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New scientific reports are again confirming the electrical nature
of one of the most mysterious phenomena in the cosmos ― the comet.
For more than a decade
scientists have puzzled over the spectacular display of Comet McNaught.
In the winter of 2007, the object dazzled observers on Earth
when it became the brightest comet in over 40 years
and the second brightest since 1935.
The more scientists have learned about Comet McNaught,
the more it has confounded conventional comet theory.
In 2007, as the comet was passing near Mars,
the Ulysses spacecraft made the completely unexpected discovery
that the solar wind velocity dramatically decelerated
as it encountered the comet's ion tail.
At that distance from the Sun the solar wind is typically about 700 km/sec,
but inside the ion tail of the comet it was only 350 km/sec.
Space science professor Michael Combi said of the discovery,
"This was very surprising to me.
Way past the orbit of Mars, the solar wind felt a disturbance of this little comet.
It will be a serious challenge for us theoreticians and computer modelers
to figure out the physics."
And today, scientists continuing to study comet McNaught have reported another discovery
that stunningly confirms the electric comet theory,
that is that the material in the comet's dust tail is "electrically charged".
The team was attempting to learn about the extraordinary dust tail,
specifically the structured bands of dust or striations
which did not disperse in the "vacuum of space"
but stretched for over 100 million miles behind the comet.
Previously, the great comet of 1744 was said to have presented the same mystery in its time
when it produced six tails which were observed from Earth.
Today, almost three centuries later,
scientists utilizing a new image processing technique
are able to study the formation of the striations in McNaught's dust tail.
What they have found was completely unexpected.
Planetary scientist Oliver Price who developed the technique said of the investigation,
"My supervisor and I noticed weird goings-on in the images of these striations,
a disruption in the otherwise clean lines.
I set out to investigate what might have happened to create this weird effect."
As reported on phys.org, these so-called weird effects were,
"Located at the heliospheric current sheet, a boundary where the magnetic orientation,
or polarity, of the electrified solar wind changes directions.
This puzzled scientists because while they have long known the comet's ion tail
is affected by the solar wind,
they had never seen the solar wind impact dust tails before."
"Dust in McNaught's tail ― roughly the size of cigarette smoke ―
is too heavy, the scientists thought, for the solar wind to push around."
This electrical interaction between the heliospheric current sheet
and the comet's dust tail is summarized by planetary scientist Geraint Jones,
"It's like the striation's feathers are ruffled when it crosses the current sheet.
If you picture a wing with lots of feathers, as the wing crosses the sheet,
lighter ends of the feathers get bent out of shape.
For us, this is strong evidence that the dust is electrically charged,
and that the solar wind is affecting the motion of that dust."
The Phys.org report concludes of the team's findings,
"... it was a surprise for them to see the solar wind
affect larger dust grains like those in McNaught's tail--
about 100 times bigger than the dust seen ejected from around Jupiter and Saturn--
because they're that much heavier for the solar wind to push around."
It has always been the Electric Universe position that most comet activity
is the result of the comet moving through regions of changing electric potential.
The reason comet activity tends to increase as it moves closer to the Sun
is not due to sublimation of invisible hypothetical water ice.
Indeed, every comet nucleus imaged to date has appeared rocky and desiccated.
Comets spend most of their time in the farther reaches of the solar system
where plasma charge density is low. The comet moves slowly
and its charge will normally easily come into balance with that region.
But as it approaches the Sun,
the nucleus moves at a furious speed through regions of increasing charge density
and varying electrical characteristics.
The comet's surface charge and internal polarization developed in deep space
respond to the new environment by forming cathode jets
and a visible plasma sheath or coma.
The jets flare up and the comet may shed and grow anew several tails.
In fact, the negative charge in Comet McNaught's ion tail
would have attracted solar wind protons,
the obvious explanation for the deceleration of the solar wind as it met the comet.
Comets can also suddenly brighten when moving away from the Sun
or even explode when moving through any sudden dramatic change of electrical potential
such as when encountering a CME from the Sun or even the magnetosphere of a planet.
In fact, on two occasions in modern times,
when astronomers have been able to anticipate a comet's close encounter with a planet,
Shoemaker Levy 9 at Jupiter in 1994 and Siding Spring at Mars in 2014,
the electromagnetic effects produced by the encounters were vastly more energetic
than anything comet scientists had thought possible.
Comet jets may be the clearest example of electrical discharge we've observed on a comet.
Standard comet theory has failed completely to predict or explain
the actual form and behaviors of the collimated jets of dust and gas
seen exploding off of comets.
This problem confronted scientists on NASA's Stardust mission
when its spacecraft approached the comet Wild 2.
An official NASA report describes the conundrum as follows,
"The team predicted the jets would shoot up for a short distance,
and then be dispersed into a halo around Wild 2.
Instead, some super-speedy jets remained intact,
like blasts of water from a powerful garden hose."
An obvious problem is, the comparison of comet jets to the blasts of a garden hose
is completely inappropriate.
In the so called vacuum of space, what mechanism collimates the jets
causing them to not disperse as comet scientists had predicted?
An ad hoc theory some comet scientists have proposed
is that so-called apertures or nozzles on the comet nucleus
act as the "hose" through which the jet passes preventing its dispersal.
However, such features remain elusive.
This is acknowledged in the 2012 scientific paper
'Cometary Jet Collimation Without Physical Confinement'
which states,
"Contemporary models postulate that these jets collimate
when the expanding gases and dust pass through a physical aperture or nozzle.
However, recent high-resolution spacecraft observations
fail to detect such apertures on cometary surfaces.
Recent high-resolution images of comet nuclei revealed that the gas and dust
expelled by the comet is organized into narrow plumes or jets..."
"Furthermore, these models do not explain why cometary jets
appear to be directed normal to the local gravitational potential.
This is especially puzzling because the jet velocity,
typically 300 m/sec far from the comet,
greatly exceeds the escape velocity of only about 1 m/sec."
In stark contrast, more than a century ago,
one of the pioneers of electrical experimentalism,
the Norwegian physicist Kristian Birkeland
successfully emulated cometary jets from a cathode in a vacuum tube.
Birkeland wrote,
"From a cathode of graphite there came long, steady pencils of light,
which greatly resembled the so-called eruptions or jets in comets."
And today, the experimental approach to the Electric Universe continues,
as we see in this home experiment by Thunderbolts colleague Jacob Gable
who stunningly emulates cometary jets of gas and dust
through simple electrical discharge in a makeshift vacuum chamber.
The comet remains one of the most significant celestial objects for scientific investigation
and it remains one of the clearest evidences
that we live in an Electric Universe.