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The Return of Saturn's Spokes
CheshireCatCO writes "After more than a year in orbit around Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft has finally spotted 'spokes' in the rings. Spokes, large radial structures in the rings, where seen by the Voyager spacecraft and have remained difficult to fully explain. The reappearce of the spokes comes about two years earlier than many models predicted."
What, they don't have an editor? Let's try again:
Hang on...
The (completely insane and already disproven multiple times) Electric Universe theory has only been talking about these rings since 2004.
These spokes were first spotted in the '80's.
Isn't this a bit like "I have a theory, this theory is that Orange Polkadotted Jet Propelled Chickens from the Pleides are currently touring the universe blowing up stars. The last star they visited was SN1987A, and sure enough observations back me up".
If they predicted it before they hit Saturn, then maybe we'd pay attention. But seeing how they predicted it after it had already been observerd places you fairly in the OPJPC camp.
Acutally, small impacts are believed to be involved. But how do you levitate the dust that they kick up over the ring plane?
The spokes aren't a disturbance in the ring material itself. They can't be: the maintain their radial orientation over time. The parts of the rings that are closer to Saturn orbit more rapidly and so the spokes would shear out if they were part of the rings proper.
In reality, they spokes hover over the rings, probably levitated electrostatically. They hold their orientation because they are tied to the magnetic field of Saturn.
When the things you call "crackpot theories" correctly predict what will happen in many astronomical situations where "genuine research" is continuously surprised at results they didn't expect then you have to wonder who is telling the truth.
And when crapot theories fail to make correct predictions it's just an oversight that could be corrected if the mainstream scientists didn't block research funding for "alternative science" projects.
Who is getting it right in the first place? electric universe has the better track record here.
Um, no. The reason why theories like the electric universe are called crackpot science is because they correct only sometimes, and blatantly incorrect most of the time. The reason why mainstream science is, well mainstream, is because it is correct most of the time. Unfortunately, crackpots like to emphasize science's mispredictions and hide their own shorcommings under the rug.
Whatever their failings, the Electric Universe people have the best astronomical picture gallery [thunderbolts.info] on the web.
ummmm, that's arguable. Check out APOD.
Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.