The Focus Fusion Society Forums Plasma Cosmology and BBNH First images of interstellar gas

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  • #1252
    Glenn Millam
    Participant

    This is an article on Ars Technica showing the first images of interstellar gas on a macro scale. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t this a classical picture of plasma currents?

    http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/10/astronomers-take-first-ever-image-of-turbulent-gas-between-the-stars.ars

    This isn’t neutral gas; this is interstellar plasma, from what I can tell, and that is a big thing. Proof of large scale electric currents existing between stars with obvious organization along the lines of Hannes Alfven’s predictions is huge. Am I going too far with this?

    #10832
    Glenn Millam
    Participant

    Here is whats on Nature’s website (emphasis is my own):

    The interstellar medium of the Milky Way is multiphase, magnetized and turbulent. Turbulence in the interstellar medium produces a global cascade of random gas motions, spanning scales ranging from 100 parsecs to 1,000 kilometres (ref. 4). Fundamental parameters of interstellar turbulence such as the sonic Mach number (the speed of sound) have been difficult to determine, because observations have lacked the sensitivity and resolution to image the small-scale structure associated with turbulent motion. Observations of linear polarization and Faraday rotation in radio emission from the Milky Way have identified unusual polarized structures that often have no counterparts in the total radiation intensity or at other wavelengths, and whose physical significance has been unclear. Here we report that the gradient of the Stokes vector (Q, U), where Q and U are parameters describing the polarization state of radiation, provides an image of magnetized turbulence in diffuse, ionized gas, manifested as a complex filamentary web of discontinuities in gas density and magnetic field. Through comparison with simulations, we demonstrate that turbulence in the warm, ionized medium has a relatively low sonic Mach number, Ms ≲ 2. The development of statistical tools for the analysis of polarization gradients will allow accurate determinations of the Mach number, Reynolds number and magnetic field strength in interstellar turbulence over a wide range of conditions.”

    Magnetized turbulence in diffuse, ionized gas? They are talking about plasma here. Is there a reason they don’t describe it for what it is? Can someone with better knowledge on the subject explain these images and their significance?

    #10834
    Glenn Millam
    Participant

    CRACKPOT THEORY ALERT:

    One thing I have wondered about since they found that the Universe is expanding at a faster rate is what could be causing it. Could it be that over time, areas in space are gaining overall positive charge (more protons than electrons) and this is causing a repellant effect, expanding the Universe faster as the forces grow over time? I do not have the physics chops to say what would cause this other than to think that maybe fusion in stars are producing proton waste at a slightly higher rate than electrons, and these protons are being blown out by solar winds to form plasma filaments that repel at long distances.

    All those protons in the interstellar medium had to come from somewhere. The physicists who have downplayed Alfven’s theories over the years have assumed that interstellar medium is neutral electrically, thus plasma and electromagnetism does not play a large role in large scale physics like gravity does. These pictures say otherwise, but I don’t see people acknowledging it. I’d really like one of the smart people at LPP (maybe even Mr. Lerner?) look at this and write a few words of explanation.

    Or perhaps a proton imbalance could come from some other phenomenon. “Thus the effective charge of an electron is actually smaller than its true value, and the charge decreases with increasing distance from the electron.”

    #10838
    Henning
    Participant

    Maybe the redshift is caused by the plasma itself, not by a Doppler effect. See https://focusfusion.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/920/

    #10842
    Glenn Millam
    Participant

    That was a cool link. Answered a lot of questions. Here is one in return.

    #10863
    Impaler
    Participant

    Glenn Millam wrote: CRACKPOT THEORY ALERT:

    One thing I have wondered about since they found that the Universe is expanding at a faster rate is what could be causing it. Could it be that over time, areas in space are gaining overall positive charge (more protons than electrons) and this is causing a repellant effect, expanding the Universe faster as the forces grow over time? I do not have the physics chops to say what would cause this other than to think that maybe fusion in stars are producing proton waste at a slightly higher rate than electrons, and these protons are being blown out by solar winds to form plasma filaments that repel at long distances.

    All those protons in the interstellar medium had to come from somewhere. The physicists who have downplayed Alfven’s theories over the years have assumed that interstellar medium is neutral electrically, thus plasma and electromagnetism does not play a large role in large scale physics like gravity does. These pictures say otherwise, but I don’t see people acknowledging it. I’d really like one of the smart people at LPP (maybe even Mr. Lerner?) look at this and write a few words of explanation.

    Or perhaps a proton imbalance could come from some other phenomenon. “Thus the effective charge of an electron is actually smaller than its true value, and the charge decreases with increasing distance from the electron.”

    I think if this were the case then electrons or matter with a net negative charge (when ever they happen to come about) would start to flow out of the Galaxies (due to the strong positive charge in intergalactic space) at considerable speed and this would lead to the breakup or at least some noticeable ‘puffing up’ of the galaxies in cosmologically short amount of time, as we do not see this it suggests to me idea is falsifiable on these grounds. Admittedly though I am no expert and may be way over my head.

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