Jun 01,
2007
Electrical Birthing of
Stars
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 XMM-Newton 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 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 that “some previously unrealized energetic
process, likely related to magnetic fields, is superheating
parts of the cloud, nudging it to become a star”. We’ve
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 Norwegian experimental researcher Kristian
Birkeland, and culminated in the pioneering life’s work of
Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfvén, the father of plasma science.
Alfvén, 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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