psychoceramics: (Fwd) SATURN THEORY--Plasma Discharges

[bruce @ nospamhere.kenosis.com (Bruce Baugh)]

From: kronia @ kelly.teleport.com (Kronia Com)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.science
Subject: SATURN THEORY--Plasma Discharges
Date: 23 Feb 1997 16:36:37 -0800

The electronic newsletter THOTH is available at no charge to 
anyone requesting it. The newsletter will offer an 
interdisciplinary approach to the origins of ancient myths and 
symbols--on the one hand, a reinterpretation of planetary history 
based on rigorous cross cultural comparison, and, on the other 
hand, a challenge to traditional astronomy and related theoretical 
frameworks assuming a stable solar system.

If you are interested in subscribing, simply respond by email with 
the message, "Requesting subscription to THOTH." The subscription 
can be canceled at any time.

As a sample of the materials included, I offer the following 
article by plasma physicist, Wallace Thornhill. This piece was 
submitted to a private email group on October 12, 1996, a date 
important to keep in mind because of the predicted findings with 
respect to the Galileo close-up images of the Jovian moon Europa, 
the first of which was released by JPL in mid-December. The 
surprising findings predicted by Thornhill did indeed occur.




PLANETS, STARS, AND PLASMA PHYSICS

By Wallace Thornhill (w--@n--.com.au)


Hello everyone from DownUnder!

Dave has asked me to give a summary of my interest and position in 
the debate about the Saturnian configuration. I was one of the 
early science undergraduates, in the late 50's, who had read 
Velikovsky's works before entering University. In my naivete, I 
thought that no questions were taboo in the halls of academe. To 
my surprise and profound disillusionment with "experts", I soon 
discovered that this was not so. I then began to do what Dave has 
done and looked for further evidence, working on my own.

So far as I know, I was the only science undergraduate who haunted 
the anthropology section of the library bookshelves. It was enough 
to convince me that there was a major case to be explored for a 
"recent" re- arrangement of the solar system.

I did not pursue the mytho-historical threads, since my first love 
is astronomy. But I have applied the same principles in that field 
that Dave has done in his work--that is, pattern recognition and 
matching. The results have been very encouraging and interesting.

I should state my prejudices concerning the present state of 
science. I would characterize the scientific age as being the of 
homo sapiens ignoramus. To be specific about our ignorance the 
areas most likely to affect the Saturnian configuration, I would 
list the following:

GRAVITY - Einstein, with his geometric DESCRIPTION of gravity has 
held back understanding by the better part of a century. The most 
promising work in EXPLAINING gravity is being done by a handful of 
Classical Physicists who see it as a minute imbalance in 
electrostatic forces associated with fundamental particles. The 
recent announcement of the accidental discovery of gravitational 
shielding by a rotating superconductor seems congruent with the 
classical approach. It certainly could not be predicted from the 
current metaphysics of gravity theory.

ELECTRICAL DISCHARGES - This is crucial. We do not understand what 
causes earthly lightning so we are unlikely to acknowledge plasma 
discharges in space. The little plasma physics that astronomers 
are taught is flawed: that plasmas are electrically neutral and 
superconducting (they trap magnetic fields). So apart from 
gravity, magnetism is the only other force we hear about. We are 
told that energetic events on the Sun are due to "magnetic 
reconnection" (whatever that means). The strongest force (barring 
nuclear)--electrical--is never mentioned. We find it easy on Earth 
to generate x-rays using electric discharges, but astronomers 
insist on Nature doing it the hard way in space. It is also not 
generally known that electrical discharges are very efficient at 
removing material against gravity and dumping it into space or 
onto another nearby object.

STARS - We do not understand what makes them tick. As Ralph 
Juergens said in the 70's, practically every feature of our Sun 
has no business being there if it is purely a thermonuclear engine 
radiating into space. Magnetic fields do not occur without an 
associated electric current. The Sun is essentially an extended, 
conducting plasma subject to electric stress. The phenomenon we 
call the Sun is purely a ball of lightning. That the Earth and 
other planets intercept some of the galactic plasma discharge is 
shown by the recent discovery of diffuse stratospheric discharges 
(sprites), x-rays and gamma-rays above earthly storms. This is a 
precise analogue of the corona (x-rays), chromospheric glow 
discharge and photospheric lightning (granulations are the tops of 
the discharges) on the Sun. The umbra of a sunspot gives us a 
glimpse of the true temperature of the body of the Sun.

As a result of this realization, it follows that the conventional 
stellar evolutionary story is pure fiction. Stars are what they 
are because of their environment. Their variability is caused by 
their environment, not their internal workings. This explains the 
speed with which some stars change their characteristics. Heavy 
elements are not built up solely in supernovae, but at the surface 
of all stars in the non-thermal compression and acceleration of 
plasma discharges (granulations). Hence, nucleosynthesis and what 
little neutrino production there is fall as the sunspot number 
increases. The differential rotation of the Sun, its magnetic 
field and the sunspot cycle are all influenced by the Sun's 
passage across large Birkeland currents flowing along, and 
defining the arms of our galaxy.

PLANET FORMATION - The Laplacian theory and its variants are 
garbage. The Hubble Space Telescope has shown that in regions of 
star formation large bodies are being shot out as if from a gun, 
which is peculiar if gravity is the operative force.

Once again plasma discharges provide a mechanism which can simply 
explain this. The view is that diffuse hydrogen and dust is 
efficiently scavenged and compressed by the well known magnetic 
pinch effect of an electric current flowing along the arms of a 
galaxy. At some point gravity takes over and stellar objects are 
formed. Beyond a certain size proto stars become electrically 
unstable and "fission", spitting out some of the core and giving 
rise to one or more companions. This explains the predilection for 
stars to be found in pairs or multiples. Not all of the matter 
ejected from the core of a proto-star may coalesce into a 
companion star. It may be in the form of one or a number of gas 
giants. (The recent discovery of a Jupiter-like body orbiting very 
close to a nearby star argues strongly for this model and against 
the standard theory). A gas giant, in turn, due to either internal 
or external electrical disturbance may fission, spitting out its 
core, to give rise to the highly condensed planets, moons, 
asteroids, comets etc.

COSMOLOGY - All of the above gives rise to the conviction that 
cosmology should be in the hands of the plasma physics 
experimenters (not the theorists). It is ironic that the 
theorists have been chasing the holy grail of fusion power "just 
like the Sun", when that is patently wrong. (Interestingly, a 
recent breakthrough in fusion energy research came about in my 
home town, Canberra, when the researchers configured their plasma 
discharge in the form of a Birkeland current ring - a precise 
analogue of that flowing along the arms of our galaxy).

But astronomers will continue to be surprised by results pouring 
in from space probes when their fundamental paradigms rest on 
Newtonian and billiard-ball physics. The current paradigm has no 
predictive power whatsoever. The book "The Big Bang Never 
Happened" by Eric J Lerner is a pointer to the cosmology of the 
21st century.

-----------------

So, what are the patterns that apply from all this to the 
hypothesized Saturnian Configuration (SC)? The following are some 
ideas:

1 - the core discharge mechanism of planet formation is plausible
    way to generate the SC, a string of objects with the largest
    near the middle.

2 - the reliance on the degree of electric stress in the 
    enveloping plasma for the characteristics of the larger bodies
    enclosed in that plasma could see rapid changes occur, even
    the disruption of one of the stellar or gas giant objects. It
    could certainly involve jets of material being emitted by such
    bodies and forming a diffuse cloud enveloping the SC. It could
    also be the destabilising influence which finally breaks it
    up.

3 - As seen in the high speed objects shooting out of the Orion
    Nebula, plasma discharges taking place in the core of a star
    or gas giant can result in considerable acceleration of the
    resultant debris. This may provide some of the source of the
    energy required to position Jupiter and Saturn much farther
    out in our solar system. The redistribution of charge amongst
    objects in a solar radial field also REQUIRES that their
    orbits will change.

4 - Charged bodies orbiting eccentrically in a radial electric
    field around the Sun will dissipate energy through
    electromagnetic induction heating in such a way as to quickly
    spiral into a circular orbit. For any object with a high
    eccentricity, electrical breakdown will occur within its
    Langmuir sheath and cometary discharge phenomena will be seen,
    regardless of its size (Venus?).

5 - If gravity is essentially an electrostatic phenomenon, the
    unusual environment of the Saturnian configuration would be
    expected to have caused a difference in the perceived gravity
    at the surface of the Earth. It is conceivable that the
    electric stress within the plasma sheath enclosing the SC was
    less than that which the Earth endures in its current solar
    environment. This would result in an effective lower gravity.
    The breakup of the SC would have caused a sudden change. An
    interesting sidelight to this idea is that the apparent very
    low density of Saturn may be due to the use of a UNIVERSAL
    Gravitational constant in the determination. There may be no
    such thing (Measurements of G in laboratories on Earth don't
    seem to agree). In Saturn's electrical ~ environment we may
    have shared an apparent low gravity.

6 - Various odd phenomena associated with plasma discharges would
    have been observed from Earth and should appear in ancient
    depictions of the SC. These include helical, serpentine glows
    surrounding a central column or twined rope-like around each
    other. These would be representations of Birkeland currents
    flowing between planets enveloped in the same plasma sheath.
    The number of "strands" may have varied and given rise to the
    depictions of Venus with different numbers of radiants. We
    should also look at photographs from deep space of "exploding
    stars" for clues to the imagery since they are electric
    discharge phenomena writ large. One example is where we see
    bright rings at the bases of cones. From below, they would
    possibly look like rings around the column or a series of
    flared skirts. Another effect is seen in discharge tubes
    filled with low pressure gas where a series of light and dark
    bands are formed transverse to the discharge axis. This might
    give rise to a kind of "stairway to heaven" or ziggurat
    appearance. Then there is the self-contained plasmoid, a
    corkscrew within an overall football shape which forms the
    interplanetary equivalent of lightning and appears to have
    been depicted as Zeus' thunderbolt.



I have looked in some detail at chondritic meteorites which I 
expect to be left-overs from a planetary discharge event. They 
show all the characteristics to be expected of material that has 
been subjected to flash heating, acceleration, collision and ion 
implantation in a spatially restricted compressed gas stream 
together with isotopic modification by enhanced radiation, 
followed by sudden cooling - all the symptoms of a plasma 
discharge. I predicted that the features of the enigmatic 
chondrule shells could be reproduced in the lab in a plasma oven.

(A planetary discharge is a very effective way for Martian 
meteorites to have been created).

Very strong evidence for planetary electrical scarring comes from 
the Magellan Orbiter images of Venus. Also, the Jovian moon Europa 
was presumably a part of the SC and would also have been subject 
to electrical scarring. I predict that when closeups of Europa are 
available in December, the so-called cracks in the ice will be 
found to be electric discharge channels with raised levees on 
either side and the dark-light-dark cross section caused by 
discharge modification of the excavated material. (In the manner 
of the green glass beads formed from the melted soil excavated by 
an electric discharge along the lunar rilles). The "cracks" on 
Europa show no lateral displacement where they intersect, though 
displacement would be expected if they were due to shifting ice. 
Discharge channels will throw material from, the younger channel 
into the older where they intersect. Cracks should not show this 
characteristic.

After that I need a long, cold Fosters!

-- 
Bruce Baugh <*> http://www.kenosis.com
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