'..ignoring the fruits of 150 or so years of electrical science.' - Donald E. Scott

'Call it what you will – Plasma Cosmology, the Electric Universe or the Electric Sky – the thrust of what was started by Kristian Birkeland (when he discovered the true electrical nature of the auroras), Hannes Alfvén, and Irving Langmuir (each of whom were awarded Nobel Prizes for their work) continues. And it will take more than the confrontational, parochial, pompous smoke screens of pseudoskeptics such as Tim Thompson to stop it.'


Where do we stand?

We stand at a time in scientific history that will be embarrassing to look back on from the vantage point of the next century. An entire subgroup of science consisting of a majority of astrophysicists and cosmologists is now – and has been – smugly ignoring the fruits of 150 or so years of electrical science. This sub-group feels perfectly confident in postulating the existence of processes and entities that cannot be verified experimentally in earthbound labs. When there are perfectly valid electrical explanations for certain phenomena, it is irresponsible to ignore those explanations and invent 'new science‘ to avoid using them. People will ask, years from now, "How could they have ignored electricity in space when it was staring them in the face?"

Classic astronomy (and its offshoots: helioseismology, astrophysics, cosmology, etc.) have never made any real predictions that turned out to be true – although they are past-masters at inventing 'dynamos‘ and invisible entities to explain things retroactively. After-the-fact explanations are easy, especially if you can get away with saying "The hidden 'dynamo‘ did it." Before they were forced into it, classical astronomers were wrong about how the auroras are powered, about the temperature of Venus, about the rocky nature of comets, about x-rays coming from comets and other objects, about the existence of natural radio emissions from the planets. And I claim they are wrong about many things they are now saying about the Sun.

Of course the Electric Sun model is speculative. But these speculations are reasonable extrapolations of the solid, experimentally verified properties of plasma. We are not positive that everything included in the ES hypothesis is 100% correct. We do not claim omnipotence or perfection for our early models. But, the 'standard‘ astrophysical models are far more speculative. They are built up of speculation cantilevered onto speculation that is ever farther removed from any empirical basis. And a tremendous amount of doubt is piling up about them. They do not explain (without ad hoc and a posteriori adjustments) many of the observations that are being made – as the Electric Sun model does. (The fusion model doesn‘t even explain why the solar corona exists in the first place, let alone its three million Kelvin temperature inversion.) Each time new data comes in from space probes, astronomers typically announce their surprise and rush 'back to the drawing board‘. They then busy themselves modifying (adding complexity to) their models – reminiscent of Ptolemaic epicycles – and emerge confidently claiming they knew this all along. In the one case where they deigned to make reference to anything electrical (the release of magnetic energy) they got it wrong and had to 'discover‘ new properties of magnetic fields that do not exist.

Call it what you will – Plasma Cosmology, the Electric Universe or the Electric Sky – the thrust of what was started by Kristian Birkeland (when he discovered the true electrical nature of the auroras), Hannes Alfvén, and Irving Langmuir (each of whom were awarded Nobel Prizes for their work) continues. And it will take more than the confrontational, parochial, pompous smoke screens of pseudoskeptics such as Tim Thompson to stop it.

- Donald E. Scott, Tim Thompson – A Rebuttal, page(s) 12, 13 (The Elektric Sky - Electric Cosmos)



'Charges moving within (cosmic or terrestrial) plasmas are just like an electric current in a wire – moving charges driven by electrical forces that completely ignore gravity.'

Had TB said that, "Virtually every graduate-level textbook in astrophysics talks about the stability problems of currents moving in space without the guidance of a conducting wire...", would not disagree. But they are wrong if they do say that.

Birkeland currents themselves form a natural 'twisted pair‘ power transmission line in plasma - entirely analogous to a twisted pair of wires. The important factor in the stability of cosmic sized Birkeland currents is that the current density in them is very low. In unconfined space plasma, radio telescopes are able to trace Birkeland currents by their radio signatures. Peratt notes in his book that within the radio bright lobes of double radio galaxies, [Birkeland] filaments may exceed 6 x 10²⁰ meters in length (p. 48), that is 40 million times larger than the distance estimated from the Sun to the heliosphere (1.48 x 10¹³ meters). And there is compelling evidence from radio telescopes for supercluster-sized Birkeland currents<sup><a href="[www.nasa.gov];. Plasma instabilities do show up in the unstable behavior of some stars, and the outbursts of our own Sun, where the current density increases, or 'pinches,‘ at the star. Bridgman‘s last sentence (where he mentions gravity as a stabilizing force in plasmas) is absurd, remembering that the force of gravity can be neglected in the presence of strong electromagnetic forces. [See p. 81 in TES]: "The electrons that flow inside a copper wire also constitute a plasma. Those electrons respond to electrical forces, not gravitational ones. We do not have to place our coffee maker at a lower level than the power outlet in the wall so that gravity can enable the electrons to run downhill like water in a river. Charges moving within (cosmic or terrestrial) plasmas are just like an electric current in a wire – moving charges driven by electrical forces that completely ignore gravity."

- D. E. Scott, D. E. Scott Rebuts T. Bridgman, Page 9 (The Elektric Sky - Electric Cosmos)



Context

Kristian Birkeland

Irving Langmuir

Willard Bennett


(The Electric) '..universe is an unending transformation in flux...'

The Electric Universe

Electric Gravity in an Electric Universe - By Wallace Thornhill