Helios Awakens

The Sun is beginning to rouse itself from a long period of quiescence.

What a difference a year can make, not only in our personal lives, but also in the life of the Sun. It was in June of 2009 that heliophysicists were reporting a period of low sunspot activity that had not been seen in 100 years or more. There were almost 800 days of inactivity between sunspot cycles 23 and 24.

However, according to a June 13, 2010 report from Spaceweather.com, sunspot number 1081 is "crackling" with C-class and M-class solar flares. Solar flares are categorized as A, B, C, M, or X: light, medium, or powerful, with a numerical intensity from 1 through 9 attached. The labels are primarily used to illustrate the potential effects that they might have on our planet. Thus, an X-17 flare is considered extremely intense, while a C-4 event will have little effect on satellites in Earth orbit or on electric power grids.

As standard theories state, solar flares, or coronal mass ejections (CME), occur when magnetic loops in the Sun's atmosphere known as "prominences" connect with each other, causing a short circuit. The sudden release of "magnetic energy" is often described as millions of hydrogen bombs simultaneously detonating inside a confined space. Although no one knows what so-called "magnetic reconnection" is, it is the only explanation offered in science journals for why those gigantic solar explosions appear.

CMEs eject solar plasma in the billions of tons. A hallmark of CME ejections is an increase in auroral brightness and frequency, since the flares are composed of charged particles. Although the majority of researchers identify the stream of ions pouring out of the Sun as a "wind" and that the particles "rain down" on Earth's magnetic field, the fact that they are attracted to and follow the polar cusps indicates their electrical nature.

Solar flares are sometimes observed to leave the Sun's surface with unbelievable acceleration. In the past, velocities more than 70,000 kilometers per second have been clocked. The critical factor in that measurement is that the solar matter continued to accelerate as it left the Sun. If shock waves were responsible for the initial impetus, then surely the blast would have begun to decelerate as it moved toward Earth. Since the opposite effect was seen, there must be another phenomenon at work other than the forces that might propel a cannonball, for instance.

In an Electric Universe populated by electric stars the explanation seems obvious: electric fields in space can accelerate charged particles and create coherent electric currents. According to conventional doctrine, the Sun accelerates electrons (and protons) away from its surface in the same way that sound waves are amplified. Energetic pulsations in the solar photosphere travel upward through "acoustical wave-guides," called magnetic flux tubes, that push “hot gas” outward. Giant formations called spicules rise thousands of kilometers above the photosphere and carry the hot gas with them.

The Electric Universe hypothesis is based on electrodynamic principles and not on kinetic behavior, or even electrostatic models. The basic premise of this alternative view is that celestial bodies are immersed in plasma and are connected by circuits. Since the Sun is also "plugged-in" to the galaxy and to its family of planets, it behaves like a charged object seeking equilibrium with its environment.

In his exhaustive work, The Physics of the Plasma Universe, Dr. Anthony Peratt describes field-aligned currents in this way: “...electric fields aligned along the magnetic field direction freely accelerate particles. Electrons and ions are accelerated in opposite directions, giving rise to a current along the magnetic field lines.”

Solar flares could be thought of as tremendous lightning bursts, discharging vast quantities of matter at near relativistic speeds. How those flares generate such highly energetic emissions is a continuing mystery to heliophysicists.

Early in the Twentieth century, Nobel laureate Hannes Alfvén was contracted by the Swedish Power Company because some of the rectifiers used in their power transmission circuits had exploded for no apparent reason. When they shorted-out more energy was released than was contained by the plasma flow inside them. It was subsequently discovered that the power from an entire 900 kilometer long transmission line had instantly passed through the devices. The result was catastrophic failure and extensive damage. Alfvén identified the cause as unstable double layers within the plasma flow, otherwise known as plasma instabilities.

The circuit connecting the Sun is of unknown length, but probably extends for thousands of light-years. How much electrical energy might be contained in such magnetically confined “transmission lines”? No one knows, but astronomers are continually “surprised” by the incredible detonations that they observe from solar flares....



via Helios Awakens.