Hexagonal Craters on Mercury -Unexplained Forces Keep Mars Rovers Moving

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Hexagonal Craters on Mercury 01/27/08 http://www.thunderbolts.info/thunderblogs/goodspeed.htm In my recent essay The Craters are Electric, I enumerated many examples of craters on celestial bodies that cannot be explained within the traditional geologic toolkit. One strikingly anomalous crater-type is the hexagonal crater, a feature observed on many planets and moons throughout the solar system. Obviously, the impact hypothesis never envisioned hexagonal cratering patterns, nor have impact experiments ever suggested any kinetic force that might generate such a form. Our planetary neighbors provide an endless "laboratory in space" in which to test the electric cratering hypothesis. Presently, the planet Mercury is under close scrutiny, with scientists working on NASA's MESSENGER mission analyzing more than 1200 images returned from the recent flyby. In the image above, we see a central crater that NASA describes as "intriguing." In its center is a telephone shape that NASA calls a "collapse feature," which according to standard thinking is caused by volcanic activity. The NASA website makes no mention, however, of the crater's hexagonal form (and the hexagon-shape of other craters in the image as well.) Although NASA routinely describes the telephone shape as a "collapse feature," it needs to be said that no evidence exists to support this explanation. NASA suggests that the shape could "reflect past volcanic activity at and just below the surface" of the crater. But again, for this interpretation there is literally no evidence. And if NASA scientists are forced to such implausible explanations, it is only because of their complete disinterest in the electrical hypothesis. It raises the specter of the earlier debate between geologists and astronomers over a volcanic or impact origin of craters on the Moon. William Morris Davis once pointed out with wry humor that "astronomers tended to explain the craters of the moon by volcanic action, a geologic process, while geologists tended to explain them by meteoritic action, an astronomic process-each scientist evidently feeling free to take liberties with a field other than his own." W M Davis, 1922, Origin of Coon Butte. It was finally decided by "a show of hands." Upon seeing this image, some in the Thunderbolts group were instantly reminded of the polar vortex configurations seen on both Venus and Saturn. According to the leading proponent of the Electric Universe, Wallace Thornhill, these spiral vortexes are due to concentrated electric current flows along the magnetic field direction to the poles. They show precisely the configuration and motion of Birkeland current filaments in plasma discharge experiments. It was Thornhill's understanding of the electrical nature of the vortexes that led him to explicitly predict that BOTH of Saturn's poles would be hot -- a WILDLY unconventional prediction that was recently CONFIRMED. Above are images of vortex formations formed in cylindrical particle beams. Over a century ago, the Norwegian physicist Kristian Birkeland produced vortex structure and vortex interactions in charged particle beams through low vacuum in his "terrella" cathode experiments. The circular pattern in the discharge will switch to a polygon as parallel Birkeland current filaments in the cylinder are drawn together by long-range attractive electromagnetic forces and short-range repulsive forces causing them to rotate in pairs and form vortices. At the center of the hexagonal crater is the pattern formed by the twin filaments of the central Birkeland column, which has created the strange cratering pattern similar to the complex central vortex seen at the Venusian pole. As Thornhill noted in his recent piece, "2008-Year of the Electric Universe," Jupiter has also been found to have a hexagonal cloud collar at its north pole, and the planet's Great Red Spot "occasionally shows clear hexagonal morphology, too." Also, some galaxies exhibit hexagonal structure within a circular arc, and show the characteristics of "diocotron instabilities" in their spiral arms. In other words, in an Electric Universe, we should expect to see the polygonal structures observed in planetary atmospheres (particularly the polar regions), and similar forms aligned to the axes and along the arms of some galaxies. From the Electric Universe perspective, hexagonal craters like the ones seen above are the telltale signs of electrical scarring in an earlier epoch of planetary instability,and vastly more intense electrical activity. Whereas the impact hypothesis has failed completely either to predict or to explain the dominant crater features on planets and moons, experimental (electrical) plasma science provides a hypothesis whose success continues to grow with new observations. [ top ] Big Bang Cosmology: Going Down a Black Hole? 01/20/2008 It must be difficult for young people today to comprehend the wonder with which humankind once regarded space exploration. Most kids have spent their lives soaking up CGI special effects in Hi-Def and surround sound, so a routine Space Shuttle launch in the real world can't seem too impressive. Even worse, Sci-Fi movies with cosmic themes have been almost universally poor since at least the mid-1980's. "Incidental" filmmaking nuances like character development, dialog and psychological truth are eschewed in favor of hyper-kinetic special effects and ultra-violence. Whereas filmmakers Kubrick, Lucas, and Spielberg once made us ponder what it means to be human, Michael Bay makes us wonder WHY human beings exist. Cosmic Sci-Fi has become boring, because cosmology is boring -- at best. Other apt descriptives include stultifying, mind-numbing, threadbare, and insipid. The picture of the cosmos as presented in popular scientific media is one bereft of vitality and inspiration. But when one considers the direction of space science for the past several decades, how could it be otherwise? Ever since Einstein opened the door to a confusing language of time and space, mass, matter and energy, mathematical abstractions have come to dominate standard cosmology. The picture is terribly "dense," both literally and figuratively. Today, we are told that 96% of the Universe is made of theoretical (and invisible) "dark stuff" that has never been seen or measured, and by definition can never be tested in a laboratory. We are also told that at the center of every galaxy is an invisible "supermassive black hole" that devours everything in its wake. Big Bang cosmology so heavily relies on these unseen, untestable ghosts "proven" only by abstract equations that -- as many critics have noted -- little distinction remains between space science and science fiction. Not unlike fiction authors, scientists understand that they cannot survive without public fascination, because no interest in their work means no "respectability" and no funding. But PR efforts in the space sciences must be inherently challenging. An obvious problem is that it all seems to be occurring in remote never-lands of meager concern to earthlings. So, to provoke the interest of the jaded layperson, astronomers and cosmologists continually churn out hyped-up, mostly-improbable threats that the public is likely to find titillating and/or frightening. (Then of course they make assuring statements, telling us not to be frightened because of this or that technological fix that they have thought up -- requiring, of course, big funding to achieve.) Today, these are primarily speculations about asteroids impacting earth, the never-ending (and profoundly disingenuous) "search for alien life," and the ubiquitous, all-devouring "black hole." All of these provide plenty of fodder for computer-enhanced, dramatized television "docudramas" portraying these fantastic events as if, in the manner of the "War of the Worlds" (fake) news drama, they were actually occurring. Of course, the science-popularizing press just loves black holes. In fact, black holes have been "seen" in recent years performing exotic and previously undreamed of feats with such numbing regularity that some critics have wondered aloud, "Is there anything a black hole CAN'T do?" Recent "news" items include speculations that hundreds of "intermediate mass,rogue" black holes may be "roaming the Milky Way galaxy"; a black hole shooting "a death ray" at a neighboring galaxy; black holes spinning "at speeds approaching the speed of light" ; and a research group claiming to have "succeeded for the first time in revealing the state inside a black hole by computer simulations using superstring theory." With official science almost always discussing black holes as if they were an established fact rather than a theory, what is the layperson to make of these outlandish objects? First and foremost, it's imperative that we understand what astronomers actually mean when they claim to "see" a black hole. Long before scientists began speculating about "dark matter" and "dark energy," astrophysicists observed that galactic cores exhibit vastly more concentrated energetic activity than could be achieved by gravity alone, unless something hugely massive (yet incredibly small) were present. So they effectively "divided by zero." They employed the near zero force of gravity to explain a nearly "infinite" compression of matter -- the only thing they could "see" under their theoretical assumptions. It's no longer physics; it is, as Wallace Thornhill calls it, "a school-kid math howler." They called these speculative, monstrous concentrations of matter "black holes," imagining that they "consume everything around them." See "A Brief History of Black Holes" for "a brief but accurate account of events, verifiable by reference to the original papers, by which the scandalous manipulation of both scientific and public opinion is revealed." As technology improved, the original black hole theoretical model was quickly contradicted by facts. Suddenly, the theorists imagined that an "accretion disk" and magnetic field (which they claim can somehow exist with no contribution from electric currents) could produce a narrowly-confined jet across millions of light years. So let's understand this, very clearly -- scientists have never "seen" black holes. They've seen (unanticipated) energetic effects that they imagine can only be caused by the destruction of matter, i.e. a theoretical black hole "sucking" and "consuming" everything around it due to the supposed (but impossible) infinite gravity. Popular discussion of black holes can only be described as disingenuous in the extreme. The contradictory, unexpected observations are routinely presented as evidence confirming black holes' existence! The improbable jets have never had a reasonable place within gravitational dogma, a fact rarely if ever acknowledged in scientific media. But the abstract and purely mathematical reasoning that led to black holes is wholly unnecessary, according to proponents of the Plasma Universe and Electric Universe. Far from the spotlight of media attention, plasma cosmologists did anticipate many of the "surprising" discoveries of the space age, with no requirement of invisible, untestable ghosts and equations involving imaginary infinities. As early as 1937, the father of plasma cosmology, Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfven, proposed that our galaxy contains a magnetic field and that the charged particles move in spiral orbits owing to forces exerted by the field. Through experimentation over many decades, Alfvén and others further demonstrated the established complex properties and characteristics of plasmas. And now, plasma physicists can trace the evolution of observed galactic forms from basic electromagnetic principles. This last point has been demonstrated most persuasively by plasma scientist Anthony Peratt, a student of Alfvén. Peratt's supercomputer simulations and experiments have shown that the interaction between cosmic Birkeland filaments -- with no imaginary dark matter, no "voracious" black holes -- naturally produces an accumulation of matter at the currents' intersection, leading to spiral galactic structure and rotational motions that accurately match observations. As further confirmation at a level of detail, the simulations show "flat rotation curves" and many other characteristics summarized here.In an electric universe, galaxies are born from high-energy, electrical events whose signature can now be seen in space. Take a moment and consider the image above of the Radio Galaxy 3C31 (also called NGC 383). This galaxy is a MINUSCULE object, little more than a dust mote, when seen against the immense display of highly energetic charged particles. Electrons in twin polar jets, accelerated to near the speed of light, are evidence of the most intense electrical discharge activity known to science. Our instruments detect this activity through its synchrotron radiation and through the twin lobes of high-energy radio signals. So how is this huge region of electrical activity to be interpreted? In standard models, an electrically-neutral galaxy is asked to generate electrical activity across volumes of space THOUSANDS of times greater than the volume of the galaxy. But simple electrodynamics says this is impossible! How does a galactic-size, neutral object produce a vast domain of electrical activity around it? A plasma cosmologist looking at this image will see electric currents incomparably larger than the galaxy, being focused down by a plasma "pinch," at energy levels capable of lighting and organizing stars into the observed galactic structure. Indeed, Winston H. Bostick produced such behavior in the laboratory years before the counterparts were observed in space. Plasma scientists have demonstrated a superior ability both to predict and to explain space observations using only principles well-documented in the laboratory over many decades. And in fact, their predictive record has only improved with the emergence of technologies capable of mapping the full cosmic electromagnetic spectrum. As physicist Eric J Lerner observed in the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science: "... the predictions of plasma cosmology have been strengthened by new observations, including evidence for the stellar origin of the light elements, the plasma origin of large-scale structures, and the origin of the cosmic microwave background in a 'radio fog' of dense plasma filaments." Over 99% of the Universe consists of plasma, which can conduct electricity as easily as copper metal. And while it tends to be electrically neutral overall, electrically charged regions may occur on areas such as double layers and particle beams. It is well known by all physicists that magnetic fields and electric currents affect the charged particles in plasmas far more than gravity does. And according to the electrical theorists, in space plasma these same forces organize galactic structure and provide the external energy that powers stars, including our own Sun. Plasma science is attracting interest because it explains physical reality in a manner that is consistent, comprehensible, logical, and most importantly, testable. Many also sense an inherent meaningfulness in the interconnectedness of all in an electric plasma universe -- as Wal Thornhill and Dave Talbott have written, "No isolated islands exist in space." In stark contrast, according to critics in increasing numbers, the esoteric mathematics of standard cosmology is inconsistent, incomprehensible, illogical, and worst, almost entirely untestable in the real world. Can one gain a sense of meaning from a field seemingly overrun by mathematical fantasies? Although they may be internally consistent, they have no reality or meaning outside their own constructed framework of thoughts. To see just how little regard standard cosmologists now seem to have for empirical reality, one need look no further than the recent NY Times "science" headline, " Big Brain Theory: Have Cosmologists Lost Theirs?" According to the cosmologists cited in the article -- which features a staggering overabundance of standard and quasi-standard quantum speculations about "spacetime,parallel universes," and multiple "big bangs" -- the bottom line is that "you yourself reading this article are more likely to be some momentary fluctuation in a field of matter and energy out in space than a person with a real past born through billions of years of evolution in an orderly star-spangled cosmos. Your memories and the world you think you see around you are illusions." If you think the above is an absurd, grotesque, and frankly misanthropic fantasy unworthy of your attention, the Times author does little to increase your confidence with the following declaration: "Nobody in the field believes that this is the way things really work, however." If this is so, why are they indulging in these speculations at our expense? The most ironic observation in the article is that "Nature tends to do what is easiest, from the standpoint of energy and probability." If standard cosmologists actually believed this, would they not have abandoned their chalkboards in favor of the laboratory years ago? The easiest way to produce radio jets, X-ray jets and synchrotron radiation emissions is not through collisions of gas particles, or theoretical "black holes" swallowing matter. (See Postscript below). Logically, these are the effects of large-scale plasma discharge phenomena, well-documented in the laboratory. And the laws of physics observed in the lab do not cease in the vast reaches of space! It is still possible for humankind to recapture a genuine sense of wonder and enthusiasm for space exploration. But nothing less than an intellectual -- and institutional -- revolution is required. Wallace Thornhill observes in his piece, 2008 -- Year of the Electric Universe: "Humanity was never more in need of a new science of Life in the Universe. Our hopeless, detached cosmology permeates our lives. We thrash about in ignorance, nonsense and illogicality, seeking real meaning to our existence.... A real cosmology must reunite the sciences, humanities and the arts. It cannot be limited to astronomy. It must give real meaning to Life. It is becoming clear to more and more scholars and the questioning public from around the world that the Electric Universe offers such a broad vista of future science. It is time to get started in 2008. We have no time to lose." POSTSCRIPTThe following excerpt from Thornhill and Talbott's "The Electric Universe" further elucidates the "problem" that galactic synchrotron radiation poses for standard models of the cosmos: A good test of contrasting approaches is provided by galactic synchrotron radiation, a non-thermal form of electromagnetic radiation from particles accelerated in an electromagnetic field rather than by collisions with other particles (such as will occur in an electrically neutral but high-temperature flare or explosion). Synchrotron radiation is emitted by charged particles accelerated to near light speed along spiraling paths following the ambient magnetic field. High-energy plasma discharges always produce synchrotron radiation.Since galactic emissions of synchrotron radiation are a fact, their effect has been to shine the harshest light on the failure of purely gravitational models. Considering the particle velocities required for synchrotron radiation over vast distances, even a mythic black hole could not do the job. So theorists have taken another speculative leap, calling upon a 'super-massive black hole' equivalent to the mass of billions of suns, accelerating charged particles along magnetic field lines by the force of gravity-a flight of imagination that gives new meaning to the phrase 'doing things the hard way.' The TPOD " Two Black Holes" provides a perfect example of the discussion above: ...the galaxy cluster Abel 400, whose X-ray emissions are almost entirely synchrotron radiation, (indicate) extreme electrical stresses. But electricity is not something astronomers are eager to hear about. They are not fond of electrical currents in space, because the possibility that electricity generates large scale structure is alien to their theoretical models. To generate the observed levels of energy seen in Abell 400 using nothing but the puny force of gravity more matter would have to be squeezed into a galaxy than a galaxy could hold. But the theorists are mathematicians, and they work with equations, not with real objects. This permits them to ignore empirical limits on density and let the amount of matter per unit volume increase without limit: The 'neutron stars' and 'black holes' conjured through this mathematical license can be placed wherever needed to explain away the stunning and potentially embarrassing energy excesses. [ top ]"Unexplained" Forces Keep Mars Rovers Moving 01/13/2008 It has been said that "In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is King." In the world of space science, if a collective blindness has robbed investigators of their sight, it is their inability or unwillingness to ever think or speak in electrical terms, even when electrical events are impossible to deny -- or quite obvious to those who work regularly with electricity. Such is the case with NASA's investigation of the ongoing puzzle of the Martian rovers. On Jan. 4, 2004, the rover Spirit landed on Mars, followed three weeks later by Opportunity. The two robots were given an expected lifespan of 90 days to gather as much scientific data as possible. Four years later, both rovers are still going strong, much to the astonishment of NASA and scientists around the world. "We never thought we'd still be driving these robots all over Mars," said Mark Lemmon, a planetary scientist at Texas A & M University and member of the rover science team. "We joked about driving Opportunity into Victoria Crater, but now we're there, and we're looking at doing even more science. Each day they still work is an amazing one." The rovers have provided continuous surprises since the outset. When their missions began, their solar cells were providing 900 watt-hours of electricity per day. Over the months that followed Spirit's output dropped to 400 watt-hours daily, while Opportunity dropped to about 500 watt-hours. A primary reason for the drop was the accumulation of dust on the panels. But then, to the amazement of mission scientists, Opportunity's power began to INCREASE, and kept on increasing until the power peaked at just over 900 watt-hours. As reported by Newscientist.com, the Mars rover Opportunity "stumbled into something akin to a carwash," which somehow 'cleaned' its solar panels. Jim Erickson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory admitted that the cause of this surprise 'cleaning' could not be explained. 'These exciting and unexplained cleaning events have kept Opportunity in really great shape,' Erickson said." The remarkable cleaning occurred in spurts during the Martian night. The team managing the rover reported that on at least four occasions over a six-month period, the rover's power output suddenly increased by up to 5% in a single night. Some suggested that the Martian winds might have swept the dust off the panels. Others wondered if frost could have caused the dust to clump, exposing more of the panels. And some even suggested that the tilting of the rover while climbing hills might have caused a portion of the dust to drop off. Such "explanations" only add to the exasperation of those who understand very well what has occurred. Does dust fall off the top of your car when you drive uphill? Does the speed of your car on the highway clean the dust off? Is your car cleaner after a windy day? While the rovers' cleanings and endurance is unexplained by NASA, a clue to the puzzle is provided by the agency's own news release dated July 14, 2005: "When humans visit Mars, they'll have to watch out for towering electrified dust devils." With these words, NASA gave official sanction to an idea that had already been percolating from separately funded research projects in recent years. This research has explored the electrical component to dust devils in the Arizona desert -- investigators were surprised to find that these vortices are electrically charged. According to the recent news item "Electric Sand Findings Could Lead to Better Climate Models," one investigator speculates that "electric fields get so large on the Red Planet they produce ground-level sparks." But since it is verboten within official science to speak of planets as charged bodies, the investigators can only envision the electric fields associated with dust devils as an effect of particles bouncing and rubbing against each other -- ignoring the larger electrical condition required to generate the vortex in the first place. NASA suggests, "Dust devils get their charge from grains of sand and dust rubbing together in the whirlwind. When certain pairs of unlike materials rub together, one material gives up some of its electrons (negative charges) to the other material. Smaller dust particles tend to charge negative, taking away electrons from the larger sand grains." In this view, the rising central column of hot air that powers the dust devil carries the negatively charged dust upward and leaves the heavier positively charged sand swirling near the base. In this way, the charges get separated, creating an electric field. But according to Wallace Thornhill, the leading proponent of the Electric Universe, a mere internally generated electric field will quickly PREVENT further charge separation. Upward movement of air may indeed trigger electric discharge. But localized charge separation would not be the primary cause of the discharge. The cause will be the movement of atmosphere between layers of different charge, triggering electrical breakdown. On Earth the vertical electric field at sea level on a dry day is approximately 100 volts per meter. Orthodox models of the Earth and its atmosphere offer no realistic explanation for this field. Thornhill notes that at Mars' distance from the Sun, the lack of energy from the Sun, in combination with the extremely rarified atmosphere of the small planet, makes it inconceivable that atmospheric movement generated by mild warming could possibly produce the required charge for Everest-sized "dust devils" on Mars. The atmospheric pressure on Mars is only 1 percent that of Earth at sea level, and regional dust storms on Mars only serve to reduce solar heating at the surface. Martian dust devils are thus the witnesses to a global electric field. In fact, dust devils on Mars often occur in massive congregations at the leading edge of storms -- proof positive that they form without any benefit at all from larger regions of circulating air. They are electrical vortices, a phenomenon easily produced in the laboratory without any prior mechanical circulation of air at all. A good indicator of electrical discharge from ground to air within a Martian dust devil can be seen in the frames of a movie taken by the rover Spirit as the vortex spun across Gusev Crater just before noon on March 15, 2005. The luminosity of the apparent discharge activity at the base is compelling and confirms the earlier claim of Electric Universe advocates that the dark tracks left by the tornado-like whirlwinds on Mars are due to electric discharge either scorching the surface, or removing lighter colored surface material. But regardless of what causes the electric fields associated with Martian "dust devils" and dust storms, NASA still seems unwilling to consider their relevance to the rovers anomalies. From the electrical perspective, the robots' seemingly unfathomable endurance is easily explained as an effect of repeated electrostatic cleanings. On Mars, because of the atmosphere's thinness, dust particles charge more easily and will thus stick more "stubbornly" to a surface. Thus, the notion of repeated cleanings absent the electric force becomes all the more preposterous. Ironically, a number of researchers have posited that the best cleaning method for removal of dust from power-systems on Mars will involve electrostatic applications. At the 2002 Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, G.A. Landis and P.P Jenkins stated in their paper "Dust mitigation for Mars solar arrays": "The environment of Mars is expected to be an ideal one for use of electrostatic dust-removal techniques." This is yet another instance where those with a real-world understanding of electricity are better equipped to interpret space discoveries than NASA scientists. Perhaps sooner than later, NASA officials will begrudgingly acknowledge the meaning in all of this. Until then, the "unexplained" cleanings of the rovers will remain one of many events in the solar system over which NASA investigators are still scratching their heads. For your best gateway to the Electric Universe, see Thunderbolts.info. And for a highly-acclaimed 60 minute video introduction to the Electric Universe, see Thunderbolts of the Gods on Google Video. Michael Goodspeed is a freelance journalist who lives in Beaverton, Oregon Recent ArticlesBig Bang Cosmology: Going Down a Black Hole? "Unexplained" Forces Keep Mars Rovers Moving ArchiveAnother Thornhill Prediction Confirmed - Saturn's Hot SpotThe Enduring - Yet Downplayed - Mysteries of CometsThe Craters are ElectricScientists See Nothing - Call it 'Parallel Universe'Electric Sun/Earth Connection ConfirmedJupiter's Electric Moon IoWhen Astronomers Fall Into a Black HoleSpace Aliens Blamed For Electric Universe