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 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 Alfvén
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