Welcome to Space News from the Electric Universe,
brought to you by The Thunderbolts Project™
at Thunderbolts.info
On this series we are shining a light on an unresolvable problem for astrophysicists,
the challenge of explaining unimaginably powerful electromagnetic emissions and energies
in a universe in which electricity causes nothing.
In our first three episodes, we explored this question through our discussion
of the stupendous magnetic and filamentary structures
seen all throughout the visible universe.
The features are neither predicted nor explained in gravity-centric cosmology
but they are the expected features of an electric universe.
Fantastic electromagnetic phenomena are increasingly recognized with each passing year.
From the powerful electric fields
and supersonic plasma jets detected on our own Earth
to the mysterious electron acceleration in Jupiter's aurora
and even tremendous electric currents measured in galactic jets.
Yet standard astronomy still holds to theories in which mechanical and kinetic processes,
collisions, explosions, gravitational collapse, heating and shock waves,
produce the measured electrical effects.
But it cannot be a coincidence that ever finer technological data
only increases astrophysicists' expressions of amazement and perplexity.
In this episode, we will explain why the discovery of "giant light bulbs in space"
is the 4th of 10 reasons why the universe is electric.
The Fermi Bubbles
It is one of a growing list of astounding mysteries
that demand entirely new theoretical pathways.
For over seven years
astronomers have struggled to explain the presence of the so called Fermi Bubbles,
giant structures emitting powerful gamma-rays that stretch
for tens of thousands of light-years above and below the Milky Way's spiral disk.
Both the structures' mind-boggling size and energetic emissions
appear to pose intractable problems for astrophysicists.
Astronomers using the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope
discovered the so-called bubbles in 2010.
The energetic lobes emanating from the Milky Way's center
have been a source of extreme puzzlement ever since.
The 2014 phys.org article 'Despite extensive analysis, Fermi bubbles defy explanation'
outlines the mystery as follows,
"The outlines of the bubbles are quite sharp,
and the bubbles themselves glow in nearly uniform gamma-rays over their colossal surfaces,
like two 30,000 light years tall incandescent bulbs screwed into the center of the galaxy...
Their size is another puzzle.
The farthest reaches of the Fermi bubbles boast some of the highest energy gamma rays,
but there's no discernible cause for them that far from the galaxy."
As we outlined in a recent Space News episode,
Does Gravity Cause Lightning in Space,
it seems almost beyond belief
that astrophysicists can only visualize mechanical and kinetic processes
even when observing the unmistakable signatures of electrical discharge phenomena.
The aforementioned phys.org report poses the question,
what blew the bubbles?
As if air is being expelled from the galactic center
and filling a balloon-like fabric in the vacuum of space.
One theoretical possibility investigators have proposed
is that a tremendous population of giant stars
all exploded at roughly the same time for some reason,
somehow forming the gamma-ray bubbles.
As noted in the phys.org report,
another ad hoc theory for the "bubbles" is that they
"...could have been created by huge jets of accelerated matter blasting out
from the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy."
More recently, in 2017, astronomers claimed that a so-called giant snack,
several million years ago, by the hypothetical black hole believed to be at Sagittarius A,
produced the energy that created the bubbles.
These scientists may have forgotten
that the supposed black hole had the opportunity for another "snack"
when the gas cloud G2 made its long-anticipated closest approach in 2014.
Apparently, the imagined gravitational monster was not hungry
leaving the gas cloud intact to the amazement of astronomers around the world.
We again note the irony of scientists looking to colossal gravity
to explain stupendous electromagnetic phenomena,
in this case, no less than "incandescent bulbs" screwed into the center of our galaxy.
As we've reported several times recently,
the stupendous electric current in a galactic jet,
estimated at 10¹⁸ amps or the equivalent to a trillion bolts of lightning,
has been measured by radio astronomers
and the seemingly unfathomable discovery of radio jets in numerous galaxies
in a distant region of space, all spinning in the same direction,
will never be explained by black hole proponents.
As we've also discussed several times recently,
in the Electric Universe, an ultra-high density energy storage phenomenon
called a plasmoid is at the core of the Milky Way,
a kind of load in the Galactic electrical circuit,
rather like a rechargeable battery.
In a galactic circuit, electrical power flows inward along the spiral arms
lighting the stars as it goes and is concentrated and stored in the central plasmoid.
When the plasmoid reaches a threshold density, it discharges
usually along the galaxy's spin axis.
This process has been replicated in the laboratory with the Plasma Focus device.
The most seemingly puzzling feature of the bubbles,
the presence of the most intense gamma- rays at the outer edges of the bubbles
at the farthest distance from the galactic center,
is explicable and indeed predictable in the electrical interpretation.
The father of plasma cosmology, Hannes Alfven,
proposed that a plasma formation called the double layer
should be classified as a discrete celestial object
and that explosions of double layers could be the source of gamma-ray bursts
and mysterious X-ray emissions.
A double layer, or what is known as a Langmuir sheath,
forms between plasma regions of different properties.
It's a complete mystery to astrophysicists
why the most intense gamma-rays should be at the outer edges of the bubbles.
Yet in the electrical interpretation
the edges of the bubbles delineate the boundary of the Galactic plasma environment
and that of deep space.
A double layer only exists
where there is an electric current flowing through space plasma.
In this case, the double layer at the bubbles' edge
would be like a giant spherical plate capacitor
with positive charge on one plate and negative charge on the other.
Charged particles are accelerated across the double layer
generating electromagnetic radiation which can include X-rays and gamma-rays.
The double layer acts as a boundary effect,
dissipating electrical energy in a thin layer.
Plasma scientist Dr. Anthony Peratt wrote in his book, Physics of the Plasma Universe,
"...x-ray and gamma-ray sources are likely
to have their radiative energies supplied by electrical currents."
While astronomers continue to ascribe the bubbles
to a mysterious blast or eruption event, millions of years ago,
another important feature of the bubbles completely defies this notion
while affirming the electrical interpretation.
In 2013, in the journal Nature, scientists reported the observation of
"...two giant, linearly polarized radio lobes, containing three ridge-like substructures,
emanating from the Galactic Center.
The lobes each extend about 60 degrees in the Galactic bulge,
closely corresponding to the Fermi bubbles,
and are permeated by strong magnetic fields of up to 15 microgauss."
These extremely powerful magnetic fields follow closely
the directions of the ridges which wind around the flow of energy
as we must find if the ridges in fact represent electrical currents.
Critically, the width of the ridges is remarkably constant at about 300 parsecs.
Like the consistent width of star-forming filaments,
the constant width of the bubbles' ridges is the unmistakable hallmark of lightning.
Collisions, explosions, eruptions, geysers, shockwaves, heating;
like countless others stupendous electromagnetic phenomena in the cosmos,
these kinetic and mechanical mechanisms
will never explain the spectacular Fermi bubbles.
But why should it be surprising
that electricity is actually the source of so-called giant light bulbs in space.
The celestial surprises will surely continue
until the light bulb of new understanding
begins to flicker in the minds of astronomers,
illuminating for them our electric universe.
For continuous updates on Space News from the Electric Universe,
stay tuned to
Thunderbolts.info