Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

is Hoag's Object a Dense Plasma Focus?
Thunderbolts.info ^ | 05/19/2008 | Stephen Smith

Posted on 05/23/2008 10:21:26 PM PDT by Swordmaker


Hoag’s Object glares balefully across the light-years. Credit: Hubble Heritage


May 19, 2008


Is Hoag’s Object a Dense Plasma Focus?

What force swept away the stars and formed this 120,000 light-year-wide ring in space? This could be one of electrical energy’s protean forms.

There are places in the cosmos where stars form up into ranks that stretch in lines for thousands of light-years. Elsewhere, rings of stars can be found encircling compact structures that have been measured at over 10,000 light-years in diameter.

Art Hoag discovered the galaxy that bears his name in 1950 and by conventional redshift-equals-distance calculations, it is approximately 183 megaparsecs away in the constellation Serpens. The ring of “young” blue stars is notable, as is the dense core and the hovering swarm of globular clusters that lie in the center of the formation. There is an obvious swirling shape that radiates outward in the same way as that from the "Cartwheel Galaxy" in the constellation Sculptor.


Cartwheel Galaxy

The filaments that connect the core with the ring in the Cartwheel Galaxy are missing in Hoag’s Object, although they could be radiating in dark current mode.

The Milky Way Galaxy contains over 200 billion stars in its spiral arms and its nucleus. There have also been recent observations by scientists from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) indicating that a torus of additional stars is surrounding the Galaxy at a distance of 120,000 light-years. Most of the stars discovered by SDSS are invisible to visual platforms because they are in the same plane as the Galaxy, itself. However, the stars have been detected using infrared and x-ray instrumentation that can “see through” the obscuring dust. So, what causes galaxies to develop rings?

According to Heidi Jo Newberg, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: “When we find large groups of stars formed into rings it's an indication that at least part of our galaxy was formed by a lot of smaller or dwarf galaxies mixing together.”

Her colleague in the project, Brian Yanny of FermiLab wrote: "This ring of stars may be what's left of a collision between our Milky Way and a smaller, dwarf galaxy that occurred billions of years ago."

His conclusion is that gravity from dark matter is sustaining the ring of stars around the Milky Way. By definition, those same forces are what cause the more dramatic structures like Hoag’s Object to appear – galactic collisions over billions of years moderated by gravity and unknown energies.

Is there another way to address the issue that takes into account the electricity that flows through the cosmos and the magnetic fields that it fosters? It is possible that the stellar haloes are actually examples of a dense plasma focus penumbra with Hoag's Object being the most dramatic example.


Dense Plasma Focus Penumbra

Images taken from experiments using a “plasma gun” offer a direct analogue to the “pinch zones” surrounding the discharge from Hoag’s Object.

In 1960, Hannes Alfvén published a paper in which he proposed a mechanism for the formation of structures in space that does not depend on gravity alone. He wrote:

“The earth, the sun and many stars possess general magnetic fields. It is possible that interstellar clouds are magnetized, that spiral arms have regular magnetic fields, and that galaxies also have general magnetic fields. Even if the views of different authors are still conflicting, it seems reasonably certain that interstellar matter is usually magnetized. This makes is likely that there should be some very general process which produces magnetic fields in fluid bodies as different as the earth’s fluid interior, the stars, and interstellar matter. The energy required for magnetization can easily be drawn from the kinetic energy of internal motions, but the difficulty is to find a workable mechanism from the production of magnetic fields.” (Alfvén, H. “On the Origin of Cosmic Magnetic Fields”, Royal Institute of Stockholm, October 28, 1960).

The dense plasma focus device, or “plasma gun” provides the precise mechanism by which cosmic electric currents can influence the evolution and morphology of space structures, whether they be moons or galaxies (See Peratt, A. L. and Dessler, A. J. “Filamentation of Volcanic Plumes on the Jovian Satellite Io”. Astrophysics and Space Science (ISSN 0004-640X), vol. 144, no. 1-2, May 1988, p. 451-461).

Birkeland current filaments are the “transmission lines” through which electricity is conducted in the universe. Just as the helical strands from the core of Galaxy NGC 3079 are an indication that electricity is discharging from its nucleus, the swirling toroids that constrain the “young” hot stars in the halo of Hoag’s Object are a red flag to Electric Universe theorists.

One of the signature phenomena in a dense plasma focus is the helical strands of energy that surround a powerfully radiating arc-mode discharge and a dark-current torus. The strands are helical magnetic fields that confine the electrified plasma and act like power lines in space – Birkeland current filaments, in other words. That phenomenon is present In the plasma gun discharge that makes up Hoag’s Object.

It may be that there are 28 filamentary strands (or 56, or 49 or some other number discussed by Alfvén, Thornhill, Peratt and others) in the penumbral cloud of stars and nebulae that have been energized by the gun – the exact count is difficult to determine in the images that are available. But, with the other factors and the way that electricity behaves when it flows through magnetically confined plasma, the Electric Universe model of galaxy formation appears to have been lent further credence by this observation.

By Stephen Smith



TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: haltonarp

1 posted on 05/23/2008 10:21:26 PM PDT by Swordmaker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: AndrewC; aristotleman; Carilisa; commonguymd; dozer7; Eaker; ForGod'sSake; Fractal Trader; ...
Plasma in the Galaxies... PING!


Hoag's Object


The Cartwheel Galaxy

If you want on or off the Electric Universe Ping List, Freepmail me.

2 posted on 05/23/2008 10:27:58 PM PDT by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: shibumi

“My God! It’s full of stars!” ping


3 posted on 05/23/2008 10:31:53 PM PDT by Salamander (And don't forget my Dog; fixed and consequent......)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Swordmaker

It calls to me: “Come home.”

Kinda like Daytona USA. I need 8 player Daytona USA.


4 posted on 05/23/2008 10:34:13 PM PDT by wastedyears (Freedom is the right of all sentient beings. - Optimus Prime)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Swordmaker

Lovely intelligent design..


5 posted on 05/23/2008 10:48:05 PM PDT by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Swordmaker; Fred Nerks

[obscure door opens] Is that in the Choda galaxy?

This thing, whatever it is, sounds like a Lulu. /rimshot


6 posted on 05/23/2008 10:54:06 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______________________Profile updated Monday, April 28, 2008)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: hosepipe
How about this?

Chopped liver?

7 posted on 05/23/2008 11:14:00 PM PDT by dr_lew
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: dr_lew
Bodacious.. I love galaxy images..

To think there are some Galaxys those in HELL will never see.. I have a recurring dream of a crystal planet.. A planet that many kinds and types of crystals developed.. A planet mostly made of various crystaline forms.. fairly close to a Sun.. A Sun that reflected thru one crystaline form to another and lit up the planet in various intensitys as the planet turned from daylight to dark.. dimly on the dark side except on certain places.. And in a few places the light sparkling on broken crystals like glitter.... And More..... some crystals resonating in sounds.. from electrical activity.. (or something)..

Quite a dream.. there must be a place that somewhere..

8 posted on 05/23/2008 11:28:50 PM PDT by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: hosepipe
Quite a dream.. there must be a place that somewhere..

It's "right here, right now"

9 posted on 05/23/2008 11:41:35 PM PDT by dr_lew
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Swordmaker

There’s a second Hoag’s galaxy above and just right-of-center the nucleus of the featured galaxy.


10 posted on 05/24/2008 12:21:13 AM PDT by fire and forget
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: hosepipe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGdtll3KAqw&NR=1


11 posted on 05/24/2008 12:28:28 AM PDT by shibumi (".....panta en pasin....." - Origen)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: shibumi

Nice...


12 posted on 05/24/2008 6:36:41 AM PDT by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson