- Above: Illustration of the imagined effects of a black
hole hidden in the center of the "accretion disk" GRO J1655.
- Credit: A. Hobart, CXC
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- Astronomers claim that a celestial object called GRO
J1655 hides a black hole. But why does its surrounding plasma flicker 450
times a second? Because the black hole is "rotating very rapidly,"
astronomers say.
-
- Astronomers tell us that the "microquasar"
at the center of GRO J1655 is seven times as massive as our Sun. It cannot
be seen because it is a black hole formed from the collapse of an old star,
now sucking in matter from surrounding space. Guided by nothing more than
Einstein's view of gravity, the astronomers "know" it is there
because of the energetic radiation and jets issuing from a very small region
of space.
-
- To derive the mass of a black hole, mathematicians divide
the apparent energy from it by the puny gravitational force, which is almost
zero compared to any other force, arriving at something just this side
of an "infinite concentration" of mass. The escape velocity from
such an object is greater than the speed of light. Therefore, neither particles
nor radiation of any kind (including light) can be released into surrounding
space. The black hole itself is invisible.
-
- The calculations ignore all limitations posed by well-tested
laws of physics. And when theorists discovered jets of charged particles
speeding away from such objects, something was obviously wrong. So they
adjusted their abstractions. A black hole has a theoretical boundary known
as an "event horizon", within which gravity forever holds all
matter and energy prisoner. It was suggested that just outside this boundary
gravity could act on a rotating "accretion disk" to miraculously
accelerate material away from the black hole (as "illustrated"
in the drawing above). By this sleight of hand, the improbable jets --
in transparent contradiction of gravitational dogma -- became more "evidence"
for the hidden black holes.
-
- With a blank check in hand, the pure mathematicians have
had a field day.
-
- GRO J1655-40 has two powerful jets of plasma rushing
away from its poles at nearly the speed of light. The illustration above
is said to depict both a polar jet and the surrounding accretion disk.
But how this curious reversal of gravity's influence actually works is
not yet clear, the theorists say.
-
- Recent investigation has also found that GRO J1655-40
displays an unexpected flickering some 450 times a second. How would the
mathematicians respond to something never envisioned by a model that worked
only with mass, density, and rotation? Very simply. The hidden black hole
must be rotating at an amazing 27,000 rpm, somehow creating an energetic
"lighthouse" beam of radiation.
-
- Though no one can really explain any of this, the authors
of the Astronomy Picture of the Day are not dissuaded. "What physical
mechanisms actually cause the flickering -- and a slower quasi- periodic
oscillation (QPO) -- in accretion disks surrounding black holes and neutron
stars remains a topic of much research."
-
- Are readers confused? Or are astronomers themselves missing
something? Plasma experts knowledgeable in the role of electric currents
in space continue to contrast the astronomers' abstractions with observational
and experimental evidence. Across vast distances in space, plasmas carry
electric currents, and at those focal points where currents pinch down
to form stars, infrequent but catastrophic releases of energy may occur.
-
- The electrical theorists say that the most fundamental
mistake of astronomers and cosmologists is their habit of seeing celestial
objects in isolation. It is this habit that drives them to conjure exotic
forces and events limited to the vicinity of the objects themselves, in
order to explain such phenomena as plasma "flickering."
-
- As noted by plasma scientist Anthony Peratt, in electric
discharges flickering electromagnetic radiation is commonplace. "The
flickering comes from electrical changes at the observed load or radiative
source, such as the formation of instabilities or virtual anodes or cathodes
in charged particle beams that are orders of magnitude smaller than the
supply." (I.e., in space the electrical supply comes from regions
incomparably larger than the visible phenomenon, which is incapable of
explaining itself.) So if a flickering is interpreted by a distant observer
to be both the "source and supply," Peratt notes, the results
will not only be bizarre, they will lack a basis in any verifiable physics.
-
- Sadly, the convoluted dogma of black holes fits this
description perfectly.
-
- See also "The Madness of Black Holes," by Wallace
Thornhill: http:// www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=9kpgc4td
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- Postscript Invitation: The full 64 minute documentary
film "Thunderbolts of the Gods" can now be viewed for free on
Google video: http://video.google.com/videoplay? docid=4773590301316220374&q=thunderbolts+of+the+gods&hl=en
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