikingly similar high-energy plasma discharge in the terrestrial sky. The rock art images above are from North America (first row) and Easter Island (second row). Innumerable counterparts occur around the world-all presenting a common pattern that would seem to mock natural experience: disembodied, often "hairy" eyes presented in a consistently "non-human" form. The pictures are not random, either in their geographic positioning, or in their depictions of detail. And in almost every instance they sit alongside equally enigmatic carvings of other well-defined motifs, all chronicled through cross cultural comparison, and now posing a grand mystery yet to be unraveled by rock art specialists. When seen from a larger perspective, three independent lines of evidence galactic structure, plasma experiments, and images carved on stone converge to tell the same story. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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2006
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The two dominating Martian craters above, whose features have yet to be addressed by NASA, share "inconceivable" similarities. Credit: Image courtesy of Michael Gmirkin and NASAs World Wind 3D visualization software.
The "Impossible" Twin Peaks

(Dec 22, 2006)
Add another puzzle to the litany of Martian anomalies: two "impact" craters side by side, both with central peaks terminating in craters. Though the 3D visualization of the two craters above exaggerates depth, the image accents the kind of mysteries that have been causing increasing headaches, confusion, and contradiction among NASA scientists. No formative process envisioned by planetary science ever anticipated the central peaks of the craters seen in the images above terminating as they do in a second crater. We have unsuccessfully sought to find some reference by NASA investigators to the forms exhibited by these enigmatic features. The craters occur in a region of the southern hemisphere that planetary scientists consider to be dominated by impacts. But to account for the forms seen here, the impact hypothesis must summon the inconceivable. Scientists have been able to produce "rebound" elevations in explosion craters. They also have a theoretical "analogy" in the rebound effect that occurs in thick fluids into which an object is dropped. But they have no reasonable analog for the steep peaks witnessed above, and the idea of two secondary impacts striking these peaks head-on is simply beyond belief. It should be obvious, therefore, that the presence of two craters exhibiting the same anomaly, and standing side-by-side, categorically excludes the impact hypothesis. As we have noted in previous pictures of the day, electrical discharge experiments easily produce craters with central peaks. So it is no stretch at all to envision a discharge event excavating the kind of craters seen above, including the pinnacles in their centers. One mechanism on which some electrical theorists have speculated is the possibility that these elevated peaks became "lightning rods" for secondary strokes carving out craters on their summits. Expecting secondary arcs to preferentially return along a prior conductive path The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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is allowable, while expecting subsequent random ballistic impactors to be preferentially drawn to the central spires of pre-existing craters (with or without obliterating them) is not. But Wallace Thornhill offers another perspective. Though he does not rule out the principle of a secondary discharge, he notes that many central peaks are not symmetrical, and that nonsymmetry would give rise to misshapen arc-erosion of the central peak, rather than the neatly central hollows we see. Thornhill writes (in a private communication): "The symmetry makes it more likely that those 'dished' peaks arise from the process that forms the crater and not some subsequent discharge activity. The effect is the same as we see in a linear discharge across the surface, cutting a channel with raised levees on either side, only executed here by an arc moving in a circle." Thornhill envisions twin Birkeland filaments rotating "like a corkscrew about a center." Given this symmetry, the blast effects from the twin arcs will tend to cancel at the center, leaving a central spire relatively unscathed. However, the inward blast will also give rise to shockmetamorphism of minerals in the central spire. If the crater dimensions are suitable, the inner raised levee bank will form what looks like a crater centered precisely on the central peak. Thornhill continues: "This allows me to predict that the floor of the central depression will be at about the same height as the surrounding terrain and will show the same geologic structure. In other words, it will be continuous with the surrounding strata. That will rule out an impact origin even though it will contain shocked minerals." If an electrical interpretation is required to account for these surface features, then that interpretation would anticipate the possibility of many similar features in the region. In fact, looking closely at the picture above, a smaller third crater (lower right) reveals yet another peak and a third crater atop this peak. (See close-up image we have placed here.) Other craters in the region, but out of frame, also display similar morphology. It should be obvious that the presence of two craters exhibiting the same anomaly and standing side-by-side is rationally precluded by conventional assumptions. Additional examples in the region could only add an exclamation point to the failure of standard theory. Today, the planet Mars is the object of more intensive investigation than any other body in the solar system, aside from the Earth. Anomalies of the sort noted here, ubiquitous across the Martian surface, will pose numerous tests of the electrical hypothesis. As we approach years end, we are thus encouraged to set forth a series of predictions as to expected findings. In many cases, the expectations that follow from an electric model stand in stark contrast to those of standard theory. Some of these predictions are conventionally "out of the question," but it is this contrast that will add the greatest value to a record of success.
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Credit: NASA
One Crater, Many "Puzzles"

(Dec 15, 2006)
Elevated craters, called "pedestal craters," exist in considerable numbers on the surface of Mars. But the explanations given grow increasingly implausible. The innocent looking crater in the picture above throws an uncomfortable light on one of innumerable Martian challenges to planetary science. Though NASA scientists identify it as an impact crater, its floor is higher than its surroundings. That is the first mystery of pedestal craters. How does an impact create a cavity raised above the surrounding terrain? NASA scientists have proposed explanations that are not only speculative, they are often contradicted by the images themselves. In analyzing the picture above, the Mars Global Surveyor team begins with the assumption that the site of an impact crater "has been modified by wind erosion." The process supposedly occurred in this way: the impactor struck a region of relatively loose material susceptible to erosion. The force of the impact created ejecta that hardened into an "armor" against subsequent erosion. According to the Mars Global Surveyor website: "This caused the crater and ejecta to appear as if standing upon a raised platform--a feature that Mars geologists call a pedestal crater." But the remarkable complex of ridges required something more: "Next, the pedestal crater was buried beneath several meters of new sediment, and then this material was eroded away by wind to form the array of sharp ridges that run across the pedestal crater's surface." So apparently, the crater and its immediate surroundings have two different explanations: first a hardening of ejecta followed by erosion of surrounding material; and, second, a deposition of fresh material followed by the sculpting of "yardang" ridges by further wind erosion. Of course, nothing would be more easily blown away than the supposed loose material The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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scattered by the impact. As numerous experiments with impacts and explosions have shown, the scattered debris is not melted. So there is no foundation for the claim that ejecta created "armor" against erosion. Though the authors are ambivalent as to the relationship of the ridge patterns to the "impact" ejecta, it is quite apparent that the crater lies in a layer of ridges that do not stand in a radial relationship to the crater. Many of them do not intersect with the crater at all, but run as parallel ridges to the north and south of the crater. This is surely why they have superimposed an improbable "yardang" topography upon an equally improbable "pedestal" form of an impact crater. If the two overlying ridge systems were created by two radically different formative events, how did it happen that the crater is centered within both. Appeals to coincidence are one of the first signs that something is wrong at the level of foundational assumptions. Theoretical assumptions have a way of removing anomalies from ones field of view. In the electrical interpretation, anomalous ridge patterns are one of the keys to the geologic history of Mars. Consider, for example, the ridges running in a northerly direction. More than a halfdozen of these ridges terminate in bifurcation. No similar examples occur in the southerly direction. Another coincidence? Bifurcation at the initiation point of an electric discharge is one of the most common features observed in laboratory experiments. Bifurcation involves entwining current filaments under the influence of magnetic fields produced by the currents themselves. It is these magnetic fields that "pinch" the filaments into rope-like configurations. The magnetic force is also responsible for the flaring out of the filaments at the point of discharge initiation. This feature of highenergy discharge draws our attention to the rope-like qualities of the ridges, while the flaring in the northerly direction offers a strong clue as to the primary direction of current flow. In this instance and thousands of others on Mars, it is clear that the red planet will not give up its secrets under the demands of standard theory. Supposed "yardangs," "dunes," and "wind erosion" must be counted among the primary failures of theory to account for the patterns of discovery. To show that these patterns are in fact predictable under the electric view of Martian history will be a primary purpose of our Picture of the Day in coming weeks.
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This perspective view of two large craters south of Coprates Catena in Valles Marineris exaggerates depth in order to give a clear impression of the "crater within a crater." Credit: Photo courtesy of Michael Gmirkin and NASAs World Wind 3D visualization software.
Bulls-Eye Craters
(Dec 13, 2006)
Impacts that "hit the bulls eye" of a previous impact are "high-odds" improbable. But lightning--even planet-scale lightning--can strike twice in the same spot. One of the principal claims of the Electric Universe model is that many features on the surfaces of rocky bodies are scars left by electrical activity. A crater is produced when an electrical arc, consisting of two or more Birkeland currents rotating around a central axis, "sticks" to one location and "drills out" a circular depression. Because electrical forces constrain an arc to strike a surface at a right angle, the crater will tend to be circular. Because the forces are distributed cylindrically, the crater will tend to have steep sides and a flat floor. Electrical forces lift debris from the surface, leaving no rim or a rim of "pinched-up" material. The properties of flat floor, steep edge, and removal of debris are why electrical etching has been developed into the industrial process of electrical discharge machining (EDM). If the rotating currents do not touch at the central axis, they will leave a "peak" of undisturbed material. A sudden change in current or in current density, due to pinching forces in the arc or to the influx of charge-carrying debris, May cause the arc to "shrink" to a smaller diameter, leaving a terrace around the wall. Because the arc is maintained for an appreciable time by a continuous electrical current, melting of surface materials May be extensive. In contradistinction, craters formed by mechanical impact tend to have rounded floors and rims. Because the forces are distributed spherically, debris is thrown out of the crater ballistically and deposited radially in a gradation of fineness and volume. The energy of the impact is dissipated in shock displacement of material: solids will "flow" as if liquefied and suddenly "freeze" when the impulsive force drops below a threshold. Very little melting occurs. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Careful inspection of rocky-body craters discloses their conformity with EDM. The two craters in the above image are a variation on the EDM theme. They display the typical flat floors, steep sides, and pinched-up rims. They have terraces around their walls. But instead of central peaks, they have central craters. Two more craters that are similar lie to the southwest. Our colleague Michael Mirkin, in pointing these craters out to us, has christened them "bullseye craters," in reference to the middle concentric circles of a dart board, emphasizing the difficulty of hitting the precise center consistently. Under the impact interpretation, central craters could only be caused by a second impact that coincidentally struck exactly in the center of the previous impact. The impactors that created the craters would have to hit a perfect "bulls eye" to create this effect. It might happen once. Twice in close proximity is extremely unlikely. But four times in the same neighborhood stretches the meaning of "coincidental" beyond the covers of the dictionary. If the arcs that machined the large craters persisted until they pinched down into a very small diameter, or if a second return stroke followed the ionized path left by the first and persisted long enough, the central peaks (if they were not already machined away) would have been "drilled down," perhaps even to a depth below the original craters floors. Such an event would not be the norm, but several "bulls-eye craters" in a particular area would not be surprising. It May be significant that the four examples noted here lie on the plain just south of Valles Marineris, the largest EDM channel (from a traveling arc) in the Solar system.
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The "starburst" galaxy NGC 1313. Image taken with the FORS instrument at ESO's Very Large Telescope. Credit: FORS/V
Unsolved Mysteries of a "Starburst" Galaxy

(Dec 11, 2006)
NGC 1313, a barred spiral galaxy in the southern sky near the Large Magellanic Cloud, displays five features that confound standard cosmological theories but conform with the Electric Universe. The most apparent features galaxy shown above are the ring of bright star-forming regions around the arms and the distorted, torn-up structure of the arms. The only mechanism available in standard theory to distort a galaxy and to initiate the gravitational collapse of gas clouds that leads to the emergence of stars is a collision with another galaxy. Especially in the case of a ring of star formation in the arms, the colliding galaxy must pass "directly through the disk" in order to produce the "pressure wave" in the target galaxys gas, like a pebble dropped into a pond. In a universe where clumps of matter are small and their separations are large, the odds against such direct hits are astronomical. But even a near miss is impossible for NGC 1313: it is isolated. In its vicinity at 15 million light-years away, there are no other galaxies. No indications that another galaxy has merged with it (other than its distorted arms and ring of star formation) are apparent. There is a small, much fainter galaxy that appears nearby to the southeast, but it has a redshift that indicates, in conformity with the standard redshiftdistance law, that it is 16 times farther away. Then there is a quasar in the same direction and not much farther along the line, but of course it would be, under standard assumptions, far out toward the edge of the universe. A little farther along the same southeasterly line from NGC 1313 are two faint galaxies, but again their high redshifts place them over a billion light-years away. And a little farther still The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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along the line is another galaxy thats at about the same distance beyond NGC 1313 as the first faint galaxy. In the opposite direction from NGC 1313, to the northwest, there are two more quasars. These and the one to the southeast are the only quasars within a degree of the galaxy. The line along which they lie is an extension of the spin axis of NGC 1313. These seven objects are the only ones in this vicinity whose redshifts have been measured. But visually there are over 100 galaxies within a degree of NGC 1313. The only consideration that prevents them from being possible neighbors of NGC 1313 is the standard assumption that a small and faint appearance means a great distance away. Readers of these pages will recognize that the line of higher-redshift objects extending through NGC 1313 corresponds with the pattern of ejections from active galaxies that Halton Arp and his colleagues have documented for over three decades. As a rule, quasars are distributed along the spin axes of active galaxies, together with companion galaxies that consistently have higher redshifts than the active central galaxy. A galaxy that is especially active, having distorted arms and large star-forming regions such as this one, is apt to be in the process of generating new quasars. One characteristic of quasars is their strong x-ray emission, and within the bounds of NGC 1313 two objects have been identified as ultra-luminous x-ray (ULX) sources. Because ULXs appear to be within their host galaxies, they cannot be identified as quasars under standard theory: the high redshifts of quasars require that they be great distances away. A number of ULXs have been examined closely and have turned out to be quasars--which then have been dismissed as "background objects" seen through "holes" in the foreground galaxy. Its likely that most ULXs will turn out to be quasars that have been generated recently by the host galaxy. The foundational difference between the Electric Universe model and the standard model is that the Electric Universe model is based, not on gas, but on plasma, which composes over 99% of the universe. Plasma obeys primarily the laws of electromagnetism; considerations of gravity and gas dynamics are subsidiary; and the forms and behaviors of celestial bodies and their interactions are understood principally in terms of electrical circuits. In the Electric Universe model, all the features of NGC 1313 are effects of a surge in the current that powers the galaxy. Instabilities in the plasmoid at a galaxys core cause pinches in the axial current filaments (jets) and ejections of plasmoids (ULXs, quasars). The current filaments along the spiral arms that feed the central plasmoid also experience instabilities and "hot spots" that produce ionized hydrogen cells (star-forming regions). The final feature is that NGC 1313s center of rotation lies to the side of the bar. The visual center of the galaxy is not the axis around which it turns. Standard theory should have no difficulty explaining this because "dark matter" can be placed wherever needed to save the theory from empirical falsification. The Electric Universe model is not threatened by such discoveries because galactic rotation is attributed to a homopolar motor effect* that is driven by electromagnetic forces, which are many times more powerful than gravity. Contributed by Mel Acheson *See discussion in The Electric Sky by Donald E. Scott.
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ASA Sees into the Eye of a Monster Storm on Saturn. Cassini image recorded November 9, 2006 Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Saturns Monstrous Polar Storm

(Dec 08, 2006)
A gigantic vortex centered on Saturns south pole has sent astronomers scrambling for answers--again. They remain unaware that Wallace Thornhill had predicted this very "surprise." A recent image of Saturns south polar region, taken by the Cassini spacecraft, poses further mysteries for NASA investigators. The cameras reveal a giant hurricane-like "storm" with a polar eye, ringed by towering clouds. The "hurricane" spans a dark area inside a thick, brighter ring of clouds. It is approximately 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) across, or two-thirds the diameter of Earth. "It looks like a hurricane, but it doesn't behave like a hurricane," said Dr. Andrew Ingersoll, a member of Cassini's imaging team at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. "Whatever it is, we're going to focus on the eye of this storm and find out why it's there." Since eye-wall clouds are a distinguishing feature of hurricanes on Earth, NASA astronomers have been quick to draw a parallel, though in their own words, the differences are noteworthy as well. As the NASA news release states: "This giant Saturnian storm is apparently different from hurricanes on Earth because it is locked to the pole and does not drift around. Also, since Saturn is a gaseous planet, the storm forms without an ocean at its base." But the release does not address the deeper enigma: hurricanes typically originate in areas of solar heating, whereas by definition a polar region is subject to the lowest levels of solar radiation. In its discussion of unanswered questions, the NASA release can offer no explanation for the anomalous heating of Saturns southern pole. But for Wallace Thornhill, who has given considerable attention to the Saturnian system, all of the indications of electrical activity point The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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to currents flowing into the south polar region. The consequence of this focusing of current flow would be an energetic vortex penetrating deep into its upper atmosphere. In this interpretation, the two spiral arms noted by NASA are the telltale signature of the twin "Birkeland currents" associated with vortex formation. (See "The 'Spiral Galaxy' at Saturn's Pole" at Holoscience.com) NASAs discussion, on the other hand, is limited to the mechanics of wind and water circulation. As stated by Dr. Richard Achterberg, a member of the Cassini team, "The winds decrease with height, and the atmosphere is sinking, compressing and heating over the South Pole." When isolated from any meaningful explanation of the phenomenon, such language is in no way helpful! The release states that the Saturns polar "hurricane" is "something never before seen on another planet." This language is eerily familiar. In 1978, NASAs Pioneer Venus Orbiter revealed "one of the more remarkable phenomena in the solar system" a double-eye vortex at Venus north pole. Almost 30 years later, when the ESAs Venus Express detected a similar vortex at Venus south pole, the organization described it as a "peculiar double-eye vortex structure, never clearly seen by any other Venusian mission before." In both the Saturnian and Venusian instances, the twin spiraling components moved, but the vortex itself remains anchored to the pole--exactly as the electrical theorists would expect. Thornhill wrote in February 2005: "[Saturn's polar 'hot spot'] should be found on closer inspection to exhibit a similar structure to the Venusian polar dipole. Its compactness is due to the electromagnetic pinch effect where it enters Saturn's atmosphere. The hot spot's behavior should be variable like that on Venus and correlated with the appearance of Saturn's ring spokes, which are a visible manifestation of a heightened equatorial discharge in that part of Saturn's Faraday motor circuit. The Electric Universe also predicts, experimentum crucis, that BOTH poles should be hot, not one hot and the other cold. "Verification of any of these predictions should serve notice that plasma cosmology and the electric model of stars is the cosmology of the future."
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A small section of Candor Chasma, part of the huge trench of Valles Marineris on Mars.
The Dendritic Ridges of Valles Marineris

(Dec 05, 2006)
Close-up images of Valles Marineris reveal the same dendritic ridge pattern we have observed on Olympus Mons. NASA spokesmen call it "the most spectacular hole in the ground anywhere." On Earth, it would stretch from San Francisco to New York. For years, many scientists called it a channel produced by torrential flooding. Then, when higher resolution images removed that possibility, geologists began calling it "the great Martian rift valley." But if it is a rift, one looks in vain for signs of the stupendous geologic displacement required, not to mention the unresolved issue posed by a body smaller than the earth generating the imagined tectonic forces to create a "rift" hundreds of times larger than the Grand Canyon. Furthermore, a "rift" is typically deeper than it is wide, but Valles Marineris, though up to several miles deep, is vastly wider than deep at its midsection. Its hard to imagine anyone looking at Valles Marineris and supposing that surface material a few miles deep miraculously spread apart to create a valley up to 370 miles wide! The picture above is just a small portion of Candor Chasma, a giant alcove of Valles Marineris. Up to this point, we have been unable to find any reference by the THEMIS team to a hugely enigmatic feature--the dendritic ridges that virtually define the scalloped cliffs of the entire region. To gain a sense of the enigma posed, we urge the reader to consider the full image here. And bear in mind that this is not the only portion of Valles Marineris revealing the implausible--or should we say "impossible"--ridge branching. We have already noted remarkably similar branching patterns both on the "caldera" walls and the steep escarpment of Olympus Mons. It is interesting to note that conventional theory ascribes two completely different geologic processes to Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris. In neither case is a plausible explanation given for the dendritic ridge patterns. Hence the contrast with the predictive ability of the electrical interpretation is inescapable. In the image above, the color scheme represents the hardness of the surface material. The warm to red colors denote the harder material, while the green and blue represent looser, sandier, or dustier material. So it is significant that the warmest colors (hardest materials) are The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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associated with the ridges. The electric model identifies dendritic ridges as aeolian sedimentary material fused into rock by an electric arc. And for this reason, the unique correspondence to the Lichtenberg figure is key to resolving the mystery. As a rule, geologists will discuss regions of loose material as sediment laid down by bodies of water, volcanic ash, or landslide debris. But in the electrical interpretation of Martian topography, a new principle is required. On the red planet as a whole, nothing is more apparent than the excavation of material from defined regions, and distributed over large areas as new strata. We can find nothing in any image of Valles Marineris to contradict the electrical hypothesis. And the dendritic ridge pattern stands as a witness to forces not yet even imagined by conventional schools. It requires us to reexamine our assumptions about the origin of similar features on Earth. And it requires that we not simply apply those assumption to features observed on other planets. It is worth remembering that a cosmic thunderbolt of sufficient power to carve Valles Marineris would not just distribute pulverized debris around the planet, but launch great volumes of rocky and dusty debris into space. This could include both the red dust that has fallen historically upon our own planet and the meteorites that have been definitively identified as Martian in origin. Hence the unexplained dendritic ridges on Valles Marineris and Olympus Mons (and in fact, occurring repeatedly on Mars, as we shall observe in future TPODs) are crucial pointers to a history of the Red Planet far more dramatic than traditional theory has ever allowed.
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Astronomer Halton Arps model of galactic ejection: High-redshift quasars are ejected from an active galactic nucleus--often in pairs in opposite directions along the galaxys spin axis. As they move away from the galaxy, their redshifts decrease, their mass increases, and they slow down. As they fall back toward the galaxy, their matter differentiates into stars, and they evolve into companion galaxies or galactic clusters, whose redshifts continue to approach, stepwise, the redshift of the parent galaxy.
New Evidence for Quasar Ejection

(Dec 04, 2006)
A recently published study adds one more layer of supporting evidence for Astronomer Halton Arp's model of Quasars ejection along the axis of parent galaxies. The discovered association can only come as another surprise to theorists of the Big Bang. We have dedicated many TPODs to highlight the works and ideas of one of the leading opponents of the Big Bang (BB) theory. Halton "Chip" Arp found evidence in the 1960s that has a critical impact on the most fundamental assumption underlying BB theory. The redshift of spectral lines from galaxies has been interpreted as the consequence of velocity of recession from us almost since it was first measured and against warnings of the discoverer, Sir Edwin Hubble. It is the main reason most astronomers believe we live in an expanding Universe. This assumption, together with its corollary that velocity of recession is a measure of distance, has become the cornerstone of Big Bang cosmology. So when Arp first showed evidence of a physical connection between objects with different redshifts, that is, evidence for non-cosmological redshifts, he was shunned by mainstream astronomy. Over the years, several lines of evidence were found that question the assumption that redshift equals distance. Arp and his colleagues amassed a large catalogue of systems that show physical associations between objects of differing redshifts. These associations indicated that quasar pairs often are ejected in opposite directions from the nuclei of active galaxies. Tifft, Burbidge, and Bell (among others) found evidence of periodicities in the values of redshift, and both Arp and Russell showed evidence of intrinsic redshift in spiral galaxies. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The overdensity of quasars or quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) around nearby galaxies has long been known and is currently assumed to be the result of gravitational lensing of highly redshifted QSOs. Halton Arp proposed a different model that assumes QSOs to be ejected from the active nucleus of their parent galaxy. The redshift of the ejected QSO would then be an indication of its age since ejection, the higher the redshift the younger the object. Arps ejection model (1998): http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/ApJ/journal/issues/ApJ/v496n2/36745/36745.html As seen in the above illustration, quasars are ejected from their parent galaxy and will evolve into mature galaxies over time. Arps model is based on observations of active (Seyfert) galaxies that show pairing of identically redshifted quasars predominantly along the minor (rotation) axis of these galaxies. In a recent paper by astronomers Lopz-Corredoira and Gutirrez (astro-ph/0609514), a statistical investigation was performed to test if there are overdensities of QSOs along the minor axis (rotation axis) of nearby galaxies, as predicted by Arps model. To this end, the authors selected 71 nearby edge-on spiral galaxies that were sufficiently well-studied and compared the positions of QSOs from a large database. The edge-on constraint was necessary to ensure a clear direction of the rotation axis. Indeed, the authors found an overdensity towards the minor axis. Depending on the magnitude of the quasars, the overdensity was found to be between 13% and 38%, with a statistical significance of 3.9 sigma (chance of this finding being a fluke is roughly 1 in 10,000). While the authors are cautiously describing this result as "tentative," it is the first time that a statistical relation was found in support of Arps ejection model. This supporting evidence is not final proof, but it is a step in the right direction. Ultimately, the best evidence of ejection would be the measurement of proper motion of highly redshifted quasar pairs away from the parent galaxy. Unfortunately, current technological achievements do not yet allow for such precise measurements, but it will not be long. We will keep you posted. Contributed by Louis van der Locht
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Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. Waterloo/B.McNamara; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/Univ. Waterloo/B.McNamara; Radio: NRAO/Ohio Univ./L.Birzan et al.
Son of M81
(Dec 01, 2006)
Recent X-ray images from a giant galaxy cluster confirm the expectations of electrical theorists and offer new support for the ejection models proposed by astronomer Halton Arp. The image of galaxy cluster MS0735.6+7421 above is a composite of images from the Hubble Space Telescope (optical), the Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), and the Very Large Array radio telescope (red). The optical view shows a large number of small, faint bodies giving off visible light. The x-ray view reveals filaments of material that lace around the cluster and divide it into cells. The filaments trace the paths of Birkeland currents, in which electric and magnetic fields are aligned. The electric fields accelerate electrons to velocities that can approach the speed of light. The magnetic fields then cause the electrons to emit x-rays in a process called synchrotron radiation. A similar process operates at radio frequencies and reveals a filamentary core to the cluster. These high-energy currents in the plasma that composes the cluster are the equivalent in space of lightning on Earth. They indicate that the cluster is caught in a cosmic-sized thunderbolt and is in a highly excited (electrical) state. One would expect its light to have a significant intrinsic redshift and its position on the sky to lie along the line of ejection of a galaxy group. And ones expectations would be satisfied: The cluster has a redshift of z = 0.216, and it lies about 10 degrees northwest of the large, bright galaxy M81. M81 has a line of quasars, plasma clouds, active galaxies (including the peculiar M82), and other galaxy clusters The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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stretching up to 25 degrees to the southeast and 15 degrees to the northwest--past the location of this cluster. (M81 has a negative redshift--a blueshift--of 0.000113.) The M81 group [see p. 164 in Seeing Red by Halton Arp, available here] is one of the nearest galaxy groups to our own Local Group. Astronomers have resolved Cepheid variable stars in M81 and with them have been able to ascertain M81s likely distance: 11.8 million light years. At that distance, this cluster would be about 10,000 light years across. The bodies that compose it would be only a few hundred light years in size and are the fragmented ejection (a BL Lac--see Seeing Red, p. 163) from an active member of M81s family. If the x-ray and radio filaments can be traced back to that parent object, its likely that another body, probably a quasar, with a redshift similar to this cluster, can be identified on the opposite side. Contributed by Mel Acheson
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False color image of the floor of Rabe Crater on Mars, taken by the Mars Odyssey Missions THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System).
The "Dunes" of Rabe Crater

(Nov 29, 2006)
Nothing is more ubiquitous on the surface of the planet Mars than vast ridge and valley networks that planetary scientists typically identify as "dunes." But electrical theorists predict that the more scientists learn about these formations, the less plausible the traditional explanations will become. To appreciate the significance of the image above, the reader will find it helpful to view the larger region at a higher resolution (image available here). The extraordinary image, in false color, gives important information on the relative "hardness" of different surface areas. "Hardness" is deduced from overnight surface temperatures, the warmer temperatures indicated in red, and the cooler ones indicated in blue. In explaining this technique, the authors of the THEMIS site note, "The technique works because areas mantled in dust cool off quickly after sundown, while rocks hold onto daytime heat much better." Applying this criteria to the image above, one would logically conclude that the crests of the so-called "dunes" are significantly harder than the valleys between them: over much of the "dune" region, the warmer colors follow the ridges quite consistently. Ridges of many sorts on Mars are of particular interest to the electrical theorists, who suggest that most formative processes on Mars bear little or no resemblance to textbook geology, while presenting numerous patterns suggestive of electrical forces. In this sense, Martian "dunes" May well provide an acid test of the electric model. Perhaps the term that most readily separates an electrical view from conventional Martian geology is "glassification" (conversion of soil into fulgurite-like glassy material, and "electrical The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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soil metamorphism" (the instant conversion of sand into sandstone). Conventional schools have never applied the term to formative processes on Mars. From an electrical perspective, surface metamorphism will be expected in numerous contexts. That is because the electric model suggests that every region of the planet has been electrically etched and/or excavated up to miles deep. Similarly, layers of material have been deposited (up to a few miles in depth, as exhibited along the cliff walls of Valles Marineris) following electrical excavation elsewhere on the planet. Though the "dunes" occur on Mars in many different contexts, the most important consideration in the electrical interpretation is the role of coronal streamers in electrical discharge scarring. When an arc discharge cuts a pathway across a surface, for example, it can leave secondary "coronal" channels perpendicular to the primary channel itself--a principle of sweeping importance to an understanding of Martian geology. We have also noted the orthogonal cellular "dune structure" in the center of Victoria crater, remarkably similar to that of the Rabe crater seen above. Morphological similarities suggest a likely similarity in cause. In particular, we would draw attention to the fractal-like reduction in scale with distance from the dominating elevations closer to the center of the "dune" field. The crests heights range up to 650 feet above their associated troughs. But with distance, the crests are diminished in scale to such a degree that, though retaining the same morphology, they disappear beneath the layers of fine material (in blue). So one question posed for geologists would apply not just to Rabe crater and not just to Victoria crater: What Aeolian process can account for this progressive and systematic fractal reduction in scale? In electrical terms, there is no anomaly in this, since electrical discharge phenomena can maintain the same morphology across many orders of magnitude. From any conventional perspective, the entire context of the crater is anomalous. The origin of the crater and its unique flat floor is "unknown" according to the THEMIS team. The crater floor is distinguished by the presence of a pit that is a full kilometer deeper than the surrounding floor layer, though it is obviously layered substantially by falling debris. Its cause is also unknown. Searching through the available NASA files on Rabe Crater, we can find no coherent explanation for its defining features. And yet the mysteries posed have many implications for the planet as a whole, and the patterns deserve careful examination from alternative vantage points. Indeed, the entire issue of Martian "sand dunes" should be open for reconsideration, and we will take up some of the more compelling reasons in coming Pictures of the Day.
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European Space Agency image of the flank of Olympus Mons shows the same dendritic ridges seen in our Picture of the Day for November 22nd. But here, the accumulated digital information has permitted ESA to show the ridge network from a side view--one way to avoid seeing ridges as ravines, a common trick of the eye. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
Dendritic Ridges--Eye of the Beholder

(Nov 27, 2006)
Some of our readers have reported difficulty in seeing the dendritic ridges of the Olympus Mons caldera and steep escarpment. Here, we offer a few suggestions that should permit the ridge network to leap out at the viewer. On November 22nd we presented an ESA (European Space Agency) close-up image of the flank of Olympus Mons. The image reveals sharply cut dendritic ridges running down the flank in a pattern that has defied geologic explanation. The tree-like form of the branching is pointed downward like an embossment on the escarpment. Then, on November 24th, we offered a remarkably similar image of dendritic branching on the wall of the Olympus Mons "caldera." Here, too, no useful scientific explanation has been forthcoming. In both instances, the electric model anticipates the form as fulgurite-like hardened or glassy branches of a Lichtenberg figure, typical of electric discharge. Not everyone visiting our site, however, has detected the ridges, despite the fact that once they are seen, they stand out in stark relief as the dominating forms in the imaged topography. Understandably, this has created an issue in the minds of some as to whether the ridges are really there. And the answer is, yes, they are undeniably there. Moreover, the trick of the eye that can prevent one from seeing them is an excellent example of how conditioned mental references can obscure perception. Because the image above shows the dendritic ridges of the Olympus Mons scarp from a side view, the number of "automatic brain references" that must be overcome is reduced, making it easier to see the ridges as ridges. To facilitate this process further, we have placed arrows pointing to several of the more prominent ridges. The lone arrow on the right ends precisely at a dominating ridge that exhibits a series of clearly visible branches. On the left, we see bifurcating ridges, the first bifurcation beginning at the summit of the cliff. The remaining two arrows point to ridges associated with further bifurcation, the lowest arrow pointing to a ridge The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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that bifurcates once more just below the arrow. Clearly, these ridges protrude from the escarpment, separating them (the ridges) into their brightly illuminated and shadowy components. We have found that for many individuals, there is no issue here at all. They see the ridges immediately as ridges, and are puzzled that some folks only see ravines. But the problem of perception is actually quite common when people are viewing either ridges or craters, channels, or other depressions on the Moon or Mars. It will appear as if they are raised prominences. To know whether you are susceptible to this trick of the eye, consider this picture. If the channel networks in this image appear to you to be raised relief, your eye is deceiving you, and you are not alone. A large percentage of viewers experience this illusion. As for the dendritic ridges on Mars, we have found the following steps to be a reliable means of getting the brain to cooperate: 1) Look without distraction at the point denoted by the highest arrow on the left. 2) Ask yourself what you will see if the arrow is pointing to the "summit" of a ridge running down the escarpment. 3) Remind yourself that the light is coming from the right, illuminating one side of the ridge complex. Even if it takes your brain a minute or two to cooperate, the experiences of others give us confidence that you will see the ridge complex as clearly as they have. You can then test out this procedure with the images presented in our two previous pictures of the day--here and here--a good exercise because both of these pictures involve vantage points that more easily suggest the wrong references. Dendritic ridges will emerge as a crucial consideration in any analysis of an electric model. The best tests of a new model are those in which its interpretations are most easily distinguished from prior theoretical models. To the best of our knowledge, there is no meaningful interpretation of dendritic ridge formations in any "erosional" context. In fact, we can identify no known geologic process that would give a consistently dendritic pattern in any context.
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This close-up of a cliff wall within the caldera of Olympus Mons on Mars reveals a pattern of dendritic ridges unlike anything ever seen in volcanic calderas. For context, see the full high-resolution image here. Viewing the higher resolution image will help to avoid seeing elevations as depressions --a common trick of the eye. Remember that the light is coming from the left. The branching formations running down the cliff of the caldera are ridges. The top of the caldera is below in the picture, and the flat floor of the caldera is above, all of which is made clear in the context image.
The Ridges of Olympus Mons (2)

(Nov 24, 2006)
To the litany of indicators pointing to the electrical origin of Olympus Mons on the planet Mars, we can now add the presence of dendritic ridges along the cliffs of its gigantic "caldera." In these pages, we have claimed that what geologists call "volcanoes" on Mars are in fact stupendous blisters created by electrical arcing on a cosmic scale. Such raised bell-shaped blisters can be found on the caps of lightning arrestors after a cloud-to-ground strike. They are called "fulgamites." The material that forms the elevated fulgamite is scavenged from the surrounding surface to produce an encircling depression or moat. Olympus Mons has such a moat, which does not match the bulge expected from upwelling magma beneath a volcano. Earthly lightning usually consists of a number of strokes in quick succession along the same ionized path. The discharge that creates a fulgamite is often followed by successive lesser strokes that May excavate overlapping pits on the top of the fulgamite. The six overlapping circular and flat-floored pits on the summit of Olympus Mons display precisely such a pattern. The smaller craters center on the walls of the larger ones and are cut to different depths, as if with a cookie cutter. Clearly, the "caldera" floors are not volcanic, and no analogy for such overlapping flat floored craters can be found on any volcano on Earth. There is no evidence of creation by upwelling magma. In an earlier TPOD, we summarized the behavior of electric arcs to positively charged surfaces in the laboratory, noting how the arcs produce superimposed circular depressions on the summit of the blister. To confirm that the markers from such an event are indeed present on Olympus Mons, we have noted: the finely filamented "mane" of channels radiating from the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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summit; the presence of anomalous scoops and gouges on the flank of the great mound; the steep escarpment; the complex networks of shallow grooves on the flat floors of the "caldera" craters; the depressed terrain surrounding the escarpment; and the concentric ridges and valleys in the mysterious "aureole." All are diagnostic of a single phenomenon: an electric discharge impinging on an anode, or positively charged surface. More recently, we noted an additional feature that, to the best of our knowledge, can only be explained as an effect of electric discharge. Around the escarpment of Olympus Mons, we find repeated sharply defined dendritic ridges. Whereas dendritic channels are indeed typical of fluid erosion patterns, precisely the reverse is true in the case of similarly branching ridges. No known geologic process is observed to create a coherent ridge pattern of this sort. But as we have previously noted, the electrical "Lichtenberg" figure matches the pattern precisely. The case for the electrical interpretation of Olympus Mons becomes all the more persuasive in the face of recent close-ups of the calderas flat-floors and enclosing cliffs. In a highresolution image taken by the Mars Odyssey Missions THEMIS camera, new details are evident, including cleanly excavated channels and a remarkable network of elevated "veins" undulating across the surface in entwining and knotted rope-like configurations (a detail that is indeed worthy of a future TPOD)--and one other feature. Along the steep caldera wall seen at the bottom of the picture are dendritic ridges that boldly defy the theory of volcanic origins (to fully appreciate the relationship of these vertical ridges to the caldera, we urge the reader to view the spectacular THEMIS image directly). It is only appropriate, therefore, that planetary scientists be asked to account for these extraordinary details in terms of their volcanic theory of Olympus Mons. One reason for the urgency of this is that planetary scientists have, for several decades now, presented their interpretations as fact.
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LEFT: Finely carved branching ridges on the western flank of the Martian mountain Olympus Mons pose unsolved riddles for planetary scientists. (Note: to avoid seeing ridges as depressions, keep in mind that the light is coming from the left. The tree-like branching of the ridges is running down the escarpment.) RIGHT: A Lichtenberg figure created by electric discharge in an acrylic block. Credit: Left: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
The Dendritic Ridges of Olympus Mons

(Nov 22, 2006)
Recent European Space Agency images of the escarpment of Olympus Mons reveal branching ridge patterns that continue to baffle planetary scientists. But the "Lichtenberg" form of these ridges points directly to an electrical interpretation. In a previous Picture of the Day, we noted the presence of hundreds of fascinating and bizarre formations called "spiders" at the south pole of Mars. We also noted that since the discovery of these formations a few years ago -- and despite the best efforts of planetary scientists --- they have evaded scientific explanation. We did, however, draw attention to an electrical formation called a "Lichtenberg figure." In 1777, the German scientist Christoph Lichtenberg discovered that dust settling on a cake of non-conducting resin, when subjected to an electric spark, recorded star-like patterns. Later, other experimentalists found that these Lichtenberg Figures could be recorded directly on film as a two dimensional photograph of discharge streamers. The positive and negative surfaces in a discharge produce quite different patterns. We noted the striking similarity in form of the Martian spiders to a Lichtenberg figure. These same forms are found in the "novae" and "arachnoids" on Venus -- overlying "spidery" formations stretching around the planet's equator. Large-scale formations of this kind, if they are to be explained electrically, require something that is not permitted under standard theoretical assumptions -- electrical arcing on a cosmic scale in an earlier, unstable phase of solar system history. Lichtenberg figures take the observed radial forms of the Martian spiders. In many instances, (as illustrated here) the "trunk" of the tree-like, "dendritic" form points in the direction of the main current flow. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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When planetary scientists consider the role of electricity in solar system history, Lichtenberg figures will become an important diagnostic tool. An electric arc can produce dendritic branching patterns of fused or raised material. Such dendritic ridges are common on Mars and the Earth. But theories of their formation are weak. The image above shows a small portion of the western flank of Olympus Mons, which planetary scientists call "the biggest volcano in the solar system." In previous Pictures of the Day, we have suggested that Olympus Mons is in fact an anode blister (electric discharge blister on a positively charged surface) from a stupendous cosmic lightning bolt. From an electrical vantage point, the dendritic ridge patterns seen in such finely cut relief -- and present far beyond the region shown illustrate the power of the electric force to achieve what cannot be achieved by standard geology. (See larger picture here.) Commenting on these ridges of Olympus Mons, the European Space Agency website notes that the escarpment shown rises over 7000 meters above the surrounding surface level. "To the north and west of the volcano, these 'aureole' deposits are regions of gigantic ridges and blocks extending some 1000 kilometres from the summit like petals of a flower. The origin of the deposits has challenged planetary scientists for an explanation for decades" But all that ESA can offer as an explanation is "landslide" and/or glacial causes. That these well-defined branching patterns could be caused by such influences seems out of the question. So in conventional terms, the dendritic ridges of Olympus Mons remain a profound mystery. If, however, in the grip of the electric force, Olympus Mons was raised to heights that dwarf Mount Everest, Lichtenberg formations on the flanks of the immense "lightning blister" would be no surprise. It seems that ground currents flowing to or from the discharge that formed Olympus Mons caused heating and metamorphosis of subsoil into rock, which then resisted erosion by accompanying electrical forces tending to remove surface material. The result is that the Lichtenberg ridges are exposed like an etching.
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Victoria Crater at Meridiana Planum near the equator of Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona
The "Dunes" of Victoria Crater

(Nov 20, 2006)
NASA scientists call them "sand dunes." But in the electrical interpretation, the extraordinary complex of ridges and valleys at the center of Victoria Crater on Mars points back to the same event that produced the crater itself. In a previous picture of the day, we noted that the sharply sculpted "cookie-cutter" form of Victoria crater defies explanation as an impact depression. Taking inspiration from Wallace Thornhills insights on the formative process, we suggested that laboratory experiments with short-lived electric arcs (called 'sparks') to an anode (positively charged surface) offer the best explanation for the craters distinctly scalloped cliff walls. The advantage of the electrical interpretation is that it also addresses directly the nature of the topography dominating the central area of the crater. NASA scientists describe this area, seen in the picture above, as "sand dunes," though the repeated orthogonal configuration ridges intersecting at roughly right angles -- does not appear to have any precise counterpart amongst Earthly dunes. A possible electric discharge explanation is as follows: Electromagnetic forces between Birkeland currents constrained to a surface will force parallelism. Where a discharge channel branches, the branches tend to run parallel and May rejoin. Orthogonal coronal discharges from the parallel Birkeland currents generate the striking pattern. This model lends itself to laboratory testing. Additionally, the supposed "dunes" remind us of objections to standard theory posed by the electrical theorists: the rarified Martian atmosphere (less than one percent as dense as Earths) could not reconfigure the planets surface in the profound ways implied by the usual interpretations. The electrical hypothesis emphasizes a testable connection of the orthogonal ridge and valley network to the original crater-forming event. From this vantage point, the test is all too obvious. As noted by Wallace Thornhill, if NASA will examine the ridges on site, they May find that they are "solid, glassified sand, rather like that found in dry soil following a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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lightning strike." Notably, the Apollo astronauts observed puzzling orthogonal patterns in the lunar soil and glass in the centers of small craters. That, together with much additional evidence, suggests that the Moon is a heavily electrically cratered body. As we intend to make clear in forthcoming discussions of Martian topography, the ridge and valley patterns on the planet are consistent with electrical patterns on a surface subject to widespread electric discharge activity. In the end, these electrical patterns are sufficient to throw into doubt all conventional treatments of Martian history--even perspectives on present surface activity.
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Victoria Crater at Meridiana Planum near the equator of Mars, reveals a cleanly cut "cookie cutter" profile-another challenge to the impact hypothesis. Credit: NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona
Victoria Crater on Mars

(Nov 17, 2006)
Sharply scalloped walls, together with cleanly cut ridges and valleys on its floor, make Mars Victoria crater an ideal test of the electric discharge model of crater formation. The image above was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It shows "Victoria crater," whose features can only deepen the growing mysteries of cratering patterns on Mars. It certainly does not look anything like the effect of an impact event, but that is the interpretation given it by NASA. The NASA release, though referring to "a distinctive scalloped shape to its rim," can only explain this remarkable configuration in terms of "erosion and downhill movement of crater wall material." But look at the high-resolution image here. The required debris along the base of the cliffs is simply not there. Direct observation suggests that the sharply scalloped walls are a pristine record of the original causative event. When questions of theory and interpretation arise, the most compelling answer will be the one that is based on observational fact and can account for essential features left unexplained by alternatives. Electric Universe proponent Wallace Thornhill has recently examined NASAs reports on Victoria crater. His analysis is based on practical laboratory experiments with electrical discharge, particularly the effects of an electric arc on a positively charged surface the "anode" in a discharge event. Thornhill states: "Victoria crater appears to be a short-duration anode scar, or spark crater, where melting is insignificant. In laboratory experiments it is found that the anode spark scar The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive on a contaminated surface develops many arc spots at the center of a roughly circular scar. In a very short time the central arc spots move out to form a ring. The spots enlarge and join into a ring. For a time the entire arc current passes through the annular ring. If it were to continue, melting would occur, obliterating the fine scalloped structure of the crater wall. In experiments there May be a hundred or more spots."
See Thornhills discussion of Victoria crater here, in particular his illustration of the migrating arc spots from a congregation in the center to a ring. His conclusion: "The scalloped crater wall is simply the erosion signature of the irregular ring of enlarged anode spots." And what of the remarkable "ridge and valley" complexes in the center of the crater? According to NASA, this feature is explained as "sand dunes," supposedly formed by winds in an atmosphere less than one percent as dense as Earths. Its easy to understand why most planetary scientists accept this default interpretation: what else could they be? But as we intend to show in forthcoming installments in this series, almost all of the "sand dune" interpretations of Martian geology are "blown away" when subjected to closer examination.
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A powerful coronal mass ejection. But the energy of this event cannot compare to a spectacular stellar eruption recently observed in space.
A "Doomsday" Stellar Flare

(Nov 15, 2006)
Scientists using NASA's Swift Satellite have spotted a stellar flare on a nearby star so powerful that, had it been from our sun, it would have triggered a mass extinction on Earth. A stellar explosion on a scale previously unimaginable for anything other than a supernova recently erupted on a modest star (slightly less massive than the sun) in a two-star system called II Pegasi in the constellation Pegasus. According to a NASA-Goddard news release: "It was about a hundred million times more energetic than the sun's typical solar flare, releasing energy equivalent to about 50 million trillion atomic bombs." Were a comparable event to occur on the sun, it would result in a mass extinction due to the outpouring of lethal X-rays. The NASA report, however, adds a comforting observation: "Fortunately, our sun is now a stable star that doesn't produce such powerful flares." But this observation May seem a little less comforting when one realizes that, while astronomers speculate, they do not know what caused the event. Stellar instability, whether occurring as coronal mass ejections on our sun, the stellar flare of II Pegasi, or a supernova, pose numerous unresolved mysteries for astronomers simply because they ignore the electrical influences external to the star in question. The II Pegasi flare, though vastly more energetic than any recorded coronal mass ejection on our sun, produced the same acceleration of the ejected charged particles as was first observed in solar eruptions. It is a compelling pointer to the existence of a powerful electric field in the chromosphere, just above the star's photosphere. Such fields, driven by galactic circuits, are easily able to accelerate particles up to a significant fraction of the speed of light. The most dramatic example of this occurred on January 20, 2005, when the charged particles of a massive solar eruption were accelerated along the spiral magnetic field between the Sun and Earth to velocities approaching one quarter the speed of light by the time they reached The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Particle acceleration is only half the story. Astronomers detected "hard" x-rays, which they euphemistically call "non-thermal" radiation. It is better known as synchrotron radiation, and it is only produced by electrons traveling at appreciable fractions of lightspeed in a strong magnetic field. It can be produced in laboratories--with electricity. Gravity or hot gas doesnt come close. In disregarding the laws of electricity, physicists can offer no plausible mechanisms of gravity or gas dynamics to explain such accelerations. They postulate "non-electrical" mechanisms for cosmic synchrotron radiation by extrapolating mechanical equations far beyond the domain in which those equations have been tested. They get away with this only because space probes cant check on them. High-energy flares on the sun arise from the breakdown of the current-regulating plasma sheath of the photosphere. The resulting "short circuit" causes the bright X-ray flash and acceleration of photospheric matter in the powerful electric field of the chromosphere. In the case of the II Pegasi explosion, the flash of X-rays was sufficient to overwhelm Swifts X-Ray Telescope. In the quiet Sun, this same field of the photospheric sheath accelerates protons into the corona, where they collide with the coronal plasma and raise its temperature to millions of degrees. The high energy of the II Pegasi flare is beyond the range of energies normally produced by gravity and gas mechanisms, but it is well within the range of electrical interactions. Astronomers are shocked only because they touched the "live wire" of cosmic plasma without donning the insulating gloves of electric plasma theory.
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Giant arcs of radio emission detected by the Very Large Array of radio telescopes in New Mexico enclose a vast cluster of galaxies, called Abell 3376.
Another Electrical "Shock" for Astronomers

(Nov 13, 2006)
Unexpected, highly energetic radio emissions from galaxy cluster Abell 3376 have sparked a curious "debate" among astronomers. The galaxy cluster Abell 3376 lies about 600 million light years away from the earth. As seen in the picture above, two ends of the cluster reveal giant arcs of high-energy radio emission, each about three million light-years across. (For reference: just one light year is almost 6 trillion miles.) Something is occurring on a macrocosmic scale that challenges traditional concepts of galaxies moving in splendid isolation, and connected only by the trivial gravitational force. Here, thousands of galaxies are indisputably linked to coherent, highenergy events. For plasma cosmologists and Electric Universe proponents, the electric force is the only meaningful and testable explanation for such a vast radio source in space. It is therefore with disMay that the electrical theorists consider the conventional discussion sparked by this latest "surprise." As one plasma scientist has put it to us, conventional theory typically envisions high-energy events on a galactic or intergalactic scale in terms of celestial objects smashing together. So two sides will often debate ways to accomplish this. As summarized on NewScientist.com, one interpretation suggests: "roughly a billion years ago, two clusters crashed into one another to form Abell 3376. The collision could have sparked a shockwave that traveled out through the cluster gas, whose remnants we are now seeing." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive "there is a more intriguing possibility. Primordial gas, untouched since the big bang, should be constantly pouring into all galaxy clustersand the two shockwaves could mark where this cool ancient gas smacks into the super-hot gas of the cluster."
But according to the New Scientist article:
Interpretations of this sort underscore the gap that has developed between standard cosmology and plasma cosmology. In plasma cosmology, it is the electric force that accelerates charged particles at energies up to 1020 electron volts. This interpretation rests on practical laboratory experiments with particle acceleration, and involves no ad hoc speculations. To ask some imagined mechanical "shock" to achieve such acceleration is to take astronomy into untestable conjecture. As if to make the plasma cosmologists point for them, the article states that these "shockwaves" "could also give us a clue as to why the universe is threaded with magnetic fields." But nowhere in the article do we find any reference to the electric currents that create and sustain magnetic fields. One of the pointers to magnetic fields is filamentation of space plasma. In the electrically neutral environment originally envisioned by big bang cosmologists, any concentration of gases into a filament would quickly dissipate into equilibrium with surrounding gases. But in an Electric Universe, filamentation should be commonplace because of a basic property of plasma that occurs when it carries an electric current. And since every electric current creates a magnetic field, no other explanation for the pervasive magnetic fields in space is necessary: the induced magnetic fields constrict the plasma into narrow filaments often spanning vast cosmic distances. And these filaments become the efficient pathways of the currents. Universally present magnetic fields and associated filamentation mean an Electric Universe. Consider in contrast the logic expressed in the article as the author addresses the enigma of filamentation: "Computer simulations of the cosmos show that gravity tends to pull the gas into stringy structures called filamentsAbell 3376 could be threaded on one such filament" The best expression for computer simulations designed to retrofit a theory to surprising observations is "garbage in, garbage out." When did any gravitational model simulate filamentation prior to the astonishing discovery of a filamentary universe? To assume that the virtually zero influence of gravity in intergalactic space is producing energy at radio wave and x-ray levels gives new meaning to the phrase "doing things the hard way." Since Professor Don Scotts book The Electric Sky will be available later this month, it is fitting to present here his analysis of the underlying issue posed by x-ray and radio emissions in space: Radio telescopes see radio waves throughout the cosmos. Radio waves need BOTH magnetic and electric fields in order to exist. Magnetic fields need electric currents in order to exist. We can conclude that electric currents and electric fields exist in deep space. Cosmic rays are accelerated ions. What is the easiest way to accelerate an ion? Answer: By letting it fall through a voltage drop (an electric field) or pump it The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive magnetically.
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Strong electric fields exist in DLs (double layers) in plasma and magnetic pumping can occur in moving (varying) magnetic fields.
Grasping at "bow shocks" as a reason for ion acceleration is an evasive refusal to consider anything electrical.
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A combined image from the Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observatories of RCW 86 shows the expanding plasma ring around a star in our galaxy, created in a high energy event. Both the Chandra and XMM images show low energy X-rays in red, medium energies in green and high energies in blue. Credit: Chandra: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Utrecht/J.Vink et al. XMM-Newton: ESA/Univ. of Utrecht/J.Vink et al.
Stellar Ouroboros
(Nov 10, 2006)
Recent close-ups of an undulating ringed nebula (RCW 86) underscore the role of electric discharge in the formation and continuing energetic displays of such structures. Before the space age, astronomers could look at the stars only in the optical wavelengths that twinkled down to the surface of the Earth. They thought that the rings of luminous haze around some stars (which they called planetary nebulas) were spherical shells of gas expelled when the stars exploded. With the invention of instruments that could "see" in all wavelengths and that could "look" from above Earths atmosphere, the stars--and especially the planetary nebulas--appeared altogether different. The luminous haze resolved into filamentary structures that had hourglass shapes. The structures were composed of plasma, not gas, and they displayed magnetic fields, which caused the plasma to emit synchrotron, not thermal, radiation. (Thermal radiation comes from random motions and collisions of molecules. Synchrotron radiation comes from charged particles spiraling in a magnetic field. The former is driven by heat, the latter by electricity.) The stars at the centers of these hourglass (plasma pinch) shapes often had disks or rings of plasma around them in their equatorial planes and plumes or jets of collimated, often helical, plasma filaments emerging along their axes. (The space probe Ulysses discovered that even The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive our Sun had such a "donut-on-a-stick" structure.)
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The image above emphasizes the ring structure around such stars. Because plasma is composed of some fraction of charged particles, its movement constitutes an electric current. In fact, space plasmas are generally laced with networks of filamentary currents. The rings are toroidal circuits coupled to and driven by the hourglass-shaped current sheets. As such, they are subject to whats called the "diocotron instability": The current tends to form vortices along its periphery and to evolve into distorted curlicue shapes. This phenomenon has been documented in many lab experiments and can be observed in auroral curtains. The diocotron instability in this ring current around RCW 86 has just begun. Part of the first curl is much dimmer than the rest, giving the impression of a snake eating its tail. An ancient symbol for this figure is the ouroboros. Scholars of comparative mythology have found that ancient themes were inspired by events witnessed in the ancient sky. That these events were extraordinary plasma displays has been corroborated by recent findings in the study of rock art: petroglyphs, petrographs, and geoglyphs--rock structures such as Stonehenge-reproduce exactly the forms of plasma discharge instabilities. The conclusion is unavoidable that ancient peoples witnessed the effects of a current surge in the circuits connecting Earth, Sun, and galaxy. This stellar-scale ouroboros around RCW 86 is probably many orders of magnitude more energetic than the purported "enhanced aurora" in the ancient sky of Earth. But in light of all the artistic, spiritual, and philosophical uses to which the ouroboros has been adapted since its first appearance, this image can serve as a reminder of the ouroboross likely origin in an electric sky. Submitted by Mel Acheson
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Ice jets from Saturns small moon Enceladus explode from the surface in comet-like fashion, to feed material into Saturns E ring. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
The Moving "Geysers" of Enceladus

(Nov 08, 2006)
We've stated many times on these pages that the most critical test of a theory is its predictive ability. Images from the Saturnian moon Enceladus offer such confirmation for Wallace Thornhill and his "Electric Universe" colleagues. The "spectacular" nature of the Saturnian moon Enceladus has been the subject of more than one previous TPOD. We've discussed the "startling" discovery of a hot spot around Enceladus' south pole (an indication of electric currents coursing through Saturns moon and connected with the electric circuits in Saturns plasma sheath). We've enumerated the evidence of electrical discharge machining (EDM) processes in the past, carving intricate channel networks across vast portions of the moons surface. And we've discussed the explosive jets that the icy moon emits, which NASA has called "liquid water reservoirs that erupt in Yellowstone-like geysers." It seems that Cassinis findings have flipped everything scientists thought they knew about Enceladus on its head. Yet the Cassini team still clings to old assumptions: the investigators simply assume that the astonishing plume activity can only be due to internal processes. Enceladus is a small icy moon about the size of Iowa. Prior to the Cassini mission, everyone knew that such a small moon could not support active "geology" or tectonic movement. This was why the jets so caught them by surprise. The official Cassini website states: "The source of geological activity on Enceladus is a mystery. We're amazed to see ice geysers on this little world that was thought to be cold and dead long ago, commented Dr. Dale Cruikshank of NASA Ames Research center, a member of the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team. Some unexpected process is vigorously heating The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the interior of Enceladus, especially the south polar region, and causing the ejection of the plumes of ice particles." In other words, the shock from seeing the inconceivable was not great enough to shake the Cassini team from a purely ideological assumption. In the March 13th TPOD "The Jets of Enceladus," we wrote: "Electrical theorist Wallace Thornhill and his colleagues suggest there is no geyser of subsurface water analogous to the Yellowstone geyser. They say that if NASA will look they will find that the jets move across the surface. And in their motion across the surface, the electric arcs that produce the jets are creating the observed channels as they excavate material from the surface and accelerate it into space." It turns out that NASA has had sufficient data in hand for at least several months confirming that the jets do indeed move across the surface (see for example this video, in which the jets move in opposition to the visual rotation of the sphere). Hence, any comparison with Yellowstones "Old Faithful" is spurious. All of the evidence gathered by Cassini supports the electrical interpretation. The arcs that have cut undulating and entwining filamentary channels point to the same force responsible for the energetic plumes. In electrical terms, the location of the hot spots at the south pole a most improbable location in conventional theory is surely no coincidence. And we can say with confidence that every attempt to find an internal source for the Enceladus plumes will prove futile.
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Left: The Ant Nebula. Middle: Electromagnetically pinched aluminium can. Right: "Pinching" water stream. Image Credit:(Left) R. Sahai (JPL) et al., Hubble Heritage Team, ESA, NASA. (Middle) Bert Hickman, Stoneridge Engineering, www.teslamania.com. (Right) Ian Tresman.
Pinch Yourself!
(Nov 06, 2006)
Simple experiments can demonstrate the principle of the "z-pinch" that electrical theorists say is the best explanation of the hourglass shape of many bipolar nebulas. As a jet of water flows, the surface tension causes the stream to constrict, and the jet forms beads or droplets (see image top right). You can sometimes see this occur, for example, in the stream of water from a garden hose or sprinkler. Chief Researcher at the Kurchatov Institute, Boris Trubnikov, noted that water beading is a good analogy of the plasma jets that are observed to pinch in the laboratory and the cosmic plasma in nebulae, too. In plasma, the pinching is due to the self-generated magnetic field compressing the jet unevenly along its length. The pinch is sometime called a z-pinch because the magnetic field lies along the z-axis, and the beading is sometimes referred to as the sausage instability because of the shape. In 1905 James Arthur Pollock and Samuel Barraclough at the University of Sydney suggested that the distortions in a length of copper piping used as a lightning conductor were due to the pinch effect. The phenomenon has also been suggested as the cause of pinching in bead lightning. The pinching of metal can be simulated in the laboratory by simply placing an aluminium soda pop can in a conducting coil of wire and sending a short pulse of high current through the coil. The magnetic field generated May be strong enough to crush the can, in this case producing a characteristic hourglass shape (see image top, middle). Pinches in plasmas were first investigated by Willard Harrison Bennett in the 1930s. He was able to work out a relationship between the plasma density and current (the so-called Bennett The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive relation), and pinches are sometimes called a Bennett pinch.
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As cells of cosmic plasma move relative to each other, they generate currents and magnetic fields that cause them to produce jets that pinch and bead. It is perhaps no coincidence that when astronomer Walter Baade first distinguished individual stars in the Andromeda Galaxy, he described them as like "beads on a string." And the Ant Nebula (see image top left), which glows like a plasma-filled fluorescent light tube, has a characteristic hourglass pinch in its middle.. With 99% of the universe consisting of plasma, we cannot afford to ignore the obvious electrical influences any longer. Submitted by Ian Tresman
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Optical image from Magellan and Hubble Space Telescope shows galaxies of the "Bullet Cluster" 1E0657-56 in orange and white. X-ray image from Chandra shows x-ray emission in pink. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/M.Markevitch et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI; Magellan/U.Arizona/D.Clowe et al.
Bullet Cluster Shoots Down Big Bang

(Sep 04, 2006)
Optical and x-ray images of the galaxy cluster named 1E0657-56 have provided direct proof that these clumps of disturbed galaxies are small, faint, and nearby. These and many similar observations directly contradict the foundational assumptions of the Big Bang, which place the objects far away. What we have stated in the headline and abstract above is, of course, an interpretation, not a fact. But the distinction between interpretation and fact has become so muddled in the sciences that we felt obliged to underscore the point rhetorically. Unbending theoretical assumptions have wrought havoc on popular astronomy, which could not recognize our interpretation of the Bullet Cluster based on the known electrical behavior of plasma. According to the authors of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory website, the galactic cluster imaged above "was formed after the collision of two large clusters of galaxies, the most energetic event known in the universe since the Big Bang." Though the announcement by the Chandra team never uses the words "theory," "hypothesis," or "interpretation," its every sentence rests on a jumble of assumptions, from supposed galactic "collisions" to wildly conjectural "gravitational lensing," all wrapped around the discredited notion that redshift is a reliable measure of velocity and distance. The capper is the announcement appearing in numerous scientific media that the image "proves the existence of dark matter." In electrical terms, the Hubble optical image shows the many distorted galaxies and filaments of plasma that have been identified by the astronomer Halton Arp as the fragments of a quasar (QSO, or quasi-stellar object) after it has moved through an evolving, highly redshifted and unstable "BL Lac" phase. The BL Lac transition breaks up the increasingly massive The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive plasma of the quasar as it progresses toward becoming a companion galaxy.
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From an electrical vantage point, the Chandra x-ray image (pink) clearly shows the bellshaped terminus and following arc of a plasma discharge "jet." . The strong magnetic field of the current causes electrons to emit the x-ray synchrotron (non-thermal) radiation captured in the image. Synchrotron radiation is a normal electrical discharge effect. But popular astronomy, oblivious to electrical phenomena, sees only "hot gases colliding." The cluster has a redshift of z=0.3, exactly the value of the Karlsson quantization peak that is typical of BL Lac objects. Because it therefore does not need to be normalized to the base redshift of another galactic group, it is likely a member of our Local Group. This is confirmed by its location in the ejection cone of M31 (Andromeda Galaxy), which includes M33, 3C120, many QSOs, and hydrogen plasma cells strung between M31 and the Milky Way. Because of its proximity to the Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud, its precursor QSO was probably ejected from one or the other. Statistically, as astronomer Halton Arp has pointed out again and again, galaxy clusters occur preferentially near large, low-redshift galaxies. The filaments, arcs, and clumps of higher-redshift plasma that group around many of the galaxies in the cluster indicate regions of secondary plasma pinching and ejection. Further examination is expected to reveal the typical pattern of decreasing redshift and increasing luminosity with increasing distance from the secondary concentrations. The Big Bang, which fails to take the electrical properties of plasma into account, assumes that redshift must be an indicator of distance. As a result, it projects the high-redshift filaments and arcs far into the background. In order to account for the association of these features with foreground galaxies, gravitational lensing must be invoked to "explain away" the number of features as multiple images of only one "distant" QSO. But even this subterfuge is in vain: The number of the allegedly distant objects should, on the astronomers' assumptions, increase with faintness, but observed numbers actually decrease. "Gravitational lensing" requires enormous amounts of mass. But among galaxies whose distances have been ascertained by methods other than the redshift assumption, "grand design" spirals and ellipticals are the most massive. Distorted and peculiar galaxies, which make up the bulk of clusters like 1E0657-56, are dwarf low-mass objects. Big Bang theorists simply ignore the evidence of the images, calculate the mass required to produce the desired amount of lensing, and announce that it exists as "dark matter" that cant be seen.
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The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) map of cosmic microwave background temperatures. Red indicates warmer, and blue indicates cooler areas. The cosmic microwave background fluctuations are extremely faint (one part in 100,00) compared to the 2.73 Kelvin average temperature of the radiation field. Credit: NASA
The "Science" of the Big Bang

(Aug 23, 2006)
Astronomer Halton Arp has called it "science by news release," and some of the most disturbing examples come from statements "confirming" the validity of the Big Bang. Many critics of modern theories in the sciences have noticed that science editors (newspaper, magazine, and television) appear to have lost the ability to separate fact from theory. When discussing the trademarks of popular cosmology, such as the Big Bang, the science media incessantly report that new discoveries confirm them--even when such reports are far from the truth. One reason for this pattern is simply the momentum of archaic beliefs. But it is also apparent that good news is essential to the funding of exotic projects. At the heart of conventional cosmology lies the dogma of an electrically neutral universe governed by gravity alone. Without the benefit of this dogma, the Big Bang hypothesis could never have achieved its present prominence. And it is here that we see most clearly how, under the necessities of funding, scientists are eager to "confirm" a theory that, according to many critics, has already failed. Editors, in turn, desiring to retain valued relationships with the spokesmen for established science, only rarely dig deeper than the latest news release delivered to them. In popular discussion of the Big Bang, the most frequent statement made is that discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) "confirmed" the hypothesis. But this interpretation requires a gross distortion of history-In 1964 physicists Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias, while working on a new type of antenna at Bell Labs in Holmdel, New Jersey, detected an unexplained noise. By removing all other potential sources of noise, they determined that it was the cosmic microwave background, with a calculated temperature of 3.5 K. For this discovery they received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive Later, in 1992, based on COBE satellite data, a team of scientists reported a refined [or revised] temperature--2.73 K-- for the cosmic microwave background. So how did various scientific institutions deal with the issue? Here are a few historical examples (some taken from a Bell Labs web page):
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The authors of the Bell Labs web page tell us, "The discovery in 1963 by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson of the cosmic microwave background of the Big Bang set the seal of approval on the theory, and brought cosmology to the forefront as a scientific discipline. It was proof that the universe was born at a definite moment, some 15 billion years ago." Principal investigator of the COBE team, Dr. John Mather: "The Big Bang Theory comes out a winner. This is the ultimate in tracing one's cosmic roots." Project leader George Smoot: "What we have found is evidence for the birth of the universe ... It's like looking at God." John Huchra, a professor of astronomy at Harvard University: The discovery of the 2.7 degree background was the clincher for the current cosmological model, the hot Big Bang." Tony Tyson of Bell Labs: "Its precise black-body spectrum and uniformity over the sky have ruled out many theories of the evolution of the Universe." John Bahcall, a leading astrophysicist and professor of natural sciences at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study: "The discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation changed forever the nature of cosmology, from a subject that had many elements in common with theology to a fantastically exciting empirical study of the origins and evolution of the things that populate the physical universe." Astrophysicist Michael Turner: "The significance of this cannot be overstated. They have found the Holy Grail of cosmology." Astronomer Carlos Frenk: "It's the most exciting thing that's happened in my life as a cosmologist."
One would certainly think from such pronouncements that the Big Bang theory had predicted the temperature with a reasonable degree of accuracy. But George Gamow, credited with the prediction from Big Bang assumptions, estimated 5K in 1948. In the 1950s he raised that estimate to 10K, and by 1961 he was predicting 50K. Robert Dickes microwave radiometer was key to the discoveries of Wilson and Penzias. In 1946 Dick predicted a microwave background radiation temperature of 20 K. Later he revised the predictions to 45 K. When the COBE satellite measured it to be only 2.7K, the Big Bang proponents claimed victory. But the fact is that predictions by other theorists, who did not base their estimates on the Big Bang, were a good deal closer. Based on the study of narrow absorption line features in the spectra of stars, astronomer Andrew McKellar wrote in 1941: "It can be calculated that the rotational temperature of interstellar space is 2 K." The first astronomer to collect observations from which the temperature of space could be calculated was Andrew McKellar. In 1941 he announced a temperature of 2.3K from radiative The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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excitation of certain molecules. But World War II occupied everyone's attention and his paper was ignored. In1954, Finlay-Freundlich predicted 1.9K to 6K on the basis of "tired light" assumptions. Tigran ShmaoNov estimated 3K by in 1955. In 1896, Charles Edouard Guillaume predicted a temperature of 5.6K from heating by starlight. Arthur Eddington refined the calculations in 1926 and predicted a temperature of 3K. Eric Regener predicted 2.8 in 1933. In the course of two decades Gamows predictions were the most inconsistent and included the single guess farthest from the mark. One must keep in mind as well that the "temperature" of interstellar space does not give you the energy density of the universe. The "temperature" is the square root of a square root of energy density. So as a measure of the energy of the universe, Gamow's estimate of 50 degrees K is 12,000 times too high. (It should be noted that, in 1956, Gamow adjusted his prediction to 6 K, which is certainly better than his worst guess, but others were considerably closer without reference to the Big Bang.) So what are we to think of the well-publicized statements noted above, by those invested in the Big Bang hypothesis? It is for good reason that critics have called this response "science by news release"--a convenient cover for the fact that Big Bang cosmology failed to anticipate any of the landmark discoveries of the space age.
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Perhaps this radar image of the planet Venus surface can tell us more about the supposed methane rivers and lakes of Saturns moon Titan than all of the speculations of NASA scientists.
Titan Update--Our Prediction Stands

(Aug 15, 2006)
Recent weeks have seen growing confidence by NASA scientists that they have observed methane "lakes" on Saturns moon Titan. But we stand by our prediction that no methane lakes will be found. On July 27, Nature magazine published a study by R. Hueso and A Sanchez-Lavega, suggesting that surface features on Titan include dry river channels cut by periodic downpours of methane and regional floods. This study, combined with earlier stories concerning supposed "lakes" of methane at Titans north pole, has provoked many optimistic headlines in scientific journals. "At Last, Methane Lakes on Saturns Icy Moon Titan," reads a headline in Science magazine. According to Science News, the radar images give the "first compelling evidence for bodies of liquid on the surface of any object besides Earth." And the New Scientist speaks of rivers on Titan "that are probably liquid ethane or methane." In the issue of Nature discussing "methane storms" on Titan, the journal also published another study under the direction of lead author Tetsuya Tokano, from the University of Cologne, Germany. According to this study, based on the Huygens probe dropped to the surface of Titan, "the data indicate an upper methane ice cloud and a lower, barely visible, liquid methane-nitrogen cloud, with a gap in between." The report concludes that, by wetting Titans surface globally, the drizzle "plays an active role in the surface geology of Titan." The scientific reports have set up an ideal opportunity to test the predictive ability of two models. In our Picture of the Day for December 28, 2004, following the lead of Wallace Thornhill, we suggested that Titans surface features should be compared to those of Venus. In Thornhills interpretation, Titans recent birth is the reason for its dense but diminishing methane atmosphere. In this hypothesis a similarity of Titans surface to that of Venus would be expected. We noted: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"In the first close-up image of Titans surface by Cassini a "Venusian-type" dome was tentatively identified. We can also expect many flat-bottomed valleys bordered by steep cliffs with scalloped edges--a common signature of high-energy surface machining by electricity. And while planetary scientists puzzle over the absence of craters, we predict that, as higher resolution images of the surface are returned, many regions will reveal channels formed of overlapping smaller craters and parallel grooves that can be expected of discharge streamers raking across the surface." When NASA scientists looked at radar images showing channels appearing to "feed" into flat bottomed depressions, they thought they were seeing methane lakes fed by episodic methane rivers. But for obvious reasons NASA scientists have not noticed the similarity between radar images of Venus surface and those of Titans surface. They have no reason to associate these two bodies so remote from each other. In the radar image of Venus above, we see both flat-bottomed depressions and river-like channels, presenting a parallel to Titans "lakes" too obvious to miss. In fact our prediction of "flat-bottomed valleys bordered by steep cliffs with scalloped edges" turns out to be a perfect description of what we actually observe in the radar images of Titan. So we are not deterred by the confidence of NASA scientists: When Cassini takes a closer look at the north polar region in question, they will not find what they are looking for, except by straining credulity further. And really, how credible is the claim of methane rivers feeding methane lakes on Titan? Thornhill contends that while a dense methane fog can "dampen" the ground, it cannot generate the torrential rains that various NASA scientists have depicted in response to the Titan radar images. It will not create rivers and lakes. According to Christopher McKay, a scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley and second author of the Tokano study noted above, "The rain on Titan is just a slight drizzle, but it rains all the time, day in, day out. It makes the ground wet and muddy with liquid methane. This is why the Huygens probe landed with a splat. It landed in methane mud," said. "We determined that the rain on Titan is equal to about two inches (about 5 centimeters) a year," McKay said. "This is about as much rain as Death Valley (receives). The difference is (that) on Titan, this rain is spread out evenly over the entire year." Could two inches of methane precipitation, spread out over a year, contribute significantly to the carving of surface relief? Would it cut "riverbeds" on Titan that some have compared to the action of flash floods, creating large lakes of standing methane? In fact, the marginal precipitation from a fog, expected by Thornhill, appears to be exactly what the Huygens probe detected. Despite the headlines and self-congratulations there is every reason for skepticism about NASAs claims. Given Thornhill's solo success in predicting the nature of Titan's surface before the Huygens Probe saw beneath its thick clouds, we are confident that no methane rivers or lakes of any size will be found on Titan. Both the channels and the flat-floored depressions were cut by electrical discharge in the tumultuous early history of the moon.
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An artists concept of the Destiny spacecraft at work. Credit: NASA/GSFC
Astronomers Stumble Over Assumptions

(Aug 14, 2006)
NASA now plans to proceed with the Destiny space mission to analyze Dark Energy. But according to critics, the validity of the mission itself rests entirely on blind faith. "They apply a blind eye to the wrong end of the telescope and tell us what they imagine they see." -- Wallace Thornhill With the confidence that comes from taking ones assumptions for granted, NASA has chosen to spend taxpayers money on the development of a space telescope dedicated to discovering the properties of unseen Dark Energy. Having concluded that the Universe is strongly affected by Dark Energy and that it constitutes a large proportion of the "missing mass," astronomers say it is now time to investigate in more detail how it works. Critics, however, see Dark Energy as a convenient fiction that masks the failure of astronomers physics and assumptions--in particular the assumptions that energy and matter are equivalent and that gravity alone drives the universe. Of course, the telescope cant see Dark Energy. It will actually observe supernovae. These are the same supernovae observations that in the 1990s, according to NASAs press release, "forced [astronomers] to conclude that the Universe contains Dark Energy ." Further observations at "near-infrared wavelengths [will] measure how the large-scale distribution of matter in the Universe has evolved since the Big Bang." Taxpayers May suppose that looking with the same blind eye through the same end of a new, more expensive telescope will refine the imagined view of the exotic, unseen, and ever The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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elusive energy. But the conclusion that Dark Energy exists was forced by the logic of unquestioned assumptions and creed-bound observations. The theorized existence of Dark Energy depends on a long list of such assumptions: IF stars are isolated self-gravitating objects IF stars are powered by internal thermonuclear fusion IF electrical forces can be neglected IF the "K effect" (anomalous redshift of the brightest stars) can be ignored IF stars evolve to a supernova condition IF matter can be compressed to a superdense state IF supernovae are "standard candles" (all have the same absolute brightness) IF intervening dimming from absorption is known IF redshift is proportional to distance (if the Universe is actually expanding) IF the (observable) Universe is not composed mostly of plasma IF near-infrared emission indicates large-scale distribution of matter IF the distribution of matter matters (Mass is the primary quality only for the Big Bang. In a plasma universe, the distribution of Birkeland currents matters more -- and that is better indicated by radio telescopes and x-ray mapping.) IF the principle of "no creation from nothing" can be ignored. Otherwise dark energy cannot account for the predominantly "missing mass" of the universe.
The "IFs" can be counted as "knowns" only as the fervor of belief can exclude doubts and the principles of physics can be ignored. Although the "IFs" May be touted as objective facts, they are better called objectified foci of fervency. Astronomer Halton Arp and others have shown in a myriad of observations that objects with different redshifts are statistically associated, physically connected, and genetically related. Within connected groups of galaxies, those with the highest excess redshifts "have strikingly less luminous stars than other companion galaxies." High-redshift galaxies are disproportionately "peculiar"; they appear small and faint not because they are far away but because they really are small and faint; and their supernovae are proportionally fainter than those in mature galaxies. The standard mapping of the Universe that sets distance proportional to redshift and luminosity requires an accelerating expansion, and therefore Dark Energy, to propel the acceleration, because the density of objects we see decreases as we look at larger and brighter objects. The few big and bright galaxies eject many small and faint "blobs," some of which evolve into larger and brighter companion galaxies. The entire process is taking place right before our eyes IF we pull away the wool of obsolete assumptions. A plasma universe does not need Dark Energy or "missing mass" any more than we need further waste of tax revenues. Contributed by Mel Acheson The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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To "determine the Hubble constant" these six galaxy clusters are a subset of the 38 that scientists observed with Chandra, their distances said to range from 1.4 to 9.3 million light years from Earth. Credit: NASA/CXC/MSFC/M.Bonamente et al.
Expanding Uncertainty about the Hubble Constant

(Aug 11, 2006)
Attempts to measure the size, age, and "expansion" of the universe May be a good deal less precise than advertised. But the problem is much worse if the astronomers assumptions are incorrect. An astronomer at Ohio State University, using a new method that is independent of the Hubble relation (which relates redshift to distance), has determined that the Hubble constant (the rate at which the universe is expanding) is 15% lower than the accepted value. His measurements have a margin of error of 6%. Meanwhile, NASA astronomers, using another new method that is independent of the Hubble relation, have determined that the Hubble constant is 7% higher than the accepted value. Their measurements have a margin of error of 15%. Because traditional astronomers never question traditional assumptions (and appear not to recognize they even have any), they cannot be expected to mention that their margin of erroneous assumption is somewhere around 500%. That, of course, can account for their two "more precise" determinations in exactly opposite directions. They are in the same position as the clockmaker who attempts to determine the exact time of day by measuring the position of the minute hand and fails to notice that the hour hand is missing. Without recognizing that plasma makes up 99% of the universe and that it has dominant electrical properties, astronomers inhabit a make-believe universe in which precise measurements can mean precisely opposite things. The first astronomer studied a bright eclipsing binary star system in the nearby spiral galaxy M33. He measured with state-of-the-art instruments the stars orbital period and apparent brightness. He calculated the stars masses, and then their absolute luminosities, and then their distance. His result was 3 million light-years instead of the 2.6 million that had been The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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One can presume that his measurements were accurate, at least to within 6%. But the assumptions that he took for granted were entirely erroneous: He assumed that gravity was the only force holding the stars in their orbits. Without this assumption, he would have been unable to calculate their masses. But in the past century, we discovered that the Law of Gravity loses its jurisdiction outside the Solar system: stellar jets and rings dont obey it, globular clusters dont obey it, galactic arms dont obey it, galactic jets dont obey it, galaxies in clusters dont obey it. (To save their belief in the Law, astronomers had to imagine that the universe was composed mostly of invisible stuff--Dark Matter and Dark Energy.) A universe made of plasma will exhibit a variety of motions in addition to the "inverse square" force relationship that we call gravity. He assumed that the massluminosity relationship was constant for all galaxies. Astronomer Halton Arps observational work indicates that luminosity May decline with increasing redshift. A plasma universe powers stars electrically from external sources, so luminosity is not restricted to the mass-dependent output of thermonuclear fusion. He assumed that the "K effect" could be ignored. Its been known since the early 1900s that the brightest stars (O and B spectral classes) have anomalous redshifts--if interpreted as a Doppler effect, they appear to be receding from Earth. In view of Arps finding mentioned above, bright stars May be less luminous than is assumed for their (gravity determined) mass, and hence calculations would overstate their distances.
NASA astronomers studied 38 compact galaxy clusters with the Chandra X-ray Telescope to "measure the precise X-ray properties of the [hot] gas" in them. They combined this with measurements from radio telescopes of the increase in energy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation coming from the direction of the clusters. Then they used the SunyaevZel'dovich effect, in which radiation gains energy from electrons in proportion to the electron density, temperature, and physical size of a region, to calculate the physical size of the clusters. After that, a simple trigonometry calculation gave them the distance. Dividing the redshift-determined speed of the cluster by the distance gave them the new Hubble constant. "The reason this result is so significant is that we need the Hubble constant to tell us the size of the universe, its age, and how much matter it contains," said NASA's Max Bonamente, lead author of the paper describing the results. "Astronomers absolutely need to trust this number because we use it for countless calculations." But again, the precise measurements were joined with precisely erroneous assumptions: They assumed that the x-rays were produced by hot gas. What they actually measured was x-ray intensities, and they applied standard gas laws to calculate how hot a gas had to be to radiate those x-rays. Plugging this figure into the SunyaevZel'dovich equations resulted in a number for physical size. But a gas that hot will be ionized: It will be a plasma. It will have electromagnetic effects. In fact, a plasma can have electromagnetic effects--in this case, radiate x-rays--even if its not hot: fast electrons will spiral in a magnetic field and give off synchrotron radiation. Space plasmas routinely develop double layers that accelerate electrons (and positive ions) to high speeds. It shouldnt be surprising that most x-ray radiation is synchrotron radiation. They assumed that the clusters were large, bright, and far away, and they were looking The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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for some method to tell them how far. The observations of Halton Arp and others indicate that compact galactic clusters are small, faint "buckshot" ejections (rather than the "single shot" quasars) from nearby active galaxies. Like quasars, they are often paired across an active "parent" galaxy and May be enmeshed in radio-emitting and xray-emitting lobes of material coming from the parent galaxy. They assumed that the CMB is coming from the farthest reaches of the universe, passes through the cluster, and is energized. In a plasma universe, ubiquitous Birkeland currents will absorb and re-radiate microwaves: The CMB is a local effect, a kind of electromagnetic fog. Enhancement of CMB in front of clusters is simply an additive effect, not SunyaevZel'dovich. They assumed that redshift was a Doppler effect, indicating velocity. Arps work (and others) demonstrates that galactic redshifts are mostly intrinsic: Galaxies with different redshifts are physically connected with bridges of luminous material, and the redshifts, when adjusted to the reference frame of the dominant galaxy, are periodic, occurring only at preferred values. "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 belief that theories tell you what is true and not true!" Submitted by Mel Acheson
As Arp wrote in Seeing Red:
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Illustration of the imagined effects of a black hole hidden in the center of the "accretion disk" GRO J1655. Credit: A. Hobart, CXC
A Flickering "Black Hole"

(Aug 09, 2006)
Astronomers claim that a celestial object called GRO J1655 hides a black hole. But why does its surrounding plasma flicker 450 times a second? Because the black hole is "rotating very rapidly," astronomers say. Astronomers tell us that the "microquasar" at the center of GRO J1655 is seven times as massive as our Sun. It cannot be seen because it is a black hole formed from the collapse of an old star, now sucking in matter from surrounding space. Guided by nothing more than Einstein's view of gravity, the astronomers "know" it is there because of the energetic radiation and jets issuing from a very small region of space. To derive the mass of a black hole, mathematicians divide the apparent energy from it by the puny gravitational force, which is almost zero compared to any other force, arriving at something just this side of an "infinite concentration" of mass. The escape velocity from such an object is greater than the speed of light. Therefore, neither particles nor radiation of any kind (including light) can be released into surrounding space. The black hole itself is invisible. The calculations ignore all limitations posed by well-tested laws of physics. And when theorists discovered jets of charged particles speeding away from such objects, something was obviously wrong. So they adjusted their abstractions. A black hole has a theoretical boundary known as an "event horizon," within which gravity forever holds all matter and energy prisoner. It was suggested that just outside this boundary gravity could act on a rotating "accretion disk" to miraculously accelerate material away from the black hole (as "illustrated" in the drawing above). By this sleight of hand, the improbable jets--in transparent contradiction of gravitational dogma--became more "evidence" for the hidden black holes. With a blank check in hand, the pure mathematicians have had a field day. GRO J1655-40 has two powerful jets of plasma rushing away from its poles at nearly the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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speed of light. The illustration above is said to depict both a polar jet and the surrounding accretion disk. But how this curious reversal of gravitys influence actually works is not yet clear, the theorists say. Recent investigation has also found that GRO J1655-40 displays an unexpected flickering some 450 times a second. How would the mathematicians respond to something never envisioned by a model that worked only with mass, density, and rotation? Very simply. The hidden black hole must be rotating at an amazing 27,000 rpm, somehow creating an energetic "lighthouse" beam of radiation. Though no one can really explain any of this, the authors of the Astronomy Picture of the Day are not dissuaded. "What physical mechanisms actually cause the flickering -- and a slower quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) in accretion disks surrounding black holes and neutron stars remains a topic of much research." Are readers confused? Or are astronomers themselves missing something? Plasma experts knowledgeable in the role of electric currents in space continue to contrast the astronomers abstractions with observational and experimental evidence. Across vast distances in space, plasmas carry electric currents, and at those focal points where currents pinch down to form stars, infrequent but catastrophic releases of energy May occur. The electrical theorists say that the most fundamental mistake of astronomers and cosmologists is their habit of seeing celestial objects in isolation. It is this habit that drives them to conjure exotic forces and events limited to the vicinity of the objects themselves, in order to explain such phenomena as plasma "flickering." As noted by plasma scientist Anthony Peratt, in electric discharges flickering electromagnetic radiation is commonplace. "The flickering comes from electrical changes at the observed load or radiative source, such as the formation of instabilities or virtual anodes or cathodes in charged particle beams that are orders of magnitude smaller than the supply." (I.e., in space the electrical supply comes from regions incomparably larger than the visible phenomenon, which is incapable of explaining itself.) So if a flickering is interpreted by a distant observer to be both the "source and supply," Peratt notes, the results will not only be bizarre, they will lack a basis in any verifiable physics. Sadly, the convoluted dogma of black holes fits this description perfectly.
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Mars Global Surveyor captures a seasonal dust storm in the northern hemisphere of Mars. Credit: Malin Space Science Systems/MGS/JPL/NASA
Electricity Alters Martian Soil

(Aug 07, 2006)
Planetary scientists now suggest that electrified winds on Mars May be the cause of the planets mysterious soil chemistry. But their understanding is clouded by a model that reverses cause and effect. A continental scale dust storm, presently clouding visibility on Mars, has provoked some new speculations on the role of "wind-generated" electricity and the ways it might affect the Martian soil. NASA scientists say that electricity could break apart carbon dioxide and water molecules in the Martian atmosphere, producing such chemicals as hydrogen peroxide (H202). These chemicals, in turn, could explain the enigmatic and contradictory results NASA obtained when the Viking landers tested the Martian soil for signs of life. But unfortunately an old model of static electricity being generated by heat-induced winds has raised its head again. As reported on a NASA news page dated July 31, 2006: Dust particles become electrified in Martian dust storms when they rub against each other as they are carried by the winds, transferring positive and negative electric charge in the same way you build up static electricity if you shuffle across a carpet. From our field work, we know that strong electric fields are generated by dust storms on Earth, said co-author William Farrell of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Also, laboratory experiments and theoretical studies indicate that conditions in the Martian atmosphere should produce strong electric fields during dust storms there as well." The problem with this model is that the tenuous Martian atmosphere isnt substantial enough to generate such huge--and at times planet-wide--dust storms. The first requirement when proposing a model of this sort is to show that the forces required for charge separation within The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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dust clouds could occur in the near vacuum of the Martian environment. On Mars, the atmosphere is less than1% of that on earth and averages 75 degrees colder. These are not conditions conducive to the factors assumed to cause Earths weather (a false assumption to start with, we believe). Yet despite its atmospheric deficiency, Martian dust storms are much larger than any seen on Earth, and the planets fierce "dust devils" would dwarf the typical tornado on Earth. Where does the power to raise dust miles into the rarified Martian air come from? Electric Universe theorists understand that planetary weather systems are not driven only by the input of solar radiation. Seasonal changes in sunlight are incapable of accounting for the electrical component of weather on any planet, and it is certainly incapable of explaining what we observe on Mars. In the electric view planets are charged bodies that are interacting with their changing plasma environment. Hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes, waterspouts, dust devils, and thunderstorms are all driven by electrical energy exchanges. So too, electrical fireworks in the form of lightning, blue jets, red sprites, tigers, and elves all bear witness to earths electrical transactions with the Sun and its domain. Putting the horse in front of the cart, it is electricity that drives the giant dust storms on Mars. Of course, this does not diminish the role of electrochemistry in altering the Martian soil, it allows for the possibility that electrical effects are considerably greater than planetary scientists have realized. It also allows for the possibility that a more electrified environment in the past, in an unstable phase of solar system history, May have altered the Martian surface to an extent NASA scientists have never imagined.
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In considering radar images of Titans surface, such as the one above, electrical theorist Wallace Thornhill and his colleagues see another test of the "Electric Universe."
Predictions Concerning Titans Methane

(Aug 04, 2006)
Winding channels and dark patches on Saturn's moon Titan have inspired NASA scientists to claim that torrential rains of methane sculpt an "earth-like" landscape, with methane rivers and methane lakes. In two earlier TPODs we have discussed recent radar images of Titan, the cloud-enshrouded moon of Saturn, now a principal target of the Cassini mission. (See August 2, 2006 TPOD and July 31, 2006 TPOD.) Wallace Thornhill has suggested that both the planet Venus and Saturns moon Titan are newcomers to our solar system, and that both appear to have been born electrically from the planet Saturn, perhaps within a period that can be counted in mere thousands of years (not the billions of years given in the standard picture of solar system evolution). Though the field of evidence is far greater than could be adequately summarized here, a substantial portion of that evidence relates to the planet Venus, a body with a long but nowinvisible, highly filamentary plasma or comet tail reaching almost to Earths orbit. Converging historical and scientific evidence gives a compelling portrait of Venus as a comet in ancient times, displaying an awe-inspiring plasma tail extolled by ancient star-worshippers around the world. (See Chapter Three of Thunderbolts of the Gods.) If Venus is a newcomer, then various features on the planet, including its dense atmosphere, the continuing contribution of its atmosphere to its remnant plasma tail, and its surface rille networks, could be pointers to a more reliable interpretation of what we now see on Titan. It is known that Titans existing atmospheric methane is rapidly destroyed by sunlight, and one of the major goals of the Cassini mission has been to account for the large volumes of methane escaping from Titans atmosphere into space. At the observed rate of methane loss, planetary scientists say, the methane would be quickly depleted. So some extensive reservoir must be replenishing it. Prior to Cassini NASA scientists envisioned oceans of methane, covering perhaps three-quarters of Titans surface. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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But with Cassinis arrival the picture changed. The oceans were not found. From this NASA scientists concluded that the methane source lay in vast underground reserves feeding fresh supplies into the atmosphere. These "methanofers" were not found either. Now, however, thanks to a series of Cassini radar images, complemented by the Huygens probe that descended to the surface, NASA scientists suggest a partial, shall we say minimalist answer to the mystery: a "cycle" of torrential rains of methane; visible channels on the surface cut by the resulting methane "rivers;" and "lakes" of methane fed by the rivers, now appearing as smooth dark areas on the radar images. The most recent announcement named dark patches in the north polar region as the badly needed "lakes" of methane. The claimed cycle would not replenish available methane, or even come close to meeting the original theoretical requirements. But the radar images encouraged NASA scientists to issue something close to a victory statement. "This is a big deal," said Steve Wall, deputy radar team leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We've now seen a place other than Earth where lakes are present." "What we see is darker than anything we've ever seen elsewhere on Titan. It was almost as though someone laid a bull's-eye around the whole north pole of Titan, and Cassini sees these regions of lakes just like those we see on Earth," said Larry Soderblom, Cassini interdisciplinary scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Ariz. Such statements make the direction of NASAs thinking clear. It is therefore an ideal juncture for us to register contrary predictions based on a much different vantage point. A "replenished" atmosphere? The methane found in Titan's atmosphere is quickly destroyed by sunlight, so it has to be replenished. That has led to the suggestion that Titan must have a hydrocarbon ocean for the methane to have lasted for the conventional age of the solar system. However, radar, infrared and radio observations of Titan have not found signs of a hydrocarbon ocean. In fact one radar return was "of a type that we would expect to get back from Venus." (Remember Thornhills claim that " Titan is most likely a baby brother of Venus.") We suggest there is no replenishment of Titans methane. It is simply losing methane from its young atmosphere at a declining rate that can probably be measured over mere decades or centuries. Thornhill writes: "That Titan May be young is hinted at by its eccentric orbit, which cannot have persisted for billions of years. So we should be alert to similarities between Titan and Venus. It is already known that Titan has the densest atmosphere of any terrestrial planet, after Venus." But unlike Venus, Titan is too small to hold a thick atmosphere, and thats the heart of the mystery. Two of Jupiter's moons, Ganymede and Callisto have no atmosphere yet they are of similar size. It is the youth of Titan that accounts for the difference (Titans dense atmosphere), not hidden reservoirs of methane. On a geological timeline Titan's atmosphere is extraordinary recent and could not be retained for millions of years, much less the multiple-billion-year history the NASA folks require. Both Venus' and Titan's atmospheres, being very young, will not yet be in The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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equilibrium. So calculations about atmospheric constituents that assume equilibrium as a starting point will be wrong. A colder north pole on Titan? NASA scientists suggest that the envisioned methane lakes at the north polar region of Titan are there because of the poles colder temperatures. But is the pole really colder, or is this just another assumption based on an electrically sterile model? With Titans "big sister" as a reference, Thornhill writes: "It would not be surprising if Titan had warm spots over the poles, like Venus." Of course, if this turns out to be true, NASAs reasoning about polar methane lakes is significantly weakened. Torrential methane rains? We predict that NASA will never find the elusive methane rains on Titan, because the weather cycle that planetary scientists conjured is not occurring. (Thornhill offers another testable claim about "rain" and "storms" in his treatment of "Electric Weather") Thornhill emphasizes that the water molecule, unlike the methane molecule, is electrically polarized. "The oxygen (blue) side of the water molecule is more negative than the hydrogen side (red), forming an electric dipole. In an electric field, the water molecule will rotate to line up with the field. When it condenses in a cloud the average electric dipole moment of a water molecule in a raindrop is 40 percent greater than that of a single water vapor molecule. This enhancement results from the large polarization caused by the electric field induced by surrounding water molecules." Thornhill relates the polarization of water molecules to the seemingly inexplicable "antigravity" effect of water droplets in clouds, where "millions of tons of water can be suspended kilometers above the ground, when cloud droplets are about 1,000 times denser than the surrounding air." Based on this perspective, he now writes to us, "It's my view that methane could not form large drops. It will always form a haze in Titan's atmosphere." There could be no torrential rains, and none will be found. "Methane will not rain out of the sky and form rivers. It will condense out like fog on a windscreen. Also you will not get charge separation and storms in methane clouds like you do in water clouds on Earth. However, you might get superbolts of lightning from the ionosphere to the surface, like you do on Venus." And they could be responsible for lofting water and other molecules, from the surface and lower atmosphere, high into the stratosphere where they would form the few bright clouds, seen now from Earth." Methane Rivers We claim that there are no rains. The sinuous channels were not cut by fluid under the influence of gravity. Therefore NASA will never find a methane river, and the rilles must have another explanation. They were cut electrically in a highly active phase of Titans history. The rilles are dark in the radar images, not because they are a flat liquid surface, but because they have flat melted floors formed by a moving arc. We are confident enough in this reasoning that we will offer an additional prediction. NASA need only subject its interpretation to a critical test. Do the channels follow the geologic relief in the way required by flowing liquid? With tools already available to them, NASA The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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investigators should be able to confirm that the channels run both uphill and downhill as do rilles on other rocky bodies in the solar system. Lakes As previously noted, the dark areas in the radar images show the usual circular scalloped edges, typical of cathode arc machining of a surface. These can be compared directly to the scalloped scarring on Jupiters moon Io, which also produced flat, melted floor depressions. Thornhill writes: "Such floors would be expected to give a dark radar return. The fact that the lakes have only been discovered in the polar region and are associated with electrical rilles and fulguritic dunes also suggests an electrical origin through powerful auroral currents in the past." Some of the "Lakes" reveal rilles on their floors, which suggests that they are, in fact, dry. Predictions and Theoretical Context The last word comes from Thornhill in 'Titan - A Rosetta Stone for early Earth?' "Titan is a Rosetta Stone for planetary history once the context is understood. The hieroglyphs on the original could be deciphered when it was realized they repeated what was written there in Greek. Titan's surface and the other bodies in the solar system can be deciphered when it's realized they have been 'written' by plasma discharges. Titan is not a body inscribed by gravity attesting to an ancient nebula but a body etched by electricity proclaiming a recent birth." Most of the predictions offered here need not wait years for confirmation. Another flyby of Titan will occur on September 7. Then, in October, Cassini will be taking an even closer look at the moons north pole, "searching for more lakes and mapping more of the polar region covered by these features." In this search, we can only urge NASA scientists to also look for things that might raise their entire theoretical framework to doubt--such as narrow channels on the flat floors of the "lakes!" Our prediction in a nutshell: on close inspection the imagined methane rivers and lakes of Titan will evaporate before the eyes of NASA scientists.
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NASA scientists have expressed confidence that the dark patches in the radar images above are lakes of methane in Titans polar region. (See larger picture here)
Methane Lakes on Titan?

(Aug 02, 2006)
NASA scientist believe they see "lakes of methane" on Saturns moon Titan, but electrical theorists suggest another possibility. Since posting our Picture of the Day on July 30, more than one reader has wondered if weve seen recent announcements by NASA of "methane lakes" on Titan. We certainly have, and it is a good opportunity to test the predictive ability of two starkly contrasting interpretations. From a NASA news release: "The Cassini spacecraft, using its radar system, has discovered very strong evidence for hydrocarbon lakes on Titan. Dark patches, which resemble terrestrial lakes, seem to be sprinkled all over the high latitudes surrounding Titan's north pole." The Cassini investigators have also noted that sinuous channels or "riverbeds" appear to feed into the presumed methane lakes, giving the appearance of consistency to the interpretation. But other considerations can hardly be ignored. Every observed "river" on Titan is dry. All of the channels have exposed floors. There is no evidence of any liquid flowing into the flat dark areas. In fact, the situation is not unlike the darkened "mares" of our own moon into which "flow" empty channels called sinuous rilles. Acknowledging the absence of flowing methane on Titan at this time, NASA investigators have suggested that a "cycle" of methane downpours and surface droughts must occur on the moon. "The lakes are presumably filled by rainfall, perhaps by seasonal storms, and then evaporate slowly to replenish the atmosphere and complete Titan's methane cycle." But as noted by Mel Acheson, NASAs "big problem is explaining the loss of atmospheric The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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methane to space. Early speculations were of methane volcanoes to bring up vast underground supplies"--a process claimed to have been underway for eons to maintain the necessary atmospheric levels. Acheson points out that a methane rain cycle just takes existing methane around a phaseshift circle (vapor to liquid to vapor). That's pretty much the entire meaning of "cycle." Cycling doesn't produce "new" methane to replenish any loss. A loss is a loss: there is less methane to cycle. They need to speculate that the lakes are fed by underground springs, or some such mechanism. But no such volcanoes have been observed, leading NASA theorists to suppose that this phase of "activity" is "temporarily" quiescent. As Acheson comments: "the attraction of underground anything is that it can't be tested--so the search for an explanation is shifted from empirical ground to a ground of theoretical consensus." Electrical theorist Wallace Thornhill offers an interpretation easily contrasted with that of NASA scientists: "The radar images show flat-floored depressions with circular scalloped edges, typical of arc machining of the surface. I would compare them directly to the scalloped scarring on Jupiters moon Io and the flat, melted floor depressions that result. Such floors would be expected to give a dark radar return." The fact that the "lakes" have only been discovered in the polar region and are associated with empty sinuous "rilles" and fulgurite-like dunes also suggests an electrical origin through powerful auroral currents sometime in the past, according to Thornhill. It is worth noting here that Thornhill challenged the standard interpretation of Io and its "volcanos" prior to the arrival of the Galileo probe. His predictions were very specific and clearly contrary to NASAs expectations. Then close-up images of Ios confirmed the predictions.Today Thornhills predictions with respect to the supposed "methane lakes" on Titan and related surface features could provide an equally compelling test.
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X-Ray image from the Cassini probe to Saturns moon Titan captured the above image of Titans surface, including a network of supposed "river channels" located atop the Xanadu region.
Titans Sinuous Rilles

(Jul 31, 2006)
New radar images of Saturns moon Titan, taken by the Cassini spacecraft, offer tantalizing clues about the moons geologic history. New images from the Cassini spacecraft offer further tests of predictions made by electrical theorist Wallace Thornhill a little more than a year ago. The region called Xanadu displays dunes, hills, valleys and mountains as high as the Appalachians. In fact, NASA scientists suggest that the landscape looks a lot like Earths surface, though it appears to have been carved largely in ice. "This land is heavily tortured, convoluted and filled with hills and mountains," said Steve Wall, the Cassini radar team's deputy leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Xanadu has been washed clean. What is left underneath looks like very porous water ice, maybe filled with caverns." But this surface profile is a far cry from what NASA scientists had expected prior to the descent of the Huygens probe and prior to these more recent radar images. What scientists expected to find were seas of methane, and the expectation was based on "simple reasoning." Great volumes of methane are escaping from Titans atmosphere. Accepted theory required that this methane be replaced continuously, or it would have run out millions of years ago. But no surface methane has been located. NASA scientists are now dealing with a familiar puzzle one that we have observed again and again in the history of comet investigations. If what theory requires is not seen on the surface, it must be hidden under the surface and in great abundance! (Cf., the futile search for sufficient surface water on comets to sustain the "dirty snowball" theory.) So the theorists The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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began to envision periodic outbursts of methane from subsurface reservoirs, subsequently raining down in vast floods. But no such rains have been observed, nor has flowing methane been found. Therefore, the scientists reason, these rains must be unpredictably episodic! Following this reasoning, the scientists even have another observational fact to cite. Across the surface of Xanadu, images reveal long winding channels (see picture above), which the scientists identify as methane "river networks." The NASA press release states, "At the region's western edge, dark sand dunes give way to land cut by river networks, hills and valleys. These narrow river networks flow onto darker areas, which May be lakes." But again, flowing methane has never been found on Titan. Though no one can predict the actual state of things on Titan with certainty, we are confident that neither rains of methane nor rivers of methane nor lakes of methane will be found on Titans surface. The entire line of reasoning follows from a precarious assumption. We further predict that if the NASA theorists will look at the topography with sufficient care, they will see that the so-called rivers do not follow terrain in the fashion of flowing liquids which of course is always downhill. This expectation is not a wild guess but a cautious prediction based on the observations of sinuous rilles on other planets and moons, including the body Thornhill deemed Titans "sister," the planet Venus. As noted in our Picture of the Day for Feb 03, 2005, on Venus we see Baltis Vallis, a sinuous channel with many counterparts on Venus, this one spanning some 6,800 kilometers. Planetary scientists claim that Baltis Vallis was cut by flowing lava, but the ravine, maintaining a constant width, rises and falls again and again, with some 2 kilometers of elevation separating its high and low points. Evidence from both historical investigation and decades of space exploration suggests that Venus and Titan share a geologically recent birth in an electrically active phase of solar system history. Electrical discharges during that phase would have excavated narrow, sinuous channels as they traveled uphill and downhill without regard for gravity. This defiance of gravity is, in fact, one of the defining features of electric rille formation. And together with electrically carved rilles, Titans continuing loss into space of a dense natal atmosphere of methane is an expected consequence of recent birth.
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Most of the branching of the spidery ridges at the Martian south pole follows the Fibonacci pattern, a pattern that has no reference in familiar geological events. Credit: NASA/MOC
The Baffling Martian Spiders (3)

(Jul 28, 2006)
The remarkable Martian formations called "spiders" occur only at the planets south polar region. But some observers distinguish between those spiders which appear as permanent features of the surface, and those which seem to emerge and disappear seasonally. A groundbreaking study by C.M. Orme and P.K. Ness, published in the February 8, 2002 issue of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, examines the spiders in detail. (The authors titled their study "Spider Ravine Models and Plant Like Features on Mars--Possible Geophysical and Biogeophysical Modes of Origins.") A subsequent study by Orme and Ness, developed in consultation with renowned science fiction writer Arthur C. Clark (available at New Frontiers), concentrated on the enigma of the changing spiders, suggesting that the comings and goings of active variants constitute one of the most profound mysteries ever presented to planetary scientists. Though the authors do not assert a final position on the subject, their lines of reasoning imply that a biological origin May be the only explanation not excluded by the visual evidence. Orme and Ness note that, in contrast to the permanent spiders, which include substantial ravine networks, changing spiders all involve material raised above the surrounding surface. The branching of these formations presents well-defined ridges, as seen in the picture above. But mysteriously, the active spiders grow and retreat seasonally--even appear to dissolve completely into the surrounding terrain-- the very attributes one might expect of vegetation. But the biological interpretation runs into a seemingly insurmountable problem. It is not reasonable to suggest that active and inactive spiders are created by unrelated forces. Inactive spiders, a permanent part of the visible landscape, are clearly-cut ravines. There is simply no basis for suggesting a biological character of these permanent ravine networks. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive Surely, a credible explanation of the active spiders cannot ignore the inactive spiders.
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The distinctive branching pattern is fundamental to the authors argument: "The branching (bifurcating) structure of roots, shoots, veins on leaves of plants, etc., have similarity in form to branched lightning strokes, tributaries of rivers, physiological networks of blood vessels, nerves and ducts in lungs, heart, liver, kidney, brain etc. Such seemingly complex network structure is associated with exquisitely ordered beautiful patterns exhibited in flowers and arrangement of leaves in the plant kingdom." The reasoning here tends to link branching structure most "exquisitely" with living systems, though lightning strokes and tributaries of rivers also reveal branching patterns. But Orme and Ness properly note that the mathematical pattern of "Fibonacci" branching is not typical of river networks, except by chance. River networks are constrained by random topography in ways that preclude the mathematical pattern. What, then, of lightning? The authors contend that "Fibonacci patterns are never found in non-biological phenomena." But this statement is clearly not correct. In Part 1 of this series we noted the "arachnoids" on Venus, identical in both name and morphology to the Martian spiders. In Part 2 of this series we presented a Lichtenberg figure created by an electric arc on a negatively charged surface. It shows undeniable Fibonacci branching. We also noted the Lichtenberg pattern of a lightning strike on a golf course, with prolific branching remarkably similar to that of the Martian spiders. Though most treatments of the spiders emphasize temperature variations affecting surface ice (water and/or CO2), evidence presented by Orme and Ness systematically excludes the possibility that spiders are made of CO2 or water ice. "Whatever the spiders are made of, it stands to reason that the same materials must be found elsewhere on the South Pole. For example, if the spiders are made of CO2 or water ice, then other known ice nearby should also be in similar unusual formations. The spiders tend to form in early spring and fade away in autumn The spiders are forming as the CO2 is usually already gone and the ground becomes frost free, and the spiders are shrinking when ice and frost are returning to the ground. If they are made of ice, then it needs to be explained why they are affected by temperature in the opposite way known to ice." But the authors appear to have missed a key to the solution, one in which we have sufficient confidence to assert a prediction: Both the active and inactive spiders are part of the permanent Martian topography at the south pole. What distinguishes the one class from the other is the relative depth of ice covers in the Martian winter. Following this reasoning, the growth of the active spiders in the spring would be nothing more than the effect of sublimation and Martian winds progressively removing snow and ice layers to expose the Lichtenberg ridges. The ridges themselves, we suggest, are not changing in any appreciable way. They are constituted of surface material glassified by high-energy electrical arcs striking the south polar region. In this interpretation, as snow or ice returns in the fall, the shallow spidery ridges appear to dissolve back into the terrain. Could the explanation really be this simple? There is every reason to explore the electrical interpretation, and NASAs disregard of electric possibilities remains a continuing disservice to the public, though it is the public that provides the funding on which all of NASAs activities depend.
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On the left: An electrical discharge to a negatively charged surface, recorded on a photographic plate. On the right: A Martian "spider."
The Baffling Martian Spiders (2)

(Jul 26, 2006)
The mysterious "spiders" on Mars show all of the expected features of an electric discharge in its classic form as a Lichtenberg figure. In a previous picture of the day, we noted the presence of hundreds of fascinating and bizarre formations called "spiders" at the south pole of Mars. We also noted that since the discovery of these formations a few years ago--and despite the best efforts of planetary scientists--they have evaded scientific explanation. We did, however, draw a comparison with the "arachnoids" on Venus overlying "spidery" formations stretching around the planets equator. In an earlier TPOD on the Venusian arachnoids, we drew attention to an electrical formation called a "Lichtenberg figure" (above image on the left). In 1777, the German scientist Christoph Lichtenberg discovered that dust settling on a cake of non-conducting resin, when subjected to an electric spark, produced starlike patterns. Later, other pioneers found that these Lichtenberg Figures could be recorded directly on film as a two dimensional photograph of discharge streamers. The positive and negative surfaces in a discharge produce quite different formations. If planetary scientists will consider the role of electricity in solar system history, Lichtenberg figures will become an important diagnostic tool. The paths of cosmic discharges across planetary surfaces will account for many features erroneously attributed to erosion by flowing liquids or to rifting of the surface by internal stresses. Lichtenberg figures in three-dimensions May provide insights into the morphology of mountain ranges, ridges, and gullies such as the arachnoids on Venus, the great crater Aristarchus on the Moon and numerous counterparts on other rocky bodies. This would include the so-called "drainage channels" on Saturns moon Titan. Interestingly, it appears that none of the prolific discussions of the Martian spiders includes the word "Lichtenberg," or the word "electric," despite the bafflement of researchers. If nothing else, the absence of such discussion can only underscore the narrowing of vision in the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive twentieth century, as the theoretical sciences enshrined the electrically sterile universe.
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In electrical terms, it is probably not a coincidence that the Lichtenberg figures are concentrated in a polar region, though the specific type of scarring of the Martian south pole needs to be explored. The unique branching pattern of the "spiders," called Fibonacci branching, is in fact precisely matched by Lichtenberg figures. While some have suggested that the "spiders" are dendritic drainage channels, both the Lichtenberg patterns and the "spiders" radiate from a center, making the distinction between such patterns and drainage channels obvious. Like the "spiders," the branching of a Lichtenberg figure will be largely indifferent to topography. And it is only to be expected that the ravines of such formations would not follow terrain in the fashion of flowing liquid. Strictly speaking, the suggestion of one investigator that the spiders are "unlike anything we have on Earth," is not correct. We have placed here a picture of the pattern left by a lightning strike on a golf course. Decades ago, it was engineer Ralph Juergens who cited this pattern of a lightning blast in connection with the morphology of Aristarchus on the Moon. We note as well that the electrical explanation also accounts for the presence of burnt soil in virtually every instance observed--a common feature of discharge scarring. In other words, the electrical interpretation removes each and every difficulty planetary scientists have faced in studying the Martian "spiders. But there is more to the mystery, and in our Picture of the Day for July 28, we will take up the remaining questions.
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Geologists have dubbed these formations at Mars southern pole "spiders." But no one seems able to explain them. Credit: NASA/Mars Global Surveyor
The Baffling Martian "Spiders"

(Jul 24, 2006)
The discovery of complex dendritic networks at Mars south pole has left NASA scientists scrambling for answers. What are these bizarre formations, and how were they created? For two years on this website, we have explored the anomalous surface features of our nearest planetary neighbor, Mars. No other body outside of the earth has been more closely examined by planetary scientists than this "Planet of a Thousand Mysteries." Numerous surface features find no analogy in familiar geology. And even those features which geologists claim to recognize, when examined in context and in detail, defy textbook definitions. It is only necessary to look closely to see that this is so. The anomalies begin with the most prominent features, Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris, but extend to every region of the Martian surface. The unexplained patterns include (but reach far beyond): giant, circular craters with layered terraces, concentric rings and shallow flat floors; dense (non-random) populations of craters in regions of burned and darkened soil; strings of craters placed amidst sharply cut scoops and gouges, suggesting material removed by an "unknown" force; "inconceivable" spheres and/or domes resting inside craters; elevated craters whose floors stand higher than the surrounding terrain; braided, interweaving, flatfloored channels, revealing no evidence of either surface faulting or flowing liquid; layers of surface exhibiting dense populations of bb-sized spherules, called "blueberries," apparently occupying the Martian surface by the trillions. While conventional geologists struggle to explain these paradoxes, proponents of the Electric Universe view the Martian landscape as a laboratory in space, demonstrating the varieties of electrical discharge effects. As noted in a previous Picture of the Day, Olympus Mons meets every test of an anode blister (a discharge effect on a positively charged surface); Valles Marineris exhibits the defining features of an electric arc tearing across a surface. The dense populations of craters and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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burnt surfaces are replicated with laboratory arcs, right down to the central bumps or peaks. Even the Martian "blueberries" have been precisely replicated by electric arcs in the lab, in experiments performed by plasma physicist CJ Ransom. And when scaled upward, these labcreated "blueberries," resting in the center of electrically produced craters, provide a compelling analog to the "impossible" domed craters on Mars. Why then have planetary scientists not even noticed the success of the electrical hypothesis? The reason is that this hypothesis asks them to consider the theoretically "unimaginable," to set aside the foundations of modern planetary science. It asks them to envision an unstable, electrically active solar system in the past, when Mars was engulfed by electrical discharge, its every region carved by electric arcs raking across its surface. The electric theorists believe that systematic examination of the Martian landscape will confirm their hypothesis beyond any reasonable doubt. And they are eager to test the predictive ability of the hypothesis at every available opportunity. One such opportunity May now be at hand in the case of the amazing "spiders" on Mars. Discovered in 1997 by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, hundreds of these configurations have been imaged in Mars' south polar region (the only region where they occur). In each instance the configurations originate from a single center, spreading dozens of "branches" over an area that averages about 985 feet across. (See picture above.) The formations have left scientists baffled. "We're still scratching our heads over how these things are forming," says Anthony Colaprete of NASAs Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. "Theyre unlike anything we have on Earth." Some investigators have suggested that the spiders are dendritic drainage channels. But one characteristic that makes the formations so difficult to explain is the way they "work against" gravity. In fact, the branching occurs radially from a center, positively excluding a drainage function. Moreover, the spiders form in identical shapes irrespective of the terrain. Often, a single ravine is seen moving both uphill and down. And many of these radial patterns occur on a consistent incline. Others suspect that the "spiders" are caused by sublimation of CO2 hidden under the soil. A variation of this explanation was proposed in a recent issue of Astronomy magazine (July, 2006). But CO2 is known to be present in abundance in south polar regions that do not exhibit spiders, and throughout the north polar region which exhibits no spiders. No sublimation process has ever been observed that produces the consistent branching pattern (called Fibonacci branching ) of these bizarre forms. So what are the Martian "spiders"? Interestingly, there is an analogy on another planet, but it is never mentioned. Stretching around the equator of the planet Venus is a vast display of what planetary scientists call "arachnoids." Indeed, these overlying formations display more finely filamented branching ravines than the "spiders" on Mars. But there is a reason why planetary scientists have not concerned themselves with the similarities in both name and morphology. Why would they compare formative processes at a frigid pole of Mars with formative processes on Venus, where temperatures exceed nine hundred degrees Fahrenheit? In electrical terms, of course, the considerations that preclude a comparison of Mars and Venus no longer apply. Therefore, we shall take up the electrical interpretation of Martian "spiders" in our Picture of the Day for July 26.
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XMM-Newton's view of supernova remnant RCW 103
"Neutron Star" Refutes Its Own Existence

(Jul 21, 2006)
More difficulties for the standard theory of supernovae and "neutron stars"--a misbehaving "supernova remnant." In the past few decades of space exploration, we have grown accustomed to seeing certain words and phrases in the scientific press release. It would be difficult or impossible to enumerate all of the instances when space discoveries have been met with shock and perplexity by mainstream investigators. "This is a complete surprise"..."This should not be"..."We're not sure"...Given the confidence with which the cosmological big picture is presented in scientific media, one would think that such statements would be rare, but in fact, almost none of the milestone findings of the space age were expected. Recently, astronomers announced the discovery of a "mystery object" that, according to conventional wisdom, should be a very "young" neutron star, yet behaves like one that is several million years old. According to the Space.com report: "Embedded in the heart of a supernova remnant 10,000 light-years away is a stellar object the likes of which astronomers have never seen before in our galaxy. At first glance, the object looks like a densely packed stellar corpse known as a neutron star surrounded by a bubble of ejected stellar material, exactly what would be expected in the wake of a supernova explosion." But astronomers observed the star for just over 24 hours with the European Space Agencys XMM Newton X-ray satellite, and were stunned by what they saw. Its emission cycles were tens of thousands of times longer than theory had postulated for "a freshly created neutron star." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"The behavior we see is especially puzzling in view of its young age, less than 2,000 years," said study leader Andrea De Luca of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) in Milan. "For years we have had a sense that the object is different, but we never knew how different until now," De Luca said. Neutron stars are claimed to be the remnants of massive stars bloated red supergiants -that have collapsed after the expiration of their "nuclear furnace," resulting in a supernova. This event is said to explain the pulsar remnant of some supernovae. Pulsars exhibit bursts of radiation up to thousands of times a second. To account for this, astronomers imagined a super-collapsed stellar object, spun up by the collapse like a skater pulling in his or her arms, emitting a rotating beam of x-rays spinning like the beam of a lighthouse up to thousands of times per second. Conventional theory would say that the offending "neutron star" in this case is spinning far too slowly for one of its imagined age of a couple of thousand years. According to Electric Universe proponents, this kind of contradiction is inevitable in the investigation of "neutron stars," because they do not exist. They were a theoretical invention based on a fundamental misinterpretation of the nature of stars, and hence of supernovae. From an Electric Universe point of view, stars are formed in a plasma "pinch," one of the most common features in the observed behavior of electric currents in plasma. Large magnetic fields have been detected in galaxies, and these fields indicate that huge electric currents flow in circuits through the galaxies. In fact, stars are both sparked and powered by the same electric currents. Stars behave as electrodes in a galactic glow discharge. The EU hypothesis is that supernovae are not caused when a star loses its "nuclear furnace" and collapses, but rather they are due to a catastrophic galactic electric discharge event focused on a hapless star. And observation in recent years has only supported this model. For example, supernovae occur with a periodicity in any given galaxy that highlight their connectedness via galactic circuits. Stars are not self-contained sources of energy. Supernova 1987A was the closest supernova event since the invention of the telescope. It was doubly special because the progenitor had been examined before the explosion. Electrical theorists say it was not a coincidence that this "best example" violated all the "rules." The progenitor was not the expected red supergiant star, but a BLUE supergiant, perhaps 20 times smaller than a red supergiant. Moreover, the structure of Supernova 1987A, with three axially aligned rings and a string of bright beads forming the equatorial ring, has no place in the standard model of supernovae. Everything about this exploding star, however, has direct counterparts in laboratory experiments with high-energy plasma discharge. And plasma cosmologists using electric circuit theory have explained all of the complex features of the pulsing radiation from supernova remnants without the need for a hypothetical "super condensed object" like a neutron star. The question now is, will astronomers continue to invent more ad hoc exceptions to a theory already too complicated by exceptions, or will they pause sufficiently to wonder if a new perspective is possible on the burgeoning zoo of supernovae types and odd "neutron stars?"
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The Orion Molecular Cloud Credit: Saxton/Dame/Hartmann/Thaddeus/NRAO/AUI/NSF
Magnetic Vortex in Space

(Jul 19, 2006)
It has been called a "magnetic Slinky" in the Orion Molecular Cloud. But electrical theorists predict that we will discover counterparts everywhere in space if we will simply look for them. Astronomers say they have discovered a giant magnetic field that is coiled like a snake around a rod-shaped gas cloud in the constellation Orion. Timothy Robishaw, a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, involved in the discovery, described the structure as a "giant, magnetic Slinky wrapped around a long, finger-like interstellar cloud." So goes the story from Space.com about the discovery of an electrical vortex whirling through the cosmos. But, as we have often noted in these pages, astrophysicists continue to misunderstand what they see because they insist on seeing gas where plasma currents flow. Continuing with the article..."The helical shape of the magnetic field is believed to be caused by matter in the interstellar cloud moving in a straight line along the length of the filament. When this happens, it causes the magnetic field around the cloud to spiral around in a corkscrew pattern. The researchers were able to detect this spiral shape using the Green Bank Telescope, a radio observatory in West Virginia." This is the classic "cart-before-the-horse" argument used by astrophysicists. It relies on a magnetic field being generated and trapped mysteriously within the gas cloud, the movement of the cloud itself causing the spiral magnetic field. Nothing about the cloud its magnetic field, its shape, its movement, or what lights it is actually explained by this kind of argument. The unwillingness of theorists to countenance electric currents in space prevents them from The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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seeing the obvious: The power that forms and lights the rod-shaped gas cloud is electrical. The cloud and the magnetic field merely trace the current flow of a cosmic Birkeland current (see Figure 15.3.2). It was Kristian Birkeland in 1908 who postulated the existence of the currents that bear his name. And in 1939, Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfvn was the first physicist to promote Birkelands theory in a paper about electrical currents generated by the solar wind. In electrical terms, the spiraling magnetic field of the Orion Molecular Cloud derives partly from an external field aligned with the cloud axis and partly from the toroidal field produced by the current flowing along the cloud axis. This is the way electrified plasma behaves in the laboratory. The current is strongest at the axis (shown in red) and becomes weaker further away from the axis. If astrophysicists recognized this simple fact, the glowing arms of spiral galaxies would at last be seen as electromagnetic structures, subject to electromagnetic forces. The point needs to be made again and again: In our Electric Universe there is no need for weird "dark matter." We should look to radio astronomers, like those at the Green Bank Radio Telescope, who can map cosmic magnetic fields, for more and more evidence of cosmic Birkeland currents. Contributed by Steve Smith
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These images from an ESA Venus Express movie of cloud movements around Venuss south pole capture a "peculiar double-eye vortex structure, never clearly seen by any other Venusian mission before." Credit: ESA/Venus Express
Another "Double-Eye" of Venus

(Jul 17, 2006)
Twin footprints of electric currents from space are apparent at Venus south pole-counterparts to the footprints earlier discovered at Venus north pole. The frames of the movie shown above depict the main features of an extraordinary phenomenon on Venus-- a "double-eye atmospheric vortex over the south pole." The movie shows the rotation and the shape variation of the double vortex from April 12 to April 19. The images also show the presence of a collar of colder air around the vortex structure (dark blue), which ESA scientists describe as "possibly due to the recycling of cold air downwards." In 1978 the Pioneer Venus Orbiter had already revealed something similar at the north pole of Venus, described as "one of the more remarkable phenomena in the Solar System." The nature of the "double eye" vortexes remains a great mystery to planetary scientists. A bit of recent history: On discovering the north polar vortex, scientists called it a "giant vortex of surprisingly complex structure and behavior located in the middle atmosphere at the north pole of the planet." The polar vortex on Venus is the hottest spot in the planets upper atmosphere. The diameter of the collar around the vortex is about 5000 kilometers, and the temperature contrast between the hottest part of the chevron-shaped dipoles and the coldest part of the collar is about 45 K. The configuration was not expected, and it remains an anomaly for mainstream ("gravity only") theorists. Electrical theorists, however, say that Venus is highly active electrically due to its unique origin, its comet-like past, and a persistent electrical imbalance with its environment. They claim that astronomers, astrophysicists, and planetary scientists, oblivious to the behavior of electric discharges, are continually straining to explain electricitys unexpected effects in planetary atmospheres, which they typically seek to describe in terms of heating and the mechanics of wind and water motion. Leading Electric Universe proponent Wal Thornhill identified the dipolar configuration of the polar vortex as a cross-sectional view of a cosmic electric current. Within the solar system, as in every observed region of space, electric currents flow over vast distances by means of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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filaments of plasma that tend to organize themselves into "twisted pairs." A common name for this "doubleness" in current-conducting plasmas is a "Birkeland current." All the features shown above suggest that the two hot spots are the footprints of twin Birkeland currents. The "giant vortex" and its "surprisingly complex structure and behavior" are the energetic effect of the twin currents flowing into the planets atmosphere at the poles. In fact, the Venusian dipole shows both the configuration and the motion of Birkeland current pairs in plasma discharge experiments and in super-computer simulations, including the surrounding spiral vortex. It is the classic spiral nebula shape. What baffles mainstream theorists is most often predictable under the electric model. In February 2005, Thornhill predicted that a similar configuration would be found in the region of Venus' south pole. He wrote: "We should expect to see evidence of the twisted pair configuration at both poles of Venus, if the input current is sufficiently strong and this model is correct." And that is precisely what has now been discovered at the south pole of Venus. The hot spots are due to electrical heating and upwelling of the atmosphere. While the electric model accounts for the anomalous features of the vortex, the ad hoc explanations of mainstream theorists are at best incomplete. A July report from Geotimes.org reads: The process that forms Venus' polar vortexes is similar to the process forming Earth's less-defined vortices at its poles, in which a warm equator drives high equatorial winds up toward the cooler poles, where the winds become unstable. On Venus, the vortex resembles the enormous mass of turning air that we see in hurricanes, except that instead of hundreds of kilometers across, Venus' structures span thousands of kilometers." But this "explanation" ignores the radical difference between Venus and Earth. On Venus, the polar vortex is "inexplicably" hot, and Venus rotation (supposedly a primary force driving atmospheric motion) is extremely slow and in the retrograde direction (opposite the normal rotational direction of planets). Thus, Professor Fred Taylor of the University of Oxford Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics Department wrote of this latest Venus surprise: "The absence of viable theories which can be tested, or in this case any theory at all, leaves us uncomfortably in doubt as to our basic ability to understand even gross features of planetary atmospheric circulations." Or perhaps the nature of the phenomena is not as mysterious as it May appear from archaic vantage points. The twisted filaments and other features are a trademark of electrical (Birkeland) currents. And while Taylor expected there could be a similar structure at the south pole, he had no basis for predicting details. Thornhill, on the other hand, could offer a specific interpretation, and a specific prediction, which has now been validated. The ESA report says: "ESA's Venus Express data undoubtedly confirm for the first time the presence of a huge 'double-eye' atmospheric vortex at the planet's south pole." In his earlier discussion of the north polar dipole, Thornhill noted the irregular motion, which also defies standard models: "The polar dipole has a variable rotation rate and it varies the position of its axis of rotation with respect to that of the planet. It was observed to move 500 km from the Venusian pole in less than a day and return just as quickly. The variable nature of the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive electrical input to Venus via the Sun and the snaking about of the Birkeland currents explain both these characteristics."
The NASA movie now confirms the same irregularities at the south pole. We can confidently predict, therefore, that no model of Venus atmosphere that ignores the electrical input at Venus poles will ever explain the observed structures. Attempts to model such atmospheric anomalies by references to planetary rotation and increasingly complicated thermodynamics will typically expose one layer of confusion after another. Noting that the upper atmospheric winds on Venus take only four days to complete a rotation, the ESA story continues: "This 'super-rotation, combined with the natural recycling of hot air in the atmosphere, would induce the formation of a vortex structure over each pole." The authors then ask, "But why two vortexes?" Their limited field of view does not allow them to see that the same force that answers this question answers the question they did not ask: What is driving the spectacular upper atmospheric winds on a planet that barely rotates at all-and in the "wrong" direction? At some point, meteorologists will surely realize that such things will not occur on an electrically isolated body.
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The southern hemisphere of Saturn appears to display twin atmospheric "dragons" around a central vortex. Credit: NASA/Cassini
Saturn's Dragon Storm

(Jul 14, 2006)
The mysteries of Saturns atmospheric behavior continue to mount as scientists puzzle over a massive "thunderstorm" that has remained fixed in place since it first appeared in 2004. Most people assume that meteorologists understand the weather. But this is not really so. For instance, if one were to ask a meteorologist what causes lightning on Earth, the only honest answer he or she could give would be, "We're not sure." Dr. Martin Uman, author of numerous books on lightning, takes the conventional view that charge buildup required for lightning comes from vertical movement of droplets in a thundercloud. But he confesses that the process occurs "in a way or ways not yet fully understood." If meteorologists dont "fully understand" terrestrial lightning, what are the chances they can explain the "surprise" of lightning on other planets? As Dr. Bill Kurth of the University of Iowa says: "we have some preconceived notions about how lightning works at Earth and we can go to places that dont have an abundance of water like we have in our atmosphere and if we happen to find lightning there then we have to explain what it is that makes lightning work there if we dont have water." In November 1980 and August 1981, two Voyager Spacecraft observed an intense storm near Saturn's equator with high winds (1,100 miles per hour) and continuous lightning. More than twenty years later, in 2004, NASA's Cassini spacecraft spotted an electrical storm with lightning bolts that are 1,000 times stronger than those on Earth. The charged storm was detected in Saturn's southern hemisphere, in the appropriately labeled "storm alley" region. The storm (the size of the continental United States) stretched 2,175 miles from north to south. The storm presented Cassini scientists with a number of enigmas. It is apparently a long-lived storm that has attached itself to one area and occasionally flares up dramatically. But why one The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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area, which is hardly to be expected if Saturn is a mere ball of liquid and gas? The investigators could not explain why the radio bursts would always start while the Dragon Storm was below the horizon on the night side and end when it was on the dayside. Intriguingly, the Dragon Storm arose in an area of Saturn's atmosphere that had earlier produced large, bright convective storms. Mission scientists concluded: "The Dragon Storm is a giant thunderstorm whose precipitation generates electricity as it does on Earth. The storm May be deriving its energy from Saturn's deep atmosphere." From an Electric Universe perspective, this conclusion simply repeats the inversion of cause and effect in standard explanations of terrestrial lightning. In the EU model as elaborated by Wallace Thornhill and others, thunderstorms themselves are electric discharge phenomena driven by the circuits that link planets to the Sun and the Sun to the galaxy. (See Thornhill's analysis of the Dragon Storm here.) It seems inexplicable under a traditional meteorological model that a storm would attach itself to one place (particularly on a planet that is thought not to have a solid surface) and sporadically burst to life. But as noted by Thornhill, "the Electric Universe model of stars and planets provides the possibility of a solid surface on the giant planets. And as we find on Earth, a solid surface allows for regional electrical differences that favor electrical storm activity in one region over another. A good example is tornado alley in the southern U.S.A." Thornhill describes the twin spiraling formations as miniatures of "spiral galaxies," and he sees these as "the effects of the interaction of Birkeland current pairs," just as was demonstrated in the computer simulations of spiral galaxy formation by Anthony Peratt described in an earlier Picture of the Day. If this is so, the megalightning discharges are occurring within the Dragon Storm. Thornhill argues that the enigmatic switching off of the radio bursts as the storm enters daylight mimics the morning appearance and subsequent fading of the mysterious "spokes," seen occasionally in Saturn's rings. In the EU model, the two phenomena are connected because the spokes are formed by radial discharges to a huge current ring circulating beyond the rings. The discharges travel across the rings at the speed of lightning from the ionosphere, where they draw electrical energy via the storm. The discharges shoot charged ring particles out of the ring plane, in a form of thunderclap, throwing a shadow on the rings. The fading of both the spokes and the storm signals as Saturn rotates into daylight are probably a result of the circuit, which links the morning and evening terminators. The significance of the storms title will not be lost to those familiar with the Thunderbolts groups exploration of ancient myth and folklore relating to plasma discharge configurations in the ancient sky. Dragon-like monsters soaring across the heavens rank among the most enigmatic and fanciful icons of the ancient cultures. These mythical reptiles come adorned with feathers or wings, sprouting long-flowing hair and fiery, lightning-like emanations. Every detail of such beasts defies naturalistic reasoning. Yet accounts from widely separated cultures attribute many identical features to these biological absurdities. The spiraling shape of dragons and serpents in mythology and ancient art are strikingly similar to plasma instabilities in the laboratory and in space--all reminding us of the metamorphosing, life-like qualities of plasma phenomena. And it should be no surprise that ancient images of the dragon are intimately associated with the same configurations of electrified plasma that we see in megalightning on Saturn today. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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This illustration of an asteroid hitting Earth, produced by a NASA artist, is one of the most often-published images on the Internet relating to cosmic catastrophe.
"Doomsday Asteroids" Enchant Astronomers

(Jul 12, 2006)
On July 3, 2006, our planet experienced an astronomical "close brush" with a very large asteroid. Though we were never in danger from the passing body, the nearencounter prompted a series of news reports on the global threat posed by such intruders. The majority of astronomers whom the media interview about cometary or asteroidal threats express the same sentiment: It is not a question of if Earth will be decimated by a giant asteroid, but when. Some remind us of the "wake-up" call provided by Comet ShoemakerLevy in 1994, when a stream of comet fragments plowed into Jupiter. NASA and other space agencies around the world have lobbied for increased funding for asteroid defense. From the perspective of most astronomers and planetary scientists, asteroids are the most likely culprits to cause a global extinction event for any planet, including Earth. But when scrutinized, the legitimacy of this concern becomes suspect. Planetary scientists gaze at the features on rocky bodies in our solar system and see craters-lots and lots of craters. In their thinking, these craters are mostly caused by impacts from intruding bodies. When one looks at the surfaces of the Moon and our planetary neighbors from this perspective, one is left with the impression that asteroids and other impacting bodies are as ubiquitous as they are devastating. But we should be careful about leaping to such a conclusion. Some bodies in the solar system are so heavily cratered that a special "late, heavy bombardment" had to be included in the speculative history of the solar system. Astronomers are not sure where the "bombarding objects" came from or why the bombardment should have been delayed until planets and moons had solid surfaces. In addition, most planets and moons show mysterious hemispheric The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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differences in cratering. But most telling is the fact that the detailed features of "impact" craters do not match attempts to mimic them in the lab or in powerful explosions. In fact, our planet May not be so vulnerable to a globally-devastating event as astronomers have led us to believe. From the Electric Universe perspective, as explained by Wallace Thornhill, Earth, the asteroids, and comets are charged bodies moving in the electric field of the Sun. Thornhill believes that the charge difference between these bodies provides the earth with a natural defense against asteroids and comets, particularly very large ones. When an asteroid or comet enters the electric field of the Earth, which is contained within its "magnetosphere," or more accurately-plasma sheath, there will be a powerful discharge between the two bodies. (See earlier TPODs on the Tunguska event and the Chicago Fire.) The internal electrical stress caused by the discharge of the interloping asteroid or comet will generally cause it to detonate like an exploding capacitor--just as comets have frequently exploded "inexplicably" as they moved toward the Sun on their elongated orbits. (See The Explosive Demise of Comet Linear, and When Comets Break Apart. Also SchwassmannWachmann 3 Disintegrates) Of course, we have already witnessed the electrical destruction of a colliding comet. Comet Shoemaker-Levy fragments were destroyed in a series of brilliant, unexpected flashes high above Jupiter's atmosphere. This is not to say that the Electric theorists believe comets and asteroids pose no threat to human beings. But the havoc these bodies might wreak would likely be limited to localized disasters--perhaps a series of Tunguska-like events producing regional devastation with falls of sand and dust, perhaps electrical craters, fires and earthquakes, but no single impact crater at all. The devastation of a global extinction requires an encounter with something much larger than a puny comet or asteroid. In all likelihood, it requires electrical exchanges with a body the size of a planet. It seems that our catastrophic prehistory is still expressed today in an irrational fear of "doomsday from the heavens." The irrational component in this fear is its focus on unsubstantiated theory with scant regard for the true nature of the ancient anxiety. No one has witnessed a "killer asteroid" hitting a rocky planet, and there is no proof that so-called "impact craters" were formed by impacts at all. An electrical perspective emphasizes that circular craters, including features that cannot be produced by impact, are a natural form of electric scarring. And what happened at Jupiter (Shoemaker-Levy) did not illustrate a "pie in the face" collision, but the planets electrical "defense system." There can be no question that our planet has suffered immense catastrophes in the past. But the electrical theorists suggest that the apocalyptic visions of astronomers are largely a contrivance of over-hyped theory and excessive media attention--an avenue more useful for generating funding than for promoting human understanding.
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Fall of Phaeton by Sebastiano Ricci. Painted 1703-04. From the Museo Civico, Belluno
The "Amber" Beads of Phaeton

(Jul 10, 2006)
Some of the more abstruse mythical traditions recorded in ancient times receive remarkable illumination in the light of modern scientific knowledge concerning certain spectacular atmospheric events. In one of the most graphic Greek myths, the "son of the sun," called Phaethon, in a vain attempt to replace his father crashed down from the sky, set the world ablaze, and drowned as he fell into the river Eridanus. As a curious footnote to this popular tale, classical authors commonly noted that Phaethons lamenting sisters, the Hesperides, shed tears of amber in this river. As the mythographer, Apollonius Rhodius, explained: "And all around the maidens, the daughters of Helios, enclosed in tall poplars, wretchedly wail a piteous plaint; and from their eyes they shed on the ground bright drops of amber. These are dried by the sun upon the sand; but whenever the waters of the dark lake flow over the strand before the blast of the wailing wind, then they roll on in a mass into Eridanus with swelling tide." That the ancients did not regard this aetiology of amber as incidental to the story can be seen in the fact that they apparently used the presence of amber as a weighty argument in their respective geographical identifications of the mythical river. The popular equation of the Eridanus with either the Po or a river in the far north of Europe thus corresponds with the fact that the Baltic and northern Italy were widely known in ancient days as large repositories of amber. But how does this relate to a parallel tradition, according to which Phaethon fell in Libya? As Pliny noted, "Theophrastus states that amber is dug up in Liguria, while Chares The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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states that Phaethon died in Ethiopia on an island the Greek name of which is the Isle of Ammon, and that here is his shrine and oracle, and here the source of amber." Again, "Theomenes tells us that close to the Greater Syrtes is the Garden of the Hesperides and a pool called Electrum, where there are poplar trees from the tops of which amber falls into the pool, and is gathered by the daughters of Hesperus." The trouble is that the oasis alluded to here is decidedly not known as a deposit of amber, so what could these traditions be referring to? The key might be that the Greek word routinely translated as "amber," electron, May not always refer to the fossil glassy resin of trees known as amber. The Greeks were no chemists in the modern sense and there is a distinct possibility that electron May have denoted other minerals with a superficial resemblance to amber. Significantly, the Libyan desert has yielded glassy beads associated with an impact in the giant Kebira crater that are now analysed as fulgurites or silica minerals fused in the heat from a lightning strike. The possibility that the Libyan amber associated with Phaethon really was fulguritic in origin wins much likelihood in view of the widespread belief that it was Zeus thunderbolt that had brought the demigod down from the sky, as Ovid wrote, "to quench fire with blasting fire." The superficial incoherence of the ingredients of the myth dissolves on the hypothesis of a catastrophic thunderbolt and it requires no big leap of the imagination that myth-makers could conceive of the transparent substance both of fulgurites and amber as the hardened tears of Phaethons companions. Alternatively, the term electron May have described tectites, glassy spherules formed from the melting and rapid cooling of terrestrial rocks that were vaporised by the high-energy impacts of large meteorites, comets, or asteroids upon the earth; many scholars consider the socalled Libyan Desert glass to be a form of tectite. This, too, makes sense of the myth, as ancient and modern authorities alike have often discerned a strong meteoritic or cometary component in the motif of Phaethons fall. Ovids description again offers the classic example: "But Phaethon, fire ravaging his ruddy hair, is hurled headlong and falls with a long trail through the air, as sometimes a star from the clear heavens, although it does not fall, still seems to fall." There is enough evidence to suggest that Ovid was neither original nor alone in this respect and general studies in the field of comparative religion have borne out that the symbolism of lightning and meteors was often fused in the ancient world-view. The association of Phaethons fateful fall with the origin of electron strongly suggests that the formation of this substance as a result of a streak of intense light from the sky whether a lightning bolt or a meteor was observed by those that created the myth. Similar knowledge must have obtained in other cultures. The Maya, for instance, regarded the supreme creator, Heart of Sky or Huracan, "Hurricane," as a triple deity, representative of three types of lightning. As Tedlock observed, two of these "refer not only to shafts of lightning but to fulgurites, glassy stones formed by lightning in sandy soil." Contributed by Rens van der Sluijs
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The locations of ice cores and evidence for abrupt climate change approximately 5,000 years ago are depicted above, along with areas of large-scale ice retreat. Credit: Lonnie Thompson, Ohio State University
A Record of Planetary Catastrophe

(Jul 07, 2006)
Many individuals in the Thunderbolts group contend that our planets sky once looked vastly different than it does today. The Earth moved in a more dynamic electrical environment in close interaction with other celestial bodies, including our neighboring planets. If the celestial events suggested in these pages did indeed occur, they would have left undeniable physical imprints. In fact, imprints of the events are visible in many layers of geologic data. From pole to pole on Earth (and on every rocky body in space), we see the scars left by electric discharge machining (EDM)--an effect of electrical arcing when charged bodies interact. We see surfaces torn by channels that meet every test of electric discharge and defy all orthodox interpretations. We see giant, circular craters with layered terraces, concentric rings and shallow flat floors, common traits of electrically excavated surfaces, but not typical of impact cratering. We see concretions--spheroidal masses usually occurring in sedimentary strata-including Moqui balls, geodes, thunder eggs, even concretions as large as ten feet in diameter. These spherical formations lie somewhere between "difficult" and "impossible" to explain in conventional geologic terms ("mineral leakage" being the currently most fashionable), but many features would be expected of electric discharge. As enumerated several times on these pages, lighting and its many variations in laboratory experiments produce spherules. Plasma physicist CJ Ransom replicated the small spherules or "blueberries" seen on Mars through a simple electric discharge experiment. We also see evidence that just a few thousand years ago, there was a sudden, dramatic shift in Earths global climate. A recent study published in the current issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science found evidence of an abrupt climate shift on Earth about 5,000 years The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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ago--the most dramatic evidence being the discovery of unfossilized wetland plants around the margin of the Quelccaya ice cap. This same study found indicators of a shift to a warmer climate in the last 50 years. While most media have reported this story only in the context of global warming concerns, for catastrophists and proponents of the Electric Universe, this is another piece of the puzzle that is Earths (and the solar systems) recent catastrophic history. This is not the first time scientists have found evidence of a dramatic, recent climate shift on Earth. In the summer of 2004, the North Greenland Ice Core Project cut all the way through the ice (over 10,000 feet deep) and brought up a sample of soil from the surface of Greenland. A bit of "organic matter" described as "plant material" was embedded in a fourinch diameter sample of Greenland "muck." The press release on the project stated, "The presence of plant material under the ice indicates that the Greenland ice sheet formed relatively fast, as a slowly growing glacier would have flushed or pushed these light particles away." Scientists constructed a history of climate changes in Greenland over the last 40,000 years. According to one geology text, the Ice Cores indicate "the normal pattern of change involves numerous rapid fluctuations in temperature--not only during glacial periods, but throughout interglacial periods as well. The stable warm climate of the present interglacial period is distinctly abnormal." A planetary catastrophist might state this differently: "The stable warm climate of today represents the present stable solar system. It is the wild fluctuations of the past that are distinctly abnormal." Going back just a bit farther (geologically speaking), the ice cores "run out." There is no more ice. The Antarctic ice is a bit deeper than the Greenland ice, but it, too "runs out." Before this, there is no evidence of glaciers anywhere on Earth. Standard Ice Age theory places the beginning of the Ice Ages about 2 million years ago (so far, the ice cores have drilled through 123 thousand layers in Greenland; 174 thousand layers in Antarctica.) And geology books point out that glaciation has been a rare event in Earth's history. The last episode (earlier than our very recent Ice Ages) happened before the first dinosaurs were born. Over 200 million years of Earth's prehistory passed without glaciers. The Greenland Ice Cores emphasize what we are learning in other fields of geology: the very recent past is not a story of incremental change. The Ice Cap began suddenly, perhaps engulfing a thriving temperate forest and all of its inhabitants. Its deepest layers record sudden large temperature changes, some much colder than today, others much warmer. Then, at about ten thousand layers before the present, something happened that stabilized the climate. What could that something have been? The "mystery tale" of Earths recent catastrophic past is not such a mystery, given the abundance of clues. The data are multi-tiered and interdisciplinary. Even human testimony reveals essential details, because human beings meticulously recorded in their myth and folklore awe-inspiring events that changed the world and altered the heavens. These stories come from widely separated cultures, yet they are remarkably similar: heroes battling dragons, gods and goddesses casting fire and stone, a great deluge of water and flame from the sky. Plasma discharge events in the sky were recorded in ancient rock art and cave paintings on different continents around the world. Ancient humans speak of celestial warfare and global cataclysm. And month by month the common details in their stories find new support in scientific discoveries on Earth and in space. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Dr. James Jee from Johns Hopkins University used the Hubble Space Telescope to create a "detailed map of dark matter concentrations around two galaxies." But how does "dark matter" work to shape galaxies? To clarify the concept, NASA scientists have turned to an assortment of less-than-helpful analogies. Credit: Jee et al.
"Baked Galaxies," or Half-Baked Theories?

(Jul 06, 2006)
In the minds of many critics, nothing is more confounding than the language of the popular scientific press release. Although generally bereft of heavily "technical" wording, the concepts and explanations found in popular scientific media have grown increasingly weird. The weirdness is accentuated when scientists, in an attempt to make their theories "understandable" to the layperson, draw analogies between space and observable "real world" phenomena. When it comes to weird language and bizarre analogies, it doesnt get any weirder than the words used to illustrate "dark matter." In a recent press release, "How to Bake a Galaxy," NASA/JPL compares galaxy formation to bread baking in an oven. "Start with lots and lots of dark matter, then stir in gas. Let the mixture sit for a while, and a galaxy should rise up out of the batter." The report goes on to cite a recent study from NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope "refining what is known" about dark matter, the so-called "essential ingredient of galaxies." In the language of NASA scientists, dark matters role in galaxy formation is comparable to the role of yeast in bread baking. An absence of enough dark matter means no loaf, e.g. no galaxy. Study co-author Dr. Jason Surace of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena says of this "baking" process: "Dark matter has gravity, so it pulls in more and more dark matter in addition to normal gas...We know that the gas eventually condenses into the stars that make up galaxies, but the Spitzer study suggests that this doesn't happen until the dark matter has reached a critical mass." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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To Electric Universe proponents -- specialists such as electrical engineers and plasma physicists -- this kind of statement illustrates the seriousness of the 21st century crisis in cosmology. What astronomers envision as inert gas is ionized, radiating plasma, laced with electric (Birkeland) currents. As discussed for the past 2 years on these pages, electrified plasma is an unequaled force at organizing galactic structure. Computer models of two current filaments interacting in plasma have, in fact, reproduced fine details of spiral galaxies. The gravitational schools, on the other hand, must rely on invisible matter, arbitrarily placed wherever it is needed to make their models "work." Having gravity models appear to work in this manner provides no basis for confidence in them. The NASA report also features the fundamental error of interpreting an objects redshift as a reliable indicator of its age and its distance from the observer. The report states: "[Dr. Duncan] Farrah and his colleagues used data from the Spitzer Wide-area Infrared Extragalactic survey to study hundreds of distant objects, called ultraluminous infrared galaxies, located billions of light-years away. These young galaxies are incredibly bright and filled with lots of dusty star-formation activity." Astronomer Halton Arp, et al., have studied these objects (given the acronym ULIRGs) extensively. Arp says that acronym should really stand for Under Luminous Infra Red Galaxies, because they are nearby, young and faint; nearby because they appear to have been ejected from those galaxies (and hence have a high intrinsic redshift which astronomers misinterpret as distance), and faint because they have not matured enough to shine with the power of "adult" galaxies. The scientists interpretation of the galaxies redshift in the NASA study seems to feature a contradiction. The studys authors "noticed something weird. For every galaxy they studied, no matter how far away, there seemed to be surrounding dark matter clumps of about the same size. " But in the next paragraph, study co-author Surace says: "Similar galaxies in our nearby universe form in a completely different way, so what we are learning applies to a different epoch in our universe, far back in cosmic time." The first statement, "no matter how far away," contradicts the second, that "similar galaxiesnearbyform in a completely different way." If "how far away" is of "no matter," then nearby galaxies should not be "completely different." In a plasma universe, "nearby" includes both old and new galaxies (and of course, no dark matter) so theres no "different science" operating at different epochs. There is electromagnetism and plasma at all epochs and distances. The embarrassing analogies do not end with "bread baking" and "whirling lawn sprinklers" in space. Farrah stated of dark matters supposed "attractive" powers, "You might think that galaxies are just distributed randomly across the sky, like throwing a handful of sand onto the floor. But they are not, and the reason might be that the dark matter clumps around young galaxies are attracting each other like glue." Thunderbolts.info editor Mel Acheson neatly summed up the illogic of this reasoning when he stated: "Glue attracts? Perhaps its special astronomical glue with extra gravity added. In my experience, glue does not attract, it sticks, much like astronomers bond to obsolete theories." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In this illustration by European Space Agency artists, we see the Earth lying within the magnetosphere, rendered in blue and surrounded by the solar wind. The white rectangle on the left identifies the area where ESAs Cluster and China/ESA Double Stars satellites discovered "density holes." The brown dots represent the solar wind and ions "back-streaming against the solar wind flow," along the interplanetary magnetic field lines (in black). Credit: ESA
"Fizzy Bubbles" or Plasma Layers?

(Jul 04, 2006)
Evidence continues to mount that the space surrounding Earth is rife with electrical activity. Where mainstream astronomers see "superhot gases" that "pop" and "fizz," proponents of the Electric Universe see plasma double layers doing what they are observed to do in plasma experiments. The European Space Agency recently observed anomalous "bubbles" that seemed to grow and pop around Earth. According to the Space.com report, "Astronomers found the activity up where Earth's magnetic field meets a constant stream of particles flowing out from the Sun." The researchers announcing the discovery spoke of "superhot gases" associated with the "bubbles." They envisioned a "bow shock" formed as the result of the solar wind colliding with Earths magnetic field. The "temperature" in the gas bubbles is 18,000,000 Fahrenheit, a hundred times hotter than the temperature of the surrounding "hot gas." The researchers were following the only line of reasoning allowed by their training, which discusses "gases" in space in the mechanical language of wind and water behavior. Their theoretical framework excludes the possibility of any electrical interaction between the earth and the circuitry of the solar system. Astrophysicists work with a form of plasma theory called magnetohydrodynamics, which was first proposed by -- and later repudiated by -- Hannes Alfven, who investigated actual plasma behavior in both laboratory and space settings. He spent the latter part of his life warning astrophysicists that their assumptions were invalid in space. If the assumptions are incorrect, then the language used to describe the phenomena is wrong and misleading. While most astronomers only think of space plasma as a "gas," plasma surrounding the earth frequently displays an electrically charged nature. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Since the 1960s, space probes have revealed that Earths auroras are caused by electrical currents flowing from the Sun a fulfillment of the prediction of plasma pioneer Christian Birkeland. The Earths magnetospheric "bubble" is actually a Langmuir sheath that is electrically coupled to currents flowing in the Sun's heliospheric sheath. Sheaths are composed of electrically charged double layers of plasma, in which layers of opposite charge build up very near each other with a strong electric field between them. These double layers accelerate ions to high velocities that, when interpreted as temperature, appear to be very "hot." Two regions of dissimilar plasma will form a Langmuir sheath between them, which May result in a "bubble" formation. Electrical theorists such as Wallace Thornhill suggest that the so-called "fizzy bubbles" are most likely sheath-bounded cells of plasma. They are more than a magnetic effect in gas: they will exhibit charge differential, ion acceleration and radiation over a wide band from radio to x-ray--all suggesting a much different line of investigation than that implied by the story of "fizzy bubbles" in space.
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Each year, surprising discoveries raise new questions about exploding stars and other exotic objects in space. Above: Supernova 1987a in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Deep Space Explosion Baffles Astronomers

(Jul 03, 2006)
A team of investigators searching for supernovae was caught by surprise recently when it observed a "mysterious object" growing explosively and inexplicably. The event was so unprecedented that astronomers did not know how to categorize it. The object was discovered on February 22nd, 2006, and was first thought to resemble a supernova. But its brightening and its spectrum didnt fit. Astronomers cannot even say how far away it is, because of its redshift anomalies. According to Kyle Dawson of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California (a member of the Supernova Cosmology Project), "It could be some galactic variable [star], a supernova or a quasar. But none of those makes any sense." Unlike the normal supernova that takes twenty days to reach peak brightness, the mystery object brightened for at least 100 days, achieving a 200-fold increase in brightness after its first observation. Fundamental to the enigma posed by the object is its redshift. Astronomers use redshift as a means of determining an objects speed of recession from the observer (and from this they calculate distance). But how far away this object is remains a mystery. According to the New Scientist report, "If the strongest feature in the spectrum is a pair of calcium absorption lines, its red shift would be 0.54, corresponding to a distance of 5.5 billion light years. "But the object is at least one magnitude brighter than a Type 1A supernova would be at that distance.And there is no sign of a host galaxy, which should be visible." Dawson said, "It's still going to be visible for another 2.5 months on the ground. We hope the spectrum will evolve and we see some features we can recognize." This is yet another example of a redshift incongruity suggesting that something could be profoundly wrong in the astronomers assumption that redshift provides a reliable measure of distance. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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It is also apparent that supernovae are not as well understood as we have been led to believe. The different types of supernova explosion require different precursors and causes. And researchers have been confounded by observations of supernovae that do not live up to expectations. This latest report seems to add another misfit with theory. Perhaps Supernova 1987a (image above) provided a clue. As reported by Wallace Thornhill, this earlier observed explosion defied expectations of astronomers while exhibiting all of the peculiar features expected of a powerful plasma "Z-pinch." Direct observation thus suggests an electrical cause for supernovae, and the more recent deep space explosion should be examined for electrical signatures as well.
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A, B, C, D, Electric Solar System

(May 12, 2006)
NASA investigators now recognize that Jupiter's auroras are electrical phenomena. But they are struggling to understand the electrical connections of the aurora's "tails" to other bodies in the Jovian system--not just to Jupiter's closest moon Io, but also to its second moon Europa. For almost two years now, we have been making the case in these pages that the "volcanic"plumes on Jupiter's moon Io are plasma discharge arcs from the moon's electrical transactions with the gas giant. In recent years a growing number of scientists have acknowledged the electrical exchange between the two bodies, as confirmed by Io's "footprint" in the Jovian aurora above. But now a new study reports that one of the bright spots in this aurora is the footprint of a continuous electrical exchange between Jupiter and another moon, Europa. In October of 2005, the journal Geophysical Research Letters published a report from a research team headed by Denis Grodent of the University of Lige, Belgium, noting the team's discovery of a short auroral tail linking Jupiter to Europa. The report notes that this footprint is similar to that of Io, but less energetic. Grodent's team based its report on a study of 45 Hubble images of the Jovian aurora showing Europa's footprint and its swirling "tail." In previous attempts to explain the electrical connection of Io to Jupiter, astronomers suggested that Jupiter's tidal influence on Io provoked the release of the observed charged particles in Io''s "volcanic" plumes. The particles then flowed as an electric current to Jupiter, as evidenced by the glowing electrical signature (footprint) in the gas giant's aurora. But in electrical terms this supposed one way transaction could not be valid, and it left Europa dangling in "neutral" space. How would its electric connection to Jupiter be explained? "Europa is not thought to be volcanic, so what could produce the electrical current that zips along and eventually gives rise to Europa's auroral footprint?" the writers of the report ask. Here we meet an old dilemma once again. Standard astronomy begins its investigations with the assumption--usually unspoken--of an electrically neutral universe. So when investigators encounter electrical phenomena, they rely upon local "generators" no matter how improbable. And they will ignore the evidence for larger electric circuits that have, in fact, already answered the question posed: the local transactions involve circuits, not one-way paths. And The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the local circuits are subsidiaries of larger circuits. In the case of Jupiter, the larger circuit is that between the gas giant and the Sun. In the case of the Sun, the larger circuit connects the Sun to a spiraling arm of the Milky Way. And there is evidence aplenty that galaxies themselves are joined in still larger electrical exchange. Where the hierarchy ends, no one can say. But that it exists is substantiated by every line of investigation that has been opened up in recent decades. There are no isolated islands in space: All objects in space are connected in a web of cosmic circuitry. An electrical interaction between Jupiter and its moons means that the bodies are charged. (As soon as you grant that one body is charged, the other body is also charged in relationship to it). Jupiter is not an island. It stands in a dynamic electrical relationship to the Sun, just as does the Earth. It is now known that charged particles from the Sun, not a terrestrial "dynamo," power Earth's auroras. The same thing can be said of Jupiter's auroras, though this was as contrary to astronomers' assumptions as was the confirmation of the Sun's input to terrestrial auroras. Work by scientists at the University of Leicester in the UK found "a strong correlation between the strength of the solar wind and the behaviour of [Jupiters] auroras." But this was "completely the opposite result to the one we were expecting from our predictions." Of course, what is surprising or illogical from one vantage point May be "reasoning from the obvious" in another. Jupiter interacts electrically with its moons. Jupiter interacts electrically with the Sun, as does the Earth. The planets in the Solar System are charged bodies. The sun has an electric field.
Suddenly the elephant so long "hidden" in the living room of astrophysics is exposed. Since the sun gives off proton storms, and the protons in the solar wind are being accelerated away from the sun, it should have been obvious all along that the Sun is the center of an electric field E: Electrical transactions between the Sun, the planets, and the planets' moons are only to be expected in the Electric Universe. Electrical connectivity is thus confirmed by every level of investigation; it is not just the reason for Io's "volcanic" plumes; it is the reason why Saturn's moon Enceladus similarly spews out icy particles in high energy jets; it is why Europa and other moon of Jupiter and Saturn and Uranus display vast networks of channels that can only be explained as electric discharge scars; it is why the planets have teardrop shaped Langmuir sheaths; it is why Mars, moving on an orbit more elliptical than Earth's, is periodically overtaken by global dust storms and Everest-sized "dust devils"; it is why the Earth discharges to space through sprites and elves; it is why remote comets discharge so brilliantly as they approach the inner solar system; it is why "asteroids" can become comets if their orbits are sufficiently eccentric; it is why comets sometimes break up as they move through the Sun's electric field. Once admitted, the Electric Universe will not just alter a few imagined "islands" in space; it will change the picture entirely. Thanks to Michael Armstrong for the primary scientific content in this article. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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X-ray features around Quasar 4C37.43 reveal its high energy transaction with its surroundings. Credit: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Hawaii/A.Stockton et al.
Knowing Too Many Wrong Things

(May 10, 2006)
Once again a quasar exposes the limitations of archaic astronomy. Events around Quasar 4C37.43 point to electric currents in plasma, the one thing that is excluded in standard approaches to astrophysics. Astronomer Halton Arp has said that it's often better not to know one wrong thing than to know many things that are right. An untested assumption masquerading as a known fact will predispose a scientist to dismiss all contrary evidence or to hide it behind a muddle of conjectures. An example is this caption to the image of x-ray activity around a quasar: "Clouds of hot, X-ray producing gas detected by Chandra around the quasars 4C37.43 [shown above] and 3C249.1, provide strong evidence for galactic superwinds, where a quasar in the center of a galaxy has turned on and is expelling gas at high speeds. The X-ray features seen at five, six, ten and eleven o'clock in the 4C37.43 image are located tens of thousands of light years from the central supermassive black hole that powers the quasar. They are likely due to shock waves in the superwind." The press release explains further: "Mergers of galaxies are a possible cause for the ignition, or turn-on, of quasars. Computer simulations show that a galactic merger drives gas toward the central region where it triggers a burst of star formation and provides fuel for the growth of a central black hole. "The inflow of gas into the black hole releases tremendous energy, and a quasar is born. The power output of the quasar dwarfs that of the surrounding galaxy and pushes gas out of the galaxy in a galactic superwind." The caption underscores a series of misconceptions, including the following ideas that do not deserve to be promoted as secure knowledge: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive the idea that plasma is a hot gas and can be described by gas laws, with minor modifications for magnetic effects; the idea that gas can be heated until it gives off x-rays without having any electrical effects; the idea that a wind of charged particles -- even when super-sized -- is not an electric current; the idea that the only way to accelerate charged particles is with mechanical shock waves (and hence double layers don't exist, at least not beyond the travels of spacecraft, which have detected double layers); the idea that densification of matter into stars can only be accomplished with gravitational disturbances, such as mergers and collisions; the idea that spherical shock waves in homogeneous gas clouds can nevertheless produce regular spots and filaments of x-ray emission; the idea that black holes are physical entities, not reified extrapolations of mathematical speculations; the idea that charge separation in space is impossible and electricity, even if present, doesn't do anything.
As illustrated by the creative caption given to the Chandra image above, the information given in the release of "extraordinary" discoveries often belongs more to public relations than to science. It is designed to protect assumptions that are older than the space-age. When seen from another vantage point, the new evidence contradicts the earlier assumptions and accents the role of electricity in space. To determine that this is so, the independent investigator need only refer to decades of research on plasma discharge. Rooted in laboratory experiments and the most sophisticated computer simulations, research into the behavior of electrified plasma now explains the very things that have confounded astronomers and astrophysicists: lightning-like bursts of high-energy radiation; x-ray sources, often paired across active galaxies along their spin axes, whose redshifts decrease stepwise with distance away from the galaxy (the pairs in the above image at five and ten o'clock and at six and eleven o'clock should be investigated further in this regard); "disturbed" and "peculiar" dwarf galaxies and low-luminosity spirals, also often paired across active galaxies and with larger dispersion from spin axes than the x-ray sources, whose redshifts continue the stepwise decrease but with distance toward the galaxy; all this activity is often embedded in and interacting with cells and filaments of radioand x-ray-emitting plasma; the emissions are almost exclusively synchrotron radiation from fast electrons spiraling in magnetic fields, a characteristic of intergalactic Birkeland currents.
If today astrophysics is to address the dramatic discoveries of recent years, there must be an eagerness to question assumptions and examine alternatives. The unlearning of things The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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previously "known" may, in fact, prove to be the greatest challenge to the space sciences in our time. But without this openness, the tendency to protect one's specialized domain can only lead to more science by new release, as astrophysicists continue to elaborate outdated assumptions. The visionary astronomer, Halton Arp, expressed the point eloquently: "After all, to get the whole universe totally wrong in the face of clear evidence for over 75 years merits monumental embarrassment and should induce a modicum of humility." (Halton Arp, "What has Science Come To?" Journal of Scientific Exploration.)
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Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JHU/APL), M. Mutchler and Z. Levay (STScI)
Comet Schwassman-Wachmann 3 Disintegrates (2)-Predictions of the Electric Model

(May 08, 2006)
Worldwide telescopic observations continue to record the catastrophic dissolution of Comet Schwassman-Wachmann 3, offering critical tests of both the standard model and its alternative, the electric comet. Modern instruments are finding secrets of comets that throw accepted theory into turmoil. The appearance of each comet is followed by the appearance of new, often contradictory, models. And rather than help to reconcile the competing and mutually contradictory models, each new discovery seems only to add to the gap between prior theory and actual discovery. Any theory seeking to explain comet behavior must account for the defining attributes of comets. And one peculiarity now on the minds of cometologists is the unpredictable fragmentation of comets, often at distances from the Sun that eliminate the appeal to gravitational stresses on the comet. In fact, eighty percent of comets that split do so when they are far from the Sun, according to Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, authors of the book Comet. Thus the authors conceded, "the problem remains unsolved." Why has Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 fragmented so rapidly in its most recent approach? We know that in its passage in 1995 it broke into at least three fragments. But now "an amazing process of hierarchical destruction is taking place, in which the larger fragments are continuing to break up into smaller chunks." (See ESA movie of the breakup here). Given the surge of attention on the comet, more information will surely be forthcoming in the weeks ahead as observatories begin to announce their findings. But even now the predictions of the electric model contrast so sharply with those of the standard model that we are confident in registering these preliminary observations and predictions-The most noticeable thing is that the comet fragments do not "light up" until they are a considerable distance from the comet nucleus. This is contrary to the argument that the cometary display is due to exposed ices sublimating in sunlight. We should then expect that The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the fragments would expose fresh ices and appear bright from the moment they leave the nucleus. In contrast, the electrical model expects the fragments to be at the same voltage as the parent nucleus, so that they will not begin to discharge and form their own cometary display until they leave the immediate electrical influence of the parent. In addition, the brightness of each fragment will vary as it moves in and out of the current filaments from the parent comet and other fragments. And it will fade as the charge on the fragment is dissipated. At the heart of comet theory is the astronomers' unsubstantiated claim that cometary displays are largely a result of water evaporation. In contrast, electrical theorist Wal Thornhill and his colleagues have repeatedly predicted that the required water levels in the nucleus will not be found. (See summaries here and here;. facts already in hand virtually preclude abundant ices on the nuclei of most comets.) But when astronomers view the comas of comets spectroscopically, their own preconceptions deceive them. They are not seeing water. (If it were there, it would not be visible). What they actually see is the hydroxyl radical (OH), which they assume to be a residue of water (H2O) as it is broken down by the ultraviolet light of the Sun. This assumption is not only unwarranted, it requires a speed of "processing" by solar radiation beyond anything that can be demonstrated experimentally. The explanation for the OH in cometary comas will be found in the energetic exchange between the electrically charged comet and the oppositely charged solar wind. The point was stated in an earlier Picture of the Day: "In the electric model, negative oxygen ions will be accelerated away from the comet in energetic jets, then combine preferentially with protons from the solar wind to form the observed OH radical and the neutral hydrogen gathered around the coma in vast concentric bubbles. The reactions simply confirm the energetic charge exchange between the nucleus and Sun." The fragmentation of comet nuclei provides a telling opportunity to see if the ices that standard theory expects are actually there. But the time to look is in the early stages of an explosive outburst, before charge exchange with the Sun deceives astronomers. The electric model would anticipate that, with each outburst, observatories May record a decline in the relative abundance of water, before they report an increase in water (their interpretation, due to the presence of OH). As recent missions to comets have shown, water is consistently missing from the nuclei of comets but supposedly present in the comas. If the OH is, in fact, being manufactured through reactions with the solar wind, the contradictions are resolved. Due to the electric force acting on the comet fragments their behavior should be carefully observed for gravity-defying accelerations. Factors that need to be taken into account include the speed of separation as new fragments move apart, and the collective gathering of these masses in the general direction of the tail--all in blatant disregard for the rules of gravity. Here is the "explanation" given on the Hubble site: "Sequential Hubble images of the B fragment, taken a few days apart, suggest that the chunks are pushed down the tail by outgassing from the icy, sunward-facing surfaces of the chunks, much like space-walking astronauts are propelled by their jetpacks. The smaller chunks have the lowest mass, and so are accelerated away from the parent nucleus faster than the larger chunks. Some of the chunks seem to dissipate completely over the course of several days." But there is no factual basis for comparing a comet's "jets" to the "jetpacks" of astronauts. In The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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fact, the Hubble statement suggests an obvious experiment that would quickly disabuse astronomers of their notions about cometary jets. Future astronauts should toss some chunks of ice out the door of the space shuttle and see if "jets" created by warming from the Sun move them away from the Sun! The supersonic velocities of the comet's jets have nothing to do with the expelling of gases from imagined internal chambers. We've now visited enough comets to see that the supposed jet chambers do not exist. All of the evidence suggests that material is being excavated electrically, then accelerated into space. In fact, the presence of such energetic jets came as a great surprise to astronomers only because they had never considered the possibility that a comet is a charged body moving through the electric field of the Sun. As noted above, if the explanation given on the Hubble site were correct, we should see the fragments at their brightest as they leave the nucleus. But we don't see them until they are a great distance away from their source. In electrical terms the smaller fragments will naturally accelerate faster because the electric force will be the same on each fragment, regardless of its mass. It might also be worth looking for a relationship between solar outbursts and flaring of fragments. The electrical model would expect some occurrence of simultaneous outbursts of separated fragments. The old school would have a hard time explaining that. Since we have identified the mechanism of comet disintegration as that of an exploding capacitor, the stresses to the mechanisms operating in earthquakes. In our Picture of the Day, "Sunspots and Earthquakes" we noted: "All that is required to trigger the comet fragmentation is an electrical breakdown within the comet. In this sense, it May be analogous to the electrical breakdown evident in an earthquake. And that breakdown in the comet May happen with any sudden change in the solar plasma environment. The more sudden the change in the comet's electrical environment, the more likely that flaring and fragmentation will occur."
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Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 Disintegrates

(May 05, 2006)
It is happening for "no apparent reasons," scientists say, but the comet SchwassmannWachmann 3 has been rapidly breaking apart, provoking another round of secondguessing by astronomers. The images above, captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, are the best pictures yet of an event that has astronomers scratching their heads. The comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, otherwise known as Comet 73P, is disintegrating in front of their eyes. But what is the cause of this extraordinary event? Not one of the theoretical surmises offered so far has satisfied the community of astronomers as a whole. From all standard vantage points such an event presents inherent--some would say insurmountable--dilemmas. Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, first observed in 1930 and named after its two German discoverers, completes an orbit every 5.4 years. Following its discovery it was little more than a footnote in comet science until 1995. The first appearance of the comet that year was so bright that astronomers hailed it as a new comet. But as it turned out, the "newcomer" was Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, presenting itself in more glorious dress than ever before, despite the fact that conditions were not favorable. It was 150 million miles away, but shining hundreds of times more brightly than expected. In early 1996 astronomers discovered that the comet had fragmented into at least three pieces, an occurrence clearly linked to the spectacular brightening, though no one could say what caused the event. It also appeared as if one or more of the pieces was breaking into secondary fragments. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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When the comet returned in 2000 it was again brighter than expected, with indications that the disintegration was continuing--or even accelerating. And now, with its most recent appearance, the best Hubble images show dozens of fragments, suggesting the possibility of complete dissolution in a single remaining passage around the Sun. Meanwhile, the "explanations" proposed for the comet's catastrophic fate can only diminish confidence in today's comet science. Even in the face of falsifying discoveries, the specialists appear unwilling to reconsider their theoretical starting point. One astronomer, from the Sydney Observatory, offered this explanation of the comet's fragmentation: "It's like pouring hot coffee into a glass that's been in the fridge. The glass shatters from the shock." But there is no rational comparison of the two phenomena. Any explanation by resort to "thermal stress" must provide for heat transfer rapidly through thousands of feet of insulating material, something inconceivable even if you ignore the deep freeze of the vacuum through which the comet is moving, with its sunward face continually changing due to rotation. Another astronomer, from University of Western Ontario, suggested, "The most likely explanation is thermal stress, with the icy nucleus cracking like an ice cube dropped into hot soup." All that this "explanation" requires is a little home experiment. The ice cube will not shatter explosively, or any way display effects comparable to the disintegration of Schwassmann- Wachmann 3--not even if dropped into boiling water. It will melt. And no matter what a comet is composed of, the heat transfer the "theory" implies for a mile-wide solid object is beyond all reason. In addition to citing possible "thermal stresses," the Hubble Space Telescope website offers other possibilities as to why comets might disintegrate so explosively--"They can also fly apart from rapid rotation of the nucleus, or explosively pop apart like corks from champagne bottles due to the outburst of trapped volatile gases." But the centrifugal forces acting on comet nuclei are close to zero. And to posit heating in the middle of a mile-wide dirty ice cube is, again, scientifically indefensible. Perhaps then, Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 "was shattered by a hit from a small interplanetary boulder?" offered one of the astronomers quoted above. "But make that a series of one-in-a-trillion hits," mused a critic of today's comet science. "That way we can explain the continuing fragmentation over years." Comet science is indeed in trouble, and it is particularly dismaying to see spokesmen for the Hubble site announcing that their telescope May help to "reveal which of these breakup mechanisms are contributing to the disintegration of 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3." Neither NASA, nor the Hubble folks in particular will find evidence for any of the "hypotheses" offered, say the electrical theorists. From an electrical viewpoint the periodic breakup of comets is no surprise. Fragmentation and disintegration illustrate the same dynamic forces observed in the "surprising" outbursts of comets. Electrical outbursts and complete disintegration are merely matters of degree in a discharging or exploding capacitor, which is exactly what an "active comet" is in the electrical interpretation. A capacitor, one of the most commonly used devices in electrical engineering, stores electrical charge between layers of insulating material. And that is what a comet moving through regions of different charge will do--it will store electric charge. A comet nucleus can be compared to the insulating material, the dielectric, in a capacitor. As charge is exchanged from the comets surface to the solar "wind" (actually an electrically active plasma), electrical The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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energy is stored in the nucleus in the form of charge polarization. This can easily build up intense mechanical stress in the comet nucleus, which May be released catastrophically. And just as a capacitor can explode when its insulation suffers rapid breakdown, a comet can do precisely the same. As suggested by electrical theorist Wallace Thornhill, "comets break up not because they are chunks of ice 'warming' in the Sun, and not because they are loose aggregations of smaller bodies, but because of electrical discharge within the nucleus itself." Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, first observed in 1930 and named after its two German discoverers, has never put on a spectacular display comparable to such "Great Comets" of the twentieth century as Halley, Hale-Bopp, and Hyakutake. It is a short-period comet: for electrical theorists that means a lower-voltage comet--and, as a rule, less drama. Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 completes an orbit every 5.4 years. Its path takes it from just beyond the orbit of Jupiter to inside the orbit of Earth. But it does not visit the more remote regions of the solar system, while the spectacular "Great Comets" spend long periods adjusting in that more negative environment of the Sun's domain before racing sunward. What Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 does exhibit, however, is a highly elliptical (elongated) orbit, so in electrical terms that means more rapid transit through the Sun's electric field and more intense stresses on the capacitor than would be the case were the comet moving on a less eccentric path between the regions of Jupiter's and Earth's orbits. The comet is presently headed toward perihelion, or closest approach to the Sun (within 87.3 million miles), on June 6. Well before then, on May 12th it will pass within 7.3 million miles of Earth. Though that is roughly 30 times the distance of the Moon from Earth, many earthbound and space telescopes should capture images of the comet in sufficient resolution to provide additional critical tests of the electrical model.
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Aorounga Crater 3DPlanetary and Space Science Centre (PASSC) University of New Brunswick, Canada Credit: Dr. Carlos Roberto de Souza Filho
Aorounga Crater
(May 03, 2006)
Satellite radar images of the Sahara desert north of Chad have revealed the presence of craters not easily noticed in normal aerial photographs. But the cause of these formations May lie outside the lexicon of standard geology today. The Aorounga crater in the three-dimensional image above is almost 19 miles (31 kilometers) in diameter. And it does not stand alone in the Saharan desert. Its coordinates are, N 19 6' E 19 15', while the Kebira structure we discussed earlier can be found at N 24 30' E 25 0'. Both craters lie within an area of chaotic terrain that closely resembles the surface of Mars. (See Google Map) Another formation, the Oasis crater, can be seen slightly west of Kebira in the satellite image. Some of the more interesting aspects of Aorounga are the "implausible" parallel grooves and ridges that run through the surrounding landscape, as well as through the crater itself. Wallace Thornhill and other advocates of the "Electric Universe" see these as one of the more common signatures of electrical arcing on rocky bodies in the solar system. The deep gouges and scalloped cliffs are reminiscent of Martian features that electrical theorists identify as scars left by electric arcs. The crater pattern is also eerily similar to the unexplained "pedestal craters" on Mars imaged by NASA orbiters--even the floors of many such craters stand higher the surrounding terrain. (Example from the Mars Global Surveyor seen here.) The press release from Boston University listed the Kebira formation as "millions of years old," corresponding to the dates fixed for other areas of the Gilf Kebir Plateau. But, is that the case? Could intense electromagnetic bombardment influence the apparent age accepted by the scientific community? The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The most common dating method is by measuring the isotopic ratios of particular elements. For example, uranium 235 decays into lead 207 with a half-life of 700 million years. That means, when the rock was first formed, it contained a fixed quantity of uranium 235 and every 700 million years thereafter it will exhibit half the amount of uranium 235 and an increasing amount of lead 207. Because a mineral samples age depends on that sample existing today exactly as when it was initially formed, if it has been affected by radioactivity, or heat, or a blast or electricity, any measurement of its age will be inaccurate. Therefore, if a multi-billion joule electric discharge, sufficient to excavate a crater 19 miles in diameter were to strike the earth, the gamma and xray pulses would drastically alter the decay rate, the isotopic ratios and, perhaps, form new elements within the rocks. For these and other reasons presented in these Pictures of the Day, it is not unreasonable to ask if Kebira and its surrounding craters May be the remains of electrical events, perhaps occurring in a more recent past than geologists have previously imagined. Contributed by Stephen Smith
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Composite X-ray (blue) and radio (pink) image of the galaxy cluster Abell 400. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/AIfA/D.Hudson & T.Reiprich et al.; Radio: NRAO/VLA/NRL
Two "Black Holes"?

(May 01, 2006)
It seems that Abell 400, a galaxy cluster that has long enchanted astronomers, is provoking a new round of speculations, with little regard for the separation of fact and fiction. The picture above combines X-ray and radio images of the galaxy cluster Abell 400. According to the press release from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the composite "shows radio jets immersed in a vast cloud of multimillion degree X-ray emitting gas that pervades the cluster." "The jets emanate from the vicinity of two super-massive black holes (bright spots in the image). The peculiar dumbbell structure of this galaxy is thought to be due to two large galaxies that are in the process of merging." Any substance with a temperature of "multimillion" degrees cannot possibly be a gas: It will be a completely ionized plasma. What the press release doesnt say is that the X-rays in such cases are almost exclusively synchrotron radiation, not thermal radiation. That means the Xrays are emitted by very fast electrons spiraling in a strong magnetic field. The Abell 400 galaxies are under extreme electrical stress. But electricity is not something astronomers are eager to hear about. They are not fond of electrical currents in space, because the possibility that electricity generates large scale structure is alien to their theoretical models. To generate the observed levels of energy seen The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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in Abell 400--using nothing but the puny force of gravity--more matter would have to be squeezed into a galaxy than a galaxy could hold. But the theorists are mathematicians, and they work with equations, not with real objects. This permits them to ignore empirical limits on density and let the amount of matter per unit volume increase without limit: The "neutron stars" and "black holes" conjured through this mathematical license can be placed wherever needed to explain away the stunning and potentially embarrassing energy excesses. The galaxies would still have to be large. But because of the two "close" bright spots, astronomers now speculate about "colliding black holes" that could form a "single supersupermassive black hole" in a few million years--a mathematicians delight whether or not anything of this sort actually occurs in the natural world. But photographs of Abell clusters -- there are over 4000 such clusters -- point to a different conclusion. Halton Arp, the Galileo of the twentieth century, has shown that several are aligned along the spine of the Virgo Cluster. Their x-ray contours are elongated toward nearby active galaxies, and these galaxies often have jets directed toward the Abell clusters. Some members of the Abell clusters are paired with a quasar or a BL Lac (a kind of fragmented quasar) across an active galaxy, presenting astronomers with a now-familiar paradox. Because quasars and their kin are small and faint and have rather larger redshifts than the active galaxies, convention assumes they are large and bright but far away. But as Arp points out, Hubble diagrams for Abell clusters have enormous dispersion, placing the astronomers' assumptions about redshift in doubt: "[T]here is no redshift-apparent magnitude relation for these clusters like that which is claimed to demonstrate a redshift-distance relation." [Seeing Red, p. 154] And their association with active galaxies suggests that they are "grown up" BL Lacs -- that they are not far away, but actually small and faint and close to the nearby active galaxy. Arp discusses this issue at length in his book, Seeing Red. Abell 400 is particularly interesting because it lies along the line of Local Group objects extending from the minor axis of M31 (the Andromeda galaxy), through M33, to 3C120 (the active galaxy with the "faster-than-light" jet). Along that line are also nebulous clouds "obviously interacting" with higher-redshift dwarf and low-luminosity spiral galaxies, strong radio and x-ray sources, and quasar groupings. Arp suggests that the objects in this line have been ejected from M31, as May have been our own galaxy. The Abell 400 cluster would be a part of the "umbilicus'"that still connects us with our "mother," M31. Submitted by Mel Acheson
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Sinohydrosaurus lingyuanensis, first formally described and named in 1999, is said to have lived in the Cretaceous Period 125 million years ago. Photo credit: Rens van der Sluijs
Ossified Dragon Theories

(Apr 28, 2006)
If there is a prevailing theory about dragons, perhaps it is the oft-repeated claim that reptilian species alive or extinctlurk behind the mythical image. But closer scrutiny casts doubt on such theories, while pointing to the similarities between the dragon and the life-like forms of plasma discharge. The idea of a reptilian 'prototype' of the fabulous dragon comes in various forms, all of which have their proponents. Many students of dragon lore have suggested that the instinctive fear of snakes led to irrational, exaggerated accounts of a harmful serpent of mythical proportions; or perhaps the confrontation of prehistoric people with snakes triggered archaic, deeplyrooted and genetically-encoded memories of a time when distant Mammalian ancestors were on top of the Dinosaurian menu. Alternatively, some propose that the ancient myth-makers inferred the existence of these monsters from the fossilized bones of dinosaurs they happened upon (see pictured above); or 'living fossils', the rare survivors of a once more widespread kind, could have provided the impetus; or so-called 'cryptids', reported but officially undiscovered animals, May have formed the inspiration behind the fantastic stories. In reality, all such interpretations do little justice to the elaborate profile of the mythical dragon as consistently provided in scores of age-old traditions around the world. The only rational way to answer the question of the dragon's origins is to start with a comparative analysis of the recurrent themes in dragon mythology. This approach, no matter The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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how rudimentary, immediately reveals a number of archetypal traits that grow in clarity and intensity as you go further back in time, drawing closer to an extraordinary pan-human experience that May have provoked dragon mythology: 1. Within each culture, the dragon, whether celebrated or feared, tends to be one of a kind. Although it May have relatives or offspring, or be accompanied by a like-minded brood, the myth centers on a particular monster with a unique name, such as the Greek Typhon or Python, the Indian Vritra, or the Babylonian Tiamat. If serpents and dinosaurs informed the image, it is hard to see how the collective features of a thousand specimens could have fused into a single, personified character. Indeed, the detailed agreements between the descriptions of the dragon in multifarious cultures strongly suggest that a single prototype--or certainly no more than a handful--spawned the many traditions. Theories suggesting parallel, incidental mythologizations of snakes and palaeontological finds fail to account for the unity of the dragon archetype. 2. In mythology, the dragon's natural habitat is not the surface of the earth, but the sky. It is a monster of cosmic dimensions. That some species of snakes have the ability to 'leap' seems hardly relevant. On the other hand, if long-extinct species, such as Pterodactyls, had provoked the image, one ought to be consistent and derive all other aspects of the flying dragon from this particular class of dinosaur. 3. The dragons populating the world of myth have a universal and as yet unexplained relationship with fire. Apart from the dragons notorious propensity to spew forth flames, numerous reports stress the fiery composition of the entire creature. Once again, the natural behavior of reptiles does not even begin to illuminate this aspect of the myths. 4. Paradoxically, the mythical dragon is also at home in water, and although many types of snake populate seas and rivers, the astute scholar recognizes that the aquatic abode of the mythical serpent is the primordial abyss out of which the world was said to have been created. In fact, specialists have often noted that the dragon in some archaic traditions--including those concerning the Babylonian monster Tiamat, the Ugaritic Yamm, and Gaulcovang of the Kogi people of Colombia--embodies these primordial waters. 5. Converging traditions from far-flung cultures identify the dragon or serpent as the first entity to appear in the primeval chaos and the creative genius that shaped the cosmos. Needless to say, ordinary reptiles do nothing to justify this extraordinary claim. 6. Myths, notably accounts of the 'creation' of the world, emphasize specific forms taken by the dragon, such as a concentric spiral, a helix or a double helix, or the ouroboros. Snakes, of course, are capable to produce all those forms, and certain fossils like Sinohydrosaurus lingyuanensis, shown above remind us of the circular serpent, but explain neither the significance of the mythical forms, especially in connection with the acts of creation, nor the ancient insistence on seven or nine coils. 7. Over and over again, traditional societies have recognized the mythical dragon in the lightning, comets, meteors, the auroras, and even the Milky Way. This common thread suggests glowing formations or streaks of light across the sky, a nuance that can only underscore the contrast between the dragon and the most obvious features of earthbound reptiles. The list above is not complete, but suffices to demonstrate that the mythical dragon cannot The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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have originated in response to 'primitive' people's observation of a local animal species. The reverse, however, is difficult to deny: the appearance and behavior of certain reptiles often reminded ancient storytellers of the great dragon so central to their cultural heritage, and this association May indeed have colored their descriptions of that creature. But the archetype of the dragon--one of the most profound influences on early cultures the world over--clearly preceded the secondary links with particular reptilian species. Visible plasma is the common denominator in lightning, comet tails, and auroras. In its filamentary, toroidal, spiraling, and helical formations, high energy plasma discharge does in fact replicate the morphology of the dragon. So it is not surprising to discover that comparative study also finds similarities between the sequential order of the dragon myth and well-documented sequences of plasma discharge. Researchers interested in the connection between plasma discharge and ancient mythology are now suggesting that the earths plasma environment has been considerably more active in the past, characterized by something akin to todays auroral activity, but far more intense, and perhaps associated with such atmospheric and climatological extremes--even earthshaking events--as would seem to have concluded a geological 'era'. The idea, though radical, would go a long way towards explaining the dragons archetypal link with the destruction of an old world or the creation of a new one. Like the reptilian paradigm, the plasma interpretation draws on a symbolical representation of the elements of nature and therefore belongs in the 'naturalist' school of myth, though the plasma explanation looks to forces of a much more impressive magnitude than an ancient encounter with a snake or a fossil. Contributed by Rens van der Sluijs
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The European Space Agency recently revealed this illustration of galactic regions as part of its announcement of the new GIRAFFE spectroscope for analyzing motions of objects in space. The second column shows the enigmatic "velocity fields" deduced from GIRAFFE observations. Credit: ESO/FLAMES-GIRAFFE/VLT
Galaxies Behaving Badly

(Apr 26, 2006)
Results from GIRAFFE, a new spectroscope attached to the Very Large Telescope, have caught astronomers by surprise--again. It seems that many galaxies do not behave in the ways theoreticians expected. The European Space Agency (ESO) spectroscope GIRAFFE was recently installed as part of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. Francois Hammer, a leader of the investigating team, reports it has given astronomers their first opportunity to obtain simultaneous spectra of discrete areas within large objects in space--nebulae, galaxies, and even galaxy clusters. "GIRAFFEis the only instrument in the world that is able to analyze simultaneously the light coming from 15 galaxies covering a field of view almost as large as the full moon," said Mathieu Puech, lead author of a recent paper presenting the results. The technology is extraordinary, but the investigators' theoretical assumptions can only invite more contradictions and unanswered questions. The astronomers say that GIRAFFE enables them to determine the velocities of small areas within distant galaxies. But this claim is based on the most shaky assumption of the Big Bang theory--that the redshift of a galaxy provides a reliable measure of velocity and, therefore, of distance. It is assumed that 'highredshift galaxies' means 'distant galaxies'. Of course, the farther away a galaxy is, the longer time its light must travel to reach us. Therefore, distant galaxies should show us what the universe looked like long ago. The illustration above gives results obtained with GIRAFFE on 'distant' galaxies. (See larger illustration here). The first column shows images obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The second column is the "velocity field" deduced from GIRAFFE observations: the reddish parts "show material moving away from us with respect to the mean velocity of the galaxy, while the blue parts are moving towards us." The scale in kilometers per second is shown on the right. The last column is a map of electron density per cubic centimeter. The first object "corresponds to a spiral galaxy forming stars at a frantic rate of 100 solar masses per year." The electron density map allows the astronomers to localize the region of star formation as the black region on the left. The second object, the investigators say, is a galaxy that is clearly "out of balance" and therefore shows "a very perturbed velocity field." The third object appears to show an outflow--"matter being ejected perpendicular to the plane of the galaxy." The investigators did not see what they expected. They report that GIRAFFE brought "the surprising discovery that as much as 40% of distant galaxies were 'out of balance'--their internal motions were very disturbed--a possible sign that they are still showing the aftermath of collisions between galaxies." Or perhaps their theoretical starting point (their assumptions about redshift) has already led the GIRAFFE team astray. Astronomer Halton Arp -- and by now many others -- have shown that high-redshift galaxies typically cluster around and are companions of lower-redshift galaxies. If these critics are correct, there is something fundamentally wrong with astronomers' unyielding assumptions about redshift. Arp has repeatedly pointed out that redshifted galaxies often reveal 'peculiar' features indicating a 'disturbed' state. The observational evidence suggests they are young galaxies in the process of development from quasars. And quasars, the most strongly redshifted objects in the sky, are not the exceedingly remote objects astronomers have assumed: They were born by ejection from active galactic nuclei. As newborn quasars age, they begin to look like normal galaxies and their redshifts drop in 'quantized' steps (jumping from one level down to another). Like Arp, a growing number of plasma cosmologists say that conventional astronomers, in applying Big Bang assumptions, are misinterpreting the galaxies' youth as distance. They are misinterpreting 'disturbed' motions as 'out of balance' dynamics. And because of their severely limited toolkit, they invariably cite (what else could it be!) 'collisions', with barely a thought as to the contradiction posed by incessant galactic collisions in an ever-expanding Big Bang universe. Plasma cosmologists see a much different universe. Recognizing that 99% of the universe is plasma, they see ejecting parent galaxies, their infant quasars, and their peculiar adolescent galaxies as normal and coherent activities of electricity in space. To observe the electrical properties of plasma is to recognize that electrical forces can easily and often overwhelm gravitational forces. The conventional appeal to dark matter is an excuse for the failure of gravitational theory to account for galactic motions-"Dark matter, which composes about 25% of the Universe, is a simple word to describe something we really don't understand," said Hector Flores, co-leader of the team investigating the 'distant galaxies'. "From looking at how galaxies rotate, we know that dark matter must be present, as otherwise these gigantic structures would just dissolve." But decades of laboratory experiments and computer simulations have demonstrated that the observed galactic structure and rotation are predictable results of plasma interactions. In a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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plasma universe, the astronomers' dark matter is simply faulty perception. It is not the galaxies, but the theory that "would just dissolve" in the light of recent observations, were the data considered objectively. Archaic assumptions, formulated long before the emergence of the new technologies, are the greatest constraint on scientific progress today.
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Landsat image of Kebira Crater in Egypt's Western desert, near the border with Libya. Credit: Boston University Center for Remote Sensing
Libya's Kebira Crater

Apr. 24, 2006)
A huge crater in the Sahara desert, said to be the largest one ever found in the region, and dwarfing Arizona's "Meteor Crater," poses new questions for geologists. Is the crater related to the origins of the mysterious "desert glass" in the region? Scientists suggest that a meteorite impact millions of years ago is the cause of the giant crater imaged above. Recently discovered in satellite images of the area, the crater lies in Egypt's western desert. It is some 19 miles (31kilometers) wide and is said to be the impact site of a meteoric intruder perhaps three-fourths of a mile (1.2 kilometers) in diameter. The crater itself is more than 25 times the size of Arizona's famous Meteor Crater. But over time, erosion by wind and water largely obscured the ancient scar. One intriguing aspect of the discovery is its close association with a mysterious field of yellowgreen glass, broken into large chunks, littering the dunes in the Great Sand Sea of southwestern Egypt. The first report of the yellow-green "desert glass" came from Patrick Clayton in 1932, following his excursion through the Saad Plateau near the Kebira Crater site. At the time, the origin of the glass was unknown: There was no evidence of geological forces that could have melted the silica sand into glass. With Kebiras discovery, a hypothetical source for the glass is now available. Geologists speculate that the glass originated as ejecta from the Kebira impact. It is thought that the meteor strike imparted so much energy to the surrounding silica sand that it was The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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melted and then explosively hurled outward, solidifying and fracturing into shards, as depicted here. Although the glass is most likely a result of Kebira, the method by which it was created is open to question. The glass is too pure some of the purest natural silica glass ever found. If the glass shards are tektites (melted slag from volcanoes or meteor impacts), they should include the presence of other minerals. The glass does exhibit small internal bubbles that include other elements. One of those elements is iridium, the presence of which indicates an extra-terrestrial origin, according to prevailing theories (see Alvarez, Luis W., et al. "Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction: Experimental Results and Theoretical Interpretation." Science 208 (1980) 1095-1108). However, the glass reveals no evidence of other minerals found in the region, such as halite and alumina. Another area where this type of glass May be found is atomic test sites.
If the explosion of a solid object, like a meteor, did not form the glass, then there remains one other method available--an enormous electrical discharge. The glass shards, then, are the remains of large fulgurites. Fulgurites are created when bolts of lightning strike refractory minerals in the earth, instantaneously smelting the minerals into other forms, such as cristobalite. The yellow-green glass does, in fact, contain cristobalite inclusions, along with the iridium and other platinum family elements. If one grants the power of a lightning bolt large enough to form an impact site some 19 miles in diameter, then additional possibilities must also be considered. Electrical theorists have long claimed that highly energetic electric discharge transmutes elements--a process that is going on all the time on the surface of stars, they contend. The same thing is implied on Jupiter's moon Io, where electric discharge appears to be continuously transmuting oxygen from water ice into sulfur. (The association of energetic lightning strikes with a "sulfurous stench" is much more than an old wives' tale, the electrical theorists say). Is the Kebira site the scar of a cosmic thunderbolt? If so, new directions of investigation will be essential. Contributed by Stephen Smith
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This image, taken from the space shuttle Columbia two weeks before its disastrous reentry, depicts a previously unobserved phenomenon in the upper atmosphere, a Transient Ionospheric Glow Emission in Red, or TIGER. Credit: Yoav Yair, Open University.
Columbia Shuttle Disaster Revisited (3)--The Realities of Megalightning

(Apr 21, 2006)
Some have dubbed it the "ignorosphere" because it has been largely ignored during the space age. But the upper atmosphere now reveals electrical phenomena that are critical to the safety of future astronauts. When the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas on February 1, 2003 during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, the stage was set for an urgent reevaluation of space shuttle safety. NASA set in motion an intensive investigation, culminating in a massive "Accident Investigation Report." The report appears to have left little question as to the cause. The investigators had quickly zeroed in on an early suspicion. The report noted that, as the Space Shuttle lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 16, a small portion of foam broke away from the external fuel tank and struck the orbiter's left wing. The impact apparently created a hole in the wing's leading edge, which caused the vehicle to break apart under the stresses of reentry. Such a hole was not observed directly, but experiments after the accident verified the possibility of such damage, and such damage seems consistent with progressive warnings and related problems the shuttle encountered in its reentry just prior to its disastrous breakup. Critics have found little to quibble with in the report, with one exception. The discussion of electrical phenomena, reserved for Appendix D.5 to Volume II, addressed the 'space weather' at the time of Columbia's re-entry, but failed to address any issue relating to the electric field of the Earth and the inherent problems this field could pose for shuttle safety. While mentioning "a photograph that claimed to show a lightning bolt striking Columbia at an altitude of 230,000 feet over California during re-entry," NASA never made the original high-resolution The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive photograph available and never provided any analysis supporting its conclusion that the purplish corkscrew merging with the plasma trail of Columbia, was caused by a camera "jiggle."
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While we can accept the possibility of a camera jiggle as the culprit, we have given our reasons for skepticism. If NASA's interpretation is correct, the justification of the interpretation, based on information it possesses and we dont, should be a simple matter. But one photograph, no analysis, and no demonstration of NASA's interpretation, can only breed doubts. Those who consider it dangerous to ignore Earth's electric field are dismayed by NASA's response. Over several decades, NASA and space program officials have exhibited little interest in atmospheric, upper atmospheric, and near-Earth electrical phenomena--until they were caught by surprise. The organization was caught by surprise when the Apollo 12 craft was struck by lightning in 1969. The first occasion occurred 36 seconds after liftoff, at an altitude of about 6,500 feet (2,000 meters), setting off the master alarm. The second occurred 52 seconds into the mission at an altitude of about 14,500 feet (4,400 meters), shutting down both the navigation system and telemetry contact with Mission Control in Houston. In the absence of communication, engineers on the ground did not know that the spacecraft had been struck by lightning. At that moment, the flight director contemplated a potentially disastrous abort command. Though all ended satisfactorily with the Apollo 12 mission, the unexpected lightning blasts were a turning point, and NASA immediately changed its policy to preclude launches in adverse weather conditions (storm clouds in the vicinity). From the beginning of the space age until the late 1980s, not just NASA but meteorologists as a whole paid little attention to reports of weird lighting flashes above thunderclouds--until the reports became too numerous to be ignored. That is how scientists eventually became interested enough to look at satellite pictures already taken--over many years--to document the existence of "transient luminous events" called 'red sprites', 'blue jets', and 'elves'. These phenomena, now fully acknowledged, occur at elevations that were systematically ignored due to prior beliefs about "what makes lightning": The electrical discharges take place between the lower ionosphere and the tops of storm clouds. From this interest also emerged the recent study of 'positive' lightning--perhaps ten times as powerful as ordinary 'negative' lightning and powerful enough to have emerged as a prime suspect in more than one air disaster. "Some experts fear some forms [of positive lightning] May eventually be found to be the culprit in a number of mystery disasters involving airliners and space craft," reports ion specialist Guy Cramer (see below). Even before the Columbia disaster, NASA had launched an investigation of the dangers of megalightning. According to Cramer, "the investigators recommended a six-fold increase in the resilience of some aircraft construction materials to protect fully against the powers of this positively charged super-lightning which can fire above the clouds to a height more than 20 times that of Mount Everest." There is good reason for the concern. A September 7, 2003 report by Sabin Russell of the San Francisco Chronicle notes that in June 5, 1989, an upper-atmospheric electrical discharge struck a high-altitude NASA balloon 129,000 feet above Dallas, Texas. Scientists had long said that nothing of the sort could occur because the atmosphere was too thin 50 miles above the Earth. The result of the blast was 'an uncommanded payload release' and much of the debris landed in an angry Dallas resident's front yard. Investigators found scorch The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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marks on the debris and considered it one of the first bits of solid evidence that sprites exist (the altitude of the balloon was much higher than the tops of storm clouds). As a result of the accident, NASA no longer flies balloons over thunderstorms. More than a decade ago, Walter Lyons, a consultant with FMA Research Inc. in Fort Collins, Colorado, conducted a study of sprite danger for NASA. "We concluded that there is about 1 chance in 100 that a shuttle could fly through a sprite. What impact, we didn't know for certain. It didn't appear at this time that the energy would be enough to cause problems." There is also abundant evidence, previously noted in these pages, of electrical discharge and electrophonic effects in the displays of meteoric visitors at "astonishingly" high altitudes. The meteors' plasma trails provide a conductive path for the discharge. So we are not surprised to find that, as reported by Russell, scientists have "observed interactions between a blue jet and a meteor." In December 1999, Los Alamos National Laboratories researcher David Suszcynsky and colleagues (including Walter Lyons) published an account of a meteor that apparently triggered a sprite. "It was a singular observation that had us all scratching our heads," said Lyons. When a strong bolt of lightning occurs, electrical effects can also be seen in the Van Allen radiation belt some 4000 miles above the Earth's surface. This is possible only because space is not a vacuum but a sea of plasma. Our Earth is a charged body in that sea, and its electric field, though weak in terms of small distances (say, ten meters), extends far into space. When short-circuited over larger distances (a few miles) by a conducting wire or conductive stream of more dense plasma (plasma trail of a meteor or a space shuttle), the dangers of electrical arcing should be obvious. But such considerations are absent from the standard picture of space. When NASA officials planned to have astronauts unravel a 12-mile-long 'space tether', they were just thinking of harnessing energy in Earth's magnetic field. For the electrical theorists, the dangers are all too obvious. The experiment was conducted on February 25, 1996. But before the experiment could be completed, the shuttle-end of the tether exploded. "The nature of the break suggested it was not caused by excessive tension, but rather that an electric current had melted the tether." The "official" explanation shows how a leak of air through pinholes in the tether insulation could form a dense plasma around the tether that could carry a high current. The question remains whether this was sufficient to cause the tether to 'flash-over' to the Shuttle and to separate. The investigation assumed that electrical power from the tether was available solely from its movement through the Earth's magnetic field. No account was taken of the electric discharge activity that we now know extends between thunderstorms and space. Such discharges have a sudden onset, which May not register on instruments before catastrophic damage is done. We confidently predict that future attempts to deploy electrical tethers in space will meet the same fate. They are the equivalent of a 20 km lightning rod extended above the ionosphere. In noting the limits of human knowledge of the ionosphere Lyons observed that, "There are other things up there that we probably don't know about. Every time we look in that part of the atmosphere, we find something totally new." The remark was prescient. Just two weeks before the Columbia disaster, Ilan Ramon recorded an unusual occurrence--an instantaneous red flash in the upper atmosphere just The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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south of Madagascar over the Indian Ocean. (See picture above). It could not be caught with the naked eye, but it was caught by a specially-filtered camera lens, and the specialists examining the image have excluded camera tricks or artifacts as a cause. Because it suggests an unfamiliar lightning form, researchers named it a 'Transient Ionospheric Glow Emission in Red', or a 'TIGER'. "What we saw was new stuff, which surprised us," says Yoav Yair, a scientist with Open University in Israel and lead author on a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters. Reports of the TIGER, though largely unpublicized, caught the attention of a specialist in atmospheric ions, Guy Cramer, who had performed consulting services to NASA the year before the Columbia disaster. Cramer had also been notified of the now-infamous photograph of the "purplish corkscrew" merging with Columbia's plasma trail. Based on his analysis, Cramer concluded the following: "The reason the experts and CAIB dismissed the San Francisco (corkscrew lightning) photo was the lack of thunderclouds in the region and no other objective examples of this new form of lightning. My review of the TIGER event shows a similar pattern to the San Francisco photo--no thunderclouds in the region and a corkscrew bolt" "The TIGER event also has a corkscrew behind it, difficult to see but it's there (I did some enhancement on the entire picture to better show the corkscrew) which starts right under the T in the word TIGER and travels left to right. Air ions charges do corkscrew with altitude as per my research in the Southern Hemisphere Study 1990 "If the Shuttle was struck by a high altitude lightning event(s) on re-entry this doesn't mean that there wasn't already wing damage, in-fact damage to the leading edge at MACH 18 and the resulting buildup of charge from the damaged area May have triggered this event as can be seen in the direction of the strike from the left side of the contrail, however, given the expected voltages of a lightning event at altitude and conductive material of the RCC panels May have turned the damaged area from a minor problem (where the shuttle May have been able to land) into catastrophic damage." In concluding this review, we wish to emphasize again that our purpose is not to render a verdict on a disputed photograph, but to draw attention to the rapidly mounting evidence of an 'electric Earth'. Anything less than an open inquiry is a disservice both to the public and to science.
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The excited hydrogen in this Spitzer Space Telescope image of Stephan's Quintet suggests interactions that should not be occurring under standard assumptions of astronomers.
Stephans Quintet Rekindles Controversy

(Apr 19, 2006)
New images of the clustered galaxies of Stephan's Quintet suggest interactions that should not be taking place. Astronomers have long assumed that one of the galaxies is far too close to us to physically interact with the more "remote" members of the group. Stephan's Quintet is a famous group of five galaxies discovered by Edouard Stephan in 1877 at Marseille Observatory. Because the group is tangled in filaments of matter from each other, astronomers assumed they were near each other and were interacting. (For orientation, see the overlay of ground-based and Hubble Space Telescope images here.) The cluster sparked a controversy in the '60s when Geoffrey and Margaret Burbridge obtained spectra of the constituent galaxies. The galaxies' shift toward red on the spectrum suggested (based on expanding-universe assumptions) that all but one are receding from Earth at about the same velocity (~6000 km/s). The 'discordant' galaxy (NGC 7320) is centered at the bottom of the Hubble image. Its redshift suggests it is receding much less rapidly (~800 km/s) and therefore must be considerably closer to us. Astronomers such as the Burbidges and Halton Arp argued that the discordant redshift of this galaxy invalidates the cornerstone of Big Bang and expanding-universe cosmology: the assumption that redshift gives a reliable basis for calculating velocity and deducing present distance. For many years the issue was downplayed, but the contradictions couldn't be resolved. Then, in the year 2000, based on images from the Hubble space telescope, expandinguniverse astronomers claimed individual stars could only be seen in the 'close' galaxy, NGC 7320, thereby proving that NGC 7320 lay in front of the four interacting background galaxies. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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But this was not the end of the story. As can be seen in the Hubble image (linked above), the 'close' galaxy does indeed show more details than the cores of the other members of the group. But it is also apparent that the resolution of NGC 7320 and the interaction debris encircling the 'background galaxies' NGC 7318A and B reveal comparable levels of detail and 'clumpiness'. This would argue strongly in favor of the galaxies being sufficiently close to interact. One of the most remarkable aspects of Stephans Quintet is the long non-thermal radiocontinuum structure lying in intergalactic space between the galaxies. It is also visible in Xrays and UV, and recently it was imaged in infrared by the Spitzer telescope and H-alpha emission. The picture above is a composite. It clearly shows the giant arc-like 'shock wave' (in green from H-alpha emission) that astronomers interpret as the effect of a collision between NGC 7318B and the rest of the group. Of course, 'shock wave' is not the language that would be used by plasma cosmologists or proponents of the Electric Universe. The tantalizing image is the result of work by a team of scientists from USA, Germany, and Australia, utilizing the super-sensitive infrared spectrograph of the Spitzer Space Telescope. It detects the abundance of excited hydrogen molecules emitting a distinctive type of radiation that can be detected in the infrared. In standard cosmology, astronomers will resort to the concept of mechanical shock to account for this excitement of hydrogen in space; plasma cosmologists believe that electrical interactions are a far more efficient explanation. The filamentary and 'dotted' structure indicates Birkeland currents and electrical activity, as does the 'synchrotron' (non-thermal) radiation from charged particles confined by magnetic fields and moving at velocities close to the speed of light. Electric discharge is known to be the efficient means of producing such energies. "The strength of the emission and the fact that it shows the gas to be highly disturbed was a huge surprise to us," said team leader Dr. Phil Appleton. "We expected to see the spectral signature of dust grains -- but instead we saw an almost pure laboratory-like spectrum of hydrogen molecules and almost nothing else. It was quite unlike anything we had seen before in a galaxy system." What is obvious from this image is that if the 'shock wave' means dynamic interaction, then there are connections between the supposed 'intruder', NGC 7318B, (upper right), and both NGC 7319 (center left) and NGC 7320 (lower left). But the supposed distance of NGC 7320 from the others, based on assumptions about redshift, would preclude such interactions. Indeed, many characteristics indicate that the galaxies of Stephan's Quintet are interacting as a group. Both galaxies on the left (NGC 7319 and NGC 7320) have tails that swing off to the northeast (upper left). (The tail on NGC 7320 requires a deep exposure to reveal it, as well illustrated by professor Don Scott in his discussion of NGC 7320.) A more unified perspective will see the larger pattern. The entire group is embedded in a radio lobe (a bridge of excited matter emitting radio waves) from the active spiral NGC 7331 to the northeast (out of the frame). An extension of this energetic lobe also encloses a group of three galaxies on the opposite side of NGC 7331 that have redshifts similar to the high-redshift members of Stephan's Quintet. (Those familiar with Arp's observations will immediately recognize the pattern as a pair of small-galaxy clusters primordially ejected from NGC 7331.) The 'mashed together' pair, NGC 7318A and B, which even conventional astronomers admit are interacting, are themselves a 'discordant group'. B, on the left, has a redshift velocity 1000 km/s lower than A. The redshift-equals-distance assumption would place it in front of its neighbor and safely out of interaction's way. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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It is also worth noting that the galaxy NGC 7319 (upper left in the image above) is the location of one of the most shocking challenges to the standard view of redshift. In front of the galaxy's dense core lies a quasar, an object whose redshift implies it should be more than 90 times farther away from us than the big galaxy behind it. See Picture of the Day here. What does all this mean? If the measuring stick (standard interpretation of redshift) is flawed, so are the measurements and deductions that follow. And to one degree or another that includes almost all the themes of standard cosmology today. The redshift controversy is still very much alive.
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Outer rings of Saturn (left) and Uranus, scaled to a common planetary radius. The bluish hue of the outer rings is due to the finely divided material. But is there a similar cause of the two rings? Credit: Imke de Pater, Heidi Hammel, Seran Gibbard, Mark Showalter, courtesy Science
Blue Rings Pose New Mystery

(Apr 11, 2006)
A newly discovered blue ring around the gas giant Uranus compares extremely well with the blue ring of Saturn, but astronomers lack a credible theory that can explain both. It is now known that rings are the rule among the gas giants--Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune--and the ring systems are dominated by a reddish hue. The color is apparently related to both particle size and composition. Relatively large particle sizes--many microns to meters across--are more abundant in the reddish rings, and this fact is at least partially responsible for the rings color. But it is also believed that some of the material of the rings themselves May be of a reddish hue--"perhaps from iron." There are two exceptions, however. Last year astronomers discovered that the outermost ring of Uranus is bright blue, and the color reminded them of the E-ring of Saturn, which displays a virtually identical hue. The discovery of the blue ring came after combining ground-based near-infrared observations by the Keck Telescope in Hawaii and visible-light photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. According to a UC Berkeley press release reporting on the work of four astronomers (recently reported in the journal Science), "The similarity between these outer rings implies a similar explanation for the blue color." But this poses a problem because Saturn's blue E ring is now explained by the presence of the small moon Enceladus. In the past year, astronomers observed bright plumes of dust, gas, and ice particles from Enceladus, feeding the E-ring. Though they had long assumed that Enceladus, just 300 miles in diameter, was cold and dead, they were forced to the conclusion that some mysterious internal process was still alive in the moon, energizing the jets. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Curiously, a small moon of Uranus, called Mab, occupies a remarkably similar strategic position in relation to that gas giants blue ring. But a "similar explanation" to that of the blue ring of Saturn is inconceivable under the astronomers assumptions, since the proposed internal dynamics on Enceladus had already strained credibility, and Mab is just "a small, dead, rocky ball, about 15 miles across--one-twentieth the diameter of Enceladus." Nevertheless, as noted by one of the authors, "Arguing by analogy, the two outermost rings, the two rings that have satellites embedded in them, are both the blue rings. That can't be coincidental, there has to be a common thread of dynamics that is causing both of these phenomena." Scientists agree that the reason for the blue hue of the two rings is the presence of smaller particles, "most less than a tenth of a micron across--a thousandth the width of a human hair-that scatter and reflect predominantly blue light." From an electrical vantage point, then, a unified explanation is immediately available. As we have already noted in discussion of comets, an electric process, called "cathode sputtering" in industrial applications, produces the most finely divided particles that can be technically achieved today. The process is active on comet nuclei, producing the "astonishingly" fine dust observed in more than one encounter with a comet. In fact, the blue color in the ion tails of comets should be compared with the blue rings of Saturn and Uranus. Now that the Cassini probe of Saturns realm has revealed the comet-like plumes of Enceladus--most economically explained as electrical jets--it is not unreasonable to suppose that these jets are feeding the same kind of exceptionally fine dust into Saturns blue ring. While the small size of the Uranian moon Mab positively excludes internal processes, all of the facts are consistent with electrical activity similar to that observed on Enceladus. Hence, a similar result is to be expected. It should not be forgotten that we see the same process on Jupiters moon Io, which is known to eject material into the Jovian plasma torus. But in this case, the result is different because the discharge is so energetic that the surface material is not merely being 'machined' but is undergoing nuclear transformation. Predominantly, the oxygen nuclei from water ice combine to become sulfur. And it is the fallback of colorful sulfur molecules that creates the unique 'pizza' look of Io. The jets from these very different moons are not due to some speculative internally driven process. These three moons (together with Neptune's moon, Triton) are simply dissipative elements in the electrical circuit that connects the Sun to the planets. It is electrical energy flowing in the solar wind circuit that drives the 'volcanoes' or jets on these frozen bodies. It is the same electrical energy flowing in the solar wind circuit that results in the spectacular auroras and phenomenal storms and wind speeds of the giant planets. These phenomena will remain a puzzle to planetary specialists so long as they view planets as isolated and electrically neutral bodies. With these considerations in mind, we can predict with confidence that once the capability to look closely is in hand, astronomers will discover that the little moon Mab has an electrically machined surface and comet-like jets that sustain the Uranian blue ring.
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Orbits of the three known main-belt comets (red lines), the five innermost planets (black lines; from the center outward: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter), a sample of 100 main-belt asteroids (orange lines), and two "typical" comets (Halley's Comet, and Tempel 1, target of the recent Deep Impact mission) as blue lines. Positions of the main-belt comets and planets on March 1, 2006, are plotted with black dots. Credit: Pedro Lacerda (Univ. Hawaii; Univ. Coimbra, Portugal)
When Asteroids Become Comets

(Apr 07, 2006)
The surprising discovery of asteroids with comet tails supports the longstanding claim of the electrical theorists--that the essential difference between asteroids and comets is the shape of their orbits. According to a recent story in USA Today, astronomers are "rethinking long-held beliefs about the distant domains of comets and asteroids, abodes they've always considered light-years apart." The discovery has forced astronomers to speculate that some asteroids are actually "dirty snowballs in disguise." For many years the standard view of asteroids asserted that they are composed of dust, rock, and metal and that most occupy a belt between Mars and Jupiter. In contrast, comets were claimed to arrive from a home in deep space, most coming from an imagined "Oort Cloud" at the outermost reaches of the solar system, where they are supposed to have accreted from leftover dust and ices from the formation of the solar system. But now, "the locales of comets and asteroids May not be such a key distinction," states Dan Vergano, reporting on the work of two University of Hawaii astronomers, Henry Hsieh and David Jewitt. In a survey of 300 asteroids lurking in the asteroid belt, the astronomers detected three objects that "look a lot like comets ejecting little comet tails at times from their surfaces." The three red circles in the illustration above describe the orbits of these bodies. Of course, this is not the first instance of an 'asteroid' sporting a cometary tail. The asteroid The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Chiron, orbiting between Saturn and Uranus, was seen to develop a coma and tail between 1988 and 1989. It is now officially classified as both an asteroid and a comet. Chiron belongs to a class of objects called 'Centaurs' crossing the orbits of various gas giants. Though they move on minimally eccentric orbits through a relatively remote and weak region of the Suns electric field, Wallace Thornhill and other electrical theorists believe these bodies should all be watched carefully for telltale signs of minor cometary activity. And in fact the asteroid 60558 Echeclus, discovered in 2000, did display a cometary coma detected in 2005, and it too is now classified as both an asteroid and a comet. In the electric view, there is no fundamental distinction between a comet and an asteroid, apart from their orbits. Comets are not primordial objects formed by impact accretion an improbable and unfalsifiable model ("it happened long, long ago and far, far away"). Asteroids, comets and meteorites are all 'born' in interplanetary electrical events. Their distinctive orbital groupings and spectral features simply point to separate catastrophic events and to different planetary bodies involved in different phases of solar system history. A comet is simply an electrical display and was recognized as such by scientists in the 19th century. So an 'asteroid' on a sufficiently elliptical orbit will do precisely what a comet does--it will discharge electrically. What distinguishes the cometary 'asteroids', observed by the University of Hawaii astronomers, are the paths they follow, moving them through the radial electric field of the Sun to a greater extent than is typical of other bodies in the 'asteroid belt' (See chart above). Cometary effects May also be expected from an asteroid if it passes through the huge electric comet tail [called the magnetosphere] of a giant planet. The astronomers recent investigation only reinforces the argument of the electrical theorists: The electric model is eminently testable, with highly specific and unique predictions; and it has so far met every test provided by the space age.
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Image of the asteroid Itokawa (25143), taken by Japans probe Hayabusa, reveals a rugged surface of collected dust and debris. Credit: JAXA
Asteroid Itokawa
(Mar 28, 2006)
The sharp contrast between the surfaces of some asteroids and comets is underscored by recent images of asteroid Itokawa. For the electrical theorists, the contrast also illustrates the crucial distinction between electrical deposition and electrical excavation. In the fall of 2005, the Japanese asteroid probe Hayabusa approached the S-type (silicaceous/stony) asteroid Itokawa (25143), named after the Japanese rocket scientist Hideo Itokawa. Though the probe was unable to complete two planned landings to gather dust samples from the asteroid, it did produce high quality pictures of the asteroids surface that are now the subject of much debate among astronomers. As the electrical theorists see it, asteroids, comets, and meteors, are all born by being torn from a planetary surface in a cosmic plasma discharge or as the remains of rocky bodies that exploded under the extreme electrical stresses. The asteroids irregular shape is explicable because plasma discharges are known to create "dumbbell" or "potato" shaped forms from soils. The comet Halley is another well-known potato shaped body. But crucial distinctions must be made between comets and asteroids under the electrical interpretation of their origin- distinctions that are meaningless under conventional definitions of such bodies. The planetary soil and rock that is hurled into space will be modified by its degree of exposure to the plasma discharge. This is evident in the most abundant meteorites the chondritic meteorites, so named for the melted spherules found within their dusty matrix. Some scientists have acknowledged that the best explanation for their origin is in a cosmic "lightning flash." The velocity imparted to the excavated material will determine whether it becomes an asteroid or a comet. (The astronomer Tom Van Flandern has argued, on the basis of their orbital characteristics, that comets were formed by the explosion of a planet in the asteroid belt). The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Itokawas density is said to be less than expected--up to 39% empty space. So researchers concluded it is probably composed of smaller rocks that are held together by gravity. However, this conclusion rests on an untested assumption that the gravitational 'constant' we measure on Earth is the same for all other bodies. In fact, it doesn't seem to be constant on Earth! We have now seen many dark, rocky bodies in space have such low apparent densities that astronomers have been forced to conclude they are "mostly empty space." But the electrical model of gravity suggests that if it looks like solid rock, it probably is solid rock. The internal electrical state of comets and meteorites differs from the Earth, and this leads to erroneous calculations of their densities. Astronomers have yet to reckon with the electrical origin of gravity. (The most glaring example is the giant planet Saturn which, on the astronomers calculations, should float on water, if that were possible!) Astronomers expressed surprise at the absence of "impact craters" in the Itokawa photos. (In fact, there appear to be no craters on Itokawa, in contrast to the many craters seen on other asteroids). This has caused some to suggest that the asteroid is a "rubble pile." But the electric model suggests that asteroids, like chondritic meteorites, May tend to aggregate material electrostatically. Asteroids that have no cratering (Itokawa being the case par excellence) are more likely to have acquired a boulder-strewn surface subsequent to their violent birth, but that does not make them just a heap of rubble. An active comet will experience electrical etching of its surface. Surface material will be removed and new craters formed. The comet will be "electrostatically cleaned"--a prediction we made for Comet Tempel 1 in advance of the "Deep Impact" encounter with the comet. The contrast between the surface of Tempel 1 and that of Itokawa adds an exclamation point to this prediction. In the electric model comets, asteroids, and meteorites originated in either the same or similar events. The model thus predicts that, as we come to learn more about comets and asteroids, we will see that their compositional types match those of meteorites, a class of objects that has been well studied.
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According to "Astronomy Picture of the Day," May 8, 2001, this illustration depicts GRO J1655-40--"a beast that has never been seen directly: a black hole". Credit: A. Hobart, CXC
A Dent in the Space-Time Fabric? (2)--No "Dent," Just Electricity

(Mar 27, 2006)
Cosmologists assure us that GRO J1655-40 hides a "black hole." But critics suggest that recent discussion of the sporadic x-ray source illustrates the growing "credibility gap" in standard theory. Last week we reviewed a well-publicized attempt to apply modern cosmological concepts to GRO J1655-40, an enigmatic light source seen in the constellation Scorpius. Periodically, the source emits copious X-rays, before returning to its "normal" quiescence. We found the chain of reasoning in the scientists speculative adventure interesting, and we were not surprised to find that it led to a report given at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. It can be difficult for readers of such reports to assess their credibility, we suggested, "because the language used by scientific media continually confuses fact and theory." We offered this perspective: "The light source in Scorpius is a fact. So are the sporadic X-ray emissions. But it May surprise you to hear that everything else discussed in the report is speculation, unsupported by anything we can actually study in nature: the star running out of fuel, the implosion, the rebound, the imploded star, its 'infinite density', the stellar black hole, the 'event horizon,' the companion star, the siphoning of the companions gases, the 'accretion' disk, X-ray production by accumulating matter, the calculated 'spin-rate,' Xray frequencies linked to orbital motion of gases, and X-ray frequencies linked to 'wobbling' of gases due to 'spacetime deformation.'" In reports such as the one on GRO J1655-40, how is a reader supposed to identify the boundary between fact and conjecture? The Space.com report states- The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive "A spinning black hole in the constellation Scorpius has created a stable dent in the fabric of spacetime, scientists say."
Fact: No one has seen a black hole. All we have are electromagnetic signals that are open to many interpretations. But "mainstream" cosmologists interpret the signals in one way only, based on their peculiar set of axioms about the nature of space, time and gravity. Many of the most accomplished plasma experts dispute the entire complex of assumptions. Fact: The "fabric of spacetime" is a mathematical abstraction of widely debated relevance to the study of natural phenomena. Critics say that the word "spacetime" is essentially meaningless because it combines two incompatible concepts--the 3-dimensional space we experience and a non-dimensional interval of time. In physics, a dimension can only be measured by a physical ruler. However, mathematicians use the word ambiguously to denote any number of variables. This results in the common mathematical "fallacy of ambiguity," where the word is used with one meaning in the 'real world of 3-dimensions, and with another meaning in the theoretical world of mathematics. Some cosmological theories talk of 26 dimensions and parallel universes, which serve only to astound and confuse those living in the physical world of 3-dimensions. As one physicist puts it: "Any theory where time is represented as a fourth dimension does not represent reality If the math is correct but does not represent reality; then, as far as factually describing reality, the math is meaningless, unreasonable and ambiguous." "The dent is the sort of thing predicted by Albert Einsteins theory of general relativity. It affects the movement of matter falling into the black hole." Fact: The "black hole" is a theory not a fact. In his theory of general relativity, Einstein proposed a geometrical concept of gravity, suggesting that it was caused by the warping of 3dimensional space in some "extra dimension" in the presence of mass. A growing number of scientists dispute the principle. A common 3-dimensional illustration of the "geometric" theory of gravity shows a rubber sheet stretched by steel balls resting on it. The dents in the rubber sheet mimic the gravitational wells of the steel balls and control their movement. However, as the astronomer Tom Van Flandern has pointed out, this model only seems to work because our minds imagine the Earth's gravity acting downwards on the steel balls. Without pre-existing gravity the steel balls will not dent the rubber sheet and they will remain stationary. Critics argue that both the rubber sheet analogy and the extra-dimensional geometric interpretation of general relativity violate the principle of causality: In the physical world, all effects have causes, and it is the function of science to explore these relationships, not to deny them. "The spacetime-dent is invisible, but scientists deduced its existence after detecting two X-ray frequencies from the black hole that were identical to emissions noted nine years ago." There is no actual observation of a black hole to verify this deduction from a prior guess. Xrays are most easily generated by particles accelerated in an electromagnetic field. There is no more difficult way to generate x-rays than using the weakest force in the universegravity. (Imagine your dentist trying to generate x-rays by dropping heavy weights from space). Nature is not in the habit of doing things the hard way. "Black holes form when very massive stars runs out of fuel. Their cores implode into a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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point of infinite density and their outer layers are blown away in a powerful supernova explosion." Fact: There is no experimental evidence that matter can be compressed to "infinite density." It requires the weakest force in the universe to overcome the strongest the electric force. There is no observational evidence that stars implode. Mathematicians have simply placed a theoretical demand on an improbable model, requiring that a particular kind of star in a particular kind of binary system run out of fuel suddenly and undergo spherically symmetrical gravitational collapse to form an unreal object a black hole. Fact: The progenitor stars for a supernova have never been identified. Fact: The explosion of a supernova is not spherically symmetrical. It is bipolar. Fact: The theoretical result a black hole is a mathematical fiction with no verifiable connection to the natural world. "The X-ray frequencies detected by the team of researchers came from outside the event horizon of GRO J1655-40, a black hole located roughly 10,000 light-years from Earth. It is about seven times more massive than the Sun and siphoning gas from a nearby companion star." Fact: The scenario stated here is entirely theoretical. Hence, the rest of the report can only strain credulity further by following a series of additional guesses. (See previous summary). But how would a general reader know this, when the author of the Space.com story cites all of the speculations as if they are part of scientific knowledge today? "GRO J1655-40 undergoes short periods of intense X-ray emissions, followed by longer periods of comparative quiet. Scientists think this blinking pattern of X-ray activity is related to how matter accumulates around the black hole. "Every few years, however, something--scientists arent sure what--triggers a sudden binge fest on the part of the black hole, causing it to guzzle down most of matter in the disk within a period of only a few months." Here, at the end of an elaborate chain of speculations, we have an admission that the sporadic X-ray outbursts remain unexplained--though the model was designed to explain them. It therefore remains to be asked whether, from an electrical vantage point, it is possible to account for the X-ray emissions and other observed attributes of GRO J1655-40, without taking theoretical leaps beyond our present scientific knowledge.
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Credit: No one willing to take responsibility for this one
A Dent in the Space-Time Fabric?

(Mar 24, 2006)
What does a dent in the "fabric" of space and time look like? The cause in a faraway place is invisible, scientists say. But theorists believe its existence can be deduced from certain repetitive events. In January this year scientists reported that in 2005 two unusual X-ray frequencies were detected coming from an extremely energetic light source, GRO J1655-40. The source is seen in the constellation Scorpius and it is estimated to lie about 10,000 light-years from Earth. Astronomers say it is a "stellar black hole" about seven times the mass of our Sun, gradually consuming the matter of a companion star. The emissions seemed strange because scientists had recorded identical emissions nine years earlier--an improbable coincidence, they thought. This got them to thinking, and the chain of reasoning that followed led to a report given at a recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The centerpiece of the story is a black hole, and black holes are said to form in the death throes of massive stars as their fuel runs out and their cores "implode into a point of infinite density." The "rebound" that follows produces a supernova explosion that blows away the outer layers of the star. But the gravity of the collapsed star is so great that, within a boundary called the "event horizon," nothing is able to escape, not even light. And thats why we cant see a black hole, astronomers say. Astronomers also say that the gravitational tug of a black hole is sufficient to distort Einsteins "space-time fabric." And that means it could affect the movement of matter falling into this celestial glutton. The X-ray emissions from GRO J1655-40 are sporadic--long periods of relative calm followed by shorter periods of more intense activity with emissions millions of times greater than during the quiescent phase. As reported on Space.com, some scientists began to wonder if the blinking pattern of X-ray activity is "related to how matter accumulates around the black hole." The black hole is said to The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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be stealing gas from a companion into an "accretion disk" around the super-dense relic, and the scientists suggested that as the mass of the disk accumulates for several years, the black hole consumes very little of the gas, and X-ray emissions are minimal. "Every few years, however, something--scientists arent sure what--triggers a sudden binge fest on the part of the black hole, causing it to guzzle down most of matter in the disk within a period of only a few months." This is when the profusion of X-rays occurs, the scientists suggested. (See " Black Hole Puts Dent In Space-time," January 24, 2006), But NASAs Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer recorded something curious. Among the X-ray frequencies observed in 1996 were one at 450 Hz and one at 300 Hz. The same two frequencies were observed again in 2005. "Because its very hard to get gas to behave the same way twice, it argues strongly that these frequencies are being anchored by the black holes mass and spin," study co-author Jon Miller of the University of Michigan told SPACE.com. The scientists were reminded of the weird things predicted by Einsteins theory of general relativity. "Because the black hole is so massive and spinning so fast, it warps spacetime around it." And the more massive the object, the more spacetime is distorted. "If the massive object is also spinning, it causes spacetime to not only bend but to twist as well." The authors suggest that the particles moving in "warped spacetime" near the black hole exhibit two types of motions, each producing a unique frequency. "One motion is the orbital motion of the gas as it goes around the black hole. This produces the 450 Hz frequency. The lower 300 Hz frequency is caused by the gas wobbling slightly due to the spacetime deformations." "If spacetime were not curved, wed probably just see one peak," said study co-author Jeroen Homan from the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research at MIT. The authors seemed confident that they were on the right track, and few astronomers raised objections. "We can now begin to determine the spin and thus, for the first time, more completely describe the black hole," Miller said. Though the photograph above is at best only marginally relevant, we have tried to be as accurate as possible in paraphrasing the logic that two scientists applied to the X-ray emissions from GRO J1655-40. Can you track the number of speculations in their reasoning? Can you separate what is known from what is imagined? If this seems difficult, that is because the language used by scientific media continually confuses fact and theory. The light source in Scorpius is a fact. So are the sporadic X-ray emissions. But it May surprise you to hear that everything else discussed in the report is speculation, unsupported by anything we can actually study in nature: the star running out of fuel, the implosion, the rebound, the imploded star, its "infinite density," the "spacetime fabric," the stellar black hole, the "event horizon," the companion star, the siphoning of the companions gases, the "accretion" disk, the "sudden binge fest," X-ray production by accumulating matter, the calculated "spin-rate," the simultaneous "bending and twisting of spacetime," X-ray frequencies linked to orbital motion of gases, and X-ray frequencies linked to "wobbling" of gases due to "spacetime deformation." So it is not unreasonable to pose the question: Does the activity of GRO J1655-40 really imply a "dent in the space-time fabric"? Or is there a much simpler explanation based on accessible natural phenomena? The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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NASA scientists produced this illustration of the "solar nebula," called upon to resolve mysteries posed by the dust from Comet Wild 2. Credit: NASA
Stardust Shatters Comet Theory (3)--Of Comets and Planetary Catastrophe

(Mar 23, 2006)
Reverberations of the Stardust mission continue to rock the scientific community in the weeks following the recovery of dust samples from Comet Wild 2. Minerals in the dust were not what comet experts had expected. Guided by longstanding theoretical assumptions, scientists expressed great confidence that comets formed at the outer margins of the solar system billions of years ago, at the time of the systems birth. And they believed they would find the required indicators of water, since water ices were assumed to be the primary constituent of comets. The shock came from the discovery of minerals that can only form at extremely high temperatures, up to thousands of degrees Fahrenheit. The minerals could not have been created in the cold depths scientists had envisioned. Also, the investigators have yet to find any markers left by water, and some components appear to exclude the presence of water in their formative phase. An article in Aviation Week and Space Technology (March 19, 2006) summed up the present situation: "The new Stardust sample data are themselves colliding headlong with previous comet theories compiled without the benefit of samples." "The findings stunned the more than 1,500 international planetary scientists and managers at the 37th annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) here near the Johnson Space Center (JSC)," the article states. In fact, the findings are the "opposite of existing models of comet formation," and they will "affect broad theories on the formation of this and other solar systems." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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But already the "explanations" cobbled together reveal the persistence of the very concepts that set comet experts on a dead-end path. While acknowledging the stunning surprise, the AWST story says: "The analysis shows the diverse minerals found in the Wild 2 Stardust samples had to have been formed as extremely hot materials near the core of a primordial planetary nebula around a star--either the Sun or some other distant star." A "primordial planetary nebula"? The reference here is not to something known, but to an age-old conjecture about the birthing of stars. Searching through official and quasi-official comments on the Stardust findings, we do not find any NASA scientists wondering if something might be amiss in the speculative framework that spawned the now-defunct comet theory. Rather, NASA investigators quickly settled on the idea that the Wild 2 minerals were created in an early stage of star formation (gravitational collapse of a nebular cloud to form our Sun) only to be catapulted out to the Oort Cloud far beyond the orbit of Pluto where, billions of years ago, it mixed with primordial ices that slowly gathered into chunks to became a comet. Skeptics suggest that this confusion of fact and theory in popular science can only end in an embarrassment. No one ever proved the nebular hypothesis or even showed that it deserved to be honored as a "default" position. No one ever demonstrated that the "Oort Cloud" exists. No one ever established that comets formed billions of years ago. And no one ever demonstrated that comets are constituted primarily of water ice and other volatiles. (As we have already noted, all of the evidence so far is against the abundance of water--or the hydroxyl radical OH. Water in the coma of comets does not mean water in the nucleus). How, then, would the NASA scientists save the "big picture" in the face of the Stardust revelations? The illustration above suggests an unwitting step toward the Electric Universe, combined with a new leap of faith. In this case, the scientists moved the imagined place of the comets origin inward to the Kuiper belt, a ring of objects beyond the orbit of icy Neptune, but much closer to the Sun than the legendary Oort Cloud. Then they took a page, or a portion thereof, from plasma cosmology, envisioning a bi-polar nebula (innumerable examples now known in our galaxy) whose magnetic fields produced electric currents and polar jets while heating nearby material to produce the minerals discovered in the Wild 2 dust. The jets then supposedly ejected the heated material out to the Kuiper belt. And here the minerals supposedly mixed with ices to provide the building blocks of Wild 2. Michael Zolensky, Stardust curator and co-investigator at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, put it this way: "We have found very high-temperature minerals, which supports a particular model where strong bipolar jets coming out of the early sun propelled material formed near to the sun outward to the outer reaches of the solar system." The "model" given traces to the "The X-wind model" of Frank Shu a few years ago when he was at the University of California in Berkeley. Shu and his colleagues suggested that "intense electrical currents" and magnetic fields might have been generated by a rotating dusty disc interacting with the magnetic field of the infant Sun. But Shus group was seeking to account for the composition of meteorites and did not find that its computer models worked for comets. Of course, it was just a computer simulation, and no doubt the input can be adjusted enough to achieve the desired results. The real problem is that the entire framework for rescuing the standard "big picture" is arbitrary. The reasoning begins with an electrically neutral universe, despite the rapidly accumulating evidence of electricity at every observable scale. It then The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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seeks to create regional electric and magnetic fields through the paltry force of gravity. It thus keeps gravity in the drivers seat, and saves the cosmologists underlying equations for another day. But it requires them to ignore what the best experts on plasma and electricity in space have been telling us for too long now: Bi-polar nebulas show every expected feature of plasma discharge. The discharge is energized by vastly larger electric fields than could be generated by gravity acting on such a minimal scale. It is electric currents threading through the galaxy that provide the observed nebula energies, not mere particles of dust in a diffuse local cloud. The most compelling message of Stardust, the point many theorists May be eager to overlook, is that all ideas in the sciences must be judged by their predictive ability. On this ultimate test, modern comet theory has failed completely. Not just on a few ideas about the "Oort Cloud," but on every fundamental principle. And if someone tells you this statement is excessive ask him to enumerate just two or three discoveries about comets since the beginning of the space age that the accepted models predicted. The only answer to this conundrum is to allow for the fair consideration of another vantage point, one that has not failed. Over the past ten years, the electric theorist Wallace Thornhill has stated scientific predictions again and again. The predictions have held up extraordinarily well. It is only to be expected that in the minds of most space scientists today the Electric Universe is too far removed from things already "known." This mistaken perception will not be easily corrected, but we have the advantage of contrast. On an issue-by-issue comparison, the predictions of the Electric Universe are highly specific, and most are unique to its vantage point. They will be easily distinguished from the predictions of "standard theory." In the electric model, a comet has nothing to do with the imagined beginnings of the solar system billions of years ago. Most comets are, when placed on a geologic timescale, newcomers to the solar system. Most comets are neither dirty snowballs nor icy dirtballs. Like asteroids and meteors, they are pieces of planets and moons, tracing to intensely energetic violence in an earlier phase of solar system history. The events were electrical. Charged bodies moved through a dense plasma and engaged each other with cosmic thunderbolts. Planets were carved electrically from pole to pole, and the only force that can replicate the patterns as a whole is electric discharge. Smaller moons exploded or disintegrated under the electric stresses, just as comets, even today, at times explode as they move through the electric field of the Sun. The comet is a residue of planetary instability and violence. In this sense the comet can tell us more about planetary history than space scientists ever imagined. If you want to know what force sculpted the diverse and battle-scarred surfaces of planets and moons, look at the surfaces of comets carved by electric discharge. The most common features of rocky planets and their satellites will be there--craters, crater chains, rilles, ridges, spires, mesas, and mountains. But in the case of the comet, we have a laboratory in space ready to yield its secrets. If we will devote the resources that comet investigation deserves--and ask the questions science forgot to ask--the comet will be the fulcrum for a sweeping revolution in the sciences. Old ideas about the formation of stars and galaxies, the origins of the solar system, and the history of our Earth will all be subject to critical examination. And mere conjectures in the sciences will not be permitted to continue masquerading as fact. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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This SMART-1 picture of Hadley Rille offers the best look yet at a deep gash cutting across Hadley (far left). Credit: ESA/Space-X
The Moon and Its Rilles (3)--A Partnership of Craters and Rilles
(Mar 21, 2006)
In the history of lunar exploration, the mysterious association of craters and rilles has provoked a number of mutually contradictory hypotheses, none of which is sufficient to explain things seen in high-resolution pictures of the Moon. In our previous looks at the lunar craters Tycho and Aristarchus, we observed that the popular "explanation" (the impact hypothesis) is contradicted by features that, in close-up photographs, invariably leap out at the critical observer. Similarly, when we consider details of the "sinuous rilles" Schroeters Valley and Hadley, we discover that common teachings require things that are not there while ignoring things that are there. The message conveyed by these prominent lunar features carries broad implications for our understanding of the lunar surface at all scales of observation. Our claim has been that theoretical assumptions in planetary science--including the most popular teachings in lunar geology--cannot withstand a critical review. Yet there is a vantage point from which the accumulated anomalies and contradictions disappear. The electric hypothesis does not arbitrarily separate issues of crater formation from issues of rille formation. In one instance after another, we see that craters and rilles stand in a partnership that is far too pervasive to be accidental. And this convergence is predictable under the electric hypothesis. Dominating craters on the Moon are surrounded by non-radial crater chains, irregular concentrations of smaller craters, sinuous or filamentary channels, and deep gashes--the very features seen in electrical arcing experiments and in electrical discharge machining in industrial applications. To underscore these surface patterns on the Moon, we have placed two large images of the Euler Crater region here and here. (The files are large--1.5mb and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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1.8mb respectively--but they are worth the look). The pictures show innumerable small crater concentrations, crater chains, and gashes, one form merging with another in every imaginable way. A modest number of the gashes might be mistaken for impacts at oblique angles, were it not for the repeated instances in which the gashes are constituted of overlapping craters, or are too long, or change direction--attributes that exclude "explanation-by-impact." In this sense, an unbending adherence to the impact theory can only encourage theorists to ignore these defining features on the lunar surface. The standard picture only grows more incoherent when we consider the numerous rilles and enigmatic channels that are conventionally "explained" as lava erosion. Why do they exhibit craters and crater chains of a sort never found in association with known remains of flowing lava? Look at the higher-resolution image we presented earlier of the Aristarchus region here. In the lower left of the picture is a rille that divides into twin channels, both of which end in large craters. Could this anomalous channel have been formed by flowing liquid of any kind? It is simultaneously a crater chain and a rille, confirming the point made repeatedly by the electrical theorist Wallace Thornhill: The same force that produces crater chains produces rilles. Rilles often exhibit craters deeper or wider than the channels on which they are centered. For a good example, consider the picture of Rima Hyginus here. In many instances the larger craters centered on a rille appear at the "joints" of a meandering channel. Could they be "collapsed lava tubes," a once-popular hypothesis? It is only necessary to look closely to see that these formations never reveal rubble from a collapsed "roof." Not infrequently, we also observe a secondary stream of smaller craters meandering down the rille, as we saw along the floor of Schroeters Valley. The electrical theorists point to analogs in both laboratory arcs and in lightning-excavated trenches. On the moon, a fascinating example is Vallis Alpes, a spectacular channel that extends some 166 kilometers, cutting across the mountain range Montes Alpes. Clearly, it was not cut by flowing liquid! See pictures here and here. Along its mid section it is about 10 kilometers wide. Meandering down the center of the flat valley floor is a narrow rille punctuated by circular craters. Inexplicable gashes emerging from craters or converging with crater chains are ubiquitous on the lunar surface. Our picture of Hadley Rille above, recently taken by the ESA SMART-1, shows an "inexplicable" gash on the far left. The long and deep gash emerges from the narrow end of a balloon-like crater to cut across Hadley. It certainly has no explanation in standard theory, and most lunar scientists simply address it as a "gash" and go on to something they "understand." To put all of this in perspective, we must remember that the craters, rilles, crater chains, and gashes on the Moon can now be systematically compared to analogs on other bodies to see whether scientists have been able to forge a coherent interpretation. We find that, as the quality of the pictures has improved, the interpretations have grown increasingly fragmented and bizarre. For a telling comparison of the lunar enigmas to those presented on another body, look at the so-called "collapse pits" on the Martian "volcano" Arsia Mons. All of the lunar enigmas are there in one place--craters, crater chains, gashes, and rilles--except that here the stunning clarity of the pictures gives common sense a distinct advantage. Are these formations the result of "surface collapse," or has material been cleanly removed from the surface by a force unknown to planetary scientists? In a contest with the inertia of prior belief, common sense will surely win out in the end. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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When dust particles from Comet Wild 2 struck a sponge-like "aerogel" collector in the Stardust spacecraft, they left carrot-shaped imprints about a centimeter long. Credit: NASA
Stardust Shatters Comet Theory (2)--Mythic "Oort Cloud" Finds No Support in Comet Dust
(Mar 20, 2006)
Its now official. Minerals found in Comet Wild 2 dust particles can form only at high temperatures, and they cannot be distinguished from minerals found in meteorites and on rocky planets. Dust particles ejected by Comet Wild 2 have provoked another surprise, contradicting the underlying assumptions of popular comet theory. When the Stardust mission returned "pristine comet material" from Comet Wild 2, project scientists were astonished to discover minerals that can only form at high temperatures--up to thousands of degrees Fahrenheit. And the dust particles reveal no indications of the water that cometologists expected. Standard theory states that comets formed billions of years ago in an imagined icy "Oort cloud" at the very fringe of the Suns domain, far beyond the orbit of Pluto. But the new findings require a quite different history. A NASA news release on March 13, 2006 summarized the problem with this understatement-"Scientists have long thought of comets as cold, billowing clouds of ice, dust and gases formed on the edges of the solar system. But comets May not be so simple or similar. They May prove to be diverse bodies with complex histories. Comet Wild 2 seems to have had a more complex history than thought." The disturbing discovery provoked a burst of creative attempts to rescue ideas stated as fact for at least thirty years. Michael Zolensky, Stardust curator and co-investigator at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, suggested a novel interpretation that quickly caught on. "It seems that comets are not composed entirely of volatile rich materials but rather are a mixture of materials formed at all temperature ranges, at places very near the early sun and at places very remote from it." One science writer interpreted Zolenskys comment this way: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"The findings suggest materials from the center of the solar system could have traveled to the outer reaches where comets formed." So an obsolete theoretical conjecture persists in human imagination, despite an undeniable fact: Nothing discovered about comets--over many years of profound discovery-points to an origin in the remote region assumed. A rational response will not exclude the question shouted by the new data. Could something be wrong with earlier suppositions about the region of comet formation--suppositions that never produced a successful prediction in the course of the space age? As for the water (ice), that was supposed to be the primary constituent of comets. But the anticipated markers of water on the nucleus of Wild 2 are absent. One mineral present in the comet particles is olivine, an iron-magnesium silicate. In the presence of water and even modest heat, olivine will be converted to another mineral, serpentine. Place olivine in the presence of water (steam?) at the temperatures indicated for its formation, and it would be almost instantly converted to serpentine. According to Stardust principal investigator Donald Brownlee, "no evidence of water has been detected in the particles." One sign of water, for example, would be the presence of hydrate silicates, Brownlee said, "but so far none of these have been found in the Stardust samples." How, then, are we to reconcile the absence of water signatures in the comet dust with the fact that cometary comas often exude an abundance of water (or at least the hydroxyl radical OH). We answered that question in a three-part series, "Deep Impact--Wheres the Water?" (first article here) The OH and whatever actual water May have been present in the coma were manufactured in the coma--an acknowledged "chemical factory." The vehicle for this process has already been observed--reactions between the oxygen ions in the coma plasma and the hydrogen ions in the solar wind. Charge exchange is now known to occur. The least we can say today is that most comets contain no appreciable levels of water (i.e., most comets are neither "dirty snowballs" nor "icy dirtballs"), Additionally, it needs to be emphasized that there is no conflict between Stardust and Deep Impact data. Brownlee, who is not prone to overstate theoretical implications, points out that Stardust collected dust that was released directly from the surface in jets. "We're confident that the things coming out [of Comet Wild 2] are the same as those that went in," he told Space.com. That means the material has not been processed by the chemical factory of the coma. "We believe that we collected the most pristine samples of a comet," he said. Hence, the failure to find a signature of water in the comet dust is consistent with all of the facts we have presented in previous discussion. It is not unreasonable to suggest, therefore, that only one comet model can make sense of what is otherwise a hopelessly confused picture. This model is electric. And thanks to the technological successes of the space age, all of the markers reasonably expected of an electric comet have been found. Of course the implications of the electric model do not end with the origin and dynamics of comets. They extend to virtually all of the theoretical sciences, and range from questions of electricity in remote space, to the nature of stars and the violent history of the solar system. Additionally, as we intend to make clear, human memories of cometary and planetary catastrophe cannot be excluded from this investigation. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Hadley Rille on the moon, a long meandering channel, spans some 125 kilometers (75 miles). On the right, a close-up look at a small section of Hadley. Credit: NASA
The Moon and Its Rilles (2)--The Rilles Are Electric

(Mar 17, 2006)
The surface of the moon is replete with long channels or grooves that continue to create unsolved puzzles and contradictions for geologists. Every traditional theory, when tested against the photographic evidence, has failed. It has now been more than thirty years since the Apollo missions produced voluminous and compelling images of the lunar surface, and it is clear that theory has not kept pace with the unanswered questions. To make our point, we have emphasized the most prominent lunar features, sufficiently documented photographically to place certain details beyond doubt. We considered the most famous lunar crater Tycho. We considered the moons most prominent crater, Aristarchus. We also looked at the spectacular Schroeters Valley, a "sinuous rille" with many lesser counterparts lying on the lunar maria. Another channel that gained much attention during the Apollo missions is Hadley Rille (pictured above), explored by the Apollo 15 astronauts in 1971. The channel winds across some 125 kilometers (75 miles) of lunar maria. It is almost 400 meters deep (1300 feet, or one quarter mile) in places, and almost 1500 meters (one mile) wide at its widest point. Planetary scientists often say that it was formed by molten lava, and they draw comparisons to lava channels in Hawaii. But the differences between the two are so profound as to render such comparisons meaningless. Many have suggested that Hadley is a "collapsed lava tube," something much different from an empty surface channel of lava. As flowing lava cools, it will begin to develop a crust, and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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eventually a stationary "roof" May form over it. A lava tube has the advantage that it enables lava to retain its heat as it flows underground, thereby covering greater distance and collecting less debris from surface cooling. The flowing lava can produce relatively continuous and smooth walls, while a surface channel of lava, because it is continually creating its own obstructions by cooling, with subsequent overflow, will typically meander chaotically across its own debris field. Hadley does not show this appearance at all. (Compare the lava rivers here and here. On Earth we know that the collapse of lava tube roofs is not uncommon, and the area collapsed will be a rubble-filled depression. When the European Space Agencys Smart 1 spacecraft took an image of Hadley, the popular science website Universe Today reported that Hadley is "probably a collapsed lava tube." But no lava tube on Earth comes close to such dimensions, and that is only the beginning of the problem. The rubble left from a collapsed lava roof is impossible to miss. And weve seen enough of Hadley in high resolution to categorically exclude the lava tube interpretation. As shown by the close-up of a section of Hadley above (right), there is no rubble, no collapsed roof. Hadley is an empty, sharply-cut channel. Whatever once lay within the cavernous depths of Hadley is no longer there. In recent years some theorists have drifted back toward the idea of flowing rivers of lava on the lunar surface. But rivers of lava do not produce a narrow secondary rille constituted from a stream of craters along the length of the larger rille (e.g., Schroeters Valley). Over comparatively short distances and times, rivers of lava produce obstructing cooled material and overflow their banks to produce layers of oozing material that freezes in place and whose source is obvious. They repeatedly change course, and undercut the surface along the walls of new pathways, leaving in their wake a vivid display of their erratic behavior. (See pictures noted above). Hadley reveals no such behavior, retaining consistent width over great distances, with parallel sides, while lava rivers show just the reverse. Hadley reveals no explicit overflow or outflow. It is just an empty channel that, enigmatically, grows more narrow as it meanders across a relatively flat valley floor. Significantly, well-qualified specialists acknowledged the definitive failure of the common theory more than thirty-five years ago. In 1970, University of Pittsburgh scientists Bruce Hapke and Benn Greenspan, based on Lunar-Orbiter photographs showing strings of craters along the floors of lunar rilles, acknowledged that such craters could not all be impact craters and must have something to do with the formation of the rilles. The direct evidence thus contradicts "those hypotheses for the origin of sinuous rilles by simple down-cutting by a moving fluid." (Report published in EOS Transactions, American Geophysical Union (51), 1970 One explanation of Hadley and other lunar rilles has yet to be considered by planetary scientists. It is the one explanation that does not produce contradictions, or conflict in any way with what we see on the moon. Engineer Ralph Juergens, who investigated a new approach to sinuous rilles, suggested in 1974 that they are the effects of "electrical discharge." Juergens work, in turn, helped to inspire the lifelong explorations of todays leading electrical theorist, Wallace Thornhill, who has taken the investigation into new areas of research opened up by more recent explorations of our planetary neighbors. Juergens undertook a dispassionate and meticulous comparison of explanations offered for sinuous rilles. He identified the logical tests and found that prior theories discussed by planetary scientists failed. And most failed on grounds that rationally exclude the proposed The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive explanation. (We have placed Juergens comparative chart here.
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Juergens knew that an electric discharge of the magnitude implied would require an approaching charged body--and not a just a small rock but another planet or moon. "The electric field between anode and cathode [positively and negatively charged bodies] must build to an intensity great enough to "pull" electrons from the cathode by sheer force, tearing electrons from non-conducting lunar crustal materials and in numbers sufficient to trigger an interplanetary discharge." The events as he envisioned them would begin with an electrical breakdown comparable to that of an exploding capacitor, as electrons begin to dissociate from their atoms to become the vehicles of an ensuing discharge. The breakdown point will be a region of maximum stress, most likely a local prominence. "In a flash, the tiny breakdown point becomes a breakdown path propagating itself outward from the starting point, turning this way and that as the intense field at its tip probes for weaknesses in the rock strata." Breakdown generates heat and explosively expanding plasma beneath the surface. In much the same manner that a powerful lightning strike can excavate a trench, the breakdown channel "tears hundreds of kilometers across the lunar surface at lightning speed." Then, as the onrushing electrons reach the local high point the resulting electric surge blasts out a large crater. At virtually the same time, more distant electrons along the breakdown path, encountering an electric field stronger than that of the underground path, "blast upward short of the main terminus, creating secondary on-channel craters at numerous points." Juergens' hypothesis was based on secure knowledge of the behavior of electric arcs. The fundamental mechanics can and have been verified in the laboratory. (See, for example, the path of the electric arc shown here, with a secondary rille or crater-stream running down the main channel). The hypothesis can also be systematically weighed against the present library of data on the lunar surface, including the profusion of glassy spheres in Hadley Rille, and the anomalous presence of remanent magnetism. And here nothing will prove more compelling than the essential link of rille-producing activity to crater-producing activity--the very consideration that marked the failure of the lava-channel and collapsed-lava-tube hypotheses.
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This image shows a comet particle collected by the Stardust spacecraft. The particle is made up of the silicate mineral forsterite, also known as peridot in its gem form. It is surrounded by a thin rim of melted aerogel, the substance used to collect the comet dust samples. The particle is about 2 micrometers across. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Washington
"Stardust" Shatters Comet Theory

(Mar 16, 2006)
The first results from NASA's Stardust mission are in, leaving mission scientists in a state of shock and awe. The tiny fragments of comet dust brought back to Earth did not accrete in the cold of space, but were formed under "astonishingly" high temperatures. It seems that the gulf between the impressive successes of modern technology and the depressing failure of theory has grown by another giant leap. NASAs celebrated Stardust mission was a technical triumph, achieved at a respectable cost. The mission collected the first samples ever of the dust discharged by comets. On January 2, 2004, the Stardust craft had entered the dusty clouds around Comet Wild 2 (pronounced VILT 2), gathering samples of the minute particles as they struck the "aerogel" in a 100-pound capsule. The capsule returned to Earth and parachuted to touchdown on a Utah desert January 15, 2006. A surprise--the particles revealed abundances of minerals that can only be formed at high temperatures. Mineral inclusions ranged from anorthite, which is made up of calcium, sodium, aluminum and silicate, to diopside, made of calcium magnesium and silicate. Formation of such minerals requires temperatures of thousands of degrees. How could that be? For decades we have been assured that comets accreted uneventfully from the leftovers of a cold "nebular cloud" in the outermost regions of the solar system. The theoretical assumption has been stated as fact repeatedly in popular scientific media, and its proponents believed it. Indeed, the implication of a fiery past was so unexpected that an early The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive sample of dust was thought to be contamination from the spacecraft. "How did materials formed by fire end up on the outermost reaches of the solar system, where temperatures are the coldest?" asked Associated Press writer Pam Easton.
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"That's a big surprise. People thought comets would just be cold stuff that formed out ... where things are very cold," said NASA curator Michael Zolensky. "It was kind of a shock to not just find one but several of these, which implies they are pretty common in the comet." Researchers were forced to conclude that the enigmatic particle material formed at a superheated region either close to our Sun, or close to an alien star. "In the coldest part of the solar system weve found samples that formed at extremely high temperatures," said Donald Brownlee, Stardusts principal investigator at the University of Washington in Seattle, during a Monday press conference. "When these minerals formed they were either red hot or white hot grains, and yet they were collected in a comet, the Siberia of the Solar System." Space.com reports that the finding "perplexed Stardust researchers and added a new wrinkle in astronomers understanding of how comets, and possibly the Solar System, formed." But did it really? Paradigms do not die easily. Our own impression is that comet researchers have yet to revisit their "big picture" assumptions. A litany of surprises has not deterred them, and they continue to discuss the formation of comets "at the outermost regions of the solar system." The idea does not deserve such unyielding devotion. It was never more than a guess, and it never successfully predicted any of the milestone discoveries in cometology. So the paradoxes and contradictions continue to accumulate. Michael Zolensky, Stardust curator and a mission co-investigator at NASAs Johnson Space Center (JSC), said astronomers believed that a sort of material "zoning" occurred during the Solar Systems formation. In the eons-long collapse of the primordial "nebular cloud," material closer to the emerging "sun" formed under hotter conditions, while farther away from the sun everything remained dark and cold. The comet was supposed to be the case par excellence of a body accreted in the outermost region and constituted primarily of water ice and other volatiles. Speculations erupted. Could it be that something occurred in or very near the Sun in its formative phase, flinging immense quantities of material out to the periphery of the Suns domain (far, far beyond the orbit of Pluto), to the "Oort cloud," the legendary--but neverwitnessed--sea of comets? Then the researchers reminded themselves that this would produce a mixing and contradict the zoning that is evident in the asteroid belt. "If this mixing is occurring, as suggested by these results, then how do you preserve any kind of zoning in the solar system," Zolenksy asked. "It raises more mysteries." Perhaps the paradigm could be redeemed by finding the signature of primordial water, whose existence is essential to the survival of official comet theory. A report by the journal Nature is illuminating. A writer for the journal spent a day with Phil Bland, a planetary scientist at Imperial College London, as he and his team analyzed part of a grain. When he found large amounts of calcium, Bland was excited. Could the calcium be present in the form of calcium carbonate, a mineral that almost always forms in water? He bet his colleague Matt Genge that this would indeed be the case. Bland lost the bet, owing Genge a dinner. According to the Nature report NASA "scientists have not yet found any carbonates in their grains." Today, the study of comets has reached a crisis. Every key finding comes as a surprise, but The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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no one seems to realize that the surprises are not random-- they are predictable under a different perspective. The tragedy is the way inertia can leave well-intentioned scientists with their feet in the sand. The momentum of prior belief, working in concert with pressing demands of funding, creates nearly endless obstructions to open-minded exploration and discourse. Even a brief vacation from an oppressive paradigm could do wonders.
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The lunar "sinuous rille," Schroeters Valley. Credit: NASA
The Moon and Its Rilles

(Mar 15, 2006)
Planetary scientists describe it as a stupendous channel cut by flowing lava. But on closer examination, Schroeters Valley and its many counterparts on the Moon refute all attempts to categorize them in such terms. The long, winding channel pictured above is the most prominent "sinuous rille" on the lunar surface--160 kilometers long and up to 10 kilometers wide--large enough to be clearly visible in Earth-based telescopes. It is also up to 1300 meters deep--a profound contrast to any observed effect of flowing lava on Earth. Long prior to the space age, Schroeters Valley was the subject of many speculations. But crucial details were unknown until the Apollo lunar exploration missions in the late 60s and early 70s, when orbiting craft enabled astronauts to take high-resolution pictures of the lunar surface. The photographs in the composite shown here were taken from the Endeavour Command Module of Apollo 15. The seven frames look approximately south, revealing the crater called "Cobra Head" at the upper left, from which emerges a winding path that narrows until it disappears on the right. Only the edge of the crater Herodotus is seen at the top of the composite. (An image of Herodotus can be seen along with the famous crater Aristarchus in our March 10 Picture of the Day. Sinuous rilles are defined as long, winding valleys, usually with steep walls and often emerging from a crater. Of these phenomena, the Moon presents countless examples at all scales. Two instances will be seen in the lower portion of our March 10 picture. Early speculations based on telescopic observation envisioned "cracks" on the lunar surface. Then the astronomer William Pickering suggested flowing water. A series of other speculations followed, most of them excluded by the findings of the Apollo missions, until planetary scientists eventually settled on flowing lava as the agent. The "standard theory" today states that sinuous rilles were created by lava either flowing across the surface or beneath the ground to form a "lava tube," portions of which eventually collapsed. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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A considerably larger version of the above picture can be seen here, and unless you are already certain that such formations are well understood by planetary scientists, it is worth the look. The enigmas and contradictions of standard theory lie in details impossible to deny. Both the width and length of the Schroeters Valley far exceed anything ever accomplished by lava on Earth. But the reverse should be expected. On the Earth, the atmosphere is insulating, allowing lava to retain its heat. In the vacuum of space, heat will be much more rapidly radiated away. On Earth, as lava flows for long distances (counted at most in a few tens of kilometers, not hundreds), the cooling at the surface causes a "roof" to form. It May then continue to flow as a "tube" beneath the surface. That is the only way the lava tube can achieve these comparatively modest lengths. In an earlier Picture of the Day we showed the longest terrestrial example of a lava tube on Earth, associated with Barkers Cave in Australia. It is 35 kilometers long and only about 35 meters in height. The contrast to the much larger lunar rilles could not be more stark And the only reason the Barkers Cave lava tube could achieve its length is that, when the insulating crust was formed, the lava was able to retain its heat and continue flowing beneath the surface. No such event occurred in the case of Schroeters Valley: It would be impossible to sustain a kilometers-wide roof of rock; and there is no evidence of either a roof or of rubble from a roofs collapse. The moon has only about one sixth the gravity of the Earth, and it is gravity that gives flowing liquid its velocity, its erosive force and (most emphatically in the case of heated and melted rock) its ability to cover distance. Yet lunar rilles extend up to 300 kilometers--almost nine times the length of the "record breaker" on Earth. The walls of Schreters Valley are both steep and deep. But where did all of the lava go? A short-lived channel of water might narrow to a termination point without any overflow or outflow--it could simply be absorbed into the ground or evaporate into space. But flowing lava eating away surface material to cut a deep channel would have to show up somewhere. We should see either breeches in the deep walls or evidence of abundant outflow. But instead, the channel simply dwindles until it disappears. In considering the picture above, it is essential that one realize what planetary scientists themselves acknowledge: The rille did not create the maria in which it sits. It cuts through the pre-existing maria. It is as if the material that once occupied the channel simply disappeared. The "flowing lava" seems to have possessed many remarkable features. Even as it cut so deep (nothing comparable will be seen in any lava flow on Earth--not even at the much smaller scale of terrestial lava flows), this rapidly moving, molten rock, could make turns up to 90 degrees without affecting the "bends in the river" in any way. Neither the extreme sinuosity nor the parallelism of the rille walls conforms to the behavior of lava erosion. Consider, for example, the sharply pointed prominence in the most emphatic change of direction about a third of the way down the rille from Cobra head. If the lava had the power to create such vertical cliffs--up to 1300 meters deep--how did that sharp prominence survive? Curiously, the "flow" of rilles on other worlds isn't limited to "downhill" like lava and watercarved channels on Earth. All fluid-erosion theories have chosen to ignore that the apparent mouth of the "stream" is on high ground, and the narrowest part of the channel is on lower ground. The situation should be exactly reversed. As an erosion channel lengthens, more and more spoil must be carried by the eroding fluid, and the channel must grow wider to accommodate the load. The cross-sectional area of any fluid stream must remain constant. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Where it is deep it must be narrow, where it is shallow it must be wide. However, rilles do not conform to this rule. The famous Hadley's Rille, amongst others, simply disappears for a short interval, then reappears. Other rilles travel both up and down across considerable distances. The most extraordinary example is the Baltis Vallis on Venus, which rises and falls dozens of times, with some two kilometers separating its high and low points along its 6,800 kilometer length. Once again, it is the things barely noticed, or forgotten, that provide the most telling clues. Within the meandering channel of Schroeters Valley is a much more narrow secondary rille. While planetary scientists are well aware of this rille-within-a-rille, almost nothing is said about its defining feature--a chain of small craters running virtually the entire length of the rille. Yet this feature is not uncommon. A nearby rille, Rima Prinz I reveals the same "preposterous" characteristic. As a rule, the lunar rilles are much more heavily cratered than the surrounding maria, yet by their very presence on the maria they must be younger. Standard dating by "crater count" becomes preposterous. But what is the meaning of this non-random concentrations of craters along the rilles paths? The inseparable link between crater formation and rille formation--though substantiated on planets and moons throughout the solar system--becomes highly confused in standard treatments of the subject. Nevertheless, a unified answer has been available for decades, and the credibility of science may, in fact, depend on it.
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Images returned from the Cassini mission to Saturn capture the best-yet look at the jets of ice exploding from the moon Enceladus. Credit: NASA/Cassini Team
Jets of Enceladus
(Mar 13, 2006)
The folks at NASA are baffled. Theyve known for several months that Saturns icy moon Enceladus emits unexpected jets. But now project scientists face a daunting task--to find the mysterious and highly improbable "source beneath the surface." Just a few days ago a NASA news release announced that the Cassini spacecraft exploring Saturns icy realm "May have found evidence of liquid water reservoirs that erupt in Yellowstone-like geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus." High-resolution Cassini images show icy jets and towering plumes ejecting huge quantities of ice particles at high speed. Project scientists are struggling to understand how this occurs. The jets are found near the south pole of the 504 kilometer diameter moon, a region recently found to be significantly warmer than models had predicted. (In the image weve placed here NASA assigned faint light levels different colors to enhance visibility). The finding flipped everything scientists knew about Enceladus on its head, because what should have been a dead moon appeared to be geologically active and what was supposed to be the moon's coldest region turned out to be its warmest," reports Space.com. (See our earlier Picture of the Day, "The Hot Poles of Enceladus") "This is as astonishing as if we'd flown past Earth and found that Antarctica was warmer than the Sahara," said John Spencer, an astronomer from the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado and a co-investigator of the Cassini mission." In a classic understatement of the theoretical challenge, a NASA news release announced: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"The rare occurrence of liquid water so near the surface raises many new questions about this mysterious moon." Water "so near the surface"? All we can see is ice on the surface--and icy plumes 480 kilometers high. But conditioned perception declares that liquid water must be present under the surface (like a Yellowstone geyser), in order for it to erupt in high-speed jets. The prior theoretical framework remains untouched even in the face of a stunning surprise. Cassinis imaging team leader Carolyn Porco seemed well aware of the potential discomfort from such a revelation. "We realize that this is a radical conclusion--that we May have evidence for liquid water within a body so small and so cold," she said. "However, if we are right, we have significantly broadened the diversity of solar system environments where we might possibly have conditions suitable for living organisms." Or perhaps there is another possibility, one lying beyond the headline value of a possible environment "suitable for living organisms." How about something more sweeping--a more accurate way of seeing the physical universe as a whole, our solar system included? How about a mind-altering discovery that could re-inspire all of science and scientific education? The jets are signposts--part of a great collection of signposts pointing in one direction--to the inescapable but unacknowledged role of electricity in our solar system. Despite the anomalous "warmth" of Enceladus south pole, it is a very cold place--minus 261 degrees Fahrenheit! But because it is warmer than it "should" be, NASA scientists jumped to the conclusion that liquid water beneath the surface must be responsible for both the temperature anomaly and the jets. The only sources of energy available to planetary scientists are solar heating and internal heating (tidal and radioactive). Solar heating is completely inadequate, as all project scientists admit. And why would tidal heating be restricted to the southern hemisphere? In their strain to explain the jets of Enceladus, the scientists face the same problem confronting theorists trying to explain cometary jets. And they have resorted to the same ad hoc invention of narrow surface vents above a subsurface chamber of (heated, liquid) water. There is no evidence of such vents, either on comets or on Enceladus. Nor have scientists, using their limited toolkit, ever found plausible ways of producing liquid water in the deep freeze of space On Enceladus, the jets seem to originate from leveed channels, called "Tiger Stripes," eerily similar to channels seen on Jupiters moon Europa. (Weve placed an image of the "Tiger Stripes" here). These stripes are part of a vast and intricate complex of channels on Enceladus that match perfectly the behavior of electric arcs in simple laboratory experiments. Electrical theorist Wallace Thornhill and his colleagues suggest there is no geyser of subsurface water analogous to the Yellowstone geyser. They say that if NASA will look they will find that the jets move across the surface. And in their motion across the surface, the electric arcs that produce the jets are creating the observed channels as they excavate material from the surface and accelerate it into space. A strong parallel to the Enceladus plumes is provided by the so-called "volcanoes" of Jupiters moon Io. As NASA itself has confirmed, these bright plumes have moved many miles across the surface in the course of observation over a few decades, excavating material and accelerating it upward in jets that precisely match the predictions of a "plasma gun" model. In the case of Enceladus, a Yellowstone type geyser requires a mixture of vapor, liquid, and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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ice particles such a "cold" geyser would require pure water at a temperature of 273K (0 C) or above, less than 10 meters from the surface. For such a string of unlikely conditions, the probability rapidly approaches zero. Testing the possibility that Enceladus jets are electrical--a virtual certainty in the eyes of the electric theorists--should be an immediate priority, before scientists convince themselves that we should embark on another expensive and misguided quest for life on a tiny frozen moon in the outer solar system. Enceladus orbits in the inner regions of Saturn's magnetosphere where the particle flux is high. But "particle flux" is typically nothing more than an astrophysical euphemism for an electrical current. And electric currents in space follow magnetic field lines. Within Saturn's magnetosphere Enceladus will encounter currents in the polar regions. It seems probable that the south polar region of Enceladus has its own magnetic field, which could concentrate an electrical current in that region. In fact, sharp gradients in the magnetic field were encountered during Cassinis closest approach to Enceladus--a typical indicator of current boundaries. Planetary scientists continue to perpetuate misunderstanding when they call the "Tiger Stripes" of Enceladus "cracks" that allow water to reach the surface. The channels are, in fact, precise analogs of those seen on Europa. Their frequent parallelism, their ridges or levees, and their ability to cut across all other channels in their paths stand as a definitive contradiction of the "fracturing" hypothesis. The pictures suggest something akin to a "claw" or router bit dragged across the surface in disregard for prior surface relief. That is a unique signature of an electric arc. In contrast, fracturing is invariably affected by a pre-existing surface channel or groove, as anyone who has ever worked with a glasscutter knows very well. The puzzle of the "Tiger Stripes" parallelism can be simply explained by the phase-locked rotation of Enceladus about Saturn (it keeps the same face toward the gas giant), working in combination with the symmetrical, axially aligned magnetic field of Saturn. This unique alignment will naturally cause the magnetic field lines and their associated discharge currents to move in parallel to each other near the pole of Enceladus as it orbits Saturn. (Further constraints on the pattern May be due to a remnant intrinsic magnetic field in the south polar region). As for the anomalous temperature readings in the region of jet activity, Thornhill suggests that the readings are way below what project scientists will find if they will measure the temperature at the focal point of a surface jet. Electric discharges become focused and hottest where they touch down on a surface. We are reminded that it was Thornhill who alone predicted that the plumes of the icy moon Io would be much hotter than NASA had ever contemplated. When the Galileo probe took a close look, the radiation overloaded the camera. NASA had not prepared for the surprise.
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Two prominent craters on the Moon appear in this photograph taken from orbit during the Apollo 15 mission. The large bright crater toward the center is Aristarchus. On the right is the crater Herodotus, from which extends the great rille of Schroeters Valley. Credit: NASA
Lunar Craters: a Failed Theory (2)--The Puzzles of Aristarchus

(Mar 10, 2006)
The crater Aristarchus, pictured above, stands out in all Earth-based telescopic images of the Moon. Of the larger formations on the Moon, this rayed crater is considered the brightest. It is also distinguished from its surroundings by its elevation on a rocky plateau rising more than 2 kilometers above the dark "mare" of Oceanus Procellarum. For context, we have circled the Aristarchus scar on the Hubble image (large) placed here. In the Hubble image we see the crater Tycho, a subject of our previous submission, dominating the southern face of the Moon. Well to the north of Tycho is the second most dramatic feature of the Moon, the impressive spidery scar of Aristarchus, covering a much greater area than one might suspect from close-up images of the crater itself. For further context, a darker image we have placed here shows the relationship of the crater itself to the extended filamentary "rays." As can be seen most clearly in the Hubble image, the rays or streamers do not all radiate directly from the crater, and they are not linear. These two facts, undeniable on direct observation, make clear that the streamers are not ejecta. Additionally, the close-up images of the crater (as in our picture above) show that many if not all the "rays" are not deposits of ejecta but depressed channels, as if material has been removed from the bright paths by the very event that produced the crater. Yet strangely, the idea of ejecta from Aristarchus remains the standard explanation. An artificial convergence of scientific opinion has enabled theorists to look past essential and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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obvious details that challenge the established perspective. It can be disconcerting to realize that things either ignored or forgotten by astronomers and planetary scientists include countless pointers to a new and far more unified foundation for planetary science. In fact, evidence of past electrical events on the Moon was noted very early in the twentieth century. (See ""Lunar Craters--A Failed Theory") More than forty years ago the British journal Spaceflight published the laboratory experiments of Brian J. Ford, an amateur astronomer who suggested that most of the craters on the moon were carved by cosmic electrical discharge. (Spaceflight 7, January, 1965). In the cited experiments Ford used a spark-machining apparatus to reproduce in miniature some of the most puzzling lunar features, including craters with central peaks, small craters preferentially perched on the high rims of larger craters, and craters strung out in long chains. He also observed that the ratio of large to small craters on the Moon matched the ratio seen in electrical arcing. In 1969, just prior to the first Moon landing, Immanuel Velikovsky suggested that rayed craters on the Moon were the result of electric arcs--cosmic thunderbolts. Since terrestrial lightning can magnetize surrounding rock, Velikovsky predicted that lunar rocks would be found to contain remanent magnetism. Astronomers saw no reason to consider such possibilities, and they were caught by surprise when lunar rocks returned by Apollo missions revealed remanent magnetism. In 1974 the engineer Ralph Juergens published two groundbreaking articles arguing that major features of both the Moon and Mars were electrical discharge scars. Juergens drew attention to both Tycho and Aristarchus on the Moon, suggesting that these features display the unique attributes of cosmic thunderbolts. First, there are the long linear streamers that mark the paths of electrons rushing across the surface toward a regional high point. This is the event that provokes the leader stroke of a discharge. Then, the explosive discharge from a more intense return stroke excavates a crater surrounded by an electrical discharge effect called a "Lichtenberg figure," a pattern well known in industrial applications of electric discharge. To illustrate the point, weve placed a picture here showing the effect of a lightning stroke on a golf course. The resulting Lichtenberg figure displays a typical "dendritic" pattern (as in the branching of a tree or a drainage system). From the circumference of the figure any filamentary "dendritic" path can be followed back to the discharge point. On the Moon, in the case of Tycho, Aristarchus, and numerous lesser instances as well, we see Lichtenberg figures superimposed upon the longer linear rays tracing the electron paths that preceded a cosmic discharge. The long linear paths are often slightly "displaced": In electrical terms they would not be expected to stand in a strictly radial relationship to the focal point of the subsequent discharge. But the paradoxes of scientific perception abound. On the Moon, the Lichtenberg pattern is supposed to mark the trails of debris from an impact explosion. But we see similar Lichtenberg patterns elsewhere in the solar system, and in these cases the accepted "explanations" take us in opposite directions. The entire equatorial region of Venus is covered with effusive Lichtenberg figures, as can be seen in the pictures here and here. These extraordinary patterns are claimed to signify flowing lava--though for this interpretation to hold one has to believe that the familiar dendritic "drainage" was reversed, with the branching occurring downstream: Lichtenberg figures do not make good drainage patterns from the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive center outward!
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Lichtenberg patterns are also present on Saturns moon Titan. Here they are said to be "drainage channels" for liquid methane, though we have challenged that interpretation in a previous Picture of the Day. (The connection between the patterns on Titan and Venus was also the subject of an earlier Picture of the Day, "Titans Big Sister"). The value of the Lichtenberg figure is that it is easily and definitively distinguished from the radial pattern of exploding ejecta. Ejecta follow neither fine linear nor dendritic paths. But electrical arcs do, and that is the nature of the most prominent "blast" patterns on the Moon. Look at the Hubble picture again to see if the longer, slightly displaced radial paths, together with superimposed Lichtenberg patterns, are in fact the case. Once discerned, the truth of the matter is impossible to miss.
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Two views of Galaxy 0313-192, both involving radio images from the Very Large Array superimposed on images recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, NRAO, AUI/NSF/ACS/WFC, W. Keel (University of Alabama), M. Ledlow (Gemini Observatory), F. Owen (NRAO) and AUI/NSF
A Radio Message from Space

(Mar 09, 2006)
Astronomers were perplexed when they found that a "radio galaxy" revealed a structure that such radio sources were never supposed to take: it is a spiral galaxy. The radio signals confirm that the galaxys spiraling structure is embedded in vastly larger electric circuits. Pictured above are images of the Radio Galaxy 0313-192 (close-up on left), labeled "a giant radio source from the wrong kind of galaxy"--a spiral. For many years it has been assumed that spiral galaxies do not emit the kinds of jets and associated radio signals recorded in the wide-angle view (right). Of course we can only view the galaxy edge-on. But by analyzing the vertical structure of the dust and "blue star forming regions" close to the plane of the galaxy, astronomers were able to confirm that it is in fact a spiral. The radio images were taken with the Very Large Array (VLA) at a wavelength of 20 centimeters, and the pictures above superimpose these on Hubble Space Telescope images of the same galaxy, showing the relationship of radio emissions to the rotational axis of the galaxy. Jets of charged particles are moving in opposite directions close to the rotational axis, at velocities approaching the speed of light. Electrons moving at such velocities emit "synchrotron" radiation, characterized by a frequency significantly higher than the usual radiation of electrons in plasma. This is the radiation that our radio telescopes (such as the VLA) detect as the energetic signature of events not seen in the electromagnetic spectrum of visible light. They are direct witnesses to electric currents on a galactic scale. Synchrotron radiation was first brought to the attention of astronomers by Hannes Alfvn and Nicolai Herlofson in 1950--a remarkable fact considering that, at the time, plasma and magnetic fields were thought to have little, if anything, to do with the "island universes" of remote galaxies. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Decades later, when synchrotron radiation could not be denied, it began to enter the lexicon of astronomy. So there were attempts to simulate synchrotron radiation using only gravity and magnetic fields. But Alfvn had already come to realize that magnetism alone is not sufficient. Causative electric fields and currents are essential. The simulations failed. Nevertheless, the astronomers attempts to get by without electricity have continued. Here is the description of the standard view of polar jets, as given in a Hubble news release on Radio Galaxy 0313-192: "Astronomers believe such jets originate at the cores of galaxies, where supermassive black holes provide the tremendous gravitational energy to accelerate particles to nearly the speed of light. Magnetic fields twisted tightly by spinning disks of material being sucked into the black hole are presumed to narrow the speeding particles into thin jets, like a nozzle on a garden hose." There is something about the simplified language of news releases that puts an exclamation point to the contradictions faced by a failing theoretical framework. How is it that the "tremendous gravitational energy" accelerates particles away from a galaxy? ("It means that if you push on your wagon hard enough, it will go in the opposite direction," says one skeptic). Trying to drive such a system with gravitational dynamics alone, calling upon magnetic fields but ignoring the electric currents that are necessary to sustain magnetic fields, then resorting to the analogy of a "nozzle on a garden hose," can only add to the exasperation of critics. Plasma cosmologists, together with such electrical theorists as Wallace Thornhill and Don Scott, wonder aloud why anyone would cling to a gravity-only, electrically sterile universe so tenaciously. After all, the galaxy under consideration is distinguished by the presence of gravity-defying jets, emitting radiation that would not be there in the absence electric currents. While astronomers marvel at the mysterious force that "holds the jets together," the electrical theorists remind us that the jets are self-confining Birkeland currents in the plasma environment of the galaxy. It is in the nature of Birkeland currents to induce magnetic fields, confining the jets to narrow paths over cosmic distances. Since the attempts to "hold together" such jets experimentally--without electricity--have already failed, it is surely time for astronomers to re-examine their premises.
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Of all the features on the lunar landscape that are commonly identified as "impact craters," the most prominent is the crater Tycho in the Southern hemisphere. Credit: NASA/HST
Lunar Craters: a Failed Theory

(Mar 08, 2006)
When seeking to test a hypothesis, it is helpful to start with clear and undeniable facts. But when the impact theory is applied to the prominent lunar "rayed crater," Tycho, the theory fails even the most obvious tests. Certainly the most conspicuous crater on the Moon is Tycho in the southern hemisphere. (For context, we have placed a full Hubble Telescope image of the Moon here). The crater is some 85 kilometers in diameter, displaying enigmatic "rays" that extend at least a quarter of the way around the moon. The central peak, said to have been formed by a "rebound" of subterranean material, rises about 2 kilometers above the crater floor. Planetary scientists suggest that the flat floor of the crater (seen here) was formed by the pooling of melted material. But the idea that an impact would create such an extensive pool of molten rock finds no support in impact experiments or in high-energy explosions. Not even an atomic explosion creates a flat melted floor of this sort. The force of the explosion shocks and ejects material. It does not hold the material in place to "melt" it into a lake of lava. When the brilliant engineer, Ralph Juergens, considered the lunar craters Tycho and Aristarchus, he noted the distinct features of electrical discharge. He wrote in 1974: "If Aristarchus and Tycho were produced by electric discharges, their clean floors would be just about what one would expect. The abilities of discharges to produce melting on cathode [negatively charged] surfaces and generally to clean up those surfaces have been remarked upon since the earliest experiments with electric discharges." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Juergens envisioned an interplanetary arc between the Moon and an approaching body (for his analysis, he summoned the planet Mars). While an instantaneous explosion does not have time to create a lava lake, an electric arc involving a long-distance flow of current between two approaching bodies, "would persist beyond the instant of any initial touchdown explosion," leaving material melted in place. Juergens saw Tycho as a "cathode crater," and he drew special attention to Tychos "spectacular system of rays." These, he suggested, are the very kind of streamers an electrical theorist would look for--a signature of the electron pathways that triggered the Tycho discharge. Of course, the astronomers consensus today is that the streamers are the trails of material ejected from the crater into narrow paths over extraordinary distances. But the "rays," Juergens noted, have no discernible depth, while material exploding from a Tycho-sized crater "would at least occasionally fall more heavily in one place than in another and build up substantial formations. But no one has ever been able to point out such a ray deposit." The presence of the narrow rays over such long distances, according to Juergens, is "all-butimpossible to reconcile with ejection origins. Enormous velocities of ejection must be postulated to explain the lengths of the rays, yet the energetic processes responsible for such velocities must be imagined to be focused very precisely to account for the ribbon-thin appearance of the rays." In fact, this challenge has found no answer in more recent scientific exploration. No experimental explosion at any scale has ever produced anything comparable to the well-defined 1500-kilometer "rays" of Tycho. Even more telling is the fact that the rays are punctuated with numerous small craters. An early explanation was that "some solid material was shot out with the jets and produced 'onthe-way' craters." But such narrow trajectories for secondary impactors are an absurdity under the mechanics of an explosion. And the total volume of ejected material needed to form the secondary craters along Tycho's rays, would amount to some 10,000 cubic kilometers an amount of material entirely inconsistent with careful measurements indicating that practically all material excavated from Tycho's crater has been deposited in its rim. However, the ray elements, terminating on small craters, are the very markers that todays electrical theorists have cited repeatedly as definitive evidence of an electrical discharge path. As Wallace Thornhill has so often observed, such discharge streamers frequently terminate at a crater. In fact, this is exactly what Gene Shoemaker found when investigating the puzzles of Tycho: "...many small secondary craters, too small to be resolved by telescopes on earth, occur at the near end of each ray element." When compared to an imagined sphere of the Moons average radius, the surrounding highland region occupied by Tycho is more than 1200 meters above the "surface" of that sphere. The crater site appears to be at the summit, or very close to the summit, of terrain that trends downward in every direction away from the site for hundreds of kilometers. For the impact theory, this location can only be an accident. But for the electrical theorists, the elevation on which Tycho sits is not accidental. Lightning is attracted to the highest point on a surface. (That is, of course, the principle behind lightning arrestors placed on the pinnacles of tall buildings). Though astronomers see Tychos rays as material ejected from the focal point of an impact, a mere glance at the picture above is sufficient to make clear that not all of the streamers radiate from a central point. Is this surprising? A mechanical impact has a single focal point The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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and cannot explain these offset rays. Juergens noted that they "diverge from a common point, or common focus, located on or buried beneath the western rim of the crater." The electrical interpretation of Tycho sees the streamers as paths of electrons rushing across the lunar highlands to the highest point, where it launches into space to form the lightning "leader" stroke. The high point is destroyed in the process. The powerful lightning "return stroke" that forms the Tycho crater comes minutes afterwards and focuses on the nearest high point, a few kilometers to the east. In support of this explanation, the crater Tycho is surrounded by a dark halo of ejecta that blankets the extensive ray system, laid down earlier. Tycho's crater rim rises about one kilometer above the surrounding terrain and the crater walls exhibit terraces (shown here) that are not characteristic of high energy explosions. However, such terracing is observed in innumerable instances of electrical discharge machining. (See the large terraced crater in the picture on the right here). This terracing May be due to the fact that electrical current flows in plasma in the form of twisted filament pairs rather like a double helix. So the terracing is caused by the cutting action of the rotating current filaments on the crater wall. Indeed, some lunar craters exhibit bilateral corkscrew terracing another observation inexplicable by the impact model, but remarkably consistent with the principle of an arc constituted of twin rotating "Birkeland Currents." While it is possible to get a "rebound peak" close to the center of an explosion, such a peak is not typical. In the electrical cratering experiments by plasma physicist CJ Ransom, (as seen here) central peaks were often the norm. As long ago as 1965, attention was drawn to the similar incidence of craters with central peaks in lunar craters and laboratory spark-machined craters. They seem to be an effect of the rotating current filaments, which May leave the center of a crater relatively untouched. The electrical theorists find great irony in the many examples of earlier researchers who pointed to the electrical properties of phenomena that official science eventually learned to ignore. In 1903, W. H. Pickering, in his book The Moon, suggested that electrical effects could account for the narrow paths of Tychos "rays," and he drew a direct comparison to the streamers seen in auroral displays. But as occurred so frequently in the twentieth century, evidence of electrical activity in space was ignored because it found no place in gravitational cosmology or in the curricula of astronomers and geologists.
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The Moon as seen from Earth. With a little imagination and a bit of artistic license, you can see "the Man in the Moon" (inset). Credit on "doctored" inset: ncsdweb.ncsd.k12.wy.us/planetarium/manshow.html
Man in the Moon

(Mar 06, 2006)
Since the Apollo missions to the Moon, astronomers have become accustomed to seeing what their theory calls for. The abundant craters, they say, are caused by meteoric, cometary, and asteroidal impact. "We can make many suggestions about the moon, but we have rather greater difficulty in proving that what we say is more than just possibilities." Harold Urey, 'The Nature of the Lunar Surface'. For several decades astronomers debated whether lunar craters were created by bombardment from space or by volcanism. The issue was decided in favor of the impact theory shortly after the beginning of the space age, when astronauts walked on the moon, and Apollo mission close-up images of craters excluded the volcanic interpretation. In far too many instances, volcanic vents and lava flows were not evident. For planetary science this was a turning point. Within a few years the vision of scarring by impact had set the direction of the space program, involving billions of dollars, all spent in confidence that astronomers were asking the right questions. The general rule was: Where there is a crater, there was an impact. Craters can therefore be counted to determine the age of a planets or a moons surface. When we visited Venus and Mars, then viewed the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune in high resolution, theoretical perception had already frozen into dogma. And even when we rendezvoused with asteroids and comets--exceedingly unlikely attractors for cosmic bombardment--most astronomers came to see the heavily cratered surfaces as a record of impact. Once the impact hypothesis took hold, planetary scientists sought to replicate experimentally the unique patterns of cratering on the moon and elsewhere in the solar system. On occasion, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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news releases touted the "successes" of such experiments, but at a more fundamental and scientific level, where detailed cratering patterns demanded experimental confirmation, the experiments proved to be a colossal failure. High-velocity impact craters do not match the features of the lunar craters. Nor do they match up with the craters we observe so abundantly on the surface of Mars, or on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. This failure of impact experiments, however, does not appear to have been the subject of any news releases. The anomalies include (to name just a few)- remarkable circularity of all craters of all sizes. Oblique impacts should form many oval craters; lack of collateral damage expected if the crater circularity were due to a near-ground explosion like a thermonuclear detonation; flat-bottomed, melted crater floors instead of dish shaped excavation from impact blast. Impacts and high-energy explosions--even atomic bombs--do not melt enough material to create flat floors. steep crater walls rather than the shallow dish shape expected from a supersonic impact blast; unexpected terracing of large crater walls, with melted floors of some terraces; inordinate number of secondary craters centered on the rims of larger craters; no larger craters cut through smaller craters; intricate chains of small craters along the rims of larger craters; numerous crater pairs and crater chains; minimal disturbance where one crater cuts into another; repeated, highly "improbable" associations of craters with adjoining cleanly cut gouges and rilles, from which material has simply disappeared; rays of "ejecta" tangential to the crater rim; concentric rings.
In considering the many contradictions to a hypothesis now treated as fact, it soon becomes clear that a psychology of belief has taken over planetary science. If a crater is clearly not a volcanic vent, and not a mere "sinkhole," then of course it is an impact site! What else could it be? The natural outcome of this limited perception is to "see what one believes." As a consequence, planetary scientists have stopped asking the most important questions. Indeed, they have yet to consider a fact of overwhelming importance to the future of planetary science: All of the primary cratering patterns in the solar system can be produced by electric discharge in the laboratory. This cannot be said of any other causative agent explored in the space age. In their interpretation of craters, therefore, planetary scientists appear to have fallen victim to a modern myth, another "man in the moon" in which imagination and theoretical license lead the way, in disregard for the proper bounds of good science.
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A graphic illustration of the "standard" picture of the universe today. Only about four percent is visible matter. About 70 percent is "dark energy". Credit: NASA
The Ever-Elusive "Dark Energy"

(Mar 02, 2006)
Observed motions in the heavens have always posed unsettling challenges to the suppositions of cosmologists. But critics say that things have gotten entirely out of hand with todays speculations about invisible energy and "accelerating expansion" of the universe. When astronomers began to analyze discrepancies between motions of spiral galaxies and the requirements of gravitational theory, they found it necessary to postulate large quantities of invisible matter, placed wherever it was needed to "explain" what they were seeing. At times this remedy reached humorous proportions. When astronomers discovered a vast cloud of hydrogen (VIRGOHI21), estimated to lie some 50 million light-years from Earth, they were perplexed by its speed of rotation. To achieve a fit with their gravitational model, they were forced to invent not just a modest supplement, but a thousand times more "dark matter" than visible matter. Such leaps of faith, however, are dwarfed by the more recent appeals to a mysterious concept called "dark energy"--summoned to prevent a complete collapse of modern cosmology and in particular its cherished "starting point," the big bang. Certain principles of the big bang hypothesis are foundational. To give up these principles would be to abandon the hypothesis. One such principle is the standard interpretation of "redshift" (the shift of spectra from distant objects in space toward the red end of the light spectrum). Astronomers view redshift as a reliable indicator of the speed at which an object is moving away from the observer. The result of this interpretation is the now-famous "expanding universe." Applying assumptions that once seemed obvious, the redshifted objects in space must mean that the universe is growing larger, as the distances between observed objects grows ever greater. Another foundational principle is that of an electrically neutral, gravity-driven universe. And if The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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gravity is the controlling force, then it follows that distant objects velocities of recession, set in motion by the big bang, are slowing down--an inescapable consequence of gravity. In fact, this too was once a foundational assumption of the big bang theory. But the astronomers confidence was shattered when it was realized from the study of a particular class of supernovae, that something was dreadfully wrong. It appeared that the "expansion" of the universe was not slowing down at all. The troublemakers were the "Type Ia" supernovae, which astronomers believed they understood well enough to use as "standard candles," with a dependable and absolute magnitude that could be compared to apparent magnitudes to give reliable distances. But when the astronomers plotted the distances against the redshift-determined velocities of recession, the result was a staggering contradiction of their theoretical assumption. The figures suggested that the "expansion" of the universe was accelerating. Perhaps this would have been a good time to reconsider theoretical assumptions. But instead, the mathematicians, led by cosmologist Michael Turner, embarked on new flights of fancy, envisioning something unseen, untestable, and even more bizarre than dark matter. They imagined that the universe must be filled with invisible energy or "negative pressure"--a kind of "gravity that repels." "While gravity gently binds planets, stars and galaxies together, dark energy tugs on the fabric of time and space, pushing galaxies apart ever faster and faster into the farthest reaches of the universe." (From an article, "Astrophysics Challenged By Dark Energy Finding," at Space.com, April 10, 2001, emphasis ours). In these pages, we have challenged the assumptions underlying such unfounded conjectures. What does "dark energy" and "fabric of time and space" really mean? To begin with, cosmologists make a fundamental mistake in ignoring the electric force in the cosmos--a force whose presence has been made abundantly clear by new instruments for imaging objects in space. Supernova 1987a the closest ever studied shows that astronomers do not understand the mechanism that produces supernovae: it exhibits unmistakable signs of electrical discharge, contradicting the idea that supernovae can be used as "standard candles" (another idea founded on theoretical supposition, not fact). Indeed, the light curves of supernovae in highly redshifted host galaxies exhibit a number of recognized anomalies. The claim that their "faintness" points to the presence of "dark energy" does not follow, given our present state of ignorance about these objects. Moreover, the standard assumption that redshift can only be equated with velocity of recession is disputed by some of the worlds most distinguished astronomers, including Halton Arp, the late Fred Hoyle, Geoffrey and Margaret Burbidge, and others. Edwin Hubble himself did not accept the equation as self-evident. It is pretentious to ignore the warnings of highly accredited authorities. In fact, leading plasma experts tell us that high-energy plasma discharge can produce redshift having no connection to velocity of recession. Hence, it is no longer reasonable to continue with "business as usual," applying the Doppler interpretation of redshift in disregard of the evidence for intrinsic redshift. The first requirement, before pursuing the chimera of "dark energy," is to revisit first principles--a subject we intend to explore in coming Pictures of the Day.
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Chandra X-Ray Observatory estimates of the "total energy content of the Universe." Only "normal matter" can be directly detected with telescopes. The rest of the matter and energy is invisible. Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
In the Dark on Matter--Fabulous Matter and Energy

(Feb 28, 2006)
Since there is no experimental or observable evidence that dark matter exists, is it just a prop for the beleaguered big bang theory? This highly speculative construct is now combined with one just as fabulous--dark energy--to shore up current cosmological dogma. In the 1930s, astronomers Fritz Zwicky and Sinclair Smith were puzzled by the motions they observed within the Virgo and Coma galactic clusters. Everything seemed to be moving too fast to be held in place by gravity. So they conjectured that something they could not see was exerting a gravitational effect on these clusters. But most astronomers were only marginally impressed. In the 1970s, however, astronomers began to examine the rotational motions of spiral galaxies such as our own Milky Way. The rotational speeds of the stars that make up spiral galaxies are far too great, they said: At such speeds the constituent stars should be flying apart. So astronomers, accustomed to thinking only in terms of gravity, calculated how much additional matter was required--and where--to fit the observations. The idea of invisible material or "dark matter" soon became essential if the observed motions were to make sense gravitationally. Today astronomers say there is far more dark matter than visible matter acting on galactic structure. In the years that followed the questions only deepened, as the proposed "answers" grew more complex and bizarre and theorists speculated about MACHOs--" Massive Astrophysical Compact Halo Objects"--and a presumed counterpart called WIMPs--"Weakly Interacting Massive Particles." Then the theorists began to distinguish between "cold" dark matter and "hot" dark matter, supplemented by "warm" dark matter and "baryonic" dark matter. From the beginning it has been a game accessible only to mathematicians. But today, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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suspicions abound that the theoretical excursions have no actual connection to anything occurring in nature. As The Complete Idiot's Guide to Theories of the Universe puts it: "There is no experimental or observable evidence that dark matter exists. It's a theory to make the big bang work." Advocates of the Electric Universe point out that astronomers can maintain the "credibility" of this game only by insisting that electromagnetism has no appreciable role in the organization of cosmic structure. "And it isnt as if the evidence for galactic magnetic fields and therefore electricity is lacking!" laughs Wallace Thornhill, who has devoted much of his life to exploring the role of electricity in space. What is the nature of "missing matter," and does it even exist in truth? It is interesting to note that astronomers cannot answer the first question, but do not doubt the answer to the second. We see the contradiction ratified daily in the popular scientific media. A story at the Universe Today website begins: "Dark matter is a mystery. Astronomers know it's there because they can measure the effect of its gravity on stars and galaxies, but they can't see it." Perhaps the author does not realize that the confidence he exudes rests entirely on the astronomers conjectures. Their equations "work" only in an abstract world, and only because the mathematicians have systematically excluded electricity. The diagram at the top of the page shows the universal confusion between matter and mass. (It's a pity both words begin with "m," say the electrical theorists; otherwise mathematicians might not have gotten away with this sleight of hand). Everyone recognizes the equation relating energy and mass (E = mc2), but no one knows what gives matter its apparent mass. One of the foundational principles of physics states that matter cannot be created or destroyed. Matter cannot be converted into energy or vice versa. In other words, energy and matter are not equivalent and cannot be lumped together as in the above diagram. The truth is that we have no real idea of the relationship between matter, mass, and gravity. It is our ignorance of this relationship that has permitted the big bang theory to flourish and has created the "problem" of missing mass. Dark matter was invented to rescue a gravity-driven universe and to make the big bang work, even if the theory requires "creation from nothing" and must violate, in its first principles, every fundamental law of physics. Is there an alternative? Yes, plasma cosmologists are waiting in the wings for working scientists to tire of the theorists mathematical escapades, and to think first of the things we actually know. Grant the role of electricity on a galactic scale, and the case for dark matter evaporates. Plasma physicists have successfully demonstrated the formation and dynamics of the classic spiral shape (spiral galaxy) in laboratory electrical discharges. And observations of magnetic fields in spiral galaxies match the laboratory forms, which are known to be scaleable over more than 14 orders of magnitude. The magnetic fields trace the electric currents flowing along the spiral arms of galaxies. Electromagnetic forces alone can thus produce the classic structure and rotation of ubiquitous, magnificent galactic formations. No dark matter required!
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The "Great Comet" of 1996, Hyakutake. The stunning discovery of X-ray emissions from the visitor was a milestone in comet science, as was the discovery that the comet's coherent and filamentary ion tail spanned more than 350 million miles. Credit: NASA
The Comet and the Future of Science

(Feb 27, 2006)
Though NASA officials have said nothing on the subject, astronomy today is on the edge of a critical shift in perception--a revolution that could redefine our view of the heavens. Proponents of the "Electric Universe" say that a revolution in the sciences is inescapable, and they believe the failure of modern comet theory could be the tipping point. The high-energy events exhibited by comets require a new understanding of what makes a comet work, and the answer to the mystery of comets will invariably affect all of the space sciences. For starters, a list of the enigmas would have to include these surprises: comet x-rays, a coma several times the size of the Sun glowing in ultraviolet light, strong electrical and turbulent magnetic fields, million degree coma "temperatures," supersonic jets, collimation of these jets over great distances, coherent and filamentary comet tails spanning up to a hundred million miles and more, explosive outbursts of dust hundreds of millions of miles from the Sun, the "inexplicable" break up and complete disintegration of comet nuclei far from the Sun, sharply etched surface relief, bright surface patches (camera saturation, most obvious in the case of Tempel 1), and "impossibly" fine comet dust. Intense energetic activity has, one discovery at a time, shocked astronomers. But in fact every surprise points in the same direction. For several years the electrical theorists have predicted that the fatal blow to modern comet mythology will come from the absence of sufficient water ice or other ices on a comet nucleus to produce the jets and coma. This prediction has already been fulfilled, but the message has yet to register. After repeated failures to find any water on comet surfaces, NASA spokesmen The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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celebrated the "success" of the Deep Impact mission when they thought they had found, on the surface of Comet Tempel 1, a minuscule .005 of the water required by theory to explain the signals associated with water in the coma. When findings repeatedly discredit an accepted model in the sciences, its time to consider the findings from a different vantage point to look for a pattern that has been missed. For the electrical theorists, the pattern is too obvious to be missed. The unexplained features are predictable effects of an electric discharge, and nothing that an electrical expert would look for is missing from NASAs discoveries. It is also inconceivable that the collapse of comet theory could stand as an isolated event in astronomy. The physical universe is not a bundle of contradictions, even if modern "explanations" are. A comet discharging electrically as it approaches the Sun means simply that the Sun is the focus of electrical activity strong enough to produce the observed cometary phenomena. That includes the visible flare-up of comets while in "deep freeze" beyond the orbit of Saturn. The implication, according to Electric Universe advocates, is that sufficient electrical energy is available from the galaxy to power the Sun. A tiny charged comet occasionally taps into that solar circuit to produce a visible display. But in the past 75 years, most astronomers never entertained electricity as a source of energy in the cosmos despite its usefulness to mankind. A Sun energized electrically will be much more of a "shock to the system" than an electric comet. For decades weve been assured that the science of the Sun is well established--a few is to dot, a few ts to cross, and little to fret about. But those expressing this confidence had no training in electrical discharges in thin plasma. Instead they treated the solar wind merely as a wind, with a weak magnetic field thrown in. They did not see that the magnetic field and the reaction of a comet to the solar wind, when interpreted as electrical phenomena, answer the greatest mysteries of the Sun. Why, for example, do the charged particles of the solar wind defy gravity and continue to accelerate as they move away from the Sun, out past the planets? And how is it that the temperature of the Sun leaps from a few thousand degrees at the surface to a million degrees above the surface, at the corona? These questions are easy to explain if the energy is coming from outside the Sun. In the electrical model, the Sun (like all stars) is an anode, or positively charged focus within a galactic discharge. The Sun's electrical influence extends out to a plasma sheath, incorrectly called the heliopause, far beyond the orbit of Pluto. The electrical acceleration of the solar wind and the ion tail of a comet, therefore, is exactly what should happen, and there is no other credible explanation of this phenomenon. Those who are not trained in plasma discharge behavior are unaware that throughout almost the entire volume of space within the Sun's plasma sheath, the electric field remains weak but constant in strength, representing an immense electric potential across the vast distance to the boundary of the Suns electrical domain. It is not until charged particles are very close to the Sun that they experience strong electric fields in 'double layers' that heat the solar corona and form the global electrical storm we call a star. The electrical theorists Wallace Thornhill and Don Scott have enumerated at least two dozen enigmas of solar behavior that immediately disappear when you grant the same electric field that is implied by the electric comet. And what of planetary science? From an electrical vantage point, the electric arcs that have carved the surfaces of comets can be compared to those that, in an earlier phase of solar The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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system history, etched the surfaces of planets and moons. The astronomer's bafflement at recent close-up images of comets is just like their response to enigmatic surface features of larger rocky bodies in the solar system--from the tortured surfaces of Venus and Mars to the alien worlds of Jupiter and Saturn. The sharply sculpted nuclei of comets reveal the same features we see on rocky planets and moons--craters, rilles, spires, mountains, ridges, mesas rising from flat valley floors and etched relief--just the opposite of what astronomers had expected. Of course, the prevailing model of comets, envisioning a sublimating chunk of dirty ice, does not allow that similar features could have similar causes, though that is precisely the message of the electric theorists. To see planetary history in the terms implied by the electrical interpretation, it will be essential that science free itself from the modern fable of the "uneventful solar system"--planets moving on unchanging orbits for billions of years. The fable originated as a theoretical conjecture long before the space age began. Geological models of the 1950's did not envision the pictures of planetary violence returned from space, because they imagined isolated bodies moving like undisturbed clockwork for aeons. More than any other discovery of the space age, the electric comet will force a reconsideration of solar system evolution, with a new appreciation for the role of planetary instability and global catastrophe. What happens to comets happened in the past on a planetary scale. The present stable order of the solar system is new. The picture of the macrocosm will change as well. If the electric force was active in solar system evolution, our little enclave in the Milky Way could hardly be an exception to a rule. Electric events evident in our neighborhood must have countless analogs in deep space. How, then, could popular cosmological theories based on a gravity-driven universe retain their hold on scientific imagination? By following the evidence, one will confront the single most costly theoretical mistake of the twentieth century: the belief that we live in an electrically sterile universe. When that mistake is corrected, the universe will no longer resemble the "big picture" that dominates popular science. And the disappearance of the big bang, black holes, dark matter, dark energy, and neutron stars from the lexicon of astronomy will be a mere beginning.
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These close-up images of Comet Tempel 1, taken by the camera on the impactor that struck the comet nucleus, reveal white patches that have continued to puzzle NASA scientists. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD
Deep Impact: Wheres the Water? (3)--A Unified Explanation of "Water" Production
(Feb 17, 2006)
The idea of an electric comet traces to scientific discussion in the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1871, professor W. Stanley Jevons, suggested (in the journal Nature) that comets might owe their "peculiar phenomena to electric action." The following year Scientific American reported on the research of "Professor Zollner of Leipsic," who suggested that comet tails, "which consist of very small particles, yield to the action of the free electricity of the sun." Ten years later the electric comet had gained momentum. The 1882 English Mechanic and World of Science reported a "rapidly growing feeling amongst physicists that both the self-light of comets and the phenomena of their tails belong to the order of electrical phenomena." By 1896, Nature could report: "It has long been imagined that the phenomenon of comets tails are in some way due to a solar electrical repulsion." In retrospect it is clear that those envisioning electric activity of comets were limited by traditional concepts of electrostatics, concepts that have continued to breed misunderstanding into the 21st century. But experimental knowledge of the "plasma universe" began with Kristian Birkeland very early in the 20th century, not long before Irving Langmuir named "plasma" for its life-like qualities. Later, the groundbreaking work of Hannes Alfvn showed conclusively that simple electrostatic formulae were wholly inadequate to account for plasma behavior. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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These things were unknown to the scientific community when Hugo Benioff published "The Present State of the Electric Theory of Comet Forms" in 1920. Benioff acknowledged that, "the outward radial motions in all directions of particles close to the nucleus are best explained as resulting from an electrical charge associated with the nucleus." But as for the "repulsion" of comet tails, he said, this required a charge separation beyond anything that could be practically envisioned. So, to explain the behavior of comet tails, he settled on the principle of "radiation pressure," an idea to which all of astronomy moved in the following decades. Today, however, we know that comet tails can be influenced by solar radiation "pressure," but they are clearly not governed by it. Nevertheless, the electric comet faded quickly as astronomers came to envision an electrically inert, gravitationally dominated universe. Earlier investigators, despite a comparative lack of data, were more interdisciplinary. They could see certain features of comets calling for an electrical explanation. But as specialization took over, astronomers soon lost all interest in electricity, a subject eventually banished from the training of astronomers and disappearing completely from their vocabulary. Was the progressive dismissal of electricity based on evidence, or on something else? The comet provides a good illustration of the point weve made many times in these pages. Theoretical assumptions can marginalize uncomfortable facts to such an extent that they are no longer noticed or remembered. When 19th century astronomers wondered about the role of electricity in comet behavior, they could see that a cometary coma, the spherical envelope around the nucleus, could not be maintained by gravity. But well before the full flowering of modern plasma research, experiments showed that when a charged probe was placed in plasma, a sphere of oppositely charged particles would gather around the probe. The early researchers were only following the experimental evidence when they recognized electrical phenomena in the sphere of the coma. Today our view of the comet is greatly enhanced by the technological achievements of the twentieth century; but critical thinking--the ability to question theoretical assumptions--has collapsed to the point that astronomers barely notice the incongruities in coma behavior. Given the trivial gravity of a typical comet nucleus, the escape velocity will be something like walking speed. Take a hop and you will never return. Our visits to comets have shown material escaping from the surface of nuclei in jets, some at supersonic speeds. The jets throw material into space in all directions, at different speeds and in irregular patterns. Then what happens? A force that you cannot find in the lexicon of astronomers gathers the material into a spherical form, despite the fact that much of this material is millions of kilometers or more from the nucleus and could not possibly "see" the nucleus gravitationally. Nevertheless, in the vacuum of space, as the comet speeds around the Sun, the nucleus continues to hold in place the giant spherical cloud, up to 10 million kilometers or more in diameter. As astronomers continued to evolve their gravitational models of the heavens, the pioneers of plasma science explored the role of the electric force, which is known to be 39 orders of magnitude (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times) more powerful than gravity. Their explorations took them far beyond electrostatics, to demonstrate the powerful dynamics of electric currents in plasma and in high-energy plasma discharge. They enumerated the attributes of "double layers" that gather as spherical shells around charged The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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objects in plasma. Across the walls of such layers, they observed intense electric fields, while across the larger distances between such layers the field could be much weaker, even imperceptibly weak. Plasma events are scalable. What occurs in the plasma laboratory can occur on a vastly larger scale in space plasma. Hence, observations of plasma behavior in the laboratory are a logical reference when considering the mysteries of cometary comas--and that includes the many enigmas that surround the identification of "water" in the comas. According to the electric theorists, electricity can accomplish the very things that have baffled the cometologists. In their analysis of the coma, astronomers begin with the assumption that water is evaporating in the heat of the Sun, off the surface ices of the nucleus. They do not "see" the water, but call upon the effects of solar radiation (photolysis) on assumed "water" to account for the abundant hydroxyl radical OH (oxygen-hydrogen molecules) in the coma. In our previous Picture of the Day we noted another possibility. Astronomers have not considered the energetic ionic chemical reactions that would accompany plasma discharge "sputtering" of a cathode or negatively charged object in space. Production of OH would be virtually certain if proton streams sputtered material from the surface in the fashion that the electric theorists have claimed. When theoretical issues arise, the contrast between predicted behavior under the two vantage points becomes a distinct advantage. With this advantage in mind we offer the following summary of facts and contrasting interpretations. 1. Negatively charged nucleus. The electric view compares the behavior of negatively charged probes in plasma experiments to the behavior of comets. It therefore predicts a spacecraft moving through the coma would encounter a number of plasma sheaths or double layers as it approached the nucleus of a comet. Plasma sheaths will form between regions in which the characteristics of the plasma itself change. Across a sheath the voltage differential between the comet nucleus and the solar wind should show up most dramatically. Positive ions should "pile up" on the sunward side of the sheath in the comas electrical response to the solar wind. In fact, this was observed at both comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp and surprised researchers by its unexpected stability over "hours, days and even weeks." The researchers were surprised because they had imagined that the concentration of ions was a mechanical "bow shock" as material in the jets encountered the solar wind. Since the jets are highly variable, the intensity of the "bow shock" should vary accordingly. However, plasma sheaths respond only to the electrical environment, which will be less variable than episodic jets, and will be most concentrated in the sunward direction, precisely as observed. Neutral oxygen (O) near the nucleus shows a spectral line indicative of the presence of an "intense" electric field. So the electric model anticipates energetic "hot" electrons and negatively charged ions close to the nucleus, as sputtering strips atoms and molecules directly from negatively charged rock. The International Cometary Explorer (ICE) mission to comet Giacobini-Zinner found "hot electrons coming back more and more frequently." The Halley probes detected "very energetic electron populations" in the coma. And the presence of negatively charged ions surprised the investigators. They wrote: "an efficient production mechanism, so far unidentified, is required to account for the observed densities [of negative ions]." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In fact, the intense electric field near the comet nucleus makes no sense whatsoever if a comet is merely an inert body plowing through the solar wind. Electric currents produce magnetic fields, and "magnetized cometary plasma is much larger than was theoretically predicted" [emphasis ours], according to the 1986 Nature report on Comet Halley. 2. OH production. If one accepts the evidence that a comet is a negatively charged body moving through the weak radial electric field of a positively charged Sun, the production of OH in the coma will not look anything like the standard picture. Taken as a whole, the facts we have already summarized (here and here), virtually preclude abundant water on the comet nucleus, while the sputtering hypothesis stands out in its consistency with all available data. In the electric model, negative oxygen ions will be accelerated away from the comet in energetic jets, then combine preferentially with protons from the solar wind to form the observed OH radical and the neutral hydrogen gathered around the coma in vast concentric bubbles. The reactions simply confirm the energetic charge exchange between the nucleus and Sun. It is interesting to note that the warning signs for standard theory came very early. Even before the first visit to a comet, a 1980 report in the journal Nature outlined some of the mysteries and anomalies. It concluded: "cometary scientists need to consider more carefully whether H20-ice really does constitute a major fraction of comet nuclei" This cautionary note was not heeded. Later, in 1986, Nature reported that OH issues remained perplexing and "May indicate the existence of parents of OH other than H20." But in the years that followed, despite the shocking failure of the "dirty snowball" model to predict any milestone discoveries, one of the most critical questions simply disappeared from scientific discussion. 3. Too much atomic hydrogen. Early in the 1970s, astronomers were stunned when they observed cometary comas in ultraviolet light. They discovered immense envelopes of fluorescing hydrogen atoms much larger than the visible coma. In the case of Comet Bennett the hydrogen coma was an "almost unbelievable" 15 million kilometers in diameter. That's 10 times the diameter of the Sun! Where did this immense volume of atomic hydrogen come from? The prevailing theory of OH production requires some sort of balance between OH and neutral hydrogen. Whatever the difficulties faced by the standard model explanation of the spherical coma, the difficulties can only grow in relation to a hydrogen envelope millions of kilometers in diameter. 4. Plasma sheaths and "double layers." Many features of the electric model of the comet derive from the laboratory behavior of electrified plasma and plasma discharge. In an electrically neutral environment nothing comparable to the sheaths that occur around charged bodies in plasma will be expected. Comet researchers working with the "dirty snowball" model of a comet expected no such phenomena. Across the wall or boundary of a plasma sheath--what plasma experts call "a double layer"-an intense electric field May occur in contrast to a weaker field between these boundaries. Variations in the energies of charged particles will contrast sharply with what would be expected in an electrically neutral environment. This is exactly what occurred as Giotto and the two Vega spacecraft moved through Halleys coma. The Nature reports are replete with references to unexpected variations in charged The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The report notes three regions of variation in ion (charged particle) characteristics. An outer region "contains pick-up ions in the solar wind." This May be interpreted electrically as the outer edge of the comet's plasma sheath. A second region inside the so-called "bow shock" stretches for several thousand kilometers, revealing the most intense fluxes and distinct intensity spikes. This May be the crossing of the double layer, where a strong radial electric field exists. A third region is characterized by lower intensities, but with sharp spikes at closest approach. Here we May be seeing the cometary plasma being disturbed by the accelerated ions and electrons from the comet jets. In Vega 1s close approach, narrow peaks were evident "at all energies." The report says: "We note that this feature coincides with the occurrence of maximum magnetic field intensity and rapid changes in field direction." Of course, the magnetic field measures the strength of the electric currents flowing near the comet. Finally, at closest approach, there was a sudden increase in highly energetic electrons. "No significant variation in this flux had been observed for several days preceding closest approach." At a distance of 40,000 kilometers from the nucleus, the Vega 2 craft detected a surge in cometary plasma density, "accompanied by large fluxes of suprathermal electrons with energies up to a few keV" [emphasis ours]. "The most dramatic effects were observed in the last minute before closest approach two short bursts of ions with energies up to 400 eV were observed: During the last 45 sec before closest approach, the flux increases rapidly until the spacecraft appears to be surrounded by a dense and very hot cloud of plasma the energies are very much higher than had been anticipated." For these "energies of the observed ions" the researchers had no explanation. 5. X-rays. In1996, the German X-ray Roentgen Satellite (ROSAT) viewed the comet Hyakutake. The astronomers hoped to see a small smudge at best and some wondered why anyone would bother. X-rays had never been detected from a comet before and theorists could only imagine a few ways that a comet could produce any x-rays at all. So the astronomers were shocked to find x-rays up to 100 times more intense than even the most optimistic predictions! Also the emission flickered on a time scale of hours. "We were prepared to see nothing. So it was an enormous surprise when this thing was just a boomer," said a team member. A NASA report noted: "there must be previously unsuspected 'high-energy' processes taking place in the comet" This was the last thing that the standard model would have anticipated, but an electric current in a near vacuum is the way we produce x-rays on earth. The flickering is characteristic of a glow discharge. An intense electric field in a cometary double layer can accelerate electrons and cometary ions so that they collide with solar wind ions and emit x-rays. It is significant that the x-rays did not come from a region expected by a "mechanical shock" model--the only model available to the surprised astronomers. They came from a crescent-shaped region in the direction of the Sun, which is where we should expect the maximum electrical stress. Following this chance discovery, researchers have become accustomed to x-rays from comets, but the uncompromising implication of an electrical transaction, or charge exchange, between the comet and the Sun has yet to sink in. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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6. Flare-ups in deep freeze. In 1991, comet Halley flared up to 300 times its normal brightness between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus, 14 times further than the Earth from the Sun. The comet's surface should be at -200 C and "no kind of chemistry can work that far out from the Sun." No theory could explain the outburst from the 15-kilometer nucleus, which created a cloud of dust 300,000 kilometers wide. The cloud was "made mainly of dust, with no sign of any spectral lines emitted by any gas." Significantly for the electrical model (which does not require any gas from heated ices to explain the outburst) the Sun was going through a maximum of activity that fitted the outburst of comet Halley. Astronomers could not see the significance: "the amount of energy in the bursts is diluted as they move outward. Even the most intense burst of protons should not deliver enough energy to provoke an outburst of this size at such a distance." But comments such as this require one to exclude electrical currents from consideration. A high voltage, negatively charged comet will attract protons to the nucleus from a huge volume of surrounding space. 7. Surface erosion. In the electric model as formulated by Wallace Thornhill, "cathode sputtering" will disintegrate surface layers of the negatively charged object by bombarding it with energetic ions in an electric discharge. The discharge will be concentrated in small spots as arcs eat away a surface, giving rise to steep-walled craters and broad flat-floored valleys surrounded by sharply-defined mesas or terraces. That is the familiar look of electrical etching. A beautiful example is seen on the surface of Comet Tempel 1 above, but other examples are abundant on planets and moons. The electrically etched surface of Jupiters moon Io is the most striking example because the process is still underway in the electrified Jovian environment. Significantly, a paper in the journal Science, in October 2005, noted that "shocks" caused by ion sputtering of a cathode or negatively charged surface sharpen steep surface features--a dramatic contrast to the way the evaporation of ices will attenuate surface relief. A steep "cliff" remains even as it is eaten away by an arc progressively expanding the dimensions of the valley floor. As Thornhill has long contended, cathode arcs tend to impinge on sharp edges because of the higher electric field there--a point that reinforces the Science article. In contrast to prevailing ideas about Ios "volcanoes," Thornhill predicted that the electric-discharge plumes would move around the edges of the valley floors. And that is what the Galileo probe discovered--another surprise for astronomers and planetary scientists who had not expected to find "volcanoes" to be moving across the surface of Io. Viewing the comet in similar electrical terms will allow us to answer one of the least noticed but most profound mysteries posed by Comet Tempel 1. In the best pictures of the nucleus taken from the spacecraft, numerous patches of whiteout appear, most frequently on the edges of mesa cliffs, crater walls, and other surface relief. It is clearly not a random glitch in photography. Somehow the camera, photographing a body as dark as copier toner, was selectively saturated by bright spots on the surface. Have we ever seen such a thing before? Curiously, exactly the same thing occurred when the Galileo probe viewed the electric plumes moving across the surface of Io. The designers of the camera had not anticipated anything so bright. But that is the nature of the electric arc--its why arc welders wear those darkened masks! The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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What will it take, then, to convince NASA scientists to ask the question: Do the patches of whiteout in close-ups of Tempel 1 reveal electrical discharge activity--on a scale that would immediately invalidate the foundational assumptions of todays cometary science? 8. Fine cometary dust. Cathode sputtering has an effect that is simply "beyond the reach" of evaporating volatiles. It can create an exceedingly fine dust down to 1 micrometer or even finer. (One micrometer is just 40 millionths of an inch). This unique capability of cathode sputtering is why the process is used in the manufacture of highly reflective mirrors for modern telescopes. So again, a comparison of practical electrical technology with the discoveries of Deep Impact is only reasonable. This line of investigation introduces another surprise: Astronomers could not understand what occurred when the 800-pound projectile hit the comet nucleus. An enormous volume of an extraordinarily fine dust was thrown into space at high speed, creating an extremely bright cloud due to the dusts remarkable reflectivity. NASA scientists estimated that the dust particles were only .5 to 1 micrometer in diameter. But was the surprise justified? Almost twenty years earlier the visit to Halley had investigators wondering how "sublimating ices" could produce such fine comet dust. But that surprise, like so many others, seems to have been quickly forgotten. Also from the report in Science, in its recent report on the Deep Impact explosion: "The brightness increase lasted at least an order of magnitude longer than the expected crater formation time of 36 minutes." And the "kinetic energy of the impactor is insufficient to provide the energy required to sublimate the observed amounts of water." Remembering that the water was estimated from OH molecules seen after the impact, we can see that another key prediction by Thornhill, made in October 2001 concerning the expected outcomes of the impact with Tempel 1, was satisfied: "the energetic effects of the encounter should exceed that of a simple physical impact, in the same way that was seen with comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 at Jupiter." In the electric view, the unexpected energies of the Deep Impact explosion, and the release of unexpectedly fine dust, are both the predictable consequence of plasma discharge. PLEASE NOTE: In the presentation above we have combined a series of TPODs in order to present, on one "page," a unified answer to the question of water-ice on comets
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A comparison of an image of Comet Tempel 1 taken on July 4, 2005, 0:00 CEST and one taken 2 days later reveals a return to normal activity. Credit: Image taken in Stuttgart (Germany); special thanks to Stefan Seip.
Deep Impact: Wheres the Water? (2)--The Comet as a "Water" Factory

(Feb 16, 2006)
More than a half-century ago, the distinguished astronomer Fred Whipple offered a scientific theory of comets that came to be known as the "dirty snowball model." Embraced by virtually all astronomers, the theory explained the "outgassing" of comets as the effect of heating by the Sun. When a comet moves closer to the Sun, ices on the nucleus "sublimate," or evaporate into space, simultaneously ejecting dusty material held within the ices. By the 1980s, however, new discoveries began to force changes in the language of comets. The theorized surface water proved far more difficult to find than anyone had imagined. In 1986, visits to Halleys comet by the European Giotto and Russian Vega probes failed to locate surface water and raised the distinct possibility that the nucleus might not be ejecting water into space. A feature story in the journal Nature following the encounter acknowledged that, "only indirect and sometimes ambiguous evidence of water has been found; indeed, some facts seem to contradict this hypothesis." The flyby of Comet Borrelly by the Deep Space 1 craft in 2001 "detected no frozen water on its surface," according to a NASA release. "The spectrum suggests that the surface is hot and dry. It is surprising that we saw no traces of water ice," said the lead investigator Dr. Laurence Soderblom. Then, in January 2004, the Stardust spacecraft passed by Comet Wild 2, identifying a dozen jets of material exploding from the nucleus. The craft plowed through surprisingly dense The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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pockets of dust swirling around the comet, but investigators were astonished that they could not find even a trace of water on the surface, despite the energetic activity. By the time of "Deep Impact" on July 4, 2005, comet theory had fragmented into mutually contradictory hypotheses--a comet was a dirty snowball, an icy dirtball, a gravel pile, a rubble heap, or an easily-fragmented fluffball. NASAs recent report on the Deep Impact mission suggests that investigators found a smattering of water ice on the surface of comet Tempel 1. The problem is that, to account for the water supposedly being "exhaled" by Tempel 1, the investigators needed 200 times more exposed water- ice than they could find. Advocates of the "electric comet" say that the issue here is not a question of fact so much as one of interpretation. Prior assumptions have hardened into dogma, which has prevented comet researchers from seeing possibilities that might be obvious to those who do not share the dogma. After noting that the surface of Borrelly was "hot and dry," NASA scientists did not question their theoretical starting point. Soderblom did not doubt the presence of water somewhere. "We know the ice is there," he said. "It's just well-hidden." Considering the pattern of new findings, it is time to pose the question that no one has wanted to ask. Why do comet investigators never find the levels of nucleus ices they expect? The absence of detectable water on the nucleus of Wild 2 was particularly mystifying because the pictures revealed cavernous craters with steep cliffs exposing deep subsurface material. The absence of water in such circumstance is no small problem! The case of missing water is even more severe in the instance of Deep Impact and Comet Tempel 1. If a thin crust of dust hides the water below the surface of the nucleus, one would think that a newly formed crater, estimated to be the size of a football field and perhaps 65 feet deep, would be exactly what was needed to add life to the comets water-producing ability. The ice certainly could not be more than a few feet beneath the insulating material-and thats thinking generously. Any deeper than that, and the Suns heating could have nothing to do with the comets discharge. The explosion removed many thousands of tons of material. But prior to impact, the calculated "water" output was 550 pounds per second; and not long after the impact, the calculated output was, once again, 550 pounds per second (See picture above regarding the return to previous level). So despite the impressive explosion, the envisioned sub-surface water refused to reveal itself. By NASAs own calculations, therefore, Deep Impact has only made matters worse for standard theory. The electrical theorists suggest that the "problem" is simply one of scientific preconceptions-namely, unfounded assumptions about the "water" content of the coma and its presumed origins. More than two decades ago, Fred Whipple noted that the inner coma of a comet is a "chemical factory" and that the complex reactions within the coma can leave scientists "confused." It is not clear "whether the materials we detect come unchanged directly from the nucleus or were manufactured near the surface," he said. To solve the dilemma, scientists turned to modeling the possible chemical reactions with the help of supercomputers and spectroscopic observations, beginning with the assumption that volatiles "boil off" the surface via solar heating. From that starting point a theory passed into rigid beliefs and unwarranted statements of "fact." As the space age has demonstrated so The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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poignantly, the hardened beliefs did not give way even when later visits to comets not only failed to verify the assumptions, but produced a litany of surprises. No one should be permitted to state as fact the idea that large volumes of "water" fill the comas of comets. The scientific instruments do not see water. What they see as the most abundant companion of cometary dust is the "hydroxyl" radical, OH. In considering the source of OH, the theorists possess a deficient toolkit. Standard theory has little to work with other than photolysis, the process by which light absorption can break a molecule down into its separate building blocks. But conventional theorists, already "knowing" that the coma is a product of water boiling off the nucleus, concluded with equal confidence that the comas water has been broken down by the Suns ultraviolet radiation, forming the hydroxyl radical (OH) along with atomic hydrogen and oxygen. By this reasoning, the abundance of OH in a comet nucleus becomes a direct pointer to the abundance of water held by the nucleus. So the distinction between fact and theory is quickly blurred. A superabundant "leftover" of the hypothesized conversion of water into OH is hydrogen. But in truth, it is not easy to produce hydrogen though any process other than electrolysis. And there is a suspicious absence of adequate experimental work to verify that the photolysis assumed by cometologists is actually feasible on the scale their "explanation" requires. A much different vantage point on the water question is possible. The unsolved mysteries of the comet will find direct answers in an electrical exchange--the transaction between a negatively charged comet nucleus and the Sun. In fact there are many avenues for generating OH if you allow for electric discharge and "sputtering" by protons to remove silicates, carbonates, and other rock minerals, together with organic molecules, from the comets surface. Electrical sputtering technology is well established in industrial applications, but is far from the minds of astronomers as they consider the mysteries of the comet. Meanwhile, the surprises continue, and the electric theorists remind us again that surprises are the key to discovery: the findings that have most astonished astronomers are high energy events--extreme ultraviolet light emissions, x-ray emissions, million degree temperatures, supersonic jets, explosive and unpredictable outbursts even beyond the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn, the violent break-up of comets (including the surprising speed at which the parts sometimes separate), and the complete disintegration of comet nuclei millions of miles from the Sun. The very things that comet researchers did not anticipate are the predictable effects of an electric comet. Of course, if electric sputtering is occurring on a comets surface, it is not just another surprise; it is a challenge to all conventional assumptions about water in the comas of comets. Since OH abundance is virtually the only basis for common statements about cometary water, it is essential that the question remain open long enough to allow for consideration of the water issue from another vantage point.
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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD
Deep Impact: Wheres the Water?

(Feb 14, 2006)
Early in the morning of July 4, 2005, cosmic fireworks occurred millions of miles from Earth. NASA had planned the event to clear up some longstanding mysteries about comets. But what actually happened defied every expectation of the comet experts. About 24 hours earlier, the Deep Impact spacecraft had fired an 800-pound copper projectile at the nucleus of Comet Tempel 1. The impact was expected to eject large volumes of subsurface material into space, and we were assured that the material would be dominated by water. The presence of abundant volatiles, preeminently water ice sublimating in the heat of the Sun, is an essential requirement of standard comet theory. Without cometary ices, it is the "dirty snowball" theory that would evaporate. How could comets produce their often-spectacular tails in the absence of sublimating volatiles? Cameras on the projectile recorded its approach toward the nucleus, and instruments on the spacecraft observed the event across a broad spectrum. Dozens of telescopes on Earth and in orbit around the Earth were trained on the comet. According to NASA scientists, the released material would provide a sample of the primordial water, gas, and dust from which the Sun, planets, moons, and other bodies in the solar system formed. Statements advancing this claim were the general rule, as if the modern theory of comets was no longer a theory, but a fact. So proponents of the Electric Universe predicted a "shock to the system." They believe that a comet carries a negative electric charge as it moves through the extensive and constant radial electric field of the positively charged Sun. The nucleus acquires this negative charge during its long sojourn in the outer solar system. Then, as it speeds into the inner solar system, the increasing voltage and charge density of the ambient plasma (solar "wind") causes the nucleus to discharge electrically, producing the bright coma and tail. The electric The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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model does not exclude the possibility of water on a comet nucleus, but water is not required, and the electrical theorists say we will inevitably find more than one comet discharging energetically but with no water present at all. This lack of need for volatiles is supported by the occasional outbursts from comets in "deep freeze" beyond Saturn. Following pointers from Wallace Thornhill, the leading proponent of the electric comet model, the Thunderbolts crew registered a series of predictions for Deep Impact on July 3, the most specific and detailed scientific predictions offered by any group in anticipation of the event. On the matter of water, we stated: "An abundance of water on or below the surface of the nucleus (the underlying assumption of the "dirty snowball" hypothesis) is unlikely." Though this was never a deal killer for the electric model, the absence of sufficient water in a comet is a deal killer for the dirty snowball model. We wrote: "In fact none of the electrical theorists will be surprised if the impactor exposes a subsurface with little or no ices." Almost immediately after Deep Impact it was clear that the event had not produced the watery outburst NASA had expected. In a July 8 press release, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics summarized the early findings with the headline, "Deep Impact Was a Dust-up, Not a Gusher." Smithsonian astronomers had monitored the impact using the ground-based Submillimeter Array (SMA) in Hawaii and NASA's orbiting Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS). Early reports showed "only weak emission from water vapor and a host of other gases that were expected to erupt from the impact site. The most conspicuous feature of the blast was brightening due to sunlight scattered by the ejected dust" [emphasis ours]. This was not what they had expected by any means. "It's pretty clear that this event did not produce a gusher," said SWAS principal investigator Gary Melnick of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). "The more optimistic predictions for water output from the impact haven't materialized, at least not yet." The Deep Impact team had hoped that, by excavating material from the comet's interior, they could find the one thing the standard model required. "SWAS operators were puzzled by the lack of increased water vapor from Tempel 1." In fact, an observation from the Odin telescope in Sweden found that the relative abundance of water decreased after the impact, due to the injection of quantities of dry dust, not water. Astronomer Charlie Qi (CfA) also expressed surprise at these results. "Theories about the volatile layers below the surface of short-period comets are going to have to be revised," Qi said. So the crisis for standard comet theory deepened. Advocates of the dirty snowball model had already been forced into an untenable position by prior discoveries of dry comet surfaces. But as best we can tell, until very recently there had been no public acknowledgment by NASA that none of the prior comet visits (Halley, Borrelly, Wild 2) had revealed surface water! (See below) It is easy to understand why astronomers began to speculate about water buried beneath layers of surface material. But if an 800 pound projectile meeting a comet at 23,000 miles per hour, could not release the "subsurface water" demanded by theory, how could mere sunlight in the deep freeze of space do the job? Qi speculated that the comet might become more active over the following days and weeks. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"We're still hoping for a big outgassing from the new active area created by Deep Impact," he said. The electrical theorists predicted it would not happen, and it didnt. In fact comets have a history of dashing comet investigators hopes for finding water. Periodic and unpredictable outbursts from comet nuclei are common, but emissions suggesting hidden water or other volatiles beneath the surface have not occurred. The general rule is: when cometary outbursts occur, as happened more than once with Comet Tempel 1 prior to "Deep Impact, the immediate effect is that relative levels of water in the coma go down. One other possibility for saving the snowball theory of comets was to observe the fragments of comets that have disintegrated. When comet Shoemaker-Levy-9 broke apart, astronomers reasoned that the fractured nucleus would expose fresh ices that would sublimate furiously. So several ground-based telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope trained their spectroscopes on the tails of the fragments of SL-9, looking for traces of volatile gases. None of the gases were found. When Comet Linear disintegrated in front of their eyes, astronomers were not just shocked by the event (a comet exploding many millions of miles from the Sun), they were astonished to find virtually no water in the immediate debris. For several months after "Deep Impact," we awaited NASAs publication of official results, confident that the investigators would place a priority to the issue of available water on the comet. And in a sense, they did. On February 2, 2006, the official Deep Impact site, posted the headline, "Deep Impact Finds Water Ice on Comet," with the following lead-in to the story-"Scientists on NASA's Deep Impact mission report the direct detection of solid water ice deposits on the surface of comet Tempel 1. This is the first time ice has been detected on the nucleus, or solid body, of a comet." News outlets around the world dutifully ran the story, and unless readers were prepared to dig deeper, they would be left with the impression that everything is fine with comet theory these days. But all is not well with comet theory. The interpretation that led to the identification of surface water on Tempel 1 May be entirely reasonable, but if you grant the interpretation you are left with a horrendous shortage of available surface water. As reported in the journal New Scientist, the water ice "is present in surprisingly small amounts." By all accounts, the surface of Tempel 1 presented no better than 0.5 percent of the icy surface needed to account for the supposed watery output of Tempel. (The exceedingly small and thin "icy" areas were about 94 percent dirt). Jessica Sunshine of Science Applications International Corporation, the lead author of a recent article in the journal Science, announced the investigators finding: "These results show that there is ice on the surface, but not very much and definitely not enough to account for the water we see in the out-gassed material that is in the coma." Objectively, the NASA teams findings confirm the failure of a theory. But somehow that critical failure did not make the headlines, due to the confidence of the theorists that the required water must be there, but hidden under the surface. So instead of questioning the theory, the investigators are now asking themselves how ice could stay hidden while feeding Comet Tempels "watery" output, which they calculated to be about 555 pounds per second! It is the wrong question and it can only extend a dead end path a while longer. To see this The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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dead end path for what it is, we must ask the question that has not been asked: What is the source of the "water" in the comas of comets?
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Top: Herbig Haro 111, a "jetted star" sporting a filamentary jet 12 light-years in length. Bottom: Hannes Alfvn, the father of modern plasma science, receiving his Nobel Prize from the King of Sweden in 1970. Credit: Bo Reipurth CASA/U. Colorado) et al., HST, NASA.
A Tornado in Space (2)--Remembering Hannes Alfvns Admonition

(Feb 13, 2006)
In the twentieth century, astronomers showed only a limited appreciation of plasma phenomena. Most ignored the role of electric currents in space plasma, a subject unfamiliar to them. As a result, the cascade of more recent observations has left astronomers grasping for explanations. In our previous Picture of the Day we noted the mystery of Herbig Haro 49/50, conventionally described as a star-born "cosmic tornado" exhibiting attributes that are, in astronomers words, "poorly understood." Attempts to explain the jets using standard astronomical models have consistently failed to give plausible answers. What force is capable of producing highenergy jets spanning light-years? And by what means are these jets confined to a narrow stream across such distances? Jetting stars, now observed by the hundreds, find no comfortable place in the lexicon of traditional astronomy. The only known force that can prevent a stream of gas from rapidly dispersing in the vacuum of space is magnetism, and only electric currents can generate a magnetic field. But early in the twentieth century, the community of astronomers had already settled on the idea that gravity and inertia rule the heavens. Having constructed a simple and secure vision of the cosmos, they were not eager to entertain a more exotic force except as an inferior consideration, a footnote to a mathematically elegant "big picture" of the cosmos. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The enigma is highlighted by the top picture above: 1500 light-years from Earth lies "Herbig Haro 111," displaying a jet 12 light-years long with charged particles accelerated to speeds approaching 500 kilometers per second. The finely filamentary and knotted jet spans three times the distance from the Sun to our nearest star. The authors of a Hubble Telescope webpage discussing stellar jets have unintentionally highlighted the present strains on the astronomers vision. They seek to account for the "collimated" or narrowly confined jets in terms of a "nozzle" located on one end--an explanation defying all that science has learned about gases in a vacuum. The strains are inescapable. We see them, for example, when the authors of the Hubble page acknowledge that magnetic fields "might focus the gas into narrow beams." To this possibility, they respond, "there is as yet no direct observational evidence that magnetic fields are important." Eventually most astronomers have come to acknowledge the ubiquitous presence of magnetic fields in space. But in the face of this acknowledgement, how could they preserve their foundational principle, which implies that electricity does not "do anything" in the macrocosm? For a time astronomers thought they had an ally in the brilliant electrical engineer, Hannes Alfvn, to whom all of modern physics is indebted for new insights on the role of electric and magnetic fields in plasma. Alfvns contributions were based on pioneering laboratory research. In his early papers, he spoke of magnetic fields being "frozen" into neutral plasma. To this notion astronomers were readily attracted! It meant that plasma in space could have been magnetized in primordial times or in early stages of stellar and galactic evolution, all under the control of higher-order gravitational dynamics. Every energetic event could still be explained in terms of disconnected islands of matter moving solely within the grip of gravity. Under Alfvns early assumption, astrophysicists began to study magnetized plasma without having to seek out larger electric currents. They came to view electric currents as localized and temporary phenomena needed just long enough to create a magnetic field, to magnetize plasma, the "perfect conductor." Today, Alfvns concept of magnetic fields "frozen-into plasma" underpins most mainstream interpretations of magnetism in space. The approach enables astronomers to look past the causative electric currents as if they are no longer relevant. The study of magnetized plasma is now called "magnetohydrodynamics," and Alfvn is acknowledged as the founder of the study. In 1970 he received the Nobel Prize for his "fundamental discoveries in magnetohydrodynamics." The critical turn in this story, the part almost never told within the community of astronomers, is that Alfvn came to realize he had been mistaken. And he used the occasion of his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize to plead with scientists to ignore his earlier work. Magnetic fields, he said, are only part of the story. The electric currents that create magnetic fields must not be overlooked, and contemporary attempts to model space plasma in the absence of electric currents will set astronomy and astrophysics on a course toward crisis, he said. Alfvn stated emphatically that plasma behavior is too "complicated and awkward" for the tastes of the mathematicians. It is a field "not at all suited for mathematically elegant theories." It requires hands-on attention to plasma dynamics in the laboratory. Sadly, he observed, the plasma universe became "the playground of theoreticians who have never seen a plasma in a laboratory. Many of them still believe in formulae which we know from laboratory experiments to be wrong." Again and again Alfvn reiterated the point: the underlying assumptions of cosmologists today The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"are developed with the most sophisticated mathematical methods and it is only the plasma itself which does not understand how beautiful the theories are and absolutely refuses to obey them." The theoretical crisis only deepens as astronomers view the universe with higher-powered telescopes and with instruments that "see" the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Wherever they look, astronomers encounter the effects of magnetic fields--a wild card that will inevitably shatter the foundational assumptions of "standard" astronomy: Space plasma cannot have a magnetic field permanently "frozen in" to it. In a rarefied plasma environment, electric currents are required to sustain a magnetic field. Herbig Haro objects--and innumerable other structures in space--thus stand as a fundamental challenge to the astronomers electrically sterile universe. Decades ago, Alfvn showed that stars have an electrical circuit involving an equatorial current sheet and polar current streams. He noted that electromagnetic energy could be stored in a star's equatorial current sheet until some critical juncture when that energy is switched into a polar discharge. The resulting jet would be energized by a particleaccelerating "double layer," the wall of an insulating plasma sheath, across which there is a strong electric field. In the presence of such an electric field, the gravity of a star would give way to a force incomparably more powerful than gravity, accelerating matter away from the star. (A similar mechanism is now being investigated for advanced plasma rocket engines). Decades of laboratory experiments have shown that a toroidal magnetic field, created by a polar plasma discharge, confines the discharge to a narrow jet. In the vacuum of space, a magnetic field will prevent the hot gases of a discharge from rapidly dispersing and cooling like a wisp of steam. In the same way, plasma experiments have shown that it is electrical energy that creates and lights the bright knots and glowing filaments along the path of the discharge. So the electrical theorists can only scratch their heads when they see exclamations of surprise and bafflement over the "mysteries" of interstellar jets. The new discoveries simply confirm the findings of Alfvn and his colleagues: Experiments in the plasma laboratory are scalable to cosmic dimensions. It is the common sense of the electrical engineer, not elegant equations, that exposes the obvious in Herbig-Haro objects. An axial electric current, confined by a current-induced toroidal magnetic field, is flowing along the entire length of the jet. Only an electric field can accelerate charged particles across interstellar space. There is no "nozzle" on one end accomplishing the inconceivable. The jet is not defying good science, but reinforcing it. And if the pictures speak more loudly than todays gravitational dogma, this is because interstellar space is alive with electric currents.
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The energetic stellar jet of HH (Herbig Haro) 49/50, as seen through the Spitzer Space Telescope. Credit: J. Bally (Univ. of Colorado) et al., JPL-Caltech, NASA.
A "Tornado" in Space
(Feb 10, 2006)
With the discovery of Herbig Haro objects, or "jetted stars," astronomers have scrambled for explanations. But these stars, now observed by the hundreds, only accent a common and fundamental misunderstanding of space. The image above appeared as the "Astronomy Picture of the Day" (APOD) on Feb 3, 2006. The caption identifies this stellar jet as a "cosmic tornado" light-years in length, with gases moving at 100-kilometers per second. "Though such energetic outflows are well known to be associated with the formation of young stars, the exact cause of the spiralling structures apparent in this case is still mysterious." In fact, astronomers express great astonishment at such formations. Gravitational models featured in twentieth century astronomy never envisioned narrow jets of anything streaming away from stellar bodies. Neither gravity nor standard gas laws would allow it. So the problem grows worse the more we discover. To see the problem clearly, just consider the language used to describe the stellar jets of "Herbig Haro objects" such as that imaged above. The words typically employed are taken from the behavior of wind and water on a rocky planet we call "Earth"--a body that stands out as an exception in a universe that is 99.99 percent plasma and dominated by electric currents and their induced magnetic fields. A bizarre example of the outmoded language is the description of stellar jets on NASAs Hubble Telescope website--the very page to which the APOD caption links for an explanation of "such energetic outflows." The explanation begins with these words: "Stellar jets are analogous to giant lawn The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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sprinklers. Whether a sprinkler whirls, pulses or oscillates, it offers insights into how its tiny mechanism works. Likewise stellar jets, billions or trillions of miles long offer some clues to what's happening close into the star at scales of only millions of miles, which are below even Hubble's ability to resolve detail." Those who know what a plasma discharge is might say, "if you think a lawn sprinkler offers a good analogy for the picture above, put a sprinkler in space and try it." Any attempt to understand stellar jets across light years of space in terms of a nozzle on one end should be a career-ending embarrassment. To explain the narrow tornado-like jet, the Hubble page says: "Material either at or near the star is heated and blasted into space, where it travels for billions of miles before colliding with interstellar material." Does a star have the ability to create collimated jets across (not billions, but) trillions of miles by merely 'heating' material in its vicinity? The matter in the jet is hot and it is moving through a vacuum. If one is to use an analogy with water, the better example would be a super-heated steam hose. It will not form a jet of steam for more than a few feet before the steam disperses explosively. The authors explanation not only contradicts simple observation and experiment, it contradicts the century-old gravitational theory on which the entire page is based. Under the popular theory of star formation, it is matter "falling" inward under the influence of gravity that creates stars. No one proposing this "nebular hypothesis" ever imagined, in advance of recent discoveries, that after gravity accomplished its mass-gathering feat, it would give way to a more powerful force evident in the jet. (As for the reference to collisions with interstellar material, that is based entirely on the bizarre explanation itself, not on anything actually observed.) "Why are jets so narrow?" the NASA writers ask. "The Hubble pictures increase the mystery as to how jets are confined into a thin beam." Then, after noting that the Hubble pictures tends to rule out the idea (popular just a few years ago) that a disk around the star could provide the needed "nozzle," the authors note: "One theoretical possibility is that magnetic fields in the disk might focus the gas into narrow beams, but there is as yet no direct observational evidence that magnetic fields are important." Following this virtual dismissal of magnetic fields, the authors pose two questions which bear directly on the role of magnetic fields, though they are clearly unaware of the connection. "What causes a jets beaded structure," they ask. And "why are jets kinky"? They do not realize that they have just cited two of the most easily recognized features of plasma discharge--"beading" and "kink instabilities." But rather than enter the world of electrified plasma, so unfamiliar to astronomers, the web page takes us into "waterworld." "The beads are real clumps of gas plowing through space like a string of motor boats." And the "kinks along their path of motion" can be seen as evidence for a stellar companion, one that "pulls on the central star, causing it to wobble, which in turn causes the jet to change directions, like shaking a garden hose." It is statements such as this that cause plasma experts--those who have spent a lifetime observing the unique behavior of electric currents and electric discharge in plasma--to wonder about the future of theoretical science. For the cosmic electricians there is nothing out of the ordinary in stellar jets. Their counterparts appear regularly in the plasma laboratory. They can be modeled in computer simulations. Their analogies can be seen in Earths upper atmosphere, in Martian dust devils, in the volcanoes of Jupiters moon Io, on Saturns moon Enceladus, in the jets and tails of comets, in the penumbra of sunspots--and even in the vast The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive polar jets now seen exploding from distant galaxies.
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If the electrical theorists are correct, those offering conventional answers to newly discovered objects in space need a crash course on plasma and electricity.
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Chicago: corner of Dearborn and Monroe after the devastating "Great Fire."
The Chicago Fire (3)--Human Testimony Reconsidered

(Feb 09, 2006)
All investigators of the Chicago fire and its devastating regional counterparts rely on human testimony. But how should we view such testimony when it suggests things that are not currently believed? Good science will not ignore witnesses when, in unison, they suggest new lines of investigation. On the evening of October 8, 1871 devastating fires erupted at virtually the same moment in three different states in the region of the Great Lakes--Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan. The outbursts included the notorious "Chicago fire," but also an even more devastating fire in Wisconsin, the worst in U.S. history, covering some 400 square miles. At the same time, wildfires also erupted across much of Michigan. In his book Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel, published in 1883, Ignatius Donnelly proposed that the simultaneous outbursts were no coincidence; they were the effect of our Earth meeting up with a fragment, or fragments, of comet Biela, a body that had disintegrated a few years earlier while on an Earth-threatening path. As Donnelly reports it, in the Wisconsin fire near Lake Michigan, a large area including the town of Peshtigo and several neighboring cities was "swept bare by an absolute whirlwind of flame." His review of the event, based on eyewitness accounts, was taken primarily from the book "History of the Great Conflagration," by James W. Sheahan and George P. Upton (1871). It includes the following report: "At sundown there was a lull in the wind and comparative stillness. For two hours there were no signs of danger; but at a few minutes after nine o'clock, and by a singular coincidence, precisely the time at which the Chicago fire commenced, the people of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the village heard a terrible roar. It was that of a tornado, crushing through the forests. Instantly the heavens were illuminated with a terrible glare. The sky, which had been so dark a moment before, burst into clouds of flame. A spectator of the terrible scene says the fire did not come upon them gradually from burning trees and other objects to the windward, but the first notice they had of it was a whirlwind of flame in great clouds from above the tops of the trees, which fell upon and entirely enveloped everything". [Emphasis ours] For many of the witnesses it seemed as if the biblical "last days" had come. Though well accustomed to wildfires, they had seen nothing like this before. "They could give no other interpretation to this ominous roar, this bursting of the sky with flame, and this dropping down of fire out of the very heavens, consuming instantly everything it touched." Donnelly continues quoting from Sheahan and Upton: "No two give a like description of the great tornado as it smote and devoured the village. It seemed as if 'the fiery fiends of hell had been loosened', says one. 'It came in great sheeted flames from heaven', says another. 'There was a pitiless rain of fire and SAND. The atmosphere was all afire'. Some speak of 'great balls of fire unrolling and shooting forth, in streams. The fire leaped over roofs and trees, and ignited whole streets at once". [Emphasis ours] Donnelly notes that many of the victims were found in open spaces with "no visible marks of fire nearby" and "not a trace of burning upon their bodies or clothing." Many were found huddled together "in what were evidently regarded at the moment as the safest places, far away from buildings, trees, or other inflammable material, and there to have died together." One clue, perhaps, is the mention of electrical phenomena: "Much has been said of the intense heat of the fires which destroyed Peshtigo, Menekaune, Williamsonville, etc., but all that has been said can give the stranger but a faint conception of the reality. The heat has been compared to that engendered by a flame concentrated on an object by a blow-pipe; but even that would not account for some of the phenomena. For instance, we have in our possession a copper cent taken from the pocket of a dead man in the Peshtigo Sugar Bush, which will illustrate our point. This cent has been partially fused, but still retains its round form, and the inscription upon it is legible. Others, in the same pocket, were partially melted, and yet the clothing and the body of the man were not even singed. We do not know in what way to account for this, unless, as is asserted by some, the tornado and fire were accompanied by electrical phenomena." It seems the idea that Mrs. O'Leary's cow triggered the conflagration in Chicago did not withstand investigation. Speaking of O'Leary's barn, the fire marshal testified: "We got the fire under control, and it would not have gone a foot farther; but the next thing I knew they came and told me that St. Paul's church, about two squares north, was on fire." They then checked the church-fire, but--"The next thing I knew the fire was in Bateham's planing-mill." A writer in the New York "Evening Post" says he saw "buildings far beyond the line of fire, and in no contact with it, burst into flames from the interior." To these references, Donnelly adds a quote from The Annual Record of Science and Industry" for 1876, page 84: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive "The flames that consumed a great part of Chicago were of an unusual character and produced extraordinary effects. They absolutely melted the hardest building-stone, which had previously been considered fire-proof. Iron, glass, granite, were fused and run together into grotesque conglomerates, as if they had been put through a blastfurnace. No kind of material could stand its breath for a moment."
Another quote from Sheahan & Upton's Work: "The huge stone and brick structures melted before the fierceness of the flames as a snow-flake melts and disappears in water, and almost as quickly. Six-story buildings would take fire and disappear for ever from sight in five minutes by the watch. ... The fire also doubled on its track at the great Union Depot and burned half a mile southward in the very teeth of the gale--a gale which blew a perfect tornado, and in which no vessel could have lived on the lake. ... Strange, fantastic fires of blue, red, and green played along the cornices of buildings." Some additional detail and comments of interest appear in Mel Waskins more recent book, Mrs. OLearys Comet (1985). Speaking of the Peshtigo outburst, he writes-"Accompanying the firestorm and the wind was a rain of red hot sand. It was not clear to those eyewitnesses who survived their ordeal where this sand came from. It must have been raised from the earth by the incredible winds, but from where? There was sand on the beaches, but the beaches lay to the east, and the wind was blowing from the west and the south. There was no sand on the floor of the forest nor on the farmlands of Wisconsin." Waskin also mentions incredible "balloons of fire" reported by many people, including one family that lived between Peshtigo and Green Bay. "The onslaught was so sudden that the family could only run to the center of an immense clearing on their farm where nothing combustible stood. They hoped to be safe, several hundreds yards from structures or trees. "When the fire came, rushing on all sides of them, it did not in fact touch them. But eyewitnesses saw them die. A great balloon of fire dropped on them father, mother, and four children. They were incinerated in an instant. Almost nothing was left of them." "Many survivors described these great balls of fire falling from the sky. The whole sky was filled with them; round smoky masses about the size of a large balloon, traveling at unbelievable speed. They fell to the ground and burst." Waskin says that a brilliant blaze of fire erupted from the balloons as they landed, instantly consuming everything they touched. Also noteworthy were the reports that the flames erupted from the basements of the stores when there was "no sign of fire in any other part of the building." And the basement fires burned with a strange light, "as if whiskey or alcohol were burning." As something of a footnote to this article, we note a contemporary report claiming that "The first (and most startling) piece of evidence is the recent discovery of a 26.5-kilogram carbonaceous chondrite meteorite on the shores of Lake Huron ground zero of the astral bombardment. This report, by Ken Riell, whose claims follow the work of Donnelly and Waskin, suggests the meteor is of the same composition as the incoming object in the Tunguska event in Siberia -- 1908. Also of interest is a presentation on the Peshtigo fire by the Oconto County Web Project, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive which discusses the comet hypothesis as a "plausible" theory--
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"Weather historians, using archives as a baseline, and adding information from recent decades, now offer a plausible theory. Meteor showers in Autumn are common in the upper great lakes. In recent years these showers have left burning chunks scattered over the entire region, some large enough to break through the roofs of homes and out buildings, starting fires in dry fields and wooded areas. With the tinder dry conditions present throughout the entire region on the night of October 8, 1871, such a meteor shower would easily have started what seemed like spontaneous fires in numerous places of Wisconsin, Michigan (upper and lower), and Illinois (the Great Chicago Fire). With the continuous thick smoke from smoldering smaller blazes already blanketing the land, and the unusually hot weather of that time making residents seek shelter inside their homes early in the evening, the meteors that entered the Earth's atmosphere could not easily be seen. This certainly would account for the sudden eruption of numerous blazes over the vast area at exactly the same time." Nevertheless, it is hard to imagine the "cometary" explanation ever receiving the attention it deserves until those addressing the question familiarize themselves with the electric comet model. As we have already emphasized, without this deliberate reconsideration of the underlying question--what is a comet?-- the investigator will either ignore or forget the most telling clues. In the above reports, for example, consider the following: Whirlwind of flame or "perfect tornado" Tornadoes are a slow electric discharge phenomenon. The ionized trails of cometary debris, descending through the ionosphere to the lower atmosphere, produces "lightning conductors" to allow various forms of "megalightning" to descend to the ground. One of the manifestations of a powerful direct discharge between the ionosphere and the Earth could well be a tornado, in which the usual swift lightning strike is replaced by a slower discharge. Powerful electromagnetic forces generate a devastating "charge sheath vortex" that slows the discharge while spreading the devastation on Earth. Fire descending from the sky As in the Tunguska event, the appearance of fireballs or electrically discharging debris, along with associated lightning manifestations from a clear sky, would be expected as an external body penetrated Earths plasma sheath. Rain of fire and sand An electrically charged fragment of a comet nucleus will undergo explosive electrical fragmentation before reaching the Earth's atmosphere. The electrical model of comets envisions these bodies being formed by the same processes that created asteroids. Most, if not all, are as rocky as asteroids. The result of their fragmentation will be a meteoric shower of granulated silicates, or sand, mixed with flammable gases and electric discharge phenomena a 'biblical' rain of fire and sand. Descending "balloons" of fire. It is well established that comets discharge carbon compounds that would be flammable in the Earth's oxygen atmosphere. Gaseous balls of fire would combine with various weird manifestations of megalightning, reaching through the meteoric shower of dust to the ionosphere, almost 100 kilometres above the Earth. The spectacle would be beyond normal experience. In addition, near the Earth, ball lightning could be expected, given the extreme The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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electrical conditions--and the presence of ball lightning is surely the plausible explanation for descending "balloons" with the power to incinerate objects they strike. Buildings exploding with fire when no fire was yet present Electrical discharges would take place between metal objects inside buildings, igniting any flammable materials. The same would hold true for the hapless man found with melted coins in his pocket but clothes intact and no other signs of burning. There is, in fact, no other natural explanation for this enigma. Colorful flames running along cornices of buildings This is the usual description of a glow discharge from sharp edges of rooftops, seen in the midst of powerful electrical storms. It is called "St. Elmo's fire." The different colors of the flames are due to the metallic ions sputtered from the surface material. Fusing of fire-proof building material Plasma discharges can be used to melt anything. Industrially, plasma torches are used to destroy the most refractory materials. Basements exploding "the basement fires burned with a strange light, 'As if whiskey or alcohol were burning'" Whiskey or alcohol burns with a ghostly blue light. Similarly, electrical glow discharges from grounded metallic objects or electrical wiring in the basements of buildings would emit a flickering, eerie blue light. Any trapped flammable gases formed in the basements would be ignited by the discharge, resulting in explosions. Our purpose here is not to suggest a definitive answer to the "Great Conflagration." But the cost of ignoring evidence should be obvious. The moment one entertains the electrical vantage point, if only to compare the explanatory power of alternative views, the most incongruous elements of the story become predictable features. And who could deny that this ability to resolve paradoxes is the mark of a hypothesis that deserves consideration?
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Drawing of the split comet Biela, from Amedee Guillemin's The Heavens (1868).
The Chicago Fire (2)--Where was Comet Biela?

(Feb 07, 2006)
A strange thing happened to comet Biela in 1845. The nucleus of the comet split into two partners. The "smaller" comet (lower left in the picture above), subsequently became more active and brighter than the larger. And that was only the beginning. In 1883, twelve years after the Chicago fire, Ignatius Donnelly published a widely read book, Ragnarok: the Rain of Fire and Gravel. Though the book dealt primarily with the evidence for cometary disasters in ancient times, Donnelly suggested that the Chicago fire provided a small glimpse of the terror experienced by our earlier ancestors. "There is reason to believe that the present generation has passed through the gaseous prolongation of a comet's tail, and that hundreds of human beings lost their lives." Reflecting on the simultaneous events around Lake Michigan on the evening of October 8, 1871, Donnelly posed the underlying mystery: "At that hour, half past nine o'clock in the evening, at apparently the same moment, at points hundreds of kilometers apart, in three different states, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois, fires of the most peculiar and devastating kind broke out, so far as we know, by spontaneous combustion." Donnelly believed he could identify the cause of the devastation. He said it was Comet Biela, a comet that captured attention from astronomers in 1826, returned for a few predictable visits, broke into two nuclei, and then disappeared. The comet was named after Austrian officer W. von Biela, who observed the body in February 1826. By following the path of Biela, the French astronomer Marie-Charles-Thodore de Damoiseau estimated the time of its return. He said the comet would cross the orbit of the Earth about one month ahead of our planets arrival at the same spot. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Donnelly does not mention that ten days after Bielas announcement, a French astronomer John Felix Adolphe Gambart also sighted the comet. Both Biela and Gambert calculated the orbit, recognizing that earlier comet apparitions in 1772 and 1805 were the same object that appeared in 1826. And Gambert, along with other astronomers, predicted that the comet would strike the earth on its return, which he projected for October 29, 1832. Damoiseaus prediction was correct. Earth missed the comet by about a month. On its anticipated 1846 return, Biela was first sighted in late 1845 as it moved toward perihelion (its closest approach to the Sun), astronomers were surprised to see that the head of the comet had acquired a faint satellite. It had split in two (picture above), something we now know to be fairly common for comets, but still mysterious to cometologists. In 1845, the event seemed unprecedented. As noted by Carl Sagan and Nancy Druyan in their book Comet, "the finding was so bizarre that the first astronomer to note this twinning dismissed it as some internal reflection in his telescope." In Robert Chapmans and John Brandts The Comet Book certain details of Bielas return are fascinating. The discovery of a partner occurred on January 13, 1846, when "a faint satellite comet was observed a small distance from the main comet." Two tails were seen parallel to each other. "Over the next month the fainter of the two comets increased in brightness and finally became brighter than the main comet. The situation then reversed and the main comet became the brighter one again. In addition, the main comet grew a second tail and a luminous bridge of material joined the two comets" [emphasis ours]. At this time the two nuclei were apart an estimated 250,000 kilometers, about two thirds of the distance separating Earth and the Moon. Donnellys account at this point diverges from the history told by Chapman and Brandt. As Donnelly tells it, "In 1852, 1859, and 1866, the comet should have returned, but it did not." But Chapman and Brandt--prominent figures at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center at the time of their books publication--say that the twin comet-heads did indeed appear at the appointed time in 1852. This reappearance is, in fact, well documented. And one detail in Chapmans and Brandts account rarely shows up in standard discussions of cometology: "Both comets returned at the predicted time, though they were over 2 million kilometers apart. Once again the two comets took turns as the brighter of the pair. On at least one occasion a bright jet was seen between the two heads." [emphasis ours]. Though Sagan and Druyan report the splitting of Biela, they do not mention the jet, an event for which the standard view of comets has no theoretical reference. The rest of Donnellys discussion of Biela is in general agreement with the summary by Chapman and Brandt. Amazingly, and with the aid of a startling and unpredicted meteor shower on November 27, 1872, Professor W. Klinkerfues of Berlin, calculated the trajectories of the meteoric falls, concluding that they were the remains of the comet. This, in turn led him to send instructions to Norman Pogson, Government Astronomer at the Madras Observatory in India (far enough south to allow a good view). Pogsons answer to Klinkerfues, dated December 6, said he "found Biela immediately" on the first clearing of the sky, and on the second day he saw it again. It showed no tail, he said. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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As Chapman and Brandt put it, this was either an "incredible coincidence," or it was the actual last view of the comet. The spectacular meteor shower that inspired Klinkerfues to identify it with Biela has long since become an annual event--sort of--called the Andromedids. And astronomers do not hesitate to connect the shower to Biela. Each year the Earth passes through the remains of the comet, but with widely varying consequences. And the effect today is trivial by comparison with the November 1872 occurrence. Today the shower peaks around mid-November, averaging less than three meteors per hour--hardly deserving the title "shower." On the night of November 27, 1872, however, records show several thousand meteors per hour--a direct and obvious link to the disintegration of the comet. It remains to be asked, then, whether the fragmentation of Biela, a comet on a path intersecting the orbit of the Earth, and predicted by some astronomers to collide with the Earth in 1832, might have been the source of the "great conflagration" in 1871. The comet had split at least 25 years earlier (the 1846 appearance), and the two partners had separated by more than 2 million kilometers by 1852. So whether or not Klinkerfues observed Biela after the spectacular shower of November 1872, we know he did not report seeing two bodies. Hence, at least one of the partners intersecting Earths path had presumably already disintegrated entirely, leaving the possibility that on a subsequent orbit the Earth moved into debris left by the body. The facts on the Andromedids, including their erratic occurrence over the years and the obvious dispersal and depletion of the cometary debris over a century and a half, cannot give us a definitive answer to Donnellys views on Biela. But as for plausibility, the answer is definitive. Many facts are consistent with the interpretation, and there are no facts that exclude the interpretation. Of course, it is not necessary to identify an intruder, in order to see the evidence of an intrusion. No one questions the exploding Tunguska comet, asteroid or meteor on the basis that astronomers cannot identify the incoming object. But of all the scientific details about comet Biela, perhaps none stands out more dramatically than the fact almost never mentioned--a jet forming between the two nuclear fragments when they were 2 million kilometers apart. In the purely gravitational and mechanical terms that astronomers have sought to apply to comets, this jet is inconceivable. But when we remember how inconsequential is gravity in the presence of the electric force, the improbability disappears. In fact, the jet is a clue more vital by far than the popular "scientific" commentary on Donnellys hypothesis. By directing our attention to the electrical nature of comets, it also invites us to look again at the historic testimony, with an eye to details long unnoticed or forgotten.
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The Comet and the Chicago Fire

(Feb 06, 2006)
For nearly one and a half centuries, the cause of the most notorious fire in U.S. history has been a source of "heated" controversy. Some researchers suggest that a disintegrating comet ignited the blaze. But the electrical theorists say that evidence most often ignored offers the best clues. "With the heat increased the wind, which came howling across the prairie, until at last there arose a perfect hurricane. Mighty flakes of fire, hot cinders, black, stifling smoke, were driven fiercely at the people, and amid the terrible excitement hundreds of them had their very clothes burned off their backs, as they stood there watching with tearful eyes the going down of so many houses". -- James Goodsell's History of the Great Chicago Fire, October 8, 9, and 10, Published 1871 by J.H. and C.M. Goodsell. Sunday evening, October 8, 1871 marked the beginning of one of the most devastating fires in U.S. history. Legend has it that "The Great Chicago Fire" resulted from an agitated cow kicking over a lantern in "Mrs OLearys barn." The dry leaves and parched wood of Illinois in early autumn were the perfect kindling for a wildfire, and the fire spread with extraordinary rapidity, consuming homes and buildings, leaping from rooftop to rooftop with the speed of a locomotive. Between October 8 and 10, an estimated 350 people perished. The fire destroyed the homes of up to one-third of the city's population, about 1,600 stores, 60 factories, and 28 public buildings. Four square miles of the city burned to the ground. Contrary to popular folklore, the Chicago fire is not the worst in U.S. history. It was not even the worst to occur on October 8 that year. The same evening--in fact, at the same time, about 9:30--a fierce wildfire struck in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, over 200 miles to the north of Chicago, destroying the town and a dozen other villages. Estimates of those killed range upward from 1200 to 2500 in a single night. It was not the Chicago fire but the simultaneous The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive "Peshtigo Fire" that was the deadliest in U.S. history.
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And there is more. On the same evening, across Lake Michigan, another fire also wreaked havoc. Though smaller fires had been burning for some time--not unusual under the reported conditions--the most intense outburst appears to have erupted simultaneously with the Chicago and Peshtigo fires. The blaze is said to have then burned for over a month, consuming over 2,000,000 acres and killing at least 200. Concerning the Michigan outburst, it is reported that numerous fires endangered towns across the state. The city of Holland was destroyed by fire and in Lansing flames threatened the agricultural college. In Thumb, farmers fled an inferno that some newspapers dubbed, "The Fiery Fiend." Reports say that fires threatened Muskegon, South Haven, Grand Rapids, Wayland, reaching the outskirts of Big Rapids. A steamship passing the Manitou Islands reported they were on fire. There can be no doubt that weather conditions at the time favored wildfires. But never before, and never since, has the U.S. seen such wildly destructive simultaneous conflagrations. This "coincidence," combined with many unusual phenomena reported by eyewitnesses, has led some to conclude that an extraordinary force, one not of the earth, was a more likely "arson" than either a misbehaving cow or a regional drought. In 1883, Ignatius Donnelly, author of Ragnarok: the Rain of Fire and Gravel, suggested that in early historic times our Earth suffered great catastrophes from cometary intruders. To this claim he added: "There is reason to believe that the present generation has passed through the gaseous prolongation of a comet's tail, and that hundreds of human beings lost their lives." He was referring to the conflagration of 1871. Is there plausible evidence that a comet May have caused the Chicago fire and its regional counterparts? In 1985, Mel Waskin, who had earlier discovered Donnellys work, published a book, Mrs. OLearys Comet, suggesting that a comet did indeed spark the October 8th fires. More recently, Robert Wood, a physicist and aeronautical engineer formerly with Douglas Aircraft and McDonnell Douglas, gained attention from the Discovery Channel and other media for proposing the same idea. The proponents of the cometary explanation cite many fascinating details confirmed by eye witness reports: the descent of fire from the heavens, a great "tornado" of fire rushing across the landscape and tearing buildings from their foundations, descending balls of fire, a rain of red dust, great explosions of wind accompanied by blasts of thunder, buildings exploding into flame where no fire was burning, and a good deal more. Some of the parallels with the later Tunguska event are impossible to miss. It seems that the records of the conflagration hold many clues that are almost never mentioned in scientific discussion of the Chicago fire. Over time the clues have virtually disappeared. They have disappeared because they are not meaningful to minds conditioned by popular ideas about how the "Chicago fire" started and what is "scientifically" possible. Within these habits of perception, the most important evidence will often go unnoticed or unremembered.
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Pictures such as this, taken by the Leonid Kulik expedition in 1930, show the directional fall of trees over a wide area.
The Tunguska Event (2)--An Explanation that Works

(Feb 03, 2006)
It seems that scientific investigation has left the mystery of the fiery Tunguska explosion unresolved. From the beginning, the debate excluded the electric force, the one force that allows for a unified solution and excludes no field of evidence. Proponents of the "Electric Universe" ask that this new perspective on the physical world be judged by its predictive ability, its ability to explain all relevant data. In accounting for the Tunguska event they insist that, unlike prior "explanations," the Electric Universe does not leave a substantial body of evidence unexplained. The extraordinary power of the high-energy explosion above ground. The most likely origin of the object that caused the Tunguska event is the short-period comet Encke, the acknowledged source of the Beta Taurid meteor shower. On June 30, the shower was at its peak. In the electric model of comets, the energy released when a comet fragment encounters the Earth is not limited by the mass and kinetic energy of the fragment, but includes the electrical energy due to the charge differential between it and the Earth. This stored electrical energy also accounts for the "astonishing" explosion that occurred when the Deep Impact probe met up with Comet Tempel 1. Calculations of the mass and size of the Tunguska bolide, based solely on mechanical considerations, will be exaggerated. This, of course, has implications when searching for fragments that survived the fall. Repeated testimony of strange sounds before the event. In terms of the speed of sound in Earths atmosphere, the reports of weird sounds in advance appear absurd. But they are entirely plausible as "electrophonic sounds" heard either before, or simultaneous with, the sighting of brilliant meteor fireballs up to 100km distant. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Electrophonic sounds signify the direct conversion, by transduction, of very low frequency electromagnetic energy into audible sounds (through a medium that can be as simple as a gold tooth filling or a pair of glasses). Abundant reports of peculiar sounds in connection with meteors, auroras, earthquakes and even nuclear bomb tests are sufficient to substantiate the effect. The cause is most easily understood as a natural resonance of an extensive plasma discharge in the Earth's atmosphere (or underground in the case of earthquakes). In the case of an approaching comet, the incoming body is electrified with respect to the Earth. The glowing of the sky before the event. In the electric solar system, the planets and all comets have plasma sheaths that isolate them electrically from the solar plasma. When two plasma sheaths "touch," the two bodies "see" each other electrically for the first time. Comets have plasma sheaths that are millions of kilometers in diameter. So even at their high speed their electrical effect could be felt days in advance of a physical encounter. In such instances, the electrical effect upon the Earth May take the form of unusual auroral displays. The prior "sky glows" associated with Tunguska could also be due to cometary fragments, lying along the comet's orbit in advance of the comet nucleus, entering the stratosphere and reflecting sunlight long after sunset. Of course, a simple "asteroidal" explanation of Tunguska cannot address either this phenomenon, or any of the other advanced signs of the intruders approach (noted below). Reports of strange weather before the event. In an electric solar system electric currents flowing between the solar plasma and the planets are the primary factors driving Earths weather patterns. In fact, the most violent winds occur on planets most distant from the Sun, where solar heating is negligible. Ice-cold Neptune, the gas giant farthest from Earth, has 2,000 km/h winds! When seen in these terms, it becomes clear that an electrical disturbance might be evident in the form of unusual weather days before the arrival of a comet. Reports of strange seismic activity before the event. New evidence links earthquakes to the occurrence of "underground lightning." A minor electrical disturbance of the Earth, due to the intrusion of a charged body, could indeed trigger earthquakes, in the same way that electrical sunspot activity influences earthquakes. Geomagnetic effects before the event. Professor Weber of Kiel University observed unusual regular periodic deviations of the compass needle. This effect was repeated each evening from 27 June through 30 June 1908. The recordings looked like geomagnetic storms, usually associated with solar electrical activity. This time the approaching comet was the most likely source of the electrical disturbance. The duration of the storms indicates that comets are a copious source of electrons. That is, comets are highly negatively charged with respect to the inner solar system. Their influence can be vastly greater than mere gravitational and inertial considerations would suggest. Global atmospheric pressure pulse. The Earths atmosphere forms the dielectric of a capacitor with the two "plates" of the capacitor being the Earth and the ionosphere. The comet's electrical disturbance will cause pressure pulses in the atmosphere before the comet arrives as well as upon arrival. It is noteworthy in this respect that a giant ionospheric disturbance accompanied the magnitude 9.3 Sumatra earthquake of 26 December 2004. The ionosphere moved up and down by about The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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40 km! And changes in the ionosphere have been registered 5 to 10 days before an earthquake. Missing crater. At a comets closest approach, a plasma discharge takes place between the Earth and the comet. The comet is fragmented explosively by internal electrical stresses, and all of the fragments May be melted or vaporized in a plasma discharge so that no impact crater is formed. An interesting fact is that the Tunguska epicenter almost exactly coincides with the muzzle of a Triassic volcano. Volcanoes are the focus of electric discharge activity and May retain an electrical conductivity different from that of the surrounding crust. This fact can only accentuate the argument that the blast was electrical. Absence of meteoric fragments. If we had to rely on the fireball and air friction alone to heat the bolide or to break it apart, we should expect to find stony remnants. However, as noted above, most or all of the comet fragments will be melted and vaporized in the plasma discharge. Also, "ground zero" is the focus of the plasma discharge between the Earth and the comet. It is not the site of any impact and we should not expect to find cometary fragments there. Instantaneous eruption of fire across hundreds of square kilometers. The plasma discharge between the comet and the Earth would have had many strange effects in the atmosphere and at ground level unlike anything ever experienced by the inhabitants. In addition to fires started by radiation from the fireball, electrically ignited fires would have been started at the same instant over a wide area. Frightful lightning and thunder in the midst of the firestorm. Unusual lightning, such as St. Elmo's fire and ball lightning would have been generated at the Earth's surface. Lightning would have struck from a clear blue sky. (See addendum to this discussion below.) Blast of heat along with a shock wave many kilometers away from the explosion. Wherever the discharges touch down there will be sudden heating of the air and a blast. Touchdown points May be a considerable distance from the bolide's track and the explosion center. Presence of microscopic glassy spherules over a large area. The final result of the explosive fragmentation, melting and vaporization of the bolide will be a spray of glassy spherules beyond the point where the main plasma discharge and explosion took place. The creation of spherules by electric discharge and electrical fusing, a common effect of lightning, is now well demonstrated in the laboratory. Almost 100 years after the event, the specialists are still debating whether the exploding object was a comet or an asteroid. Conventional proponents of the comet explanation note the presence of cometary material in the ground over a wide area. Proponents of the asteroid or meteor hypothesis say that a fragile comet would be destroyed too high in the atmosphere. The debate is entirely irrelevant from an electrical vantage point. Comets, asteroids, and meteors have the same origins and are formed in the same way. It is the contemporary mythology of comets that suggests they are fragile "icy dirtballs." An asteroid large enough to hold its charge while moving on a highly elliptical (comet-like orbit) through the Suns electric field, would become a comet irrespective of its composition. In fact, we have an instance of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive this occurring when the asteroid Chiron, on a chaotic orbit between Saturn and Uranus, unexpectedly sported a tail and became classified as a comet.
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In considering theories of the Tunguska event, certain questions must be asked without prejudice. Does a proposed explanation address all of the facts? Are the facts predictable under the proposed explanation? Is there anything we should expect to find that has not been found? The electric theorists are confident that, if official science will withdraw its investment in a discredited, electrically sterile view of the physical universe, the answers to these questions will be obvious. ADDENDUM In the case of the Tunguska event, some of the most compelling evidence comes from those who experienced the terror first hand. In 1928, I. M. Suslov recorded the following testimony from a member of Shanyagir tribe (this taken from the Wikipedia site)-"We had a hut by the river with my brother Chekaren. We were sleeping. Suddenly we both woke up at the same time. Somebody shoved us. We heard whistling and felt strong wind. Chekaren said, "can you hear all those birds flying overhead?" We were both in the hut, couldn't see what was going on outside. Suddenly, I got shoved again, this time so hard I fell into the fire. I got scared. Chekaren got scared too. We started crying for out father, mother, brother, but no one answered. "There was noise beyond the hut, we could hear trees falling down. Me and Chekaren got out of our sleeping bags and wanted to run out, but then the thunder struck. This was the first thunder. The Earth began to move and rock, wind hit our hut and knocked it over. My body was pushed down by sticks, but my head was in the clear. Then I saw a wonder: trees were falling, the branches were on fire, it became mighty bright, how can I say this, as if there was a second sun, my eyes were hurting, I even closed them. It was like what the Russians call lightning. And immediately there was a loud thunderclap. This was the second thunder. The morning was sunny, there were no clouds, our Sun was shining brightly as usual, and suddenly there came a second one! Me and Chekaren had some difficulty getting under from the remains of our hut. Then we saw that above, but in a different place, there was another flash, and loud thunder came. This was the third thunder strike. Wind came again, knocked us off our feet, struck against the fallen trees. "We looked at the fallen trees, watched the tree tops get snapped off, watched the fires. Suddenly Chekaren yelled "Look up" and pointed with his hand. I looked there and saw another flash, and it made another thunder. But the noise was less than before. This was the fourth strike, like normal thunder. "Now I remember well there was also one more thunder strike, but it was small, and somewhere far away, where the Sun goes to sleep."
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Shattered trees from the now-famous "Tunguska Event" testified to the force of the mysterious aerial explosion. Credit: Photograph taken by the Leonid Kulik expedition in 1930
Tunguska--the Fire in the Sky (Feb 02, 2006)

No one can dispute the occurrence, but how it happened is the subject of continuing, and often heated, controversy. Despite the best efforts of science, every acceptable "explanation" leaves inescapable facts still shouting for attention. The event began at about 7:15 on the morning of June 30, 1908 in a remote region of central Siberia near the Stony Tunguska River. A blue-white fireball--brighter than the Sun, some said--raced across the sky, then exploded with the force of a 10- to 15- megaton hydrogen bomb. The explosion felled some 60 million trees across an area of 2000 square kilometers. Yet some trees near the blast center were not burnt and a ring of burnt trees circling the epicenter was left standing. The thunderous sounds were accompanied by a shock wave that knocked people off their feet and broke windows hundreds of kilometers away. The explosion registered on seismic stations across Europe and Asia, and as far away as Britain meteorologists registered fluctuations in atmospheric pressure. The resulting pulse of air pressure circled the Earth twice, and astronomers observed for several nights afterwards a glowing red haze in the upper atmosphere, though they were not aware of the cause at the time. Curiously, reports of an unusually bright night sky began the night before the Tunguska event and continued for several days afterwards. For the next few weeks, reports suggest that the night skies were aglow to such an extent that one could read in their light. Both the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Mount Wilson Observatory reported a decrease in atmospheric transparency persisting for several months. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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What, then, was experienced by the witnesses to the event: Accounts gathered by the Russian mineralogist Leonid Kulik, in his 1930 expedition to the site of the explosion are consistent enough on many details to be considered generally reliable. Here is an excerpt from the account of resident Semen Semenov: "At breakfast time I was sitting by the house at Vanavara factory facing North. [...] I suddenly saw that directly to the North, over Onkoul's Tunguska road, the sky split in two and fire appeared high and wide over the forest. The split in the sky grew larger, and the entire Northern side was covered with fire. At that moment I became so hot that I couldn't bear it, as if my shirt was on fire; from the northern side, where the fire was, came strong heat. "I wanted to tear off my shirt and throw it down, but then the sky shut closed, and a strong thump sounded, and I was thrown a few yards. I lost my senses for a moment, but then my wife ran out and led me to the house. After that such noise came, as if rocks were falling or cannons were firing, the earth shook, and when I was on the ground, I pressed my head down, fearing rocks would smash it. When the sky opened up, hot wind raced between the houses, like from cannons, which left traces in the ground like pathways, and it damaged some crops. Later we saw that many windows were shattered" Kuliks expedition to the Tunguska explosion site was inspired by his belief that a gigantic meteorite struck the area and that the iron recovered could pay for the cost of the expedition. He received support from the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The story is curiously similar to Daniel Barringers investigation of Meteor Crater in Arizona--except that in Kuliks case neither a meteor nor an "impact crater" could be found. However, a later investigation by mineralogist O. A. Kirova recovered both magnetite globules and various forms of silicate globules from samples obtained by Kiril Pavlovich Florensky's expedition in 1958. Thousands of "tiny brilliant spheres," many fused together, were found embedded like pellets in the earth and in the trees. Globules of this sort are characteristic of the enigmatic particles produced when meteoroids enter the atmosphere. (As we shall note in the submission to follow, the study of such formations leaves many unanswered questions.) The Tunguska globules occur over a fairly well-defined ellipse, with high concentrations between 100 and 200 kilometers to the north-north-west of the epicenter. Florensky suggested that this distribution might be explained by fallout downwind of the high-altitude location of the final explosion. Most astronomers today envision the cause of the destruction as either a small comet or asteroid exploding a few miles above the surface. Some estimates point to an object 100 meters in diameter. According to the calculations of Christopher Chyba of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, only a stony meteorite would explode at an altitude of 10 kilometers, the commonly agreed height of the Tunguska blast. A comet of the assumed size would disintegrate much higher in the atmosphere and cause less damage on the ground. Yet scientists are still arguing over certain unexplained events and the fact that no samples of the "impacting" object have ever been found. "If a group of experts cannot agree for almost a hundred years, it's probably a third option," says Wolfgang Kundt, an astrophysicist from the University of Bonn in Germany. Andrei Ol'Khovatov, an independent Russian physicist who is intrigued by the Tunguska event, agrees that the impact theory leaves too many unanswered questions. He points out, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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for example, that witnesses reported strange weather and increased seismic activity in the area for days beforehand. The absence of a coherent explanation has inspired a host of speculations. Some exotic theories suggest a miniature black hole passing through the earth, or a miniature "bomb" of anti-matter. Alternatively, either an exploding alien spacecraft, or an alien-produced nuclear bomb has been offered. Some suggest that it was Tesla testing his "death ray." As a lighthearted jest amid the carnival of speculations, electrical theorists wonder if a "microscopic packet of neutronium" (the fictional content of "neutron stars") might be the next explanation offered.
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Two signs on the approach to the world's most famous "meteor impact site" leave little doubt as to what created the feature Credit: Wallace Thornhill
Meteor Crater in Arizona (Jan 31, 2006)

Is "Meteor Crater" really the showcase for the impact hypothesis that astronomers and geologists have claimed? Evidence for an electrical event is too clear to be ignored. Readers interested in todays scientific folklore on meteor impacts have probably already seen pictures of Meteor Crater in Arizona. So weve chosen to put up instead an image that captures the power of theoretical assumptions in the sciences. (A good picture of Meteor Crater can be seen here.) The crater is located 20 miles west of Winslow Arizona. Geologists now confidently say the depression, more than 4,000 feet wide, was created 50,000 years ago when a giant rock plowed into the desert. The Meteor Crater Interactive Learning Center, which includes twentyfour exhibits, bills the crater as the "first proven, best-preserved meteorite crater on Earth." The movie "Collisions and Impacts" shows twice each hour in an 80-seat wide-screen movie theater. A 1,406 pound meteorite fragment, the largest ever found in the area, is on display. Of course, for many years scientists claimed that the earths surface has no impact craters. But in 1902 a mining engineer, Daniel Moreau Barringer, noting that small balls of meteoritic iron were imbedded in the ejected rocks of the crater rim, concluded that a meteorite impact caused the crater. Assuming that the meteorite was extremely large, Barringer formed the Standard Iron Company and began securing mining patents. The mining venture spanned 27 years and cost Barringers group more than $600,000 ($10 million in today's money). It produced nothing. Barringers exploration of the site, however, became the foundation for a new theoretical The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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understanding of crater formation by impact. Decades before Eugene Shoemakers highly regarded work, Barringer convinced the scientific community that his impact theory of Meteor Crater was correct. For this reason the depression is also called Barringer Crater. Barringer made two presentations on his hypothesis to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, the first in 1906, the second in 1909. In addition to the absence of any naturally occurring volcanic rock in the vicinity, he noted an abundance of finely pulveri zed silica. He also observed large quantities of meteoritic iron, in the form of globular "shale balls," scattered around the rim and surrounding plain. The surrounding soil included a random mixture of meteoritic material and ejected rocks. For todays electrical theorists, some of the historic investigation is ironic. In 1908 Barringers impact explanation found a vigorous supporter in geologist George P. Merrill, who closely examined a form of quartz glass in the vicinity of the crater. He concluded that this type of quarts could only be produced by intense heat, "similar to the heat generated by a lightning strike on sand." Merrill also pointed to the undisturbed rock beds below the crater that proved "the force which created the crater did not come from below." The undisturbed rock beds below the crater contradict the standard opinion on the event that created the large pit. The report by the Meteor Crater Interactive Learning Center states: "The meteorite which made it was composed almost entirely of nickel-iron, suggesting that it May have originated in the interior of a small planet. It was 150 feet across, weighed roughly 300,000 tons, and was traveling at a speed of 28,600 miles per hour (12 kilometers per second) according to the most recent research. The explosion created by its impact was equal to 2.5 megatons of TNT, or about 150 times the force of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima." Certainly that is not the kind of event that would leave the rock beds below the crater "undisturbed." Merrills findings are the very kind of things that an electric discharge hypothesis would anticipate. An electrical explanation of the crater envisions an approaching bolide entering the strongest region of Earths electric field and, under prodigious internal electrical stresses, beginning to discharge explosively and to fragment. Before reaching the surface it is likely to have already blown apart, for the same reason that comets have exploded millions of miles from the Sun and the Tunguska bolide exploded high in the earths atmosphere. Another small-scale example of this effect is the unexpectedly energetic explosion created by the Deep Impact projectile when it met up with Comet Tempel 1. Every astronomer who observed the event was astonished. In the electrical interpretation, fragments of a bolide reaching the surface intact will generally be scattered some distance from the electrical crater or craters caused by the discharge. The electrical theorists insist that the usual artists "splatter" picture of an asteroid or meteor impact is unimaginative and wrong. Not one artistic impression of this sort has ever included a lightning bolt. Thats because the artists image is based upon a model scientists use to estimate the effects of a mechanical impact. That model cannot be correct if we live in an electric universe. One reason for believing that the crater was excavated by an electric discharge is the apparent stratification of the debris distributed by the event. A rotating, crater-producing electric arc will work down from the surface through layers of soil, spraying the material across a wide region. This could mean that the debris field would be laid down roughly in The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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layers that reversed the strata of the surrounding terrain. So it is interesting that the Meteor Crater website confirms Barringers finding that "different types of rocks in the rim and on the surrounding plain appeared to have been deposited in the opposite order from their order in the underlying rock beds." There are two other reasons for considering the electrical interpretation. The immediate surroundings exhibit more than one rille, or sinuous channel, something left entirely unexplained by the impact hypothesis, but a demonstrable effect of electric discharge. And most enigmatic is the presence of fulgurites within the crater. A fulgurite is fused and glassified sand resulting from a lightning strike. The presence of fulgurites in the crater (see photograph here) is almost never mentioned in the standard literature on Meteor Crater. It is also worth noting that researchers investigating the "impact" appear to be moving increasingly toward the idea of substantial fragmentation of the body before striking the ground. Jay Melosh of the University of Arizona, the lead researcher in a recent study (reported in the March 10, 2005 issue of Nature), suggests that about half of the 300,000-ton object was lost prior to impact. But again, electrical considerations played no part in the analysis.
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Gravity anomaly map of the Chicxulub Crater area. Red and yellow indicate gravity highs; green and blue indicate gravity lows. The white line indicates the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. White dots are sinkholes, called "cenotes." Credit: Geological Survey of Canada
The Mystery of Chicxulub Crater

(Jan 30, 2006)
In the controversy over what killed the dinosaurs, geologists debated volcanism versus impact. Volcanism couldn't explain the facts as well as impact, which won by default. But impact was little better. An electrical explanation, which fits the facts well, was never considered. That an asteroid struck the Earth and killed off the dinosaurs is now generally accepted. The site of the posited strike is the Chicxulub crater, a circular structure up to 300 km across with multiple concentric rings. Much of it lies under the shallow water off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico. This impact would have blasted debris high into the atmosphere and around the globe, and it would have shattered the surrounding and underlying rock with earthquakes of magnitude 10 to 12 on the Richter scale. The debris cloud of this theoretical event supposedly accounts for the layer of iridiumenriched sediment found world-wide as well as for the inclusions of melted spherules and shocked quartz crystals. The spherules and shocked quartz are found as well in formations around the Gulf thought to be debris left by the impact-induced tsunami. The spherules when cut show evidence of being formed by accretion very much like hailstones. It has been hypothesized that they formed in the atmosphere from the condensation of carbonate rocks vaporized by the impact. Above the spherule bed is a thick layer of jumbled rocks of all sizes in a fine matrix. It contains large boulders, as well as numerous cobbles. Dating of the crater, iridium layer, and tsunami debris corresponds with the dating of the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive dinosaur extinction and other evidence of ecological catastrophe. The dovetailing of this evidence from several disciplines and the theory explaining it has seemed convincing.
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But a closer look generates skepticism. The distribution of the iridium layer is contrary to the expected drift of a debris cloud. Impacts from various angles have been proposed to try to explain both the crater asymmetry and distribution of ejecta. Cores inside the crater reveal Upper Cretaceous fossils in undisturbed layers --fossils of the creatures that the impact was supposed to have wiped out. Clearly, these layers were laid down after the event. Additionally, the alleged tsunami deposits in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize show layering that suggests that some were laid down over a long time. These include separate layers with imbedded spherules that had been claimed to be direct ejecta fallout from the Chicxulub impact. Recent investigation linked two such layers to "two events separated by thousands of years during which limestones accumulated and invertebrates burrowed on the ocean floor." Extinctions always seem to coincide with both continental flood basalts and imagined "meteorite impacts." But under the prevailing interpretation, the odds of these happening simultaneously are vanishingly small. The electrical origin of the Chicxulub crater and surrounding geology resolves all of the contradictions in the evidence. A stupendous cosmic thunderbolt, occurring in a phase of widespread electric discharging, perhaps lasting millennia, could well have produced features similar to those carved on the surface of Mars, Venus, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. The primary crater-producing discharge could have excised the rock inside the crater and left a central peak without shattering the underlying rock. The electrical current, lasting longer than the forces of an impact, would have melted large amounts of material and formed vast clouds of spherules, a key signature of electrical discharge. Indeed, more than 99 percent of the global iridium layer is made up of spherules--droplets that condensed from vaporized rock. Only the remaining 1 percent of the debris consisted of rock pulverized directly into dust. The spherule-producing ability of discharges has been demonstrated in lab experiments. Also, the electromagnetic pinch effect in a discharge channel can generate extremely large pressures, sufficient to shock quartz crystals. The axial acceleration of the discharge will pull debris away from the surface and high into the atmosphere, even into space, and the fallout of unsorted material will be influenced more by electrical and near-space factors than by lower atmospheric circulation. In the impact model, the size of the crater depends only upon the mechanical energy of the impactor, that is, its mass and speed. An electrical crater depends only upon the charge transferred between celestial bodies. Large craters are most likely to occur during the close approach of planet-sized bodies. Such large bodies will also induce massive ground currents, causing the mysterious continental flood basalts at the same time. Electrical craters often appear in connected chains on other bodies in the solar system. The gravitational anomalies and asymmetry of the Chicxulub basin suggests it May be the centermost of a buried crater chain. When it comes to the question of mass extinctions, it is not clear that an impact like the one claimed to have created the Chicxulub crater is sufficient to cause such a thing. The complexities of the evidence for extinctions do not find simple explanations in either impact or volcanic models. But the one obvious factor that is never mentioned is that the dinosaur megafauna could not survive on the present Earth because they are too heavy to live. It seems to be forgotten that the early dinosaur discoveries forced scientists to conclude that they must have been waders to offset their great weight. Whatever happened to the dinosaurs The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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was far more than a puny asteroid impact could inflict. Nothing was the same on Earth after a global alteration of Earths gravity. The triumph of the impact model was not so much because of its adequacy in explaining the evidence as it was a default result: Only impact and volcanic explanations were considered, and the spherules and shocked quartz clearly ruled out volcanism. "We know so little about impacts," says theoretical geophysicist Jay Melosh of the University of Arizona. But an electrical mechanism was never considered because astronomers assure geologists that the planets have always been on their present orbits and in space electrical events never happen.
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Credit: U.S geological Survey
Hole in the Ground

(Jan 27, 2006)
Central Oregon has two craters roughly aligned East-West and about 10 kilometers apart that have geologists guessing. But how reliable are the guesses if geologists exclude the only explanation that can account for the wide spectrum of geologic scars on other planets and moons? Pictured above is the more perfectly formed "Hole in the Ground" crater. (The other, "Big Hole," is about 10 km to the west, less defined, and slightly bigger and deeper). One geologic survey of "Hole in the Ground" measured a floor 150 meters below and a rim 35 to 65 meters above original ground level, with a diameter from rim to rim of about 1.6 kilometers. Geological estimates of dating range from 13,500 to 100,000 years ago. The two holes in central Oregon are not particularly dramatic, just two minor illustrations of a widespread dilemma faced by geologists. One account of "Hole in the Ground" says: "Although it closely resembles a crater caused by a meteor strike, it is thought to be the result of volcanic activity simply because it lacks the metal fragments found in meteor strikes." In other words, there is no positive evidence for the volcanic interpretation, just a deduction from a prior theory that sees no other alternative. In these pages we have contended that craters on other bodies in the solar system that are universally assigned to impact events are, with few exceptions, a result of interplanetary "thunderbolts." "Hole in the Ground"--and innumerable counterparts around the world (sometimes interpreted as "maars" produced by the interaction of rising magma with groundwater), should be examined with that idea in mind. In fact, the crater is situated in a region that electric theorists have identified as some of the most spectacular electrical scarring on Earth (a subject of coming Pictures of the Day). Testing the electrical interpretation model would be simple and eminently feasible. Like The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Meteor Crater in Arizona (which Wallace Thornhill identifies as a superb example of an electrical cratercomplete with nearby sinuous rilles) we should find evidence of fulgurites (glassified soil caused by lightning) and/or shocked minerals beneath the crater or in the walls. Finding a solid crater floor with core samples under the fragmented material inside the crater, and matching core samples taken from the same depth but outside the crater should confirm the continuity of the strata. This would eliminate any possibility of the crater being produced by a volcanic mechanism. Just as the planet Mars has a region with giant "volcanoes" and a colossal canyon, the electrical theorists point to similar scarring on Earth, but on a much-reduced scale. Electric scarring proponents contend that the study of Mars' surface relief can tell us more about craters, volcanoes, and gorges--even the Grand Canyon--than the centuries spent studying the Earth. The ancient "gods of the thunderbolt" have much to teach us.
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In the fashion of a textbook frontispiece, the illustration above captures the modern myth of solar system formation from a collapsing nebular cloud. Credit: http://oz.plymouth.edu/~sci_ed/Turski/Courses/Earth_Science/Intro.html
The "Iron Sun" Debate (4)--Meteorites and the Modern Myth of Solar System Genesis
(Jan 26, 2006)
In his "Iron Sun" theory, Oliver Manuel has developed an unorthodox answer to puzzles concerning the birth of the solar system, recorded in meteorites and lunar samples. But in interpreting these samples, he has fallen prey to a conventional myth as to their origins. The popular theoretical picture of our solar system today is strongly wedded to the "nebular hypothesis." The theory traces the origin of the Sun and planets to a primordial cloud of gas and dust, in which the gravitational force led to the clouds progressive collapse into a spinning disk. Within this disk, the Sun formed at the center and all of the secondary bodies from planets and moons down to asteroids, comets, and meteorites accreted from leftover debris. But how did gases in a diffuse "cloud" collapse against the inherent tendency of gases in a vacuum to expand and rotating systems to fly apart? Why is the Sun tilted 7 degrees to the ecliptic? Why should giant planets, recently discovered in distant planetary systems, favor a close orbit about their star, while Jupiter and Saturn orbit far from the Sun? And if the different bodies in our solar system arose from a homogenous cloud, why does their composition vary so? Plasma cosmology provides the simple answer to the question of how stars are formed. They are formed by the powerful and long-reaching electromagnetic force of a "plasma pinch," a principle well researched in the laboratory and now observed in detail in high resolution The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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images of planetary nebulae. According to Hannes Alfvn and other pioneers of plasma cosmology, a stellar system gives way to gravity only after the star is formed and as the plasma pinch subsides. In this view it is not correct to look to gravity as the cause of star formation. It is also normal for a number of stars to be formed along the axis of the plasma pinch and subsequently scatter "like buckshot" following the collapse of the pinch. Planets are generally not formed at this stage. We should expect that stars formed in this manner would, as a group, tend to have their rotational axes aligned along the direction of the galactic magnetic field. The "Electric Universe" model of stars takes the role of the electric force further, suggesting that evolving star systems move through phases of electrical instability before achieving the equilibrium that marks our own solar system today. Stellar companions and gas giant planets are "born"--ejected--fully formed from a star before it achieves electrical balance with its new environment. That explains both the preponderance of multiple star systems and the closeorbiting gas giants. Rocky planets and moons are similarly born at intervals by means of electrical expulsion from gas giants. Rings about gas giants and stars are principally a result of electrical expulsion, not gravitational accretion. In this view, the electrical birth pangs associated with newly-born planets and moons can immerse celestial bodies in violent plasma discharge, sculpting the surfaces of the newcomers. Planets and moons are charged objects, and subsequent encounters in an unstable system can leave surfaces dominated by electrical craters, vast trenches, and other scars. Much of the excavated material can then be lofted by the discharge into space as comet nuclei, asteroids, and meteorites, while portions of the material May fall back to form strata of shattered rock and loose soil. Electrical interactions between planets also have the beneficial effect of quickly restoring order out of chaos. Like any biological family, the planets of our solar system were born at different times and from different parents. They have a complex history that includes electrical exchanges capable of upsetting atomic clocks and producing numerous isotopic anomalies. As rocky surfaces are excavated electrically, for example, the resulting short-lived radioactive isotopes May wind up in the grains of meteorites. Proponents of the Electric Universe suggest that most conventional claims about the birth of the solar system, though stated with great confidence, are highly conjectural. And if one discerns something fundamentally wrong in a common teaching in the sciences, a skeptical posture toward other conventional assumptions is also appropriate. We have already suggested that Oliver Manuel, in developing his argument for the "Iron Sun," was too willing to accept orthodox assumptions. Manuel writes, for example: "The Apollo mission returned from the Moon in 1969 with soil samples whose surfaces were loaded with elements implanted by the solar wind," we can see that it is an assumption based on an undisturbed, clockwork planetary system. But in this case the more telling facts May relate to lunar soil isotopes that do not appear in the solar wind. Based on the isotopic composition of meteorites, Manuel has suggested that the nascent solar system must have experienced a very close supernova explosion before meteorites were formed. But the idea that either the Sun or any other body in the solar system is the remnant of a supernova is unnecessary. There is no necessary connection between supernovae and meteorite isotopes. In fact, it was suggested long ago that the many strange The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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features of meteorites could have been formed in gargantuan lightning flashes within a solar nebula. And Manuel has noted that grains in the Murchison meteorite have isotope abundances related to grain size that "mimic the properties of 'fall-out' grains produced after the explosion of a nuclear weapon" The Electric Universe model satisfies both ideas. As we have already suggested, supernovae are emphatically an electric discharge phenomenon. So the many puzzling features of meteorites May be explained by their formation in the debris of any high-energy plasma discharge. In these pages, we have documented the recent electrical sculpting of planets by cosmic scale discharges in the solar system. We have suggested that meteorites are the debris of planetary encounters, a conclusion now supported by direct observation of planetary surfaces and by the study of meteorites, the latter revealing the effects of flash heating, ion implantation, and the isotopic anomalies that would be expected from an interplanetary thunderbolt. Of course, the close encounters required for electrical exchanges mean that the planets were not formed in their present orbits, as astronomers commonly assume. And there is good reason why virtually every rocky body in the solar system shows evidence of catastrophic encounters. The history of the solar system is one of "punctuated equilibrium" long periods of stability punctuated by brief episodes of chaos as new members are accommodated. The fact that no simple gradation of planetary characteristics occurs within the solar family needs no other explanation.
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Supernova 1987A is the closest supernova event since the invention of the telescope.
Credit: NASA/STScI/CfA/P Challis
The "Iron Sun" Debate (3)--Exploding the Myth of the Imploding Supernova
(Jan 24, 2006)
When a star called "SK -69 202" exploded on February 24, 1987, becoming "Supernova 1987A," the shock to conventional theory was as great as the visual wonder in the heavens. The event did not "emulate the theory," but rather appears to have involved catastrophic electrical discharge. Prior to Supernova 1987A, astronomers assumed that a supernova signaled the death throes of a red supergiant star. But the star that exploded-- SK -69 202 --was a blue supergiant, perhaps 20 times smaller than a red supergiant and a much different breed of star. Astronomers had long supposed that supernovae occur when a star "exhausts its nuclear fuel," causing a collapse or implosion followed by a violent "rebound" effect when the outer layers of the star hit the core. The resulting blast, they said, ejects a spherical shell of material into interstellar space where it collides with its own slower moving stellar wind generated during its earlier, more stable phases. But Supernova 1987A tells a different story. Pictured above is the changing appearance of Supernova 1987A over a 27-month period as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. The photograph shows three axially aligned rings. The bright inner ring is about 1.3 light-years in diameter. The conventional theory of supernovae had not predicted, or in any way anticipated, the distinctive bi-polar structure of Supernova 1987A, similar to that of many nebulas now documented. Nor did the theory have anything to say about the bright "beads." Since there is an entrenched habit today of reinterpreting the surprises of the space age as if they were not really surprises, readers would do well to remember the original statement by Dr. Chris Burrows of the European Space Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, when Supernova 1987A was first discovered. "This is an The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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unprecedented and bizarre object. We have never seen anything behave like this before." Thus, the "Astronomy Picture of the Day" for July 5, 1996, states without equivocation that "the origins of these rings still remains a mystery." Nevertheless, the inertia of prior theory is strong enough that astronomers continue to identify the rings as "shells" of gas struck by the supernovas high-energy "shock front"--though it is only necessary to look at the pictures to see that the rings are not shells. They are tori (rings) around a dynamic center occupying a common axis--a characteristic structure observed in high-energy plasma discharge experiments. But the crucial feature of SN 1987A is the bright beads. Both the number and position of the beads conforms to Birkeland current filaments in a powerful plasma discharge known as a "z-pinch." Electrical theorist Wallace Thornhill has predicted: "the ring will not grow as a shock-wave-produced ring would be expected to. Some bright spots May be seen to rotate about each other and to merge. It is an opportunity to be able to verify the electric discharge nature of a supernova." More than fifty years ago a British scientist, Dr. Charles E. R. Bruce (1902-1979), argued that the bipolar shape, temperatures and magnetic fields of "planetary nebulae" could be explained as an electrical discharge. Bruce was ideally situated to make the discovery, being both an electrical engineer versed in high-energy lightning behavior and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. He was ignored. Since that time, the structure and dynamics of high-energy electrical discharge in plasma has been well researched--most importantly, in the work of Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfvn, and over the past two decades or more by Alfvns close colleague, Anthony Peratt. The work of the cosmic electricians bears directly on the "Iron Sun" debate. When Oliver Manuel began to formulate his model of the Sun, ideas about supernovae lay at the heart of his thinking. From a study of the unusual isotopic composition of meteorites, Manuel had concluded that the objects had formed from the remains of a supernova. In this, he was following a tenet of conventional astronomy, which argues that elements heavier than iron and nickel in the solar system were created by distant supernovae over billions of years. Except that Manuel concluded that the supernova creating iron and other heavy element abundances in meteorites was the precursor to our own Sun. Though the Iron Sun model brings with it an insightful critique of the standard nuclear fusion model of the Sun, Manuel did not break free from the old gravitational concepts on the nature of supernovae; but he did add a new twist, suggesting that the Sun hides a neutron star around which accreted an iron shell after the Suns supernova explosion. As the electrical theorists see it, the mistake of following a conventional myth invariably set Manuel on a dead-end course. The Electric Sun model, these theorists claim, can account for all of the strange phenomena exhibited by the Sun and its environment. And the explanations do not require them to guess what is inside the Sun or to posit unlikely events leading to the birth of the Sun. Concerning the birth of stars, the Electric Sun model embraces the new science of plasma cosmology. Plasma cosmologists can demonstrate the principles of star birth in the plasma "z-pinch"; and they achieve their results both in the laboratory and in supercomputer simulations. In contrast, the earlier notion of gravitationally collapsing molecular clouds began as a theoretical guess and never found the required observational support. Nor has it been The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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shown how planets can form from a ring of dust about a star, a crucial requirement. Stellar explosions have always been a problem for conventional gravitational theory. What could trigger the sudden release of such prodigious energy? The sudden gravitational implosion of the entire star is an ingenious idea for a trigger but highly implausible because it requires spherical symmetry on the vast scale of a giant star. The ejections observed from supernova remnants show that the process is axially symmetric. However, if a star is the focus of a galactic electric discharge together with internal charge stratification, it May naturally undergo an expulsive stellar "lightning-flash" to relieve the electrical stress. An electric star has electromagnetic energy stored in an equatorial current ring such as the torus (imaged in UV light) around our Sun. As stated by electrical theorist Wallace Thornhill: "Matter is ejected at low latitudes by discharges between the current ring and the star. The Sun does this regularly on a small scale. However, if the stored energy reaches some critical value it May be released in the form of a bipolar axial discharge, or ejection of matter along the rotational axis." Creation of heavy metals, according to Thornhill, does not require a supernova. In the electric model of stars, electrical energy produces heavy elements near the surface of all stars--a claim now given additional support by Manuels own findings. But the Iron Sun model makes the curious claim that energy from neutrons, supposedly repelled from its neutron star core, provides most of the Sun's radiant energy and the protons for the solar wind. The Electric Sun model, on the other hand, says that external electrical energy, supplied from the galaxy, is responsible for producing the radiant output of the Sun, the solar wind and most of the heavy elements seen in the solar spectrum. The production of iron atoms requires energy input. So all stars participate in the synthesis of heavy elements. (This is a far more satisfying theory than relying upon rare supernovae, which then disperse their heavy elements into deep space). The solar wind is merely an equatorial current sheet forming part of the circuit that "drives" the Sun. The magnetic field of the Sun is generated by a varying direct-current power input to the Sun. It is only to be expected, therefore, that the observed power variations would be reflected in the sunspot cycle and in changes in both xray brightness and the magnetic field of the Sun. No mysterious "dynamo" inside the Sun could explain these synchronous patterns. The Electric Sun model anticipates the building of heavier atomic nuclei from the protons and neutrons at the foot points of solar flares. But it also expects most nuclear reactions to occur in the tornadic discharges that form solar granulations (where the nuclear kitchen is in full view). In particular, the latter prediction fits the observed anti-correlation between neutrino count and sunspot number. The more sunspots there are, the fewer solar granulations and neutrinos. This unique correlation does not fit any model that proposes an energy source inside the Sun, unrelated to sunspots. For an Electric Sun, what happens in the Suns core is of little consequence. We should expect an incompressible solid or liquid core composed of heavy elements gathered in the primordial z-pinch and later synthesized in the continual stellar discharge. But since the glowing sphere we call the Sun is an electric discharge high in its atmosphere, we should naturally expect the lightest element, hydrogen, to predominate as the plasma medium for the discharge. There is no need to postulate an internal source of energy to support the photosphere since (as direct observation confirms) the photosphere and phenomena above the photosphere, such as flares and prominences, are not governed by gravity. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The energy which fuels the Sun May be transferred over cosmic distances via Birkeland current transmission lines. This energy May be released gradually or stored in a stellar circuit and unleashed catastrophically. The cosmic circuits now revealed threading themselves along the arms of the Milky are the energy source for the supernova explosion not the star. Only an external power source can explain why the continuing energy output of some nebulae such as Eta Carina exceeds that available from the central star. A supernova does not signal the death throes of a star. There is nothing inside the star to "die." Nor does it herald the birth of a neutron star.
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The Crab Nebula as viewed by the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The inset superimposes two images: an X-ray photograph of the Crab Nebulas intensely energetic core, taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory; and a Hubble Telescope photograph of the same region. Credit: Crab Nebula from VLT: FORS Team, 8.2-meter VLT, ESO; X-ray Image (inset): NASA/CXC/ASU/J. Hester et al; Optical Image (inset): NASA/HST/ASU/J. Hester et al.
The "Iron Sun" Debate (2)--The Myth of the Neutron Star

(Jan 23, 2006)
In his argument for the "Iron Sun," Oliver Manuel relies on a popular theoretical concept--the "neutron star." Electrical theorists, on the other hand, say there is no reason to believe that such exotic stars exist. At the core of the Crab Nebula pictured above is a remarkable churning "wheel-and-axle" structure (inset) whose discovery shocked astronomers. No conventional model of supernova remnants ever anticipated exotic structures comparable to what is seen here. Some things are known about the Crab Nebula, however. It is close to certain that it is the result of a supernova observed from Earth in 1054 A.D. The inner ring of the central "motor" has a diameter of about one light year. Intensely energetic jets stream outward from the central light source in two directions along the axis of an intense magnetic field. Additionally, observations over time have shown that rings and strands of material are moving outward on the equatorial plane at great speeds, some up to half the speed of light. The point of light at the center of the image is a pulsar, so called because it generates pulses at radio frequencies roughly 60 times a second. (Pulses can also be observed optically and in X-rays.) But what cause these rapid pulses? Most astronomers today attempt to interpret pulsars using a strange idea based entirely on mathematical conjectures. They say that the pulsar is a tiny spinning "neutron star"--the collapsed remains of the historic supernova. Neutron stars were predicted theoretically in the 1930's to be the end result of a supernova The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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explosion. For many years astronomers doubted their existence. But then, with the discovery of the first pulsar in 1967, astronomers imagined that the pulses were due to a rapidly rotating beam of radiation sweeping past the Earth. Having ignored all of the things that electricity can do quite routinely, the theorists were required to conceive a star so dense that it could rotate at the rate of a dentists drill without flying apart. So the neutron star received a second life. The energy of the stars radiation, it was supposed, came from in-falling matter from a companion star. The imaginative construct received no support from later observations. In the Crab Nebula, what we now see is not gravitational accretion, but material accelerated away from the central star. In fact, all of the weird and wonderful things said about neutron stars, such as the supercondensed "neutronium" or "quark" soup from which they are claimed to have formed, lie outside the realm of verifiable science. They are abstractions disconnected from nature, but required to save a paradigm that has no other force than gravity to provide compact sources of radiation. Oliver Manuel and the Iron Sun advocates have taken a daring step in questioning conventional fictions about the Sun. But unfortunately, they have relied upon another popular fiction. They suggest that the Sun was formed by accretion of heavy elements, chiefly iron, onto a "neutron star" following a supernova explosion. They further claim that energy from neutrons, supposedly repelled from its neutron star core, accounts for the Sun's radiant energy and the source of protons in the solar wind. The model does not explain the acceleration of the solar wind out past the planets (a crucial requirement according to electrical experts). Such speculations, resting upon the earlier flights of cosmological fancy, beg the question as to the origin of all other stars. Supernovae are exceedingly rare events, and there is no sound reason to believe that neutron stars are even physically possible. However appealing the original logic May have been to some, the neutron star model should have been discarded when pulsars were found with supposed "spin" and cooling rates that required the mathematicians to conjure ever more dense and exotic particleslike quarksthat have never been observed. Critics of the "neutron star" hypothesis say that it is a violation of common sense to speak of matter being gravitationally compressed to the point that the orbiting electrons in an atom are forced to join with the protons in the nucleus to form neutrons. The nearly 2000-fold difference in weight between the electron and the proton will ensure charge separation in an intense gravitational field. Each atom will become a tiny radial electric dipole that assists charge separation. And the electric force of repulsion is 39 orders of magnitude stronger than gravity, so extremely weak charge separation is sufficient to resist gravitational compression. The force of gravity is effectively zero in the presence of the electric force. All of todays popular ideas about supernovae, the supposed progenitors of neutron stars, were formulated under a gravity-only ideology that has, in recent decades, been challenged (and electric theorists would say overturned) by the discovery of plasma and powerful electric and magnetic fields in space. Supernovae have recently been identified as catastrophic stellar electrical discharges. The remnant of such a discharge cannot be the imagined rapidly spinning super-dense object: powerful electrical forces will always prevent gravitational "super-collapse." Plasma physicists have shown (in the words of K. Healy and A. Peratt) that the pulsed radiation detected from some supernova remnants May "derive either from the pulsars The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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interaction with its environment or by energy delivered by an external circuit. [O]ur results support the planetary magnetosphere view, where the extent of the magnetosphere, not emission points on a rotating surface, determines the pulsar emission." These concrete results do not rest on events merely imagined. And they dovetail with facts that are now inescapable: electric discharges in plasma are fully capable of generating the exotic structures of supernova remnants seen in deep space. The "wheel and axle" form of the supernova remnant in the Crab nebula is that of a simple Faraday electric motor. Its structure also conforms to the stellar circuit diagram espoused by the father of plasma cosmology, Hannes Alfvn. It is a pity that the "Iron Sun" researchers are not conversant with plasma cosmology and the Electric Sun model. They make a compelling case against the standard solar model, and their recent findings of electrically induced nuclear reactions on the solar surface could open a pathway to discoveries reaching well beyond solar science.
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This colorized picture is a mosaic of ultraviolet images from the orbiting TRACE satellite sensitive to light emitted by highly charged iron atoms. Growing in number, the intricate structures visible are the Sun's hot active regions (with temperatures over a million degrees Fahrenheit), all with associated magnetic loops. Credit: Trace Team, NASA
The "Iron Sun" Debate (1)--Nuclear Reactions at the Solar Surface

(Jan 20, 2006)
Proponents of the "Iron Sun," a theory widely represented on the Internet in recent months, challenge the popular idea that the Sun is powered by thermonuclear reactions at its core. And they point to nuclear reactions on the Sun's surface, something considered impossible under the standard model. Scientists now supporting a new approach to solar physics--the "Iron Sun" -- mention neither the Electric Universe nor the "Electric Sun." But their findings add powerful support to the electric model of the Sun posited by Wallace Thornhill, Donald Scott, and earlier pioneers beginning with engineer Ralph Juergens in the late 60's. It was the electrical theorists who first suggested that surface events, not a hidden nuclear furnace at the Suns center, appear to be the source of neutrino production (the subatomic signature of nuclear fusion). In recent years nuclear chemist Oliver Manuel and several of his collaborators have attracted scientific attention for proposing a radical alternative to the standard model of the Sun. Manuel suggests that the Sun is the remnant of a supernova, now holding in its core a "neutron star" encased within an iron shell. In this model, most of the radiant energy of the Sun comes from the neutron stars slow decay over long spans of time. Manuel draws attention to recent discoveries by solar scientists. He finds compelling evidence that nuclear reactions occur at the foot points of solar flares--hot spots associated with The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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prominent magnetic loops and intense electric fields. This observation places the nuclear reactions far from where conventional theorists locate them--at the Suns core. To confirm these surface events Iron Sun proponents point to the telltale signatures of the "CNO cycle" first set forth in the work of Hans Bethe. In 1939 Bethe proposed that the stable mass-12 isotope of Carbon catalyzes a series of atomic reactions in the core of the Sun, resulting in the fusion of hydrogen into helium. This nucleosynthesis, according to Bethe, occurs through a "Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen (CNO) cycle," as helium is constructed from the nuclei of hydrogen atoms--protons--at temperatures ranging from 14 million K to 20 million K. For some time now, solar scientists have observed the products expected from the CNO cycle, but now they see a relationship of these products abundances to sunspot activity. This finding is crucial because the nuclear events that standard theory envisions are separated from surface events by hundreds of thousands of years as the heat from the core slowly percolates through the Suns hypothetical "radiative zone." From this vantage point, a connection between the hidden nuclear furnace and sunspot activity is inconceivable. Proponents of the Iron Sun, therefore, have posed an issue that could be fatal to the standard model. But as we shall attempt to show, there is a good deal more room to add objections within this question. The Iron Sun proponents are to be congratulated for their research showing that the Sun does not shine because of nuclear fusion in its core. It takes great courage to stake your work and reputation against established dogma. If science operated in the way it advertises, the search for the truth in this essential matter would involve a concentration of resources to confirm or deny the evidence amassed by the Iron Sun proponents. The questions raised are crucial whether or not the proposed model of the Sun is correct. Yet there seems to be pressure on researchers to have a model at hand to explain "anomalous" results. In the case of the "Iron Sun," the result is less than perfect because there is a flaw at the very heart of popular cosmology: All matter in the universe is composed of electric charge. The electric force between charges mediates all physical interactions, irrespective of scale. It is the electric force that energizes matter. By ignoring electricity, cosmologists have committed an error so fundamental that the mistake invariably propagates through any and all of their theoretical excursions. The electrical theorists see this as the overriding cause of the oft-noted "crisis in cosmology," and the effects on related disciplines--bound as they are by the assumptions of cosmologists-have been nothing less than catastrophic.
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Comet West in its most dramatic display in March, 1976
When Comets Break Apart

(Jan 19, 2006)
The unexpected breakup of comets, some at considerable distances from the Sun, has long baffled comet researchers. But there is no mystery if comets are solid bodies discharging electrically as they move into regions of different charge in the Suns electric field. In 1976, Comet West never approached closer than 30 million kilometers from the Sun. So when a disruption occurred and the comet split into four fragments (subsequent to the display pictured above), astronomers were shocked. More recently, the explosive break up of Comet Linear in the summer of 2000 provoked even greater amazement. The event occurred well over a hundred million kilometers from the Sun. In fact, eighty percent of comets that split do so when they are far from the Sun, according to Carl Sagan and Nancy Druyan, authors of the book Comet. Comet Wirtanen fragmended in 1957 a little inside the orbit of Saturn, and something similar occurred to Comet Biela/Bambert. Strangely, other comets have approached much closer to the Sun and not broken apart. The perihelion of the Great Comet of December 1680, studied by both Newton and Halley, was less than 100,000 kilometers from the Sun, but did not split. Noting such considerations, Sagan and Druyan write: "The gravitational tides of the Sun or unequal heating cannot be sole causes of the splitting of comets. We still do not know why comets split." In a paper published in the 1960's Dr. Brian G. Marsden, an astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, drew attention to the anomaly of comet fragmentation. Discussing the "sungrazing" comets, he noted that two instances,--1882 The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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II and 1965 VIII--look as if they had split apart near aphelion (their farthest distance from the Sun), well beyond the orbit of Neptune and far above the ecliptic plane. Moreover, the relative velocity of their separation was far greater than could be due by solar heating. Marsden wrote: "Although most of the comets observed to split have done so for no obvious reason, one really does require an explanation when the velocity of separation is some 20 % of the velocity of the comet itself! A collision with some asteroidal object at 200 A.U. from the sun, and 100 A.U. above the ecliptic plane, even though it would only have to happen once, is scarcely worthy of serious consideration." Thus, according to Sagan and Druyan, "the problem is left unsolved." But the authors appear to have found a clue without recognizing its significance. "Splitting and jetting May be connected At the moment Comet West split, the individual fragments brightened noticeably, and propelled large quantities of dust into space in the first of some dozen bursts." The same could be said for the more recent Comet Linear breakup. Why would intense, high-velocity jets and explosions of dust, traveling at supersonic speeds, precede the fragmentation of a comet nucleus? In the electrical model of comets, the answer is obvious. The behavior of comets will never be understood in simple mechanical terms because they are electrified bodies orbiting within the plasma environment of an electrified Sun. The solar plasma behaves like a very good conductor in the Sun's electrical connection with the galaxy. And just like any good conductor, the electric field within the plasma is very low. But unlike good metal conductors, the solar plasma is of extremely low density and therefore its current-carrying ability is limited. Comets must adjust to the changing plasma potential as they move radially toward or away from the Sun. This adjustment is not so difficult on the long, slow journey through the outer reaches of the solar system. But it usually involves visible electric discharge effects as the comet dashes through the inner solar system. The comet nucleus behaves like a capacitor. And as any electrical engineer knows, if a discharge occurs within a capacitor it will explode violently. That is what causes comet nuclei to fragment and it is why the event is commonly preceded by outbursts far more energetic than could be explained by sublimating ices. The energy is provided by the stored electrical energy within the nucleus. All that is required to trigger the comet fragmentation is an electrical breakdown within the comet. In this sense, it May be analogous to the electrical breakdown evident in an earthquake. And that breakdown in the comet May happen with any sudden change in the solar plasma environment. The more sudden the change in the comet's electrical environment, the more likely that flaring and fragmentation will occur. Electrical theorist Wallace Thornhill has noted that the remarkable 300,000 km wide flare-up of comet Halley between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus followed some of the largest solar flares ever recorded (under the assumptions of the "snowball "theory of comets, the nucleus should be frozen and inert at that distance). The electrical model also explains why we should expect long-period comets to put on a brighter display than short-period comets. The long-period comets spend a longer time in a region of lower plasma potential than the short-period comets. Consequently, their voltage The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive difference on their approach to the Sun will be higher, leading to a brighter and more energetic discharge.
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The "puzzling" absence of small (house-sized) comets May be explained in equally simple terms electrically. Such small objects would readily lose their charge before reaching the inner solar system. But a comet nucleus kilometers in diameter presents a much different electrical profile and its charge could not be dissipated so quickly.
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Expedition 11 NASA Science Officer John Phillips captured this photo of Hurricane Emily on July 17, 2005, as the storm churned in the Caribbean Sea east of the Yucatan Peninsula. Credit: NASA
The Electric Hurricanes of 2005

(Jan 17, 2006)
Another mystery for meteorologists: As a rule, hurricanes display little if any lightning. But during the record-setting hurricane season of 2005 three of the most powerful storms--Rita, Katrina, and Emily--provoked an astonishing abundance of lightning. Richard Blakeslee of the Global Hydrology and Climate Center (GHCC) in Huntsville, Alabama, was one of a team of scientists who explored Hurricane Emily using NASA's ER-2 aircraft, a research version of the famous U-2 spy plane. Flying high above the storm, they noted frequent lightning in the cylindrical wall of clouds surrounding the hurricane's eye. Both cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning were present, "a few flashes per minute," says Blakeslee. "Generally there's not a lot of lightning in the eye-wall region," Blakeslee says. In fact, the electric fields above Emily were among the strongest ever measured by the aircrafts sensors over any storm. "We observed steady fields in excess of 8 kilovolts per meter. That is huge--comparable to the strongest fields we would expect to find over a large land-based 'mesoscale' thunderstorm." According to Blakeslee, the reason for the usual absence of lightning in hurricanes is understood. "Theyre missing vertical winds" "A hurricane's winds are mostly horizontal, not vertical. So the vertical churning that leads to lightning doesn't normally happen." But why did lightning occur in the recent hurricanes? "We still have a lot to learn about hurricanes," Blakeslee observes. Indeed. And we still have a lot to learn about lightning too. The distinguished expert on lightning, Dr. Martin Uman, has admitted that the separation of charges in a thunderstorm remains a mystery. So in truth, the absence of lightning in tornadoes and hurricanes is not understood. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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But the answer becomes both simple and undeniable once the electrical nature of the solar system is admitted. An electric solar system could hardly exclude an electric Earth. And once we see electrical phenomena on Earth in relation to the larger circuitry, our planet's atmosphere can be compared to the leaky dielectric in a "self-repairing capacitor": the charge is already waiting in the ionosphere to be unleashed in storms in the atmosphere. We have seen the electrical connection of thunderstorms to the ionosphere in the appearance of giant lightning bursts to space. These electrical displays have been named "red sprites" and "blue jets". From an electrical viewpoint, the vertical winds are not the cause of charge separation because charge separation already exists; the winds are driven by electrical discharge activity. But in a tornado or hurricane the discharge takes on a familiar circular motion, whereupon powerful electromagnetic forces constrain the discharge to what has been called a "charge sheath vortex." Here, the energy of the discharge goes into driving the vortex, imparting to it a devastating power, though visible arcing (lightning) May be minimal. But it seems that in the most powerful manifestations of the charge sheath vortex, charge separation in the wall of the vortex itself can manifest lightning. And if so, meteorologists would be well advised to expand their investigations of lightning, hurricanes, and tornadoes into the realm of plasma physics.
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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornel
"Festoons" Add to Martian Mysteries

(Jan 16, 2006)
Swirling and layered Martian "sediments" have inspired planetary scientists to see deposition from shallow water. But the electrical theorists point to a more powerful force active in the Martian past. The image above comes from the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, taken on January 2, 2006). NASA scientists describe this as the best example yet of the Meridiani Planum outcrop rocks on the margins of "Erebus Crater." The image shows well-preserved, fine-scale layering and what geologists call "cross-lamination." Of particular interest to planetary scientists are the nested "smile-shaped" patterns that sedimentary geologists call "festoons." These geometric patterns, they say, imply the presence of small, sinuous sand ripples that form only in water on Earth. According to a news release from the Jet Propulsion laboratory: "These features are the preserved remnants of tiny (centimeter-sized) underwater sand dunes formed long ago by waves in shallow water on the surface of Mars." This explanation requires liquid water flowing on the surface of a freezing desert planet. In other words, it requires a vastly different environment on Mars in the past. The explanation is also limited to observations of rocks on Earth that have been interpreted under the questionable geological framework of the uniformity principle: "Things happening today are the best indicators of things that happened in the past." Many decades ago this assumption hardened into dogma, and it has led to a litany of unresolved puzzles on Earth. In the space age it is a poor tool indeed for understanding what we find on Mars. The dilemma has a simple resolution: stop ignoring electrical events inscribed on Mars. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Electrical phenomena, both ancient and modern, range from observed global dust storms and electrical dust devils to the vast scars of electrical discharge in the past. For those familiar with electrical scarring phenomena, the most outstanding features on Mars Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris shriek of stupendous electrical arcs carving the surface of the planet. According to the electrical theorists, electrical events vastly more powerful than standard geological processes have shaped the solid planets and moons in the solar system. Atmospheres and surface material have been lifted from one body and fallen back or have been dumped on another. In the process, elements and compounds were modified and dust and melted spherules were formed, to rain down upon a planet. These deposits were then heated by surface electrical currents that changed sand into sandstone, recording the layered deposition and electrical erosion occurring at that time. Evidence for electrical exchanges between planetary bodies demands that we give up our cozy belief in a nearly eternal, clockwork solar system. The new data from space make clear that Mars was on a different orbit in the past, a consideration that greatly expands the possible explanations for the puzzling images sent to Earth by our Mars probes and surface rovers. Mars must have had a quite different atmosphere and climate in the past. So from this perspective, surface features that show "water action" on the frozen desert planet are not unexpected. Planetary scientists, however, have been unaware of a fact that could change our understanding of planetary surfaces and the surfaces of other rocky bodies in the solar system. Electrical discharge machining, electrical winds, electrostatic cleaning, and electrostatic implantation can do everything that water can do--and a good deal more. Electrified plasma can mimic the behavior of fluid dynamics, while adding energies many thousands of times more powerful than fluid erosion. The key to the "festoons" on Mars is evident in the pictures themselves. These curious patterns are surrounded by the now-famous "blueberries" occurring on the Martian surface by the trillions. Experiments have never produced counterparts to the Martian blueberries by depositing hematite from water. But laboratory experiments have produced precise counterparts with electrical arcs.
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Above: NGC 6302, the Bug Nebula, displaying the "z-pinch" so familiar to plasma cosmologists. The pinching of a plasma cloud into a narrow "neck" is just one of numerous indicators of high-energy electric currents. The star at the center of the pinch is hidden from view by a donut-like cloud or torus, another pattern typical of plasma discharge instabilities. Credit: A. Zijlstra (UMIST) et al., ESA, NASA
The Electric Universe--A Status Report

(Dec 30, 2005)
Ask a proponent of the "Electric Universe" or "Plasma Universe" about the state of astronomy today, and you will likely be greeted by exasperation. "How do you get specialists, who are so preoccupied with deductions from earlier assumptions, to step back far enough to see that their hypothesis fails at its root?" The progress of scientific discovery in the space age has followed a now-predictable pattern: New instruments detect new phenomena that surprise theoreticians, who say the discovery will require new thinking, but who propose mere rewordings of the same old thoughts. The only appropriate test of a theoretical model is predictive ability, and on this test the record of conventional science stands at near zero. Every milestone, every dramatic new finding, astonishes investigators To understand the confidence of the electrical theorists, you have to apply the same test. Did the great discoveries come as surprises? How many expectations of the electric model-expectations that undeniably separate the electric model from the standard view--have NOT been found? The cosmic electricians will tell you that the empirical tests have already been decided in favor of electricity-The presence of magnetic fields throughout space, the definitive signature of electric currents. Pervasive filamentation of space plasma, an observed attribute of electric currents in plasma but contrary to the expected behavior of neutral gases in a vacuum. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Laboratory experiments with and computer simulations of the electrical behavior of plasma that successfully replicate the elaborate structures now revealed in space. The continuing failure of the Big Bang model to justify its underlying assumption that redshift is invariably an indicator of distance; and in particular the standard exclusion of plasma discharge, a proven source of intrinsic redshift, ejection, element generation and separation, and large-scale organization of matter. Acceleration of charged particles away from the Sun, REQUIRING an electric field centered on the Sun. Electromagnetic forces evident in the principal features of the Sun--sunspots, granulation, prominences, coronal heat, flares, mass ejections and more. The astonishing discoveries about comets--jets, surface relief, absence of water, fine powder, x-rays--explained coherently by electric models even as conventional comet theory has fragmented into contradictory hypotheses and guesses. The dominant surface features on rocky planets and moons, which conform in detail with electrical discharge scarring but are anomalous for traditional geological processes. A cascade of new evidence, such as megalightning, establishing the electrical connection of the Earth to surrounding space and to the Sun. To make the advantage of the unified electric model as clear as possible, we shall begin the New Year with a series of overviews, with links to previous Pictures of the Day and pointers to new findings that will be covered in these pages during the coming year.
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Picture Credit: http://history.library.ucsf.edu/imagelib/ Chart: New scientist
Sunspots and Earthquakes

(Dec 21, 2005)
Civilization's interest in predicting the location and time of damaging earthquakes is obvious. The potential for devastation of property that otherwise could be secured, and the loss of life that otherwise could be prevented, are powerful reasons to find predictive factors. Some scientists have become aware of a correlation between sunspots and Earthquakes and want to use the sunspot data to help predict earthquakes. The theory is that an intensification of the magnetic field can cause changes in the geo-sphere. The NASA and the European Geosciences Union have already put their stamp of approval on the sunspot hypothesis, which suggests that changes in the sun-earth environment affects the magnetic field of the earth that can trigger earthquakes in areas prone to it. It is not clear how such a trigger might work. In the Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 3771, 2003, there is an excellent report that addresses the more down-to-earth problems facing geophysicists trying to understand earthquakes. The paper is titled, Rocks That Crackle and Sparkle and Glow: Strange Pre-Earthquake Phenomena, by Dr. Friedemann T. Freund, a professor in the Department of Physics, San Jose State University, and a senior researcher at NASA Ames Research Center. Dr. Freund writes: "Many strange phenomena precede large earthquakes. Some of them have been reported for centuries, even millennia. The list is long and diverse: bulging of the Earths surface, changing well water levels, ground-hugging fog, low frequency electromagnetic emission, earthquake lights from ridges and mountain tops, magnetic field anomalies up to 0.5% of the Earths dipole field, temperature anomalies by several degrees over wide areas as seen in satellite images, changes in the plasma density of the ionosphere, and strange animal behavior. Because it seems nearly impossible to imagine that such diverse phenomena could have a common physical cause, there is The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive great confusion and even greater controversy."
Freund outlines the basic problem: "Based on the reported laboratory results of electrical measurements, no mechanism seemed to exist that could account for the generation of those large currents in the Earths crust, which are needed to explain the strong EM signals and magnetic anomalies that have been documented before some earthquakes. Unfortunately, when a set of observations cannot be explained within the framework of existing knowledge, the tendency is not to believe the observation. Therefore, a general malaise has taken root in the geophysical community when it comes to the many reported non-seismic and non-geodesic pre-earthquake phenomena There seems to be no bona fide physical process by which electric currents of sufficient magnitude could be generated in crustal rocks." Freund makes an excellent attempt to explain all of the phenomena in terms of rock acting like a p-type semi-conducting material when placed under stress. For example, the emission of positive ions from the Earths surface May act as nuclei for the ground-hugging fog that sometimes occur prior to earthquake activity. And although the surface potential May only be in the 12-Volt range, the associated electric field can reach hundreds of thousands of Volts per centimeter, enough to cause corona discharges, or "earthquake lights." Thermal anomalies seen from space before an earthquake May be due to the emission of infra-red light where the semi-conductor charge recombines at the surface. Disturbed animal behavior May be due to the presence of positive ions in the air. As Freund says, this theory places an explanation in the realm of semiconductor physics, which means that geoscientists are not the best people to judge it. That explains why the paper appears in a speculative journal. Freund laments: "The peer review system often creates near-insurmountable hurdles against the publication of data that seem contrary to long-held beliefs." Freund has identified a source of charge in stressed rocks that was not believed possible. He says: "once fully told and understood, the 'story' [of p-holes] is basically so simple that many mainstream geoscientists are left to wonder why it has taken so long for them to be discovered. If they are so ubiquitous as they appear to be, why did p-holes go unnoticed for over a hundred years? Confronted with this question, by a twist of logic, many 'mainstreamers' succumb to the impulse to reject the p-hole concept out of hand. "The difficulties encountered in the connection with p-holes are similar to others that have punctuated the history of science. The discovery of the p-holes as dormant yet powerful charge carriers in the Earths crust calls for a new paradigm in earthquake research and beyond. More often than not, any call for a new paradigm elicits opposition. Therefore, I close with a quote from the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, who ventured to say: 'all truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident'." If Freund has a problem getting such a simple idea accepted, how much more difficult is it going to be to get both astronomers and geoscientists to accept that the Earth is a charged body in an Electric Universe? The missing link between the sunspots and earthquakes is the fact that the electric The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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discharges on the Sun that cause sunspots also affect the Earth's ionosphere. The ionosphere forms one "plate" of a capacitor, while the Earth forms the other. Changes of voltage on one plate will induce movement of charge on the other. But unlike a capacitor, the Earth has charge distributed beneath the surface. And if the subsurface rock has become semi-conducting because of stress, there is an opportunity for sudden electrical breakdown to occur through that rock. The mystery of how the current is generated is solved and the link with sunspots exposed. Subsurface lightning causes earthquakes! Seismic waves are the equivalent of the rumble of thunder. The energy released May be equivalent to the detonation of many atomic bombs but only a small proportion needs to come from the release of strain in the rocks. Most of it comes from the Earth's stored internal electrical energy. The latest issue of the IEEE journal, SPECTRUM, features an article based on Freund's work that looks at ways of predicting earthquakes. Once again, it seems that scientific advances fare better today in the hands of electrical engineers. See http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/dec05/2367.
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Credit: NASA
Getting to Know Pluto

(Dec 15, 2005)
The mission to explore Pluto will take measurements of some of the most distant bodies in the solar system. But to know what theyre measuring, scientists will have to overcome the disabilities of preconceptions, traditions and institutions. The New Horizon mission to explore Pluto is preparing for launch next month. The planned orbit of the instrument package is depicted above. A report in the December 8, 2005, NewScientist.com news service explains what mission scientists expect to find. Chief scientist S. Alan Stern says: "I can tell you everything we know for sure about Pluto on about three 3-by-5 file cards." One might expect the file cards to contain the measurements that have been taken of Pluto-its diameter, temperature, period, distance, etc. The report should have heeded the admonition posted in a local medical lab: "Its easier to take measurements than to know what youre measuring." Instead of confining itself to what could be written on file cards, the report launches into conjectures and inferences from the nebular hypothesis of planet origin. Writings on that hypothesis fill libraries of books and journals. The possibility of discovering new knowledge-of getting to know what the new measurements of Pluto might mean--is buried under stacks of preconceptions, traditions and institutions. Since its proposal at the end of the 18th Century, the nebular hypothesis has not fared well in the face of contradictory observations and counterfactual logic. The hypothesis died early in The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the 20th Century, but the good old boys who control the publicity and the funding propped up the cadaver, and the constant jiggling has given it a pretense of life. But the constant patching and adjustment still fails to predict the next findings. The hypothesis provides the ersatz knowledge that Pluto and the other Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) beyond Neptune contain "pristine ice," "leftover building blocks" from the formation of the solar system, material that "stuck together" 4.5 billion years ago. Because computer simulations indicate that an Earth-sized body should have formed, "something ... shut off the supply." Simulations "do a reasonably good job of producing families of planets," but the early stages are inferential. Because they "know" that KBOs have preserved the early conditions, mission scientists expect that the new measurements will refine those inferences. The size distribution of KBOs, for example, will be determined from counting "impact craters" on Pluto. The Electric Universe expects mission scientists to be surprised. The conclusions derived from a theory are only as good as the assumptions that go into it, and computers will simulate any garbage that theyre fed. The nebular hypothesis is utterly devoid of the knowledge of plasma and its electrical properties. Its a hypothesis that became dominant before scientists realized that 99 percent of the universe is plasma. The conclusions derived from the hypothesis are necessarily devoid of any connection with reality.
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Plot of wind speed and direction from Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) instrument on the Huygens probe (lower curves) and from Earth-based Doppler Wind Experiment (upper curves). Credit: ESA
Titan's Winds
(Dec 08, 2005)
Titans "super-rotating" wind indicates a youthful body. In the Electric Universe, Saturns moon Titan and the planet Venus likely have shared a common birth in an astronomically recent ejection event. Both have "young" surface features, such as filamentary channels and the absence of large craters, and their atmospheres share a number of common attributes. In standard theory, which postulates that all planets and moons formed from a nebular cloud of gas and dust billions of years ago, these commonalities can only be coincidental. But a theory of planet and moon formation that recognizes the electrical behavior of plasma discharges expects episodic accumulation, ejection, and sculpting of smaller satellite bodies from larger ones. One common attribute of their atmospheres is "super-rotation" at a high altitude that slows to sluggish circulation near the surface. The wind at Venuss cloud-tops circle the planet in 4 days; Venus rotates in the opposite direction once every 243 days. On Earth, winds are assumed to be generated by rotational displacements of convection currents between the equator and the poles. But Venus has an almost uniform heat distribution that is not likely to generate convection--and, besides, the surface is moving the wrong way. As the diagram above shows, measurements taken by instruments aboard the Huygens descent probe dropped from the Cassini craft found a wind speed of 30 meters per second at 60 kilometers above the surface. At that rate, the wind would circle the moon in about 6 days. Titan rotates in just under 16 days. While Titans upper winds travel in the same direction as the moon, slow winds under 7 kilometers altitude travel in the opposite direction. (The left line in the diagram correlates with wind speed on the top scale; the right line correlates with wind The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive direction on the bottom scale.)
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Although mission scientists expected to find an ionospheric layer between 70 and 90 kilometers altitude, the Huygens probe discovered a second one at 60 kilometers. In addition, temperature measurements indicated that the atmosphere was composed of many layers. The probe appears also to have detected "possible lightning activity." An ionospheric layer is, of course, a plasma double layer. With Titan orbiting inside Saturns extensive plasmasphere, the electrical environment will dominate the atmospheric properties. That means the temperature, density and wind speed would all be affected. In particular, the high-level wind will be driven by the "Faraday motor" effect of the electric currents impinging on Titan. This is the same effect that we see on Titan's big sister, Venus. The occurrence of lightning on both bodies is expected as "leakage currents" from the Faraday motor effect. Needless to say, standard theory is at a loss to explain it: The only mechanism postulated for lightning is friction among raindrops tossed about in convection flows. But neither Venus nor Titan has significant water and certainly not liquid water. Their atmospheres are better characterized as composed of smog. And as far as standard theory is concerned, you cant get lightning in smog. A super-rotating atmosphere of smog driven by electrical currents that leak "sparks" is indicative of a recently formed body that has not yet reached equilibrium. On this basis, the Electric Universe posits that both Venus and Titan are young.
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Credit: Rens van der Sluijs
The Worship of Lightning

(Dec 06, 2005)
Examples of the kong, the Japanese name of the objects, represent the ancient thunderbolt of the gods. In the old religion of Vedic India, the vajr was the powerful thunderbolt wielded by the storm god Indra in his momentous combat with the dragon Vritra. Such myths, of course, were rife in the ancient world, but what is striking is that Buddhist cultures still worship the lightning today on a massive scale, with entire sects and branches of theory devoted to its study. The above are modern examples of the kong, the Japanese name of the object, as the central object of veneration in temples in modern-day Kyt and Kagawa, both in Japan. Ancient mythological traditions are full of sacred weapons employed in the battles of the gods with demons and dragons. Like Indra, Zeus resorted to his famous kerauns to defeat Typhon and the Biblical Yahweh subjected Leviathan or Yamm with a similar device. But what is it about the vajr and its counterparts in other cultures that guaranteed its persistence as a powerful theme even into the modern era? No doubt the crucial factor here is the cosmogonic role of the weapon: more than the relatively modest lightning experienced today, the mythological thunderbolt possessed cosmic dimensions and played an essential part in the creation of the world. In ancient parlance, to subdue the dragon was to lay the foundations for the formation of the earth. The peculiar form of the vajr, which is quite unlike the usual type of lightning, is fully explicable as a manifestation of the visible world axis during one of its most complex phases. As the Indologist, Govinda, has explained, the little sphere in the centre represented the seed or germ from which the universe was thought to have arisen and the two lotus blossoms at the opposite ends symbolised the poles of the universe connected by the central axis mundi. Lightning is one of the primary manifestations of plasma in the ionosphere and the atmosphere of the earth. It is intriguing, therefore, that the complex morphology displayed in the vajr and other ancient forms of the thunderbolt is matched by laboratory experiments involving a high-energy z-pinch plasma discharge. This striking convergence poses the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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question if ancient societies could have correctly remembered some of the most complex stages of a real display of plasma in the sky: an enhanced aurora such as the one recently proposed by plasma physicist Anthony Peratt could well have produced just such a display. Contributed by Rens van der Sluijs
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Credit: NASA/JPL/Arizona State University
"No Discernable Debris"

(Dec 05, 2005)
Many features on rocky bodies in the solar system appear to be the result of erosion. But often the eroded material cant be found. The electrical behavior of plasma suggests a new place to look: in space. The dark yellow streaks radiating into the blue valley floor in the image above are thought to be slides of dust or perhaps sand. The red and yellow slope down which they have slid is a rocky hump at the juncture of 4-kilometer-deep channels in the Noctis Labyrinthus region on Mars. (In this infrared image, dust-covered areas have cooled and are colored blue; bare rock has retained more daytime heat and is colored red.) The caption to the image remarks about the slides, "And where they came to rest, they left no discernable debris." That remark and others like it are repeated frequently in descriptions of planetary features. Channels and pits in the "volcanic" region to the west of Noctis Labyrinthus are described as collapsed lava tubes, but again there is no discernable debris on their floors from the speculative fallen roof. To the east of Noctis Labyrinthus is the immense canyon system of Valles Marineris. If water eroded the thousands of cubic kilometers that are missing, it left no discernable debris downstream. Farther west, a third of the way around the planet, the Arabia Terra region has been heavily eroded. But according to one press release: "The causes of the erosion--and where all the material went when it was removed--are not known." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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At a still larger scale, almost the entire northern hemisphere of Mars--except for the north polar ice cap--is several kilometers lower than the southern hemisphere. There was nowhere for that debris to go. Mars is not the only planet with features that have no discernable debris. The channels on Venus, thought to be formed by flowing lava, not only have no outflows but also rise and fall over several kilometers in their length. Their floors have no discernable debris from fallen roofs or from uplifted terrain. The Moon was the first body discovered to have no discernable debris in the rilles that were attributed to the collapse of lava tubes. Later speculations that the rilles were cracks also left the absence of debris unexplained. The saga of "no discernable debris" finally comes home to Earth. Before the dearth of debris was noted in Valles Marineris, geologists had evaded the question with respect to the Grand Canyon. Prior to the Canyons formation, the region drained to the northeast. After the region was uplifted, a lake and sediments formed across what is now the Canyons mouth. The Colorado River cuts through those sediments. The time for the river to erode the Canyon is short, and there is no identifiable source for the river. One geologist declared that the Colorado could have cut the Grand Canyon only if the river came from the sky. The large volume of debris that was removed from the Canyon is nowhere to be found downstream. Geologists assume it must have washed far out into the Pacific Ocean but only because they cant imagine anywhere else it could have gone. But despair and failure of imagination dont justify a theory. The Grand Canyon is a miniature of Valles Marineris in more ways. To the east of the Canyon lie the Canyonlands--an eroded region of channels and mesas not unlike Noctis Labyrinthus to the west of Valles Marineris. The erosion in the Canyonlands only adds to the volume of missing debris from the Grand Canyon--and to the mystery of where it went. And to the north, "the Great Denudation" eroded thousands of feet of rock from the eastern half of Utah. Missing material from half of Utah, the Canyonlands, and the Grand Canyon adds up to a lot of erosion--but there is no discernable debris. Missing debris is so common that we often dont notice that its missing. Especially at larger scales, where there is no place for the missing material to have gone, we simply assume there was never anything there. We ignore contrary evidence or fail to look for it. The Electric Universe suggests a new mechanism for erosion--electrical discharge machining (EDM)--and a place for the debris--in space. It justifies another look at features that mysteriously have no discernable debris. It suggests that features previously considered to be non-erosional be re-examined from a different perspective. In view of the wide scale over which EDM May have operated on other planets, two intriguing features on Earth that warrant re-examination are the African rift valley and the Atlantic Ocean bed.
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Credit: NASA/JPL/Spaces Science Institute
Saturn's Comet
(Dec 02, 2005)
The new-found jets on Saturns moon Enceladus are indistinguishable from the jets on comets. Like cometary jets, they are electrical in origin and indicative of electrical activity throughout the Saturnian system. On its recent close pass above the surface of Saturns moon Enceladus, the Cassini spacecraft encountered an increased density of icy particles and water vapor. The event was reminiscent of Stardusts passage around the nucleus of Comet Wild 2, when much larger particles pelted the spacecraft. As Cassini was leaving Enceladus, its cameras looked back to get a better view of the ice dust and vapor it had encountered. The image above is what it saw: jets, collimated jets, collimated jets like those seen on Comets Wild 2 & Hale-Bopp. A cloud of gas in the vacuum of space will expand. If the components of the cloud have a common velocity, the expansion will produce a cone of material with decreasing density. To produce a collimated beam of gas, some mechanism is required to impart a common velocity to the molecules that is very large compared to the expansion velocity. Such a mechanism is the finely machined nozzle in a rocket engine. Incredibly, if not absurdly, astrophysicists have proposed just such fine machining in the cavities that are presumed to generate jets on comets. But even rocket exhaust expands faster than the jets of comets--and now the jets of Enceladus. If astrophysicists didnt have a taboo against uttering the "e" word--"e" for "electrical"--they The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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would have a natural explanation for jets that didnt call for the intelligent design of comets and small moons: Birkeland currents. Plasma physicists will immediately recognize the jets of Enceladus as cathode jets. Such jets mark the current channels that impinge on Enceladuss polar region. Those currents are electrically eroding the "tiger stripe" channels on the moon and simultaneously heating them. (As in the case of Ios "hot spots," temperature measurements are averaged over the area covered by a pixel. Because the currents "pinch down" where they touch the surface, the actual "hot spot" is apt to be much smaller than a pixel and therefore much hotter than the measurement indicates.) Of course, a persistent current must be part of a larger circuit. The jets and tiger stripes that Cassini has viewed must connect with other electrical elements in Saturns extensive plasmasphere. If mission scientists had taken the "e" word more seriously, they might have included instruments and plans that could map that larger circuit. (Its regrettable that taxpayers arent more insistent that scientists actually follow scientific methods.) The Electrical Universe expects that the larger circuit will be similar to the circuit that produces jets on comets. The Saturnian system is not unlike stellar systems, and Saturn May be considered a cool star. (If ancient testimony is examined, our pre-historical ancestors saw it shining as a "sun of night.") Enceladus would then be a comet in that system--a Saturnian comet.
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Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Mesas with Moats

(Nov 29, 2005)
Most solid bodies in the solar system are pock marked with circular features that are heedlessly assumed to be "impact craters." A more careful examination indicates that many of them are likely the result of electrical discharge activity. In the Electric Universe most craters on celestial bodies are scars left by electrical discharges. Two or more filaments in a Birkeland current remove material from a surface as they rotate around the currents axis. This action leaves a circular depression with steep walls. As the current varies, the depth of excavation will vary, often producing terraces along the walls. Inflowing currents feeding the discharge will excavate channels, or rilles, in the surrounding surface. Electrical forces will pull debris toward the discharge. Where the electric field strength drops off rapidly at the periphery of the discharge, some debris will be left in a "pinched up" rim. Explosive effects will confuse this pinching-up morphology with ballistic ejection morphology. (Under certain circumstances, yet to be empirically determined, no debris is left, producing a rimless crater in an apparently otherwise undisturbed surface.) If the rotating filaments dont quite touch at the axis, they will leave a spire of relatively undisturbed material in the center of the crater--a "central peak." If the filaments are more widely separated, especially where the surface is flat, they will leave a central mesa. In the case of widespread surrounding electrical activity that erodes the entire region, the outer walls May be removed, leaving a mesa surrounded by a shallow moat. Its circular form will attest to its electrical origin. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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These circular mesas with moats are especially prominent in the highly eroded Arabia Terra region on Mars. Near the center of the linked image, several overlapping mesas with moats have cut into a larger mesa, producing a horseshoe shape. In the lower part of the image, there are several mesas with moats in the lower-elevation eroded terrain. But also there are several in the higher uneroded strata. The conventional explanation that attributes the erosion to water or wind would have the erosive agent jump from low ground to high and back, after removing a ring of material. While not a believable action for water or wind, it is a usual, even expected, action for electrical discharge. In the Electric Universe, the same electrical agent acts on all bodies. So mesas with moats should be found on other bodies besides Mars. The moons of Saturn provide several notable examples. The Odysseus crater on Tethys displays the form. (Another indication of the electrical generation of Odysseus is that the floor of the crater follows the curvature of the moons surface. The crater is not a hole that was blasted into the moon but a uniform layer of material that was lifted from the surface--in the shape of a ring.) Saturns much smaller moon Iapetus also displays mesas with moats. In the image above, the two largest circular features in the dark region, although distorted by smaller craters, have central areas that appear to match the surface outside the features. A smaller crater on the terminator at the top of the image and another at the boundary of the dark region at the bottom of the image have central "peaks" that are considerably flattened. They are not mounds of rubble that rebounded from an impact but are circles of original surface untouched by a ring of electrical discharge machining.
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More Strange Lava Tubes of Mars

(Nov 28, 2005)
If the channels on the slopes of Mars "volcanoes" arent collapsed lava tubes, the "volcanoes" must not be volcanoes. As the channels look more like plasma discharge scars, the "volcanoes" look more like fulgamites--blisters raised on a surface by lightning strikes. Previously, we took a skeptical look at the lava tube theory of the channels around Ascraeus Mons. The channels were too wide for rock to span. There was too little debris on the floors for collapsed roofs. There were no apparent outflows. The ends of the channels and the pits were too circular for the random process of collapse. There were no "caves" or even depressions at the ends to indicate continuity of a tube. The pits were spaced too regularly for random collapse. The sides of the channels were too parallel for flowing liquid. And the merging of channels didnt result in wider channels as would be necessary for merging lava flows. Our skeptical look prompted a skeptical suspicion: If the channels and pits werent lava tubes, perhaps Ascraeus Mons wasnt a volcano. Ascraeus Mons is the northernmost mountain of the three large mountains on the Tharsis bulge immediately west of Valles Marineris. It rises about 10 miles above the surrounding plain. The middle mountain, Pavonis Mons, is somewhat lower, rising about 6 miles above the plain. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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It, too, has channels and pits on its flanks. And its channels and pits also reward a skeptical look with the same critical divergences from what would be expected of lava tubes. And then it adds another divergence: a "dogleg" channel (image above). The summit of the mountain is just outside the top of the image. If we disregard issues of width, debris and circularity, the radial channel might have been the result of lava running down the mountain. But the "dogleg" channels joining from the right at exact 90-degree angles would have been the result of lava running around the mountain. Where the channels join, the downhill corner is not eroded significantly more than the uphill corner. The bottom "dogleg" has a slight downward turn as it joins the radial channel, but the next "dogleg" up turns the other way. And the channel below the junctions doesnt get bigger. Perhaps the channels were formed by two different types of lava: normal lava, which obeys the laws of gravity and addition of volumes, and "dark lava," which doesnt. Furthermore, the wall of the radial channel exactly opposite the second-from-top "dogleg" channel has a halfcircle "bite" taken out of it. The "dark lava" tube apparently crossed the normal lava tube without being affected by the cross flow. Or perhaps the channels werent formed by lava at all. The characteristics that are so difficult to reconcile with lava are the common characteristics of plasma discharges: constant width and depth, circularity, intermittent action, chains of regularly spaced pits, merging and diverging without changing width...and 90-degree junctures. A primary discharge channel May have coronal streamers surrounding it--short filaments extending at right angles from the sides. The secondary streamers May develop coronal streamers of their own, resulting in a grid-like or web-like pattern. A strong vertical discharge May raise a blister or "fulgamite" on the surface, and the secondary discharges will scavenge electrons from the surrounding region. They May leave a pattern of radial and concentric channels or pits. This pattern is especially pronounced in a dense atmosphere, and we see it in the "arachnoid" scars on Venus. In the thin atmosphere of Mars, we would expect fewer and less continuous channels--and this is what we see in this "dogleg" discharge scar on the side of the giant fulgamite, Pavonis Mons.
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Bearing the Unbearable

(Nov 25, 2005)
The myth of a giant supporting the sky appears in many cultures around the world. It is extensively connected with the theme of the polar column. Two possible naturalistic explanations involve enhanced plasma activity in the vicinity of the ancient Earth. Familiar though the Greek myth of Atlas May be, one looks in vain for an obvious prototype in the natural world. In itself it appears reasonable enough that some natural phenomenon inspired the image of a sky-scraping giant holding up the firmament on his arms, but it seems hardly possible that mountain chains such as the Atlas mountains on the Moroccan coast have inspired the theme. The mystery is compounded by the profusion of similar sky-bearing characters in other mythologies. The one shown on the left, above, is an anonymous Anatolian example from Zincirli, on display in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin; on the right one sees the Egyptian god Shu, whom the Pyramid Texts, followed by the Coffin Texts, praise as the one "whose arms which are under the sky are upraised." Further afield, one encounters the Chinese giant Pan Gu, the Vedic first man Purusha or Indra, the Polynesian Tne and Maui, and the Aztec culture hero Quetzalcoatl, all of whom are portrayed as anthropomorph gods of tall stature that hold the sky aloft. The recurrence of the theme cries out for an explanation other than an obsolete Freudian phallus symbol or an exaggerated impression of some local landscape feature. The key to the mystery is that the cosmic giant is a symbolic variation on the theme of the world axis. Deities like Atlas and his congeners fluctuated between humanoid and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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mountainous shapes, were repeatedly associated with some "navel" or "centre" of the world, featured in the cosmogonic story of the separation of heaven and earth, and were often endowed with a luminous quality, appearing as a lofty, blazing column identified as the first light in the created world. The convergence of such motifs, which can be demonstrated in excessive detail, forcefully suggests that the heaven-carrying man requires the same explanation as the symbolism of the world axis in general, including universal trees, skyreaching mountains, and ropes linking the extremities of the cosmos. The plasma model offers an elegant explanation for the bewildering variety of such myths: an exceptionally intense, sustained auroral pillar observed during a prolonged geomagnetic storm such as modelled now for the Neolithic-Bronze Age boundary could account for a large number of features ascribed to "axis symbols." Alternatively, at some point in time an enhanced zodiacal light such as produced in the aftermath of cometary disintegration could equally have informed the theme of a humongous man standing at the boundary of the earth. Contributed by Rens van der Sluijs
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Credit: Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech
Melted Moons
(Nov 24, 2005)
Spacecraft have discovered fine dust on several bodies. Recent images from the Saturn system show softening of features on several small moons that May also be due to dust. While an electrical explanation for this is at hand, there is also another intriguing electrical possibility. The Cassini mission to Saturn has recently acquired close-up images of several small moons. Telesto, Calypso and Pandora, shown above, display surface features that have been rounded and smoothed. In contrast, Hyperion and Enceladus, for example, have surface features that appear fresh and are sharply delineated. Mission scientists speculate that the three moons shown above May be covered with a loose material, perhaps a dust of fine ice crystals. This is a reasonable speculation in view of the discovery that nearby Enceladus is venting water vapor and powdery ice particles from its south polar region. Enceladus May be supplying particles to the E ring, in which it orbits, and escaping particles May have settled on Telesto and Calypso. Pandora, just outside the F ring, May have picked up its coating in a similar way. The Electric Universe takes into account that all these bodies--moons, rings and ice particles-move inside Saturns extensive plasma sheath. They are all therefore charged and subject to the electrical behavior of plasma. The fine icy dust that makes up the rings May have been etched--by an electrical discharge machining (EDM) process--from the sharp-featured moons. The same mechanism, with reversed polarity, will deposit the particles on a surface in thin layers. It is a process used in electrostatic spray painting of automobiles. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"Fineness" is an important indicator of electrical activity. Under low-energy conditions-discharges in the "dark" mode, which dont have enough energy to emit visible light, or discharges in the "glow" mode, which only emit light feebly--electrical forces will tear only small particles from a surface in a process called "sputtering." The same mechanism, with reversed polarity, will deposit the particles on a surface in thin layers. Whether the surface is composed of ice or rock makes little difference. The icy dust being removed from Enceladuss "hot" south polar region is matched with the sodium and sulfur particles being removed from Jupiters "hot" satellite, Io. And the fine dust that May cover Telesto, Calypso and Pandora is matched with the fine dust on Mars moons, Phobos and Deimos, and that thrown up on Comet Tempel 1 by Deep Impact. In the Electric Universe, a galactic circuit powers this low-energy electrical activity in the Solar System. And there is evidence that the circuit has experienced surges that drive the activity into higher-energy arc (or thunderbolt) modes. "Sputtering" then would involve not fine dust measured in microns but boulders measured in miles, even asteroid-sized bodies. "Normal" conditions that we see today would be responsible for the existence of dust on and around Pandora and Enceladus; "catastrophic" conditions would be responsible for the existence of Pandora and Enceladus. But in the electric Universe, there is another possibility. The "Electrical Parturition" model of satellite formation hypothesizes that solid bodies May be electrically ejected from gas giants. This would occur episodically: moons would be produced one or a few at a time. After each episode of parturition, the new and existing moons would experience electrical discharges among themselves as they adjusted their orbits into a "least interaction" arrangement. Especially smaller bodies could be engulfed by a discharge channel, which, at a planetary scale, would persist for days. The small body would be subjected to a "plasma oven" effect that would produce a uniform melted layer over the surface. The process would be similar to that hypothesized for the generation of the glassy-surfaced chondrules in chondritic meteorites. Telesto, Calypso and Pandora May not have had their craters and rilles softened by a layer of dust. Their craters and rilles May have been literally softened by melting. Radar measurements should be able to distinguish between the two.
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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA/ESA/STScI
Mountains of Creation Create a Comet

(Nov 22, 2005)
Popular theories dominated by metaphors of weather and weathering fail to apprehend actual conditions. An awareness of plasma behavior makes possible a more realistic view. The popular theories of star formation see in this image "thick and turbulent clouds of gas and dust" that are "being sculpted into pillars by radiation and winds from hot, massive stars." "Radiation and winds from the massive stars subsequently blast the cloudy material outward, so that only the densest pillar-shaped clumps of material remain. The process is akin to the formation of desert mesas, which are made up of dense rock that resisted water and wind erosion... [T]he pillars eventually become dense enough to spur the birth of a second generation of stars." The unreliable confidence that arises from having only one model with which to interpret meager data leads to this kind of sloppy use of language. The "thick" clouds are less dense than any vacuum that can be produced on Earth. They are almost certainly not "gas and dust," which are subject primarily to forces of gravity and collisions. They are plasma, which is subject primarily to forces of electromagnetism. No doubt there are dust particles and gas molecules present: The important distinction is in how we think about them--whether as metaphorical desert rocks that are eroded by fluid agents or as cosmic currents that are shaped by electrical discharge. And as plasma, the clouds are almost certainly not "turbulent." Hannes Alfven, the Nobel Laureate father of plasma cosmology, warned astrophysicists: "The sloppy use of the term turbulent has caused, and is causing, much confusion... [T]here is no certain indication than anywhere in space there is very much (large scale) The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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turbulence in the proper sense of the word... [R]eal turbulence produces mixing... On the contrary, [in space plasmas] a separation of elements often takes place." -- Alfven, Cosmic Plasma, 1981, pp. 42-3. Emphasis in original. As plasma, the pillars are examples of this separation. The denser dusty plasma inside the pillars is being separated from the transparent plasma outside by double layers. The cosmic currents flowing around and through the dusty plasma show up as filaments inside the pillars. (If the dense head of the pillar were merely shielding "gas and dust" from a wind, structure within the pillar would not be expected.) Many of these filaments exhibit the knots and helical braiding often observed in such cosmic currents. And many of the stars in the heads of the pillars occur in lines: The stars are "pinches" in the filaments where recurrent instabilities squeeze matter into dense balls that are the focuses of arc discharges. They have formed, not gradually over millions of years in response to the gentle sweepings of nebulous winds, but in an astronomical instant in response to thunderbolts. The currents in the dusty plasma are coupled to other currents in the transparent plasma outside. The transparent plasma is part of the plasma sheath around the large star just outside the image. (The pillars point toward it.) The electrical circuit is similar to that of comets in the Suns heliosheath. The clusters of stars inside the heads of the pillars are comparable to the nucleus of a comet. Instead of the metaphor of desert mesas, a more appropriate metaphor would be that of interstellar comets.
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Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
What Eroded Arabia Terra? (3)

(Nov 21, 2005)
Conventional geological explanations for erosion are stumped by the massive erosion in Arabia Terra. But one process that has been overlooked has all the necessary characteristics. Arabia Terra on Mars is a heavily cratered area that also has been heavily eroded. It stretches over some 4500 kilometers (around 3000 miles) and is 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) higher in the east and south than in the west and north. This image from the Mars Orbiter Camera shows mesas that the erosional forces carved out at several elevations. Again, many of the mesas appear to be surrounded by "moats" with radial ridges across them, by now an expected feature of electrical discharge machining (EDM) around the mesa. The mesa in the middle of the image has several concentric "moat rims" around it with radial ridges that cross several "rims." The tops of the larger mesas are rough. The largest mesa in the upper third of the image has a top surface that resembles the lower eroded elevations. It even displays the rounded ends of a couple of EDM channels, the rest of which have themselves been eroded away. The several levels of eroded "background" are covered with shallow vestiges of the parallelsided circular-ended channels carved by EDM. Many of the channels show the "pinched up" edges that could indicate rubble fused between neighboring discharge channels. At the bottom of the image are large areas that have been eroded flat. These "cells" of erosion have pinched up edges reminiscent of the razorback ridges around the mesas. Perhaps this indicates the presence of cells of plasma at the surface: The flat areas May be The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive melted.
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(Nov 18, 2005)
Conventional geological explanations for erosion are stumped by the massive erosion in Arabia Terra. But one process that has been overlooked has all the necessary characteristics. Arabia Terra on Mars is a heavily cratered area that also has been heavily eroded. It stretches over some 4500 kilometers (around 3000 miles) and is 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) higher in the east and south than in the west and north. This image from the Mars Orbiter Camera shows several mesas carved out--and into--by the erosional forces. The horseshoe-shaped mesa near the middle of the image has on its top some of the rectangular "cracking" discussed in Part 1. Extensive "dikes" or razorback ridges, also discussed in Part 1, surround it. The razorbacks in Part 1 were in (or on) the slopes at the side of the mesa, but these razorbacks occur far from the slopes. And they are radial to the mesa. In fact, the north (up) and east sides of the mesa appear to be surrounded by a "moat"--not unexpected if electrical discharge machining (EDM) ate away at the edges of the mesa. The evenly spaced razorbacks extend over the far edge of the moat, something difficult to explain with wind or water but expected from the coronal filaments that would accompany--and be perpendicular to--a discharge. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Significantly, the center of the horseshoe also is marked with moats. They are almost perfectly circular, and they have left small mesas in their centers, as if a bagel had stamped them out. This kind of erosion would be quite remarkable for wind or water, but circularity is an almost necessary aspect of electrical activity. To the south of the horseshoe mesa are many examples of "bagel erosion." The little mesas with moats extend right up to the top of the bottom mesa, a feat easily accomplished if the erosional force came from above but absurd if surface water or wind had to jump up, spin around, and jump back down. Again, the eroded landscape between the mesas is covered with shallow vestiges of the parallel-sided circular-ended channels carved by EDM. Many of the channels show the "pinched up" edges that could indicate rubble fused between neighboring discharge channels.
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(Nov 17, 2005)
Conventional geological explanations for erosion are stumped by the massive erosion in Arabia Terra. But one process that has been overlooked has all the necessary characteristics. Arabia Terra on Mars is a heavily cratered area that also has been heavily eroded. It stretches over some 4500 kilometers (around 3000 miles) and is 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) higher in the east and south than in the west and north. This image from the Mars Orbiter Camera shows a small mesa and parts of two larger mesas that the erosional forces carved out. The caption states "the causes of the erosion--and where all the material went when it was removed--are not known." The Electric Universe concludes that "where all the material went"--at least much of it--was "into space." This conclusion follows from the evidence that the cause of the erosion was electrical discharge machining (EDM) from space. The eroded landscape between the mesas is covered with shallow vestiges of the parallelsided circular-ended channels carved by EDM. A web of "cracks" marks the tops of the mesas into roughly rectangular blocks. These "cracks" were likely carved by secondary "coronal" discharges, which electromagnetic forces would tend to confine to channels running at rightangles to each other. In several places, the channels run over the edge of the mesa and down the sides. Because were familiar with talus slopes, where rubble builds up at the foot of a cliff, the slopes at the sides of the mesas May be disregarded simply as talus slopes. But another possibility arises in view of the EDM hypothesis: The slopes May be fused, melted by the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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electrical discharges that eroded Arabia Terra. Might this also explain the regularly spaced razorback "dikes" along some of the bottom edges of the mesas? Material pinched up between parallel and equally spaced discharge channels could be fused in place. (A similar explanation accounts for the "ripples" often seen in valley floors everywhere on Mars.) In this regard, an interesting characteristic seen at the edges of the lower mesa is that the south (downward) ends of many of the razorbacks are bifurcated. On the south side of the mesa, the lower ends of the razorbacks are split; on the north side of the mesa, the higher ends are split. This makes no sense in a gravitational field, but it could be explained by the direction of a regional electric field.
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Credit: Copyright 2005 Blaise Fraser, used with permission
Electric Currents Big and Small (Nov 15, 2005)

The novelty plasma ball demonstrates many of the properties of plasma that can be seen in the Sun, in nebulae, and in galaxies. Blaise Frazier's beautiful photo of the spherical electrode in the centre of a plasma ball shows a blue filamentary streamer as it wavers during the 8-second exposure. Thousands of volts of electricity ionize the gas in the globe, ripping electrons from molecules and atoms. As electrons recombine with the ions, the gas gives off light. The colors depend on the kind of gas filling the globe. The plasma ball illustrates some of the fundamental characteristics of plasma. The blue streamer looks flat, but that is an illusion of the photography. In reality, the filament is as thin as the light blue edges. It flickers between the two sides and extends from the electrode in a thin tube to the outer glass sphere of the ball. Sometimes called a plasma cable, or plasma rope, the filament is the result of electrons and ions flowing through the plasma (i.e., an electric current). The current generates a magnetic field that surrounds the filament like hoops around a beer barrel. The magnetic field pinches the current and keeps it collimated (or wire-like). When we take off a nylon sweater in a dark room and we see tiny sparks fly, we are seeing similar but smaller filamentary discharges. We see larger filamentary discharges as lightning in storms. The flares we see erupting from our Sun are even larger filaments. Because of the greater distances involved and the different magnetic fields and particle densities, flares appear to move in slow motion. And finally, filaments the size of solar systems make up nebulae. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Although non-neutral plasmas can be created in the laboratory, space plasmas generally contain equal numbers of negatively charged electrons and positively charged ions. They are considered to be electrically neutral. And since plasmas are also as electrically conductive as a lightning rod, this suggests that if a charge build-up should occur, then it would be neutralised quickly. But this view, like that of the "flat" filament in the plasma ball, is an illusion. In 1831, Michael Faraday invented the homopolar motor/generator (also called a Faraday disk). It consists of a conducting disk in an axial magnetic field. The disk May be rotated in the magnetic field to generate an electric current between its axis and its edge. Or electric current May be passed from axis to edge to cause the disk to rotate in the magnetic field. In that way, the conducting atmosphere of the Sun is caused to rotate faster at the equator than at higher latitudes, when we should expect the expulsion of the solar wind to slow it. Hannes Alfvn described the circuit for this Faraday motor many decades ago, but he didnt consider its link with a greater galactic circuit. The current "disk" of the Sun is the heliospheric current sheet that flows between the Sun and the outer reaches of our solar system (see image Thunderbolts, Oct 31, 2005). And the axial circuit consists of Birkeland currents flowing along the "open" polar magnetic field lines. Similarly, the galactic disk is the disk of a Faraday motor, caused to rotate by Birkeland currents flowing along the axis and out along the spiral arms. Stars in the spiral arms receive their power from those galactic currents. Galaxies, in turn, are threaded like "Catherine wheels" on intergalactic Birkeland currents. The cosmic circuitry of Birkeland currents can be traced by their magnetic fields. So, far from being electrically sterile, cosmic plasma is awash with electric current filaments. And just like Frazier's plasma ball, we see the same beauty and evidence of currents in astronomical nebulae, glowing hydrogen HII regions, and planetary auroras. We live in an Electric Universe!
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The Strange Lava Tubes of Mars

(Nov 11, 2005)
If Ascraeus Mons on Mars is a volcano, the channels on its slopes must be collapsed lava tubes. But a close look reveals characteristics that no lava tube possesses. The channels look more like the scars left by plasma discharges. This false-color image of channels on the north slope of Ascraeus Mons on Mars shows warmer areas in red and cooler areas in blue. Ascraeus Mons is described as a volcano, and the channels are considered to be collapsed lava tubes. This explanation May sound plausible--if youve never seen a volcano or a lava tube. Lava tubes on Earth form when flows of low-viscosity lava solidify on the outside but continue to flow inside the resultant "shell." When the eruption stops, the lava May flow out of the shell, leaving a hollow tube. Often the unsupported roof will collapse in places, leaving a series of channels. If at this level of description we stop looking, the channels of Ascraeus Mons could be collapsed lava tubes. But there is more to see. Lava tubes on Earth are only a few meters wide. The width of channels on Ascraeus Mons are measured in thousands of meters. Even with Mars lesser gravity, solidified lava is not strong enough to span such distances: None of the channels should be covered. Lava tubes on Earth are only a few tens of kilometers long, and they end in the lobe of lava that poured from them. The channels on Ascraeus Mons, if they carried lava from the mountain to the plains, would run for hundreds of kilometers. But they have no obvious lobes of outflow to demarcate their paths or their function. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Lava tubes on Earth have floors covered with debris where the roofs collapsed, and at the ends of the collapsed sections they often have openings into the "caves" of the intact sections. The channels on Ascraeus Mons have very little debris on their floors, and the channels end in circular alcoves--many exactly circular--that give no indication of a continuing underground tube. The terminal sides--presumed to fill in the opening to the rest of the tube-are indistinguishable from the longitudinal sides--presumed to be talus that has piled up against a solid face: Some unspecified force must have moved debris along the channel to plug the openings. Lava tubes on Earth have short sections of collapsed roofs that occur haphazardly. Many of the features on Ascraeus Mons are chains of circular pits that occur evenly. Some of these chains cross the other channels as if the channels werent there. Like the channels, they appear to have been scooped out of the landscape without disturbing the surrounding terrain or leaving debris. Lava tubes on Earth seldom have parallel sides. Any flowing fluid will erode the outside of curves more than the inside. Most of the channels on Ascraeus Mons maintain a constant width over great distances. Lava flows on Earth May join, producing a wider flow. Where the channels on Ascraeus Mons join, the downstream channel is often no larger--and sometimes smaller--than only one of the channels that merged. Flowing lava--or any flowing fluid--on Earth does not behave in these ways. Only one known "fluid" has all these characteristics--the "electrical fluid," better known as plasma. The characteristics of the channels on Ascraeus Mons, as well as those of the mountain itself and the surrounding terrain, are those produced by electrical discharges in plasma laboratories.
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Credit: European Space Agency
Giant Lightning to Space

(Nov 10, 2005)
What are we to think about giant lightning bolts to space? Can we think of space as neutral or empty in the face of these spectacular discharges? The pilots who saw it wouldnt talk about it for fear of ridicule or worse. The pilots whose airplanes were hit by it wouldnt talk about it because they were dead. Then in the early 1990s investigators began to take the rumors seriously and to look for evidence of lightning above the clouds. Right away they found images on archived satellite pictures, and they recorded hundreds of flashes above distant storms. Giant neon-light-like haloes would appear 85 kilometers above storms. The glows would propagate downward to form red balloons of interlaced filaments. The currents would squeeze into 30-meter-wide channels scattered over areas of a hundred square kilometers and disappear into the clouds. The glows were so diffuse that they seemed hardly a danger to airplanes. The investigators named them "sprites." The investigators soon discovered another form of lightning above the clouds. "Blue jets" would spout upwards from storms as much as 15 kilometers toward space. Several giant jets shot up to 80 kilometers. The jets were more compact than the sprites. And under the clouds the investigators documented extraordinary strikes of "positive" lightning. These bolts were six times as powerful as ordinary "negative" lightning, and they The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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lasted ten times as long. Where ordinary lightning could punch a tiny hole in a wing, positive lightning could burn through struts and wires and rip pieces apart. These bolts carry forces many times greater than what airplanes are designed to withstand. In one crash, rivets had been melted. In another, a pipe had been crushed and twisted. Crash specialists suspected these planes had been brought down by strikes of positive lightning. Investigators finally were able to correlate their observations. They realized that every time there was a sprite above the clouds there was a bolt of positive lightning below the clouds. The sprite and the positive bolt were parts of a single discharge that stretched from space to the Earths surface. Sprites and jets and positive bolts are common. Now that scientists have stopped believing that such phenomena are impossible, they find them in old photographs. Pilots are talking about seeing sprites since they began to fly. Certainly there is a cultural bias: People tend to disbelieve anything that is unfamiliar. And there is likely a sensory bias: Humans have no sensory organs that detect electric and magnetic forces, and they tend to believe that if they sense nothing, nothing is there. There is also a theoretical bias: Without a theory with which to understand an observation, we tend not even to perceive it. Believing in a theory that already explains a phenomenon will turn your attention away from discrepancies and anomalies associated with that phenomenon. Recognizing the megalightning connection between Earth and space opens consideration of other possibilities. Perhaps the current between Earth and space is part of a larger circuit. Perhaps the storms dont generate the lightning but the lightning generates the storms. Venus, after all, has extensive lightning, more powerful lightning than on Earth, and it has an atmosphere of smog: Lightning in smog contradicts the thunderstorm theory of lightning generation. Perhaps lightning also powers the wind. Neptune has the strongest winds of any planet in the Solar System, yet it is farthest from the Sun and its heat: Cold gales contradict the thermal model of air movement. Perhaps hurricanes and tornadoes and even dust devils are electrical vortices. Only recently have investigators thought to look for electric fields in dust devils--and have found quite strong ones. Astronomers are trying to explain the spokes and waves and movements of Saturns rings with the familiar theory of gravity, but even if they succeed they will have ignored the pervasive influence of electrical currents in the Solar System. The explanations will be merely instrumental, accounting for the familiar aspects but oblivious to the ground from which those aspects arise. Such an instrumental theory can be a dangerous thing when it has more practical applications: The tethered satellite experiments ignored electricity in space and likely resulted in the sparking and burning through of the tethers. The space elevator program will bring the full voltage of this oversight down to Earth. And let us not forget the image of the shuttle Columbia on its last reentry being chased down by a bluish-red corkscrew of what May have been a bolt of aircraft-destroying megalightning.
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Credit: Vemasat Research Institute/C.J. Ransom
Electric Wind in the Laboratory

(Nov 08, 2005)
Laboratory arcing experiments continue to support a claim made by proponents of the "Electric Universe"--that the primary features observed on solid bodies in the solar system were produced by electric discharge. No, the surface pictured above is not from Mars--or from any other planet or moon. It is one of many experimental confirmations of a point we have made more than once in these pages. Electric discharge can create complexes of craters, crater chains, gouges, trenches, and undulating channels--patterns that are common to planetary surfaces. They show distinctive differences from features produced by any single known geologic mechanism. In the electrical experiment depicted here, a single agency created features that require planetary scientists to speculate about many different--even mutually exclusive--agencies. Plasma scientist C. J. Ransom conducted this experiment at Vemasat Laboratories in Fort Worth, Texas. The test sample was a layer of magnesium silicate 5 mm thick. It was spread on a metal plate that served also as the cathode. The anode was a copper probe, which was placed 14 mm above the sample. The power supply was 120 milliamps, and the power was on for five seconds with the probe at 12,000 volts. In the span of that five seconds, the electric "wind" generated by the dark discharge (no visible arc or glow) produced all of the features of the observed pattern. (See larger picture of the result here and the "before" picture here.) For a comparison examine the picture of the Tyrrhena region of Mars. It is some 45 kilometers across and less than 2 kilometers in elevation at its highest point. It shows the same radiating pattern of grooves as does the experimental material. Planetary scientists call this feature a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"volcano." They consider the radial gouges to be caused by "erosion," but the nature of this erosion is far from clear to them. A common speculation is that the surface material is easily erodible pyroclastic ash. Close observation, however, shows that the channels were not caused by flowing liquid. They are flat-floored depressions--either scooped out or collapsed. Similar shallow channels elsewhere on Mars are sometimes attributed to wind erosion. That explanation is excluded in this case because of the channels radial arrangement. Surface etching by an electrical wind, however, accounts for more than the radial channels. It also accounts for the extensive flat valley floors that have no apparent connection to flowing liquid of any kind. It connects them to electrical discharge machining and to electrical etching of the whole region.
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Credit: NASA/ESA/R Hurt/Spitzer Science Center
Just Another Small, Faint Galaxy

(Nov 07, 2005)
Big Bang theorists interpret Hubble telescope images of small, faint galaxies as ultrabig, ultra-bright galaxies seen long, long ago and far, far away. But evidence from outside their narrow field of view indicates that the galaxies are really small and faint. The image above combines a visible-light image from the Hubble telescope with an infrared image from the Spitzer telescope. Publicists bill it as "a massive galaxy ... about eight times the mass of the Milky Way ... early in the history of the universe, a time when such mature galaxies were not thought [sic] to exist." (Actually, because its age is estimated to be "a mere 800 million years after the Big Bang," long before there were thinking human beings, it is a time when such mature galaxies were thought not to exist.) But the galaxys age and mass are artifacts of assumptions that have been proved erroneous for nearly half a century. What is actually observed is a small, faint galaxy whose light is highly redshifted. The erroneous assumption is that redshift indicates distance. Hence, the high redshift means the galaxy is far, far away. To appear as big as it does and as bright as it does at that distance, it must be ultra-big and ultra-bright. For many years, many astronomers, both professional and amateur, have photographed highredshift objects clustering near low-redshift galaxies. Many of the objects are physically connected to the galaxies with bridges of material. Many of the objects are aligned on opposite sides of the galaxies, their redshifts decreasing with distance. Many theories are trying to explain these observations, but the publicly funded institutions of modern astronomy systematically refuse to acknowledge these theories and systematically ignore the observations, therewith betraying science and defrauding taxpayers. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Redshift cannot be a measure of distance. But quite likely it is a measure of age: the higher the redshift, the younger the object. Active galaxies eject high-redshift objects. The objects are small and faint. They have peculiar shapes--jets and clumps of material and disturbances. As they age, their redshifts decrease--in steps, not continuously. Their velocities of ejection slow. They grow into companion galaxies. This is why most of the objects in the various Hubble Deep Field and Ultra Deep Field images have shapes unlike the shapes of familiar galaxies. The universe long ago was not different from the universe today, but baby galaxies are different from mature galaxies. The extremely narrow field of view of the Hubble telescope fails to notice the wide-angle connections with mature galaxies, thereby reinforcing the extremely narrow view of big bang theory that fails to notice the falsification of its assumptions.
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Credit: Halton Arp, Seeing Red, p. 241
Bigger View of the Local Group

(Nov 04, 2005)
What can we "see" about the Local Group of galaxies now that "redshift- equalsdistance" does not override observations? We can see that the Local Group stretches in a line along the minor axis of M31, the Andromeda galaxy, which is the dominant galaxy in the group "The greatest mistake in my opinion, and the one we continually make, is to let the theory guide the model... [S]cientists actually proceed on the belief that theories tell you what is true and what is not true! Of course that is absurd--observations and experiments describe objects that exist--they cannot be right or wrong. Theory is just a language that can be used to discuss and summarize relationships between observations. The model should be completely empirical and tell us what relationships between fundamental properties are required." Halton Arp, Seeing Red Previously we "saw"--in radio and x-ray light--that the dots of galaxies in the Virgo and Fornax clusters are connected with swirls of highly excited material. Incorporated into these swirls are quasars, compact clusters and active galaxies. But we didnt need to look so far to see a relationship thats right before our eyes. The Local Group, of which our Milky Way is a member, stretches in a line along the minor axis of M31, the Andromeda galaxy, which is the dominant galaxy in the group. In the image above, the filled circles mark the locations of accepted members. Open circles and plus signs mark the locations of higher-redshift dwarf and spiral galaxies respectively. (Although in other clusters similar dwarfs and spirals are accepted as companions of the larger galaxies, these dwarfs and spirals are excluded because their systematically higher redshifts are too obvious.) Redshifts of several objects are printed beside their names. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Long-exposure photographs of this area reveal a cloud of low-luminosity material extending along this line of galaxies and engulfing them. That the higher-redshift galaxies are not "background objects" is shown by their interaction with the cloud: The interacting pair of galaxies, NGC935/IC1801, have a semicircle of brighter material around them. NGC918 has a jet that ends in a bright region of the cloud. The high-redshift radio galaxy, 3C120, is most famous for its "faster-than-light" jet. Astronomers have measured the movements of knots of material in the jet. If the galaxy is located where the redshift-equals-distance theory dictates, the knots would have to be traveling six times the speed of light. But if 3C120 is a member of the Local Group, the knots would be traveling at only four percent of the speed of light. Not shown in the diagram are the line of quasars extending across M33 and the cluster of quasars close around 3C120. In addition, low surface brightness galaxies, with redshifts between .015 and .018, cluster around these two galaxies. Until recently, we saw stars as points of light in a dark and empty sky. With the invention of radio and x-ray telescopes, we began to see that the sky is filled with swirls of light. In our Local Group, we can now see this pattern of connectedness in visible light. The darkness was in our eyes and the emptiness was in our imaginations. The institutions and theories of a dark and empty astronomy served us well for their time. But now is the time to imagine a new astronomy thats bright and entwined. Arp closes his discussion of the Local Group with this question: "Do astronomers really prefer to elaborate obsolete theoretical assumptions rather than make new discoveries?"
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Credit: Halton Arp, Seeing Red, p. 153
A Bigger View of the Fornax Cluster

(Nov 03, 2005)
"This is why I feel it is so important to go as far as possible with empirical relations and conclusions. This is why it [is] so important to discard any working hypothesis if it is contradicted by the observations--even if there is no alternative hypothesis to replace it. As unpleasant as it is, one must be able to live with uncertainty. Or, as many people say, but do not believe, It is never possible to prove a theory, only to disprove it." Halton Arp, Seeing Red Previously, we "saw"--in x-ray light--that the dots of galaxies, compact clusters and quasars in the Virgo Cluster were connected by a roughly s-shaped swirl of high-energy material. Jets and elongations of material from energetically disturbed galaxies pointed toward or engulfed lines of quasars and compact clusters of small galaxies. These alignments on opposite sides of galactic nuclei indicated paths of ejected material. The redshifts of the ejected objects indicated their ages. Virgo is not the only cluster in which alignments of objects are engulfed and connected by bridges of highly excited material. On the opposite side of the sky, the Fornax Cluster is a mirror image of Virgo. In the image above, squares with dots are bright galaxies; those with xmarks at the corners are strong radio galaxies. The plus signs are compact clusters. The redshifts of several objects are printed next to them. The outline of x-ray emission in the Virgo Cluster is mirrored and superimposed on the Fornax Cluster. The dominant galaxy in Fornax, NGC 1291, nearly coincides with the location of the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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dominant galaxy in Virgo, M49 (open circle). The radio-bright active galaxy to the north (up), Fornax A (For A), nearly coincides with the location of the radio-bright active galaxy M87, also known as Virgo A (second circle). The two radio galaxies to the upper left of For A are in line with a series of knots of material in For A that are reminiscent of the knots in the jet of M87. (For A has an inner radio jet that points toward the two plus signs to the lower left.) A concentration of compact clusters beyond the radio galaxies mark the extension of a likely cone of ejection from For A. As in the Virgo Cluster, the compact clusters, which are strong x-ray sources, trace out the scurve "spine" of the cluster. Also as in Virgo, the radio galaxies generally have systematically higher redshifts compared to the dominant galaxy. After discussing several of these s-curve structures, Arp concludes: "The connection between these dots of facts, which reveals the whole picture, seems to be that newly created, high redshift material is ejected in opposite directions from active galaxies. The material evolves into high redshift quasars and then into progressively lower redshift objects and finally into normal galaxies."
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Credit: Halton Arp, Seeing Red, p. 131.
A Bigger View of the Virgo Cluster

(Nov 01, 2005)
"[T]he professional tends to interpret the pictures by using the theory he was taught while the amateur tries to use the picture to arrive at a theory." Halton Arp, Seeing Red When all we could see was the visual part of the electromagnetic spectrum, the universe seemed to consist of dots of fire isolated in a dark emptiness. With telescopes, we could see galaxies of dots and clusters of galaxies, but our theories about them continued to reflect our sensory bias: Tiny flames separated by long intervals could affect each other only with feeble nudges of gravity. Then came the instruments that enabled us to "see" almost the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays. We "saw" rivers of radiation connecting the visible dots. Swirls of high-energy interactions joined together galaxies, compact clusters and quasars. The connected dots made up a bigger picture, a fuller picture, a picture that required new theories to understand it. Illustrated above is a "contour map" of the x-ray intensity around the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. M49, an active elliptical galaxy (near the middle of the swirl), is the largest member of the cluster. (A line of quasars--not shown--extends through it in a northwest-southeast direction.) On opposite sides of it, only a few degrees away and engulfed in the stream of x-ray-emitting material, are M87 to the north (top) and 3C273 to the south (bottom). 3C273 is a quasar that The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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has a jet pointing at an elongated hydrogen cloud to the southwest (lower right). In gammaray maps, a bridge of gamma-ray-emitting material connects the quasar with a variable quasar, 3C279, to the southeast and also back toward M49. M87 is also an active galaxy with a jet extending to the northwest (upper right). Beyond the jet are the radio- and x-ray-emitting galaxies M86 and, close by, M84. Further along the line is a quasar that has a pair of quasars aligned across it. Several elliptical galaxies lie along the M87-M86 line, and an oval of higher-redshift spiral galaxies surrounds the line. More quasars are embedded in the swirl of x-ray emission, and several of the unlabeled regions of increased intensity are compact clusters of small, visually faint galaxies. The bigger picture that emerges from connecting the dots is that of galaxies ejecting quasars and highly excited material in opposite directions from the galaxies nuclei. The ejected quasars in turn eject material as they evolve into next-generation galaxies. Quasars that are fragmented evolve into compact clusters of galaxies. In this bigger picture, redshifts are indicators of age, not distance. M49, with a low redshift, would be the "mother" of the Virgo Cluster. M87, with a slightly higher redshift, would be an early ejection. The compact cluster between M49 and M87 and the quasar 3C273 on the opposite side of M49, both with nearly the same much higher redshift, are likely an ejection pair. As M49 rotated, later ejections spewed out x-ray-emitting material that formed the spiral shape, just as a spinning garden hose throws out a spiral of water. M87 is famous for its jet with knots of increased brightness along it: We see the galaxy in the process of ejecting material. The elliptical galaxies, x-ray galaxies, compact clusters and quasars beyond the jet are older knots in the ejection. They have already ejected material to the sides, some of which has evolved into small spiral galaxies. Until the x-ray map connected all these disparate dots into a single organic structure, they were thought to be isolated bodies at vastly different distances from each other. The theories that dictated those separations must now be abandoned in favor of theories that can explain their connections.
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Credit: Image developed by Prof. John Wilcox from an original painting by NASA artist Werner Heil
Plasma: The other 99.9%

(Oct 31, 2005)
How do you see the Solar System? The simple view is gas giants and rocky asteroids and planets moving through nearly empty space. The sophisticated view illustrated above, shows the heliospheric current sheet, a component of the interplanetary plasma we call the Solar Wind, awash throughout the Solar System. Over 99.9% of the universe is made of plasma, including the Sun and all stars, and most of the space in between. So if you don't know the basic properties of plasmas, then you might not understand the properties of most of the universe. Did you know... 1. Plasmas are formed by adding energy to gas, causing it to ionize (an atom looses one or more electrons). For example, if hydrogen ionizes, it produces equal numbers of negatively charged electrons and positive ions (in this case, protons). Even a one percent ionized gas May be considered to be a plasma, and have the properties of a fully ionized plasma. Plasmas are affected by electromagnetic forces 1039 times greater than the force of gravity. So strong is its influence that it creates the ballerina's skirt shaped heliospheric current sheet (see diagram), the largest structure in the Solar System, extending out beyond the orbit of Pluto. 2. Plasma is not always electrically neutral. In general it is quasi-neutral, meaning that localized regions of charge separation May occur. And objects that comes into contact with a plasma will charge negatively, such as dust, spacecraft and the surface of the Moon. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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3. Plasma is a better conductor of electricity than copper. Its conductivity and response to electromagnetic influences distinguishes it from a gas. Indeed, metals can be classified as plasma, too, because they contain free electrons. 4. Moving plasma can self-generate electromagnetic fields. 5. Plasma can store energy in magnetic fields. 6. Plasmas form double layers between regions of different densities, temperatures or magnetic field strengths. A double layer: 1. consists of two layers of opposite charge 2. tends to form cellular structures with the double layer as the "cell wall." (eg. magnetosphere, photosphere, heliosphere) 3. can form in filamentary current channels known as "Birkeland currents" (see below); 4. can explode, as discovered in mercury rectifiers used in high-power direct-current transmission lines; 5. can accelerate charged particles, in opposite directions up to velocities approaching the speed of light. 7. Relative movement of different plasma regions produces electric currents within them. Electric current in plasma produces "pinched" filaments known as Birkeland currents. Birkeland currents form the cosmic power lines and the "wires" of cosmic circuits. An example is found in the ionosphere where these filaments carry up to a million amps, and power the aurora. Those in the Sun's prominences have been estimated to carry up to 100 billion amps (1011 A). 8. Birkeland currents collimate "jets" of matter and charged particles. Astronomical "jets" were so named by astrophysicists because they look somewhat like fluid jets produced in the laboratory. Yet astronomical jets look nothing like a supersonic jet coming out of a nozzle, with all the attendant fluid instabilities. Heated gas should quickly disperse in space but the magnetic pinch of a Birkeland current can maintain filaments of glowing matter over thousands of light years. 9. Synchrotron radiation from pinched current filaments can be in the form of x-rays and gamma rays. 10. The pinch effect can be used in nuclear fusion reactors. 11. Plasma phenomena scale in size over at least 14 orders of magnitude. So the same phenomena May be seen in a dense laboratory plasma and a tenuous space plasma. 12. Parallel plasma filaments attract one another with a force inversely proportional to their distance apart. Compare this with gravity, which attracts matter with a force inversely proportional to the SQUARE of the distance. That makes pinched Birkeland currents by far the most effective way of condensing rarefied dust and gas to form molecular clouds and stars. So since the Universe is 99.9% plasma, the important question is not IF the properties of plasma are important in cosmology, but HOW come we focus on the puny force of gravity? "The space data from astronomical telescopes should be treated by scientists who are The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive familiar with laboratory and magnetospheric physics, circuit theory, and of course modern plasma physics." Hannes Alfvn, Double Layers and Circuits in Astrophysics, IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. PS-14, No. 6, December 1986.
Contributed by Ian Tresman
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Credit: ESO
The Activities of NGC 1097

(Oct 28, 2005)
A view of the innermost region of an active galaxy reveals a rigid conventionality of scientific vision. This image from the European Southern Observatory shows the inner 5500-light-year region of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1097. According to the press release, it shows a "ring of dust and gas" surrounding a "super-massive black hole" at the center and a "filamentary structure spiralling down" into the black hole. The press release notes that this Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) at the center is fainter than most, indicating that "only a small amount of gas and stars" are falling into the black hole. The latest generations of telescopes can see ever more details in ever smaller fields of view. A crippling side effect, however, is the loss of vision that connects these details with largerscale phenomena. An AGN, for instance, is not defined by "gas and stars" falling into a black hole: In standard theory, almost every galaxy--AGN or not--has gas and stars falling into a black hole. An AGN is distinctive because it is active: It has knots of ionized hydrogen (such as the bright spots in this "ring") that are considered to be star-forming regions. And it usually has a jet emerging from it. This galaxy is famous for its "dogleg" jet--a narrow filament that ends with a right-angle turn into an arc. Another fainter jet extends from the nucleus in the opposite direction. Still another jet and counter-jet extend through the nucleus with a 20-degree-or-so angle of rotation from the dogleg. The dogleg is not unique. NGC 4651 has a "tangential arc" at the end of a jet. Several x-ray The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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clusters have similar features. Often these are called "gravitational lensing." But ejecting stars show the same feature It is a feature seen frequently in lab plasma discharges X-ray and radio images of NGC 1097 show lobes of emission in line with the jets. Especially to the north, the lobes resolve into strings of bright sources. Many of these have been identified as quasars and galaxy clusters, objects considered (by standard theory) to be far beyond the galaxy. A plot of all quasar and cluster locations in the area around the galaxy shows that their numbers increase toward the galaxy and that they, too, are aligned with the jets. (See pp. 43-47 in Seeing Red by Halton Arp.) For distant objects that have no connection to the galaxy, this is strange behavior. But to look outside the narrow field of view of modern telescopes is to look outside the narrow field of explanation of modern theories. What if the rings of material around AGNs are composed not of gas and dust but of plasma? What if the filamentary structure is not gas and stars falling into a black hole but Birkeland currents driving a plasma focus? What if quasars and galaxy clusters are ejected from AGNs? The properties of plasma can be investigated in laboratories on Earth. The properties of black holes can only be deduced from the malleable mathematics of conjecture. Active Galactic Nuclei stand in contrast to the ossified idealism of a science that has lost touch with its empirical roots.
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Credit: NASA, ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Boomerang Nebula Comes Back--to Plasma

(Oct 27, 2005)
A cold nebula provides evidence of electrical activity at temperatures near absolute zero. The Boomerang Nebula exhibits the bipolar symmetry that has become typical of planetary nebulae: two cones or, often, bubbles of material radiate away from the central star (which is often a double star). In most nebulae, the plasma is sufficiently dense and excited to emit light. But the Boomerang Nebula is cold: Radio measurements indicate the inner part is only one degree above absolute zero. We are able to see the nebula because dust particles reflect light from the central star. In this image from the Hubble Space Telescope, the false colors indicate polarization angles of the reflected light. By analyzing how the light from different parts of the nebula are polarized, astronomers can determine such properties as the size and alignment of the dust particles. They hope that this information will shed light on the most pressing question: How can a spherical star, powered internally by nuclear fusion, eject material only along its axis? If only gravity and hot gas provide the forces for ejection, the ejection should be spherical. Some theorists speculate that perhaps a disk of material around the stars equator--seen in a number of nebulae--blocks ejected material from that direction. But what generated the disk, and how does it remain intact in the face of such ejection? Other theorists speculate that magnetic fields constrain the outflow. But what generates and powers the magnetic field? The Electric Universe takes note of the filamentary structure of the cones and of the way the filaments spiral into and away from the central star. It also takes note of the string of cells or The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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bubbles along the axis of the cones. Spiraling filaments around cells of plasma are the forms taken by electric currents in space. The filaments are called Birkeland currents, named after Kristian Birkeland, who first proposed their existence in the late 1800s. Far from a star, these currents form tubes of plasma that transmit electrical power around a galaxy. At intervals, the electromagnetic forces that they generate cause them to pinch down to a very much smaller size. Plasma accumulates in the center of the pinch. The increased current density causes it to shine, producing and powering a star. Usually, the plasma surrounding the star is also hot, producing the glow of an emission nebula. But with the proper conditions of opacity and density, the surrounding plasma can be cold, as in the Boomerang Nebula, revealing its presence only by reflected light and radio emission. Plasma theorists would not be surprised if closer observations discover a disk of material around the stars equator. In lab experiments and in computer simulations of the pinch effect, a "ring current"--a doughnut-shaped flow of plasma and electricity--circles the central accumulation of plasma. Power flows into the ring current, which stores it until a threshold is reached. Then the ring discharges to the central body. But the ring doesnt block an equatorial outflow: The magnetic field generated by the pincheddown Birkeland current that powers the star confines the flow of plasma from the star into the axial jets. The gravitational theorists have guessed the forms, but they still have no explanation for why the forms are there.
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Stacked Ancestors
(Oct 25, 2005)
Totem poles are one expression of a worldwide custom that portrays legendary or sacred ancestors in a stack. This theme is associated with the wider category of "axis symbols." Axis symbols, in turn, have been associated with plasma formations observed in laboratory-generated high-energy-density electrical discharges. It is considered that the theme of stacked ancestors originated in observations by ancient peoples of an unusual and prolonged "auroral pillar." A wide range of cultures worldwide portrayed their legendary ancestors in a stack, the one piled above the other. In some places, such as the Pacific northwest coast of North-America and parts of Melanesia, this peculiar tradition expressed itself through the art of wood-carving in the phenomenon known as "totem poles." The specimen shown here was carved in 2000 and belongs to the Sechelt people of Sunshine Coast in British Columbia. As the name totem pole indicates, the entities depicted were originally seen as "totems," sacred animals and other beings regarded as the ancestors of the clans. In more modern terms, this concept is expressed by the totem poles function as a heraldic crest, whose animals are comparable to the lions, eagles, and dragons gracing the coats of arms of European nobility. Archaeologists have so far not been able to trace the custom of totem-pole carving back for thousands of years, but the importance of the theme of "stacked ancestors" in a cross-cultural mythical tradition suggests a venerable antiquity. The theme taps into the universal shamanic or mythological tradition of a string of divine beings, often counted seven to nine in number, that descended from the sky by means of a heaven-spanning pillar, tree, mountain, or rope. The Tshi people of Ghana, for example, speak of "a great chain" that was once "let down from heaven to earth with seven men hanging on it," who became the ancestors of the nation. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Such traditions are remarkably common. It would seem that the carved pillars represent a relatively modern artistic expression of an age-old motif that was previously handed down orally. As the natives of British Columbia identify their sacred poles with a giant tree that once connected the underworld, earth, and sky, it is justifiable to associate the symbolism of such totem poles with the wider category of "axis symbols." Axis symbols are mythical trees, mountains, pillars, giants, bridges, pathways or ropes, often endowed with a luminous splendour, that were believed to connect the respective regions of the cosmos with each other, having formed and disintegrated under catastrophic circumstances remembered in myths of creation and eschaton. A case is made that this class of traditions derives from observations of a so-called "auroral pillar" of unusual proportions, that May have been visible for a prolonged period of time possibly decades or even a few centuries as the earth experienced an excessive influx of charged particles from space. Plasma research suggests that the collimated Birkeland column thus formed would pinch into nine superimposed beaded segments that correspond closely to the stacks of heads or ancestors found in ancient traditions. The outstretched wings of the thunderbird on top, paralleled by the Egyptian "winged disc" on monuments that are millennia older, readily make sense in terms of "shockwave phenomena." Anthony Peratt, a specialist in plasma phenomena, writes: "A shock pulse initiates a series of hydrodynamic instabilities that differ from the plasma column instabilities. In hydrodynamics, these are the Richtmeyer-Meshkov instabilities recorded by Budzinskii and Benjamin Initially, a pulsed perturbation on a denser layer causes a rippling of the layer that rapidly develops into periodically spaced spike like features. These features, or 'spikes' then evolve the shock impulse causes the generation of yet more instability spikes that themselves morph into yet more complex instability shapes." Contributed by Rens van der Sluijs
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Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/F.K. Baganoff et al
Milky Way Plasma-focus Plasmoid

(Oct 24, 2005)
Infrared and x-ray telescopes have confirmed the existence of a plasma-focus plasmoid at the core of the Milky Way. This high-energy electrical formation is the heart of the galactic circuit. Recent infrared and x-ray views of our galaxys core have revealed a plasma torus (doughnutshaped ring), or plasmoid, less than two light-years across. Because dust blocks visible light, viewing the core has not been possible until the advent of telescopes that can "see" infrared and x-ray light, which can penetrate dust. The x-ray radiation from the plasmoid is typical of that given off by highly excited stars, indicating extremely strong electrical stress. The strong electrical field in the plasmoid acts as a particle accelerator. Electrons accelerated to high speeds will spiral in a magnetic field and give off x-rays. They also give off x-rays when they pass near a heavier ion. The plasmoid also accelerates ions--primarily hydrogen and helium nuclei--to high speeds. The ions collide and fuse to build up heavier nuclei. This accounts for the plasmoids observed enrichment in oxygen and iron. The plasmoid is the "generator" that powers the intermittent ejections from a galactic core. In a galactic circuit, electrical power flows inward along the spiral arms, lighting the stars as it goes, and is concentrated and stored in the central plasmoid. When the plasmoid reaches a threshold density, it discharges, usually along the galaxys spin axis. This process can be replicated in a laboratory with the plasma focus device. The discharge forms a jet of neutrons, heavy ions, and electrons. The neutrons decay to form concentrations of matter that appear as quasars. Electromagnetic forces confine the jet to thin The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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filaments that remain coherent for thousands of light-years. The jet usually ends in double layers that extend for many times the size of the galaxy and radiate copiously in radio frequencies. The diffuse currents then flow toward the galaxys equatorial plane and spiral back toward the core. A core plasmoid was first discovered in the Andromeda galaxy, our neighbor and possibly our "mother." With this discovery of the plasmoid at the core of the Milky Way, we can expect similar discoveries for all nearby galaxies.
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Credit: Left: Michael Armstrong & C.J. Ransom. Right: Anthony Peratt, IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science
Chinese Longevity Symbol

(Oct 14, 2005)
This symbol will be found in most Chinese restaurants, and even in some Chinese homes. The symbol in the picture above is a stylized version of the "squatter man" or "stick man," themselves stylized derivations of the plasma formation seen in the sky by the ancients. Sometimes thought to mean "good luck," the golden symbol above is an early script for the Chinese word pronounced shou, meaning "longevity." It's an old custom to present a "Picture of a Hundred Longevity" where literally one hundred different scripts of the character are written or embroidered in an artwork of calligraphy. This is done as an artistic, and usually expensive, birthday gift to a prominent or important figure at his birthday feast. The Axis Mundi, a polar plasma discharge witnessed by the ancient myth-building people of the earth, went through several evolutionary stages of forms known as "plasma instabilities" in the laboratory. The form that we see as the "Stickman" or "Squatterman," is the culmination of a late phase, as a number of the flattened toroids fold up to form the stickman's head. This squatter figure is one of the more stable plasma instabilities. Hence the association "long life." This was the major part of the column, the brightest, the most terrifying. And of course it was recorded by everyone everywhere and influenced them deeply. The "squatter" or "stickman" was recorded in nearly every culture. For example. it plays a dominant role in the Dogon Religion. Other cultures speak of it as the big red man in sky, . Comparative mythologist David Talbott relates the Chinese image to a complex of motifs in ancient Egypt. He says: "So what is the relationship to the principle of 'longevity'? The Egyptian Djed, 'ladder' of heaven, and 'backbone' present the nuances of endurance, stable support, and a continuation of life. They refer to the stable character of the stacked tori--part of the 'backbone' and 'ladder' motif. In this they stand as a contrast to the violent and wildly unstable phases that preceded it, including celestial wandering. "The raising of the Djed was synonymous with the restoration of Osiris to life after a chaotic period including death, disappearance, and dismemberment. Equivalence with The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive the backbone and ladder can be established beyond dispute. In his restoration to life, Osiris displays the ladder as his backbone, and both symbols find expression as the Djed, which means stability, endurance, etc. "The 'dismemberment' of Osiris' body means the same thing as the hacking up of the chaos serpent, whose body becomes the horizontal bars of the Djed AND the horizontal bars of both the backbone hieroglyph AND of the ladder of heaven (all symbolic variants of the same celestial form). The body of the upward- winding serpent (around the cosmic column) came to be divided into a series of stacked tori."
We see this formation in the experimental plasma tests as do the Russians. See Kukuskin's skeleton plasma universe papers that he is prolifically publishing. Contributed by Michael Armstrong
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Credit: Friedrich Woeger, KIS, and Chris Berst and Mark Komsa, NSO/AURA/NSF.
Electric Sunspots
(Oct 13, 2005)
Conventional theorists look to magnetism to solve the problem of solar energy distribution. If they were to open their eyes to the electrical cause of magnetism, the solution would suddenly become visible. This recent image of a sunspot utilized an advance in adaptive optics that enables groundbased telescopes to detect fine details that previously only space telescopes could detect. The announcement of this technical feat included this conventional theoretical interpretation: "The dark cores of penumbral fibrils and bright penumbral grains are seen as well in the sunspot penumbra (the fluted structures radiating outward from the spot). These features hold the key to understanding the magnetic structure of sunspots and can only be seen in ultra high-resolution images such as this one. Magnetism in solar activity is the dark energy problem being tackled in solar physics today." The problem is dark to conventional solar physicists because they shut their eyes to the fundamental law that magnetism is the result of electric currents. Seeing the difference between gas (which does not contain free charged particles and is electrically inactive) and plasma (which does contain free charged particles and can be electrically very active) admits the first glimmer of illumination on the problem: Sunspots are not the result of convection of gas modified by magnetism. Sunspots are electrical structures. To understand why penumbral "fibrils" have dark cores, one must see that they also have a twisted structure that maintains a fairly constant diameter over great distances. They resemble glowing tornadoes. This is the structure of a "charge sheath vortex": Rapidly rotating charged particles generate strong electric and magnetic fields. The charged particles The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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are concentrated in a thin skin, or "double layer," at the periphery and their motion is stretched out into a spiral. If the vortex has enough energy to glow, as it does on the Sun, the edges will appear brighter. Of course, a sunspot is only a tiny part of the much larger phenomenon of the Sun. If the spot is electrical, so must be the entire Sun. Hence to see electricity in any part of the cosmos is to see that all current astrophysical theories are "in the dark." The technical proficiency of space programs and new instruments is discovering a flood of surprising data about the effects of plasma in space. But progress in understanding this data is vitiated by a theoretical parasitism of obsolete ideas.
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Credit: NASA/SAO/CXC
Electric Supernovae
(Oct 11, 2005)
Both conventional and electric supernovae are exploding stars. But what constitutes a star and what constitutes an explosion are quite different in each case. In the conventional view, a supernova is an exploding star. Because gravity is the only force available to explain the organization of matter into stars, stars are isolated and autonomous objects that must get the energy they radiate from internal sources. The explosive release of abnormal amounts of energy in a supernova must come from the same (or similar) internal sources. When telescopes observe high-energy radiation and fastmoving particles, the cause can only be heating and acceleration by shock waves. The intensities required must demolish the star. These are constraints imposed by theory, not empirical limits from observing actual supernovae. In the Electric Universe view, a supernova is also an exploding star. But an electric star is a power-consuming "pinch"--a load--in a galactic circuit of Birkeland currents. The circuit drives the pinch, just as circuits in a house drive the electric lights. Because the power comes from the circuit, the interior of an electric star could be composed in any number of ways. It could be a "balloon" of thin (or dense) plasma with constant density throughout. (The oscillations of the Suns surface are consistent with this model.) It could contain a solid body acting as an electrode for the "anode tufting" that makes up the visible surface, or photosphere. Because the power comes from the circuit, the radiation and "wind" of an electric star are the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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effects of the arc discharges that make up the corona, chromosphere and photosphere. Fluctuations in these discharges generate "double layers" (DLs), which can become unstable and explode into flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). One characteristic of an exploding DL is that the energy of the entire circuit, not just the energy contained locally in the DL, can flow into the explosion. The energy increase accelerates the expansion of the DL and the particles composing it. This acceleration persists out to many stellar diameters from the visible surface of the star. At the same time, the radiation from the DL climbs into the ultraviolet or x-ray--or even gamma-ray--range, giving off a burst of high-energy "light" that has a time distribution like that of lightning: a sudden onset and exponential decline. In the Electric Universe view, a supernova is simply a star that is engulfed by an exploding DL. Because the circuit drives the DL, the energy released by the supernova doesnt have to come from internal or even local sources. Shock waves and heat are by-products of a phenomenon that is primarily electrical. The above image of a supernova, in x-ray "light," shows the filamentary edge of the DL as it expands into interstellar space. The horseshoe shape (as well as the more common bi-polar shapes seen in other supernovae) is a result of the larger electromagnetic forces driving the DLs expansion. (In contrast, conventional theory expects a spherical shock-wave shell. Observed asymmetries can only be accounted for by making ad hoc adjustments to the fundamental theory.) The DL encompassing the supernova is itself composed of secondary current filaments and DLs, among which the total energy is unequally distributed: higherenergy x-rays (in blue) are emitted by the lower segment; lower-energy x-rays (in red) come from the upper segment.
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Credit: Derek Fox/Penn State University
Gamma Ray Bursters

(Oct 10, 2005)
Gamma-ray bursts could indicate the merging of neutron stars--if the universe contained neutron stars instead of plasma. GRB's have a simple explanation in the Electric Universe Model. A gamma-ray burst (GRB) is a flash of high-energy radiation that lasts up to a few seconds. GRBs appear randomly around the sky at a rate of about one a day. An afterglow in x-ray and optical light May follow the burst and fade over several days. Analysis of afterglows enabled astronomers to link GRBs with "host" galaxies and the longer-lasting bursts with supernovas. Until this year, afterglows following the shorter bursts had not been detected. A burst that lasted a tenth of a second was detected on July 9 this year. Thirty seconds later, a 150-second x-ray flash was observed, and the location of the burst could be pinpointed. A few days later, the Hubble Space Telescope obtained this image of the optical afterglow and the "host" galaxy. (The afterglow is the bright dot to the left of the extended image of the galaxy.) According to conventional theories, the redshift of this galaxy determines its distance at about two billion light years. To appear as bright as it did, the GRB must have given off more energy in that one-tenth of a second than the entire galaxy gives off in a year. The only mechanisms imaginable in a gravity-dominated universe that could be this "energy-dense" are extreme supernovas and neutron-star or black-hole mergers. Because no supernova was observed and because the GRB occurred at the edge of the galaxy (most black holes are thought to reside in galactic cores), this GRB is considered to be the result of a merger of neutron stars. This explanation makes sense--if redshift is indeed a measure of distance and if the universe The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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is composed of insignificant amounts of plasma. Unfortunately, redshift has been shown for decades NOT to be a measure of distance, and the composition of the universe is 99.99% plasma. This GRB and its "host" galaxy are closer, probably much closer, than standard theory calculates. The energy of the GRB is therefore much less than standard theory calculates. The small, faint "host" galaxy doesnt appear small and faint because its far away but because it really is small and faint. Even if it were at its conventional distance, and even if it did have its conventional energy, plasma mechanisms--that is, electrical discharge mechanisms--could provide the necessary density of energy with processes that can be studied in laboratory settings. (Black holes and neutron stars are exclusively manipulations of mathematics and have no empirical counterparts.) The primary sources of information about GRBs are their spectra and their time histories. The spectra indicate emission of x-rays from highly excited ions and from fast electrons. The time histories vary greatly but generally show a fast rise of energy and a gradual fading. Sometimes one or more lower-energy pulses precede the peak energy pulse; often other spikes, which also show the fast-rise-slower-decline profile, interrupt the decline in energy. Even with many factors that can be adjusted, conventional theory has a hard time matching a model to the observations. But the excited ions, fast electrons, and range of energy curves are common properties of lightning. They occur--at the appropriate energy levels--in lab discharges, atmospheric lightning, solar flares, supernovae, and, now, in GRBs. Experiments and computer simulations have shown that plasma phenomena can be scaled over many orders of magnitude--that is, they behave in much the same manner and obey the same principles from the atomic scale to the galactic. A century of research in plasma and half a century of space exploration have demonstrated that we live in an electric universe. Only traditional astronomical theory is living in another universe--the universe of denial.
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Hyperion at 62,000 kilometers (38,500 miles) (left); at 2,555 kilometers (1,600 miles) (right). Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
A History for Hyperion

(Oct 07, 2005)
Conventional theory places the origins of planets and satellites in a single event billions of years ago. The Electric Universe provides a unique birthday and subsequent history for each one. Cassini, the spacecraft now orbiting among the moons and rings of Saturn, snapped this close-up shot of Hyperion, one of the small moons. According to the currently accepted theory, the crater-saturated surface formed 4 billion years ago. A cloud of gas and dust slowly collapsed under its own gravity, and the Sun, planets and moons gradually condensed out of it. But shortly after forming, the larger bodies began to sweep up the smaller "left over" pieces. Collisions, from large and spectacular to small and trifling, covered the surviving bodies with impact craters. On bodies such as Hyperion with little or no atmosphere to erode the craters, they remained pristine until today. Hyperions biography consists of a slap on the bottom at birth followed by a protracted era of monotony. According to the Electric Universe, Hyperions crater-saturated surface formed in several episodes. Saturn was--and still is--an electrode in a cosmic electrical discharge that can vary greatly in power. Positively charged material collects at Saturns core. When the discharge becomes too powerful, the material at the core is ejected. As it passes through layers that are less positively charged, it becomes the target for arcs, which leave craters where they strike. If the ejection is not energetic enough to expel the material from Saturns gravitational sphere of influence, the material will orbit Saturn and become a new moon. It will likely disturb the orbits of any previous moons, and, because it is still more positively charged than they are, close encounters will result in more arcing as well as in changing orbits to produce a "least interaction" configuration. This arcing transfers electrons to the newcomer and begins to equalize its charge with its new surroundings. Subsequent episodes of ejection produce new bodies, which in turn disturb the orbits of the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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existing ones. The older moons May experience many episodes of cratering. Hyperions electrical biography consists of a shock at birth followed by other shocks at the births of siblings.
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Mysterious Ring of Stars

(Oct 06, 2005)
Although black holes are entirely constructed from theoretical assumptions, they are no longer questioned in conventional astronomy. But the plasma focus effect, which can be studied in a laboratory, better accounts for the cosmic effects attributed to black holes. The caption to the above images explains: "Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have identified the source of a mysterious blue light surrounding a super-massive black hole in our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy (M31). Though the light has puzzled astronomers for more than a decade, the new discovery makes the story even more mysterious. The blue light is coming from a disk of hot, young stars that are whipping around the black hole in much the same way as planets in our solar system are revolving around the Sun. Astronomers are perplexed about how the pancake-shaped disk of stars could form so close to a giant black hole. Andromeda and its complex core can be seen in the illustration and two images [above]. The illustration [lower, right] shows the disk of blue stars nested inside a larger ring of red stars. The Hubble photo [upper, right] reveals Andromedas bright core. The image at left shows the entire galaxy." Astronomers take for granted today that black holes are as real as apples in the supermarket. The long history of developing, modifying, adapting, amending, revising and redesigning the idea of a black hole goes unnoticed. This habit of not noticing was established early on when an announcement that a black hole had "at last" been discovered was quietly disregarded after the newly discovered object was found to have properties that contradicted those attributed to a black hole. Usually these properties involved the release of unexplainable amounts of energy. But when finally the idea of a black hole was refashioned from an object that sucks everything The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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in to an object that spits everything out, astronomers had an explanatory blank check with which they could pay for every ultra-high-energy event--galactic jets, quasars, ultra-luminous objects, even a ring of hot gas "whipping" around the black hole. This ring of hot gas in the Andromeda galaxy, however, complicated the picture. It appears to have condensed into stars--over 400 of them. But condensations shouldnt be able to form that close to a strong gravitational source: Tidal forces should tear any condensation apart. The ring is only one light year across. It appears to be in the same plane as a larger (five light years across) disk of red stars. The speed of the blue stars is calculated to be about a thousand kilometers per second, which allows astronomers to declare that the mass of the black hole is "proved conclusively" to be 140 million suns, three times that of previous estimates. Astronomers wonder if these rings might be fairly common: They have discovered signs of similar stars close to the core of our Milky Way. A fast-moving, blue-light-emitting ring of knotted material thats a light year in diameter and situated at the core of a galaxy doesnt perplex astronomers who are familiar with plasma. They can generate a miniature version of it in a plasma lab with the plasma focus device: It is the plasmoid that forms and stores energy at the focus of the discharge. When the plasmoid reaches a critical energy level, it discharges its energy in a collimated jet along its axis in the form of electromagnetic radiation and neutrons. Being unstable outside a nucleus, the neutrons soon decay into protons and electrons. The electrons are held back by the electromagnetic field, and the high-speed protons are beamed away. At the galactic scale, this is the likely mechanism that produces the collimated jets streaming from the cores of active galaxies. The masses of ejected protons May make up the quasars that are associated with these galaxies and could be the basis for the quasars intrinsic redshifts. This plasmoid at the core of the Andromeda galaxy is not now discharging. But this suggests that it has discharged in the past and could discharge again. In this regard, Halton Arps discussion of the Local Group of galaxies (in Quasars,Redshifts and Controversies, pp. 128-132) is of interest. The Andromeda galaxy (M31) is the largest member of the group (of which our galaxy, the Milky Way, is also a member). All the other members of the group, as well as several intergalactic hydrogen clouds, are strung out in a line along M31s spin axis. The Local Group is arbitrarily limited to objects whose redshifts are less than an indicative velocity of 300 km/sec. If higher values are admitted, over a dozen other objects in that quadrant of the sky come under consideration. All occur along the same line. One of these objects is 3C120, the radio galaxy with a jet that appears to be moving at six times the speed of light--if the galaxy is at its conventional redshift distance. But if the galaxy is a member of the Local Group and is one of the ejecta of M31 whose redshifts are intrinsic, the jet is moving at only four percent the speed of light. Are the Local Group objects--including the Milky Way--the "children" of M31, "born" by ejection from the blue ring at the center of M31?
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The Virgo Cluster Circuit

(Oct 04, 2005)
A new technique that reveals faint structures among the galaxies of the Virgo Cluster confirms the predicted existence of intergalactic plasma circuits. This image of faint luminosity among the galaxies of the Virgo Cluster was recently published with this caption: "Case Western Reserve University astronomers have captured the deepest wide-field image ever of the nearby Virgo cluster of galaxies, directly revealing for the first time a vast, complex web of intracluster starlight--nearly 1,000 times fainter than the dark night sky--filling the space between the galaxies within the cluster. The streamers, plumes and cocoons that make up this extremely faint starlight are made of stars ripped out of galaxies as they collide with one another inside the cluster, and act as a sort of archaeological record of the violent lives of cluster galaxies." Plasma astronomers immediately recognize the "streamers, plumes and cocoons" as Birkeland currents and plasma sheaths. This image is direct confirmation of the intergalactic circuits connecting galaxies that plasma cosmologists predicted. In an Electric Universe, these luminous plasma features are not "ripped out of galaxies as they collide" but are assembled from the sparse particles that make up the intergalactic plasma. The electromagnetic forces of a Birkeland current diminish directly with distance from the current (rather than with the square of the distance from a body as gravity does). Therefore, these forces have a much stronger and longer-reaching effect: They act as "cosmic vacuum cleaners," pulling in and concentrating matter from great distances. This "pinch effect" organizes the plasma into filaments that act as "power cables." Because these cables attract each other when far apart but repel each other when close, they tend to The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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spiral around each other. At points of sufficiently strong interaction, the matter in the cables will be stretched into arcs, and a "sump" or bulge will accumulate between them. This generates the familiar form of a spiral galaxy. Hence, galaxies are "loads" on the intergalactic circuits, similar to streetlights on a municipal power grid. Variations in such factors as density, temperature, or composition along the cables trigger the formation of double layers and sheaths. These formations separate the plasma into bubbles or cells that tend to have the same properties. The cells organize further, in a fractal-like manner, with smaller filaments and cells inside them. In nearby galaxies, we see this subdivision as nebulas and stars. The intergalactic currents should also appear "knotted" into bright spots and clusters of stars.
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Lightning Strike on Mars

(Oct 03, 2005)
New craters on Mars show the unmistakable signature of electrical discharge and confirm the ongoing electrical activity of the solar system. These images show a new crater on Mars not long after it formed and again 5 years later. The conventional explanation is that the dark streaks are "ejecta" thrown out by the "impact" of a meteoroid. Over time, the ejected material changes color to match the rest of the surface. In the Electric Universe view, the crater is the strike point of a Martian lightning bolt. The dark rays are a Lichtenberg pattern burned into the soil as the impinging discharge channel pulls in electrons from the surrounding area. Such patterns are frequently seen around Earthly lightning strike points. Earths atmosphere is denser than Mars, and it contains much more water vapor. Lightning is able to "break down" the atmosphere at much lower voltages than in the thin and dry atmosphere of Mars. So Martian lightning bolts are apt to do more damage. This likely explains the chains of craters on the ridge to the lower right of the new crater. The chains can be traced back to the dark rays, indicating that the secondary currents that created the Lichtenberg figure were being pulled away from the surface at this greater distance, "popping" up and leaving craters behind. The usual form of a discharge in Mars atmosphere is the dust devil. But both the dust devil and the crater-producing discharge scorch the surface, leaving a visible signature. The little weathering that occurs on Mars is enough to eradicate the marks over a few years.
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Credit: NASA/CXC/Rutgers/J.Warren & J.Hughes et al.
Tycho's Star in Theory and Practice

(Sep 30, 2005)
A supernova seen in 1572 has been understood in several ways since then. The latest x-ray observations encourage still another way to understand it. A theory doesnt just explain what you see. It also tells you what to look for and how to see it. This interdependency of fact and theory, of perception and conception, enables human beings to adapt their limited understandings to changing experiences. Because experiences often dont change in a straightforward and cumulative way, theory-making extends beyond the currently accepted explanations to ask "What else could it be?" One recent changing experience is this Chandra x-ray image of Tychos Star. In 1572, Tycho Brahe, the famous Danish astronomer, saw a "new star," what we now call a supernova. When later astronomers turned their telescopes on the faint remnant of Tychos supernova, they saw a circular cloud of luminosity around it. The theory of stellar evolution explains supernovas as massive stars that eventually explode and throw off a shell of gas. Astronomers looked for shells of gas, and in these circular clouds of luminosity they saw shells of gas. But as they looked more closely and looked at more supernovas, the circular clouds of luminosity began to look a little different--and sometimes a lot different--from how the theory said they should look. So the astronomers adjusted the theory and they reinterpreted how they saw the clouds until their looking and seeing were again in agreement. Now Chandra is changing the experience of supernovas again. Conventional theory still expects to see shells of gas, but the shells are shock waves that compress and heat the gas to millions of degrees. Most of the debris from the exploded star should lag behind the shock The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive wave.
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In this image, Tychos supernova has two shock waves (the high-energy filaments, shown in blue), and the cloud of debris (lower-energy x-rays, shown in green and red) is not lagging behind. Measurements indicate that the blue x-rays are "non-thermal," which means that theyre not coming from "hot gas." (The million-degree temperature is not a direct measurement but is calculated according to how hot a gas must be to emit x-rays with the observed energy.) Conventional astronomers think that they can adjust the theory to make the outside shock wave accelerate the nuclei of atoms to cosmic ray energies. Then if they see the blue filaments and the close-following debris as the results of this acceleration, looking and seeing May again harmonize. But what else could it be? Plasma theory explains supernovas as stars that develop instabilities in the galactic Birkeland currents driving them. In the same way that an unstable double layer (DL) on the Sun explodes into a flare, a DL that encompasses an entire star explodes into a supernova. The energy is released in the acceleration of ions, primarily along the axis of the current, and in non-thermal radiation, especially radio and x-ray emission. [As an aside, its amusing to note that conventional theory considers anything with a temperature of millions of degrees to be a plasma (although it ignores electrical properties). At that temperature, all atoms are fully ionized and their nuclei are properly called ions. But ions are accelerated by electric fields. "Nuclei" require extreme shock waves to get them to move fast. Thus the theory dictates not only what to look for and how to see it but also which words to use to describe it.] Plasma astronomers see in this image an hourglass-shaped discharge viewed down the axis of the current. The blue ring is the outside of the tubular Birkeland current driving the discharge. They notice that its composed of spiraling filaments and more or less evenly spaced bright spots, behavior thats observed in laboratory experiments and computer simulations of plasma discharges. They notice that the green and red debris is clumped into bubbles or cells, another typical behavior of plasma. This produces a "cauliflower-like" surface on the discharge. If seen from the side, Tychos supernova would probably look a lot like Eta Carinae.
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Too Many Galaxies

(Sep 29, 2005)
An overabundance of galaxies in the early Big Bang universe is just a normal population of next-generation galaxies in the intrinsic-redshift universe. A press release from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) announces that"a team of French and Italian astronomers ... made use of the VIsible Multi-Object Spectrograph (VIMOS) on Melipal, one of the 8.2-m telescopes of ESO's Very Large Telescope Array. VIMOS can observe the spectra of about 1,000 galaxies in one exposure, from which redshifts, hence distances, can be measured... "[Their] aim is to measure in some selected patch of the sky the redshift of all galaxies brighter than magnitude 24 in the red... "In a total sample of about 8,000 galaxies selected only on the basis of their observed brightness in red light, almost 1,000 bright and vigorously star forming galaxies were discovered at an epoch 1,500 to 4,500 million years after the Big Bang (redshift between 1.4 and 5)... "While observations and models have consistently indicated that the Universe had not yet formed many stars in the first billion years of cosmic time, the discovery made by the scientists calls for a significant change in this picture." But for the past several decades, astronomer Halton Arp and a handful of coworkers have been finding that high-redshift galaxies and quasars are associated with, often connected to, nearby active galaxies. To see these associations, Arp and his colleagues had to look at a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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wider field of view. Blind faith in the redshift-equals-distance dogma prevents conventional astronomers from looking outside their narrow fields of view to see what large, bright active galaxies are nearby. Arps observations undermine the conventional redshift-equals-distance assumption. Small, faint, high-redshift galaxies are not far away but are actually small, faint, and nearby. With Arps observations in mind, its no surprise that there are many more galaxies with high redshifts than can be accounted for in the Big Bang model: The Big Bang requires many billions of years for galaxies to form after the initial explosion. But in Arps universe, active galaxies are continually "giving birth" to quasars, which "grow up" into small, faint galaxies and then into companion galaxies. A proper scientific study would supplement the survey of "galaxies selected only on the basis of their observed brightness" with another that analyzes the selected galaxies distance from and alignment with active galaxies in the vicinity.
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The picture has been converted to negative to help visualization of relief. Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS
Warm Ice Caps and Warmed-over Ideas

(Sep 27, 2005)
Though todays theoretical frameworks have encouraged impressive technical feats, they continually discourage scientific discovery. Spectacular images and data from space are a mark of technical proficiency, but a larger field of theoretical possibilities can no longer be ignored. The caption to this sequence of time-lapse images of trenches on Mars south polar cap explains: "Each year that Mars Global Surveyor has been in orbit, the landforms of the south polar residual cap have gotten smaller, and the carbon dioxide removed from the cap has not been re-deposited. The implication is that Mars presently has a warm (and possibly warming) climate, with new carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere every year. The other implication is that, at some time in the not-too-distant past, the planet had a colder climate, so that the layers of carbon dioxide could be deposited in the first place. If one takes the rate of scarp retreat and projects it backwards to fill in all of the pits and troughs with the carbon dioxide that has been removed from them, one finds that the colder climate might only have occurred a few centuries to a few tens of thousands of years ago. This kind of time scale is not unlike that of the climate changes that have been recorded on Earth..." That the trenches are getting wider because Mars is getting warmer is a familiar assumption. That an increase in carbon dioxide will cause an increase in climatic temperature is another familiar assumption. The trouble with familiar assumptions is that they seem too true to doubt. Mars May well be getting warmer, but the first assumption ignores the unfamiliar discovery that plasma is prevalent in the solar system and that it has extensive electrical properties. What else besides global warming might widen the trenches? Weve mentioned the electrical connection in previous Pictures of the Day. And Mars May well be getting more carbon dioxide in its thin atmosphere, but the second assumption ignores the unfamiliar discovery that trapping heat in an atmosphere requires stopping convection, as with the glass in a greenhouse, rather than increasing the opacity of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive the air (which is the effect of increasing carbon dioxide).
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Familiar assumptions are useful. They allow you to get on with your daily routine. If you questioned every assumption, you wouldnt be able to tie your shoelaces in the morning. "We already have an explanation" is the motto of the technician, whose goal is to accomplish the task at hand. Science is not--or at least should not be--technique. The goal of science is not apply in different ways what has already been discovered but to discover something new. The motto of the scientist should be "What else could it be?" A number of critics--the late Fred Hoyle among them--have noticed and lamented that the technical success and fecundity of the space programs have been at the expense of scientific discovery. Compared with the wide-ranging thought of prior times, the Age of NASA has brought a culture of conformity to science, a monoculture of theory that, like a genetically engineered cornfield, has killed off all the weeds. What is good (or at least efficient) for a cornfield marks the end of science and the beginning of a pseudo-religion of One Truth. Space-age images and data have consistently contradicted technical expectations. Yet the scientific reports and analyses stand out in their non-scientific failure to ask "What else could it be?" Taking plasma into account, it could be something else entirely. Mars plasma sheath appears to connect directly to the surface with many small, filamentary Birkeland currents in the dark discharge mode. The condition is similar to that of Jupiter's moon Io but at a lower power level. Miles-high dust devils--electric vortices--scorch the landscape. Lichtenberg patterns, characteristic of lightning strikes, appear burned into the soil around new craters. In this view, the widening of the polar trenches is an expected feature of cathode sputtering, which occurs around the edges of circular depressions and other prominent relief being etched by electrical discharge machining. Another intriguing "what else" arises in response to the "retrocalculation" that the erosion of the ice cap May have begun only "a few centuries to a few tens of thousands of years ago." This time span is similar to that estimated for the occurrence of the plasma instabilities around Earth that were recorded in petroglyphs. In view of the ancient testimony connecting Mars to such a time of instability, the "global warming" of both Earth and Mars May stem from the same interplanetary event.
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The picture has been converted to negative to help visualization of relief. Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Martian Butte and Crater

(Sep 26, 2005)
Another feature on Mars that looks strange from the conventional view begins to look familiar when seen from a plasma point of view. The caption accompanying this image (from the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera) calls the light-colored flat-top rock with a moat around it a butte. The caption continues: "The dark landscape that surrounds the butte was once covered by the same rocks that make up this lonely remnant." This is an understandable assumption in view of the buttes position on the slope that runs from the 4-kilometer-high southern hemisphere of Mars to the 2-kilometerlow northern hemisphere. But it overlooks a lot of features and a lot of possibilities. The most obvious feature is the moat. If the butte werent there, the depression would probably be called a crater. But its difficult to imagine an impact that would generate a central rebound in the shape of a layered butte. (Its also difficult to imagine an erosion process that would strip away the light-colored layers for miles around and carve a uniformly wide moat-with a crater-like rim--around the steep cliffs of the butte. This May be why the moat is not mentioned.) Another feature, more easily overlooked, is the system of ridges and cleanly cut grooves radiating away from the butte. Perhaps planetary scientists assumed these to be familiar erosion patterns. But this is not an unusual erosion pattern, except that many of the ridges and grooves appear to run continuously from the butte into the moat over the rim and onto the plain. Also, the "dark landscape" is not a local feature: Its part of an extensive dark region just to the east of Valles Marineris. The awareness of plasma discharge as an erosion process enables one to imagine other possibilities. A "butte crater" is similar in many respects to rampart and pedestal craters. Its reminiscent of domed craters--which have been reproduced in a plasma lab. Its merely a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive variation on layered craters.
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The rotating filaments in a discharge channel that carves a crater can be small enough to leave a large central area undisturbed. The secondary coronal discharge channels pulling charge (and surface material with it) into the strongest region of the electric field--around the edge of the primary channel at the rim--will tend to be arranged symmetrically inside and out. And if the arc that cut this crater was only a small component of the much larger thunderbolt that carved Valles Marineris and its extensions, it would have been situated in the more diffuse area that not only removed much of the surface electrically but scorched it as well.
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Comet Wild 2 is shown in close-up above. Beside it is a microscopic view of an EDM (electrical discharge machined) surface. Note the flat-floored depressions with steep scalloped walls and terracing. The small white spots on the comet can then be reasonably identified as the active cathode arcs that produce the cometary jets. Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Comets: The Loose Thread

(Sep 23, 2005)
Spacecraft have now visited four comets. What they found contradicts what was expected and falsifies accepted comet theory. But that theory is woven with every other astronomical theory into a cosmology that defines the universe as we know it. The fall of comet theory will inevitably bring us a new and different universe. Comets are giving accepted comet theory a hard time. Close-up images of comet nuclei from spacecraft have contradicted about every expectation of theory. ("Expectation" is a euphemism for "prediction"; a disappointed expectation is practically the same thing as a failed prediction, except with the former you dont expect youll have to discard the theory.) "If astronomy were a science," as one astronomer put it, theoreticians would admit that the theory had been falsified, and they would start over with an eye to the evidence. Instead, they hang on to the theory with ever more stubbornness and hope a little tinkering and adjusting will bring the facts into line. The facts are apt to be more stubborn than the theoreticians: Deep Impact kicked up ten times more dust than expected and stimulated the comet's activity a magnitude less than expected. The dust was not a conglomeration of sizes as expected but was consistently powder-fine. The nucleus of the comet was covered with sharply delineated features, two of which were circular enough to be called impact craters. This was not expected for a dirty snowball or a snowy dirtball or even a powdery fluffball. The craters, of course, werent actually called impact craters. They must have been caused by subsurface explosions, because they had flat floors and terraced walls, despite the myriad of other craters on rocky planets and moons with flat floors and terraced walls that are called impact craters. All the other circular depressions with flat floors and terraced walls werent craters because they had "unusual shapes." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The hard times began with Comet Halley. Theory expected more or less uniform sublimation of the surface as the nucleus rotated in the sun, much as you would expect of a scoop of ice cream on a rotisserie. But Halley had jets. Less than 15% of the surface was sublimating, and the ejecta was shooting away in thin beams. The theory was adjusted to introduce hot spots, chambers below the surface in which pressure could build up and erupt through small holes to produce the jets. It went unmentioned that the holes must have been finely machined, like the nozzle of a rocket engine, in order to produce the collimation of the jets: Just any rough hole would result in a wide spray of gases. Borrelly made the hard times harder. It was dry. And black. Theoreticians tinkered with the dirty snowball theory until they got the dirt to cover the outside and to hide the snow inside. Somehow they got the dirt, which ordinarily is an insulator, to conduct heat preferentially into the rocket chambers to keep the jets going. Wild 2 defied them. Its jets were not just around the sub-solar point, where the Suns heat would be greatest. This comet sported jets on the night side. The rocket chambers now had to store heat for half a "comet day." And something was needed to keep the jets coherent over great distances and to gather their emissions into a stream of clumps: Clusters of particles repeatedly struck the spacecraft. Comet theorists announced that comets were mysteries and that the theorists knew nothing, that they had to "think differently." Then they proposed adjustments to the accepted theory that would be acceptable to the accepted way of thinking. Different theories abound--but outside the walls of astronomical acceptability. For an astronomer to recognize their existence would be to jeopardize his position and salary. But the characteristics of comets that are so difficult to explain with snowballs are fairly easy to explain with electricity. Electrical theories date back to the 1800s, before "electricity" became taboo in astronomy. They were well-founded on observations and on the proven laws of electromagnetism. In the last few decades, they have been refined to the point where they expected the findings that were so hard on the fashionable theory: Comets are electrical discharges in the thin plasma that permeates the solar system. Because they spend most of their time far from the Sun, their rocky nuclei are in equilibrium with the voltage at that distance. But as they accelerate in toward the Sun, their voltage is increasingly out of equilibrium with the voltage and increasing density of the solar plasma. A plasma sheath forms around them--the coma and tail. And filamentary currents--jets--between the sheath and the nucleus erode, particle by powdery particle, the circular depressions with terraced walls that are typical of electrical discharge machining. As the discharge channels move across the surface of the comet, they burn it black. If it were only a matter of explaining with plasma discharges the jets and the blackened rocky surfaces and the powder-fine dust and the terraced depressions, there might not be so much blinkered stubbornness. But modern astronomical theories have been worked into an interlocking web of explanation. Each theory supports, and is in turn supported by, nearly every other theory. If one theory frays, if one loose thread is pulled, the entire fabric will unravel. An electrified comet requires an electrified Sun. The Sun is the focus of the electric field that causes the comet to discharge. For the Sun to maintain its electric field, it (and all stars) must The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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be the focus of another electric discharge within an electrified galaxy. And electrified galaxies, with their magnetic fields and x-ray emissions and ejections of quasars, must be connected in larger circuits that render meaningless such fancies of cosmology as the Big Bang theory. If you pull one electrified comet out of the well-knit structure of accepted theories, the entire garment will become unacceptable. Either the universe is an agglomeration of isolated, gravitating, non-electrical bodies, or else it is a network of bodies connected by and interacting through electrical circuits. Either the universe is a gravity universe or it is an Electric Universe. And comets are the loose thread.
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Layers or Terraces?
(Sep 22, 2005)
The frequently occurring terraces in rilles and craters are difficult to explain with conventional theories. But the difficulty lies not as much with the theories as with the conventional assumptions that underlie them. Multiple evenly spaced terraces are common on Mars. The terraces in the image above occur on a rock in Candor Chasma, the northern trench in the Valles Marineris complex. Valles Marineris harbors many examples of this terracing. Similar terraces are found in craters-around the rims and on central peaks. They also show up in the polar ice caps. Perhaps they were etched into the ice or perhaps the ice was deposited on terraces in the underlying rock. Conventional theorists are debating whether the "layers" on this rock formed during the "faulting" of Valles Marineris or whether they formed by another process after "faulting." Electric Universe theorists are debating whether the terracing was a result of sequential pinching of the multiple discharge channels that carved Valles Marineris or whether evenly spaced layers, electrically deposited prior to the Valles Marineris event, were exposed differentially by the Valles Marineris thunderbolt. A discharge channel at one scale May be composed of a multitude of channels at a smaller scale: It will have a fine structure, such as the frequently occurring 56 filaments around the periphery of a primary channel. And unlike mechanical systems, such as those dominated by gravity, plasma systems can evolve quickly and abruptly. For example, the diameter of a discharge channel depends, in part, on the current, which determines the force of the pinch effect. In space plasmas, current is often limited by the low density of available current carriers (electrons and ions). A discharge striking and eroding a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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surface will release more carriers, resulting in a sudden increase in current and a concomitant increase in the pinching force. The channel will suddenly get narrower, leaving a terrace as it continues to erode the surface. In a large, rarified channel, the process could repeat many times, leaving behind multiple terraces. Alternatively, a surface that is composed of layers of material May distribute the electrical field of a discharge more or less uniformly among the layers. The layers will be separated by surfaces that have a different conductivity from the interiors of the layers. The excavating power of a constant discharge will decline stepwise from layer to layer, resulting in the exposure of terraces that have fairly constant widths. In either case, the erosion will happen in a geological instant. In the gravitational model, the weak forces of erosion by water or tectonics require millions of years to create a system like Valles Marineris. Mechanical explanations made sense until the space age discovered that the universe--and in particular the Solar system--was composed almost entirely of plasma. With plasma taken into account, electrical forces overwhelm gravitational forces and explanations must shift to entirely different scenarios. Conventional theories are left trying to explain the ripples in beach sand without recognizing the existence of the ocean.
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Craters, Trenches and Arcs

(Sep 20, 2005)
The overlapping of a crater and a trench on Mars reveals a wealth of electrical details Was this crater excavated by a surge in the current that was digging the trench? Or did the arc that cut the crater touch down on a high point along the edge of the previously eroded rille? (Note that the crater seems to be centered on the edge of the rille.) Note also the small craters centered on the rim of the larger one as well as on the edges of the trench. The left side of the trench below the crater appears to have a terrace cut into it, but as it nears the crater, the terrace becomes a shallow trench in its own right, separated from the main trench by a dike of material. The shallow trench then stops at a craterlet blasted into the rim of the large crater. On the opposite side of the main trench is another shallow trench that merges into the main trench at the point where the other shallow trench becomes a terrace. Note also that, at the bottom of the image, the trench from the crater merges with another trench at an almost exact right angle. The terrace also turns the corner and continues along the edge of the other trench. Significantly, the transverse ridges on the floor of the trench also turn the corner, indicating that they were formed by the coronal filaments attending the primary arc that carved the channels.
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Mars Bears Witness

(Sep 19, 2005)
This crater in Meridiani Planum has acted as a "witness plate" in a high-energy plasma discharge. (Witness plates--thin layers of some material--are placed in the path of laboratory discharges. A discharge strikes the plate and burns in a record of the discharge channels shape.) Laboratory experiments and computer simulations have shown that such discharges often filament into 56 separate channels around the edge of the overall channel. These filaments then usually combine in pairs to form 28 larger filaments. If the discharge persists, other forms evolve in the channel. The shape of this crater suggests that the thunderbolt that formed it quenched shortly after evolving into the 28 filaments: The lower right quadrant, where the "bays" around the edge of the crater are most pronounced, contains 7 of them. If that fineness of detail had been preserved around the entire rim, there would be a total of 28 bays. Art and artifacts made by prehistoric humans have also left a record of 56- and 28-fold forms. Pictographs and petroglyphs--images painted on or pecked into rock faces--attest to the occurrence of high-energy plasma discharges witnessed by early peoples. Prehistoric stone circles also replicate the pattern. And the pattern has been passed down in art and architecture. The occurrence of this 28-fold form in human records and in the Martial surface bears witness to a recent period of high-energy plasma discharges within the Solar System.
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Gusev crater dust devil Credit: NASA/JPL/Texas A&M
Burned by a Dust Devil

(Sep 16, 2005)
In Mars thin and dry atmosphere, dust devils are the equivalent of Earthly lightning. And they, too, leave behind a record of their passing burned into the soil. Because Mars is a charged body orbiting within a cell of plasma that surrounds the Sun (a stellar plasma sheath), an electric current flows to the Martian surface. Mars atmosphere, like Earths, acts as a self-repairing capacitor, insulating the surface until breakdown voltage is reached. Then the current flows through the atmosphere to the surface, persisting until the electric field strength becomes too weak to sustain the discharge. In Mars thin and dry atmosphere, these arcs take the form of giant vortexes--miles-high dust devils. The electric currents powering these electric tornados burn the surface as they pass over it, leaving the characteristic trail of scorched soil. The Mars Orbiter Camera captured this birds eye view of a dust devil burning its way across the landscape and leaving behind a blackened path. (The shadow of the dust devil lies to the right of it.) Many other dark trails in the vicinity attest to the frequency of dust devils in this area.
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Credit: NASA/CXC/PSU/L.Townsley et al.
The Temperature of a Star Cluster

(Sep 15, 2005)
To produce x-rays, a gas has to be extraordinarily hot. But a plasma can produce xrays as part of its ordinary behavior, whether its hot or cold. The caption that accompanied this x-ray image of a star cluster explained: "Chandra's image of the star cluster Trumpler 14 shows about 1,600 stars and a diffuse glow from hot multimillion degree X-ray producing gas... [Y]oung, massive stars [generate] high-speed winds of particles that are pushed away from their surfaces by the intense radiation. Shock waves that develop in these winds can heat gas to millions of degrees Celsius and produce intense X-ray sources." Any material that has a temperature of millions of degrees is not a gas--its a plasma. And a centurys worth of laboratory investigations--now supplemented by nearly half a centurys worth of space investigations--have established for a fact that plasma has electrical properties. A plasma that is the site of forming stars, exploding stars, and shock waves will certainly also be the site of Birkeland filaments, double layers and current instabilities. Each of these formations is capable of accelerating particles and emitting x-rays. In fact, each of these formations can do that without having a temperature of millions of degrees: It does it the same way your dentists x-ray machine produces x-rays--with a strong electric field.
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Credit: NASA/JPL--Caltech/UMD
Paradigm Lockout, Paradigm Paralysis?

(Sep 13, 2005)
The power of the paradigm tells you what you see. The prevailing comet theories see this image of Tempel 1 as an insubstantial "dirty snowball" or "fluffy dustball," and the Electric Universe theory sees this image as a substantial cratered rock, whether or not embedded ices are present. Today we feature excerpts from four newspaper articles that are reporting what they are told by their scientist interviewees. A September.07, 2005 article in the Guardian reports: "Deep Impact space collision reveals comets to be fluffy balls of powder." This is the latest adjustment of a theory of comets that has seen them first as "dirty snowballs," then as "snowy dirtballs," now as "fluffy balls of powder." Each adjustment has come after new observations have surprised space scientists with data that the older version of the theory failed to predict. Such a consistent series of breakdowns after spot repairs should lead one to suspect there May be a larger flaw in the theory and to consider alternate explanations. But undue attachment to the flawed theory locks one away from other possibilities. A September.07, 2005 article in the New York Times reports: "The collision tossed up thousands of tons of ice and dust from the comet..." On the same day, an article in the Baltimore Sun converted the ice to water: "The impact spewed out millions of gallons of water in tiny droplets and up to 10 times that much dust." What was actually observed was the signature of water in the spectrum of the light from the comet. That the water--as water or as ice--came from the comet's nucleus is an interpretation delivered by the prevailing paradigm. Because comets are isolated bodies that react only to the gravity and radiation of the Sun, the theory implies that there is no source of water except The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Other paradigms suggest other possibilities: In an Electric Universe, the observed water did NOT come from ice on the comet. Rather oxygen ions were electrically machined from the comet. These ions combined with hydrogen ions in the solar "wind" to generate water in the coma, or plasma sheath, that surrounds the nucleus. The Baltimore Sun further reports: "The probe hit the comet with the force of five tons of TNT, forming a crater the size of a football field, A'Hearn said, as it plunged "tens of meters" down into the comet." But the same article revealed: "The dust and water particles spewed out by impact were so tiny and bright that no images have captured the crater's location." The power of the paradigm forces scientists to describe the depth of the plunge and the crater when these can't even be seen. This would be a prediction, not a fact. But because no other possibility is imagined, scientists "know" a crater exists without having seen it. The New York Times article continues: The Spitzer Space Telescope "detected specific colors of infrared light that indicated that Tempel 1 contained clays and carbonates, the minerals of limestone and seashells. "Clays and carbonates both require liquid water to form. "'How do clays and carbonates form in frozen comets where there isn't liquid water?' said Carey M. Lisse, a research scientist at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University who is presenting the Spitzer data today at a meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences in Cambridge, England. 'Nobody expected this.'" Minerals known as clays and carbonates" are commonly known as sedimentary rock! The article adds: "Spitzer also detected minerals known as crystalline silicates. Astronomers had already known that comets contain silicates, but silicates line up in neat crystal structures only when they are warmed to 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit - temperatures reached at around the orbit of Mercury - and then cooled." Minerals "known as crystalline silicates" are usually better know as rock. In the prevailing model the nebular cloud giving birth to comets lies out beyond Pluto, and therefore the temperature would have been far below 1300 degrees. Of course in the prevailing model the nebular cloud from which comets are thought to have formed places their formation out beyond Pluto, and therefore the temperature would have been far below 1300 degrees. In the Electric Universe model comets are the debris that has been electrically excavated from the rocky planets and moons in catastrophic episodes of discharge with other bodies. Cometary nuclei did not condense from a diffuse cloud in isolation but were part of a rocky body before they became comets. Finally, the New York Times article stated: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"Observations of the Deep Impact collision confirmed that the comet is mostly empty space. The outer layers of Tempel 1 are 'unbelievably fragile, less strong than a snow bank,' said Michael A'Hearn, the mission's principal investigator." Confirmed? This is not a fact but an unwarranted assumption forced by the model. It's needed in order to "explain away" the double flash at impact, which in the prevailing paradigm can only mean that the impactor hit a double crust or boundary. In the electric model, a double flash is expected because the impactor and comet have different charges. A potential difference--a voltage--exists between them. When the impactor gets close to the surface, an electrical discharge--lightning--will flash between impactor and nucleus. If the impactor is not torn apart by the discharge, it will produce a second flash when it impacts moments later. With a different paradigm, the observation confirmed that the comet is mostly, and perhaps entirely, solid rock. Unless a range of alternatives is considered, confirmation only means that you see what you believe. (See the essay "Error Probes, Truth Probes, and Space Probes" at http://www.kronia.com/thoth/thothV01.txt ) Contributed by Michael Armstrong
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Credit:CISCO, Subaru 8.3-m Telescope, NAOJ
Gravitational Lensing or Birth of a Theory?

(Sep 12, 2005)
As doubts undermine the theory of gravitational lensing, curious minds begin making new theories. The previous Picture of the Day noticed that curious minds were wondering what else the five bright spots could be besides gravitational lensing of a background quasar by a foreground galaxy. Currently accepted theories were failing to account for an increasing number of observations and skeptical questions. The bias of self-interest was beginning to show, but the habit of scientific methods was undermining the bias. With this image the Subaru telescope looked at the five bright spots with its infrared eyes. It saw four bright quasars with bridges of luminous material connecting them to the galaxy. Halton Arp has collected hundreds of such images--usually pairs of quasars, sometimes three or four, often farther from the galaxy, but on opposite sides, as if the quasars had been ejected from the galaxy like roman candles. When the quasars z is adjusted to the reference frame of the galaxy and averaged for ejection velocities--one toward us, one away--the zs fall on the empirically established quantization periodicities. Curious minds now consider making ("poiein") a new theory. Arp considers that the mass of newly ejected matter is near zero and steps up per the quantization intervals as it ages. Z is therefore a measure of time since ejection, quasars are the "children" of active galaxies, and everything we see in the universe is a lot closer than what the Big Bang imagines. Peratt, following Alfven, considers that galaxies and quasars form in "pinches" in intergalactic Birkeland currents. They evolve through the same sequence of forms as laboratory plasma discharges are observed to do. Thornhill considers that intergalactic circuits power the fissioning of quasars from galactic cores and induce "leakage" currents that power the stars. These leakage circuits in turn power fissioning of gas-giant planets from stellar cores and induce leakage currents that The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive power planetary systems. And there are more--a bouquet of more--enough to satisfy curious minds who want possibilities, not dogma; opportunities, not obsolete certainties. Contributed by Don Scott
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Credit: NICMOS, HST, NASA
Gravitational Lensing or Death of a Theory?

(Sep 09, 2005)
The theory of gravitational lensing makes sense of images of distant quasars around nearby galaxies...until curious minds begin to doubt it. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows five bright spots. Curious minds want to know: What is it? Without a theory, the image is only bright spots. So curious minds make (in the sense of the Greek root "poiein," from which "poetry" derives) a theory... (See the essay "What is Actually the Case" at http://www.kronia.com/thoth/thoVII05.txt ) Analysis of the light from the four outside bright spots shows a high redshift (designated by "z") of 1.73. The light from the inner bright spot shows a z of only 0.31. In the Big Bang theory, z is a measure of distance, so the four outside bright spots must be far away (astronomically speaking) and the inside bright spot must be nearby. The alignment is coincidental. However, such a close configuration of four objects at the farther reaches of the universe incidentally lining up around a nearby object is not likely. Another theory supplies another possibility: In General Relativity, light passing near a massive object will be bent, much as light is bent as it passes through a lens. The effect has even been named "gravitational lensing." If the nearby object were massive enough and a far object were aligned directly behind the nearby object along our line of sight, the gravity of the nearby object could bend the light of the far object into four virtual images flanking the nearby object. With appropriate numbers inserted into the blank spots in the equations, the math works out, and curious minds have made (again in the sense of the Greek root "poiein") sense of the five bright spots: One massive low-z galaxy in the foreground acts as a lens to bend light from one high-z quasar directly behind it to give the appearance of four quasars encircling the galaxy. The image even shows a faint ring of luminosity around the galaxy connecting the quasars, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive just as one would expect with a lens. Its simple. Too simple.
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Further considerations raise doubts. Doubts raise further questions. Curious minds want to know: What else could it be? Item: If the mass distribution matches the luminosity distribution in the galaxy (its more or less spherical and symmetric), the lens should produce a smeared-out ring, not four sharp images. Item: When the z of the quasar is set to the reference frame of the galaxy (1.73 0.31 = 1.42), it falls on a "preferred value" of z. (In the Big Bang, "preferred values" of z can only mean that galaxies and quasars are distributed in shells centered on the Earth, something even more unlikely than the coincidental alignment of four quasars and a galaxy.) Item: The faint ring of luminosity connecting the quasar images is matched by faint spokes of luminosity connecting the quasar images to the galaxy. Item: Gravitational lensing is solely a phenomenon of mass, but galaxies are made of plasma. The primary quality of plasma is charge--electricity--and the effects of electricity overshadow the effects of mass 99 to 1. Energetic phenomena that require 96% dark matter, dark energy and black holes to power with mass require only 4% plasma--the quantity actually observed. Halton Arp--a modern Galileo--May be heard to sigh: "There are hundreds of these things in the sky. The quasars and galaxies are connected." In the established institutions of astronomy, no one hears, no one sees. If galaxies and quasars are connected, z cannot be a measure of distance and the Big Bang is falsified. Textbooks will be rewritten. Grants will be lost. Careers will be undermined. Professors will be fired. The work of a century will die in vain. But even as astronomers stop their ears and blinker their eyes, they continue to gather the evidence that testifies against their pet theory. Contributed by Don Scott
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EDM on Enceladus
(Sep 08, 2005)
Further data from Cassinis close flyby of Saturns moon, Enceladus, confirms ongoing electrical activity. In our Picture of the Day for August 9, 2005, The Hot Poles of Enceladus, we noted: "In the electric view, the warm rilles and hot pole are electrically heated. The water vapor from the rilles is being electrically "machined" from them." The release of further data from the Cassini probe confirms the present activity of an electrical discharge machining (EDM) process. As Cassini passed close by Enceladus south pole on July 14, 2005, it detected a large increase in water vapor and ice particles. Scientists compared the detections to similar ones in flybys of comets, but they hastened to add that these were caused by internal heat, not heating by the sun as they believe to be the case with comets. Enceladus is a Saturnian variant of Jupiters moon, Io, with electrical activity in an "auroral zone" around Enceladus pole. The Electric Universe emphasizes the similarity. In the electric view, the emission of gases and particles from comets is not due to solar heating but to EDM from the potential difference between the comet nucleus and the surrounding solar electric field. Because Enceladus orbits within Saturns plasmasphere, its emission of gases and particles is due to EDM from the potential difference between it and the surrounding Saturnian electric field. Cassini has already mapped the "bending" of Saturns magnetic field around Enceladus "due to electric currents generated by the interaction of atmospheric particles and the magnetosphere of Saturn." The Electric Universe would reverse this cause and effect, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive attributing the interaction (and presence) of particles to the electric currents.
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The pinch effect will squeeze the current channels down to small diameters, producing many filaments that carry the total current. Where the filaments impinge on the surface, they will create "hot spots" as they electrically "machine" away material and pull much of it into space. Detailed measurements during close flybys should detect these filaments as "jets" of vapor, ice and dust. Water vapor that escapes the filaments will crystallize on the surface nearby, becoming the ice that is "very young ... between 10 and 1,000 years old" observed by Cassini. Because the voltage at Enceladus is much less than that at comets, the current is in the "dark discharge" mode rather than in the "glow" mode. The jets and sheaths (comas) of comets shine in visible light because the current density is sufficient to excite atoms and ions to emit light. Lower current densities result in excitation in radio wavelengths; although invisible to the human eye, the jets perform the same work of etching the surface. As they move along the surface, they leave evidence of their activities in the shape of the trenches.
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Solar Power, Internal or External?

(Sep 06, 2005)
Electric Universe proponents claim that solar radiation energy production is external not internal. This is one way of clarifying the difference in approach and merit, between the prevailing gravity-only cosmology versus plasma cosmology. What's inside the sun? Scientists do not know and can only theorize, but we have significant clues that prevailing theories are misguided. Major phenomena such as pulsation and periodicity, sunspots and sunspot cycles, variable solar wind, scant neutrino emission, polarity reversal, temperature increase with altitude, slower velocity of an internal shell, increasing rotation rate from poles to equatorial region, non-convective surface features, the toroid hovering over the equator, and the plasma plume being ejected from the poles are just not expected from the internal nuclear furnace model. Some further examples of features that cause headaches for standard theories are excerpted from Aeon Journal, Vol IV No. 5, p.17: "Our present Pole Star, so long the epitome of stability, has been found to have brightened by 250 per cent over the past two millennia. And astronomers cannot explain why the anomalously rapid rate of increase. As Edward Guinan, an astronomer at Villanova University in Pennsylvania announced, 'It should not be getting that bright that fast. It's not behaving as expected. It's kind of scary.'" And: "Like our Pole Star, Neptune is not only getting brighter, it is also changing its color. Like Saturn and Jupiter, it radiates more heat than it receives and, at present, is actually warmer The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive than Uranus which is closer to the Sun."
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The above is just a small sampling of the enigmatic phenomena of the sun. Explaining such phenomena is quite a challenge for the currently popular theories in astrophysics: They must generally look for a mysterious internal cause powered ultimately by the weak force of gravity. The features listed above have rather simple explanations when the energy source is posited to be an external virtual cathode operating on a positively charged body. In the Electric Universe scheme of things, stars (including brown dwarfs and gas-giant planets) are formed and powered by external agencies: electric fields and plasma currents. The sphericity of our sun is also explained by internal electric forces that simply overwhelm gravitational and centrifugal forces that otherwise should make the sun oblate..
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Credit: Farhad Yusef-Zadeh et al. (Northwestern), VLA, NRAO
Galactic Currents or Collisions?

(Sep 02, 2005)
Although there is only one image, the mainstream view and the plasma view see entirely different objects. The Astronomy Picture of the Day described this image this way: "What causes this unusual structure near the center of our Galaxy? The long parallel rays slanting across the top of the above radio image are known collectively as the Galactic Center Radio Arc and jut straight out from the Galactic plane. The Radio Arc is connected to the Galactic center by strange curving filaments known as the Arches. The bright radio structure at the bottom right likely surrounds a black hole at the Galactic center and is known as Sagittarius A*. One origin hypothesis holds that the Radio Arc and the Arches have their geometry because they contain hot plasma flowing along lines of constant magnetic field. Recent images from the Chandra X-ray Observatory appear to show this plasma colliding with a nearby cloud of cold gas." Whats unusual for orthodox astronomy is familiar for plasma astronomy. What orthodoxy sees as "long parallel rays," plasma astronomy sees as spiraling pairs of magnetic-fieldaligned Birkeland currents. The "strange curving filaments" in the conventional view are, in the plasma view, more Birkeland currents feeding electrical power into the galactic center. The popular theory-derived "black hole" is, with plasma, a scaled-up version of an empirically laboratory-demonstrated plasmoid. Although convention gives token acknowledgement to plasma in the next-to-last sentence, the final sentence belies its ignorance of how plasma actually behaves: Field-aligned plasma flows are better known as Birkeland currents. They generate x-rays electrically, not from the heat of collisions. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Credit: Left: The Electronic Universe Project, Nelson Caldwell. Right: John Smith
A New Theory for the Ring Nebula

(Sep 01, 2005)
New observations of planetary nebulae have falsified old theories, but established theoreticians cling to what they knew despite the availability of more adequate theories. The Ring Nebula has long been a favorite object of amateur astronomers and has been considered the prototypical planetary nebula. Until recently, the accepted explanation for its appearance, based on the standard theory of stellar structure and evolution, has been that typified by this caption to the April 14, 2005, Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD): "The appearance as a ring is really an illusion of projection--the nebula is actually a spherical shell. At the center a blue dot is visible which is the old core of the star, known as a white dwarf. It is still not known exactly how the star throws off the gas that becomes the nebula." The instrumentation of the space age trampled that idea into obsolescence. (See "Beyond Dark and Empty" at http://www.kronia.com/thoth/thoVII01.txt ) Clearer and more detailed images from space telescopes, in other-than-optical light, and with electronic sensors have revealed that planetary nebulae have an axial structure that exhibits bipolar symmetry. The accepted explanation is now that typified by this caption to March 22, 2003, APOD: "This planetary nebula's simple, graceful appearance is thought to be due to perspective--our view from planet Earth looking straight into what is actually a barrel-shaped cloud of gas shrugged off by a dying central star." This time the caption neglected to say, "It is still not known exactly how the star throws off the gas that becomes the nebula." If a spherical ejection was not "exactly" known, the barrelshaped one is even less "exactly" known. Although the explanation has changed in response to new observations, the theory is stuck in the mud of institutional astronomy. Theoreticians work to find or to create loopholes in the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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theory through which they can squeeze the observations rather than admit the theory has been falsified and create another, more accurate, theory. This may ensure job security, but its intellectually timid. Conventional astronomers are at a loss to know "exactly how the star throws off the gas" because neither the nebula nor the star is composed of "gas." Gas behaves according to the laws of gas kinetics. But actually the star and nebula are composed of plasma, which behaves according to the laws of electrical discharges and circuits. The star itself is the focus of Birkeland currents that make up a circuit flowing around the galaxy. The electromagnetic "pinch effect" that squeezes plasma into the star also forms the "ring"--actually a toroidal (doughnut-shaped)--current around the stars equator. The density of the current causes the plasma in the ring to glow. The Electric Universe explanation is that we are looking almost down the axis of an hourglass-shaped plasma structure. As the Birkeland currents expand away from the pinch, the current density decreases and the glow is less. Modern instruments are sensitive enough to detect this glow, which reveals the structure of the currents feeding the ring: a roughly circular arrangement of bright spots at the ends of dimmer filaments. (The filaments of current continue away from the bright spots; but the plasma density is such that they no longer glow.) We now know that the prototypical form of planetary nebulae has changed. In response, we need to change the theory that explains it.
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Martian Thunderbolt Strikes a Positive Note

(Aug 30, 2005)
An "inverted crater" near Mars south pole May indicate electrical deposition. This circular feature in the ice cap at Mars south pole shows significant differences from the electrically eroded craters and rilles found at the north pole. The almost perfect circularity of the feature together with the concentric ridges is an earmark of its electrical origin. But the ridges gently undulate around the central funnel-shaped depression. They dont have the sharply-cut and steep sides typical of electrical discharge machining (EDM). And although there is a tiny peak of material in the center of the funnel, the funnel is rather the opposite of a craters central peak. The small-scale texture of the surface also departs from the usual appearance of EDM surfaces. The texture is made up of roughly concentric and radial lines around the center of the feature, giving an "alligator skin" appearance. But instead of being cut into the surface, the "humps" between them seem to have been piled up onto the surface. This surface contrasts with the remains of an overlying layer that lie mostly to the left of the funnel. That layer has been eaten away by typical EDM trenches and pits, which also show the terraces that appear in other eroded areas of the ice cap. Significantly, the trenches and chains of pits also show a concentric and radial alignment. What could have caused this "inverted" crater that is almost a negative image of the typical EDM crater? The accepted impact theory of crater formation relies on gravity and mass, which have only one polarity: collisions cause erosion. But the Electric Universe has at its explanatory disposal two polarities: negative and positive. The negative--a cathode--causes erosion; but the positive--an anode--is a site of deposition. Extensive research into the prehistoric human past has provided strong evidence that in antiquity an interplanetary electrical discharge struck not only Earth but Mars as well. Most likely, Mars north pole acted as a cathode and its south pole acted as an anode. The entire The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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northern hemisphere was subjected to extensive EDM. leading one researcher to comment that the north "polar cap is the central peak of a hemispheric-sized crater." The other hemisphere--and its pole--suffered electrical deposition. This accounts for the fine layering found in many locations. And it could account for the "inverted trenches" covering the surface of the "inverted crater" in this image. Little laboratory research has been done on the effects of anode discharges (as distinguished from cathode discharges). None has been performed with dry ice--the primary constituent of Mars polar cap. Its an open question: How does frozen carbon dioxide react to a positive high-voltage spark?
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Curly Trenches in Mars Ice Cap

(Aug 29, 2005)
Electrical arcs traveling in geometric arcs have left nearly circular scars at Mars South Pole. Its summer at Mars South Pole, and the ice cap--made of frozen carbon dioxide--is sublimating in the sun. And the residual surface is showing the scars left by earlier encounters with planetary-scale electrical arcs. Previously, we described another area scarred by moving arcs that eroded steep-sided and flat-bottomed trenches in the ice. Here, the arcs moved only a little. They curled at the beginning and at the end. The shorter movements, perhaps rotating in an external magnetic field, produced kidney-bean shaped trenches. Most of the trenches have a terrace inside. After cutting the larger trench down to the level of the terrace, the arc pinched down to a smaller size. It also rotated unevenly, or perhaps there was an oscillation in the current: the terrace walls are scalloped. In many places transient surges in the current have left slightly deeper circular scars in the floors. Numerous trenches show that the arc traveled in an almost complete circle: The small indentation in the lower right "corner" of each trench indicates where the arc failed to return to its starting point. Perhaps the axis around which the arc was rotating moved along the surface only a tiny bit: If the longer trenches were to have their linear segments removed, they too would appear in the shape of kidney beans. Where trenches overlap, the intersections are clean--another mark of electrical discharge machining. The electrical forces that cut the surface are powerful enough to remove most or all the debris, either vaporizing it or carrying it into space. The "islands" of original surface The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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make the almost-circular trenches look like craters with central peaks. In the electrical view, the two conditions are practically the same: Craters with central peaks are formed by two or more cutting arcs rotating around the axis of a larger vortex. These islands were formed by possibly only one arc rotating in a larger magnetic field.
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Credit: Michael Armstrong
Galactic Rotation: Point or Axis?

(Aug 26, 2005)
Are galaxies collections of components (stars and clusters) that revolve around a center of mass, or are they semi-rigid structures that rotate as a whole around the axis? Thinking the unthinkable? No, its just a simple paradigm change. In the prevailing gravity-only cosmology each galactic component (stars and clusters) must revolve around the galactic center of mass--a point--unless one brings in special "posited" factors. Because galaxies are extended in three dimensions, unlike the Solar System with its planets orbiting in a plane, the orbital dynamics of stars and clusters revolving around a galactic center present a huge problem. Orbits will cross, perhaps collide, certainly become destabilized. Clusters would be disrupted. Spiral galactic arms are a special challenge: Observations indicate that their stars revolve at a too-constant speed, but revolution around a central point requires the speed to decrease more with distance. Conventional astrophysicists have assumed the existence of "dark matter" and "dark energy" in just the amounts and locations necessary to solve these and other orbital dynamical problems. Because dark matter and dark energy cant be detected, they are a "blank check" that conventional theorists can use to postpone the bankruptcy of a falsified theory. In the Electric Universe, galaxies are not isolated island universes generating their energy from coalesced material via thermonuclear fusion reactions. They are systems of plasmadischarge components that are "driven" by intergalactic Birkeland currents. These systems rotate around an axis, much like a homopolar motor. There are no crossing orbits or disruptions of clusters--except in the case of active galaxies The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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undergoing an electrical "surge," characterized by luminous "star-forming" regions and often polar jets ejecting quasars. There is no need for undetectable dark matter, dark energy, or black holes. Instead, the forms, dynamics, and evolutions of plasma galaxies can be produced and studied in laboratory setting. Submitted by Michael Armstrong
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Electrical Erosion on Mars Ice Cap

(Aug 25, 2005)
The trenches in the dry ice around Mars south pole display many of the characteristics of electrical discharge machining. These parallel trenches have been cut into the carbon dioxide ice at Mars south pole. They illustrate typical characteristics of electrical discharge machining (EDM) by multiple arcs. Because each discharge channel is circular in cross section and strikes the surface at a right angle, it cuts a circular hole. Because the current is constant over this cross section, the bottom of the hole is flat. As the arc moves across the surface, it cuts a trench with constant width and depth and with circular ends, much like a router bit. The total current in natural discharges will vary, often suddenly, causing the discharge to cut deeper or shallower, wider or narrower, to branch, to jump, or to quench and re-strike some distance away. All these variations can be seen in the trenches imaged here. Many trenches have narrower and deeper trenches inside them or they have terraced walls, where a wider channel cut part way and then suddenly narrowed before cutting further. In the trenches and on the flat surfaces between them are circular depressions where a transient surge in power or a secondary spark eroded a bit of material without moving along the surface, creating a shallow crater. In several places the trenches are made up of a chain of overlapping craters. The trenches begin and end abruptly, often continuing in line with a previous trench. The cutting arc either jumped over the intervening space, or the arc quenched and re-struck some distance away as the electric field continued to move along the surface. Where an arc branched into two, or where two arcs coalesced into one, the axes of the trenches tend to join at a right angle, again a feature typical of electrical discharges. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Repulsive forces tend to space simultaneous arcs equidistantly from each other, causing the trenches they cut to be roughly equally spaced. This region was probably cut by one or more "fans" of arcs, roughly in a plane, perpendicular to the surface, sweeping over the surface. The vertical forces in the accompanying electric field would have pulled the debris away from the surface into the atmosphere or into space. Alternatively, the heating of the debris (dry ice) by the electric current could have caused it to sublimate. In either case, the surface would be left free of debris, the trenches and craters left "rimless," as is seen.
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Yardangs or Scavenger Currents?

(Aug 23, 2005)
The thin wind of Mars is the only agent that conventional theory can imagine to erode this landform. The Electric Universe has several agents available. This gashed surface west to southwest of Olympus Mons on Mars is described as "yardangs, a ridge-and-groove landform produced by wind erosion of a granular, sand-rich bedrock." Its questionable whether winds in Mars thin atmosphere could cause erosion this extensive, even over millions of years, or this angular, especially over millions of years. But conventional theory has no other acceptable agent, so wind is simply assumed. From an Electric Universe point of view, this image probably shows the continuation of the "fan" of current filaments that etched similar grooves across the top and down the scarp of Olympus Mons. The monstrous thunderbolt that raised the " fulgamite" (electrical blister) of Olympus Mons would have scavenged charges from a wide region. That these grooves owe their origin to electrical machining, not to wind, is indicated by the transverse ridges evenly spaced across the channels. These are the marks left by the coronal "hairs" that extend perpendicular to the current axis of a discharge running across or just under the surface. (See the discussion of transverse ridges on Mars at http://www.holoscience.com/news/wateronmars.html toward the end of the article.) But thats not the only possibility. Because Mars was likely caught up in at least one recent event of planetary catastrophism, present conditions on Mars are unlikely to be the key to its past. (See the essay at http://www.kronia.com/thoth/ThotIV11.txt "The Uniformitarian Principle.") The atmosphere May have been significantly denser in the past and the winds a lot stronger. There would still have been electrical effects: We have always lived, after all, in a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Whether these ridges and grooves were caused primarily by electrical or mechanical agents, whether they are associated with the formation of Olympus Mons, whether they are the result of a separate episode of planetary catastrophism, or whether they have another origin are open questions. In contrast to conventional theory, which allows only ad hoc interpretation of accepted dogma and requires ignoring details that dont fit, the Electric Universe offers an open field for the discovery of general principles that provide a coherent "big picture" of our universe.
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Credit: G. Illingworth (UCO/Lick), ACS Science Team, ESA, NASA
Gravitational Lensing Used As Excuse Again

(Aug 22, 2005)
Recognizing the electrical behavior of plasma restores sensibility to a science dominated by "dark ideas" about undetectable (and therefore unscientific) matter. Over 99% of the matter in the universe is in the form of plasma--aggregates of matter that contain charged particles. The charged particles move in response to electromagnetic forces, which can overpower gravity billions of times over. Through collisions, the charged particles carry neutral particles along with them. A very few charged particles can shape large amounts of matter into characteristic forms such as filaments, arcs and toruses. The electric currents flowing through plasma can heat it to high temperatures and accelerate particles to x-ray and cosmic-ray energies. Unfortunately, the established institutions of astronomy are willfully blind to the existence of electricity in the universe. And so they must try to explain plasma phenomena with the weak force of gravity. Because there isnt enough matter in the universe to accomplish this, astronomers have had to fantasize invisible, "dark" matter and energy. In this image of Abell 1689, a cluster of small, faint galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, active galaxies have generated arcs of plasma with high redshifts, indicative of a young age for the highly excited material. Because conventional theory requires redshift to be solely a measure of distance, conventional astronomers are forced to believe that the arcs represent objects that are much farther away than the cluster. The only way to accomplish this with gravity is to have the cluster act as a lens that distorts objects behind the cluster as it warps those objects light around the cluster. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The caption to this image that appeared in the Astronomy Picture of the Day admitted: "The power of this enormous gravitational lens depends on its mass, but the visible matter, in the form of the cluster's yellowish galaxies, only accounts for about one percent of the mass needed to make the observed bluish arcing images of background galaxies. In fact, most of the gravitational mass required to warp space enough to explain this cosmic scale lensing is in the form of still mysterious dark matter." Because they refuse to see that 99% of the visible matter is plasma that defies their dogma, conventional astronomers must pretend that 99% of the matter is invisible but "dogmatically correct." Contributed by Don Scott
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E-Wind
(Aug 19, 2005)
Unquestioned assumptions obscure new phenomena with old visions and inappropriate explanations. To understand features on Mars, we need to engage an active skepticism that asks, "What else could explain them?" The caption to this image from the Medusae Sulci region of Mars explains it this way: "Wind eroded the bedrock in this region, and then, later, windblown dust covered much of the terrain." What is meant by "wind" is taken for granted, which means that the assumptions underlying it derive from past human experience on Earth. These unquestioned geocentric and anthropocentric assumptions have repeatedly generated problems for space explorers trying to explain features off Earth. In an unfamiliar environment, familiar assumptions need to be questioned. One needs to ask, "What else could it be?" One needs to try out different assumptions. (See the essay at http://www.kronia.com/thoth/thothV01.txt titled "Error Probes, Truth Probes, and Space Probes.") The Electric Universe begins with different assumptions and therewith raises further questions. It May agree with conventional theory that wind is the agent of erosion, but with more than one explanation for wind, the further question is, "What is the agent of wind?" Conventional theory explains wind solely as the result of convection and gas kinetics. The Electric Universe recognizes that electric discharges also generate wind. Electromagnetic forces in plasma move and accelerate charged particles--ions and dust--and collisions between charged and neutral particles carry the neutrals--air molecules--along . The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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This "e-wind" can be seen in dust devils and tornadoes, where the strong electromagnetic forces in the plasma vortex lift and spin not only the few ions and charged dust grains but large volumes of air and neutral dust--and roofs, vegetation, and even vehicles. On Mars, we have seen the much larger dust devils and the many trails they have swept and burned into the surface. In the image above, the marks of erosion show no tendency to curve. If the e-wind was a vortex, the entire region must have been engulfed in a planet-sized tornado. The Electric Universe suggests an appropriately sized agent: Comparative mythology has reconstructed the existence of an interplanetary plasma discharge in the pre-historical Age of Myth. The discharge channel appeared as a column that enveloped several planets. As is typical of plasma discharges, the column would have spiraled, constituting an interplanetary tornado. Mars atmosphere--perhaps denser then than now--would have been whipped around with the tornado, eroding the Martian surface in a short time. If the Martian atmosphere was sufficiently coupled with the interplanetary tornado, the tornado could be the reason Mars has such little atmosphere left.
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Clean Craters All in a Row

(Aug 18, 2005)
Conventional explanations for rows of craters without rubble in them can avoid contradicting themselves only if obvious questions are not asked. Recognition of the electrical effects of plasma, however, leads to self-consistent explanations that have a high degree of generality. The First Law of Modern Astronomy is: Thou shalt not ask questions that cast doubt on accepted theory. In the case of this image of craters on Mars, the accepted theory is the impact origin of craters. The image is interpreted in light of the theory, no questions asked, in the accompanying caption: "[T]hree aligned meteor impact craters on the floor of a much larger crater in the Noachis Terra region. The craters May have formed together from a single event in which the impactor (the meteor) was broken into three pieces." A single event is required because there is no rubble on the floors of the craters from the adjacent impacts. The blast forces would have had to act simultaneously to displace laterally the ejecta situated between the impacts. But the only imaginable way to get three craters in a single event is to have the impactor break into three pieces. And then the problem returns to the first observation of three aligned craters: It is unlikely that a meteor breaking up under the forces of heat and shock in the atmosphere will produce pieces that travel abreast to the surface. The theory has bitten itself on the ankle and is hobbling around in a circle. Coincidences do happen. But if this explanation of simultaneity is to have any generality The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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beyond this one case, coincidence is stretched to credulity in the many cases of chains of craters numbering far beyond three. The Electric Universe asks if these aligned craters might be better explained as electrical discharge scars. An electric arc impinging on a surface will "machine" out a circular hole, much like a router bit. The bottom will be fairly flat; the sides will be steep; the removed material will be lifted away, leaving a clean excavation. Especially with a moving electrode, the discharge channel will tend to "jump" along the line of motion, leaving a linear series of craters. Because the debris is lifted from the surface, subsequent craters will not throw debris into previous ones. The arc will pull charges from the surrounding ground, forming smaller channels that travel horizontally over or under the surface. These will leave gullies, or "rilles," directed more or less radially toward the crater. As these secondary currents reach the main arc, they will rise to join it, leaving a triangular area beneath them where the excavation forces are reduced. This will produce the characteristic "pinched up" rims, steep on both inside and outside, with more or less evenly spaced gullies traveling up them. After the arc quenches, of course, gravity will cause any loose material that exceeds the "angle of repose" to slide down. In view of the facts that 99% of the universe is composed of plasma, that Mars is immersed in plasma, and that spacecraft have detected electric currents in every plasma they have penetrated, astronomers need to begin doubting the obsolete theories that were conceived before the electrical properties of plasma were discovered.
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Credit: NICMOS, HST, NASA
Gravitational Lensing Misused Again*

(Aug 16, 2005)
Gravitational lensing is the currently fashionable explanation for arcs of luminosity around galaxies. But that explanation overlooks details that can be better explained as plasma discharge formations. Conventional "gravity-only" astronomy sees in this image of a galaxy with a ring around it the bending of light by gravity: "Here the foreground galaxy acts like a huge gravitational lens, pulling the light from the background object ... into a nearly perfect giant ring around the foreground galaxy." But the father of conventional "gravity-only" astronomy, Albert Einstein, wouldnt have agreed. In 1936 he published a one-page paper in Science on gravitational lensing. He said: Observe a certain star A on the sky and imagine another star B in the line of sight toward A. What will happen to the light coming from A? He showed that when A, B and the observer are exactly aligned a ring-like image will be formed. When B is even a small distance away from the line of sight, two images of A will be created. However, the angular separation between these images, or the diameter of the ring, is of the order of thousandths of an arc-second and cannot be resolved. What will be seen is only the enhanced brightness of A since the sum of the luminosity of the two images (or ring) is larger than the luminosity of the star itself. The ring in this image, at one arc-second diameter, seems far too large to be a lensing effect. More plausibly this image shows all of the features of the "planetary nebula effect" viewed end-on. The electrical discharge nature of planetary nebulae was argued by Dr. Charles Bruce, FRAS, more than 50 years ago. It is a simple plasma phenomenon that is scalable from the laboratory to galactic proportions. Plasma astronomers note that the ring is composed of bright spots that seem to be roughly paired and associated with filamentary "spokes" that have the so-called "foreground" galaxy The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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as their hub. This is the typical appearance of a "plasma focus" discharge viewed along the axis. Furthermore, such discharges usually begin with 56 filaments and evolve into 28. Although it's difficult to count the spots in this ring, there could very well be 28. Contributed by Don Scott * This Picture of the Day was modified on Aug 17, 2005 to clarify the reasoning.
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Credit: CU-Boulder, NASA/JPL, Central Arizona College, USC
Electric Lights on Saturn

(Aug 15, 2005)
The discovery of electric currents everywhere in space makes the meteorological vocabulary of astrophysicists obsolete. This false-color image of Saturn in ultraviolet light shows the complete circle of an aurora around Saturns south pole and part of the aurora around its north pole. From almost the beginning of the space age, plasma physicists have known that electric currents flow from regions high above Earths equator to the auroral regions around the magnetic poles and that these circuits power the auroras. Presumably, Saturns auroras are lit by similar circuitry. But conventional astrophysicists persist in describing auroras with meteorological metaphors: "hydrogen gas excited by electron bombardment" that responds to "changes in the solar wind." The inertia of prior belief in the dogma that "you cant get charge separation in space" obscures their perception that the charged particles they measure are in fact separated and that the movement of those charged particles in fact constitutes an electric current. From the measurements of charged-particle movements in Earths plasma sheath, plasma physicists have mapped the complex electrical circuits that not only power the auroras but also generate magnetic storms, constitute the so-called radiation belts, likely produce Earths magnetic field, and May drive the weather. Similar circuits but at a larger scale and with more power likely flow in Saturns plasma sheath. They would be responsible for Saturns auroras as well as its polar hot spots, its storms, its lightning, the occasional spokes on its ring system, and probably its high-speed and banded wind system. With electric currents flowing everywhere our spacecraft have gone, we must look to plasma physicists and electrical engineers for explanations that fit the facts. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Talemzane Crater in Algeria Credit: Landsat ETM
Richat Crater Revisited (2)

(Aug 12, 2005)
Why is it so difficult to find evidence of impacts for these craters? And why are their features so unlike those expected from impact craters? Both questions are answered if these craters were electrically machined by rotating Birkeland currents. Electric Discharge Machined (EDM) craters of these sizes require a discharge between Earth and a celestial visitor coming close. Chunks of charged material in orbit around the visitor, while being swept up by the Earth, would puncture the Earth's double-layer Langmuir sheath and leave ionized trails to the Earth. Such trails would be paths of least resistance for an ensuing discharge arc from the visitor. The discharges would likely fragment the chunks, and the fragments could impact around the craters. But the craters themselves are clearly from EDM because, among other distinctive features, the crater bottoms show no sign of impact fracturing. Talemzane Crater. 1.75km diameter http://www.image-contrails.de/algeria/index.html and click on "display crater map" The Talemzane crater, shown in the two different images above, is located in Algeria, close to the Richat Crater area. Projectiles of limestone block of up to 10m make up the crest of the rim. The Global Impact Studies Project states: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"There is petrographic evidence for Talemzane's impact origin. Thin sections cut from several different rocks have revealed planar elements in quartz, sometimes accompanied by fluid inclusions. Although no other evidence of shock metamorphism has been found, planar elements in quartz are a fairly conclusive sign of an impact event." But Project scientists have not considered all possibilities: These elements are only a sign of shock, and an interplanetary thunderbolt would produce quite "shocking" thunder. Although Talemzane is somewhat out of alignment with the Richat group one must take into account the Earth's rotation. This would indicate that the celestial visitor approached from the north-east and the main discharge activity took place at what is now Richat Crater. When there are high current flows during DC arcing there are forces that "grip" between the anode and cathode. It would be quite possible for a celestial body passing another celestial body to have its course altered by strong plasma discharges. Aouelloul Crater, Diameter 390 m. Aouelloul is located in Ordovician sandstones and quartzite in the western Sahara Desert, Mauritania and is one of the smaller craters. Again, in regard to "impact" evidence, the Global Impact Studies Project states: "The rim is well-defined and rises 15-25m above the local topography, and 53m above the crater floor. ...While breccias are not found at Aouelloul, impact glass can be found on the south, southeast, and north outer part of the crater rim. Because the glass is enriched in siderophile elements, has a low water content, and contains lechatelierite (a product of shock deformation), it has been interpreted as an impact glass." "Proving Allouellouls impact origin has proved extremely difficult... Instead of relying on petrography, scientists have used chemical analysis to prove an impact origin here. While most of the glass is compositionally similar to the local Zli sandstone, the glass does have high concentrations of Fe, Co, Ni, and Ir. All of these elements are extremely common in stony meteorites, and then ratios in the impact glass are consistent with ratios seen in meteorites. In addition, the Re-OS isotope ratios of the glass were measured. This method examines the admixture of small amounts of recondensed material with low Os ratios to target rocks with high Os ratios. "At Aouelloul, the Os ratios of the impact glass are extremely similar to those of both chondritic and iron meteorites. This suggests that the Os present in the glass came from a meteorite, as the amount present is much too high to have had a terrestrial origin." Again, the Project conclusion (of impact) is premature: An interplanetary thunderbolt would also melt siderophile debris into glass. In fact, the question is still open about how much melting an impact can produce: Laboratory impacts expend most of their energy in shock displacement. Material suddenly "flows" in a starburst pattern and just as suddenly "freezes" again. Very little melting occurs, because the energy is dissipated too quickly for conduction to raise materials to their melting points. Electric discharge, on the other hand, can directly heat the material. Quarkziz crater, 3.5km in diameter See: http://www.image-contrails.de/algeria/index.html The Quarkziz crater is another that is in the same region as the Richat aligned craters. Again, regarding the impact issue, the Global Impact Studies Project states: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"The Quarkziz crater is located in western Algeria, close to the Moroccan border. The crater is 3.5km in diameter, and has a central uplift structure. The external rim has a height of 100m from top to bottom, and is made up of strongly dipping sedimentary rocks..." "Quarkziz has limited evidence of an impact origin, in that no impact glass or meteorite fragments have been found. However, petrographic studies have identified planar deformation features in quartzites from the central uplift structure, and from the outer edges of the crater..." As noted above, the presence of shocked quartz doesnt distinguish between impact and thunderbolt. A final datum What should be disconcerting to "impact" theorists is that in dozens of craters studied closely around the Earth, meteorite fragments were documented in only three.
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Credit: NASA
Richat Crater Revisited

(Aug 11, 2005)
Why do these three craters and a fourth line up and why are they so circular? We suggest these three craters are part of the same discharge event series. Circularity is an earmark of Birkeland-current machined craters. See: TPOD for April 07, 2005 Earth's Richat Crater Tenoumer crater, diameter 1.9 km, N 2255' - W 1024' See: http://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/geomorphology/GEO_2/geo_images_T-61/PlateT-61.K.jpeg Satellites photos show this crater, located on top of the Pliocene (or younger) sediments overlaying Precambrian gneisses and granites in the western Sahara desert, Mauritania. to be quite circular. Projectiles found outside the crater are up to 20m long and consist of rock material containing altered gneiss and granite clasts with small fractured glass inclusions on the surface. Temimichat crater, diameter 750 m, N 2415' - W 939' See: http://www.image-contrails.de/mauritania/index.html It is interesting to note that the Richat Crater is very slightly oval and its major axis is inline with the two other craters. We suggest that these three craters are part of the same discharge event series, conventional "dating" notwithstanding. Crater chains are a common result of electric arcs passing over a cathode surface because the arc "sticks" and machines out a circle and then jumps to repeat the process. The excavated material is accelerated upwards, some into space, some to fall back down The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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around the area, and some to just pile up along the edge forming the raised rims. The twisted Birkeland current of the discharge channel usually doesn't machine as intensely in the center of the crater and it leaves a formation of undisturbed material ranging from a slightly elevated mound to a tall spike of rock. The type of central "peak" depends on many factors: the narrowness, focus and intensity of the Birkeland current, the type of material being excavated and the material's current carrying capacity. When the current is narrow and intense, and the material is dense, most of the excavated material is accelerated away from the area. The result is deep canyons and/or craters with steep walls and central spikes. Conversely, broad, less intense currents machine out shallow craters with central mounds, less steep walls, and material piled up along the edge and strewn around the more immediate area. Relatively flat floors are a feature of this Electric Discharge Machining (EDM), and our modern industry uses tightly controlled EDM to produce extremely smooth surfaces on molds for "polished" surfaces on plastic parts or products. Those who have experience with machine shop EDM have no difficulty in relating to this model of crater formation. Composed by Shaun Bourke and Michael Armstrong
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The Hot Poles of Enceladus

(Aug 09, 2005)
The unexpected hot spot around Enceladus south pole is another indication of electric currents coursing through Saturns moon and connected with the electric circuits that compose Saturns plasma sheath. The NASA press release reports that this image "startled" scientists. The hot spot around Enceladus south pole is "very difficult to explain if sunlight is the only energy source heating the surface." The only other likely heat source available to conventional theorists is internal heat, but they are "unsure how the internal heat reaches the surface." Close-up images reveal a series of somewhat parallel fractures that are the centers of the heat. NASA scientists speculate that internal heat escapes through these fractures and evaporates the ice along them, thereby generating Enceladus thin atmosphere of water vapor, which seems to be concentrated over the south pole. Water escaping from the atmosphere May be the source of the icy material in Saturns E ring, the largest ring, in which Enceladus orbits. The fractures are only 1 to 2 kilometers wide but extend over 100 kilometers in length. Proponents of the Electric Universe recognize this form as the typical electrically excavated rille. They also notice the correspondence of Enceladus hot pole with hot spots around the poles of other planets and moons. The electrical circuits in Saturns plasma sheath will include a "neutral sheet" and ring currents (plasma toroids) in the plane of the rings, and Enceladus orbits within those currents. In this respect, Enceladus is similar to Io, orbiting within an equatorial toroid around Jupiter and connected to Jupiters auroral circuit by a polar flux tube. As Peratt and Dessler have shown in Filamentation of Volcanic Plumes on the Jovian Satellite Io, A. L. Peratt and A. J. Dessler, Astrophys. Space Sci. 144, pp. 451-461, 1988 (1M)., Ios "volcanoes" are "plasma gun" discharges in the electric circuits flowing through and around Io. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In the electric view, the warm rilles and hot pole are electrically heated. The water vapor from the rilles is being electrically "machined" from them. A similar process should be occurring at the north pole, where the electric current flowing through Enceladus returns to Saturns sheath circuit. NASA scientists have noticed the "bending" of Saturns magnetic field around Enceladus "due to electric currents generated by the interaction of atmospheric particles and the magnetosphere of Saturn." But their blind spot with regard to plasma behavior leads them to insist that the electric currents "dont do anything." The past century of plasma research demonstrates just the opposite. Experimental scientists from Birkeland to Alfven confirm the insight of Heraclitus in the Fifth Century BCE: It is the thunderbolt that steers the universe.
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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/A. Martinez-Sansigre (Oxford University)
Quasars in Infrared are Still Nearby

(Aug 08, 2005)
Astronomers claim that the Spitzer infrared telescope has found distant black holes hiding behind dust clouds. More likely Spitzer has found the standard signature of electric discharge in space. We hear a lot about the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR): Big Bang astronomers proclaim that it proves the Ultimate Truth of the Big Bang theory. But theres also a cosmic x-ray background radiation (CXBR) that in the Big Bang universe can only come from black holes: No other object can concentrate the weak gravitational force enough to produce the quantity of x-rays observed. The problem has been that there arent enough black holes to account for the observed quantity. Now the Spitzer infrared telescope has found a lot of hot dust clouds, and the Big Bang astronomers are seizing on the discovery as proof that many black holes are hiding their optical light behind the dust. Under the astronomers theoretical assumptions concerning redshift (the stretching of light toward red on the spectrum), they believe they know the distance to the hot dust clouds. So its a simple calculation to determine the energy output required to make the dust appear as hot as Spitzer sees it: Voil--all the black holes astronomers need (if not more). The trouble is that these black-hole wanna-bes are identified as quasars. In the image above, blue and green spots represent Spitzers observations at two infrared wavelengths, red spots represent radio observations, and the yellow spot represents an object radiating in both infrared and radio--the signature of a quasar. But quasars are observationally and statistically The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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linked to relatively nearby galaxies. This means that astronomers have been deceived by the quasars redshifts. They have assumed that redshift is an indicator of distance, despite the admonition from a growing number of critics that the quasars redshifts are largely intrinsic to the objects themselves. If the quasars are not at the farthest reaches of the universe, their energy output is much less than the math indicates, so much less that they cant be black holes. And the Big Bang again cant account for the CXBR. Plasma cosmology easily steps over this line in the sand over which the Big Bang stumbles. Electrical double layers associated with active galaxies and quasars generate copious amounts of x-rays, and they do it "the easy way," by accelerating electrons through an electric field, just like your dentist does. There are no black holes lurking in his x-ray machine. Double layers also emit a lot of microwave and radio radiation. They dont need to be hot to do it (although they can be). They dont need to squeeze a lot of matter into the mathematical abstraction of a black hole to do it. They merely radiate some of the electrical energy coursing through the circuit that lights up the parent active galaxy and the next-generation quasar.
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Credit: Mars rover Spirit.
NASA on Martian Dust Devils--"Theyre Electrified!"

(Jul 21, 2005)
"When humans visit Mars, they'll have to watch out for towering electrified dust devils." With these words, a NASA news release, dated July 14, 2005, gave official sanction to an idea that has percolated up from separately funded research projects in recent years. The new research involved chasing dust devils in the Arizona desert where investigators were surprised to find that these vortices are electrically charged. The obvious inference is that Martian dust devils might be charged too. Meanwhile, in 1999 the leading theorist of the Electric Universe had written, based on other evidence: "Electric discharges from space cause Mars' huge dust devils and planet-wide dust storms." A good indicator of electrical discharge from ground to air within a Martian dust devil can be seen in the frames of a movie taken by the rover Spirit as the vortex spun across Gusev Crater just before noon on March 15, 2005. The luminosity of the apparent discharge activity at the base is compelling and confirms the earlier claim of Electric Universe advocates that the dark tracks left by the tornado-like whirlwinds on Mars are due to electric discharge. The NASA release described a typical dust devil on Mars as a "monster column towering kilometers high and hundreds of meters wide, 10 times larger than any tornado on Earth." Were an astronaut to come face to face with such a monster he would encounter "red-brown sand and dust whipping around faster than 30 meters per second (70 miles per hour)" as visibility dropped to zero. And the "scariest part" would be the incessant crackling and flashing of miniature lightning, the article reports. Wallace Thornhill and others have proposed for at least a decade that dust devils, tornadoes, and waterspouts are electric discharge phenomena. See "Electric Dust Devils."] The electrical theorists urge NASA researchers to drop once and for all the long-standing and unsupported dogma of an electrically neutral solar system, which has prevented meteorologists from The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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seeing the larger role of electricity in weather phenomena on all planets, and even on the Sun. Scientists exploring Martian dust devils are forced to locate the "cause" of the electrical discharges in solar heating and the resulting mechanical energy of air convection. But in the Electric Universe, rotating columns of air are a natural consequence of atmospheric electric discharge. Rotating columns are the prevalent forms taken by electric currents in plasma. A researcher unaware of the global circuitry involved will be limited to mere discussions of localized charge separation. Effect will be confused with cause. Charge separation will be attributed merely to the physics of dusty air circulation within the vortex. But from the electrical vantage point, the dusty vortex itself is caused by charge exchange between the Earth and the solar plasma. The towering dust devils on Mars help to force the issue because they are too big and too powerful to be explained by the popular idea of mechanical charge separation. The news release provides an example of this blind spot. According to Mark T. Lemmon, associate research scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A & M University, dust devils on Mars form the same way they do in deserts on Earth. But thats not saying much when their formation on Earth only recently prompted more research into their electrical properties. Lemmon tells the usual story: "You need strong surface heating, so the ground can get hotter than the air above it." Heated less-dense air close to the ground rises, punching through the layer of cooler denser air above. In this way rising plumes of hot air and falling plumes of cool air begin circulating vertically in convection cells. Then, if a horizontal gust of wind blows through, "it turns the convection cells on their sides, so they begin spinning horizontally, forming vertical columns-and starting a dust devil." The NASA release suggests: "Dust devils get their charge from grains of sand and dust rubbing together in the whirlwind. When certain pairs of unlike materials rub together, one material gives up some of its electrons (negative charges) to the other material Smaller dust particles tend to charge negative, taking away electrons from the larger sand grains." In this view, the rising central column of hot air that powers the dust devil carries the negatively charged dust upward and leaves the heavier positively charged sand swirling near the base. In this way, the charges get separated, creating an electric field. But such an internal electric field, according to Thornhill, operates to prevent further charge separation. The convection process May be sufficient to trigger a larger scale discharge, but that requires an external field for the dust devil to grow to the size and power observed. On Earth the vertical electric field at sea level on a dry day is approximately 100 volts per meter. Orthodox models of the Earth and its atmosphere offer no realistic explanation for this field. Thornhill claims that at Mars distance from the Sun, the lack of energy from the Sun, in combination with the extremely rarified atmosphere of the small planet, prevents atmospheric movement from generating the required charge separation without the existence of a global atmospheric electric field. The atmospheric pressure on Mars is only 1 percent that of Earth at sea level. Thus, a simple The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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mechanical model, drawing on nothing more than mild warming of the Martian atmosphere, cannot account for the Everest-sized dust devils and global dust storms. After all, the global dust storms on Mars only serve to reduce solar heating at the surface. For the electrical theorists, giant electrical vortices on Mars are expected because there are insufficient water clouds to provide an intermediate electrical path from the ionosphere to the surface through normal lightning as we find on Earth. The discharges that drive the dust devils on Mars have more in common with the "sprites" and "jets" phenomena recently discovered in the rarified atmosphere above earthly thunderstorms. In this view, the intensity and number of dust devils will be affected by solar outbursts and the planets elliptical orbit. Mars is moving radially to an appreciable extent through the electric field of the Sun. And this movement is sufficient to generate electrical events on a scale and frequency that would not occur if Mars were on a more perfectly circular orbit. If the electrical researchers are correct, the issue of dust devils on Mars cannot be resolved without addressing a bigger picture. Electric discharges can do what a rarified atmosphere cannot do--scorch dust black, raise dust into rotating vertical columns, generate global dust storms enshrouding the planet, and suspend large volumes of dust in the atmosphere.
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This is a sequence of images from the hi-res Deep Impact flyby camera. They show jets emanating from two centers. The color substitution images on the right show more clearly the relative brilliance distribution in the grey-scale images. They show the presence of two bright centers. The presence of more than one crater was predicted by the electrical model of comets. Credit: NASA/JPL. Image manipulation: Carl Smith
Interim Report on Deep Impact

(Jul 19, 2005)
Though many details remain to be determined, enough data is now in hand to offer a preliminary assessment of our predictions on Deep Impact. In our Picture of the Day posted prior to Deep Impact we registered the most detailed predictions of any group in anticipation of the event. For their part, NASA investigators made no predictions. Nor can we find in NASAs subsequent comments any acknowledgement that an independent group had successfully anticipated the greatest surprises of the encounter. In view of this situation, we consider it essential that the remaining data analysis by NASA not be permitted to lag so far behind the event that no one will notice what has occurred. Nor will it be helpful if the data find their way into the public domain as isolated fragments of technical minutiae. Therefore, to maintain the integrity of the most fundamental questions we offer the following status report. Missing Water. Proponents of the electric model predicted that Deep Impact would reveal insufficient water to support the popular ideas about comets. Now we know the ejected material was largely--perhaps entirely--dust and vaporized rock. Subsurface Composition. We said that the "impact/electrical discharge will not reveal primordial dirty ice, but the same composition as the surface." It is now known that the presence of volatiles in the coma immediately after impact did not change, with the exception The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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of changes relating to charge exchange between the coma and the solar wind (see below). High-Energy Explosion. Wallace Thornhill claimed that the energy of the "impact" would be greater than expected from impact studies, because of electrical discharge. When the predicted event occurred, it left every NASA investigator stunned. Advance Flash. Thornhill predicted that a visible discharge between the nucleus and impactor would be likely prior to the impactors contact with the surface. At least two flashes are now known to have occurred, though (for the obvious reasons) no one on NASAs investigative team had anticipated this. Explosion Temperatures. Though weve found nothing from NASA relating to the temperatures of the explosion, we said that the discharge would be "hotter than can be explained by mechanical impact. If temperature measurements are made with sufficient resolution, they will be much higher than expected from impact heating." On this one we are confident as ever. Explosion Radiance. Within minutes of the impact, the coma of Tempel 1 was overtaken by a blast of light so great that it saturated the cameras detectors. NASA spokesmen called this "one of the great surprises" of Deep Impact. The radiance was not expected under the model in use. (See "Fine Dust" below). Speed of Transport. Electrical theorists suggest that NASA carefully review the rate at which ejecta filled the coma. Could kinetic effects (the effects of physical impact alone) have generated such speeds? Acceleration of negatively charged material is a predictable effect of electric discharge. System Failure. Our prediction was: "Electrical stress May short out the electronics on board the impactor before impact." The system did indeed fail a few seconds before impact, and data should be reviewed to look for indications of electrical breakdown. Multiple craters. We said: "If the energy is distributed over several flashes, more than one crater on the comet nucleus could result--in addition to any impact crater." Unfortunately, NASA did not anticipate the volume of dust removed by the explosion, which May have made it impossible for even the best enhancement technology to see though the ejecta. However, by tracing rays back to their source we noted the appearance of two ejecta centers immediately after the impact. Crater Size. We said: "The impact/electrical discharge will be into rock, not loosely consolidated ice and dust. The impact crater will be smaller than expected." The occlusion of the impact site by the unexpected dust cloud leaves this question of crater size unanswered. (Some NASA investigators have suggested that the impact did not reach a deep level, but so far the pronouncements on the subject are quite contradictory because theyre trying to explain things they did not expect). X-rays. We suggested that X-rays would accompany discharges to the projectile, "exceeding any reasonable model for X-ray production through the mechanics of impact. The intensity curve will be that of a lightning bolt (sudden onset, exponential decline) and May well include more than one peak." So far there has been no indication that any instrument based near or on Earth had the temporal or spatial resolution to decide this issue. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Creation of Water in the Coma. The electric model suggests that negatively charged oxygen from silicates and other metallic oxides on the nucleus (a negatively charged object) reacts electrically with the positively charged hydrogen ions of the solar wind to create OH. Thus, readings of the relative abundance of OH should drop in the immediate wake of impact, while in the days after the impact abundances of OH should rise. Though this is inconceivable under the standard model, preliminary data released does suggest this pattern. X-rays from Coma. Thornhill contends that the electrical transaction between the coma and the solar wind creates the surprising X-rays emanating from cometary comas. Therefore, we should expect that in the days following the impact the x-ray curve will tend to follow that of OH production. Electrostatic Cleaning and Deposition. In our Pictures of the Day we have noted evidence of both electrostatic cleaning and electrostatic implantation in space. We are confident that both processes occur on the nucleus of Tempel 1. Some of the material cleaned from the surface electrostatically will be accelerated into space. Other portions of the material, now positively charged, will be electrostatically drawn to the surface. Collimated Jets. While the electric theorists identify Tempel 1 as a low voltage comet, enhanced pictures should show clearly visible jets retaining their coherence over distances that cannot be maintained by neutral gases in the vacuum of space. All evidence provided to this point confirms the expectation. Fine Dust. Both the volume of dust and its extraordinarily fine texture have created mysteries for cometologists. The ejected dust appears to be as fine as talcum powder. In no sense was this expected. But it is characteristic of "cathode sputtering," a process used industrially to create super-fine deposits or coatings from cathode materials. Surface Geology. We not only predicted the sharply defined relief, but the specific features. "The model predicts a sculpted surface, distinguished by sharply defined craters, valleys, mesas, and ridges--the opposite of the softened relief expected of a sublimating dirty snowball." Surface Arcing. We had seen very small white spots on photographs of comet Wild 2, and interpreted them as electrical arcs in the form of coronal discharges. The highest resolution photographs of Tempel 1, taken by the impactor, show numerous featureless patches of white-out, most located where the electrical hypothesis would put them--on the rims of craters and on the wall of cliffs rising above flat valley floors. This single feature, we believe, provides the "smoking guns" we have waited for. Since their initial suggestion that the patches could be highly reflective spots on the surface, weve heard no further comment on the subject. The signature of electric arcing should be clearly evident in the full stream of data now being analyzed.
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LEFT: Hubble Space Telescope view of the plume from Shoemaker-Levy 9 Fragment G impact, appearing around the limb of Jupiter. RIGHT: Fragment G impact. Image at 2.34 microns with CASPIR by Peter McGregor ANU 2.3 telescope at Siding Spring
Deep Impact and Shoemaker-Levy 9

(Jul 18, 2005)
To place the Deep Impact events in perspective, advocates of the electric comet model remind us of the crash of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into Jupiter in 1994. For some time now the electrical theorists have noted that the institutionalization of scientific inquiry, in combination with funding requirements, has encouraged a short attention span. The things that do not fit prior theory elicit a momentary expression of surprise, but as the events pass from view they are quickly forgotten. "What we cannot comprehend, we shall forget." So it is that already the stupendous explosion produced by Deep Impact--the blast of light that shocked every member of the investigative team--is fading from the consciousness of the investigators. And just two weeks after Deep Impact, all discussion of the equally remarkable advanced flash has ceased. Perhaps none of the NASA scientists knew that the electrical theorists had predicted these events in advance. Here is an interesting fact. When looking forward to the Deep Impact mission in October 2001, Wallace Thornhill observed: "the energetic effects of the encounter should exceed that of a simple physical impact, in the same way that was seen with comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 fragments at Jupiter." We gave the reasoning in our predictions posted early in the day, July 3: The energy of the explosion will not come just from a collision of solid bodies, but will include the electrical contribution of the comet. Thornhill had not forgotten an earlier surprise, though it appears that no one involved in Deep Impact remembered what happened when comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 approached Jupiter in the summer of 1994. Astronomers expected the encounter to be a trivial event. "You wont The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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see anything. The comet crash will probably amount to nothing more than a bunch of pebbles falling into an ocean 500 million miles from Earth." Then came the encounter and an about face. As reported by Sky & Telescope: "When Fragment A hit the giant planet, it threw up a fireball so unexpectedly bright that it seemed to knock the worlds astronomical community off its feet." So a brief summary of some of those earlier events are provided below. For a more detailed article see Comet Tempel 1's Electrifying Impact. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) detected a flare-up of fragment "G" of Shoemaker-Levy long before impact at a distance of 2.3 million miles from Jupiter. For the electrical theorists this flash would occur as the fragment crossed Jupiters plasma sheath, or magnetosphere boundary. Thornhill comments: "A plasma sheath, or double layer, is a region of strong electric field, so the outburst there of an electrified comet nucleus is expected. The outburst was a surprise to astronomers. Hubbles Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS) recorded strong emissions from fragment G of ionized magnesium but no hydroxyl radical (OH), expected from water ice." Also, after the flare-up in magnesium emissions there was a "dramatic change in the light reflected from the dust particles in the comet." All told, the similarities to the Deep Impact flash are remarkable. Just after the impact of SL-9 fragment "K," HST detected unusual auroral activity that was brighter than Jupiters normal aurora and outside their normal area. Radiation belts were disrupted. There were unexpectedly bright X-ray emissions at the time of impact. But one mystery was never explained satisfactorily: Early impact events were hidden from the Earth behind Jupiters limb. However, the Galileo spacecraft was positioned 150 million miles away from Jupiter at an angle that gave it a ringside seat for these events. But Earth-based observatories saw some of the impacts start at the same time Galileo did. "In effect, we are seeing something we didnt think we had any right to see," said Dr. Andrew Ingersoll of Caltech. "...it seems clear that something was happening high enough to be seen beyond the curve of the planet," said Galileo Project scientist Dr. Torrence Johnson of JPL. None of these discoveries is surprising if comets are highly electrically charged with respect to their environment. Radio astronomers had expected radio emissions from Jupiter at high frequencies to drop because dust from SL-9 fragments would absorb electrons from the radiation belts, where the electrons emit synchrotron radiation. Instead, observers were surprised to find that emissions around 2.3 GHz rose by 20-30%. "Never in 23 years of Jupiter observations have we seen such a rapid and intense increase in radio emission," said Michael Klein of JPL. "Extra electrons were supplied by a source which is a mystery." It never occurred to anyone that the charged comet was the source of the electrons. Will the rapid exclusion of uncomfortable facts continue as we await data analysis of Deep Impact? In tomorrows Picture of the Day, we shall list the urgent questions yet unanswered as NASA officials have fallen into silence, even withdrawing much of the visual material formerly available on the Deep Impact website.
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Credit: NASA
The Missing Water of Comet Tempel 1

(Jul 15, 2005)
We have long suggested that, after Deep Impact, scientists would be scratching their heads over the lack of subsurface water--the last hope of the dirty snowball theory. Early results confirm this prediction. Early in the morning of July 3, we registered our predictions for Deep Impact (July 4), when a widely heralded "impactor" would strike the nucleus of Comet Tempel 1. We presented these predictions based on the electric comet hypothesis as interpreted by Wallace Thornhill and other members of the Thunderbolts crew. To the best of our knowledge, we set forth the most specific and detailed scientific predictions offered by any group in anticipation of the event. We stated our purpose explicitly: "With the imminent arrival of the Deep Impact spacecraft at the comet Tempel 1, it is time to test competing theories on the nature of comets. The predictions and lines of reasoning offered here will set the stage for future analysis of the electric comet model." It has now been almost two weeks since we posted these predictions, and the Deep Impact investigative team has made it clear that it could be many weeks before an analysis of certain crucial details will be released. Yet information already disclosed provides a good sense as to how well the electric comet model has performed against the "dirty snowball" model of popular theory. In this and following Pictures of the Day we shall begin an analysis of specific results. We stated: "An abundance of water on or below the surface of the nucleus (the underlying The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive assumption of the "dirty snowball" hypothesis) is unlikely."
Though this was never a deal killer for the electric model, the absence of sufficient water in a comet is a deal killer for the dirty snowball model. We wrote: "In fact none of the electrical theorists will be surprised if the impactor exposes a subsurface with little or no ices. In a July 8 press release, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics summarized the early findings with the headline, "Deep Impact Was a Dust-up, Not a Gusher." Smithsonian astronomers had monitored the impact using the ground-based Submillimeter Array (SMA) in Hawaii and NASA's orbiting Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS). Early reports showed "only weak emission from water vapor and a host of other gases that were expected to erupt from the impact site. The most conspicuous feature of the blast was brightening due to sunlight scattered by the ejected dust." This was not what they had expected by any means. "It's pretty clear that this event did not produce a gusher," said SWAS principal investigator Gary Melnick of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). "The more optimistic predictions for water output from the impact haven't materialized, at least not yet." Astronomer Charlie Qi (CfA) also expressed surprise at these results. "Theories about the volatile layers below the surface of short-period comets are going to have to be revised," Qi said. Was he raising a question about the underlying model here? No, he was only "deepening" the contradictions. The impact result, he said, "indicates that these effects [presence of water] could be much deeper." So the crisis for standard comet theory grows. Proponents of the dirty snowball model had already been forced into an untenable position by prior discoveries of dry comet surfaces. So they began to speculate about water buried beneath the surfaces--a speculation that only increased the difficulty for models having to explain why observed ices in the Jovian and Saturnian system do not produce explosive jets while comets at the same distances do. Only recently, some astronomers abandoned the phrase "dirty snowballs" and began calling comets "icy dirtballs." The dirt, they said, was on the surface, and the water was underneath. Strangely, this shift in theory was never accompanied by any attempt to reckon with the problems inherent in placing an insulating layer around ice which, even when directly exposed to the Sun (as on the planet Mars at Tempels distance from the Sun) does not behave the way their models required. It was hoped that Deep Impact would show that sufficient water existed beneath the surface. By excavating material from the comet's interior, they could rescue the theory. But it didnt happen. "SWAS operators were puzzled by the lack of increased water vapor from Tempel 1." In fact there was no change in measured water after the impact. Another observation from the Odin telescope in Sweden found that the total amount of water appeared to decrease after the impact, probably because of the injection of quantities of dry dust. But still, hope remained. Qi speculated that the comet might become more active over the following days and weeks. "We're still hoping for a big outgassing from the new active area created by Deep Impact," he said. But the electrical theorists predict this will not happen. As we wrote in our July 3 predictions: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"Most comets should be homogeneous--their interiors will have the same composition as their surfaces." So far, the data returned have consistently fulfilled this prediction. Periodic outbursts are common, but emissions suggesting hidden water or other volatiles beneath the surface have not occurred. It needs to be understood, however, that in the electric model changes in coma composition are certain to occur in the wake of substantial ejections. This is guaranteed by the electrical transaction between the coma and the solar wind. And here too the data released so far strongly support the electric model, as we shall observe in our next Picture of the Day.
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Asteroids That Should Not Be

(Jul 14, 2005)
Recent pictures of asteroids suggest that the survival of these bodies refutes the popular theory of their formation and history. If the largest craters had been formed by impact, the asteroids would have been shattered. The popular view of asteroids holds that their history began in the same way as that of planets in their early formative phases, accreting out of a primordial cloud of neutral gas. But while planets continued to accrete matter, the asteroids did not, perhaps because of the gravitational influence on them from the emerging gas giant Jupiter. It is commonly suggested that asteroids have, by virtue of their interrupted history, preserved a pristine record of the early solar system. A similar belief holds with respect to comets, though most comets are claimed to have formed much farther away from the Sun, in the now legendary Oort cloud. These speculative notions have been around now for decades, and often science writers forget to distinguish between speculation and fact. Astronomers do not know how asteroids formed. They have guessed at an answer. One undeniable fact is that recent photographs of these bodies pose severe challenges to popular ideas about asteroids. By comparison with planets and moons, asteroids are trivially weak attractors gravitationally. Furthermore, most of the lesser bodies traveling in their neighborhood would be moving in the same direction. Standard impact theory requires speeds of many thousand of miles per hour. After their hypothesized formation, how did they acquire such pervasive cratering? They are covered with innumerable small circular craters and a few unnervingly large craters, a feature that virtually all asteroids appear to have in common. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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If the impact theory of crater formation were true, observation suggests that each body was struck by a least one rock (some by more than one) of sufficient size and velocity to shatter the body. But none were shattered. The asteroids have not only remained intact, but they show no evidence of cracking or splintering under the stresses. As new pictures came in, the mystery grew to the point that some astrophysicists began to speculate that perhaps asteroids were formed by an aggregation of lesser rocks. A similar turn occurred when the standard comet model began to fail. When comets such as Linear broke up, the cometologists could only imagine this happening if they were loose aggregates of separate pieces, or perhaps something as tenuous as "fluff balls." But none of our visits to asteroids or to comets have supported such notions. The best pictures suggest rock-solid objects, as can be seen in the images given above. And as far as comets go, by NASAs own admission the "Deep Impact" on Tempel 1 effectively ended speculation about comets as loose aggregations. On issues such as this, the electric model of comet and asteroid formation has a distinct advantage. To produce craters of any size, it does not stipulate that one solid body must crash into another. The proposed electrical history of the solar system was punctuated by intensely energetic events and by violent electrical interactions between planets and moons, but the resulting scars did not come from the brute force of collision. Electric arcs can remove material with ease. They have the ability to cut surface depressions, to scoop out material, and to accelerate it into space, leaving behind cleanly cut geologic relief. This ability of the electric arc is why it is used so commonly in electric discharge machining (EDM). In the photograph of the asteroid Ida, above left, the right side of the asteroid exhibits sharply cut gouges that altered the fundamental shape of the body The same asteroid shows a depression on its westward termination almost as wide as its diameter. Could impacts have achieved these things while leaving no other evidence of disturbance? Then there is the asteroid Eros as photographed up close and personal by the NEAR spacecraft. On the impact theory, it must have been broadsided more than once, producing craters with diameters equal to the width of the distinctly oblong object. The asteroid Mathilda revealed equally inconceivable "impacts." At its closest approach, NEAR flew within 1,200 kilometers of Mathilda. As stated in the report by the Planetary Society: "The images show a surface covered with craters, some surprisingly large in size. At least five of the craters imaged by NEAR are over 20 kilometers in size. To form craters that large, Mathilda had to be hit by objects almost 2 kilometers in size. It is amazing that such collisions didn't completely break apart the asteroid." "Amazing," yes, but apparently not sufficient to provoke a reconsideration of theory. To further underscore the enigma, we include on the right below five views of the asteroid Gaspra, taken on Galileos approach. If the large craters were caused by impact, then something miraculous occurred to prevent the demolition of the body. Here too the "impacts" on the ends of the object succeeded in creating depressions almost as wide as the diameter of the body itself. But the surrounding terrain was not disturbed.
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Holes in Moons and in Theories

(Jul 12, 2005)
The impact theory of crater formation May not survive the discovery of gigantic craters on relatively small moons or rocks. A good case in point is Saturns moon Mimas. Electric Universe proponents say that only electric discharge could produce the observed depression without shattering the moon. How do you make a 138 km hole in a 392 km ball of ice? If youve spent your life reading textbooks in astronomy, the answer is obvious: You smash a smaller body into the ball of ice at an unearthly high speed. The textbooks show pictures of circular holes created in laboratory settings from the impacts of bodies moving at earthly high speeds. The holes have rounded bottoms and sides; sometimes they have a hump of debris in the center that rebounded from the impact. Scale up the lab bullet to the size and speed of an asteroid, and you have the big hole in the ice ball. The 138 km hole on Mimas (image above), a satellite of Saturn, like similar holes on the Moon, has a flat bottom and steep sides and a steep pillar in the center. The rim is more "pinched up" than "thrown out," and there are small holes all along it. The textbooks explain that the shape and features are different from lab impacts because the much higher-unearthly--speeds of cosmic bodies bring a different physics into play. So the experimental physics that proves the hole on Mimas to be an impact site is not the physics that actually created the hole. The density of Mimas is about that of water, so Mimas must be mostly ice, astronomers tell us. The strength of ice isnt all that much, while the energy of the impact was surely "that much" and more. The experiments with impact cratering suggest that the unearthly speed of the body claimed to have hit Mimas must have almost shattered it. But Mimas wasnt shattered, so the different physics that produces the different shape of the hole must also have a selectively restrained effect on ice. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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If astronomy were a science, astronomers would examine as many novel explanations as feasible with available time and resources. One such novel explanation is that of the Electric Universe: No impact ever threatened to shatter Mimas cohesive forces. Instead there were sharply limited pulling forces--a pair of Birkeland vortices rotating around an axis between them, electrically cutting away the material in their path and lifting it into space. The appropriate model is not a lab impact but industrial electrical discharge machining (EDM). When a lab discharge is limited to producing a single isolated spark, it creates a crater with exactly the features of cosmic craters--flat floor, steep sides, central peak. The central spire is the material left where the vortices didnt quite touch each other at the axis. The flat floor is the evenly machined surface that is sought in industrial uses of EDM. The steep sides and "pinched up" rim are where the electrical cutting force dropped off at the edges of the vortices. The small craters around the rim are where secondary arcs struck the highest points as the discharge quenched. It doesnt matter what Mimas is made of. EDM will cut a crater in ice, rock, or metal. Thats why craters on planets, moons, asteroids and comets--and EDM surfaces--all look the same. Thats why the impact theory inevitably resorts to ad hoc excuses when different materials experimentally respond to impact in ways that contradict our observations in space. It is true that the electrical machining hypothesis requires a giant conceptual leap from the direction of prior theory. But when prior theory no longer works, a giant conceptual leap is exactly what is needed. We must stop thinking of planetary history in the uneventful terms once imagined by astronomers. The space age shattered the notion with pictures that do not lie.
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UPPER: Recent image from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory telescope reveals X-ray emissions from the rings of Saturn. LOWER: More than 90 years ago, the experimental physicist Kristian Birkeland produced the "rings of Saturn" in a glowing plasma, using a slightly magnetized 24 cm diameter conducting globe as a cathode in a vacuum discharge. Published in 1913! Electricity is nature's efficient means of X-ray production. Credit: X-ray: NASA/MSFC/CXC/A.Bhardwaj et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA
Saturn's Rings Sparkle in X-rays

(Jul 11, 2005)
One of the latest images from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory telescope brings another surprise in a year of surprises. The images show that the rings of Saturn "sparkle in X-rays." The X-ray emissions are the blue dots in the X-ray/optical composite image above. It appears that the X-rays are brightest on the morning side (left side) of the rings. According to the Observatory report: "The likely source for this radiation is the fluorescence caused by solar X-rays striking oxygen atoms in the water molecules that comprise most of the icy rings." The hypothesized events behind the X-ray production add more complexity to a series of ad hoc rationales for the electrical and "sun-like" behavior of Saturn. It is suggested that the ring X-ray events occur as meteorites pass through the rings, scattering dust and ice out of their narrow plane. The displaced material casts a shadow on the rings (the famous revolving "spokes" of the ring system). The rings catch more solar x-rays, causing more fluorescence. On this hypothesis, the X-rays are brighter on morning side because from midnight to the early morning hours the relative speed of the rings through a cloud of meteoroids would be greater. Other Chandra observations of Saturn show that the X-ray brightness of the rings varies significantly from one week to the next. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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A different viewpoint is offered by the electrical hypothesis. Planets are minor negatively charged "electrodes" within a stellar discharge envelope. As long ago as 1913, Birkeland performed an electrical experiment using a slightly magnetized 24 cm diameter conducting globe as a cathode in a vacuum discharge. He wrote about the rings of Saturn and their inexplicable thinness: "It seems almost incredible that such a ring of cosmic dust should be able to exist for ever, so to speak, without other governing forces than gravitation." He compared his remarkable electrical experiment result (seen above) with the rings of Saturn. "...if the discharge-current ... be reduced ... the ring becomes exceedingly thin and sometimes assumes an appearance almost exactly like that of Saturn's rings." From the electrical perspective, there is not a crowd of separate anomalies to be explained, but one explanation that answers them all: inexplicable hot spots on Saturn; "astonishing" megalightning; the incongruous "spokes" of the ring system; the plasma torus around the orb of Saturn; Saturns radiation belt; the super rotation of Saturns atmosphere; Saturns X-rays; and (most recently) X-rays from the ring system. The following brief citations from Wallace Thornhills website, www.holoscience.com, are indicative of the general direction of an electrical interpretation of Saturns many enigmas. He compares Saturn with a simple Faraday or "homopolar" motor, which has electrons flowing out from Saturn in an equatorial sheet as Birkeland found experimentally. "As shown in laboratory experiments, the inflowing [conventionally] electric current forms a plasma donut where the electrical energy is stored. It is that energy that drives the winds and lightning on Saturn." "The electromotive power is deposited mostly in the upper atmosphere at mid to low latitudes and gives rise to its super rotation. That is, the atmosphere races around the planet faster than the planet turns." "Score one for the electrical model. It predicted this finding of an inner radiation belt. However, the conventional term radiation belt is misleading. The belt is a donutshaped plasmoid, which stores electromagnetic energy in the form of circulating highenergy charged particles." "In fact, Saturn has two plasmoids. One is outside the rings, the other inside the rings. Discharges to Saturn must cross the rings." [Megalightning at Saturn http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=21ha5gh9 ] "Saturns rings form part of the circuit that feeds energy into its plasma donut, where it is stored before discharging into Saturns ionosphere and generating X-rays." [Cassini's Homecoming http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=f16tg4w ] "As NASA's Cassini spacecraft approached Saturn last July it found evidence that lightning on Saturn is roughly one million times stronger than lightning on Earth. That's just astonishing to me! said University of Iowa Space Physicist Don Gurnett." The spokes in Saturns rings are caused by "lightning discharges" radially across the rings. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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That temporarily moves ice and dust out of the rings plane. The X-ray spots from the region of Saturns rings are primarily a result of lightning across the rings. Fluorescence from solar radiation should be more diffuse. Concerning the polar "hot spot" on Saturn: "Its compactness is due to the electromagnetic pinch effect where it [electric current] enters Saturns atmosphere. The hot spot's behavior should be variable, like that on Venus, and correlated with the appearance of Saturn's ring spokes, which are a visible manifestation of a heightened equatorial discharge in that part of Saturn's Faraday motor circuit." [Saturn's Strange Hot Spot Explained: http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=1xz2g6tn]
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Credit: NASA/JPL--Caltech/UMD
Deep Impact--The Smoking Guns?

(Jul 08, 2005)
Well hold off on a celebration for now, but the pictures above appear to exhibit some of the "smoking guns" that the electric theorists have predicted. The single most dramatic prediction of the electric comet model is this: on close inspection an active comet nucleus will reveal the electrical arcs that progressively etch away the surface and accelerate material into space. From the electrical vantage point, Tempel 1 is a "low voltage comet," but the etching process appears to be sufficiently active to make our case. The white spots were noticed by the Thunderbolts crew as soon as the first pictures were released, and we offered an interpretation: they are small electric arcs analogous to the discharge plumes on Jupiters moon Io, and to the electrified dust devils on Mars. On July 6 we drew attention to an earlier Picture of the Day observing bright spots on Wild 2. There we suggested that these were the patches of electric discharge at the surface. Now, with the help of the Deep Impact images, that interpretation is further illuminated and strengthened. In addressing these fuzzy white areas in one of the pictures taken by the projectile prior to impact, NASA reports: "The bright patches in the image May consist of very smooth and reflective material, the composition of which will be determined by Deep Impact's spectrometer." NASAs observations came two days after impact, and the language used invites us to make further predictions. The patches will have nothing to do with "reflectivity." They are better explained as the light of focused glow discharges, showing up as fuzzy whiteouts. They are The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the cometary equivalent to "St. Elmos fire" coronal glow discharges sometimes observed dancing on high points in lightning storms on Earth. Similar, but more powerful arcs on Jupiters moon Io produced whiteouts that overloaded the Galileo probe camera and surprised the investigators. These discharges on the comets surface should show emission lines from ionized surface material and be emitting ultraviolet light (something that arc welders know well--its why they wear welders masks and protective clothing). And if the instruments on either the projectile or the spacecraft obtained measurements at sufficient resolution to detect unexpectedly high tempuratures at the point source, NASA investigators will be in for quite a surprise. Electric arcs are hot! Does NASA have the required data buried in the transmissions from Deep Impact? One reason for cautious optimism is the size of the whiteouts in the last pictures taken before the projectiles cameras shut down some 18 miles above the surface. (The very last picture is seen in the lower right). Both ultraviolet light emissions and "shocking" temperatures within the white spots would be definitive evidence for the electrical nature of comets. When researchers investigating the Electric Universe express enthusiasm for comet study, a point of particular interest is the possibility that, by observing electrical arcing in action, we could see more clearly the relationship to the geology-in-formation on the comet nucleus. Several years ago, Wallace Thornhill accurately predicted what Galileo investigators would find when they looked at the "volcanoes" on Jupiters closest moon Io. He said that the plumes would not be "volcanoes" but discharges moving around the edges of the excavated areas, exactly as NASA discovered on Io, and as now appears to be occurring on Tempel 1. He said the plumes would be much hotter than NASA officials expected (in fact they produced the same kind of whiteouts now seen on Tempel 1). And he said that the supposed "lava lakes" on Io would be cold (they are simply the excavated terrain beneath the surface, exposed by the etching process.) Now it is becoming more clear every day that Thornhills successful predictions for Io, make what is happening on Tempel 1 all the more significant. In the above pictures we see that the dominant positions of the white spots are on the rims of craters and the cliffs rising above valley floors. A particularly telling example of this relationship is seen in the picture here In fact the active areas in the upper picture above reveal uncanny similarities to the discharge activity on Io as observed in previous Pictures of the Day. One of the features of electric arc erosion noted by Thornhill many years ago, is the tendency to create scalloped edges as it cuts away material from the cliffs edges it is acting on. This tendency we see abundantly on Io, which makes an observation in a NASA release on Deep Impact all the more noteworthy: "The image [of the nucleus] reveals topographic features, including ridges, scalloped edges and possibly impact craters formed long ago." The phrase "long ago" has no scientific basis; it is merely the projection of an unfounded assumption; continual ablation of cometary ices by solar heating of the surface would not permit the preservation of such abundant, sharply defined craters for long periods of time. On Io, the darkest surfaces are associated with recent arcing along the edges of craters and cliffs, exposing the underlying rock. Electrostatic fallback of ejecta covers the flat areas with lighter material. The same thing seems to hold true for Tempel 1. The crater rims and ridges are darkest. The circularity of the craters is also characteristic of arc machining and is not to be expected from low-velocity impacts in the outer solar system. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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One claim that sharply distinguishes the Electric Universe hypothesis from standard models is its emphasis on the electrical sculpting of rocky surfaces in the solar system throughout its eventful history. From planets and moons to comets and asteroids, the electrical model suggests that numerous surface features are the effect of electrical etching. For this reason, comets have the potential to bring new clarity to our understanding of planetary geology. Finally, why were there no images returned from the impactor seconds before impact? The lower right image is the last from the impactor camera. Thornhill predicted an electrical flash before impact. Yesterdays TPOD reported the surprise expressed by NASAs expert on highvelocity impacts, Peter Schultz, when two flashes were seen. The lack of images in the last few seconds would be explained simply if the impactor was hit by a "cometary lightning bolt" seconds before contact. The "whiteout" seen in the lower right quadrant indicates significant electrical discharging near the impact point. Data from the communications team and the flyby spacecraft cameras should decide the issue.
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Credit: NASA
The Meaning of Deep Impact

(Jul 07, 2005)
In the wake of "Deep Impact" and a flurry of journalistic excitement around the world, perhaps a bit of reflection is now in order. What can the event tell us about the state of science today? The preparation, technical execution, and scientific perspectives displayed in the Deep Impact mission all carry important messages. One clear message is that Americas technical expertise can achieve wonders. The team of specialists involved in the design and manufacture of the Deep Impact hardware orchestrated an awe-inspiring performance. What we saw was far and away the most daring and dramatic probe ever designed for the exploration of comets. And what about the perceptions of the space scientists commenting on the great surprises of Deep Impact? We have spoken often of the momentum of belief and the way ideology constrains and distorts perception. All of the media commentary surrounding Deep Impact, by virtue of its dependence on NASA for context, has underscored this syndrome. Every journalist and commentator assured us that comets harbor the pristine material from which the Sun and planets were born. They even gave a date for the primordial birth of comets--4.5 billion years ago. Was it really 4.5 billion years ago? No, some said it was 4.6 billion years ago. Well, how did they arrive at such extraordinary knowledge? They delivered their descriptions and dating of comets because NASA scientists gave these "facts" to them. So how did NASA scientists know these things? The answer is that they have never known The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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these things. These "facts" are mere guesses, and they are no longer intelligent guesses because they are rooted in archaic science from before the space age. The picture has changed completely with the discovery of plasma and electricity in space. But somehow, due to the nature of education and research funding today, the original guesses were permitted to harden into ideology. Consider this. Even in the face of one of the great shocks in space exploration--the stupendous blast produced by the "impact"--it appears that not one NASA scientist paused to ask if something might be missing in their theoretical model. All of the talk about the hugely energetic blast implies that it was just an astonishing effect from the sheer force of the impact. Every word was framed in the context of an electrically inert universe. Thats what astronomers and astrophysicists were trained in. Yet for several decades scientists and engineers at the NASA Ames research facility in California have been firing projectiles into objects of every sort--from sand and ice to a host of other inert materials. The Ames vertical gun hurls projectiles up to almost four miles per second (seven kilometers per second). These scientists know the kinetics of impact. That is why they all agreed that the explosion would be equivalent to 4.8 tons of TNT. Thats a good-sized bomb, but its not even close to what occurred. It is now well documented that every scientist associated with the project was stunned by the energetic outburst. Science progresses by the quality of its predictions. When every new discovery comes as a surprise, this is the best indicator that something is wrong at the level of theoretical underpinnings. Correspondingly, when independent investigators offer a new vantage point, one that challenges the expectations of prior theory and successfully anticipates the "surprises" to come, it is neither rational nor "scientific" to ignore them. In these pages we predicted a much more energetic blast than NASA anticipated because NASA had no interest in the contribution of energy from the charged comet. Electrical theorist Wallace Thornhill predicted two blasts. From the standard viewpoint that is an absurd prediction when considering an impactor being hit by a body at 23,000 miles per hour in "empty" space. But this is what makes such predictions so valuable. And here is what happened in the words of NASA investigator Peter Schultz, describing the event recorded from the spacecraft: "What you see is something really surprising. First, there is a small flash, then there's a delay, then there's a big flash and the whole thing breaks loose." How, then, will NASA respond? Will they wonder if anyone predicted such a thing? Or will they stay in their comfort zone--within the walls of prior ideology--and reach for the nearest fantasy? The "explanation" they initially offered is mathematically inconceivable. They proposed that the impactor moved through a deep layer of soft material before hitting hard material. But the delay would require the impactor to have penetrated something like a mile beneath the surface before causing the "serious" impact event. From such an answer you would think someone dreamt up a mile of fluff for a surface, never actually looking at the sharply-defined features of the nucleus. All of the features suggest a hard surface, and observations to this effect have already come in from the SWIFT satellite. The logical answer to the conundrum is that the first flash occurred before impact. It was a discharge between the impactor and the surface--a precursor to the much greater exchange occurring microseconds later with the first physical contact. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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But NASA has little interest in electricity. It is under financial strain. And it is under pressure to validate its approach to space exploration. Those who advocate an electrical view of the heavens insist that NASA is wasting a horde of money, looking in the wrong places, asking the wrong questions, and even when results shout to them from the surfaces of planets, moons, asteroids, and comets, the minds of the investigators are somewhere else. We are certainly not happy to report that this is the state of things within the official halls of science, but the media events surrounding Deep Impact have already confirmed this picture.
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Reconsidering Comet Wild 2

(Jul 06, 2005)
The spectacular close-up photographs of Comet Tempel 1 invite us to look back at clues provided by the earlier Stardust mission to Comet Wild 2, culminating in early 2004. The photographic evidence of electrical hot spots on Wild 2 now takes on much greater significance. Among the most stunning pictures returned by the Deep Impact mission was a close-up view of Comet Tempel 1 showing stark geology punctuated by bright spots on the surface. We are reminded of the photos of comet Wild 2 taken by the spacecraft Stardust, which revealed small bright spots that received virtually no attention from NASA investigators. In our Picture of the Day for August 5, 2004, we drew attention to these bright spots and suggested an electrical interpretation. Several of these bright spots are seen in the medium resolution photo on the left, and two are seen together in the higher resolution inset on the right. A few of the bright spots have adjacent dark spots that May be shadows cast by the material shooting up from the surface. The following paragraphs are from our earlier Picture of the Day discussing the Wild 2 bright spots-From an Electric Universe point of view, these are the sparks where electric currents from the sun impinge on the more negatively charged surface of the comet. This is where electricity is peeling away the surface of the comet's nucleus. The material removed from the comet is funneled away in tight jets that twice surprise conventional expectations. The conventional model expects to find an even distribution of evaporated volatiles in the comas and tails of comets. Instead Stardust found dense concentrations of particles in the jets themselves and fewer particles than expected in the coma and tail. During the late 1800's, researchers noted the similarities between comet behavior and electrical phenomena in mainstream magazines such as Nature, Scientific American and English Mechanic and World of Science. But in the early 1900's, astronomers backed away The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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from those ideas because they imply electric currents between the comet and the sun, something 20th century astronomers were not willing to consider. They instead developed the "dirty snowball" theory of comets, which says that comet displays can be explained by ice and volatiles (compounds with low melting points) sublimating under the heat of the Sun. The Electric Universe researchers are ready to turn the tide of comet theory back toward electrical phenomena. Electricity, not heat, is at work on the surface of Wild 2. If this is true, then a second problem is solved. We don't have to wait for the rare impact to form the cratered landscape. The craters we see are being carved by electric arcs. These arcs also cause the (surprising) dark color of every comet we've seen up close. They produce the (surprising) x- rays that the ROSAT x-ray observatory discovered. And they create the (surprising) streams of rocky particles that pummeled the spacecraft Stardust. Textbooks will have to change. It is no longer important that comets be composed of mostly ice and volatiles. Electric arcs are strong enough to strip away rock. We use similar processes in industry here on Earth, both to remove material and to deposit it. But the biggest effect of looking at a comet from the Electric Universe point of view is that it means we have to re-examine almost everything we know about the universe. Electric currents don't appear alone. They cannot flow unless there is a return current -- a complete circuit. So if the comet is electrically active, then the Sun must be a part of its circuitry. And if the Sun is electrically active, then so are all of the stars, in all of the galaxies. And what about the galaxies themselves? These tiny sparks on Wild 2 could light a fire of discovery for astronomy.
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Deep Impact--First Impressions

(Jul 05, 2005)
The Deep Impact was an amazing show, and there will be much more information to come. In advance of the event we set forth our expectations as explicitly as possible. Therefore, we urge readers of this page to refer to our previous Picture of the Day. We also eagerly await the first pictures of the impact site, which have not been seen due to a huge surprise: The energy of the "impact" was much greater than NASA scientists had expected and--as predicted by Wallace Thornhill--was strongly reminiscent of the early Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact events at Jupiter. Indeed, the luminous glow that persisted occluded the impact site to a degree that shocked observers and will make it difficult to determine the size of the resulting crater through the glare. Of course, a prime aim of the experiment was to observe the crater before the spacecraft had moved out of the required position. So here we see another example of the potential cost of asking the wrong questions. We had said that the flare or explosion would be more energetic than expected, due to the contribution of electrical energy from the charged comet. NASA scientists were astonished and expressed their amazement on camera and in no uncertain terms: The blast was "considerably more energetic than I expected." "The big question is how did we make such a big splash." "Im at a loss to explain it." The reaction was universal. From Softpedia News: "The impact was bigger than everybody would have expected." After the event, the Thunderbolts crew was scurrying to find reliable data on the timing of the flare, to see if it actually began microseconds before the impact. Thornhill had predicted an advance flash following the intensity curve of lightning. Whether the cameras will answer the latter question is uncertain, but it appears that a flare did indeed precede the main flash. Pete Schultz of Brown University, suggested that the first flare "indicates a layered structure for the comet. My guess is there was soft layering on top, [the impactor] went down, and finally got in contact with ices." Obligatory guesses of this sort can only add to the exasperation of the electrical theorists. The The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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comet was approaching the impactor at 23,000 miles per hour. A soft surface layer, which various guesses have put at perhaps ten feet or so, would have no measurable effect on the timing of an impact flare, and it would not separate a flare into two phases as appears to have occurred. It will be useful for independent researchers to contrast the NASA animation of the expected event with the actual event. You will observe in the animation a dark cloud of shrapnel emanating upward from a crater formed by the impact. The shrapnel is illuminated by the Sun. In the real event (see the series of images behind this TPOD) we see an exceedingly bright flare-up (left image above) with bright rays. The formation of evenly spaced bright discharge rays or filaments is characteristic of a "plasma gun" type discharge as seen on Jupiters moon, Io. But more intriguing are the rays above the presumed main crater, which seem to emanate from a separate bright center. It indicates the sudden, simultaneous flare-up of another jet. Such an electrical effect was predicted in our previous TPOD. We noted in our prior piece that standard comet theory had fragmented into competing "explanations" of things that are virtually impossible to reconcile with the original idea of the "dirty snowball. When astronomers observed comets exploding or disintegrating millions of miles from the Sun (as in the demise of comet Linear), they began to grasp for extraordinary ways to rescue comet science from the apparent contradictions. It was inconceivable that warming from the Sun could cause a chunk of sublimating ice miles wide to explode. So we saw resorts to "fluff-ball" comets, or "sponges," or loose aggregation of lesser ice cubes or cometesimals. But with a single impact, these "back-up" models also crashed and burned. They were no longer tenable, stated the NASA scientists. It is now our job, and the job of other critics, to remind NASA officials that there was a reason for the ad hoc proposals after the explosive demise of Linear and other comets. For a year or two these proposals verged on a majority opinion due to the extremity of the contradictions. Now, the extreme "models" are gone, but the facts that provoked them remain and must not be ignored. How many NASA scientists predicted the surface features with the clarity of the prediction we registered in our July 4 submission? On seeing the remarkable, sharply sculpted features, NASA officials used much the same language we've used in describing electrical discharge sculpting of cometary and other surface--extensive craters, flat-floored valleys, mesas, ridges. (We've inserted a larger picture of the imminent impact site here) As usual, the investigators do not know whether to call the craters impact sites or vents. They will toggle between the two as convenient. But it should not take "rocket scientists" to see that sublimating dirty snowballs dont look like the surface of Tempel 1. The best analogy is a surface sculpted by electrical discharge machining (EDM). It looks as if the pictures will speak more emphatically than anything we could say here. The picture above right appears to show, with surprising resolution, the predicted plasma discharge tufts which we have already identified on Jupiters moon Io and on the surface of Mars (the towering "dust devils" of Mars). For the electrical theorists, this picture is worth more than an encyclopedia of archaic comet facts. We will be following with great interest the published spectra, light and X-ray curves and spectroscopic analysis of the ejecta from the impact. No one knows yet whether NASA will find the subsurface water that is required for the dirty snowball theory. Of course water in the coma is expected in the electric model due to negative oxygen from the nucleus exchanging charge with positive ions from the Sun. Most electrical theorists doubt the existence of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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extensive subsurface water. The bone-dry surface of Borrelly was a pretty good clue as to what May be most likely. And there remains for the standard model the mystery as to how dust explodes episodically from the nucleus--a mystery the specialists concede remains to be solved. The "instantaneous" brightening of the coma, larger than the Earth, is also an essential subject for us. Could distribution through the kinetics of explosion account for this? Then the coma continued to brighten to eleven times its prior brightness. These findings also echo the surprises from Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9s encounter with Jupiter. We live in an electrified solar system.
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Credit: NASA/JPL/UMD Artwork by Pat Rawlings
Predictions on "Deep Impact"

(Jul 04, 2005)
With the imminent arrival of the "Deep Impact" spacecraft at the comet Tempel 1, it is time to test competing theories on the nature of comets. The predictions and lines of reasoning offered here will set the stage for future analysis of the "electric comet" model. We are posting this document at 1:45 a.m. Sunday, July 3, with "Deep Impact" less than 24 hours away. This Picture of the Day will remain through July 4. It will be followed within 48 hours (or less) by another Picture of the Day with a preliminary evaluation of the event. At 10:52 p.m. PDT July 2, the Deep Impact spacecraft will fire an 800-pound copper projectile at the nucleus of Comet Tempel 1. If all goes as planned the projectile will impact on the nucleus 24 hours later. The impact is expected to eject into space large volumes of subsurface material. Cameras on the projectile will record its approach toward the nucleus, and instruments on the spacecraft will record the event across a broad spectrum. Dozens of telescopes will be trained on the comet. According to NASA scientists, the released material will provide a sample of the primordial water, gas and dust from which the Sun, planets, moons, and other bodies in the solar system formed. Though Deep Impact team members see this as a milestone event, advocates of the Electric Universe expect a "shock to the system" with revolutionary implications. They say that a comet is not a primordial object left over from the formation of the solar system. Fundamentally, it is distinguishable from a rocky asteroid only by its more elliptical orbit. In the Electric Universe a comet is a negatively charged object moving through the extensive and constant radial electric field of the positively charged Sun. A comet becomes negatively charged during its long sojourn in the outer solar system. As it speeds into the inner solar system, the increasing voltage and charge density of the plasma (solar "wind") cause the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive nucleus to discharge electrically, producing the bright coma and tail.
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If the electrical theorists are correct, the implications of the event will not be limited to comet theory alone. At issue is the assumption of an electrically neutral universe, upon which every conventional astronomical theory rests. An electric comet would forever change the picture of the solar system and force astronomers to consider the overwhelming evidence that electricity lights not only our Sun but also all the stars in the heavens. Moreover, the cosmic electricians insist that this would only be the beginning of a more sweeping revolution touching all of the theoretical sciences and in the end recasting our understanding of earth history and the human past. The most appropriate test of a new theory is its predictive power (see predictions from October 2001 in Wallace Thornhills "Comet Borrelly Rocks Core Scientific Beliefs"). Therefore, we wish to make as clear as possible, in advance of the projectiles impact, the distinctions between the electric model and the standard model. Where the issues grow complex, the primary reason is that the standard model, which failed to anticipate any of the major discoveries about comets over the past three decades or more, has fragmented into competing versions, forced upon the theorists by unsettling facts. Nevertheless a shared ideology continues to guide orthodox comet investigation while limiting scientific perception. For this reason advocates of the electric universe do not believe that a reconciliation of the current theoretical fragments is possible. To facilitate clarity we shall offer first a brief outline of two theoretical models. As for predictions, we find that NASA scientists have retreated from such essential adventures. Therefore we shall not attempt to speak for them. But we will summarize the best guesses of the electrical theorists. DIRTY SNOWBALL MODEL Comets are composed of undifferentiated "protoplanetary debris"--dust and ices left over from the formation of the solar system billions of years ago. Radiant heat from the Sun sublimates the ices (turns them directly into vapor without the intermediate step of becoming liquid). The vapor expands around the nucleus to form the coma (head of the comet) and is swept back by the solar wind to form the tail. Over repeated passages around the Sun, the Suns heat vaporizes surface ice and leaves a "rind" of dust. Where heat penetrates the surface of a blackened, shallow crust, pockets of gas form. Where the pressure breaks through the surface, energetic jets form. ELECTRIC COMET MODEL: 1. Comets are debris produced during violent electrical interactions of planets and moons in an earlier phase of solar system history--a phase that persisted into early human history. Comets are similar to asteroids, and their composition varies. Most comets should be homogeneous--their interiors will have the same composition as their surfaces. They are simply "asteroids on eccentric orbits." 2. Comets follow their eccentric orbits within a weak electrical field centered on the Sun. They develop a charge imbalance with the higher voltage and charge density near the Sun that initiates discharge and the formation of a glowing plasma sheath--appearing as the coma and tail. 3. The observed jets of comets are electric arc discharges to the nucleus, producing "electrical discharge machining" (EDM) of the surface. The excavated material is accelerated into space along the jets observed filamentary arcs. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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4. Intermittent and wandering arcs erode the surface and burn it black, leaving the distinctive scarring patterns of electric discharge. The primary distinction between a comet and an asteroid is that, due to its elliptical orbit, electrical arcing and "electrostatic cleaning" will clean the nucleus surface, leaving little or no dust or debris on it. ELECTRIC MODEL PREDICTIONS FOR DEEP IMPACT: An abundance of water on or below the surface of the nucleus (the underlying assumption of the "dirty snowball" hypothesis) is unlikely. Tempel 1 has a low-eccentricity orbit. Therefore its charge imbalance with respect to its environment at perihelion is low. (It is a "low-voltage" comet.) Electrical interactions with Deep Impact May be slight, but they should be measurable if NASA will look for them. They would likely be similar to those of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 prior to striking Jupiters atmosphere: The most obvious would be a flash (lightning-like discharge) shortly before impact. The impactor May form a sheath around it as it enters the coma, becoming a "comet within a comet." Electrical stress May short out the electronics on board the impactor before impact. More energy will be released than expected because of the electrical contributions of the comet. (The discharge could be similar to the "megalightning" bolt that, evidence suggests, struck the shuttle Columbia). Copious X-rays will accompany discharges to the projectile, exceeding any reasonable model for X-ray production through the mechanics of impact. The intensity curve will be that of a lightning bolt (sudden onset, exponential decline) and May well include more than one peak. If the energy is distributed over several flashes, more than one crater on the comet nucleus could result--in addition to any impact crater. Any arcs generated will be hotter than can be explained by mechanical impact. If temperature measurements are made with sufficient resolution, they will be much higher than expected from impact heating. The discharge and/or impact May initiate a new jet on the nucleus (which will be collimated--filamentary--not sprayed out) and could even abruptly change the positions and intensities of other jets due to the sudden change in charge distribution on the comet nucleus. The impact/electrical discharge will not reveal "primordial dirty ice," but the same composition as the surface. The impact/electrical discharge will be into rock, not loosely consolidated ice and dust. The impact crater will be smaller than expected. We include below a summary of the lines of reasoning followed by the electrical theorists. MISSING WATER For the survival of the standard model, nothing is more crucial than finding an abundance of ices on or below the surface of the nucleus of Tempel 1. It is not sufficient to find water merely in the comets coma. Negative oxygen ions from cathodic etching of rock minerals in the nucleus will combine with protons from the solar wind to form water in the coma and tail. Spectra of comets already reveal the presence of negative oxygen ions. Moreover, the ions exhibit forbidden lines characteristic of a strong electric field. There is no conventional explanation for these observations. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Wallace Thornhill, whose inquiry into the electric attributes of comets goes back more than 30 years, sees a high probability that scientists will find less water ice and other volatiles than expected, both on the surface and beneath the surface of Tempel 1. In fact none of the electrical theorists will be surprised if the impactor exposes a subsurface with little or no ices. For popular comet theory this would be disastrous, since it now calls upon volatile ices beneath the surface to drive the comets jets and create the glowing coma. This requirement is due to the surprising discovery, through prior comet probes, of dry surfaces. The surface of Comet Borrelly, for example, was parched. But the problem for comet theory is more severe, since evidence for subsurface volatiles also ranges from minimal to non-existent. Examination of Shoemaker-Levy 9 after the comet broke apart revealed no volatiles. When comet Linear disintegrated in front of their eyes, astronomers were astonished by the absence of meaningful water content. Comets do not "disintegrate" by solar heating but explode electrically like an overstressed capacitor. Of course there are plenty of icy moons in the solar system, and the electrical theorists propose that many comets and asteroids are part of the "afterbirth" of electrical expulsion of planets and moons from their parent primary. So they do not exclude in advance the possibility of water ice on Tempel 1. But it is not required in the electrical model of comets for the production of jets, comas and tails. SHARP SURFACE RELIEF The electric model claims that the comas and tails of comets are generated by cathode arcs excavating surface material from the nucleus, in the fashion of electrical discharge machining (EDM) in industrial applications. The model predicts a sculpted surface, distinguished by sharply defined craters, valleys, mesas, and ridges--the opposite of the softened relief expected of a sublimating "dirty snowball." (A chunk of ice melting in the Sun loses its sharp relief, just like a scoop of melting ice cream.) BLACK SURFACES The first photographs of comet nuclei astonished astronomers with the blackness of the surfaces. The nuclei were darker than copier toner. This observation alone should have called into question the "dirty snowball" hypothesis. But an ad hoc adjustment of the theory followed, arbitrarily assuming that comets were parked for billions of years in deep space, where they suffered radiation damage that blackened their surfaces. Electric discharge machining "burns" and darkens the rocky comet surface. It requires no additional hypotheses or contrived history of the comet. We see examples of the darkening effect from electrical discharge on Jupiters moon Io and on the planet Mars. WEAKLY CHARGED COMETS. Comet Tempel 1, which NASA selected for the Deep Impact mission, is certainly not ideal for testing the electrical hypothesis. Of course, NASA scientists do not realize this, since the issue of electrical charge has no place in standard theory. Short-period comets, which move on modestly elliptical paths (the orbit of Tempel 1 stretches roughly between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars) will not experience the degree of electrical imbalance experienced by long-period comets on much more elliptical paths that take them out well beyond the orbital distances of Neptune or Pluto. The latter have much more time to adjust to the more negative voltage of regions remote from the Sun. The voltage difference of short-period comets as they approach the Sun will be much less than that of long-period The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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comets, and they will not discharge as energetically. Nevertheless, the electrical theorists say that even a weak candidate for a test of the electrical hypothesis should be sufficient to make a good case. The radical differences between the competing models carry many direct and obvious implications. ANOMALOUS X-RAYS If (and it's the biggest "if") Tempel 1 is sufficiently electrically active before impact, Thornhill expects to see the usual non-linear behavior of plasma when subjected to increasing electrical stress. That is, there will be a sudden electric discharge, or arc. An electric discharge between the comet cathode and the copper projectile anode will result in X-ray emission, just as in any X-ray machine on Earth. Such X-rays are easily identifiable and in large amounts would be anomalous for a mere impact. The electric field of a comet is contained within its (Langmuir) plasma sheath, which encompasses its coma. So the size of the coma is some measure of the electrical stress the comet is suffering. Comet Tempel 1 has a small coma. Two months ago the coma was little bigger than the Earth. However, the comet is rushing toward the copper projectile at almost 23,000 mph, which will not give time for the copper projectile in the exceedingly thin cometary plasma to balance its electrical potential with that of the more negative comet nucleus. So, before physical impact occurs, we May expect a sudden discharge between the comet nucleus and the copper projectile. It will have the characteristic light-curve of lightning, with rapid onset and exponential decay. The question is, will it be a mere spark or a powerful arc? Whether due to impact or electric arc, positively charged copper ions May be expected to produce radiation by recombination with free electrons. A small proportion of that radiation May be in the x-ray region. But the spectrum and intensity curve for radiation from an impact should be quite different from the flash of an electric arc impinging on a copper anode. The arc should also give a restricted, almost point, source for the radiation from the target sites on the impactor and the comet nucleus. This is quite different from anything expected from distributed explosion products. Because electric arcing causes the craters seen on comets, there is the possibility that the Deep Impact projectile will form an electrical crater as well as (or instead of) an impact crater. When the impactor arrives, Thornhill considers it likely that active jets will move or switch off, since the comet's electrical field will have been suddenly disturbed. The simple thermal outgassing model does not expect this. ANOMALOUS DISCHARGE Outbursts from comet nuclei frequently occur, giving rise to expressions of astonishment from comet observers. Such events do not fit well with a model of sublimating ices, and the cause remains mysterious. But such events have required cometologists to speculate about heating processes inside the comet. In the electrical model, energetic outbursts are expected due to the non-linear behavior of plasma in the changing electrical environment of the solar "wind." Comets have flared beyond the orbit of Jupiter, even beyond the orbit of Saturn, where known icy bodies do not sublimate under solar radiation. A potentially embarrassing, ad hoc proposal has been put forward that attributes the more remote and "miraculous" outbursts to collisions with meteoric material. In fact, all energetic discharging from comet nuclei at the distance of Mars orbit or beyond is The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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anomalous under the standard model. Attempts at explanations invariably expose contradictions. We see ice on Mars and on the moons of the gas-giant outer planets. Mars, of course, is the closest of the three to the Sun, but when ice sublimates on Mars, it does not produce jets. The icy moons of Jupiter do not produce jets under the influence of solar radiation. Here, the electrical theorists can only express their amazement at the general lack of attention to such contradictions when comets begin discharging even farther out from the Sun. COLLIMATED AND FILAMENTARY JETS Despite years of photographs showing collimated jets (narrow filaments that maintain their coherence across considerable distances), the artists' conceptions of comets still show jets as geyser-like eruptions, spraying out into space. An expanding jet is the expected behavior of neutral gas and dust entering a vacuum. But it is not characteristic of an electric discharge in plasma. A good look at the jets of Tempel 1 reveals the characteristic features of a plasma discharge, with coherent current filaments that do not obey the rules of behavior of neutral gases. A look at a novelty-store plasma ball demonstrates the effect nicely. JET ENERGIES AND VELOCITIES On this issue the electrical theorists are emphatic: by proposing mechanical "jets" from comet nuclei, standard theory has descended into the preposterous. No analogy either in space or in experimental science supports the idea that sublimating ices 150 million miles and farther from the Sun could generate "jet chambers" or produce the sonic and supersonic jet velocities our instruments have measured. The notion is inherently contradictory and violates the most obvious dynamic principles. Collimated, mechanically induced jets over the observed distances they travel would require, first, a finely machined nozzle, even more precise than those used on rocket engines, not a jagged opening in a "dirty snowball." The idea requires a chamber that is insulated from the Sun, though anything even casting a shadow would lead to instant freezing. The "model" also requires subsurface heating in the deep freeze of these remote regions. The "heating" would have to reach through an insulating crust roughly estimated to be ten feet deep, yet achieving things inconceivable for solar heating even in the absence of insulation. Pressure must build up to an extraordinary level. Then when the pressure erupts, something most mysterious must occur. Despite the instant release, equivalent pressures must be sustained for long periods to maintain the supersonic velocities--even to alter the orbits of comets in the way some astronomers now propose. Weve said it before: "To save the theory astronomers now cling to the incredible." For the electrical theorists, the answer is all too obvious. Electrical discharge accelerates material into collimated jets along the self-confining Birkeland currents that constitute the discharge arcs. HEAVY ELEMENTS If an arc is struck between the comet nucleus and the projectile, we May expect to see metals such as Li, Na, K, Ca, Mg and Fe in a flash spectrum before impact. They will have been removed from the rocky comet in the cathode arc. The sulfur molecule S2 is one of the great unsolved mysteries of comet chemistry. It has been identified in several, but not all, comets. The molecule has a very short lifetime and sublimes at a higher temperature than those found on cometary surfaces or grains. It is not the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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equilibrium form of the molecule either. But S2 is the kind of molecule that could be produced from rocky minerals in the extreme electrical environment of a plasma arc. NEGATIVE IONS Negative ions were discovered in the inner coma of Comet Halley with densities 100 times greater than expected from conventional theory. Thornhill and his colleagues urge NASA investigators to look for an abundance of negative ions in the impact ejecta. This would, of course, be an obvious signature of a negatively charged comet. Forbidden spectral lines from negative oxygen ions have been detected spectroscopically in comet comas in the past. And no one can reasonably dispute that they indicate the presence there of a strong electric field. It is advisable that investigators look at water abundances both close to the nucleus and in the far coma to see to what extent water is being formed away from the nucleus by the combination of negative oxygen ions with protons from the solar wind. The logical concern here is that these reactions will, by improper reasoning, give inflated values for the water ice abundance in the comet nucleus. IMPACTOR LIGHTNING STRIKE The copper impactor has a camera that is supposed to be active until impact. There is some doubt that the camera will be able to provide images closer than a few tens of kilometers to the nucleus because of anticipated damage to the lens by high-velocity dust particles. However, transmissions should continue until impact, according to NASA investigators. But if an arc to the projectile occurs, transmissions will cease before impact. Of course, the most tragic potential here is that the projectile, which carries its own navigation instruments, could experience an electrical disruption before it had maneuvered itself into the precise position required for impact. IMPACT SITE TEMPERATURES A mechanical impact will not produce the temperatures of an electric arc, which can be tens of thousands of degrees over a very small area. The problem will be whether temperature readings will have the resolution to be able to distinguish a very high temperature over a tiny area or merely an average over a large impact area. Anomalous high temperature readings could precede physical impact, accompany impact, and follow impact. COMET BRIGHTNESS Tempel 1 is a magnitude dimmer than (i.e., less than half as bright as) expected from the comets previous approaches to the Sun. Conventional theory has no explanation for this lower energy. The electrical model notes that the Sun is approaching the minimum in its sunspot cycle, which means that the solar electrical energy input is at a minimum. Because the comets brightness depends on electrical energy from the Suns circuit, the effect is analogous to turning down the dimmer switch on a light bulb. This lower energy level also reduces the likelihood of the more dramatic "electrical fireworks" during Deep Impacts encounter.
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Left: A double layer explodes from the Sun, accelerating tons of plasma into space in a "coronal mass ejection". Right: Radio-noisy double layers (shown in orange) on each side of Fornax A dwarf the active galaxy between them. The thin filaments that connect the galaxy to the double layers and transmit the electrical power to drive their radiation are not visible in this image. Credit: Left: SOHO Right: Ed Fomalont (NRAO) et al., VLA, NRAO, AUI, NSF
Seeing More Electricity in Space

(Jul 01, 2005)
As laboratory research documents the behavior of plasma, many unexplained events in nature become understandable. Electrical "double layers" are a powerful example, offering the most efficient answers to many observational mysteries. In these cases, popular speculations based on pure mathematics are no longer useful. The pinching of plasma into filaments is due to both magnetic and electric forces. We can detect the magnetic fields at a distance and understand why the filaments behave as they do. But another common formation in plasma is purely electrical. We can only detect it by sending a probe through it. Anthony Peratt, an associate of Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfven, describes this formation in his textbook, The Physics of the Plasma Universe. He writes about "...two thin and close regions of opposite charge excess which give rise to a potential drop..." The two regions are called a "double layer." Because were familiar with the idea that positive and negative charges attract each other, the idea that a layer of positive charges could persist close to a layer of negative charges is counterintuitive. But these "thin and close regions of opposite charge" dont just lie isolated in space: They form in a current--in a flow of charged particles--and they act as part of a filamentary circuit. Double layers originate in a chicken-and-egg kind of ambiguity. Fluctuations in the charge density and particle velocity of a current will produce a potential drop; a potential drop will accelerate charged particles and produce fluctuations in density and velocity. In a current, negative electrons stream in one direction and positive ions stream in the opposite direction. A potential drop will increase the velocity of particles on the "downstream" side--electrons move faster on one side of the potential drop, ions on the other. The increased velocity means that the density decreases. To maintain charge neutrality in the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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circuit, other particles with the same charge are "trapped" on the downstream side. These trapped particles make up the layers of the double layer, with electrons on one side, ions on the other, and an electric field--the potential drop--between them. With the ebb and flow of the many conditions in a filament (density, velocity, composition, temperature, etc.), double layers can form and dissipate. And the amplitudes of variations in these conditions can become large. A double layer can accelerate particles to cosmic-ray energies. It is "radio noisy," radiating across a wide band of frequencies. It accelerates particles in beams. It can exert pressure on the plasma and expand across the magnetic field. It May explode and draw inductive energy from the filamentary circuit, releasing vastly more energy than was present in the double layer itself. Because double layers dissipate energy--by accelerating matter and emitting radiation--they must be powered by an external source. The ability of Birkeland filaments to transmit electrical power over great distances means that the source could be many light-years-hundreds or thousands of light-years--away. In the plasma universe, energetic events cannot be explained by reference to local conditions only. The effects of an entire circuit--which May encompass a whole galaxy or cluster of galaxies--must be considered. For this reason, while the prevailing scientific view allows only for isolated galactic and stellar islands in space, the electric view emphasizes connectivity. (In the image of Fornax A above, for example, a tiny but energy-dense plasmoid at the center of the galaxy discharges energy along oppositely-directed Birkeland filaments (invisible in this image) into the radio lobes. Diffuse currents loop back from the lobes to the spiral arms, where their increasing density triggers star formation as they return to the central plasmoid.) Irving Langmuir, one of the early pioneers in the study of plasma, discovered double layers in his laboratory in the 1920s. Hannes Alfven, the father of plasma cosmology, proposed their existence in cosmic settings in 1958. Double layers in space werent discovered until 1978, when artificial satellites orbited through them and measured the characteristic changes in their electric fields. This fact is undeniable. But the traditional theories of astrophysics--gas kinetics and gravity and particle physics--provide no electrical framework to make this fact meaningful. And meaningless facts are simply ignored. They are often not even perceived. The phenomenon of double layers became a ghost that haunts conventional astrophysics. Astrophysicists can detect and recognize the existence of magnetic fields in space. They use the conceptual tools of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD--the physics of fluids that are affected by magnetic forces) to explain magnetic influences on gases. But because double layers are purely electrical and can only be detected by sending a probe through them, conventional astrophysicists are unable to recognize their existence. Because the electric field in Birkeland filaments is aligned with the magnetic field (field-aligned currents), the electric field in double layers is also aligned with the magnetic field and MHD doesnt apply. Astrophysicists concepts have created a blind spot in their percepts. Astrophysicists see only the double layers effects, and so they are at a loss to explain them. Energetic events occur without commensurate causes, as if a poltergeist were loose in the universe. In the left image above, loops of filaments on the sun suddenly expand and explode, throwing off massive bubbles of plasma that accelerate to significant fractions of the speed of light. Jets from opposite poles of a galaxy end in energetic clouds (right image The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive above) that radiate copiously in radio and x-ray wavelengths.
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(The text in the last link--written from the conventional point of view--displays astrophysicists blind spot: The attempt at explanation begins with "plasma" but regresses to "gas" and ends with the "belief" that magnetism can somehow explain the anomalous acceleration and collimation.) Conventional theorists grasp at mathematical artifacts--such as black holes and magnetic reconnection--to fill in their empirical blind spot. But science is based on fact, not artifact. And the fact is that double layers can be produced in a laboratory and directly detected in space. Black holes and magnetic reconnection cant.
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The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of a flare emerging from comet Tempel 1 on June 14. Such outbursts are only one of many features of comets that astronomers "dont fully understand". Credit: NASA ,ESA , P. Feldman (Johns Hopkins University) and H. Weaver (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory)
Deep Impact
(Jun 30, 2005)
The scientific media have vigorously promoted the coming "Deep Impact" encounter with comet Tempel 1. But comet experts are not going to see what they've expected, say theorists of the "electric comet." A potential turning point in the exploration of space will occur on July 4. That's when comet Tempel 1 will be near perihelion (its closest approach to the Sun). The Deep Impact spacecraft, launched on January 12, 2005 and now rapidly approaching the comet, will fire an 800-pound copper projectile into the comet's nucleus. NASA scientists expect the probe to break through one of the barriers to scientific understanding of comets. The mysteriously blackened surface of comet nuclei--darker than coal--have been so drastically changed by their recent history that the observed features yield little if any reliable information about what lies underneath. But by penetrating beneath the nucleus' surface, the exploding projectile from the Deep Impact probe will eject into space large volumes of underlying material. Instruments on board the probe will observe, measure, and analyze it. According to NASA scientists, the released material will provide a sample of the primordial water, gas and dust from which the Sun, planets, moons, and other bodies in the solar system formed. How do they know this? It is a theoretical guess based on a theory that from the beginning has been contradicted by observations. According to proponents of the Electric Universe, such as Wallace Thornhill and Don Scott, comets have the potential to challenge the underpinnings of space science today. According to the cosmic electricians, everything we have learned about comets challenges the old paradigm: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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1. the premature discharging of comets beyond the orbit of Jupiter, where known icy bodies do not sublimate under solar radiation. 2. the repeated "surprise" of water content well below expectations--or no evidence of surface water at all. 3. the unexplained outbursts of dust, some even beyond the orbit of Saturn. 4. the narrow energetic jets from comet nuclei, defying the expectations for sublimating ices. 5. the "shocking" breakup or explosion of comet nuclei as they race toward the Sun. 6. the high energy X-rays from comets. 7. the sharply sculpted surfaces of comet nuclei (quite the opposite of the expected softening of features in melting chunks of ice). 8. the coherent filaments and "knots" of comet tails, often extending for many millions of miles without dissipating. 9. the mysterious "anti-tails" or "anomalous tails" of various comets, projecting toward the Sun, not away from it. These features are expected in the Electric Universe model. In that model, cometary intruders are highly negatively charged in relation to the Sun. The Sun is the positively charged body-the anode--at the center of an electric field reaching past the planets to the remote "heliopause." The heliopause is the insulating sheath or electrical boundary that mediates between the electric potential of the Sun and that of interstellar space. As a comet approaches the Sun from more remote, negative regions, it grows increasingly out of balance with its surroundings and begins to discharge electrically. All the surprising and anomalous observations in the previous list are typical characteristics of electrical discharges in plasma. Furthermore, the Electric Universe rejects the traditional story of the formation of all the bodies of the solar system at one early epoch. In the electrical model, comets and asteroids originate from planets in episodes of formation. So there is no expectation that comets will reveal a consistent or primordial composition. The variability in cometary material already discovered supports this view. Deep Impact will thus provide another important test of the electric comet theory. Therefore, in our Picture of the Day on July 4, we shall present a review of the theoretical issues, along with predictions, prior to the Deep Impact event.
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Credit: VIMS Team, U. Arizona, ESA, NASA
An Electrical Blister on Titan

(Jun 28, 2005)
Nothing much is supposed to have happened on Saturn and its moons for billions of years. But the Cassini probe is discovering evidence of a recent event, and a thunderbolt scar indicates what that event might have been. The conventional theory for the origin of the planets and their moons assumes that little has happened since they condensed from a cloud billions of years ago. The inundation of data from space probes that indicates relatively recent activity has been a surprise. When the Cassini probe discovered that Saturns largest moon, Titan, was rapidly losing its atmospheric methane, conventional theorists had to come up with some mechanism that would have replenished the loss over billions of years. One of the first proposals was that Titan had oceans of methane that evaporated fast enough to compensate for the atmospheric loss. But the Huygens probe found no evidence for such oceans. Then the discovery of a "domed feature" suggested a solution: Perhaps it was a "cryovolcano," an eruption of a nearly frozen mixture of ammonia, water, methane and other hydrocarbons. Such eruptions from a hidden interior source of unknown extent would provide methane in amounts that could be adjusted to match the measured loss. This kind of case-by-case salvaging of a preconceived belief marks a theory in crisis. Theorists "explain away" anomalous observations that are contrary to entailments of the theory rather than confront the necessity for a new theory. The Electric Universe proposes a more general and more straightforward explanation: Titan is losing methane because Titan is young and has not yet reached an equilibrium condition. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In an electric solar system, planets May not form all at once. Fluctuations in the galactic currents powering the system can cause episodes of fissioning, in which the star expels condensed and charged clumps of matter from its interior. These clumps become gas-giant planets, which interact electrically as they orbit within the stars plasma sheath. At the next lower scale of activity, the gas giants May also experience episodes of electrical "overstress," at which times they May expel smaller and more-condensed clumps--the rocky planets and moons. Over a relatively short time, the electrical interactions tend to transfer energy among the planets and moons so that their interactions are minimized. This results in a distribution of orbits that, to gravity-only observers, appears to have been stable for eons. In this view, many of the anomalous observations of the planets are understandable as direct consequences of the electrical theory, without the theory having to be adjusted case by case. Furthermore, the anomalous observations correlate with the most ancient human reports about conditions in the heavens, reports that heretofore have simply been dismissed as nonsense. (This conventional assertion implies that the ancients, living at a near-subsistence level, nevertheless diverted large amounts of resources and labor into commemorations of nonsense.) This ancient body of records indicates that at the dawn of history Saturn underwent such a fissioning event. Its possible that Titan was expelled in that event and that Saturns rings are also a remnant of it. Because Titan--and any other bodies expelled with it--would have been highly positively charged with respect to their new environment outside Saturn, they would have experienced intense electrical discharging immediately after expulsion. Interplanetary and inter-satellite lightning arcs--thunderbolts--would have flown between new and old bodies. Arcs touching the surface would have raised anode blisters, called fulgamites. These are domed features, or more accurately, pancake-like features. They have steep scarps around the edge and a steep-edged, flat-bottomed crater (or several overlapping craters) in the center. Typical examples are abundant on Venus as well as on Mars and the Moon. Closer inspection of this "cryovolcano" on Titan will likely find that it has more in common with a fulgamite than with an oozing cold hydrocarbon soup.
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UPPER: high-voltage filaments-electrical discharge in a plasma lab; lightning-electrical discharges in Earth's atmosphere; solar filaments-electrical discharges in the Sun's atmosphere. MIDDLE: Saturn's auroras-electrical discharges around Saturn's magnetic poles; ant nebula-electrical discharges along a star's magnetic axis; galactic jet-electrical discharges from an active galactic nucleus. LOWER: observatory-a facility astronomers employ to avoid seeing electrical discharge in space. Credit: UPPER: John Dyer;NOAA Photo Library, NOAA Central Library; OAR/ERL/National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL); CFA, TRACE Team, NASA. MIDDLE: J. Trauger (JPL), NASA; NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team;J. A. Biretta et al., Hubble Heritage Team (STScI /AURA), NASA LOWER: P. Stomski (W. M. Keck Observatory), Caltech, U. California
Seeing Electricity in Space

(Jun 27, 2005)
We tend to perceive only whats familiar. So when new discoveries open up unfamiliar worlds, they present us with a dilemma. To see new worlds accurately May require a radical step--the suspension of prior beliefs. Lets start with whats familiar. Prior ideas, experiences and memories form the foundation of our thinking. They make up the "whats familiar." "Whats familiar" is things we bump into and think of as solid, other things we splash in and think of as liquid, a few things we feel blowing past us and think of as gas. "Whats familiar" is thinking of these things as made up of atoms, atoms that have mass, atoms that have positively charged particles on the inside and negatively charged particles on the outside, atoms that can gain and lose these particles but that have few electrical effects. "Whats familiar" is the accumulation of our thinking and acting and remembering as creatures who live on the surface of a wet, rocky body called Earth. But there are things and events above the surface and below the surface--even on the surface--that we have not thought about or remembered. Not long ago our ancestors thought differently about things and remembered events differently. What was familiar for them was not thinking in terms of solids, liquids and gases but thinking in terms of earth, water, air and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive fire. And if whats familiar has changed before, it can change again.
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For some time now weve been accumulating unfamiliar experiences above the surface. Early in the twentieth century we began to discover atoms that are unfamiliar because they are missing one or more negatively charged particles. The remaining portions of these atoms are positively charged. The presence of these negatively and positively charged particles is the distinguishing characteristic of what we now call plasma. In the second half of the twentieth century we discovered that plasma fills the space between planets and stars. Plasma behaves in unfamiliar ways. But our habits of perception can make it difficult to see plasma as something completely different from a gas. Its similarities to a gas are overshadowed by the dissimilarities. And if we can break free from prior ideas about gases, we make the unfamiliar ways of plasma familiar. And we can see a new universe. A charged particle that moves is an electric current. This is a familiar thought when were doing electrical things, but weve not thought about it when were doing things in space. An electrical current is accompanied by a magnetic field that wraps around the current and gets weaker with distance from the current. With more charged particles moving in the same direction, and with moving faster, the magnetic field gets stronger. Again, this is a familiar thought when were doing electrical things. But when astronomers discovered magnetic fields in space, they were surprised and mystified about how to explain them. They tried to conjure magnetism out of gravity and mass. Because the charged particles are moving through this magnetic field that gets stronger toward the axis of movement, particles that are not moving exactly along that axis are squeezed toward the axis. Plasma scientists call this the "pinch effect." Outlying charged particles, together with the neutral atoms they bump into, are pulled into the current channel. Outlying areas are depleted and the channel gets denser. It self-constricts until the gas pressure on the inside balances the magnetic pressure on the outside. This balance of pressures along the axis produces long, thin filaments of matter that are sharply separated from their rarified environments. We remember that this is what happens in a lightning stroke (or at least this is how we think about what happens in a lightning stroke), and it seems familiar: We understand. But we had not thought about this happening in space. Kristian Birkeland thought this might be what happens in the aurora. He trekked to the Arctic Circle to measure the magnetic fields from the constricted channels that made up the auroral currents. (These "Birkeland currents" were later named after him.) He speculated that this might be what happens in the filaments that make up solar prominences and the solar corona. He thought the filaments might carry electric currents from the Sun to Earth. Such ideas were too unfamiliar for astronomers conditioned to think in terms of gravity and mass. They clung to their familiar ideas of mass particles until artificial satellites orbited through and measured the electrical filaments that were the auroral currents. Even then, the idea was too unfamiliar for them to recognize that the moving charged particles from the Sun were also currents. Because gravity-oriented astronomers are familiar with moving masses, they seldom think about charges. Whats not familiar, what has no conceptual framework for understanding, is often not even perceived. So they think of moving charged particles from the Sun as a "wind" instead of an electric current. They think of charged particles falling on a planet or on a moon as a "rain" instead of an electrical discharge. They think of charged particles moving along a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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magnetic field as a "jet" instead of a field-aligned power cable. They think of abrupt changes in the density and speed of charged particles as a "shock front" instead of a double layer that can dissipate electrical energy and even explode. They cant see the electrical-particle forest for the mass-particle trees. They are lost in a plasma universe, seeing charged particles in motion but thinking in terms of gas kinetics and gravity. Plasma cosmologists think differently. They remember their experience with currents in a laboratory. They are familiar with the "right-hand rule": When they point the thumb of their right hand in the direction of the current, their fingers will curl in the direction of the magnetic field. In the space between two parallel currents, the two magnetic fields will have opposite directions. Because north and south poles attract each other, the two currents will move toward each other. But as they get closer, the electrical repulsion between them will become stronger than the magnetic attraction. The two currents will begin to twist around each other. (See Thunderbolts of the Gods, Chapter One, page 24.) Plasma cosmologists recognize these twisting filaments in the penumbras of sunspots and in coronal streamers. Space probes have detected them in a plasma tail from Venus that is identical to the ion tails of comets. The glowing filaments in so-called planetary nebulas and in misnamed "supernova remnants" are familiar. The jets from Herbig-Haro stars and from active galaxies are familiar. Once electric currents in space have become familiar, once they are understood, they can be perceived almost everywhere. The only place they are missing is in modern astronomical theories.
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Credit: Jack Newton
The Explosion that Shattered Solar Theory

(Jun 24, 2005)
In January 2005, some remarkable things happened on the Sun, and the implications are still reverberating through the scientific community. Between January 15th and 19th four powerful solar flares erupted from "sunspot 720," shown in the picture above. Then on January 20 the fifth explosion produced a coronal mass ejection (CME) that achieved velocities incomparably greater than anything astronomers had seen before. While it often takes more than 24 hours for the charged particles of a solar outburst to reach the Earth, this one was a profound exception. Just thirty minutes after the explosion, Earth (some 96 million miles from the Sun) was immersed in what NASA scientists called "the most intense proton storm in decades." Proton storms get their name from the "rain" of positively charged particles when a mass ejection reaches the Earth. One reason proton storms get attention is that they interfere with satellite communications and can even penetrate the skin of space suits and make astronauts sick. But for the proponents of popular theories about the Sun, this "storm" was far more than an irritant. According to a NASA news release, the event "has shaken the foundations of space weather theory." Prior to this event, how did astronomers explain proton storms? NASAs "Headline News" story tells us that the mass ejection "begins with an explosion, usually above a sunspot. Sunspots are places where strong magnetic fields poke through the surface of the Sun. For reasons no one completely understands, these fields can become unstable and explode, unleashing as much energy as 10 billion hydrogen bombs." Powerful ejections can throw off a billion tons of solar material. Normally they travel relatively slowly. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive "Even the fastest ones, traveling one to two thousand km/s, take a day or so to reach Earth. You know a CME has just arrived when you see auroras in the sky."
But how does the ejected material attain its observed speeds? Even common ejections travel faster and faster as they move outward from the Sun, achieving speeds up to a thousand miles per second or more. This acceleration, the theory surmises, can be explained by the "shock waves" that the CME produces. "Shock waves in front of the CME can accelerate these protons in our direction--hence the proton storm." But this space weather theory is "soon to be revised," the story says. Heres why: Though the speeds of typical CMEs are impressive, and have posed a deep mystery for decades, they do not come close to the speed of the January 20 ejection. Light from the Sun (or from a solar flare) reaches Earth in 8 minutes. An ejection reaching Earth in 30 minutes must be rapidly accelerated to velocities more than a quarter of the speed of light. From the traditional viewpoint, this is unthinkable. And yet it happened. How, then, do theorists of the Electric Universe see all of this? Most are amused by the commotion. In the universe now observed with better and more versatile instruments, we see plasma jets and ejected material often attaining velocities approaching the speed of light. In electrical terms, the explanation is direct and obvious: electric fields in space accelerate charged particles. On this electrical principle there is no debate. But by banishing electric fields from their theoretical models, astronomers and astrophysicists are left with no mechanism to account for the things they now see. One after another, the ad hoc guesses must be abandoned. The electrical theorists accept the observed facts concerning CMEs, but they consider the astronomers theoretical framework to be a decades-long disaster. It is neither sufficient nor accurate to describe sunspots as "places where strong magnetic fields poke through the surface of the Sun." Such a claim fails to account for the magnetic fields themselves and leaves the associated sunspot events unexplained. When the NASA story says that the magnetic fields "become unstable and explode, unleashing as much energy as 10 billion hydrogen bombs," it adds that "no one completely understands" how this occurs. The authors of the news release are clearly not familiar with electrical discharge in plasma, a phenomenon outlined in great detail by Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfvn, the founder of plasma cosmology. Alfvens contributions were rooted in direct observation of plasma discharge in the laboratory. He described how the insulating layers of the cellular structures that form in electrified plasma often break down, causing instabilities. Such instabilities are typified by the energetic explosions we see above sunspots. But even when the implications are obvious to the electrical theorists, they seem to elude solar physicists. Reflecting on the January 20 outburst, astrophysicist Robert Lin of UC Berkeley affirmed that, "We have an important clue." He noted that when the explosion occurred, sunspot 720 was located at a special place on the Sun: 60 degrees west longitude. This is significant, he said, because from this location "the sunspot was magnetically connected to Earth." By this he meant that the lines of force of the Suns magnetic field, followed outward from that point along their spiraling path, lead directly to the Earth. The NASA headline article called this "a superhighway for protons leading all the way from sunspot 720 to our planet." Though the article accurately describes the "highway" taken by the charged particles, it The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive concludes: "How they were accelerated, however, remains a mystery."
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Its a mystery only to them. Neither Lin nor the articles author is familiar with the "field aligned currents" documented by Alfvn. By following the direction of the induced magnetic fields, electric currents move efficiently, like transmission lines, across the vast distances of interplanetary, interstellar, and intergalactic space. Plasma specialist Anthony Peratt, in his textbook The Physics of the Plasma Universe, begins the description of field-aligned currents with this overview: "...electric fields aligned along the magnetic field direction freely accelerate particles. Electrons and ions are accelerated in opposite directions, giving rise to a current along the magnetic field lines." Retired professor of electrical engineering, Donald Scott, does not mince words when responding to the astrophysicists lack of knowledge of electrical phenomena: "Any student of physics who has heard of electric charge and electric fields knows that the easiest way to get electrically charged particles to accelerate is to apply an electric field to them. The acceleration of the positively charged solar "wind" particles is clearly an electrical phenomenon. It is accurately predicted by the Electric Sun model." The quarter-light-speed CME of January 20 is not just an isolated exception to the "normal" solar wind. It demonstrates that the "normal" explanation for the solar wind is mistaken and unable to account for the extremes of solar wind behavior. (On some occasions, the wind had stopped--an event just as unexplainable by standard theory as the January 20 event.) The electrical acceleration of plasma accounts for the entire range of wind behavior. Thanks to Michael Armstrong for much of the factual content in this Picture of the Day.
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Credit: B. Balick (U. Washington) et al., WFPC2, HST, NASA
Nebulas--The "Shocking" Answers

(Jun 21, 2005)
Space-age images of planetary nebulas have forced astronomers to re-think their theories of stellar evolution. But if stars are composed of electrically active plasma, many of the most perplexing mysteries May already be solved. Since the advent of modern stellar-evolution theory, astronomers have believed that old Sunlike stars blow off their upper layers in spherical shells as their cores collapse into white dwarfs. But the theory continually faces new challenges as we learn more about these "planetary nebulas." Why, and how, has the old Sun-like star in the image above constrained its ejecta into bipolar tubes with one inside the other? Why are the walls of the tubes so sharply defined? Why are the walls composed of filaments? Why are many of the filaments paired? Why do many of the filaments have knots of luminosity along them? Why are they green? Why is there a torus ("donut") of plasma (too small to be seen in this image) circling the "pinched" part of the tubes? Why is the central star actually a binary? Every aspect of modern stellar-evolution theory is beset with similar lists of questions. The questions arise because new discoveries almost always provoke astonishment. The theory did not anticipate them. Typically, when astronomers propose answers, they appeal to singlecase exceptions or resort to after-the-fact adjustments. The lack of predictive ability leads to increasing complexity and confusion, and the astronomers credibility rests increasingly on the new hedge factors they introduce. "If this is knowledge, astronomers would be better off with ignorance," said one critic. We can expose the heart of the problem by simply counting the words used as unexpected difficulties arise: The word "gas" appears almost always; the word "plasma" appears almost never. When pressed, astronomers will admit that their "gas" is actually "plasma." But what they mean by "plasma" is "hot gas": Instead of applying the electrical equations of plasma behavior, they resort to the equations of gas kinetics. One begins to suspect they "dont know their gas from their plasma." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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An electrical discharge in plasma will generate a tube-like sheath along its axis. A sufficiently energetic discharge will cause the sheath to glow, and it May generate several embedded sheaths. The sheath is actually a "double layer," a thin sheet in which positive charges build up on one side and negative charges build up on the other. A strong electrical field exists between the sides. This field accelerates some of the charges and emits microwave (and often optical and x-ray) radiation, but is otherwise undetectable unless a probe flies through it. (Hence, astronomers, who have only recently learned to look for magnetic fields, assume double layers dont exist in space.) In the image of the Butterfly Nebula above, the double layers are glowing, revealing themselves as the sharp boundaries of the sheaths. Electrical currents flow along these sheaths. In plasma, electrical currents pinch themselves into thread-like channels--filaments. These filaments attract each other, usually in pairs, at long distances, but repel each other at close distances. Instead of merging, they spiral around each other. Fluctuations in high-energy currents will lead to instabilities that alternately squeeze and expand the filament, making it look like a string of sausages or a row of beads. Because the light is produced by electrical discharge, the relevant model for a nebula is a laboratory "gas-discharge tube," similar to a neon light, which emits light only at the excitation frequency of the gas. Astronomers model of a shock wave from an explosion predicts emitted light at many frequencies due to heating of the gas. But over 90% of the light from planetary nebulas comes in a single frequency: that of doubly ionized oxygen. Think of the Butterfly Nebula as a light-year-long oxygen discharge tube. In an Electric Universe, stars form in "kinks" in a discharge channel. Where the channel bends, matter tends to accumulate. It forms a spinning sphere in which external electromagnetic "pinch" forces are balanced by internal pressure from the increasing density of plasma. Laboratory experiments show that this sphere has an equatorial plasma torus--a ring current--around it, just as do the central stars of planetary nebulas. This ring current stores charge until it reaches its capacity, at which time it discharges to the inner sphere, producing a flash of light with the characteristic sudden onset and exponential decline of a lightning bolt--the same thing we see in a stellar nova. If the electrical stress on the central star (which acts as an electrode) becomes too great, it will fission into two or more bodies, thereby increasing the surface area of the electrode so that it can accept a greater current load. This likely explains why most if not all central stars in planetary nebulas are double. From an electrical vantage point, the stellar-evolution theory was a triumph of gaslight era astronomy. It explained most of the data that could be gathered by ground-based mechanical sensors. But the advent of electronic sensors in space and the realization that the universe is composed almost entirely of plasma requires a theory that takes electricity into account. To see that we live in an Electric Universe, it is only necessary that we compare the predictive abilities of the two models.
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Credit: O. Krause (Steward Obs.) et al., SSC, JPL, Caltech, NASA
The Supernova Nobody Saw

(Jun 20, 2005)
The enigmatic features of the strongest extrasolar radio source in the sky have been heavily obscured by astronomers ad hoc attempts to save preconceived theories. But they are clear manifestations of electrical activity in space. Cassiopeia A, pictured above in a composite of x-ray, optical and infrared images, is one of the first objects observed by radio telescopes. It is also the strongest extrasolar radio source in the sky. It wasnt identified with an optical object until 1954, when Walter Baade and Rudolph Minkowski matched it up with a "most remarkable" nebula. Their paper in the Astrophysical Journal (Vol. 119, pp. 206-214) remarked: "[R]ed-sensitive plates ... show ... broken bits of nebulosity ... Some are elongated streaks ..., others have almost stellar appearance ... Not a single one ... registers on the blue-sensitive plates... [I]t is for the first time that we encounter the type of nebulosity that we described." Emission nebulae are usually blueish. Baades and Minkowskis plates only imaged a few parts of the nebula in its northern sector. What they called the "northern arc," roughly the area shown here near the top in yellow and white, appeared to have "marked motions"--around 2000 kilometers per second--"and intensity changes... In contrast, the red broken bits ... show neither perceptible motions"--at most, around 50 kilometers per second--"nor intensity changes." Because an exploding star-a supernova--was expected to throw off a shell of material with a uniform expansion velocity and a uniform luminosity, they concluded: "[T]he nebulosity is not a shell of this type." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Later astronomers decided it was "a shell of this [supernova] type" and calculated the shells expansion back to a supernova explosion that would have been seen in 1667. A search through the historical documents of that time, however, turned up no mention of it. Although it is the youngest and one of the nearest nebulas that are considered to be remnants of supernovas, no one saw the explosion. Perhaps recalling the admonition that "lack of evidence is not evidence of lack," these later astronomers declared that the explosion had been "heavily obscured" by dust. Now the Spitzer Space Telescope has measured the "marked motions" in infrared light and has found them to be much too high even for a supernova explosion. The new explanation is a "light echo" (although "heat echo" would be more accurate): The white dwarf remnant of the supernova emits bursts of radiation that heat up tendrils of dust in the vicinity. "Hot spots," where radiation front meets dust, appear to move "at tremendous speeds," but the dust doesnt move. No one has addressed the question of whether the "light echo" explanation undermines the assumptions on which retrocalculation is based. In addition to anomalous motions, the nebula displays a mysterious "element enhancement." Some parts are enriched in iron, others in silicon, still others in calcium or sulfur. These observations have become usual with nebulas, provoking exclamations about "unexpected" features that are "not well understood." In the image above, the left outer edge is enriched with iron. According to the accepted theory of stellar structure, the iron would have been at the core of the star before it exploded. The explosion somehow "overturned" the stars layers, throwing the inside outside and leaving the outside inside. But another viewpoint is possible. Sorting elements and moving matter at several speeds is what electricity in space does. It also organizes matter into filaments. And those filaments often show the twisting and braiding and knotting into strings of "beads" that show in the above image. The strong electric fields in the "double layers" or insulating walls of the surrounding cells and filaments accelerate ions and electrons to x-ray and even to cosmic-ray energies. They also generate the copious radio waves that first brought attention to this nebula. The Electric Universe viewpoint suggests that this energetic output of Cassiopeia A, as in all planetary nebulas and supernova remnants, results from a "pinch" in a plasma current. The local current is part of a larger galactic circuit, and the discharge effects of this current show up in the "jets" that emerge from the nebula at left and right. In the electrical view, a supernova is not so much a mechanical explosion as an electrical discharge: a stellar thunderbolt. The accompanying nebulosity May or May not have come from the central star; in either case, it will have been sorted, condensed, rarified, accelerated, slowed, and otherwise modified from its previous state by the electric force. Retrocalculation is not a reliable guide for dating the outburst of radiation. Nobody saw the flare-up of Cassiopeia A in 1667 because, most likely, it didnt flare up then.
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Credit:
Sunspot Penumbra Shock Astrophysicists

(Jun 17, 2005)
Textbook theory of sunspot activity faces new difficulties posed by the magnetically confined structures of the penumbra. The old idea that the penumbra filaments are "convection currents" must now give way to new evidence that electric currents dominate these solar structures. We can thank the "Astronomy Picture of the Day" folks for the two images above. They are from a brief sequence that can be viewed as a movie by clicking on either of the links given here (small) or here (large). The movie shows the sunspot in false-color images from different heights above the surface or photosphere. The first image (upper image in the picture above) shows the Sun's photosphere as it normally appears, covered with granules. The large dark sunspot sports a clear dark umbra in the center through which we can peer into the cooler region beneath the surface. Surrounding the sunspot is the lighter penumbra, composed of rope-vortices rising explosively from beneath the surface. In the linked movie, the images appearing toward the middle of the sequence show what is occurring a few hundred kilometers above the photosphere, as the twisted filaments of the penumbra begin to spread out horizontally. The last image of the sequence (lower image above) shows the Sun at a few thousand kilometers into the chromosphere, the layer of the Suns atmosphere just above the photosphere. Here we see the "ropes" of the sunspot penumbra extending outward into a surrounding maze of filaments, all constrained by the complex magnetic fields that have so The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive amazed and enchanted solar physicists in recent years.
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For decades, the standard model of the Sun treated the penumbra filaments as "convection cells," columns of hot gases transporting heat from the interior to the surface. Astrophysicists formulated such concepts while under the spell of gravity and familiar gas laws. Seeing the Sun as an isolated island in space, they had no other tools to work with. But proponents of the Electric Universe assert that there are no isolated islands in the universe. They contend that concepts of simple heat transport are alien to the plasma discharge behavior evident in sunspot activity. As Wallace Thornhill observed, the penumbra filaments "bear no resemblance to any known form of convection in a hot gas, magnetic fields or no." So we pose the question: what is controlling the behavior of the penumbra in these pictures-magnetic fields or gas laws? The new profile of the solar atmosphere has left the astrophysicists in a state of ambivalence. The APOD folks do not describe the network of interacting filaments as "convection cells." They say simply: "Here magnetic field lines can be clearly followed outward from the sunspot to distant regions." That is not the behavior of convection cells! The problem is that now the solar physicists appear to have fallen under the spell of another popular fiction--that science can appropriately discuss magnetic fields without concerning itself with the cause. Now the refrain is, "Just look at all those twisted magnetic fields!" The solar "experts" have forgotten first principles: only electric currents produce magnetic fields. Yes, the complex magnetic fields are there, and they are the predictable effect of "anode tufting" or secondary discharging above the positively charged sphere in a glow discharge. While the electric model of the Sun remains to be elaborated in important details, sunspot activity is eminently suited as a critical test. Where should one look for evidence of electron currents flowing into the Sun? If, as Thornhill claims, the sunspot is the opening through which discharge currents pass from the more negatively charged torus around the Sun, then sunspot activity should be investigated systematically with an entirely new vantage point in mind.
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Credit: Swedish Solar Observatory
Sunspots Still Surprise Investigators

(Jun 16, 2005)
Anomalous sunspot behavior continues to baffle solar physicists. Even the cause of sunspots remains elusive, and the more detailed pictures only seem to push the answers farther down the path. "Exactly what happens and why these kind of structures are formed, we don't know." -- Dan Kiselman, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm. In the extreme close-up photograph of a sunspot above, we see the rope-like filaments of the penumbra, or margins of the sunspot. For many years solar physicists have claimed that these filaments were convection cells, typical of heated gases. But the higher-resolution details shown here, including the twin bridges across the sunspot, do not support traditional theory. All of the structure shown is consistent with the principle of anode tufting, a plasma discharge effect expected of a positively charged electric Sun. High-resolution images of the penumbra filaments have revealed the distinctive characteristics of tornado-like charge vortices. By giving us a peek beneath the tops of the rotating discharge columns, sunspots enable us to view directly the columns explosive rise from below, as they heat and project plasma upward into the bright photospheric granules. For conventional theory, sunspot penumbrae remain a mystery: the standard solar model neither requires nor predicts such phenomena. In the electric model they are predictable. Electric discharges in plasma take the form of long, thin and twisting filaments. Because they are tornadic funnels of glowing plasma, they will appear darker in their centers, exactly as seen in the recent pictures. Convection cells would appear darker on their cooler peripheries. The electric explanation of sunspots, like that of the penumbra, is rooted in the observed behavior of plasma discharge. In laboratory experiments, a torus forms above the equator of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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a positively charged sphere. Discharges then fly between the torus and the mid- to lowlatitudes of the sphere. In the electric model, the Sun is the positively charged focal point of an electric field. And now we know that the Sun is indeed surrounded by an equatorial torus (as shown in the polar UV image here). Sunspots are the direct evidence that electric discharges punch holes in the photosphere to deliver current directly to lower depths, exposing a view of the cooler interior. Nothing ever observed on the Sun supports the idea of heat transfer from the core, where standard theory places the nuclear fusion "furnace." In the electric model, what nuclear fusion that does occur is located where the most energetic events occur, in the fierce electric tornadoes. In the laboratory experiments that produce the equatorial torus, the observed discharging to the positively charged sphere migrates latitudinally as the power input varies. The higher power produces maximum activity near the equator. The same thing occurs on the Sun in the latitudinal migration of sunspots in relation to the total energetic output of the Sun. Standard theory will not allow that the cooler lower region revealed by sunspots means a cooler interior of the Sun. So astrophysicists have surmised that the sunspots are the result of focused magnetic fields interfering with heat transport, or convection. But they have confused electrical and magnetic effects. Investigation has shown that sunspots having the same magnetic polarity attract each other. But the poles of magnets repel. Electric currents, however (the source of magnetic fields), do attract each other, while maintaining their integrity through repulsion at extremely close distances. In fact, we see this effect when sunspots "merge." Though conjoined, they retain their independent structure, just as currents do in plasma. Standard models offer no coherent explanation for the approximate eleven-year sunspot cycle. There is no annual "clock" in an isolated thermonuclear explosion. Though a connection to the period of Jupiter is possible, perhaps even likely in terms of solar system circuitry, the remote gravitational effects of Jupiter on the Sun cannot compare to the energetic events associated with the sunspot cycle. In the electrical model the sunspot cycle is most likely a result a fluctuations in the electrical power supply from the local arm of our galaxy, the Milky Way, as the varying current density and magnetic fields of huge Birkeland current filaments slowly rotate past our solar system.
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Above "The Wild Hunt of Odin," by P N Arbo, 1872.
The Origins of Doomsday Anxiety

(Jun 14, 2005)
After years of ignoring the most pervasive fear in human history, it is time to examine its roots dispassionately. For such a purpose, we need only call upon the appropriate rules for evaluating historical evidence. Let a comet appear in the sky. Let the "zeroes" line up on a calendar. Let the weather turn stormy, or world events grow unsettled. When such things occur they will invariably trigger a cultural response--the "doomsday anxiety," a fear of the end of the world. Today little attention is given to the historic origins of this cultural syndrome. However, only a few years ago it reared its head at the turn of the millennium. And just two years earlier we saw it with the dramatic appearance of the comet Hale Bopp. Within various religious cults, preachers and gurus and wild men have pointed to imminent apocalypse for as long as any of us can remember. Indeed, the phenomenon May seem too trivial to merit concern. We easily dismiss it as a minor demonstration of the irrational in our species. But the historic nature of the anxiety does deserve attention, for no archaic culture was free from the fear of Doomsday. And most of the collective investment in ritual and magic bore a direct connection to the mythology of overwhelming catastrophe. Early mythic and religious traditions reveal many fears, beliefs, and yearnings shared by all of the early cultures. But while many of the motives are universal, the experiences to which they refer are beyond the ability of accepted science and theory to explain. Science today has no frame of reference for dealing with the collective memories that drove the early cultures. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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At the end of a 52-year calendar cycle, Aztec priests would anticipate a world-ending conflagration. On seeing that the heavens remained as they were, the people would celebrate the new lease on life. Moreover, the theme of cosmic upheaval appears in New Years festivals around the world. Our own Halloween, Christmas, New Year, and May Day celebrations have preserved many fragments. The prototypes for these occasions lay in the remote past, in such celebrations as the Egyptian Sed Festival and the Babylonian Akitu festival, both harking back to events of cosmic chaos and destruction. It is no overstatement to say that ancient nations the world over were obsessed with ideas of world-ending disaster. But here is the heart of the matter, the one fact that can explain the Doomsday anxiety both ancient and modern. Humans everywhere on earth once remembered a world-altering catastrophe, an event of such devastating intensity that it hung like a cloud over every culture for thousands of years. And what they remembered, they expected to happen once more. As before, so again. The world-ending catastrophe remembered by Nordic cultures gave rise to the prophetic vision of Ragnarok, the destruction of the world in a rain of fire and stone. In this vision the great serpent Jormungand rises from the waters of the deep and attacks, spitting its fiery venom upon the world. A battle ensues between gods and giants. Odins dark angels, the Valkyries, ride their steeds across the sky, their golden hair streaming behind them. The walls of the heavenly city Asgard fall down, and the celestial bridge of Bifrost dissolves in flames. A much earlier account of universal disaster, preserved by the Greek poet Hesiod, described the "clash of the Titans." On one side, the leader of the Titans was the god Kronos, original ruler of heaven; on the other, his own son, Zeus. Their war in the sky brought the world to the edge of complete destruction. "For a long time now, the Titan gods and those who were descended from Kronos had fought each other, with heart-hurting struggles, ranged in opposition all through the hard encounters," wrote Hesiod. The upheaval lasted for ten years, culminating in a heaven-shattering conflagration, when the whole world shuddered beneath the thunderbolts of the gods. The celestial combatants "threw their re-echoing weapons and the noise of either side outcrying went up to the starry heaven as with great war crying they drove at each other." To witnesses of the events, "it absolutely would have seemed as if Earth and the wide Heaven above her had collided, for such would have been the crash arising as Earth wrecked and the sky came piling down on top of her, so vast was the crash heard as the gods collided in battle..." Huge boulders flew between the celestial combatants. The roaring wind and quaking earth brought with them a great dust storm "with thunder and with lightning, and the blazing thunderbolt, the weapons thrown by great Zeus." In such descriptions as these the gods do not just disturb the earth with their thunderbolts, they pound each other with them amid horrific sound, earthquake, raging wind, and a devastating fall of rock. The notion that archaic memories of universal catastrophe were simply exaggerated accounts of local disasters is an unsupportable oversight in specialized cultural study today. Specialists have suggested that the world of the first storytellers was so limited it was "only natural" that they would experience a local flood or a particularly destructive volcanic eruption as a worldending conflagration. But this gratuitous supposition is contradicted by a cross-cultural coherence. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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To reconcile human memories and scientific evidence, it is not sufficient to dismiss the ancient witnesses when their testimony is incompatible with todays "scientific mythology." The essential requirement is that appropriate ground-rules be followed for assessing cross-cultural evidence. Ancient testimony is both unreliable and useless when individual stories are considered in isolation. No one will ever penetrate to the original human experience by studying a local legend in North America or the South Pacific. But human testimony can be extraordinarily reliable in the hands of one attentive to the points of agreement--particularly where extraordinary and unexpected details are repeated around the world. In its every nuance the Doomsday theme declares that our theoretical assumptions are not correct. But ideology has prevented accredited specialists from following the most obvious question: Does the occurrence in every culture of the same themes and details, which are unnatural in todays world, indicate an archaic experience of a world with a different nature? Certainly no Egyptologist or Sumerologist could know, based on his specialized learning, whether cosmic violence punctuated the recent history of the solar system. But the supposition of a changeless solar system has kept specialists from comparing data and asking the question. The worldwide Doomsday theme has no roots in familiar natural events. Therefore, we cannot ignore the direct implication: the myths arose as imaginative interpretations of extraordinary occurrences. If mankinds Doomsday anxiety was provoked by events no longer occurring, the conventional historians dismissive approach to the subject must be counted among the greatest theoretical mistakes of modern times.
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The Peekskill Meteor

(Jun 13, 2005)
Bolides that flicker, flare up and explode as they streak toward the earth pose unanswered questions for scientists. Why do most meteors become visible to the eye when they are about 60 miles in altitude but a few appear at up to twice that height? Why are some meteors accompanied by electrophonic sound that is simultaneous with their flaring up? In the evening of October 9, 1992 a fireball appeared in the sky over West Virginia. This distinctively green-hued fireball traveled visibly over 700 km in 40+ seconds. Thousands of people saw it, and dozens reported observations that enabled scientists to determine its path and behavior. At least 16 different witnesses videotaped it. At some point in its flight this meteoric fireball fragmented with significant longitudinal displacement of fragments and slight transverse displacement for some of the fragments, both of which can be seen in the photos above. Before fragmentation, though, the meteoric fireball left a distinctly flickering wake trail. Also during its flight the fireball flared twice dramatically, reaching a brightness exceeding that of a full moon. Some witnesses describe an explosive "pop" before it "burst into a rainbow of colors." One observer commented: "When I saw it, it was still in one piece. It was an electric lime green with tendril-like extensions. It did not look like it was burning up so much as undergoing an electrical interaction. In the photo after fragmentation, one can notice the electric coma on the lead meteor." Many witnesses described hearing electrostatic noises or "crackling" sounds just before and for several seconds after fragmentation. Since the fragmentation took place at an altitude of about 41.7 km (26 miles) in a vacuum where there is NOT enough atmosphere to carry sound, how did this electrophonic noise propagate for over 25 miles? See "Electrophonic sounds from large meteor fireballs," Keay, Colin S.L., Meteoritics (ISSN 0026-1114), vol. 27, no. 2, June 1992, p. 144-148. Research supported by Herzberg Institute for Astrophysics, Queen Mary and Westfield College, and SERC. Quote from the abstract of the above article: "Anomalous sounds from large meteor fireballs, anomalous because they are audible The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive simultaneously with the sighting, have been a matter for debate for over two centuries. Only a minority of observers perceive them. Ten years ago a viable physical explanation was developed (Keay, 1980) which accounts for the phenomenon in terms of ELF/VLF radiation from the fireball plasma being transduced into acoustic waves whenever appropriate objects happen to be in the vicinity of an observer. This explanation has now been verified observationally and supported by other evidence including the study of meteor fireball light curves reported here."
Astrophysicists try to calculate the original mass of the Peekskill bolide from the total energy released. They present a value range from 2 to 25 tons, but these calculations give no consideration to electric charge and electric forces. In the Electric Universe view, any object coming far from the earth would be charged differently. As it encounters lower layers of the Earth's plasma sheath, the voltage between the object and the layer would increase and the object would begin to discharge visibly. At first it would be surrounded by a "glow discharge," a diffuse luminescence similar to St. Elmos fire or to high-altitude "elves." As the voltage increased, the discharge would jump to "arc" mode, and the object would become an electrode at the focus of upper-atmospheric charge. At this point it would begin to ablate material in a discharge process as well as from velocity-caused air friction. Since there is no indication of oxidizable elements associated with the recovered fragment, it is unlikely that the flareups were caused by chemical reaction. The most likely explanation is that of its running into a more highly charged region. Regardless, the total energy released would always be the combination of kinetic energy, chemical energy and electric energy. One significant question needs to be answered. At about 50 km (31 miles) above the Earth's surface, is there enough material in space to begin a friction ablation process for an object traveling 14.7km/s (32.9 thousand mph)? If not, one is justified to conclude that electrical interaction took place to initiate the glow and flareups. Others have misgivings concerning the adequacy of friction ablation, also. See: http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0505288 Luminescence above 100 km (60 miles) has been noticed not only with meteors but also with spacecraft. Russian scientists in the 1960s noticed the sudden appearance of infrared radiation and light around their rockets between 100 and 160 km (60 to 100 miles). One proposed explanation, with which the Electric Universe would agree, is that meteors (and spacecraft) trigger the formation of instabilities in plasma layers. The energy of the flickering and flaring, as well as of the low-frequency radiation, comes more from the ionospheric plasma than from the meteoroid. The meteors that weve come to think of as "burning up in the atmosphere" May instead be the targets of mini-thunderbolts from the ionosphere. Composed by Jim Payette and Michael Armstrong
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Credit: Jane C. Charlton (Penn State) et al., HST, ESA, NASA
The Picture that Wont Go Away

(Jun 10, 2005)
Only in the rarest instances has a single picture altered the direction of a scientific discipline. But in the case of the galaxy NGC 7319 and the "misplaced" quasar in front of it, the message is inescapable. Today we return to an image we have seen before. On October 1, 2004, our Picture of the Day included a high-resolution photograph of the nearby galaxy NGC 7319, taken by the Hubble Telescope. Seen in front of the dense galactic core was a quasar. Prevailing ideology did not permit a quasar to occupy that position, and its presence threatened to shatter one of the most cherished themes of mainstream astronomy: the Big Bang. For those who wonder what all the commotion was about, we offer this brief refresher. The rationale for the Big Bang rests substantially on an interpretation of a well-known phenomenon called "redshift." The term refers to the shift of light from distant galaxies toward red on the light spectrum. Many years ago, astronomers decided that redshifted objects must be moving away from the observer, stretching out their lightwaves. This "Doppler interpretation" of redshift enabled astronomers, based on the degree of redshift, to calculate both the distances and velocities of the objects. From these calculations, certain conclusions were inescapable. If all redshifted objects are moving farther away, the universe must be expanding. If the universe is expanding, the expansion must have had a starting point--an unimaginable explosion producing a universe of galaxies receding in every direction from the observer. The Hubble Space Telescope "Key Project" has recently placed this event 13.7 billion years ago. The envisioned universe was not always so large. A sudden leap in its official size occurred with the discovery of quasars, the most "redshifted" objects in the heavens. These objects are so strongly shifted towards the red that the astronomers' scale put them outside the previously imagined boundaries. And being so far away, they must be vastly more luminous than any objects in existence today. These conclusions were, by the astronomers' own admissions, inescapable. And they became the foundation for modern cosmology--the so-called "Queen of the Sciences." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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There were dissenters, however. Astronomer Halton Arp, the leading authority on peculiar galaxies, presented evidence that quasars are not extraordinarily bright objects at the outer edges of the universe. They are physically and energetically connected to the closest galaxies. Arp claimed that the universe is not expanding and there never was a Big Bang. For his dissent, he lost his telescope time and had to move to Germany to continue his work. Yet as we gained a better picture of remote space, evidence against the Big Bang continued to accumulate. When distant galaxies were plotted according to their redshift-determined distances, they appeared to be arranged in lines that pointed at Earth--the so-called "Fingers of God." Galaxies with greatly different redshifts but otherwise having similar forms increased tremendously in size with increasing redshift. And almost every nearby active galaxy was discovered to have a greater-than-average number of quasars nearby. Then came the Hubble photograph (above right), taken on October 3, 2003. The picture showed a galaxy (NGC 7319) known for its dense clouds that obstruct all objects behind its core. In front of the galaxy's core is a strongly redshifted quasar. In fact, under the prevailing assumptions, the redshift of the quasar would put it more than 90 times farther away from us than the big galaxy behind it. Also, as noted in our earlier Picture of the Day, Arp and his colleagues show that the quasar is interacting energetically with the material in front of the galaxy. The paper by Arp, et al., that announced the discovery May be viewed at: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0409215 Hence, the standard suppositions about redshift do not work: The quasars redshift cannot be the effect of a "velocity of recession" or an "expansion of the universe"--it is just an intrinsic, and yet unexplained, quality of the quasar. One might have expected alarm bells to go off within the astronomical community, since much of its funding rests on the assumed credibility of its theoretical starting point. But the responses have ranged from nonchalance to outright denial. Leading scientific institutions still issue news releases telling us that all is well in modern cosmology. One scientific publication after another continues to discuss the Big Bang as if it were an established fact. Public relations in the sciences did not always work this way. A quarter-century ago, when Americas favorite astronomer, Carl Sagan, published his book, Cosmos, he addressed the redshift question: "There is nevertheless a nagging suspicion among some astronomers, that all May not be right with the deduction, from the redshift of galaxies via the Doppler effect, that the universe is expanding. The astronomer Halton Arp has found enigmatic and disturbing cases where a galaxy and a quasar, or a pair of galaxies, that are in apparent physical association have very different redshifts..." Sagan's acknowledgment here showed a candor rarely found in standard treatments of astronomy today. He continued: "If Arp is right, the exotic mechanisms proposed to explain the energy source of distant quasars--supernova chain reactions, supermassive black holes and the like --would prove unnecessary. Quasars need not then be very distant. But some other exotic mechanism will be required to explain the redshift. In either case, something very strange is going on in the depths of space." It is astonishing to realize that, for a quarter century after Sagan wrote these words, an ideological interpretation became increasingly entrenched in astronomy, even in the face of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive growing evidence to the contrary.
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Critics point to the demands of funding as the primary culprit. Recently, dozens of top scientists, including Halton Arp, Eric J. Lerner, and Michael Ibison authored an open letter to the scientific community, arguing that the dominance of big bang theory "rests more on funding decision than on the scientific method." They wrote: "Today, virtually all financial and experimental resources in cosmology are devoted to big bang studies. Funding comes from only a few sources, and all the peer-review committees that control them are dominated by supporters of the big bang. As a result, the dominance of the big bang within the field has become self-sustaining, irrespective of the scientific validity of the theory. "Giving support only to projects within the big bang framework undermines a fundamental element of the scientific method--the constant testing of theory against observation. Such a restriction makes unbiased discussion and research impossible..." This image of a high-redshift quasar in front of an opaque low-redshift galaxy marks a crossroads in modern astronomy. If ideology prevails, astronomy as a science will die; if funding and journals are opened to empirical testing and questioning of assumptions, the big bang will die. For the time being, science must wait on the sidelines while the game of power politics plays itself out.
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Left: Mussels, worms and spider crabs in a deep community of the Gulf of Mexico. Right: Tubeworms in the Pacific Ocean (courtesy of NURP) Credit: NURP
Life Outside the "Habitable Zone"

(Jun 09, 2005)
The mystery of life, how it arises and how it survives in extreme conditions, May open new windows to the world of plasma and electricity. Human beings live on a planet where life thrives in every possible niche. Even at the frozen poles, life hangs on. We used to think that with too much or too little sunlight and without liquid water, life could not exist. Scientists developed the concept of a "habitable zone" around the sun--a range of orbits in which a planet would receive the right amount of energy from the sun to allow photosynthesis and to keep water liquid. But then we discovered whole communities of organisms (images above) that thrive on the heat of underwater volcanoes. Bacteria synthesize chemicals in the hot water and live on the excess energy. Other life forms eat the bacteria. Tubeworms (image above) have no mouths or digestive systems. The chemosynthetic bacteria live inside the worms and transfer energy directly to the worms cells. The entire community exists without sunlight. Still, as far as we can tell, life does require liquid water. Some organisms produce spores that can survive for centuries without water, but they need water to spring back to life. Others thrive in the near-boiling water of hot springs, but the water is still liquid. Nevertheless, the discovery of life that uses energy sources internal to the Earth undermines the concept of a habitable "zone": Life could exist on a planet with a molten core or with tidal heating regardless of its distance from its sun. The Electric Universe extends the possible locations for life even further. The behavior of plasma May provide another source of heat. Jupiters moons, for example, are awash in electrical activity. Scientists have already postulated that two of the moons, Europa and possibly Callisto, have liquid water oceans beneath their frozen surfaces because of tidal heating. The Galileo probe discovered "rains of electrons" falling onto these moons. Plasma cosmologists call such "rains" electric currents, and they know the currents must close in circuits. Those circuits must travel over or through the moons, and any resistance will convert some of the energy into heat. This raises the possibility that electricity could heat and melt subsurface water. The current coursing through Jupiters inner moon, Io, is even greater than that on Europa or Callisto, and it sports volcanoes that are hot and active. (See "Filamentation The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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of Volcanic Plumes on the Jovian Satellite Io" here.) If water exists anywhere on Io, that May be another place to look for life. Furthermore, the biological sciences have not considered the role plasma May play in the origin of life and its adaptation to sudden changes in environment. Just as astronomers are finding that plasma in space is important to cosmology, biologists May discover that its important to the origins and evolution of life as well. Biological experiments that try to create life often make use of electrical discharge as well as chemical reactions. Were these experiments showing us that the electrical activity is a fundamental part of the life-forming process? Catastrophic theory brings up another question. If plasma activity accompanied the catastrophic mass extinctions of Earth, then could this activity also stimulate surviving life to adapt to new conditions in a single generation? This would explain the puzzle that biologist Stephen Jay Gould noticed: The fossil record doesnt show gradual changes in species. Instead, it shows new species appearing fully formed and then remaining unchanged for all of their existence. A plasma point of view would see this as a normal life function: the increased plasma activity of the catastrophic event would stimulate sudden and mutually responsive changes both in living forms and in their environment. And what does this say about the habitable zone? Perhaps we should be looking for life in places where there has been strong plasma activity. In addition to moons that orbit close to their active gas giants, Wallace Thornhill points out that this would include planets that orbit inside the chromospheric glow discharge of dim red stars. In fact, conditions inside such a star might be ideal for life, unaffected by seasons or day/night cycles. Nobel Laureate Irving Langmuir chose the term "plasma" to describe the life-like behavior of electrified gases. That description works the other way around, too: Life has plasma-like behavior. Could this resemblance be more than analogy? Is plasma, like liquid water, an essential component of life? Do we need a new science of plasma biology?
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Credit: ESA
"Collapse Pits" of Arsia Mons

(Jun 07, 2005)
As high-tech capabilities have returned the most extraordinary images of the planet Mars, the "explanations" become increasingly far-fetched. We might have titled this one, "From the Implausible to the Preposterous." The European Space Agencys Mars Express took the above picture of the chaotically cratered region on the edge of Arsia Mons. Like Olympus Mons to the northwest, Arsia Mons lies on the equatorial Tharsis Bulge. Geologists call both Olympus Mons and Arsia Mons "shield volcanoes," an interpretation that the contributors to this page vigorously dispute. For reference we have placed a picture of Arsia Mons here. The region displayed is just to the southwest of the mount. Note the now familiar shallow flat-bottomed crater on the summit, virtually identical to the crater formed atop an electrical blister created in a laboratory by Electric Universe theorist Wallace Thornhill. The ESA summary echoes the customary explanation. "The pits probably formed when lava erupted from the side of Arsia Mons. When lava, or molten rock, finds its way to the surface, it produces several veins and chambers. These slowly empty as the lava erupts and runs down the volcano flanks. Some of the lava reaching the surface cools down and becomes solid, often building a roof over the emptied chamber. The resulting voids collapse due to the weight of the overlying material." A closer look here discredits this explanation. The floors of these pits are clean and their edges are smooth. Collapsed roofs leave rubble on the floor and broken edges around the walls. The collapse of lava tubes on Earth produces irregular holes with debris heaped in the bottoms. Compare the pits of Arsia Mons with the famous "Big Tubes" area in New Mexico, here. In scale there is simply is no comparison between such features on Mars and collapsed lava The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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tubes or lava chambers on Earth. The region in the picture above covers an area 38 kilometers by 53 kilometers. Some of the individual "collapse pits" have a depth of two kilometers. That depth is more than half the length of the longest lava tube on Earth. The depth of a collapse pit will not exceed the depth of the original chamber. Therefore, we are asked to imagine a highly fluid lava flow at least two kilometers deep. Yet despite these improbable dimensions of the imagined sub-surface "empty chamber," we see no evidence of surface layers being fractured by depression, or segments tilting into a region of "collapse." Every depression is cleanly cut. We proclaim that no geologic process known to science has ever created anything comparable to the field of "pits, scoops, and gouges" seen in this region of Arsia Mons (a region with numerous counterparts on Mars). We proclaim that a heretofore-unrecognized process does produce such features. That process is electric discharge machining, or EDM. Weve place an electron microscope image of an electrically machined surface here. To appreciate the point of the comparison, one must remember that plasma and electrical phenomena are scalable. Essentially the same patterns and behavior are observed from microscopic to galactic scales. In electric discharge machining an arc excavates material evenly and cleanly from a surface. That, we claim, is exactly what has occurred, from pole to pole, on the surface of Mars. But this explanation, which makes sense of the features that are anomalies in other theories, is excluded at the outset by baseless suppositions within the theoretical sciences. The specialists take for granted that the ancient environment of our solar system differed little from the environment today. And they know almost nothing of the powerful electric force in the heavens. It does not occur to them that in the evolution of the solar system, electricity could achieve routinely and quickly the very things that they now struggle mightily to comprehend.
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Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
The "Caldera" of Olympus Mons

(Jun 06, 2005)
Among the many paradoxes of Olympus Mons are the complex networks of shallow grooves on the flat floors of the summit craters. The common interpretation of these linear depressions as faults can no longer be maintained. Called the "largest volcano in the solar system," the great mound of Olympus Mons on the planet Mars is taller than three Mount Everests and about as wide as the entire Hawaiian Island chain. In previous Pictures of the Day, we have noted that the defining characteristics of Olympus Mons find no counterparts in known volcanoes on Earth. Rather, the towering mound reveals the telltale markers of a lightning blister, as do its companion mounds on the equatorial Tharsis Bulge. The "pancake" shape of the mount, with its steep scarp almost four miles high, finds its best analog in the bell-shaped blisters found on the caps of lightning arrestors. The "moat" around much of the base of Olympus Mons also has its counterpart in the lightning blister. Familiar volcanic domes do not reveal such features. Nothing like the overlapping flat-bottomed craters of the "caldera," nearly two miles deep, are observed in volcanoes on Earth. But the pattern matches the features of craters formed atop laboratory discharge blisters on an anode, or positively charged surface. The discharge creates the flat bottoms of these craters by electrical machining of the summit, vaporizing surface material to create smooth and flat crater floors. In the electrical hypothesis the same force that raised the blister cut the superimposed craters The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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on the summit. But an event of such power would surely leave trademark scars explicable by no other hypothesis! We have noted, for example, the "pits, scoops and gouges" near the summit of Olympus Mons. Here, the geologists explanations ("collapse pits," etc.) do not withstand scrutiny, while the formation of such pits by electric arcs is well known to everyone familiar with the effects of electric discharge machining (EDM). For a similar example of scooped out pits in association with the great chasm of Valles Marineris, see the chain of craters on the far left of the picture here. In our Picture of the Day for March 7, 2005, we observed that the finely filamented "mane" radiating down the flanks of the mount presents the telltale evidence of charge redistribution. The extremely shallow grooves of the "mane" offer clear evidence that the summit of Olympus Mons, the focal point of a massive electrical discharge, acquired a strongly negative charge as the arriving electrons of the discharge raised the mound and excavated the craters. We wrote: "To achieve surface equilibrium, then, secondary discharging occurred between the "caldera" of Olympus Mons and the surrounding region in a way analogous to the discharge of a negatively charged comet nucleus as it enters the positive region of the Sun's electric field." The hypothesis set forth here can now be tested against the superb images returned by orbiting cameras. In the picture above, the best ever taken of the complex caldera, we see regions of the caldera cut by shallow grooves or channels. Planetary scientists had previously identified these with grabens or faults on the flat surfaces of crater floors. This interpretation simply followed the standard ideology of Olympus Mons, which sees the flat floors as former lakes of molten lava. But look closely at these sharply cut grooves. We have placed higherresolution images of the inset regions here and here. Do you see any evidence of faulting? It is not necessary to guess here, since the grooves extend from the walls of deeper, flat-floored craters. These steep cliffs are where the most obvious evidence of faulting would appear. The evidence is not there. Not a hint of surface spreading is evident: what we see instead are scratches across the surface, as if giant claws reached down to scoop out braided channels. But perhaps these grooves already look familiar to you. Weve seen them before, cutting across the buttes of Labyrinthus Noctis on the western termination of Valles Marineris. And for an even more dramatic parallel, consider the network of undulating and entwining grooves on Saturns moon Enceladus. The irony is that the advanced engineering that allowed our probes to reach distant planets and capture such compelling images appears to be far ahead of the established theories. But now things are certain to change, just as soon as the specialists are able to look at the pictures directly, not through the lens of prior assumptions.
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Credit: "Mars and Venus, or Parnassus" (1497), by Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506).
The Meeting of Myth and Science

(Jun 03, 2005)
In the painting by Andrea Mantegna above--"Mars and Venus, or Parnassus"--we see a series of symbols passed down from ancient times. The symbols survived for several millennia. Some of them we can easily recognize, but all grew obscure over time: the primeval marriage of a goddess and a great warrior, the ceremonial union at the cosmic center, the location of this center--the axis mundi--atop the "world mountain" (Parnassus in one Greek tradition, Olympus in another). Complementary symbols abound: the warrior's feathered headdress, the goddess' naked form and long flowing hair, cupid and his bow, Hermes and his caduceus, the Centaur, the divine harp, and the dancing entourage of celestial companions. Of course, science today has no interest in the origins or meaning of such themes. And why should it? Was it not the first purpose of science to transcend the fictions of myth and superstition? Only when poets, philosophers and historians began to doubt the literalness of ancient stories did the leeway for science arise in human perception. But within today's theoretical frameworks, no comprehensive assessment of world mythology is possible. Accepted models in the sciences are based on "history-free" assumptions that exclude the ancient experiences that provoked the myths. Those assumptions cannot give us evidence about the ancient sky; they can only project models of the present sky backward, as if nothing changed over thousands of years. From this vantage point, the ancient narratives and cosmic images of myth are irrelevant and frivolous. Standard treatments of myth invariably trivialize the ancient convictions. The mythmakers are presumed to be ignorant. There is no secret worth exploring, no intelligible message to be The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive extracted from the chaos of competing symbols.
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But this presumption leads to contradictions. It can be maintained only by ignoring facts that are undeniable. Comparative study of world mythology has revealed hundreds of archetypes or globally recurring themes. Comparative mythologist David Talbott calls these "the points of cross-cultural agreement, lying beneath the surface confusion of myth." Talbott suggests that the most costly error in standard approaches to myth is the attempt to interpret them through the lens of present experience. "No archetype answers to the natural world we experience today. In unison all archetypes speak for an unfamiliar world." The themes include a lost paradise or golden age at the beginning of human history, a polar sun presiding over this exemplary epoch, and a heaven-altering "Doomsday" catastrophe. "By penetrating to the underlying unity of myth, we see that all archetypes stand in intimate relation to each other," Talbott continues. "The well-documented myth of the dying or displaced primeval sun, for example, cannot be separated from the legend of paradise. The Doomsday catastrophe means the violent end of this golden age." And these are only two of countless associations repeated around the world. A fiery, longhaired or feathered serpent appears in the sky as the world falls into chaos. But it is not just a serpent; it is also the "soul" of the dying or displaced god. And this serpentine "soul" reveals itself as the raging mother goddess, shrieking across the sky with unkempt hair, lamenting the death of her son or lover. For those who have pursued this study most diligently, world mythology is a storehouse of evidence and of promise. But the evidence demands a rigorous approach, one that will bring to light the substructure of human testimony without granting special credence to any regional story. Sadly, most investigations of ancient ideas ignore the essential ground rules for evaluating highly unreliable material. "No myth, anywhere in the world--however devoutly it might be honored by a particular nation or religion--can provide a reliable anchor for interpreting the myth-making experience," Talbott observes. "But the points of agreement between the cultures, when freed from modern assumptions, do provide a reliable anchor. The rational ground rules can then bring the core of the experience to light." Today, decades of investigation into mythology are converging with new scientific interest in the ancient world. The most promising bridge is that provided by "Electric Universe" theorist Wallace Thornhill and by plasma cosmologist Anthony Peratt. Both have devoted themselves to the rational meeting of myth and science--a deep appreciation for the ancient dramas, together with a new perspective on plasma and electricity in space.
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Credit: NASA/CXC/Penn State/E.Feigelson & K.Getman et al.
Orion Stellar Nursery

(Jun 02, 2005)
The caption to this image in a Chandra X-ray Telescope press release explains: "This Chandra image shows the Orion Nebula Cluster, a rich cluster of young stars observed almost continuously for 13 days. The long observation enabled scientists to study the X-ray behavior of young Sun-like stars with ages between 1 and 10 million years. They discovered that these young stars produce violent X-ray outbursts, or flares, that are much more frequent and energetic than anything seen today from our 4.6 billion-year-old Sun." Although they have no satisfactory explanation for the occurrence of x-rays in young stars, gravity-only theories propose that these flares May create turbulence in the circumstellar disks of gas and dust from which planets are thought to form. From the press release: "Such turbulence might affect the position of rocky, Earth-like planets as they form and prevent them from rapidly migrating towards the young star. Therefore, the survival chances of the Earth May have been enhanced by large flares from the young Sun." Plasma-cosmology theories tie the flares to the formation processes of stars and of planets. Stars form where an electric current is squeezed by its own magnetic field until it becomes unstable. Then it pinches into a series of spheres that pull in matter and become centers of glow and arc discharges. This is why star formation occurs in groups, often in lines, and in the highest-energy regions of a galaxy. Similar electrical processes form planets. Because plasma is complex, there are several possible mechanisms for electrical planet formation. Any one (or even all) May be at work. The solaria binaria concept of Alfred de Grazia and Earl Milton has planets form along a plasma bridge between a star and a companion star. This theory predicts the recent discovery of a plasma bridge stretching between the red giant star Mira and its white dwarf companion. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Wallace Thornhills theory has planets ejected electrically in the equatorial plane of the star and moons ejected in a similar manner from the equatorial plane of gas giants. (Our own moon, which doesnt orbit in the equatorial plane, was captured.) Anthony Peratt has planets form in polar-aligned groups of 7 to 9 along the second current filament that parallels the filament in which the star forms. In the lab, matter is concentrated into spheres at the center of toruses that are stacked along the axis of the filament. The spheres remain in polar alignment as long as the discharge is active, and then they scatter "like buckshot" when it quenches. All three of these theories assume that the electrical activity observed in young stars plays an active role in forming planets as well as in forming stars. A corollary to these theories is that, after forming, the stars and planets continue to be the focus of lower-energy electrical activity. This persistent connection to galactic plasma circuits could explain the excess energy--more than whats received from the sun--given off by most of the planets. And the possibility of electrically heated planets disrupts the narrow conventional calculations of a "habitable zone" in which water stays liquid: Depending on the current, a habitable planet could be anywhere. Furthermore, in view of the "life-like" behavior of plasma and the "plasmalike" behavior of life, the density of life in the universe could be surprisingly greater than hitherto imagined. For the first time in two centuries, scientists can develop new ideas of how stars and planets form based on observational and laboratory data, ideas that take into account the plasma activity that has surprised astronomers with every new discovery of the space age.
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Credit:
Mars Rover Gets Miraculous Cleaning

(May 31, 2005)
Speculations are rampant, but it seems that no one can say for sure what mysterious force or event has cleaned the solar panels of the Mars rover Opportunity. The rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004. When their missions began, their solar cells were providing 900 watt-hours of electricity per day. But over the months that followed Spirits output dropped to 400 watt-hours daily, while Opportunity dropped to about 500 watt-hours. One reason for the drop was the accumulation of dust on the panels. But then, in one of the great surprises of the rover missions, Opportunitys power began to increase, and kept on increasing until the power peaked at just over 900 watt-hours. As reported by Newscientist.com, the Mars rover Opportunity "stumbled into something akin to a carwash," which somehow "cleaned" its solar panels. Jim Erickson of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory admitted that the cause of this surprise "cleaning" could not be explained. "These exciting and unexplained cleaning events have kept Opportunity in really great shape," Erickson said. The remarkable cleaning occurred in spurts during the Martian night. The team managing the rover reports that on at least four occasions over a six-month period, the rover's power output suddenly increased by up to 5% in a single night. Some suggested that the Martian winds might have swept the dust off the panels. Others wondered if frost could have caused the dust to clump, exposing more of the panels. And some even suggested that the tilting of the rover while climbing hills might have caused a portion of the dust to drop off. Such guesses are unnecessary, say advocates of the Electric Universe. Winds alone do not clean dust from smooth surfaces, even on Earth, where the atmospheric density is one hundred times that of Mars. Tilting a dusty surface does not clean it either! The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Opportunity landed in Meridiani Planum. Dust storms frequently engulf the region and fivemile-high "dust devils" range through it. The discovery that dust devils on Earth have strong electric fields obliges the thought that the ten-times-bigger dust devils on Mars likely have the power to "burn" the dust in their tracks. After years of being scorched and drifting about, its no surprise that the dust of Meridiani Planum is black. That dust also is likely charged with static electricity. Just as static electricity can stick dust to an object, it can remove dust. "Electrostatic cleaning" is a common and effective industrial application. All thats needed is to change the voltage. In the electric field above Meridiani Planum, voltage will vary with altitude. Electrostatic removal of material is evident on the rims of craters. And the most marked cleaning episodes occurred when the rover was climbing the rim of Endurance crater. The rover team has missed the clues. The conventional blindness to electricity in nature has scientists groping for explanations with their backs turned to the facts.
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Credit:
Luminous Crater Rims

(May 30, 2005)
Do the rims of the Martian craters in the picture above appear to be glowing electrically? They are not glowing, but they look that way for a good electrical reason. Our picture for today comes from a high-resolution photographic strip taken by the Mars Global Surveyor. It is from the region of Meridiani Planum, on which the rover Opportunity landed in January 2004. (For convenience, weve rotated the picture 90 degrees clockwise; north is to the right). The rover visited at least one of the craters in the region, and found that the bright rim is lighter surface material beneath a dark layer of fine sand, intermixed with millimeter-sized granules. In ways not yet understood by NASA scientists, the dark material is created and distributed by Everest-sized "dust devils" and by powerful dust storms on Mars. The landscape exhibited here throws additional light on the electrical nature of the Martian "winds." We have already observed that the dust devils on Mars "burn" the soil electrically, leaving dark tracks meandering across the Martian surface. The dark material resulting from electrical storms has covered large regions of Mars. Later, as new dust devils move across the darkened regions, they will often leave a lighter track by removing the darker surface material. When a regional dust storm develops, its leading edge reveals a large complex of tornado-like vortices. In contrast to a single dust devil, a regional dust storm--sometimes growing to global proportions--can remove much more of the superficial surface material and deposit the darkened dust and grains over neighboring regions. And just as a Martian dust devil moving across a darker surface can create a lighter track, it appears that the more energetic dust storms can create eerie effects on such darkened areas as Meridiani Planum. Little more than common sense scientifically is needed to see these effects in electrical terms. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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It is inconceivable that that a mere "wind," in an atmosphere only one percent as dense as the atmosphere of the Earth, could remove dust and grainy material, then elevate them in the vertical fashion implied by pictures of the rope-like tornado columns on the edge of powerful dust storms. In our Picture of the Day for March 24, we suggested: "Closer examination should show that these tornadoes form preferentially on high points and the sharp edges of craters or escarpments." The effect is clear in the picture above. Material has been removed from the rims of craters in ways that would not be typical of the mechanical effects of wind alone. Note, for example, that the rims exhibit radial "rays" created by the removal of material. The rays extend in every direction around the craters--not in the one direction expected of a mechanical winds path. The result is a photographic image recording the electric discharge of the dust storm vortices-imitating the "glow" of the air-to-ground discharge in the contrasting light and dark material left behind. Also significant is the "tangential" component of the darker streaks left by removal of dust from the rims. Many years ago, Ralph Juergens noted this function of a rotating electrical arc. The pattern suggests a counterclockwise rotation of an electrical vortex as it spins off the crater in the direction of the "wind streak" left behind. The familiar winds known to meteorologists do not create selective displacement of downwind material in this way. If planetary scientists will examine these features objectively and in closer detail, they will see the signature of electrical discharge. Though electrical events today certainly cannot compare to the planet-altering events of the past, the tools now available should allow for definitive answers if planetary scientists will consider the electrical phenomena occurring episodically on the planet today.
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Credit: NASA/M. Karovska et al
Variable Stars
(May 27, 2005)
The brightness fluctuations of "variable stars" have long puzzled astronomers. Perhaps the similarity of their brightness curves to those of lightning is the best indicator of the cause. What makes a variable star vary? The conventional astronomer and the plasma astronomer will give different answers, because a conventional star and an electrically driven star are not at all alike. Variable stars, such as Mira (photo above), fit well in the theory of electric stars. Most have a brightness curve similar to that of lightning, with a sudden rise time followed by a slower exponential decay. You can see this curve in the charts of two variables, Mira and of Delta Cephei above. The brightness curve of Mira (upper diagram) follows the same sudden onset and slow decay as lightning . The star varies over a period of just under a year (the missing part of the brightness curves are the times of the year when the star is not seen at night.) The lower brightness curve is for Delta Cepheus, the flagship star of the Cepheid variables. Cepheid variables have a much shorter period than Mira variables, but 90% of them have the lightning signature of a fast rise and slow decay. Some variable stars are regular and others are irregular. The irregular ones seem to average power over the bursts. When the bursts are more frequent, the energy per burst is less. This is to be expected from an electric circuit where the trigger level is variable and the power input is constant. Don Scott, plasma cosmologist and retired professor of electrical engineering, suggests that most, maybe all, variable stars are binaries. Their variability is caused by electric discharge between the two stars. Scott says: "As I see it, [variable] binaries operate generally as follows: Each of the stars has an The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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electrical capacitance. These two capacitances are permanently connected by a plasma (cloud). This plasma exhibits (as do all plasmas) a nonlinear resistance. If one of the stars charges up to a high enough voltage ... , then the plasma will go into the arc mode and emit brilliant light, perhaps x-rays and gamma-rays. Electrical energy will be transferred from the first capacitor (star) to the other. It doesn't make any difference which star is bigger. "The "bridge" between the two stars probably doesn't go away. After the arc discharge is over (the voltage difference between the two capacitors is dissipated), the plasma bridge goes back into its normal glow or dark current mode and waits for the next discharge." Like a relaxation oscillation circuit, some variable stars reduce their variability and eventually come to equilibrium. We see this happening to the north star, Polaris. Polaris is a binary Cepheid variable whose brightness has increased over the course of the last century, while the level of variability has decreased and the length of time over which it varies has became longer. The interactions between a star and its companion also apply to close-orbiting planets, as discovered recently in the tau Bootes system. Here the "microvariability" of the star has been correlated to the orbit of a close-orbiting planet. Mainstream astronomers explain it as tidal interactions the planet pulls the stars bright atmosphere around with it. But observations show that starspots (sunspots on other stars) and magnetic fields on the star are also related to the planets positions. For a plasma cosmologist, that is an indication that electrical interactions should be considered. Even our own Sun is a variable star (see Wal Thornhills link below). It varies over about an eleven-year period known as the sunspot cycle. And, as shown in the 1950s, that variability is connected to the orbits of the largest planets in the system, Jupiter and Saturn. For plasma cosmologists, the study of variable stars is an opportunity to better understand the way electrical circuits behave in space.
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The comet NEAT in 2003, meeting up with a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun. Credit: Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)/ESA/NASA
Comet Neat and CME's

(May 26, 2005)
When a coronal mass ejection greeted Comet NEAT, space scientists called it a "coincidence." But in an electric universe such events deserve a second look. The comet NEAT was discovered November 2002 by NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program. As the comet moved toward "perihelion," its closest approach to the Sun, astronomers were not sure it would survive. The explosive destruction of Comet Linear three years earlier, at nine times NEATs distance from the Sun, underscored the danger to comets from such a close passage around the Sun. The Suns glare prevented observers on Earth from viewing NEATs approach. But the SOHO spacecraft, stationed between Earth and the Sun, has an instrument called Large-Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO), which blocks the Suns brightest light, permitting the satellite to record the comets dramatic swing around the Sun. As NEAT raced through the extended solar atmosphere, a large coronal mass ejection (CME) exploded from the Sun and appeared to strike the comet. The comet responded with a "kink" that propagated down the tail. A video clip of the event can be seen here. (The disk in the center is created by the coronograph as it blocks the Suns glare). For astronomers, the event illustrated the dynamic interactions between comets and the solar wind. Scientists were quick to point out that meeting with ejected material was a "chance encounter." But was it? Though electrical theorists assert no interpretation of the event at this time, they reject the theoretical assumptions that prompt mainstream theorists to dismiss out of hand any possibility that a comet could trigger an eruption from the Sun. If the Sun is a glow discharge at the center of an electric field, and a comet carries a strong negative charge together with a vast envelope of charged particles, the categorical dismissal of mutual interactions is premature. In fact, SOHO has recorded several instances of comets plunging into the solar corona in The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"coincidental" association with CMEs. Here we see two comets grazing the Sun followed by a particularly energetic blast from a mass ejection. Another instance of two comets grazing the Sun can be viewed here. In a headline story, "Twin Comets Race To Death By Fire," June 5, 1998, ScienceDaily.com reported: "In a spectacular coincidence, a coronal mass ejection (CME) accompanied by an erupting prominence occurred on the southwest limb of the Sun within hours after the destruction of the comets. The CME and prominence were probably unrelated to the comets, being instead the product of weeks of intense magnetic activity in that region of the Sun." Perhaps the original source of this story (apparently a science writer with NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center), paid dearly for his use of the word "probably" in the above paragraph. Only an electrical influence could justify any qualifications to the assertion of a "spectacular coincidence." But the scientific mainstream allows for no electric force outside the Sun to have any influence on the Suns atmospheric behavior. SOHO scientists make the point explicit in their discussion of sungrazing comets and CMEs: "A popular misconception is that sungrazing comets cause solar flares and CMEs (coronal mass ejections). While it is true that we have observed bright comets approach the Sun immediately before CME's/flares, there is absolutely no connection between the two events. The sungrazer comets -- in fact all comets -- are completely insignificant in size compared the Sun." The statement is reasonable if the issue of "connection" and influence is decided by relative size. But from an electrical viewpoint the disregard for the powerful electric force in space is the greatest single mistake in the theoretical sciences today. How would an electric Sun respond to the approach of a relatively small but strongly charged object? Comets typically display a bright coma extending for hundreds of thousands of miles around the hidden nucleus. They can also entrain an immense envelope of hydrogen gas. We do not normally see the hydrogen envelopes of comets because Earths atmosphere absorbs their light. But spacecraft can detect them and measure them. Electrical theorists suggest that the ability of larger comets to hold their hydrogen clouds in place against the solar wind is a good indicator of the comets powerful charge. The influence of the comets electrical field is far more significant than its trivial mass in relation to the Sun. What will occur electrically if the charge plasma or "atmosphere" of the comet penetrates the insulating double layer of the Suns plasma sheath? An analogy might be the effect of a pebble from space penetrating into the upper atmosphere of the Earth where the intruders plasma trail short circuits the Earths electric field to cause a high altitude discharge. The issue has virtually nothing to do with the respective masses of the Earth and the pebble. The disturbing image of the space shuttle Columbia being struck by a discharge that followed its plasma trail through the upper atmosphere also comes to mind. Perhaps the observation of Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfvn, the father of plasma cosmology, can put the issue in context. It was his opinion that coronal mass ejections are caused by a breakdown or breach of the Suns double layer--an event that provokes an explosive exchange between the insulated plasma cell of the Sun and the plasma of surrounding space. For the electric theorists, such questions deserve conscientious investigation, with attention to the electrical phenomena indicated in both solar and cometary behavior. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Flood from Heaven

(May 24, 2005)
The legend of the flood is one of the best known and most appealing genres of myth. During the past few centuries, missionaries and anthropologists have collected several hundreds of versions from all parts of the world. Even Africa and Australia, long thought to lack proper parallels to the deluge of Noah, have now been shown to have their share. Not all flood myths need to be related nor do they have to refer to the same event. What can be demonstrated, however, is that the earliest attested versions, originating in the ancient Near-East, derive from a common source and form a true literary tradition. These include the famous Greek myth of Deucalion, the Jewish account of Noah, and the Mesopotamian myths of Ut-Napishtim, Ziusudra, and Atrahasis. The Old-Babylonian clay tablet shown above, which is held in the British Museum in London, tells the story of Atrahasis, dated to 1635 BCE in the conventional chronology. When dealing with flood myths, one must tread with great care and not leap to conclusions. There is a good possibility that at least some variations commemorate local floods of the kind that sometimes occur when earthquakes or tsunamis strike. Nevertheless, the myths that speak of a universal inundation tend to relate to the cosmic axis in the centre of the world, a feature rarely if ever explored in the existing literature. This connection takes essentially two forms. A large class of myths portray the axis in its familiar symbolic forms as a world mountain, a cosmic tree, and so on as the hero's place of refuge. An unambiguous example is the Greek Deucalion, whose ship safely lands on Mount Parnassus. It is no coincidence that Parnassus was also the celebrated 'navel of the earth'. According to another group of myths the waters of the flood poured forth when the axis was uprooted or displaced. This motif is particularly common in South-America. The Makiritare of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Venezuela, for instance, recall the giant tree Marahuaka, that grew upside down with its roots in the sky. When it was cut down, the flood ensued. Such clues indicate that a large segment of flood myths May belong to the complex mythology of the axis mundi. As argued on these pages, the referent of these 'axis myths' was a stupendous high-energy plasma discharge tube with a semi-permanent character, whose existence was terminated amid catastrophic circumstances. If this model is right and the outburst of the flood had something to do with the disruption of this plasma column, one might contemplate the possibility that the water of the flood was not actually water, but a symbolic expression of glowing plasma. Far-fetched as this May sound at first, this assumption would actually clarify various issues. Commentators have often noted that, in many myths, the flood comes down from the sky. Unless we are to resurrect the antiquated idea of 'watery comets' discharging their wet burden, such assertions do not make much sense. Apart from that, a significant number of flood myths insist that the water was no ordinary water, but a different substance hot and fiery. Jewish legend had it that the rain was hot, scalding the skin of the sinners. The Makah of Washington, the Quileute, the Chimakum, the Salinan of California and the Ipurina of Brazilian Amazonia agreed that the earth was overwhelmed by a hot flood coming down from the sky. This intriguing lead does not seem to have been followed by any specialists in the field, but the image of an outburst of 'fire-water' certainly reminds one of a return to chaos, in which water and fire were commingled into a single substance. The recurrent links of the flood with the world axis and an outflow of 'fire-water' spur a renewed examination of this fascinating body of folklore, Contributed by Rens van der Sluijs
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Credit: Left, Halley Multicolour Camera Team, Giotto, ESA; Right, NASA/JPL
Comets, Gravity, and Electricity

(May 23, 2005)
The study of comets in recent years has revealed many anomalies yet to be understood by comet observers. Most importantly, the new discoveries accent the inability of gravitational theory to account for the full range of comet behavior. "Comets are perhaps at once the most spectacular and the least well understood members of the solar system." -- M. Neugebauer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory The more facts we gather about comets the less sense they make under popular scientific theories about comets. Highly energetic and focused jets explode from comets nuclei and scar them with features similar to those on asteroids and satellites. The jets filamentary structures stretch across millions of miles. The apparent temperatures of comas are so high that x-rays and extreme ultraviolet light shine from them. Water and other volatiles are in short supply or are completely absent on the surfaces of many comet nuclei. Observed electrical transactions with the solar wind remain obscure to cometologists. And a perplexing number of comets mysteriously explode as they dart around the sun. Though the popular theories have hardened into dogma and the scientific media present them as facts, the new discoveries challenge the popular assumptions. The metaphor of a "dirty snowball" does not fit what we know about comets in the space age. A vast library of data now contradicts the standard assumption of an electrically neutral comet in an electrically neutral solar system. It is no longer useful to ignore the electrical properties of plasma. Astronomers have calculated the mass and density of comets from the effects they have on the trajectories of various spacecraft. By this reasoning comet Halleys nucleus had a density of only 0.1 to 0.25 that of water. But such conclusions are immediately invalidated if comets are electrically charged bodies moving through an electric field of the Sun. Where charged bodies interact across a plasma medium, all common assumptions about gravity become suspect. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Most larger comet nuclei do not exceed one billionth of the mass of Earth. Hence, even under the standard assumptions, a comets gravity is insufficient to do the things that comet investigators, confronted with new surprises, ask it to do. Look at the surface of Comet Wild 2, for example. When they first saw the pictures of the comet, a number of scientists declared that the craters were the result of impacts. But a small rock will not attract impactors, and in view of the emptiness of space, even in the hypothetical "planet-forming nebula" stage, it is inconceivable that such a small body could have been subjected to enough projectiles to cover it, end to end, with craters. Nor is it plausible to imagine a melting snowball or iceberg retaining such impact structures from primordial times. Sublimating ice quickly loses its distinctive features. Some astronomers suggested that the craters were sinkholes, formed when surface material fell into cavities left by the sublimation of volatiles. But is it reasonable to ask the minuscule gravity of a comet nucleus to produce "sinkholes" in this fashion? The frequent erratic motions of comets--in apparent violation of gravitational laws--have long been attributed to the "jets" seen erupting from the nucleus. The distinguished astronomer Fred Whipple first suggested that jets from comets could account for unpredictable motions. As summarized by Francis Reddy in an obituary the day after Whipples death in 2004, the astronomer believed that "The jets supply a force that can either speed or slow a comet, depending on the way it rotates -- a force unaccounted for in the astronomical calculations used in predicting comet returns." As Comet Linear moved toward perihelion, a NASA release stated, "powerful jets of gas vaporized by solar radiation have been pushing the comet to and fro." Astronomers applied the same interpretation to the energetic jets of Borrelly and Wild 2. But in the case of Wild 2 (see link above), the close-up photographs gave no indication of caverns in which selective heating by the Sun could build up the pressures of "jet chambers" or produce the sonic and supersonic jet velocities our instruments have measured. And yet today, the astronomers dogma holds: "What else could these jets be"? To save the theory astronomers cling to the incredible. From an electric viewpoint there is no enigma in these comet attributes. The jets are not released under pressure but are created by electric arcs to the surface, and it is these arcs that carve out the surface craters. The jets do not explode from hidden areas within the nucleus. In the best photos ever of a comet, Wild 2 (link above), no such caverns are evident. Rather, we see hot spots on high points and on the rims of shallow, flat-bottomed craters. By now it should be obvious that something more than gravity is at work in the behavior of comets. Since a comet holds a highly negative charge, it attracts the positively charged particles of the solar wind, giving rise to an immense envelope of ionized hydrogen, up to millions of miles across. But the comet watchers do not realize that this vast envelope is gathered and held electrically. And so the question continues to haunt them: How could a tiny piece of rock, no more than a few miles wide, gravitationally entrain and hold in place a ten million mile wide bubble of hydrogen against the force of the solar wind? Yes, the entrained envelope is extremely diffuse, but in gravitational terms it should not be there! If the electric theorists are correct, there is no mystery in the gravity-defying behavior of comets. A gravitationally insignificant rock on a highly elliptical orbit can be an electrically powerful object.
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Credit: Left, NASA/SAO/CXC/STScI/Lisse et al. Right, NASA, Harold Weaver (the Johns Hopkins University), and the HST Comet LINEAR Investigation Team
The Explosive Demise of Comet Linear

(May 20, 2005)
When comet Linear blew apart in the summer of 2000, the event underscored the failure of popular comet theory to anticipate the actual attributes and behavior of comets. Linear was not the "dirty snowball" of modern comet lore. In September 1999, the LINEAR telescope in New Mexico detected a comet out beyond the orbit of Jupiter, speeding toward the Sun. Because it was the first instrument to see it, the comet received its name from the telescope. Linear was estimated to be about a mile wide. As it approached its perihelion in July 2000, many telescopes--including the Hubble Space Telescope--had the comet in clear view. Then strange things began to happen. On July 5, Linear brightened by more than 50 percent in just four hours. It was throwing off large quantities of dust--much more dust than the expected water or other volatiles. Next, a chunk of the nucleus tore away and "blew" back into the tail where it continued to disintegrate, as can be seen in the Hubble Space Telescope images here. Then, on July 14, the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory discovered that the "dirty snowball" was generating X-rays! (Photo above left). The mystery of comet X-rays had begun only four years earlier. It had always been supposed that these "frozen" objects would exhibit none of the high-energy reactions necessary to produce X-rays. But then on March 27, 1996, the ROSAT satellite recorded X-rays on the sunlit side of Comet Hyakutake. A NASA report on Hyakutake notes that astronomers "were shocked by what they saw. ROSAT images revealed a crescent-shaped region of X-ray emission around the comet 1000 times more intense than anyone had predicted!" For four years the source of the X-rays remained a mystery, as the ROSAT, EUVE and BeppoSAX satellites detected X-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation from more than half-a-dozen comets, including Hale-Bopp. But now, Linear was giving astronomers some telling clues, and the implications were electrical. Chandra viewed the comet Linear repeatedly over a two-hour period. The The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Observatorys press release reported that the X-rays were being produced "by collisions of ions racing away from the sun (solar wind) with gas in the comet. In the collision the solar ion captures an electron from a cometary atom into a high-energy state. The solar ion then kicks out an X-ray as the electron drops to a lower energy state." The authors of the news release do not appear to have known that, in the electric model of comets, this was a predictable reaction between the negatively charged plasma of the comets coma and the positively charged ions in the solar wind--natures efficient means of X-ray production. As seen in the X-ray image of Linear above, and as the electric model would anticipate, the Xray production occurred at the interface of the negatively charged cometary plasma with the positively charged particles of the solar wind. A NASA Science News story on Linear thus reports: "When ions from the Sun blow past a comet, their strong positive charge attracts negatively-charged electrons from cometary atoms and molecules. In effect, the ions try to neutralize their own unbalanced charge by stealing electrons from the comet." The report states that electrons contributed by the comet, in uniting with the positive ions from the solar wind, "emit X-rays as they cascade from high-energy to low-energy ionic orbits. This process, called a charge exchange reaction, was first proposed in 1997 as a possible reason for cometary X-rays." But the NASA report assumes, in contradiction of evidence gathered for almost twenty years, that it is neutral atoms in the coma that contribute the electrons. More reasonable is the contention of the electric theorists that comets are the cathodes, or negatively charged objects, in an electrical exchange with the Sun. In this view, excess electrons will combine preferentially with the positive ions in the solar wind. In fact, the excess of electrons in a cometary coma was first noted in 1986, when the Giotto spacecraft detected an abundance of negatively charged atoms in the inner coma of Comet Halley. Also, as a matter of historical record, the NASA statement that "charge exchange reaction" was first proposed in 1997 misses the mark by a century. The electric comet hypothesis has been around since the nineteenth century. Though it virtually disappeared from official scientific discussion by 1930, the concept received its greatest clarity from the contributions of engineer Ralph Juergens beginning in 1972. Juergens proposed an electric Sun model, along with the corollary that cometary comas and tails are produced by an electrical exchange between the Sun and the comet. Later, in the early 80s, physicist James McCanney set forth his own version of the electric comet. He predicted that comets would be found to emit Xrays. Comet Linear had more evidence to present. As the comet neared its perihelion or closest approach to the Sun--about 114 million kilometers (70 million miles) from the Sun, or three quarters of the distance from the Sun to Earth--astronomer Mark Kidger was observing Linear with the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope at La Palma in the Canary Islands. He noted something strange. The normal teardrop shape of the coma was undergoing an unexpected metamorphosis. Over several nights he watched the comet elongate into a "cigar" shape. Kidger soon realized that the nucleus of Linear was breaking apart--and catastrophically. This was not merely a fragmentation of the comet into separate visible pieces. The comet was dissolving in front of his eyes. "Comet LINEAR seems to be dissolving into an amorphous haze of gas and dust," exclaimed a NASA Express Science News release. "The break-up of Comet Linear as it swept past the sun last week has shocked astronomers into rethinking theories of the origins of such rocky The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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ice balls," reported Space.com on August 4, 2000. How did this happen? A NASA release of July 31, 2000, reports that, "Intense solar heating apparently triggered a massive disruption of the comet's fragile icy core when it passed close to the Sun." Kidger suggested the same thing, invoking "intense heating" and "thermal stresses" on the comet. But it is not reasonable to assume that a mile-size ice chunk would explode in space under something as mild as solar radiation millions of miles from the Sun. As an icy body sublimates in the Sun, it cannot even convey heat a few inches into its interior. An explosion due to heating, involving extreme forces deep within a body, is unthinkable. Many comet watchers began to consider seriously whether comets are actually loosely aggregated collections of "mini-comets," permitting them to fly apart when disturbed. Some began to speak of Linear as an aggregation of cosmic fluff--a "wimpy fluff ball," as astronomer Donald Yeomans put it. But prior picture of the comets Halley and Borrelly--and most recently of comet Wild 2--make clear that comet nuclei are solid objects. It was the Stardust mission to Wild 2 that produced the best pictures ever of a comet nucleus. It showed a well-defined and cratered surface with no indications of separate objects held in a flimsy aggregation. More details on comet nuclei will be forthcoming soon, when the Deep Impact mission fires a 370 kilogram copper projectile into the nucleus of Comet Tempel 1. The event is scheduled for July 4. In the electric model of comets, there is nothing unexpected in an explosive demise. As a comet moves through the radial electric field of the Sun, approaching perihelion, the nucleus suffers the maximum electrical stress. This usually results in an increase in brightness of the nucleus due to a larger number of cathode arcs operating simultaneously, explosively removing solid material from the nucleus and accelerating it into space to form the dust tail. Both of these conditions were noted in the case of Comet Linear, suggesting that the comet was progressing toward an internal discharge. A comet nucleus can be compared to the insulating material in a capacitor. As charge is exchanged from the comets surface to the solar wind, electrical energy is stored in the nucleus in the form of charge polarization. This can easily build up intense mechanical stress in the comet nucleus, which May be released catastrophically, as in a capacitor when its insulation suffers rapid breakdown. The comet will explode! As suggested by electrical theorist Wallace Thornhill: "comets break up not because they are chunks of ice warming in the Sun, and not because they are aggregations of smaller bodies, but because of electrical discharge within the nucleus itself." There were more surprises. Perhaps the greatest shock came from analysis of the debris left by the comets dissolution. According to Hal Weaver, an astronomer at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (as reported in an AP story on May 18, 2001), researchers were "surprised at the ratio of ice to dust and rock in Linear." Analysis showed that Linear "had about 100 times more solid rock and dust than ice." But the problem of missing water on the nucleus of comets is as old as the Giotto probe of Comet Halley, which could not find any definitive evidence of water but did find evidence against the presence of water. No water could be found on the nucleus of comet Borrelly. When comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke apart, astronomers reasoned that the fractured The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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nucleus would expose fresh ices that would sublimate furiously. So several ground-based telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope trained their spectroscopes on the tails of the fragments of SL-9, looking for traces of volatile gases. None of the gases was found. Events and observations surrounding the breakup of Comet Linear thus offer many pointers to the true electrical nature of cometary intruders. Comets May or May not possess volatiles, and we can be confident that comets exhibit much more than sublimating ices. Only electric discharge will account for the full range of new data on comets.
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Credit: Photos by Rens van der Sluijs
The Winged Disk

(May 19, 2005)
Hardly any emblem from ancient Near-Eastern art and architecture is more widely known than the winged disc. The winged disc is essentially a circle to which two outstretched wings are attached. It is a religious symbol representing a deity the ancients regarded as the supreme god of the sky. The symbol is found in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and northern Syria and comes in a number of local variations; the Egyptians often attached two coiling uraeus-serpents to its sides or placed two little horns on top of the disc, whereas the Assyrians typically portrayed the disc as a ring containing the upper part of the god in human form. The example shown above on the left corner is a close-up of a panel from the ruins of the 'North West Palace' in Nimrud, northern Iraq, dated to 865-860 BCE. Why exactly was this deity represented as a winged disc? The short answer is that this particular god was envisioned as a giant bird. Egyptologists have long acknowledged that the Egyptian form of the image could represent Horus the falcon or hawk god. Most specialists would also concur that the winged disc signified some astral god, whose presence in the heavens was symbolized by the flight of a bird. In Egypt, the winged disc was certainly regarded as a symbol of the sun in the first millennium BCE, but there are indications that the myth of this 'sun god' had not originally been based on the behavior of the sun. The archaic sun god of the earlier strata of myth appears to have been some other sun-like object observed in the sky that had afterwards vanished. There are a number of ways to substantiate this extraordinary claim. One of these is the following: The iconography and the textual evidence reveal that the disc tended to be placed atop some tall landmark, such as a pillar, a gateway, or a tree. The example shown here at the right is a scene from the same palace complex in Nimrud, in which the disc hovers above the so-called tree of life. Scores of Sumerian hymns combine the image of the tree with that of the light of the sun and moon to extol the splendor of the sacred temple buildings. What this means is that the 'tree of life' was seen as a luminous object bright enough to rival the light of the sun. There are no indications that the winged disc was ever thought to abandon its perch on the top of its tree or pillar or to land on it. On the contrary, Mesopotamian texts praise the bird as a form of the tree itself. This 'sun god' seems to have been a stationary deity, fixed above the sacred column until its fateful disruption. Thus, the winged disc fits into The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the worldwide archetype of the 'bird on top of the tree or pillar', which is reflected as far afield as the north-Pacific coast of North-America, where most totem poles carry the image of Raven with his outstretched wings on top. The peculiar morphology of the winged disc receives a straightforward explanation in the interdisciplinary method of 'plasma mythology', as advocated on these pages. Extensive laboratory experiments and a worldwide survey of petroglyphs have led plasma physicist Anthony Peratt to conclude that the past has witnessed the formation of a heaven-reaching plasma discharge tube, precipitated by a large influx of charged particles from space and an increased solar wind. The detailed reconstruction of the development of this column offers a strikingly close match to the archetypal aspects attributed to the 'cosmic tree' in ancient traditions around the globe. A shock pulse exercised on the circumpolar regions of the earth would have produced a plasma instability resulting in just such extensions to the column as the 'wings' of the disc at the top. The spiky features of these plasma discharge "wings" strongly resemble flaming feathers. In origin, then, it might be that the winged disc commemorated something far stranger than the ordinary sun: a 'primordial sun' whose wings answered not to fancy, but to astronomical reality. To explore this line of reasoning will require close attention to the archetypes, or primary symbolic themes repeated around the world. It is now clear that a coherent underlying layer of world mythology and symbolism can be identified through cross-cultural comparison. The convergence of comparative mythology and plasma science could forever alter our perspective on the human past
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Credit: TRACE Project, NASA
Projecting Nuclear Fusion onto the Sun

(May 19, 2005)
What is the source of the Suns light and heat? Throughout history people have proposed answers to this question that have always reflected human experience. The Sun was a shining god or a "spark" cast off in the creation. Later it was a pile of burning sticks or coal. By the nineteenth century, astronomers had become accustomed to thinking that gravity was the dominant force in the heavens. So they began to conjecture that the energy of the Sun might be due to "gravitational collapse," a compression of solar gases by gravity. This simple hypothesis, its proponents claimed, could provide the required energy output for a few tens of millions of years. By the late 19th century, however, geologists were confident that Earth was much older than the astronomers model would allow, and the conflict between astronomy and geology continued for several decades. Then, in 1920, the British astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington combined the principle of gravitational collapse with an exciting new principle in the physical sciences--nuclear fusion. He proposed that at the core of the Sun, pressures and temperatures induced a nuclear reaction fusing hydrogen into helium. In 1939 two astrophysicists, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Hans Bethe, working independently, began to quantify the gravitational collapse and nuclear fusion hypothesis. Bethe described the results of his calculations in a brief paper entitled "Energy Production in Stars," published in 1939. The model that followed the work of Eddington, Chandrasekhar, and Bethe described a "nuclear furnace" responsible for igniting stars. And for decades now cosmologists, astronomers, and astrophysicists have accepted the basic concept as fact. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In the early formulations of the "standard model" of star formation, it was said that the gravitational force within a primordial cloud leads to its progressive compression into a "circumstellar disk," as the outer material in the cloud "falls" inward, and gravity gives birth to a star-sized sphere, whose core temperature continues to rise under increasing pressures. Collisions of atoms within the core eventually become so energetic that electrons are stripped from their nuclei, leaving free electrons and hydrogen protons (a plasma as we now understand it). In stars roughly comparable to our Sun, with envisioned core temperatures less than 15 million Kelvin, the nuclear reaction begins when hydrogen protons are joined or stuck together in the "proton-proton fusion" of hydrogen into helium. Critics, however, pointed out that the temperatures given by standard gas laws are not sufficient to provoke nuclear fusion. They cited the "Coulomb barrier," in this case the electric repulsion between two protons, or like charges. Once protons are fused, they could be held together by the strong nuclear force, but that force dominates only at short distances. To achieve fusion, it would be necessary for protons to cross the barrier of the repulsive electric force, which is sufficient to keep the protons apart forever. But Eddingtons successors accomplished the impossible by something called quantum tunneling, enabling an extremely small percentage of protons to simply "appear" inside the barrier at any particular time. It is ironic that the early objections to the fusion model of the Sun focused on the powerful electric force. This was long before arrival of the space age with its discovery that the charged particles of plasma permeate interplanetary and interstellar space, and long before any systematic investigations of plasma and electricity in space. Advocates of the "nuclear furnace" made a series of fundamental assumptions common to astronomy long before the emergence of a nuclear model of the Sun. The credibility of these assumptions was not an issue to them. They assumed that diffuse clouds of gas in space would collapse gravitationally into star-sized bodies. They assumed that the Suns mass could be calculated simply from the orbital motions of the planets. They assumed that Newtonian calculations of mass, coupled with standard gas laws, enabled them to determine the pressure and temperature of the Suns core. The pioneers of the nuclear furnace also followed another assumption common to astronomy in their time--that the Sun and planets are electrically neutral. They gave no consideration to the role of electricity and no consideration to the role of the magnetic fields that electric currents generate. Are the assumptions made in the first half of the twentieth century still warranted after decades of space exploration? Those proposing an electrical perspective, based on more recent data, insist that the earlier conjectures are not only unwarranted, but discredited by direct observation and measurement. They emphasize that every feature of the Sun as we now observe it, defies both the gravitational assumptions and the standard gas laws relating to pressure, density, temperature and relative motions of gases. The deepest observable surface of the Sun yields a temperature of about 6,000 degrees Kelvin. As we peer into the darker interior of sunspots we see cooler regions, not hotter. But moving outward to the bottom of the corona, the temperature jumps spectacularly to almost 2 million degrees. Thus, the superheated shell of the Suns corona reverses the expected temperature gradient predicted by models of internal heating. It seems that the Sun does not even "respect" gravity. The mass of charged particles expelled by the Sun as the solar wind continues to accelerate beyond Mercury, Venus, and Earth. Solar prominences and coronal mass ejections do not obey gravity either. Nor does sunspot The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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migration. Nor does the movement of the atmosphere, since the upper layers rotate faster than the lower, reversing the situation predicted by theory, while the equatorial atmosphere completes its rotation more rapidly than the atmosphere at higher latitudes, another reversal of predicted motions.If the Suns atmosphere were subject only to gravity and the hot surface, it should be only a few thousand kilometers thick instead of the hundred thousand kilometers or more that we measure. Even the shape of the Sun defies the expectations of theory. The revolving Sun should be an oblate sphere. But it is a virtually perfect sphere, as if gravity and inertia have been overruled by something else. For the electrical theorists, the "something else" should be obvious from the dominant observed features of the Sun (in contrast to things assumed but never seen). The anomalies facing the standard model of the Sun are predictable features of a glow discharge, as we shall demonstrate in coming Pictures of the Day.
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Credit: Top: NASA/JPL/Arizona State Bottom: ESA
Message of Valles Marineris

(May 16, 2005)
The greatest canyon in the solar system, Valles Marineris on Mars, underscores the contrast between two interpretations of the planets history. Now, high-resolution images of the chasm cast new doubts on old explanations. In recent years, no planet (apart from Earth) has received more scrutiny than our neighbor Mars. The "planet of a thousand mysteries" is more than an unusual member of the solar system. It has emerged as a laboratory in space for the exploration of solar system history. And the story it has to tell is so different from the things we learned in school that a retreat from all prior doctrines is now essential. Current geologic concepts, based on terrestrial observations of volcanism, erosion, and shifting surfaces, fail to account for the features of Mars, and the history and geology of Mars that have been built on those concepts is incomprehensible. But letting go of a cherished belief system often requires a shock. Fittingly, it is the electrical viewpoint that provides the required "shock to the system." The contributors to this page believe that on the objective test of "predictive ability"--the only legitimate test in the theoretical sciences--the electrical hypothesis will account for the dominant features on Mars, where popular theory fails. Often the simplest test of a new approach is to consider its most extraordinary claim. Of all the enigmatic features on Mars, none is more striking than Valles Marineris, the great trench cutting across more than 3000 miles of the Martian surface. In our Picture of the Day for April 08, 2005 "The Thunderbolt that Changed the Face of Mars," we suggested that Valles Marineris was created within minutes or hours "by a giant electric arc sweeping across the surface of Mars. Rock and soil were lifted into space and some fell back to create the great, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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strewn fields of boulders first seen by the Viking and Pathfinder landers." But what will it take for planetary scientists to consider a new way of seeing Valles Marineris? It will require a willingness to reconsider all assumptions, without prejudice. A prejudice is an unfounded assumption that leaves one in a state of partial blindness. On the matter of Martian history in general, and Valles Marineris in particular, the most powerful prejudice is an untested supposition, the bane of space age science: the idea that planets have moved on their present courses for billions of years. No one should have the intellectual privilege of asserting such an idea as dogma. The idea originated as a guess and then, in the absence of any definitive evidence, crystallized into a doctrine held in place only by the inertia of belief. The second requirement is to allow for the possibility that the Sun and planets are charged bodies so that, within an unstable solar system, electrical arcing between these bodies May have been the dominant force that carved surface features. Yes, this is an extraordinary possibility, but it is also supported by an immense library of evidence, as we intend to show in these Pictures of the Day. Forces external to the planet Mars have shaped its past far more dramatically than any process in the toolkit of standard geology. Look at the Valles Mariners as pictured above. The continental-scale chasm lies on a bulge rising 11 km (6.8 mi) above the surrounding plains. Did evolution of the planet in isolation produce this vast bulge? And what of the trench itself? Traditional geology cannot explain in a plausible way Valles Marineris! Here, for example, is the "explanation" offered in a recent release by the European Space Agency: "The whole canyon system itself is the result of a variety of geological processes. Probably tectonic rifting, water and wind action, volcanism and glacial activity all have played major roles in its formation and evolution." The anomalies and exceptions to this litany of standard geologic processes reduce the applicability of standard theory to the point of leaving nothing that it explains. In the electric view, the electric force raised the Tharsis bulge, along with the surface "blisters" of Olympus Mons and its companions to the west, and a planetary-sized electric arc cut Valles Marineris into the bulge. Today all but a tiny minority of geologists have dropped the idea of creation by flooding. The most common agent currently cited is surface spreading. But higher resolution pictures lend no credence to this concept as well, and many high-resolution views appear to categorically refute it. To illustrate the point we offer a close-up view (lower image) of a small section of the western end of the canyons of Valles Marineris--Tithonium Chasma and Ius Chasma (marked by the white box in the context picture above). The second (lower) picture, with a resolution of 52 meters per pixel, shows the neatly "machined" look predicted by the electrical arcing hypothesis. This is certainly not the appearance predicted by the popular idea of a massive "rift" opening up on the Martian surface. There is no evidence of lateral surface movement, and the stubby, cleanly cut alcoves stand as clear witnesses to the removal of material, as if by a router bit. So too, the sharply defined chain of overlapping craters in the upper right speaks for the scooping out and removal of material, not for rifting. Of this pattern, predictable under the electric hypothesis, the Valles Marineris provides many instances. We have placed two examples here and here. For a time, the most plausible instance of surface spreading was Labyrinthus Noctis, the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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chaotic region to the west (left) in the upper picture. In particular, that explanation seemed plausible in the earlier Mariner probe image seen here. Some scientists had compared this region to the cracked surface of a loaf of bread as the surface is raised and spread during baking. But more recent pictures show something quite different. Here we see the same indications of cleanly cut trenches or channels now revealed throughout Valles Marineris, though the pattern is more chaotic and the depressions more shallow. From an electric viewpoint, the stupendous arc that cut Valles Marineris was diffused into secondary filaments before being quenched. As seen in numerous counterparts on Mars, the depressions of Labyrinthus Noctis appear as complexes of crater chains and flat valleys, cut by the same force that created the overlapping craters elsewhere on Mars. The surface areas untouched by the arc thus remain as buttes and surrounding plains above scalloped cliffs. The smooth surfaces above the valleys show no evidence of rifting or of the supposed stressed that are claimed to have "torn" the surface, just a complex of even more shallow, flat-bottomed and often parallel grooves, a recognized signature of electric arcing.
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The Feathered Serpent

(May 13, 2005)
The luminous "feathers" of mythic serpents add an exclamation point to the unexplained patterns of world mythology. But plasma science suggests a new interpretation, one that could place serpent images as a whole in an entirely new light. The principal god of the Aztec was Quetzalcoatl, one of whose best known aspects was that of the 'feathered serpent'. The impression shown here is on display in the anthropological museum of Villahermosa in Tabasco, Mexico. The image is well known, but the oddness of a snake covered in feathers remains unexplained; needless to say, snakes have a scaly skin and the closest approximation to feathered reptilians are palaeontological findings of bird-like dinosaurs that have nothing to do with mythology. The mystery is deepened by the fact that striking parallels are found beyond the boundaries of the Aztec world. The Maya called the plumed dragon Cuculcan or Cucumatz, the Zui Kolowissi, the Hopi Paluluko. As far South as Venezuela we hear of the snake Huiio who crowned herself with the scattered feathers of the ancestral birds, as the Makiritare people report. In Greek mythology, the heaven-spanning giant Typhon had serpents for legs and a body "all winged" or feathered, as Apollodorus reported. A key to the solution is the serpent's intimate connection with fire. Quetzalcoatl and his counterparts were typically envisioned as glowing entities manifesting themselves in lightning or other streaks of light displayed in the sky. The many feathers therefore point to flames of fire. In the mythology of the Brul Sioux, Uncegila was a "huge snakelike monster" along whose back ran "a crest that sparkled like dancing flames " Fire also burned from Typhon's hundred heads, in Greek tradition. It is easy to see how such flames could metaphorically be understood as feathers. Such an interpretation will bring the serpents feathers into The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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agreement with other features of the cosmic serpent, such as its long-flowing hair, beard, or other fiery emanations. In an interdisciplinary context, the threaded texture of the dragon's countenance answers remarkably well to the filamentation of plasma. The fine, luminous strands symbolised as 'feathers' can be explained as strong filamentation displayed when plasma experiences intense electrical activity. High-energy discharge can give rise to what plasma physicists call a 'sawtooth'-formation, illustrated by the zigzag-shape seen in lightning flashes, but perhaps the spiky features of the dragon's body as well. A shock pulse operating on the upper atmospheric strata of the earth (or upon the plasma sheath of some other charged body in space) May cause "a rippling of the layer that rapidly develops into periodically spaced spike like features. These features, or 'spikes' then evolve the shock impulse causes the generation of yet more instability spikes that themselves morph into yet more complex instability shapes." (Anthony Peratt). At a time when the magnetic field of the earth experienced a major influx of charged particles from space, radiant plasma shapes with a heavily threaded surface might have formed that could go down in history as snake-like dragons covered in feathers. But were such forms contained within the upper atmosphere of the earth or, as others have suggested, external to the earth (though very close)? That question remains to be answered. One objective of Peratts work is to identify the precise placement of the formations, by comparing tens of thousands of ancient images carved on stone around the world. He believes that simple geometry, in combination with global positioning data, can settle the question. Contributed by Rens van der Sluijs
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Credit: The Electronic Universe Project
M15: A Great Globular Cluster

(May 12, 2005)
Globular clusters are a particularly difficult problem for a gravity-only cosmology. They should not be where we see them, and their spherical configuration defies the expectations of standard theory. Today, astronomers continue to wrestle with problems posed by exotic structures in space that appear to mock Newtons elementary "laws." In their attempts to account for unexpected galactic motions, astronomers have invoked invisible entities and forces: Black Holes, "dark matter" and "dark energy," which are imagined to be far more powerful than anything actually seen. In stepping out on this lily pad, they have even speculated that as much as 99 percent of the matter in the universe is "dark" and can be measured only by "apparent gravitational effects." It was this resort to unseen matter that caused Astronomer Halton Arp to observe in Seeing Red that "past 90% it [dark matter] begins to make observations irrelevant." Within our own galaxy, the Milky Way, globular clusters or spherical configurations of stars such as M15 above, are a particularly difficult problem for a gravity-only cosmology. By what mechanical magic does gravity hold a million stars together in this way, as a sphere rather than the familiar disk of gravitational models? Gravitationally, spherical configurations of stars simply hanging in space are absurd. The problem is heightened by the fact that M15 is only one of about 100 known globular clusters associated with the Milky Way. Strictly speaking they are not a part of our galaxy as traditionally defined. Rather they appear close to the core of the galaxy as a spherical "halo" above and below the center of galactic rotation. Yet astronomers rarely acknowledge the dynamic problems this creates. Theory states that clusters above the plane must move on orbital paths around the center of the dynamic system as a whole, and in completing an orbit each will intersect the galactic plane twice. Such an The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive intersection with the plane would induce tidal distortions and disrupt the cluster.
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The problem was recently noted by the physicist C. Johnson of the University of Chicago: "It is almost like physicists have been assuming they [globular clusters] just hover there like a swarm of bees. But that wouldn't happen. They could NOT just follow elliptical paths above or below the Galactic Plane. Basic gravitational theory insists that their elliptical paths pass through the Galactic Plane, because the two halves of any path must be on opposite sides of that Plane." Johnson suggests that something is missing--and not a small piece of the puzzle. "It would appear that either our understanding of the Laws of Physics is sadly lacking, or our understanding of the geometry of the situation is greatly in error. The commonly accepted view of a halo of ancient, stable Globular Clusters hovering around the Core of the Galaxy, like a swarm of bees, is just not compatible with our current understanding of the Laws of Physics. Clearly, further research is necessary." The same quandary applies to the relative motions of stars within each cluster. And while Johnson accurately describes the gravitational dynamic, the rule he applies is a formula for chaos. As any gravitational simulation will demonstrate, it would quickly lead to some stars being accelerated out of the system, while others would lose energy and fall to an orbit closer in. Over time, the globular clusters would largely "evaporate." But from another vantage point, it is not unthinkable that the stars of globular clusters are "just hanging there," both with respect to the clusters own center of gravity and the gravitational center of the galactic disk to which the clusters are symmetrically linked. In the electric universe model of stellar composition and energy, stars are concentrations of highly positivecharged material. For globular clusters, such a collection of stars with no other external distorting forces in play might indeed form a stable ball-of-stars formation. In fact, the new view of the universe provides many examples of star-sized masses--even galactic clusters--in symmetrical arrangements that gravitational theorists never dreamt of (including polar alignments). And as for the spherical form of globular clusters, the cosmic electricians suggest that the best analogy May come from something as unfamiliar to astronomers as ball lightning.
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The Mountain of the Gods

(May 10, 2005)
Worldwide traditions say that a cosmic mountain once rose to the center of the sky, joining heaven and earth. Now plasma science offers a confirming witness, in the behavior of high-energy plasma discharge. The ancients lived in the shadow of a colossal mountain identified as the abode of the gods. The Sumerians and the Babylonians knew it as the Khursag or the Kur, and as early as the 23rd century BCE it was depicted on the victory stele of king Naram-Sin of Akkad, shown above. The two stars on the apex identify the rock as the residence of celestial powers to whom the mighty ruler pays homage for his victory. This 'cosmic mountain' was given different names in different cultures. The Egyptians knew it as the Primordial Mound, the Israelites as Sinai and Zion, and the Greeks as Olympus and Parnassus. Further afield, the Indians called the divine peak Meru or Sumeru, the Chinese Kun-lun, Sung-shan, or Bu-zhou, the Icelanders Himinbjrg, the Aztec Colhuacan, and the Choctaw Nunne Chaha. During the 20th century, specialists in each of these cultural areas have tended to downplay the role of the cosmic mountain, arguing that the sacred peaks and pinnacles mentioned in the ancient writings were nothing more than the mountains found locally. According to them, Naram-Sin's 'mountain of the sun' simply referred to the Zagros Mountains, over which the sun appears to rise for the natives of northern Mesopotamia. But these scholars have vastly underrated the importance of the theme. As 19th-century researchers have ably demonstrated, the reports given of the cosmic The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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mountain in mythology indicate that it was a highly unusual object, rooted in a universal archetype. The mountain's height was prodigious, reaching from the deepest underworld to the top of the sky. At the creation of the world, it rose up from the waters of chaos, pushing heaven and earth apart as it grew. It stood exactly in the centre of the universe and the forces of four cardinal directions met at its summit. It was of a luminous substance, ablaze with fire, or decked with gold and silver. Two peaks crowned its summit. A bird was seated on its top, called Anzu or Imdugud in Babylonia, Phoenix in Egypt, Garuda in India, and the thunderbird Wakinyan among the Sioux. Its interior was hollow and filled with a mysterious substance identified as the juice of life, the divine breath, a perpetual flame, lightning, or the waters of the flood. The souls of the dead traversed it on their way from the underworld to the sky or vice versa. The mythical hero or ancestor climbed it as part of his quest. And the Golden Age ended when the mountain was ripped apart, the flood gushed forth, and the bond between heaven and earth was broken. Each of these pervading themes shows that the cosmic mountain hardly answers to any familiar phenomenon in the natural world. Clearly, it was a feature of the mythological landscape that was independently localised when different cultures identified it with different rocks in their own environment. The striking parallels cry out for an explanation nonetheless. The detailed agreement of its characteristics in cultures from far-flung corners of the world shows that there is definitely some reality behind it. And this is where plasma comes in. The remarkable synthesis between the most up-to-date findings of plasma physicists and the artefacts and traditions of ancient mankind has the potential to cast a refreshing light on the subject. The present interdisciplinary investigation suggests that the features of the cosmic mountain-and dozens of additional motifs--can be satisfactorily accounted for if the object commemorated in these traditions included a heaven-spanning plasma discharge tube, formed during the late Palaeolithic in response to high-energy disturbances in the geomagnetic field. Extensive laboratory experiments performed under the auspices of plasma physicist Anthony Peratt have shed much light on the specifics of the morphological 'cycle' such a plasma column would have gone through. Down to the finest and most unusual details, this sequence matches the profile of the mythic "mountain of the gods." The myth of the cosmic mountain, therefore, deserves rigorous cross-cultural exploration. Where cultures agree on unique details, this consensus is evidence, and May well provide vital information about the ancient natural environment, suggesting promising lines for scientific investigation. Contributed by Rens van der Sluijs
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Left: Greek and Roman artists depicted the god Ammon with a pillar-like trunk in the form of a serpent. Right: Serpent columns of the Toltec Temple of the Warriors, Chichn Itz, Yucatn, accord with the world tradition: the male dragon manifest as the pillar of heaven
Electric Universe: Part IV--Plasma and World Mythology

(May 09, 2005)
The memorials to plasma discharges in Earths prehistoric sky are not confined to images carved or painted on rocks. If ancient artists recorded the life-like configurations of plasma instabilities, we can be sure that the witnesses would also have told stories about the life-like movements and transformations of the instabilities. And if rock art exhibits identical forms around the world, the stories should do the same. Ancient narratives, passed down from prehistoric times, are called "mythology." At the dawn of recorded history, every culture was centered around a body of such narratives, harking back to a prior age of celestial wonders. The myths commemorated the activities of gods, goddesses, and cosmic warriors, and in particular the ordeals they faced when serpents, dragons, or other monsters invaded their celestial domain. A comparison of the themes in these myths--the plots, the characters, the details of divine habitations and relationships--reveals two enigmatic forms of parallelism: First, among widely separated cultures the same mythic themes stand out, and these archetypes are all intimately linked to each other. The land of the gods was a luminous enclosure or turning wheel. It rested upon a mountain rising to the center of heaven. The mountain became a tower of seven or nine levels or tiers. A dragon, demon, or monster once held a princess captive in the tower. The warrior-hero slew the dragon and rescued the princess. Cross cultural comparison has now documented many hundreds of such archetypes--far too many to be explained by any common view of human history, either archaic or modern. Second, we find that widespread cultures preserved the same improbable parallels in their complex mythic interpretations of the underlying events. The land of the gods was not just a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"place" in the sky; it was the womb of the mother goddess. The cosmic mountain was not just a mountain; it was a river or pillar of fire. The great warriors sword was not just a sword; it was a cosmic thunderbolt. The repeated associations suggest a substructure of astonishing unity. The female dragon was the mother goddess in her terrible aspect. The male dragon was the warrior-hero in his terrible aspect. The warriors arrows launched skyward became a ladder to heaven. The ladder was a pyramid or tower of seven or nine levels. The fact that this parallelism has never been explained is only part of the challenge. Here is another part: Of the hundreds of archetypes now enumerated by comparative study, not one answers to the familiar face of nature today. Hence, the dilemma is both inescapable and profound. The events that acted on ancient consciousness are not occurring now. And this means that scholarly investigations into the human past have missed the most fundamental point of all: Our ancestors lived beneath an alien sky. While the contributors to this Picture of the Day do not all share the same convictions about the things that appeared above the ancient witnesses, all agree that Anthony Peratts field work on rock art and plasma discharge configurations has laid the foundation for a breakthrough. People from widely distributed cultures told the same stories because they saw the same drama played out in the sky. A global experience explains global stories. In fact, mythologists for a long time have been seeking just this type of explanation. But they never found a phenomenon that could make sense of the universal patterns. Common elements of nature--sunrise, or the seasons, or thunderstorms--were far too limited and lacked the vital details. Understandably, the mythologists never considered the possibility that the mythic archetypes could have their referents in plasma discharge at a sufficient distance from the earth to have been witnessed globally. Plasma discharge fills in the details that are missing in other attempts to account for the patterns of ancient testimony. Seemingly disparate mythic content can then be seen as different human interpretations of the same unearthly events: In its most archaic form, the dragon is not earthbound, but moves about in the sky, the domain of plasma. The dragon undulates like a serpent because that is the character of plasma discharge. The dragon has luminous "feathers" or long-flowing "hair" because plasma discharge produces filamentation. The dragon has antennae or horns, wings, arms, legs or other protrusions resembling nothing in nature so much as plasma instabilities. The dragon is either a flame or torch in the sky, or it "breathes" fire, as we should expect. And of course, when the dragon appears cosmic thunderbolts invariably follow--a direct pointer to the electrical nature of the devastating "monster." Thus, the characteristics of the dragon and the characteristics of plasma discharge can be systematically compared down to every recurring detail. However, one important aspect has not yet been discussed. Peratts model of an enhanced aurora does not address the question of where the surge in the circuit came from. It does not locate the "electrodes" between which the plasma instabilities evolved. But ancient astronomies provide clues that, if followed conscientiously, could revolutionize our understanding of both cultural history and solar system history. They invite us to consider the role of planets in the ancient events. For the worlds first astronomers revered the planets as the greatest gods of primeval times. More than thirty years ago David Talbott suggested that world mythology reflects a planetary arrangement unlike anything observed today. He identified several planets in an ancient "close congregation of planets in polar alignment," and he named them. Decades later, this vision has grown to expansive proportions, though it remains tentative in many of its aspects. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The underlying reconstruction of the celestial formations led to a collaborative effort and a consensus far greater than the disagreements. Today the most prominent contributors to this consensus are, in addition to Talbott, Ev Cochrane, Dwardu Cardona, Rens van der Sluijs and, most recently, Ken Moss. Those who hold to the planetary model see the ancient planets as charged bodies on much different paths than today, moving through a rich medium of electrified plasma. Some contributors remain undecided as to the merits of the planetary model. All agree that the first requirement is to identify the formations seen in the sky because as these are confirmed the tests of the planetary model become increasingly precise. Beyond this, all agree that the planetary model is unthinkable in the gravity-only universe of popular astronomy. In a gravity-only universe, the mythic archetypes can only be ignored, since they could never be comprehended. In a gravity-only universe, our ancient ancestors, required by necessity to honor natures ways, were nevertheless obsessed with fantasies that defied nature at every turn. For Talbott and his colleagues, a milestone occurred when the historical investigation converged with the work of Wallace Thornhill, the leading proponent of the "Electric Universe." It was Thornhill who convinced Talbott that the formations reconstructed from ancient testimony were plasma discharge configurations. Three years later a convergence of equal magnitude occurred when Anthony Peratt, who had devoted decades to investigating plasma discharge phenomena, informed Talbott that his (Talbotts) reconstruction of events leading to the mythic "ladder of heaven" matched precisely the evolution of the "Peratt Instability." This, in turn, led to several years of extensive field work by Peratt, gathering ancient rock art images and related designs by the tens of thousands and verifying that the ancient artists were not hallucinating; they were recording the same configurations that Peratt himself had documented in the laboratory. For Talbott and his collaborators this documentation May well turn out to be the strongest confirmation of the myth-based reconstruction. The convergence of myth and science in this investigation has established that the "one story told around the world" need not remain a mystery forever. The substratum of human memory is not a "coincidence" to be dismissed. It is an intelligible and coherent set of ancient patterns explicable in physical terms. Our ancestors May well have been obsessed, but for good reason: Their survival depended on the vagaries of plasma discharge, seemingly under the control of capricious gods. So it is not just the gravity-only universe that is at stake here. Also at stake is the twentieth century vision of an uneventful and stable solar system moving with clock-like regularity across billions of years. The Electric Universe is more than a story about electricity on a grand stellar and galactic scale. It is also about a local planetary system wracked by recent instabilities and cataclysms. But the limits of scientific investigation here should be obvious. Not even the best scientific instruments could, on their own, produce a reliable reconstruction of the ancient dramas. It is therefore essential that we now listen to those who lived through the events, and honor the artists, the chroniclers, the astronomer priests, and the monument builders who helped to preserve the story across the centuries.
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Images: Kayenta & squatter petros
Plasma in the Lab and in Rock Art

(May 06, 2005)
The ancients were not just doodling when they spent millions of man-hours carving rock art forms around the world. They were reproducing dramatic plasma discharge forms seen in their spectacular sky. At high energy levels, the current within a plasma circuit will develop instabilities that can be studied in the laboratory. The flow of charged particles generates electromagnetic forces that in turn affect the flow of particles. This feedback effect produces plasma behavior that is not linear and is often unexpected. Theoretical predictions must be frequently checked against laboratory observations. The non-linear behavior at low energies, such as the alternating light and dark segments in a gas-discharge tube, becomes even more complex. High energy discharges in plasma laboratories exhibit intricate structures, and these evolve through a sequence of quasi-stable forms with intermediate stages of violent transformation. Anthony Peratt, a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory, has studied the evolution of these instabilities for several decades. One evolutionary sequence is the development of the "warped disk" form, which can involve many variations on the underlying pattern. (See Thunderbolts of the Gods, Chapter One, pages 21ff.) A continuous discharge channel will break up into a string of spherical cells, usually 7 to 9 in number. These cells contract further into toroids (donut-shaped rings) stacked along the axial channel. The toroids flatten into disks, and then the edges of the disks warp upward or downward. When viewed from the side (perpendicular to the axis), the greater thickness of plasma along the axis and in the plane of the disks appears as a glowing line figure--a vertical line with cross bars. Peratt described this sequence at an interdisciplinary conference on plasma in the solar system in September of 2000. David Talbott, another presenter at the conference, remarked on the similarity of the line form to images seen in ancient rock art. The pictograph on the left above, from Kayenta, Arizona, illustrates a late stage in this sequence. Peratt remarked that the detailed correspondence with the laboratory discharge sequence is precise. This Kayenta image was, in fact, the first pictograph that Talbott sent to Peratt, and it inspired Peratt to investigate the correspondence further. (The identification of the discharge components comes from Peratts later paper on the subject. According to Peratt, the configuration is about The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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to undergo an intensely energetic transformation that could be deadly for humans exposed to its radiation.) In the transitional phase, the top disks fold over each other to form a bulb shape; the next disk bends into a cup shape; the middle disks often merge; and the lower disk bends down into the shape of an inverted cup. The bottom of the axial current often develops a trident shape. When viewed from the side, the line figure takes on the appearance of a squatting stick person with his arms in the air. The central toroid appears as two dots or, if bright enough, as a bar under the "stick mans" arms. The trifurcated bottom end of the axial current is commonly interpreted in rock-art lore as the "stick mans" genitalia. Peratt calls this a "basic" form taken by discharge instabilities, and significantly it is an image common to rock art around the world. (See image on the right.) Peratts investigation of rock art led him to collect hundreds of thousands of digital photographs of petroglyphs (images scratched or pecked into rock) and pictographs (images painted on rock). He has classified them into 84 categories that correspond with the quasistable forms of the laboratory plasma discharges. "Many petroglyphs, apparently recorded several millennia ago, have a plasma discharge or instability counterpart, some on a one-to-one or overlay basis. More striking is that the images recorded on rock are the only images found in extreme energy density experiments; no other morphology types or patterns are observed," Peratt writes, "The inward rise on axis along with the upward folding of the outer edges of the carved lines and transition to edge curling, a phenomena [sic] recorded in intense electrical discharge radiographs, could not have been known to prehistoric man unless he witnessed the same event in the sky." Peratt and his assistants and collaborators also recorded the fields of view of the ancient artists and the locations of the images with GPS instruments. By plotting this data on computerized topographical maps, he can calculate where the various forms occurred in the Earths ancient plasmasphere (what astronomers call the magnetosphere). Peratt surmised that a surge of power in the currents driving the auroras had set off the sequence of instabilities. The entire pre-historical sky around the globe would have appeared to come alive with a shimmering, shining "enhanced aurora" that stretched from pole to pole. It would have featured exactly those abstract figures and stick men and strange animal-like shapes that appear only in rock art and in high-energy plasma discharges. He contends that the ancient artists were witnesses to this "enhanced aurora" and that they recorded what they saw on the most durable "recording device" available--rock surfaces. From the difference in scale between a laboratory spark and an auroral discharge, Peratt estimates that the ancient displays would have lasted "for at least a few centuries if not millennia." Radiocarbon dating of material overlying some buried petroglyphs provides a time for the occurrence of the displays at 4 000 to 12 000 years ago. The curious phenomena that our space-age sensors are detecting in space, phenomena that can be explained directly in terms of the electrical behavior of plasma, are now reflected in the forms of ancient rock art. The new universe of plasma requires not only a new vision of the present but also a new vision of the ancient past. Discoveries in space, ancient drawings of the sky, and controlled laboratory experiments converge to revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos. Plasma and electricity make possible a unified perspective, a goal that is fundamental to the scientific quest. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Left: The pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, Egypt Right: Temple I at Tikal, Guatemala Credit: Rens van der Sluis
Electric Universe: Part III--The Nine Steps to Heaven

(May 05, 2005)
Why did so much ancient architecture consist of seven or nine steps or levels? Did this construction relate to the ancient cosmologies, which speak of seven or nine layers, steps or tiers of heaven? That the ancients were in the habit of erecting large, four-sided or pyramidal towers is well known. But why did so many of these buildings consist of seven to nine stories? The earliest Egyptian pyramid, the one constructed by king Djoser at Saqqara, was a so-called 'stepped' pyramid, formed of six layers on a rectangular ground plan. The Babylonian ziggurats or temple-towers of the 1st millennium BCE displayed a marked tendency to count exactly seven stages. Seven or nine tiers dominated in scores of stupas and pagodas scattered across India and the lands touched by Buddhism and Hinduism. And the great pyramidbuilders of Meso-America likewise elected to construct most buildings in nine levels. The above examples are the ruins of Temple I at Tikal, Guatemala, and the pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, Egypt. The pattern is not rigid. Many of the ancient monuments had only three, four or five layers and often confusion arises over the method of counting: the platform at the base or a tent or dwelling at the top might or might not be included in the figure. But even allowing for such flexibility, the predominance of seven and nine is too striking to be dismissed as fortuitous. This impression is strengthened by the fact that the number of levels is consistently embedded in a similar cosmological framework. The tiered building is typically regarded as a manifestation of the cosmic mountain in the sacred centre of the world. The Egyptians modeled the pyramids on the Primordial Mound that rose out of the abyss at the time of creation. And the pagodas of India were deliberate replicas of the polar Mount Meru, called Kwen-lun in China. Like the towers, these mountains were widely envisioned as terraced structures. As the mountain pierced through the heavens, its seven or nine layers corresponded to the imaginary 'sheets' of heaven that lay superimposed over each other. This belief system has been detected in all ancient cultures and most illiterate cultures. Previous attempts to explain these beliefs have failed. The concept of the seven or nine heavens could not have originated as an expression of the planetary orbits because the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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planets were thought to revolve in the same plane, not in seven layers neatly spaced out above each other. Apart from that, the notions of the tiered mountain and the layered heavens existed in cultures that were never acquainted with the planetary astronomy of the Greeks, and the sanctity of seven and nine chronologically preceded the rise of astronomy. Clearly, the seven or nine steps to heaven relate to a much more archaic stratum of belief, rooting in the mythology of the axis mundi. The preponderance of seven and nine in ancient number symbolism cannot be separated from the propensity of a plasma pinch to segment into a string of nine plasmoids. Plasma physicist Anthony Peratt has demonstrated that a giant plasma column was produced in the atmosphere of the earth some 4,000 to 5,000 years ago and that was luminous enough to be observed by human populations around the world. An early development of this column was that it transformed into a stack of nine segments that subsequently merged to produce three or four layers. As this stupendous plasma formation was the prototype for the axis mundi remembered in world mythology, the layered heavens and the tiered mountains and buildings are understood as commemorative symbols of the stratified plasma column. The remaining problem concerns relative chronology. The respective seven- and ninefold towers were produced in widely divergent periods: the stepped pyramids of Egypt were very ancient, but the sevenfold towers of Babylonia are not attested until 2,000 BCE at the very earliest, whilst the Meso-American parallels often date from less than 1,000 years ago. This is not a serious objection to the plasma model. As seen, the template for the tiered buildings was a mythological-cosmological concept that could in some cultures have existed long before it was given architectural expression. In addition, the stone monuments that survive today could have had wooden forerunners that would naturally have perished over time. In some cases, notably in Meso-America, the extant pyramids were erected over the ruins of smaller structures that were much older. The earliest one of these dates back to the 1st millennium BCE. Composed by Rens van der Sluis
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Upper Left: Complex of giant lunar rilles or trenches. Right: Laboratory electron beam showing deflection by magnet. Lower Left: painting by Benjamin West,"Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky". Center: Artist illustration of electric discharge vortex on lunar surface. Right: "volcano" (electric discharge) on the Jovian moon Io.
The Electric Universe: Part II--Discharges and Scars

(May 04, 2005)
A universe that is 99% plasma requires a new vision of electrical connectivity-galaxies, stars, nebulas, invisible "double layers"--joined by webs of circuitry. Such a universe also demands that we reconsider all prior beliefs about the evolution of planetary surfaces and the nature of atmospheric phenomena on planets and on the Sun. Throughout the twentieth century, astronomers relied upon gravitational mechanics and the kinetics of gases to explain things observed in the heavens. But this vision of the universe is increasingly at odds with new data returned by better telescopes and enhanced technologies. Laboratory experiments with electric currents in plasma show that the currents can appear in three modes--dark, glow and arc--depending on the voltage and charge density. In a laboratory gas-discharge tube (pictured above), voltage and charge density vary non-linearly between the electrodes and produce segments that are alternately dark and glowing. The arc mode, which has a very high charge density, is used industrially for precision machining. The degree of current filamentation depends on the density of the medium through which the current passes. For similar currents, one passing through a thin atmosphere will tend to produce a single columnar or tubular channel that spins around its axis. In the glow mode, this channel looks like a tornado of fire. We can see examples of this in the penumbraof a sunspot. The solar discharge is quenched in the umbra (the dark center) of a sunspot, giving us a side view of the "electric vortices" whose tops make up the "granular" appearance of the photosphere. In the dark mode, these "electric vortices" can become visible when the strong electric field pulls air, water or dust into their rotation, producing dust devils, waterspouts, and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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A current passing through a thick atmosphere will tend to branch into a web of filaments. Some of these filaments will form concentric circles around the primary axis. Others will stretch radially away. In combination, they produce arrays that resemble a spiders web and are therefore termed "arachnoids." Such features are particularly common around the equator of the planet Venus, suggesting intense electrical activity in the past. When a circuit passes through a solid body, the current will erode material from or deposit material on the surface where the arc touches down. It is essential therefore that planetary scientists be willing to consider the evidence of electrical surface erosion, which leaves distinctive scarring patterns: The pits or craters left by electric arcs are usually circular because the electric forces constrain the arc to strike at a right angle to the surface. Because the arc is composed of two (or more) filaments rotating around the axis, material is removed as with a drill bit, leaving steep sides and a "pinched up" rim of debris. If the filaments are sufficiently separated, they May leave a nipple of material in the center, as is seen in lunar craters that have central peaks. Material in the bottom of the crater, as also the material removed, will be electrically heated, possibly burned, and considerably melted. If the surface is an anode (positively charged in the exchange), the arc will tend to stick in one place. This results in increased melting, and the electrical forces within the field of the arc May lift the surface to form a "blister," called a fulgamite. There will still be a crater--or several overlapping craters--at the top. For example, a lightning strike will often raise a fulgamite on the metal cap of a lightning arrestor. At a larger scale, fulgamites appear as "domes" on Venus and as pedestal craters on Mars. Even larger scale examples are the Martian Olympus Mons and the so-called "volcanoes" on the Tharsis Rise. If the surface is a cathode (negatively charged), the arc will tend to move across the surface. After striking, usually at a high point, and eroding a crater, the arc May jump to a new high point--the rim of the new crater is a most likely target. The abundance of small craters centered on the rims of larger ones testifies to this predictable behavior. As the arc travels, it May erode a series of craters in a line, appearing as a chain of craters. If the craters in these chains overlap, the effect is a steep-sided trench with scalloped edges. The arc May erode a trench for a distance and then jump some distance away before eroding another trench. These "dashed line" trenches will usually have circular ends and constant widths. All of these patterns occur in great abundance on the surface of Mars, a point we intend to fully demonstrate in coming Pictures of the Day. A current running under the surface May heat the rock suddenly enough to cause a line explosion: The shock wave will blow out material to each side, producing levees, and the electrical erosion from the arc will leave a smaller, more sinuous trench in the bottom of the shock-generated trench. This form was first noticed on the Moon as the lunar rilles, but the pattern is also repeated across the surface of the Jovian moon Europa. Advocates of the electrical discharge and electrical scarring hypothesis emphasize its greater unity and coherence over a broader range of data. The theory is empirically grounded, testable under laboratory conditions, and directly applicable at all scales of observations, from the microscopic pitting of tektites and concretions to solar vortices and the knotted polar jets of stars and galaxies.
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Left: Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) image of the stars DG Tauri B Right: Herbig-Haro 30 (HH 30) Credit: NASA/NASA's Observatorium; NASA's Observatorium
The Electric Universe: Part I--Bodies and Circuits

(May 03, 2005)
The flood of surprising space-age observations is bursting the explanatory limits of conventional views, which date from the gaslight era. A new view of the universe is emerging, one based on the modern discoveries of the electrical properties of plasma. An apple fell on Isaac Newtons head and he conceived the gravity universe. An aurora "fell" on Kristian Birkelands head and he conceived the plasma universe. The story of Newton and the apple is apocryphal. But Birkeland trekked to the Norwegian Arctic, stood under the aurora, and took measurements that revealed the presence of electric currents. Newton lived in a world of apple trees, gaslights and gears. Birkeland lived on the threshold of a world of aurora probes, electric lights and plasma. Its been over 300 years since Newton encountered his apple, and his conception of gravity, now modified by Einstein and supplemented with similar mechanical theories of solids, liquids and gasses, has become the popular vision of space--an almost-empty universe of selfcontained bodies. And now its been 100 years since Birkeland encountered his aurora, and his conception of electric currents in space, developed by such pioneers as Irving Langmuir and Hannes Alfven, has been a footnote to standard theory, rarely called upon except to explain the occasional curiosity in space. But aided by the new tools of the space age, weve discovered that the earlier "curiosities" are much more than footnotes. They are predictable patterns, and they point to radically new possibilities. The cosmic theater has outgrown the Newtonian stage, and we need a larger setting to understand the broader cosmic drama. Instead of a vision of isolated bodies turning gear-like in a vacuum, we need a vision of electrical circuits embedded in a conducting medium whose components drive each other and May be in resonance. We have left the familiar world of solids, liquids and gasses. We have entered a world of plasma, where the rules are different and more complex. We now live in an Electric Universe. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Plasma is any substance that contains charged particles: negatively charged electrons, positively charged ions, or dust particles that have an excess of either electrons or ions. Fluorescent and neon lights are plasma. Lightning is plasma. Earths magnetosphere, the solar wind, and the sun itself are plasma. The glowing nebulas in space, often called gas clouds by mistake, are plasma. So are the dark clouds, composed mostly of molecules of hydrogen, but revealing themselves to be plasma by their magnetic fields and radio emissions. Back on Earth, the familiar world dissolves in the realization that power lines are plasma; molten rock is plasma; even raindrops May be plasma. A region of plasma May be quiescent and almost indistinguishable from a solid or a liquid or a gas. But if a variability of sufficient intensity develops in some property--from shock, say, or a magnetic field variation, or an electric current running through it--the quiescent plasma can become active. Active plasma exhibits electrical behavior. In regions of active plasma, sheets and filaments of charged particles flow, as can be seen in auroras and solar prominences. Flows of charged particles are electric currents. Persistent currents "close" in circuits; otherwise the charged particles would accumulate and quickly stop the flow. This--the existence of circuits--is the essential distinction between the gravity vision and the Electric Universe vision. In the former, theorists use the term "plasma," but they are thinking of the kinetic theory of gasses modified to accommodate magnetic field effects. They overlook the electrical behaviors of plasma circuits. In the Electric Universe vision, these electrical behaviors explain straightforwardly the many phenomena that have appeared curious and enigmatic to space-age explorers: radio and x-ray emissions from planets and comets, polar jets of braided plasma filaments and hourglass-shaped nebulosities of stars (such as the Herbig-Haro objects imaged above), beams of energetic particles along the spin axes of galaxies, and everywhere glowing filaments and magnetic fields. The existence of plasma circuits underlies the contradiction between the isolated bodies of the gravity universe and the connected components of the Electric Universe. The behavior of active plasma at every point is influenced--or driven--by conditions in the rest of the circuit. Fluctuations are often driven to form double layers (DLs)--thin regions of opposite charge build-up with large voltage drops between them. DLs are electrical phenomena that do not appear in observations of magnetic fields. The electric forces in DLs can be very much stronger than gravitational and mechanical forces. Gas theory modified to encompass "magnetism" will overlook them. DLs separate plasma into cells and filaments that have different qualities--different temperatures or densities or compositions. These cellular and filamentary structures show up especially in planetary nebulas, but they can be invisible in optical wavelengths and appear in x-ray or radio observations. DLs are "noisy," emitting radio waves over a broad band of frequencies. They can sort matter into regions of like composition and condense or rarify it. DLs can accelerate charged particles to cosmic ray energies. And DLs can explode. Energy from the rest of the circuit flows into the break, and the explosion can release much more energy than is present locally. This effect is seen in flares on the sun and is likely responsible for the outbursts of novas, the so-called "exploding" stars. The electromagnetic forces in currents squeeze the conducting channels into thin thread-like filaments. These filaments attract each other in pairs, but when they get close, instead of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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merging, they spiral around each other. Pairs of pairs, and more, May entwine into plasma "cables" that can transmit electrical power over enormous distances. We see these cables as the "jets" that connect Herbig-Haro stars and active galactic nuclei with DLs that May lie many light-years away. But the "cables" can be invisible, too. These make up the galactic circuits that power the stars, analogs of the power lines , invisible at night, that carry electricity from generating stations to city lights. The "flux tube" that connects Jupiters moon Io to the bright spots in Jupiters auroras is an invisible plasma cable, undetected until a space probe flew through it. The new vision of the cosmos connects components at one scale into circuits that are coupled to and driven by circuits at larger scales. This new cosmos is laced with hierarchies of interacting circuits. The question arises: Where is the generator? At the largest scale we can observe, that of superclusters of galaxies, all we see are loads, power-consuming objects. If there is a generator, it lies beyond the reach of our telescopes. But the question belies an assumption carried over from the older vision: the assumption that the universe begins with neutral matter and that something--a generator--must separate charges to start the currents flowing. But its equally plausible to assume that the primordial condition of the universe was (or is) one of already separated charges. In any case, what we observe, and where our inquiry begins, is that charges are combining--electrically--in front of our eyes and our newly invented sensors.
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Titan's Hydrocarbons
(Apr 29, 2005)
The discovery of hydrocarbons in the upper atmosphere of Titan offers intriguing ideas about the recent history of the Solar System. After its latest flyby of Saturns moon, Titan, on April 16, 2005, the Cassini spacecraft announced that a surprising number of hydrocarbons are found in the moons upper atmosphere. For mainstream astronomers, as the press release stated: "Titan's atmosphere May be a laboratory for studying the organic chemistry that preceded life and provided the building blocks for life on Earth. The role of the upper atmosphere in this organic factory of hydrocarbons is very intriguing to scientists, especially given the large number of different hydrocarbons detected by Cassini during the flyby." For the Saturn theory, the discovery is significant because the recent history of Saturn is seen as a time of catastrophic changes in orbits and temperatures. Catastrophist Dwardu Cardona points out: "Compare the hydrocarbons in Titan's atmosphere--even theorized to be raining down on the surface--with descriptions of hydrocarbon (oil, tar, and naphtha) rains here on Earth in past ages." Descriptions of such falls come from the mythology of both east and west terrestrial hemispheres. From the standard point of view, Titan has always been cold, so its present atmosphere is The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive believed to be little changed from its primeval composition. The early Earth is believed to have had a similar atmosphere, but Earths warmer temperatures transformed the hydrocarbons into the present-day biosphere.
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From a Saturn theory point of view, Titan May be young. It May recently have been removed from a much warmer environment. Could Titan have been capable of supporting life in the past? Will we find the remains of an extinct biosphere when we take a closer look? Or might we even find dormant or even live organisms on the frigid surface? These notions are intriguing, but they are only peripheral to the Saturn theory. As Cardona put it: "I will not be surprised if such life, or signs of past such life, is found. And I will not be disappointed if none ever is." And where did the hydrocarbons come from? The Cassini press release suggests that interstellar space is the source because comets, which are believed to have formed in interstellar space, have hydrocarbons in their tails. The Electric Universe model has a different genesis for comets. They are formed in plasma discharges (flares) of the gas giants, especially during times of close interaction with other planets. So the hydrocarbons in comets tails, the hydrocarbons on Titan, and the hydrocarbons that the myths report as falling from the sky have the same source. And these bodies were all flooded with hydrocarbons in catastrophic events that happened only a few thousand years ago. PRESS RELEASE about hydrocarbons on Titan here: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=16737
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Credit: XXN Newton
Cluster Collisions
(Apr 28, 2005)
When high temperatures showed up between two clusters, out came the only tool in the toolbox to explain it--another collision in an expanding universe. In the Big Bang universe, where everything has been exploding apart for 13 billion years, its amazing how many things are bumping into each other. Astronomers have only one force to work with--gravity--which works by attraction. So whenever an energetic event is found, like the high temperature in the above galaxy clusters, it must have been caused by a gravitydriven collision. The researcher quoted in the BBC report of this finding was puzzled. This was the first time the clusters were studied in x-ray wavelengths. Previous studies in visible light seemed to show two serene, undisturbed galaxy clusters. Yet the x-ray study shows a very hot temperature (70 million degrees) at the interface between the two clusters. Why should that be? Astronomers consider plasma to be an ionized gas that behaves according to the same laws that a neutral gas follows, with some modification for magnetic effects. Because they cannot directly measure the properties of extragalactic space, they have developed mathematical models based on the behavior of neutral gases. Hannes Alfvn, the father of plasma cosmology, took a different approach. In the opening to his monograph, Cosmic Plasma, he describes how the pure theory approach lost touch with reality. Rather than theorize about how plasma is supposed to act, he studied how it actually behaves in the laboratory. Among the many differences between plasmas actual behavior and the theoretical model are temperature anomalies like the one in the galaxy clusters above: temperatures of ions and electrons are 10 to 100 times higher than expected in neutral gases. So, from an Electric Universe point of view, the anomalous temperature seen The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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in the above galaxy clusters are a normal property of the plasma interaction between clusters. The BBC article goes on to mention that our own Milky Way, along with our Local Cluster, is headed for a collision with the enormous Virgo Cluster a few billion years down the road. If Halton Arps observations are correct, this simply isnt true. The apparent collision course is another distortion caused by astronomers failure to account for an age-related component to redshift. The Virgo cluster is simply older than the Milky Way: It May be the Milky Ways parent.
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The Electric Glow of the Sun

(Apr 27, 2005)
A little known fact: Popular ideas about the Sun have not fared well under the tests of a scientific theory. The formulators of the standard Sun model worked with gravity, gas laws, and nuclear fusion. But closer observation of the Sun has shown that electrical and magnetic properties dominate solar behavior. For centuries, the nature of the Suns radiance remained a mystery to astronomers. The Sun is the only object in the solar system that produces its own visible light. All others reflect the light of the Sun. What unique trait of the Sun enables it to shine upon the other objects in the solar system? Today, astronomers assure us that the most fundamental question is answered. The Sun is a thermonuclear furnace. The ball of gas is so large that astronomers envision pressures and densities within its core sufficient to generate temperatures of about 16 million K--producing a continuous "controlled" nuclear reaction. Most astronomers and astrophysicists investigating the Sun are so convinced of the fusion model that only the rarest among them will countenance challenges to the underlying idea. Standard textbooks and institutional research, complemented by a chorus of scientific and popular media, "ratify" the fusion model of the Sun year after year by ignoring evidence to the contrary. A growing group of independent researchers, however, insists that the popular idea is incorrect. These researchers say that the Sun is electric. It is a glow discharge fed by galactic currents. And they emphasize that the fusion model anticipated none of the milestone discoveries about the Sun, while the electric model predicts and explains the very The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive observations that posed the greatest quandaries for solar investigation.
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More than 60 years ago, Dr. Charles E. R. Bruce, of the Electrical Research Association in England, offered a new perspective on the Sun. An electrical researcher, astronomer, and expert on the effects of lightning, Bruce proposed in 1944 that the Suns "photosphere has the appearance, the temperature and the spectrum of an electric arc; it has arc characteristics because it is an electric arc, or a large number of arcs in parallel." This discharge characteristic, he claimed, "accounts for the observed granulation of the solar surface." Bruces model, however, was based on a conventional understanding of atmospheric lightning, allowing him to envision the "electric" Sun without reference to external electric fields. Years later, a brilliant engineer, Ralph Juergens, inspired by Bruces work, added a revolutionary possibility. In a series of articles beginning in 1972, Juergens suggested that the Sun is not an electrically isolated body in space, but the most positively charged object in the solar system, the center of a radial electric field. This field, he said, lies within a larger galactic field. With this hypothesis, Juergens became the first to make the theoretical leap to an external power source of the Sun. Juergens proposed that the Sun is the focus of a "coronal glow discharge" fed by galactic currents. To avoid misunderstanding of this concept, it is essential that we distinguish the complex, electrodynamic glow discharge model of the Sun from a simple electrostatic model that can be easily dismissed. Throughout most of the volume of a glow discharge the plasma is nearly neutral, with almost equal numbers of protons and electrons. In this view, the charge differential at the Earths distance from the Sun is smaller than our present ability to measure-perhaps one or two electrons per cubic meter. But the charge density is far higher closer to the Sun, and at the solar corona and surface the electric field is of sufficient strength to generate all of the energetic phenomena we observe. Today, the electrical theorists Wallace Thornhill and Donald Scott urge a critical comparison of the fusion model and the electrical model. Given what we now know about the Sun, which model meets the tests of unity, coherence, simplicity, and predictability? Why did so many discoveries surprise investigators and even contradict the expectations of the fusion model? Is there any fundamental feature of the Sun that contradicts the glow discharge hypothesis? Our closer looks at the Sun have revealed the pervasive influence of magnetic fields, which are the effect of electric currents. Sunspots, prominences, coronal mass ejections, and a host of other features require ever more complicated guesswork on behalf of the fusion model. But this is the way an anode in a coronal glow discharge behaves! In the electrical model, the Sun is the "anode" or positively charged body in the electrical exchange, while the "cathode" or negatively charged contributor is not a discrete object, but the invisible "virtual cathode" at the limit of the Suns coronal discharge. (Coronal discharges can sometimes be seen as a glow surrounding high-voltage transmission wires, where the wire discharges into the surrounding air). This virtual cathode lies far beyond the planets. In the lexicon of astronomy, this is the "heliopause." In electrical terms, it is the cellular sheath or "double layer" separating the plasma cell that surrounds the Sun ("heliosphere") from the enveloping galactic plasma. In an electric universe, such cellular forms are expected between regions of dissimilar plasma properties. According to the glow discharge model of the Sun, almost the entire voltage difference between the Sun and its galactic environment occurs across the thin boundary sheath of the heliopause. Inside the heliopause there is a weak but constant radial electrical The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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field centered on the Sun. A weak electric field, immeasurable locally with today's instruments but cumulative across the vast volume of space within the heliosphere, is sufficient to power the solar discharge. The visible component of a coronal glow discharge occurs above the anode, often in layers. The Suns red chromosphere is part of this discharge. (Unconsciously, it seems, the correct electrical engineering term was applied to the Suns corona.) Correspondingly, the highest particle energies are not at the photosphere but above it. The electrical theorists see the Sun as a perfect example of this characteristic of glow discharges--a radical contrast to the expected dissipation of energy from the core outward in the fusion model of the Sun. At about 500 kilometers (310 miles) above the photosphere or visible surface, we find the coldest measurable temperature, about 4400 degrees K. Moving upward, the temperature then rises steadily to about 20,000 degrees K at the top of the chromosphere, some 2200 kilometers (1200 miles) above the Sun's surface. Here it abruptly jumps hundreds of thousands of degrees, then continues slowly rising, eventually reaching 2 million degrees in the corona. Even at a distance of one or two solar diameters, ionized oxygen atoms reach 200 million degrees! In other words the "reverse temperature gradient," while meeting the tests of the glow discharge model, contradicts every original expectation of the fusion model. But this is only the first of many enigmas and contradictions facing the fusion hypothesis. As astronomer Fred Hoyle pointed out years ago, with the strong gravity and the mere 5,800degree temperature at the surface, the Suns atmosphere should be only a few thousand kilometers thick, according to the "gas laws" astrophysicists typically apply to such bodies. Instead, the atmosphere balloons out to 100,000 kilometers, where it heats up to a million degrees or more. From there, particles accelerate out among the planets in defiance of gravity. Thus the planets, Earth included, could be said to orbit inside the Sun's diffuse atmosphere. The discovery that blasts of particles escape the Sun at an estimated 400- to 700-kilometers per second came as an uncomfortable surprise for advocates of the nuclear powered model. Certainly, the "pressure" of sunlight cannot explain the acceleration of the solar "wind." In an electrically neutral, gravity-driven universe, particles were not hot enough to escape such massive bodies, which (in the theory) are attractors only. And yet, the particles of the solar wind continue to accelerate past Venus, Earth, and Mars. Since these particles are not miniature "rocket ships," this acceleration is the last thing one should expect! According to the electric theorists, a weak electric field, focused on the Sun, better explains the acceleration of the charged particles of the solar wind. Electric fields accelerate charged particles. And just as magnetic fields are undeniable witnesses to the presence of electric currents, particle acceleration is a good measure of the strength of an electric field. A common mistake made by critics of the electric model is to assume that the radial electric field of the Sun should be not only measurable but also strong enough to accelerate electrons toward the Sun at "relativistic" speeds (up to 300,000 kilometers per second). By this argument, we should find electrons not only zipping past our instruments but also creating dramatic displays in Earths night sky. But as noted above, in the plasma glow-discharge model the interplanetary electric field will be extremely weak. No instrument placed in space could measure the radial voltage differential across a few tens of meters, any more than it could measure the solar wind The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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acceleration over a few tens of meters. But we can observe the solar wind acceleration over tens of millions of kilometers, confirming that the electric field of the Sun, though imperceptible in terms of volts per meter, is sufficient to sustain a powerful drift current across interplanetary space. Given the massive volume of this space, the implied current is quite sufficient to power the Sun.
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Getting Serious about Sirius

(Apr 25, 2005)
The bright star Sirius and its smaller companion May have a lesson to teach mainstream astronomers, who have yet to learn of electricitys power in the cosmos. From Earth, as seen by human eyes, the star Sirius is the brightest star in the sky. This is partly because it is brighter than the average star, but also because it is one of the closest stars to Earth. Sirius also has a partner, called Sirius B, a tiny white dwarf. To our eyes, it is 10,000 times fainter than the primary star, Sirius A. The companion was discovered in the mid-nineteenth century by the wobble it caused in Sirius As path across the sky. It wasnt actually seen until decades later, when newer and better telescopes were invented. The Chandra orbiting telescope observes x-ray light, which is invisible to the human eye. When astronomers pointed Chandra at Sirius, they were surprised. In the Chandra image above, the primary star, Sirius A, is the smaller of the two lights. Sirius B, the tiny white dwarf, is the larger. This means that if we had Supermans x-ray vision, we would see the reverse of what we see with human eyes. Why is Sirius B so bright in x-ray light? Astronomers explain the anomaly in terms of gravity. Particles from Sirius A fall onto Sirius B so fast that the collisions create the x-rays. The Electric Universe provides a different explanation. X-rays are not caused by "falling" particles. Charged particles dont care about gravity! And nature abhors inefficiency. Just as your dentist uses electric currents, not gravity, to generate x-rays, so do electrically driven stars. Theres another problem with binary (double) stars. Why are there so many of them? Stars are so far apart that even if galaxies collide, the stars will mostly slip past each other unnoticed. Yet in our stellar neighborhood, about half of the stars come in twos. Electrically speaking, there are at least two possible explanations. The first is that the currents of space (and the plasma lab) tend to run in braided pairs. Where these braided currents become The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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pinched by their own magnetic field, a star will be formed in each of the two braided currents. Don Scott, a retired professor of electrical engineering and an amateur astronomer, has suggested a second method for the formation of double stars. Scott was studying the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HR diagram) that astronomers use to classify stars. The diagram plots the luminosities of stars against their temperatures (or colors--blue stars are hotter and red stars are cooler than our sun, which is a yellow star). Scott found that he could also substitute electric charge for temperature on the same chart (the higher the electric charge, the bluer and hotter the star). He suggests that when the charge gets so high that the surface of the star can no longer resist the electrical stress, the star will split into two stars in order to distribute the stress over a larger surface. The possibility of electrical "splitting or parturition" of cosmic bodies was first proposed by Eric Crew of the UK in 1977 and elaborated further in 1985. Crew was a student of a pioneer of the electrical view of the cosmos--the electrical engineer and Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society--Dr. Charles Bruce. The generation of internal electrical stress inside stars gained further elucidation by Wallace Thornhill. This hypothesis would also explain why stars that have suffered the greatest electrical stresses--the novas and supernovas--are almost always found to be double, or even multiple, stars. Though astronomers acknowledge the pattern, they have not explained it. But if stars are formed and continually fed by electric currents, then what we have learned from the laboratory study of plasma and electric discharge should be our first reference in seeking to understand possible analogs in space. The dynamics of electrical ejection can also be applied closer to home. Wallace Thornhill was able to accurately predict what would be found beneath the clouds of Saturn's moon, Titan. He did this by working with the hypothesis that Titan and other identifiable bodies in the solar system had been ejected at intervals in the past by the gas giant.
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This is a picture of the 2001 MATADOR campaign in Arizona to measure electrical and magnetic activity in dust devils. A dust devil whirls in the background. Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Something New in the Wind

(Apr 22, 2005)
Until scientists witnessed the unexpected behavior of colossal whirlwinds on Mars, they did not think to ask if electricity might be an important aspect of terrestrial dust devils or even of small whirlwinds. American philosopher Richard Rorty argued that cognitive revolutions arent about better ways to do the same old things but about ways to do something new. The assertion that a phenomenon has already been explained misses the point. New ideas make new phenomena; new visions see new worlds. Take the case of a whirlwind of dust that spins up in the lee of a building when the wind blows. Its already been explained that varying speeds in airflows around the building generate eddies. The phenomenon can be described with a mathematical exactitude that enables engineers to predict the speeds and forces involved, and those predictions have been verified over and over. That the whirlwind is a mechanical event is obvious. This being so, it is impertinent to ask if electrical forces could be involved. Or is it? Have the experts actually considered the entire picture? Epistemology--the branch of philosophy that studies how we "know" things--matters a lot when it comes to new ideas, even if we pay little attention to epistemology in our practical activities. An examination of how we can be sure a whirlwind is really mechanical quickly reduces to a question of how sure we really can be. The mechanical explanation ignores many of the conditions from which whirlwinds arise. In fair weather, with no clouds in the sky, an electric field can be measured. It amounts to about 100 volts per meter. This field is coupled to a complex of "double layers" (plasma cells), The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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currents, and circuits that reach through the atmosphere into the magnetosphere and even into interplanetary space. Water molecules, comprising up to 4 percent of the atmosphere, have the two hydrogen atoms toward one side of each molecule and the oxygen atom toward the other. This makes each molecule a tiny electrical dipole--a pair of oppositely charged poles--subject to electrical forces. Such polar molecules will tend to line up and stick together. In a cloud they will form a leaky dielectric, storing charge and responding to the vertical atmospheric electric field. Are these considerations important? Has anybody checked? The answer to both questions is "yes," but the mob of scientists, who should know better, conforms to a consensus that ignores the questions. In response to some enigmatic observations of dust devils--giant whirlwinds--on Mars, some NASA scientists began taking electrical measurements around dust devils on Earth. They found large electrical fields with strengths 40 times that of the fair weather field. They assumed that the mechanical spinning of dusty air rubbed electrons off the dust grains and then somehow pulled the electrons to one end of the devil and the positive grains to the other. Are the mechanical forces in a whirlwind strong enough to overcome the strength of an electrical force in a field of thousands of volts per meter? A report in the Geophysical Review Letters of 17 November 2003 by Joseph Dwyer of the Florida Institute of Technology calculates that mechanical forces in a thundercloud are far too weak to generate the electric fields that produce lightning. See the commentary on this question at: http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=9eq6g3aj If the winds of a thunderstorm cant separate charges, then the trivial breezes of a whirlwind certainly cant! What if the electric field produces the whirlwind? We know the Earth is surrounded and interpenetrated by large and complex electric currents. We know currents in plasma--any substance that contains charged particles--form filaments that spiral around each other: Another word for "spiral around" is "whirl." For most of the time we ignore those currents. But being attentive to them could generate the new ideas that enable us to see a new world.
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Credit: NASA/Ames Research Center
Tektites
(Apr 21, 2005)
For many years scientists have wondered what caused the fall of tektites around the world. But decades of debate have left crucial questions unanswered. Now it is time to consider the electrical possibilities. They are found on every continent and come in a variety of forms, but their distribution by type is not random. The regional association of different tektite types is evident in many of the names given to them. "Bediasites" from Texas received their name from the Bedias Indians. The location of Australites is self evident, as also javanites and philippinites. Moldavite, called the most beautiful tektite (often a translucent light green), comes from the Moldau River Valley in Bohemia and Monrovia. Some tektites appear as small glassy clumps. Others are more defined as buttons, teardrops, or quasi-spherical shapes, and dumbbells, rods, and disks are also known. In certain ways, tektites are like "concretions" weve discussed in recent Pictures of the Day. But often they are not constituted from the soil in which they are found. The evidence suggests they were dropped in place. No one can say with certainty how tektites are formed, and for this reason classification itself is often ambiguous. For example, most specialists do not agree whether "Libyan Desert glass," though enigmatic, should be classified as a "tektite." Charles Darwin popularized the idea that tektites are volcanic, but this idea was later discredited. Some scientists have also suggested that large comets May have sprayed the earth with these odd stones. As the space age arrived, attention shifted to the moon. In the 1960s, Dean Chapman and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Howard Larson prepared a number of scientific papers on tektites, suggesting a lunar source. In 1963 the Journal of Geophysical Research published their paper "On the Lunar Origin of Tektites." Chapman believed that, as large meteors struck the lunar surface, some of the material excavated by the impact escaped to space. He observed that some tektites, most notably those from Australia, show signs of "aerodynamic ablation," a sculpting by passage through the Earths atmosphere at extremely high speeds, he believed. The picture above (top) shows three views of a specimen created experimentally by Chapman in Ames Research Centers arc-jet facility, which is used to test various aerodynamic designs in intense winds generated by plasma discharge. The bottom set shows a well-preserved natural specimen exhibiting a surprising similarity to the experimental result. Indeed, as the U.S. space program began to confront issues of heating during reentry, this peculiar characteristic of some tektites inspired engineers to rethink the design of heat shields for spacecraft. Nevertheless, the notion that tektites traveled across space to arrive at Earth faces one seemingly insurmountable problem--the selective location of particular tektite types. Strewn fields of tektites, occurring within defined areas, are suggestive of regional, not global, events. The majority of specialists today believe that tektites, though originating on Earth, were blasted out of terrestrial soil by meteoric impact. They identify the chemical composition of various tektites with that of Earths crustal rocks. Reinforcing this interpretation was the discovery that some tektites harbored spherules of nickel-iron, the constituent material of many meteorites. Additionally, the many samples of lunar soil returned by the Apollo missions did not reveal the building blocks for tektites, whereas a primary base in terrestrial chemistry is increasingly evident. For example, the isotopic composition of argon inclusions in sealed bubbles suggests a terrestrial origin, according to many specialists. Prof. S.R. Taylor, in his book "Solar System Evolution," writes: "The source of tektites has been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt as being due to melted terrestrial (usually sedimentary) rock splashed during meteorite impact. The whole argument over a lunar vs. terrestrial origin of tektites was an interesting example of the inability of the protagonists for a lunar origin to recognize the decisive geochemical evidence in favor of a terrestrial origin." Yet here too the filters of prior beliefs give rise to another "inability to recognize evidence." Inherent in Taylors reasoning is the assumption that a "terrestrial origin" can only mean "caused by meteoric impact." But field and laboratory evidence, as well as theoretical considerations, contradict this assumption. As noted years ago by astrophysicist Thomas Gold, impacts cause little melting. Much of the impact energy is dissipated in "shock displacement," and what heat is generated is largely radiated away before conduction can transmit it into the debris. In the Electric Universe model, this observation is crucial. An electric arc will not only rip up the rock it strikes but also envelop the debris in a "plasma oven" effect that evenly melts the exposed surfaces. Small pieces of debris May be completely melted. At the same time the arc will accelerate the debris, scattering it over a wide area. An interplanetary arc with the power of a "thunderbolt of the gods" could even hurl some of the debris into space. Furthermore, electric discharge is the one process known to produce small spherules. Thus the NASA experiment in an arc-jet facility shows how an arc discharge can replicate tektite formation The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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To these considerations Wallace Thornhill adds another. He contends that a large incoming body will be disrupted electrically before striking the ground (as in the notorious Tunguska explosion). The sudden internal electrical stresses following a catastrophic lightning bolt between the Earth and the bolide will shatter it. So when geologists identify a particular crater as the apparent source of a tektite field, the electrical interpretation does not look to an "impact" to excavate soil and rock but to the effects of an explosive electrical discharge. In this view, the well-documented surface etching and pitting of tektites is a predictable consequence of their electrical creation, whereas geologists posit unknown chemical processes after burial in the soil. Debris electrically accelerated into the sky and falling back over a broad region might account for native traditions from Europe to China and Australia. These traditions say that tektites fell from the sky or were cast down by native gods of the thunderbolt. Such traditions remind us of the mythic "thunderstones" hurled by lightning-bearing gods in tribal accounts the world over. (See Thunderbolts of the God, page 86). It is not unreasonable to wonder if such traditions influenced the first scientific theories of tektite origins, which linked tektites to lightning strikes. The relationship of tektite formation to the Tunguska event is also worth exploring. Though no crater was produced by the event, Russian scientist Andrei Yu. Ol'khovatov notes that "some tektite-like objects were found at the epicenter of the 1908 Tunguska explosion. A Russian researcher G. Sal'nikova writes that below fallen trees and in rock cracks black glassy layered particles were discovered among others. Their dimensions were about 1 cm." The primary constituent was silica. Ol'khovatov also reports that local Evenks spoke of "burned (molten) soil and sand' in the epicenter. Such reports as these cause Ol'khovatov to question standard assumptions. "Who knows, maybe the initial idea of 'lightning strikes' was closer to the truth than the modern one?"
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Credit: UPPER LEFT: Mel Acheson, VEMASAT UPPER RIGHT: NOAA Photo Library, NOAA Central Library, OAR/ERL/National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL). LOWER LEFT: J. Clarke (Boston U. ) & Z. Levay (STScI ), ESA, NASA LOWER CENTER: F. N. Owen ( NRAO ) et al., VLA, NRAO, AUI LOWER RIGHT: B. Balick ( U. Washington ) et al., WFPC2, HST, NASA
Things That are Impossible

(Apr 19, 2005)
Theoretical assumptions will always be a part of scientific inquiry. They ground what is thought to be impossible. But new discoveries often surprise us with possibilities that require different assumptions. Pictured above are a few things that were "impossible" under popular assumptions that held sway through much of the twentieth century. UPPER LEFT: An electrical discharge in a laboratory creates a crater with all the anomalous characteristics of purported impacts on other planets and moons. UPPER RIGHT: The familiar lightning of a thunderstorm is an electrical arc connecting two cells of oppositely charged plasma that calculations "prove" cant be generated by wind. LOWER LEFT: Saturns auroras are electrical glow discharges powered by currents in its magnetosphere. LOWER CENTER: The jet of the active galaxy M87 is composed of hot plasma that is constricted to a filament thousands of light years long by the electromagnetic forces of the electric current flowing along its axis. LOWER RIGHT: Planetary nebulas are glow discharges powered by galactic electric currents, star-sized versions of laboratory plasma-discharge tubes. With these "impossibilities" in mind, we offer the little game below for those who have followed a longstanding debate in science on the nature and origin of the universe. The game pits standard cosmology against the new schools of plasma cosmology. I The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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You cant get mass separation in space. Hence, the Big Bang is impossible. From a classical perspective, gravity is a solely attractive force arising from the property of mass thats inherent in matter. When the quantity of matter in any volume exceeds a threshold such that the force of gravity is greater than any forces that resist compression, the matter will collapse without limit and become a black hole. From a relativistic perspective, space-time curves around matter so that bits of matter tend to move toward the center. When the quantity of matter in any volume exceeds a threshold such that the curvature of space-time is greater than any extensional properties, the matter will collapse without limit and become a black hole. Because the Big Bang theory postulates that all matter originated in the granddaddy of all black holes, to pull the matter out and to separate it into distributed bits would require more energy than exists in the universe. The universe as we observe it cant really exist. "But," the argument goes, "the theory doesnt begin with the black hole. It begins with the observation that mass is already distributed, and it calculates back to the black hole. We dont know what blew up the black hole; we only see the result." II You cant get charge separation in space. Hence, the Electric Universe is impossible. The attractive electrical force between the charges of an electron and a proton is 39 orders of magnitude greater than the gravitational attraction between their masses. To separate the electrons from the nuclei of atoms in a spoonful of salt would require more energy than exists in the universe. An electron and an ion in space, with nothing between them but vacuum, will seek each other out as fast as they can and neutralize their electric field. Electrical phenomena in space cant really exist. "But," the argument goes, "the theories of the plasma universe dont begin with neutral matter. They begin with the observation that charges are already separated. All the phenomena we see are visible because they radiate the energy thats released as separated charges combine. We observe that they obey the laws of electrical circuits in plasma: formation of filaments, cells, and double layers; evolution through the characteristic sequence of instabilities as charges move toward equilibrium; coupling of larger-scale circuits to smallerscale circuits. We dont know where the largest-scale circuit gets its power; we dont know why 99% of the universe is composed of separated charges; we only see the result." The moral of this game? What you really cant get is assumption-free explanations.
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Credit (left): NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute Credit (upper right): C.J. Ransom Credit (lower right): Mel Acheson
Equatorial Ridge of Iapetus

(Apr 18, 2005)
The distinctive ridge around Saturns moon Iapetus bears an eerie similarity to equatorial ridges around concretions on Earth. In electrical terms, the similarity could be more than coincidence. Traditional thinking in the sciences would not recognize a significant pattern above, though the three objects reveal an odd similarity. Each sphere possesses an equatorial ridge. But surely the two objects on the right could tell us nothing about the origins of the object on the left! Astronomers assure us that Saturns moon Iapetus arose from the "circumstellar cloud" that gave birth to the Sun, planets, moons, and all of the lesser objects of the solar system. The critical event was the "gravitational collapse" of the primordial cloud billions of years ago. Since that event, little has changed in the make-up or in the celestial mechanics of the solar system. Iapetus is a puzzle, however. The pronounced ridge around its equator has no place in the theory of gravitationally collapsing clouds. Both objects on the right are called "concretions," and their origins are also puzzling. The sandstone concretion (upper image) was found on a farm near the Red River in Texas, and the hematite Moqui marble was found in Utah (lower image). Concretions occur in abundance on our planet and have produced many speculations about their origins. Certainly, in a gravity-only universe, there is no way to relate Iapetus to the formative processes of concretions. In size, the two are separated by up to eight orders of magnitude. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Gravity is strong enough to form a sphere from a collection of matter the size of Iapetus, but theres a lower limit to gravitys ability to produce spherical shapes. (Asteroids and comet nuclei are below that limit and therefore seldom spherical.) And while geologists have hypothesized, but never demonstrated, the processes that form concretions, they have never suggested that such processes could give birth to Iapetus! In the Electric Universe similarities across vastly different scales are to be expected. Plasma discharge structures do not change with increased size. A microscopic discharge in a lab plasma will have analogs on a galactic scale. Plasma discharges create spheres. As noted in previous Pictures of the Day, Physicist C.J. Ransom has been making spheres in his laboratory (VEMASAT) by zapping various types of powdered rock with electrical sparks. When he zaps red hematite, he produces tiny grey hematite spheres, an order of magnitude smaller than Moqui marbles, but remarkably similar to the "blueberries" appearing in hematite layers on Mars. When he zaps powdered basalt, he produces obsidian spheres. The electrical theorists expect analogs on a larger scale because they believe that electric discharge gave birth to stars and planets. Within this framework, equatorial ridges become an important clue, posing a question for experimental research. Can plasma discharge, acting on loose debris, form ridges around the created spheres? In high-energy electric discharge experiments, an equatorial, donut-like torus typically appears at the focal point of the magnetic "pinch." Similarly, in the hour-glass configurations of various planetary nebulas, a tightly-bound torus appears around the pinch point. Could equatorial ridges on both Iapetus and the concretions above be the signature left by a torus at the higher energy levels of Peratts experiments, in contrast to the relatively low energy levels of Ransoms experiments? From an electric point of view, spheres with equatorial ridges underscore the importance of experimental research into the nature of concretions. There are questions to ask, experiments to design, and patterns to look for. Significant patterns already observed include concentric layering of different materials, radial structures, and polar markings. Similarities with tektites, glassy spherules whose origin is currently unknown, raise intriguing questions and suggest a family of experimental investigations. (Read more in a following TPOD.) One conclusion we can safely draw is this: The mechanical and gravitational theories offered to explain round rocks of various sizes do not warrant the exclusive acceptance they have received from the scientific mainstream. Other possibilities, arising from the plasma universe, must now be considered. Ransom is planning future experiments with other substrates. He will be presenting a paper about these experiments to the American Physical Society this week (April 19, 2005). The abstract for that paper, showing that electric discharge can produce some of the mysterious spheres found on Earth without water (the usual explanation), can be seen here.
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Credit: Farhad Yusef-Zadeh et al. (Northwestern), VLA, NRAO
Electric Motor of the Milky Way

(Apr 15, 2005)
What does it take to make a galaxy? This simple question will be answered in radically different ways by two schools of thought. The popular view in astronomy today imagines that black holes and dark matter organize galactic structure and induce the observed motions. Neither can be seen, but both can be described mathematically without straying from the paradigm of an electrically neutral, gravitationally-driven cosmos. A much different thought system sees the electric force as more fundamental than gravity. When considering new images from space, proponents of the Electric Universe emphasize structures that were never anticipated by the gravitational models but that were predicted by plasma cosmologists. As demonstrated in numerous laboratory experiments, electric currents in plasma can produce all of the common structures observed in the heavens, from simple filaments to the polar jets of stars and galaxies to the "wheels within wheels" found at the cores of nebulas and other high-energy formations. For several years now, radio and x-ray telescopes have been taking us inside nebulas and other sources of intense energy in space to see hidden structures. Among the more striking examples are the Crab Nebula and the Vela Pulsar. In the VLA radio telescope picture above, the bright area in the lower right is Sagittarius A, presumed to be the core of our galaxy, the Milky Way. From the mainstream point of view it hides a black hole. However, no theorist exploring the mathematical wonders of black holes ever posited the structures observed around it. But the electric viewpoint sees something much different, something that was anticipated by the experimental work of Hannes Alfven and his colleagues who founded todays plasma cosmology. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Radio waves and x-rays are produced by electric currents. For the electrical theorists, the modern radio and x-ray telescopes are catalysts for the evolution of cosmological ideas. By enabling us to see the Milky Way core in wavelengths not normally visible to the human eye, they reveal the "homopolar motor" that drives the Milky Way. A homopolar motor operates on direct current interacting with a strong magnetic field to produce rotary motion. The brushes which connect the rotary component to the surrounding stationary component are analogous to the "threads" which, in the picture above, reach upward to feed the motor of our galaxy. We have covered the electric system of the Milky Ways core in several previous Pictures of the Day as seen in the following links. A closer radio telescope view of Sagittarius A can be seen here. The anomalous "temperature variations" at the galactic core are noted here. And the relationship of the galactic core to electric currents feeding star formation is discussed here.
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Left: the planet Mars as photographed by Mariner 4 in 1965, revealing its hemispheric scar (Valles Marineris) for the first time. Right: the Aztec god Xipe, displaying his deeply scarred face.
Lightning-Scarred Gods and Monsters

(Apr 12, 2005)
Why would we present these two images side by side? We do so because in the sciences the inertia of prior beliefs has excluded questions that now demand open-minded consideration. Scientific inquiry flourished on a ground of skepticism about ancient "magic and superstition." It seemed obvious that primitive mythology and religion could only obstruct the quest for knowledge. But now a new possibility has emerged--the possibility that even the most "irrational" myths hold a key to planetary history. According to David Talbott and Wallace Thornhill, the mythic "thunderbolts of the gods" provide a bridge between historical investigation and plasma science. The two authors contend that the heaven-altering "thunderbolt," so prominent in the myths of gods and heroes, has preserved a human memory of planetary upheaval. But these myths will not be comprehended by referring them to events in our sky today. Rather, such myths take us back to a time when planets moved in close congregation through a rich medium of electrified plasma. Our ancestors, they tell us, lived beneath an alien sky, in the mythic "age of gods and wonders." Many cultures recall a great hero, warrior, or giant struck down by a "lightning" weapon (sword, spear, etc.) and scarred by the deep gash or wound it left on his forehead, cheek, or thigh. In his investigation of this worldwide theme, Talbott called this "the Scarface motif." When referred to the behavior of celestial bodies today, the theme can only appear preposterous. But there is another way of seeing such traditions. The authors identify the earliest astronomical archetype of the warrior-hero, in both his glorious and his terrible aspects, as the planet Mars. They say that the planet appeared in the ancient sky as a towering and frightful form. Therefore, the stark Mariner image of the scarred planet and the carved image of the scarred god May reveal two aspects of the same secret. In the course of transmission and cultural assimilation, most ancient gods lost all connection to the "planets" of the later, stable, and predictable solar system. But the earlier astronomical traditions offer The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the investigator a window to original meanings. "Scarface" was the name of a legendary Blackfoot Indian warrior, also called "Star Boy." A close counterpart was the Pawnee warrior Morning Star--identified as the planet Mars (not Venus, as some have supposed). On the other side of the world, Greek mythology described various heroes and rogues (one and the same archetype) struck down by a lightning-weapon. When Ares, the planet Mars, was wounded in battle, he roared with the shout of a thousand warriors and rushed to Zeus to display the deep gash. So too, the hero Heracles, also identified with Mars, was remembered for the deep wound on his "hip-joint." The monster Typhon, vanquished by Zeus, was the "lightning scarred" god, as was the giant Enceladus. Hindu myths speak of the deep scar on the head of the warrior Indra, god of the cosmic thunderbolt, and a thunderbolt was said to have scarred the monstrous giant Ravena. Without the benefit of a much broader, cross cultural investigation, any suggestion that the hemispheric scar on Mars was left by an interplanetary lightning bolt, or that it was this event that provoked the "Scarface" theme, will only invite incredulity. But as the roots of the myths are brought out and the underlying integrity revealed, the improbable becomes the more likely. Rigorous cross-cultural investigation can only underscore our challenge to prior scientific beliefs. For the connection suggested here becomes meaningful only if the events occurred within human memory. Then the scientific prejudice in favor of an uneventful solar system can no longer be maintained. By freeing ourselves from the inertia of belief, we invite investigation of questions that Martian exploration has left unanswered. What event carved the Valles Marineris? Why does this chasm compare so favorably to electrical discharge scarring? And how does other electrical activity on Mars (noted in prior Pictures of the Day) affect our perception of the Red Planet in the ancient myths?
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Credit: ESA/Mars Express
Pits, Scoops, and Gouges on Mars

(Apr 11, 2005)
Anomalous surface depressions on Mars are much more than a dent in conventional theory. They are markers left by electric discharge events that sculpted the face of the Red Planet. The picture above shows a sample of depressions that occur frequently and in diverse contexts in the Martian landscape. Planetary scientists have grasped at interpretations case by case and have obscured with inconsistency and confusion the identicalness of form. For those investigating the role of electricity in planetary evolution, these cleanly "scooped out" depressions are markers of surface erosion by electric discharge. Such markers include a wide variety of surface features--from great domes and massive trenches to networks of undulating grooves and dense fields of craters. The structural details of these features boldly contradict the popular explanations for such geology. Sometimes the specialists call these depressions "collapse pits associated with faulting." Sometimes they call the depressions "a chain of small pits over an emptied lava tunnel." Sometimes they call them "impact crater chains." The three images in the upper frame are from the summit of Olympus Mons, dubbed the most massive "volcano" in the solar system. Weve placed a picture of the superimposed flatbottomed craters of the caldera here. (The white boxes outline the three pit complexes imaged above, which lie near the caldera.) From an electrical viewpoint, the great mound of Olympus Mons, the craters of the "caldera," and the smaller crater complexes next to it were all formed by the one force that is known from laboratory experiment to produce such unique topology. The lower image is from the shoulder of Valles Marineris described as the largest chasm in The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the solar system. A transverse view of the continental-scale trench, shown here (rotated 90 degrees), should eliminate any doubt as to the causal connection between the "crater chain" depicted above and the events that cut the greatest trench in the solar system. The electric interpretation of these events describes a plasma discharge sweeping across a hemisphere of Mars and cutting into the surface in the same way an industrial arc cuts into its target. Sometimes the arc divided in two, and at times it sent out additional sputtering lightning filaments. In the end, the arc removed some 10,000 trillion tons of the Martian surface. All that distinguishes the crater chain shown above from other cleanly cut secondary channels of Valles Marineris is the continuity and complexity of current flow at particular moments and places. Discharge filaments are rotating pairs of Birkeland Currents If the local electric field is mostly horizontal, the filament will tend to cut a smooth, sinuous groove as it rips across the surface. If the local electric field is more vertical and the surface is the cathode in the exchange, the arc May act in several ways: It May stick briefly to one point before jumping to another, forming a chain of separate craters. Or it May jump to the rim of the newly formed crater, creating an elongated scoop. Or a series of these overlapping craters will form a pitted, flat-floored channel with scalloped edges. Such variations are apparent in the above pictures, and the multiple effects from these manifestations of plasma discharge can all be seen in the cross view of Valles Marineris in the link above. Reconstructing the electrical events that produced Valles Marineris will require us to examine other details of the trench as well. In particular, we must give attention to the Tharsis Rise, into which it cuts, along with Olympus Mons and other immense domes in this anomalous, uplifted area. One overriding characteristic of the "pits, scoops and gouges" shown above should permit a generalization: Whatever caused these depressions removed the surface material, as if a giant spinning router bit reached down from the sky and bounced across the surface, biting out strings of circular and oblong pits. Look at the pictures above, while considering the larger "context pictures" of Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris. An advantage of electric arcs in industrial applications (electric discharge machining, or EDM) is their ability to cut flat surfaces cleanly to predetermined depths. Layers of material are excavated and removed with great precision. And that, according to the electric theorists, is exactly what has occurred on Mars. If the electrical theorists are emphatic on this point, it is because no internal geologic force known to science can achieve the same effects.
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Credit:
The Thunderbolt that Changed the Face of Mars

(Apr 08, 2005)
One of the great wonders of the solar system, Valles Marineris on the planet Mars still defies every conventional attempt to explain it. From an electric viewpoint of the cosmos, it is the scar of a cosmic thunderbolt. Valles Marineris is four times deeper than the Grand Canyon, and stretches for almost 3,000 miles across the face of Mars. Its presence has continued to baffle scientists. When the Mariner probes returned the first pictures of this continental-scale trench, many proposed catastrophic flooding as its cause. But scrutiny of later images revealed no outwash or debris field left by erosion, and no sign of ponding. Nor did the short "tributaries," ending in cleanly cut alcoves, fit any reasonable profile of a drainage system. Later probes revealed the signature of olivine in deep strata of the chasm. Since olivine readily reacts with water, its presence clearly excluded water erosion. What force, then, could have removed two million cubic kilometers from the Martian surface? Geologists began to speculate about "unknown" causes of surface spreading and "masswasting" on a scale never before imagined. Prior models of planetary evolution had envisioned an isolated and inactive surface remaining undisturbed for billions of years. At best only modest internal geology was anticipated, and certainly nothing on the scale presented by Valles Marineris. In the early 1970s, however, one of the true scientific pioneers of the 20th century, Ralph Juergens, proposed that in an earlier epoch of planetary upheaval, electrical arcs between celestial bodies created many geologic features of the Moon and Mars. As for Valles Marineris, Juergens wrote in 1974- The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive "..this entire region resembles nothing so much as an area zapped by a powerful electric arc advancing unsteadily across the surface, occasionally splitting in two, and now and then-weakening, so that its traces narrow and even degrade into lines of disconnected craters."
In the years that followed Juergens groundbreaking work, Wallace Thornhill and his collaborators have greatly extended the investigation of electricity in solar system evolution. A flood of data from other planets and moons has reinforced their work, all pointing to the role of electric discharge in sculpting the surfaces of these bodies. According to Thornhill: "Valles Marineris was created within minutes by a giant electric arc sweeping across the surface of Mars. Rock and soil were lifted into space and some fell back to create the great, strewn fields of boulders first seen by the Viking and Pathfinder landers." Thornhill suggests that the discharge across the Martian surface took the characteristic form of one of the most majestic cosmic discharges in the Universe the barred-spiral galaxy. See "Spiral Galaxies & Grand Canyons" http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=rnde0zza It includes the enigmatic "chaos" regions and vast scoured channels to the east and west. As in arc welding, material from the electrode will be accelerated upwards against gravity. This means that any electrical event capable of creating the Valles Marineris on Mars would likely throw huge volumes of rock into space, creating vast debris clouds. Some of the ejecta would encircle Mars or fall back to the planet, while other material would presumably escape the battlefield altogether, to be encountered by the Earth and other planets across the millennia. The electric interpretation thus removes another conundrum. It explains why Martian meteorites have arrived at Earth to perplex physicists and geologists. Until the signature of Martian atmosphere in these meteorites was identified beyond any reasonable doubt, the experts said that such rocks could not achieve escape velocity from Mars without being vaporized by the explosive force required. Electrical acceleration, however, faces no such dilemma. For millennia afterwards we might also expect the Earth to periodically encounter clouds of rusty red dust, the residue of Martian surface material removed by interplanetary lightning. This too appears to have occurred right up to the twentieth century. The event that created Valles Marineris lofted into space something like 10,000 trillion tons of rock and dust. This can only mean that there have been far more Martian meteorites and falls of dust on Earth than geologists have recognized. Is it possible then, that the "planet of mysteries" has remained obscure through the space age primarily because of mistaken beliefs? In earlier Pictures of the Day, we have noted the evidence for electric activity still occurring on Mars, as dust devils and dust storms. We have reported the experimental work of plasma physicist C J Ransom who, inspired by the confidence of the electric theorists, reproduced the Martian "blueberries" in a simple electrical experiment. This, in turn, provided a direct analog for one of the most baffling mysteries of all-the Martian domed craters. Yet even more baffling from any conventional vantage point is the repeated proximity of these domed craters to "wormy" trenches. Not one of these paradoxes, however, lies outside the predictive and explanatory power of the Electric Universe.
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Credit: Landsat 7, USGS, NASA
Earth's Richat Crater

(Apr 07, 2005)
What was the cause of this uplifted region on the Saharan desert floor cut by a circular crater with concentric terraces? Geologists speculate that erosion by wind and water must have worked its magic on the upraised dome. Electric theorists see something else--the scar left by electric discharge. In the October 28, 2002 Astronomy Picture of the Day the "explanation" goes like this: "What on Earth is that? The Richat Structure in the Sahara Desert of Mauritania is easily visible from space because it is nearly 50 kilometers across. Once thought to be an impact crater, the Richat Structure's flat middle and lack of shock-altered rock indicates otherwise. The possibility that the Richat Structure was formed by a volcanic eruption also seems improbable because of the lack of a dome of igneous or volcanic rock. Rather, the layered sedimentary rock of the Richat structure is now thought by many to have been caused by uplifted rock sculpted by erosion...Why the Richat Structure is nearly circular remains a mystery." Electric Universe proponents consider the circularity of the Richat Structure to be predictable. So they pose a different question for planetary scientists: What on Earth and Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Io, Europa, Phobos, Mimas and Tethys, Enceladus, Miranda, Eros, and other asteroids, etc. are these? Geologists have never adequately explained why almost all craters everywhere are circular. This has only been dismissed as a feature of impacts, something that has never been demonstrated, but only surmised. Other features of various circular craters-domes, spheres, steep walls, chains, central peaks with strata consistent with the walls or surrounding terrain, undisturbed strata in the floor, unexpected size distribution, unexpected placement distribution (such as location on the rim of other craters), elevated ramparts--all defy coherent explanation under the impact model. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Advocates of the EU model claim that craters like the Richat were not formed by impacts but were "machined" by electric discharges, Birkeland currents that rotate around a "sticking" point and excavate material by electrically accelerating it upwards without disturbing the surrounding or underlying strata, unless the whole area is raised in a fulgamite blister--hence Rampart Craters. Specific effects will depend on a wide variety of soil conditions including chemical composition, material type, density, moisture, and conductivity. Discharge factors, including diameter, voltage, current, and duration will also affect the crater configuration. In contrast to conventional theorists, advocates of the electric universe contend that planets moved under the influence of electrified plasma, a medium that can easily overwhelm gravity. Orbits changed, and catastrophic electrical encounters altered the terrain, the climates, and the atmospheres of planets, including our Earth. In the case of the Richat Structure, it is evident that the force uplifting the area also cut the concentric crater walls. In crater formation, the electrical forces constrain the arc to contact the surface at a 90-degree angle. Because the arc typically consists of one or more pairs of channels rotating around a common axis, a stationary arc will etch a circular crater and, in stratified terrain, will machine out concentric circles. Composed by Michael Armstrong
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On Mars Things Only Get More Weird

(Apr 05, 2005)
Mysterious domed craters and trenches on Mars point to electric discharge in recent geologic times. In our Picture of the Day for March 25, we compared photographs of small blue-gray spherules on Mars to the results of laboratory experiments by plasma physicist C J. Ransom. For his replication of these Martian "blueberries," Ransom used a bed of hematite, a primary constituent of some Martian soils. By blasting the material with an electric arc, he produced an array of small blue-gray spherules and fused globules virtually identical in appearance to those seen on the surface of Mars. Experiments of this sort will prove invaluable to our understanding of planetary evolution and geology. An electric arc is a plasma event, and plasma events are scalable, which means that the same formations can occur at virtually every scale--from centimeters-long sparks in laboratories to light years-long "jets" in active galaxies. Elementary structures of plasma discharge, now well documented in the laboratory, appear in lightning strikes, in auroras, on the Sun, in nebulas, and in remote galaxies. The ease with which electric arcs create the Martian "blueberries" not only draws our attention to many apparent analogs on Earth, but to other larger scale formations on Mars. In our Picture of the Day for March 29 we showed images of a couple dozen "domed" craters on Mars, which have puzzled planetary scientists for several years. The spherical domes rest within circular craters and look very much like the spherules in Ransoms experiments, which also rested in craters with partially fused rims. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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On Mars the anomalous formations lie in the Arrhenius Region, some 36,000 square kilometer of terrain in the southern hemisphere east of Hellas Planitia. (More precisely, the region is located between 235 and 240 east longitude and 40 to 45 south latitude.) Planetary scientists have expressed their wonderment over these improbable formations while offering equally improbable guesses to account for them. A recent article published by R. Foxx, et al., listed five proposals, two of which (cinder cones and table mountains) they sought to substantiate as alternative possibilities, depending on when the domes were created in relation to the surface material in which they lie. There is more to this region than the domed craters, as can be seen in the pictures above. (Weve placed a more complete picture of the region here). The weirdly "wormlike" formations, exposed within craggy trenches, have provoked astonishment from scientists and a host of speculations about "artificial tubes" or "transportation systems" beneath the surface. But the speculations in the direction of artificiality or intelligent construction can be excluded through consideration of similarly grooved and ridged formations in other contexts such as the Gorgonum Region, just one of thousands of examples. Further examples will appear in coming Pictures of the Day. Here, in brief, is an electrical interpretation. An interdisciplinary investigation of data concerning Mars suggests that in the past the entire planet was subjected to interplanetaryscale plasma discharge events. Vast regions were excavated to depths measured in miles. Some of the material was accelerated electrically into space; some was emplaced back on the surface to form the ubiquitous but unexpected layering, whose origin is now debated by planetary scientists. Diffuse discharges baked the surfaces of implanted layers as in a plasma oven, giving rise to hardened strata exposed in the walls of canyons. Arc discharges burnt and blasted craters into the surface. Lightning many times more energetic than that of thunderstorms we know today ripped across the Martian landscape. Many of the blast channels it left are mistaken for flood or lava erosion, a perception that can be easily corrected through attention to detail. But in the floors of many of these channels appear glassified ridges, or "fulgurites," as in the Gorgonum Region noted above. On a smaller scale the lightnings transverse coronal filaments, always perpendicular to the direction of the primary discharge, formed and fused the same characteristic ripples in the regolith of the Arrhenius Region. In some channels, multiple lightning strokes have cut terraces, each with its faint fulgurite ridges. The existence of these mysterious ridges is a crucial prediction of the Electric Universe. In the electric view, therefore, both the domed craters and the accompanying trenches of the Arrhenius Region are the result of cosmic lightning strikes. Where an electric arc "stuck" briefly for a while to a point on the surface before being extinguished, it produced domed craters, as in Dr. Ransoms experiments. Dr. Ransom has informed us that in his experiments, if a lower energy arc was extinguished before a complete spherule was formed, the result was a dome. The fully rounded spherules were the result of higher-energy discharges. From the Electric universe viewpoint, the domed craters and the "wormy" channels simply reflect two common electrical discharge effects on a surface. We expect to find them in close association. And we can confidently predict that more extensive laboratory experimentation will confirm the association in every important detail.
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Credit: ESA XMM-Newton
So Far and Yet So Near

(Apr 01, 2005)
One more problem for the Big Bang: Recently-discovered galaxy clusters reveal too much complex structure to be as "young" as Big Bang speculations would require. The small inset in the photo above shows a recently discovered cluster of galaxies that poses a big problem for the Big Bang. According to conventional theory, which determines the distance of a galaxy by its redshift, the cluster is 9 billion light years away. That means the light we see today was emitted 9 billion years ago, or only 5 billion years after the Big Bang, in which all matter and energy supposedly was created. Gravitational forces could not have generated such a cluster of galaxies in such an astronomically short time. The ESO news release commented: "The discovery of such a complex and mature structure so early in the history of the Universe is highly surprising. Indeed, until recently it would even have been deemed impossible." Translation: This observation falsified the theory. To save the theory (upon which grants and reputations are established) an ad hoc patch must be found. "If astronomy were a science"--as one worker in the field put it--astronomers would have wondered if the cluster might have been ejected from the nearby active galaxy NGC 7314 (at the center of the large image). They would have wondered if its high redshift might be due to that ejection instead of to an expansion of the universe. They would have wondered if the cluster might be an early stage of galaxy cluster formation in the near present instead of in the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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But such wondering would require them to doubt that redshift means distance. It would require them to doubt that redshift means recessional velocity. And if redshift does not mean distance or velocity, then the two major pillars of Big Bang theory are undermined. On the other hand, because this cluster is in the halo of the active galaxy NGC 7314, this observation once again confirms Halton Arps prediction that high-redshift galaxy clusters will be found in association with low-redshift active galaxies. Arp made this prediction many times. In a paper on galaxy clusters, written in collaboration with amateur astronomer David G. Russell and published in the Astrophysical Journal of March 10, 2001, Arp and Russell add more than 15 new cluster/active galaxy associations to the list Arp has been gathering for three decades. We can carry this prediction one step further. We can predict that other complex galaxy clusters with high redshifts (perhaps even higher than this one) will be discovered in the future. And we can also predict that they will be found close to nearby active galaxies. Some of them May even be found between their active parent galaxy and us. The really big problem is not the discrepancy between Big Bang theory and contrary observations but the singularity of belief that compels astronomers to turn a blind eye to the wrong end of their telescopes while ignoring disagreements with what they imagine they see.
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Credit: NASA/JPL
Planet of a Thousand Mysteries

(Mar 31, 2005)
The astonishing landscape of the planet Mars could force a reevaluation of all popular ideas about the planet. Yet even its most "improbable" geology finds a unified explanation in the electric discharge hypothesis. From the first glimpses of the Martian surface, the planet revealed one paradox after another. Images of Mars did not fit the textbook picture of a cold and inactive rock ever-so-slowly peppered by random impacts. Planetary scientists responded by applying two assumptions, both of them formulated long before the space age began and long before the onrush of new evidence pointing to electricitys influence on galactic, stellar, and planetary evolution. They assumed that Mars has moved on a stable orbit for billions of years. And they assumed that present geologic processes on Earth are the key to understanding Martian history. Both assumptions must now be abandoned because new discoveries contradict them. But it is unlikely that planetary scientists will see the evidence until they stop projecting prior theoretical models onto Mars and give adequate attention to the detailed images, now in hand, that simply do not fit traditional preconceptions. Another view of Mars is possible, and its contrast with popular ideas about Mars could not be starker. The new vantage point arises from a convergence of scientific and historical investigation. Two individuals who have helped to lead the way in this are David Talbott and Wallace Thornhill, co-authors of Thunderbolts of the Gods. Both were inspired decades ago by the work of Immanuel Velikovsky, author of the 1950 bestseller Worlds in Collision. Talbott was the founder and publisher of the ten-issue groundbreaking series, "Immanuel Velikovsky Reconsidered," in 1972. He later authored a book, The Saturn Myth (Doubleday, 1980), The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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proposing a "catastrophist" approach to world mythology. As early as the 1960s, Australian physicist Thornhill, following the lead of Velikovsky (and later Velikovskys close colleague Ralph Juergens), began a lifelong investigation of electricity in the cosmos. Talbott and Thornhill first met and talked for several hours at an international conference on Velikovskys work in 1974. For years after that meeting they pursued their investigations separately, each largely unaware of the others work. Then, in 1997, they began a collaborative approach in concert with many other contributors, some of whom are included as editors of these pages. The authors of Thunderbolts contend that an "intellectual tsunami May be necessary to shake planetary science out of a decades-long stupor." For this purpose, Mars could be the best provocation, since, according to Talbott and Thornhill, every square mile of Mars shouts the same message: From pole to pole, the surface of the planet has been sculpted by electric discharge. The picture above was returned by the Mariner 4 probe as it approached Mars in 1965. It shows Valles Marineris, a giant trench more than 3000 miles in length. What event cut this monstrous chasm on Mars? Planetary scientists first thought water erosion was the agent, but that interpretation collapsed in the face of higher resolution images. Now some speak of surface spreading and rifting. But here, too, one need only examine pictures closely to exclude the interpretation. The defining features show no surface spreading. Detailed closeups show that the force creating the chasm scooped out and removed the material--a fact clearly evident along the neatly machined "tributaries" all the way up to their rounded terminations. The result of the event was a continental scale trench equivalent to hundreds of Grand Canyons. (Readers will want to keep an eye out for our forthcoming Picture of the Day on Valles Marineris.) Every textbook on Mars will tell you that Olympus Mons, a giant mound dwarfing Mount Everest, is a "shield volcano." And no doubt that interpretation seemed obvious when NASA scientists received the first images of the towering formation. But again, the defining features of Olympus Mons and its counterparts on the Tharsis bulge cannot be found on shield volcanoes on Earth: The shallow, superimposed flat-bottomed calderas at the summit, the finely filamented "mane" of channels radiating from the summit, the steep escarpment, the depressed terrain surrounding the escarpment, the concentric ridges and valleys in the mysterious "aureole"--all are diagnostic of a single phenomenon: an electric discharge impinging on an anode, or positively charged surface. The fundamental structure of Olympus Mons can be replicated in the laboratory. Of course, the phrase "electric discharge" has yet to enter the lexicon of Martian geology--or astronomy for that matter. Fundamental shifts in theoretical perspective do not come quickly. But one advantage of the electrical interpretation is that its implications are both sweeping and testable. The electric theorists claim that all of the primary patterns of Martian geography are replicable by electric discharge. In contrast, they argue, close inspection of the planets surface features will, in every significant case, refute NASAs contrived and often contradictory "explanations." In introducing the "planet of a thousand mysteries," we have discussed craters in the lab and cratering patterns on Mars, Martian dust devils global dust storms on Mars, Martian "Blueberries" in the lab, analogs of these "concretions" on Earth, and--on a much larger scale-analogous domed craters on Mars. But these few glimpses do not begin to tell the larger story of the Red Planet. A unified portrait of Mars is possible. Only a fundamental change in vantage point is required. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Domed Craters on Mars

(Mar 29, 2005)
Large craters on Mars contain mysterious spherical domes. The objects bear a striking similarity to the spheres and craters in Dr. C.J. Ransoms electrical discharge experiments. No body in the solar system will add more to our understanding of planetary history than the planet Mars. In recent years cameras aboard the Global Surveyor, the Mars Odyssey, and ESAs Mars Express have generated thousands of high resolution images of the Martian landscape. And for more than a year now two rovers on Mars, Opportunity and Spirit, have provided extraordinary close-up views of the surface. In recent Pictures of the Day we have suggested that many of the most profound surprises coming back from Mars--those producing the greatest strains on prior interpretations of Martian geology--are due to the failure of a theoretical perspective. Something is missing in standard analyses of Martian surface features. The authors of this page are convinced that the most pressing need in planetary science is for experimental work on electrical scarring. It is essential that science explore electricitys power to sculpt a planets surface. To underscore the explanatory potential of electric discharge we have noted the laboratory work of Dr. C.J. Ransom, who produced counterparts of the Martian "blueberries" through a simple experiment. But this is only the first step in what must become a major commitment in the planetary sciences. Ransoms work has profound ramifications for the larger picture of Mars. One of the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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well-known features of electric discharge is its scalability--what occurs on a small scale also occurs on larger scales. And there is reason to believe that on Mars the little spherules imaged by the rover Opportunity have an analog at a much greater scale. Our orbiting cameras have found numerous craters with domes or spheres resting within them. All of the pictures of domed Martian craters in the upper picture above are taken from a single high resolution image by the Global Surveyor-http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m15012/m1501228.html In simple appearance craters and "domes" look surprisingly similar to craters with embedded spheres in Dr. Ransoms experiment (lower pic). In contrast to the rover blueberry images, the "domed craters" range in size from kilometers in diameter down to a hundred meters or less, with many indications of others just beyond the resolution of the cameras. At the present time, Ransoms electrical discharge experiments have provided the only factbased explanation for these anomalous formations. It is only reasonable, therefore, to ask if the "blueberries" and the domed craters were produced by the same electrical force, acting on widely different scales. We must also emphasize that, from the electric vantage point, the agent that created the domed craters would have left its signature in other ways as well. For this reason, we encourage the reader to access the full image at the URL given above, and to note the extraordinary features present in the same geologic neighborhood. We shall take up these contexts imminently. The domed craters on Mars are another reason for planetary scientists to revisit issues of solar system history, including possibilities long excluded from scientific discussion.
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Credit:LEFT, NASA/JPL/Cornell; RIGHT, NASA/JPL/Cornell/US Geological Survey
"Blueberries" Could Redefine Martian Geology

(Mar 28, 2005)
Recent discoveries by the Mars rover "Opportunity" throw new light on terrestrial "concretions." But the strongest light May come from Dr. C J Ransoms electrical discharge experiments. Geologists identify "concretions" as spheroidal masses usually occurring in sedimentary strata. They are often composed of minerals different from the primary constituent of the stratum in which they lie. Many concretions are formed from carbonates, but others of iron ore or silica are not uncommon, and still other varieties occur as well. Formations identified as "spherical concretions" can be as large as 10 feet in diameter. They are often layered like an onion. Inside their spherical shells, some are hollow, others contain crystals, sandstone, or even petroleum. A few examples of the different varieties can be viewed here. And some impressive links are given here. One characteristic that virtually all concretions have in common is that they are harder and more durable than their surroundings. The processes by which this is accomplished are far from clear to geologists. But that characteristic enables the concretions to survive while the surrounding materials are eroded away over time, exposing them and leaving them lying on the ground or protruding from cliffs. Another characteristic is that the concretions are confined to specific areas. Even when the same surrounding layers continue for hundreds of miles, the occurrence of concretions will be limited to a segment of the more extensive formation. The layers in which they are embedded are often level and undistorted around the concretions. The remarkable sphericity of some concretions has occasionally caused them to be mistaken for human artifacts. No known geologic or chemical process can produce sizable spheres. The kinds of geological processes commonly invoked to explain them have little or no tendency to form spheres. Sphericity is tacked on gratuitously and ad hoc. Some theoretical guesses call upon dissolved minerals to precipitate or crystallize inside spherical cavities The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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(geodes) or around some nucleus (often a fossil). But that fails to address many of the contexts in which concretions arise, and it only sets the question of sphericity back one step: What caused the cavity to be spherical? What caused spherical layers to form around nonspherical nuclei? Of course, not all concretions are spherical, and some take very odd shapes. Examples of the famous "Pumpkin Patch" concretions can be seen here. One cluster of concretions in Southern California (now depleted by rock hounds) had long handles. S.C. Edwards reports: "We soon noticed the specimens were in regular order, all arranged with handles perfectly parallel and horizontal, points north." Such clues are vital, but few geologists have reconsidered the larger picture. Before the discovery of the mysterious "blueberries" on Mars it was commonly assumed that concretions were unique to terrestrial geology and that complex processes contributed to the deposition of sedimentary layers over long spans of time. As the space age provided close-up views of other planets, geologists continued to work with the concepts they had synthesized from observation of earths present features and processes. By the time the Mars rover Opportunity sent back the stunning images of the blue-grey spherules on Mars, the geologists concepts had crystallized into dogma. Advocates of the Electric Universe contend that the most costly mistake in the theoretical sciences today is the ignoring of electricity. Space-age discoveries have revealed that the universe is composed almost entirely of plasma, and over a century of research into plasma has revealed its electrical properties. The refusal by the institutions of science to consider electrical explanations--even in the face of new discoveries that are predictable electrically-can only create an environment in which prior beliefs harden into dogma, and dogma inspires new waves of pseudoscience. With the pictures of Martian blueberries before us, the question is no longer "how were the concretions formed?." We must also ask how the layers surrounding them were formed. The picture on the left above shows the strata containing the Martian spherules imaged by the Rover Opportunity. On the right is a closer view of the fused layers of Martian soil around the spherules--looking very much like the glassy fused material of fulgurites created by lightning strikes. The images suggest possibilities never mentioned in conventional discussion of the blueberries. Could electrical arcs have created these inclusions and deposited the visible layers of soil around them? The small spheres stand out, but we also see fused globules of material where a diffuse electrical discharge lacked the intensity to create discrete spheres. Diffuse discharges are not homogeneous but consist of smaller-scale channels that vary in intensity. A regional-sized discharge that sorts and emplaces material in layers would be expected to show areas where more intense arcing formed spherules analogous to those shown in Dr. C J Ransom's laboratory experiments. In this "flash-heating" process certain minerals in the shells will be enhanced or depleted (compared to levels in the surrounding sediments). This process May also help to explain why many concretions have hollow centers, as seen in the cross section of spherules in Dr. Ransom's experiment. Trapped gases May not have time to be released before the molten surface has solidified. The electrical theorists claim that in the course of regional deposition (primarily electrostatic emplacement) electrical arcs achieved on the surface of Mars exactly what Dr. C J Ransoms The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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laboratory experiments have exhibited. But will geologists consider Dr Ransoms experiment in relation to the planet Mars? As a nudge in this direction, in the coming weeks we shall devote a series of submissions to the evidence for global electrical events on Mars, the planet of a thousand mysteries.
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Credit left: NASA,
Martian "Blueberries" in the Lab

(Mar 25, 2005)
Plasma physicist uses electric arcs to replicate the mysterious spherules on the Red Planet. On January 25, 2004, the Mars Rover "Opportunity" landed in a small crater on the Martian plain called Meridiani Planum. A few days later, Opportunity photographed a sight that could alter our ideas about the recent history of the solar system: Scattered around the walls of the crater were BB-sized spherules. Their blue-gray color set them apart from the reddish hue of the iron-rich Martian soil and suggested a name for them--blueberries. The left half of the picture above shows these Martian blueberries at different magnifications. They are embedded in what appears to be fused layers of soil that are exposed on the margins of the crater. As Opportunity rolled further across the Martian landscape, it found a profusion of blueberries. Investigative team members speculated that countless numbers of the spherules lie embedded in the Martian soil. Over time, erosion has exposed large numbers of them and has left many lying on the surface. After spectroscopic analysis, the Martian spherules were identified as "hematite concretions." Hematite is an iron-rich mineral and is the primary constituent of the soil surrounding the blueberries. Geologists surmised that they are Martian counterparts of terrestrial concretions, which are commonly believed to have formed through water-induced mineral leakage. But this only widens the mystery. Theories about the formative processes of concretions are little more than untested guesses. No geologist has seen a concretion being made or has made one in a laboratory--or has disproved a competing theory. (But geologists have shown that the more a guess is repeated, the more its apt to be called a fact.) For many years Electric Universe theorists have proposed that concretions be examined for The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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evidence of formation through electric discharge. In our Picture of the Day for August 27, 2004, Blueberries on Mars, we compared the Martian spherules to hematite concretions from Texas and "Moqui balls" from Utah. We gave several reasons for investigating the possible electrical origins of concretions, geodes, and other mysterious spherical geologic forms. The conventional theories, we noted, are based exclusively on chemistry and mechanics. But there is another phenomenon that produces spheres--electric discharge. In the plasma lab, electric arcs create tiny spheres that are often hollow, such as the hematite concretions seen above. Electric discharge tends to produce spherical layering and a distinct equator and pole, because the electromagnetic force "squeezes" perpendicular to the current that creates it. These characteristics are also found in the "natural" spherules. The Moqui balls pictured here (lower left) have both equatorial bulges and polar markings. Rock-cutters recommend that you will get a better display from a geode if you first locate the equator and poles, then cut across the poles. Even before this Picture of the Day was written, the plasma physicist CJ Ransom, of Vemasat Laboratories, had set up an experiment to test the electrical explanation of concretions and Martian blueberries. He obtained a quantity of hematite and blasted it with an electric arc. The results are seen in the right half of the image above. The embedded spheres created by the arc appear to replicate many of the features of the blueberries on Mars. No other laboratory process has achieved a similar result. It should encourage further experiments using higher energies. Dr. Ransoms experimental work has laid a foundation for a radical reassessment of planetary geology. If concretions can only be replicated by electric discharge, we can no longer view them--or the strata in which they appear--through the lens of prior theory. (See tomorrows Picture of the Day for more on concretions.) In the matter at hand (hematite concretions), the direct evidence will be difficult to ignore. Dr C.J. Ransom's and Wallace Thornhill's paper on the laboratory-generated spherules will be presented at the national meeting of the American Physical Society, in Tampa Florida, April 17, 2005. The abstract is available at the APS web site-http://absimage.aps.org/image/MWS_APR05-2004-000006.pdf
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Credit: LEFT,Calvin J. Hamilton. National Optical Astronomy Observatory/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy/National Science Foundation; RIGHT, NASA/JPL
When Dust Storms Engulf Mars

(Mar 24, 2005)
Another surprise from space: Massive dust storms on Mars have meteorologists scrambling for explanations. Is it solar heating, or electricity, that powers these storms in the near vacuum of the Martian atmosphere? The spacecraft Mariner 9 was the first probe to orbit the planet Mars. As it arrived at the Red Planet in 1971, NASA scientists were shocked by the view--the most horrific dust storm they had ever seen. The entire planet was engulfed in a deep haze, with only the peak of gigantic Olympus Mons penetrating through the clouds. For several decades, the energetic dust storms on Mars have posed unanswered questions for meteorologists. How can an atmosphere only one percent as dense as Earths remove dust from the soil and accelerate it into massive clouds circling the planet up to 40 miles or more above the surface? In late June, 2001, the Hubble Telescope revealed the first stirrings of a dust storm in a small region of the Hellas Basin on Mars. For several days the storm alternately grew, then retreated. Then it exploded and quickly boiled out of the Hellas Basin, spreading both north and east. Within a few weeks it had covered the whole planet. (See picture here) The storm did not begin to subside until October. It was the greatest dust storm ever observed on Mars, and it left meteorologists scratching their heads. How was the dust excavated from the surface? What held the dust aloft? What accelerated the winds and dust across the near vacuum of Mars upper atmosphere to speeds greater than 250 miles per hour? With its Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES), the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor measured thermal effects associated with the storm. As the storm clouds began to surround Mars, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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temperatures rose a stunning 40 degrees C--a case of "instantaneous global warming" that continues to haunt meteorologists. Phil Christensen of Arizona State University, one of the principal investigators of the Martian phenomenon, acknowledges that the specialists do not really know, in "detail," the causes of the Martian dust storms. Some have theorized that as Martian dust clouds grow thicker, they absorb more warmth from the Sun, raising the temperature of the atmosphere--"a positive feedback loop that can transform tiny dust clouds into globe-swallowing storms," as one science writer put it. With this reasoning one might wonder why the dust storms ever stop. Indeed, those following this reasoning are not sure why they do stop. ("In fact, we're not certain what makes them stop," states Christensen.) Most "explanations" of the dust storms begin with radiant energy from the Sun. It is known that the storms are most frequent and severe when Mars is near perihelion (its closest approach to the Sun). So the specialists believe that thermal effects of solar radiation must provide the energy of the storms. But this rationale requires an effect considerably more energetic than the cause. Mars orbit has an eccentricity of 0.093. Although greater than the Earths orbital eccentricity of 0.017, at Mars distance from the Sun the change has little more than a trivial influence on radiant energy input. In fact, if thermal effects are the cause, then seasonal orientation of the planets axis should contribute much more to dust storms--with clear hemispheric differentiation. This is not the case, however. But in the Electric Universe, interplanetary currents focused on the Sun play a vital role in charging up planetary ionospheres--a key to understanding the evolution of weather systems. Electric theorist Wallace Thornhill likens the Earths atmosphere to the "self repairing, leaky insulation" between the conductive plates of a global capacitor. The conducting ionosphere forms one plate of the spherical capacitor, while the Earths surface is the other. Lightning manifests the "leakiness" of the capacitor, as currents break through the insulating atmosphere to dissipate charge. The clear-air voltage gradient of Earth at sea level is about 100 volts per meter. In standard meteorology, it is the electric power of thunderstorms that "charge-up the ionosphere." But the electric theorists see this as an inversion of cause and effect. There would be no thunderstorms in the absence of Earths electric field. Since Mars has no thunderstorms to "charge-up its ionosphere," it should present a good case study of the Electric Universe. The electrical model predicts that the Martian ionosphere is indeed charged, and it posits no isolated dynamo to "separate charge." On Mars, electrical effects will reach directly from the ionosphere to the surface without the ameliorating leakage via storm clouds that we see on Earth. Unlike radiant energy from the Sun, electrical energy can accumulate in the "planetary capacitor" for some time, with a potential for planet-altering events when the atmosphere finally "breaks down" and massive discharge activity is initiated. There is also another aspect to the interplanetary circuitry affecting Mars. The greatest storm on Mars (2001) occurred when the planet was nearing perihelion and was the closest it had been to Earth in about 12 years. At that time it was also being "tickled" by the Earths plasma sheath, or magnetosphere, establishing a temporary electrical connection between Earth and Mars for the transfer of charge. It seems that Mars responded with an outburst of atmospheric discharges, these taking the form of monstrous dust devils--or more accurately, electrical tornadoes. See Picture of the Day for March 22, 2005, Dust Devils--or Tornadoes At the same time the electric currents flowing in the Martian ionosphere will drive the highspeed winds in the upper atmosphere. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In the two Martian dust storm images above, it appears that the dust is being jetted upwards rather than being blown along the surface. This is explicable in the electric tornado model and explains how dust is raised efficiently many kilometers into the thin air and suspended for a time electrostatically. The role of violent vortices on the leading edge of dust storms is particularly clear in the image weve placed here. Closer examination should show that these tornadoes form preferentially on high points and the sharp edges of craters or escarpments. The twisting columns on the leading edge of the storm suggest vertical movement that is inconceivable in an electrically inert near-vacuum. Perhaps the closest analog to these columns is the network of twisted filaments--electric tornadoes, according to Thornhill--seen most clearly erupting from beneath the Suns photosphere on the margins of sunspots. The Electric Universe identifies the dust storms on Mars as electric discharges etching the surface in the same way that, in industrial applications, electric discharge machining etches metallic surfaces. Though the Martian tornadoes and dust storms lack the power of the electric arcs that carved planetary surfaces in a former epoch, they can certainly leave their signature on the Martian surface today. In space, another good analog would be the newly forming dust jets of comets, when they begin to etch the surface of the nucleus as it enters more deeply into the Suns electric field.
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Credit: www.ees-group.co.uk/
Dust Devils--or Tornadoes?

(Mar 22, 2005)
The usual distinction between dust devils and tornadoes is blurred by the size of monstrous whirlwinds on the planet Mars. Electric discharge offers the simplest and most direct explanation for the astonishing power of the Martian dust columns. Meteorologists believe that the atmospheric forces generating dust devils and tornadoes have little in common despite their similar appearance. Tornadoes do not occur in dry clear air, while dust devils do. The meteorological conditions in which the two arise are easily distinguished. But the "Electric Universe" allows for a unified perspective on both phenomena, with direct implications for our understanding of the Mt. Everest-sized dust devils on Mars. The most telling clue comes from the fact that both dust devils and tornadoes exhibit strong electric fields. For the electrical theorists both events have counterparts in other meteorological marvels as well--lightning (including blue jets, red sprites, and elves), hurricanes, waterspouts, and auroras. All such phenomena can now be understood in terms of electrical discharge between the Earth and electrified space. In size and strength the "dust devils" on Mars dwarf tornadoes on earth. They achieve a diameter five times that of tornadoes, and tower five miles above the Martian surface. Meteorologists call them "dust devils," not tornadoes, because they are not associated with water-laden storm clouds, which do not exist on Mars. On both Earth and Mars, dust devils form when the ground heats up during the day, warming the air just above the surface. But why does the rising air rotate, and how does this rotation achieve its impressive energy? Here is the conventional explanation: "Pockets of warm air rise and interfere with each other, sometimes causing one pocket or another to begin a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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swirling motion" (From a story at space.com, paraphrasing the work of William Farrell of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and his research team.) Pockets of rising warm air randomly "interfering" with each other can hardly be a compelling explanation for electrified dust devils power of rotation. Those offering the explanation are forgetting something--the measured electric field of the Earth. At sea level in dry air the field is about 100 volts per meter. The presence of this electric field means there is no need to generate charge separation in a dust devil. It already exists between the Earth and the ionosphere! When warm dry air rises from the surface the vertical movement of charged dust particles forms a weakly ionized plasma. It is a characteristic of plasma to shield electric fields within it by forming a thin "double layer" or sheath, where most of the electric field strength is concentrated. This is what researchers have found at the base of dust devils, where the field has been measured to rise as high as 4,000 volts per meter. An electric field of that strength near the earth is capable of lifting small charged dust particles and generating a vertical current. Rotation is electromagnetically induced between parallel vertical current streams to form a vortex as we have noted in numerous prior references to rotating Birkeland Currents Could chaotic "interference" of rising air pockets create the power of dust devils? One way to answer the question is to consider their cousins, water spouts. Here, the first visible effects are seen not in the air, but in the water below, and these effects are certainly not a result of colliding air pockets above. First a circular white spot appears, surrounded by an irregular dark area on the water's surface. Next a pattern of light and dark bands spiral outwards. Then a dense, swirling ring of spray, called a cascade, appears around the dark spot and rises toward the clouds. The breakthrough in understanding waterspouts came from the work of Russian plasma physicist V. A. Rantsev-Kartinov. From his investigation, he concluded that these phenomena are the result of a long-lasting discharge current between the plasma networks of the ocean surface (or lake surface) and the electrical charge of the clouds above. Both the rotation and the narrow, coherent, and undulating funnels of waterspouts are thus explained in terms of plasma discharge behavior. See Picture of the Day, October 29, 2004--Electric Water Spouts All of this relates to issues of charge separation. The electrical theorists insist that the greatest mistake by meteorologists is to follow the cosmologists notion of an electrically neutral and disconnected universe. By accepting this unsupported assumption meteorologists are required to mechanically separate charge wherever they see electrical activity. A flood of discoveries has disproved the assumption in recent years. Yet it still stands in the way of understanding the origin of lightning on Earth and the associated strange phenomena found stretching up toward space. Our Earth is connected to the circuitry of the Sun. The Sun is similarly connected to the currents flowing along the arm of our Milky Way. In the same way, electrified dust devils on Mars are inseparable from planet-wide circuits. These circuits, in turn, connect Mars to the electric system of the Sun. Mars has no storm clouds to distribute and to lower charge to the surface. The result is that huge, diffuse discharges take place directly between the ionosphere and the surface. It is these discharges that form the towering dust devils on Mars and are responsible for the enigmatic global dust storms seen on that planet from time to time. The naked electric force is1039 times more powerful than gravity. In its various manifestations it holds the universe together. It creates galactic structure, forms and lights the stars, and drives the formation of planetary systems. Electric fields not only pervade the macrocosm, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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they are active throughout our solar system. And on Earth charge separation is not an effect of the movement of air or water--it exists already and is a primary cause of movement. At the most basic level, electric currents are the prime cause of rotational movement in the universe. We live in a connected, electrically animated universe. And Nature does not ignore the utility of the electric motor!
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Credit: University of Michigan
Electric Dust Devils on Mars

(Mar 21, 2005)
Giant columns of whirling dust on Mars add new surprises in planetary exploration. Experts now agree that analogous "dust devils" on Earth contain powerful electric fields. In the larger scheme of things, dust devils on Earth have always been treated as trivial phenomena. But this perception has changed with recent discoveries by investigators in Arizona and Nevada. They found that dust devils have a strong electric field, often exceeding 4,000 volts per meter. The discovery came as a surprise. Prior thermal and mechanical models of dust devils had predicted no electric fields. But ironically, it was discoveries on the planet Mars that provoked a reconsideration of atmospheric vortices on earth. On Mars, "dust devils" much larger than terrestrial tornadoes sporadically rake across the surface, achieving things that traditional meteorology considered impossible in the nearly airless Martian environment. The tracks of these Everest-sized "whirlwinds" speak for high-energy activity never imagined, inscribing the Martian surface with their darkened tracks. (See Picture of the Day: Europa and Mars Atmospheric density on Mars is only one percent that of Earth. How could a Martian "wind" excavate soil with sufficient energy to leave extensive tracks clearly visible from space? Of course, the same question is posed by the planets global dust storms, these having been observed for several decades. In July, 1999, Wallace Thornhill wrote "The 5 mile high dust devils on Mars and the global Martian dust storms are, I believe, a manifestation of electric discharges on Mars." And more recently, he wrote "Make no mistake, the Martian dust devils are tornadoes that dwarf their earthly counterpart Clouds are not required to generate them. They are an atmospheric The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive electric discharge phenomenon."
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Today, interest in the electrical nature of Martian dust devils is growing rapidly. In a report in Astrobiology Magazine, Dr. William Farrell of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center reports: "If martian dust devils are highly electrified, as our research suggests, they might give rise to increased discharging or arcing in the low-pressure Martian atmosphere." According to Thornhill, such arcing in the rarified atmosphere of Mars would have the appearance of a glow discharge, not unlike that of a lightning "sprite" above terrestrial thunderstorms. Our picture above is a University of Michigan artists impression of an electrified Martian "dust devil." Did the artist intuitively include a glow discharge near its base? In the Global Surveyor pictures of these Martian dust columns, the eerie glow is a dramatic contrast to the darkened dust they lift into the atmosphere. (Weve placed a picture here). To see the electrical nature of these towering vortices is to answer the question we posed in our last Picture of the Day. Why does the Martian surface present both dark and light streaks, just as we see on Jupiters moon Europa? Experiments with laboratory arcs have shown that the discharges will "burn" soil, leaving a darkened look Though enigmatic to planetary scientists, such darkening is evident across vast regions of Mars. It is especially concentrated in regions of heavy dust devil tracks, typically appearing amid dense populations of small dark spots. In those regions where electric activity has burnt the soil directly, or where darkened material was raised into the atmosphere and then drifted back to the surface, the layer of such material is apparently quite thin. It is thus easy to imagine that when lower energy dust devils have subsequently moved across such surfaces, they removed the layer of dark material and exposed the original lighter soil below. Unfortunately, even with the new interest in electrified whirlwinds on Mars, most discussion still draws on old thermal and mechanical concepts of atmospheric "whirlwinds," without regard to the role of larger electric fields in their generation. Most of the "new" theoretical models of electrified dust devils, for example, have not broken out of the earlier paradigm. To get the electric field, the theorists believe they have to first "separate charge"; and that requires energetic movement and collisions of both large and small soil particles. In their collisions, the larger particles become positively charged and the smaller become negatively charged. Then the power of the wind separates the particles into regions of different particle size, creating an electric field. But in the near vacuum of Mars atmosphere, how were the larger grains of soil raised miles into the sky in the first place, with a force sufficient to generate the apparent high voltages? In the electric model, no local dynamo is required for charge separation. Charge separation already exists in the atmosphere. Without Earths storm clouds to lower charge to ground in the form of lightning, the discharges on Mars take a towering tornadic form. The larger interplanetary electrical circuitry is the true driver of the whirlwind, just as it drives the global dust storms on Mars, and just as it drives weather systems on Earth. If this is true, then the power of Martian "dust devils" can teach us much about the behavior of electricity in the solar system.
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Credit: NASA/JPL
Europa and Mars

(Mar 18, 2005)
Giant "dust devils" on Mars offer compelling clues as to the true cause of the rille networks on Europa. Perhaps readers who have followed our discussion of "electric discharge channels" on Jupiters moon Europa will recognize the bizarre landscape in the pictures above. Can you identify which picture is of the Europan surface? The upper picture is of particular interest because it shows how the force that created the linear streaks was oblivious to other landscape features. As observed by the electrical theorists, this is one of the unsolved mysteries of rilles seen on many different bodies in the solar system. The lower picture is also of special interest. For one thing, it is reminiscent of the intimate connection between rille creation and unusual cratering or etching patterns on planets, moons, and asteroids. Note that many of the streaks appear to be little more than chains of dark spots or dots, a pattern reminding us that many rilles are little more than extended crater chains. Prior theoretical assumptions have prevented planetary scientists from either noticing the repeated pattern, or accounting for it. So here is the punchline. Neither picture above is of Europa, though the streaks look almost exactly like the channel complexes on Europa. For comparison with Europa, weve placed a good picture of Jupiters moon here. Actually, both pictures above depict regional landscapes on the planet Mars, where towering "dust devils" have wandered across the surface, leaving telltale tracks behind them. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Investigators have been astonished at the "electrical power" of these Everest-sized vortices eroding the surface of Mars. Since the atmosphere of Mars is only one percent of the Earths, it is certainly not wind alone that is producing these effects on Mars! Indeed, the experts have struggled to find a way for Martian "air" to move the surface soil at all. (See our next Picture of the Day--"Electric Tornadoes on Mars"--for further discussion of these mysteries). The similarities extend beyond the Europan rilles and surface "scratches" on Mars to other common features and contexts. In neither instance could the pits, dimples, or darkened spots-often centered upon the linear impressions--be impact craters. Most show a generally constant size. But electric arcing is known to produce such crater patterns, including even the darkening of the surface where it occurs. See Picture of the Day for November 30, 2004-Craters on Mars and for July 2,2004--Craters in the Lab On both Mars and Europa we see a combination of darker and lighter marks in relation to the landscape on which they appear. (The contrasting lighter "dust devil" tracks on Mars can be seen here.) This common feature, as we shall note in tomorrows Picture of the Day, is readily explained electrically. The comparison of Europan channels and Martian "dust devil" tracks can only underscore the new possibilities introduced by the electrical hypothesis. And when it comes to the planet Mars, the applications are virtually limitless.
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Credit: NASA/JPL/Galileo imaging team
Looping Rilles on Europa

(Mar 17, 2005)
For many years, the looping rilles on Europa were called "fractures," but the model developed to explain them only highlighted the failure of the underlying interpretation. The picture above shows a series of "cycloidal" grooves cutting across the surface of the Jovian moon Europa. The longest extends more than 1600 kilometers and each of its many loops averages about 100 kilometers in length. (To envision a cycloid path, imagine a spot on a wheel rim as the wheel rolls along a flat surface (see inset). The path traversed by the spot combines two kinds of simultaneous motion--rotational and linear). Though NASA scientists never doubted that these prominent features were surface cracks or "flexi," the unique form posed a great mystery to them. But that situation changed when Randy Tufts, a geologist at the University of Arizona, proposed an explanation. He suggested that the oddly replicated curvature of the cracks was caused by changes in the gravitational tug from Jupiter in the course of Europas 85-hour orbit of the gas giant. Because Europa keeps the same face toward Jupiter, a Europan orbit is the same length as a Europan "day." Tufts suspicions inspired orbital dynamicist Gregory Hoppa, also of the University of Arizona. Assuming an ocean of subsurface water, he produced a computer model of looping cracks in the Europan ice sheet. The fractures were caused by tidal forces acting on the water below, he said. In September 1999, the journal Science published a report by Hoppa and his colleagues. The graphic beneath the Galileo image, taken from the Science article, illustrates the proposed model of cycloidal fracturing. The arrows represent the amplitude and orientation of the tensile stress; and the numbers below the arrows indicate the hours of the orbit. You can also view a brief animation of the "model" here. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive Scientists greeted the paper as an "elegant" breakthrough. But was it a breakthrough, or another example of computers simply spitting out the results they were programmed to deliver? Computers are, after all, the generators of virtual reality.
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The repeated loops on Europa have no analog in observed fracturing patterns of brittle material. When ice cracks, the fracture typically propagates at the speed of sound. But to match Europas slow rotation, the computer model required something never observed--an ice fracture propagating at a walking speed of about 3 kilometers per hour. Fracturing of ice is chaotic and profoundly affected by variations in thickness, composition and surface relief. But the model allowed for no such influences. On Europa, everything present on the surface before the cycloidal grooves were cut had to be ignored by the computer--even the maze of pre-existing channels traversed by the loops. Was this a reasonable simplification? Consider the way a sheet of glass breaks. The presence of a shallow groove left by a glass cutter is sufficient to control the direction of a break. Fracturing ice could hardly ignore preexisting channels on Europa! The model assumed a global ocean beneath the ice so that tidal bulging on Europa could reach nearly 100 meters (330 feet) at maximum. That May sound like a substantial distance, but in relation to the radius of Europa, which is larger than our Moon, it is trivial. In Europas tidal bulge, tensile stresses on a global ice sheet would be dispersed over hundreds of kilometers. Ice is quite plastic when stresses are applied slowly. There is no reason to believe that across such distances a sheet of ice could not make the imperceptible adjustment required. Other arbitrary assumptions were needed to make the model "work," and most strayed far from facts already established. In order for cracks to form, the computer model required a maximum ice sheet thickness of about a kilometer. But some of the surface channels cut by the loops are several kilometers deep. Had the computer program included this fact it would have broken down immediately. But the manipulated data gave the desired result, enabling science writers to complete the circular logic: the model became "a powerful argument that an ocean of water underlies Europas crust." In the model each loop represents a Europan day. On this reasoning, the longest flexus must have formed in about a half month. But if this is evidence of an ocean today, why are there so few flexi? By now all other features should be obliterated by the effects of the daily cycloidal forces. To produce the succession of loops, the cracking had to stop after each loop, then resume from that precise point on the next orbit. In fact it is extremely difficult to discern the "rules" the computer was instructed to follow. Delphi Flexus and its neighbor, Sidon Flexus have opposed curvatures, requiring that the "cracks" progress in opposite directions. The computer program must have allowed for this variability even as it required the "tensile stress vectors" to seamlessly extend the fracture from "day" to "day" on Europa. One thing should be obvious. The forces that created the Europan enigmas are not acting on the Jovian moon now. To simply acknowledge this fact would go a long way toward freeing science from the influence of ideology. But will NASAs experts pause long enough to entertain a simple electrical hypothesis? We claim that Europa was repeatedly entangled in discharge streamers emanating from Jupiter. Since ice is more homogeneous than rock, the surface discharges on Europa tended to produce relatively straight rilles following a strong electric field along great circles from the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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sub-Jovian hemisphere (the hemisphere facing Jupiter) to the opposite hemisphere. That is the general pattern. However, circular motion of an arc can be demonstrated in the lab when a magnetic field lies parallel to a cathode surface. We are confident that something of this sort occurred in Europas electrical transactions with Jupiter. Occasionally, the powerful magnetic fields carried by the discharge streamers draped over the moon's surface, inducing a nearsurface electric current and magnetic field in the ice. As in the laboratory experiments, this would cause the traveling electric arcs to rotate in cycloidal fashion, producing the distinctive looping furrows. In response to changes in the strength of the ambient magnetic field, the loops in these cycloidal rilles would, as now observed, display a slowly changing radius of curvature. What is needed in the case of Europas surface mysteries is not an arbitrary computergenerated "solution," but practical experiments to test a new hypothesis. Can electrical discharges produce the rille patterns seen on Europa? The required experimental work is easily within reach if NASAs investigators will follow evidence already in hand. The resulting insights could change the direction of planetary science. They could also inspire something our space program lost under the inertia of outdated theory--the passion for discovery.
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Best Picture of a Europan Rille

(Mar 15, 2005)
Context and analysis of a rope-like furrow on Jupiters moon Europa suggests a lightning trench, not a "fracture" of an ice sheet. For proponents of the Electric Universe, the Jovian moon Europa provides more than one example of what has gone wrong in the theoretical sciences. Discoveries in space almost never fulfill the predictions of the prevailing models. Popular theoretical frameworks in cosmology, astrophysics, geology, and planetary science are rooted in thinking prior to the space age, and those formulating these approaches lacked a knowledge of plasma science, particularly the study of plasma discharge. The picture above is from a relatively small region on Europa at about 16 degrees south latitude, 195 degrees west longitude. It was imaged on November 6th, 1996 and shows a surface entirely covered by filamentary, rope-like and "paintbrush" imprints. Theorists of the "Electric Universe" are aghast at the tenacity with which NASAs investigators have held to the interpretation of these parallel grooves and furrows as "cracks" in the ice, a theory maintained in the absence of any evidence that ice fracturing could generate such patterns. (See "Europa--Dynamics of Rille Formation" The inset in the picture above presents a section of the rope-like surface imprint, in threedimensional perspective. The picture combines high resolution images obtained from two different viewing angles, creating a scene in much the same way that our brains construct an image when both eyes view something from two angles. The resulting picture has a resolution of 26 meters per picture element. It does not show a crack in the ice. Rather, it shows what appears to be an explosively cut furrow, with levees or ridges on both sides reaching up to 300 meters (red) in height above the surroundings (purple). The two ridges are separated by a valley about 1.5 kilometer wide. In the electric model, the material excavated from the trench can be accounted for by that found in the levees. Of course, this is not what we should expect from repeated opening, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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closing, and compression upwards of slushy material from a crack in the ice. From the electric viewpoint, the furrow should be compared to the V-shaped form of lightning trenches. This model envisions a traveling underground discharge explosively excavating the loose material in the ridges. Then the melted ice along the heated lightning track at the base of the furrow relaxes back to a level close to that of the surrounding surface. Of course the phrase "lightning-carved furrows" has no place in the lexicon of official planetary science today. And so the conventional picture of Europa is constituted almost entirely of paradoxes, contradictions, and unanswered questions.
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Europa--Dynamics of Rille Formation

(Mar 14, 2005)
High-resolution photographs of Europas surface show that the web of grooves and channels cannot be the surface "fractures" that planetary scientists have long claimed. When the first close-up photographs of Jupiters moon Europa were returned to earth from Voyager 2, scientists were surprised to find that water ice covered the surface. They were also surprised by the absence of visible craters, since Jupiter is considered the "vacuum cleaner" of the solar system and should have pulled many meteoroids and occasional asteroids into collision courses with it. Unknown events in geologically recent times have resurfaced the Jovian moon from pole to pole. Instead of craters, what planetary scientists saw was a global network of linear impressions or channels. They immediately began to speculate about a vast complex of "fractures" on the moon. They surmised that, from beneath the surface, dark material had filled the cracks or oozed out onto the surface as levees running along the two sides of the trenches. This would account for the dark coloration of the markings. This initial interpretation stuck--for what else could these strange surface impressions be? "Cracking" of Europas surface remained the official interpretation even as, beginning in 1996, higher resolution images returned by the Galileo probe undermined the entire idea that the channels were cracks. Many of the larger channels are smoothly cut, and they do not look like fractures. The force creating them disregarded the presence of prior channels and often produced a constant channel width for up to a thousand kilometers or more. From an electrical viewpoint this is not surprising. The current of an electric discharge, flowing across the surface, has an associated magnetic field which "pinches" it into a thin filament and tends to draw concurrent filaments into parallel alignment. The standard interpretation only grew more implausible as Galileo began to send back even The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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closer views of the surface: As resolution increased, the cameras simply revealed more channels, in the same way fractal geometry replicates similar patterns at different scales. This is also a well-known characteristic of plasma discharge phenomena. To be sure, there are chaotic regions on Europa that show massive fracturing and rafting of ice sheets, and it is evident that the events that shattered extensive layers of ice also caused breaks and movement along some pre-existing channels. But channels with no evidence of fracturing are far more abundant. And virtually all regions of Europa--even the displaced ice sheets--reveal complexes of parallel and side-by-side grooves with levees and no indications of fracturing. Can ice be repeatedly broken in ways that produce extensive parallel grooves with levees? The claim finds no support in nature or in controlled experiment. The levees required an additional ad hoc requirement that the cracks repeatedly opened and closed to force material over the sides. There is a model, however, that can account for the appearance of Europa at all scales of observation. The picture on the right is the closest image of Europas surface, taken at an oblique angle as the Galileo spacecraft flew 200 kilometers above the surface on December 16, 1997. It provided a view similar to that from an aircraft window. The colossal scale of the ridges gives the impression of flying much lower, and the perspective allows us to see the nature of the channels. They are not cracks in the ice. They are overlying and intersecting V-shaped troughs, The dark coloration down their centers appears in many places to be comprised of a string of small craters with dark material in their centers. The V-shaped configuration is consistent with a powerful underground explosion, which creates a conical vent. A narrow discharge channel moving explosively beneath the surface will throw material above it onto the two sides of a V-cross-section trench. In the electrical interpretation, the narrow lines of dark material at the base of the channel mark out the material directly acted on by the discharge--smashing oxygen atoms, two by two, into atoms of sulfur. The lighter material was the ice above the discharge channel, blown to the two sides of the channel A close inspection of such regions, we believe, will verify that that the primary features on Europa are rilles, with many analogs on other planets and moons. Moreover, if the electrical theorists are correct, traditional geologic models based on slow processes occurring on earth will invariably fail. They claim that electric discharge repeatedly raked across the surface of this Jovian moon.
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Electrical Rilles of Europa

(Mar 11, 2005)
Jupiters moon Europa, the second large satellite out from the gas giant, is about one half the size of our Moon. Mapped in detail by the Galileo probe, it reveals the most spectacular and concentrated accumulation of rilles in the solar system. Its surface is a maze of intersecting channels. Some of the channels are more than 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) long, and they often retain a remarkably constant width along their full length. Punctuating this complex network are two massive chaotic regions. One is just west of the sub-Jovian point (the point closest to Jupiter); the other is on the opposite side of Europa. These chaotic regions are marked by episodes of melting, ice rafting, and re-freezing. Significantly, they are connected by giant rilles that follow great circles or that loop weirdly across the Europan surface. The picture on the lower left and the picture on the right have been enhanced to emphasize discoloration by an unknown process. From the first close-ups of the Voyager 2 probe in 1979, planetary scientists have speculated that the dark linear marks on the surface were "cracks" or "fractures" in the ice. This interpretation prompted some to suggest that the sphere of Europa had expanded by some ten percent. Under the "fracturing" interpretation, the dark reddish coloring was produced by subsurface dirty liquid or "slush" spilling out to form levees on the two sides of the gorges. The electrical interpretation sees something much different. In the violent evolutionary phases that carved its surface, Europa was the target of catastrophic electric discharges emanating from Jupiter. In this interpretation, there is a reason why the scarring pattern on Europa matches that of an arc pattern on a novelty "plasma ball": Undulating plasma discharge filaments raced across Europas surface at lightning speed in a vast "line explosion," excavating material to deposit it in levees on the sides of the resulting trenches. See the Picture of the Day for October 19, 2004: Europa Caught in the Middle The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The picture on the right emphasizes the intimate connection between rilles and concentrations of craters. As powerful arcs tore across the surface, secondary filaments sputtered about erratically. They touched down on adjoining regions, sticking momentarily to one point after another, leaving pockmarks of generally constant size. They produced the same discoloration as seen along the rilles. A continuous arc can cut a remarkably smooth channel, as if a router were being dragged across the surface. But periodic sputtering of discharge filaments is evident in the larger picture above, where we see a concentration of pits, and not just in the general regions where the channels are most dense; some of the pits are centered along the channels themselves. This enigmatic relationship of cratering patterns to rille formation thus becomes a key to the electrical interpretation, with implications reaching far beyond Europa. What, then, of the unique coloring of the excavated material? Wallace Thornhill has suggested that the reddish coloring May be due to sulfur produced by a transmutation of elements: The electric field strength in an interplanetary thunderbolt could fuse two oxygen nuclei together into a sulfur nucleus. If the electrical transmutation principle is valid, this would be only one instance in a solar system filled with analogous events. Europas neighbor Io, the closest large moon to Jupiter, is drenched in sulfur, and here electrical transactions are obvious. It is probable that Io originally looked more like the other icy Galilean moons. See Picture of the Day, Dec 13, 2004 Io and the Greatest Surprise See also, Dec 17, 2004, Io's Volcanoes Blur Scientific Vision Concentrations of sulfur in Venuss atmosphere and in the surface of Mars would thus warrant investigation from an entirely new vantage point. And Earth could hardly be excluded. In ancient times, witnesses reported the fall of sulfur in connection with "the thunderbolts of the gods." The brimstone in the familiar phrase "fire and brimstone" means sulfur. Even to this day, widespread reports insist that a sulfurous stench follows in the wake of energetic lightning strikes. Rationalizations that the witnesses were "smelling ozone" have never been convincing to skeptics. The inspiration for this electrical interpretation came originally from maverick theorist Immanuel Velikovsky. But now independent research May be moving in the very direction indicated here. In 2002, Russian researchers L.I. Urutskoev, V.I. Liksonov, and V.G. Tsinoev, with the Kurchatov Institute, announced that their experiments with electric explosion in water produced "new chemical elements." Nothing preexisting in the experimental set-up could account for the presence of the elements detected after the electric discharge in water. The new scientific vistas of the "Electric Universe" have already reached into disciplines well beyond astronomy and planetary geology.
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Credit: NASA/JPL
Electrical Scars on Europa

(Mar 10, 2005)
Before spacecraft sent back images of Jupiters moons, planetary scientists expected to find rocky bodies covered with craters like our own Moon. The story of moon formation from collisions of planetary "leftovers" was still intact, and astronomers expected to find a pristine record of ancient impacts on the surfaces of the Jovian satellites. When Voyagers 1 and 2 reached Jupiters realm and began to capture images of its moon Europa, astronomers were surprised to detect the spectral signature of water ice. But nothing prepared them for the weirdness of Europas surface. The first Voyager images revealed a smooth whitish sphere crisscrossed with lines like a well-used skating rink. Science writers described it as "a surface that looked as if it had been clawed by a tiger with talons several kilometers wide." They called the surface "enigmatic" and "difficult to interpret in terms of mechanism" (above left). In May 1997, Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe wrote a letter about the channels to the scientific journal, Nature: "[The channels] have an almost uncanny persistence. They cross over each other, maintaining their identities over distances...very large compared to their individual widths." After favoring the analogy of a system of ropes, the authors asked the obvious question: "How did the ropes come to be laid in the complex pattern in which we now see them?" The letter was not published, but Hoyle and Wickramasinghe had asked a valid and crucial question. The rope-like and "paintbrush" features carved on the surface of Europa are characteristic of filamentary plasma discharges. Features in the "chaos" regions indicate that in the past Europa has been subjected to heating and to titanic sliding forces. The subsurface was melted and the grooved surface was broken into a jigsaw puzzle of angular and jumbled ice rafts. That the rafts did not melt suggests that the disturbances were short-lived (above right). Here the lines and clusters of lines often mismatch those on adjacent pieces. Using the unique pattern of grooves in their The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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surfaces as a key, many rafts can be traced to previous positions. But some lines plow across several pieces, unaffected by the underlying ridges, grooves and edges. Other lines and clusters of lines are sliced cleanly by lines running in different directions, but the former lines are not offset on the far side of the slice. If the lines were cracks from fracturing of the surface, later fractures that crossed earlier ones would cause the earlier ones to be offset. The larger channels on Europa travel thousands of kilometers along great circles without being diverted by the terrain. They maintain astonishingly consistent depths and widths over these immense distances. Whatever mechanism formed them must explain these fundamental observations. Repeated tidal cracking and compression of ice is too chaotic a process to explain them, but the Hoyle/Wickramasinghe analogy of ropes stretched between two points is remarkably apt. First impressions are often astute. They evoke insights before the beliefs about what is possible or impossible narrow perception. Another early description of the channels called them "sinuous rille-like features" because they resembled the sinuous rilles on the Moon. But the analogy was not pursued because rilles have traditionally been attributed to collapsed lava tubes. Some channels are up to 70 km wide and run over 3,000 km, or 30 percent of the distance around Europa. Yet they maintain parallel sides with a constant width and cross-section over almost the entire length. Tidal forces on tiny Europa, acting on the moons irregular surface relief, could not maintain a uniform displacement over such a distance. Only an electrical arc is known to create all the features actually observed. That Europa has "a surface that looked as if it had been clawed by a tiger with talons several kilometers wide" is a perfectly apt description of the effect of surface lightning as it tears great furrows for hundreds or thousands of kilometers, throwing material to either side to create levees. The surface electric currents would have induced short-lived subsurface electromagnetic induction heating as well, thus accounting for the ice rafts.
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Credit: Sun image: SOHO/ESA; Jupiter: Cassini/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/ESA.
The Smallest Star

(Mar 08, 2005)
The picture above illustrates the relative size, compared to the Sun and Jupiter, of a recently discovered star the smallest ever detected. Called OGLE-TR-122b, it is observed to cross in front of a Sun-like companion about once every seven days. The description of OGLE-TR122b is enigmatic. Though it is only 16% larger than the gas giant Jupiter, astronomers say it is 96 times as "massive." Astronomers describe the smallest star as a "core burning star," like our Sun. But prevailing theory never anticipated such a diminutive star, since the standard fusion model of stars required a minimum gravitating mass considerably greater than that of Jupiter. To account for the highly anomalous object, and in particular the induced wobble in the motion of its larger companion, astronomers simply accepted what their model implied. While OGLE-TR-122b is only 16 % larger than Jupiter, it must contain 96 times the mass of Jupiter, and 50 times the density of the Sun! Investigative team member, astronomer Claudio Melo of the European Southern Observatory in Santiago, Chile, summarizes the achievement of the small star this way: "Imagine that you add 95 times its own mass to Jupiter and nevertheless end up with a star that is only slightly larger The object just shrinks to make room for the additional matter, becoming more and more dense." But this hypothesized feat of "shrinking" or "super-condensing" matter is merely hypothetical. Nothing of the sort has ever been achieved in laboratory experiments, and no one has ever observed such a thing anywhere in the natural world. Were the feat not required to save a theory, astronomers would have surely called it a "violation of the self-evident laws of physics." Another viewpoint is now well established, however. In this view the calculations of the mass of this dwarf star are highly inflated. They do not take into account the strong electromagnetic forces between the small star and its larger parent star. Nor does it factor in our profound The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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ignorance of the nature of mass and gravity and its relationship to the electrical structure of matter. In the Electric Universe model, gravitational distortion of atoms within a star gives rise to atomic electric dipoles that align to form a radial internal electric field. The electric field produces charge separation within a star on a scale that not only prevents further compression but also causes "splitting" or "parturition" of a star in a nova outburst if it becomes electrically or gravitationally destabilized. The standard stellar model, however, relies on the interior of stars obeying the perfect gas laws; which allows astrophysicists to dismiss internal charge separation (as Eddington did in his seminal work, The Internal Constitution of the Stars). The result of electrical splitting is two energetic bodies of unequal size--a sun-like star and a smaller close-orbiting binary partner as we see in this example. The electric birth of the companion star or gas giant will place it much closer to its parent than traditional gravitybased models had ever envisioned, or even considered possible. OGLE-TR-122b is not a super-dense companion, but is merely subject to stronger electromagnetic interaction with its parent star, due to the nature of its birth. Where the electric force is active in this way, Newtonian calculations of mass and density will always produce bizarre results. Electrically, the standard "threshold mass" for a star is a meaningless concept. Stars do not have to ignite a fusion reaction in their core to produce their energy. They receive electrical power directly from cosmic Birkeland currents that thread the galaxy. And the nuclear reactions occur, not in the core, but in the bright photosphere of a star. (This is a testable claim if astronomers will ask the question). Unfortunately, when orthodox theorists confront the failure of Newtonian concepts, they often turn first to panaceas, proposing mere abstractions such as "dark matter," or "supercondensed, degenerate matter," to save their theory. To the cosmic electricians, these "computer games" have no relationship to the verifiable dynamics of the natural world.
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Credit: Upper left: Inset: laboratory arc, courtesy of John Dyer; lower left: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/comet/puckett4.html
Electric Arcs in Planetary Science

(Mar 07, 2005)
If youve been following our Picture of the Day, youve seen the electric arc on the upper left more than once on these pages. It comes to us from the website, "Sparks and Arcs," sponsored by John Dyer-http://www.johndyer.com/sparxarcs.html We also include above a photograph of the comet Hale-Bopp, enhanced to emphasize the rich filamentation of the comet tail. Electric Universe theorists identify comets as plasma discharge phenomena--negatively charged objects moving rapidly through the electric field of the Sun. Some advocates of the Electric Universe have devoted decades to investigating the human past, concluding that Earths environment was once bursting with electrical activity. They believe that just a few thousand years ago intense electrical events, associated with unstable planetary motions, provoked an outpouring of ancient myths and magical practices. These investigators hold that in ancient times stupendous cometary displays occurred. Dyers arc thus offers a useful analog to the ancient image of the comet-like star-goddess with fiery, serpentine, or wildly disheveled "hair." The "long-haired star" or "mane star" was, in fact, the most common symbol of the comet in the ancient world. (We shall return to this subject soon.) In previous TPODs weve noted the similarities between Dyers arc and scarring patterns on the planet Venus and on Saturns moon Enceladus. We do not believe the similarities are an accident. In the formative phases of our solar system, the surfaces of planets and moons were sculpted by global discharge events. One common pattern is the "Lichtenberg" form, which is the form of the arc shown above, when viewed on axis. See the Picture of the Day for February 16,2005 and for February 25, 2005 The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In periods of instability and upheaval, planets and moons were subjected to intense electrical arcing. Though this idea is certainly "off the map" of conventional theory, plasma cosmologists, together with growing numbers of "Electric Universe" advocates, argue that the actual history of the solar system does not resemble the popular textbook summary. Stars and planets are born in electrical events more powerful than anything gravity alone can create. As Hannes Alfvn, the father of plasma cosmology, stated to his colleagues: our local gravitational system is the "ashes" of a prior electrical system. The point is well illustrated by the close-up photo of the stupendous "volcano" Olympus Mons on Mars. In the electric model, Olympus Mons and other giant mounds on the Tharsis bulge are discharge "blisters" typical of those created by an electric discharge on a positively charged surface, or anode. The picture suggests an extended event on Mars in which electrons streamed in to the top of a huge mound that had been raised from the surface by the electric force. As the discharge event excavated a series of flat-bottomed craters on the summit, the summit became a regional focal point of negative charge within a larger positively charged surface. To achieve surface equilibrium, then, secondary discharging occurred between the "cauldron" of Olympus Mons and the surrounding region in a way analogous to the discharge of a negatively charged comet nucleus as it enters the positive region of the Sun's electric field. Thus, the finely filamented radiating "mane" is comparable to what we would see if we looked up the axis of John Dyer's lab discharge or the Hale-Bopp discharge shown above. Significantly, a virtually identical finely filamented mane is seen at the summit of Ascraeus Mons in the same region of Mars. In an electrical interpretation, charge redistribution will account for a repeated feature that otherwise has no coherent explanation.
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Credit: UH88/Nedachi et al.
Electrical Birthing of Stars

(Mar 04, 2005)
Popular ideas about star and planet formation have received a jolt from a recent peek into the womb of a newly forming star. The shock came from the European Space Agency's XMMNewton X-ray observatory as it peered into a star-forming region called R Corona Australis, about 500 light-years from Earth. The astronomers who investigated the region were well schooled in the standard "nebular hypothesis" of star and planet formation. The theory holds that stars are born in the "gravitational collapse" of vast precursor clouds over great spans of time. Based on their model, astronomers had assumed that the cloud was "between 10,000 to 100,000 years into the process of gathering itself together." Its temperature was estimated at 400 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 240 Celsius). Traditional theory says that millions of years will pass before the cloud has collapsed sufficiently to "ignite the nuclear fusion" of a new star. Investigators had not anticipated anything comparable to the events they observed. Extremely high energies were at work, strong enough to produce X-rays--something that could never occur in an inactive and diffuse cloud in space: " The detection of X-rays from the cold stellar precursor surprised astronomers," states a report by SPACE.com. "The detection of X-rays this early indicates that gravity alone is not the only force shaping young stars," said Kenji Hamaguchi, a NASA-funded researcher at the Goddard Space Flight Center. The gravity-driven universe is, of course, the bedrock of popular cosmology. Now it has failed another test. "The observations reveal that matter is falling toward the core 10 times faster than gravity could account for," the report states. According to Michael Corcoran of NASA Goddard, a co-author on the report: "The X-ray emission shows that forces appear to be accelerating matter to high The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive speeds, heating regions of this cold gas cloud to 100 million degrees Fahrenheit."
By comparison, the superheated corona of the Sun measures at about 2 million degrees Fahrenheit. What is happening inside R Corona Australis? The investigators concluded: "...some previously unrealized energetic process, likely related to magnetic fields, is superheating parts of the cloud, nudging it to become a star" Weve seen this many times before: a new discovery evokes statements of surprise, and magnetic fields are mysteriously factored in to save appearances--but with no mention of the electric currents that create magnetic fields. How does this happen? It happens because electricity is re-defining the physical universe, while conventional astronomers hold steadfastly to an electrically neutral, gravity-only universe. No official acknowledgement of this crisis has ever been issued by mainstream institutions. Yet without electric neutrality across the plasma of interstellar and intergalactic space, popular cosmology loses its foundation. Not only the gravity-based models, but everything conjured through the magic of gravitational mathematics (from dark matter and dark energy to black holes) will evaporate. There is a simple, readily observed, and easily testable physical process that accounts for the discoveries in R Corona Australis. Those who have studied plasma and electricity in the laboratory discuss the dynamic all the time. The work began with the Swedish experimental researcher Kristian Birkeland, and culminated in the pioneering lifes work of Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfvn, the father of plasma science. Alfvn, the researchers that worked with him, and such independent researchers today as Australian physicist Wallace Thornhill and retired professor of electrical engineering Donald Scott have offered numerous insights on the role of electricity in space. And their models have demonstrated exceptional predictive ability. Astrophysicists know that such clouds are slightly ionized. However, in the Electric Universe they are not everywhere charge neutral. As a result electric fields and currents exist within the cloud. These electric currents take the form of parallel filaments in twisted pairs, behaving like cosmic power transmission lines. The electromagnetic force between the filaments is the strongest long-range force in the universe since it falls off linearly with distance rather than with the square of the distance as does gravity. That is why matter is falling into core of the cloud "10 times faster than gravity could account for." Plasma cosmologists also understand that electric currents heat and accelerate gas to high speeds, generating intense magnetic fields. And in electromagnetic "z-pinches" along these current filaments, plasma instabilities generate copious x-rays! The more we learn about the cosmos the less it looks like the picture still taught in school. But without vigilance old theories become an ideology and persist far beyond their usefulness.
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Credit: BBC-- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/4288633.stm
Just Add "Dark Matter"

(Mar 03, 2005)
In the picture above, something not seen in the inscribed circle has astronomers excited. At an estimated 50 million light-years from Earth, they found a large mass of hydrogen a hundred million times the mass of the Sun--a galaxy of sorts, but containing no stars. Hydrogen gas releases radiation that can be detected at radio wavelengths. Using radio telescopes in England and Puerto Rico, a team of investigators detected the massive cloud in the Virgo Cluster. They named it "VIRGOHI21." The challenge they faced began with the fact that the cloud is rotating way too fast, in apparent defiance of gravity. Without some other force acting on the cloud it should fly apart. The astronomers assumed this fast rotation must be a gravitational effect of something not visible. As reported in the BBC story on the discovery, "there must be a stronger gravitational force acting than can be accounted for using visible matter." But this is the same problem posed by galaxies: they rotate too fast for gravity to hold them together. Due to the similarities in rotational dynamics, the investigators of VIRGOHI21 concluded that the remote cloud is a starless "galaxy," held together by the same invisible stuff that they now claim holds all galaxies together--"dark matter." To give their mathematical models of galaxies integrity, astronomers envision a universe of invisible matter at least five times as voluminous as visible matter. So theyve applied the same theories to the hydrogen cloud, except that the proportions of dark matter are much larger. The theorists were not constrained by any consideration other than the calculation of invisible "mass" using their gravitational equations. In this case, however, adding just a little dark matter would not suffice. According to Dr Robert Minchin, of Cardiff University: "From its speed, we realised that VIRGOHI21 was a thousand times more massive than could be accounted for by the observed hydrogen atoms alone." [Emphasis ours] The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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One might have thought the investigators would pause in the face of such proportions. To get the results they were looking for, they posited a thousand times more invisible matter than visible matter, with the freedom to place the invisible stuff wherever it is needed for their gravitational equations to work. Is such a leap of faith permissible? The investigators confidence was undimmed. As reported by Dr Jon Davies, one of the Cardiff team members: "The Universe has all sorts of secrets still to reveal to us, but this shows that we are beginning to understand how to look at it in the right way. It's a really exciting discovery." It sounds as if a leap of faith produced an "exciting" scientific breakthrough. But this is the kind of "breakthrough" that causes plasma cosmologists to wonder aloud about the state of science today. They know all too well that it does not take "dark matter" to produce the rapid rotation of a vast hydrogen cloud. Even the weakest electric fields imaginable can routinely achieve such results over vast distances. And since magnetic fields and filamentation--the most direct pointers to electric currents--appear everywhere we look in space, the experts on plasma and electricity are growing increasingly impatient with a "science" unwilling to consider the obvious. Contribution by Michael Armstrong
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The electric force is never mentioned in astronomy although it is the most powerful force in Nature. It is dismissed because simplistic electrostatic models do not match observations. Yet plasma cosmologists are able to successfully match electrodynamic models to observations without conjuring invisible matter and inventing new forces. Credit: Wal Thornhill
Of Pith Balls and Plasma

(Mar 01, 2005)
A common mistake when first trying to understand the Electric Universe is to think in terms of electrostatics. Experiments with pith balls in Freshman Physics Lab come to mind. With a little imagination--and by plugging larger numbers into the equations--a model of "the pith ball sun" can be constructed. This model is not too different from the familiar gravitational model. Most of the underlying assumptions are preserved: an isolated body at equilibrium; a point force distributed spherically (decreasing with the square of the distance from the point); conditions of isotropy, continuity and homogeneity. The central pith ball, if positively charged, will repel positive ions, generating a "wind" that accelerates away from the ball, much as is observed with the solar "wind." And the pith ball will attract electrons: Because they are so much less massive than ions, they could be accelerated to relativistic velocities. With sufficient velocity, their collision with the pith ball could account for its luminosity. But spacecraft have not found any relativistic electrons. And the solar wind seems to be composed of nearly equal numbers of positive ions and negative electrons. And the ions practically stop accelerating by the time they reach the orbit of the Earth. And most of the solar wind is confined to the Suns equatorial plane. And many more items could be listed where the pith ball model doesnt correspond with observations. The Electric Universe model is based on electrodynamics. And not simply on Freshman Physics electrodynamics from a textbook but on the electrical behavior of plasma as observed in laboratories and by spacecraft. Understanding actual plasma behavior requires rejecting familiar presuppositions: Bodies immersed in plasma arent isolated; they are The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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connected by circuits. They often arent at equilibrium; most astronomical bodies are radiating energy because they are in unstable conditions and are moving toward equilibrium. Currents in plasma contract into linear filaments; and the force between filaments decreases linearly with distance, which makes it the most powerful long-range force in the universe. Plasma divides into cells that are separated by capacitor-like double layers; and this ensures that plasma phenomena are characterized by conditions of non-isotropy, discontinuity and inhomogeneity. Assumptions and deductions imported from the "already known" of gravitational theory will lead to confusion and absurdity. As astronomer Halton Arp said in another context: "Sometimes its better not to know one wrong thing than to know a hundred things that are right." The first step in understanding electricity in space is to set aside theories and to gain empirical familiarity with real plasma behavior. It is a step advocated by the father of plasma physics, Hannes Alfvn, in his 1970 Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
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Protostar HH-34 lies about 1500 light-years away in the Orion Nebula star-forming region. Some features of HH34 are understoodsome are not. At the core of Herbig-Haro 34 lies a seemingly typical young star. This star, though, somehow ejects energetic "bullets" of high-energy particles. Credit: FORS Team, 8.2-meter VLT, ESO. Inset is another jet, trillions of kilometers long, showing its corkscrew nature. Inset: HH-47 Star Jet, NASA, HST, WFPC 2, J. Morse
A Peek at Star Formation

(Feb 28, 2005)
We see stars. Then we ask questions: What are they? Where do they come from? We cant get close enough to find direct answers, so we recall things we already know that appear similar or at least relevant. Weve had pretty good luck explaining things with gravity and ideal gas laws. Perhaps we could start with an extended cloud of hydrogen (we have to start with something) floating somewhere among the x-, y- and z-axes of a coordinate system. We could let a force act from the center of mass (we know the equations for a point force). We could crank the numbers through the equations and see what happens: The cloud contracts. The temperature rises. The radiation pressure increases until it balances with the gravitational force from the point. (We must do this slowly in order to maintain equilibrium conditions: Otherwise discontinuities might arise and our continuous equations would no longer be relevant.) The equations tell us how much the cloud has collapsed and what shape it is and what the temperature is: The cloud has become a sphere the size of a star, and its hot enough, provided we assume quantum tunneling effects, at that central point to sustain energyproducing fusion reactions that transform hydrogen into helium. The equations have many variables that can be tuned to match the energy output of stars. The fusion reactions should produce neutrinos: We check and find neutrinos. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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But then we keep looking, and we find things that the equations didnt predict: There are only half as many neutrinos as there should be. And there are magnetic fields, which, as far as we know, are "frozen" into the gaseous cloud and therefore wont let it contract. We can adjust the equations; we can introduce ad hoc exceptions; we can save the theory. But after a while all the adjustments and exceptions get cumbersome. Occasionally they even contradict each other. Some of our colleagues begin considering alternative theories. For a time we can keep them in line with threats of refusing grants and denying publication. Then one day we peek at an alternative theory... Instead of a cloud of hydrogen in 3-D coordinates theres an electric circuit in plasma. Birkeland cables carry power from somewhere to somewhere else: The center of interest is a cosmic power surge through interstellar plasma that evolves through a series of instabilities. The plasma along the current axis pinches into a stack of cells similar to "bead lightning." The cells become toroidal and then spherical. Long-range electromagnetic forces efficiently pull in matter from the surrounding space and compact it into spheroids. The spiraling force in the Birkeland current sets the spheroids spinning. As the energy dissipates and the current wanes, the spheroids are no longer held by the axial force: They shoot off in random directions. But theyre still carrying some of the current. If the current increases again, the internal electrical stress explodes them into two or more pieces, which are also spheroidal by virtue of gravity and the electrical pressure on them. If there is a resonance in the circuit, it May show up as an oscillation in a spheroids luminosity. This theory predicts that stars should form along axial filaments that have some helical structure: We observe Herbig-Haro stars (see image above) with long, twisted, knotty "jets" emerging from their poles. This theory predicts that some stars should vary in luminosity with periods that could range from weeks to fractions of a second: We observe variable stars that dim and brighten over a few days to a few hours. We observe pulsars that flash radiation up to thousands of times a second. This theory predicts that many stars should be binary or multiple systems and that many should have close-orbiting gas-giant planets around them: We observe an abundance of multiple star systems and quite a few gas giants in close orbits. This theory predicts no lower size limit to stellar behavior since all bodies receive external electrical power. We observe low mass brown dwarfs flaring and powerfully emitting x-rays. This theory is verified. We decide to try it, and after a while we forget the first theory. Then come the personal questions: Will we keep looking? When anomalies are discovered, as they surely will be, how long will we adjust this new theory and make exceptions? How will we treat our colleagues who consider another alternative? Will we also peek at that novel theory?
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Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute. Inset: laboratory arc, courtesy of John Dyer.
Electric Scars on Enceladus

(Feb 25, 2005)
The traditional geologic toolkit is largely confined to observed events on Earth. Traditional geology has, in fact, excluded the one formative process whose signature can be found everywhere in the solar system and in deep space. Electric discharge offers the most direct and complete explanation of the scarring patterns observed globally on Enceladus. The picture above shows just a portion of a mosaic produced from four high-resolution Cassini images of Saturns moon Enceladus, taken on February 16, 2005. Investigators on the Cassini team say the picture "shows the myriad of faults, fractures, folds, troughs and craters that make this Saturnian satellite especially intriguing to planetary scientists." The section of the mosaic shown above is dominated by what the Cassini investigators call "a broad belt of complex, interwoven fractures." It did not take long for planetary scientists to identify these extraordinary surface features as "fractures." What else could they be? The traditional geologic toolkit is largely confined to observed events on Earth. Though Earth offers greater geologic diversity than any other body in the solar system, the limitations of earth-based doctrines quickly become transparent as planetary scientists confront alien landscapes and stark surface features never anticipated by textbook theory. Traditional geology has, in fact, excluded the one formative process whose signature can be found everywhere in the solar system and in deep space. Electric discharge offers the most direct and complete explanation of the scarring patterns observed globally on Enceladus. For years, those who favor the Electric Universe hypothesis have called for systematic comparison of textbook geology and electrical discharge scarring theories. They believe that evidence already in hand is definitive, if we will simply look at pictures objectively. Electric The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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arcs excavate surfaces in ways that cannot be duplicated by any other geologic process. Grooves and trenches left by arcs will typically reveal little or no residual material within the trenches, as if a claw simply descended from above to scoop material away. Arcs can produce entwining rope-like trenches (as in "Lichtenberg figures)," where undulating discharge filaments move across a surface without regard for the effects of prior arcing. The surface gouges and trenches can be produced without the lateral surface movement required by fracturing. A comparison of explanations becomes easy. Does the picture above reveal any lateral displacement (which will show up most obviously where one trench angles across another)? Can observed fracturing in laboratory experiments, or anywhere on earth, produce the entwining braids seen on the surface of Enceladus? As shown by the inset photo of a John Dyer experiment, electric arcs can take precisely the form of these surface patterns. It is only reasonable, therefore, to ask the question: Can the electric arc account for mysterious surface features on Enceladus that have left planetary scientists groping in the dark? See more John Dyer arcs at-http://www.johndyer.com/sparxarcs.html
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Credit: Robert Mallozzi (UAH, MSFC) Inset: Kevin Hurley (Space Sciences Laboratory), Ulysses
Magnetars--A Computer's Dream World

(Feb 24, 2005)
A magnetar is an invention derived from a computer, not something actually seen in the sky. What astronomers actually see are intense magnetic fields that pulsate in seconds or even in fractions of a second. And occasionally, sometimes repeatedly, magnetars emit a burst of gamma rays. From 50,000 light years away and for a tenth of a second, the most energetic burst ever detected momentarily outshone the full moon. So astronomers asked a computer if it could produce something like this extraordinary event using a model based only on the forces of gravity and magnetism. Freed from the world of observation and experiment, the computer program hummed and churned, initially constructing a picture of a highly magnetized and rapidly spinning "neutron star" or "pulsar" (above). To explain the rapid pulsations, the computer extrapolated normal rotation rates of star-sized bodies down to objects compressed to a few kilometers diameter. And it was programmed with an additional unwarranted speculation. The program assumed that gamma ray bursts happen when "star quakes" disturb the solid surface of the neutron star and cause the magnetic field lines to snap apart and "reconnect" again. Had no one informed the computer of Hannes Alfvns admonitionthat magnetic reconnection was "pseudoscience"? (See link below for more on "magnetic reconnection.") Plasma cosmologists, whose training is in electric circuits in plasma, do not ask their computers the questions asked by astronomers. Since 99% of the universe is composed of plasma, could the electrical behavior of plasma in the laboratory and in nearby space explain the observations of a magnetar? Plasma cosmologists know that magnetic fields don't stand alone, but are induced by electric currents. There must be an intense electric current feeding the magnetar, and this feeder current must be part of a circuit, since every electric circuit must close. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The electric model has no need for "super-fast rotation" of a collapsed star. Observed pulsations are the effect of resonances arising within the circuit. The occasional high-energy explosion is the release of stored electrical energy in a "double layer." Double layers are capacitor-like structures that form wherever current flows in plasma. They are regions where the magnetohydrodynamic model used by astronomers breaks down because they have almost no magnetic properties. And since the exploding double layer draws energy from the entire circuit, the explosion can be far more energetic than expected from the energy locally present in the star. Plasma cosmologists study double layers regularly in their labs, and they recognize them in solar flares. They do not see objects in space as electrically neutral and isolated. The energetic signature of the observed outbursts matches the characteristic signature of electric discharge. The outburst begins with a sudden peak of energy, and then declines gradually. (See insert of a Ulysses satellite record of a magnetar's explosive event). In contrast, the model for "magnetic reconnection" called for a long, low and steady energy release. Of course both explanations May be sound in a purely mathematical sense. But one is rooted in observation and experiment, while the other relies almost exclusively on mathematics divorced from physical principles and is often contradicted by actual experience. So this approach with the exclusively magnetic model has consistently failed to predict the actual path of discovery. The electric universe explanation rests on recognition of the electrical properties of plasma and on the scalability of plasma phenomena. It implies that electric discharge behavior observed on Earth and in the solar system has analogies on a macrocosmic scale, a prediction now confirmed by the pervasive signature of electric currents in deep space: magnetic fields, pulsations and explosive flares. Since gravity is trivially weak in comparison to the electric force, it can only account for observed high-energy electrical effects through such mathematical conjectures as "collapsed super-dense matter" and "magnetic reconnection." The mathematically conjured physical conditions have no analogies in anything seen in high-energy experimentsnot even in the most sophisticated laboratories. And magnetic reconnection defies both logic and the principles of physics. For this reason, plasma cosmologists find the popular leap of faith to be extremely dubious.
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The original photograph has been withdrawn at the demand of the photographer. The graphic here just shows the altitude of the disaster, along with an electrical interpretation of the withdrawn photograph.
Space Shuttle Struck by Megalightning?

(Feb 23, 2005)
It has now been more than two years since the fiery destruction of the shuttle Columbia on February 1, 2003. The disaster killed all seven astronauts on board and dealt one of the most severe blows ever to Americas space program. But as astronauts now prepare to ride another shuttle into space, few Americans are aware of the most critical issue raised by the Columbia disaster. Did a super-bolt of lightning--called "megalightning"--strike Columbia, causing the breakup of the craft? Shocking evidence that this is so includes the image above, taken from the TV program "Megalightning." It shows a purplish corkscrew trail of "something" merging with the ionized plasma trail of Columbia early in its descent, while Columbia was still 63 kilometers above the earth. One might have expected this image to catch the attention of media around the world. But before that could happen, both the camera and the photograph were examined by NASA scientists. Most shocking was the explanation given by experts who examined the photograph. They said that the luminous corkscrew trail was an "artefact" caused by a camera wobble. The explanation left critics aghast, since the Columbia trail in the photo is crisp with no evidence of camera movement. Nor is any wobble evident in other similar photographs taken at the time. The explanation relegates to "coincidence" the fact that the Columbia trail brightens precisely at its juncture with the corkscrew trail. This brightening is an electrically predictable occurrence when two plasma channels merge. Proponents of the "Electric Universe" have maintained for many years that ideology within The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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official science has limited the ability of working scientists to look at pictures objectively, to see what would otherwise be obvious. Popular doctrines say that Earth is a neutral body in the neutral environment of the Sun. When lightning strikes, its source must lie in the mysterious ability of clouds and temperature gradients to "separate charge." A bolt of lightning in the rarified atmosphere 63 kilometers above the earth is unthinkable within this framework. Therefore, the alleged lightning strike on Columbia could not have happened. Alternative viewpoints do not suffer from these limitations. In the Electric Universe, our Earth is an integral part of solar system circuitry, fed by currents streaming along our arm of the Milky Way. An electric field between Earths surface and the ionosphere, separated by an insulating layer of atmosphere, is responsible for thunderstorms. In weather conditions favoring breakdown of this insulation, electric currents leak through the atmospheric layer (in the fashion of a "leaky capacitor"), creating the electrical displays we see in thunderstorms. And this is why, far above thunderstorms, meteorologists have discovered powerful discharges called "red sprites" and "blue jets" reaching many kilometers into the ionosphere. In fact, electrical interactions associated with powerful thunderstorms have now been traced outward to the Van Allen Belt. Since the discharge of a sprite is diffused over a large area, meteorologists have doubted that a sprite could damage aircraft. But here is how Wallace Thornhill, a pioneer of the Electric Universe hypothesis, views the issue: "The electromagnetic "pinch" effect will ensure that the energy of that sprite will be focused onto any large electrical conductor that blunders into its domain as we see in the time-lapse photograph. The brightening of Columbias trail where the lightning joined it is due to the sudden release of energy in the more dense plasma of that trail. It is that kind of energy that was released over a few square centimeters of Columbias wing. Temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees would have resulted. The Shuttles tiles are designed to withstand 2900 C." This is where Professor Edgar Bering, a physicist at the University of Houston in Texas, comes in. He heads a team from NASA's National Scientific Balloon Facility to study sprites by flying a high-altitude balloon above major thunderstorms. His work, preceding the Columbia disaster, led to some surprising conclusions about sprites. He found that the charge released in sprites is not generated within the clouds, but lies in the mesosphere above the thunderstorms. And the energy is far greater than previously thought. But according to Thornhill, all of the data will fall into place if the charge in the mesosphere "comes from space via the ionosphere above," not from charge separation within the clouds below. It will then make sense that Bering found the current released in a sprite to be around 12,000 amperes, rather than the 3,000 amperes predicted by conventional models of cloudgenerated charge. It does not appear, however, that NASA scientists have followed Berings discovery to its logical conclusion: "None of the existing models will survive when people finally pay attention to what our data actually says," Bering writes. If the fate of Columbia was indeed the result of megalightning, then scientific misperception has cost human lives. And it is now placing other lives at risk as well.
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Credit: Jane C. Charlton (Penn State ) et al., HST, ESA, NASA
Ultra Luminous Astronomy (2)

(Feb 22, 2005)
In yesterday's Picture of the Day, we looked at ULIRG's -- Ultra Luminous Infra Red Galaxies. From the viewpoint of astronomer Halton Arp's intrinsic redshift, these are galaxies whose luminosity has been bloated from "normal" or "under luminous" to "ultra luminous" because they are believed to be much farther away than they actually are. Today we will look at ULX's -- Ultra Luminous X-ray objects. The distance of these objects is not in question -- they lie within the disk of galaxies whose distances are known. The problem is that they give off more x-rays than anything known to reside inside a galaxy, even a supernova explosion. Astronomical speculation suggests that they must be binary systems with a black hole and a normal star orbiting together. However, on the night of October 2, 2003, a group of astronomers took the spectrum of the ULX in the above Hubble Telescope photo of Stephan's Quintet (the ULX is the tiny bright spot indicated by the arrow). That spectrum showed a redshift that identified the ULX as a high redshift quasar, something that belongs far in the background of a big bang universe, but is right where it belongs in an intrinsic redshift universe. Halton Arp, who has been ostracized for 30 years for criticizing the big bang, said: "...nothing could convey the excitement of sitting in the Keck10 meter control room and seeing that beautiful z = 2.11 [high redshift] spectrum unfold on the screen." This is the most direct evidence yet that the redshift = distance relationship doesn't work. [And without the redshift = distance relationship, the big bang also fails.] Arp concluded that most, if not all, of the ULX's will turn out to be nearby quasars in the process of being ejected from active galaxies. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Arp's colleague, Geoffrey Burbidge, designed a test of Arp's hypothesis. He looked at 24 quasars that are unusually close to active galaxies. If he pretended that he didn't know that they were quasars (that is, he pretended that he didn't know they had a high redshift), then all 24 of them met all of the criteria of "standard" ULX's. The only question left is how long it will take for cosmologists everywhere to realize that the big bang was a big fizzle? It's a whole new universe out there.
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Credit: R. Thompson (U. Arizona ) et al., NICMOS, HST, NASA
Ultra Luminous Astronomy

(Feb 21, 2005)
Over the last decade, the acronym UL has been creeping into the field of cosmology. It has the impressive meaning of "ultra-luminous" or "beyond bright." In at least two categories, this superlative is a distortion caused by the theoretical interpretation of observations rather than a direct description of observations. Take the case of ULIRGs -- Ultra Luminous Infra Red Galaxies. Arp 220, pictured above, is the brightest of the ULIRGs. (Astronomer Halton Arp compiled the Catalogue of Peculiar Galaxies, in which this object is number 220.) The standard interpretation calculates its distance by the amount its spectral lines are shifted toward longer wavelengths (redshift). To be this bright at that distance, it must be generating light far more copiously than any other astronomical body. Hence, it is "ultra-luminous. "Proponents of the standard interpretation speculate that the excess energy is produced by a collision of two galaxies behind an obscuring cloud of gas and dust. But if redshift were caused by some mechanism intrinsic to the body, Arp220 could be close enough to be of normal luminosity. If it were even closer, it might be "Under-Luminous." Do we have any evidence that Arp 220 is closer than its redshiftdistance -- other than the fact that it appears too bright for conventional astronomical theories of how galaxies should work? The evidence is there, but it takes a couple of steps to understand. For the past few years, astronomer Margaret Burbidge has been using her telescope time to study discordant redshift associations. In 2001,she, Halton Arp and the Chinese astronomer, Y. Chu, published a paper about the objects in the vicinity of Arp 220. They discovered two pairs of quasars flanking the nucleus north and south of Arp 220. In addition another double pair of quasars forms an s-shaped line to the east and west of Arp 220. And there is a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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previously discovered "background cluster" of four tiny galaxies that just happen to fall in a straight line pointing directly at the nucleus of Arp 220. The conventional explanation for these discordant-redshift associations is that the quasars and galaxies are grouped together by coincidence. The extreme improbability of that being the case is overlooked. The second step is to notice that the discordant-redshift objects tend to occur in pairs that have about the same redshift and that are located symmetrically on opposite sides of the primary object's nucleus. Furthermore, the redshifts of these pairs tend to decrease in welldemarked steps with distance from the primary object. To believe "background objects" could be so arranged by chance is to abandon discernment. Arp interprets these associations as family groups. All are located in the vicinity of the primary body. The higher-redshift bodies have been ejected from the lower-redshift bodies. As the ejected bodies age and grow into normal galaxies, their luminosities increase and their redshifts decrease. Rather than being a coincidental clump, they are an evolving population of genetically linked objects. If the observed stepwise redshift is intrinsic to associations of galaxies and quasars, there is no reason to prefer a redshift-determined distance to a luminosity-determined distance. The observed luminosity of Arp 220 would place it much closer, not only in distance from us but also in correspondence with known processes of energy production. Similar considerations with regard to other ULIRGs would negate UL astronomy and the big bang cosmology, which depends on redshift being an indicator of distance, that gave rise to it.
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Credit: NASA/JPL Galileo NIMS team
Electric Venus and Oil-Lamp Physics

(Feb 18, 2005)
Modern astrophysics is trying to explain electric lights with theories born in the oil-lamp era. The laws of electromagnetism have been known for nearly 200 years and the physics of plasma behavior have been worked out over the past century. But the physics of astronomy seems transfixed by a kind of Puritan faith in oil-lamp era mechanics and gravity. The case of Venus is illuminating: Astronomers probe the atmosphere and surface with the latest electronic sensors. The returned signals indicate conditions typical of the interior of a gas discharge tube. But astronomers tie themselves into knots of contradiction and futility trying to explain the electric data with concepts of greenhouses and smog. The Pioneer probes experienced internal overloads and sparking at 12 km altitude as if they had become "coated with plasma." The Magellan orbiter detected "high radar reflectivity" of mountain peaks, also typical of a "plasma coating" like St. Elmos fire. Although measurements from outside the atmosphere indicated that only 2% of the sunlight striking the cloud tops makes it to the surface, surface probes show a brightly lit landscape as if the sky were glowing. The astronomer, Garry Hunt, half-jokingly suggested that "The Venusians May well be glowing from the nearly continuous discharges of those frequent lightning strokes." Measurements reveal that Venus radiates twice the energy it receives from the sun. The internal heat of Venus ensures that the temperature of each layer of the atmosphere is uniform from pole to pole and from dayside to nightside, despite Venuss slow rotation. Cloud movements show a 4-day rotation period of the upper atmosphere at the equator, which declines to 2 days towards the poles. Within the framework of standard theory, no force is present to drive the upper winds around the planet at such a speed, since Venus' itself has a rotational period of 243 days retrograde and the planet's lower winds are exceptionally sluggish. Since the planet is the same temperature overall there is no temperature gradient to The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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A heated interior will cause a periodic global expansion and collapse of the atmosphere as it transfers heat energy through the clouds to space. The mechanism is analogous to the bouncing of a lid on a kettle of boiling water. In 1972 it was discovered that Venuss cloud deck moves up and down through 1 km over a 4-day period. Such a phenomenon requires considerable energy input something that is difficult to account for on a very slowly rotating planet if solar energy is the only source. This 'breathing' was later confirmed by the Magellan orbiter, which underwent variable atmospheric braking with a 4-day cycle at the lowest point of its orbit. So if Venuss atmosphere is being lit, heated and driven electrically, where are the "wires" feeding current into it? Probes have discovered that the planet has no significant magnetic field and no magnetosphere. But it has an ionosphere laced with "Birkeland current ropes" of electric current from the solar "wind" and a plasma tail composed of Birkeland currents ("stringy things" in the jargon of astrophysics). As Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfvn has described, Birkeland currents act as "power cables," transmitting electrical energy over vast distances. From an Electric Universe point of view, the galactic circuit that powers the sun generates a "leakage current" across Venus. The planet and its atmosphere act as a load in the circuit, converting some of the energy into heat, light and motion. The image above is an infrared map in false color of lower-level clouds on Venuss night side. It shows the radiant heat from the lower atmosphere shining through dark clouds of sulfuric acid. An electric explanation for Venuss anomalous light, heat and atmospheric motion is to be preferred after realizing that the solar system is composed mostly of plasma instead of the smoke of oil lamps.
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Left: a laboratory arc. Right: The Mokos Nova now renamed "Tsan Nu Mons" in Phoebe Regio of Venus. The scale across the image is about 560 km. Credit: Left: courtesy of John Dyer. Right: NASA/JPL/Magellan Team
Electric Scars on Venus

(Feb 16, 2005)
Perhaps the fastest way to understand the surface features on rocky bodies in the solar system is to look at the behavior of electric arcs. How does the electric discharge behave in different conditions, and what are the effects on different surface materials? The beautiful arc on the left above is provided by John Dyer, who has experimented with arc formations for many years. On the right is an analogous "coronal" feature on the surface of Venus. The complexity of the "fine brushstroke" pattern has provoked exclamations of wonder. Some planetary scientists refer to the filamented striations as "cracks" or "graben" caused by upwelling sub-surface lava. But the pattern is typical of massive scarring across the entire equatorial region of Venus. The lava must be welling up around the entire circumference of the planet like air being blown into a balloon! In the electric hypothesis, these coronal features are sinuous rilles, spidery filaments of "Lichtenberg figures" created by planet-wide discharge. Ancient peoples around the world knew the planet as "the long-haired" or "fiery-haired" star. On this basis alone one would find the similarity between Dyers electric arc and the surface feature of Venus to be predictable. Electric arcs, similar to John Dyers arc but scaled up to the size of continents, flared across Venuss surface and etched their thread-line forms into the rock. Dyers arc also bears close similarities to the tails of comets. This convergence of form and theory from laboratory to comet to ancient description provides new insight into the ancient insistence that the planet Venus was once a brilliant and terrifying form in the heavens, its long-flowing and disheveled "hair" streaming across the sky. (See forthcoming TPODs.) For more exceptional pictures of electrical arcing: http://www.johndyer.com/sparxarcs.html The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Credit: WMAP Science Team, NASA
Temperature of Space
(Feb 15, 2005)
The discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) is popularly believed to prove the Big Bang. That proof is spot on--if you allow a big enough spot. One of the first predictions was that it would indicate a "temperature of space" of 5 Kelvin (5K). That prediction was revised upward until it reached 50K shortly before the CMBR was discovered. When the discovery measured it to be only 2.7K, the Big Bang proponents claimed it and ignored the size of the spot required to cover the gap. They also ignored a long history of other predictions from other theories that required much tinier spots. In 1896, Charles Edouard Guillaume predicted a temperature of 5.6K from heating by starlight. Arthur Eddington refined the calculations in 1926 and predicted a temperature of 3K. Regener predicted 2.8 in 1933. The first astronomer to collect observations from which the temperature of space could be calculated was Andrew McKellar. In 1941 he announced a temperature of 2.3K from radiative excitation of certain molecules. But World War II occupied everyone's attention and his paper was ignored. George Gamow, credited with the prediction from Big Bang assumptions, estimated 5K in 1948. In the 1950s he raised that estimate to 10K, and by 1961 he was predicting 50K, overlooking McKellar's prior measurement and another measurement of 3K by Tigran ShmaoNov in 1955. Meanwhile, in 1954, Finlay-Freundlich predicted 1.9K to 6K on the basis of "tired light" assumptions. The discovery of the excess temperature of 3.5 +/- 1K by Penzias and Wilson in 1965 can be claimed as proof of the Big Bang only by applying a cognitive spot that obliterates over half a century of history. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Credit: Halton Arp, Seeing Red
Big Bang Distortions

(Feb 14, 2005)
Halton Arp's intrinsic redshift observations contradict the big bang's assumption that redshift is a measure of distance (and thus of age; the higher the redshift, the farther away from us and the closer to the beginning of the universe). Can this contradiction be tested? Three clues should be obvious: if redshift is distorting distance, then size, energy and distribution will all be systematically out of proportion as well. We covered one instance of energy distortion in the Aug 20, 2004 TPOD, "How Big is a Gamma Ray Burst?" Arp showed that high and low redshift objects are clustered together in family groupings, so the errors introduced to the distance calculations should be proportionally larger as the redshift becomes higher. So the distortions should be greatest at the highest redshifts. In other words, when reading mainstream astronomy, you would expect to come across comments like: "Gamma ray bursts in the early universe were much stronger than more recent gamma ray bursts." One observation of a nearby faint gamma ray burst doesn't guarantee a distortion. It might actually BE a fainter burst. But there is more. The distribution of galaxies is also distorted by mistaking redshift for distance. This results in an odd-looking universe where streams of galaxies appear to point at the Earth from every direction. We covered this type of distortion in the Oct 18th TPOD "Fingers of God." The third type of distortion that should appear by believing that galaxies and galaxy groups are farther away than they actually are is a distortion of size. The above image juxtaposes two galaxies at the sizes they would be if they are at their conventional redshift distances. The low-redshift M81 (inset) is one of the largest nearby spiral galaxies. The higher-redshift NGC 309 (large image), an otherwise normal-appearing spiral, has been distorted so much by The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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assuming that it's at its redshift distance that it appears to swallow M81 in one of its arms. Like Ptolemy's epicycles, these distortions disappear when we refocus our vision to accept the way these galaxies are distributed as the more accurate measure of distance, and reject the "first guess" hypothesis that redshift equals distance that has dominated astronomy for 80 years.
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Credit: Lopez-Corredoira and Gutierrez 2002
Thirty Years Later

(Feb 11, 2005)
"It seems likely that redshift May not be due to an expanding Universe, and much of the speculations on the structure of the universe May require re-examination." -- Edwin Hubble, PASP, 1947) "The evidence that many objects previously believed to be at great distances are actually much closer confronts us with the most drastic possible revision of current concepts." -- Halton Arp. One of the more famous of those "many objects" is the galaxy imaged above, NGC 7603. Its fame is due to Fred Hoyle selecting it to illustrate his 1973 Russell Lecture before the American Astronomical Society. He referred to its connection with a higher-redshift companion as prototypical of observations that required an advance in physics beyond currently accepted theories. For the first time in the history of the prestigious Russell Lectures, the Astrophysical Journal didn't publish the address. The advance in physics that Hoyle anticipated was an explanation for the ubiquitous shift toward longer wavelengths of the lines in galaxies' spectra. For over 70 years astronomers have insisted that such redshift was an indicator of distance. NGC 7603, with a redshift of .029, was 400 million light years away, and the companion, with a redshift of .057, was 780 million light years away--almost twice as far. The filament connecting the two had to be only apparent, a chance alignment of a foreground galaxy with a distant one. But that facile dismissal of evidence strained one's confidence in coincidence. NGC 7603 was a Seyfert galaxy, a class of galaxies characterized by their activity, especially the activity of ejecting material such as this companion. And the interior of NGC 7603 was torn up: There The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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was no other galaxy nearby, except the companion, to exert that kind of influence. And the unusual single arm ended on the companion--exactly what one would expect of an ejected, or even of a passing, galaxy. Straining coincidence even further was the observation that the companion had a deformed shape and a bright rim around it. The rim brightened exactly at the point of connection with the filament from NGC 7603. If it were admitted that these two galaxies were physically connected, it would have to be conceded that at least some of the redshift in spectra was intrinsic, due to an unknown mechanism, and not an indication of distance. The theoretical edifice of the expanding universe and the Big Bang would be undermined if not demolished. The carefully built up map of the universe would have to be scrapped. If astronomy were a science, astronomers would have made the investigation of anomalous redshifts and the discovery of an intrinsic redshift mechanism their top priority. Instead, they reacted by not publishing Hoyle's lecture and by denying telescope time to follow-up studies of NGC 7603. Arp noted: "It is a rare occasion when a person, even a scientist, is able to really look at a picture without forcing it into a frame of prior reference." For 30 years institutional astronomy has buried its head in the sands of denial. But in 2002, two astronomers at La Palma took spectra of the galaxies and the connecting filament. They not only confirmed the discrepancy in redshifts of the galaxies but also discovered that the two quasar-like objects embedded in the filament (objects 2 and 3) have even greater discrepancies in redshift. If redshift indicated distance, the small objects would be 7 and 11 times farther away than NGC 7603. To dismiss this alignment as coincidence is to breathe sand. On the 30th anniversary of Hoyle's lecture, Arp wrote: "I now personally regret that a generation has passed and we are further than ever from making that advance."
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Credit: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, JPL, NASA
Electric Meteorites?
(Feb 09, 2005)
We tend to think of the advance of scientific knowledge as a cumulative activity. A careless acceptance of this plausible thought will cause us to blink at the side steps that intermittently redirect the attention of scientists. There are times when the emergence of knowledge slows, and stops, and re-emerges some distance away in another form. New facts can transform old facts into different facts. New insights can transform old truths into falsehoods. We look at a familiar object and in the midst of our gaze it becomes strange. Opportunity, one of the roving robots on Mars, discovered this meteorite lying on Mars' chilly ground. It looks like many similar meteorites discovered on the warm soils of Earth. It's familiar. We know nearly all that can be known about it. It's not scientifically interesting. Opportunity took a few photos and some samples for future analysis, and then it returned to its examination of the fallen heat shield. But "all that can be known" depends not only on the nature of the object to be known but also on the awareness of the knower. The knowledge of meteors arises from an understanding of gravity and friction, of solids and gasses. As we become aware that 99 percent of the universe is plasma, the insight is born that astronomical bodies might obey the laws of electricity instead of gravity. When we become aware that plasma self-organizes into filaments and cells, the possibility is born that new knowledge might arise from the understanding of circuits and discharges. The question is no longer "Do we have an explanation?" but "Do we have an explanation that takes plasma into account?" Plasma circuits flow between galaxies and within galaxies. The currents light the stars and energize phenomena in the sheaths around stars. Planets orbit within those sheaths and are coupled to the stellar circuits. How much of familiar planetary phenomena that have been explained with familiar concepts of gravity and mechanics are actually electrical? Only empirical tests can distinguish which is the case. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Do meteors burn up from air friction or from electrical discharges sparked by short-circuiting a double layer? Are the streaks of light hot air or lightning? Are the noises shock waves or electrically transduced sounds? Are meteorites etched by friction or by electrical discharge machining? Are they slowed to a soft landing by air resistance or by electrical forces? Why do we find meteorites where there are no craters and craters where there are no meteorites? Is "impact" an obsolete idea to be replaced with "arc scar?" With the awareness of plasma, all phenomena become new and all explanations must be reconsidered. Meteors and meteorites again become interesting. And Opportunity will need to turn back to the lump of iron lying on Meridiani Planum with new questions to ask and new tests to perform.
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Credit: F. W. Taylor. Composite image: W. Thornhill.
Electric Dipole of Venus

(Feb 08, 2005)
The diagram above depicts the main features of an extraordinary phenomenon discovered by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter in December 1978. Mission scientists called it a "giant vortex of surprisingly complex structure and behavior located in the middle atmosphere at the north pole of the planet." They assumed that a similar feature occurred at the south pole as well.* This polar "vortex" on Venus is the hottest spot in the planets upper atmosphere. The diameter of the "collar" around the vortex is about 5000 km and the temperature contrast between the hottest part of the chevron-shaped dipoles and the coldest part of the collar is about 45 K. The configuration was not expected, and it remains an anomaly. Electric theorists, however, say that Venus is highly active electrically due to its unique origin and comet-like past. They will tell you that astronomers and astrophysicists, having received no training in the behavior of electric discharges, fail to perceive such electrical phenomena, so they are continually straining to explain electricitys unexpected effects. To a plasma cosmologist, the polar vortex is a cross-sectional view of a cosmic electric current. Within the solar system, as in every observed region of space, electric currents flow over vast distances by means of filaments of plasma that tend to organize themselves into "twisted pairs." A common name for this "doubleness" in current-conducting plasmas is "Birkeland currents." All the features shown above suggest that the two hot spots are the "footprints" of cosmic Birkeland currents. The "giant vortex" and its "surprisingly complex structure and behavior" are the energetic effect of twin currents flowing into the planets atmosphere at the poles. In fact, the Venusian dipole shows both the configuration and the motion of Birkeland current pairs in plasma discharge experiments and in super-computer simulations, including the surrounding spiral vortex. The polar dipole exhibits an enhanced infrared emission, a predictable effect of the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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dissipation of electrical energy in the upper atmosphere of Venus. It has a variable rotation rate, and the position of its axis of rotation with respect to that of the planet varies as well. It was observed to move 500 km from the Venusian pole in less than a day and return just as quickly. These movements find a ready explanation in the variable nature of the electrical input to Venus via the Sun, and the snaking about of the Birkeland currents--again, a predictable feature of electrical input. Of particular interest are the linear filaments sometimes seen connecting the opposite sides of the hot spots. Taylor writes: "It is virtually impossible, even with complete license, to begin to speculate in any detail as to what mechanism could give rise to such a curious effect." But here too the "curious effect" is no surprise to the cosmic electricians. As observed by plasma physicist Anthony Peratt, in simulations of two interacting Birkeland current filaments plasma becomes trapped in the elliptical core between them and produces precisely this effect. (See Physics of the Plasma Universe, page 120.) It should be noted that Peratts simulations were done before the discovery of the Venusian dipole and were offered as an explanation of the electrical forces that produce spiral galaxies, the grandest cosmic plasma discharge phenomena in the universe. But the enormous scalability of plasma phenomena demands comparisons of this sort. The currents that form the Venusian polar dipole exhibit the same features apparent in the formation of a spiral galaxy from the interaction of two intergalactic current streams. The fact that a filamentary connection between two current "hot spots" occurs in laboratory discharge experiments, in computer simulations, on the planet Venus, and in galaxy formation suggests that a more unified picture of the universe is now possible. This model allows us to predict that the "hot spot" at Saturns south pole will exhibit features similar to those found in the Venusian dipole when examined more closely by Cassini. Also, the north pole of Saturn May be expected to exhibit a similar effect. (See: Saturn's Strange Hot Spot Explained. http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=1xz2g6tn) * F. W. Taylor, "The Venusian Polar Dipole," Middle Atmosphere of Venus, Akademie-Verlag Berlin, 1990, pp. 93-7. See also: www.pparc.ac.uk/frontiers/pdf/19F1.pdf Professor F. W. Taylor is Halley Professor of Physics at Oxford University. ** Anthony L. Peratt, "Physics of the Plasma Universe," Springer-Verlag, 1991. Contributed by Wallace Thornhill.
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One of the Pioneer probes descends through the thick Venusian atmosphere lit by lightning. Image: NASA SP461.
The Electrified Atmosphere of Venus

(Feb 07, 2005)
Despite the NASA artists depiction above, there has been a reluctance to admit data that points to lightning on Venus. As one report in Science magazine said: "On Venus the clouds tend to resemble fogbanks You dont see much lightning in fog." But when the Galileo spacecraft passed Venus on its way to Jupiter, Science reported with some surprise: "The most striking observations made by the Galileo spacecraft during its flyby of Venus was evidence of lightning." Earlier reports of lightning tended to be discounted, it seems, because they did not fit the pattern of earthly lightning. The Venera spacecraft found "continuous lightning activity from 32km down to about 2km altitude, with discharges as frequent as an amazing 25 per second." The highest recorded rate on Earth is 1.4 per second during a severe blizzard. The Pioneer lander recorded 1000 radio impulses. Thirty-two minutes after landing, Venera 11 detected a very loud noise, which was believed to be thunder. The astronomer, Garry Hunt, suggested that "...Venusians May well be glowing from the nearly continuous discharges of those frequent lightning strokes." The Venusians May be glowing from another effect of electricity as well. At a height of 16km, two Pioneer probes on the night hemisphere detected a "mysterious glow" coming from the surface. The glow increased on descent and was probably caused by a glow discharge on the surface, known on Earth as "St. Elmos fire." See: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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But the most direct evidence for intense electrical activity in the Venusian atmosphere came as the Pioneer probes descended through clear air. As David Grinspoon wrote in Venus Revealed: "What the hell happened at 12.5 kilometers? Each probe went haywire as it passed through a height of about 12 kilometers, or 7.5 miles, above the surface. The temperature and pressure sensors sent back crazy numbers, power surged throughout the probes, and some instruments stopped functioning entirely." The NASA report found that "the sensors that failed at almost the same time were made of different materials and their electronics were isolated from each other." Furthermore, some of the strange readings "can best be explained if the probe became covered with a plasma of charged particles." The other anomalies "would be consistent with static discharges within or outside the probe, if such were possible." In the Electric Universe model of Venus such electrical activity is not just possible, it's expected. Many mysteries about Venus can be cleared up with one simple assumption: Venus is a charged body immersed in an electrical circuit. As plasma scientists have known for decades, this means that Venus will be the focus of an invisible cometary style discharge to the solar electrical environment. When spacecraft first encountered Venus magnetotail, astronomers described it as "cometary." When later spacecraft encountered that tail near the Earth, astronomers were surprised that it was so long and comprised of "stringy things." They expected it to have blown away like smoke in the solar "wind." However, plasma physicists recognized the "stringy things" as Birkeland currents, the typical form, required by the laws of electromagnetism, taken by moving charged particles in plasma. Because the universe is filled with tenuous plasma, Birkeland currents act as invisible "power lines" throughout the cosmos. Electrical energy also powers the intense UV airglow, the "ashen light" and the ionosphere on the dark side of Venus, where the night is 58 Earth-days long. The astronomer Axel Firsoff wrote of the ashen light: "There can be no doubt that the true origin of the Ashen Light is electric. It is a nightsky glow, similar to that in our own sky but estimated to be 50-80 times stronger." Because this electrical power is being delivered to Venus from external circuits, winds at the cloud tops are driven to 220mph - 60 times faster than the planet surface 40 miles below. This super-rotation of the upper atmosphere mystifies planetary scientists. But it is a "Faraday motor effect" also exhibited by the atmospheres of the Sun, the gas-giant planets, and even Saturn's moon, Titan Venus little brother. The Faraday motor model sees the so-called "magnetic flux ropes" of the solar wind, which are tightly coupled to Venus, as Birkeland currents delivering electric power into the equatorial ionosphere. The Pioneer Orbiter found evidence of the axial part of the circuit at the poles, but that evidence was not recognized as a plasma discharge formation: It was described as "a giant vortex of surprisingly complex structure and behavior" and "one of the more remarkable phenomena in the solar system." It has the structure of a barred spiral galaxy, which in the Electric Universe represents the grandest scale of plasma discharge. [The next Picture of the Day will discuss the Venus dipole effect in more detail.] The following comment (emphasis added) is from F. W. Taylor of the University of Oxford's Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics Department. It illustrates the difficulties faced by The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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theorists who have no training in plasma physics or in electrical engineering and who fail to understand the electrical nature of the universe: "Like the Jovian Great Red Spot, the absence of viable theories which can be tested, or in this case any theory at all, leaves us uncomfortably in doubt as to our basic ability to understand even gross features of planetary atmospheric circulations." Contributed by Wallace Thornhill
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Pioneer Bus Probes on descent into Venus atmosphere. NASA SP-461.
The Atmosphere of Venus

(Feb 04, 2005)
"As we dig deeper into the solar system, sifting for clues, one thing we keep learning is that in planetary exploration, expectation and discovery often have little correlation." -- David H Grinspoon in "Venus Revealed." The expectations of planetary scientists are based on the theory that planets and moons formed from a primordial solar nebula. When the scientists discovered rings of dust and gas around other stars, they used the nebular theory to interpret the rings as "accretion disks." Then they claimed the discovery confirmed the theory. But there is no evidence that the rings around other stars are "accretion disks." In fact the evidence suggests that they are "expulsion disks:" Stars are regularly seen ejecting matter. However, fervent belief fosters the habit of ignoring uncomfortable data and doubtful assumptions. It seems, as Bertrand Russell wrote: "What men want is not knowledge but certainty." Because scientific knowledge is necessarily provisional, certainty can only be had through belief. While that remains so, discovery will continue to confound expectations. Some of the loudest alarms that all is not well with the nebular theory were sounded at Venus, with its hellish temperature and crushing atmosphere. If the nebular model were correct, we should expect a regular gradation of element and isotope abundances in the planets and their atmospheres as we move out from the Sun. The early Sun is supposed to have gone through a phase of producing powerful stellar winds that should have swept away the lightest The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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elements such as hydrogen and helium. But it cannot explain why the deuterium/hydrogen ratio is 120 times higher on Venus than on Earth. And the noble gases argon and neon are 50 to 100 times Earth's atmospheric abundances. Krypton is enriched 3 times and xenon is slightly enriched. The argon/krypton ratio for Venus is 700:1, compared to 30:1 for the Earth. These gases are thought to be primordial. On Venus the argon 40/argon 36 ratio is 1:1. On Earth the ratio is 400:1. Argon 40 is thought to have accumulated from the decay of crustal potassium 40 since the planet was formed. Venera 12 carried the only experiment that actually collected cloud particles and analysed them. It found that the most common element in the clouds was chlorine! The clouds held 20 times more chlorine than sulphur. Most of the mass of the clouds was an unknown substance. "These results are so difficult to reconcile with other measurements that American researchers have tended to ignore or discount them, although no one has explained why it should be in error ..." -- David Grinspoon in "Venus Revealed." The Venusian atmosphere is very dry at 30 parts per million of water vapor. And the water decreases in abundance by an order of magnitude near the surface. This implies that the surface of Venus is sucking up water at a rate that would remove it from the atmosphere in a geological instant. This finding was so outrageous that some scientists were prepared to simply disbelieve the data! As Grinspoon remarked: "We had gone there, more than once, and demanded an answer, and all we got was a colossal riddle." All of these discoveries were unexpected. Ad hoc stories have been suggested to explain some of them. Others, like the disappearing water, are simply ignored. The Electric Universe model expects diversity in planetary atmospheres because they are formed in a process of electric discharge ejection from a larger body a gas giant or dwarf star. Plasma discharges are an efficient means of segregating elements and their isotopes based on their critical ionisation velocities and atomic mass. This is the reason for the separation of elemental colors in beautiful planetary nebulae. A cosmic plasma discharge is also a copious source of neutrons. Atoms that are bombarded by these neutrons form shortlived radioactive elements. That explains the puzzling presence of the decay products of such elements in meteorites, which are debris from the planetary birth process. The cosmic discharge is also powerful enough to cause nuclear transformations. The Electric Universe model provides a simple way of understanding the differences in atmospheric composition between Earth and Venus. But it applies to Titan as well, where more atmosphere puzzles were recently uncovered. Both Venus and Titan are young planets, related by birth. Their atmospheres are not yet in equilibrium as shown by the destruction of water near the Venusian surface and by the remnant of methane in Titans atmosphere. The abundance of water on Earth and water ice on many moons in the outer solar system signals those bodies' earlier birth under electrical conditions that were different from those of Venus and Titan. At first sight, the atmospheric compositions of Titan and Venus appear too dissimilar for them to be related: Titan's atmosphere is predominantly nitrogen, but Venus's atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide. In the electrical model the difference is superficial: Ancient records describe Venus going through a prolonged and spectacular discharge phase following her birth. And the nuclear energy difference between the nitrogen molecule and the carbon monoxide molecule is quite small. In the presence of the hot, iron-bearing surface of Venus, acting as a The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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catalyst, that planets nitrogen was converted to carbon monoxide. The carbon monoxide reacted with water vapor at the hot surface, in a well-known industrial process, to form carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The hydrogen is found to be escaping in a steady stream from the upper atmosphere. These steps are a very effective means to remove hydrogen from water and to leave behind deuterium to give the observed phenomenally high deuterium/hydrogen ratio. It seems the process is still active today, giving rise to the destruction of water vapor at the surface of Venus. The electrical energy required is available in the more subdued form of a glow discharge from high elevations. The glow discharge forms a dense, conductive plasma coating, like a sheet of metal over the highlands of Venus. It has given rise to claims that Venusian mountains are topped with "fools gold!"
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This Magellan Orbiter image shows a section of the "River Styx" or Baltis Vallis sinuous "river" channel on Venus. Inset is a topographical chart of Baltis Vallis ("Baltis" is a Syrian word for the planet Venus.), showing that it rises and falls some 2 kilometers in elevation along its 6,800 km length. A liquid cannot have carved this channel. Inset credit: Profile of Baltis Vallis, the longest channel (from Komatsu and Baker, 1994).
Venus and the River Styx

(Feb 03, 2005)
In his book, Venus Revealed, David H. Grinspoon comments on the image above: "The vast volcanic plains that cover nearly all low-lying areas are the long-sought global oceans on the surface of Venusfrozen oceans of basalt. One of the most astounding surface forms discovered by Magellan furthers the analogy: this ocean is fed by rivers! We see numerous thin, meandering channels, typically a mile wide and thousands of miles in length. The longest of these, Baltis Vallis, winds more than fortytwo hundred miles over the plains [and might have been longer originally]. Baltis is longer than the Nile and thus can safely be called the longest river anywhere within several light-years of here. On Earth or Mars we would interpret such features as evidence of past or present running water. The analogy with structures carved by terrestrial water goes quite deep. We see fanlike river deltas, meanders, and bars, and places where streams have flooded their banks. "On Venus, where it is far too hot for liquid water, perhaps a stream of lava with the right chemical composition could flow like a river. We have had to use a lot of imaginative physics and chemistry to come up with a suitable model. "Topographical analysis of the flow paths produced a puzzling result: some of them seem to flow uphill! Since gravity is gravity on any planet, the ground in these places must have shifted since the time the rivers ran." Grinspoons commentary shows how strained the Earth-centered analogies become. There is The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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little evidence of damage to the channel that would be expected from ground movements sufficient to cause kilometer height changes. And with all of the strange tributary channels we should expect to see a progressive widening of the main channel. But no widening is evident. The channel is more simply explained as a surface cosmic lightning channel--a thunderbolt. In a high-energy plasma discharge, a powerful electromagnetic "pinch" effect can constrain the discharge channel to a constant width over vast distances. The discharge hugs the surface over hill and dale, responding to electrical forces instead of to gravity. Tributary channels tend to join the main channel near orthogonally. In fact Baltis Vallis shows many of the features seen in the Huygens probe image of a "river" on Titan dubbed the "airstrip." But it will take a revolution in human thought to break through the inertia of customary perception. Consider, for example, the comments of professor Victor R. Baker in his book, The Channels of Mars. First he writes: "The relatively recent discovery of alien landscapes poses many disturbing questions for a science grown complacent with the study of the familiar." But then, on the very next page he writes: "...impact cratering and volcanism are the two processes dominating the surface histories of the terrestrial planets." To see that this cannot be so, it is only necessary for the critically minded to look at pictures, and these are now available by the thousands. So long as we cling to hoary geological myths, planetary surfaces will remain indecipherable. Disturbing and difficult questions will be overlooked, or "imaginative physics and chemistry" will pretend to answer them. The geology of Venus, like that of so many other bodies in space, cries out for a new theoretical framework. But this will require that the ban on discussion of electricity be lifted. Innumerable surface features on planets and moons can only be created by electrical arcing.
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Official Caption: Magellan radar image of lava channels north of Ovda Regio, Venus. This image shows the Lo Shen Valles, a system of channels and large collapsed source areas. This frame is about 75 km across and north is up. Credit: NSSDC Image Catalog
Electrical Scars of Venus

(Feb 05, 2005)
The channels and depressions on Venus, depicted in the photograph above, could easily be mistaken for an aerial view of Mars. Yet on Mars, these features are attributed to water. It could be a picture of Io, where the channels and depressions are being formed before our eyes. But on Io the channels and depressions are said to be caused by "volcanoes." The official caption suggests that the sinuous rilles or channels on the furnace-like surface of Venus are caused by lava. But no flows of lava are evident. The channels begin out of nowhere and end in steep-walled and flat-floored depressions. The floors of the broad channels at lower left show transverse patterns, much like the so-called "sand dunes" in similar channels on Mars. Other celestial bodies, of diverse sizes and environments, also exhibit such sinuous channels. Our bone-dry Moon has them. Asteroids have them. Mars tiny moon Phobos has them. Rather than propose different explanations for virtually identical formations, the Electric Universe offers a unified theory, based on the demonstrable behavior of plasma discharge. In an earlier phase of solar system history, one having no analogy in the settled order of the present solar system, planets and moons were dominated by the electric force. The surfaces of all bodies in the solar system were configured primarily by electrical arcing in episodes of catastrophic instability. Today these events are no longer occurring (apart from such subtle discharge forms as Ios "volcanoes" or the "dust devils" on Mars). Thus, todays stable solar system easily deceives us into thinking that nothing has changed in billions of years. Lo Shen Valles on Venus is a field of electrically etched sinuous rilles and flat-floored depressions. The flat-floored depressions were etched by cathode arcs, which ate away the walls, giving them a steep, scalloped appearance. Cosmic lightning, tearing across the surface, excavated the sinuous channels. The circular alcove at their head is where the strike The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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touched ground. Blast and corona effects caused the transverse markings in the channels. On close examination the sinuosity, variation in cross-section and defiance of gravity, make the official explanations not just unlikely, but physically impossible. The fact that electric model of rille formation predicted similar surface features on Venus is no small matter either. For in the final analysis, it is the predictive ability of a hypothesis that determines its viability.
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Left: A composite radar image of the western hemisphere surface of Venus. Right: A low-resolution infrared image of Saturns moon, Titan. Credit: Left: SSV, MIPL, Magellan Team, NASA. Right: ESO Titan
Titan's Big Sister

(Feb 01, 2005)
One of the major surprises of the Cassini mission to Saturn was the discovery that Saturns enigmatic moon Titan seems to have no large craters. If the moon has been in existence for 4.7 billion years in the powerful gravitational well of Saturn, then the nebular hypothesis-assuming accretion of planets and moons by impacts--expected some large craters to dominate the surface relief. When none were found, scientists proposed that Titan had undergone some "resurfacing" process. It is interesting to note that the same ad hoc proposal was made when Venus was revealed to have a surprisingly youthful surface. But resurfacing is only required if Venus and Titan are assumed to be very old bodies. The Electric Universe model of planet formation identifies both Venus and Titan as newborn members of the solar system. It therefore considers both to be as youthful as their faces look. In the electric model, massive electrical discharge disfigures the faces of newborn planets and moons. On both Venus and Titan we see the filamented discharge patterns that are expected when arcing occurs through a heavy atmosphere. The planet-girdling, spidery channels on Venus, seen in the picture above, precisely match the patterns of filamentary "Lichtenberg" lightning scars. And on Titan, the first close-up images of its surface by the Huygens probe showed a network of Lichtenberg-like channels. We urge planetary scientists to examine these channels for the telltale signatures of electrical arcing. In particular we should expect the causative agents to have shown no regard for the rules of flowing liquid. And chains of craters running along the channels can be expected, though crater chains have no place in the standard interpretation of these channels. When it comes to Titans big sister Venus, planetary geology is strongly reinforced by the historical record, since the unusual appearance and behavior of Venus provoked many extraordinary and global traditions in the ancient cultures. In coming TPODS, therefore, we will examine the story of Venus from both scientific and historical vantage points. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Sakurajima volcanic lightning, May 18, 1991. Credit: Sakurajima Volcananological Observatory
Volcanic Lightning
(Jan 31, 2005)
The cause of volcanic lightning is not completely understood. Geologists assume that the cause is similar to the cause of lightning in thunderstorms. From an electric universe point of view, the Earth is a small charged body moving in a large cell of plasma, and there is charge waiting for a connection to it. More than 150 times in the past two centuries, volcanic eruptions have been accompanied by spectacular displays of lightning. Sometimes broad bolts of lightning streak across the sky. Other times St. Elmo's fire (ball lightning) cascades from above. Sometimes volcanoes produce branching displays such as at Sakurajima (see photo above.) The 1981 eruption of Mt St Helens featured a spectacular display of sheet lightning, with truck-sized balls of St Elmo's fire seen rolling along the ground 29 miles north of the mountain. Other well-known volcanoes that produced lightning include Vesuvius (1944), Krakatau (1990's), Surtsey, the new volcanic island in Iceland (1963), and Paracutin, the cinder cone that grew out of a farmer's field in Mexico (1940's.) The cause of volcanic lightning is not completely understood. Geologists assume that the cause is similar to the cause of lightning in thunderstorms, which is also not completely understood. For years, geologists have talked about charge separation caused by volcanic dust particles colliding and building up static charges. Recently a new theory has been proposed that relies on the water content of magma. From an electric universe point of view, the Earth is a small charged body moving in a large cell of plasma. Because of this, explanations of all physical phenomena in, on, and near the Earth must take the electrical behavior of plasma into account. The Physics of the Plasma Universe by Anthony Peratt describes magma as a plasma, a medium containing moving charges. So we should expect volcanoes not only to exhibit electrical behavior but to have The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive that behavior connected with the larger plasma environment, that is, to be elements in a larger electrical circuit.
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But why do some volcanoes produce lightning while others don't? More curious, why do some volcanoes with large dusty plumes produce little or no lightning and others with small or mediocre plumes produce much lightning? The simple answer could be that all volcanoes are electric but that the lightning displays happen only when the resistance to the volcanic current is high. You have a good example of this in your home. The electric wires that carry the current from the wall socket to your lamp don't produce heat or light. But when that same current encounters the high resistance of a tungsten filament, it does produce heat and light. By studying the electrical component of volcanoes on Earth, plasma geologists can gather clues about the mysteries of Earth's volcanic geologic history. For example, it May help to explain why volcanism in the past -- the great basalt floods -- was hotter and more voluminous than in the present. And it May even help explain why Mars has volcanoes that are many times larger than any found on Earth today. Were Earth and Mars subjected to more powerful plasma interactions in the past?
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Microwave image of the entire sky. To a radio telescope space is full. Credit: DMR, COBE, NASA, Two-Year Sky Map
Solid Plasma
(Jan 28, 2005)
The media are biased. Not the news media, the media of human sensation. Of all the things we might sense, we pick out only a few. Our sensory system arose as an adaptation to the exigencies of living on the surface of a stony planet. One consequence is that sensations we classify as "solid"--things that are opaque, reflective, resistant to pressure, sharply bounded-seem more "real" than other classes of "states." The prototypical "real" substance is stone. It took a long time for people to recognize the reality of such things as air--transparent, indefinite boundaries, indistinct resistance. People had to accumulate a lot of experience with "derivative effects" before they filled in the gap in their "solid" senses with the concept of a "gas." It's taken even longer to fill in the gap around the concept of electricity. The aurora--a "glowing vacuum"--seems spooky and "unreal." To produce the aurora, electric currents flow in "empty tubes" that are several kilometers in diameter. The currents generate light and radio waves and x-rays that consume more power than is produced by all our "solid" coal-burning, oil-fired and water-driven generators. These currents are comprised of widely separated (compared to our usual experiences of density) charged particles. Irving Langmuir called the medium that carried these currents "plasma" because of its lifeblood-like behavior, and the name stuck. But astrophysicists talk about them in euphemisms: solar "winds," "rains" of electrons, "impacts" of ions, "clouds" of ionized gas. At least the words seem more solid, more real, than the thin ethereal plasma. But our perceptions are no longer confined to biological senses operating on the surface of a stony planet. Most of our perceptions of the universe now come from electronic sensors, many of which are located in plasma. Their sensations are almost entirely of electric and magnetic qualities. For them, plasma is the primary substance of "reality." For them, the universe is composed of electrical currents flowing in networks of circuits coupled across scale differences from the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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galactic to the atomic. For them, the widely separated particles of stone and gas that we call "planets" and "stars" are barely noticeable dust motes, ethereal specks caught in the web of circuitry. For them, plasma is "solid." Our artistry and the tools we've made with it have enabled us to reach out from the inheritance of our biological origins to touch the electrical "solidity" of the cosmos. But our thoughts and theories have yet to catch up. The book of future cosmology will be written in the language of plasma.
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A picture of the solar system as seen from the nearest star. Do you see the dust mote toward the center? That is our Sun. Inset: An early mechanical model of the planetary system, now in the British Natural History Museum. The scale of the planets is several thousand times larger than the scale of the orbits. But at that time people had no need to imagine the emptiness of space. Credit: Wal Thornhill
Making Sense of Emptiness

(Jan 27, 2005)
The biological origins of our senses have a great influence on what we think about the things we sense. In our everyday lives we usually compare the size of things to the size of ourselves. This "human scale" is the "default setting," as it were, in the human sensory system. The structure of this system predetermines the ways in which we organize and "make sense" of our sensations. When we want to organize and "make sense" of our observations of planets and stars, we have to substitute something much larger than ourselves for the "unit size." But we still "make sense" of sizes by means of comparisons. And when sizes become too big to easily make sense, we simply change scales. With planets, it's often the Earth that's the "unit size:" Mars is about half the size of the Earth, Jupiter is eleven times, the Sun is 110 times. With orbits, the distance of the Earth from the Sun--the Astronomical Unit (AU)--is the unit of choice: Pluto's orbit then has a radius of 39 AU. These two scales are not often compared. We commonly see illustrations of orbits drawn to one scale with superimposed planets drawn to another scale. Piling one scale on top of another gives us a sense that space is "full," as with the orrery shown (inset) above. But this sense is an astronomical mistake. Now that we are sending spacecraft between planets, we need to better understand the scale of space: We need to develop a sense of emptiness. One way to do this is to make use of the coincidence that there are about as many inches in a mile as there are AUs in a light year. So if Earth is 1 inch away from the Sun, the nearest star will be 4 miles away. At this scale, Pluto will be about 3 feet away and the entire solar system would almost fit inside a person's outstretched arms. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Now at this scale the Sun would be a dust mote less than 1/100 inch across. The Earth would be microscopic at 1/100 the size of the Sun, or about a ten-thousandth of an inch across. That's about the size of a bacterium. Imagine floating in the darkness midway between the dust motes of the Sun and the nearest star. The dust motes are a couple of miles away. You probably wouldn't perceive them. You would think the universe was empty. But this is an artifact of our biological senses and their adaptation to the perception of things that are near "our size" in our environment. What if our senses were adapted to the perception of charged particles moving in AU-sized streams? What if we could feel the electrical forces between these streams? What if we could see the radiation they emit? What if we understood that they possess a power billions of times greater than the gravitational influence of the dust motes? The spacecraft that we are sending into space, that require us to develop a sense of the scale of space, are fitted with technological sensors that can perceive these things. Our picture of space is changing
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The Earth-like appearance of this image of Titan's surface has led to analogies with familiar earthly processes. Planetary scientists envision "storms" of liquid methane and "riverbeds" cut by liquid erosion. But a negative (inset) of the image suggests another familiar sight on Earth--lightning.
Titan and its Rilles

(Jan 25, 2005)
Above: One of the most interesting Huygens images released to date shows a network of dark rilles on Saturns moon Titan. Close inspection of such channels on Titans surface could provide a critical test of the Electric Universe. The history of science, like the history of religion, illustrates all too well how established ideas and vested interests can foster a contraction of vision. The result is ideology, and ideology obstructs our ability to interpret new and unexpected information. Under its influence we fall unwittingly into a stupor, no longer able to see clearly what is in front of us. The first symptom of ideology is that it requires increasingly tenuous or far-fetched "explanations" for unexpected data. In such circumstance a shock becomes necessary to break the stupor. Perhaps a healthy "shock to the system" is at hand in Saturns realm. Since the descent of the Huygens probe on January 14, the lines of demarcation between standard theory and the Electric Universe have grown increasingly clear, as we note in the following summary-1. Escaping Methane. It has been known for years that methane is rapidly escaping from the atmosphere of Titan. Standard Theory before Huygens: Titan is billions of years old. Therefore, it must have vast oceans of methane to continually resupply the escaping methane. Electric Universe: No methane oceans will be found. Titan is losing its "primordial" atmosphere acquired from Saturn at its birth, perhaps only a few tens of thousands of years ago. Saturn has methane in its atmosphere. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive 2. No Methane Oceans. Neither Cassini nor Huygens have observed methane oceans.
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Standard Theory after Huygens. From Toby Owen, a scientist from Honolulus Institute for Astronomy: "There must be some source of methane inside Titan which is releasing the gas into the atmosphere. Otherwise it would have all disappeared." This has led to the reinterpretation of the dark flat areas discovered on Titan by Cassini/Huygens: They were first interpreted as former ocean basins; now they are being interpreted as a layer of "organic goo." Titans surface has been described as "an arid, icy desert, where periodic storms of methane rain create transient rivers that wash sooty soil from icy highlands out to short-lived pools and lakes. The pools dry up -- perhaps sinking into a sandy soil of glass-like water ice -and the Titanian desert waits for another methane storm." [The Planetary Society news, Jan 21]. Electric Universe. Venting of methane from beneath the surface is unlikely. None of the expected "volcanoes" or internal methane sources will be found. Titans atmosphere is not in equilibrium because it is a new moon that was born electrically from Saturn (which has methane in its atmosphere) only thousands of years ago. Titan has not had time to lose its natal methane. The flat basins are likely to be the depressions etched out by the most energetic and prolonged electric discharge events. They will have sinuous channels, like those seen in the "seas" on the Moon. Storms on Earth are an electrical phenomenon that requires the unique properties of the electrically polarized water molecule. Methane, being non-polar, would mist down to the surface and its erosion properties would not be comparable to rain storms. There was no evidence of a heavy mist at Titans surface. The Huygens surface penetration experiment (see point 13) can be interpreted as the probe hitting a surface rock before glancing off into the soil, or as punching through a layer glassified by surface lightning. 3. Sinuous Rilles. Winding river-like channels are seen on many dry planets and moons. Standard Theory before Huygens. The investigative team voiced no expectation of rilles on Titan. Electric Universe before Huygens. Predicted that rille networks would be a dominant feature on Titans dry surface. They are the blast channels of cosmic lightning where it snaked across the moons surface. 4. Rille Networks. Huygens observed a massive complex of dark rilles on Titans surface. Standard Theory. These rilles must be "drainage channels." Rains of methane must periodically fall on the surface to feed the "rivers," because no rain was observed. The channels must then carry the liquid methane into the observed basins, though those basins are now dry. Electric Universe. The rilles are lightning blast channels etched into Titans surface. They testify to the violent, geologically recent, electrical birth of the moon. They take the dendritic form of Lichtenberg figures, which look like some river systems on Earth. However, no rains of methane and no flowing "rivers" will ever be observed on Titan. The sinuosity and flow direction of the channels will defy the known physics of liquids draining under the influence of gravity. Catchment areas and feeder streams will be lacking. Tributaries will be stubby, often beginning in a circular crater, and have a tendency to join the main channels at right angles. [In ad hoc fashion, the Huygens science team interprets the stubby tributaries to represent springs of methane seeping out of the ground, instead of the rain-fed channels]. Blast and corona discharge effects May cause some transverse patterns in the bottoms of the channels The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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5. Absence of Large Craters. Large craters are present on most rocky bodies in the solar system. Neither Cassini radar images nor the images from Huygens descent revealed large craters on Titan. Standard Theory before Huygens. The investigative team expected to discover a number of large craters consistent with Titans assumed origin by accretion of planetesimals and an impact history over billions of years. Electric Universe before Huygens. Planets and moons do not form by impact accretion. Craters are electric discharge scars. Since Titans dense atmosphere would diffuse cosmic discharges into branching filaments (as Earths atmosphere does with terrestrial lightning), large craters should be rare if present at all. 6. Small Craters. It is not yet clear whether smaller craters appear in significant populations on Titans surface. Standard Theory before Huygens. Small craters are not expected because smaller objects would not survive entry through Titans dense atmosphere. Electric Universe before Huygens. Pitting or cratering is the means by which electric discharge etches a surface. Abundant populations of smaller craters will be present. But there will be a minimum size as well, due to the ability of the atmosphere to quench discharge channels at lower energy levels. Therefore, a limited range of crater sizes is expected to predominate, in bold defiance of standard impact theory. 7. Crater Chains. Many solid bodies in the solar system reveal non-random chains of craters. Standard Theory before Huygens. Crater chains are due to impact from fragments of a loosely aggregated comet that has been disrupted by gravity on approach. Titans heavy atmosphere would disrupt the supposed linear configuration before impact so crater chains are not expected. Electric Universe before Huygens. Crater chains are diagnostic of electrical discharge. They often coalesce to form channels with scalloped edges. They should be present in great abundance on Titan. 8. Rilles and Pits. Preliminary photographs of Titans surface suggest the presence of craters or pits along the rille networks. Standard Theory before Huygens. Investigators anticipated neither the channel networks nor the presence of craters along the channels. This issue is yet to be addressed. Flowing liquid does not generate craters along its path. Electric Universe. Craters along a discharge channel are commonplace. Often virtually continuous rivers of smaller craters will be seen winding along a discharge rille. 11. Surface Etching. "Etched" surfaces, marked by fields of pits, grooves and ridges, appear on various rocky surfaces in the solar system, though planetary scientists have not offered a coherent explanation. Standard Theory before Huygens. The investigative team did not discuss the possibility of surface etching on Titan. Electric Universe before Huygens. Electric discharge machining, or etching, is a well-known industrial process for accurate and smooth removal of surface material. At the microscopic The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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level the surface is seen to be comprised of pits, grooves and ridges. Since plasma effects can be scaled over at least 14 orders of magnitude, the features seen under the microscope can be expected to be seen on a grand scale on planetary surfaces as a result of cosmic electrical discharges. No observed geologic activity produces a comparable effect. 12. Basin and Channel Floors. The dark regions on Titan seem to be relatively smoothfloored depressions. The sinuous channel floors are also dark and stand out from the bright hills. Standard theory. There is no clear explanation of what could have formed smooth-floored depressions on Titan. But the dark coloration is attributed to the accumulation of smog particles. Photochemical smog is thought to fall out of the atmosphere and coat the whole terrain. When it rains, the smog particles coating the surface get preferentially washed off the tops of the ridges, so there is a concentration of the dark organic smog materials in the bottoms of the channels. The dirty outwash from the channels empties onto the ice-sandy plains and sinks in to form the dark surface there. Electric Universe. At a planetary scale electric discharge etching is a primary means by which planetary surface material is extensively excavated. It operates by "spark erosion" of a periphery and May leave a smooth-floored depression with a steep, scalloped perimeter. The process is seen in action on Jupiters moon Io, where it leaves a smooth dark floor. No observed geologic activity produces a comparable effect. Surface darkening along channel floors is a feature of some cosmic lightning. An example can be seen on Jupiters secondclosest moon Europa. In high-energy, electrically-induced "fritting," two oxygen atoms combine to form a sulfur atom. Sulfur can take various highly colored forms ranging from black through red to yellow. That process or something similar can explain the preferential darkening of the channels on Titan. 13. Surface Material. Descriptions range from "sooty soil from bright icy highlands" to icy rocks and a "sandy soil of glass-like water ice." Huygens penetrated the surface with a springloaded probe upon landing. The probe seemed to strike a hard surface, which then gave away to a softer soil. Standard theory. In the need to find a methane reservoir that is not apparent on the surface of Titan it is assumed that it must be hidden beneath the surface. So the softness of the soil is attributed to it being soggy with liquid methane. The brighter hilly features could be evidence of cryovolcanism, the volcanic extrusion of water-ice material. The hills are fairly steep, with heights varying some 100 meters (330 feet) over a span of a kilometer (0.6 mile), and they exert topographic control over the pattern of the drainage visible in the Huygens images. Electric Universe. Planetary soils are deposited initially from space in the birth process and also in subsequent planetary electrical encounters where both exogenous dust and endogenous excavated surface material falls to the surface. The surface May be glassified by electrical discharges leaving a softer soil beneath. It is significant that the best match that the Surface Science team could come up with for the soil at the Huygens landing site was a simulant made of tiny glass particles, with a layer of solid glassy material on top. However, the Huygens probe May have struck a rock before being deflected into the soil. Some liquid methane May be expected in the soil but there is no requirement for a huge subsurface reservoir. The brighter material, like that on Io, May be the original surface material or material deposited after excavation from the channels, in the manner of Jupiters moon, Europa. The walls of the rilles are expected to be steep in the electrical model, with a predominantly Vshaped cross-section. And the channels are not constrained by topography, as is the case The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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with flowing liquid: The rilles will course uphill as well as down. 13. Atmospheric Equilibrium Standard Theory. Since Titan has been in place for billions of years, the planet and its atmosphere must be in equilibrium. Electric Universe. Because Titan is relatively young, its atmosphere is not in equilibrium. It is losing methane and other light fractions of its atmosphere, and this depletion May be measurable over a relatively short period of time. 14. Temperature Standard Theory. Since Titan has been in place for billions of years, its surface temperature [atmospheric temperature at the surface] should be in equilibrium. Electric Universe Titan May show an anomalously higher temperature than expected, because it is probable that the moon is not yet in thermal equilibrium. Hence an anomalous temperature gradient could well be measured in the atmosphere or beneath the surface. The Huygens probe was not equipped to measure a subsurface temperature gradient. 15. Atmospheric nitrogen and Argon. Titan has a surprising enhancement of the heavy isotopes of nitrogen and argon in its atmosphere. Standard Theory. Over the 4.7 billion-year life of Titan it must have lost an atmosphere equivalent to that of a gas giant planet to give the observed nitrogen-15/nitrogen-14 enhancement. Argon-40 is conventionally though to be produced through the radioactive decay of the potassium-40 that was included in Titan's rocky core when it formed billions of years ago. Other isotopes of argon, along with other noble gases like krypton and xenon -which should have been present in Titan's primordial atmosphere when the moon first formed -- are completely absent. Electric Universe. The noble gases anomaly shows that there is no systematic variation in the noble gas isotopes found in planetary atmospheres. It is another failure of the nebular hypothesis. The electrical birth of Titan and its interactions with other electrified planets and moons to achieve a stable orbit provide a complex atmospheric history. Heavy isotopes and radioactive species are formed during cosmic electrical exchanges through the "plasma gun" effect, which is a copious source of neutrons. The nebular hypothesis is over 200 years old. It demonstrates the powerful grip of an ideology in the face of advances in understanding the electrical nature of matter and space over that period.
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Credit: NASA/JPL
Seen Through Titan's Haze

(Jan 24, 2005)
Above: A Voyager image of Saturns giant moon Titan. Only with the recent Cassini-Huygens probe have planetary scientists succeeded in peering beneath the haze. Yet the haze of prior ideology May prove the greater obstacle to understanding Titans history. Almost thirty years ago, Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfvn, the father of plasma cosmology, warned that astronomers were following "obsolete" concepts of star and planet formation, ignoring the provable role of electricity and magnetism. (See Evolution of the Solar System, NASA SP-345, 1976). The object of Alfvns criticism was the traditional nebular theory, first set forth by Pierre Simon Laplace late in the 18th century. This archaic hypothesis stipulates that gravity alone, acting on a primordial and homogenous gas cloud, set in motion the birth of the Sun and the planets. For those who still hold to this notion, all of the observed bodies in the solar system, large and small, are billions of years old, having congealed out of the same primordial and undifferentiated cloud. Despite decades of space age evidence to the contrary, the nebular hypothesis persists as dogma in the sciences. The faith of its adherents is unquestioning, excluding any line of investigation that would challenge the theoretical starting point. Variations on the underlying creed are acceptable; bold conjectures in response to new findings are heretical. What originated as a guess has become a chronic obstruction to discovery in the sciences, and the cost is incalculable. When attempting to explain planetary features, Cornell astronomer Carl Sagan wrote: "The ultimate objective of comparative planetology, it might be said, is something like a vast computer program into which we insert a few input parameters (perhaps the initial mass, composition and angular momentum of a protoplanet and the population of neighboring objects that strike it) and then derive the complete evolution of the planet." -- The Solar System, Scientific American, September 1975, p.29. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The danger in this view should be obvious. It assumes a well-defined and observationallysupported model of planetary evolution. Otherwise the first law of computing applies: Garbage in = Garbage out. Since Alfvns warning, a coherent challenge to the nebular hypothesis has emerged. The "Electric Universe" model accounts for the birth of stars and planets through principles confirmed in laboratory experiments, tested in sophisticated computer simulations, and carefully weighed against a cascade of new data from space. The model recognizes discontinuous, catastrophic electrical events. The Electric Universe suggests that, like any biological family, the children of stars or planets are not all born at the same time as the parent. They are born hierarchically at intervals, and typically from within the parent. They are ejected. Like any family, each member has its own birth story and eventful history. Hence, the odd "fruit salad" of planets and moons, each with different composition and unique geology, is a predictable outcome of solar system evolution under the model. For the nebular hypothesis, however, dissimilarities in composition and history are anomalous. To account for the differences, planetary scientists have little more to work with than a theory of random impacts from space and tenuous geological comparisons. Based on volumes of forensic evidence, the Electric Universe identifies Venus and Titan (bigger than Mercury) as the newest planets in our solar system. Their thick atmospheres, acquired in their violent birth from a gas giant, have not had time to reach equilibrium, and their surfaces still bear their electrical birthmarks. Though the solar system today presents an illusion of aeons-long stability, it did not present this appearance in the recent past, according to Electric Universe advocates. They claim that only a few a thousand years ago our ancestors witnessed the violence of planetary birth and cosmic catastrophe. Thus, in analyzing the evidence from Titan, two hypotheses stand in radical contrast. Prior to the Huygens descent through the atmosphere of Titan, the hypotheses predicted different findings. Each offered definitive tests of its scientific viability. In tomorrows TPOD, therefore, we shall present a summary of predictions and recent findings in the exploration of Saturns most mysterious moon.
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Images: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
First Impressions of Titan

(Jan 21, 2005)
These frames are taken from a short animation made up from a sequence of images taken by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) instrument on board ESA's Huygens probe, during its successful descent to Titan on Jan. 14, 2005. Huygens emerged from the clouds at around 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) altitude. The DISR consists of a downward-looking High Resolution Imager (HRI), a Medium Resolution Imager (MRI), which looks out at an angle, and a Side Looking Imager (SLI). For this animation, most images used were captured by the HRI and MRI. See: http://www.nasa.gov/mov/105824main_landing400.mov The still frames shown here from the movie have been brightened and sharpened a little to help pick out linear features over a wide range of altitudes. The image on the left shows part of a feature nicknamed "the airstrip." The center image could be mistaken for an inverted photograph of lightning. The image on the right shows that channels were found down to the limit of resolution of the Huygens probe. Ralph Lorenz of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, wrote a "preCassini" paper about what he expected to find on the surface of Titan. He wrote that Cassini "promises to reveal a crater population on Titan that has been heretofore hidden by atmospheric haze." More importantly, he explained that "Crater chains are unlikely on Titan, since impactors must pass close enough to Saturn to be tidally disrupted [so] that they would suffer aerodynamic disruption as well... [T]he presence of a thick atmosphere leads to atmospheric shielding, depleting the relative abundance of small craters." Lorenz also thought that liquids on Titan would form crater lakes. Of course, we now know that Titan does not sport the craters expected by conventional theory. The expectations of the Electric Universe were also made clear before Cassini began to The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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explore Titan. The differences from conventional theory could not be starker. Titan was expected to be a youthful moon bearing the electrical scars of its birth and other encounters as it established a stable orbit. The type of scarring was expected to be similar to that of Venus where a heavy atmosphere causes filamentation of cosmic discharges and the formation of surface patterns of sinuous channels. On close inspection some channels would be found to be composed of crater chains. The images above support the Electric universe model. At different altitudes, the most obvious features are filamentary. There are no large craters. The dendritic pattern in the left hand image shows features that distinguish it as a surface lightning channel, known technically as a "Lichtenberg figure." Unlike a liquid, surface lightning doesnt respect the topography and will flow uphill as well as down. There is circumstantial evidence that some of the dark channels seen in early images have their source and sink at the "shoreline" with the darker areas. Hopefully, further analysis will clarify this point. A surface lightning stroke is accompanied by a corona discharge across the surface at right angles to the main channel. The corona tends to cause "tributaries" of the main discharge to join the main channel at right angles. It is unusual for rivers to do that, and if they do it causes erosion of the opposite riverbank. There is no evidence of channel disturbance at such junctions in the left-hand image. The corona can also cause transverse features in the channel floor. On Mars they look like sand dunes in serried ranks along channel floors. There are hints of this effect in the center and right-hand images. Where the surface discharge connects with the atmospheric discharge a crater usually forms. A cosmic lightning bolt May rake across the surface leaving a chain of craters. A low resolution image May also give the transverse effect seen in the images above. Surface lightning tends to force parallelism of close tributaries due to electromagnetic forces between the two channels. We see a possible example in the lower right corner of the lefthand image. Lightning channels May "appear out of nowhere" on a surface or terminate on a crater. There are no catchment area or feeder channels as required by river systems. The tributaries are often stubby and begin in a circular crater. Rivers maintain a constant cross-sectional area between feeder channels. Lightning has no such constraint and may, depending on the electrical nature of the surface, carve a deep Vshaped channel or skim across the surface leaving almost no trace. The renowned Hadleys Rille on the Moon, visited by astronauts, shows this characteristic. It May require a Titan orbiter, though, before this kind of detail is available. Already the electrical model is the only one to have successfully predicted the kind of surface features we would find on Titan. In coming days we May expect to see better quality images that can be used to further test the model.
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Credit: Image: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Titan's Strange Atmosphere

(Jan 20, 2005)
Titan's atmosphere has scientists puzzled. Unlike all other large moons, it has an atmosphere. And that atmosphere is the densest of any terrestrial planet after Venus. It's also far more extensive than Venus's, stretching out to about 880 km. The haze layers seen in the image above reach a height of 400 km above Titan. The plethora of puzzles evokes contrary guesses at answers from scientists. Toby Owens, principal scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, surmised: "What we've got is a very primitive atmosphere that has been preserved for 4.6 billion years. Titan gives us the chance for cosmic time travel . . . going back to the very earliest days of Earth when it had a similar atmosphere." The New Scientist, in its November 6 issue, supposed: "Titan appears to have lost much of its original atmosphere. The moon has an unusually high abundance of nitrogen-15, compared with the lighter isotope nitrogen14. That could be explained if most of the atmosphere had evaporated into space, a process in which the nitrogen-14 would have escaped more easily than nitrogen-15. What could cause such a loss is unknown, but it would mean that Titan once had an atmosphere 40 times as thick as Earth's - making it a dwarf version of a gas planet." An earlier conjecture expected to find oceans of methane thought necessary to replace its continual loss from the upper atmosphere over the presumed age of Titan more than 4 billion years. The Electric Universe views the puzzles of Titan's atmosphere as evidence of its youth. There is no need for a methane ocean if the moon is young. Because moons are born episodically in "electrical parturition" events, they will not be all the same age nor have the same composition. The striking disparity in nitrogen isotopes tells us more about the way planetary atmospheres are formed than how they evolve in isolation. Several processes in the plasma discharge model of planet birth will have significant effects on their atmospheres. The primary The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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variation in composition comes from the source and depth of the ejection from the parent planet. In addition, the plasma gun effect (seen now ejecting material from Io into space) is known from laboratory tests to be a copious source of neutrons. The neutrons May be captured and change isotopic ratios or generate radioactive species and in that process transmute elements in the ejected material. Also, the strong electric field in an ejection event can accelerate charged particles and transmute elements. For example, nitrogen-14 can capture an electron to become carbon-14. Carbon-14 decays by very weak beta decay back to nitrogen-14, with a half-life of approximately 5,730 years. If the age of Titans atmosphere can be measured in thousands of years instead of billions, then a significant amount of nitrogen-14 May still be locked up on Titan as carbon-14. Another little-known process is the catalytic nuclear conversion of nitrogen to carbon monoxide. The intrinsic mass/energy difference between the nitrogen molecule and the carbon monoxide molecule is quite small. Nitrogen-14 molecules, in a hot plasma and in the presence of a catalyst such as iron, have been demonstrated to convert to carbon monoxide molecules. Both carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide have been discovered in Titans atmosphere. Furthermore, several mechanisms in plasma discharges sort material into regions of like isotopes, elements, or compounds. A moon that forms from only part of the ejected material May have a composition quite different from the remainder of the material. A new moon ejected into a system of pre-existing moons will likely disrupt that system. Close passages to other moons will result in electrical interactions as the entire system adjusts to reach "least interaction" orbits. These further interactions will exchange and transmute material on all the moons involved, electrically scarring their surfaces in the process. A final puzzle was reported by Emily Lakdawalla of The Planetary Society: "One thing that May have helped the probe last a long time was that it appeared to stay unexpectedly warm. At an elevation of only 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) above the surface, her interior was still at a balmy 25 C (77 F), despite the outside temperature being a frigid -180 C (-290 F). [Project scientist Jean-Pierre] Lebreton wasn't ready to say what this might mean. It could be over-performance of the spacecraft, but it could also mean a wide variety of unexpected things about the atmosphere." If Titan, like Venus, is a young, recently ejected body, it May still be cooling from its "natal heat."
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Titan images: NASA/ ESA/ University of Arizona. Venus Magellan image: NASA/JPL
Titan versus Venus

(Jan 19, 2005)
Australian physicist Wallace Thornhill predicted many of the recently discovered surprising features of Saturn's moon, Titan. In June last year he claimed that: "...the moon Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury, seems to be a close sibling of Venus.. That Titan May be young is hinted at by its eccentric orbit, which cannot have persisted for billions of years. So we should be alert to similarities between Titan and Venus." -- Cassini's Homecoming: http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=f16tg4w1 On December 28, 2004 Thornhill elaborated: "Under the electric hypothesis Titan was likely born by electrical expulsion from the proto-Saturnian brown dwarf. So it should be found to have features in common with Venus, the planet that shows the most abundant signs of geologically recent ejection. Already it is known that Titan has the heaviest atmosphere after its sister, Venus." His further claims were based on the behavior of electrical discharges in such a dense atmosphere: "Titans surface features should also be compared to those of Venus. Scientists tell us that Titan seems to have been "resurfaced" because there is no evidence of the expected primordial cratering. The same thing was said about Venus! Also a radar return from Titan was 'of a type that we would expect to get back from Venus.' In the electrical hypothesis, the similarity would be expected--a heavy atmosphere tends to cause filamentation of cosmic electrical scars instead of large craters. Such scars encircle Venuss equator in the form of rilles and spider-web-like formations called The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch/041228prediction-origins.htm
These claims should be easy to falsify. But so far the electrical model is the only one to successfully predict what would be found by the Huygens probe. On today's TPOD we look at features imaged by the Huygens probe in its successful descent to the surface of Titan and compare them with images of Venus. At top left we see a radar image of the Venusian surface returned by the Magellan Orbiter. David Grinspoon, in his book, Venus Revealed, interpreted the dark areas in traditional "geocentric" terms: "The vast volcanic plains that cover nearly all low-lying areas are the long-sought global oceans on the surface of Venus frozen oceans of basalt. One of the most astounding surface forms discovered by Magellan furthers the analogy: this ocean is fed by rivers! We see numerous thin, meandering channels, typically a mile wide and up to thousands of miles in length. [The small inset to the Magellan image shows an example of the 'river' channels cut into the white areas.] On Earth or Mars we would interpret such features as evidence of past or present running water. The analogy goes quite deep... We have had to use a lot of imaginative physics and chemistry to come up with a suitable model." Now similar features are being discovered on Titan [lower left image]. Traditional interpretations will again require "a lot of imaginative physics and chemistry." But the electrical scarring model applies simply to them all. The surface of Venus can be matched against the surface of Titan, feature for feature. The Huygens probe is believed to have come to rest in the dark area, or "sea," at the center of yesterdays TPOD image. The surface of the "sea" is solid! At bottom right is the first image returned from Titans surface. For comparison, above it is an image of the Venusian surface returned by the Russian Venera 9 spacecraft. David Grinspoon again, referring to Venus: "The immediate impression, of an eroded field of volcanic rocks, has stood up under decades of scrutiny... What would erode and transport fine-grained material on a planet with no water and almost no winds?" Emily Lakdawalla, The Planetary Society's Science and Technology Coordinator, had a similar "immediate impression" of the "eroded field" that Huygens imaged from the surface of Titan [lower right image]: "Any geologist worth her salt thinks of one thing and one thing only when she sees round rocks: some river of some liquid has rolled broken chunks around, wearing down their edges, making rounded cobbles. Or, as United States Geological Survey geologist Larry Soderblom remarked to me: 'We've got rolling stones!'" But there is another mechanism that creates strewn fields of eroded rocks on a vast scale. The process of planetary birth and subsequent electrical interactions during close encounters with other bodies, as orbits adapt to a new stable configuration, causes deposition of dust, stones and boulders arriving from space or blasted from distant parts of the same body. Plasma heating and etching, combined with "spark" generated "winds," are responsible for rounding the rocks, scattering them uniformly across the landscape, and leaving "flow streaks" from electrical "winds." The traditional erosional mechanisms of blowing gases and flowing liquids require action over long spans of time to achieve observed effects. Electrical The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive erosion, resulting from the action of forces that can be billions of times stronger than mechanical forces, can achieve observed effects in short times.
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Similarity of features is not proof of identity of cause. Further empirical tests must be devised to distinguish among possible hypotheses. But this first test--the Huygens close-up observation of features--verifies the predictions of the electrical hypothesis and surprises, if not falsifies, traditional explanations.
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Credit: ESA/NASA/Univ. of Arizona, Jakub Friedl combined the Huygens mosaics.
Titan's Sinuous Rilles

(Jan 18, 2005)
A major surprise from the Huygens images of Titan was the appearance of "drainage channels." The dark channels in the mosaic image above bring to mind similar patterns in high altitude images of river systems on Earth. But a closer inspection uncovers details that are more characteristic of electrical flows than of liquid flows. And not unexpectedly, these channels are indistinguishable from channels on Mars, Venus, the Moon and most other solid bodies in the solar system. All of these channels are the result of cosmic electrical scarring. See TPOD for Dec 30, 2004: http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch/041230predictions-scarring.htm We can be certain of this explanation for the channels on Titan based on particular characteristics evident in the images from Huygens. The feature nicknamed the "airstrip" shows the effects seen in the spark experiment inset: a long, constant-width central channel within a broader cleared channel. The tributary channels of the "airstrip" are stubby and have no feeder channels. They begin abruptly and tend to join the main channel at near right angles. And as they join it, the main channel does not broaden: Common liquids are incompressible, and an increased volume requires a larger channel. But electrical "flows" can increase their current density in a constant channel size. In the upper right quadrant we see channels that appear to flow into a dark"lake" or a "sea." But again a closer inspection reveals that some of the channels start and end at the "shoreline," which is clearly impossible for any liquid. Some tributaries also leave and rejoin the main channel in the same manner we see in the spark experiment. And once again we see stubby tributaries that join other channels preferentially at near right angles. The "lake" The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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also shows evidence of dark filamentary scarring, and the "shoreline" shows a larger-scale arcuate scalloping typical of electrical etching. The light filamentary patterns in the lower left quadrant also suggest an electrical origin. The dark area May be where material has been electrically removed or etched and the surface burnt or melted by an arc in the same manner as we see today on Io. The "shoreline" grew brighter as Huygens descended. Marty Tomasko, the Principal Investigator for the Descent Imager Spectral Radiometer, suggested that it might be due to a methane fog hugging the "shore." The electrical model suggests an alternative the brightening May be due to steep cliffs along the "shoreline," where electrical etching has exposed lighter material. The "drainage channel" interpretation reveals the bias of geocentric and anthropocentric presumptions peculiar to our origins on the relatively (or at least recently) plasma-free surface of the Earth. In the rest of the universe electrical plasma effects dominate. Now that our sensors have entered that other domain, we need at least to consider electrical interpretations of the surprising phenomena we discover. In doing so we must be prepared to discard the old fables we have been taught about the history of Titan, Saturn and the solar system.
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Credit: ESA/NASA/Univ. of Arizona
Titan Panorama from Cassini (Jan 17, 2005)

On January 14 the Huygens probe descended onto the surface of Saturns moon Titan, provoking exclamations of wonder and surprise. The composite photograph above was produced from some of the first images returned by the European Space Agency's Huygens probe during its successful descent and landing on Titan. It shows a full 360-degree view around Huygens. The left-hand side, behind Huygens, shows a boundary between light and dark areas of unknown composition, and the white streaks near the boundary have been tentatively identified as "fog." These images were taken from an altitude of about 8 kilometers (about 5 miles) with a resolution of about 20 meters (about 65 feet) per pixel. The Huygens probe will provide several definitive tests for a new and widely divergent model of the nature and history of Saturns realm. The new model was proposed by Australian physicist Wallace Thornhill, who has led the way in applying principles of the Electric Universe to planetary history. He has registered several predictions as to what Cassini/Huygens will find, including unexpected parallels with the planet Venus. We noted the issue in our Picture of the Day for December 28, 2004: "In the Electric Universe, stars can be created within a dusty plasma by the wellstudied electromagnetic 'pinch effect', a characteristic feature of cosmic electric discharges. Stars shine thereafter as electric glow discharges. Electrical star formation May also involve catastrophic instabilities, including fissioning, when a part of the stars core May be expelled, giving birth to a binary or multiple star partner or a close-orbiting gas giant planet. Gas giants May later repeat the process on a smaller scale, expelling core material at intervals to form rings and satellites. According to this model, satellites that escape the parent to orbit the primary star become the rocky planets. Smaller debris from the electrical transactions becomes asteroids, comets, and meteoroids." In June 2004, as Cassini entered the Saturnian system, Thornhill wrote: "We should expect to see family traits amongst the members of the Saturnian family including the departed Earth, Mars and Venus." See "Titan puzzles scientists": http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=bh5fj7ap Emily Lakdawalla, the Science and Technology Coordinator of The Planetary Society, reported events from ESA's Huygens mission headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany. She wrote on Jan 15: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"I overheard [Marty] Tomasko [the Principal Investigator for the Descent Imager Spectral Radiometer] being interviewed by the BBC ... and he remarked about how Earth-like the images seemed. That really struck me, because there are two places in the solar system whose surfaces we can't see, because they are shrouded by clouds, Venus and Titan. Venus is always called our sister planet because of its similar size and distance from the Sun, but it's a fiery hell of volcanoes and desiccated plains with sulfuric acid clouds choking a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere. As for Titan--with Cassini's first views it seemed as though we were going to see the opposite extreme, a frigid hell, of ice volcanoes and choking methane clouds. Instead, we're seeing such an Earth-like place, with plateaus, basins, river channels and deltas. It seems so much more benign than it did before, possibly even beautiful by Earth standards." Score 1 for Thornhill. Thornhill continued: "Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury, seems to be a close sibling of Venus, probably born from Saturn at about the same time." And "Planet-girdling filamentary scars on Venus are due to equatorial cosmic discharges through a thick atmosphere." Since Titan has the densest atmosphere of any terrestrial planet after Venus, a critical test was to find long filamentary channels on Titan that could be identified as surface lightning scars. Lakdawalla reported, "Marty Tomasko remarked that the patterns of squiggly dark lines on a bright surface looked like 'drainage channels' to him... Amazing, absolutely amazing; we still don't know if there are liquids on Titan but I haven't yet heard another explanation for 'dendritic' [or root-like] channels seen from up high and rounded rocks seen from near the surface. Who would have expected this? Still, we could be seeing something like on Mars, where there is abundant evidence for past liquids active on the surface, but no evidence for present liquids. Time will tell." The Electric Universe model alone expected and provided an explanation for dendritic channels on Titan like those seen on the desert planet Mars. Score 2 for Thornhill.
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Credit and copyright: Rens van der Sluijs
The Vortical Tree

(Jan 14, 2005)
The tree of life is a well-known concept in the ancient cultures. An increasing number of scholars now concede that the mythical tree was essentially a symbol of the cosmic axis, the column that links the rotational poles of the earth to the poles of heaven as they appear from any place on earth. Seeing the connection of the tree to the axis is an important step, but it is only the first of many to follow. The axis as it appears today is no more than an abstraction, describing the movement of the stars and placing a grid on the map of the heavens. The mystery is that ancient cultures unanimously and insistently described the axis as a visible object, a stupendous pillar of light dominating the ancient sky. Myths and early cosmological traditions of many cultures attribute a large number of features to the axis-column. All seem nonsensical when referred to the current axis, but make excellent sense if the object described was a plasma configuration centered at the celestial pole, where such a configuration would be expected in an electrically active sky. Shown above is a damaged fragment of an Assyrian bronze sheet, decorated with hammered representations in zones. Archaeologists have concluded that it was produced in an Assyrian workshop in the 8th century BCE but subsequently transported to Greece, where it was reused as part of the clothing of a statue; this took place in the 2nd quarter of the 7th century BCE. The sheet is presently exhibited in the museum at the site of ancient Olympia, on the Peloponnesus. The fragment shown depicts the tree of life. The ovoid 'fan' on top and the flanking pair of goats are standard features of the Mesopotamian tree, confirming that the image represents the tree of life. The three superimposed pairs of branches end in volutes. Such curling branches are also encountered in other representations of the cosmic tree. Specialists tend to quietly gloss over such peculiar features, failing to answer the question as to which species of tree provided the prototype for the spiraling branches. Instead, they label The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the tree as 'stylized'. But if the tree were 'stylized', one wonders why the goats look so natural. In addition, the same kind of 'stylization' is encountered in the very earliest Mesopotamian depictions of the tree, with no indication of a gradual process of stylization over time. The 'stylized' trees were there from the start. If the tree of life represented a plasma column rising along the polar axis, the volute-branches receive an immediate, natural explanation. The distinguished plasma physicist Anthony Peratt has outlined the evolution of a high-energy plasma discharge column that formed a few thousand years ago and was accurately recorded in petroglyphs. The column consisted of a stack of plasmoids that, when flattened, compared to the branches of the tree of life. At some point in the development of the column, these plasmoids began to warp and curl, eventually leading to extensive merger. The curling branches of the 'stylized' tree of the ancients look like recordings of this event more than anything else. Thus, the Assyrian image could be a precise snapshot of a towering form that once rose into a sky ablaze with life. Contributed by Rens van der Sluijs.
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Image: Magnetic vector map of M82; diagram of galactic circuit
Seeing Circuits (2)

(Jan 13, 2005)
In Part 1 we listed some of the effects of circuits in space and noted that they were all powerconsuming effects. We asked: Where is the power source? The power could be generated locally. The rotational inertia of a body could drive the circuit in much the same way as a water-driven turbine in a dam drives a generator. Early plasma physicists often simply assumed such a mechanism. But because smaller-scale circuits in space are invariably coupled to larger-scale circuits (such as the coupling between the auroral circuit and the "solar wind" circuit), the Electric Universe posits a remote power supply. An electrical current in plasma will generate its own magnetic field and "self constrict" the current channel. This is called the Bennett pinch effect. It produces filaments or threads of current that remain coherent over large distances. Multiple filaments tend to spiral around each other, forming helical "power cables" that can transmit electric power over large distances. These cables have been identified running from equator to poles in the circuits that power the aurora. Plasma cosmologists also identify them in the filaments that extend from active "radio" galaxies to the "radio lobes" (double layers) far above each pole of such galaxies. Almost every body in the universe displays some kind of filamentation. Venus has a tail composed of invisible "stringy things" (NASA's description). Comets have tails composed of visible "stringy things"--the ion tails. The neon-light-like glows of planetary nebulas resolve, in close-up views, into intricate webs of strings. The jets of Herbig-Haro stars and active galaxies are often resolved into braided filaments. And the spiral arms of some galaxies look "hairy" with threads of material extending from them. If all these filaments are Birkeland currents, they are only the visible portions of entire circuits. The rest of the circuit May generate magnetic fields that can be mapped, and the map will give an indication of the extent of the circuit. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The smaller image above is such a map of the galaxy M82. The arrows indicate the direction and strength of the magnetic field. The larger image is an artist's conception of a likely circuit schema that flows around and organizes the galaxy. High-density currents flow out along the spin axis to large distances. These distant regions are likely locations for energetic double layers (which show up as radio and x-ray lobes in certain active galaxies). The currents then spread out and flow circumferentially around to the equatorial plane. They return to the galactic core along the spiral arms, pulling in matter and pinching it into stars as they go. Every element in these galactic circuits radiates energy. So the circuits must be powered through their coupling with a larger circuit. The extent of that larger circuit is indicated by the observation that galaxies occur in strings. This is why Arp's observations of connections between high-redshift objects (supposedly far away) and low-redshift galaxies (relatively nearby) are important to plasma cosmologists: If the far-away objects are really companions of nearby galaxies, everything we see outside the Milky Way is part of the "stringy" structure of the galaxies. The strings of galaxy-quasar groups are actually super-galactic Birkeland cables along which the groups are "pinched" out. Arp's observations raise the possibility that everything we see occurs along one braided filament that swirls from the Virgo supercluster to the Fornax supercluster, with our galaxy situated midway. This "string of galactic superclusters" would then be a load in a circuit whose extent--and whose power supply--is far beyond all we presently see and know.
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Image: Figure from Nature Vol. 414 13 Dec 2001 p. 724. Background: an aurora seen from the Space Shuttle The blue lines represent the auroral current system. Together with the ionospheric closure current and the magnetospheric generator these form the complete auroral current circuit. The figure shows a northsouth section through the structures that usually extend several hundreds of kilometers in the eastwest direction.
Seeing Circuits (1)

(Jan 12, 2005)
Before the first satellites were put into orbit, most scientists believed electrical phenomena couldn't exist in space. When those first satellites encountered streams of charged particles, the inertia of that prior belief prevented the scientists from seeing the streams as electrical currents: The streams were named "radiation belts." Magnetic fields in space are easy to measure; electric currents are not. So the movements of particles in the radiation belts were described in terms of magnetic fields, and the fact that moving charges constitute a current was ignored. But if charges move from one place to another, they will soon build up an excess of charge in that other place and repel any additional charges, therewith stopping the movement. For particles to continue to move, their path must close in a circuit. And if a circuit exists, the description of the particles' state at any point depends not only on the local conditions but also on what's happening in the rest of the circuit. For example, if a double layer forms and explodes, all the energy of the circuit will be released in it, an amount that can be vastly greater than the energy of the double layer itself. Hannes Alfven, the father of plasma cosmology, has identified several interacting circuits in the Earth's magnetosphere. The aurora is the visible part of one of these. Because the circuits radiate--that is, lose--energy, they must be powered by some source of energy (see diagram above). That source is a current from the Sun, a part of a larger circuit. Again, the inertia of prior belief prevented astrophysicists from seeing the moving charges of this current as a current, and it was named the "solar wind." Double layers--capacitor-like formations in plasma--are particularly interesting because they The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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have no noticeable magnetic effects. They can only be identified by sending probes through them. Astrophysicists who map magnetic fields and assume there's no electricity in space (or if there is, "it doesn't do anything") will have no idea the double layers exist. But the double layers' electrical effects are large and many. They store and discharge energy; they radiate "noisily" (over broad bands of frequencies); they accelerate charged particles; and they divide plasma into cells of like properties, often separating small variations in such parameters as temperature or density or chemical composition. When astrophysicists observe these effects, they have to posit a multitude of mechanical devices to explain them: black holes, magnetic reconnection, neutron stars, frozen-in magnetic field lines, shock waves, etc. All these effects consume energy. They act as loads in a circuit and hence must be supplied with power from some other part of the circuit or through a coupling with a more powerful circuit. Where is the power source?
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Credit and Copyright: Rens van der Sluijs
The Lightning Wheel in Ancient Times

(Jan 11, 2005)
In the aftermath of Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul (modern France), scores of local Celtic gods and goddesses were deliberately assimilated to members of the Greek and Roman pantheon. A particularly popular Celtic god was Taranis, literally "thunder," whose cult was incorporated in that of Jupiter. Jupiter was, of course, the Roman thunder god par excellence. But despite the extensive syncretism, the local gods managed to retain many of their original attributes. Taranis' stock attribute was a wheel. Sometimes the god is shown holding this wheel in one hand. The statue shown above, which misses the head, is of Provencal origin and is now on display in the archaeological museum at Avignon. In other cases, the god itself was represented by the wheel. The little bronze wheels shown above, excavated in Alesia, are thought to symbolize Taranis. Alesia was probably the most famous Gaulish stronghold attacked by Caesar, but the wheels have been found in many other places. The pivotal question is: why wheels? What connection exists between the thunderbolt and the wheel? The explanation panel provided in the attractive little museum at Alesia explains that the wheel "is a cosmic element. It designates, like the little wheels, the celestial universe." It seems fair enough that the wheels had a cosmic significance, but why of all gods would Taranis be associated with it? It is true that the revolution of the stars around the pole was often symbolised as a giant wheel in the heavens, but Taranis' wheel would seem to have deeper roots. Various ancient societies associated the lightning with a wheel. Marija Gimbutas has shown that the Baltic thunder god, Perkunas, was thought to procure fire by rotating his lightning-club in the nave of the solar wheel. In India the thunderbolt was envisaged as a disc with a hole in the middle that rotated when launched and shot lightning in all directions. This disc was a form of the vajra, the sacred lightning weapon of Indra, and was later depicted in the hands of Vishnu as the cakra. Could it be that Taranis' wheel derived from a similar tradition? If so, where could the belief in such a lightning wheel itself have come from? There are many indications that the ancients located the lightning wheel at the pole of heaven. For example, the twirling disc of Vishnu symbolically denoted "the revolving of the universe on its axis," as the symbologist Cooper observed. And the Chinese held that the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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lightning flashes through the lie kou, a hole at the centre of a large disc. Whilst the disc itself denoted the sky, the hole at the centre was explicitly identified with the pole. Scores of other traditions, especially from the Americas and Siberia, allude to the 'hole at the pole', above which either the sun or the thunderbolt dwells. All of this goes to show that there is no tension between the lightning wheel and the representation of the dome of heaven as a wheel. Taranis' wheel corresponded at once to the turning wheel of heaven and the lightning wheel. But one question remains unanswered: just how could the idea of lightning at the pole have arisen? And how could the equally odd notion of the hole at the pole have come about, provided that the ancients were not talking of the hole in the ozone layer? The answer to such intriguing questions is the immediate fallout of the model promoted on this website. The prototype of the lightning that the myths are concerned with was the cosmic axis in its glowing aspect, a stupendous plasma discharge tube that formed during the late Palaeolithic in response to high-energy disturbances in the magnetic field of the earth and an increased solar wind. The surrounding plasma sheath, spinning around the axis and emitting fiery jets, appears to have been the prototype of the turning wheel, viewed from an axial perspective. The wheel of the thunder god is only one of literally hundreds of equally puzzling mythical motifs that the plasma model explains at once. Contributed by Rens van der Sluijs
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Credit: SOHO-EIT Consortium, ESA, NASA
Electric Stars in Action

(Jan 10, 2005)
From an Electric Universe point of view, some stars are formed in a "pinch." Large magnetic fields have been detected in galaxies, and these fields indicate that huge electric currents flow in circuits through the galaxies. These current-induced magnetic forces constrict the currents into filaments, twist the filaments around each other in spirals, and "pinch" the galactic plasma into balls, pulling in any matter in the neighborhood until the internal pressure balances the magnetic "pinching" pressure. This pinch effect is far more effective than gravity in gathering and concentrating matter. And, unlike gravity, it can remove angular momentum that tends to prevent collapse. Stars will form like beads along a galactic wire. One possibility, popular in some plasma cosmology circles, is that once the material for a star is gathered and concentrated by the pinch, gravity takes over and squeezes the star until its interior lights up as a nuclear furnace, forming a conventional nuclear star. In the 1970's, the late Ralph Juergens, an engineer from Flagstaff, Arizona, took the next mental leap to suggest that the electrical input doesn't stop when a star is formed. In fact, stars are both sparked and powered by the same electric currents. Stars behave as electrodes in a galactic glow discharge. Bright stars like our Sun are concentrated balls of lightning! The many surface phenomena we see on the Sun (see SOHO image above) such as the hot corona, sunspots, prominences, flares, and granules are all explained by an electrically driven Sun, but are difficult to understand from the nuclear furnace point of view. Even the nuclear reactions whose neutrino traces we see (although not in the quantities predicted by the nuclear theory) are explained by electric stars. Nuclear reactions take place on the surface, not in the core, of the Sun, explaining why neutrino numbers vary with the sunspot cycle. Nuclear reactions are produced the same way we produce nuclear reactions in The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive the lab -- by accelerating particles in an electric field.
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The matter inside stars becomes positively charged as the lighter electrons drift toward the surface, leaving the heavier positive ions behind. The resulting internal electrostatic forces prevent stars from collapsing gravitationally and occasionally cause them to "give birth" by electrical fissioning to form companion stars and gas giant planets. Sudden brightening, or a nova outburst, marks a fission event. That explains why about half of the stars have partners and why most of the giant planets so far detected closely orbit their parent star. Electrical engineers and plasma cosmologists have a unique viewpoint based on their familiarity with the behavior and mathematics of plasma. Now that the space age has revealed the extent of plasma in the universe, it would behoove both sides to compare notes. Stars, galaxies, nebulae, and planets are all affected by electric currents in the plasma through which they move. There's a whole new universe waiting to be discovered.
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Our Milky Way Galaxy as photographed in Infrared by NASA's COBE Spaceprobe. Credit: NASA/KOBE
The Wayward Sun

(Jan 07, 2005)
The sun courses along the zodiac and has no direct connection to the Milky Way. Yet various cultures claim that the sun formerly moved on the Milky Way. This theme is particularly prominent in tropical Africa. For example, the west-equatorial Pygmies assert that the Milky Way is Kmvum's or Mvum's road to the sun in order to renew himself. They call it dzi ko or nwa ko, "road" or "path of the sky." The Rundi tighten the connection of the Milky Way and the sun even further, calling the Milky Way inzira y'izuba, "the sun's track." On condition that such folkloristic "wisdom" is not always meaningless, a possible explanation for such traditions could be that they preserve memories of some other bright object moving over the Milky Way, an object bright enough to qualify as a sun. This solution is recommended by the version of the Fiote of the Loango Coast, that involves a large luminary other than the sun journeying over the Milky Way: "The Star Way [Galaxy] is the road for a funeral procession of a huge star which, once, shone brighter from the sky than the Sun." That such curious traditions can hardly be dismissed as nonsensical oddities follows from the existence of a precise parallel within the confines of ancient Greece. Among the most obscure elements of the teaching of the Pythagoreans, including Philoponus, Oenopides and Metrodorus of Chios, was the belief that the sun was once on a different course: the Milky Way. This former sun was identified as Phaethon. Phaethon, of course, was the tragic hero who aspired to succeed his father Helius, the sun, but failed to manage the solar chariot and fell from the sky amid a catastrophic fire that set the world ablaze. Aristotle and a handful of later authors identify Phaethon the mock sun as the luminary that moved on the Milky Way. Aristotle wrote: "The so-called Pythagoreans give two explanations. Some say that the Milky Way is the path taken by one of the stars at the time of the legendary fall of Phaethon: others say that it is the circle in which the sun once moved. And the region is supposed to The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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have been scorched or affected in some other such way as a result of the passage of these bodies." The above is just one of scores of anomalous yet universal themes that cry out for an explanation. It is likely that the "sun" and the "Milky Way" were metaphoric replacements of some other objects formerly observed in the sky that are currently lost. For example, the former "sun" could have been a giant comet, as the Jesuit scholar Kugler proposed long ago, and the "Milky Way" that was produced in its trail could be based on an increased zodiacal light, such as proposed by Clube et al. Alternative explanations can be proposed. The plasma model advocated on this website includes the possibility that many myths trace to an episode in which the magnetosphere of the earth was once visibly glowing as a semi-permanent "aurora." If such conditions really prevailed in the Holocenic past, it stands to reason that myths of a former sun treading the Galaxy derived from genuine memories of a turbulent sky. Contributed by Rens van der Sluijs
1905
Image: Arp's evolution chart, SR p 239 Credit: Courtesy of Halton Arp
The Universe According to Arp

(Jan 06, 2005)
The conventional picture of the universe has galaxies sprinkled according to redshift (z) from the Milky Way to as far as the telescopic eye can see. The sprinkling is not random but is grouped into clusters. And one peculiarity of the clusters is that they are elongated away from the Earth, making Earth the target of "Fingers of God" pointing at us from every direction. This is odd. But conventional astronomers have exhibited a well-exercised ability to ignore odd results. This is not without good reason: One can only make sense of what makes sense. But it becomes troubling when their ability is exercised on observations that appear to be fundamental to their craft (of painting pictures of the universe). Several fundamental observations have been contradicting the conventional picture for 30 years of more. High-z objects (usually quasars) are often aligned along the axes of low-z galaxies. Moreover, their z's decrease with distance. And the z's are sharply quantized in a series of discrete values. Furthermore, the luminosities of these high-z objects increase with distance. Radio interferometry has measured the sizes of a number of these objects, and their velocities have been determined. The highest-z objects, in or near galactic nuclei, are very tiny and very fast, sometimes approaching the speed of light. Farther out along the line, with lower z, objects are larger, a thousand times the diameter of the littler ones, a billion times more voluminous. In and around the lines of high-z quasars one can often find so-called "companion galaxies." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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These galaxies are smaller than the one they accompany, and their redshifts are a bit redder (but again the z's are quantized around certain preferred values). And quite often these lines of quasars and companion galaxies are enveloped in "cocoons" of radio and x-ray, and sometimes optical, emission. To the unconventional astronomer, especially to Halton Arp, who has been the primary collector of these discrepant observations, it looks as if the primary galaxy is ejecting "babies" that grow up into companion galaxies. Their decreasing z is an indicator of their age. Their slowing down is an indicator of their gain in mass. (This is because the conservation of their initial momentum--mass times velocity--requires the latter to decrease as the former increases in order to keep the product constant.) Also, as their mass increases their luminosity will increase. As they age they will cool, and the matter in them will begin to condense and to organize into stars. Finally, the stars will organize into the familiar forms of galaxies. But long before they reach the "old age" of companion galaxies, they May have ejected "babies" of their own, and the "babies" May have ejected "babies," generating a "family cluster" of galaxies and quasars. The Virgo Cluster illustrates this "family picture" of the universe. The giant elliptical galaxy, M49, lies at the center of the cluster. It is flanked by the active and radio-bright galaxy, M87, to the north and the quasar, 3C273, to the south. All three objects are connected by a lane of radio and x-ray emission. M87 is famous for the blue jet with quasar-like knots in it that extends toward the active galaxy M84. In the other direction from M87, opposite M84, is another line of x-ray and radio sources. The entire line is surrounded by an oval of small spiral galaxies. Beyond M84 is the quasar PG1211, which has a line of quasars extending through it. These last quasars would be the great-grandchildren of M49. Arp contends that just about everything we can see in the direction of the Virgo Cluster is a family member of that cluster. But he also notes that on the opposite side of the sky is a formation that is a mirror image of the Virgo Cluster: the Fornax Cluster. What's true of one must be true of the other, implying that the visible universe consists of one all-encompassing cluster. Our Local Group is somewhere in the middle. Arp speculates that there May be other such large clusters beyond the reach of present-day telescopes: After all, the mother of our visible group must have come from somewhere.
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Credit: ESO, insert courtesy of Halton Arp
A Loose Cannon in Space

(Jan 05, 2005)
This image of the Dogleg Galaxy (NGC1097) is spectacular both for what it shows and for what it hides. The low exposure reveals the brightest structure in the central region of the galaxy, especially the "Ring of Pearls" around the nucleus. This ring is conventionally explained as knots of star formation triggered by gravitational disruption. But plasma cosmologists will notice the rough pairing of "pearls" and recall the pairing of Birkeland currents around plasma toroids in laboratory experiments with the plasma gun. A view down the barrel of the gun shows a ring of pairs of bright dots. Gravity-induced collapse of gas clouds into stars has few other consequences. But the paired Birkeland currents in a plasma gun feed electrical energy into the plasmoid. When the energy reaches a critical level, the plasmoid discharges its energy into an axial jet and ejects knots of highly-charged matter. So is the Dogleg Galaxy simply an island of gravity in empty space, or are there "further consequences"? What's not shown in this image is the pair of faint jets and counter-jets that stretch away to nearly twice the diameter of the galaxy. The longest jet ends in a right-angle bend, which gives the galaxy its name of "Dogleg." Halton Arp has called them "the most extensive, low surface brightness optical jets of any galaxy known." But to image them requires long exposure times. The discovery of "further consequences" requires more patience and daring than convention allows. What else is not shown in this image is the bright x-ray quasar just beyond the dogleg jet. On the opposite side of the galaxy, along the dogleg's counter-jet, is a line of quasars that terminate on a BL Lac object (a rare kind of variable quasar). This object is brighter in x-ray light than the galaxy, indicating an electrical discharge even more intense than the central plasma gun's "Ring of Pearls." Readers who are familiar with Arp's work will recognize the common occurrence of quasars paired across an active galactic nucleus. The second jet emerges from the galaxy just behind the dislocation in the upper arm. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Significantly, there is also a gap in the lower arm at the position of the counter-jet. It appears that the plasma gun in the nucleus fired its last shot through the arms. Judging by the distance the arms have rotated beyond the jet, the shot was fired about ten million years ago. In addition to the jets and the quasars sprinkled along and between them, lobes of hot material are pulled out in the same direction. The Electric Universe interprets these observations as the consequences of an electrical surge in the circuit feeding the Fornax cluster of galaxies (of which NGC1097 is a member). Usually an active galactic nucleus will eject its jets and quasars along the galaxy's spin axis. But occasionally, as in this instance, the plasma gun mechanism in the galaxy's core will "wobble," becoming a "loose cannon" that ejects in the equatorial plane, disrupting the spiral arms.
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Credit: NASA/NOAA
How's the Weather?

(Jan 04, 2005)
Meteorologists with computer models know a lot more about the weather than ever before. Computer models calculate the interplay of a large number of variables to produce likely weather scenarios for several days. Meteorologists then decide which scenario is most likely. More often than not they're right. But the times they miss could be because they are leaving out an important factor. Like most sciences, meteorology still considers the Earth to be an isolated body in space. It is not. It is a charged body moving through an active plasma environment, surrounded by a web of electric currents commonly called the magnetosphere. Earth's surface and atmosphere are electrically connected through this magnetosphere to electrical conditions in space and on the Sun. Astronomers Sallie Baliunas and Willy Soon have shown that for as long as temperature records have been kept, the global temperatures of the Earth have correlated to the sunspot cycle. And the sunspot cycle also affects radio transmission and power grids. The Electric Universe identifies more effects: Currents to the surface affect the jet streams, moving them closer to the equator when solar activity causes geomagnetic storms. These currents power thunderstorms, waterspouts and hurricanes. The image above is hurricane Frances in 2004. Its form is that of a plasma spiral, mimicking on a small scale the shape of a spiral galaxy and on a large scale the shape of interacting Birkeland currents in the laboratory. If we learn more about the plasma factors, we should be able to predict the weather better, and maybe learn how to control it, too. Already experiments are underway pumping ionized gases into the atmosphere to increase rainfall in the desert. Summing up all its tests from 2000 to 2002, two of the companies testing these techniques claim that ionization led to about double the average historical precipitation -- stimulating, among other things, a 61 percent The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive increase in bean production in Mexico's central basin in the last three years.
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How will this new knowledge be used? Michael Crichton's latest novel, State of Fear, presents a world where weather control (enhanced thunderstorms, flash floods and controlled lightning) is used as a weapon in an environmental war. But the flip side of Crichton's tale is much brighter. Imagine the next "hurricane Frances" tamed. Its fury could be softened and split. Part could follow the usual pathway up the hurricane corridor as gentle rain and the other part could be diverted to the Sahara. North Africa could become a major producer of grains and fruits and vegetables; its coastline a Mediterranean holiday paradise. Taking into account the plasma factors involved in the weather could be the key to finally learning how to do something about it.
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In the Coils of the Serpent

(Jan 03, 2005)
The Hellenistic era saw an upsurge of 'mystery' cults, all of which centered round the figure of a divine demiurge that had come down from heaven, separated heaven and earth, died and was resurrected. This character was variously known as Osiris, Dionysus, Atthis, Adonis, Aeon, Mithra, and so on. The worshippers of Mithra commonly represented their patron god as entwined by a serpent, typically forming six or seven coils. The statue shown above was produced in 190 A. D. and is presently housed in the Vatican Museum. Other gods, such as Aeon and Cronus, were portrayed in similar guise. That the Mithraists had a penchant for cosmic symbolism needs no argument. But what did the coils of the serpent signify? Because Mithra commonly represents the sun, specialists agree that the serpent must have some cosmological meaning. The standard interpretation is either that it symbolizes the spiraling course of the sun around the axis of the world or that it represented the zodiac. The sun travels along the zodiac and could, therefore, be imagined to be 'surrounded' by the zodiac. Vermaseren, followed by Beck, proposes that the precise number of windings seven was based on the number of the planets. Especially because the signs of the zodiac are sometimes seen in the spaces between the coils, this interpretation is probably correct with respect to the beliefs of the Mithraists themselves. What is questionable, however, is the tacit assumption that the image of the serpent coiled around the god had originated as a symbol of the zodiac and the planets. The winding serpent emerges from the interpretation offered by the specialists as a garbled, composite symbol. The snake logically cannot represent the zodiac and the orbits of the planets at once because all planets move along the zodiac as a single band, not as seven bands. Nor do the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive zodiac or the planets 'surround' the sun like a sevenfold helix.
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It seems likelier that the image of the coiling serpent ultimately traces back to a much more archaic motif without any relationship to the planets and the zodiac. In ancient Greece as well as the Near East the polar centre of the world was often represented by a 'navel stone', the most famous example of which is the omphalos at Delphi. Importantly, a snake is often wound around this navel stone in early representations. This snake is to be identified as the dragon Python, that coiled itself around Mount Parnassus, was slain by Apollo, and was buried underneath the omphalos. Mithra and his congeners were envisioned as personifications of the cosmic axis that runs through the centre of the earth. Thus, the snake that enclosed both Mithra and the 'navel stones' must originally have been some celestial phenomenon observed in association with the cosmic axis. The wider argument presented here is that the worldwide mythology of the cosmic axis was based on complex plasma formations seen during an episode of a prolonged aurora, as proposed by plasma physicist Anthony Peratt in 2003. Within that framework, the winding serpent is explained as a helical vortex formed during a turbulent phase that immediately preceded the formation of the 'stable' axial column. Significantly, plasma columns have a known propensity to form a stack of seven to nine segments. This explains the significance of the sevenfold coil at a blow. Contributed by Rens van der Sluijs
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Credit: "Squatter man" images below gathered by Anthony Peratt
Prediction #5: Plasma Formations in the Ancient Sky

(Dec 31, 2004)
Plasma scientists are now comparing electrical discharge formations in the laboratory to rock art images around the world. Results in 2005 should confirm that immense and terrifying plasma configurations were seen in the sky of our ancestors. For over three decades Anthony Peratt, a leading authority on plasma phenomena, concentrated his laboratory research on the unstable formations that develop in high-energy electrical discharge. He recorded the evolution of these configurations through dozens of phases. Some of the most elaborate discharge forms are now called "Peratt Instabilities" because he was the first to document them. But Peratts most recent work has taken him in a new direction, and the results offer a remarkable link between plasma science and things once seen in the heavens. In September, 2000, in response to communication with David Talbott, Peratt became intrigued by the striking similarity of ancient rock art to the discharge formations he had documented. Suddenly he was seeing, carved on stone by the tens of thousands, the very forms he had observed in the laboratory. The correlation was so precise--down to the finest details--that it could not be accidental. The artists were recording heaven-spanning discharge formations above them. In his investigation of rock art themes, Peratt concentrated his field work in the American Southwest and Northwest, but he also gathered data internationally. For his on-site study he used GPS longitude and latitude positions, always noting the orientation and field of view. A team of about 30 volunteers, including specialists from several fields, assisted Peratt in the investigation, and he has since gathered more than 25,000 rock art images. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The illustrations of one interesting formation--the "squatter man" shown above--are taken from Peratt's recent paper in "Transactions on Plasma Science" of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, in December 2003. Peratt states his conclusion forthrightly: The recurring petroglyph patterns "are reproductions of plasma phenomena in space." Peratts findings are particularly significant in their contrast to traditional explanations of rock art. The majority of rock art authorities, particularly those with primary interest in Native American sources, argue that only images of the sun, moon, and stars reflect actual celestial phenomena. Apart from such associations, most authorities claim that global patterns do not exist. Rather, they tell us, the ancient artists projected onto stone the subjective content of shamanistic trances. Peratts investigations say the opposite, and they confirm dozens of patterns of rock art that occur globally. Through massive labors, some apparently taking whole lifetimes according to Peratt, the artists recorded immense discharge phenomena in the heavens. The "squatter man" configuration depicted above occurs when a disk or donut-like torus around a linear discharge column is bent by magnetic fields induced by intense current flow. From the viewpoint of the observer, the edges of the upper disk May appear to point up (forming "arms") and those of the lower torus May appear to point down (forming "legs"). The underlying "hourglass" pattern, with many subtle variations, occurs around the world. To appreciate the evolution of this discharge configuration it is essential that one visualize it three dimensionally, as illustrated by the idealization above. The graphic image on the upper left utilizes a tonal gradient to indicate the structure of a translucent plasma discharge, where this structure would not be self evident in a rendition carved on rock. The key here is to recognize that rotating the configuration on its axis would not change the basic form or appearance to the observer. This fact will not be evident, however, in a simple carving on rock. To make the point, the accompanying image converts the illustration into black and white, which represents the way the configuration would likely appear in a stone carving. Our idealization shows slight variations between the upward-pointing and downward-pointing components, consistent with common variations in the laboratory and in rock art. The upper "champagne glass" form results from a distortion of a disk as the edges curve upward. In the warping of the disk below, the downward curvature is interrupted at the extremity, which bends outward to create a "squashed bell" appearance. The rock art images shown above include other variations as well. Sometimes, the "arms" and "legs" of the "squatter man" are horizontal, while at other times they are more squared than in our graphic representation, but both variations are characteristic of intense plasma discharge. Our idealization of the hourglass discharge form accents the visual relationship of the two symmetrical dots or circles to a transparent doughnut-like torus, viewed edge on. But many other nuances of such discharge configurations must be taken into account. The warping of the upward and downward extremities of the hourglass form can occur in almost limitless variations. To illustrate the extent of the variations anciently recorded, we offer two interesting examples in the upper right frame of the montage above. The first, closely tied to the more elementary "squatter man" formation, includes the two dots to the right and left of the torso. The incongruous additional pair of "legs" also accord with observed patterns in the evolution of Peratt instabilities, which typically send out stacks of "arms" or "legs" in the very fashion depicted. Even more bizarre is the accompanying squatter man whose head is replaced by the body of a duck. But this pattern too, particularly widespread in the Americas, is no accident according to Peratt. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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If Peratts conclusions are correct, then only a few thousand years ago the terrestrial sky was ablaze with electrical activity. The ramifications of this possibility will directly affect our understanding of cultural roots. What was the impact of the recorded events on the first civilizations? What was the relationship to the origins of world mythology, to the birth of the early religions, or to monumental construction in ancient times? There is reason to believe that rock art will illuminate a critical turn in human history. There is also a provable connection to the evolution of mythical archetypes. Archaic rock art depictions came first, but were followed by an outpouring of conceptual elaborations, as ancient artists gave imaginative expression to the celestial forms and events that inspired the myth-making epoch. Both the rock artists and the myth-makers had true perils on their minds. The rock artists recorded and the myth-makers interpreted electrical events in the sky, as plasma discharge sequences moved through discrete phases, some of celestial beauty, others intensely violent and terrifying.
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Prediction #4: The Scars of Planetary Violence

(Dec 30, 2004)
Laboratory study of the way electric arcs affect surface materials will soon challenge traditional geologic models. The evidence will show that the cosmic "thunderbolt" dominated planetary evolution. When speaking of solar system history, proponents of the electric universe realize that their message can create huge difficulties in communication. Abbreviated "first glimpses" of their viewpoint will provoke incredulity, shock, and irritation. In the electric model, the actual history of our solar system does not resemble the currently accepted theories of the sciences. Therefore, the reader must be asked to suspend all prior beliefs on the subject, including matters thought to have been settled decades, or even centuries ago. In the later years of his life, Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfven, the founder of plasma science, reached a startling conclusion about the nature of the universe. He said that gravitational systems are the "ashes" of prior electrical systems. This remarkable idea would require the investigation of our solar system to move in an entirely new direction. But the history of science suggests that such dramatic turns do not occur easily, or without a jolt of unnerving proportions. In contrast to conventional theorists, advocates of the electric universe contend that as recently as several thousand years ago, planets moved under the influence of electrified plasma, a medium that can easily overwhelm gravity. Orbits changed, and catastrophic electrical encounters altered the terrain, the climates, and the atmospheres of planets, including our Earth. Though the duration of instability is unknown, the final episodes of catastrophe occurred in The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the time of our early ancestors, who witnessed celestial wonders beyond anything imagined today. Charged planets and moons were held in a close array by electrical forces and were seen as huge spheres in the sky. In periods of instability, plasma discharges passed between planets, capturing the obsessive attention of human witnesses. Ancient sky worshippers observed the resulting plasma configurations as the discharges mutated from one unstable phase to another, seemingly alive, intelligent--and habitually combative. It was these events, often earthshaking and terrifying, that supplied the raw content of world mythology and inspired the great religious and symbolic traditions of antiquity. Planetary science will play a critical role in testing the electric universe hypothesis. The claimed events could not have occurred without leaving vast physical scars on all the rocky bodies involved. Because most of the rocky bodies in the solar system have surfaces unaffected by atmospheric or fluid erosion, they must have preserved a relatively pristine record of these events. The scars should still be visible today. To produce the discharge formations claimed by the electric theorists, one must envision interplanetary lightning raking across the surfaces of the celestial bodies, alternately removing material and implanting material. This re-sculpting of surfaces occurred through intensely violent action, in stark contrast to geologic processes occurring on Earth today. But presentlyobserved terrestrial events provide most of the content of modern geological theory. Hence, the electric universe challenges standard theory at the level of underpinnings. Charged bodies within a plasma develop insulating "sheaths" or plasma cells around them. In space, we call these sheaths "magnetospheres." So long as charged planets remain outside each others plasma sheaths they will stay electrically "invisible" to each other. But two planets in close approach, moving deeply into each others sheaths, will cause the electrical insulation to break down, and the resulting arcing will leave surface features that can only be obvious once the question is raised. No inquiry into the issues raised here could afford to overlook the thousands of channels torn across surfaces of planets and moons. The lunar surface, for example, presents huge channels, called "sinuous rilles," first observed through earthbound telescopes, then viewed close up from Apollo craft orbiting the Moon in the late 1960s. [Photograph above, upper right] As seen from Earth, some lunar rilles look so much like a terrestrial river that early astronomers wondered if subsurface water might be present on the Moon. Yet closer views showed that the characteristic features of rivers--tributary systems, braids, smoothly curved meanders, delta fans, alluvial flood plains, etc.--are either missing or oddly displayed in lunar rilles. Before the space age, only the Moon could be seen with enough detail to reveal the existence of sinuous rilles. But after more than three decades of space exploration, virtually identical terrain is known to exist on every closely observed body of the solar system--on all of the rocky inner planets, on the Martian moon Phobos, on the moons of the gas giants, on asteroids, and even on comets. How did the same morphology occur in such radically different environments? The mystery only deepens as we learn more about these celestial bodies. Many space objects are too hot, too dry, too airless, too cold, or too small to have rivers of water. Where any kind of flowing liquid is excluded, the specialists have proposed cracking of ice under tidal stresses, or cracking of rocky surfaces by meteoric impacts, or collapse of surface material above subterranean flows of liquid, or venting of sub-surface gases. These diverse The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"explanations" have been offered for essentially identical geologic formations. In the mid-1970s, engineer Ralph Juergens described for the first time the expected effects of interplanetary lightning on the surfaces of solid bodies in space. His original insights are particularly valuable in light of plasma cosmology, with its emphasis on electricity in the evolution of stellar and planetary systems. Juergens showed that the strange features of sinuous rilles can be explained by scaling up features of powerful lightning strikes on Earth. Interplanetary lightning could act (with variations) on worlds that are hot or cold, on worlds with high or low gravity, on worlds with or without an atmosphere, and on worlds with or without water, lava, or other liquids. 1. Often a rille begins or ends on a crater or has a crater straddling the rille at the place where the rille changes direction. Hyginus rille on the Moon is a good example. 2. Many craters are perched on the edges of rilles--far in excess of the random distribution predicted by orthodox impact theory. 3. Sometimes craters are so densely distributed in and around rilles that when scientists count the craters to estimate the age of the surface their conclusion flatly contradicts the claimed age of the rille itself. 4. Crater chains frequently run parallel to a rille, as near Valles Marineris on Mars, or they can run along the bottom of the rille for all or part of the rille's length. 5. Sometimes the rille appears to be constituted of overlapping craters, making clear that the force producing the craters was the agent producing the rille. This apparently continuous cratering will often give a clean "cookie cutter" or fluted appearance to the walls of the channel with no evidence of the slumping that would follow fluid undercutting. Experimental work is now underway to explore the relationship between the electric arc and scarring patterns in the solar system. Much more such research is called for, but even the initial results, as they are published, should be sufficient to provoke more vigorous laboratory work. The channel produced by an electric spark, such as the one shown above, is a sinuous rille in miniature. Electrical phenomena are scalable: they exhibit the same forms and characteristics whether the discharge occurs over a fraction of a millimeter or over thousands of kilometers. In fact, computerized simulations of high-energy electrical discharges indicate that the same patterns can be scaled up yet another 100 million times to galactic size. Scalability carries sweeping implications for planetary science. With a microscope, industrial engineers observe the characteristic features of rilles in the tiny scars that electric arcs leave on damaged insulators and semiconductors or on the surfaces of spark-machined tools. If interplanetary lightning caused the rilles on space objects, then inexpensive and controlled experiments on Earth May answer puzzles that have vexed planetary scientists for decades. Present knowledge of electrical phenomena will also enable scientists to calculate the energies involved in the formation of rilles. How powerful is an interplanetary lightning bolt? Plasma cosmologist Anthony Peratt estimates that a single such bolt would be as powerful as 3000 100-megaton nuclear explosions. In the coming year, our "Pictures of the Day" will return to these questions often. Active "volcanoes" on Jupiters moon Io and Neptunes moon Triton reveal the telltale signatures of plasma discharges. Enormous "dust devils" moving across the surface of Mars, suggest The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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similar phenomena at lower energies. The tracks of these Everest-sized whirlwinds are eerily similar to the spidery patterns of supposed "cracks" on Jupiter's moon Europa. In wildly different contexts, we observe vast fields of parallel grooves, flat-bottomed craters and crater chains; domes and blisters, all explicable in fine detail as the scars of electric arcs. In surveying scientific opinion on unexpected planetary geology, we have found that the "best scientific guesses" frequently ignore the most telling features. Experts May be reluctant to concentrate on anomalies to phenomena they claim to understand. In fact, the astonishing surface relief has forced planetary scientists to produce whole libraries of fragmentary and often-contradictory "explanations," none of which has withstood closer scrutiny. This is not, then, a mystery that can be resolved overnight. It requires close examination of anomalous but recurring patterns. And when it comes to the alien landscapes revealed in recent decades, it is no exaggeration to say that every recurring pattern is an anomaly. NOTES ON THE PICTURES ABOVE: TOP ROW: Left: Pattern traced by an electric spark across an insulating surface dusted with fine powder. Note the parallelism of the spark paths and the tendency for the tributaries to join the main channel at near right angles. Note also the deep secondary channel running along the center of the primary. Center: Lunar rilles reveal features remarkably similar to the scars left by electrical arcs. Sharp turns unrelated to topographic inclination, and circular or oblong pits strategically placed along the rilles, are two key pointers to electrical forces. Right: With the curvature of the Moon as backdrop, this photograph of the Aristarchus Plateau underscores the extraordinary length of many lunar rilles--far exceeding any observed lava flows on Earth. Note also that some of the rilles cut across elevated terrain, a fact that precludes creation by flowing liquid. LOWER LEFT: This bolt of lightning carved a 40-foot furrow across the infield of a baseball diamond. The more sinuous path taken by the lightning can be seen roughly traced in the bottom of the furrow, a key to understanding the patterns of electrically machined rilles on bodies in space. MIDDLE RIGHT: Schrters Valley on the Moon, commonly said to be caused by basaltic lava flows from volcanic sources. A much more narrow stream of pits winds its way down the valley. LOWER RIGHT: The 700 km Martian rille, Nirgal Vallis. Note the tiny tributaries for such a gigantic channel, the extreme sinuosity, and the "fretted" cookie cutter appearance of the "lower" reaches, all inconsistent with the dynamics of flowing water.
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Credit: Stardust Team/JPL/NASA
Prediction #3: Electric Comets and the "Domino Effect"

(Dec 29, 2004)
2005 could be the year of the breakthrough for the "electric comet" model. Comets without water on their nucleus will invalidate a lot more than obsolete comet theory. In 2005, a lot of reputations, multi-million dollar research projects, and scientific institutions-including NASA itself--will suffer catastrophically if the planned Deep Impact mission produces the "surprises" expected by Wallace Thornhill, a leading theorist of the electric comet hypothesis. The Deep Impact craft is scheduled for launch between January 12 and January 28, 2005. Its mission is an unprecedented encounter with a comet nucleus. The target is Comet Tempel 1. NASA plans to fire an 820-pound copper "impactor" toward the nucleus, which is expected to strike the surface at about 23,000 miles per hour. According to NASA scientists, the result should be a release of energy equivalent to that of exploding 4.8 tons of TNT, creating a deep crater. Fittingly, the scheduled date for the celestial fireworks is July 4, 2005 But all of NASAs expectations for the encounter are tied to current ideas about comets. The conventional view is that comets are inert chunks of ice and dust, or "dirty snowballs," evaporating in the heat of the Sun. The alternative view is that comets discharge electrically as they move through a radial electrical field of the Sun. No middle ground between the two views seems possible, and if it happens that the Deep Impact projectile strikes a solid rock the snowball theory of comets is finished. Mainstream theorists will be left without an explanation for a comets coma and tail. While the electric universe model does not require that the nucleus of Tempel 1 be devoid of water, Thornhill and other advocates of the electric comet hypothesis think that a dry comet nucleus is most likely. Indeed, NASA has already encountered dry cometary nuclei. The surface of comet Borrelly, visited in 2001, proved to be bone dry, prompting investigators to suggest that water must be hidden beneath the surface. Nor did the Stardust flyby of comet Wild 2 in January 2004 identify water on the surface of the nucleus. The problem with the supposition of subsurface ice is that only a few inches of dry nonvolatile surface material would be sufficient to insulate the "ice" from the heat of the Sun. Meanwhile the observed high speed jets are far more energetic than could be reasonably expected even if there were no insulating material. Nevertheless, the confidence of investigators was unshaken by what they saw, for surely the presence of water on comet The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive nuclei is a fact!
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The standard theory, it seems, has been kept alive by the discovery of water in comet comas and tails, not on the nucleus itself. But what is the source of the water in comet tails? Ironically electrical activity within cometary comas May have deceived investigators into thinking that their model is intact. Here is why: The evidence suggests that comets are highly negatively charged with respect to the Sun. As they rush toward the Sun, the voltage increases until at some point the comet nucleus begins to discharge. Electrons are stripped from a few points on the comet surface where the electric field is strongest. These "spark discharges" finely machine rocky material from the surface to form a "cathode jet" of negatively charged dust together with surface matter that has been torn apart to release ionized atoms and molecules, including oxygen. Under the conventional model there is no reason for the high density of negative ions discovered near the comet nucleus. Negative ions are difficult to produce by solar heating and are quickly destroyed by solar radiation. Nevertheless, in March 1986 when the Giotto spacecraft flew within 600km of Comet Halley, an abundance of negatively charged atoms was discovered in the inner coma--direct evidence that a comet is the cathode in an electric exchange with the Sun. A few years later, scientists discovered an unexpected "forbidden oxygen" line at 1128 in the spectrum of Comet Austin. That line is consistent with the presence of an intense electric field and/or densities in the coma many orders of magnitude higher than those predicted from standard cometary theory. There is reason to believe that the positively charged ions from the solar wind react preferentially with the negatively charged oxygen from the nucleus to generate the water observed surrounding comets. The probe Vega 2 found the H2O (water) production by comet Halley was one fifth of the OH production. But scientists had supposed that OH was formed by photo-dissociation of H2O at some distance from the nucleus. The report in Nature in May 1986 reads: "Only indirect and sometimes ambiguous evidence in favor of water has been found; indeed, some facts appear to contradict this hypothesis." Thus, the authors suggest: "This problem requires further analysis and May indicate the existence of parents of OH other than H2O." Such a discovery is most simply explained if the parents of OH were a combination of solar protons (hydrogen) and negative oxygen ions electrically removed from silicates and other minerals in the nucleus. The greater abundance of OH would then be expected. It then becomes clear that the water we see is being produced through electrical exchange: Negatively charged oxygen from the comet nucleus combines with the positively charged hydrogen ions from the Sun, via the solar wind. Models of water production from comets assume it is sublimating from the surface of the nucleus at a constant rate and expanding radially outward at constant velocity. But neither of these assumptions is supported by observations. The encounter with comet Wild 2 discovered that the removed material is confined to very thin jets. A principal investigator also spoke of energetic bursts "like a thunderbolt." The electrical model of cometary discharge does explain the observations: an electric field accelerates matter in the jet; an electromagnetic "pinch effect" provides densities in the thin jets many orders of magnitude The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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higher than those predicted from simple radial sublimation; and instabilities and fluctuations suddenly relocate jets in exceedingly short periods of time. This model explains a great number of puzzles about recent comet discoveries. Why are comet nuclei coal black as if they have been burnt? Why are the nuclei sharply cratered and rocky when they should be smooth like a melting ice cream if they are merely sublimating in the Suns heat? Why are the comet jets so narrow and energetic? Why do some comets sport an "anomalous" Sunward spike? How can some comets produce sulfur compounds like those found in the jets on Io that require very high temperatures? Why is there a superabundance of extremely fine dust? Why does the presence of water molecules increase with distance from the nucleus quite the reverse of what we should expect if water is driving dust off the comet? Often the events most disconcerting to conventional theory are the things most quickly forgotten. While moving between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus (14 times farther from the Sun than the Earth), Comet Halley experienced an outburst between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus that caused dust to stretch over some 300,000 km. At that distance from the Sun, the surface should be in deep freeze at 200 degrees C. But it happened at a time when the Sun was at maximum activity. This does not mean that the Sun was producing significantly more heat but rather that there was a marked increase in the charged particles from the solar wind. And the vast cloud of dust from the comet fits the electrical machining model but not the sublimating ices model. A direct confirmation of the electric connection came unwittingly from the Chandra X-ray Observatory on July 14, 2000. At that time, the Chandra telescope viewed the comet Linear repeatedly over a 2-hour period, detecting unexpected X-rays from oxygen and nitrogen ions in the coma of the comet. The capture of electrons from the negatively charged comet by positively charged hydrogen ions in the solar wind is, of course, nothing else than an electric discharge, natures highly efficient means of X-ray production. It needs to be understood that a loss of faith in standard comet theory today would have drastic effects on all theoretical sciences touching on the nature of the universe--from microcosm to macrocosm. An electric field sufficient to cause electrical discharging on a comet beyond the orbit of Saturn would have the electric potential to power the Sun. We could no longer ignore the cosmic electricians claims: They tell us that the Sun is not a nuclear furnace but an electric glow discharge; its nuclear reactions are occurring not in the interior but in the atmosphere of the Sun, where the intensity of the discharge is highest. All theories about the evolution of the planetary system, including our earth, would have to be reconsidered from the ground up. The nebular hypothesis of planetary origins, claiming that the Sun and planets emerged gravitationally from a primordial cloud, could no longer maintain its intellectual monopoly. The fabled residue of the hypothesized nebula, the "Oort cloud," called upon to send comets into the inner solar system as theorists need them, would instantly lose its rationale. And no longer could it be maintained that the planets have moved in clockwork fashion for billions of years. Even the accumulated evidence of electrical dramas and planetary upheaval in the human past would demand a reconsideration. There is also the virtual certainty that electric events in our solar system have countless analogs in deep space. Cosmological theories based on gravity alone could not survive such a turn of events. We have good reason, therefore, to speak of the imminent prospect of a domino effect being unleashed, one that will set in motion one of the great revolutions in human thought and perception. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Credit: Cassini Imaging Team/SSL/JPL/ESA/NASA
Prediction #2: Saturns Surprises Will Point to Electrical Origins

(Dec 28, 2004)
Already the Cassini probe of Saturns realm has returned startling details about the gas giant and it largest moon Titan. These are not the worlds that NASA scientists expected. On October 15, 1997, NASA launched the Cassini spacecraft toward the planet Saturn, perhaps the most enchanting body in the solar system. Almost seven years later, on July 1, 2004, the spacecraft entered an orbit around the gas giant. Scientists had expressed hope that the 3.7 billion dollar Cassini spacecraft would solve longstanding mysteries. But NASA spokesmen had expressed similar hopes for the Galileo mission to Jupiter several years earlier, and if that experience is any indication of what to expect, surprising new mysteries will arise as old mysteries deepen in Cassinis extended visit to Saturn. The mysteries have accumulated for a reason. A large community of astronomers, astrophysicists and planetary geologists still work under the spell of traditional theoretical models, formulated prior to the discovery of the electric force in the heavens. These theorists draw upon traditional "gravity-only" models when they speculate on how stars and planets are formed. But while these models can get our probes to their destination, they have neither predicted nor explained the findings. Rather, from the moment of arrival, our space probes have recorded the unexpected. A new cosmology, based on the work of leading plasma scientists in the twentieth century, offers a different view of the universe, including our own little enclave in the Milky Way. In this view, it is electricity that dominates the formative history of galaxies, stars, and planets. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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In the "electric universe," stars can be created within a dusty plasma by the well-studied electromagnetic "pinch effect," a characteristic feature of cosmic electric discharges. Stars shine thereafter as electric glow discharges. Electrical star formation May also involve catastrophic instabilities, including fissioning, when a part of the stars core May be expelled, giving birth to a binary or multiple star partner or a close-orbiting gas giant planet. Gas giants May later repeat the process on a smaller scale, expelling core material at intervals to form rings and satellites. According to this model, satellites that escape the parent to orbit the primary star become the rocky planets. Smaller debris from the electrical transactions become asteroids, comets, and meteoroids. Obviously this electrical model is very different from the present gravitational models. It has biological and evolutionary overtones. Planets are born at intervals, and adjustments must be made for the new arrivals. Some leave home and others remain. The ages and histories of the family members will all be different. Astronomers who are bound by conventional assumptions expected to find a simple gradation in the properties of planets and moons--all in relation to distance from the center of gravity. Nothing remotely answering to that prediction was ever discovered. Proponents of the electric universe are attentive to historical and forensic evidence. They have reconstructed a story of stupendous electrical events in the sky of our ancestors. By following the evidence wherever it might lead, they concluded that the solar system itself was unstable in earlier times. Planets once followed much different paths than they do today, giving rise to violent electrical arcing between planets and moons. According to the authors of this reconstruction, the catastrophic transition to the present order of the solar system was witnessed by the sky-worshippers of antiquity. From this new vantage point, it is possible not only to hear the messages of ancient witnesses clearly, but also to compare these messages with plasma laboratory experiments and with new data from space. A convergence of evidence enables the cosmic electricians to predict the direction of discovery, including many surprises to conventional theorists as Cassini sends its data back to earth. Like the Sun, Saturn radiates X-rays strongly from near its equator, though X-rays of such intensity were not expected from Saturn. Saturns X-ray spectrum is like the Suns, and this fact led scientists to suggest, improbably, that the X-rays from the Sun were being reflected by Saturns atmosphere. (Why, then, doesnt Jupiter reflect X-rays equatorially? Its X-rays come from polar auroral discharges, not from a "reflection"). The hasty "explanation" requires that Saturn reflect X-rays 50-times more efficiently than the Moon! By comparing historical evidence with data on recently discovered unusually-low-luminosity stars, Wallace Thornhill (www.holoscience.com) has suggested that Saturn was formerly an independent brown dwarf star. He predicts that Saturn will continue to perplex astronomers with stellar characteristics. Saturns X-rays are concentrated, like the Suns, at low latitudes. Voyager 2 also found an immense, hot doughnut of plasma encircling Saturn that is believed to be the hottest place in the solar system, 300 times hotter than the solar corona! Saturns atmosphere appears to rotate faster at the equator than at high latitudes just like the Suns. More similarities will emerge, Thornhill predicts. In January, Cassini is due to relay information from the Huygens probe as it descends to the surface of Saturns largest moon, Titan. Under the electric hypothesis Titan was likely born by electrical expulsion from the proto-Saturnian brown dwarf. So it should be found to have features in common with Venus, the planet that shows the most abundant signs of The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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geologically recent ejection. Already it is known that Titan has the heaviest atmosphere after its sister, Venus. Astronomers observe a continuous loss of methane from Titan's atmosphere. Assuming a conventionally long geologic history of the planets, theyve also supposed that Titans atmosphere is in equilibrium. So they thought that a global ocean of methane would be found, continually replenishing the observed losses. The electric view postulates no such ocean, just remnant methane from recent ejection events in Saturns domain. Cosmic discharges are a copious source of neutrons and are responsible for the production of heavy isotopes and short-lived radioisotopes (elements altered by a change in the number of neutrons in their nucleus). Thus, the abundance of the heavy isotope, nitrogen-15, in Titans atmosphere is probably due to electric discharge effects. Not surprisingly, Titans atmosphere reveals a whiff of the Venusian atmosphere, with carbon dioxide and nitrogen as major constituents. Nor should we be surprised that the same elements appear in Mars thin atmosphere too. Like Venus, surface temperatures are globally uniform on Titan within a few degrees, a good indicator of recent electrical heating. Conventional astronomers, who posit a "greenhouse effect" to explain Venuss temperature, now do the same for Titan. But the electric hypothesis challenges the entire idea of a Venus "greenhouse," attributing the high temperatures to that planets recent electrical origin. The same explanation likely applies to Titan. Like Venus, Titan seems not to have a magnetic field and yet it has a distinct magnetotail (also like Venus). Titans electrical plasma interactions May therefore be compared to those of Venus. Indeed, Titan shines on the dayside in ultraviolet light too brightly to be explained by excitation from solar radiation. Titans surface features should also be compared to those of Venus. Scientists tell us that Titan seems to have been "resurfaced" because there is no evidence of the expected primordial cratering. The same thing was said about Venus! Also a radar return from Titan was "of a type that we would expect to get back from Venus." In the electrical hypothesis, the similarity would be expected--a heavy atmosphere tends to cause filamentation of cosmic electrical scars instead of large craters. Such scars encircle Venuss equator in the form of rilles and spider-web-like formations called "arachnoids." We May expect similar features on Titan. In the first close-up image of Titans surface by Cassini a "Venusian-type" dome was tentatively identified. We can also expect many flatbottomed valleys bordered by steep cliffs with scalloped edges--a common signature of highenergy surface machining by electricity. And while planetary scientists puzzle over the absence of craters, we predict that, as higher resolution images of the surface are returned, many regions will reveal channels formed of overlapping smaller craters and parallel grooves that can be expected of discharge streamers raking across the surface. Then there is the peculiarity of Saturn's third largest moon, Iapetus. It sports a hemispheric difference as puzzling as that of Mars. Its leading face in its orbit is "as dark as a freshlytarred street, and the trailing hemisphere and poles almost as bright as snow." It shows an abundance of craters typical of electric discharge, implying exchanges of cosmic thunderbolts with another body. The dark, reddish deposit on the leading face will probably be found to have components similar to the soils of Mars or Venus.
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Credit: HDF Team/NASA
Prediction #1: Big Bang a Big Loser in 2005

(Dec 27, 2004)
Youd never know it from official news releases, but the Big Bang is broken and cant be fixed. A concession speech May be unlikely in 2005, but the progressive decline of one of the twentieth centurys most popular theories now seems inescapable. The Big Bang has lost its theoretical foundation, which was the Doppler interpretation of redshift (linking redshift to the stretching of light wavelengths as objects move away from us). It is now known that, while almost all observed galaxies are redshifted, the Doppler interpretation of this shift does not provide a reliable measure of velocity or (indirectly) of distance. Quasars and galaxies of different redshift stand in physical proximity to each other and are observed to be connected by filaments of matter. Quasars, whose high redshift would place them at the outer edges of the visible universe, are in fact physically and energetically linked to nearby low-redshift active galaxies. The Big Bang was dismantled by direct observation--including a highly redshifted quasar in front of a nearby galaxy! In the rise and fall of the Big Bang hypothesis no name looms with greater distinction than that of Halton Arp, the leading authority on peculiar galaxies. Over decades, Arp amassed meticulous observations challenging the standard use of redshift to prove an expanding universe. But astronomers ignored or dismissed Arps work, insisting that his conclusions were either erroneous or impossible. Arp lost his teaching position. Then he lost his telescope time and had to move to Germany to carry on his work at the Max Planck Institute. For established science the greatest embarrassment could come from public realization that, for decades, astronomers suppressed the warning signs. The critical challenge was raised years ago, as early as the 1960s, when Arp began publishing his findings. To his credit, Cornell astronomer Carl Sagan acknowledged the problem when he was writing Cosmos (published in 1980). But in the following years the politically influential looked the other way, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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and the word quietly went out to science editors at major newspaper and news magazines that Arp had been fully answered and no more time was needed on the question. Here is an interesting historical fact. For many years it has been known that the map of the universe acquires a bizarre appearance when you let redshift determine distances. Suddenly galactic clusters stretch out in radial lines absurdly pointing at the earth. The effect is called "the fingers of God," and the earth-directed "fingers" span billions of light-years. While big bang theorists have cobbled together "explanations" for small-scale examples of the effect, the picture as a whole can only be illusory. The galaxies are not, in fact, stretched out on radial lines from the earth in the way suggested by the "map," but the invalid Doppler interpretation of redshift does create that ludicrous picture. Rationalizations of this effect have been a disservice to science. Theorists should have stopped to notice the obvious. The failure of the Big Bang hypothesis could be the tipping point in the collapse of modern cosmology, with reverberations affecting all of the theoretical sciences. No domain of scientific inquiry stands in isolation. It is now known that intense electric discharge (such as coronal mass ejections from the Sun) can generate a redshift having no connection to relative velocities. But cosmologists developed their ideas about redshift and the Big Bang under the assumption of an electrically inert universe. Their theoretical starting point invariably shaped their thinking about the birth of galaxies. And these ideas, in turn, conditioned scientific reasoning as to how a galaxys constituent stars came into existence. Concepts of star formation further constrained scientific reasoning about planetary origins and the evolution of life. From the core of intertwined assumptions, the chains of logic reached out to inspire--but also to shackle--human exploration. In this environment, cosmologists and astronomers were free to present the expanding universe and the orthodox age and size of the universe as facts. Alongside these "facts" have come a host of mathematical fictions: from dark matter and dark energy to the ever popular "black hole." Though much of todays exercises in esoteric mathematics came after publication of Sagans Cosmos, Americas favorite astronomer in the 1980s had registered a timely warning: "If Arp is right, the exotic mechanisms proposed to explain the energy source of the distant quasars--supernova chain reactions, super-massive black holes and the like-would be unnecessary. Quasars need not then be very distant." Over the past quarter century the pure mathematicians, with little or no interest in experimental science and only a passing regard for direct observation, have indulged in a carnival of speculation. But it is mind altering to realize that almost nothing revealed by our more powerful telescopes was anticipated by these theorists. We now observe a superabundance of fine filaments across vast reaches of space. In the electrically neutral cosmos claimed by gravity-based cosmology, these filaments find no credible cause. But in plasma experiments with electric discharge, they are predictable. Nobel laureate Hannes Alfvn, the father of plasma physics, showed that cosmologists are mistaken when they imagine that magnetic fields can be "frozen in" to a plasma. Electric currents are required to sustain cosmic magnetic fields. And now, everywhere we look we see magnetic fields at work: electricity is flowing across immense distances in space. At both the stellar and galactic scales, these currents interact with the magnetic fields they induce to create complex structure--strings of galaxies, galactic and stellar jets, and beautiful bipolar stellar nebulas--all with features never envisioned by gravitational theorists, yet corresponding in stunning detail to plasma discharge formations in the laboratory. Will the year 2005 see a new beginning for cosmology? When you consider the sheer The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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momentum of earlier theory, together with the potential costs in terms of reputations, public funding, and threatened jobs, it would be foolish to expect the "tipping point" to mean a wholesale abandonment of the Big Bang in one year. Discredited theories rarely meet either an instantaneous or a quiet death. But we can confidently predict a year of rapidly growing controversy, on an issue whose final outcome is indeed certain.
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Credit: B. Balick (U. Washington) et al., WFPC2, HST, NASA
On the Wings of a Butterfly

(Dec 24, 2004)
In the electric universe cosmology, explosions, dying stars, and collision are replaced by plasma phenomena for the production of such beautiful and intricate structures. The following description of the Butterfly Nebula appears on the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for Feb. 1, 2004:. "Are stars better appreciated for their art after they die? Actually, stars usually create their most artistic displays as they die. In the case of low-mass stars like our Sun and M2-9 pictured above, the stars transform themselves from normal stars to white dwarfs by casting off their outer gaseous envelopes. The expended gas frequently forms an impressive display called a planetary nebula that fades gradually over thousand of years...Much remains unknown about the physical processes that cause planetary nebulae." M2-9: Wings of a Butterfly Nebula The electric universe or plasma cosmology explanation is different. This nebular formation seen here, one of the most beautiful and distinctive, seems to be a variation on the ubiquitous "hourglass" or "butterfly" shaped glow-discharge structure observed in other nebulas. Sometimes this funnel-shaped formation is seen as a ring or offset oval rings when viewed "up the barrel." It is not in space alone that we observe the unique components of plasma discharge discussed here. The same formations can be seen in the laboratory, though most astronomers remain unaware that electrified plasma generates these observed forms. The "hourglass" discharge configuration, which May have nested hourglasses as viewed here, is forcing a reconsideration of the physics of nebular formation. According to Raghavendra Sahai, an astronomer at JPL in Pasadena, California: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive "What we thought we understood of planetary nebulae we no longer do. Something different and dramatic is going on."
As to the dramatic shape and structure, especially the nested hourglass; this should all be a deal-killer for explosion-type theories, Sahai states: "It is very hard to see how you get it." But the embedding of similar configurations is not a surprise to experts on plasma discharge. Composed by Michael Armstrong
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Credits (left to right): Top: HDF Team/NASA, Cassini Imaging Team/SSI/JPL/ESA/NASA, Bottom: Stardust Team/JPL/NASA, Mars Exploration Rover Mission/JPL/NASA, Anthony Peratt
Predicting a Year of Breakthroughs

(Dec 23, 2004)
Nothing is more essential to a new vantage point in the sciences than the power of prediction. And nothing tests predictive ability more fiercely than new discoveries, as space probes expand our view of the solar system and the larger universe. The space age has not been friendly to scientific orthodoxy. Our telescopes and probes have produced far more surprises than confirmations. Surprises are the first indication that we are not seeing the world accurately. Before the discovery of magnetic fields in space, astronomers did not expect them. Magnetic fields are the signature of electric currents, but few could imagine electricity acting across the "vacuum" between planets or between stars. The surprises of the space age are pointers that must not be ignored. These pointers are not chaotic. They speak for more unified possibilities, for a new vantage point from which the surprises are PREDICTABLE: acceleration of the solar wind; x-rays from comets, inexplicable crater chains on planets, moons, and asteroids; super-heated "volcanoes" on Io, the hourglass formations of nebulas; quasars physically connected to the closest galaxies. In such instances and a hundred more, the moment of discovery provoked exclamations of great surprise. The scientists in charge were looking for something else! It is time, therefore, to begin testing the predictive ability of a new perspective, one based on the powerful electric force in the universe. Accordingly, we shall devote our last five pictures of the day for this year (December 27-31) to anticipating paths of discovery in 2005. The headings will be-1. Decline of the Big Bang hypothesis 2. Role of electricity in the Saturnian system 3. The electric comet (and what it can tell us about the Sun) 4. Electrical scarring of planets and moons The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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5. Plasma discharge configurations in the ancient sky We invite our readers to consider these pages as they appear and to observe the course of scientific exploration in 2005. Watch particularly for a cascade of surprises, with an eye to issues of theory and prediction.
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Retrospective on Io
(Dec 22, 2004)
To see what is happening on Jupiter's closest moon, Io, a change in language and theory is required. Mechanical, electrically sterile terminology only hinders understanding. Pictured above: the plumes of the "volcano" Pele, on Jupiters moon Io. As plasma physicists look at astronomy and astronomers look at plasma, the respective languages, cultivated over many decades, can only accentuate the gap in viewpoints. The language of "plasma cosmology," describing the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets, includes many terms more familiar to electrical engineers than to astronomers--Langmuir sheaths, z-pinches, glow discharges, arc discharges, plasmoids. Astronomers have cultivated a different language. Having banished charged plasma from space, they concentrate on the much simpler behavior of a "magnetized gas," not the charge. Their equations for the behavior of plasma are typically those used to describe flowing water and blowing wind, with a modification due to magnetic effects--the math of classical mechanics. Thus, their lexicon reflects their perspective, with words one might expect from a weatherman--winds and jets, bowshocks and shock waves, winds and rains of charged particles, wind socks, etc. What NASA scientists call a "surprising rain of charged particles" in the vicinity of Jupiters moon Io is interesting and dangerous weather for spacecraft. But in an electric universe the phenomenon means much more than a cosmic weather report. It is a signature of electrical activity that could not fail to produce a continuous stream of surprises for those unaccustomed to the behavior of electrified plasma. Jupiter and its moons form a small-scale model of the solar system and should therefore be a test of hypotheses about its formation. But despite the money, time and effort spent on the Galileo mission to Jupiter it ultimately failed to provide satisfactory answers about the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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remarkable environment of the gas giant. When Cornell astrophysicist Thomas Gold proposed in the journal Science (Nov, 1979) that the "volcanoes" on Io were actually plasma discharge plumes, he was "answered" in the same journal by Gene Shoemaker et al. But it is dismaying to see that, despite a cascade of data in favor of Golds original insight--and no new data in support of the more conventional interpretation--neither Science nor any other respected journals revisited the issue. Could it be that the wrong hypothesis was chosen to interpret the data from Galileo? Science functions best when there are a plurality of ideas to be tested, so that when surprises arise, we will be aware of those who were NOT SURPRISED by the new findings. The Electric Universe model asks us to also consider the circuit between Jupiter and the Sun, and the Sun and the galaxy. Io can then be seen in proper perspective as a hapless intermediary in the more powerful electrical exchange between Jupiter and the Sun. Only with this more universal perspective can the right questions be posed and coherent answers be expected.
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The Navel Stone

(Dec 21, 2004)
The curious object shown here is a Hellenistic or early Roman marble copy of the so-called omphalos or "navel," its surface covered with a woolen mesh. It was originally located in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece. The travel writer, Pausanias, wrote the following about this rock: "What the Delphians call the NAVEL is made of white stone: the Delphians maintain, and Pindar writes to the same effect in one of his odes, that this is the center of the entire earth." Countless other surviving reports identify this navel-stone or Delphi as the center of the earth. But this deeply-rooted tradition raises a number of questions. Why was Delphi regarded as the center of the earth? And why did the centre have to be represented as a conical stone rather than, for example, a navelstring? The German scholar Wilhelm Roscher, who devoted no less than three books to this subject, was probably right when he derived the identification of Delphi as the center of the earth from the simple psychological tendency to place one's own land in the centre. Even if that is granted, however, the imagery itself still needs to be explained, especially because many other ancient societies identified one or another rock as the "navel" of the earth. In Petra, in modern Jordan, a "conic navel" was found, two meters in height and diameter, which was evidently regarded as a symbol of the cosmic center. The Israelites believed that the Holy of Holies in Solomon's temple was built on the "foundation stone" of the earth, which was the first object created by God, that he placed in the center of the universe. Muslims regard the Kaba, the sacred black stone at Mecca, as the mark of the cosmic center. Many more examples could be adduced. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The key to the significance of such omphaloi is the connection to the heavenly pole. It is not difficult to understand why the cosmic pole would be singled out as the center of heaven par excellence, particularly in early societies with no concept of heliocentricity. The revolution of the stars around the pole and the constancy of the pole star near the center could readily be taken to mean that the polar region was the center of the cosmos. Earth navels such as the omphalos at Delphi and the Kaba at Mecca must therefore have been deliberately modeled after the cosmic pole, even if this involved the erroneous conception that Delphi, Mecca, and other such places were located directly underneath the heavenly pole or, in other words, at the terrestrial poles. So much was fully understood and elaborated by A.J. Wensinck, Mircea Eliade, and other students of early religion. What these scholars failed to notice, however, was that this cannot be the whole story. Granted that cultic "earth navels" were modeled after the celestial pole, the question remains just why the pole was so frequently represented by pillars and conical stones? Other recurring aspects of the iconography of the omphalos can be added. The Greek and the Semitic omphaloi were both depicted with a serpent wound around them. What could that have meant in connection with the pole of heaven? The symbol of the winged sun disc used to be placed right above the omphalos. Why? In order to make sense of this welter of confusing ideas, it is of paramount importance to consider that the ancients were looking at a different, more active sky than the one we presently see. The available evidence strongly suggests that the ancients were describing the axis mundi, the central axis connecting the poles of heaven and earth, as a visible object. Based on an extensive analysis of ancient rock art, plasma physicist Anthony Peratt has recently proposed that a stupendous glowing plasma column formed in the 4th or 3rd millennium BCE as a result of a high-energy disturbance in the geomagnetic field. The known laboratory sequence of phases in the development of such a plasma column matches precisely the various aspects in the ancient mythological descriptions of the axis mundi. The plasma column will at some point have looked like a luminous cone; at another it will have been surrounded by a bright helix not unlike a serpent; and at another it will have been surmounted by two extensions resembling outstretched wings. This elegant hypothesis accounts at once for the significance and the complex morphology of the omphalos in ancient religion. Needless to say, many more years of painstaking analysis will be needed before the entire tangle is unraveled. Contributed by Rens van der Sluijs
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A New Eye for Iapetus

(Dec 20, 2004)
Iapetus is the eighth moon of Saturn. Its rotation is phase-locked with its revolution, so the same side always faces forward in its orbit around Saturn. It also means that one side (called the leading side) is the "front side" -- it leads Iapetus' motion around Saturn and the opposite side (called the trailing side) is the "back side." The leading side is dark, but the trailing side is light, so much so that Cassini, the astronomer who discovered the moon in 1671, remarked that he could see it on one side of Saturn but not on the other. Of all the moons in the solar system, Iapetus is the only one that is "half-and-half." Now the giant Aericebo Radio observatory (backdrop for many high-tech action scenes in the movies), has "looked" at Iapetus with its radar "eye" and has "seen" a uniformly bright surface instead of the half-and-half view that our telescopes show. The bright side of Iapetus is darker in radar than in visible light, while the dark side is lighter. Astronomers are surprised. Why? Astronomers are trained to understand how their instruments work and to calibrate them before using them. But they are not trained to understand, and are often not even aware of, the primary instrument used to make sense of their "scientific sensations": mental processes. They expected Iapetus to be half-and-half because for over three centuries they had seen that it was half-and-half. They took for granted the assumption of naive realism that "what we see is what's there." But this naive realism overlooks several fundamental realities: 1. "Seeing" is a complex nervous activity that links optic stimuli with many analogical and inferential operations outside the purview of consciousness. 2. What's "seen" is limited to a tiny portion of the electromagnetic spectrum (visible light) The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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and is filtered through the selection process of "noticing" only particular aspects of the already limited sensations, linkages and inferences. 3. Because human senses don't sense electricity, our inherited explanations of our experiences are rooted in mechanical (as distinguished from an electrical) assumptions and metaphors. Our theories are not so much descriptions of "what is" as they are interpretations of sensorycognitive experiences. They are, in a broad sense, metaphors: There can be more than one that's true; each one will in turn alter the experiences it interprets; and the altered experiences will require new interpretations. The real world is not composed of immutable objects we occasionally bump into and consequently experience but rather is composed of our experiences that we consequently interpret as objects. Now that we have instruments that do detect electricity and can translate what they "sense" into human-sensible forms (meter-needle deflections, numerical read-outs, etc.), what's surprising is how tenaciously we cling to old mechanical explanations and try to force the new "sensations" into the old sensory categories and theories. The naive presumption that Iapetus "is" half dark and half light must be "calibrated" with reference to which "eye" is looking at it. The "real object out there" of naive objectivism is only one of many possible gestalts of seeing and thinking. It works well for making sense of our daily experiences, which have little to do with the electrical behavior of plasma. But off the surface of the Earth, in the domain of Iapetus, plasma dominates. As we acquire new "eyes" that can "see" plasma and new viewpoints that are immersed in plasma, the "objects" that explain our new experiences will metamorphose. Our electric "eyes" tell us the universe is 99 percent plasma. But scientific thought is still 99 percent mechanical. We should not expect our anthropo- and geo-centric explanations to survive space-age changes in our "eyes" and viewpoints. To paraphrase Heraclitus: It is the thunderbolt that will steer our theories.
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Credit: NASA/JPL
Io's "Volcanoes" Blur Scientific Vision

(Dec 17, 2004)
Dont be misled by the sheets of "flame" depicted in the above images of the Tvashtar region of Io, Jupiters closest moon. Planetary scientists have colored in bleached-out areas on the photographs taken by the Galileo probe, converting the images into what they had expected to find--lava fountains. The Galileo spacecraft caught the "volcanic eruption" of the top photograph on November 25, 1999, and the NASA release explains: "The molten lava was hot enough, and therefore bright enough, to saturate, or overexpose, Galileos camera." The original image is inset in the lower right corner of the photograph. According to the release: "Surface flows shown in the color image were assembled as an interpretive drawing by Galileo scientists." Yet no lava flow ever witnessed has exhibited temperatures so high as to produce the effect seen in the original Galileo image. The lower photograph, taken on February 22, 2000, shows a super-heated region that is more than 60 kilometers (37 miles) long. NASA released the picture in false color, leaving the unfounded impression that the picture is showing a conventional lava fountain. "The lava appears to be producing fountains to heights of up to 1.5 kilometers (5,000 The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive feet) above the surface."
This image is actually a processed mosaic combining images taken in the near-infrared, clear, and violet filters. All that later analysis could determine is that temperatures exceeded 1200 K. To place the matter in perspective, with attention to the alternative electrical explanation: a lightning discharge "pinches" down to a few centimeters diameter (or possibly meters in the case of the diffuse discharge on Io) where it meets a conducting electrode. So if the instruments were detecting an electric discharge any temperature reading, averaged over a much larger region than the actual heat source, would have greatly understated the real temperature. Nevertheless, the radiation was so intense that it overloaded the Galileo camera, as if it were looking at a line of arc lights, producing "whiteouts" on the electronic images. The electric interpretation suggests that continuous electrical arcing has etched the surface of Io, creating flat plains and bluffs with scalloped edges. In much the same way, electric arcs are used in industry to machine metallic surfaces to a high level of precision. The most recent etching in this region has exposed the dark surface below the falling sulfur dioxide snow, and in the lower picture we see two bright spots where it appears that arcs are continuing to extend the excavated area in two directions.
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Credit: Planetary Image Research Lab. (PIRL), Lunar and Planetary Lab. (LPL), University of Arizona
Io's "Volcano" Prometheus

(Dec 16, 2004)
The photograph above was taken by the Galileo probe from a position over the plume of the "volcano" Prometheus on Jupiters moon Io, as it spewed material 100 kilometers (62 miles) into space. The NASA release in October, 2000 reported that the insets for this photograph "were acquired to search for and image the plume vent or vents. We expected to see a small crater surrounded by radial streaks, but no such central vent can be seen in these or other images. Instead, we see bright streaks along the margins of the lava." In the electrical interpretation, the two bright spots in the highest resolution inset are cathode arcs seen diffusely through their jets, as they continue to encircle the darker area exposed by prior etching of the surface. The hot spots are exactly where the electric model, as proposed by Wallace Thornhill, had predicted. Finding no volcano, NASA scientists were left to speculate on how a "lava lake" could generate the observed plumes and jets many miles above the surface. Over time, the fall of sulfur dioxide snow, resulting from the etching process, will cover the darker areas in the photograph. Electric theorists identify these regions as the burnt surface of the moon exposed beneath the "snow," noting that these dark areas continually move with the movement of the Prometheus plume. Since the Voyager observations in the late 1970s, Prometheus and the exposed regions have traveled more than 80 kilometers (50 miles)! No doubt it was this discovery that inspired one plasma scientist to find humor in the standard theory of Ios "volcanic" activity. "On Io, volcanoes go south for the winter."
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Credit: NASA/JPL
Predicting the Electrical Etching of Io

(Dec 15, 2004)
The most compelling advances in scientific theory come from successful prediction, and over the past 25 years the Jovian system has provided a laboratory in space for testing the predictive ability of the "electric universe." After the Voyager probes revealed surprising "volcanic" activity on Jupiters moon Io, plasma researchers had an opportunity to anticipate what a closer look might reveal. That closer look came with the sophisticated Galileo probe, launched in 1989 and reaching the Jovian system in 1996. In anticipation of new and higher-resolution photographs and measurements, Wallace Thornhill, following the lead of Cornell astrophysicist Thomas Gold, and plasma scientists Anthony Peratt and A J Dessler, registered these claims in advance of Galileos arrival: 1. the vents of the "volcanic" plumes will be much hotter than lava; 2. the plumes are the jets of cathode arcs, and they do not explode from a volcanic vent but move around and erode the periphery of dark areas (called "lava lakes" by planetary geologists); 3. the "lava lakes" themselves are merely the solid surface of Io etched electrically by cathode arcs and exposed from beneath the sulfur dioxide "snow" deposited by continuous discharge activity. Therefore, they will not reveal the expected heat of a recent lava flow. Each of these predictions received stunning confirmation by the Galileo probe. The spacecraft measured the temperatures of Ios "volcanic" hot spots and gave readings, averaged over a pixel, that were hotter than any lava on Earth--in fact, too hot to be measured by Galileos instruments. As predicted by Thornhill, the discharging was discovered to be focused on the edges of the so-called "lava lakes," though the rest of these dark fields are comparatively cold. None of the expected volcanic vents could be found. Rather, the plumes of the "volcanoes" are actually moving across the surface of Io, an exclamation point being provided by the plume of Prometheus which, in the years since Voyager, has moved more than 80 kilometers. (See The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive tomorrows Picture of the Day.)
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Much to the astonishment of mission scientists, it was discovered that the "volcanic" plumes emit ultraviolet light, something inconceivable under normal conditions of volcanic venting. Ultraviolet light is, of course, characteristic of an electric arc. It is why arc welders wear darkened welding masks!
1945
The Pedestal of the Sun

(Dec 14, 2004)
The image shown here is described as a "drum pilaster capped with a wheel." It was produced in the 3rd century A. D. in the north-Indian settlement of Amaravati. The so-called "wheel of the law" on the top of the column was a popular Vedic expression of the supreme sun god. Ananda Coomaraswamy, one of the best authorities in the field of Buddhist iconography, explained that this and similar images portrayed Buddha in his aspect as a pillar of fire, surmounted by a central sun. The relief is relatively late and could easily be dismissed as an interesting curiosity, were it not that some of the earliest civilizations spoke of the first sun in similar terms. Some passages of the old Egyptian Pyramid Texts make it clear that the sun god Ra was located in the circumpolar region of the sky. This is odd considering that the sun never ventures close to the pole. Even stranger is the tendency to place this sun god on the summit of an elongated object. At Hermopolis, the sun god was represented as standing on the primordial mound, which was the Egyptian version of the cosmic mountain as the first object to be created. At Heliopolis, the sun god was held to rise daily from the fire that burned at dawn on the top of the holy sky-filling Ashet- or Persea-tree. In this capacity, the sun god was better known as the Benu or Bennu, the solar bird rendered Phoenix in Greek. And an informative, yet cryptic paean to Ra composed in Thebes attributes the cycle of day and night to the sun god's entry and exit of his "circle." The reference to the deity's outstretched wings shows that this circle must be thought of as the ring one sees in the image of the winged disc. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive Moreover, this winged disc is located on top of a pillar: "Thou spreadest out thy wings thou performest thy acts of creation in thy Great Disk. Praise be unto thee, O Ra, exalted Power, thou World-soul who resteth on his high place Thou sendest light unto thy Circle, thou makest darkness to be in thy Circlethou enterest thy Circle... Thou goest in and comest out, thou comest out and goest in to thy hidden Circle lord of souls who art in the house of thine obeliskSphinx-god, Obelisk-god"
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There is no escaping the fact that the composer of this hymn thought of Ra as the winged red disc placed motionless "on his high place," the obelisk. This means that the subject of veneration here and in those passages in the Pyramid Texts was another sun than the ordinary sun which crosses the sky. It appears that the earliest form of the sun god worshipped by the Egyptians was a radiant, stationary sphere placed atop a glowing column. Only in subsequent times was this sun god assimilated to our revolving sun. This analysis is supported by a multitude of similar accounts found in early sources from around the world. In many cases the abode of the motionless sun and his pedestal is identified as the cosmic centre and the axis mundi. For example, one of the sacred Indian writings asserts that the sun 'never leaves Meru' and an epigraphical text describes Meru as the support of the sun. Meru was the Vedic equivalent of the cosmic mountain, which was explicitly located at the polar centre of the earth. The upshot is that the archetype of the stationary sun is best explained as a memory of a luminous object that appeared for some time on the axis mundi. But this requires that the ancients experienced a different, more turbulent sky than the one presently seen. The model advocated here involves the hypothesis that the cosmic axis was once visible as a stupendous, heaven-reaching column in the "centre" of the world. It was formed of glowing plasma that was produced by high-energy disturbances in the geomagnetic field and an increased influx of charged particles from the solar wind. Plasma physicist Anthony Peratt has produced a detailed analysis of the evolutionary sequence of this plasma column. His research indicates that the topmost toroids of the column at some point merge and produce the image of a cusp or cup enclosing a central sphere. This central sphere bears all the hallmarks of the stationary sun born of the "lotus flower" that the myths hint at. Contributed by Rens van der Sluijs
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Credit: NASA/JPL
Io and the "Greatest Surprise"

(Dec 13, 2004)
Pictured above: two views of Jupiters closest moon Io, the first a Voyager photograph, the second a higher-resolution image from the more recent Galileo probe, showing the moon's etched surface in sharp relief. In 1979, the United States space probe Voyager I approached Jupiter, passing through its system of moons to take the first close-up pictures of Io, the large moon closest to the gas giant. A few months later Voyager II followed, adding to the new and spectacular profile of the moon. According to mission scientists with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), "probably the greatest surprise" of the Voyager flyby of Jupiter was the discovery of active "volcanoes" on Io, with plumes jetting far into space. "It appears that activity on Io affects the entire Jovian system," states a JPL fact sheet. But in many ways the newly discovered "volcanoes" did not behave like volcanoes on earth but showed distinctive features reminiscent of electrical discharge phenomena. Seeing these patterns, Cornell University astrophysicist Thomas Gold proposed an extraordinary idea in the journal Science (Nov 1979). He suggested that the plumes were the effect of an electrical exchange between Io and Jupiter. The suggestion was quickly disputed by a team of five scientists, including Gene Shoemaker (of comet Shoemaker-Levy fame), who argued that an electric discharge would be extremely hot--much hotter than lava--and that sensitive earthbased instruments have not detected such temperatures. The debate, however, was never completed. The journal Science decided against publishing Dr. Golds rejoinder. Nevertheless, plasma theorist Anthony Peratt, together with the distinguished Professor A J Dessler, then at Rice University, followed up on Golds suggestion. In the journal Astrophysics and Space Science, No. 144 (1988), the authors related the data on Ios "volcanoes" to the experimental work of Hannes Alfvn, who had detailed the unique patterns of electrical discharge in laboratory experiments. Peratt and Dessler recognized that the physics of Ios plumes answered directly to Alfvn's earlier research on the plasma gun, a device for concentrating electrical energy in an The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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explosive jet. In fact, the plumes on Io exhibit all of the specific features of the "penumbra" produced by such a discharge, including distinctive filamentation within the plumes and termination in a thin symmetrical ring. Even the ejection velocity of Ios "volcano" Prometheus can be predicted by the formula for calculating discharge velocities in a plasma gun. Describing the electrical phenomena in an article dedicated to Alfvn on his 80th birthday, Peratt and Dessler say: "The apparent filamentary penumbra on Io May be the first direct verification of the plasma gun mechanism at work in the solar system." Years later, as the Galileo probe began returning data from the Jovian system, NASA scientists were surprised to discover that the plumes on Io were too hot to measure temperatures accurately. For proponents of the electric universe, this was no surprise: the Galileo instruments were designed to measure lava temperatures, not the temperatures of an electric discharge!
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Elusive Female Figures

(Dec 10, 2004)
Archaeologists have uncovered scores of so-called 'female figurines' in Mycenaean layers, dated from Late Helladic IIIA (1450-1300 BCE) to Late Helladic IIIC (1180-1050 BCE). One might be tempted to dismiss these images as crude representations of human beings, but there are good reasons to suspect that something else May have been behind the production of these objects. After all, Mycenaean art is not normally known for its crudeness and the artists would probably have been able enough to produce more naturalistic objects. A comparative study of the statues in case, some of which are portrayed above, uncovers a number of recurrent features. The figurines all have a cylindrical base. Their torsoes are invariably decorated with vertical stripes and come in three types. Due to the resemblance of these types to some letters of the Greek alphabet, specialists have called these Phi (), Tau (), and Psi () types. The headdresses of some of the women are shaped like bowls or cups, and often an equilateral cross is placed across the inside of these cups. The axis mundi is the common designation for the column that connects the poles of the earth with the celestial poles, around which we see the stars revolve. One of the most profound symbolic expressions of this axis in world mythology is the image of a giant human being upholding heaven with his head or arms. The classic examples of this motif are the Greek Atlas, the Chinese Pan-Gu, the Vedic Purusha, the Judaeo-Gnostic Adam Qadmon, and the Egyptian Shu. The present model identifies the archetypal features of such cosmic giants with the complex evolutionary sequence of an intense aurora: a glowing plasma column that must once have been visible in the night sky above the earth. The Mycenaean figurines appear to fit seamlessly into this category. The peculiar streamers running across their bodies are the signature of plasma. The alternation of circular bodies and outstretched "arms" conforms to the degrees of vorticity experienced by the hypothetical column, as presented in the analysis of plasma physicist Anthony Peratt. The most compelling indication that the figurines were The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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modelled after a plasma column is perhaps the shape of the headdress. Laboratory experiments conducted by Peratt and his team indicate that, under intense electrical stress, the plasmoid filaments at the top of the column warp to such an extent that they eventually produce the image of a hollow cup. The cross May be related to the image of the four streamers reported to have emanated from the summit of the axial column. Contributed by Rens van der Sluijs
1951
"X-rays show clearly where electric currents are flowing near Saturn. The presence of X-rays both outside and inside Saturn's rings show that current is being transferred across the rings. Prometheus is participating in that discharge." Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.
Prometheus Steals the Ring, or Forges It

(Dec 09, 2004)
In Greek legend, Prometheus steals fire from the gods to give to man. Unfortunately the story is misunderstood because the "fire of the gods" was electrical. The similarity of an electric discharge to fire lies in the fact that both are a plasma. However, an electrical discharge in a plasma May be invisible, unlike most flames. There is a plasma discharge mode known as a "dark discharge." It May be felt as a wind, or movement of particles in the direction of the electric field. It will be familiar as the breeze from an air ionizer. Pictured above is Saturn's little moon Prometheus, nestled inside the gas giant's F ring. The report accompanying the image says: "In an image taken on Oct. 29, Prometheus is seen stealing particles from the F ring while connected to the ringlets by a faint streak of material. " ... Scientists are not sure exactly how Prometheus is interacting with the F ring here, but they have speculated that the moon might be gravitationally pulling material away from the ring. Scientists speculate that the ring particles May end up in a slightly different orbit from the one they were in prior to getting a 'kick' from the moon. These kicks occur at specific locations in the rings and can actually cause large waves or knots to form. In the still image, gaps in the diffuse inner strands are seen. All these The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive features appear to be due to the influence of Prometheus in ways that are not fully understood."
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It is unlikely that the influence of tiny, potato-shaped Prometheus on Saturn's F ring can be understood in purely gravitational terms. A giveaway to the electrical nature of the interaction can be seen in the spiky projections, or "faint streaks," projecting from the F ring toward Prometheus. Faint streaks like that are seen in comet tails, which are also an electrical discharge phenomenon. But is Prometheus stealing material from the rings or is it losing material to the rings in a comet-like electrical discharge? Is Prometheus undergoing electric discharge machining (EDM) and providing fine dusty material for the F Ring? The same process could account for the odd discovery that Saturn's A and B rings are clean water ice while the Cassini division between them is very dirty. There was probably a small moon orbiting there which has recently been machined to dust. If this model is correct we should expect to see a freshly cratered surface on Prometheus, rather like that of Comet Wild 2, if the opportunity arises to see Prometheus more closely.
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The Bifurcated Mountain

(Dec 07, 2004)
Across the world, the ancients utilized complex systems of criteria to determine which places would be suitable for worship. One landscape feature of unfathomed importance was the notion of a twin-peaked or bifurcated mountain. The image above is a view of Parnassus, possibly the most revered mountain in ancient Greece. Ovid referred to it as Parnasosque biceps, which literally means "(and) two-headed Parnassus." Between the twin peaks, as close as technically possible, was Delphi, celebrated as the centre of the world. The double aspect of Parnassus might have been passed over in silence were it not that countless other sacred mountains around the world were endowed with this feature. Archaeologists rarely comment on the fact that the ruins of Mycenae were located squarely in the middle of a mountain with two tops. atal Hyk, one of the earliest known walled settlements in what is central Turkey today, was built in the shape of a single mound of flattened twin hills, which give the mound "the shape of a fork." This lay-out must have been a deliberate replication of Hasan Da, a twin-peaked volcano close to the town. The Hittite rock carvings of Yazlkaya, include the image of a large divine figure placed above two mountain peaks; the deity probably represents the storm god Teshub. The ancient Egyptians believed that the sun god rose from the Khut, the twofold "Mount of Glory" and some of the more archaic Pyramid Texts describe how the splitting of the mountain precipitates the glorious birth of the sun. Iconographical evidence supports the Egyptian concept of the twin-peaked cosmic mountain. Similarly, the Babylonians typically portrayed the sun god Shamash as stepping out of the hollow between two mountain peaks. Ararat, the mountain on which the Israelite ancestor The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Noah stranded after the deluge, was identified with several bifurcated mountains in Armenia. "Ebal" and "Gerizim," the sacred mountains that the Samaritans identified as the centre of the world, were actually the two outcrops of a single elevation, separated by a ridge. The Vedic Mount Meru, thought to be located at the pole, was celebrated as the tricutadri, the "mountain of three summits." And the theme extends far beyond the Old World. The Australian Walbiri and Ngalia tribes aver that the primeval serpent, Jarapiri, originally dwelt on the summit of Winbaraku, "a spectacular double-peaked hill" identified as a "cosmic mountain." The Maya spoke of a mountain called Split-Place or Yax-Hal-Witz, "First-True-Mountain," which was full of food, and the Aztec god Ometeotl, whose name means "god of duality," was located in Omeyocan, the "place of duality," at the summit of the world mountain "where duality began." What this May have meant is shown by manuscripts such as the Codex Vindobonensis, where the supreme deity Quetzalcoatl is portrayed standing between twin peaks. Seeing how common this motif apparently was in the past, one wonders what underlying logic May have compelled ancient cultures to single out bifurcated mountains. The most important hint has already been given away in the fact that many of these split mountains, such as Parnassus, the Khut, and Meru, had demonstrable connections to the pole as the centre of heaven and earth. As Mircea Eliade has asserted at length, so-called hierophanies or locations transformed into sacred places were consciously adapted to the prototype of the cosmic centre and the axis mundi. The bifurcated mountain was a face of the cosmic mountain located at the pole. Because an obvious, visual prototype for the image is lacking, however, Eliade and other 'uniformitarian' thinkers will forever regard the mountain and its dual aspect as fanciful or highly imaginative symbols. This is different in the model presently proposed, according to which the worldwide symbolism of the cosmic axis originated as a set of universal eye-witness accounts of an intense aurora that occurred in the 4th or 3rd millennium BCE. On the basis of petroglyph morphologies, plasma physicist Anthony Peratt has concluded that the plasma in the earth's ancient magnetosphere must have glowed and assumed the form of a luminous column reaching from the visible horizon to the "top of heaven." Laboratory experiments established that among the complex instabilities experienced by the plasma column was a phase in which the top extremity of the discharge, which acts as an anode, is split down the middle, giving the column the appearance of the letter Y. In addition, the plasma tube would occasionally have experienced shockwave phenomena, which would have further enhanced the extremities at the top. No better prototype for the image of the split mountain could be imagined. Picture and narrative contributed by Rens van der Sluijs
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Credit: NASA/Deep Impact
"D-Day" for Comet Theory

(Dec 06, 2004)
"Deep Impact" is not just the name of a Stephen Spielberg disaster flick. It is now the name of a spacecraft scheduled to depart later this month for an unprecedented encounter with a comet nucleus. And not just a quiet rendezvous, but an explosive meeting in space. The object of the mission is Comet Tempel 1, which the Deep Impact craft should reach when the comet is some 133 million km (83 million miles) from Earth. If all goes as planned, the craft will launch an 370 kg (820-pound) copper "impactor" toward the nucleus, striking the surface at about 23,000 miles per hour. According to NASA scientists, the result should be a release of energy equivalent to that of exploding 4.8 tons of TNT. Fittingly, the scheduled date for the celestial fireworks is July 4, 2005. If proponents of the electric universe are correct, however, the fireworks will reverberate through science for years to come. These theorists expect one of the great scientific surprises of the 21st century. This will be the first experiment to see how a comet reacts to a man-made event. It will also be the first time we have witnessed a hyper-velocity impact on a celestial body. Astronomers expect the impact to form a crater. It is uncertain, however, what size and type of crater will form because it is uncertain exactly what a comet is made of. There are three likely scenarios that the crater formation can take: Scenario 1. If the strength of the comet nucleus is weak the ejecta cone spreads outwards at an angle of around 45-50 from the surface of the comet. The cone's base remains attached to the comet nucleus. The majority (roughly 75%) of the material will fall back down onto the surface of the comet, forming a large-diameter ejecta blanket. In this model, the crater May be as large as a football stadium (around 200 meters in diameter), and 30-50 meters deep. Scenario 2. If the comet nucleus is rocky and strong the ejecta cone will be at a higher angle (around 60). The cone's base will detach from the crater, and May detach from the comet The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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entirely. Less material (around 50%) will fall back to the surface of the comet in this scenario, yielding a smaller ejecta blanket. In this model, the crater will be much smaller, on the order of 10 meters or less. The predictions of the volume of ejecta produced then differ by roughly a factor of 1000. Scenario 3. If the comet material is porous then most of the impactor's energy and momentum are absorbed in the process of compression and heating. There is less energy available for excavation, which results in a much smaller diameter crater than expected. The crater will be deep, but produce a very small ejecta cone. The comet material projected into space will cause the halo to expand and its brightness to increase dramatically. A gaping hole in the nucleus will then allow astronomers to observe pristine material in the comet's interior, believed to represent the constituent "stuff" from which planets were formed billions of years ago. NASA scientists assure us that comets are chunks of ice, mixed with an undetermined amount of dust and gravel or rocky debris. They are "dirty snowballs." What else could create the cometary display than sublimating ice? So scenarios 1 and 3 are most likely in that model. Those who support the electric model answer that most comets are solid bodies derived from planets and not the reverse. Scenario 2 is more likely, although 1 and 3 are not ruled out. Their model of a comet does not require evaporation of ices to produce comet tails. Comet surface are excavated by electric arcing as comets move radially through the weak electric field of the Sun, Dust and vaporized surface material is ionized and accelerated into space like the "volcanoes" of Io. Short-lived negative ions are observed emitting forbidden spectroscopic lines indicative of a strong electric field. Unfortunately, Tempel 1 is not a very active comet. It's elliptical orbit keeps it between Jupiter and Mars. So its radial motion with respect to the Sun is limited and electrical activity is likely to be subdued. The copper impactor May hit as planned without first suffering an electric discharge from the comet nucleus. The most likely anomalies will then be found in the motion of the impact ejecta, which will move under the influence of electrical forces rather than gravity and not form the expected fallout pattern. It will also give wrong estimates of the nucleus material's density. This kind of thing has happened in the past, where rocky looking asteroids appear to have the density of fluff. However, in the event there is a discharge before impact we May expect to see an early highenergy flash like those of the fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 at Jupiter. If the arc vaporizes the copper projectile before impact a new electrical crater should appear on the comet's surface. On the other hand, any copper metal reaching the surface of the comet will act as a focus for a cathode arc. And copper can sustain a much higher current density than rock or ice. There would then be the likelihood of a single arc with a single jet, until the copper is electrically "machined" from the comet's surface. Other signatures of an electrical discharge could be a burst of electrical noise across a wide spectrum, a "flash" from infra-red to ultraviolet, the enhanced emission of x-rays and anomalous ionization in the vicinity of the projectile. The energy of a mechanical impact is not sufficient to generate these effects. Electrical discharges through the body of a poor conductor can be disruptive and are probably responsible for the breakup of comets. It is not necessary for them to be poorly consolidated dust and ice and to simply fall apart. So there is a finite chance that astronomers will be surprised to see the comet split apart, if the projectile reaches the surface of the comet and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Deep Impact, therefore, could provide an acid test of competing comet models. Whatever happens, the view should be stunning. The High Resolution Imager aboard Deep Impact will be one of the largest interplanetary telescopes ever flown in space. Through the antennas of the Deep Space Network, the Deep Impact craft will transmit visual and spectroscopic data on the event to Earth. For the cosmic electricians, the real "snowball" in all of this will be the effects on theoretical science. In an instant, an electrically discharging comet will change the big picture of space.
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This data is from Cassini's ion and neutral mass spectrometer, which detects charged and neutral particles in the atmosphere. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Michigan
Titan--The Enigma (2)

(Dec 03, 2004)
Another major enigma surrounding Titan is its atmosphere. Titan's atmosphere is believed by many scientists to be similar to Earth's early atmosphere billions of years ago. Toby Owens, principal scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said: "What we've got is a very primitive atmosphere that has been preserved for 4.6 billion years. Titan gives us the chance for cosmic time travel . . . going back to the very earliest days of Earth when it had a similar atmosphere." The graph above shows that the proportion of heavy nitrogen-15 in the atmosphere of Titan is much greater than that around other planets. Scientists believe that the lighter nitrogen-14 was lost over large geologic times scales for reasons that remain unknown. It could be explained if most of the atmosphere had evaporated into space, a process in which the nitrogen-14 would have escaped more easily than nitrogen-15. But it would mean that Titan once had an atmosphere 40 times as thick as Earth's - making it a dwarf version of a gas planet. 'This bizarre world May be far more complex that we have begun to imagine,' says Larry Soderblom of the US Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona. The striking disparity in nitrogen isotopes is telling us something about the way planetary atmospheres are formed rather than how they evolve. And why do we insist that a star's "children" all be born at the same time? Titan's atmosphere is primitive, but not in the sense that it is 4.6 billion years old or that it was once 40 times as thick as Earth's. Instead, there has not been time for young Titan to lose much atmosphere. Hannes Alfvn wrote in Evolution of the Solar System (NASA SP-345, 1976): "..the Laplacian concept of a homogeneous gas disc provides the general background The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive for most current speculations. The advent of magneto-hydrodynamics about 25 years ago and experimental and theoretical progress in solar and magnetospheric physics have made this concept obsolete but this seems not yet to be fully understood."
While acknowledging Alfvn's point, it is possible to go a step further and invoke the electrical behavior of plasma, not just its magnetic behavior. The electrical model of planet birth proposes that planets are born by electrical expulsion of some of the matter of a star or gas giant in a tremendous "flare." The rings we see around the gas giant planets are evidence of former episodes of expulsion, not accretion. The rings of Saturn are the most recent. It is important to note that flaring red dwarf stars are extremely common and are an unexplained phenomenon. Red dwarf flares are like a stellar lightning flash but they May produce 10,000 times as many x-rays as a comparable flare on the Sun. The electric discharge model would have profound effects on the new planet's atmosphere, including that of a new moons like Titan. The primary effect comes from the source and depth of the ejection from the flaring parent dwarf star or gas giant, which determines the initial bulk composition of the atmospheric components. Chemical elements are then sorted in the plasma discharge according to their critical ionization velocity. Also isotopes will separate in the combined electric and magnetic fields of the discharge. Lastly, the plasma gun effect (seen now ejecting material from Io into space) is known from laboratory tests to be a copious source of neutrons. The neutrons May be captured to form heavy isotopes (such as nitrogen-14 to nitrogen-15) and short-lived radioactive species - we find evidence of that in some meteorites that are also formed in this birth process. The combination of all of these effects suggest that it would be unlikely for any two bodies in the same "family" to have the same initial atmospheres. Subsequent electrical interactions between planets and moons would serve to transfer surface materials and atmospheres, transmute elements, and further complicate the picture. That fits generally with the irregular elemental and isotopic signatures found in the atmospheres of our planetary system. There is another mechanism that could contribute to the lack of nitrogen-14 in Titan's atmosphere. Nitrogen-14 can capture an electron from the discharge to become carbon-14. Carbon-14 decays by very weak beta decay back to nitrogen-14, with a half-life of approximately 5,730 years. If the age of Titan's atmosphere can be measured in thousands of years instead of billions, then a significant amount of nitrogen-14 May still be locked up on the surface as carbon-14. To suggest that "Titan once had an atmosphere 40 times as thick as Earth's - making it a dwarf version of a gas planet," only complicates the plainly impossible standard model of formation of the solar system. It does not explain why other large moons do not have substantial residual atmospheres. It seems far more plausible to suggest that Titan is a much newer moon than Jupiter's Ganymede or Callisto. Titan simply hasn't had time to lose its atmosphere - just as Saturn hasn't had time to lose its rings following its last discharge. And what about Venus with its hot and heavy atmosphere?
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A mosaic of nine processed images recently acquired during Cassini's first very close flyby of Saturn's moon Titan on Oct. 26, 2004, constitutes the most detailed full-disc view of the mysterious moon. The view is centered on 15 degrees south latitude, and 156 degrees west longitude. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Titan--The Enigma (1)

(Dec 02, 2004)
Scientists believe the images show a landscape that is still being shaped. "We are seeing a place that is alive, geologically speaking," says Charles Elachi, head of the team running Cassini's radar instrument. The reason given is that Titan must have suffered numerous meteor impacts in the past, yet its surface today is largely crater-free. Somehow these scars must have been eroded or filled in. The same was said about Venus when orbiting spacecraft revealed that planet's surface beneath its clouds. However, it is only supposition that Titan's (and Venus') surface is still being shaped. We have no evidence that either were cratered by numerous impacts in the past. We have no evidence of the impactors. There May have been no impact craters to fill. We must allow that Venus and Titan May have new surfaces if planets and moons were not formed at the same time through impact accretion billions of years ago. Their atmospheres are certainly anomalous. But what of the cratering seen on other bodies in the solar system? No one has witnessed a crater formed by a celestial impact. The relationship between craters and impacts is a hypothesis that has been accepted without considering another common form of cratering that of electrical cratering. And electrical cratering has the virtue of explaining all of the curious features of planetary craters, particularly their circularity and tendency to occur in chains, with little disturbance of one crater by its neighbor. The enigma of Titan May prove to be the result of an unquestioned belief in the nebular The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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hypothesis. Predictions based on that story have had no success in the space age. So we May confidently pursue the idea that planets did not accrete from a solar nebula. Professor William H. McCrae wrote: "It is impossible to discover the origin of the solar system by observing it now, and working steadily backwards in time in order to infer the whole of its past history." While agreeing with this statement, we must nevertheless make use of all available human observations of the sky before attempting to work forward from some hypothetical beginning. One of the greatest, albeit unheralded, surprises of the 21st century will be that the last chapter of the development of the solar system was witnessed and recorded by modern humans in prehistory. A forensic attitude to that evidence can yield far more reliable predictions about what we will find in space than the purely hypothetical approach.
1962
The Dragon and the Pearl

(Dec 01, 2004)
East-Asian dragons are almost invariably portrayed with a red sphere in their mouths, in front of their mouths, or-- as in Javanese art--on top of their heads. In the famous lantern procession celebrated by Chinese people on the 15th of the first month, the red sphere precedes the dragon. This sphere is called huoh chuh, "fire pearl." Shown here is a Buddhist gong-hanger produced in 18th- or 19th-century Korea. The flames that erupt from the pearl in some representations parallel the flames exhaled by dragons in other traditions. But what does the red sphere signify? And where does the image of the dragon itself come from? Scholars agree that the pearl is celestial. But does it signify the moon, as some have suggested? Or is it the Sun, as others have claimed? The spiral inscribed upon the pearl remains an enigma. Some specialists emphasize the pearls connection with thunder. An ancient Chinese charm declares that "a spiral denotes the rolling of thunder from which issues a flash of lightning." Could this apply to the spiral imagery attached to the dragon ball? The comparative symbolist, G Elliot Smith, believed so: The dragon's red ball with engraved spiral, "which was believed to have fallen from the sky, was homologized with the thunderbolt." A Korean piece of art in Deoksugung Palace, Seoul, depicts the red pearl between the two dragons in the traditional shape of the Indian vajra or lightning image. The lightning theory would interpret the pearl as a Chinese variation on the universal motif of the thunderstone. The common belief held that thunderstones fall from the sky during thunderstorms or battles of the gods. Thus huoh chuh, the Chinese designation of the pearl, also means 'meteorite'. A widespread superstition warns that when the blue dragon and the yellow dragon battle in heaven, fire balls and pearls fall to the ground. Some gemstones, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
1963
known as "dragon's eggs," were believed to cause thunderstorms: When the egg hatched, a young dragon would ascend to the sky amid thunder, lightning, rain, and darkness. A large body of folklore delineates the connection of the dragon with a stone, egg, or ball that produces lightning. Any explanation for the Chinese dragon pearl must apply to similar traditions found across the globe. The Vedic dragon Vritra concealed the sun. The "Worm" encountered by Arthur's knight Peredur had a stone in its tail that had the ability to turn everything into gold. Uncegila, a serpent in the mythology of the Brul Sioux, had an ice-cold heart "made of flashing red crystal." The Caribs of Dominica believed in a serpent with a sparkling stone on its head, described as an eye. And scores of other dragons around the world swallowed, enclosed, or carried similar spherical objects, alternately identified as the sun, an egg, an eye, the heart or soul of the serpent, or a precious stone. The catastrophist model interprets the serpent and the sphere as a vagrant luminous object in the sky accompanied by glowing plasma effects. One might interpret the serpent and the ball as the tail and nucleus of a comet. But modern-day comets fail to explain the detailed agreement between the universal traditions. Something much more profound must have inspired the image. Today, several independent researchers connect both the enclosing serpent and the primordial "sun" to the axis mundi, a column said to have once risen from the earth to the sky. This suggests that the cross-cultural theme of the glowing serpent and orb might have been inspired by intense plasma discharge in the heavens, perhaps comparable to the aurora, but much more powerful. We know from plasma experiments that such effects would likely include the cosmic "thunderbolt" described in early traditions. Contributed by Rens van der Sluijs
1964
Credit: ASU THEMIS science team
Craters on Mars
(Nov 30, 2004)
This photograph of the Martian surface (Granicus Vallis), is posted as a complement to our previous image, which showed a field of craters generated by electric arcing in a laboratory. (Picture of the Day, November 26, 2004) Confirm for yourself that the features of the crater field in the two photographs are identical. In neither case should the pattern be confused with impact cratering. The regions of dense cratering in the Martian photograph are "burnt," exactly as in the laboratory simulation. Crater distribution is not random, though random distribution is expected under the impact model. And the dominance of similar-size craters violates the basic assumptions of standard theory. The Martian photograph also displays other features predicted by electrical models. According to the electrical hypothesis, the surfaces of all rocky planets and moons have been sculpted by electrical etching. Effects include crater chains and other irregular crater concentrations, sinuous grooves, rilles, or channels where neither water nor lava flow is evident, scalloped cliffs (as seen on the far right of this image), and fretted terrain, often punctuated by heavy concentrations of similar-size craters, perhaps laid down on a landscape already eroded by electrical etching.
1965
Credit: Discovery News On-Line, Molly Miller
Antarctic Fossil Questions

(Nov 29, 2004)
There's a petrified forest in Antarctica peeking through perpetual snow where today nothing bigger than bacteria grows. The trees resemble today's Christmas trees, but instead of needles they had leaves (see photo) The trees grew thickly (a thousand or more per acre) and tall (up to 80 feet). They are dated late Permian, 260 million years ago, one of many times when Earth appears to be have been much warmer than today. From a catastrophist point of view, there are many questions raised by the Antarctic forest. How accurate is the system by which the trees were dated? Was late Permian really 260 million years ago? Geologists consider this figure accurate, along with the "known" age of the Earth. And it's all backed by absolute radiometric dating techniques. Fifty years ago, they were equally confident of a different age, and another age fifty years before that. But this time they're sure they've got it right. Two of the basic assumptions on which radiometric dating is based are that the Earth is an isolated body in space unaffected by interactions with other bodies and that the decay constant is a constant. No matter what, no matter where, the half-life of a particular radioactive isotope remains the same. Catastrophists, who collect evidence that the Earth has been subjected to discontinuous and disruptive events, are quick to point out the flaws in radiometric dating results. A search of Ian Tresman's Catastrophism CD on-line (see link below) will generate 101 different references to radiometric dating in catastrophist literature. Most of these articles are about anomalies in radiometric dating and how they are explained away by those who accept the conventional dating without question. Others refer to research showing that changing electric fields can change the decay rate. In addition, Russian researchers S. E. Schnoll, et al, have been studying the effects of celestial cycles on the decay constant for over 30 years. They document changes in the decay constant and in chemical reaction rates that correlate with moonrise/moonset, eclipses, the sidereal and synodic day, the year, and the sunspot cycle. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
1966
Each of these cycles shows that the decay rate is connected to something. From an Electric Universe point of view, that something is probably electric currents in space. The synodic day variations (sunrise to sunrise) would correlate to the Sun's electric currents, while the sidereal day variations (from star-rise to star-rise, just under four minutes shorter than the synodic day) would correlate to something from beyond the solar system, such as the galactic electric currents. Schnoll, et al, document that solar activity affects the decay rate of Plutonium239. This activity peaks when there are active solar flares or CME's. The decay rate spike occurs immediately after the solar activity, or 2 to 3 days before the solar wind arrives to change the Earth's geomagnetic field. This May mean that the cause of the changed decay rate arrives at Earth at the speed of light (or faster). Or it May mean that both the changes in decay rate and the solar activity have a common cause in galactic-scale electric currents. If catastrophic changes to the solar system have occurred, then radio decay constants have changed. If the plasma discharge phenomena we call the thunderbolts of the gods actually flew between Earth and other planets, this too would have changed the radio decay constant (as well as the abundances of radioisotopes). In any case, the whole question of absolute dating must be re-evaluated from an electric universe point of view.
1967
Old Paradigm May be a Turkey

On this day of family scenes and dawn to dusk football it May be in our genes to ever have a brawl. But on this day of gratitude for everything so swell let's exchange the platitude for catchy doggerel. On this day of thanks sublime and many a high-heaped serving let's have another paradigm because we're so deserving. The old one's dead and stiff way past its prime and time. We'll be much better off IF we get another paradigm So here's a Scottish saying expressing what Kuhn meant in the form of praying; May it not be OUR lament. "May I always be quite right I pray, O Lord so kind; for Thou knowest, without a fight, I will never change MY mind." Thus have a happy day, one with all the trimmings, a pair of stars to guide your way without a pair of dimmings. Poem by Michael Armstrong Happy holidays The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
1968
Credit: from a program produced by Office KEI and shown nationwide in Japan on February 22, 2004.
Impossible Dinosaurs
(Nov 24, 2004)
The giant dinosaurs are fascinating. How did they get so big? Why are there none alive today? Their size rivals that of modern whales, which cannot survive without the buoyancy of water. So early paleontologists postulated that the biggest dinosaurs must have spent most of their lives wading in the shallow seas of the Mesozoic Era. Then dinosaur footprints were discovered. Not just a few, but thousands of footprints. Somehow, even the largest of dinosaurs were walking around on land, not even dragging their enormous tails behind them. So wading in shallow seas was replaced by grazing in herds and the original reason for the wading -- that a dinosaur on land would have been a beached whale -- was forgotten. Catastrophist Ted Holden has resurrected the controversy by examining the relationship of size, weight, and strength in animals. (His analysis was the basis for a documentary televised in Japan in Feb, 2004. See photo above.) The strength of muscle tissue is fairly constant among all species. Strength is proportional to the cross section of the muscle: If one muscle is two times the diameter of another, the first will be four times (the square of two) as strong. But weight increases with the volume: A muscle that's twice as big will weigh eight times (the cube of two) as much. Holden computed the weight/strength ratio of a well-trained human weightlifter and scaled it up to the size of a dinosaur. The weightlifter soon became too big to lift his own weight. Strength, in its relationship with weight, imposes a limit on size. Holden's calculations indicate that the heaviest elephants of today approach that limit. The largest dinosaurs are many times the size of an elephant. And dinosaur skeletons aren't as well-designed for bearing weight as elephant skeletons. Dinosaurs are impossibly large for planet Earth, but their bones are proof that they must have existed. How could that be? The The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
1969
limit on size depends on weight, and weight depends on the force of gravity. Most conventional theories assume that gravity throughout the universe has always been and will always be a constant property of matter. But that's only an assumption, and it must be verified empirically. The Electric Universe offers a different point of view. Gravity is not a constant. It's a variable that depends on the plasma environment. So Earth in the Mesozoic Era May have had less gravity than it has today. Holden calculates that in order for the largest dinosaurs to function, gravity must have been at least 1/3 (and possibly as low as 1/4) what it is today. He also postulates that gravity increased suddenly at the close of the age of dinosaurs but not to the present value. Lower-than-present gravity continued into the following ages of giant mammals and possibly even to the days when early humans were building giant monuments like Stonehenge.
1970
Credit and copyright: John Smith
The Pleiades Problem

(Nov 23, 2004)
The Hipparcos satellite measures the distance to stars the same way a surveyor measures the distance to your property line. It takes readings from different angles plus the distance of the baseline between the angles, then uses these to calculate how far away the object is. Since its launch in 1989, the Hipparcos satellite has calculated distances to 100,000 stars more accurately than any other astronomical instrument. Most of Hipparcos' observations of individual stars agrees with previous distance calculations (where available). The notable exception to that rule is the familiar star-cluster in the constellation Taurus called the Pleiades (see photo above). Hipparcos measured the distance to 50 of the brightest stars in the Pleiades and came up with a distance of 118 parsecs from Earth. Previous distance measurements converged around the value of 132 parsecs. That's a significant difference; about 12%, or almost 3 quadrillion miles. The older measurements were re-examined, but they still produced the same 132 parsecs distance. What is happening here? Why is there a discrepancy in the Pleiades' distance, but not in the distances of single stars? All of the older methods of determining the distance to the stars involve assumptions based on either the theory of nuclear stars or the theory of gravity (or both). But from an Electric Universe point of view, stars are powered by galactic electric currents, not nuclear furnaces. And gravity isn't a constant, but a variable dependent on electrical characteristics. The question we need to ask is how the electric currents of a cluster of stars are different from those of single stars. With many stars to share a current, will the individual stars seem brighter or dimmer than their non-clustered neighbors? Will the double stars in a cluster orbit each other under the influence of a different gravitational constant? The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
1971
The stars of the Pleiades also have a different metallicity (amount of materials heavier than hydrogen and helium) than nearby single stars. This is interpreted conventionally as the cluster stars being younger than their neighbors. But metallicity May be related to electric currents as well as (or instead of) age. This discrepancy in the calculations of how far away the Pleiades are May also cast light on the cosmological question of redshift. In his book, Seeing Red, Halton Arp has shown physical connections between galaxies and quasars of different redshifts. The higher redshift objects are smaller and fainter and appear to be younger. He also showed that this excess of redshift in younger objects applies to a smaller extent to stars -- bluer, hotter stars have higher redshifts than redder, cooler stars. Can the Pleiades distance problem offer insight about these larger cosmological questions as well? And are these larger cosmological questions also related to the electric circuitry of the universe?
1972
Credit: H. Weaver (JHU), T. Smith (STScI), NASA
What's in a Comet's Tail?

(Nov 22, 2004)
According to standard theory, a comet forms a head and tail because ices -- water and other frozen gases -- are heated enough to sublimate and to escape from the nucleus. Thus, a comet is thought to be composed of ices, distinguishing it from an asteroid, which is thought to be composed of rocky material. According to Electric Universe theory, comets and asteroids are not necessarily of different composition -- it is the long oval orbit through the solar electrical field that makes a comet grow a head and tail. When comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke apart, astronomers reasoned that the fractured nucleus would expose fresh ices that would sublimate furiously. So several ground-based telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope trained their spectroscopes on the tails of the fragments of SL-9, looking for traces of volatile gases. None of the gases were found. But an interesting event occurred while the Hubble Telescope was observing one of the larger fragments (fragment G) on July 14, 1994. The telescope observed a 2-minute long outburst of emission from ionized magnesium followed 20 minutes later by a 3-fold increase in the sunlight scattered by the dust. During the outburst, the color of the reflected sunlight also changed dramatically, brightening much more at longer wavelengths (red end of the rainbow) than at shorter wavelengths (blue end of the rainbow). Outbursts like these (electric discharge), rather than subliming ices, are how Electric Universe theory expects comet tails to be produced. Because electric discharges are capable of removing solid material from surfaces, no volatiles are necessary, not on the surface and not in the core of the nucleus. The comet will produce a tail when its electrical stress reaches the critical point at which its plasma sheath begins to glow, no matter what its composition.
1973
Meteorite Mysteries
(Nov 19, 2004)
There have been many reputable eyewitness reports of unusual electrical activity associated with very bright meteors. At about 6 p.m. on 26 May 1751, two enormous iron meteorites landed at Hraschina, near Zagreb in Croatia. The spectacular display, now called the phenomena of Agram (Zagreb), was painted by a witness from Szigetvar, 15 miles south east of Hraschina. It depicts a high cloud with lightning flashes (A) and a fireball (B) bursting into two balls linked by a corkscrewing fiery chain. The electrical model expects this kind of behavior. The lightning discharges caused the disruption of the meteor. The connection of the resulting two bolides by "intertwined fiery chains" is evidence for a continuing powerful discharge between them. Before an intruder can hit the Earth, lightning will always be unleashed. The blackened pits on meteorites (see inset of the Agram Meteorite on display at the Natural History Museum of Vienna) are electrical craters. The lightning hypothesis explains many long-standing mysteries about impacts of all sizes: why meteors can sometimes be heard at the same time they are seen; why the Tunguska event of 1908 left no meteoritic remains; why the 88 ton Hoba meteorite (the size of a family car) didn't form a crater at all; and why the spectacular collision of comet Shoemaker-Levy-9 with Jupiter produced flashes much earlier and bigger than expected.
1974
Credit: NASA/APOLLO
Electric Discharge Erosion Rilles

(Nov 18, 2004)
A rille is an electrical erosion channel that occurs on the cathode surface. As two charged bodies approach, the field strength increases on high ground, particularly where there are sharp edges such as cliffs, mountaintops and existing crater walls. When the electric field becomes strong enough on the cathode to begin tearing electrons from the surface, local coronal arcing begins. Breakdown streamers snake along and through the ground at lightning speed, following the local electric field. This below- surface lightning causes explosive heating, which blasts a huge channel and hurls the debris to either side, often forming levees. The tortuous path of the underground leader May leave a narrower, more sinuous channel in the floor of a larger flat-bottomed furrow. The tip of the lightning leader responds only to the local electric field and is heedless of topography. There are several instances on the Moon where a rille has punched through mountains to reach the main discharge. Two fine examples are the 8 km wide Alpine Valley, which runs for 150 kilometres to Mare Imbrium through mountains rising to 3,000 metres; and Rima Prinz 2 (see photo above), where it cuts through the Marius Hills--the largest group of "volcanic" cones and domes on the Moon. At intervals along the channel electrons May follow an intensifying vertical electric field and send "lightning leaders" toward space. The leaders are filamentary discharges that May create on channel craters or scalloped channel cliffs as ionized material follows them upwards. Overlapping chains of such craters May produce a pitted channel with scalloped edges. The leaders will stream to form the main discharge channel, inviting a powerful return stroke. The return stroke will blast a circular crater and May terminate the channel. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
1975
Credit: CXC/M.Weiss
Beware of the Dark Side

(Nov 17, 2004)
Astronomers hypothesize that 96% of the universe is dark matter and dark energy. The dark matter must be composed of something other than atoms and molecules, and the dark energy must be strong enough to counteract gravity. No one has ever detected either dark matter or dark energy. But if they didn't exist, the big bang theory couldn't work. So loyal astronomical followers believe that the planets and stars and nebulae and galaxies we observe must be only 4% of what's really out there. The rest will be "discovered" eventually. The picture above, based on Chandra x-ray data, is an artist's concept of how dark matter in the Fornax cluster of galaxies is hypothesized to work, explaining away the anomalous motions of galaxies in clusters. When Fritz Zwicky first proposed the concept of dark matter in the 1930's, he wasn't talking about the same dark matter that astronomers believe in today. He was proposing that galaxies and clusters have enough real atoms and molecules in dust clouds, planets, and dim stars to account for the fact that galaxies in clusters appear to be moving so fast that the clusters are flying apart. He called it dark matter because it didn't shine bright enough for us to detect it from so far away. Later astronomers proved there couldn't be enough real matter to make the universe work the way they know it works, so the meaning of the concept dark matter was changed. Then matter alone wasn't enough to explain away the problems. All that matter has to act with is gravity. It can only attract other matter. And the new observations seem to indicate that at times in the evolution of the universe (including now), something is pushing everything apart. So a new repelling force was invented to match the new matter, appropriately called dark energy. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
1976
Not all astronomers are willing to accept these convoluted lines of reasoning. A group of cosmologists have joined together to protest the dark side of the universe. Their statement was rejected by NATURE magazine, but later published in the May 22, 2004 issue of NEW SCIENTIST. The signers of the statement disagree among themselves about how the universe works, but they are in agreement about one thing--the big bang doesn't work. Therefore, it shouldn't have a monopoly on the cosmology funding and publication. Astronomy faced a similar dilemma in the early years of the 20th century. The politically powerful groups "knew" that the universe couldn't be big enough for more than one galaxy-the Milky Way. The few dissenters from this point of view were ridiculed and dismissed. But as telescopes became more powerful, evidence disproving the accepted point of view finally prevailed and the universe became much larger. The evidence disproving the big bang has been pouring in since the late 1960's. Will astronomers finally take a closer look? Or will the remaining 4% of our universe be eroded away by the dark side?
1977
Credit: TRACE, NASA
Living Plasma
(Nov 16, 2004)
Nobel Laureate Irving Langmuir coined the term "plasma" in the 1920's. He chose the term because plasma acted almost as if it were alive. Its behavior is complex and hard to predict. It forms itself into cells that remain separate from each other. It creates long twisted currents that carry energy from one region to another. It separates the atoms of one element from the atoms of another. At higher energy levels, it creates dozens of specific patterns of shapes and behavior that evolve in predictable ways. Langmuir probably wasn't the first to compare plasma behavior to life. Plasma Physicist Anthony Peratt has presented a paper proposing that ancient eyewitnesses observed highenergy plasma formations in their skies. Peratt has studied plasma instabilities for a quarter of a century. When it was brought to his attention that some of the odd rock art images resemble plasma discharge forms, he was intrigued. Over the past few years he has collected and classified rock art data, comparing the forms to the plasma discharge patterns he's studied in the lab. The ancient forms are not only similar to the lab forms, many can be overlaid exactly. Today, we can still see a few of the lower-energy discharge patterns in auroras. Peratt reasons that when rock art was first being carved and painted on stone cliffs all over the world, plasma in the Earth's atmosphere was much more active than it is today. He calls it an enhanced aurora. All of his eighty-seven classes of plasma instabilities can be found carved on rock. What did the ancients see? Their legends speak of a time of paradise and peace followed by a celestial war, with planetary gods flinging thunderbolts at each other and at the Earth. The The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
1978
story of the rocks also begins with peaceful scenes of grazing animals (many extinct today) followed by images of plasma discharge phenomena. The geological record for that era speaks of extinction of large mammals, destruction of forests, changes in river systems, melting glaciers and a major rise in sea-level all over the world. Are these related to the plasma display above and the legends? The photo above is of a solar flare from the TRACE orbiting observatory. It exhibits many of the plasma patterns seen both in the lab and in rock art. It also looks "alive"--a plasma "angel." Seeing heaven-spanning formations like these, rooted on Earth but towering to the heavens, would our ancestors have imagined living gods engaged in celestial war?
1979
Credit: NASA/JPL/Mariner 10
Electric Craters on Planets and Moons

(Nov 15, 2004)
A mere half a century ago the only detailed surface features we could see on another body were on the moon. It showed countless bowl-shaped depressions, large sea-like basins, mountain ranges and river-like rilles. The circular depressions begged an explanation because they were not quite like anything then recognized on Earth. Galileo first used the word "crater," meaning "cup" or "bowl" in the original Greek, when referring to them. Historically, only two mechanisms, volcanism and impact, have been considered for their formation. A century ago it was the subject of hot debate. The geologist, William Morris Davis, wrote in 1922 that "astronomers tended to explain the craters of the Moon by volcanic action, a geologic process, while geologists tended to explain them by meteoritic action, an astronomic process--each scientist evidently feeling free to take liberties with a field other than his own." The Czech astronomer Zdenek Kopal was a lone voice when he scrupulously pointed out that the word "crater" should be used without presupposing the mechanism of its origin. That is, astronomers should not add the description "volcanic," "impact," or anything else to the word crater. Otherwise, he warned, it could "easily render the word as much a misnomer as the Martian 'canals' or the lunar 'seas.'" His warning went unheeded. Ninety percent of the rocks that the Apollo Astronauts brought from the moon were "brecciated." In other words, they were composed of rock fragments of diverse origin that had been altered by a mechanical shock and then welded together. In addition, there were the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
1980
ubiquitous green and orange glass "beads," which were evidently flash melted and quickly frozen before forming part of the lunar soil. Volcanism was clearly unable to explain these rocks and glass beads, but the shock and heat of an impact seemed to provide one plausible mechanism for their formation. The geologist, Robert Dietz, made the argument clear: "Barring the unlikely possibility of a natural nuclear explosion, a meteorite impact is thus the only mechanism for producing intense shock on a large scale (a lightning bolt might do so on a small scale)." Dietz deserves credit for recognizing (albeit parenthetically) that a lightning bolt could be responsible for shock and heat effects. For the Electric universe, the cosmic thunderbolt is the mechanism of cratering on the planets and the moons of our solar system. Cosmic lightning is not the small-scale discharge of an ordinary thunderstorm, but the heaven-spanning weapons of the gods celebrated by every human culture. And the craters themselves are the wounds inflicted by these cosmic weapons. This cratering mechanism explains not only the glass beads and brecciated rocks, but many other features which fit poorly into the impact explanation, such as flat bottoms, terraced walls, central peaks and secondary craters centered on the rims of larger craters. All of these typical lightning features are seen in the above photo of craters on Mercury.
1981
Credit: Left: NASA/CXC/SAO Right: Anthony Peratt
Cosmic Wheel
(Nov 12, 2004)
Official comment: E0102-72 is a supernova remnant in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. This galaxy is 190,000 light years from Earth. E0102 -72, which is approximately a thousand years old, is believed to have resulted from the explosion of a massive star. Stretching across forty light years of space, the multi-million degree source resembles a flaming cosmic wheel. http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/snrg/ Chandra provides crucial evidence for the Electric Universe because x-rays are only emitted where electrical discharges are occurring. In particular, we find x-rays emitted by supernovae and their remnants, active galaxies and the coronas of stars. Also note that the concept of "multi-million degree" temperatures is inappropriate in an electric discharge. This is because the temperatures are not measured--they are calculated, based on the hypothesis that temperature is random motion of particles. But in an electric discharge, particle motions are not random--they are driven by electric currents. In some places the particles flow smoothly in electric currents, appearing cooler than expected of random motions. In other places, the flow becomes turbulent, appearing tens or even hundreds of times hotter than random motions. The cosmic wheel is a universal motif used by all ancient peoples when depicting the primordial sky. What in heaven could it mean? In this image the Chandra satellite has confirmed that the shape of a wheel can be formed in space by a toroidal plasma discharge. The spokes are the characteristic signature of a radial electric discharge in the near vacuum of space where the "spokes" follow the magnetic field lines. Although this formation is known from laboratory experiments using a simple "plasma focus" device (See 2nd image "looking down the barrel" of a plasma focus.) This plasma formation is unrecognized by astronomers. That is why the NASA report describes the spokes as "puzzling." These cosmic wheels in space and in the plasma lab offer clues to the understanding of the cosmic wheels of human mythology.
1982
Credit: P. Rona (OAR/NURP/NOAA)
Volcanic Cradle of Life

(Nov 11, 2004)
Scientists have long wondered where the simple organic molecules (peptide chains) that could have formed the first life on Earth originated. According to accepted theory, these ingredients were rare in the environment of the Earth billions of years ago. But recent experiments have shown how peptide chains can build up from carbonyl sulfide (COS) in water. Carbonyl sulfide is common in the gases spewed out from volcanoes. The best location for such a natural event seems to be around the smoking underwater volcanic vents on the mid-oceanic ridges. Here volcanic elements are thickly deposited in warm water on the ocean floor. (See photo above) A rival theory, based on the fact that organic molecules have been observed in comet tails, suggests that the first organic molecules May have been delivered to Earth from space by passing comets. From an Electric Universe point of view, these two theories are not rivals. In fact, they fit together nicely. The volcanoes of Earth, Mars, Venus, and Io are all variations of the same electrical discharge process. And the forces that create the jets, comas and tails of comets are also electrical discharge processes. The volcano-life experiments offers more support for the Electric Universe point of view. These experiments show that when carbonyl sulfide is added to water, about seven percent of the molecules form into chains. But when metallic ions are added to the mixture, the percentage of molecules forming into chains increases to as high as eighty percent. Of course, the presence of ions means the solution is a plasma and subject to the influence of external electrical fields. From a mainstream point of view, volcanoes are explosive events, the result of mechanical The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
1983
forces of heat and pressure. But the Electric Universe recognizes that plasma is also an important component of volcanic eruptions. Similar processes will occur in black smokers on the Earth's sea floor, in moons electrically coupled to gas giants such as Io and Jupiter, and in comets. So the plasma interactions that make up ninety-nine percent of the astronomical universe is also an integral part of the biological universe. Another new field of research, plasma biology, will open up to adventurous pioneers of the 21st century.
1984
The One Story

(Nov 10, 2004)
The photo above is a stone kudurru from about 1125-1100 BC. This stone records a gift of land made by Eanna-shum-iddina, governor of the Sea-Land in southern Babylonia. The boundaries of the land are carefully defined, and the names of the men responsible for the survey are included. The text ends with a series of curses on anyone questioning the gift or damaging the stone. The symbols above the writing represent gods. The Venus star is the symbol in the left-top corner. British Museum, London [30-5-2004]. Similar symbols for Venus are found in divergent cultures around the world. Prehistoric legends about Venus are uniformly absurd. (See The Many Faces of Venus by Ev Cochrane.) Sumerian hymns called Venus the "queen of heaven," who was "as bright as the sun," who would "flash like lightning," and who issued a "deafening command." Siberian legends call Venus "the daughter of the Devil" who brings disaster and has a tail. She was a "flower star" to both the Maya and Chinese, and the Inca described her as the "originator of the flowers." Both Aztecs and Maya called Venus a "smoking star," as did certain tribes in Siberia, Polynesia, and Africa. We dismiss the absurdities of each of these legends with a casuistic reflex born of modern knowledge and the presumption of its universality. So to be made aware of the uniformity of the absurdities among cultures on opposite sides of the Earth at every point comes as a shock. Unless we shirk explaining this unexpected orderliness of the absurd, there are only three possibilities: 1. All the legends are variants of one story based on common experience of a global and objective event. 2. All the legends are variants derived from one storyteller in one primordial culture and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
1985
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive spread to all other cultures.
3. All the legends are variants of one storytelling faculty rooted in a mythmaking ganglion of nerves somewhere in the human nervous system, active at the dawn of history but quiescent ever since. The one story explanation is the simplest. Its only obstacle is that Venus "brighter than the sun" "with a tail" or "smoking" contradicts modern astronomys assumption of an uneventful solar system whose planets have rolled around their present orbits for billions of years. The witness of our ancestors, although presented in the imagery of myths, seems quite serious, in fact, terrified, that the modern assumption is dead wrong.
1986
Credit: Edwin Hubble
Having Faith in Edwin Hubble

(Nov 09, 2004)
A common belief today is that Edwin Hubble discovered in 1929 that the universe was expanding and that the Big Bang theory is the unavoidable conclusion from that fact. But what did Hubble actually say? "If the redshifts are a Doppler shift...the observations as they stand lead to the anomaly of a closed universe, curiously small and dense, and, it May be added, suspiciously young. On the other hand, if redshifts are not Doppler effects, these anomalies disappear and the region observed appears as a small, homogeneous, but insignificant portion of a universe extended indefinitely in both space and time." -- MNRAS, 17, 506, 1937 What Hubble actually discovered was a correlation among the angular sizes of galaxies, their apparent luminosities, and their redshifts. If we explain this correlation in terms of our most familiar experiences from moving around on the surface of the Earth, we will assume that both smaller and dimmer are related to moving farther away. Redshift, the displacement of light toward lower frequencies, is related to the speed of moving farther away, just as the sound of a car's horn sounds lower as it speeds away (the Doppler effect). Combining these assumptions in an "argument from familiarity" results in the conclusion that the farther away a galaxy is the faster it is moving away--just as happens in our familiar experience with flying debris from an explosion. Therefore, galaxies must have exploded from a single point at a particular time: the creation of the universe. But science is not about accepting what is familiar. Science is about asking further questions: How could the familiar explanation be disproved? What else could it be? Hubble was referring to these further questions with his words "if" and "on the other hand." Until his death in 1953, Hubble continued to argue against an expanding universe/big bang interpretation of the data from his 1929 observations. It took 40 years to discover the evidence that disproved the argument from familiarity: Beginning in the late 1960's, Halton Arp photographed high-redshift objects (QSOs) clustered The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
1987
around and connected to low- redshift galaxies. His observations contradicted the "redshift equals distance" assumption and suggested that "smaller and fainter" meant merely smaller and fainter. But by then the Big Bang had become an object of faith, institutionalized in the astronomical hierarchy and in the professional journals. Asking further questions had become heretical. Arp was ostracized. He lost his access to publishing in the astronomical journals, his prestige and his telescope time because he continued to make observations that contradicted the Big Bang. "If astronomy were a science," a famous astronomer has said, the Big Bang would have been discarded decades ago instead of having become the touchstone of faith and funding.
1988
Credit: M. Schirmer (IAEF, Bonn), W. Gieren (Univ. de Concepcin, Chile), et al., ESO
Milky Way Family

(Nov 08, 2004)
This galaxy, NGC 300, is an offspring of the Milky Way. It is the largest galaxy in the Sculptor Group of galaxies, all of which are descendants of the Milky Way. This group is the nextnearest cluster of galaxies to the Local Group, of which the Milky Way is a member. You can see it with a small telescope in the constellation Sculptor. On galactic star maps, you can see that the cluster is aligned with the south pole of our Milky Way galaxy. The Sculptor Group is also the center of a large cluster of quasars. These quasars are the offspring of several galaxies in the Group and therefore grandchildren of the Milky Way. Within this cluster of quasars, two denser accumulations stand out. The largest is a long stream (almost 20 times the length of the full moon) that points directly at the center of NGC 300 along its spin axis. The second group of quasars is clustered around the second-largest galaxy of the Sculptor Group, NGC 55. In order to "see" the Milky Way as a grandparent galaxy and NGC 300 as a parent, we must first unlearn a basic belief of 20th century astronomy -- that we know how to measure galactic distances with the simple formula that redshift equals distance. Because of that belief, all of the quasars in this group are considered background objects and it is only coincidence that they line up along the spin axes of NGC 300 and the Milky Way. From an electric universe point of view, polar alignments are exactly what is expected. These alignments are seen at all observable scales. We find the same characteristic in laboratory experiments and in the data returned by space probes exploring the solar system. It is found on the Sun, in planetary nebulae, and in stars. The next scale up is galaxies. If we can look past the distortion of our belief that galactic distances are known, then the polar streamers are clearly seen. Galaxies have a whole new meaning. They come in families. They are born. Their redshift changes as they mature. What exciting new prospects for 21st century astronomy!
1989
Technological Extra-Sensory Perception

(Nov 05, 2004)
Human beings are children of the Earth, a wet and rocky planet. Our senses are adapted to wind and water and stone. When we try to understand the rest of the universe, we naturally relate our observations to what we already know about gasses and liquids and solids. Our theories of gasses and liquids and solids have enabled us to build machines that extend our senses: We can "see" x-rays; we can "taste" voltage differences; we can 'smell' elements; we can 'touch' the interior of the Earth; and we can 'hear' the radio whisperings of the planets. We can propel our machines into space, to sniff the solar wind, to taste the Martian rocks, and to peer beneath the veil of Titan's atmosphere. The above photo of the Cassini probe illustrates how human and more-than-human senses have been sent into space to learn more about Saturn, its rings, its moons, and its environment. Our new senses have discovered another component of nature, one that arises from electricity. Because our natural senses don't react to electricity directly, we've not understood the importance of this other component in the cosmos nor have our theories taken it into account. But now we've discovered that it makes up 99 percent of the visible universe. That component is plasma. Plasma is a mixture of charged and neutral particles. This makes it an excellent conductor of electricity. Moving charged particles are electric currents, and electric currents generate magnetic forces. Those forces pinch the currents into filaments. The filaments carry electrical power around circuits that can encompass large volumes of space. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
1990
The moving charged particles also bunch up into capacitor-like "double layers." These double layers concentrate electric fields, partition space into cells, and emit microwaves and x-rays. Space probes such as Cassini sense these activities of plasma: Saturn's auroras, changing patterns of thunderstorms, disappearing spokes, ring ripples, radiation belts in the rings, Titan's atmosphere stretched and accelerated around its orbit. But we lack theories with which to understand and to utilize plasma. Our familiar mathematical metaphors derived from wind and water and stone are inadequate. We must familiarize ourselves with the neglected explanations of plasma from Birkeland, Langmuir, Alfven, and their colleagues. We need to develop those nascent explanations into quantitative theories based on further observations and experiments. Just as the empirical theories of gasses and liquids and solids enabled us to build machines that extended our senses to the planets, the new theories of plasma can enable us to build machines that will take our new senses to the stars.
1991
Mystery of the Cosmic Thunderbolt (7)

(Nov 04, 2004)
In this TPOD series we have offered a new perspective on the origins of an ancient archetype. We have claimed that high-energy plasma discharge configurations seen in the ancient sky gave rise to the worldwide accounts of celestial gods and warriors battling in the heavens. The centerpiece of this theme is the cosmic thunderbolt. We have further suggested that, in connection with the "myth of the hero," a huge misunderstanding has occurred. The misunderstanding arose through the natural evolution of storytelling, as accounts of a celestial warrior were gradually localized to become part of tribal and regional lore. By this process the warrior emerged as a fabled ancestor of each tribe telling the story. A thousand mythic versions of the warrior-figure were transported from the sky to different locations on earth, as each tribe claimed the humanized hero as its own, a model for the "greatest of all warriors." In the course of this evolution, the cosmic thunderbolt was displaced by its own symbols, particularly those that could still make sense after the warrior-god had been reduced to human dimensions. Originally the divine weapon was a bolt of cosmic fire, a spiraling serpent, a whirlwind, a comet and much more, each symbol pointing to vital attributes of the archetype or original form. Later, the ancestral hero would carry the bolt as his arrow, sword, spear, or club by which, the stories said, he defeated chaos monsters in primeval times. (The reader May ask, If the cosmic thunderbolt was a plasma discharge configuration, what event or human experience inspired the archetype of the warrior-hero himself? We do not intend to leave this question unanswered in this series.) The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
1992
We have already noted the heroic model of the Greek Heracles, the Roman Hercules (image on the left in the picture above). But what of hero's far-famed "club"? As we clarify the ancient themes, the logic of the thunderbolt as mace, club, or hammer should become clear to readers. The picture above includes a chalk image of the Celtic god Dagda from Cerne Abbas, England, brandishing his club. The mysteries of the thunderbolt find colorful illustration in the popular Germanic warrior-hero, Thor, whose name is given to a day of the week-- Donnerstag, the day of Thunder, our Thursday. The image of Thor (right) is complemented by two versions (among many) of his "hammer." Thor was the victor over giants, dragons, and a host of dark or destructive powers. Legends say it was Thor who vanquished the terrible serpent or dragon Midgard or Jormungand ("wolf-serpent"), seen thrashing about in the sky while the world reeled under the catastrophe of Ragnarok, the rain of fire and gravel. In confronting the monster, Thor hurled his great stone hammer or mallet fashioned by dwarves. The power of the blow was sufficient to send Midgard plummeting into the sea. This hammer - Mjllnir (Crusher) - was the thunderbolt. Often the god and his weapon are, in fact, indistinguishable, and this will become an important clue. Scholars have long recognized the inseparable identity of Thor and his weapon. An earlier warrior figure was the Babylonian god Nergal, whom the magical texts honored as the "lion-headed mace." Also of interest here is the Hindu vajra, the "illustrious thunderbolt" of the warrior Indra, an essential attribute of the god. The Rig Veda invokes it as (among other things) a "whizzing club," In view of Heracles' acknowledged links to both Thor and Indra, it would make no sense to ignore the implied possibility--that Heracles giant-slaying club is simply a Greek variant of the lightning weapon carried by so many heroes around the world. Indeed, the lightning hammer or club (to which we could add the lightning-axe) is not limited to a particular region of the world. Even the Dinka of Sudan honored a great ancestor-god Deng, whose club was the thunderbolt, and the same can be said of the Aztec Tlaloc, the Maya Chac and numerous other warriors of world mythology. The worldwide theme of the lightning-club is one among dozens of clues, all leading to a radical conclusion. The cosmic thunderbolt harks back to ancient events with far broader implications than the natural fear of lightning. Lightning presents neither the form nor the conceptual image of a club. Yet the archetype shows the coherence that is the trademark of universal experience.
1993
Credit: Kepler's SNR from Chandra, Hubble, and Spitzer, R. Sankrit and W. Blair (JHU) et al., ESA, NASA
Kepler Supernova Remnant

(Nov 03, 2004)
Four hundred years ago, before the invention of the telescope, astronomers were amazed by the appearance of a new star. It soon dimmed to invisibility, but they noted its location in the sky. Later astronomers, with the aid of telescopes, found at the location of the new star a nebulous cloud of glowing gas (image above). The developing theory of nuclear-powered stars led them to believe the cloud was a spherical shell of gas blown away by an exploding star. With the discovery that such glowing clouds and their central stars were composed entirely of plasma, a few astronomers realized that electrical forces had to be taken into account. The invention of more powerful telescopes (yellow is the visible light image) and of telescopes that could "see" in x-ray (green and blue images) and infrared (red image) light confirmed the electrical nature of these clouds. An isolated star that explodes would be expected to produce a spherical cloud of gas. Instead, the cloud is plasma, and it reveals plasma's characteristic feature of organizing itself into a network of electric current filaments (notice especially the yellow and green areas). Furthermore, the cloud is not spherical but shows a distinct bipolar shape, somewhat reminiscent of the form of a brain seen from above. This axis through the nebula and the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive central star is the path of the Birkeland current that supplies the power to energize the system.
1994
And that energy is expended in more than the visible light that reveals the filaments: Around the periphery of the cloud, on the surface of the plasma sheath that mediates the internal electrical field with the field outside, can be seen bright spots of x-ray emission (blue). This is where currents in the sheath flow between high voltage differentials and, as in a dentist's xray machine, accelerate the current-carrying particles to x-ray energies. We see these x-ray spots primarily at the edge of the sheath because that is where we are looking into the currents, where the x-rays are beamed in our direction. Instead of being the result of a mechanical explosion, the nebula is the result of a sudden increase in the current that powers the central star, a stellar electrical surge. The sheath (which surrounds every star and is normally invisible) has been pushed into the "glow" discharge state; the increased current is pulling matter from the star and from the surrounding space into the filaments that compose that current; and all of it is being heated electrically. Such a surge would have had a sudden onset and an exponential decline--just like a lightning bolt. The new star that 17th Century astronomers saw flaring up in their sky was a stellar thunderbolt. What we see is the declining aftermath.
1995
Credit: NASA/JPL
Layered Crater
(Nov 02, 2004)
From the official caption: "This old meteor impact crater in northwestern Schiaparelli Basin exhibits a spectacular view of layered, sedimentary rock. The 2.3 kilometer (1.4 miles) wide crater may have once been completely filled with sediment; the material was later eroded to its present form. Dozens of layers of similar thickness and physical properties are now expressed in a wedding cake-like stack in the middle of the crater. Sunlight illuminating the scene from the left shows that the circle, or mesa top, at the middle of the crater stands higher than the other stair-stepped layers. The uniform physical properties and bedding of these layers might indicate that they were originally deposited in a lake (it is possible that the crater was at the bottom of a much larger lake, filling Schiaparelli Basin); alternatively, the layers were deposited by settling out of the atmosphere in a dry environment." Comments by Wal Thornhill (orignally published here): "Sorry, the explanation above just doesn't hold water. It is a series of ad hoc mechanisms linked together with 'may' and 'might.' To begin, it is baldly stated that the feature is an 'old meteor impact crater.' That is an opinion, not a fact. The floor of an impact crater is supposed to be formed of shattered rock. This crater floor is layered rock. So the crater 'May have once been completely filled with sediment' -- or else the assumption is mistaken. Regular, episodic sedimentation is called upon to produce such even layering. Some method of cementation is also required to form each distinct layer. Whatever happened had to have repeated more than 20 times with precision to give such a regular appearance. Finally, 'the material was ... eroded to its present form.' We should like to know how that miracle was performed. Neither wind nor water The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
1996
moving across the landscape could produce the circular symmetry seen here. And it does not attempt to explain the strange landscape surrounding the crater. "There is a better explanation. In an electric universe, surfaces and atmospheres of rocky planets are exchanged in the process of their electrical 'birth' from a gas giant planet and in subsequent electrical interactions with other moons and planets in the process of achieving a stable orbit. Both Jupiter and Saturn have moons that would be classified as planets if they orbited the Sun. Saturn's moon, Titan, has an atmosphere heavier than Earth's. Later this year, when the Cassini spacecraft and Huygens probe arrive to observe it first-hand, Titan May have much to teach us about a planet that didn't manage to leave home. "The birth of planets by expulsion, followed by accretion of the 'afterbirth,' leaves significant scars and layering on their surfaces, as does establishing a stable planetary orbit. Orbital dynamics tells us that two planets, which began in close association, will come together again at regular intervals. This would make the process of electrical deposition and erosion between the planets episodic and regular for a short time (geologically speaking). The result is a global 'onion skin' build up of crustal materials together with various erratic mineral deposits. Superimposed are the effects of electrical erosion that occurs only upon the closest approaches between two planets (the same electrical forces that caused the initial expulsion preclude impacts). Electrical erosion tends to be concentrated hemispherically because of the short duration of closest approach. It also leaves the most dramatic scars. They take characteristic forms of circular craters (universally mistaken for impact craters), raised blisters (often mistaken for volcanoes), sinuous channels (usually mistaken for water or lava erosion channels), and etched or "fretted terrain" (no conventional explanation). "The crater above can be explained simply by using the electric universe model. The layering predated the crater. The crater is electrical, not impact. The so-called erosion was an integral part of the formation of the crater, caused by rotating Birkeland filaments. Birkeland filaments twist in pairs to form a rope-like Birkeland current. It is the form in which electrical energy is transported across the cosmos. The current density is highest in the Birkeland filaments themselves so the erosion rate falls off toward their center of rotation--the center of the crater. The result, in the sedimentary layers, is a neatly terraced central peak, the untouched remains of previously existing sedimentary layers."
1997
Halton Arp: A Modern Day Galileo

(Nov 01, 2004)
Halton Arp is to the 21st century what Galileo was to the 17th. Both were respected scientists, popular leaders in their field. Both made observations which contradicted the accepted theories. Seventeenth century academics felt threatened by Galileo's observations and so, backed by ecclesiastical authority, they ordered him to stop looking. Twentieth century astronomers felt threatened by Arp's observations and so, backed by institutional authority, they ordered him to stop looking. Both refused. Both published works geared to the non-specialist when specialists would no longer take note. Galileo's paper, "A Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World" , favored a heliocentric model of the solar system and undermined the accepted geocentric model. Arp's books, Quasars, Redshifts and Controversies, Seeing Red, and Catalogue of Discordant Redshift Associations, favor a steady-state model of the universe and undermine the accepted big bang model. The Church responded by placing Galileo under house arrest: his peers would not even look through his telescope and the Church judged his books heretical. The modern astronomical community responded similarly to Arp. Observatory officials cancelled his telescope time and astronomical journals refused to publish his research. How did these men create such a furor? Galileo introduced a simple new concept that changed the universe as it was known then. Arp introduces a simple new concept that will change the universe as we know it now. Seventeenth Century educators taught that the Earth was the center of the universe. The Sun, the moon, the planets and the stars revolved around it. Galileo confronted his contemporaries with a universe centered around the sun. If you had lived in Galileo's time, would you have been willing to examine his work? Today's educators teach that the universe started from a big bang 15 billion years ago and has been expanding ever since. Galaxies and quasars are scattered according to their redshift. Arp confronts us with a universe of ejected galactic families. You live in Arp's time: The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive are you willing to examine his work?
1998
1999
Credit: Historic NWS Collection, Dr. Joseph Golden, NOAA
Electric Waterspouts
(Oct 29, 2004)
Because the Earth is a small charged body moving in a large cell of plasma, explanations of all physical phenomena in, on, and near the Earth must take the electrical behavior of plasma into account. The waterspout shows us once again that plasma behavior can take many different forms. There are two types of waterspout; one type is simply a tornado over water. The other (true waterspout) is less powerful than a tornado. It forms in a different way and often in a different season. It dissipates quickly if it happens to move over land. Waterspouts occur in oceans or large lakes. They are common in the Great Lakes in months when the water is warmest--August, September, and October. They are most likely to occur when the water is warm, the air is cold and moist, and the winds are light. (They are predictable enough that the weather service issues waterspout warnings when conditions are right for their formation.) First a circular white spot surrounded by an irregular dark area forms on the water's surface. Next a pattern of light and dark bands spiral outwards. Then a dense, swirling ring of spray, called a cascade, appears around the dark spot and rises toward the clouds. When it connects to the clouds, the waterspout begins to move with the clouds. When the waterspout is mature, it can be several hundred feet high. It often creates a visible wake and a wave train as it moves (see photo above). Russian plasma physicist V. A. Rantsev-KartiNov studied waterspouts from a plasma point of view. He came to understand the waterspout as a long-lasting discharge current between the plasma networks of the ocean surface (or lake surface) and the electrical charge of the clouds above. Every world in the solar system is a charged body orbiting in a plasma. On Earth, there are many ways that the plasma interactions between Earth and space show up -- auroras, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
2000
lightning, sprites and elves, tornados, hurricanes, waterspouts and dust devils, geomagnetic storms. On other worlds, different modes of electrical interaction are seen -- giant dust devils on Mars, ion "rains" on Europa, the plasma discharges of Io, the coma and tails of comets, the spokes of Saturn's rings, the complex magnetospheres of Earth and the giant planets. The solar system we see today is much more electrically active than what we imagined it would be 50 years ago, before the first satellite was launched. It would be easier to understand if we paid closer attention to what we've learned of plasma behavior in the lab, and to the interactions of electricity between Earth and space.
2001
Credit: Halton Arp, SEEING RED
Redshift Rosetta Stone

(Oct 28, 2004)
Three years ago, the XMM Newton orbiting x-ray telescope witnessed a galaxy ejecting two high redshift quasars. Early in the 24- hour observation of the active nucleus of NGC 3516, it recorded a flare, much like a solar flare but ten trillion times as powerful. [See link to Magnetic Reconnection TPOD (below) for Electric Universe explanation of solar flares.] Then two high redshift regions appeared on opposite sides of the galactic nucleus. One side featured a spike in redshift and the other side a similar dip in redshift--as if one spot were moving away from us and the other coming toward us at about one tenth the speed of light. Of course, that's not the official interpretation of the observations. Coming up with a credible mainstream explanation takes a little more time than simply accepting the observation at face value (because face value contradicts accepted theory). As the space.com press release put it: "In fact, the tell-tale observations of NGC 3516 were made three years ago, but it took this recent analysis to uncover the flare's secret." The mainstream interpretation of the event is that the flare was caused by a disc of gas falling into the galaxy's central black hole. The high redshift spots are the remnants of the decaying disc. Their redshift is caused by the effect of the nearby gravitational field of the black hole tugging on the light and reducing its energy. The redshift spike and dip are caused by the orbital velocity of the disc around the black hole, one side rotating toward us, reducing the redshift, and the other side rotating away from us, increasing the redshift. Is there any way to distinguish between the two interpretations? Actually, there's a simple The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
2002
way. The press release says the researcher "suspects that the highlighted gas fell into the unforgiving black hole just a few days after the measurements." So if we were to point a telescope at NGC 3516 today, we should see nothing left of the event. But if the event was a quasar ejection, the quasars should still be there, moving away from the galaxy core, growing brighter. The trouble is that accepted theory already knows how to explain away bright pairs (or more) of quasars seen across a galaxy nucleus. These they call gravitational lensing of one distant quasar. This isn't the first time NGC 3516 has been a player in the redshift controversy. (see above diagram from Halton Arp's book, Seeing Red). There are six high-redshift objects distributed in a non-random manner along the spin axis of this galaxy. (The galaxy is the oval shape in the middle of the diagram, and the direction of the galaxy's spin axis is indicated by the diagonal line.) The galaxy's redshift is very low: z=.009 (meaning that its light is shifted toward the red by the fraction .009 of its wavelength). The objects' redshifts are called out on the diagram. When Arp began writing _Seeing Red_, there was only one discordant object in this field, the striped ball at the top of the picture, marked by its redshift of 0.89. This is a BL Lac object, a very rare type of quasar. Arp had been examining the regions around the twenty-six brightest Seyfert galaxies (galaxies that are "active" with star formation, etc.). He discovered that five of the brightest BL Lac objects are less than one degree away from one or another of these 26 bright Seyferts, including this BL Lac-Seyfert pair. Since both of these types of objects are rare (especially being the brightest members of their classes), the chance against these being a random association is about three million to one. As Arp finished Seeing Red, the Chinese astronomer, Yoaquan Chu, discovered five highredshift quasars even closer to NGC 3516 than the BL Lac. Not only were these five quasars (plus the original BL Lac) distributed along the galaxy's spin axis, but their redshifts were ordered--the highest redshifts closest to the Seyfert galaxy. This added valuable information about how quasars evolve into normal low-redshift galaxies. For that, Arp called this the Rosetta Stone of intrinsic redshift. How appropriate that it was the same galaxy that is now caught in the act of ejecting a new pair of quasars.
2003
Credit: USGS
Electrical Journey to Center of the Earth

(Oct 27, 2004)
Because the Earth is a small charged body moving in a large cell of plasma, explanations of all physical phenomena in, on, and near the Earth must take the electrical behavior of plasma into account. Traditional geology has over many years gradually built up a picture of the Earth's interior. Geologists assumed that gravity pulled upper layers of rock onto lower layers, uniformly increasing the pressure toward the center. Laboratory experiments provided some indications of how rocks responded to increasing pressure and temperature, and theoretical extrapolations from these values provided a basis for guessing what could be going on far beneath the deepest drill holes. The result is the diagram above. A thin crust of light rock floats on the denser material of the mantle, which in turn surrounds an even denser core. At critical values of pressure, temperature, and/or composition, the material May change states, from solid to plastic at the asthenosphere, from solid to liquid at the outer core. Extrapolations of seismic wave behavior and deductions from theory (with appropriate adjustments) justify an interpretation of earthquake waves that confirms the expectations of pressure and temperature theories. The anomalies can probably be explained if enough funding is allocated to study them. But becoming aware of plasma changes everything. Because gravity can distort atoms and because pressure can preferentially "squeeze" electrons out of lower layers, rock can become susceptible to electromagnetic forces. Because plasma cables and sheets (i.e., electrical currents) have been detected flowing between Earth's magnetosphere and the surface, the circuit must close by passing through the Earth. Because magma is a liquid plasma, it will preferentially carry currents. Because electrical currents in plasma pinch into filaments and tend to form "double layers" (capacitor-like formations), the distribution of currents inside the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
2004
Earth will be highly inhomogeneous. Electrical heating will cause temperature discontinuities in "lines and lumps." Electromagnetic forces between current filaments and between the layers of double layers will cause enormous and sudden pressure variations. Why doesn't this show up in seismographs of earthquakes? Or does it show up, then go unrecognized because researchers have no concept of plasma behavior? No one has ever investigated how seismic waves act in different plasma conditions. The seismograph scrawls a single wavy line, but the geologist must interpret it according to a choice among several competing theories. With the awareness of plasma, seismographs no longer provide reliable-or even understandable--information about conditions at depth. Plasma geology is a virgin field for curious and enterprising investigators. In this age of scientific conformity and consensus truth, are there any geologists left who have a sense of adventure?
2005
Credit: Gerald Cecil UNC/Chapel Hill et al., NASA
Another Active Ejecting Galaxy

(Oct 26, 2004)
A common characteristic of the spiraling Birkeland currents in a plasma discharge is that they flare out at the top. They appear first as horns or a crescent atop the pillar of the most intense part of the discharge. Often matter will accumulate along the axis as well, making the horns appear as a trident. Occasionally, three or four or more currents will produce multiple filaments flaring away from each other. The flaring filaments above the center of NGC 3079 (image above) illustrate this behavior. They are evidence of a galactic-scale thunderbolt discharging its energy in the core below. Because that thunderbolt is only part of an electrical circuit that encompasses the entire galaxy, we would expect to see signs of excitation in other parts of the circuit. And we do: The outer edges of the spiral arms are dotted with bright spots, traditionally called "star-forming regions." Here the return current from the axial discharge, pinched into more or less equally spaced pairs of filaments, bends into the equatorial plane. At the bend, electrical forces are strengthened and matter accumulates. Stars are indeed formed, but they are electrical stars, lit by the surge of current exploding from the nucleus. Why is NGC 3079 excited? The Electric Universe would suspect the driving energies were due to a surge in a larger, invisible circuit connecting to other galaxies. Mapping the radio and x-ray intensities in NGC 3079's neighborhood May reveal linkages to the galaxy's "parent." That galaxy would have ejected NGC 3079--but before it grew to its present size--in a similar electrical surge. Now NGC 3079 is in turn ejecting its own offspring: Halton Arp has identified nine high redshift quasars associated with this galaxy, and he is investigating 3 more probable quasars, each of which completes a pair with an already-identified quasar on the opposite side of the galaxy. The active galaxys electrical characteristics go hand-in-hand with its family The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
2006
of aligned quasars, both here and in other active galaxies. These associations offer valuable clues about the behavior of plasma in space. Universe: Part 1, Cosmology Quest and Part 2, The Spears of Odin, is a two-hour documentary featuring Halton Arp, Fred Hoyle, Geoffrey and Margaret Burbidge, Anthony Peratt, Eric Lerner, and others who support intrinsic redshift and/or plasma cosmology.
2007
Credit: TRACE PROJECT, NASA
As the Paradigm Shifts

(Oct 25, 2004)
Today, everybody knows that Copernicus' heliocentric solar system replaced Ptolemy's geocentric system, with only a little trouble between Galileo and the Church. The paradigm has shifted. [Or has it? Astrologers still use Ptolemy's geocentric star charts to cast horoscopes and foretell the future. If success is measured by the dollars they earn, then some are more successful than the astronomers who know where the planets orbit.] But what did Copernicus' contemporaries think about the paradigm shift that was in progress around them? Owen Gingerich, professor of the history of astronomy at Harvard, spent 30 years researching hundreds of original copies of Copernicus' book, De Revolutionibus. He was looking for the notes their owners had scribbled in the margins. Many of these notes indicated the readers didn't believe that Copernicus was claiming that the Sun was the center of the solar system (or if he was saying that, he must be wrong.) These astronomers thought the heliocentric system was a mathematical trick. The geometry of calculating planetary orbits was easier if you pretended that the sun was at the center even though everyone knew it wasn't. Copernicus' math was being used by astronomers who still believed the Earth was the center of the universe. Is this what a half- shifted paradigm looks like? Fast-forward to the present paradigm-in-flux. Today we are discovering that the space around us is mostly plasma. First the Earth's plasma field surprised us, then Jupiter's. Most astronomers today will say that the Sun is a ball of hot plasma, but they still haven't realized that this means that electric currents are involved. But they do recognize the magnetic fields (because magnetism is easier to detect than currents) which exist in complex arrays all over the Sun. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive From the standard description of the (above) TRACE ultraviolet image of the sun:
2008
"The bright glowing gas flowing around the sunspots has a temperature of over one million degrees Celsius. The reason for the high temperatures is unknown but thought to be related to the rapidly changing magnetic field loops that channel solar plasma." But magnetic fields must also cool the sunspots by blocking the sun's nuclear heat from below. From another sunspot description: "The [sun]spot is thought to be caused by large magnetic fields that inhibit hot matter from flowing to the surface." In an electric universe, the heat is an expected side-effect of the electric currents which induced the magnetic fields. And the cooling isn't needed at all, because the electric phenomena of the Sun's surface is all that is needed to heat the sun. The out-of-sight nuclear furnace isn't even there, so there's no need to call upon magnetic forces for blocking the nuclear heat. Hanns Alfvn devoted some of his Noble Prize acceptance speech to begging astronomers not to interpret space plasmas as isolated magnetic interactions. In a few specific cases, called "quiescent plasmas," magnetic energy is equal to electric current, so the electric currents can be ignored. But the Sun is NOT a quiescent plasma. The magnetic fields observed on the sun are induced by powerful electric currents. These electric current, not the magnetic fields, are the cause of the heating that baffles the astronomers. These electric currents can explain not only the high temperatures around sunspots, but also the whole lifecycle of stars. Plasma cosmologists are like Copernicus, boldly asserting since the late 1800's that the Sun is an electric phenomenon. Astronomers still cling to the belief that you can't get charge separation in space. But that belief will have to crumble as new data erodes it. And eventually the electrically neutral universe will sound as old-fashioned to our ears as the geocentric solar system does today. The paradigm is already shifting.
2009
Credit: R. Sahai et al., Hubble Heritage Team/AURA, NASA
A Cosmic Egg
(Oct 22, 2004)
This cosmic egg (planetary nebula IC 418) is not the uniform spherical shell of gas blown off by a dying star that conventional theories expect. Both the shell and the inner "yolk" (blue) are stretched along an axis, and both are finely divided into cells that are surrounded by glowing filaments of matter. The central star varies in brightness over several hours, and conventional theorists speculate that it May generate "chaotic winds" that might somehow crisscross to create the cells and filaments. The Electric Universe sees a different egg. Shell and "yolk" are both composed of plasma, not of gas. The physics of electric currents apply, not the physics of winds. The shell is a plasma sheath, a "double layer" that acts like a capacitor, mediating the different electrical fields inside and outside the shell. Most of the voltage difference between the star and the surrounding galactic field is taken up in that thin, membrane-like double layer. The blue "yolk" is another, secondary, double layer that forms when the electric current feeding the central star reaches a threshold density. As is typical with sheaths, currents flow along the surface. And as is typical with plasma, the currents pinch into filaments that pull in material from surrounding spaces. The double layers and their current filaments also respond to the electromagnetic forces of the interstellar current filament feeding the system and are thus elongated along the axis of that current. That larger current flows in a circuit that threads through the galaxy. It is invisible because of its lower current density, but the magnetic field it produces is detectable in the squeezing and stretching of the egg that derives from it. That the power output of the central star varies over a few hours indicates that the power input is oscillating. Some feedback mechanism in the supply circuit has reached a resonant condition. That element of the circuit need not be in the star or nebula but could be far away, just as the circuit elements in a radio that generate the oscillating radio wave May be far removed from the antenna that radiates the energies. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
2010
Credit: LEFT: Heracles Battling Achelous, Louvre, Paris, RIGHT: Heracles confrontation with the three-headed monster Geryon, recorded on an archaic Greek vase

(Oct 21, 2004)
Of all the ancient heroes, none achieved greater popularity than the Greek Heracles, (Roman Hercules), son of Zeus. The sculpture on the left above depicts Hercules' defeat of the serpent-monster Achelous, and the archaic Greek vase painting on the right portrays the hero's defeat of the three-headed monster Geryon. We have already noted that, across the centuries, former celestial gods were brought down to earth through storytelling, presenting an enigma for the chroniclers. How would later poets and historians describe the thunderbolt with which, in the more archaic tales, the warrior-god vanquished heaven-spanning serpents, dragons, or chaos monsters? In some cases the electrical character of the weapon simply disappeared. But in an astonishing number of instances, the lightning connection was preserved either through metaphor, or etymologies. Just as the spear of Achilles retained the connection to the thunderbolt of Zeus (it "flashed lightning round"), the poet Hesiod describes Heracles leaping into battle "like the lightning of his father Zeus." The hero's connection to the "thunderbolts of the gods" was no accident, a fact confirmed by cross-cultural comparison. In the Grail cycle of myths, lightning receives the name Lanceor, or "Golden Lance," an archaic name of Lancelot. Lightning is also linked to the sword Excalibur, which Geoffrey of Monmouth called Caliburn, from the Welsh Caledvwich, Irish Caladbolg: old names for the "lightning." The most famous Celtic hero, Cchulainn, victor over chaos powers, held a weapon granted him by the lightning-god Bolga, "the inventor of the missile spear." The words Ga Bolga signify Bolga's spear, an acknowledged "lightning weapon" forged by the divine smith (like the thunderbolt of Zeus) in the Otherworld. So too, the warrior Fergus, when wielding his sword In Caladbolg, could single-handedly slay hundreds on the battle field. The sword's name means The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
2011
"a two-handed lightning sword." Again and again, Germanic tribes placed the thunderbolt in the hands of their celebrated heroes. Here, according to H. Bchtold- Stubli, the forms of the thunderbolt ranged from "the rough stone and the club of primitive times through hammer, axe, and spear to the golden sword wielded by the Hero." (We take up the most famous Germanic thundergod Thor in pictures to follow.) Gertrude Jobes, a diligent investigator of symbolic themes, affirms that, among the Altaic Tatars, lightning was the "arrow of a mighty hero." A common Slavic name for the weapon of the celestial warrior Perun is strela, "arrow." The Finnish warrior-hero Jumala, is said to have "wielded thunderbolts in the shape of jagged lightning-spears." For the Hindus, it was the great warrior Indra who defeated the dragon Vritra with his thunderbolt. Among the Tibetans and Mongols lightning was the arrow of a dragon-riding god, and thunder was the voice of the dragon. In the same way, the warrior Raiden, in Japanese myth, wielded "fire-arrows"--identified as the thunderbolt--in his battle against the chaos power, Raiju, the "Thunder-beast." Numerous equations of hero's weapon and thunderbolts occur in the Americas as well. Iroquois account tells of a warrior H-no, whose name means "thunder." "A monstrous serpent dwelt under the village, and made his annual repast upon the bodies of the dead which were buried by its side. He went forth once a year, and poisoned the waters of the Niagara, and also of the Cayuga creek, whereby the pestilence was created. H-no discharged upon the monster a terrific thunderbolt which inflicted a mortal wound." Similarly, the Navaho say that long ago the arrows that defeated the devouring powers of chaos were the lightning. The Pawnee and their neighbors recall the great warrior, named Black Lightning Arrow. Thus, Von del Chamberain, who ranks among the most informed authorities on Plains Indian mythology, tells us that "the flint- tipped arrows of the Indian correspond to the lightning arrows shot to earth by higher powers." EDITORS' NOTE: Thanks to the linguist Rens van der Sluijs for several of the references in the present discussion.
2012
Top: Venus Bottom: Z-machine. Credit: Top: NASA, JPL, Magellan; Bottom: Sandia National laboratory
The Scarring of Venus

(Oct 20, 2004)
In the common gravitational models of solar system evolution, little has happened to planetary orbits across the eons. This belief persists even though gravitational theory indicates that more than two bodies orbiting in a system are unstable and subject to wild motions. But in the electric model of the solar system, orbital instabilities are damped by the exchange of electrical energy between planets. Before gravitational instabilities can evolve so far as to cause collisions, electrical interactions will redistribute energies to keep orbits apart. Today the electric exchanges are almost unnoticeable: the "blue clearing" of Mars' atmosphere at opposition (when Earth is between Mars and the Sun) May be the effect of the Earth's electrified plasma tail brushing across that planet; the detection near Earth of the Birkeland current "strings" in the Venusian cometary tail at inferior conjunction (when Venus is between the Earth and Sun) is another example. But if planets moved more closely in the past the electrical effects would have been much more severe. Do we have evidence of more powerful electrical exchanges in the past? The picture above, showing the equatorial region of the planet Venus, reveals one predictable effect of interplanetary electrical exchanges. This spidery network of "arachnoids" on the Venusian surface was completely unexpected. Higher resolution images reveal an even more extraordinary filamentary structure. Space scientists have called the formations "weird." No geologic process observed today produces such formations. But lightning, an electrical process, DOES produce them. An electrical arc striking a low-conductivity surface will scavenge electrons from great distances and carve branching channels called Lichtenberg figures. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
2013
The lower picture shows a discharge produced by Sandia National Laboratories' "Z" machine. The machine has an input power of about 290 trillion watts for billionths of a second, and in that instant it consumes the equivalent of about 80 times the rest of the world's output of electricity. In the photograph a spider's web of electric discharge (a Lichtenberg figure) illuminates the Z-machine's surface. A similar discharge structure would occur at a planetary level. In the laboratory the discharge is recorded in billionths of a second, but scaled up to cosmic dimensions, the discharge could last for years. Also, filamentation of the discharge increases with atmospheric pressure. Because Venus has an extremely high-pressure atmosphere, 90 times that of Earth, the extraordinary filamentation of the arachnoids is to be expected. In the electric model, if two planets approach each other and their "magnetospheres" (Langmuir Sheaths, which limit the reach of a planet's electric field) make contact, the connection of planetary electric fields May produce intense discharging. To visualize the effects, one must scale up plasma laboratory discharge to planetary dimensions. For someone standing on one of the planets, the approaching body would take on the appearance of a planet-sized storm cloud in the sky. The "thunderbolts of the gods" forged in the encounter would make even the most powerful lightning today seem as little more than a spark from a hairbrush.
2014
Credit: Top: Wal Thornhill, Bottom, Galileo Project, JPL, NASA
Europa Caught in the Middle

(Oct 19, 2004)
If the ancient thunderbolt legends are taken at face value, then we are faced with the possibility that our neighboring planets waged celestial wars with thunderbolts in the time of human myth-makers. If this happened, what "smoking guns" should we expect to find? Jupiter's moon, Europa, offers an excellent example. The images above show a plasma ball as an electric discharge flows across it (top) and a view of Europa's scarred surface (bottom). Europa's rotation has been captured by Jupiter, so the same side faces Jupiter all the time. (The same is true of our own moon and the Earth.) The parts of Europa directly facing Jupiter and those exactly opposite are rugged and chaotic (hence the name chaos regions). These regions are where the thunderbolts struck and where they departed. The surface areas connecting the two chaos regions (bottom image) are characterized by long, looping scars in patterns similar to those seen on the plasma ball. Europa displays a frozen record of strikes by Jupiter's thunderbolts in the recent past. Just as lightning looks for the easiest path to ground, Jupiter's thunderbolts preferred to run across the surface of Europa rather than through the near vacuum of space. The result is a filamentary pattern of superimposed furrows running this way and that for hundreds and thousands of kilometers across the face of the moon. Europa was not a target itself, but it bears the scars from being caught in the crossfire. Even if future missions to Europa discover continued "erosion" by tidal or electrical connections with Jupiter, most of the scars we see today were created in brief catastrophic episodes, not The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
2015
gradually at a uniform rate. As the surface lightning blasted its way across the moon, it heaped material to either side to form levees. It ripped across earlier channels as if they were not there. Jupiter's lightning was so powerful that it converted some of the oxygen in the water ice to sulfur--creating the dark coloration down the center and to either side of the large furrows. Europa is completely covered with this type of plasma scarring, and other moons are partially covered with similar patterns. Among them are Jupiter's Ganymede and Callisto, Saturn's Enceladus, and Uranus' Miranda. Continued study of these moons offers an opportunity to learn more about the recent electrical history of the solar system and our own human heritage.
2016
Credit: Top: Halton Arp, Bottom: AAO newsletter, Aug 1996
Fingers of God
(Oct 18, 2004)
The big bang theory predetermines the size, the shape and the age of the universe (according to the latest satellite data, it is an expanding sphere 78 billion light years in diameter and 13.7 billion years old.) Because astronomers believe that redshift is a measure of distance, most of the distances of millions of galaxies, quasars, and gamma ray bursts have been distorted. A different interpretation of redshift will imply a much different universe. Halton Arp's research shows that redshift cannot be a measure of distance. The charts above compare a galaxy cluster in Arp's observed universe to the big bang's theoretical universe. These three diagrams are called "pie charts" because of their resemblance to slices of pie. Our position (the Earth) is at the bottom point in all cases. Distance (away from the Earth) is measured along the straight edges. In the top left image, we show what a galaxy cluster in Arp's universe would look like without the big bang perspective. It is a family of galaxies and quasars and gaseous clouds of mixed redshifts (in the top diagrams, the large dots are lowredshift, the medium-sized dots are medium-redshift, and the small dots are high redshift). At the center, there is a dominant galaxy -- it's usually the largest galaxy, and the galaxy with the lowest redshift of the cluster. This galaxy is surrounded by low-to-medium redshift galaxies, and toward the edges of the cluster we find the highest redshift galaxies, HII regions, BL Lac objects and quasars. The image to the right shows what happens if we try to force the same galaxy cluster into a redshift-equals-distance relationship. The cluster becomes distorted. What was once a sphere becomes an elongated bubble. The central dominant galaxy drops to the front of this bubble, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
2017
followed by a spike of low-to-medium redshift galaxies stretching away from the earth and "bubble and void" of high redshift objects. Every cluster in the sky does this, like fingers of god pointed at the earth from every direction. The third image is a 90 degree slice of the sky showing all galaxies arranged according to their redshift- determined distances. The Fingers of God distortions show clearly, each representing a single galaxy cluster. (The bubbles and voids are not as clear, because this chart cuts off before it gets to high redshift.) Everything points at the Earth. Without the redshift-equals-distance distortion, a new picture of galaxy clusters and the universe itself is revealed. The age of the universe is no longer known, because we no longer have a constant expansion to backtrack to a bang. The size is also unknown. Most quasars and some galaxies that we see are closer than we thought they were, because they have been distorted by the Fingers of God. But we have no idea how far the universe stretches beyond our telescopes' limits. We have moved from what has been called "the end of science," where everything has basically been discovered, to "the beginning of a new universe" where almost everything is unexplored territory. What an exciting prospect for science in the 21st century.
2018
Credit:left, G. Scharmer, L. Rouppe van der Voort (KVA ) et al., SVST: right, copyright 2001, Reel EFX. Inc.
Solar Tornadoes
(Oct 15, 2004)
As Fred Hoyle long ago pointed out; the Sun does not conform to the expected behavior of an internally heated ball of gas, simply radiating its energy into space. Instead, its behavior at every level is complex and baffling. Nowhere is it more mysterious than in a sunspot. Sunspots are strange blemishes on the face of the Sun that offer some of the strongest evidence against the Sun being powered internally. They are conventionally described as being a result of strong magnetic fields pinching off the convection of heat from inside the Sun before it can reach the surface. The electric star interpretation is that sunspots are breaks in the hot surface of the sun, through which we can get a glimpse of the underlying layers. To satisfy the standard theory, these deeper layers of the Sun should be hotter to drive the so-called vigorous convection. But they aren't. The dark center of the sunspot, or umbra, is 20% cooler than the rest of the surface of the Sun. The outer shadow of the sunspot, or penumbra, and the structure and behavior of the filaments that form the penumbra are also too complex to be explained by standard stellar theory. There is a temptation for plasma researchers to simply equate the penumbral filaments with gargantuan lightning bolts, but the features do not match all that well. A typical lightning flash lasts for 0.2 seconds and covers a distance of about 10 km. The penumbral filaments last for at least one hour and are of the order of 1000 km long. If we could scale a lightning bolt 100 times we might have a flash that lasted between 20 and 200 seconds and was 1000 km long. The lifetime is too short. Also, measurements of scars on lightning conductors show that the lightning channel is only about 5 mm wide. Scaling that by 100 times would have solar lightning channels far below the limit of telescopic resolution The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
2019
However, there is another familiar form of atmospheric electric discharge that does scale appropriately and could explain the mysterious dark cores of penumbral filaments. It is the tornado! Tornadoes last for minutes and can have a diameter of the order of one kilometer. Scale those figures up 100 times and we match penumbral filaments very well. And if the circulating cylinder of plasma is radiating heat and light, as we see on the Sun, then the solar "tornado" will appear, side on, to have bright edges and a dark core (right image, above).
2020
Greek drinking vessel. Credit: the Louvre

(Oct 14, 2004)
Ancient stories of cosmic battles, pitting a celestial warrior against a serpent, dragon, or other monster, were integral to the birth of civilization. From one early culture to another, sacred monuments and rites, religious texts, and cosmic symbols harked back to the age of the gods, to earthshaking upheaval, and celestial combat. One fact is frequently overlooked, however. The context and setting of the later stories progressively changed as the gods were brought down to earth. Over time, the poets and historians placed the stories on a landscape familiar to them. In the course of Egyptian history, for example, the creator Ra and his regent Horus, whose original domain was undeniably celestial, came to be remembered as terrestrial kings. In later time, when Greek and Roman poets, philosophers, and naturalists sought to gather knowledge from far flung cultures, Egyptian priests would relate to them many stories of the gods, declaring that the events had occurred in their own city in the time of the ancestors. By following this evolutionary tendency across the centuries, the researcher can observe how the cosmic thunderbolt, a centerpiece in innumerable tales of celestial combat, emerged as the magical weapon of a legendary hero. It became the sword, spear, hammer or club of a warrior who continued to battle chaos monsters, but no longer in the heavens. As a result of localization, the diminished hero typically reveals an enigmatic mix of god and man, as in the well known accounts of the Sumerian and Babylonian hero Gilgamesh. Once reduced to human dimensions, the hero could no longer hold onto his original weapon, a weapon claimed to have shaken and forever changed both heaven and earth. Localization of the celestial dramas recorded in earliest times had a huge impact on Greek imagination. The best indication of the evolutionary process is Greek epic literature, including The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
2021
the most popular tale of all, Homer's Iliad. Here the greatest of Greek heroes, the ideal warrior, is Achilles. The hero's tale provided the fulcrum upon which the poet integrated different tribal memories, bringing together dozens of tribal heroes upon the battlefields of a legendary, and entirely mythological TroJan War. But the original themes, though subdued, are still present. In the illustration above, from a Greek drinking vessel, we observe Achilles confronting the serpent-guardian of a TroJan fountain. What is the relationship of this image to the archaic contests between warrior gods and chaos serpents? Achilles' father was the mythic king Peleus and his mother the "sea" goddess Thetis, daughter of Oceanus, for whose affections both Zeus and Poseidon had contended. Bathed by his mother in the river Styx, the river that "joins the earth and Hades," he was tutored by the Centaur Chiron. His armor was fashioned by the god Hephaestus, the very god who fashioned the thunderbolts of Zeus. The actual terrestrial city of Troy is the modern Hissarlik in Turkey, the site of a fortified palace from the Bronze Age onward. Neither this palace, nor anything uncovered by archaeologists in the region could have inspired the city of which the poets spoke! In the cultures of the Near East and Mediterranean, hundreds of historic kings left unmistakable proof of their lives and their cultural influence. But of the countless kings, warriors, princesses and seers in the Iliad, not one finds historic validity. The reason for this is that the claimed events did not occur on earth. The original subject was a cosmic drama, whose episodes progressively masqueraded as terrestrial history. The similarities shared by mythic heroes are vast, directing our attention to ancient themes that can only appear incomprehensible to the modern world. One overarching theme is that of the hero's magical, and typically invincible weapon. More than once the poets spoke of Achilles' spear as forked, or possessing a "double tongue," as when Aeschilos, in his Nereids, writes, "The shaft, the shaft, with its double tongue, will come." Practically speaking, a forked spear-point would have doomed an ancient warrior. But the image was not rooted in practical considerations. It comes directly from the well documented form of the thunderbolt wielded by Zeus. Of Achilles' spear, the poet Lesches of Lesbos (author of the Little Iliad), wrote: "The ring of gold flashed lightning round, and o'er it the forked blade" It is only to be expected that modern readers would see in these words a simple poetic simile. But is there something more? The answer must come through cross cultural comparison, for the warrior bearing the thunderbolt in battle was indeed a global theme.
2022
Credit: NOAA Photo Library, NOAA Central Library; OAR/ERL/NSSL
Tornadoes as Electric Discharge

(Oct 13, 2004)
Because the Earth is a small charged body moving in a large cell of plasma, explanations of all physical phenomena in, on, and near the Earth must take the electrical behavior of plasma into account. Taking this larger picture into account will add new insights for understanding details of everyday phenomena, such as the weather. Meteorologists are not sure how tornadoes form but they do know that they are often associated with severe electrical storms. The key to understanding tornadoes is that they are the result of rapidly rotating electric charge. Just as electrons are the current carriers in the copper wires we use for power transmission, so they are in the tornado. The BIG difference is that the electrons are moving at many meters per second in the tornado while they take several hours to move one meter in the copper wire! The result is that enormously powerful electromagnetic forces are in control of the tornado. This effect has been called a "charged sheath vortex." The shape of the vortex is strongly constrained to be long and thin with a circular crosssection. This true shape of the vortex is usually hidden in tornadoes because of the obscuring dust and clouds. The vortex itself will only be visible if it has sufficient electrical energy to ionize atoms in the atmosphere. That is clearly the case on the Sun. And some people who have survived the experience of being "run over" by a tornado have reported an electrical glow in the inner wall of the tornado. It is commonly thought that a tornado is a means for mechanical energy in the storm to be converted somehow to electrical power, which is then transmitted very effectively to ground by the electrical conduit of the charged sheath vortex inside the tornado. The "somehow" arises only because nobody visualizes the electrical dimension of the solar system. Electrical power from space is partially dissipated in the mechanical energy of the encircling winds. Instead of generating the electrical effects, the tornadic winds are driven by the charge sheath vortex and its connection to the electric currents of the solar system. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
2023
Credit:

(Oct 12, 2004)
To uncover the secret of the thunder-weapon in world mythology we must trace the theme back to its early expressions in ancient Mesopotamia. When the Babylonians, the world's first astronomers, looked back to the age of the gods, they spoke incessantly of disaster. In their Akitu festival, a prototype of ancient New Year's celebrations, the astronomer priests recounted the events of a former time, when the dragon Tiamat assaulted the world and it appeared that heaven itself would fall into chaos. (See the above image of the seven-headed dragon, Tiamat, taken from a Babylonian cylinder seal.) The "resplendent dragon" spawned a horde of dark powers with "irresistible weapons"--"monster serpents, sharp-toothed, with fang unsparing," their bodies filled with poison for blood. "Fierce dragons she has draped with terror, crowned with flame and made like gods," the storytellers recounted, "so that whoever looks upon them shall perish with fear." This was not a disaster on a local scale, but a universal disaster--a catastrophe so great that the gods themselves were immobilized by fear, and even Anu, the sovereign of the sky, fled the scene in terror. The protagonist in this narrative is the god Marduk. When all else had failed, it was Marduk who rose to confront Tiamat and her companions. The god took possession of his "matchless weapons" and-"In front of him he set the lightning, With a blazing flame he filled his body" Mounted on his storm-chariot and turbaned with a "fearsome halo," Marduk set his course toward the raging Tiamat. In the encounter that followed, "Tiamat opened her mouth to consume him, He drove in the Evil Wind that she close not her lips. As the fierce winds charged her belly, Her body was distended and her mouth was wide open. He released the arrow, it tore her belly, It cut through her insides, splitting the heart." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
2024
Cuneiform specialists confirm that the arrow of Marduk was the thunderbolt, a weapon frequently displayed throughout the ancient Near East and beyond. We have already noted that the Sumerian warrior Ninurta defeated the monster Anzu with his thunderbolt, just as the Greek Zeus subdued Typhon with the thunderbolt. But the early traditions of earthshaking battles in the heavens were not limited to any particular culture. At the temple of Ra in Heliopolis the priests ritually trod underfoot images of the great dragon Apep to represent his defeat at the hands of the supreme god. At the temple of Edfu, a series of reliefs depict the warrior Horus and his followers vanquishing Apep or his counterpart Set, cutting to pieces the monster's companions, the "fiends of darkness." According to W. M. Muller, the spear or harpoon of Horus was a metaphor for the thunderbolt. "Lightning is the spear of Horus, and thunder the voice of his wounded antagonist, roaring in his pain," Muller reports. The Hebrews, too, preserved an enduring memory of Yahweh's battle against a dragon of the deep, marked by lightning on a cosmic scale. "The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook." Here the adversary was alternately named Rahab, Leviathan, Tannin, or Behemoth--dragonlike forms representing both the waters of chaos and the rebellion of the "evil land" vanquished by Yahweh in primeval times. The battle is echoed in Job 26: "The pillars of heaven shook and were astounded at his roar. By his power he stilled the sea, and by his understanding he smote Rahab." It is also well established that the Hebrew accounts reflect a connection to early Canaanite traditions in which the thunderbolt-wielding god Baal defeated the monster Lotan. Comparison of the cross-cultural traditions suggests a human memory reaching far beyond any tribal or regional influence. Yet similarities abound, and unexplained similarities are the key to discovery. What ancient event provoked the human memory of a dragon attacking the world? Who was the warrior-god who confronted the monster? And what was the invincible "thunderbolt" that defeated the beast? The questions can be answered if we allow the ancient witnesses to speak--and to mean what they say.
2025
Left: rubble from collapsed roof section in Barker Cave

Top right: Barker Cave in Australia Bottom Right: Hadley's Rille Credit: Left: QTTC, Top right: David B. J. Thomae Bottom right: NASA/Apollo 15
Lava Tubes
(Oct 11, 2004)
The lava tube has become the favored explanation for strange channels on most other minor planets and moons. This example of a section of the longest lava tube on Earth is found in Australia and is known as Barker's Cave. It is 35 km from the extinct Undara volcano and measures some 15 metres in height. This section runs for 682 meters. Lava tubes on Earth are formed when a stream of cooling fluid lava builds up levees and forms a crust on top that forms a roofed channel. The enclosed lava loses very little heat and May flow for a large distance before it solidifies. When the eruption ceases, the lava continues to run out at the lower end, leaving an empty tube in the rock. At some later time the roof May collapse leaving sections of open channel. The problem with the lava tube theory of rilles is that the rilles found on other planets and moons show only superficial resemblances to lava tubes on Earth. The larger rilles are kilometers wide, too wide for a rock roof to span. The longest are a thousand times longer than any on Earth. Most rilles have a sinuous V-shaped channel. Neither the collapsed roofs nor the out-flow of lava associated with Earth's lava tubes are seen in the celestial rilles. Perhaps most importantly, the "flow" of rilles on other worlds isn't limited to "downhill" like lava and water-carved channels on Earth. In addition their sinuosity defies all of the rules of channel width and fluid erosion. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
2026
The bottom right image above is a photograph taken by the Apollo 15 astronauts of the Vshaped Hadley's Rille, described by planetary geologists as a lava tube. There is no sign of lava or rubble from a collapsed roof, and the walls appear to be stratified rock that has been tilted upwards, as if by a blast. In light of the ubiquitous plasma activity in space that has been discovered in the first halfcentury of the space age, it is time to ask if rilles, too, are caused by electrical interactions. And that question leads to more questions: was there a one-time rille-carving event? Multiple repeated events? Uniform continuous carving? Or will we discover different histories on different worlds that have had different electrical experiences? (Or even on different parts of the same worlds?) Clues to answer these questions May be found in many places. In geology, the paleomagnetic, flora/fauna, and volcanic behavior of the Earth has changed from age to age. We can study the behavior of present-day electrically active bodies such as Io and Titan and comets. We May even find clues in the mytho-historic legend of the Celestial Thunderbolt.
2027
Credit: NEAR Project, JHU, APL, NASA
Eros: Got Erosion?

(Oct 08, 2004)
On seeing the asteroid Eros close up, astronomers have been surprised by the apparent modification of the surface over time. But they have not yet considered the possibility of erosion and deposition by an electric "wind," a process that requires neither air nor water. The caption to this picture (above) of the asteroid EROS from Andrew Cheng's book, Asteroid Rendezvous, calls it: "One of many examples of striking and surprising geologic terrain discovered in NEAR imaging data." Cheng elaborates: "Small craters are mostly absent and, in larger craters, the rims appear highly degraded and the floors flattened. These morphological characteristics, when they appear on larger planets, typically are interpreted as evidence of blanketing of an older surface. That surface modification processes of this kind could also be at work on such a small object as Eros was a surprise to many astronomers." On Earth, blanketing of an older surface is assumed to be caused by air or water. Gravity presses the air or water against a surface, and lateral motion rubs particles off the surface, depositing them elsewhere. But Eros has no air or water, and its gravity is so light a grasshopper could jump to escape velocity. Degrading rims by friction and flattening floors by sedimentation would be a protracted process, even by geological time scales. But there are other processes of erosion and deposition that can work in a vacuum. Electric erosion doesn't need water; it doesn't need air. A discharge moving across an airless asteroid can fritter molecules from the surface and carry them along with the current. This "electrical wind" can preferentially scour away high points, such as the rims of older craters, and deposit the detritus in low areas, such as the floors of the craters. (However, remember that craters, being the scars of arc discharges, will already have flat floors.) Electric discharge can scour The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
2028
away a surface layer by layer, and it can also deposit new layers of material on top of older surfaces. In the image above, the filamentary patterns of the discharge are preserved in the streaky colors. Now that erosion has been observed on an airless world, it's time to look back on our own planet and ask if all of the erosion that we see here was caused by the accepted methods. Are there features on Earth that would be better explained by electric discharge, especially during times of stronger magnetic fields, enhanced volcanic activity, sudden climate changes and mass extinctions?
2029
Credit: Upper: Eugne Delacroix. "Apollo Slays Python," 1851; Lower: J. M. W, Turner, Apollo and Python, 1811

(Oct 08, 2004)
It is fascinating to follow the historic evolution of the cosmic thunderbolt, as the divine weapon of the gods passed into the sword, spear, arrow, or club of the most famous heroes of later times. Of course mythologists will not normally think of the arrow of Apollo, the sword of Perseus, or the club of Heracles as electric in nature. One reason for this is that, as the early gods of the thunderbolt evolved over the centuries, the chroniclers gradually reduced them to human dimensions. A celestial warrior bearing the thunderbolt in battle later lost his cosmic attributes to become a great man, the best of heroes, the esteemed ancestor of the tribe or nation telling the story. In such cases the original identity of the magical weapon had already slipped into the background, though only rarely could it be hidden entirely. Often, what we get is just a shadow of the cosmic missile so vividly described in early Near Eastern narratives of primeval order and chaos. As a bridge between the more archaic world and the fragmented and diluted myths of later times, Greek accounts offer many clues pointing to the evolution of the symbolism. The Homeric Hymn to Pythian Apollo describes the hero's confrontation with the chaos serpent Python, whom the chroniclers identified alternately as a form of the dragon Typhon or as the nurse of Typhon. The Homeric and other accounts refer to the invincible "arrow" launched by Apollo, causing the monster to shudder violently and to give up its life in a torrent of blood. The ambiguity as to the setting of the mythic accounts is emphasized in the two paintings The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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above, depicting Apollo's defeat of Python. The upper painting by Eugne Delacroix has preserved many touches of the original celestial context, while the lower by J. M. W, Turner is much more terrestrial in its setting. Did the "arrow" of Apollo really mean the cosmic thunderbolt, the weapon that so often, in the earlier Near Eastern accounts, took the form of an arrow? The most respected experts on Greek mythology and symbolism assure us that arrows or swords wielded by the revered gods of Greece cannot be separated from the language of the thunderbolt. The connection is apparent in the Greek kerauns, "thunderbolt," most commonly used for Zeus' weapon and said to stem from a Proto-Indo-European root *ker The same root appears to lie behind the Sanskrit _ru-, 'arrow' and the Gothic harus, 'sword.' This should not surprise us, since the most familiar representations of the "eagle" of Zeus (as, of course, the eagle of the Latin Jupiter) depict the god's lightning as arrows held in the talons of the bird--a representation well preserved into modern times by the symbol of the eagle and its lightning-arrows on the U.S. one dollar bill. The same association holds true for the sword of Apollo. The god's epithet was chrysoros or chrysor--meaning "of the Golden Sword" (or). According to the distinguished authority, W. H. Roscher, the Golden Sword is a Greek hieroglyph for the thunderbolt. Indeed Zeus himself, the most famous wielder of the thunderbolt, was Chrysaores or Chrysarios, "He of the Golden Sword." In much the same way, the poet Pindar speaks of Zeus "whose spear is lightning," while Aristophanes invokes lighting as "the immortal fiery spear of Zeus." In the words of the poet Nonnus, Zeus is "the javelin-thrower of the thunderbolt." "The spear he shook [in the battle with Typhon] was lightning." "Do thou in battle lift thy lightning-flash, Olympus' luminous spear." The question is worth pursuing, therefore: have historians and mythologists missed the true identity of the far-famed hero and his weapon?
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The Sun in FeXII Light Credit: SOHO-EIT Consortium, ESA, NASA
The Iron Sun

(Oct 06, 2004)
The image of the sun above was recorded in the light given off by iron atoms that have lost 11 of their 26 electrons. The energy required to remove that many electrons is far greater than the energy available at the surface of the sun. These iron ions occur high in the sun's atmosphere--in the corona--where the effective temperature is 2 million degrees or more, 400 times that of the photosphere. The conventional explanation is that the high temperature causes the iron atoms to collide with enough force to knock off those 11 electrons. But then the question arises about how the atmosphere can be hotter than the surface. The corona is farther away from the putative source of energy inside the sun, and it is less dense. It should be cooler than the photosphere. The Electric Universe reverses the accepted ideas of which phenomenon is cause and which phenomenon is effect. The sun's atmosphere contains a complex of electrical fields that are strong enough to pull off those 11 electrons. A field that strong will also accelerate the ions to speeds interpreted as high temperatures. This activity is only one element in a circuit that connects the sun with electrical currents in the Galaxy. These galactic power lines are the source of energy that "lights" the stars, including the sun. The energy from those power lines is liberated at the photosphere rather than being transported from the core to the surface. The voltage between the sun and its galactic environment is not distributed uniformly and gradually. As is typical with plasma behavior, most of the voltage difference occurs in "double layers" (DLs). These are thin layers with an excess of positive ions on one side and an excess of negative electrons on the other. They resemble, and act like, capacitors: They store The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive electrical energy in the strong electrical field between the positive and negative layers.
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Each DL is separated from the next by a low voltage gradient, across which ions and electrons "drift." This drift current is often called a wind. A familiar example is the "solar wind" that drifts from the DLs near the sun to the DLs that make up the heliopause at the other end of the sun's connection with the galactic currents. When the low-energy iron ions from the photosphere drift into the DL above, the stronger electrical field strips off more electrons and accelerates the ions to high speeds. The strength of the field keeps the ions moving in alignment so it is not apparent that their energy is increasing. But when they emerge into the low-voltage gradient of the corona their motion becomes turbulent, like that of water in a waterfall when it hits the river below. Because temperature is a measure of randomness of motion, the corona appears to "heat up" suddenly, and the 11-times-ionized iron atoms begin to radiate their newly acquired energy. What the Electric Universe sees in "the iron sun" is the iron-ion component of the electric current driving the sun's radiation output as part of a galactic electrical circuit.
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Missing Air of Mars

(Oct 05, 2004)
Mars has an atmosphere only one hundredth as dense as the Earth's. Before space probes visited it, astronomers expected it to be ten or more times thicker than it is. ESA's Mars Express orbiter has come up with a possible explanation (see illustration above). The orbiter has been measuring how much atmosphere is being removed from Mars today by solar wind interactions. The total is about 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) per second, or about 100 tons per day. That's not fast enough to have depleted Mars' atmosphere in the accepted length of Martian history, but presumably when there was more atmosphere, the process happened faster. But the concept breaks down when you consider Venus. By standard theory, Venus, Earth and Mars have a common origin in the solar nebula. They must have received similar original amounts of air and water. Earth has held on to most of its air and water because it has a magnetic field to protect it from the solar wind. Neither Venus nor Mars have magnetic fields today (although Mars is thought to have had one early in its history). If Venus has been bombarded by solar wind for as long as Earth and Mars, then its atmosphere should have been depleted, too. But it isn't. Instead, Venus' atmosphere is 90 denser than Earth's atmosphere. For the Electric Universe, there is no reason to think of Venus, Earth and Mars as siblings. Nor is it reasonable to think of them as moving along the same orbits for billions of years. Each planet had a separate birth, and even if some or all were born in the same set of plasma instabilities, their characteristics would be dependent on the composition and discharge history of the particular plasma cell in which they were individually formed. After the birth event, the planets also have a history. Each of them took part in several catastrophic events, the most recent of which is commemorated by prehistoric humans in rock art and in myth. It isn't necessary to suppose that Mars has been losing 100 tons of air a day for billions of years because a few thousands of years ago Mars went through a major event that could have stripped it of its atmosphere and oceans all at once. Plasma interactions were undoubtedly involved; history remembers them as the magical thunder weapon of the warrior The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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hero. But these plasma interactions were much more active than those described above by the Mars Express researchers. Electric discharge will sometimes take away material (as in the 100 tons per day from the Martian atmosphere). But it can also deposit new material in sorted layers. Or even a whole new atmosphere. As space probes have returned data about density of atmospheres among our solar neighbors, astronomers have been surprised in many cases. Too much air on Venus and Titan; too little on Mars. Earth is considered the "just right" example of how much air a planet should retain for its mass. But electrically speaking, there is no standard initial atmosphere and subsequent changes are not necessarily slow or steady. No wonder the planetary atmospheres don't appear to comply with the astronomical texts.
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Credit: Montage by Dave Talbott

(Oct 04, 2004)
A thunderstorm can be a terrifying event. The lightning flash and thunderclap May indeed awaken a primal fear, and a cursory acquaintance with mythology May elicit a newfound empathy for the mythmakers of antiquity. In the presence of a thunderstorm, was it not natural for our ancestors to envisage lightning-beasts roaring in the heavens or celestial armies hurling lightning-spears across the sky? Unfortunately our common suppositions have prevented investigators from examining the underlying patterns of "lightning" symbolism. Cross-cultural comparison reveals numerous global images of "lightning" in ancient times, but these are a far cry from the phenomenon familiar to us today. Ancient descriptions suggest that the "lightning of the gods"--the cosmic thunderbolt--altered the order of the heavens and changed planetary history. To describe the cosmic thunderbolt, ancient chroniclers employed a wide range of natural and man-made symbols, and the images go well beyond those that would seem appropriate for lightning. The legendary bolt was a serpent. It was a sword or arrow. It was a blossoming flower. It grew horns or wings. It was a whirlwind. It was a comet. Terrestrial lightning was but one of many hieroglyphs used to describe this celebrated weapon of gods and heroes. The breadth of images will, in fact, appear quite meaningless until we find a new vantage point, one permitting us to discern the archetype, the original form that preceded the symbols and gave them their mythological context. Analysis will show that the weapon was electrical: the ancient interpretation as a thunderbolt was highly appropriate, as were the alternative mythic interpretations, all rooted in the same human experience. The montage above shows three Greek images of the god Zeus launching his weapon, The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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whose most elementary form was that of simple missile with a corkscrew configuration upon it. But numerous illustrations of the weapon show it sending forth leaf-like sepals, then "flowering" into a lotus-form. The petals of the lotus-thunderbolt are also elaborated as horns or wings, a fact that appears absurd today, until we discover the underlying structure. The patterns are, in fact, surprisingly consistent. One example of the evolving form is seen in the picture of Zeus confronting the feared monster Typhon. Below this picture we present, as a starting point, three of the more elementary forms of the Greek thunderbolt, representing the foundation upon which all of the more elaborate images were built. In forthcoming TPODs, we'll examine the cosmic thunderbolt in detail, with an emphasis on cross cultural comparison. Clearly, the subject was not a bolt of lightning such as we observe in the sky today. It was a plasmoid, a configuration typically formed at the "z- pinch" of interacting electrical currents. In intensely energetic plasma discharges, a plasmoid can evolve violently, through a series of metamorphoses, or quasi-stable phases, and many of these forms have now been well documented through several decades of laboratory research. The literary and artistic images of Zeus' thunderbolt capture some of the most prominent phases of intense plasma discharge.
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Credit: Jane C. Charlton (Penn State) et al., HST, ESA, NASA
Quasar in Front of Galaxy

(Oct 01, 2004)
October 3, 2003: the big bang was proved wrong. Again. And here is the proof (image above). The galaxy, NGC 7319, is a Seyfert 2, which means it is a galaxy shrouded with such heavy dust clouds that they obscure most of the bright, active nucleus that defines a normal Seyfert galaxy. This galaxy has a redshift of 0.0225. The tiny white spot is a quasar either silhouetted in front of the opaque gas clouds or embedded in the topmost layers of the dust. The redshift of the quasar is 2.114. Why does this prove the big bang wrong? One of the two major foundations of the big bang is that redshift is proportional to distance. That means the larger the redshift of an object, the farther away it must be. The other major foundation of the big bang is that all redshift is a measure of velocity. Again, the larger the redshift of an object, the faster it is moving away from us. Combined, these two foundations become the expanding universe, which can be traced backwards to the big bang. Look at the picture again. By the big bang principles, this quasar must be billions of light years farther from us than the galaxy, because its redshift is so much larger. And yet the galaxy is opaque, so the quasar must be near the surface of the dust clouds or even in front of them. Pasquale Galianni, Margaret Burbidge, Halton Arp, V. Junkkarinen, Geoffrey Burbidge, and Stefano Zibetti, the astronomers who wrote the paper describing this discovery, also studied the dust clouds surrounding the quasar. There's a bright triangular jet (see insert above) with its fat end on the galaxy nucleus and thin end pointing at the quasar. Radio, x-ray and spectra observations show that this area is disturbed. These gasses are more turbulent than the gasses in other regions of the galaxy. That seems to indicate that something big and powerful has passed through, moving outward from the nucleus. In addition to the jet, the region of the galaxy near the quasar is glowing with an excess of low-density emission lines from ionized gasses. But nothing is "there" to light them up except the impossible quasar. This is not the first definitive disproof of the redshift = distance principle, although it May be the best to date. Halton Arp has been accumulating discordant redshift evidence since the late 1960's. His most recent tactic has been to look at the objects called ULX's (the quasar above is one of them). ULX stands for Ultra Luminous X-ray sources, which are tiny The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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concentrations of x-rays in or very near an active galaxy. The x-ray concentration is stronger than any known astronomical object, even a supernova, can produce. Over the last two years, Arp has shown that at least 20 of these objects are quasars, with redshifts much higher than the galaxy they are associated with. The example seen above is the closest pair of the 20. About the new observations, one cosmologist said: "If astronomy were a science, this paper would mean the end of the big bang." Instead, the paper was scarcely noted when it was presented to the American Astronomical Society meeting in January 2004. When submitted to an astronomical journal, heavy editing was recommended by the peer review committee. And now it sits with the editor, awaiting permission for publication. And waiting. And waiting. It's time for set-in-their-way astronomers (of any age) to pack away their big bang assumptions and retire. And it's time for pioneering astronomers to discover new relationships between galaxies and quasars. This will mean a whole new universe to explore, with all the excitement and uncertainty of "cosmos incognito." The shape, the size, and the age of the universe must be discovered anew. The new observations are filled with clues about how galaxies are born; how they grow; even how they die. It's a great opportunity for those who view astronomy as an adventure in discovery rather than as a competition for funding.
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Credit: Courtesy JPL, NASA
Discovering the Magnetosphere

Sept 30, 2004)
The discovery of the two Van Allen Radiation Belts could be called the first surprise of the space age. But scientists might not have been surprised had they paid attention to the experiments of plasma scientist Kristian Birkeland. In a basement lab of the physics department at the University of Iowa, James Van Allen designed Explorer 1, a scientific satellite for the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 19571958. The satellite carried only a single instrument, a small Geiger counter to record energetic particles. The instrument was designed to measure cosmic rays, highly energetic ions (positively charged particles) of unknown origin arriving from distant space. Strangely, though the experiment detected many particles at low altitudes, at the top of the orbit it counted no particles at all, The explanation for this odd behavior was discovered two months later by Explorer 3. This new satellite included a tape to record data continuously. The data revealed that the "absence" of cosmic ray counts from Explorer 1 actually signified extremely high radiation. "So many energetic particles hit the counter at the higher altitudes that its mode of operation was overwhelmed and it fell silent," states a NASA account. "Not only was a radiation belt present at all times, it was remarkably intense." Scientists had discovered what we now know as the innermost of the two Van Allen Radiation Belts, a finding hailed as the first important discovery of the space age. It could also be called the first surprise of the space age, since astronomers had not expected intense radiation around the Earth. Had they paid more attention to Birkeland's experiments it need not have been a surprise. In fact his terrella experiments demonstrated most of the phenomena found by spacecraft near the Earth. But for scientists the stumbling block was that the terrella required electrical power input to the Earth, and standard astrophysics has no mechanism to support such a model. In the half-century following Explorer 1, almost all the great surprises of space age exploration The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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of the solar system have involved electromagnetic activity. We now know that the Earth is surrounded by a complex structure of magnetic fields and high-speed charged particles that include streams of electric current around the Earth. This structure has been named the "magnetosphere" under the assumption that it forms the boundary between the Earth's and the Sun's magnetic fields. However, comets form similar protective sheaths, visible as their comas, without having magnetic fields. In a plasma discharge most objects naturally form a Langmuir plasma sheath that prevents direct contact with the enveloping plasma. Magnetospheres are merely a more complex form of Langmuir sheath, with the magnetic field of the body trapped within the sheath. If standard theory failed to anticipate these discoveries, surely the primary reason lies in the failure to recognize that planets are embedded in a solar electric discharge and consequently enveloped by Langmuir sheaths. For these reasons, the original contributions of Kristian Birkeland should no longer be ignored.
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Credit: NASA, Voyager I
Big Holes in Little Moons

(Sep 29, 2004)
Large craters observed on two small moons orbiting Saturn surprised many astronomers. Presumably, the impacts should have shattered the tiny bodies. But from an Electric Universe vantage point, something much different than "impact" occurred. Mimas and Tethys are two small moons orbiting Saturn. Since their discoveries in 1789 and 1684 respectively until the Voyager probes passed by them in 1980, we could see them only through telescopes and then only as two moving dots of light. Even the Voyager images (above Mimas left, Tethys right) are very tiny, taken from hundreds of thousands of miles away. Now Cassini could examine them close-up (although no direct flybys of either moon are scheduled for the 4-year Cassini mission.) Astronomers were surprised by the Voyager images of immense craters and cliffs. Mimas is only about 400 kilometers (250 miles) across, but the crater Herschel is dug out of 130 of those kilometers (in projection), covering 3% of Mimas' surface. To reach the surface from the floor of Herschel, you would have to climb up 10 kilometers (6 miles) of steep cliffs--more than climbing Everest from sea level. (If you wanted a less strenuous climb, you could ascend Herschel's central peak--at 6 kilometers, it would match an ascent of Kilimanjaro.) Tethys is over 1000 kilometers (600 miles) in diameter. Its large crater, Odysseus, at 400 kilometers (250 miles) across, covers 4% of Tethys' surface. The floor of the crater is convex and matches the curvature of the surface. This means that in the middle of the crater, Odysseus' floor protrudes beyond the crater's rim. Several astronomers expressed surprise that the impacts they assumed caused the craters didn't shatter the tiny moons (this comment is made about other moons and asteroids with disproportionately large craters, too.) From the Electric Universe viewpoint, shattering wasn't a possibility. The craters were excised from the surfaces by an interplanetary-size electric arc-a "thunderbolt." Instead of exerting a shattering force into the moon, as an impact would do, an arc would dissociate the surface material and lift the debris into space along the current The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive channel.
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At the edges of the arc, the electric force would fall off rapidly, resulting in the steep sides of the craters and the "pinched up" rims, contrary to the "heaved out" rims expected from an impact. Furthermore, a thunderbolt would consist of two or more filaments rotating around a central axis. They would cut the surface down to a uniform depth, producing a floor parallel to the surface--which, in the case of Odysseus, means that it reflects the moon's curvature. (This property of uniform depth of excavation is exploited in the industrial use of arc machining.) An impact, of course, would "dig a hole" of varying depth because the impact forces would decrease radially instead of being constant over an area. Finally, if the individual filaments composing a thunderbolt are sufficiently far from the axis, they will not excavate the material directly under the axis. They will leave a central spire of (relatively) undisturbed material: the central peak. This could be a crucial test to distinguish electrical from mechanical origins. A lander could examine the central peak and determine if it is a pile of rubble that has rebounded from a mechanical impact or if it is a native structure retaining the same features as the surface beyond.
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(Sep 28, 2004)
Every culture recalled the ancient combat between a great warrior and a monster whose attack threatened to destroy the world. How did the story of a heaven-altering contest find its way into so many cultures? One of the most profound archetypes of the early cultures is also among the most enigmatic. Every culture recalled the ancient combat between a great warrior and a monster whose attack threatened to destroy the world. Pictured above is the lion-headed beast Anzu remembered by the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians--a fierce monster defeated (in various tales) by the Sumerian Ningirsu or the Babylonian Ninurta or Nergal. The warrior confronting Anzu in the above picture is the god Ninurta, wielding in each hand a weapon identified as a "thunderbolt." As for explanations, historians can only offer contradictory guesses. How did the story of a heaven-altering contest find its way into so many cultures? In the ritual of the Babylonian Akitu Festival, the enemy is the dragon Tiamat, subdued by the god Marduk. For the Egyptians it was the dragon Apep, defeated by Ra or his agent Horus. For the Greeks it was the fiery serpents Typhon or Python, vanquished respectively by Zeus and Apollo. Hindu accounts similarly recalled the attack of the sky-darkening serpent Vritra, felled by Indra. But these are only a few of hundreds of such accounts preserved around the world. The story typically begins with the monster's arrival, an event signifying universal catastrophe. A legendary warrior sets out to engage the monster in direct combat. The battle rages amid earthquake, fire, wind, and falling stone, and it appears that all will be lost. Then the hero's magical weapon, fashioned by gods or divine assistants, flies between the combatants, turning the tide of battle and vanquishing the monster. From this primeval encounter, the warrior earned his title as "hero." He defeated chaos and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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saved the world from catastrophe. But how did the divine weapon accomplish this feat? The storytellers' own words and symbols, when traced to root meanings, make clear that the hero's weapon was no ordinary sword, arrow, or club. It was a thunderbolt--and not the familiar lightning of a regional storm, but a bolt of cosmic dimensions. Though this original identity May not be apparent in many of the later versions of the story, it can be established reliably through cross-cultural comparison, with close attention to the memory's more archaic forms. When the great civilizations of the ancient world arose, the monster, the hero, and the cosmic thunderbolt already dominated human consciousness. For the proponents of the Electric Universe, the role of the thunderbolt in the more ancient accounts is a vital clue, one to which we shall return frequently in these pages. Why does the divine thunderbolt not look like the lightning known to us today? As we intend to show, the unusual forms of this weapon can serve as a bridge between plasma science and historical inquiry. The forms of the divine thunderbolt were not accidental. To an astonishing extent they mimic the configurations taken by intense electric discharge in the plasma laboratory. And now, thanks to modern telescopes, we see similar forms in remote space, a fact that can only reinforce the power of the ancient message.
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Credit: Wal Thornhill
Earth: A Self-repairing Capacitor

(Sep 27, 2004)
One electrical device which serves as a model for cosmic plasma activity is the capacitor. A capacitor is a device for accumulating and storing electric charge. It is made of two conductors separated by an insulating medium. When charge is placed on one conductor it attracts charge of the opposite polarity on the other conductor. As a result, an electric field is set up between the conductors, a reservoir of electrical energy. In both everyday electronics and advanced plasma research the capacitor is important for its ability to rapidly store and release electrical energy. Some of the highest energy experiments in the world are performed using large rooms full of charged capacitors to produce intense discharges. As the charge on the capacitor increases, the electric field between the conductors will increase, placing a growing stress on the insulator. At some critical point, the insulator breaks down and the capacitor "short circuits," releasing the stored electrical energy suddenly. Such breakdowns May destroy a solid insulator and with it, the capacitor. However, if the charging rate is slow and the insulator is air or liquid, the damage May repair itself as fresh insulating material rushes in. That is a "self-repairing" capacitor. If the current is strong or the insulator weak, current will pass between the conducting plates, either steadily or in bursts. This is called a "leaky capacitor." Power transmission lines form large-scale capacitors with the air as insulator between the conducting wires. The geometry makes the electric field strongest at the wire surface, which is where the air is likeliest to "break down" and discharge. The hissing and crackling you hear when standing under a power line is just this intermittent leakage. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Many natural systems form capacitors as well. For example, the Earth's surface and its ionosphere are two conducting layers separated by air. The surface-ionosphere capacitor is of particular interest in the study of sprites. Small "leaks" in the form of lightning can trigger much larger "leaks" (sprites, etc.) at high altitudes above them. In the electric universe, this effect can be traced via auroral circuits, through the circuitry of the solar system, and far into interstellar space. From this viewpoint sprites and lightning are merely leakage currents trickling off the galactic power line. But clearly, the degree to which electric potential from the galaxy powers thunderstorms on Earth has yet to be investigated.
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Credit: Top: A. Hajian (USNO ) et al., Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), NASA Bottom: Wal Thornhill, Anthony L. Peratt
What is the Electric Universe?

(Sep 24, 2004)
The "Electric Universe" is a hypothesis, a new way of interpreting scientific data in the light of new knowledge about plasma and electricity. In this interpretation, gravity plays a secondary role behind the far more powerful electric force, and electrified plasma in the laboratory provides a model for comprehending newly-discovered phenomena in space. As laboratory plasma "pinches" into filaments, sheets, and cells, or isolates charged bodies from their electrical environment, it provides vital clues. In plasma, electric currents will sort material into shells of like elements, or generate discharge configurations--ranging from radial streamers and spiraling filaments to exotic symmetrical configurations--all appearing to mimic what we now see in faraway corners of the cosmos. The top image above is a Hubble Telescope image of the planetary nebula NGC 6751. The experimental counterpart is provided by a plasma focus device (below left), which concentrates electrical energy in an explosive discharge (below right), mimicking the structure of NGC 6751. In the electric universe the systems of planets and moons, stars, and galaxies have their origin in this proven ability of electricity to generate structure and rotation in plasma. Within particular regions of aggregating mass, gravity can take over only as the electric forces approach equilibrium. The electric universe hypothesis is rooted in direct observation. The extraordinary configurations now seen in space are the result of charge differential, where The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive gravity cannot compete with the electric forces.
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Such structures as NGC 6751 are telling us it is no longer tenable to build a cosmology on the idea that neutral matter is the "starting point." All variations on that theme will require gravitationally-driven generators to "separate charge." But it is not logical to ask the weak force of gravity to produce the strong force of electricity from which galactic-scale gravity defying motions arise. Direct observation implies that electrified--not neutral--matter, is the fundamental or original state of the universe. To be sure, the human perspective is limited, and the origin of the universal electric potential will likely remain as elusive to the cosmic electricians as the origin of matter is to orthodox cosmologists. In both cases, for now at least, the theorists must be satisfied with the proclamation, "It just is!."
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Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA
Saturn in Ancient Times

(Sep 23, 2004)
The Greeks called it the god "Helios." The Romans called it "Sol." These familiar figures have a long history, and the more one learns about their links to the earlier cultures, the more a mystery of origins comes into focus. Long before Greek and Roman times, the Egyptians worshipped the luminary Atum or Ra, just as the Sumerians honored Utu and the Babylonians the god Shamash. Astronomers and priests celebrated this light of heaven as the "Universal Monarch," the "father" of civilization and the celestial prototype of kings. There is no mystery as to the present astronomical associations of these figures. But more archaic traditions, coming from many and diverse cultures, identify the great "sun" gods with the motionless center of heaven, the celestial pole. They speak of a primeval sun, an exemplary or "best" sun, ruling before the present sun. The god's station was the summit of the world axis, from which he ultimately fell in a heaven-altering catastrophe. Perhaps the best known story is the Greek account of Kronos, founder of the Golden Age, eventually driven from his seat at the top of the world by his son Zeus. To what body did these strange traditions refer? Today we take for granted that the ancient words we translate as "helios" and "sol" originated as references to the Sun that illuminates our every day. In many languages the words for this axial figure did indeed become the words for the Sun. But the later identity could not obscure the more archaic idea--of a former, stationary light at the pole, whose every feature defies any identification with the Sun in our sky today. As strange as it May seem, early astronomical traditions identify the "primeval sun" as the planet Saturn, the distant planet which the alchemists called the "best sun" and which the Babylonians, the founders of astronomy, identified as the exemplary light of heaven, the "sun"-god Shamash. ("Shamash is the planet Saturn," the astronomical texts say.) In archaic The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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copies of Plato's Timaeus, the word for the planet Saturn is Helios, the "sun" god. Popular Greek traditions identified Saturn as Kronos, alter ego of Helios, and Kronos is said to have ruled "over the pole." But only a handful of scholars have bothered to trace the parallel referents in other cultures, or to address the unanswered questions. Worldwide drawings and symbols of the once-dominant luminary show a disc with rays, a disc with spokes, a disc with a central orb or eye, a disc with a crescent upon it. Today we require a powerful telescope to see Saturn as a disc. We must fly a space probe close to the planet to see rays and spokes. Even then the spokes are intermittent and dark. The ancient astronomers, however, described the spokes as those of a cosmic wheel. They were "streams of fire," the "glory" of heaven. Our telescopes and probes can see things the ancients couldn't: Saturn's unexpected excess of heat, its radio emissions, its x-rays, its swirling bands of storm-clouds. These things are unexpected to modern astronomers. To the ancient astronomers (had they possessed the technologically enhanced senses of probes), the things our instruments now witness would likely be understandable. For they remembered their gods as energetic and active, wielders of the thunderbolt. And they also remembered the fates of the gods, recounting how the once palpable ruler of the sky went so untouchably far away.
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Credit: NASA, ESA, HEIC, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI /AURA) Acknowledgment: R. Corradi (Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, Spain) and Z.TsvetaNov (NASA)
Electric Stars
(Sep 22, 2004)
In 1920, the year that Irving Langmuir coined the term "plasma," the British astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington was already developing the nuclear fusion model of stars. The first step in Eddington's reasoning was a simple question: Does the power that makes the stars shine come from the stars themselves, or does it come from somewhere else? And the answer he chose was that the power that makes the stars shine comes from the stars themselves. With that assumption, he laid the foundation for the now-accepted theory of stars powered by fusion within their cores. This theory has been developed over the last 80 years into an allencompassing model of stellar evolution and is deemed to be the proven explanation of what makes the stars shine. But a lot of new data and a lot of new ideas have come to bear on that foundation since 1920, and a number of scientists think a stronger and larger foundation is needed. The Electric Universe model, following C. E. R. Bruce and Ralph Jeurgens, proposes a new theory that takes into account all that has been learned about plasma behavior in the laboratory and in space. We ask Eddington's question again: Does the power that makes the stars shine come from the stars themselves, or does it come from somewhere else? And the answer we choose is that the stars shine because they are connected to the electric circuitry of the galaxy. An electric star's brightness depends on the power of the electric current feeding it, not on the amount of nuclear fuel it has available to burn. Consequently, an electric star doesn't evolve. In the nuclear view, a "planetary nebula," such as the one which produced the intricate Cat's The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Eye Nebula (image above) is the "death throes" of a star that has run out of nuclear fuel. In the Electric Universe view, a planetary nebula is an overload, the flare-up of a star under abnormal electrical stress. The filamentary cellular structures seen here are characteristic of plasma behavior. Among those characteristics are concentric spheres, rays, intertwining spirals, bubbles formed of filaments and networks of filaments, and dusty pillars. The most striking feature of the central part of this nebula is its polar symmetry. This is where the galactic Birkeland currents that feed the star "pinch" down into a galactic thunderbolt. The shape is similar to those of Zeus's thunderbolt drawn by ancient astronomers. The electrical stress no doubt produces massive nuclear reactions in much the same way that we produce nuclear reactions in a laboratory by bombarding targets with electrically accelerated particles. And in the same way the reactions occur on and near the surface, not in the core. Because the Cat's Eye Nebula is composed of plasma instead of merely hot gasses, its structure and development are consequences of electrical discharge rather than of an explosion and shock waves. The source of the energy is not the star at the core of the nebula, but the same galactic electric circuit which created and powered the star throughout its life.
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Credit: Gemini Observatory Image, Travis Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage
Stephan's Quintet
(Sep 21, 2004)
Photographers don't always produce an exact replica of their subjects. For example, they can use a soft focus, controlled lighting, and creative composition to highlight the best features and minimize the flaws of a family portrait. They sell a lot more pictures if they look good. This principle works for astronomers as well. The above image of Stephan's Quintet taken at the Gemini Observatory illustrates this point. The press release that goes with the image comments on the outstanding details in the photo, due to the light-gathering power of an 8meter telescope and the clear atmosphere the night it was taken. Those who are familiar with the role of Stephan's Quintet in the redshift controversy will notice the "flaws" this photo has removed. The controversy has mostly revolved around the galaxy NGC 7320 (top galaxy in this photo). Because its redshift is much lower than the other four members of this Quintet, most astronomers believe that it is about 8 times closer to us than the other four galaxies. But there are many details of the Quintet that support the idea that all five of them are a coherent group. These are the "flaws" that have been creatively removed from this picture. First, in this picture, the HII groups in NGC 7320 are bright and reddish. The equally bright HII regions in NGC 7318 and NGC 7317 (the two interacting galaxies just below) don't show at all. This was done by selective filtering. The relative brightness and size of the HII regions in these three galaxies was one of the major arguments that all five galaxies belong together. Second, the tail of NGC 7320 has been omitted completely. It sweeps out of the picture to the right, parallel to the tail on NGC 7319 (bottom galaxy). The two tails curve together and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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converge on a sixth galaxy, NGC 7319C, that has been cropped out of the picture beyond the lower right-hand corner. The way the two tails interact is another argument that the whole group belongs together, rather than this one galaxy "safely isolated from the violent quarrels of the more distant cluster" as the press release puts it. The third omission isn't really omitted--it's simply ignored. There is a much bigger redshift discrepancy in Stephan's Quintet than NGC 7320, discovered October 3rd, 2003. There is a high redshift quasar buried in the dusty nucleus of NGC 7319 (red arrow above). The nucleus is opaque--nothing shines through it--and yet the redshift of this quasar indicates that it should be billions of light years beyond Stephan's Quintet. More evidence that the quasar is actually within the nucleus of the galaxy: the dust between the quasar and the center of the galaxy is energized and disturbed, with the only apparent cause the quasar itself. This discovery was officially announced in January, 2004, at the AAS meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The announcement was ignored. (The picture above was released in Sept, 2004). The paper describing the discovery has not yet been approved for publication, and May never be approved. Because if these observations are correct, it will mean the end of the most popular cosmology theory--the expanding universe and the big bang.
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Credit: NASA/CXC/PSU/G.Pavlov et al.
Vela Pulsar
(Sep 20, 2004)
With the aid of the Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers recently peered deep into the Vela "supernova remnant," which lies about 800 light-years from earth. The cloud is believed to be the remains of a great explosion more than 10,000 years ago. At its core lies a "Pulsar," whose radio signal turns on and off about 11 times per second. What the Chandra astronomers found came as a great surprise. They observed "striking, almost unbelievable, structures consisting of bright rings and jets." These structures, they concluded, "indicate that mighty ordering forces must be at work amidst the chaos of the aftermath of a supernova explosion." The implied forces have the power to "harness the energy of thousands of Suns and transform that energy into a tornado of high-energy particles." See: http://chandra.harvard.edu/chronicle/0201/vela.html The investigators found that electrical and magnetic fields centered on the Pulsar are accelerating charged particles to "nearly the speed of light." It is commonly assumed that the pulsing is due to the rotation of a "neutron star"--a hypothetical body never observed but imagined to be the result when a star's career ends in a supernova explosion and its entire mass collapses to the density of an atomic nucleus. The supposed diameter of the Vela neutron star is only about 12 miles, though its mass is claimed to be that of several Suns. But astronomers have not yet considered the most obvious explanation in an electric universe--that the Vela Pulsar itself is not the "neutron star" of mathematical conjecture, but an electrical discharge at the center of an intense electric field. If this is so, the "pulsing" of the star is simply the natural pulsing of plasma discharge. Astronomers expected that the "rotation" (pulsing) of the neutron star--conceived as an isolated mass in space -- would slow at a consistent rate. But then they observed a significant The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"glitch" in the pulse rate, an event that "released a burst of energy that was carried outward at near the speed of light by the pulsar wind." Of course, unpredictable variations in both the pulse rate and intensity of an electrically discharging Pulsar would be expected with any changes in the electrical environment through which it moved. Proponents of the electric model are particularly impressed by the two embedded "bows" seen along the polar jet (upper left). Astronomers initially called these "windbow shocks," a theorized mechanical effect of high-velocity material encountering the interstellar medium. But electrical theorists recognized a configuration common to intense plasma discharge in laboratory experiments: toruses or rings stacked along the polar axis of the discharge. And subsequent enhanced pictures (cf., upper right) made clear that the "bows" were in fact stacked toruses, not easily explained in gravitational terms. Also noteworthy is the manner in which the axial jet or column, as it extends beyond the "upper" torus, takes on an undulating, serpentine quality, as revealed by a series of Chandra snapshots (lower array). This too is of great significance to the electrical theorists since some in their group--years before these recent observations in space-- claimed that ancient witnesses observed such undulating phenomena stretching along the polar axis of the earth, when our planet moved through a more dense, more electrically active environment.
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Photo Date: June 6, 1974 Credit: NOAA Photo Library, NOAA Central Library; OAR/ERL/National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL)
Weather: Fair, Foul or Electric?

(Sep 17, 2004)
Because the Earth is a small charged body moving in a large cell of plasma, explanations of all physical phenomena in, on, and near the Earth must take the electrical behavior of plasma into account. Earth's atmosphere is an insulating medium separating the charge on the surface from the charge in the surrounding space plasma. A complex of "double layers" distributes the potential difference between the surface and space much like a series of capacitors. We detect the electrical field of the bottommost layer in the fair weather surface field of around 100 volts per meter. This field beneath a thunderstorm May be 100 times stronger as the atmospheric dielectric is "shorted out" over many vertical kilometers by thunderclouds. As in a capacitor, when the insulating medium breaks down a discharge occurs between the electrodes. We can readily understand that lightning in a thunderstorm would be such a discharge. However there are other forms of discharge besides the arc mode of lightning--diffuse glow discharges, such as the sprites that occur above thunderstorms, and, especially, "dark" discharges. Although the latter May carry significant current, we are usually unaware of them because we can't see or otherwise sense them. But they May have visible secondary effects. Close observation of laboratory arc discharges reveals that an electrical "wind" surrounds and often precedes the arc. The developing discharge sweeps the surrounding air along with the charge carriers of the current. This wind appears as inflows and updrafts as well as outflows and downdrafts. It can lift dust particles and erode surfaces. By analogy, we must then question the accepted explanation of thunderstorms as being caused solely by convection of hot air: The storms May instead be the visible secondary effects of an invisible dielectric breakdown in the Earth's atmosphere. The up- and down-drafts, the in- and out-flows, would be atmospheric responses to "dark The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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discharge" electrical currents more than to temperature differences. Furthermore, the suspension of particles--charged dust and polar molecules (water)--would be largely a result of electrostatic forces sweeping both particles and air along in the electrical field of the discharge. This would explain the spherical shape of hailstones, for example, which do not show the distortion that would be expected if they were formed by being blown upward by strong wind friction forces. This leads to the more general idea that all weather May be caused, or at least influenced, by the electrical interactions between Earth and the surrounding plasma. Because this larger possibility has never been considered, critical tests have not been devised that would distinguish between the competing explanations. But there are tests that cast doubt on the prevailing theory. Convection is well understood. The theory of gas behavior in a convecting system is developed with great exactitude. But the weather forecasts derived from convection theory are more than mere applications of theory: They are also tests of that theory, and a wrong forecast is a falsification of the theory. The significant fraction of erroneous forecasts by weathermen is an indication that the theory is missing something. The Electric Universe suggests that what's missing is a consideration of the electrical properties of plasma.
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Credit: Top: FORS Team, 8.2-meter VLT, ESO Bottom: Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA
Crab Nebula
(Sep 16, 2004)
On July 4, 1054 AD, Chinese chroniclers recorded an apparent supernova they called a "guest star" in the constellation Taurus, near the star Zeta Tauri. It was bright enough to be visible in daylight, but faded and disappeared again about a year later. In 1731 astronomer John Bevis discovered a bright nebula in the same location. When Charles Messier saw it in 1758, he first thought this "fuzzy object" might be a comet, but he found that it never moved. Using a larger telescope in 1844, Lord Ross thought the nebula resembled a crab's claw, and the description stuck. More than ten light years across, the Crab Nebula is now thought to be the remains of a star that exploded in 1054. Today's astronomical instruments see much more than Messier's fuzzy patch. They see filaments and complex structures, in colors and wavelengths that highlight newly discovered phenomena. For example, the star at the center of the nebula blinks 30 times a second. We now call such stars "pulsars." The high-resolution picture of the Crab Nebula above (upper), taken by the Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows the filamentation produced by magnetic fields and electric currents, as material races away from the nebula's core at half the speed of light--a "higher speed than expected from a free explosion," according to NASA reports. Acceleration of particles is a trademark of electrical activity, and no other force in space is known to achieve this feat. In the lower photograph taken by the Chandra X-Ray Telescope, we see the internal The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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dynamics of the Crab Nebula, revealing structure typical of the intensely energetic activity observed in decades of laboratory experiments with electrical discharge in plasma. That these dynamics are revealed by x-rays is significant because x-ray activity always accompanies high-energy electrical interactions. The internal polar configuration is of particular interest. A torus or wheel-like structure revolves around an axial column--presenting what some have called a "doughnut on a stick." Polar columns or jets are expected in intense plasma discharge. In their discussion of the Crab Nebula, NASA spokesmen refer to "a scintillating halo, and an intense knot of emission dancing, sprite-like, above the pulsar's pole." Though gravitational theories never envisioned the polar "jets," "haloes," and "knots" of the Crab Nebula, we can now recognize these s as prime examples of electrical forces in the universe.
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Credit: Anthony Peratt, IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science
Plasma on Stone
(Sep 15, 2004)
A number of independent researchers today insist that our early ancestors witnessed intensely energetic, heaven-spanning plasma discharge formations above them. According to these researchers, ancient artists chiseled plasma configurations by the millions on stone. Many global patterns in ancient rock art are indeed highly unusual, revealing unique details such as the two dots or circles to the left and right of a central "stick" figure in the images above. The examples here were gathered by plasma scientist Anthony Peratt. For over three decades Peratt's laboratory research concentrated on the instabilities that develop in highenergy discharges, and he documented the evolution of the these formations through dozens of unique configurations. In supercomputer simulations, using the very equations that have reproduced galactic structures in space, he has replicated the dynamics of laboratory discharge, with surprisingly accurate results. Could Peratt's laboratory science illuminate the enigmatic rock art patterns? The majority of rock art authorities argue that only images of the sun, moon, and stars reflect real celestial phenomena. But cross cultural comparison proves the experts incorrect, as the above examples show. Many specialists attribute the more unusual elements in rock art to subjective shamanistic trances, explaining the "unnatural" representations as unique expressions within each culture. Universal patterns, however, suggest a universal experience. Intrigued by the striking similarities between rock art patterns and plasma discharge formations, Peratt began his own investigation. The geometric illustrations above (beneath The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the rock art images) graphically illustrate the laboratory and simulation formations observed in the phase of intense plasma discharge corresponding to the rock art images shown here. The illustrations are taken from Peratt's recent paper in "Transactions on Plasma Science" of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, in December 2003. Peratt states his conclusion forthrightly: The recurring petroglyph patterns "are reproductions of plasma phenomena in space." By comparing rock art images from around the world and adjusting for line of sight, Peratt found more than 80 patterns corresponding to phases of plasma discharge he had documented in the laboratory. In many instances the different regional images then align to the degree that they are "cookie cutter" templates of each other. Through computer processing of images from different regions of the world, his data enable him to project what was seen in the sky in three dimensions. The pictographs themselves can be arranged to form animation cells, enabling him to produce an animation of the laboratory sequences using only the pictograph images on stone and the complex evolution of the plasma instabilities.
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Credit and copyright: John Smith, Hidden Loft Observatory, Don Scott
Death Star--The Galaxy that Killed the Big Bang

(Sep 14, 2004)
For 80 years cosmology has been cascading down a riverbed carved through disciplines and institutions, careers, funding and journals. It began with an assumption now proven false by the image above, and it must begin again from its source in empiricism and flow in another direction. All that's counted as known -- the Big Bang, the expanding universe, the structure of the cosmos--must be left as a dry stream in history books. The image above, taken by amateur astronomers through a medium-sized backyard telescope, shows a low-redshift galaxy (NGC 4319) connected to a high-redshift quasar (QSO) (Markarian 205). Astronomer Halton Arp first brought attention to the importance of the connection in 1971. The filament of light between the two objects contradicts the foundational assumption of modern cosmology: that redshift is a measure of distance, i.e., the greater the redshift the farther away an object is. Because these two objects are physically connected, they must be at the same distance. Their discrepant redshifts must be due to some other cause not related to distance, to some cause intrinsic to the objects. Since 1971, hundreds of such connections have been discovered. Many are congregations of several QSOs scattered along a galaxy's axis like roman candles. The institutions of conventional astronomy have devoted much time to denying the connections exist, but, as with this image, amateurs routinely take pictures of the things the professionals can't see. If redshift is not a measure of distance then galaxies are not systematically receding from each other, the farther the faster. If redshift is not a measure of distance then the universe is not expanding, and it can't be "run backwards" to a primordial Big Bang. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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If redshift is not a measure of distance then QSOs are not located at the far ends of the universe, and they are not "ultraluminous." Clusters of galaxies are not stretched out into "fingers of God" pointing at the Earth. The structure of the universe doesn't have "walls" of galaxies or "bubbles and voids" or "redshift deserts." Because our mental map of the universe has been drawn with the ruler of redshift, the breaking of that ruler means that we don't know-again--how the universe is structured. We must turn away from our belief in elegant equations and return to our roots in ignorance and wonder, and we must begin again to construct a cosmology from observations, conjectures, and refutations. Although the headwater of modern cosmology has run dry, it May take a generation or two for the waters of habit to stop flowing and the winds of change to silt in the channel. A number of conjectures for an intrinsic redshift mechanism have been proposed; none are as yet convincing. We May be bold and predict that quantum and particle physics May find their flows diverted, too. A new river of theory will likely not start to flow until an experimentally verifiable mechanism is discovered. Then we will know again--but surely only for another brief time--the architecture of the visible universe.
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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S. Willner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
Plasma Galaxies
(Sep 13, 2004)
Laboratory experiments, together with advanced simulation capabilities, have shown that electric forces can efficiently organize spiral galaxies, without resorting to the wild card of gravity-only cosmology--the Black Hole. Many of astronomy's most fundamental mysteries find their resolution in plasma behavior. Why do cosmic bodies spin, asked the distinguished astronomer Fred Hoyle, in summarizing the unanswered questions. Plasma experiments show that rotation is a natural function of interacting electric currents in plasma. Currents can pinch matter together to form rotating stars and galaxies. A good example is the ubiquitous spiral galaxy, a predictable configuration of a cosmic-scale discharge. Computer models of two current filaments interacting in a plasma have, in fact, reproduced fine details of spiral galaxies, where the gravitational schools must rely on invisible matter arbitrarily placed wherever it is needed to make their models "work." The photograph of spiral galaxy M81 above is one of the first images returned by NASA's new Spitzer space telescope, an instrument that can detect extremely faint waves of infrared radiation, or heat, through clouds of dust and plasma that have blocked the view of conventional telescopes. The result is the picture of striking clarity. Beneath this photograph we have placed snapshots from a computer simulation by plasma The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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scientist Anthony Peratt, illustrating the evolution of galactic structures under the influence of electric currents. Through the "pinch effect," parallel currents converge to produce spiraling structures. To see the connection between plasma experiments and plasma formations in space, it is essential to understand the scalability of plasma phenomena. Under similar conditions, plasma discharge will produce the same formations irrespective of the size of the event. The same basic patterns will be seen at laboratory, planetary, stellar, and galactic levels. Duration is proportional to size as well. A spark that lasts for microseconds in the laboratory May continue for years at planetary or stellar scales, or for millions of years at galactic or intergalactic scales. Plasma experiments, backed by computer simulations of plasma discharge, are changing the picture of space. Plasma scientists, for example, are able to replicate the evolution of galactic structures both experimentally and in computer simulations without recourse to a popular fiction of modern astrophysics--the black hole. Astronomers require invisible, supercompressed matter as the center of galaxies because without Black Holes gravitational equations cannot account for observed movement and compact energetic activity. But charged plasma achieves such effects routinely.
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Credit: ISS/NASA
The Electric Earth

(Sep 10, 2004)
The Earth is an electrified body, moving in a plasma. We who stand on its surface are seldom aware of its electrical properties. That's because we live in balance with the Earth's electric field. Similarly, a bird on an electric wire has no idea that high-energy currents of electricity are flowing beneath her feet. But she might notice the hums and crackles that are side effects of that current. Like the high-tension wire, our Earth produces hums and crackles as it responds to surges of power in the electric currents of space. Perhaps the most obvious sparks are the auroras, as seen in the above picture taken from the International Space Station in April 2003. The complex patterns of electric currents and magnetic fields surrounding the Earth are how the Earth's electric charge adjusts to the Sun's electric field. These electrical phenomena were a complete surprise, discovered by satellites launched by astronomers who expected to find the Earth isolated from the rest of the universe by featureless vacuum. Instead, they found the near-Earth environs alive with energetic activity. Other electrical sparks that the Earth produces go unnoticed because we have lived with them so long that we think we know what causes them. Many meteorological phenomena are electrically driven. We've always thought of lightning as electrical, and now we're beginning to realize that we can think of tornadoes and hurricanes as electrical phenomena, too. But less spectacular weather conditions like dust devils and waterspouts are also electrically driven, as are larger weather patterns, the jet streams and El Nio. Earthquakes can be induced by pumping electricity into the Earth, and natural quakes are often accompanied by or preceded by electrical glows called earthquake lights and radio frequency static. Volcanoes are often accompanied by copious amounts of lightning. No one died from the lava flows or cinder bombs during the decade- long eruptions of Paricutin in Mexico, but three people were killed by its lightning. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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All of the Earth sciences could profit from asking the question: How do the discoveries of Earth's unexpected electrical environment affect our discipline? How many concepts have been overlooked because until a few decades ago no one suspected that Earth is an electrified body moving through a plasma?
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Credit: Voyager Project, JPL, NASA
The Scars of Miranda

(Sep 09, 2004)
How could the moons of Uranus be distributed in such circular, evenly spaced orbits around Uranus' equator when Uranus' equator is so glaringly out-of-sync with the rest of the solar system? The same electric forces that give birth to planets and moons are also responsible for circularizing their orbits. A previous picture of the day (Aug 19th) discussed the oddity of the moons of Uranus. How could they be distributed in such circular, evenly spaced orbits around Uranus' equator when Uranus' equator is so glaringly out-of-sync with the rest of the solar system? A closer look by Voyager 2 at the inner moon, Miranda, only added to the enigma. [Photo above, taken by Voyager 2 in 1986, at a distance of 31,000 km (19000 mi.)] Miranda appears battered and beaten. It has cliffs (bottom right) three times as high as the Grand Canyon and grids of parallel and perpendicular grooves that create the famous rectangle called the "chevron" (center.) There are valleys that cut through mountain ranges as if the mountains weren't there. Parts of Miranda are heavily cratered and other parts have very few craters. The first speculations of astronomers to explain the mystery of this moon's surface features were that the whole moon had been torn apart as many as five times, then reassembled with some of its surface inside-out. But how could Miranda have suffered such a tempestuous past and remain in such a circular orbit? Later, they found a simpler speculation: The icy moon must have melted in places, erasing craters and creating the cliffs and gashes. But what could melt a moon on the frigid edges of the solar system? The Electric Universe has different speculations. The same electric forces that give birth to planets and moons are also responsible for circularizing their orbits. These forces create the regularly spaced "Bode's Law" distribution. The side effect of the electric adjustments -electrical discharges--produces surface scarring and faulting. The discharges produce ridges and grooves. They produce craters in some areas and not in others, so there is no need to The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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hypothesize a later event that erased the craters on some parts of this tiny moon. It's possible that all of the scarring we see happened in the single event of Miranda's birth. Or there May have been multiple scarring episodes. Today, with only one quick flyby from which to draw information, our curiosity has been aroused, but not satisfied. There are so many questions to ask. It will be good to go back and take a closer look, with experiments designed to explore both the standard and the Electric Universe interpretations.
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Credit: NASA/The University of Iowa
Complete the Circuit

(Sep 08, 2004)
City lights and auroras. Two different scales of plasma phenomena. We have a good understanding of what causes the city lights. We can even understand that the source of their light is not necessarily where the lights are. There are generators connected to dams and coal-fired furnaces and even windmill farms that produce the electricity. Then high-tension wires carry the electricity cross-country to where it is needed. It is transformed and distributed by substations, then millions of individual users tap into the currents to light up the night. If you stand beneath the high-tension wires, you can hear the buzz of electricity passing, but from space you only see the city lights at the end of the line. Similarly, the electricity that lights up the auroras is produced far away on the sun and carried invisibly on the solar "wind." Man-made space probes have instruments that observe the solar storms that generate it and that measure its density in protons/cubic centimeter. In the Earth's magnetosphere, the auroral current system consists of plasma cables, filaments and sheets. These plasma structures, which follow the same behavior in space as they do in the lab, transfer the energy from Earth's equatorial plasma toroid to the auroral zones, lighting up the polar regions. Both the city lights and the auroras are created by electric circuits. If there is no circuit, there will be no light. Our experience tells us where to look for every stage of the circuit that connects city lights. And we know that if we break that circuit at any point along its way, the city lights will fail. But we've only had the technology to observe the auroral circuits in space for a few decades. How long before our new experiences find a way to trace the circuits of all the electrical currents in space? The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Credit: Departement of Geophysics, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen www.glaciology.gfy.ku.dk/ngrip/ Chart: Data courtesy of University of Washington
Ice Core Findings

(Sep 07, 2004)
In the summer of 2004, the North Greenland Ice Core Project cut all the way through the ice (over 10,000 feet deep) and brought up a sample of soil from the surface of Greenland (image above.) And a bit of organic matter was embedded in that first four-inch diameter sample of Greenland muck (top right image.) The organic matter might be a pine needle, a piece of bark, or possibly grass. The press release states: "The presence of plant material under the ice indicates that the Greenland ice sheet formed relatively fast, as a slowly growing glacier would have flushed or pushed these light particles away." This was the grand culmination of the project. The drill was successful. They cut all the way through the ice to Greenland. Time to pack up the equipment, go home, and think about what this project has done to change our ideas about the history of the Earth we live on. The snow that falls on the Greenland Ice Cap every year preserves a record of that year's temperature. By drilling and carefully examining a core thousands of feet long, scientists have constructed a history of temperature changes over thousands of years (chart lower right.) The chart represents the last 40,000 years of the average temperatures in Greenland. The present day is on the right-hand side of the chart. The temperatures during the last Ice Age (12,000 to 25,000 years ago) are recorded here and the temperatures of part of the last interglacial period (25,000 to 60,000 year ago.) According to one geology text, the Ice Cores indicate that "the normal pattern of change involves numerous rapid fluctuations in temperature -- not only during glacial periods, but throughout interglacial periods as well. The stable warm climate of the present interglacial period is distinctly abnormal." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive "The stable warm climate of today represents the present stable solar system. It is the wild fluctuations of the past that are distinctly abnormal."
A planetary catastrophist would state this differently:
Going back just a bit farther (geologically speaking), the ice cores "run out." There is no more ice. The Antarctic ice is a bit deeper than the Greenland ice, but it, too "runs out." Before this, there is no evidence of glaciers anywhere on Earth. Standard Ice Age theory places the beginning of the Ice Ages about 2 million years ago (so far, the ice cores have drilled through 123 thousand layers in Greenland; 174 thousand layers in Antarctica.) And geology books point out that glaciation has been a rare event in Earth's history. The last episode (earlier than our very recent Ice Ages) happened before the first dinosaurs were born. Over 200 million years of Earth's prehistory passed without glaciers. The Greenland Ice Cores emphasize what we are learning in other fields of geology: the very recent past is not a story of steady change. The Ice Cap began suddenly, perhaps engulfing a thriving temperate forest and all of its inhabitants. Its deepest layers record sudden large temperature changes, some much colder than today, others much warmer. Then, at about ten thousand layers before the present, something happens that stabilized the climate. What could that something have been? And where would we look to learn what happened? Primitive human beings were living at that time, and those ancient peoples passed down stories of fantastic events that changed the world, of heroes battling dragons in the sky. These stories come from widely separated cultures, yet are remarkably similar. Can we find clues in these stories of old that will explain the mysteries of the Ice Cores?
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Credit: NASA/MSFC
Flying a Kite
(Sep 06, 2004)
Because astronomers know that you can't have electric currents in space, they chose to misname the accelerating ions radiating from the sun a "solar wind." It is this metaphor that has led them to allocate funding into researching the possibility of using sails to catch the solar wind as propulsion for future spacecraft. The currents of space, as electrical phenomena, have greater potential than turning future astronauts into wind-surfers. And that potential is mostly untapped, first because astronomers don't recognize electrical phenomena in space, and second because plasma phenomena are complex and not fully explored yet. In many areas, the behavior seen in plasma labs is very different from that predicted by classical plasma theory. Alfvn discusses this example. He compares theoretical predictions to laboratory results when a plasma beam moves parallel to a magnetic field, both moving horizontally. What happens to the plasma beam if the magnetic field curves down? Theoretical calculations came up with four possibilities: two of them expected the plasma beam to curve downward to match the magnetic field (for two different reasons); one expected the plasma beam to ignore the curve of the magnetic field and continue moving in the original direction; the last also expected the plasma to continue moving forward, but it would pull and stretch the magnetic field along with it. In actual laboratory tests, the plasma didn't follow any of the predictions. Instead, when the magnetic field curved down, the plasma beam curved up, then curved back to a direction parallel to but above the original direction. In Alfvn's words: "Although the theories were generally accepted, the plasma itself refused to believe in them." The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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What does this mean for space flight? It means that the potential for tapping the plasma universe for propulsion has barely scratched the surface. At the Australia National University in Canberra, researchers have been developing plasma thrusters. If the solar sail above is thought of as a sailing ship in space, then the idea of a plasma thruster is like an electrified rocket. The advantage over a normal rocket is that it can use fuel that is readily available anywhere (even off-earth), and although its thrust is much weaker than a normal rocket, it can be used for much longer burns. But plasma plays by different rules than rockets, and one of the researchers discovered that she got a lot more thrust when she decreased the power and increased the magnetic field. The plasma formed double layers, which acted like waterfalls to accelerate the ions up to 10 km/sec. In the researcher's words: "one, two, it's already on the other side of Canberra." She continues: ..."the plasma behaves like water tumbling over a cliff, getting faster as it drops. And, just like an aurora, it seems that the plasma actually makes the "cliff" - all by itself. It's almost magic." Plasma cosmologists have explored the "magic" of double layers for decades. If they weren't considered enemies, the two groups could share the benefits of their separate experiences. In the as-yet-unknown behavior of plasma, there are secrets hidden that are as far beyond the imagination of today's explorers as jet airliners were beyond Columbus' imagination. It's time to drop the gravity-only universe and begin exploring the promising new concepts of the electric universe. The stars May be within our reach.
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Credit and copyright: John Smith, Hidden Loft Observatory
The Search for Two Numbers

(Sep 03, 2004)
Astronomy's obsessive search for the two numbers--the Hubble Constant and the age of the universe--is based upon an unwarranted assumption, i.e., redshift equals distance. Alan Sandage, talking about Hubble/Humason's 1931 paper that first suggested there is a connection between redshift and distance of galaxies, said: "Judged by its subsequent influence, the paper by Hubble and Humason (1931) was one of the great, prescient early papers in observational cosmology. It outlined the central research trends that continued well beyond the middle third of the twentieth century. From 1929 until the discovery of the of the Alpher-Herman microwave background in 1965 this was the field of 'practical cosmology' which was once described as "simply the search for two numbers" in contrast to the wondrous new theoretical cosmology of today that combines high-energy particle physics with theories of the very hot early universe." The highway to modern cosmology began in the mid-1920's, also as a result of Hubble's work. Other astronomers were still arguing the 150-year-old debate, "Is the Milky Way the only galaxy?" (Most said "yes"--the universe isn't big enough for more than one galaxy.) But Hubble was taking photos of the nearby galaxies M31 and M33, cataloging their stars and trying to determine how far away they are. The three papers he published in 1925, 1926, and 1929 proved to astronomers for the first time that there is a universe beyond the Milky Way. If this was the beginning of the highway of cosmology, then Hubble's redshift/distance article was the first major fork in the road. Everyone took the same turn, the turn that led to the big bang and to tired light. This was the hypothesis that determined the course of 20th century cosmology. The "two numbers" that cosmology chased for so long were the Hubble Constant (how fast the universe is expanding) and the age of the universe (when it began.) This search was the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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"Key Project" for which the Hubble Space Telescope was built. These numbers provide the only tool we have for determining the distance of most galaxies, and they provide the only justification we have for believing that the universe is expanding and that it began with a bang. The "wondrous new technical cosmology of today" Sandage refers to (above) consists of inventing new concepts to explain why observations don't match predictions based on the long-sought "two numbers." What lies down the second fork of the cosmological highway? In the late 1960's, Halton Arp discovered evidence that the redshift/distance connection is a dead end. It doesn't work. You can't determine a galaxy's distance by its redshift because Arp has documented hundreds of cases where galaxies of different redshifts are grouped together at the same distance. Arp was one of Hubble's students, and, like Hubble, based his research on careful observations more than on theoretical considerations. But astronomers were committed to chasing two numbers, so they ignored Arp's evidence, and in the mid-1980's they found a way to deny him both telescope time and publication in the astronomical journals. Today a few professional astronomers and a large number of amateurs are interested in following the second fork of the cosmological highway. It's not an easy path, but for some the threat of no promotion or even loss of position is less important than the goal of astronomical discovery. And amateurs have the advantage of no position to lose. Will the second fork of the highway be more fruitful? Will there be third and fourth and fifth forks as well? It will be interesting to look back a century from now on how history judges our first attempts to understand the universe beyond our home galaxy.
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Credit: ISUAL Project, NCKU/NSPO, Taiwan
What's in a Name?
(Sep 02, 2004)
When fleeting electrical phenomena above thunderstorms were first discovered in the late 1980's, they were called "upward lightning" because that's what they appeared to be. But the physicists who studied it were afraid that the name was too suggestive and could offer false leads. It May have sounded dangerously close to the "electric currents in space" that astronomers have tried to avoid for over a century. So they decided instead to give the phenomena new names, based on something that could never distract the research. They chose whimsical mythical names -- sprites, elves, gnomes, pixies and trolls. It's funny the way people think. By applying mythical names to the phenomena, they have connected to the oldest human records of electricity in space--the thunderbolts of Zeus, the spears of Odin, the lightning weapon of Tlaloc, the firebreathing dragon and many more. The mythology of every culture on Earth is filled with celestial gods who use the thunderbolt as their weapon. Its association with "thunderstones," or meteorites, can verify that the thunderbolt of myth was no ordinary lightning. The thunderbolts flew when the planetary gods of old were closer than we see them today. The mythical paradise was transformed into the world of today. The apocalyptic events formed a culture-defining memory at the dawn of civilization. We are still gripped by their tenthousand-year-old echoes, which reappear in our scientific nomenclature. What if we follow the connections between the flashing lights we see above thunderstorms and the ancient mythology with which they have been unconsciously associated? What discoveries will we make about archetypal memories and our human past? Will we see in the sprites of today a reflection of the images that astonished our ancestors? The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Alpine Valley from Lunar Orbiter 5 Credit: NASA/JPL,
High-powered discharge across a glass plate. Credit: Ed Bondarenko, Telstra Labs, Melbourne, Australia.
What Else Could it Be?

(Sep 01, 2004)
The cracks in the Moon are called rilles. Some scientists first thought they were erosion channels left by flowing water because they are similar to channels on Earth that most people think were eroded by flowing water because water still flows in them and what else could it be. This chain of post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc thought was broken by the discovery that there is not now nor likely has ever been water on the Moon. Some other scientists forged a second chain of thought that the cracks were lava tubes whose roofs had collapsed because some of them extended from craters that those scientists at the time thought were volcanoes. Later scientists became convinced that the craters were holes gouged in the lunar surface by impacts of asteroids and meteoroids. The impact of this new belief failed to break this second chain of thought because although it left the hypothesized tubes whose roofs had supposedly subsequently collapsed without a source of lava to form them what else could the cracks be. Now some scientists are forging a third chain of thought that the cracks are truly cracks, that the surface has fallen between parallel faults because a dike of lava pushed up beneath the crack, pushed up the entire region along the crack and caused the region to crack, which let the sliver of surface between the sides of the crack fall. They claim to have found proof of this rising and cracking and falling in the discovery of anomalous magnetism along some of the cracks because what else could the anomalous magnetism be. Some scientists are, as all scientists should be, skeptical of this. Empirical proofs prove The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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nothing because they only prove that the effect being considered could result from the cause being alleged but they don't prove that there might not be something else it could be, although falsifications are final. The skeptical will look for the falsifications and the adventurous will look for bold new conjectures to answer the question "what else could it be" but only a few of these adventurous scientists will follow that question all the way back to the first thought and wonder if those channels on Earth, the ones with water still flowing in them, might also be susceptible to bold new conjectures. The falsifications of the several chains of thought are many and lie to hand: The rilles have no outflow, no fan of debris from water erosion, no lobes of lava from eruptions. They have no detritus inside from a collapsed lava roof. They have no constant cross-sectional area, deep where narrow and shallow where broad, as have channels left by flowing liquids; but their cross-sectional areas are the contrary, having constant width with varying depth. They have no constant downslope direction but they sometimes run upslope as well. They often have a more sinuous channel running along their centers, and this more sinuous channel May degenerate into a chain of craters. They May have levees of material pinched up along their edges. They May stop abruptly and begin again some distance away. They May have glassified floors. They seldom have tributaries, or never have tributaries commensurate with their sizes. One bold what-else-could-it-be conjecture is that they are channels carved by surface interplanetary plasma discharges Lightning channels have characteristics matching those that falsify as well as those that verify the hypotheses of flowing liquids and falling cracks. Where thunderbolts came from and when is another story. But their passing May have left us with the Moon we see today, a cracked and cratered sphere that does not fit into any of the square hypotheses imagined by those scientists who insist on placing a period after the words "what else could it be."
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Credit: Cover from Hoyle, Burbidge and Narlikar's 2002 Book
Hoyle's Conclusion-- Three Challenges For Cosmology

(Aug 31, 2004)
Hoyle, Burbidge and Narlikar published a book in 2002 against the big bang. Unfortunately, the Quasi-Steady-State-Cosmology (QSSC), which they propose as an alternative, is based on the same faulty assumption as the big bang--that redshift can be used as a measure of distance. They devote one section of their book to quasars as the exception to that rule. This section covers the observational evidence that quasars are found together with active galaxies in spite of their redshift incompatibility. The last chapter of the book is most fascinating to a pioneering astronomer. Here they discuss three major issues that standard cosmology has never explained quantitatively. In simpler words, the math doesn't match what the observations demand. The first problem is angular momentum. Everything in space seems to spin, although it's not clear why. But some objects, like our Sun, don't spin as fast as they should. And other objects, like the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn, spin too fast. The second problem is magnetic fields. They are found almost everywhere, but standard theory doesn't understand what makes them. Plasma cosmologist Alfvn explains that the problem is with astronomers' shortsightedness. Magnetic fields are never found without electric currents. Even the fields of bar magnets are created by currents within their atomic structure. So as long as astronomers refuse to accept the existence of electric currents in space, they will never understand the origins of the magnetic fields they see. The third problem is quantized redshift. Not only QSOs but also low-redshift galaxies display a preference for certain values of redshift. This throws a monkey wrench into both the big bang theory and Hoyles QSSC, although big bang theorists try to moot the question by declaring it to be the "surprising new structure" of unobservable dark matter. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive The authors ended this chapter and the book with good advice for all:
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"... we have described in outline a number of observed phenomena whose origins we do not understand either within the framework of big-bang cosmology or within the framework of the QSSC. The universe is an immensely complicated place. There is good reason to start with simple models, but there is no excuse for ignoring observations which do not apparently fit into a picture which is largely based on some well accepted results, but also a number of preconceived ideas. "If nothing else, we hope that we have made both theorists and observers aware that observations remain primary in this field."
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Credit: M. Aschwanden et al. (LMSAL), TRACE, NASA
The Myth of Magnetic Reconnection

(Aug 30, 2004)
Electrical engineers and plasma cosmologists will tell you (possibly in bitter tones and impolite language) that magnetic reconnection is one of the stupidest theoretical ideas that astronomers ever derived from the mistaken belief that there are no electric currents in space. But astronomers today are taking pictures of something they call magnetic reconnection on the Sun, and space probes are measuring something else in the Earth's magnetosphere that has also been labeled magnetic reconnection. If you ask a plasma cosmologist about these, he'll tell you that the astronomers don't know what they're talking about. They're looking at well-understood plasma phenomena, exploding double layers and electric discharge, not magnetic reconnection. Which side will triumph? Here's how it's shaping up. Now that astronomers are looking at real phenomena rather than elegant equations, they realize that their equations aren't as predictive as they had hoped. The magnetic reconnection equations called for a slow discharge of energy lasting for years, but the solar flares discharge in minutes with much more energy than expected. But astronomers have also noticed that whenever magnetic reconnection happens, there seem to be regions of electron-depleted space associated with it [plasma cosmologists call them electric currents.] The electron-depleted atoms are traveling at speeds of up to 1000 km/sec [which plasma cosmologists recognize as one of the "characteristic velocities" of plasma in the lab.] And astronomers find that during the magnetic reconnection process, a two-layer flow of particles is created that speeds the release of energy [plasma cosmologists call them double layers.] The only problem astronomers still need to solve is why so much more energy than they were The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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expecting is produced by the process. Hanns Alfvn could help them here: In the mid1960's, he was called by the Swedish Power Company to solve a similar problem on a more down-to-Earth scale. The company was using large rectifiers to convert electrical power from AC to DC for easier transport from the generators in the north to the cities in the south. But every once in a while the plasma in the rectifier would explode, causing considerable damage. The problem turned out to be exploding double layers, like those found in "magnetic reconnection" on the Sun. The explosions expended more energy than was contained by the plasma in the rectifier because the energy from the whole length of the circuit flowed back into the break. In Sweden, this was over 600 miles of electric wires. On the Sun -- well, we don't know yet how long those circuits are. The astronomers will no doubt solve the problem of too much energy released by magnetic reconnection, and the answer will no doubt depend on the dimensions of the "electrondepleted regions." But the question for historians is this: who will be remembered? Will this still be called magnetic reconnection (although it hardly resembles the original theory at all)? Will its discovery be credited to early 21st century astronomers? Or will history remember that plasma researchers like Jacobson and Carlqvist were explaining solar flares as exploded double layers 50 years ago?
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Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell Bottom left: Amy Acheson. Bottom right: Mel Acheson.
Blueberries on Mars And Other Spherical Rocks

(Aug 27, 2004)
The Mars rover Opportunity discovered BB-sized spheres scattered all over Meridiana Planum, as seen in the above picture taken on Sol 19 of the rover's mission. They were nicknamed "blueberries" because of their grey-blue color and the way they are embedded in the Martian rocks "like blueberries in a muffin." After spectroscopic analysis, the Martian blueberries were identified as hematite concretions. But knowing what they are called is not the same thing as understanding how they were made. Hematite concretions are one of several types of spherical rocks that are found on Earth but are not completely understood. In the center photo above, we see the Martian blueberries. Compare these with hematite concretions from Texas (bottom right photo), and with Moqui balls from Utah (hematite spheres with sandstone cores, bottom left photo.) Other spherical formations that are difficult to explain include geodes, thunder eggs, and concretions as large as ten feet in diameter. One problem is explaining how a spherical rock forms in the first place. This problem is compounded by the fact that many of the spheres are layered or hollow or even contain a separate "nut" rattling around inside. Theories to explain the layered interiors include multiple episodes of mineralized water "leaking in" and "leaking out." This "leaky theory" is particularly hard to imagine in the case of the oil-filled geodes found in Illinois. Many are pressurized and squirt when the shell is cut. The speculations about the formation of Moqui balls range from meteorite impacts to underground fires. One popular idea is that they began under an inland sea as unstable limonite. Under pressure, limonite forms a gel, which might be rolled into balls, trapping sand from the seafloor inside. Later, the limonite might be converted to stable hematite by heat and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive gases from volcanic venting.
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Several characteristics must be addressed by any theory attempting to explain these round rocks: Most of them are clustered in zones, not randomly distributed. They are often common in one region of a particular rock formation, but absent in higher, lower, and adjacent regions of the same rock formation. In some deposits, it is obvious that there cannot have been spherical cavities while the flat surrounding sediments were being deposited. Nor could there have been spherical cavities while the sediments were being compressed into rock. Because concretions are found in the same zone, it is assumed that geodes began as concretions (or formed simultaneously with concretions.) So when did the concretions form? And why are they spherical? If they form in place from a liquid or plastic state, gravity would squash them into a dome shape. If they form while moving through a resistive medium, friction would change their shape. The forces that formed them must have been spherically symmetric. (This concern also makes one skeptical of the popular idea that hailstones, especially large ones that are spherical and radially layered, are formed in updrafts that blow the proto-stones into the cold tops of thunderheads.) All these speculations are based on chemistry and mechanics. But there is another force that commonly produces spheres -- electric discharge. This is because the spherical focus of an electric pinch is much more powerful than gravity. In the plasma lab, tiny spheres produced by electric pinches are often hollow, like the hematite concretions seen above. Electric discharge tends to produce spherical layering and a distinct equator and pole, because the pinch "squeezes" perpendicular to the current that creates it. These characteristics are also found in the "natural" spheres. The Moqui balls pictured above have both equatorial bulges and polar markings. Rock-cutters recommend that you will get a better display from a geode if you first locate the equator and poles, then cut across the poles. The layered crystalline look of a giant hailstone produced by a Midwestern thunderstorm (although very temporary) is also similar in form to the cauliflower-like shell and inward growing crystals of a geode. Very little research has been done in the field of "plasma geology." But space probes since Explorers 1 and 3 in 1958 have shown us again and again that plasma plays an important role in space. We're beginning to imagine how it affects our solar system and the galaxy beyond. Perhaps the time has come to look back at our home planet and ask if plasma played an active role in Earth's geological history, too.
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Credit: NASA Polar Mission
Parallel Auroras
(Aug 26, 2004)
The nature of auroras was the subject of a debate that began early in the 20th century. But later in the same century, our space probes settled the debate in favor of the electrical theorists Kristian Birkeland and Hannes Alfvn. One of the conflicts in early 20th Century astronomy was between Sydney Chapman and Hanns Alfvn. Alfvn, following Birkeland's lead, believed the auroras to be powered by charged particles from the Sun. Chapman developed a mathematically elegant theory showing that the auroras were generated entirely in the Earth's magnetosphere by buffeting of the solar wind. Chapman refused to give Alfvn's ideas a hearing. At conferences, rather than address particular points of the theory, Chapman would state that he and his colleagues disagreed with Alfvn and that a paper explaining it all was in process. On one occasion, when Chapman was a guest of Alfvn's in Sweden, Alfvn built a replica of Birkeland's terrella experiment, which produced auroras on a magnetized sphere suspended in a vacuum. Alfvn hoped that if Chapman could see how plasma behaves in the laboratory, he would be more amenable to discussing it. Chapman refused to look at the experiment. But eventually, in the late 60's and early 70's, space probes did show that Birkeland and Alfvn were right -- the auroras are caused by charged particles flowing from the Sun. Solar plasma does enter the Earth's magnetospheric bubble. And today we have websites that monitor solar observations and predict when and where to look for auroras. During a geomagnetic storm in 2001, the Polar Mission took the above photos (see link to view the video version) of the north and south auroras at the same time, here projected on a globe. This project showed that the two phenomena brighten and dim together as a near-mirror image. This shows that the Earth is no longer an isolated body in space. It is connected to the circuitry of the Sun, and from there to the circuitry of the galaxy and beyond. It provides us with a preview of the discoveries of the future. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Crater Chains
(Aug 25, 2004)
Overlapping, central peaks, clean excavation, melting, and "pinched up" rims are all signs of electrical discharge machining for these crater chains. The chances of having an impacting body break up to form a neatly graded and spaced line of objects that might provide this series of overlapping craters is practically zero. Instead, crater chains are a common result of electric arcs passing over a cathode surface. With slight variations in the current or the surface, the arc May stop jumping from one crater to the next and cut a trench instead. In this example on Jupiter's moon, Ganymede, the craters overlap so closely that the distinction between "crater chain" and "straight rille" blurs. There are sections of this crater chain that could pass for a rille. When examined closely, the smaller rilles in the image have scalloped sections that could pass for overlapping craters. Notice that the sizes of the craters are similar, with an increase toward the middle. From an Electric Universe point of view, this size gradation is a reflection of the initial increase in current as an arc becomes established, followed by a decrease as the arc quenches. In lightning strikes with multiple strokes, the middle strokes are usually the strongest. Notice also that many of the craters retain their central peaks. The arc that carves a crater is a Birkeland current consisting of a pair of filaments that rotate around the current's axis. If the crater is large enough, the two filaments will not meet in the center, leaving a central spire intact. Because the arc lifts material from the surface, the excavation is left relatively clean. Only a small portion of the detritus falls back around and in the crater or rille. The "collapsed lava tube" explanation of rilles fails on this account: The remains of the tube's roof are not inside the rille. "Missing" debris is one defining characteristic that distinguishes electrical erosion from mechanical processes: The debris is not really "missing," its just not where other The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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processes typically leave it. Melting is another defining characteristic of electrical erosion. Although extensive melting is ascribed to impacts, impacts in fact produce little melting. The particles of rubble May be immersed in hot gases from the impact, but the heat dissipates too quickly for conduction to carry much of it into the particles. Electrical erosion, on the contrary, generates heat inside the eroded particles, in the manner of a heating element on an electric stove. A general expectation of the Electric Universe is that the floors of craters and rilles will show extensive glassification. Unfortunately, it can only be confirmed by on-site observations. A final observation is that many craters appear to have their rims "pinched up," rather than "rolled over" or splattered as would be expected from debris thrown out by an impact. Many rilles, too, have "pinched up" dikes along their edges. This emphasizes the indication from missing debris that the erosional forces were directed upward.
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Credit: C. Lisse, M. Mumma (NASA/GSFC), K. Dennerl, J. Schmidt, and J. Englhauser (MPE)
Comet X-rays
(Aug 24, 2004)
A comet is believed to be a dirty snowball slowly wasting away in the heat of the Sun. But this ROSAT image from March 27, 1996 reveals a comet radiating x-rays as intense as those from the x- ray stars that are ROSAT's usual target. Why point an x-ray telescope at Comet Hyakutake? Nothing in accepted theory would lead an astronomer to expect a comet to shine in x-rays. A comet is believed to be a dirty snowball slowly wasting away in the heat of the Sun. But this ROSAT image from March 27, 1996 reveals a comet radiating x-rays as intense as those from the x- ray stars that are ROSAT's usual target. The x-rays flickered over a matter of hours like a failing fluorescent lamp. The Electric Universe contends that this is more than a simile: A comet is a light-producing load in the circuit of an electrically powered Sun. The Sun's radial electric field is weak but constant with distance in interplanetary space. In a constant radial electric field, the voltage decreases linearly with distance. A comet on an elongated orbit spends most of its time far from the Sun and acquires a charge in balance with the voltage at that distance. But when a comet speeds inward for a quick spin around the Sun, the voltage of the comet becomes increasingly out of balance with that nearer the Sun. Most of the voltage difference between the comet and the solar plasma is taken up in a double layer of charge, called a plasma sheath, that surrounds the comet. When the electrical stress is great enough, the sheath glows and appears as the typical comet coma and tail. Diffuse electrical discharges occur in the sheath and at the nucleus, radiating a variety of frequencies, including x-rays. The highest voltage differences occur at the comet nucleus and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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across the plasma sheath. So where the sheath is most compressed, in the sunward direction, the electric field is strong enough to accelerate charged particles to x-ray energies. That explains the crescent-shaped x-ray image in relation to the comet nucleus and the Sun. Flickering and occasional flare-ups are expected because plasma discharges behave in a non-linear manner.
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Credit: NASA/JPL
Lightning on Saturn
(Aug 23, 2004)
Many things about Saturn have changed in the 24 years since the two Voyager Spacecraft flew by. Saturn's magnetosphere has grown larger by more than a million miles. The dark spokes on Saturn's B ring have disappeared. The equatorial thunderstorm that raged continuously while both Voyagers passed has broken up and moved toward the poles. In November 1980 and August 1981, both Voyagers observed an intense storm near the equator (top photo) with high winds (1,100 miles per hour) and continuous lightning. This year, Cassini is observing less intense storms of short duration at mid-latitudes. Wind speeds are slower, too, topping out around 600 miles per hour. What causes the differences? Cassini researchers have proposed a possibility, based on meteorologists' theories of what causes storms on Earth -- differences in temperatures. In 1980/1981, Saturn was at equinox, the beginning of its 7-year-long spring in the northern hemisphere and fall in the southern hemisphere. The shadow of Saturn's rings fell almost exactly on Saturn's equator. The sunlit part of Saturn that received the most heat was adjacent to the part in the shadow of the rings that received much less heat. This juxtaposition of hot and cold parts generated intense turbulence, that is, storms and lightning. (One question left unasked is why hot and cold bands that encircle the planet's equator generated only one large but local storm.) The best part of this theory is that it is testable. Saturn's "year" is about 29 years long, which will bring the shadow of the rings back to the equator in 2008, about when the Cassini mission is scheduled to end. Cassini should be able to see if the intense equatorial storm returns. The above theory is based on the standard assumption that planets and stars are isolated The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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bodies in space and that the only interactions between them arise from gravity, heat and light. The Electric Universe perspective sees a full spectrum of electromagnetic connections as well. So the Electric Universe looks to other phenomena to explain the changes on Saturn. The most likely candidate is that the storms on Saturn are Saturn's equivalent of sunspots. In 1980/1981, the Sun was at the peak of its 11-year sunspot cycle. Today the sunspot cycle is approaching minimum. If Saturn's "sunspots" are driven by the same galactic Birkeland currents that drive the Sun's spots, they will get stronger and closer to the equator as the sunspot cycle intensifies. Unfortunately, Cassini's 4-year mission will have to be extended to the next solar maximum in 2011 to test this theory. The solar cycle connection explains not only the changes in lightning patterns on Saturn, but also the expanded magnetosphere and the (now) missing spokes. The higher electrical stress throughout the solar system in 1980/1981 would have compressed Saturn's magnetosphere and created the dark spokes. (The spokes revolved to the tune of Saturn's magnetic field rather than to gravity's rules, suggesting they were electrical discharges across the rings. And each separate spoke began when Saturnian "dawn" reached the longitude associated with the long-lasting equatorial storm.) The lower stress of solar minimum allows the magnetosphere to relax, the spokes to fade, and the "storms" to migrate toward higher latitudes.
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Credit: L. Piro (CNR) et al., CXC, NASA
How Big is a Gamma Ray Burst?

(Aug 20, 2004)
The estimated size of a gamma ray burst depends on its distance. Redshift=distance makes some if not all gamma ray bursts impossibly energetic. A fading afterglow from a gamma ray burst is centered in this false color image from the space-based Chandra X-ray Observatory. While the gamma rays are produced for only a few seconds, many of these events can be identified by their afterglow in X-ray, visible light and radio waves. These are often associated with galaxies at great distances. Astronomers describe them as the biggest explosions in the universe. But the estimated size of a gamma ray burst depends on its distance. If we think it is far away, the burst will seem much larger than if we think it is nearby. So when we start seeing "the biggest explosions in the universe" it behooves us to take another look at how we determine their distance. Almost all of the millions of galaxies are redshifted (there are less than a dozen known exceptions to this rule.) This means that when we look at the spectra (rainbows) made of their light, the lines which identify particular elements are shifted toward the red (longer wavelengths). In the late 1920's, a few years after astronomers finally realized that galaxies were outside of the Milky Way, Edwin Hubble (after whom the Hubble telescope was named) noticed that there is a relationship between how big and bright a galaxy is and how much its light is redshifted. For the hundreds of galaxies he studied, the big, bright galaxies had low redshifts and the small faint galaxies had high redshifts. Adding the assumption that big and bright means closer than small and faint, astronomers concluded that redshift could be used as a measure of distance. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Most (but not all) astronomers also assumed that this galactic redshift is a measure of velocity (just as a train whistle sounds lower when it's going away than when it's approaching, light can become redshifted when the object is going away and blueshifted when it is approaching.) All of the expanding universe and big bang theories are based on this assumption, neatly summed up in the description: "The farther away a galaxy is, the faster it is moving away." But does it work? In the 1960's, Halton Arp began documenting cases where redshift couldn't possibly mean distance. He was finding instances where two or more galaxies and/or quasars were associated, or even physically connected, in contradiction of the assumption that their different redshifts meant that one should be millions or even billions of light-years farther away than the other. He concluded that using redshift as a measure of distance distorts the actual distance. The higher the redshift, the greater the distortion. So what does that mean for the gamma ray bursts? Many of the first gamma ray bursts identified by their afterglow in the late 1990's were from galaxies with very high redshift, indicating distances as far as 12 billion light years. The energy required to produce the observed flash of gamma-rays from this distance would be staggering! Nothing observed in our stellar neighborhood comes close, not even the occasional supernova. So the question becomes, are the gamma ray bursts an unknown form of hypernova? Or are the redshift distances to their host galaxies greatly exaggerated, and the explosions much smaller? New light was shed on this question by a gamma ray burst on December 3rd, 2003 (GRB 031203). This burst was identified with a closer galaxy, only about 1.3 billion light years away (by the redshift assumption.) This burst was thoroughly studied for months by an armada of space and ground-based observatories. Astronomers concluded that this was the closest cosmic gamma-ray burst on record, but also the faintest. This led the researchers to ask whether gamma ray bursts come in a variety of sizes. The other possibility is that the variation of intensity between distant and nearby gamma ray bursts is one more layer of evidence that redshift is not an accurate measure of distance. The high-redshift gamma ray burst and the low-redshift gamma ray burst May have been of similar intensity, but astronomer's assumption that one is much farther away has made it appear much brighter. Since gamma ray bursts are common events (about one a day is detected, although only a few are identified with host galaxies), perhaps they will become the crucial observation that brings the redshift/distance distortion into better focus. If that happens, we will find ourselves living in a completely new universe that didn't begin in a big bang and isn't expanding. And in this new universe, galaxies give birth to quasars, which grow up into new galaxies. The gamma ray bursts May be the electromagnetic cry of a newborn galaxy.
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Credit: NASA/Voyager 2
What Happened to Uranus?

(Aug 19, 2004)
Any theory that tries to explain the origin of the solar system will run afoul of the question "What happened to Uranus and its family of moons?" Uranus has more than a dozen orderly moons. They revolve in almost perfect circles exactly in the plane of Uranus' equator. This would be an ideal example of how a gravitational system is thought to evolve from a collapsing nebula, except for one detail: the whole planet, fifteen times the mass of Earth, has been tipped over on its side, so that its poles are near the plane of its orbit and its equator rotates in a direction that should be north and south. And most of its moons also circle "north and south." How could that happen? If the moons formed before Uranus tilted, they should still be orbiting in the plane of Uranus' original equator. But if the moons were captured from the solar disk after Uranus was tilted, they shouldn't be circling its tilted equator. In either case, they should be circling its poles. In fact, recently two tiny "captured" moons of Uranus were discovered, and they do circle the poles. It gets worse. The path of Uranus' moons corresponds to Uranus' equator better than the planets themselves correspond to the Sun's equator. What could have given the odd-ball Uranus such an orderly family when the Sun's own equator is tilted 7 to its family of planets? Uranus' tilt is only the most blatant version of a larger problem. Saturn tilts, too, a little more than the Earth. And, as with Uranus, all but the tiny outer "captured" moons of Saturn circle its tilted equator, as do the rings of Saturn. Jupiter's main family of moons circle in the plane of Jupiter's orbit. But Jupiter's poles aren't appreciably tilted, so its moons orbit Jupiter's equator The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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as well. Which "rule" is dominant? Do the moons of Jupiter follow the rules of the nebular theory, or are their orbits coincidental with Jupiter's untilted poles? Neptune's moons aren't orderly. Nereid has an orbit so elongated that it nearly escapes Neptune's influence. Triton, the largest moon, is the only major moon that revolves backwards. Plus, it's orbit is decaying. It can look forward to tidal disruption or crashing into Neptune. It is impossible for a retrograde moon to have formed around a planet by the nebular theory -- it must have been formed elsewhere and then captured or its orbit May have been reversed by a near-collision event. None of these systems are well-explained by the Nebular Theory of planetary formation. The time has come to develop a new theory. This new theory should take into account our new understanding that most of the universe is made of plasma, which obeys different rules than a gravity-only universe. The new theory should consider the possibility that the giant planets and their families of moons were each formed as a separate cellular system. And the new theory should take into account the possibility that our solar system also has experienced an episodic history of cosmic birth and changing orbits.
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Scalloped Edges
(Aug 18, 2004)
Professional and amateur astronomers have long been fascinated by the valleys and canyons (also called "rilles") on the surface of Mars. But one fact never mentioned is that the Martian rilles bare striking resemblance to lightning scars here on Earth. Ever since spacecraft have sent us close-up pictures of Mars, professional and amateur astronomers have been fascinated by the valleys and canyons (also called rilles) of this presently water-poor world. Could these rilles have been eroded in a previous age of more abundant water? Water erosion May seem to explain some, but others end in "high ground" at both ends--no drainage. Were these the work of parallel earthquake faults? Or sinkholes in series? In the 1960's, electrical engineer Ralph Juergens suggested another explanation for rilles. He pointed out the similarities between the rilles on neighboring worlds and lightning scars on Earth. Could electric discharge, on a scale much larger than we observe today, have carved the rilles? Craters, too, can be created by lightning and electric discharge. The rille in the THEMIS image above is a transition between crater chains and the more common form of rilles. This rille appears to be entirely composed of overlapping craters, which give the edges a more scalloped appearance than usual. Each of the many subchannels begins (or ends) with a rounded crater. The overlap of craters along the main channel of the rille and along its branches varies a great deal. In some places the overlap is so tight that only a hint of scalloping has been preserved. In other places nearly intact craters protrude like Mickey Mouse ears from the main channel. Along the rim of the channel, you can also see normal craters with no connection to the rille. These were created when the rille-forming arc began a new crater, but quenched before it could connect that crater to the main channel. Along many rilles, there are so many craters on or near the rim of the rille that "counting craters" in order to date the region produces a contradiction. The edges of the rille appear older than the surrounding surface. Channels like this are a strong argument against the accepted notion that most craters are formed by impact. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Credit: Artist's concept of the spacecraft Ulysses and its surprising magnetic discoveries. ESA
Magnetic Lines to Infinity

(Aug 17, 2004)
A fundamental law of magnetism is that like electric currents, the lines of magnetic force must close. But this law has not been respected by modern astrophysicists. The following excerpts are from a letter from a TPOD reader: There is a striking (but hardly ever mentioned) divergence between engineers and astrophysicists about Gauss' Law for Magnetism. Engineers point to the necessary conclusion that the law states that lines of magnetic force can never end. Like electric currents, they must loop around and complete a closed circuit. Since the 1950s, most astrophysicists have believed that the interplanetary magnetic field (which results from the "open" solar field) really is open, i.e., one end anchored in the Sun and the other flapping in the solar wind. If pressed, a few astrophysicists will tell you that the "open" end actually extends to infinity. When challenged on the absurdity of this they fall back on the argument that, OK, maybe the lines don't extend TO infinity, but they are infinitely long. When challenged that open fields imply a violation of Gauss' Law (integral form) which states that the inward and outward fluxes are equal for any closed surface, the justification they invoke is that Gauss' Law is not actually violated because a line of force, being an imaginary construct, does not have any magnetic flux associated with it. But a line of force is associated with a finite amount of flux as a matter of definition. (A line of force is everywhere tangent to the magnetic flux.) I became so exhausted arguing about the flapping end that I never brought up the "ends" anchored in the Sun, which are even more problematical. The thing that amazes me is that the two groups having such exactly opposite opinions have The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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rarely clashed in the literature. Non-astrophysicists generally believe that what the astrophysicists mean is that the "open" lines extend far away from their source, the Sun, but "of course" they must eventually meet up with their ends, somewhere, to make closed loops as required by Gauss' Law. But, based on my exhaustive arguments with one of the leading authorities, and communications with a half dozen or so others, that is definitely NOT what the astrophysicists believe. There seems to be an unwritten rule somewhere that the two groups will just go on believing what they want, and avoid confrontation. This is not just an academic detail of little consequence. It bears directly on the failure, over half a century, to understand the very source of the interplanetary magnetic field. Hank May
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Credit: Mariner 10
Rim Shots
(Aug 16, 2004)
In the 1960's the Ranger Moon shots sent the first televised closeup images of the Moon before crashing into its surface. Astronomers noted many odd features of crater distribution that were difficult to explain by random impacts. Lunar craters tend to occur in pairs and lines. Some lines of craters were attributed to cracking and subsidence of the surface. Others were thought to be due to impacts. The difficulties in choosing a cause for the heavy cratering of the Moon was finally settled by a vote. But were all of the candidate mechanisms canvassed? Craters formed by electric discharge exhibit circular symmetry with little disturbance to preexisting craters. Electrical craters can appear to be distributed randomly, but they are not. They naturally form clusters, lines, and arcs. The size of craters within linear groupings are often graduated. Small craters are found cut into the rims of large craters, but the reverse is seldom seen. The above pictures illustrate a common pattern of electrically excavated craters. In the laboratory (inset image) a large crater is being carved. Where the rim of the main crater is lifted above both the original surface of the clay and the crater bottom, the arc jumps to high points on the rim. This produces smaller secondary craters centered on the rim of the original crater. You can see craters on the rims on many of the craters in the main image, taken by Mariner 10 as it flew past the planet Mercury. It is not a pattern expected of impacts.
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Credit: Anthony Peratt
Origins of Rock Art

(Aug 13, 2004)
The origins of rock art recede into prehistory. Images such as this one from New Mexico are commonly assumed to have shamanistic or spiritual meaning. But this only begs the question of origins. The Hopi, for example, attribute spiritual meanings to the images on the rocks, but they also claim the originators were the "Ancient People" who inhabited the mesas before the Hopi came. No one knows what meaning those Ancient People attributed to the images. A suggestive light is cast on this question by Anthony Peratt's recognition that rock art forms are identical to forms generated by instabilities in high-energy plasma discharges. He presented this idea in the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Special Issue on Space Plasmas, December, 2003. Peratt is one of a handful of experts who have studied plasma instabilities for many years. Such instabilities evolve through a characteristic series of forms regardless of the scale of the discharge: a centimeter-long spark in a laboratory will progress through a series in a fraction of a second; computer simulations indicate each phase of a planet-sized arc could last many months. If the electric currents that produce auroras in the Earth's plasma sheath (magnetosphere) were to experience a severe power surge from unusual solar activity, visible instabilities of this sort could form around the Earth. If this happened in prehistoric times, the ancient sky would have come alive with glowing, writhing forms. Ancient people, awed by the appearance of these giant instabilities, would incorporate the images into their cultures. The themes of ancient art and myth that occur in common around the world would be explained by the common experience every ancient society had of the "enhanced aurora" in their sky.
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Credit: WMAP Science Team, NASA
Mapping the Universe

(Aug 12, 2004)
The fundamental substance of reality is experience. Not atoms, not energy, not dark matter. Atoms, energy, and matter are ideas with which we organize and understand selected parts of our experience. They represent our experience in the same way a road map represents the experience of traveling. We experience riding in a Chevy on an asphalt surface, and we know where we are by looking at lines of ink on paper. The ink is not the asphalt; the paper is not the surface of the Earth; knowing our location is not being there. The ink and the paper function as a metaphor for our experience. Ideas are the ink of the mind, and atoms, energy, and dark matter are profoundly metaphorical. At the same time as they enable us to understand some experiences, they hide others. Different maps represent different experiences: Road maps help us to understand traveling on highways; topology maps help us to understand the lay of the land; political maps help us to understand conflicts among groups of people. Changes in our experiences require changes to our maps: A rerouted highway requires erasing old lines and inking in new lines; an earthquake requires drawing new contours; a conquest requires changing the color of an area. The map above is the most detailed picture ever made of microwave "light" from all over the sky. Using ideas that have worked well for understanding past observations, astronomers conclude that the universe is13.7 billion years old (accurate to 1 percent) and is currently expanding at the rate of 71 km/sec/ Mpc (accurate to 5 percent). But further experiences with details of the data encounter chasms in the middle of the freeway. Bridges are drawn in to span these gaps: The universe this map represents must be composed of 73 percent unobservable dark energy and 23 percent unobservable cold dark matter. Only 4 percent is left as observable atoms. To connect the few landmarks that are left with the assumptions about where it all began, additional metaphorical lines are inked in: This 96-percentunobservable universe underwent episodes of rapid and slow expansion called "inflation" and "deceleration," and now it will "expand" forever. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive This is a metaphor that no longer represents our experiences.
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The map hides observations that don't fit this picture. Quantized redshifts detour around the idea of an expanding universe. Electric currents in space conquer dark matter. Galaxy/QSO associations correlate redshift with genealogy, not with distance. Braided filaments, axial ion beams, extended magnetic fields, non-gravitational orbits, cometary x-rays ... the space age has brought us experiences that defy representation with traditional ideas of gravity and gas. The discovery that the universe is composed mostly of plasma requires a new map: We need a map inked with circuits that transmit power from clusters to galaxies, from galaxies to stars, from stars to planets. This WMAP of tiny irregularities in the background microwave radiation will no longer chart the positions of unobservable phenomena. It will become a representation of the hum from the cosmic power lines that thread the universe.
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Etched Mars
(Aug 11, 2004)
Grooves of widely varying sizes appear etched on the surface of Mars. The grooves indicate a removal of material by forces unknown to planetary geologists. But a force familiar to plasma physicists -- electrical arc machining -- etches grooves with these exact characteristics. Grooves such as these appear etched into the surface of Mars. Although their sizes vary enormously, their outstanding features are the same: parallel, steep sides, often scalloped; flat bottoms; sharp intersections that leave each groove undisturbed by the other; flat terraces; sudden terminations that sometimes skip over intervening terrain, leaving "landlocked" basins; and everywhere an absence of the debris that familiar erosional processes should leave. The grooves indicate a removal of material by forces unknown to planetary geologists. But a force familiar to plasma physicists etches grooves with these exact characteristics: Electrical arc machining. The electrical forces constrain the arc to contact the surface at a 90degree angle. Because the arc typically consists of one or more pairs of channels that rotate around a common axis, a stationary arc will etch a circular crater. Most of the etched material is lifted from the surface, and the material around the edge is pinched up into a sharp rim. If the rotating channels are sufficiently far apart, they May leave a "peak" of undisturbed material in the center of the crater. Fluctuations in the current May cause variations in the depth and diameter of etching, leaving terraces along the walls. If the arc travels across the surface, it will etch away material to a uniform depth and leave a groove with parallel sides exactly the width of the arc's rotation. Uneven movement May result in a series of overlapping circular craters, producing scalloped edges, or a jumping of the arc, producing linear chains of craters. When a traveling arc crosses the groove etched by a previous arc, it will be unaffected by the change in terrain. Sometimes a "ghost" of the earlier The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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groove will be preserved as the later arc etches its uniform depth down one side and up the other. (An example of such "ghosting" can be seen at upper right in the image.) In a process similar to the jumping that produces crater chains, an arc May etch a groove and then jump a ways before etching more of the groove, leaving lines of isolated basins. The two outstanding characteristics that distinguish electrical arc etching from mechanical erosion processes are the small amount of debris left by etching and the considerable melting of crater and groove floors. The lack of debris in and around features on Mars has already been noticed. Landers should soon begin reporting evidence of glassification.
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A traditional Near Eastern dragon, based on a design published by Ramona Jablonski (Traditional Designs of Armenia and the Near East
Mystery of the Cosmic Dragon

(Aug 10, 2004)
For several millennia, serpents and dragons have occupied the minds of storytellers the world over, and modern theories, explanations, and rationalizations are as abundant as the cultural variations on the theme. Dragon-like monsters soaring across the heavens rank among the most enigmatic and fanciful icons of the ancient cultures. These mythical reptiles come adorned with feathers or wings, sprouting long-flowing hair and fiery, lightning-like emanations. Every detail of such beasts defies naturalistic reasoning. Yet accounts from widely separated cultures attribute many identical features to these biological absurdities. When researchers seeking to resolve a mystery have explored every possibility they can imagine, but find no answer, it becomes increasingly likely that the truth is simply outside the boundaries of current assumption. Until very recently historical researchers had no reason to think of plasma when considering the mysteries of the cosmic serpent or dragon. Yet almost everything about the mythic archetype finds striking counterparts in the behavior of electrified plasma, now known to fill interplanetary, interstellar and intergalactic space. Under the influence of electric currents, plasma produces filamentary, undulating, spiraling formations, with life-like attributes. Indeed, it was this life-like quality of electrified plasma that inspired Irving Langmuir to borrow the term from biology (blood plasma). Independent investigators, with an eye to electrical phenomena, suggest that our early ancestors saw heaven-spanning plasma discharge in the sky, when Earth moved through a more dense plasma environment. Earthshaking electrical activity not only decimated early cultures but dominated human imagination for thousands of years. But only in recent decades The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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have plasma experts identified complementary plasma formations in the laboratory and in remote space. Is it possible that our cosmic environment was once alive with electrical activity? If so, it is essential that the cosmic serpent or dragon be investigated from a new vantage point, one that is open to the study of electrical phenomena in our sky not that long ago.
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Credit: NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA /STScI )
V838 Mon
(Aug 09, 2004)
When Australian amateur astronomer Nicholas Brown photographed a region in the constellation Monoceros in early January 2002, he noticed a 10th-magnitude star that wasn't there when he had photographed the same area about two weeks earlier. Over the next month, amateur and professional astronomers worldwide watched as this "new" star brightened to magnitude 6.5 and then faded away again. Now a meager 16th-magnitude star, V838 Monocerotis (V838 Mon) was for a short time intrinsically brighter than any other star in our entire galaxy. A few weeks after Brown's discovery, astronomers noticed that V838 Mon was surrounded by an expanding glowing cloud. On October 2, 2002, NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) announced another "mystery star": "Observations indicate that the erupting star transformed itself over a period of months from a small under-luminous star a little hotter than the Sun, to a highly luminous, cool super giant star undergoing rapid and complex brightness changes. The transformation defies the conventional understanding of stellar life cycles." [Italics added.]. According to a group of observers who studied the star's spectra with the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope in Hawaii, V838 Mon appears to be the coolest super giant ever seen. At least 800 times larger than the sun, it had a surface temperature in March 2002 around 4,000 Kelvin--typical of a cool super giant star. But seven months later, it was much cooler. "It corresponded to a surface temperature little more than 1,000 Kelvin, well within the temperature range of brown dwarfs," says team member Mark Rushton of Keele University in the U.K. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive In the Electric Universe view, it's also significant that V838 Monocerotis is a binary pair.
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Binary pairs are not unusual. In fact, more than half of all stars have one or more companions. Because the stars are far apart and chance encounters are rare, this observation suggests that there must be something in the process of a star's birth or evolution that favors the formation of multiple stars. One possible electric mechanism is fissioning of a nova. The electrical stress of a star is concentrated on its surface. If there is more stress than the star can take, one response would be for the star to fission into two stars. The surface area of two stars is greater than the surface area of one, so the new system is able to accept more electrical stress. V838 Monocerotis has all the basic characteristics of fissioning to relieve electrical stress: nova-like brightening followed by loss of luminosity and loss of temperature; changing to a different spectral type with marked changes in its surface chemical composition; discovery of a binary companion; and the appearance of an expanding nebulous cloud. If stars are powered by electrical current filaments strung through the galactic plasma in which the stars are immersed, power surges in those circuits can suddenly brighten and dim them. The interiors of the stars will bear little resemblance to the presently accepted model based on the assumption of a thermonuclear core. The electrical generation of starlight explains the many anomalies that remain intractable to theories from the gaslight era of astronomy.
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Credit: Galileo Project, JPL, NASA
Asteroid Ida
(Aug 06, 2004)
The spacecraft Galileo, on its journey to Jupiter, snapped photos of asteroids Gaspra in 1991 and Ida in 1993 (photo above). These were the first two asteroids seen close up, revealing unexpected features. They were more heavily cratered than expected. Gaspra had two arrays of overlapping grooves. Some of Ida's craters were much larger than expected. But the biggest surprise was that 52-km (36 mile) Ida is orbited by a moon, Dactyl, an egg-shaped body about 1.6 km (1 mile) in its longest dimension. Since then, other asteroids with moons have been discovered. The Electric Universe offers a different origin and history of the asteroids from conventional astronomy, so this is an opportunity to compare actual features of the asteroids with the expectations of the two theories. Conventionally, the asteroids are thought to be condensations that should have accreted into a planet when the rest of the planets were formed but failed to do so because the pull of their giant next-door-neighbor, Jupiter, interfered. Craters accumulated one at a time by random collisions. Grooves were caused by large collisions that nearly tore the asteroid apart. The Electric Universe sees the asteroids as the remains of the most recent major event in solar system history. Grooves (called rilles when they are found on larger worlds) and craters were carved in groups by one or several electrical discharge events. The asteroids contain four belts and about nineteen families of bodies. Ida and Dactyl are members of the Koronis family, the largest asteroid family. The asteroids within this family follow similar orbits and have similar composition, indicating that they May have originated from catastrophic break-up of a single parent body. The fact that Ida has a moon is also evidence of a catastrophic event. For an asteroid to capture another asteroid gravitationally is almost impossible unless the two bodies escaped together from a larger gravitational influence. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Another detail about the asteroids was pointed out by astronomer Tom Van Flandern. Analysis of their orbits (including the four belts and nineteen families mentioned above), taken in conjunction with the orbits of most long-term comets indicates that both the asteroids and comets had a common origin in a recent explosive event. ('Recent' is defined by the orbit analyses as about 3 million years ago.) The Electric Universe agrees with this analysis, if not with the event that Van Flandern postulates. The asteroids were formed in a universe that is 99% plasma, but the standard theories about how they formed and evolved were developed by researchers who believe plasma has little to do with astronomy. So as we look forward to more detailed asteroid data from space missions, we should continue to expect the unexpected.
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Electric Comet
(Aug 05, 2004)
Recent mages of comet Wild 2 May reveal the telltale sign of electric discharge in the form of unexplained "bright spots." Close-up photos of comet Wild 2 taken by the spacecraft Stardust reveal small bright spots. Several of these hotspots are seen in the photo on the left, and two are seen together in the photo on the right. A few have adjacent dark spots that May be shadows cast by the material shooting up from the surface. From an Electric Universe point of view, these are the sparks where electric currents from the sun impinge on the more negatively charged surface of the comet. This is where electricity is peeling away the surface of the comet's nucleus. The material removed from the comet is funneled away in tight jets that twice surprise conventional expectations. The conventional model expects to find an even distribution of evaporated volatiles in the coma and tail of comets. Instead Stardust finds dense concentrations of particles in the jets themselves and fewer particles than expected in the coma and tail. During the late 1800's, researchers noted the similarities between comet behavior and electrical phenomena in mainstream magazines such as Nature, Scientific American and English Mechanic and World of Science. But in the early 1900's, astronomers backed away from those ideas because they imply electric currents between the comet and the sun, something 20th century astronomers were not willing to consider. They instead developed the "dirty snowball" theory of comets, which says that comet displays can be explained by ice and volatiles (compounds with low melting points) evaporating under the heat of the Sun. The Electric Universe researchers are ready to turn the tide of comet theory back toward electrical phenomena. Electricity, not heat, is at work on the surface of Wild 2. If this is true, then a second problem is solved. We don't have to wait for the rare impact to form the cratered landscape. The craters we see are being carved by electric arcs. These arcs also cause the (surprising) dark color of every comet we've seen up close. They produce the The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
The Chronological Legacy TPOD Archive (surprising) x- rays that the ROSAT x-ray observatory discovered. And they create the (surprising) streams of rocky particles that pummeled the spacecraft, Stardust.
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Textbooks will have to change. It is no longer important that comets be composed of mostly ice and volatiles. Electric arcs are strong enough to strip away rock. We use similar processes in industry here on Earth, both to remove material and to deposit it. But the biggest effect of looking at a comet from the Electric Universe point of view is that it means we have to re-examine almost everything we know about the universe. Electric currents don't appear alone. They cannot flow unless there is a return current -- a complete circuit. So if the comet is electrically active, then the Sun must be a part of its circuitry. And if the Sun is electrically active, then so are all of the stars, in all of the galaxies, and what about the galaxies themselves? These tiny sparks on Wild 2 could light a fire of discovery for astronomy.
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Io's Plumes
(Aug 04, 2004)
Jupiter's inner Galilean moon, Io, spews plumes of material into space from several hot spots. They have been called volcanoes. But are they? The hot spots are unexpectedly hot. Probe sensors overloaded after registering temperatures higher than any lava on Earth. And some of the hot spots move over the surface. Plume velocities are unexpectedly high and uniform. The plumes are tall, have an umbrella shape, and deposit material in a ring around the source. They also have a filamentary structure. Io orbits inside a donut-shaped cloud of charged particles that come from the material in the plumes, and a tube of electrical current connects Io with Jupiter's auroras. These discrepancies from Earth volcanoes prompted Thomas Gold (in 1979) and Anthony Peratt and A. J. Dessler (in 1988) to note the similarities of the unexpected features to electrical discharges in plasma. An electrical arc is about as hot as the surface of the Sun. It would easily "blind" a spacecraft's sensors. And an arc often wanders over the surface of a cathode. Arcs accelerate material to fairly high and uniform velocities. This produces uniform trajectories that deposit material a uniform distance from the source, explaining the rings around the "volcanoes." And the forces in the discharge channels pinch the arcs into filaments. Repulsive forces between filaments tend to space them equally, often in pairs, around the plumes. Peratt and Dessler remarked on the similarity of the filamentary umbrella shape to the shape discharged from a laboratory "plasma gun." The cloud of charged particles flowing past Io constitutes an electrical current. Peratt and The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Dessler calculate that the power it should induce across Io is about equal to the energy of the "volcanoes." The largest planet in the Solar System, with the most active magnetosphere in the Solar System, has its electrical circuits "shorted out" by its inner satellite. The million-Ampere currents flowing through Io's crust make it a unique laboratory for studying the processes of interplanetary-scale electrical discharges. The scars produced will help us to distinguish electrical from impact scars left on other moons, comets, asteroids and planets.
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Credit: Optical: NASA/HST; X-ray: NASA/SRON/CXC/SAO
Charge Separation in Space

(Aug 03, 2004)
One of the basic assumptions of astrophysics today is that electrical forces play no part in cosmology because "you cant get charge separation in space." But x-ray images of space objects tell a different story. Standard phrases show up in astronomical lectures and debates, from elementary documentaries to the most advanced texts: "You can't get charge separation in space;" "The solar wind consists of ions [protons] flowing from the sun (with enough electrons to ensure neutrality;)" "... with the need for electrical neutrality paramount ...;" "The necessity for electrical neutrality then forces the details of the decays to be ...;" or even "Of course there's electricity in space, but it doesn't DO anything." The above spectrum was obtained by the Chandra orbiting x-ray camera in December of 1999. The subject is a tiny point-source of x-rays (a small, coherent cloud or the top of a coherent stream) embedded in the nucleus of an active spiral galaxy named NGC 4458 (upper image.) The elements in the x-ray spectrum are identified by their chemical symbols: O = oxygen, Mg = magnesium, etc. The roman numerals refer to the number of electrons that have been stripped from these elements. By consulting a periodic table of elements, you can calculate how many electrons are left. In this very active region of space, we see: 1. Mg XII -- Magnesium with all 12 of its electrons missing 2. Ne X -- Neon with all 10 electrons missing 3. Ne IX -- Neon with all but 1 electron missing 4. VIII -- Oxygen with all 8 of its electrons missing 5. VII -- Oxygen with all but 1 electron missing 6. N VII -- Nitrogen with all 7 of its electrons missing 7. C VI -- Carbon with all 6 of its electrons missing The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Among the common arguments against charge separation in space is the calculation that it would take more energy than there is in the universe just to separate all the electrons from the atoms in a single teaspoon of salt. From an Electric Universe point of view, this is begging the question. We aren't starting with a teaspoon of salt and trying to turn it into a plasma universe; we are starting with a plasma universe in which charges are already separated. So we need to consider theories that don't begin with the assumption that you can't get charge separation in space. We don't need theories that explain how imaginary objects like black holes can separate charges; we need theories that explain how charges combine to produce what we see.
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Diagram Credit: E. Margaret Burbidge, Geoffrey Burbidge, Halton C. Arp, and Stefano Zibetti Credit: M. Westmoquette (UCL), J. Gallagher (U. Wisconsin-Madison), L. Smith (UCL), WIYN/NSF, HST, NASA/ESA
Missing Quasars of M82

(Aug 02, 2004)
Astronomers take closer and closer pictures of the disturbed galaxy M82, trying to fathom what's happening (image on right.) Stars are forming ten times faster than stars in our Milky Way. Frequent explosions of the short-lived giant stars give the galaxy a disaster area appearance. The usual interpretation of these fireworks is that M82 suffered a near-collision with neighboring M81 about 100,000,000 years ago. The region around M82 has been ignored. Nearer to M82 than M81 (as seen on the sky), but beyond the photo-frame of the close-up images lies a group of QSO's [quasars] as unusual as the galaxy itself (see star map on left.) But because the principle that redshift equals distance is one of the basic foundations of the big bang theory, these quasars appear to lie at various distances, all far beyond M82. Margaret and Geoffrey Burbidge, Halton Arp and Stefano Zibetti disagree. In their 2003 paper, QSO's associated with Messier 82, they point out many reasons why this this group of quasars must be associated with M82, in spite of their incompatible redshifts. The quasar group is too dense to be accidental. The average distribution of quasars in any direction is about 10 per square degree. In M82's immediate vicinity, there are already more than 60 quasars per square degree. There May be more yet: several addition quasar candidates are identified but not yet confirmed. Some of these lie within the body of M82. The distribution of quasars within this group is not random. Nine quasars form a tight cone stretching to the SE of M82 (left and down on map above: star maps are drawn from an stargazer's perspective, standing on Earth, looking up. Thus, North is shown at the top, South at the bottom, East to the left and West to the right.) This SE group all lie in a neat cone that traces to a point at the center of M82. The group to the NNW of M82 are spread in a wide arc. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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There are no quasars or quasar candidates to the SW of the galaxy (although this blank area was included in the "quasars per square degree" calculations above.) The quasars on the NNW side of the galaxy are brighter and bluer than those on the SE side. Their redshifts, on average, are lower. They are distributed in a wide arc rather than the tight cone of the SE group. All of these qualities lead to the conclusion that the quasars to the NNW are between us and M82, while the ones to the SE are strung out farther from us than M82. The fainter, redder appearance of the SE group is because their light must pass through the outer regions of the M82 en route to us. The lower redshift of the NNW quasars is because they are traveling toward us, making a blueshift, that is subtracted from their intrinsic high redshift. To sum up: if these quasars belong to M82, then we need to rethink the connection between M82 and its neighbor M81. Rather than a cosmic accident, we're looking at a cosmic birth event. M81 is the parent and M82 the 100,000,000 year old offspring. The quasars in turn are the children of M82. And since this configuration contradicts the big bang theory's fundamental assumption that redshift equals distance, it is evidence that the universe is not expanding and there was no big bang.
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Credit: NASA/, HST, WFPC2, Jeff Hester
Credit: William P. Blair and Ravi Sankrit (Johns Hopkins University), NASA
Cygnus Loop
(Jul 30, 2004)
Aurora-like curtains and filaments of the Cygnus Loop, the aftermath of a supernova, suggest an electric event, perhaps the explosion of a plasma "double layer" in a galactic circuit. The Cygnus Loop is thought to be a middle-aged remnant of a nearby supernova, the collapse of a star whose nuclear fuel has been used up. From a plasma cosmology point of view, a supernova has nothing to do with the hypothetical nuclear engine. It is an electric event, perhaps the explosion of a double layer in a galactic circuit. The aurora-like curtains and filaments seen here have more in common with electric currents in plasma than with mechanical models based on acoustic shocks. A Birkeland current can separate elements because the atoms of each element ionize at an energy level unique to that particular element. The strength of the currents vary where they twist and compress along their length. The result is concentrations of different elements in regions where the ionization potential matches the strength of the Birkeland current. The top photo illustrates this principle. It is color-coded to show regions of the nebula where different elements predominate. Blue is ionized oxygen, red is ionized sulfur and green is ionized hydrogen. The bottom photo illustrates the intricacy of the twisted Birkeland currents. Other characteristics of the Cygnus Loop that support an Electric Universe interpretation include polarization of light, compression by magnetic fields, acceleration of relativistic electrons, and x-ray hotspots. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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The cellular structure that confines and transmits electric currents in space is are not directly detectable from a distance. But we've seen them in action on Earth and in near-space. Here we observe many of the same behaviors. Do we dare assume that our own solar system is the only place in the universe where electric currents play an active role? No--it's much safer to assume that interstellar space beyond our solar system plays by the same rules we observe here. And those rules are electrical
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Credit: ISAS, Yohkoh Project, SXT Group
Arc Lamp in the Sky

(Jul 29, 2004)
How could the Sun's surface--at only 6000 degrees--heat its atmosphere to a million degrees or more, hot enough to shine in x-ray light? We take for granted that the Sun's light and heat come from nuclear reactions in its core. Although that theory is less than a century old, it fits so well with so many other theories and it's been verified so often--the theory predicts what we see -- that it must be true. But is this the whole story? We overlook the intellectual work done in that past century to make the theory fit: Observations were selected and interpreted to conform to theoretical expectations. Theories were modified to account for non-conforming observations. Anomalies-- observations that were "not fully understood"--were set aside to await further elucidation. The million degree atmosphere is one such anomaly. And we discount speculative work that explores other theories, that asks, "What else could it be?" We can do things with theories only in areas where they work, in domains of data where they are verified. Finding data that falsify a theory means the theory is useless in that larger domain. But it's in these domains of surprised expectations and anomalies that we discover new theories. Most speculations don't work out. We forget them and the work that went into them. But a few survive the selecting, interpreting, and modifying to become taken for granted in another century. The Electric Universe theory interprets the Sun as an electrode in a plasma discharge. From this point of view, the x-ray emitting atmosphere is not an anomaly. X-rays are a common The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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signature of electrical activity. As early as the 1960's, Charles Bruce demonstrated how electric discharge phenomena explains five major and thirteen minor anomalies of solar surface behavior. Imagine the Sun not as a nuclear bomb in the sky but as an electric arclamp plugged into a galactic power grid. The Electric Universe theory promises to encompass the unexpected discoveries of the space age and the mechanically explained phenomena of the past in a larger and more unified picture of our universe.
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Credit: The Galileo Project, JPL, NASA
Electric Jets on Io
(Jul 28, 2004)
"Volcanic" plumes on Jupiters moon Io, up to hundreds of kilometers high, reveal features similar to those of electric discharge in the laboratory. This photograph, taken by the Galileo space craft, is one of many images showing plumes of plasma jetting from the surface of Jupiter's closest moon Io and reaching up to hundreds of kilometers into space. The first to suggest that these plumes were electrical discharge was Cornell University astrophysicist Thomas Gold, whose article on the "Electric Origin of the Outburst on Io," was published in the journal Science, November 30, 1979. In 1987 Gold's interpretation was supported by plasma physicists Alex Dessler and Anthony Peratt in an article published in the journal Astrophysics and Space Science. Dessler and Peratt observed that both the filamentary penumbra and the convergence of ejecta into well-defined rings are characteristic plasma discharge effects that have no counterpart in volcanoes. Further evidence was returned by the Galileo probe, which found the source of the plumes to be hotter than any lava on Earth--a predictable discharge feature in the electric model. But perhaps the biggest surprise was that the "volcanoes" had moved tens of kilometers in a few years, another predictable feature of the electric model. For the proponents of the "electric universe," the arcing on Io, in its electrical connection to Jupiter, is analogous to the arcing on a comet nucleus as it penetrates deeply into the electrical field of the sun. The one produces streams of plasma and dust that flow from the Jovian domain into the rest of the solar system, while the other produces the familiar comet tail. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0005/04joviandust/ The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/E. Churchwell (University of Wisconsin)
Stellar Nurseries
(Jul 27, 2004)
New, high resolution images challenge the traditional "nebular theory" of star and planet formation, revealing turbulent plasma and magnetic fields, the markers of electric currents. The nebular theory of star and planet formation from a cloud of gas and dust that collapses under its own gravity was proposed in the 18th century by Kant and Laplace. It was modified in the 19th century and again in the 20th century to accommodate objections. Because gravity is a very weak force, to collapse under its own weight the cloud needs to be cool and free from magnetic fields which might disturb the process. But in the stellar nurseries that have been identified, the new stars are embedded in turbulent regions of hot dust, glowing plasma and magnetic fields. A quick tweak of the theory is all that was needed to adjust it to this requirement: The abundant shockwaves from stellar winds and supernovas in star-forming regions can then trigger the gravitational collapse that begins the star-and-planet forming process. But this ignores other problems. The origin of stellar "winds" remains a mystery. And shock-heated gases should quickly disperse, not collapse. Nevertheless, these newborn stars are surrounded by what appears to be the disks from which the nebular theory expects planets to be born. This observation is encouraging theorists to look for mechanisms to dissipate the heat and magnetism during the collapse phase. The Electric Universe sees a contrary picture. The turbulent plasma and magnetic fields are side effects of the formation of electric stars. How does this work? The Birkeland currents that power and define the shape of the galaxy are constricted by the magnetic fields they The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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generate. The hot gas and dust cannot disperse. When the current density gets high enough, the plasma that carries the current begins to glow and to pinch off into stars. The form this takes is a sphere with polar plumes surrounded by a toroid (donut shape). This has been reproduced in laboratory experiments. When the electrical stress is low and the plasma less dusty, as it is for our single star, only the star "lights up." Where the stress is greater, as in stellar nurseries, equatorial "disks" (toroids), polar "jets" (plumes), and the surrounding gas and dusty plasma can also be "lit up." [Cold dust clouds can also shine by the reflection of starlight or can be silhouetted in front of brighter clouds.] The glowing cosmic plasma formations show the characteristic filaments, arcs, spirals and cell formations seen in plasma labs and in computer simulations of plasma behavior.
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Credit for dated inserts: Geraint Lewis and Michael Irwin, William Hershel Telescope
The Einstein Cross

(Jul 26, 2004)
Is the Einstein Cross a gravitational lens (a galaxy-sized fun-house mirror), or is it a redshift anomaly, proving that the "redshift-equals-distance" assumption is fatally flawed? In the mid-1980's, astronomers discovered these four quasars, with redshifts about z = 1.7, buried deep in the heart of a galaxy with a low redshift of z = .04. (The central spot in this image is not the whole galaxy, but only the brightest part of the galaxy's nucleus.) This could have been seen as a crucial verification of Halton Arp's discordant redshift associations. It could have been proof that the redshift-equals-distance relationship is fatally flawed. Instead, Einstein's space-warping principle was invoked, and astronomers announced they had discovered a single distant quasar split into four images by the gravity of the foreground galaxy. A galaxy-sized fun-house mirror! But how well does the image fit the theory? Einstein predicted that light from a distant object that was gravitationally warped around a massive foreground object would form arcs or even a full circle. Here we see four bright spots and no ring-like elongations. In fact, all four of the bright spots are elongated in the wrong direction: they stretch toward the galaxy center. More observations were undertaken. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, a friend of Arp's documented that quasar D (right side of photo) is physically connected to the nucleus of the galaxy. Later, a high redshift connection was discovered between quasars A (bottom) and B (top) which passes in front of the connection between the nucleus and quasar D. But these observations went unnoticed: the journal which usually prints results from the Hubble Space Telescope rejected this announcement twice. Mathematical analysis, too, casts doubt on the gravitational lens theory. The faint foreground galaxy would need to be much bigger and brighter in order to accomplish this lensing feat: In fact, it would have to be 2 magnitudes brighter than "conventional quasars," the brightest objects known. These two photos show brightness changes observed over a period of three years. The lensing explanation is that the warping of the light varies when individual stars pass in front of the quasar. Arp's explanation is that the galaxy has ejected four quasars, which are growing brighter and moving farther from the nucleus as they age. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Combined VLA and GBT image of the Galactic center. Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF Yusef-Zadeh, et.al.
Galaxy Filaments
(Jul 23, 2004)
In an Electric Universe, the observed association of non-thermal radio filaments (NRF's) with star-forming regions is expected. The region within 900 light-years of the Milky Way Galaxy's core is crisscrossed with glowing filaments 1 to 3 light-years thick and 10 to 100 light-years long. They are a recent discovery, known only since the invention of modern radio and infrared telescopes that can "see" through the visually opaque dust clouds shrouding the galaxy core. The latest radio telescope probes of this region show that the filaments are associated with pockets of star-formation. Researchers admit that the exact mechanism that creates the filaments remains to be discovered, but they suggest that one possibility is the collision of winds blown off by individual stars. For the Electric Universe, the association of non-thermal radio filaments (NRF's) with starforming regions is expected. However, the argument is turned on its head. The filaments are gigantic Birkeland Currents--transmission lines feeding electric energy into star-forming regions and the galactic center. They are the prime cause of star formation and other activity at the galactic center, not an effect. All star-forming regions--even all individual stars--have similar filaments. The majority of the filaments are not seen in normal light. They are detectable only by their influence on the gas and dust stretching between the stars. But in a few places, including the region near the galactic core, electric power is concentrated so that the star-feeding currents glow. Since the power source is electrical, a gravitational black hole is not needed to explain the energy pouring from the focus of galactic currents at Sgr A.
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Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU
Rampart Craters
(Jul 22, 2004)
Rampart craters and pedestal craters on Mars are difficult to explain with the impact model. Pedestal craters, including their bottoms, stand above the elevation of the surrounding terrain. Rampart craters, like the one shown in the above THEMIS image, are surrounded by a "moat" (red arrow) that's deeper than the original ground level and an outer "rampart" (blue arrow) that's higher than both the moat and the surrounding terrain. The outer rampart seems to have "flowed" away from the crater, rather than to have been ejected. From an Electric Universe point of view, these craters are enormous fulgamites, raised blisters like those found on the metal caps of lightning arrestors after a lightning strike. Because the whole blister is lifted above the surface by the lightning arc, the crater at the top is not necessarily deeper than the elevation of the original surface around it. The material forming the raised fulgamite is scavenged from the surroundings, leaving a "moat" below the surface level. The radial flow features have been produced in the laboratory when an arc strikes a moist clay surface. The arc appears to draw water to the surface and then to drive it away from the crater, generating a distinctive flow pattern. Thus, the rampart craters, combined with laboratory experiments, add to the evidence that Mars had water in the past.
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Credit: NASA Hubble Space Telescope
Cometary Knots
(Jul 21, 2004)
Astronomers have named these features of a planetary nebula "cometary knots" because of their resemblance to giant comets. From an Electric Universe point of view, the resemblance May be more than visual. As long ago as the 1940s, an electrical researcher, Dr. Charles Bruce of England, identified planetary nebulae as stellar electric discharge phenomena. Although the heads, or comas, of these "comets" are twice the size of our solar system and much dustier than our comets, their electrodynamics is essentially the same. The coma of a solar system comet is generated by the difference in electrical potential between the nucleus and the surrounding plasma. A charged body placed in plasma forms a cocoon around itself, called a Langmuir sheath or plasma sheath. The cocoon isolates the charge on the body from the surrounding plasma. At the sheath boundary, two layers of charge, called a |"double layer," take most of the electrical stress. If the electrical stress is high enough the plasma sheath May glow. The changing electrical stress on a comet is due to its highly elliptical orbit. The Sun has a weak radial electrical field. A comet spends most of its time far from the Sun and becomes adjusted to the voltage there. As it zips in for a quick fly-by of the sun, the voltage and charge density of the solar plasma changes rapidly, generating increasing electrical stress on the comet. When the electrical stress is high enough, the comets plasma sheath lights up to form the classic cometary spectacle. The comet nucleus begins discharging and the resulting cathode jets sweep back to form a tail that is "blown" in a direction aligned with the Suns electric field. The same thing would happen to an object of any size on a cometary orbit through the Sun's electric field. If the Earth, which is a charged body, were on a cometary orbit, its magnetosphere would glow. Similarly, the objects forming the cometary knots of the Helix Nebula are responding to the strong electric field centered on the star outside the picture at bottom right. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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NASA caption: This enhanced false-color image of Ida with its small satellite, Dactyl (right), is a vivid example of the effect of space weathering on asteroids. Blue regions on the asteroid tend to be associated with fresh, young craters where subsurface material recently has been exposed to space. Red regions on the surface correspond to old craters and flat surfaces that have not been disturbed in a very long time. Credit: NASA/JPL
Blushing Asteroid
(Jul 20, 2004)
Proponents of the electric universe believe that standard age estimates of asteroids are spurious because they depend on unchanging planetary orbits. The electric universe interpretation considers standard age estimates of asteroids spurious because they depend on unchanging planetary orbits and the belief that gravity is the only force ever operating in the solar system. Many asteroid families are red because they were torn from Mars during planetary electrical close encounters. The craters were not formed by impacts but were "machined" by electric discharges between the asteroid and Mars as they separated. Hypothetical low-velocity mechanical impacts in the asteroid belt will not produce neat circular craters. The craters with bluish bottoms were probably the last formed by electric arcs. Earlier craters (by hours or minutes) were covered by later excavated material. Our prehistoric ancestors were witness to the events so the asteroids have been in space for thousands of years, not millions.
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Credit: Galilea Project, JPL, NASA
The Mountains of Io
(Jul 19, 2004)
Mongibello Mons, on the far left of this image, is a sharp ridge rising so high it would rank among the highest mountains if it were on Earth. The existence of mountains like this poses a mystery for traditional astronomers. Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system. This activity is supposed to be caused by tidal forces from Jupiter and its other large moons. In order to produce so many fast-changing and sometimes moving volcanoes, Io must be nearly molten. The temperatures in the active regions were higher than the spacecraft Galileo's thermal sensors could measure, far hotter than any volcano on Earth. Yet ridges like Mongibello Mons require a rigid crust to keep them from collapsing. From an Electric Universe point of view, the volcanoes on Io are electrical arcs driven by charge differentials between Io and the plasma sheath (magnetosphere) that envelopes Jupiter. The discharge channels are very small and very hot. But between them, Io is not melted. The mountains left standing after the arcs have cut and melted their way around them remain supported by cold and firm bedrock.
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Credit: NASA, HST, WFPC2, J. Hester (ASU)
Eta Carinae
(Jul 16, 2004)
The star Eta Carinae suddenly became the 2nd brightest star in the sky from 1837 to 1856. Then it dimmed to invisibility. In 1940 it began to brighten and has again become visible to the unaided eye. Astronomers expected to see the remains of an exploded star, a small bright core in the center of an expanding shell of gas. But when the Hubble Telescope turned its eye on Eta Carinae, astronomers saw an hour-glass-shaped dust cloud more than a light year wide. (Because it's not a star, the cloud is named Eta Carinae. The star assumed to be at the center is hidden in the cloud.) The two lobes of the cloud are hurtling away from a central disk at more than a million kilometers an hour (600,000 miles per hour). The cloud is the most luminous object in our galaxy. It sheds energy at several million times the rate of our sun, mostly in infrared wavelengths, but also in x-ray. What lies at the center is as unexplained as it is unseen. The traditional sources of a star's energy--gravitational collapse and nuclear fusion--are unable to account for a 3-milliondegrees-hot cloud so far from the central star. However, in 1968 Dr. Charles Bruce of the UK Electrical Research Association proposed that planetary nebulas, such as Eta Carinae, are electric discharges. Because the discharge is part of a galactic current feeding power into the stars, the nebula will take on the characteristic bipolar form along the axis of the current with a toroid around the equator. In the case of Eta Carinae, most of the power is intercepted by the surrounding dust. This "electric furnace" effect explains both the high temperatures far from the star and the diminished radiation of the star. The onset of such a cosmic thunderbolt would have been heralded by just such a galaxy-illuminating flash as was seen in the 19th century. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Credit: NASA/CXC/UCLA/MIT/M.Muno et al.
Temperatures in Space
(Jul 15, 2004)
The Chandra X-Ray Telescope has found anomalous temperatures at the core of the Milky Way, but the anomalies disappear in the light of plasma lab experiments. The Chandra news release announcing this new image of the center of the Milky Way said that the X-ray spectrum of the gases "is consistent with a hot gas cloud that contains two components--10- million-degree Celsius gas and 100-million-degree gas." This result was unexpected and difficult to explain. The press release describes the problem in greater detail: "Shock waves from supernova explosions are the most likely explanation for heating the 10-million-degree gas, but how the 100-million-degree gas is heated is not known. Ordinary supernova shock waves won't work, and heating by very high-energy particles produces the wrong spectrum of X-rays. Also, the observed Galactic magnetic field appears to rule out confinement and heating by magnetic turbulence." Plasma cosmologists expected temperature discrepancies, because they've seen the same thing in plasma experiments. In the opening paragraph of his 1981 monograph, Cosmic Plasma, Hanns Alfvn discusses some of the oddities of plasma behavior that showed up in the lab but not in the simplified theories of physicists and astronomers: "The plasma exhibited striations, double layers, and an assortment of oscillations and instabilities. The electron temperature was often found to be one or two orders of magnitude larger than the gas temperature, with the ion temperature intermediate." What Chandra has discovered is that the temperatures of plasma at the core of the Milky Way The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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behave exactly the way they behave in plasma experiments on Earth. Some measurements show temperatures as expected, but others indicate temperatures ten to a hundred times higher. If astronomers had taken plasma lab results as seriously as they take hot gas cloud models, they wouldn't have been surprised.
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Credit: FORS1, 8.2-meter VLT Antu,ESO
Galactic Perspective
(Jul 14, 2004)
If redshift is the effect of an expanding universe, it must be related to distance. Yet three galaxies with very different redshifts are the same distance from Earth. Astronomer Halton Arp studied this galaxy, NGC 1232, in 1982. He called it "one of those rare and thrilling moments when you can look down a long corridor into the future." What he saw was three galaxies with three very different redshifts. The primary galaxy has a redshift of z = .005. Its first companion (left side of photo) has a redshift of z = .021. The tiny companion on the upper arm has a redshift of z = .1. Arp was sure that these three galaxies are next-door neighbors. The small galaxy on the left is the archetypal "companion galaxy," not the type observed as an independent galaxy. Its star-forming regions and gas clouds are similar in scale to those of the large galaxy, and the influence of the small galaxy can be traced in disturbances along the larger galaxy's arms. Arp's Catalogue of Discordant Redshift Associations presents similar in-depth documentation that the tiny knot on the upper arm is also a galaxy connected to NGC 1232. Why were these observations so thrilling? They directly contradict the assumption upon which big bang cosmology is based. Because redshift is interpreted as an effect of the expansion of the universe, it must be related to distance. Yet here are three galaxies with very different redshifts that are at the same distance. The astronomical community responded by dismissing his evidence and taking away his telescope time. But in the years since he made these observations, Arp has added hundreds of similar discordant associations to his collection. These associations will change our view of the distribution of galaxies, their ages, and the size of the "known" universe. And that will require a new theory of cosmology. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Credit: N. Thomas (MPAE) et al., 1.5-m La Silla Telescope, ESO
The Jets of Hale-Bopp

(Jul 13, 2004)
When the comet Hale-Bopp began discharging beyond the orbit of Jupiter, it marked the beginning of the end for standard comet theory. One of the observations leading to the dirty snowball theory of comets was that most of the periodic comets begin to grow tails at about the same distance from the Sun: between Jupiter and Mars. The determining factor was thought to be the distance at which the comet became hot enough for water and other volatile substances to evaporate into space, creating the coma, or "head," and tail of the comet. But not every comet obeys even this tenuous "dirty snowball" criterion. Hale-Bopp in particular broke many of the rules. In the photo seen here, it is still too far from the sun for a "snowball" to melt, but it already displays seven jets. Four years after Hale-Bopp left the inner solar system, it was still active. It displayed a coma, a fan-shaped dust tail, and an ion tail -- even though it was farther from the Sun than Jupiter, Saturn or even Uranus. The comet's tail was shrinking, but it was still about five times longer than the distance between the Earth and the Moon. At this distance, the Sun's heat will not melt ice. If it could, the icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter would be as dry as our own scorched Moon. From an Electric Universe point of view, a comet's tail arises from the INTERACTION between the electric charge of the comet and the solar discharge plasma. The comet spends most of its time far from the Sun, where the plasma charge density is low. The comet moves slowly and its charge easily comes into balance with that region. On the other hand, as the comet approaches the Sun, the nucleus moves at a furious speed through regions of increasing charge density and varying electrical characteristics. The comet's surface charge and internal polarization, developed in deep space, responds to the new environment by forming cathode jets and a visible plasma sheath, or coma. The jets flare up and move over The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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the nucleus irregularly, and the comet May shed and grow anew several tails. Or the comet May explode like an overstressed capacitor, breaking into separate fragments or simply giving up the ghost and disappearing. The dirty snowball model was never tenable and has been discredited. This has profound implications for theories of the origin of the solar system.
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Credit: NASA/NEAR Shoemaker
Craters on Eros
(Jul 12, 2004)
The NEAR-Shoemaker probe of the asteroid Eros revealed a non-random cratering pattern that continues to baffle astronomers. Craters on asteroid Eros were expected to show a typical random distribution. There should be a few large craters, more medium-sized craters and many more small craters, because impacts of smaller objects should happen more often than impacts of large objects. But when NEAR-Shoemaker passed close to Eros in 2000-2001, researchers discovered that the craters don't follow the expected distribution curve. The few large craters and the many medium-sized craters appear as expected, but craters smaller than 100m in diameter are rare. This is a problem for the impact-model: how can most of the small rocks in space have consistently missed the asteroid for billions of years? A lower limit to the size of craters is an expected feature from an Electric Universe point of view. The size of craters is related to the strength of the arc discharge that carves them. Below a specific threshold, the arc cannot be maintained. It quenches, so smaller craters are not produced. Arc discharges, and the conditions which ignite and quench them, will vary with the size, composition, charge, and other factors unique to each individual world. The number of times a surface is electrically etched can vary, too. Comets experience arcing every time they pass through the inner solar system. Asteroids May have received most of their craters during the event in which they were born. A single episode of arcing would leave craters characteristic of the conditions prevailing at that one time. The record May or May not be "overwritten" depending on whether further arcing episodes occur under different conditions. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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From time to time, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) catches--in action--an afternoon dust storm, dust devil, or other dust-raising event. The dust-raising event shown here, probably the result of a sudden strong gust of wind, occurred in November 2003 in a crater located near 57.5S, 60.6W. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper left, so the dark area below the dust plume is its shadow. The picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across. Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems MOC PICTURE OF THE DAY
Martian Dust Storms

(Jul 09, 2004)
On Mars, the air is 100 times thinner than on Earth--too tenuous to raise dust. Yet Martian dust storms are larger than any seen on Earth. What makes a Martian dust-storm? On Earth, we think dust storms are raised by the wind, and we think we know what makes the wind blow -- sunlight heats the ground; conduction heats the air above it, and convection makes the air move. If the air moves violently enough, as you see in thunderstorms, it can even separate charges and create lightning. On Mars, the air is 100 times thinner and 75 degrees colder. Yet Martian dust storms are larger and taller than any seen on Earth. Occasionally, when Mars is closest to the sun, billowing dust envelopes the whole planet. The viking landing craft discovered the Martian sky was pink from all the dust in it. Scientists expected the sky would be dark because the atmosphere is so thin. They expected Martian winds would be too weak to raise dust, let alone to generate dust devils. NASA scientists studied the dust devils in Arizona in order to understand more about what causes them on Mars. They discovered an unexpectedly high electric field of up to 10,000 volts per meter associated with dust devils on Earth. This suggests that dust devils on both planets are an atmospheric electric discharge phenomenon akin to the electric winds produced by air ionizers. If all planets are involved in a solar electric discharge their atmospheres must be forced to conduct electricity. Mars does not have thunderstorms like the Earth. Instead, in its extremely thin and dry atmosphere, it produces a scaled up version of discharges in the dry air of earthly deserts dust devils.
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Radio image of Sagittarius A taken with the VLA by Y. Farhad-Zadeh & M. Morris
Driving Forces of the Milky Way

(Jul 08, 2004)
The core of our galaxy is a region full of mysteries, including flares that can brighten the central area by a factor of four in a few days or by a factor of two in forty minutes. From an electric universe point of view, this is the most active expression of the electric power of the Milky Way. Dust veils most of the core of the Milky Way from optical observations, but today's radio, infrared, ultraviolet and x-ray telescopes uncover intriguing images and data about the activity at the center of our home galaxy. It's a region full of mysteries, including the remnants of an unexplained hyper-explosion a few thousand years ago and flares that can brighten the central area by a factor of four in a few days or by a factor of two in forty minutes. From an electric universe point of view, this is the most active expression of the electric power of the Milky Way. This is where currents are focused from the spiral arms down into a tiny donut-shaped plasmoid. From the center of this plasmoid, electric currents spray out from the axis of the galaxy, then return along the spiral arms, inducing magnetic fields and lighting up the stars. The energy stored in the plasmoid is released in prodigious outbursts of high speed particles and radiation, heralded by explosive flares.
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Credit: A. Zijlstra (UMIST) et al., ESA, NASA
NGC 6302: Bug Nebula

(Jul 07, 2004)
A hundred years ago astronomers assumed that any body larger than an asteroid would be constrained by gravity to a spherical shape. But as telescopes got better, reality intruded. Planetary nebulae in particular, now thought to be the final explosive stage of large stars, fail to live up to spherical expectations. Over 60 years ago, Dr Charles Bruce, of the Electrical Research Association in England, began to note the similarities between planetary nebulae and electrical discharge phenomena. In this Hubble Telescope image of the planetary nebula known as the Bug Nebula, you can see many examples of these electrical characteristics. The overall shape is an hourglass, not a sphere. The central star is hidden by a dark dust torus. The light of the star is rich in ultraviolet, one of the signatures of electric discharge. And the shapes within the nebula mimic the twisted filaments, spirals and pillars typical of electrical discharge in plasmas. Plasmas in the lab form cellular structures separated by thin layers of opposite charge called double layers. Does the same thing happen in nebulas? That's a tough question to answer, because the only known way detect a double layer is to send a probe through it, and nebulas are far beyond the reach of our spacecraft. But everywhere we've sent probes in our solar system, we've found cellular structures separated by double layers, just as we found in the plasma lab. We call these structures magnetospheres, magnetotails, bow shocks, comet heads and tails. Hannes Alfvn says: "... it is unpleasant to base far-reaching conclusions on the existence of a structure The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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which we cannot detect directly. But the alternative is to draw far-reaching conclusions from the assumption that in distant regions, the plasmas have properties which are drastically different from what they are in our own neighborhood. This is obviously far more unpleasant ..." Although the answers are not yet known, Electric Universe researchers begin by assuming that the behavior of plasma will be the same whether you encounter it in the plasma lab or in a far-away stellar formation like the Bug Nebula. And that assumption offers a whole new viewpoint for the universe we live in.
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Credit: NASA/JP//SSI
Saturn's Spokes
(Jul 06, 2004)
When Voyager I and Voyager II flew past Saturn in Nov 1980 and Aug 1981, astronomers were surprised to see that the middle ring had dark "spokes." But when the more recent Cassini probe reached Saturn, astronomers were surprised again: the spokes were gone. The Electric Universe May explain this mystery. The spokes are caused by radial discharges from Saturns magnetosphere into the planets ionosphere. Such low-latitude discharges are observed in the laboratory when a magnetized sphere is immersed in an electrified plasma. In Saturns case, the rings provide a more easily ionized, "dusty" plasma that would tend to concentrate the discharges in the plane of the rings. The effect on the ring particles is to temporarily alter their polarization and to move them out of the plane of ring. This change in optical properties causes the "spokes" to appear. But why was Saturn's magnetosphere discharging then and not now? In 1980-81, the Sun's electric activity, the solar sunspot cycle, was at its maximum and Jupiter, Saturn and the sun were in a line. Today the solar cycle is approaching minimum and the planets are separated by about 75 degrees. We already know that the activity of solar maximum produces global electrical effects on Earth: the auroras brighten and move toward the equator, radio communications are disrupted, power grids and satellites May be affected. Are the spokes of Saturn another electrical expression of the solar cycle? Is Jupiter's giant magnetosphere, which stretches almost to Saturn's orbit, a factor? Since Cassini is scheduled to orbit Saturn for much longer than the brief fly-bys made by the Voyagers, it May observe the rings long enough to learn more about the relationship between Saturn's spokes, the solar electric cycle and the relative positions of the giant planets. Cassini's journey to Saturn promises new insights for the growing field of plasma cosmology. But there's another Saturn question related to the history of human culture. Saturn is the dimmest of the planets visible to the unaided eye. Few people today know how to find it in the night sky, and even Galileo's telescope-power was so low that the rings appeared only as earlike extensions. In spite of this, ancient cultures cast Saturn in central role. They spoke of him as a supreme ruler, king of the sky, master of time, and lord of the rings. Can Cassini solve this mystery, too? The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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Mars photo credits: MSSS/THEMIS. Lab photos on upper right by Wal Thornhill
Olympus Mons
(Jul 05, 2004)
Olympus Mons on the planet Mars defies categorization as a "volcano," but bears a striking similarity to a lightning blister. Olympus Mons on the planet Mars is taller than three Mount Everests and about as wide as the entire Hawaiian Island chain. But its almost as flat as a pancake. Its edge is nearly as abrupt as a pancake, too, ending in a scarp up to 6 kilometers (almost 4 miles) high. The huge mound rises amidst several lesser regions of the Tharsis Bulge. Planetary scientists call Olympus Mons a volcano. But when examined in detail, it bears only a superficial resemblance to some earthly volcanoes. Olympus Mons has all the characteristics of a lightning blister. Such raised bell-shaped blisters can be found on the caps of lightning arrestors after a cloud-to-ground strike. They are called "fulgamites." The material that forms the elevated fulgamite is scavenged from the surrounding surface to produce an encircling depression or moat. Olympus Mons has such a moat, which does not match the bulge expected from upwelling magma beneath a volcano. Earthly lightning usually consists of a number of strokes in quick succession along the same ionized path. So the discharge that creates a fulgamite is often followed by successive lesser strokes that May excavate overlapping pits on the top of the fulgamite. The six overlapping circular craters on the summit of Olympus Mons display this pattern. The smaller craters center on the walls of the larger and are cut to different depths, as if with a cookie cutter. Such a pattern is not volcanic, where the caldera floors are supposed to be due to collapse or draining of magma from beneath. The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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A laboratory example of an electric arc scar on a clay anode surface is shown on the right. At moderate power, the electric arc rotates (top right) and raises an extensive circular blister, seen clearly in the middle right image. As the power is increased, the arc briefly stops moving and burns a small circular crater, seen as a glowing spot in the top image and at 4 oclock in the bottom image. The tendency for the arc to "stick" to one spot on the anode creates localized very high temperatures, sufficient to vaporize some of the anode surface to form smooth circular crater floors and steep terraced walls exactly as seen in the Olympus Mons calderas. Do we see any volcano on Earth produce such a configuration on its summit now? We can find none. Yet the pattern is repeated more than once on the Martian Tharsis Bulge (row of pictures below), including the summit of neighboring Ascraeus Mons (lower left), a striking replica of the Olympus Mons "calderas." The electrical hypothesis maintains that within minutes successive strokes from a cosmic lightning bolt lifted the peak and carved the craters on the summit. It seems likely that the Tharsis Bulge will also trace to the same period of Martian history, when the planet must have engaged another charged body at close range. If so, evidence of such an exchange must be pervasive on the Martian surface, and all the major features of the planet must be reconsidered from this new viewpoint. Though geologists have never entertained the electrical scarring of rocky planets and moons, rapidly accumulating evidence has the potential to change this situation dramatically.
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Credit: Mel Acheson, C.J.Ransom
Craters in the Lab

(Jul 02, 2004)
Planetary scientists have long assumed that most craters in the solar system are due to impact. But laboratory experiments reveal that electrical discharge can replicate observed cratering patterns in surprising ways. How do you make a crater? Scientists have been asking that question ever since Galileo turned his telescope on the moon in 1610. The discussion was between those who thought craters were made by volcanoes and those who thought craters were made by impacts. In the late 20th century, geologists on Earth and astronauts on the moon showed that they weren't volcanic. The impact hypothesis won by default. But there is a third possibility, one that has now been explored in detail by advocates of the "electric universe." The craters in the photo above were made in a laboratory by electric discharge. This cratered surface duplicates many characteristics of planetary geology. The craters tend to clump according to size, to fall in lines and arcs. Notice also that the ground appears burnt or discolored where the discharge was strongest and the craters the densestnot unlike the surface of Mars and other rocky bodies in the solar system. The centers of some of the craters have bumps, as do many enigmatic craters on the Moon, Mars, and other surfaces. Also of interest are the dark streaks from two larger craters close to the center of the picture, a pattern similar to the "wind"-streaked craters found on Mars. This third possibility was first voiced in the 1960's. But astronomers have had little interest in such lines of investigation because they have long assumed that electric forces cannot reach across the vacuum of space. However, numerous space age findings have contradicted that belief. From the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts in 1958 to the latest discoveries of galactic magnetic fields and x-ray galactic clusters, it has become increasingly clear that charged particles fill what once was called the "void" of space. Electrical activity is pervasive across both interplanetary and interstellar space. Is it possible that our solar system was once more active electrically than it is today? When The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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electric sparks strike a solid surface, they can produce not only craters but many other common geological features as well. Experimental research on the electrical etching of rocky surfaces must therefore be a priority. According to the electrical theorists, most of the largescale geological features in our solar system can only be generated by electric arcs. And if this is true, then the actual history of our solar system bears little or no resemblance to textbook descriptions.
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Credit: Stardust Team, JPL, NASA
The Jets of Comet Wild 2

(Jul 01, 2004)
The jet structure on comet Wild 2 is radically different from what orthodox comet models anticipated. Such jets pose no problem for the electrical model. NASA's Stardust spacecraft snapped these photos of Comet Wild 2 on January 2, 2004. On the left is the comet nucleus and on the right a composite of the nucleus and a longer exposure highlighting the comet's jets. According to a recent press release, project scientists expected "a dirty, black, fluffy snowball" with a couple of jets that would be "dispersed into a halo." Instead they found more than two dozen jets that "remained intact"-they did not disperse in the fashion of a gas in a vacuum. Some of the jets emanated from the dark unheated side of the comet-an anomaly no one had expected. Chunks of the comet, some as big as bullets, blasted the spacecraft as it crossed three jets. Wild 2's surface was covered with "spires, pits and craters" that could only be supported by rock, not by sublimating ice or snow. The discovery was more than surprising, "it was mind-boggling." When a theory's predictions are constantly discredited by new discoveries, it is "falsified." The unexpected blast of particles hitting Stardust is one small ding for the spacecraft's shield, but the Wild 2 anomalies are one giant fender-bender for the dirty snowball theory. For many years now, the theory itself has obstructed the view of evidence, including close-up photographs of comets and asteroids. The NASA press release claims the comet "is unlike any other type of solar system body." Unlike Comet Borrelly, which sported unexpected "mountains, faults and grooves"? Unlike comet Halley, with its hot jets and diverse landscape? Unlike the steep-edged and flat-bottomed craters on asteroids Eros and Mathilda and Ida? Unlike the scarred surface of the Martian moon Phobos, virtually all the Jovian moons (especially the little ones), and now Saturn's little moon Phoebe? Every small solid body we've approached has surprised scientists with such sharply-defined surface relief. The cascade of discovery has not surprised scientists investigating electrified plasma in space. But astronomers and astrophysicists are unaware of this century-old field of study. The The Thunderbolts Project http://www.thunderbolts.info
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structural details of the craters, grooves, cliffs, and other landforms, as well as the collimated jets, match those produced in plasma labs. In the electrical hypothesis, a rock moving rapidly through the electric field of the Sun will develop a plasma sheath that stretches into a coma thousands of kilometers across and a filamentary tail that remains coherent over millions of kilometers. Arcing to the surface will generate high temperatures in small areas. The electrical activity will produce X-rays and ultraviolet light. The predictions of the model are testable, and the implications reach far beyond modern comet theory.

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