Has the Electric Universe theory risen above the gravitas of its skeptics?

Electric Universe theory

The Electric Universe theory argues that electricity plays a more important role in the Universe, than is generally accepted.

As a theory, it offers explanations of various natural and astrophysical phenomena, some of which it claims are better understood without the need for various ad hoc explanations. As with any theory, the Electric Universe makes predictions that have been tested, and is published in both peer-reviewed papers, and popular books.

The Electric Universe theory is interdisciplinary, integrating and supporting subject as diverse as the science (astronomy, geology, physics), with the soft sciences such as ancient history and comparative mythology.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Electric Universe has also become the target of pseudo-skeptics, whose criticisms have consisted of ad hominems, misunderstanding, misrepresentation, and labeling as pseudoscience.

Key points

The plumes of Enceladus are an electrical phenomenon [1]

  • Electricity plays a more significant role in the Universe than is generally accepted
  • The Sun and stars are electrically powered by drift currents (see Electric Sun theory)
  • Planetary surface features such as some craters, dendritic structures and rilles are caused by super-lightning (see electrical scarring)
  • Certain cosmic phenomena are electrical in nature, including:
    • Comet tails (See comets)
    • The plumes of Enceladus
    • Martian dust devils
    • Galaxy formation and dynamics (circumventing the need for black holes and dark matter)

Alternative Electric Universe theories

Others have described, or had described, their theories as the “Electric Universe”, and while they may share some features in common, may be wholly different too.

  • The 1883 pamphlet The Electric Universe: Flashing thoughts for consideration and facts from many sources, by ‘Torpedo'[1]
  • In 1903, George Woodward Warder’s book, The universe a vast electric organism, included Chapter XV “The Electric Universe is Self-Sustaining and Eternal”.[2]
  • In 1959, Herman Bondi and R.A. Lyttleton proposed of “The possibility of a general excess of charge in the universe”[3] which Bondi referred to as the Electric Universe.[4]
  • In the 1960s, C.E.R. Bruce:

“.. proposed a theory of the evolution of the universe, which will be of interest to electrical engineers. He endeavours to show that electrical discharges have gradually condensed matter from the primordial gas and dust of a general universal atmosphere, first into galaxies, then from the condensed matter of the galaxies into stars. Discharges in the extended atmospheres of stars further condensed the matter, ultimately to allow the formation of planets and satellites”[5][6]

  • In 1966, James Patton mentioned “the thinking reader who knows that gravitation and electrostatics both involve inverse-square laws of force, but is unaware of ionization, may wonder how stars and galaxies exist in the ‘electric universe’.[7]
  • In 1978, P. C. W. Davies in an article in Nature,[8] described a paper on “The electrically polarized universe” by John Bally and E. R. Harrison in Astrophysics Journal.[9] Davies notes: “”In spite of its Velikovskian flavour, the Bally-Harrison electric universe unfortunately does not lead to any obviously important astrophysical consequences”.
  • In 1998, Dr. László Körtvélyessy’s book, The Electric Universe [10] also highlighted the importance of electricity in astronomy, but he does not subscribe to an electric-powered Sun, nor electrical scarring.

The Z-Pinch Morphology of Supernova 1987A and Electric Stars

Supernova 1987A (SN 1987A) is the closest supernova event since the invention of the telescope. It was first seen in February 1987 in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud, which is a dwarf companion galaxy of the Milky Way and only 169000 light years from Earth. The Hubble images of the rings of SN 1987A are spectacular and unexpected. The ldquobeaded ringrdquo pattern of brightening is not well explained as an expanding spherical shock front into an earlier stellar ldquowind.rdquo The axial shape of SN 1987A is that of a planetary nebula. It seems that new concepts are required to explain supernovae and planetary nebulae. The new discipline of plasma cosmology provides a precise analog in the form of a Z-pinch plasma discharge. The phenomena match so accurately that the number of bright beads can be accounted for and their behavior predicted. If supernovae are a plasma discharge phenomenon, the theoretical conditions for forming neutron stars and other ldquosupercondensedrdquo objects are not fulfilled, and plasma concepts must be introduced to explain pulsar remnants of supernovae. If the bipolar Z-pinch pattern is introduced to explain supernovae and planetary nebulae, a new electrical theory of stars is required.

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(Source:  science-frontiers.com; April 25, 2016; http://tinyurl.com/29tvzec)

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