Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Nebulae, Bipolar Stars?


For the astrophysicist, an electron is a particle of matter with momentum that is described in part by Newton’s laws. It goes “bump” in the night sky and causes shock waves and hot gas in planetary nebulae. The nebulae are explosions of stars that are burning themselves up with internal fusion fires. For the plasmaphysicist, an electron is a unit of charge in an electrical current that is described in part by Maxwell’s equations. It is part of an electrical circuit that causes planetary nebulae to emit synchrotron radiation, to show bipolar symmetry, to have hourglass shapes, to develop toroidal currents around the central star, to display polar jets, and to oscillate in energy output. The nebulae are z-pinches in galactic electrical circuits. (Thunderbolts.com)

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