"Magnetic fields in the halo of the Milky Way have a toroidal structure, extending in the radius range of 6000 light-year to 50,000 light-year from the Galaxy center. The Sun is at about 30,000 light-year. (Credit: NAOC)"
From the Solar scale to the Galactic scale and beyond, electricity drives the cosmos, and common results stem from common causes, rooted in electrodynamics.
A recent update (and paper) from the Chinese Academy of Sciences follows up on decades of research into the Milky Way's galactic halo.
In 1997, [Prof. Han Jinlin] found a striking anti-symmetry of the Faraday effects of cosmic radio sources in the sky with respect to the coordinates of our Milky Way galaxy, which tells that the magnetic fields in the halo of the Milky Way have a toroidal field structure, with reversed magnetic field directions below and above the galactic plane.
That is to say, that above and below the galactic plane, there were found to be oppositely-directed 'donut-shaped' [toroidal] magnetic fields.
They suspected that the anti-symmetry of the sky distribution of Faraday effects of radio sources could be produced merely by the interstellar medium in the vicinity of the sun because pulsars and some nearby radio-emission objects, which are quite near to the sun, show Faraday effects consistent with anti-symmetry.
In other words, they weren't sure whether the observed effect / structure was local just to the neighborhood local to the Sun, or whether it was a pervasive effect over the entire Milky Way halo.
Through data analysis, scientists found that the anti-symmetry of the Faraday rotation measurements caused by the medium in the galactic halo exists in all the sky, from the center to the anti-center of our Milky Way, which implies that the toroidal magnetic fields of such a odd symmetry have a huge size, existing in a radius range from 6,000 light-years to 50,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way.
The effect was found not to be 'local' to just the neighborhood of the Sun, but universal to the entire Milky Way halo. That is, there are oppositely directed toroidal magnetic fields positioned above and below the galactic plane / equator.
But, what does it all mean?
From the perspective of Plasma Cosmology and/or the Electric Universe (including the Electric Sun/Star) Model, this is indicative that perhaps the same process is occurring at both the Solar and the galactic scale(s).
One might wonder, "why should there be oppositely directed magnetic fields above and below the equator of an object?" "Where do the magnetic fields come from, and why are they arranged in the manner that they are?" For that matter, "why should there be magnetic fields at all, what causes them?"
We should perhaps retreat a few steps and answer the last question first:
"Why should there be magnetic fields at all? What causes them?"
For this, we should refer back to some resources on what exactly magnetic field are and how they are generated.
The Phy6 site ("An educational web site by David P. Stern and Mauricio Peredo.") has this to say:
People not familiar with magnetism often view it as a somewhat mysterious property of specially treated iron or steel. [...]
But this property of iron is a very special type of magnetism, almost an accident of nature! Out in space there is no magnetic iron, yet magnetism is widespread. [...]
It is all related to electricity. [...]
Close to 1800 it was found that when the ends of a chemical "battery" were connected by a metal wire, a steady stream of electric charges flowed in that wire and heated it. That flow became known as an electric current. In a simplified view, what happens is that electrons hop from atom to atom in the metal.
In 1821 Hans Christian Oersted in Denmark found, unexpectedly, that such an electric current caused a compass needle to move. An electric current produced a magnetic force!
Andre-Marie Ampere in France soon unraveled the meaning. The fundamental nature of magnetism was not associated with magnetic poles or iron magnets, but with electric currents. The magnetic force was basically a force between electric currents [...]:
--Two parallel currents in the same direction attract each other.
--Two parallel currents in opposite directions repel each other.
Here is how this can lead to the notion of magnetic poles. Bend the wires into circles with constant separation [...]:
--Two circular currents in the same direction attract each other.
--Two circular currents in opposite directions repel each other.
[...] Ampere guessed that each atom of iron contained a circulating current, turning it into a small magnet, and that in an iron magnet all these atomic magnets were lined up in the same direction, allowing their magnetic forces to add up. [...]
In space, on the Sun and in the Earth's core, electric currents are the only source of magnetism. We loosely refer to the region of their influence as their magnetic field [...]
The World Health Organization has the following to say:
Electric fields are created by differences in voltage: the higher the voltage, the stronger will be the resultant field. Magnetic fields are created when electric current flows: the greater the current, the stronger the magnetic field. An electric field will exist even when there is no current flowing. If current does flow, the strength of the magnetic field will vary with power consumption but the electric field strength will be constant.
The Hyperphysics site says simply
this:
Magnetic fields are produced by electric currents, which can be macroscopic currents in wires, or microscopic currents associated with electrons in atomic orbits.
Richard Fitzpatrick's
Classical Electromagnetism article on "
Magnetic Monopoles?" puts it thus:
[...] permanent magnetism is generated by electric currents circulating on the atomic scale, so this type of magnetism is not fundamentally different to the magnetism generated by macroscopic currents. [...]
In conclusion, all steady magnetic fields in the Universe are generated by circulating electric currents of some description. Such fields are solenoidal: that is, they never begin or end [...]
His article on "Helmholtz's Theorem" concludes:
[...] steady electric and magnetic fields cannot generate themselves. Instead, they have to be generated by stationary charges and steady currents. So, if we come across a steady electric field we know that if we trace the field-lines back we shall eventually find a charge. Likewise, a steady magnetic field implies that there is a steady current flowing somewhere. All of these results follow from vector field theory (i.e., from the general properties of fields in three-dimensional space), prior to any investigation of electromagnetism.
And, lastly, his article on the "
Origin of Permanent Magnetism" has this to say:
[...] atoms consist of negatively charged electrons in orbit around positively charged nuclei. A moving electric charge constitutes an electric current, so there must be a current associated with every electron in an atom. In most atoms, these currents cancel one another out, so that the atom carries zero net current. However, in the atoms of ferromagnetic materials (i.e., iron, cobalt, and nickel) this cancellation is not complete, so these atoms do carry a net current. Usually, the atomic currents are all jumbled up (i.e., they are not aligned in any particular plane) so that they average to zero on a macroscopic scale. However, if a ferromagnetic material is placed in a strong magnetic field then the currents circulating in each atom become aligned such that they flow predominately in the plane perpendicular to the field. In this situation, the currents can combine together to form a macroscopic magnetic field which reinforces the alignment field. In some ferromagnetic materials, the atomic currents remain aligned after the alignment field is switched off, so the macroscopic field generated by these currents also remains. We call such materials permanent magnets.
In conclusion, all magnetic fields encountered in nature are generated by circulating currents. There is no fundamental difference between the fields generated by permanent magnets and those generated by currents flowing around conventional electric circuits. In the former, case the currents which generate the fields circulate on the atomic scale, whereas, in the latter case, the currents circulate on a macroscopic scale (i.e., the scale of the circuit).
From all of the above, the bottom line is this:
In conclusion, all steady magnetic fields in the Universe are generated by circulating electric currents of some description. [...] a steady magnetic field implies that there is a steady [electric] current flowing somewhere.
Wherever we see steady, or time-varying magnetic fields, we should naturally be asking ourselves:
"Where is the steady or time-varying electric current that, by definition, must be driving it?"
This is the fundamental question that often gets overlooked or seemingly completely ignored, or treated as trivial or secondary.
That said, on to the fun!
Okay, so, the recent results from the Chinese researchers:
There are oppositely directed 'toroidal' ['donut-shaped'] magnetic fields observable above and below the galactic plane/equator.
But, what does it all mean?
Well, from the immediately prior physical background & conclusion, we should be asking: "Where are the electric currents powering the oppositely-directed galactic-scale donut-shaped [toroidal] magnetic fields?"
The slightly glib answer is "Well, galactic-scale oppositely-directed donut-shaped electric currents."
"Whaaaaat? That's crazy!"
I know right? But, there it is...
Now, how do we get *there* from *here*?
Well, it's kind of a two- or three-parter, but bear with me...
Okay, so, part of the Electric Universe [love it, hate it; your opinion is your own, and that's fine!] is the Electric Sun / Star model (including several papers and presentations and experimental research via the SAFIRE Project), forwarded by Donald Scott, following up on and further elaborating the theories of the late Ralph Juergens, as well as Hannes Alfvén, on the structure and function of the Sun [and all stars] as an electrical phenomenon [contra the Standard Model's assertion that it is a "nuclear furnace"].
Donald Scott discusses the Sun and stars in terms of "Energy," "Electric field strength,"
and "Charge density" as functions of radial distance from the stellar surface, among other things.
Among Donald Scott's diagrams is the one we'll be discussing today:
A diagram of the "electric Sun." Illustration from Don Scott's book, The Electric Sky.
This diagram, in part, attempts to give a physical explanation for the Solar magnetic polarity reversal seen as part of the [approximately] ~11 year Sun spot cycle:
The magnetic fields near sunspots reverse polarity from one eleven-year sunspot cycle to the next. These and many other observed phenomena associated with the Sun give strong indication that a high level of electrical activity is at work on and above the surface of our local star. [...]
In his [Hannes Alfvén’s] model, electric current passes through both poles of the star. It then flows in long tubes emanating from the star. A secondary leakage current that flows on or just below the Sun’s surface, back toward the equator from each of the poles, can explain another one of the “mysteries” the Sun poses for solar astrophysicists. [...]
The image above shows a possible explanation of this phenomenon. According to Alfvén’s stellar circuit, the main solar electric current flows into (or out of) each pole of the Sun. Making use of the “right-hand rule,” we can visualize the directions of the encircling magnetic fields created by that current. If the strength of this current is increasing, the magnetic field will strengthen as well. Such time varying magnetic fields can induce secondary currents as shown in the figure. The secondary current will only exist when the magnitude of the linking magnetic field is growing or shrinking. This effect is utilized here on Earth in AC transformers and so is called transformer action.
If a secondary current filament is flowing southward from near the Sun’s north pole and it is on or just beneath the Sun’s surface, a looping magnetic field will emerge to the east of the current creating a north magnetic pole there. (Right thumb directed toward the south, fingers emerging up out of the surface on its east side.) The loop will move out above the Sun’s surface and then return down into the surface forming a south magnetic pole to the west of the current. [...]
Regardless of the direction of the main driving current coming into the Sun, the eleven-year reversal of the magnetic loops can be explained by transformer action. If the main magnetic field that induces the surface currents is growing in strength, the surface current will point in one direction. If the main magnetic field starts to weaken in intensity, the secondary (surface) current will reverse direction. Consequently the magnetic polarity of the loops will also reverse. Notice that this mechanism does not require the main solar driving current itself to reverse direction, only to vary in amplitude. It also does not depend on the direction of the primary current. [...]
It is highly likely that such a current system has already been discovered. Stanford University recently announced, “Scientists using the joint European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft have discovered ‘jet streams’ or ‘rivers’ of hot, electrically charged gas (plasma) flowing beneath the surface of the Sun. They also found features similar to ‘trade winds’ that transport gas beneath the Sun’s fiery surface.” Rivers of plasma are electric currents. Currents cause magnetic fields.
As previously mentioned, Donald Scott's work follows on the heels of that of others in the field, including Ralph Juergens and Hannes Alfvén. It is the latter to which I will next refer.
In a paper by Alfvén, he likened the hypothetical electrical circuit / causation of solar functioning to what might be termed a "Unipolar Inductor" (AKA, a 'Homopolar Generator' or 'Faraday Disk'):
Here's a more colorful version, but basically the same:
Heliospheric current circuit with the Sun as a unipolar inductor. (Plasma Universe Wiki)
That said, the same paper, also treats galaxies similarly, as a so-called "Unipolar Inductor":
Now, we have a congruence between the electrical theories at both the Solar level and at the Galactic level. Both are treated as unipolar inductors (albeit at different scales and with other non-congruent structures & behaviors).
So, might we not, then, expect that we should find similar results from common causes (a congruence in [some] structures and behaviors)?
That is to say, in the case of the Solar electrical theory, we see that with varying input electrical current strength(s), secondary magnetic fields and currents are induced, which appear to result in oppositely-directed toroidal [donut shaped] magnetic fields above and below the Solar equator (resulting in the oppositely directed sunspot magnetic polarities, and the periodically reversing sunspot magnetic field cycles).
Might we not then surmise that at the Milky Way's galactic level a similar process may occur, assuming that it can be treated as "Unipolar Inductor" / "Homopolar Generator" (albeit at a different level and with obvious structural differences)? That is to say, with a varying input current strength, there may be induced secondary currents and their equivalent magnetic fields in the sparse plasma of the galactic halo, also above and below the galactic plane / equator? Which ... is exactly what we in fact see in the recent study results from China.
To my eyes, at least, this is strong evidence that Alfven's "Unipolar Inductor" model at the galactic and Solar level appear to fit the data presented [may be *correct* after all?], and may provide a 'unified' explanation of not just the galactic magnetic toroids, but also of the Solar sunspot cycle, et al.
A "grand unifying theory," so-to-speak? [Albeit, one sitting on the Electric Universe / Plasma Cosmology side of the fence, rather than that of the Standard Model of Cosmology...]
High time to revisit the work of Hannes Alfvén, and moreover the work of plasma physicist Anthony Peratt (including his papers "Evolution of the Plasma Universe" I & II and his book "Physics of the Plasma Universe [2nd Ed.]"), Ralph Juergens, and other early visionaries like CER Bruce, Kristian Birkeland (including his monograph "The Norwegian Aurora Polaris Expedition 1902-1903"), and modern Electric Universe proponents Wallace Thornhill & Donald Scott, or Plasma Cosmology proponents such as Eric Lerner, et al.
.gif)
.jpg)
.jpg)
