'Charles E. R. Bruce .. Ralph E. Juergens .. electric currents flowing in circuits beyond the star. Lightning and electrical discharges are a form of plasma..' - Thornhill
Posted by ProjectC
'..stellar magnetism is an ELECTRODYNAMIC phenomenon, requiring electric currents flowing in circuits beyond the star. Lightning and electrical discharges are a form of plasma ... Nowhere will you find any reference to electric discharge in cosmology. The subject is not taught in astrophysics. Research into plasma discharge phenomena is the domain of the largest professional organization in the world, the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).'
<blockquote><blockquote>
</blockquote>
One such outsider had already published an electrical theory of the Sun in 1913, long before Eddington’s work on the subject. Kristian Birkeland (above left) was a renowned Norwegian scientist and Nobel Prize nominee who set up observatories in the Arctic Circle to study the Aurora Borealis. His story can be read in Lucy Jago’s biography, The Northern Lights. His theory that the aurora is due to ‘charged particle beams’ from the Sun has only recently been confirmed. Birkeland’s approach was largely experimental. He managed to reproduce sunspot behavior (inset) in his famous Terrella experiments where he applied external electrical power to a magnetized globe suspended in a near vacuum.
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
Another outsider was Charles E. R. Bruce. He was a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (1942), the Institute of Physics (1964), the Institution of Electrical Engineers (1965), and was a member of the Electrical Research Association (ERA) from 1924 until his retirement in 1967. His interest in astronomy and study of lightning led him to write in 1968, “The main observational evidence indicating the existence of cosmic electrical discharges is the same as that which would lead an external observer to conclude that lightning flashes occur in our own atmosphere — namely, the sudden change they effect in the spectra of the Sun, stars and galaxies. In the Sun’s spectrum, lines suddenly appear indicating the existence of gas temperatures of hundreds of thousands or even millions of degrees.” Electric Fields in Space, Penguin Science Survey 1968, p. 173.
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
An important outsider was the late Ralph E. Juergens, an engineer and a pioneer of the electrical model of stars who was inspired by Bruce. Because of the tunnel vision of the consensus view, he was forced to publish his ideas in obscure journals in the early 1970s. His model is a shining example of commonsense and simplicity when compared with the infernally complex and improbable thermonuclear paradigm. Yet such is the inertia of institutionalized science and its hostility toward interlopers that Juergens’ insight was in danger of being lost following his untimely death in 1979.
“As I pursued the phenomenology of electric discharges, it gradually dawned on me that, structurally, the atmosphere of the sun bears a striking resemblance to the low-pressure type of electric discharge known as the glow discharge…” — Ralph E. Juergens.
The insiders’ unquestioned assumptions blindfolded them to other possibilities. Sydney Chapman commented in The Solar Wind, “It seems appropriate to call attention to the ideas, put forward over many years by Bruce, concerning the importance of electrical discharges in the cosmos, and in particular in the Sun’s atmosphere. Bruce agrees that the Sun offers his ideas perhaps their greatest challenge, because of the very high electrical conductivity of the solar material at all levels. Any electrical discharge in the Sun’s atmosphere demands an exceptionally rapid and strong means of generating differences in electric potential.” Here we see a recognized leader in the field assuming that the Sun itself, as an isolated body in space, could somehow generate its own electricity.
Eddington had addressed this problem of generating electricity when trying to explain bright lines in the spectra of some stars. The difficulty is that the heat of the star cannot supply the energy of the atoms producing the bright lines. Something extra is adding energy. He came close to the answer when he wrote, “If there is no other way out we may have to suppose that bright line spectra in the stars are produced by electric discharges similar to those producing bright line spectra in a vacuum tube.” He explains, “a disturbed (cyclonic) state of the atmosphere might establish local and temporary electric fields—thunderstorms—under which the electrons would acquire high speeds.” Collisions between the high-speed electrons and atoms in the stellar atmosphere would give rise to the bright spectral lines.
However, in a footnote Eddington reveals the fundamental limitation of his theory of stars: “The difficulty is to account for the escape of positively charged particles; unless charges of both signs are leaving the escape is immediately stopped by an electrostatic field.” This statement will reverberate down the years as one of the gravest mistakes in science. It is an ELECTROSTATIC model of an isolated, self-contained star. But stellar magnetism is an ELECTRODYNAMIC phenomenon, requiring electric currents flowing in circuits beyond the star.
Lightning and electrical discharges are a form of plasma and research into plasma was going on while astrophysicists were developing their one idea about stars. But their tunnel vision kept them from becoming aware of it. When they did notice, they only took in a flawed, incomplete form known as ‘magnetohydrodynamics,’ which, as the name implies, treats plasma as a magnetized fluid. Their training does not give astrophysicists the authority to judge an electric discharge theory of stars.
Nowhere will you find any reference to electric discharge in cosmology. The subject is not taught in astrophysics. Research into plasma discharge phenomena is the domain of the largest professional organization in the world, the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). My paper on electric stars was published in the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Special Issue on Space and Cosmic Plasma in August 2007. The IEEE recognizes and supports plasma cosmology. Electric stars fit seamlessly with plasma cosmology and electric galaxies.
- Wal Thornhill, Twinkle, twinkle electric star, 01 July 2008</blockquote>
<blockquote><blockquote>
</blockquote>One such outsider had already published an electrical theory of the Sun in 1913, long before Eddington’s work on the subject. Kristian Birkeland (above left) was a renowned Norwegian scientist and Nobel Prize nominee who set up observatories in the Arctic Circle to study the Aurora Borealis. His story can be read in Lucy Jago’s biography, The Northern Lights. His theory that the aurora is due to ‘charged particle beams’ from the Sun has only recently been confirmed. Birkeland’s approach was largely experimental. He managed to reproduce sunspot behavior (inset) in his famous Terrella experiments where he applied external electrical power to a magnetized globe suspended in a near vacuum.
<blockquote>
</blockquote>Another outsider was Charles E. R. Bruce. He was a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (1942), the Institute of Physics (1964), the Institution of Electrical Engineers (1965), and was a member of the Electrical Research Association (ERA) from 1924 until his retirement in 1967. His interest in astronomy and study of lightning led him to write in 1968, “The main observational evidence indicating the existence of cosmic electrical discharges is the same as that which would lead an external observer to conclude that lightning flashes occur in our own atmosphere — namely, the sudden change they effect in the spectra of the Sun, stars and galaxies. In the Sun’s spectrum, lines suddenly appear indicating the existence of gas temperatures of hundreds of thousands or even millions of degrees.” Electric Fields in Space, Penguin Science Survey 1968, p. 173.
<blockquote>
</blockquote>An important outsider was the late Ralph E. Juergens, an engineer and a pioneer of the electrical model of stars who was inspired by Bruce. Because of the tunnel vision of the consensus view, he was forced to publish his ideas in obscure journals in the early 1970s. His model is a shining example of commonsense and simplicity when compared with the infernally complex and improbable thermonuclear paradigm. Yet such is the inertia of institutionalized science and its hostility toward interlopers that Juergens’ insight was in danger of being lost following his untimely death in 1979.
“As I pursued the phenomenology of electric discharges, it gradually dawned on me that, structurally, the atmosphere of the sun bears a striking resemblance to the low-pressure type of electric discharge known as the glow discharge…” — Ralph E. Juergens.
The insiders’ unquestioned assumptions blindfolded them to other possibilities. Sydney Chapman commented in The Solar Wind, “It seems appropriate to call attention to the ideas, put forward over many years by Bruce, concerning the importance of electrical discharges in the cosmos, and in particular in the Sun’s atmosphere. Bruce agrees that the Sun offers his ideas perhaps their greatest challenge, because of the very high electrical conductivity of the solar material at all levels. Any electrical discharge in the Sun’s atmosphere demands an exceptionally rapid and strong means of generating differences in electric potential.” Here we see a recognized leader in the field assuming that the Sun itself, as an isolated body in space, could somehow generate its own electricity.
Eddington had addressed this problem of generating electricity when trying to explain bright lines in the spectra of some stars. The difficulty is that the heat of the star cannot supply the energy of the atoms producing the bright lines. Something extra is adding energy. He came close to the answer when he wrote, “If there is no other way out we may have to suppose that bright line spectra in the stars are produced by electric discharges similar to those producing bright line spectra in a vacuum tube.” He explains, “a disturbed (cyclonic) state of the atmosphere might establish local and temporary electric fields—thunderstorms—under which the electrons would acquire high speeds.” Collisions between the high-speed electrons and atoms in the stellar atmosphere would give rise to the bright spectral lines.
However, in a footnote Eddington reveals the fundamental limitation of his theory of stars: “The difficulty is to account for the escape of positively charged particles; unless charges of both signs are leaving the escape is immediately stopped by an electrostatic field.” This statement will reverberate down the years as one of the gravest mistakes in science. It is an ELECTROSTATIC model of an isolated, self-contained star. But stellar magnetism is an ELECTRODYNAMIC phenomenon, requiring electric currents flowing in circuits beyond the star.
Lightning and electrical discharges are a form of plasma and research into plasma was going on while astrophysicists were developing their one idea about stars. But their tunnel vision kept them from becoming aware of it. When they did notice, they only took in a flawed, incomplete form known as ‘magnetohydrodynamics,’ which, as the name implies, treats plasma as a magnetized fluid. Their training does not give astrophysicists the authority to judge an electric discharge theory of stars.
Nowhere will you find any reference to electric discharge in cosmology. The subject is not taught in astrophysics. Research into plasma discharge phenomena is the domain of the largest professional organization in the world, the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). My paper on electric stars was published in the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Special Issue on Space and Cosmic Plasma in August 2007. The IEEE recognizes and supports plasma cosmology. Electric stars fit seamlessly with plasma cosmology and electric galaxies.
- Wal Thornhill, Twinkle, twinkle electric star, 01 July 2008</blockquote>