Nebular Currents
Jan 26, 2010

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 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:

"It’s 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 it’s 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