Plasma / Anode Tufting on "R Doradus"?

 

Comparison of observed anode tufting in the SAFIRE Project test chamber
to a recent observation of "R Doradus" by ALMA.

 

This will be a bit of an off-the-cuff "looks like" comparison, but one I think bears further scrutiny, as it may well be a second piece of direct observational evidence for the Electric Star / Sun model, forwarded and further expounded by Donald Scott (and based on prior work by the likes of Kristian Birkeland, Charles Bruce, Hannes Alfvén, Ralph Juergens), and tested in the plasma physics lab by The SAFIRE Project (see: YouTube Playlist).

In a previous blog entry, a possible connection was previously made between the "Bizarre Rings" [really concentric shells] of WR 140 (Wolf-Rayet 140) and novel results from the SAFIRE Project test chamber (concentric nested plasma "double-layer" shells).

Once again, it seems that newer, higher resolution images of stars out in the cosmos are aligning with images previously recorded in the SAFIRE Project test chamber.

The latest such star is "R Doradus," which was recently observed in unprecedented detail by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array [ALMA], not just once, but over a period of a month, gathering a number of sequential images of the "evolution" or "behavior" of its now better-resolved [in higher resolution/definition] stellar surface. In this video (and also referenced in this reaction/commentary video [which is what triggered this blog post]), ESO shows several sequential images showing how the visible appearance of the star appears to evolve and change over time.

 

GIF of "R Doradus" evolution from the ALMA site.

 

The "Standard Model" explanation of this observation is in terms of "gas models," "convective motion," and the typical theory of stellar nuclear fusion [creating internal "heat" and thereby driving "convective motion," etc.]. Basically, they've called this "bubbling convection," or some such. From an ALMA press release:

"For the first time, astronomers have captured images of a star other than the Sun in enough detail to track the motion of bubbling gas on its surface. The images of the star, R Doradus, were obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in July and August 2023. They show giant, hot bubbles of gas, 75 times the size of the Sun, appearing on the surface and sinking back into the star’s interior faster than expected."

"Stars produce energy in their cores through nuclear fusion. This energy can be carried out towards the star’s surface in huge, hot bubbles of gas, which then cool down and sink — like a lava lamp."

That is the "standard" theory.

But, there is another theory (quite non-mainstream, not widely talked about, and generally dismissed), which has been mentioned previously: The Electric Star / Sun hypothesis. Its take is radically different from the Standard Model's interpretation. 

In the Electric Star hypothesis, to radically oversimplify, the source of a star's radiant output is *not* nuclear fusion in its core, but an electrical process powered from the outside. 

This theory is based upon known properties and behaviors of plasma, such as glow and arc discharges, anode glow / anode tufting, and so on.

 

Images from the Plasma Universe page on electric glow discharges.

 

These are competing models for the interpretation of how stars operate, and likewise for how to interpret observations made of objects [stars, etc.] in space.

In a series of increasingly elaborate and specific experiments, The SAFIRE Project sought to *test* this novel hypothesis in the laboratory, and set about putting together a Design of Experiment, by which to investigate and test the model.

A number of presentations have been given at various points over the course of the SAFIRE Project and its several experimental phases. (See: YouTube Playlist.)

In particular, the 2015 presentation is of interest here, as it shows at various points some shots and videos of the SAFIRE test chamber in action. Of particular note here are the video and images of plasma tufting around the anode at the center of the chamber:

 

Video screenshot of plasma / anode tufting around the central anode.

 

Here we can see that the anode tufts are distributed somewhat irregularly around the anode, some large, some smaller, some brighter, some connected to one another, and with "dark space" in between. It is this particular discharge regime (plasma / anode tufting) that appears to be the most similar to the recent ALMA observation of "R Doradus" and its visible appearance:

Screenshot of a recent ESO video showing one of a series of
shots of the evolving appearance of "R Doradus."

 

Herein we can see an extremely similar apparent visual structure between the recent observation of "R Doradus" and and plasma / anode tufting seen in the SAFIRE Project's test chamber. In particular, the surface of "R Doradus" displays what look to be a number of individual extremely bright spots surrounded by dark spaces.

In the videos presented by The SAFIRE Project over the course of several years, one can also see that such plasma / anode tufts will be seen to move around the anode's spherical surface, shrink and grow, etc. Which it seems like one can just barely make out in the extant evolving images of "R Doradus," as the bright spots of so-called "bubbling convection" appear to move around, merge, etc., as well (in much the same manner as observed of anode tufting in the SAFIRE Project test chamber).

What the Standard Model calls "bubbling convection of hot gases" the Electric Star hypothesis would simply point to as a specific electrical discharge regime in plasma, over the surface of what is likely a compact object composed of heavy elements, and such. Hypothetically, of course.

Submitted on the obviously not-yet-sufficient basis of "looks like." 

However, we look forward to further refinement of the observational tools, higher-resolution and longer-duration observations, and perhaps an open-minded inquiry into an alternative hypothesis that may just unlock a better understanding of the universe, its structure, and function, from a plasma / electrical vantage point.

I'll let They Might Be Giants sing us out and give us small lesson on occasionally updating outdated theories & understandings with new information...

Whereas the sun may one have been viewed as a "ball of hot gas":

 

Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas)

 

It's now known to be composed a bit more like a "ball of ionized plasma" (which behaves considerably differently from "gases," one might add):

Why Does the Sun Really Shine? (The Sun is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma)

 

On WR 140, "Bizarre Rings" [Actually "Shells"], and the Nested Double Layers Discovered in the SAFIRE Project's Test Chamber.

Wolf-Rayet 140 (WR 140) [Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, NASA-JPL, Caltech] 
vs. nested "plasma double layer" shells produced in the SAFIRE Project (phase III) test chamber [Image: video screenshot].

 

It never ceases to amaze me, the absolutely remarkable things that end up going unremarked. Well, it's about high time to remark upon one...

I've meant to post this blog or something like it for a long time, but had hoped one of my online colleagues would have stepped up to the plate with a more technical analysis, from our point of view, by now...

Thus far, it hasn't yet happened. So, you'll have to bear with my non-technical 'looks like' analysis. 

(Yes, I'm fully aware, 'looks like' doesn't necessarily mean 'is.' But ... I think this comparison nonetheless bears further rigorous investigation. Since, if 'looks like' turns out to be 'is,' it can tell us something extremely interesting about the cosmos, IMO. Possibly even something paradigm-shifting...)

So, not-so-long-ago now, the James Webb Space Telescope [JWST] team put out one or more press release(s) and published a paper or two in the journal Nature, which were picked up by the likes of news outlets such as Space, et al, regarding a novel observation of the Wolf-Rayet star "WR 140" (AKA, "Wolf-Rayet 140"). 

They noted that JWST had observed a heretofore unknown feature / structure unique to the the space around WR140. Specifically, they had captured an image of faint, somewhat ghostly, "bizarre rings" around the putative binary star system.

But, more than just 'rings,' Ryan Lau (Assistant Astronomer at the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, and principal investigator of the Webb Early Release Science program that observed WR 140) is quoted as saying:

"I was amazed. Although they resemble rings in the image, the true 3D geometry of those semi-circular features is better described as a shell."

Not just one shell mind you, but at least 17, if not more. The feature is structures a bit like an onion, with layers inside layers inside layers (at least 17 [and counting?]).

The question, my dear readers, is how we *interpret* the novel observation.

The team has forwarded a hypothesis regarding binary stars, solar winds colliding every 8 years or so and pushing out shells of dust in a somewhat spiral / conchoid manner, that then manages to somehow turn into this extremely regularly structure of nested spheres.

I, on the other hand, immediately likened the structure to something *entirely different* and altogether familiar to me: a specific novel result reported in several presentations about experiments done at the SAFIRE Project lab (testing the Electric Star / Electric Sun hypothesis, forwarded by retired professor of electrical engineering Donald Scott).

Not only was it a novel result, but it was actually initially observed & reported *prior* to the JWST observations, at least as early as 2015. Though the initial unrefined observations [below] occurred in Phase I of the SAFIRE Project, which may have {?} completed earlier than the 2015 conference presentation relating to Phase II of the SAFIRE Project:

Early images from the SAFIRE Project (Phase I). [Image: Composite of video screenshots.]

More refined observations and control of the plasma double layers came slightly later, as in this still frame from a presentation in 2017 (video of the evolving double layer shells in the experiment is slightly later, at this timestamp):

Later, more refined & controlled nested spherical "double layer" shells
inside the SAFIRE Project test chamber. [Image: video screenshot]

The JWST observation, however, was not reported until late 2022 (fully 7+ years after the SAFIRE Project had initially observed presented its experimental observations in 2015 [or earlier]).

So, for me, unlike for the JWST team, there was little if any "shock" or "surprise" at their observation of such a multi-shelled structure around one or more stars. 

In fact, to my mind, to the contrary, it should be an *expected* observation around stars, *under specific electrical/plasma conditions*, commensurate with the prior experimental observation in the SAFIRE Project test chamber, *if the Electric Sun/Star hypothesis is true and/or the experimental results obtained in the SAFIRE Project test chamber are applicable/scalable to stellar and/or cosmological scales.* [And we already know that plasma behaviors, and structures are scalable, spatially and temporally, over many O.O.M. (orders of magnitude).]

And, just as in the JWST observation (from Ryan Lau, previously quoted):

"I was amazed. Although they resemble rings in the image, the true 3D geometry of those semi-circular features is better described as a shell."

SAFIRE Project lead Monty Childs described the evolution of the Double Layer shells thusly, in his earlier 2016 presentation:

"...And these, uh, these 'double layers' ... We ended up finding that we had two, three, four, ... twenty. {!} These aren't, uh, disks, these are spherical, um, discharges. Plasma has a unique characteristic where it's translucent as you look through the center of it, and it looks like it's a disk. But, in fact, it's not. What you're looking at, actually, are spheres."

Not only are the 'double layers' spherical in the SAFIRE Project test chamber, but you can get more than one shell... 2, 3, 4, ... 20! Again, just as in the JWST observation of [at least] 17 currently observable concentric shells around WR 140... 

Electrical effects in plasma can *directly* and *reproducibly* generate *precisely* the multi-shelled structure observed by JWST [7+ years after the SAFIRE Project results].

In my opinion, this should probably be headline news. 

There should at least be a reasonable, reasoned discussion of the SAFIRE results / observations and their potential applicability to stellar atmospheres [precisely the domain it was designed to investigate], and to the cosmos at large. Presumably the SAFIRE Project team could give some insight into what they observed in the test chamber, under what specific discharge regimes, and thus what specific characteristics to look for in astrophysical observations of WR 140 in order to further investigate, differentiate between the models, and decide which theory/explanation most accurately fits/explains empirical observation.

Further, should the result/correlation be upheld, it nigh demands a careful reconsideration of some basic tenets of modern stellar theory and likely cosmology at-large, since this experiment stems not from the 'Standard Model,' but instead from the 'Electric Universe' / 'Electric Star' Model(s), wherein the prime mover and shaker of the cosmos is not the exceedingly weak force of gravitation, but the 39 OOM stronger [that's 10^39 or a 1 with 39 zeroes after it {!} times stronger] electromagnetic force...

In that model, the 'galactic web' is not 'neutral' or 'dead' but a network of interconnected 'power lines' [of a sort] lighting up, well, basically EVERYthing (stars, galaxies, etc.). Far more can be said on that, but I'll confined my remarks to the subject at hand for now, as a microcosm of the macrocosmic issue(s) at hand.

Given recent apparent falsifications of the Big Bang (fully formed galaxies with too high a redshift, thus allegedly "too mature, too early after the [alleged] Big Bang") and other tenets of the 'Standard Model,' it's about time to shake things up, and shift our thinking to a new paradigm. 

In my considered opinion, that is some flavor of Electric Universe, Plasma Cosmology, Magnetohydrodynamic Universe, Electrodynamic Universe, or however you bloody well want to phrase it. 

It's all the same song and dance. And it's time to do the Electric Slide/Boogie, 'cause ... according to They Might be Giants: "The Sun is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma..." [Well, you're almost there, anyway! Just a few steps more...] Sing us out, boys!

"Pinch" Me, I'm Dreaming of "Magnetic Slinkies!"

Silly metaphors require silly titles. Hopefully today we can sort out some astrophysical silliness and come to a better understanding of what is going on from an electrical standpoint. The silliness in question is the "magnetic slinky" that has been metaphorically associated with a molecular cloud in Orion. Put simply, a better physical explanation is the "plasma pinch."

In my introductory post, I exegesis-ized the relationship between... Yes, okay, I know exegesis-ized isn't a word! Sheesh! Fine, I elaborated (some might prefer belabored) the relationship between magnetic fields and electric currents. Hopefully we're all on the same page by now:

"Electric currents are the sole source of magnetic fields in the universe."

Today, we seek to put that notion into practice with a real-world example. Moreover, let's add another bit of electrical physics to the mix.

The topic I want to recap today is an oldie but a goodie. In 2006, astronomers discovered what was subsequently coined a "magnetic slinky" encircling a molecular cloud in Orion. 

But, what does that even mean? Honestly, by itself, not a whole heck of a lot. It's a pretty bad metaphor. Essentially, what was being described is the approximate shape of magnetic 'field lines' encircling the long axis of the molecular cloud. In a later post, I'll cover why we should move away from the concept of talking about 'field lines' (they don't actually exist).

But, again, what does the discovery actually tell us about what's going on? For that I'll actually grab a slightly better quote from the press release:

"The magnetic field lines are like stretched rubber bands; the tension squeezes the cloud into its filamentary shape."

Ahh, action words! Something happened. Finally, we're getting somewhere! Though, the metaphysics is still terrible, since magnetic 'field lines' do not exist thus cannot have 'tension' and cannot 'squeeze' anything. But at least we have some idea now of what has been observed. Something is causing the compression of the molecular cloud into a filamentary shape. It's a start...

So, what do we know? We know there's a 'cloud' out in space. We know that a magnetic field is involved. We know that the cloud is being compressed. We know that the magnetic field is implicated somehow in compressing the cloud.

So, what's actually going on?

Let's back up and head back to the basics. We've already said that magnetic fields are produced by electric currents, because electric currents of some character are the sole source of magnetic fields in the universe.

When a current flows, a magnetic field is generated around it. It can be visualized as a straight line (current, I) surrounded by concentric circles (magnetic field, B).

But, this universe is messy and things are never quite that simple. When a current flows and generates a magnetic field, the magnetic field can also interact back with the current that created it, constricting the current. As the current is constricted the magnetic field increases.

Original Caption: Fig. 10: Physics of the Z-pinch: A current (orange) generates a magnetic field (blue), which causes the current to pinch inwards along the axis by way of the Biot-Savart F = I × B force. This amplifies the magnetic field and accelerates the pinch, heating the plasma and causing it to radiate X-rays (red).

http://www.stanford.edu/~rhamerly/cgi-bin/Ph240/Ph240-2.php#sec4

This feedback continues until magnetic pressure reaches equilibrium with the gas pressure in the compressed conductor. This is known as the 'pinch effect.'

Are there any accessible examples of the pinch effect? Yes. But we'll get to those in a moment.

First let's back up one more time and discuss discharge regimes. In a plasma, there are three basic regimes. One might call them 'intensities' of discharge.

• Dark Discharge
  This regimes is termed a dark discharge because although a current flows, generally, the discharge remains invisible to the eye.
• Glow Discharge
  The glow discharge regime owes its name to the fact that the plasma is luminous. The gas glows because the electron energy and number density are high enough to generate visible light by excitation collisions.
• Arc Discharge
  Beyond the glow discharge is the arc discharge regime. Particle energies and current density are higher. The increased current produces an associated increased magnetic field which pinch the current into a filamentary shape. Arc discharges are also known to emit copiously across the electromagnetic spectrum.

So, are there any examples of the pinch effect? Yes!

In the glow mode, one need look only as far as a novelty 'plasma lamp' or 'lightning globe' as they are affectionately known:

Discharge streamers emanate through low density ionized gases (plasma) from a central electrode, compressed into filamentary forms by way of the pinch effect.

In the arc discharge regime, we can easily point to lightning:

The discharge channel is clearly compressed into a filament with a very small radius. Lightning also emits brightly in the visible range and indeed across much of the EM spectrum from radio to x-rays.

Now you know! The pinch effect can be reasonably easily understood and is useful for understanding several relatively mundane processes here on Earth. But, what about in the cosmos at large?

It is this author's opinion that what's good for the goose is good for the gander. What holds true here on Earth in the lab and in nature should also apply to the cosmos. so, we come full circle back to the original inquiry: the molecular cloud in Orion.

To recap what we know: there is a filamentary cloud of material; it is being compressed into its filamentary shape; magnetic fields are involved somehow.

We also know that magnetic fields find their genesis in electric currents and can be visualized as field lines wrapped around the central axis of the current.

Original caption: The Orion Molecular Cloud superimposed on the Orion constellation, with the orange star Betelgeuse at the top corner and Rigel at the bottom. The inset shows the Slinky-like coils of the helical magnetic field surrounding the filamentary cloud. (Credit: Saxton, Dame, Hartmann, Thaddeus; NRAO/AUI/NSF)

Diagram shows azimuthal magnetic field (B)
as concentric circles around central current (I).

So, based on what we know of the nature of magnetic fields and the pinch effect, do we have enough information to make an anecdotal case for a hypothesis on what's really going on here? I think we do.

An electric current flowing along the length of the filamentary cloud would generate a magnetic field azimuthal to the cloud (wrapped the short way around the filament). Such a magnetic field could interact back with the current flowing through the cloud causing it to 'pinch' or compress into the observed filamentary shape. Not unlike the filamentary tendrils observed in a plasma lamp (above).

Thus, rather simply, we can back-infer from the magnetic field of the filament, its shape and the implication that the magnetic field is involved in compressing the cloud into its filamentary shape that there is a plausible possibility that a current is flowing there, which would reproduce the features observed.

Would the solution be as simple as drawing a line down the middle of the "magnetic slinky" along the long axis and labeling it (I) denoting a current flowing there (as an analogy to the current [I] vs. magnetic field [B] diagram, above)?

I suggest that it is incumbent upon astronomers to perform some follow up observations and/or modeling to investigate this simple, testable proposition. Moreover, if this hypothesis is found plausible or even probable in this instance, this observation and hypothesis could easily be applied to a number of other structures demonstrating filamentary shapes and strongly associated magnetic fields.

Another pertinent example that jumps to mind is the "Strongest Electrical Current in the Universe" recently derived from observations in an extremely similar manner (by first observing Faraday rotation indicating the presence of a magnetic field then modeling the system to determine the characteristic of the current driving it).

One wonders somewhat emphatically whether all similar jets (such as the "largest stellar jet" stretching over 400 trillion kilometers recently found in the Large Magellanic Cloud or Herbig-Haro objects, generally) may share common features, including an electrical character heretofore not widely acknowledged.

I'd love to see a rigorous investigation with the potential to investigate this very simple hypothesis.

If the above examples are tackled and an answer in the affirmative is obtained, perhaps this hypothesis can then be extended to the investigation of the entire filamentary cosmic web of stars, galaxies and galaxy clusters.

Are any astronomers brave enough to undertake a rigorous voyage of discovery into this wild new frontier? The exploration won't be without its challenges. But the bounties may far outweigh the perils.