My dearest APODNereid, you are assuming that I have a case to make. The relevance of my links is to inform. I have no desire to necessarily contradict nor support pln2bz, but to find out. You make me feel non-Bush: "If you're not for us, then you're against us".
I disagree with you interpretation of all the links. The theoretical models of the Solar Wind suggest that it accelerates at least an order of magnitude beyond "a few solar radii", and it I am not mistaken, the graph at 1AU is still rising, which I believe is an acceleration, albeit small.
And as I said in my posts, the Voyager data looks inconclusive to me (but of course I an an amateur).
http://spacephysics.ucr.edu/images/richardsonSSV.jpg
This chart seems to show increases in speed from 1-20, and 25-50AU, and decreases from 20-25, and 50-70AU.
Of course this does not imply that the Solar Wind accelerates over these distances, and indeed, the UCR page speculates that acceleration occurs within 10-20 solar radii.
But at least we all have more information to ponder, and if that deserves criticism, then so be it.
Theoretical models of the Solar Wind suggest that its speed steadily increases until at least 20 or 30 solar radii, and perhaps somewhat past Mercury, and is perhaps even increasing past the orbit of Earth. See "Explaining the acceleration of the fast solar wind" at http://www.obspm.fr/actual/nouvelle/jun05/solarw.en.shtml, and in particular Figure 2 (Zouganelis et al, The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2005).
This seems at odds with the Voyager mission, where "Researchers had long predicted that the solar wind speed would decrease with distance from the Sun" and verified by Voyager 2, see http://spacephysics.ucr.edu/index.php?content=v25/v8.html.
I believe that all plasmas are electrified by definition, in that they consist of moving charged particles that self-generate magnetic and electric fields.
There are lots of different "types" of plasma, such as (a) cold, warm and hot plasmas, (b) magnetic and non-magnetic plasmas (all space plasmas are magnetic) (c) neutral and non-neutral plasmas (d) complex plasmas which includes dusty plasma. Some of these are described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics)
>It is commonly argued that quasi-neutrality precludes large-scale charge separation in space,
Quasi-neutrality is violated by both double layers and particle beams. For example, M87's "jet" is as a "sheet beam", that extends at least 5000 light-years.
Our Solar System's heliospheric current sheet violates quasi-neutrality locally (otherwise there wouldn't be a current). While charge separation is relative small (between the two sheets), the heliospheric current sheet extends out from the Sun to the heliopause, and is the largest coherent structure in the Solar System.
While the Red Square nebula may well include dust and cooler material, many nebulae are observed to contain matter in the plasma state [Ref], and the material is moving through interstellar space which also contain significant amounts of plasma (ionized material).
Partially ionized plasmas, even less than 1% ionized, and containing dust and smaller grains will behave as a plasma, and will still be highly electrically conductive. For example, the F-ring of Saturn has been suggested to carry a "dust ring current"[Ref]
Dust and gas does not rule out a current through the plasma in a nebula, which is further supported by its morphology (hourglass shape), any observed synchrotron radiation (due to the acceleration of charged particles by electric fields through magnetic fields), and filamentation (pinched currents).
Slashdot Mirror
He had claimed that he could reach Mach 2, and send a two ton projectile 90-miles, see http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9906E0DF1330E733A2575BC0A9639C946397D6CF
A little more on Birkeland's electromagnetic cannon can be found here: http://www.plasma-universe.com/index.php/Kristian_Birkeland#Electromagnetic_cannon
I disagree with you interpretation of all the links. The theoretical models of the Solar Wind suggest that it accelerates at least an order of magnitude beyond "a few solar radii", and it I am not mistaken, the graph at 1AU is still rising, which I believe is an acceleration, albeit small.
And as I said in my posts, the Voyager data looks inconclusive to me (but of course I an an amateur). http://spacephysics.ucr.edu/images/richardsonSSV.jpg This chart seems to show increases in speed from 1-20, and 25-50AU, and decreases from 20-25, and 50-70AU.
Of course this does not imply that the Solar Wind accelerates over these distances, and indeed, the UCR page speculates that acceleration occurs within 10-20 solar radii.
But at least we all have more information to ponder, and if that deserves criticism, then so be it.
This seems at odds with the Voyager mission, where "Researchers had long predicted that the solar wind speed would decrease with distance from the Sun" and verified by Voyager 2, see http://spacephysics.ucr.edu/index.php?content=v25/v8.html.
It is also noted that "Since 1977, Voyager has been monitoring the solar wind velocity and density", and the "Image - 39k" seems less conclusive, see http://spacephysics.ucr.edu/index.php?content=solar_wind/sw/swq1.html
I believe that all plasmas are electrified by definition, in that they consist of moving charged particles that self-generate magnetic and electric fields. There are lots of different "types" of plasma, such as (a) cold, warm and hot plasmas, (b) magnetic and non-magnetic plasmas (all space plasmas are magnetic) (c) neutral and non-neutral plasmas (d) complex plasmas which includes dusty plasma. Some of these are described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics)
>It is commonly argued that quasi-neutrality precludes large-scale charge separation in space,
Quasi-neutrality is violated by both double layers and particle beams. For example, M87's "jet" is as a "sheet beam", that extends at least 5000 light-years.
Our Solar System's heliospheric current sheet violates quasi-neutrality locally (otherwise there wouldn't be a current). While charge separation is relative small (between the two sheets), the heliospheric current sheet extends out from the Sun to the heliopause, and is the largest coherent structure in the Solar System.
While the Red Square nebula may well include dust and cooler material, many nebulae are observed to contain matter in the plasma state [Ref], and the material is moving through interstellar space which also contain significant amounts of plasma (ionized material).
Partially ionized plasmas, even less than 1% ionized, and containing dust and smaller grains will behave as a plasma, and will still be highly electrically conductive. For example, the F-ring of Saturn has been suggested to carry a "dust ring current"[Ref]
Dust and gas does not rule out a current through the plasma in a nebula, which is further supported by its morphology (hourglass shape), any observed synchrotron radiation (due to the acceleration of charged particles by electric fields through magnetic fields), and filamentation (pinched currents).
Regards,
Ian Tresman
plasma-universe.com