Plasma - The 4th State of Matter

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I've always found its scaling properties to be fascinating.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_scaling

Because plasma scaling is a well known phenomina obeying known force laws, its possible to conduct experiments in the lab on a small scale and them scale them up to astronomical proportions.

This allows actual testing of plasma theories in laboratory settings that can then be taken and compared to stellar observations in space. Something that modern cosmology has been lacking since the days of Newton.

A falsifiable model of cosmology can be constructed based on well known electrodynamic physics.

When was the last time you heard the word falsifiable tossed around in cosmological theory?



Kirstian Birkeland demonstrating his terrella.

The terrella Birkeland created uniformly matched aural displays on earth. Birkeland's pioneering work led to the discovery of Birkeland currents. Gigantic currents of dark mode charged plasma that interact with the earths magnetosphere causing the arora borealis.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birkeland_current

These massive currents are found throughout space, they interact with other planets, and some theorists suggest, power stars and even entire galaxies.

Jupiters arora



NASA physicists like to call Birkeland currents "flux ropes" as they pretain to standard cosmological theory.

Here is an image taken from the THEMSIS site.




http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/th...rn_lights.html


Plasma's can be diffuse highly efficient conductors of electricity over large distances. Electrical currents in plasmas produce magnetic fields. Magnetic fields are found strung throughout space in all dimensions - even around earth!

The NASA THEMSIS program is busy collecting data on the magnetic and electrical fields that surround earth. It is sure to suprise standard cosmologists!

These quotes are taken from the THEMSIS page.

“The substorm behaved quite unexpectedly," says Vassilis Angelopoulos

"The auroras surged westward twice as fast as anyone thought possible, crossing 15 degrees of longitude in less than one minute. The storm traversed an entire polar time zone, or 400 miles, in 60 seconds flat."

Magnetic fields can only be generated by electric currents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_field

Most theoretical cosmologists today have little to no training at all in electrical engineering or electrified plasma physics. This fact was addressed by Hannes Alfven, the creator of Magnetohydrodynamic theory, which is what standard cosmolgists use to get around the electrical requirements of modeling space plasma when he said:

When I describe the [plasma phenomena] according to this formulism most referees do not understand what I say and turn down my papers. With the referee system which rules US science today, this means that my papers are rarely accepted by the leading US journals

• ^ After Peratt, A. L., "Advances in Numerical Modeling of Astrophysical and Space Plasmas" (1966) Astrophysics and Space Science, v. 242, Issue 1/2, p. 93-163.
• ^ Cobine, J. D ., 1941: Gaseous Conductors, McGraw-Hill . New York
• ^ von Engel, A., and Steenbeck, M., 1934: ElektrischeGasentladungen, Springer-Verlag, Berlin. See also von Engel, 1955: Ionized Gases, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
• ^ H. Alfvén and C.-G. Falthammar, Cosmic electrodynamics (2nd Edition, Clarendon press, Oxford, 1963) See 4.2.2. Similarity Transformations
• ^ APOD: 2000 December 19 - A Close Up of Aurora on Jupiter
• ^ AIAA
• ^ Plasma: Plasma phenomena
• ^ The University of Calgary Portable Auroral Imager
• ^ Electromagnetic Forces
• ^ Brush, Stephen G. (Dec 1992). "Alfvén's Programme in Solar System Physics". IEEE Trans. Plasma Science 20 (6): 577. doi:10.1109/27.199495.
• ^ Electric Currents from Space
• ^ Electric Currents from Space--History
• ^ NASA Spacecraft Make New Discoveries About Northern Lights
• ^ Spring is Aurora Season
• ^ Multimedia for the Press Event for THEMIS
• ^ chapter 15

• Alfvén, Hannes (1939), Theory of Magnetic Storms and of the Aurorae, K. Sven. Vetenskapsakad. Handl., ser. 3, vol. 18, no. 3, p. 1, 1939. Reprinted in part, with comments by A. J. Dessler and J. Wilcox, in Eos, Trans. Am. Geophys. Un., vol. 51, p. 180, 1970.
• Alfvén, Hannes, "Double layers and circuits in astrophysics," IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci., vol. 14, p. 779, 1986 (on p. 787).
• Armstrong J. C.; Zmuda, A. J.; "Field-aligned current at 1100km in the auroral region measured by satellite," J. Geophys. Res., vol. 75, p. 7122, 1970.
• Armstrong J. C.; Zmuda, A. J.; "Triaxial magnetic measurements of field-aligned currents at 800 kilometers in the auroral region: Initial results," J. Geophys. Res., vol. 78, p. 6802, 1973; Zmuda A. J.; Armstrong J. C.; "The diurnal flow pattern of field-aligned currents," J. Geophys. Res., vol. 79, p. 4611, 1974.
• Birkeland, Kristian (1908), The Norwegian Aurora Polaris Expedition 1902-1903
• Bostrom, R., "A model of the auroral electrojets," J. Geophys. Res., vol. 69, p. 4983, 1964.
• Cummings, W. D.; Dessler, A. J.; "Field-aligned currents in the magnetosphere," J. Geophys. Res., vol. 72, p. 1007, 1967.
• Peratt, Anthony (1992), Physics of the Plasma Universe, "Birkeland Currents in Cosmic Plasma" (p.43-92)
• Rostoker, G.; Armstrong, J. C.; Zmuda, A. J. (1975), "Field-aligned current flow associated with intrusion of the substorm-intensified westward electrojet into the evening sector", Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 80, Sept. 1, 1975, p. 3571-3579
• Schield, M. A.; Freeman, J. W.; Dessler, A. J., (1969) "A Source for Field-Aligned Currents at Auroral Latitudes", Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 74, p.247
• Zmuda, A. J.; Martin, J. H.; Heuring, F. T. "Transverse magnetic disturbances at 1100 kilometers in the auroral region," J . Geophys. Res., vol. 71, p. 5033, 1966.
• Zmuda, A. J.; Armstrong, J. C.; Heuring, F. T. "Characteristics of transverse magnetic disturbances observed at 1100 km in the auroral oval", J. Geophys. Res., vol. 75, p. 4757, 1970.