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Our Milky Way is a vast structure containing millions of stars. It contains long-stretching spiral arms which
connect to the center. At the heart of the Milky Way lies a vast bulge.
At the core is an object of mystery that is connected to how the galaxy functions.
The mainstream call this a black hole, assuming that somehow gravity is able to
compress matter into a very small space. In the Electric Universe we would
consider this object to be a plasmoid, possibly similar to the ones Eric Lerner
was able to produce in his experiments. This would be a highly concentrated
structure of plasma with intense electric and magnetic fields, compressing material into the torus and
also streaming material out of the poles. Around this object sits a larger
structure which stretches for about 700 light years. It is a dense zone of activity called
the central molecular zone. Here you will find almost 80 percent of the entire galaxy's dense gas.
It contains many dense molecular clouds that would normally be expected to
produce stars, but are instead devoid of any. On top of this, the material is not
stationary, moving at supersonic speeds of hundreds of kilometers per second. By
comparison, the Maggie filament we examined in the last episode was moving
at about 54 kilometers per second. If gravity was the only force shaping our
galaxy, you would expect this central molecular zone to be centered on the
black hole. And yet, this is not the case. The central molecular zone is offset;
they are able to identify two large scale flows across this region, which
suggests they represent one, or at most two, coherent streams of material.
Scientists struggle to explain where the central molecular zone came from. Nor how
it can maintain its structure. One major problem facing astronomers is
that there is so much dust obscuring our view of the central molecular zone,
making observations in the visible spectrum impossible. Luckily, infrared, radio, X-rays and gamma
rays can penetrate the dust. Gamma rays are the highest energy
particles; these are thought to be produced when cosmic rays crash into ordinary matter.
When scientists mapped the gamma rays towards the heart of the Milky Way, it
revealed that something near the center of the galaxy appeared to be accelerating particles to speeds
approaching that of light, which in turn was creating an abundance of cosmic rays and gamma rays, just
outside the galactic center. At the same time, something at the center
of the galaxy seemed to be preventing large portions of cosmic rays from other
parts of the universe from entering. Scientists describe the effect as an
invisible barrier wrapped around the galactic center, and maintains a significantly lower
density of cosmic rays compared to the rest of the galaxy. Something is allowing cosmic rays to
escape from the center, but prevents them from entering. The scientists are at a loss to explain it.
There may well be a simple ex- planation for this behavior, but
we will return to this in a short while. Twenty years ago, astronomers discovered a
number of enigmatic radio-emitting filaments near the galactic center.
At the time they defied an explanation. These filaments range from 10 to 100
light years in length and are no more than three light years across.
Some of these filaments seem to be connected to concentrated areas of
thermal emissions, which likely identified areas of star formation.
They also detected upward streams which were non-thermal radio filaments.
At the time they thought that these two processes were linked somehow.
Wind forward nearly twenty years and new radio images reveal it in even more detail.
Now they are able to see thousands of these filaments. If we zoom in to where Sagittarius A is
located, we can see it as what appears as the brightly glowing eye at the bottom of the image.
We can clearly see the large cloud structure that lies to the side of Sagittarius A.
We can also see smaller filaments that seem to stream in or away from Sagittarius A.
You will also notice the much larger filament that runs across the image and
seems to bend around this structure. The mainstream explanation for these
vertical filaments is now that cosmic rays, streaming from the center of the
galaxy, end up dragging the ambient magnetic field, compressing it and illuminating it.
What remarkable particles can move and compress an imaginary construct?
What could cause something to glow in radio? This is generally an indication that
electrons are undergoing acceleration. So why would these filaments emit
thermal radiation, and others not? It is important to understand that we
really do not understand what causes thermal emissions, nor that we can really
label something as being hotter than something else, simply by looking at the
radio emissions. Here is an example of an explanation for thermal emission.
”The mechanism of radiation emissions is related to energy released as a result
of oscillations or transitions of electrons that constitute matter.
"A consideration to make is that when electrons or other charged particles are
exposed to an electric field, this will make them flow along the field lines.
This could cause smaller oscillations to be removed, thereby de-thermalizing the
particles, making it appear as if they are cooler. If we are seeing the filaments glowing in
radio, it does mean that there is an acceleration going on and I see two
different mechanisms for this. The first is that they are being accelerated
towards or away from the center due to an electric field.
The second is that the particles are following a helical path, causing a
constant acceleration around the center. As we see electrons, we are likely
dealing with a plasma which is flowing along these filaments.
Now what about that barrier that seems to prevent cosmic rays from entering, but
serves to accelerate particles from within the center outwards?
One alternative explanation for this might be something that Hannes Alfven
felt was a piece of the puzzle, that mainstream science continually ignored:
the double layer. It was Langmuir who first discovered what is now termed as a double layer. A double
layer is created in order to separate plasma from its environment.
It can be considered analogous to a biological cell wall. Both streaming electrons, and ions can
also be present within these. So how could this explain the magical
barrier? Cosmic rays are generally considered to be high energy protons or
positively charged particles. So why might the core be deflecting
these high energy particles, and yet accelerating any that reside within it?
This could be explained if we consider that the core of the galaxy is net
positively charged or electron-deficient, similar to how we consider a star to be electron-deficient.
The double layer that forms around this would therefore contain a positive
charge on the inside, and a negative one on the outside. Any positive particles within the
interior which have enough kinetic energy to overcome the initial repulsion
of the positive barrier, will then feel an acceleration towards the negative edge of the double layer.
The edge of the double layer is a dynamic zone which is constantly being
replenished, as ions get neutralized, and neutral particles become ionized.
The existence of this double layer may also explain why we see the larger
filament bending around this zone. If we examine the wider image with many filaments,
we see that they seem to be spread across a wide area, and do not seem to
congregate to the central point. How could this be explained, and why does
everything not connect to the central plasmoid? I think at this point it is important to
consider that there are a number of different models for how galaxies function,
and probably none of them are entirely correct. Anthony Peratt's concept was that two
intergalactic filaments would twist together and at a certain point along
these filaments a double layer would form. This would collect material along the
double layer and compress the material in between the filaments as they moved closer.
He never modeled this central area, but referred to the work that Eric Lerner
had done on plasmoids as one potential for this central area. This would mean that the plasmoid that
formed at the center may not directly be connected to the larger filaments, but
instead, the two filaments would connect to multiple parts, and this in turn would
stream in towards the central area. Halton Arp felt that galaxies were born
from material ejected from active galaxies, which later turned into
companion galaxies, as they moved further from the parent. Here we could consider
that these galaxies are already within a filament and that as the material gets
ejected into the larger filament, new connections are forged. Possibly this material is initially
electron-deficient, so would draw streams of electrons towards it, which then later
form the filaments that connect it. Now, it's equally possible that these
vertical filaments are not part of any mechanism to connect to the galactic filament,
but instead are filaments that are part of the internal structure of a galaxy.
If we consider Hannes Alfven’s concept of a galaxy, he thought that there was a
circuit which pushed material out along the axis and back along the equator.
There is much we still do not know and many open questions that these images raise.
What is clear, is that the more we look, the more we see these filaments, both in
the interior of our galaxy and spread throughout it, as well as between galaxies on a vast scale.
This material is not dormant, but flows. Some fast, some slow, powering our Electric Universe.
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