Jan
24, 2007
The Temperature of a Star Cluster
To produce x-rays, a gas has to be
extraordinarily hot. But a plasma can produce x-rays as part of its
ordinary behavior, whether it’s 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—it’s a
plasma. And a
century’s worth of laboratory investigations—now
supplemented by nearly half a century’s 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
dentist’s x-ray machine produces x-rays—with a strong
electric field.
_______________________
Please check out Professor Don Scott's
new book The Electric Sky.
NOTE TO
READERS: Wallace Thornhill, David Talbott, and Anthony
Peratt will share the stage with other investigators of
planetary catastrophe at the British Society for
Interdisciplinary Studies “Conference 2007” August
31-September 2.
GET INFO