by Mel Acheson
July 4, 2012

from Thunderbolts Website

New infrared image of the Helix Nebula in Aquarius.

Credit: ESO/VISTA/J. Emerson.

Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit
 

A recent image of the Helix Nebula in the constellation Aquarius exposes more details of its electrical structure.

The new infrared image shows radial Birkeland currents (called “strands” in the press release) crossing the concentric rings and converging on the central star. (Will “strands” now replace the former “stringy things” in the consensus lexicon?)

One can see especially well in the high-resolution image (below) that these currents consist of double filaments that spiral around each other and are evenly spaced around the rings.
 

From an Electric Universe point of view, the image is looking down the axis of the hourglass-shaped galactic current that powers the star.

If viewed from the side, the nebula would have a structure like that of the Ant Nebula (above image). The hourglass shape is caused by the Bennett pinch from which the star originated and accumulated its matter.
 

The rings will constitute secondary circuits, subject to their own pinch effects, which explains the concentration of glowing matter in them.

The outer ring especially appears to consist of double filaments that twist around each other, exactly what is expected of an electric current in magnetized plasma. The bipolar extension of luminosity in the radial filaments (to upper right and lower left) may indicate a diffusion of ring plasma into (or from) the further reaches of the hourglass.

The apparent inner ring actually may be located on the far side of the star, symmetric with the outer ring located on the near side. If viewed off-axis, the structure would be similar to that of SN1987a. Or perhaps the inner ring is located closer to the star in a more constricted part of the hourglass.

The main ring is estimated to be about 2 light-years in diameter, and the outer reaches of the nebula can be traced to about 4 light-years.

This provides an order-of-magnitude sense of the dimensions of the pinch in the current powering the Sun, from which the recently discovered ring of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) likely originates.

The Sun’s plasma sheath, which the Voyager space probes are now entering, is located well inside the hourglass pinch. This sheath acts as the virtual cathode in the Sun’s discharge circuit and is coupled with the hourglass current in a manner yet to be determined.

Terrella-like experiments are needed to explore the mechanisms and details of such plasma interactions. The concentrating and centralizing of funding and research since the establishment of NASA and its sister agencies have resulted in a flood of discoveries.

However, it has also resulted in the establishment of a monopolistic consensus that has driven out research into alternative hypotheses. The poster boy for this disturbing consequence is Halton Arp, who was denied telescope time in 1983 to pursue evidence of intrinsic redshift.

Experiments to refine the concepts of alternative hypotheses are unlikely to be done as long as the would-be investigators are exiles. They dig for spare minutes between the cushions of earning a living from other pursuits, and the few temporal coins they find are spent on conceptual outlines.

Nothing is left for desperately needed experiments. The once-proud Queen of the Sciences now offers herself for sale to the highest bidder on her street corner.

The field of astronomy is no longer a seminar of science but a battlefield between mercenaries and exiles.