It is indeed the Electric Sun hypothesis .. the Electric Universe hypothesis actually, which I have been following as a pseudo layman (I don’t have graduate level physics.. only undergrad math and physics) since the 90s. Since this is the Plasma Cosmology section, I thought I could find some sympathetic ears 🙂
Well, as I am certainly not up to snuff on the models involved, I can only speculate. However.. what happens when you put a magnet in a strong electric field? It is probably true that the forces involved here are going to be minimal with respect to such a tiny object, and that the charged particles expelled by the sun will be the main driving force, and so things will go pretty much as expected. The thing that interests me is using the ES model as a backdrop, and thinking about what might happen to a dust mote with a magnetic field behind it that is 100s of times its size once it gets out into interplanetary space.
In other words, how would the Birkeland currents affect it? Would they at all? Are they too weak? Would there be random effects? What about approaching a very electrically active situation like nearing Io? If the magnetic field intersected with a Birkeland current that was of sufficiently large density could there be catastrophic effects? I mean, we’re talking about billions of eV potentially, and if you move a magnet through that current…
Honestly, that’s why I am asking the question 🙂 I’m only recently able to spend some real time getting my physics and maths up to where I can be more capable with regards to Plasma Physics.
