The image above is a planetary nebula known as M2-9. It’s also known as the Butterfly nebula, but there are lots of other nebulae by that name. Planetary nebulae occur when red giant stars cast off their outer layers as they begin a transition toward becoming a white dwarf. The cast off material is caused to glow when the exposed interior of …
Quacks Like a Duck
The image above features a neuron on the left, and a simulation of large scale galaxy clusters on the right. They look somewhat similar in structure, and if the internet is to be believe, this means something. And it does. Not that the universe is alive, or the cosmos is like a giant brain, but simply that sometimes two radically different things can have similarities in structure.
When You’re a Jet
The evidence for black holes often seems confusing to the general public. On the one hand scientists say that a black hole is an object of such great density that not even light can escape it. This leads to the question of how we can observe such a thing if it doesn’t emit light? The answer scientists give is that black holes are a source of intense energy, driving things such as quasars and galactic jets. This apparent contradiction has led some people to reject that there is any evidence for black holes at all. Supporters of the electric universe models go even further, and claim that things like quasars and jets are due to pinched electric currents or similar phenomena. But in fact a black hole being both dark and bright isn’t contradictory.
Not Even Wrong
In science there are models that are right. If they are right often enough or strongly enough, they become scientific theories. There are also models that are wrong. Some, such as the caloric model, seem correct for a time, and then get refuted by experiment or observation. Others are shown to be wrong from the get go. Then there are models that are “not even wrong.”
Electric Boogaloo
As I’ve noted before, the idea of dark matter isn’t invoked just to make the standard theories work. Despite our incomplete understanding of dark matter, there is significant evidence to support it. But how do we know that regular matter isn’t enough to account for the unseen mass in the universe? What if it were something like dark mode plasma?
Testing the Electric Universe
Why the Electric Universe is provably, clearly and ridiculously wrong.