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Telescope Offers 'Clearest View Yet' of Milky Way - Including Plasma Filaments (ska.ac.za)

Chris Reeve writes: The MeerKAT radio telescope was inaugurated in South Africa this past Friday, revealing the clearest view yet of the center of the Milky Way. What is especially surprising about the produced image are the numerous prominent filaments which seem to appear in the foreground.

Herschel made a similar announcement just three years prior that "Observations with ESA's Herschel space observatory have revealed that our Galaxy is threaded with filamentary structures on every length scale." Intriguingly, close inspection of yesterday's SKA image show these filaments twisting around one another, yet without combining — a phenomenon observable in most novelty plasma globes when the filaments are conducting electricity... The SKA telescopes is one of the first telescopes to witness these filaments because it is 50 times more powerful than any former telescope, but also because it is apparently one of the few telescopes which can observe dark mode plasmas. For these reasons, the SKA telescope will inevitably revive the debate over the underlying physical reasons for filaments which exhibit coherent thin magnetic structure over light-year distances.

The original submission included a comment with more information about the theory of a plasma universe.

169 comments

  1. Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Galactic scale magnetic fields... Is this why stars don't orbit galaxies at the velocities predicted by gravitation alone? Perhaps this will ultimately put an end to dark matter hocus pocus.

    1. Re: Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For that the stars would have to be electrically charged. A lot.

    2. Re: Electric Universe by BrianMarshall · · Score: 4, Informative

      For that the stars would have to be electrically charged. A lot.

      Best to explicitly make the point that stars are not (significantly) electrically charged. It seems most EU nutters believe that they are.

      --
      "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" -- HST
    3. Re: Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Making claims of magic disqualify you from being called a scientist.

    4. Re: Electric Universe by meglon · · Score: 2

      Electr4ic Universe conmen aren't scientists, they're cultists who think they're more intelligent than Einstein even after their shit brained bullshit idea has been shown to be a shit brained bullshit idea. Every time anything in actual physics pops up that remotely hints at "electricity" anywhere anytime, they're right there to pull out their bullshit and pile it up.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    5. Re:Electric Universe by meglon · · Score: 5, Informative

      You forgot to sign in Chris.

      Look, i know you electric universe dipshits have to keep pumping the con to keep the money coming in, but every little thing in the universe where electricity actually shows up doesn't prove you're con is anything more than bullshit.

      Einstein was right, and we have the WORKING technology based on his theory (an ACTUAL theory) to prove it. The Earth isn't only 6000 years old, and the grand canyon wasn't made from a super lightning bolt.... it was eroded over a lot more than 6000 years. Electric universe is bullshit.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    6. Re: Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      You do know that all visible phenomena, on earth and in the universe, are created by the propagation and interaction of electrical charges - what a common would call electricity. There does appear to be a huge bias for gravitation only cosmology, which is wierd because electric phenomena make everything in the iniverse actually work the way it does - otherwise the universe wouls be one huge singularity - there would be nothing to oppose mass colapse, nothing turning gravitational potential energy into fusion, light, life.

    7. Re: Electric Universe by meglon · · Score: 2

      Show the math. That's one thing electric universe bullshitter can never do because there's not a one of them with any actual science background... oh, except the guy you follow like he's a messiah, except his prediction proved FALSE. Too bad, tough titty... eu ain't science, it's bullshit.

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      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    8. Re: Electric Universe by meglon · · Score: 2

      You are an idiot. What you just said is bullshit, and shows you don't have the first fucking clue about general physics or cosmology. Electric universe bullshit is a con job by people trying to suck up a little money because, apparently, they're too stupid to get a real job. You're either incredibly stupid, or an intentional liar.... either way, you're simply fucking wrong.

      Einstein was right.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    9. Re: Electric Universe by meglon · · Score: 1

      And yet when we search for these massive fields, they've never been found. Again, you're showing you don't actually know jack shit about physics. Quit embarrassing yourself.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    10. Re:Electric Universe by Brett+Buck · · Score: 1

      OY, not these guys again! Rattle their cage, and they start flinging the poo.

    11. Re:Electric Universe by jwhyche · · Score: 4, Informative

      Damn you slashdot! I read the first post and saw that someone might have an answer for dark matter. I never really liked the dark matter answer ether. I thought Cool

      But I've never heard of this "Electric universe" theory. I did a quick google search and now I know why. First name I saw associated with the theory, Immanuel Velikovsky.

      Now I know why I have never heard of it. I came in here hoping for a sound scientific theory, only to leave with a pseudo scientific pile of bullshit. I can't even fertilize my petunias with this bullshit.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    12. Re: Electric Universe by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      Truth as been spoken. "Show me the math." Funny how they can never do this.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    13. Re: Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One big question I would have is by what process do the streamers connect and "know" where to go? The process lightning uses is based on ionized particles in the atmosphere.
      But in the emptiness of space, what "guides" the streamers?

    14. Re:Electric Universe by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Charles Proteus Steinmetz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and the field of magnetic hysteresis.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    15. Re:Electric Universe by BrianMarshall · · Score: 1

      I can't even fertilize my petunias with this bullshit.

      That is one advantage of analog over digital.

      --
      "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" -- HST
    16. Re: Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Perhaps this will ultimately put an end to dark matter hocus "
      Sorry, I already solved that and the Fermi paradox in one go: dark matter is stars encased in dyson spheres

    17. Re:Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Galactic scale magnetic fields... Is this why stars don't orbit galaxies at the velocities predicted by gravitation alone?

      Probably not, because magnetic fields come in all orientations and thus cancel out over large distances, whereas gravity is always additive.

      > Perhaps this will ultimately put an end to dark matter hocus pocus

      To replace it with electric universe hocus pocus?

    18. Re: Electric Universe by meglon · · Score: 1

      We also know that the aberrations are consistent and are related to the mass of the central black hole, throughout the diff4erent galaxies. Electric universe dipshits want to through out over 100 years of science AND WORKING TECHNOLOGY because they're too fucking stupid to understand Relativity, or to learn basic math.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    19. Re: Electric Universe by meglon · · Score: 1

      The electric universe bullshit isn't plasma physics. It's not physics at all, and it's continued use of describing itself as "plasma physics," which is an actual physics discipline is nothing more than an outright lie.

      And yes, for the electric universe bullshit to be right, Einstein has to be wrong.... and he wasn't. We have working technology that ONLY works BECAUSE of taking into account relativistic effects.

      The actual field of plasma physics is valid, you're lying sack of con man shit electric universe bullshit isn't. It's a fucking con job by mentally incompetent NON-scientists who wish they had more intelligence.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    20. Re: Electric Universe by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 3

      The phenomenon of long-range-attraction, short-range repulsion which occurs between conducting plasma filaments is known as the Biot-Savart Law. A comment attached to the original post pointed to a diagram in Anthony Peratt's Physics of the Plasma Universe which can be viewed online. There is an entire chapter there in Peratt's text which goes through the mathematics of Biot-Savart (Chapter 3: Biot Savart Law in Cosmic Plasma).

    21. Re: Electric Universe by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      Here is a partial transcript of an audio interview of Jeff Schmidt, a former editor of Physics Today for 19 years. He received his PhD in physics from UC Irvine, and he is the author of a critique of the graduate programs, Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look At Salaried Professionals And The Soul Battering System That Shapes Their Lives. In both the book and this interview, Jeff likened professional training - you know, the graduate programs - to a cult.

      So, I looked into the techniques that totalitarian organizations use to get people to play a politically subordinate role, and I found that professional training programs use the same techniques.

      These include, for example ...

      - recruitment through big promises
      - social isolation
      - milieu control [control over one's social environment]
      - setting up teachers as unquestioned authority
      - undermining true self confidence
      - and gross exaggeration of the importance of the work to the world

      And after seeing that similarity to cult indoctrination, I thought, well, how can this be resisted?

      That's when I discovered this Army manual called Prisoner of War Resistance, in which the Army trained its people how to resist indoctrination if they are captured and made prisoners of war.

      And I found that these techniques apply very well to graduate school and the workplace and any hierarchical, repressive situation. So, I wrote in my book that the United States Army issued a survival manual for graduate school ...

      [laughter]

      ... without knowing it, and ... In fact, in a crucial way, the military manual is better than civilian advice books, which are written specifically for students. The civilian books help you conform to the demands of the institution. You get your credential, but you lose your identity in the process.

      However, the Army manual shows you how to survive the training programs and keep control over your identity. The military even has a name for it; they call it

      "HONORABLE SURVIVAL".

      The People's Power Hour, WIDR
      Kalamazoo, MI, recorded 2005

    22. Re: Electric Universe by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Re: And yet when we search for these massive fields, they've never been found

      It's not clear why you expect to see "massive" fields. Don Scott has published the mathematics for the force-free field-aligned Birkeland current, and it is a Bessel function - a series of concentric cylinders of counter-rotating charge.

      To be clear, there is no mathematical basis in the Bessel function for your claim that a massive field would be observable from outside of the filament structure.

      If you take a close look at the geometry which is being alleged, you should notice that the existence of these counter-rotating cylinders means that we cannot assume that electric currents will produce large magnetic fields.

      It wasn't more than about two years after Dr. Scott published this paper, by the way, that another paper was published, acknowledging the existence of counter-rotation in AGN [active galactic nuclei] jets:

      our results have now yielded firm evidence that many — possibly all — AGN jets have inward currents along their axes and outward currents in a more extended region surrounding the jets. This provides fundamental information about the conditions leading to the formation and launching of the jets, as well as key input to theoretical simulations of astrophysical jets. It also indicates that astrophysical jets are fundamentally electromagnetic structures, which must be borne in mind when interpreting observed features in the distributions of both their intensity and linear polarization.

    23. Re:Electric Universe by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 1

      Re: "But I've never heard of this 'Electric universe' theory. I did a quick google search and now I know why ..."

      But, in your other comment attached to this same submission, you leave the opposite impression that you are already familiar with the Electric Universe:

      Truth as been spoken. "Show me the math." Funny how they can never do this.

      So, which is it?

    24. Re: Electric Universe by MerlTurkin · · Score: 1

      Exactly.

    25. Re: Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's the same mathematics that drives Faraday generators. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homopolar_generator

      Any difference in relative speeds creates an electrostatic potential (voltage). In a large rotating body like the sun, this potential exists between the equator and the poles (~2km/sec of velocity differential). This translates to billions of volts.

      Just because Galileo's mathematics was not as complete as the geocentric Ptolemaic system for a while, did not mean Galileo was wrong.

    26. Re: Electric Universe by meglon · · Score: 1

      ....but the electric force is still orders of magnitude stronger than gravitation, and it doesnâ(TM)t take much divergence from perfect charge neutrality to create massive electric and magnetice fields

      You seem to be forgetting what you posted as an anon coward right above my response.

      Electric universe is bullshit. It's a cult of stupid people who are too lazy to fucking learn reality, but want to be thougth of as smart anyway. It doesn't make you look smart, it makes you look like con men and idiots.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    27. Re: Electric Universe by meglon · · Score: 0

      Again, that isn't evidence that the electric universe bullshit is anything more than bullshit. All of you dipshits are just fucking liars. You steal real science, done by real scientists, and you warp it into this pseudo-science cult bullshit that you con people out of money with. Electric Universe would be the Piltdown man, if after they found out if was a forgery, the con men drug it around doing sideshows talking about how those bad little biologists don't like them (not mentioning because they're frauds) and begging people for money so they could go get a few cow bones at the local slaughterhouse to glue together to make a "real" dinosaur.

      You're frauds and con men.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    28. Re: Electric Universe by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      That's not me. And either way, the anon's point is nevertheless valid in the context of their statement because they are not explicitly referring to force-free field-aligned Birkeland currents. The Bessel function implies concentric cylinders of charges moving in opposite directions. A person need not be a mathematician to understand from that geometry that the magnetic fields of these concentric cylinders should more-or-less cancel each other out. All you really need to know to get this is the right-hand rule; you've got thumbs up going in opposite directions, thus the hands curl in opposite directions. All it takes is an approximately equal current in each direction. Why would that not be the case?

      It's not a complicated situation once you get the geometry of it.

    29. Re:Electric Universe by meglon · · Score: 4, Informative

      Explain:

      https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/...

      -- Einstein's postulates are wrong.
      -- General relativity (GR) is wrong.
      -- The Universe is not expanding.
      -- The electric force travels faster than the speed of light with near-infinite velocity.
      -- Gravity has two poles like a bar magnet; dipole gravity.
      -- A plenum of neutrinos forms an all-pervasive aether.
      -- Planets give birth to comets.
      -- Stars do not shine because of internal nuclear fusion caused by gravitational collapse. Rather, they are anodes for galactic discharge currents.
      -- Impact craters on Venus, Mars and the Moon are not caused by impacts, but by electrical discharges. The same applies to the Valles Marineris (a massive canyon on Mars) and the Grand Canyon on Earth.
      -- The Sun is negatively charged, and the solar wind is positively charged — the two systems forming a giant capacitor (this is James McCanney's particular erroneous belief.)
      -- EU proponents from the Thunderbolts Project claim to have predicted the natures of Pluto and Comet 67P more accurately than NASA or ESA.

      Every one of these ideas are stupider than fuck. Anyone with a half way decent high school education SHOULD be able to look at that and realize that electric universe bullshit is a fucking worthless con job.

      Lets take a shot at even the first one.... Einsteins postulates are wrong. Why is it that to get GPS to work, they have to account for Relativity? If Relativity was wrong, they wouldn't need to... now would they? The more you peddle this bullshit, the more you look like a fucking idiot.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    30. Re: Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      oh, so lightning is so understood, as to be a fact and not a theory?

      what does theory mean?

      a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, especially one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained.
      "Darwin's theory of evolution"
      synonyms: hypothesis, thesis, conjecture, supposition, speculation, postulation, postulate, proposition, premise, surmise, assumption, presupposition; More
      a set of principles on which the practice of an activity is based.
      "a theory of education"
      an idea used to account for a situation or justify a course of action.
      "my theory would be that the place has been seriously mismanaged"

      note.... no FACT in the definition.

    31. Re:Electric Universe by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      Juan Calsiano has replied to your claims about Relativity here.

    32. Re:Electric Universe by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      So, which is it?

      Until it was mentioned her on /. I have never heard of it. After it was mentioned I looked into it some more, because I never heard of it. What I found was half baked pseudo scientific bunch of mumbo jumbo with this crackpots name attached to it, Immanuel Velikovsky. That pretty much sealed the deal for me. Once I saw that name I decided there was nothing more of value here.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    33. Re:Electric Universe by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      I've been tracking the debate over electricity in space for more than 12 years now. You may want to rethink your belief that you can judge an entire cosmology based upon a couple of articles that you read online.

    34. Re:Electric Universe by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      I'll tell you what. I have some down time coming and I'm still interested in this EU theory. With Immanuel Velikovsky hitching his wagon to it I'm sure its poppy cock but who knows.

      I'll read up on it and make up my own mind.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    35. Re: Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Huh? I was simply asking a question. I'm not sure what motivation you seem to think I have.

    36. Re: Electric Universe by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      The streamers detect one another for the same reason that this happens. It's physics.

    37. Re:Electric Universe by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      I recommend going to controversiesofscience.com, click elephant, then select a category of controversy cards to sort through. These are very important topics.

    38. Re:Electric Universe by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      That site doesn't doesn't seem to be working. I tried to get something useful out of it for 5 minutes. 4 min and 30 seconds longer than I'm required.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    39. Re:Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      First and foremost, let me say you are a complete asshole and a bully. Why not pick on Newtonians? We did not need Einstein to get to the Moon or to Mars, and we know Newton was wrong, so why all this aggression against these Electric Universe upstarts!

      Second of all, though General Relativity is extremely compelling, it has some MAJOR PROBLEMS EVERYONE LOVES TO IGNORE. The first major problem that even Einstein hates is the necessity of the Cosmological Constant. Explain that, asshole. Why is it everytime General Relativity stumbles, out pops some new made up constant, just to make the math work? Why doesn't this bother you in the least? Because you're an asshole and a bully.

      Third of all, Dark Matter is absolute nonsensical dog shit that will never be proven because IT DOES NOT EXIST, and was only conveniently invented BECAUSE THE MATH IS WRONG. The observation does not fit General Relativity, so... (waves hand)... must be DARK MATTER! There is not even the slightest evidence of such a thing, except the paradigm establishment loves question begging: Dark Matter MUST EXIST because General Relativity CANNOT BE WRONG.

      The actual problem is not competing theories, but the paradigm scheme of science, and its take no prisoners, black or white, all or nothing ideology. Newtonian Mechanics was just fine for a pretty good run, even though the observations did not quite match the predictions... and we are talking about slight mathematical errors. No one flipped out and said Newton was completely, entirely wrong, not until Einstein came up with a better explanation. Now Einstein is on top! We have a few predictions that he got right, and we have a few more experiments that makes General Relativity a pretty good approximation for what we observe. That's great.

      But there are serious issues with General Relativity, and establishment assholes like you won't let anyone discuss anything else. Why can't we talk about whatever the fuck we want without some asshole like you coming along and calling everyone an idiot?

      The biggest compelling reason to at least allow discussion of the Electric Universe I see, even if it is mostly wrong, is that it very nicely dispatches with the annoying problems of General Relativity, namely, the Electric Universe does not need the Cosmological Constant, and it does not need Dark Matter.

      Further, Einstein's theories do not forbid faster than light travel. I do not understand why everyone gets this wrong, Einstein's theories only forbid as fast as light travel, and the devil is in the details. Maybe if we stopped using this paradigm methodology in science ( that a theory is either entirely correct, or entirely wrong), we could figure out what is really going on, rather than constantly patching any and all curious holes in Einstein's Universe with dogshit like Dark Matter, and new pulled-out-of-thin-air "constants" that seem to multiply like horny rabbits.

      Lastly, Einstein's theories only work on some scales, just like Newton's theories. Einstein was never able to find that Grand Unified Theory, and neither has anyone else. Maybe, just maybe, Newtonion Mechanics can be used on some scales, General Relativity on others, and yet still other completely incompatible theories on the submicroscopic scales, and wtf, maybe there is room for some of the ideas in the Electric Universe for still other scales.

      So fuck you, dipshit, for being a tow-the-party-line zombie lemming with ZERO imagination that, by all observations, cannot think for himself. And fuck all your science paradigm dipshit asshole friends. The Electric Universe has enough merit to at least allow discussion, and now, it seems, one of its predictions turns out to be ABSOLUTELY TRUE. So go fuck yourself and let the adults talk. Its just talk! Ok? Don't get the little delicate flowers on your panties all bunched up, you fucking twat of a moronic parroting child.

    40. Re:Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only the establishment flings poo, and only because they want to stiffle discussion.

    41. Re: Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And yes, for the electric universe bullshit to be right, Einstein has to be wrong.... and he wasn't. We have working technology that ONLY works BECAUSE of taking into account relativistic effects.

      (Ahem.) Cosmological Constant.(Cough.) Dark Matter.

      Einstein's contributions only work on specific scales. It is entirely unclear that Einstein must be entirely wrong everywhere always if someone else comes up with a new idea that explains elegantly where General Relativity falls completely on its ass, such as in subatomic mechanics.

      The science paradigm zealots are the problem, not Einstein, not Newton, not the imaginative proponents of Electric Universe, but fuckfaces like you that insist we cannot talk about something that is worth talking about, even if it is entirely false. Where is your God particle now?

    42. Re: Electric Universe by Bengie · · Score: 1

      This solar magnetic field could potentially interact with sufficiently strong galactic magnetic fields to produce some of the effects attributed to dark matter.

      Either it needs to explain all of the Dark Matter observations or none of them. Including gravitational lenseing.

    43. Re: Electric Universe by Bengie · · Score: 2

      Dark matter and dark energy are observational facts. What causes these observations is up for debate. Whatever theory attempts to explain them must explain all related observations. Some examples for dark matter is galactic rotations and gravitational lensing. For dark energy, it's objects moving away from us in a linear fashion related to the distance from us, including objects moving away from us faster than light.

    44. Re: Electric Universe by Bengie · · Score: 1

      While we're on the subject of talking about real science, not the fake crap 99.999% agree with. How flat do you think the Earth really is?

    45. Re: Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's not even a compelling Strawman! General Relativity still has some massive problematic issues, starting with the Cosmological Constant, and more recently, with the excrement of Dark Matter and Quintessence. But no one wants to talk about General Relativity's glaring issues. Since General Relativity is the top established paradigm, all the establishment need do is start insulting anyone with a different idea, thereby stiffling discussion, and creating their own false sense of security. Some observation doesn't match the predictions of General Relativity, no problemo, the establishment will simply invent out of thin air some unprovable notion to patch the holes, and voila! Some of us are more skeptical, and open to even discussing things that cannot be true without strawmannont an ad homenem, as though fallacy within fallacy can overcome valid argument backed up with observational edification and the successful prediction of phenomena the establishment has no method to explain adequately.

    46. Re: Electric Universe by RobertHawthorne · · Score: 1

      Refer to maxwell's equations. Thats all we EU "nutters" need. We just take those equations past our atmosphere. If you knew anything about the SAFIRE project you would see we can predict, and expect the very phenomena that you big bang cukes are baffled and confounded almost everytime some data comes back from our probes and scopes.

    47. Re: Electric Universe by RobertHawthorne · · Score: 1

      Where was it proven to be shitbrained? Einsteins field equations divide over zero twice but gets overlooked. Try doing that in college algebra and you fail, do it in cosmology class get a tickertape parade before review.

    48. Re: Electric Universe by RobertHawthorne · · Score: 1

      What money coming in? We dont receive grants and govt money to hoodwink people with mathemagics and theoretical crap. We use maxwells equations, replicate in a lab phenomena seen in space. Yet you con artists keep pushing simulations on a computer screen to represent reality to receive grant money yet none of your predictions have been correct (that's because the big bang theory is wrong).

    49. Re:Electric Universe by meglon · · Score: 1

      "Newtonians" were right for a long time, then technology got better. Since then Einstein has been right. eventually, somewhere in the future, technology will get to the point where we'll have an even more precise definition. Electric universe, on the other hand, has NEVER been right, and when the few predictions it's made have been tested, they've been outright WRONG.

      I get it, you're too fucking stupid to understand Relativity, and need some simple, no math, brain dead bullshit to make you feel special. You are special, but not in a good way. You're a fucking anon coward to start... if you have an opinion, put your name to it... or fuck off yourself you whiny little pseudo-science bitch.

      Because most people aren't fucking idiots like you who think we should throw out 100+ years of science and WORKING TECHNOLOGY that requires that science to be correct. Electric universe is nothing more than a fucking con game for sucking idiots like you. There are no massive electric and magnetic fields that Alfven said had to exists (COBE and WMAP showed that). There are no galactic sized electrical arcs jumping between stars (we've never seen one, even thought they'd have to be a permanent structure).

      http://galacticinteractions.sc...

      If you have to be an anon coward cunt talking about shit you know nothing about, just fuck off.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    50. Re:Electric Universe by AlwinBarni · · Score: 1

      Galactic scale magnetic fields... Is this why stars don't orbit galaxies at the velocities predicted by gravitation alone? Perhaps this will ultimately put an end to dark matter hocus pocus.

      Science does not work the way of "hocus pocus". I practically guarantee, that the Nobel awaits anyone, who would explain dark matter phenomenon. It's not like scientists force upon each other explanations. Any publication or scientific grant proposal is reviewed by peers, who do research in the same field and are direct competitors for research grants, places in renowned journals etc. - so, when some ideas go through such a sieve it's very likely they have merit.

      Going back to the topic: there are more things than just the speed of starts in a galaxy, which are explained by dark matter (e.g. gravitational lensing maps revel halos of "something", which we cannot see. i.e. something, which interacts with gravity, but not electromagnetic force) and there are more theories, which try to explain these phenomena then dark matter as a new particle. Scientists are very competitive by nature and they pursue all sound ideas. Simply, considering what we know so far, the dark matter as a new particle is the most promising.

      So no, dark matter is not "hocus-pocus", it is a proposed explanation for many unexplained observations - one of many proposed and the most promising so far - just that.

    51. Re:Electric Universe by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      I looked some into this, about as far down that rabbit hole as I wanted to go. Which was a little past the door hinges. What I did look in to flies in to the face of solid scientific theory or simply can't be proven.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    52. Re: Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Think I'll chip in here. Sounds off topic a little, but answering your comment in reverse. Earth rotates the sun based on the exact position of the sun as it exists at this moment, not where it was 8 minutes ago (speed of light). This brings into question the speed of gravity. So with regards to anything moving away from us faster than the speed of light - I'm not sure where you're getting that from. I've heard of celestial bodies moving away from each other at more than half the speed of light - but that's getting away from the central point.

      Dark matter was heavily discredited back in 2016 when none of the competing theories predicted or matched observations (which is second hand inferrence, not direct observation). We have to remind ourselves that it was only ever a theory, and a patch to the standard model (a place-holder if you will) and indeed you're correct, if something like plasma, electric fields, and magnetism can answer that, and more precisesly than the dark matter / dark enegy theories, then we need to apply Occam's razor.

      Having looked into it myself, it gets really difficult to accept EU theory when to explain away so much of what we hold dear as truth - and many theories rely upon, we'd need to throw away, according to them. We'd literally have to start from scratch it seems.
      For instance,Dark energy is related to the motion of stars and galaxies. Something we all accept. However, the red-shift / blue-shift as we understand it is apparently invalid. I think it was Haltop Arp who wrote about that (nobel prize winner?). Which does make me want to question it. I can scream "where's the proof?" - and there's a book out there, admittedly I've not read.
      So the long answer there, is if they're right about that, and magnetism over inter-galactic distances can answer the connundum of dark energy, then again, we'll want to think about using Occam's razor once again.
      Unfortunately, I'm not seeing proof, I'm currently seeing conjecture. So guys, remember your university days? What if you've two theories that both appear rational, and both answer the same problem?

    53. Re: Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      gravitational lensing = refraction of light, not gravity bendinging around stars.
      Other comments are suggesting billions of volts potential for our sun alone.
      Observation and behaviour does suggest that electricity/plasma/magnetic fields do behave with the required behavior, according to the EU conference videos you can find on you-tube. Might beworth investigating? Any takers??

    54. Re: Electric Universe by Bengie · · Score: 1

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      "Hubble radius, Hubble sphere, Hubble volume, or Hubble horizon is a conceptual horizon defining the boundary between particles that are moving slower and faster than the speed of light relative to an observer at one given time."
      The Observable Universe is only about 13.8bil years old and about 46bil light years in radius. Everything visible beyond the Hubble Horizon was within our lightcone in the past but is no longer. This is where Dark Energy comes in. No idea what it is, but something is making space expand and it takes energy to expand space.

      Dark Matter is not a theory, it's a set of observations. Nothing has explained these observations without breaking well tested science. Therefore it is something new or something old but not fully understood. The later is highly unlikely because answering the Dark Matter question with existing known physics is pretty much well outside the margin of error of known physics. No one has answered it yet and it's been a century since we've detected it.

      Few facts that we know about whatever the heck Dark Matter is
      1) It's blobby, meaning it can't move fast. Ruling out massless or low mass particles.
      2) It's perfectly transparent as far as we can measure. We can look through billion solar mass blobs without any light dimming or scattering
      3) Massive blobs pass through other matter with no measurable emissions or unexpected interactions
      4) It tends to be mostly in halos around the outer edges of galaxies
      5) When two galaxies collide, the gravitational lensing it causes can be seen moving through and beyond
      6) Some galaxies don't have any observed Dark Matter phenomena
      7) Some Dark Matter does not have an observable host galaxy. In other words, many billion solar mass gravitational lensing with no observable mass in the middle of a vast void.

    55. Re:Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      GP is arguing against the paradigm format of the science establishment, not for EU. And he makes a fair point about Einstein's self-described blunders, such as the Cosmological Constant, which is admittedly pretty ugly. You may want to reread your own posts for your blunders, and stop calling others idiots.

    56. Re: Electric Universe by Bengie · · Score: 1

      I've spent a few hours on YouTube watching EU crap. Hurts my head to deal with the cognitive dissonance. Herp-a-derp, Relativity proves EU is correct.... And EU can prove Relativity is wrong... derp.. Alex Jones make better entertainment, he's mostly consistent.

    57. Re: Electric Universe by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      You are correct that on issues related specifically to redshift, there exists a sort of consensus amongst critics of the Big Bang on Halton Arp. I highly recommend checking out Halton Arp's books - and especially the first one he wrote. His work was always very much driven by observation, and I think history will agree that Arp's claims were well within the bounds of acceptable science. It seems that he was simply swept up in a historical moment where the academic elites decided which direction cosmology would go. And if you dig into the details of what happened around the 82/83 (?) timeframe when CalTech literally took over the Palomar telescope, breaking its agreement with the Carnegie, it becomes clear that Arp wasn't even the only one who was shafted. That is history which the science journalists refuse to tell, and one of many important omissions which are undermining the public's ability to see the big picture here.

      All of these histories which the science journalists are refusing to recount will eventually become common knowledge, and the landscape of the space sciences will look very different in hindsight.

    58. Re: Electric Universe by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      If you are looking for something more comprehensive, then read The Electric Sky. If you want something more technical, then read Physics of the Plasma Universe. You can find copies of the latter floating around online if you prefer to not pay for it.

      It's not a strike against the EU that it's a challenge to pick up; it's testament to how wrong the existing theories are that so much has to change. But, you already knew that (5% universe and all of that ...)

    59. Re:Electric Universe by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      Re: "Scientists are very competitive by nature and they pursue all sound ideas."

      You might try reading actual critiques of modern science, like The Twilight of the Scientific Age:

      "Creativity is blocked. It seems that the system gives the message that no ideas are needed. It seems the system, through its higher authorities, is saying that science only needs to work out the details. It is accepted that the basis of what is now known is correct, that present-day theories are more or less correct and only manpower is needed to sort out some parameters of minor importance. A Copernican revolution is totally unthinkable within the current system."

      - Martín López Corredoira, Cosmologist / Astrophysicist / Philosopher / Published 50 Academic Papers, Often as Lead / Academic Whistleblower

    60. Re:Electric Universe by socheres · · Score: 1

      No man, you got it wrong. Let me rephrase. You never heard of the electric universe which is and IDEA. The fact that Velikovski or some other blacklisted person attatched to the idea of an electric unuiverse should not discourage you from digging to see what the fuss is all about and decide for yourself. Lots of people talked about it. Some of them you may find on your "whitelist". You will learn stuff anyway along the way even if in the end you decide that you don't like the general theory. and WTF is going on with the downmodding ?! Some slashdotters are acting like some idiot school kid police force. Respekt our autoritah you quakers! I bet half the people invoking wrong math on the part of El U are failures at math...

    61. Re: Electric Universe by Bengie · · Score: 1

      Relativity only has issues only in theory and primarily in the quantum realm. This does mean it has it's limits when it comes to predictions, meaning it is not the be-all-to-end-all. Every test ever implemented that could prove or disprove Relativity has always come out in its favor. Make a test that it can't pass and then you'll have a leg to stand on. Until there is a test that shows Relativity to be wrong, we will continue to assume it's correct, and every test that it passes will reaffirm how correct is actually is.

      I am not stifling discussion, I am pointing out discussion that claims Relativity to be wrong in areas that have already been tested and proven correct. Discussion EU isn't a discussion of logic, it's a discussion of zealous belief attempting to poorly masquerade as science. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck, it's probably a duck, but I could be wrong. If you want people to stop thinking you're all crazy, then stop acting crazy and telling lies. What truth might be mixed in is completely lost by the way it is being communicated.

    62. Re: Electric Universe by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      Re: "Every test ever implemented that could prove or disprove Relativity has always come out in its favor. Make a test that it can't pass and then you'll have a leg to stand on. Until there is a test that shows Relativity to be wrong, we will continue to assume it's correct, and every test that it passes will reaffirm how correct is actually is."

      You guys just go into endless circles with this mistaken logic. Juan Calsiano explained in crystal clear detail why there is no substance to what you are saying. If you disagree, please respond to his explanation.

      Re: "Discussion EU isn't a discussion of logic, it's a discussion of zealous belief attempting to poorly masquerade as science."

      My "zealous belief" at least roots in an unexpected observation from just this past Friday where we can see cosmic plasmas behaving as laboratory plasmas. Yours roots to a creation event.

    63. Re:Electric Universe by AlwinBarni · · Score: 1

      Firstly, we are talking about dark matter aka "hocus-pocus", to, which I explained that it's not like this at all, that scientists stumbled upon something they cannot explain, that they are pursuing all the sound ideas and that there is much more evidence of unexplained gravity than just speed of stars in galaxies, and that based on data the most probable explanation is dark matter as yet not discovered particle.

      Secondly, I will read the mentioned article, however despite the fact that science is not a perfect methodology (it's done by humans and humans are not perfect) it seems like the best people came up with throughout our history. Scientific methodology of evidence and questioning everything brought us not only pretty comfortable lives but also pleasure of contemplating and getting to understand the Universe. Not to mention the very computers and the Internet we use to communicate and all the other inventions and discoveries, which make our lives so interesting and help more and more people reach their potential.

      When I was born there was no Internet, no GPS, computers were beyond reach by an average person, cars didn't have airbags, plane ticket were prohibitively expensive and nobody even considered MRI. I do not know what is your theory we achieved what we have, but I contribute it to hard work of scientists and engineers.

      Lastly, evidence does not support conclusions from the article, scientific books are being rewritten with revolutionary ideas much more then in the past: general relativity (time is not constant), quantum theory (all is waves of probability), quantum chromodynamics, expansion of the Universe, black holes, evaporating black holes, cosmic microwave background radiation, string theory, quantum field theory, gravitational waves, accelerating expansion of the Universe, Higgs field and Higgs bozon - if this is stagnation, then I do not know what is not. Please keep in mind, that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence", which makes scientists extra careful, they double, triple and quadruple check their data and conclusions.

      So I have a question for you, before writing this "hocus-pocus", have you at least read a wiki page about dark matter: evidence, possible explanations and why yet to be discovered particle is most likely, why e.g. MOND is unlikely?

    64. Re: Electric Universe by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      Re: "Unfortunately, I'm not seeing proof, I'm currently seeing conjecture."

      The logic is straightforward. Each claim I am about to make can be backed up with references. I'm going to spare myself the burden of doing that in this particular instance so that I can focus upon providing you with "the big picture" of what is going on - because I will completely agree that there is so much new information here that it can be overwhelming. If you want to see the references for these claims, follow me on Twitter

      The Electric Universe is a cosmology that adds a number of conjectures to "plasma cosmology" or Peratt's preferred term, "plasma universe" (I personally prefer the phrase "electrical cosmology" as a general term to refer to any one of them). Plasma cosmology and plasma universe are a bit older than the EU, so the EU benefits from being able to incorporate more modern observations. The most important thing that you need to know is that all of these terms share one bedrock belief in common: the idea that scientists can - and very much should - use laboratory plasma observations to inform their astronomical inferences.

      In the laboratory, plasmas exhibit filamentation, hub-and-spoke structures which connect those filaments into electrical networks, plasma double layers, critical ionization velocities, and a host of other fundamentally electrodynamic and circuit-oriented behaviors. Astrophysicists today refuse to consider the full toolbox of laboratory plasma observations when they make inferences about cosmic plasmas, and they decide to do so even though a host of outstanding problems can be solved with these tools.

      Perhaps the best example relates to the situation with double layers. Double layers have been observed both in the laboratory and in space - yet astrophysics graduate students are still not taught what they are. A very simple privately-funded experiment can be performed whereby a metal sphere is charge-loaded within a vacuum. A series of layers will appear given sufficient charge density, and these layers can unexpectedly hold tremendous heat. In fact, the heat profile very much mimics the inverse-temperature enigma of the solar corona - suggesting that an answer to that predicament is readily available if only the graduate programs would simply teach the concept to students.

      The ionosphere is an example of a double layer. Notice that it can be used to reflect AM waves. A significant suggestion has been indirectly made by Wal Thornhill that the very reason for the Fermi Paradox is because life originates within a sufficiently strong double layer that all radio communications are blocked. Conceptually, this would make a lot of sense because double layers can insulate the incubator from all of the violence of cosmic plasmas. A similar protection is afforded to us here on Earth by the Van Allen radiation belts - another spot where double layers have been observationally confirmed.

      Look at Tunguska: Where is the impactor? We can see that a catastrophic event occurred, but there is no object to point to as the cause. That problem disappears once double layers are considered, for then we need only assert that the double layers of two charged objects came into contact with one another, releasing a substantial amount of energy. No impactor is required, and this is basic plasma physics applied to the planetary sciences.

      Double layers can also accelerate charged particles. You have an unusual source for cosmic rays? Double layers offer a new tool to address that.

      You can also think of double layers as a system which the fourth state of matter uses to create structure: At the root of the plasma filament, with its concentric counter-rotating cylinders, is the concept of the double layer. The different layers of the Sun can be explained with double layers (Don Scott

    65. Re: Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Make a test that it can't pass and then you'll have a leg to stand on.

      Ok, let's make a test that uses Relativity to make a prediction about how galaxies can stay together cohesively, obviously employing gravity of observable matter and even matter we can't literaly see, but can still detect, without postulating some phantom idea of a special kind of matter that has mass but otherwise is not detectable nor does it interact with normal matter in any way other than with gravity.

      ok... test failed. Test failed again. Reset, repeat. Test continues to fail.

      HERE, SIR IS BOTH LEGS JUMPING UP AND DOWN AND BOTH ARMS WAVING MADLY

      Relativity fails, it seems, in this instance (and in the quantum would also), unless we are missing something(s). Ok, Dark Matter is one single extrordinarily convenient and unprovable idea, and it has stuck like a too big to fail B-rated Hollywood script. What else? What do you mean we can't talk about what else? Stop calling me an idiot.

    66. Re: Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stop hijacking my anon trolls. Just kidding about trolling, I am making a point that strong paradigms stiffle discussion, not that EU is correct, but that GR has issues, and discussion is good, and even if EU is wrong, it has value nevertheless, and may contain the epiphany that will get us to a TOE. Seems that most everyone is bothered by someone in EU that is appending what is good in EU with something to make it look crackpottish. I suspect it is one bad apple of an idea spoils the bunch. String Theory is entirely unorovable and cannot make predictions, but no one bashes String Theory. EU is nothing if not cool as balls. Let's look at it, all of it, every single bit of it, and piece by piece filter it to make absolutely certain there isn't a novel idea in there that could move us forward, because space travel is too dangerous and won't help anyway, and the steady advance of telescope and astronomy-related observational technology is slow and expensive and they cut corners to save money and get at least something done... it is a snail crawl. A better idea would be to have an idea that is correct. We will be better able to discover correct ideas if we can discuss any thing any time always. We have the time.

    67. Re:Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you have to be an anon coward cunt talking about shit you know nothing about, just fuck off.

      You keep doing this. When you do this, you are the bad student from the strong team in Karate Kid. You are merely footnoting needlessly that you are an arrogant cunt covering your glaring insecurity about your own intellect with garbage. I wish I didn't know that you were an insecure and arrogant cunt. I don't have to know. But you forced me to know. Tighten up, your slip is showing. Argue rationally until the last shovel full of dirt is thrown upon your grave. Don't swagger, don't bully. Argue rationally.

    68. Re: Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is a fallacy, petitio principii, assuming the antecedent, properly known as begging the question. Only if you assume that Relativity is correct is what you say true. Relativity may very well be correct, and Dark Matter and Quintessence may very well exist, but you cannot validly argue that they exist because Relativity cannot be wrong. There is nothing logically inconsistent with the idea that Relativity only appears exactly correct in some scales, yet turns out to be entirely wrong, coincidentally. My point is it is not logically impossible for Relativity to simply be wrong. So you can't prove these things by assuming Relativity to be correct. Find some fucking Dark Matter. Directly detect Quintessence. Or let us discuss off the wall theories that need neither.

    69. Re: Electric Universe by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      This business of reconsidering observations in the light of a completely new set of assumptions and hypotheses is hard work, so wherever you might see people coming to a snap judgement about an entire cosmology after having read one or two debunker essays, realize that the mind sees the amount of work involved with learning it and may try to find shortcuts which it can use to justify a more lazy approach.

      Those who take the time to learn the new idea are richly rewarded because once you pick up this new toolbox, you will start to see how one single observation can very often be interpreted in more than one manner, based upon these two worldviews. If you can mentally position yourself like this for each ongoing controversy you encounter, then you are watching science unfold at its cutting edge, as a scientist would. Over time, if you track the controversy for long enough, all of the many bits of context start to fill in, and you can come to understand this current historical moment - why it happened, where the two worldviews diverge, how each side will argue it. At this point, you may even be able to make some predictions about what is to come.

      This practice of tracking controversies over many years is the only reliable way to make accurate predictions about these complex issues. Tracking controversies is a skill which a person can become better at over time. In terms of psychology, it's called the subject-object transition: You take something which you have been subject to for many years, and you practice looking at the same observations from a different - equally valid - perspective, just long enough to now manipulate that thing as an object. You can literally make yourself smarter by practicing this subject-object transition. It's a mental muscle of sorts, and one of the highest forms of thinking - thinking like a scientist.

    70. Re:Electric Universe by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      Re: "Lastly, evidence does not support conclusions from the article, scientific books are being rewritten with revolutionary ideas much more then in the past: general relativity (time is not constant), quantum theory (all is waves of probability), quantum chromodynamics, expansion of the Universe, black holes, evaporating black holes, cosmic microwave background radiation, string theory, quantum field theory, gravitational waves, accelerating expansion of the Universe, Higgs field and Higgs bozon - if this is stagnation, then I do not know what is not."

      The mistake that people make is to completely ignore critiques of modern science. Critique serves a purpose for science of helping us to identify what is true; if you remove it, then all you can do is accept the claim as valid. It's only through a process of surveying all critiques that we can begin to formulate meaningful judgments about what is and isn't likely to be correct.

      Newton, Einstein & Velikovsky: Celestial Mechanics, Electromagnetism, Solar System Instability & Cosmology
      By Charles Ginenthal
      pages 257-266

      "Space Inflation and the Invention of the Higgs Boson

      The universe supposedly began when a singularity or black hole that had all the mass, electricity and space in it for some unknown reason exploded. Alan Guth received a Nobel Prize for explaining what happened next, which came to be known as 'inflation.' At 10^-36 seconds after the Big Bang, the universe expanded exponentially beyond the speed of light. It was not the matter that expanded outward, but the space that contained this matter that expanded; since matter cannot, according to Einstein, travel faster than the speed of light, the way to get the matter to expand throughout the universe was to have the space between it expand. Science writer, Marcia Bartusiak, outlines the development of Guth's inflationary concept that was very quickly accepted by the scientific establishment because, as we will see, like Dark Matter, it was needed to make the Big Bang theory work.

      'Guth did not start out to do cosmology. Working with a Cornell University colleague, Henry Tye, he was trying to determine if most current grand unification theories in physics -- theories that attempt to unify the forces of nature -- might give rise to monopoles (hypothetical particles of magnetic charge). The two particle physicists concluded that monopoles would be generated and proceeded to see how many might be produced in the Big Bang. So many would be created that 'we began to wonder why the universe was here at all,' said Guth 'Their tremendous weight would have closed the universe back up [by causing it to implode back into a black hole] eons ago.'' [41]

      Because what they found would not allow the universe to expand to its present size after about 13.7 billion years -- some way had to be found to get out of this impasse, as Bartusiak further explains:

      'Guth and Tye eventually surmised that monopole production could be curtailed if the early universe 'Supercooled' as it expanded -- [Supercooling allowed] the forces of nature in effect staying unified for a while as temperatures plunged, just as water can sometimes supercool and remain liquid below its freezing point. The notion of [there being an] inflation was encountered when Tye casually reminded Guth to check how this supercooling might affect the infant universe.

      Guth carried out the initial calculations at his home office on the night of December 6, 1979. He started at about 10^-35 seconds into the universe's birth ... His equations told him that supercooling would endow the universe with a tremendous potential energy. A pressure contribution to gravity became so substantial that it reversed the effect of gravity, causing the tiny universe to balloon outward at a superacceleration rate for a miniscule (~10^-35 second or so), stretching space-time [with all the protomatter of the Universe contained in it outward] by a factor of 10^-30 or more. When this supercoole

    71. Re: Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Great post, excellent points. I always think there are two kinds of minds, Tom Sawyers and Huck Finns. Both are smart, but represent two aspects, one of rote knowledge, one of ingenuity. Both are necessary, but Huck is the brilliant one. Too often we are not skeptical enough of established science, because we are lazy or know-it-alls. The truth is unattaonable, we can only ever achieve closer and closer approximations.

    72. Re: Electric Universe by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      Re: "Pick up any planetary dymanics or solar system mechanics text written in the last 80 years and you'll be confronted by the reality of solar magnetic fields."

      There are also clues in more recent observations that stars are connected by transmission lines:

      Based on theoretical studies of how magnetism is generated in stars, it’s thought that the fully convective interiors of ultracool dwarfs can’t support large-scale magnetic field formation. This should prevent these stars from exhibiting activity cycles like the Sun. But recent radio observations of dwarf stars have led scientist Matthew Route (ITaP Research Computing, Purdue University) to question these models.

      A Reversing Field?

      During observations of the brown dwarf star J1047+21 in 2010–2011, radio flares were detected with emission primarily polarized in a single direction. The dwarf’s flares in late 2013, however, all showed polarization in the opposite direction. Could this be an indication that J1047+21 has a stable, global dipolar field that flipped polarity in between the two sets of observations? If so, this could mean that the star has a magnetic cycle similar to the Sun’s.

      Inspired by this possibility, Route conducted an investigation of the long-term magnetic behavior of all known radio-flaring ultracool dwarfs, a list of 14 stars. Using polarized radio emission measurements, he found that many of his targets exhibited similar polarity flips, which he argues is evidence that these dwarfs are undergoing magnetic field reversals on roughly decade-long timescales, analogous to those reversals that occur in the Sun.

      If this is indeed true, then we need to examine our models of how magnetic fields are generated in stars ...

      From a different article, reason to believe that stellar environments can exert influence upon stellar phenomena via "magnetic fields":

      Haimin Wang, a distinguished professor of physics at NJIT and a co-author of the paper, said the observations will prompt scientists to revisit the mechanisms of flares - and the basic physics of the Sun - in a fundamental way.

      'We used to think that the surface's magnetic evolution drives solar eruptions. Our new observations suggest that disturbances created in the solar outer atmosphere can also cause direct and significant perturbations on the surface through magnetic fields, a phenomenon not envisioned by any major contemporary solar eruption models. This has immediate and far-reaching implications in understanding energy and momentum transportation in eruptions on the Sun and other stars,' Wang said.

    73. Re:Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How are regular level bands in gneiss formed? Gotta be electricity involved. Quartz has piezo-electric properties.

  2. Re:It's electric! by Calydor · · Score: 3, Funny

    Don't you mean dank matter?

    --
    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  3. Re:It's electric! by BrianMarshall · · Score: 3, Funny

    The original submission included a comment with more information about the theory of a plasma universe.

    I bet it does.

    --
    "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" -- HST
  4. Re:It's electric! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You win. That is much better

  5. Obviously interstellar highways. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    For the aliens that will hopefully cure this planet of its nasty human infection prelly soon.

    I, for one, ...

  6. The Matrix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When I first saw this, I immediately thought of that scene from the not-3rd-Matrix movie where he sees the machine city after he had been blinded. Different color though.

    It's amazing to think those filaments are stupidly huge, many times wider than our solar system, density of a few hundred atoms per meter cubed give or take a few, and the temperatures of some atoms can be upwards of a 1000K to many millions in some cases. (which will remain that way for a while because they can only radiate heat away, which is much slower than what we see on ground scales with convection and conduction)
    Damn space, you scary.
    Stay up there.

  7. Go away, Electric Universers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why is Slashdot so replete with Electric Universe cranks? Go away.

    Submitter's obvious slant aside, this image is great. The MeerKAT is a hell of a project.

    1. Re:Go away, Electric Universers by BrianMarshall · · Score: 2

      'Cause you can see the filaments! Just like in a toy plasma globe! Plasma can conduct electric currents, which proves the filaments conduct electricity!

      This means we don't need dark matter OR the General Theory of Relativity!

      --
      "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" -- HST
    2. Re:Go away, Electric Universers by Pseudonym · · Score: 1

      Why is Slashdot so replete with Electric Universe cranks?

      "Replete" is a stretch. Only seen one so far and you can't be certain they weren't joking.

      (As someone who hasn't heard of it before that was an interesting in a psychoceramic kind of way.)

      --
      sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
    3. Re: Go away, Electric Universers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Psychoceramic? Study of teapots, blobby ashtrays, garden gnomes and their mental states?

    4. Re: Go away, Electric Universers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Psychoceramics: The study of crackpots.

    5. Re: Go away, Electric Universers by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      The study of psychotextiles is the materials-science branch of a proper liberal arts/humanities degree; surely you've heard of it.

    6. Re:Go away, Electric Universers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The part that annoys me most about the whole Electric Universe thing is that nowadays you basically can't talk about electromagetism in astrophysics at all.

    7. Re:Go away, Electric Universers by meglon · · Score: 1

      Exactly. They take real science and turn it into shit to feed into their con game.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    8. Re:Go away, Electric Universers by meglon · · Score: 1

      I think there's two, and i doubt either of them could pass a high school physics class.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    9. Re: Go away, Electric Universers by meglon · · Score: 1

      Psychotextiles... isn't that a brand name for '70s disco cloths?

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    10. Re:Go away, Electric Universers by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      because a serious science forum would ban them. slashdot in 2018 has articles about possibility of next iphone being available in each of the gay pride flag colors.

    11. Re: Go away, Electric Universers by Pseudonym · · Score: 1

      Bingo.

      --
      sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
    12. Re:Go away, Electric Universers by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 3

      Re: "The part that annoys me most about the whole Electric Universe thing is that nowadays you basically can't talk about electromagetism in astrophysics at all."

      Astrophysicists' problems with magnetic fields did not begin with the Electric Universe; they began with the former mistaken assumption that the space between stars is basically empty. That unfortunate assumption guided the creation of scientific theories in the space sciences up until the first instrumented rockets definitively demonstrated that space is not actually empty. To this day, the most popular theories in the space sciences remain rooted in a pre-Space Age set of assumptions. The situation was properly stated in a 1963 Popular Science interview with James van Allen:

      "'Space' was invented on Earth before we knew what was out there"

      Once rockets were finally sent into space - in 1958 - the mistake was immediately realized because those rockets returned to the ground radioactive. Once it was realized that the space between planets and stars is permeated by an ionized medium, the introductions of many graduate-level textbooks were updated with explicit mention of the importance of the plasma state:

      "Today it is recognized that 99.999% of all observable matter in the universe is in the plasma state..."[4]

      "It is estimated that as much as 99.9% of the universe is comprised of plasma."[5]

      "..the plasma state is the most abundant state of matter. It is thought that more than 99.9% of matter in the universe is in plasma"[6]

      "plasmas are abundant in the universe. More than 99% of all known matter is in the plasma state"[7]

      "It is an interesting fact that most of the material in the visible universe, as much as 99% according to some estimates, is in the plasma state"[8]

      "Probably more than 99 percent of visible matter in the universe exist in the plasma state."[9]

      "It is estimated that more than 99 percent of matter in the universe exists as plasma; examples include stars, nebulae, and interstellar particles"[10]

      "It is sometimes said that more than 99 percent of the material in the universe is in the form of plasma"[11]

      "about 99% of matter in the universe is plasma"[12]

      "99.9 percent of the Universe is made up of plasma," says Dr. Dennis Gallagher, a plasma physicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center" [13]

      "How was it determined that 99% of the Universe is in a plasma state? Most of the gas in interstellar space is ionized (astronomers can tell by the wavelengths of light the gas absorbs and emits), and all of the gas in stars in ionized, that's where the 99% comes from. The 99% ignores any dark matter which might be out there."[14]

      "It has often been said that 99% of the matter in the universe is in the plasma state.[15]

      "And yet these radio-frequency links must survive the complexities of the plasma which comprises well over 99.9 percent of the universe".[16]

      "This fourth state of matter probably comprises more than 99.9 per cent of the matter in our Universe."[17]

      (sources are available at here.)

      What is not widely recognized is that, based on observations of the ionosphere, a gas can start to behave as a plasma with less than 1% ionization.

      To give an explicit example for how the empty vacuum of space mistake has shaped the direction

    13. Re:Go away, Electric Universers by meglon · · Score: 1

      Where's the radio emissions that Alfven predicted would be there (HAD to be there, for his bullshit to be correct)? We didn't see them with COBE or WMAP..... we don't see them now. Where are they? How can anyone with a fucking working brain cell buy into this type of shit when it literally has NO evidence, and can't fulfill any predictions it makes (IN FACT, it's preconditions turn out to be WRONG).

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    14. Re: Go away, Electric Universers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gah millennials have to modernise everything, the well established field is actually called, "Psychokeramos", to all the learned.

    15. Re:Go away, Electric Universers by Pseudonym · · Score: 1

      Even two isn't necessarily "replete". There were at least a couple of Young Earth Creationists back in the day who saw fit to butt in every now and then...

      --
      sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
    16. Re:Go away, Electric Universers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      because a serious science forum would ban them.

      Only if they were being disruptive. Slashdot has never banned people for being idiots in public.

      We usually just mod them down or shout them out. Or at least we did until the altcucks and sjws took over.

    17. Re: Go away, Electric Universers by RobertHawthorne · · Score: 1

      The Electric Universe Theory IS spreading. Start biting your nails big bang con artists.

  8. Scale by Presence+Eternal · · Score: 1

    If I'm reading it right, that photo is of a region 1,000 light years across, compared to a galactic width of about 100,000 light years.

    1. Re:Scale by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ha ha try again nerd my screen is only 10 inches wide if it were that big i wouldn't be able to see the whole thing

  9. Re: It's aliens meddling with elections by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The aliens have conspired against the Clintons. Putin is an alien too. It's true because the Fascist Bureau of Intimidation (FBI) says so.

  10. 50 times more powerful -At What? by charliemerritt03 · · Score: 1

    50 times more sensitive?
    Angular separation?
    Wide spectrum?
    Post-radio computer processing power?
    I don't like the word "powerful" if you aren't talking horsepower or something.

    1. Re:50 times more powerful -At What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Angular resolution on the order of 1 arcsec @ 1420 MHz - the image is 30x10 parsec (100x33 light year) (or maybe 300x100.. ) so those filaments are substantially larger than our solar system.

      http://public.ska.ac.za/meerkat
      https://arxiv.org/pdf/0910.2935.pdf

  11. Suggestion by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

    The Milky Way pics are always from the side of the Galaxy - they really should take a picture from above or below.

    --
    Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    1. Re:Suggestion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or get a little closer. I mean, with the right lens and maybe a tripod for stabilization they could get some really nice shots from close-up.

    2. Re:Suggestion by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      I'd be happier with a wider view field of now that we know the real diameter is bigger than the traditional 100,000 light year diameter..

      They could just use the "uncrop" button on existing picture.

  12. All bullshit by meglon · · Score: 3, Informative
    https://motherboard.vice.com/e...

    https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/nz7neg/electric-universe-theory-thunderbolts-project-wallace-thornhill

    "Electric universe" theory is at odds with everything modern science has determined about the universe.

    In physics, theories need math. That's how you predict, gather evidence, verify, disprove, and support. But EU theory isn't big on math. In fact, "Mathematics is not physics," Thornhill said. While that equation aversion makes the theory pretty much a nonstarter for "mainstream" astronomers, it is the exact thing that appeals to many adherents.

    "At best, the 'electric universe' is a solution in search of a problem; it seeks to explain things we already understand very well through gravity, plasma and nuclear physics, and the like," said astronomer Phil Plait, who runs the blog Bad Astronomy at Slate. "At worst it's sheer crackpottery like homeopathy and astrology, making claims clearly contradicted by the evidence."

    Lets get that again from a real scientist:

    making claims clearly contradicted by the evidence

    Electric universe is bullshit.

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    1. Re: All bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think youâ(TM)re overreacting. Just because someone thinks GMF may exist and may effect orbits or drive galaxy formation and evolution doesnâ(TM)t make them EU nuts, it makes them inquisitive and possibly good scientists. There isnâ(TM)t any real evidence of âdark matterâ(TM) that isnâ(TM)t known phenomena (black-holes, neutrinos, whatever) but âoescientistsâ still ask for grant money to research it. The intolerance here is rampant, there must be many Twumpf supporters here.

    2. Re: All bullshit by meglon · · Score: 1

      So... just because someone's a crackpot pseudo-scienctist peddling a con for money means we shouldn't be mean to them for dragging actual science into their bullshit and giving real science a bad name? That's not intolerance, that's integrity. Want to talk science? Great. Electric universe isn't science, it's bullshit... it's a fucking con job begging gullible fools for money.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    3. Re:All bullshit by strikethree · · Score: 1

      Electric universe is bullshit.

      Their assertions are complete bullshit. There is a reason they make those assertions, and that is where things get interesting.

      Pretty much everyone agrees that at The Beginning, their was nothing but energy. It is explained as being at a single point, no mass, no space. Assuming that is correct:

      Energy, for whatever reason, "knotted" or "condensed" into 'matter'. When energy became 'matter' it forced the creation of the 'compliment' of mass, which is what we call spacetime. Spacetime is a field. A field of electromagnetism. Space is literally electromagnetic. This is how photons move. Photons aka electromagnetic waves, are literally ripples in this electromagnetic field. The photons are always measured at the same speed regardless of the strength of this field because measurements are always taken in relation to the electromagnetic field, aka spacetime.

      The spacetime field falls off in proportion to lorentz invariance as applied to speed in relation to the speed of light. http://www2.lbl.gov/MicroWorld.... If you look at the graph in the lower right corner, the center of the galaxy would be at the far top right of that graph. Technically, any "black hole" will do as far as the top right of that graph goes. The field falls off in direct relation towards the outside of the galaxy. This is why galactic rotation curves do not make "sense" to humans. Time is literally moving faster at the edge of the galaxy than the center. Proof: http://www.astronomy.ohio-stat...

      Since spacetime is literally an electromagnetic field, I can understand why the Electric Universe folks get so bent out of shape... they perceived part of a Truth and went running with it... rather like I am. ;)

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
    4. Re:All bullshit by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      Re: "Pretty much everyone agrees that at The Beginning, their was nothing but energy."

      The origin of this idea is clearly the Bible, no?

  13. Agreed... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Agreed: Academics make "$" off bs 'dark matter' mathematical kludge crap to fool the masses - "Star-In-A-Jar" & CERN show all you need to know that the universe is a giant magnetic bottle containing everything (including the plasma reactions of stars). Especially since BOTH showed the same patterns YOU note & also via magnetic filings on the smaller-scale Star In A Jar (see it on YouTube) model vs. CERN - EXACT match, Hexagon forming (same shape they theorized & SAW on the top of iirc, Saturn, after storms there @ its northern pole).

    * God doesn't BUILD "ultra-complex" (neither do GOOD engineers when possible) & God doesn't make no junk!

    (I also do NOT agree w/ relativistic bs that electrons do NOT behave planets around THEIR atomic 'stars' because of that (why would the creator ALTER a working model to fit another relativistic level?) - We just, imo, don't have EQUIPMENT sensitive enough to detect electron orbits (yet) & they're just 'solar systems' + constellations are just molecular chains...)

    APK

    P.S.=> Again - I agree & the cause? CROOKED ACADEMIA like MAD out there today (w/ their KNOWN BOGUS "peer reviews" they're always getting POPPED/BUSTED in for GRANT MONIES (not even caring about their rep & WHEN THEY DO? It's PURE "pride" & FEAR they'll be caught (knowing they will, inevitably, like criminals in labcoats MANY of them, are))... apk

    1. Re:Agreed... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      uh.... what?

  14. Obviously by mentil · · Score: 2

    the SKA telescope will inevitably revive the debate

    No Doubt.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  15. not what the article was about anyway by iggymanz · · Score: 1

    Yes that extra little bit about plasma universe was unnecessary and added by shill for that theory

    The filaments (having no similarity whatsoever with discharges inside globe toy nor with lightning) though are real and were discovered in mid 80s.

    1. Re:not what the article was about anyway by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      Re: "The filaments (having no similarity whatsoever with discharges inside globe toy nor with lightning) though are real and were discovered in mid 80s."

      Filamentation is a fundamental aspect of plasmas conducting charged particles, and has been observed countless times in all sorts of plasma laboratories. The novelty plasma globe has been pointed to simply because the public will be most familiar with it.

      Filamentation was also the most important prediction by Nobel laureate Hannes Alfven insofar as it distinguishes a universe dominated by plasmas from one that is not. Filaments do not naturally follow from the radial force of gravity, so those who might assert that they are not currents would have to rely upon either a creation event, chance observation from "shocks", or some other esoteric phenomenon forcefully imposed upon the observation in order to avoid the simple inference of electric currents.

      Among the earliest predictions about the morphology of the universe that differed significantly from the common astrophysical assumption is that the universe be filamentary (Alfven, 1950, 1981, 1990).

      If you have an alternative scientific explanation for why these filaments are magnetized and how it is that they remain coherent over light years distances, then you should post it.

    2. Re:not what the article was about anyway by iggymanz · · Score: 2

      observed peer reviewed fact: star systems are overall electrically neutral

      crash goes your nonsense theory

    3. Re:not what the article was about anyway by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      Debye screening has been shown to be untrue in countless instances. Astrophysicists enshrined the conjecture as a dogma, then subsequently ignored each violation. If you know of a serious attempt to somehow validate the conjecture, please kindly post it. Having some familiarity with these debates, I can clearly see that your confident declarations greatly exceed the actual evidence.

    4. Re:not what the article was about anyway by meglon · · Score: 1
      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    5. Re:not what the article was about anyway by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      Yes, and notice that there are 250 comments (!) attached to the article - and anybody who actually reads through those comments will see an actual back-and-forth discussion happening. You're trying to convince people that there is no debate to be had here, but the link you've sent people to exhibits a debate attached to the article.

    6. Re:not what the article was about anyway by meglon · · Score: 1

      They don't care. Electric universe idiots are a cult, not scientists. If they were scientists they would have understood they were wrong when COBE and WMAP proved their predictions were wrong.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    7. Re:not what the article was about anyway by meglon · · Score: 1

      There is no debate.. just a bunch of electric universe cultists refusing to accept reality, probably because it'll hurt their bottom line. The conversation trying to get a mentally ill person to stop thinking they're Marie Antoinette is not a debate, it's just a really fucking stupid conversation with someone mentally ill who doesn't live in reality..... just like every conversation with an electric universe cultist.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    8. Re:not what the article was about anyway by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      High-power microwaves here on Earth are produced by plasma instabilities in electron beams - in other words, electric currents over plasma. COBE and WMAP, by contrast, are pitching a creation event as the cause for the microwaves coming at us from all directions. You might want to take a step back, and think more deeply about what is going on here - and especially your own role in the light of this information about microwaves which I can plainly see you were not aware of.

    9. Re:not what the article was about anyway by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      The bedrock claim put forward by the Thunderbolts Project - the claim which all proponents of EU will agree on - is that we can apply laboratory plasma physics principles to the interpretation of cosmic plasmas. Nobel laureate Hannes Alfven made the point repeatedly that laboratory observation of plasmas must be at the root of our attempts to understand cosmic plasmas:

      "In retrospect, it seems clear that Alfvén considered his early theoretical assumption of frozen-in magnetic fields to be his greatest mistake, a mistake perpetuated first and foremost by mathematicians attracted to Alfvén's magnetohydrodynamic equations. Alfvén came to recognize that real plasma behavior is too 'complicated and awkward' for the tastes of mathematicians. It is a subject 'not at all suited for mathematically elegant theories.' It requires hands-on attention to plasma dynamics in the laboratory. Sadly, he said, the plasma universe became 'the playground of theoreticians who have never seen a plasma in a laboratory. Many of them still believe in formulae which we know from laboratory experiments to be wrong.'

      Again and again Alfvén reiterated the point: the underlying assumptions of cosmologists today 'are developed with the most sophisticated mathematical methods and it is only the plasma itself which does not 'understand' how beautiful the theories are and absolutely refuses to obey them.'"

      If you don't believe that we should use laboratory observations of plasmas to explain cosmic plasmas, then how else do you propose we interpret these extraordinary cosmic filaments which appear to be electrodynamically interacting with one another?

    10. Re:not what the article was about anyway by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      It is clear you don't have a degree in the physical sciences. The current flows predicted by the debunked EU theory have not been observed. The papers of Alfvén, Carlquist and Anthony Peratt all have failed to predict observed reality. The major website of EU "theory" is a jumble of technical words pieced together without understanding. You shill totally debunked nonsense that is the laughing stock of peer reviewed astronomy, cosmology and physics .

    11. Re:not what the article was about anyway by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      Re: "The current flows predicted by the debunked EU theory have not been observed."

      Observations with ESA's Herschel space observatory have revealed that our Galaxy is threaded with filamentary structures on every length scale. From nearby clouds hosting tangles of filaments a few light-years long to gigantic structures stretching hundreds of light-years across the Milky Way's spiral arms, they appear to be truly ubiquitous.

      The column density map, derived from our 70-500 micron Herschel data, reveals a complex network of filaments, and confirms that these filaments are the main birth sites of prestellar cores.

      (they infer "turbulence" as the cause of the 27 star forming filaments, which plainly appear to branch off of one another! lol!)

      Neutral hydrogen (HI) surveys at high galactic latitude show that the interstellar gas is filamentary.

      Fig. (1) is an adaptation of Verschuur’s Neutral Hydrogen Filaments at High Galactic Latitudes [31]. The HI plasma filaments are formed by the scavenging action of interstellar Birkeland currents flowing in our galaxy. Seen from Earth the filament twists gives the misleading impression of a puzzling HI ‘cloud’ seen as an ‘enhanced emission feature’ (EEF) in the 21-cm radio telescope beam. The closed ellipses in the right-hand schematic are EEFs where the filament orientation twists away from the plane of the sky. Verschuur concludes that “...much of what is observed to be ‘cloud’ structure in the interstellar medium is telling us about geometry of filaments and not about the physics of ‘clouds.’”

      These long and narrow magnetised filaments were discovered in the 1980s using the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope in New Mexico, but their origin has remained a mystery.

      Henri Poincaré, at the conclusion of the preface to his book, 'Hypothéses Cosmogoniques', states:

      One fact that strikes everyone is the spiral shape of some nebulae; it is encountered much too often for us to believe that it is due to chance. It is easy to understand how incomplete any theory of cosmogony which ignores this fact must be. None of the theories accounts for it satisfactorily, and the explanation I myself once gave, is a kind of toy theory, is no better than the others. Consequently, we come up against a big question mark.

      our results have now yielded firm evidence that many — possibly all — AGN jets have inward currents along their axes and outward currents in a more extended region surrounding the jets. This provides fundamental information about the conditions leading to the formation and launching of the jets, as well as key input to theoretical simulations of astrophysical jets. It also indicates that astrophysical jets are fundamentally electromagnetic structures, which must be borne in mind when interpreting observed features in the distributions of both their intensity and linear polarization.

      The mention of cosmic-scale magnetic fields is still likely to met with an uncomfortable silence in some astronomical circles – and after a bit of foot-shuffling and throat-

  16. It all makes sense now... by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    a phenomenon observable in most novelty plasma globes

    So it turns out our universe is not a computer simulation....

    We're living in a novelty toy!

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:It all makes sense now... by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      Funny people talk about simulation à la Matrix. If really "someone" created this kind of "simulation" our relatively very limited human brain capacity would be far from comprehending whatever it consists of.

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    2. Re:It all makes sense now... by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      . If really "someone" created this kind of "simulation" our relatively very limited human brain capacity would be far from comprehending

      I would be pretty concerned with what will happen to you when the guy who does the AI programming for our sim reads when you said about the quality of his work. :-)

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    3. Re:It all makes sense now... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny people talk about simulation à la Matrix. If really "someone" created this kind of "simulation" our relatively very limited human brain capacity would be far from comprehending whatever it consists of.

      Sure, but the idea is not to arrive all at once to the Final Ultimate Answer. That's just not a realistic expectation whether this existence is a simulation or not. The idea is that as humanity makes technological progress and learns of new possibilities and ideas, we get closer and closer to comprehending it.

  17. Fanatics on Cocaine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Seems like EditorDavid fell for the incesant rambling of Chris reefer. oh well,

    authentication : splicing

    1. Re:Fanatics on Cocaine by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      It's probably fair to say that the editor has not found the arguments presented on Slashdot against the Electric Universe to be very persuasive. Notice that even after some 70 comments, many of them disparaging the idea that laboratory plasma experiments can be used to inform inferences about cosmic plasmas, not a single commenter has posted a believable alternative interpretation which would explain these extraordinary filaments.

    2. Re:Fanatics on Cocaine by meglon · · Score: 1

      And yet, it still doesn't suggest that your worthless piece of shit electric universe bullshit is even remotely correct. The fact that we'd have to throw out 100+ years of science AND WORKING TECHNOLOGY FROM THAT SCIENCE to entertain the electric universe bullshit means it is just that... bullshit.

      Einstein was right... you are not.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    3. Re:Fanatics on Cocaine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Believable by whom? You? That's a self-unfulfilling prophecy.

      As for the editors, they want whatever drives ad-hits. Your insanity, like any religious "debate", does just that.

    4. Re:Fanatics on Cocaine by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      Re: "The fact that we'd have to throw out 100+ years of science AND WORKING TECHNOLOGY FROM THAT SCIENCE to entertain the electric universe bullshit means it is just that... bullshit."

      Your claim that GPS somehow proves Einstein's Relativity was shown with explicit historical detail to be incorrect in Juan Calsiano's post. - which may be one of the best rebuttals to this claim ever posted onto the Internet. If you disagree with it, the proper response would be to help us to understand why it is wrong. Provide your analysis.

    5. Re:Fanatics on Cocaine by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      If you have an explanation for the filaments that does not involve electric currents, please provide it.

    6. Re:Fanatics on Cocaine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Re: "The fact that we'd have to throw out 100+ years of science AND WORKING TECHNOLOGY FROM THAT SCIENCE to entertain the electric universe bullshit means it is just that... bullshit."

      This is not a valid argument, indeed, it is a recognizable fallacy. The paradigmatic nature of established science is the problem. Observation doesn't match General Relativity's predictions? No need to discuss a competing theory, we'll just make up Cosmological Constant, Dark Matter and Quintessence! This garbage can neither be proved nor disproved, and the paradigm is saved!

      EU may be completely and entirely false. So what? Why can't we even talk about it? Oh yeah, it threatens the paradigm, and makes physicists insecure that they wasted their entire life on something that, though extremely compelling, may not be able to explain some things because General Relativity is only a model, and only slightly closer to the truth than Newtonian Mechanics. What would be the worst that could happen if EU had some ideas that were closer to the truth and explained some phenomena more elegantly that GR? Right, the delicate personalities of paradigm zealots might be offended, because the paradigm must be perfect, and they'll make up unprovable dogshit (like Dark Matter) and stretch and contort in any manner for the sake of petitio principii, thus, Dark Matter must exist absent of all evidence and observational data because the simple fact is paradigm zealots insist General Relativity cannot be even slightly incorrect.

    7. Re:Fanatics on Cocaine by Bengie · · Score: 1

      We can't talk about EU because the people defending it go all REEEEEEEEEEEEEEE when you don't believe EU as infallible truth. It's just like dealing with Flat Earthers.

    8. Re:Fanatics on Cocaine by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      The actual problem is that people do not understand what a plasma is - and yet, it is today widely recognized in the graduate programs that 99% of what we see with telescopes is matter in the plasma state. That's an overt problem with the science journalism which needs to be addressed.

    9. Re:Fanatics on Cocaine by Bengie · · Score: 1

      Don't get me wrong. I love the whole plasma stuff. I learned a lot from reading and watching EU content. The problem I have is when the official sources of EU have that 1% crazy bullshit that is a barefaced lie. The first time I saw something so horribly wrong that anyone with a basic science background and feeble logic abilities could deduce was utterly incorrect, I assume was a slight miswording like a missing/extra negative modifier. Nope. Same bat-shit crazy claims mixed very lightly throughout the rest of the content.

      A person with zero background in any science but strong critical analysis would spot the errors in the logic. Vast amounts of cognitive dissonance buried deep inside of otherwise very plausible ideas.

      My uncle got burned out on some strong drugs in the army. He was very bright and was offered a completely free ride by several ivy league universities. My grandma had guardianship over him because he was incapable of taking care of himself, wouldn't let him go. The first time I met him, he was talking to me about some really interesting science stuff. He had me hooked for nearly an entire week. But by the end of that week, I could see the crazy very clearly. EU reeks of the same. Genius creativity with a small bit of crazy that is difficult to detect at first. Give it a week and it becomes apparent.

    10. Re:Fanatics on Cocaine by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      It's remarkable that you provided no specific example in these three paragraphs to illustrate your point.

    11. Re:Fanatics on Cocaine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      His or her point was that EU is bullshit. But at least the explanation is far better than "you are all idiots." The "you are all idiots" posters on this submission drive me mmmmm mmm mmmmm mmm mmm mad. My problem. GP has a better coping mechanism. General Relativity is not even close to perfect. I hate that the science establishment clings to a paradigm and stifles ideas. Ideas should be discussed ad absurdium, especially if they are bonkers. The discussion should never devolve into "General Relativity must be right, because so many times predictions proven, and you are all morons." I want to set those posters on fire after dousing them in gasoline, while they are trapped in a person-sized tower of tires. Why are some bright people, not all, but this very vocal minority of some with pedestrian amounts of low functioning genius, such... idk what? Bigots, if those they are attempting to insult are indeed less intelligent, or extraordinarily insecure about their own intellect they always end every discussion with "you are all morons," or maybe they are missing tolerance of bad ideas (like I am missing tolerance of the intolerant), or maybe they are narcissists and insist on everyone agreeing with them. I can't stop wondering, and I can find no good answer. But they should know better. Always always, allow the discussion. Let's squeeze EU for the lemon it is, and see if there is any juice whatsoever before calling everyone morons.

    12. Re:Fanatics on Cocaine by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      I appreciate your perspective, and I think it's healthy. What does not seem healthy at all to me is overt hostility in the heart of Silicon Valley directed at this simple idea of applying laboratory plasma concepts to astronomical imagery. The Big Bang concept is a creation event dressed up in some of the most sophisticated mathematics humans have ever devised. The math is sort of like a gauntlet which experts plunge all detractors into: If you cannot perform these brain tricks, then you are not qualified to judge the idea. Well, no, actually I can plainly see that you've allowed a Catholic priest to insert his Bible genesis story into your scientific hypothesis. That doesn't necessarily mean that it cannot be true, but it should raise more red flags for people than it apparently does.

      A completely rational response is to learn as much as you can about the mainstream ideas, but to also consider the critiques, and to learn about competing ideas sufficient to notice any raw, unfiltered, unexpected vindications. If you want to truly know where science is heading, pay special attention to the unplanned observations. The "experts" will oftentimes fail to even notice this stuff, and it may only become apparent once you've removed the conventional interpretation from the article you are reading.

      Notice, e.g., there has been no discussion in the mainstream science journalism about Biot-Savart Law. Every single astrophysicist, cosmologist, astronomer and science journalist has failed to notice that those filaments appear to be interacting with one another. But, also realize that the SKA will become more powerful over time, and I am inclined to believe that they are going to notice those filaments twisting around one another over some pretty short timespans. So, how will people react to this? The realization of what is going on will be slow and incredibly awkward because people have decided that they can interpret these images without cultivating some understanding of laboratory plasmas. Only those who have taken the time to learn about laboratory plasmas will be equipped to interpret what we're about to witness, IMHO.

  18. Infectious laughter by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    Dummies, that's a sideways view of Kim Kardashian's vajayjay.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  19. Wow!! by idji · · Score: 1

    I couldn't stop saying Wow, just Wow. This is truly stunning!

  20. Some comments about the origin of Relativity by Fluctuating+Matter · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Dear Meglon,

    We should always be extremely careful to distinguish between the quantitative vs. qualitative aspects of scientific theory. The former is constructed from abstract equations, the latter is constructed from abstract concepts. Both are maps (or aspects of a map) trying to describe the real territory, i.e. the universe.

    You are right in that the quantitative aspect of Relativity has an enormous amount of experimental confirmation. What you seem to be missing is that such a mathematical framework was not originally developed by Einstein. This seems to explain why, when you get into the mathematics of Relativity, you have to study Lorentz Transformation Equations, the Lorentz Factor, Lorentz boosts, the Lorentz group, Lorentz Symmetry and Lorentz Invariance.

    E. T. Whittaker, notable mathematician and science historian, wrote a classical textbook about the history of electricity and electromagnetism. If you check out the book, you will not find a chapter titled "The Relativity of Einstein", but you will find one titled "The Relativity Theory of Poincaré and Lorentz", in which Whittaker wrote:

    "It is clear, from the history set forth in the present chapter, that the theory of relativity had its origin in the theory of aether and electrons. When relativity had become recognised as a doctrine covering the whole operation of physical nature, efforts were made to present it in a form free from any special association with electromagnetic theory, and deducible logically from a definite set of axioms". [A History of The Theories of Aether and Electricity, Vol 2, pages 42-43].

    The original version of the quantitative map of Relativity — that we may call Lorentzian Relativity — is based on a qualitative interpretation where the speed of light is variable, time is absolute, and there is a preferred frame for light that is typically undetectable due to confounding properties of nature, such as the change in the rate of clocks with velocity and the contraction of matter with velocity. On the other hand, Einstein later found a way to obtain the exact same quantitative map through a completely different qualitative interpretation, i.e., the speed of light is constant in all moving frames, the rate of time is variable, and the undetectable aether is irrelevant. The new qualitative interpretation by Einstein was in line with the philosophy of instrumentalism, i.e. the philosophical belief that we should make no distinction between unobservable entities and non-existent ones, even if observations only make sense in terms of levels of physical reality that are not easily measurable, or beyond measurement.

    Most importantly, people seem to be largely unaware that the quantitative maps of Einsteinian Relativity and Lorentzian Relativity are — in effect — quantitatively indistinguishable. Generally speaking, experiment cannot decide between the two. In other words, the quantitative maps (the equations) are identical, while the qualitative maps are totally different. This is thoroughly explained in the following paper by experimental physicist Doug Marett:

    http://www.conspiracyoflight.c...

    (See also the references included in the paper).

    In other words, every experiment confirming Relativity is evidence confirming Lorenzian Aether-Based Relativity, which is the original Theory of Relativity. Considering that we generally cannot distinguish between the two "versions" of Relativity by quantitative measures, we should focus more than ever on carefully studying the qualitative differences between them, and making our choice wisely.

    Interestingly, you mention technologies as demonstrating the validity of Einsteinian Relativity. In fact, technologies provide perhaps the easiest way to distinguish between Einsteinian and Lorentzian Relativity. Everyday technology shows that there is indeed a preferred frame. We just need spin to observe it.

    Perhaps the easies

    1. Re:Some comments about the origin of Relativity by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      Stunning display of intellectual hostility: Somebody down-voted the comment - making it harder for others on slashdot to see it - but did not point out why the post is incorrect.

    2. Re:Some comments about the origin of Relativity by Zorpheus · · Score: 1

      Sounds all quite intresting, although I don't have the nerves for a deeper analysis of this.
      Just one thing. As far as know Einstein's theory of relativity refers to non-accelerating frames of reference which are moving in linear motion. You can't just apply relativity to a rotating frame of reference, such as our planet.

    3. Re:Some comments about the origin of Relativity by Fluctuating+Matter · · Score: 1

      Dear Zorpheus,

      The overlooked history of the development of Lorentzian Relativity and the subsequent development of Einsteinian Relativity is indeed very interesting. I have the strong feeling that someday it will be taught in all universities, not just as a lesson about the history of science but primarily as a lesson about human nature.

      Historian of science Herbert Dingle stated that although from 1904 until 1919 relativity theory was generally ascribed to Lorentz, "with the apparent success in 1919 of Einstein’s general theory, with its then quite new and terrifying mathematical machinery of tensor calculus, came the fatal climax. Almost overnight ‘the relativity theory of Lorentz’ became ‘Einstein’s special relativity theory’, and it was immediately hailed as such by the mathematical experts. The established physicists ... gave up trying to understand the whole business, surrendered the use of their intelligence, and accepted passively whatever apparent absurdities the mathematicians put before them. They had the seeming excuse that the mathematical equations worked." [Dingle, Science at the Crossroads, p. 95.]

      This historical turn of events could not happen without the "apparent success of the general theory", based on the famous 1919 eclipse expedition. Yet science historians John Earman and Clark Glymour have shown that the evidence presented was unquestionably inadequate. It was principally the triple-pronged public relations of the Astronomer Royal, the President of the Royal Society and Arthur Eddington that lent General Relativity its 1919 victory. See "Fabulous Science Fact and Fiction in the History of Scientific Discovery" by John Waller.

      Anyway, please note that special relativity can indeed handle accelerating objects or accelerating frames of reference. This is explained in the following link at the website of John Baez (famous for being the author of the "crackpot index"):

      http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/...

      In any case, on the relativistic notion that "it is impossible to detect motion by measuring differences in the speed of light", as tentatively concluded by the Michelson-Morley experiment, the Sagnac experiment shows that this can in fact be done. The Sagnac Effect demonstrates that depending on the placement of the observer, it is possible to see this variable speed of light and to confound apparent "time dilation".

      Best regards,

      Juan

    4. Re: Some comments about the origin of Relativity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Best comment I've read on slashdot for years. Really, it got downvoted to -1 ?!?

    5. Re: Some comments about the origin of Relativity by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      It is the best explanation on the Internet for why GPS cannot validate Einstein's Relativity. I should know because I've been searching for an effective rebuttal for many years now. The signal-to-noise on this topic is disgusting, and mainstream science journalists tend to be the worst offenders. The damage done to science is incalculable, for this GPS myth leaves the false impression that entirely valid scientific domains are pseudoscience.

  21. Electric universe bullshit. by meglon · · Score: 1
    It's ironic that the MeerKAT telescope was designed to study black holes along with other things... as the electic universe bullshit says black holes don't exist.

    Einstein was right, and the electric universe bullshit is a con job. Thomas Roberts, Fermilab (you know, a real scientist):

    http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/...

    Note, however, that SR is not perfect (in agreement with every experiment), and there are some experiments that are in disagreement with its predictions. See Experiments that Apparently are not Consistent with SR where some of these experiments are referenced and discussed. It is clear that most, if not all, of these experiments have difficulties that are unrelated to SR. Note also that few if any standard references or textbooks even mention the possibility that some experiments might be inconsistent with SR, and there are also aspects of publication bias in the literature. That being said, as of this writing there are no reproducible and generally accepted experiments that are inconsistent with SR, within its domain of applicability.

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    1. Re:Electric universe bullshit. by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 1

      Juan Calsiano has already rebutted your claim here.

    2. Re:Electric universe bullshit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's ironic that the MeerKAT telescope was designed to study black holes along with other things... as the electic universe bullshit says black holes don't exist.

      Einstein was right, and the electric universe bullshit is a con job. Thomas Roberts, Fermilab (you know, a real scientist):

      http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/...

      Note, however, that SR is not perfect (in agreement with every experiment), and there are some experiments that are in disagreement with its predictions. See Experiments that Apparently are not Consistent with SR where some of these experiments are referenced and discussed. It is clear that most, if not all, of these experiments have difficulties that are unrelated to SR. Note also that few if any standard references or textbooks even mention the possibility that some experiments might be inconsistent with SR, and there are also aspects of publication bias in the literature. That being said, as of this writing there are no reproducible and generally accepted experiments that are inconsistent with SR, within its domain of applicability.

      einstein was right? you mean, where he said black holes don't exist, and they were a mathematical peculiarity at most, a ghost in the equations.

  22. It's understandable... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Astronomers seem believe electricity doesn't exist above certain scales.

    The dark matter bible is sacrosanct. The ideas and priests that promote it are above reproach and questioning.

    1. Re:It's understandable... by paradigmsareconstruc · · Score: 2

      Notable that it comes from slashdot; I live in the heart of Silicon Valley, and this has never once been on the radar. Go online, and everything is different. Oftentimes via anon's.

  23. He thinks he's some kind of famous troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just laugh at him and move on.

  24. he's a troll just ignore him by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    he's a troll just ignore him