Welcome to Space News from the Electric Universe,
brought to you by The Thunderbolts Project™
at Thunderbolts.info
On this series, we are presenting what we consider
the ten most compelling and clear-cut reasons
why electromagnetism is the force that rules the cosmos.
This exercise provides an invaluable opportunity
to juxtapose the theoretical predictions and explanations
of standard cosmology versus those of the Electric Universe.
In our first two episodes,
we explored the significance of pervasive, vast cosmic magnetic fields
and filamentary cosmic structures respectively,
neither of which are predicted or explained by gravity-centric cosmology
but they are expected features of an electric universe.
In fact, at all scales throughout the cosmos,
both the structures and energies of the most stupendous phenomena
reveal an underlying cause that continues to elude space scientists.
Today we explore why spectacular emissions across unimaginable cosmic distances
are the third of ten reasons why the universe is electric.
Cosmic Jets
It is a mystery that space science must openly confront,
what force is capable of producing high energy jets spanning not millions of miles
but many light-years across the cosmos.
What confines the jets to narrow streams across cosmic distances
and what prevents the, so called, streams of gas from dispersing in the "vacuum of space"?
These questions are posed by the discovery of Herbig-Haro objects, or jetted stars,
which have sometimes been characterized as "cosmic tornadoes".
The image on your screen appeared as the Astronomy Picture of the Day in 2006.
The stellar jet of Herbig-Haro 49/50
was detected at the incredible velocity of 100 km/s.
The caption of the APOD, entitled Cosmic Tornado, reads as follows,
"Though such energetic outflows are well known to be associated with the formation of young stars,
the exact cause of the spiraling structures apparent in this case is still mysterious."
Of course, terms like tornado and outflow
are derived from the familiar behaviors of wind and water on our own rocky planet.
But how could such terminology be applicable to the behaviors of "gases in a vacuum"?
The inappropriateness of the analogy is highlighted in the scientific paper,
The Formation of Stars and Solar Systems. It states,
"Stellar jets are analogous to giant lawn sprinklers.
Whether a sprinkler whirls, pulses or oscillates,
it offers insights into how its tiny mechanism works.
Likewise stellar jets, billions or trillions of miles long, offer some clues
as to what's happening close into the star at scales of only millions of miles.
Material either at or near the star is heated and blasted into space,
where it travels for billions of miles before colliding with interstellar material.
This explanation raises more than one fatal objection.
It begs the question,
if one were to turn on a "lawn sprinkler in space"
what would happen to the stream of water?
The aforementioned paper acknowledges the problem by asking the following question,
"Why are jets so narrow?
The Hubble pictures increase the mystery as to how jets are confined into a thin beam."
Of course, heat alone does not explain the ejection and confinement of the jetted material.
Discussing the jet of Herbig Haro 1/11,
the aforementioned paper admits that a disc around the star,
which is supposed to provide the "nozzle" from which the theoretical lawn sprinkler emanates,
is not evident in this image.
The authors then entertain a rarely considered possibility; they state,
"One theoretical possibility is that magnetic fields in the disk
might focus the gas into narrow beams,
but there is as yet no direct observational evidence that magnetic fields are important."
We note that this statement was published more than a decade ago
and, as we outlined in the first episode of this series,
even in the last 10 years space scientists have had no choice
but to much more freely acknowledge the pervasive vast cosmic magnetic fields.
A dramatic recent example of this is the magnetic field
scientists have detected associated with the Magellanic bridge,
a thread-like filament stretching an astounding 75,000 light-years
and connecting the small and large Magellanic Clouds.
One of the researchers said of the finding,
"Not only are entire galaxies magnetic,
but the faint delicate threads joining galaxies are magnetic, too.
Everywhere we look in the sky, we find magnetism."
Jane Kaczmarek of the University of Sydney said of the finding,
"In general, we don't know how such vast magnetic fields are generated,
nor how these large-scale magnetic fields affect galaxy formation and evolution."
Just as electric currents sustain and confine the vast filament
connecting the small and large Magellanic Clouds,
it is electric currents flowing through plasma
that produce the extraordinary structure and energies of the Herbig-Haro jets.
An ongoing astronomical mystery is both the beaded structure and "kinkiness" of stellar jets.
Of course, as plasma physicists will attest, beading and kink instabilities
are two of the most easily recognized features of electrical discharges in plasma.
In fact, as we turn our attention to an even greater scale,
to the spectacular cosmic jets seen emanating from galaxies,
we see the perhaps inevitable confirmation of the jet's electrical nature.
In 2011, a team of scientists including radio astronomer Philipp Kronberg,
measured the electrical current in the jet shooting from the galaxy 3C303.
The New Scientist headline "Universe's highest electric current found"
states of the finding,
"A COSMIC jet 2 billion light-years away is carrying the highest electric current ever seen:
10 to the 18th power amps, equivalent to a trillion bolts of lightning.
Philipp Kronberg of the University of Toronto in Canada and colleagues
measured the alignment of radio waves around a galaxy called 3C303,
which has a giant jet of matter shooting from its core.
They saw a sudden change in the waves' alignment coinciding with the jet.
'This is an unambiguous signature of a current,' says Kronberg."
Unfortunately, the team of scientists can only conclude that a black hole
produces magnetic fields which then generate the current.
But more recently, the study of cosmic jets at the vastest scale
has provided findings that can only be described as fatal for this theory.
In 2016, astronomers reported a finding
that will never be reconciled with conventional black hole theory.
A Royal Astronomical Society press release states of the finding,
"...supermassive black holes in a region of the distant universe
are all spinning out radio jets in the same direction.."
A lead investigator, professor Romeel Dave writes,
"This is not obviously expected based on our current understanding of cosmology.
It's a bizarre finding."
As noted by Professor Andrew Russ Taylor,
"These black holes don't know about each other, or have any way of exchanging information
or influencing each other directly over such vast scales..."
In the Electric Universe it is not black holes at the centers of galaxies
which are responsible for the observed energies and mass.
Rather, the plasma discharge phenomenon, called a z-pinch,
creates plasmoids at the cores of galaxies.
As the plasmoid's charge density increases,
it creates the well-known plasma feature called a double layer
which can explode or release energy in the form of cosmic jets and other spectacular emissions.
As we explained in the previous episode,
plasma scientists have provided persuasive experimental proof
for the dominant role of electromagnetism in influencing the structure and rotation of galaxies.
In the Electric Universe, space across the vastest cosmic distances
has a substructure of electrical potential, typically extremely subtle at any point
but sufficient to affect cosmic directionality.
Both stars and galaxies occur like pearls on a string
revealing a filamentery or even cellular structure to the universe at unfathomable scales.
Plasma physicists have demonstrated experimentally
that plasma discharges can be scaled up to 14 orders of magnitude.
In fact, the Nobel prize-winner, the father of plasma cosmology Hannes Alfven
proposed that plasma phenomena could be scaled up to an incredible 28 orders of magnitude.
As we will continue to demonstrate in our following episode,
standard astrophysics will never successfully explain
the most stupendous electromagnetic events in the cosmos
through theoretical models in which electricity doesn't cause anything.
The breathtaking form and energies of cosmic jets
are yet another of countless reminders that we live in an electric universe.
For continuous updates on Space News from the Electric Universe,
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