Cold Dust Or Glowing Plasma
May
19, 2009
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 from the star.
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 not 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 star’s 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 Nebula’s 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
