Megalightning at Saturn

SKR diagram
SKR diagram

As NASA’s Cassini spacecraft approached Saturn last July it found evidence that lightning on Saturn is roughly one million times stronger than lightning on Earth. “That’s just astonishing to me!” said University of Iowa Space Physicist Don Gurnett, who notes that some radio signals have been linked to storm systems observed by the Cassini imaging…


Titan puzzles scientists

Titan in infrared
Titan in infrared

On October 26, NASA’s Cassini-Huygens spacecraft swung by Titan at a distance of less than 1200 kilometers, the first of many fly-bys planned in the next few years. Titan is Saturn’s largest moon and the second largest moon in the solar system, after Jupiter’s Ganymede. Titan is an enigma, having a massive atmosphere mainly of…


The True State of the Universe

Magazine covers
Magazine covers

“… almost the entire body of astronomers can go wrong in a way that, in later years, seems absurd. To hear scientists talk today, you would think the first moment in human history in which nonsensical views are not widely held is now.” – Fred Hoyle,  Home is Where the Wind Blows. Those who profess…


Electrifying Saturn

Lightning detected on Saturn
Lightning detected on Saturn

From NASA and PhysOrg.com comes the following report: Cassini detects Lightning and Radiation at Saturn and Titan’s Glow The spacecraft’s radio and plasma wave science instrument detected radio waves generated by lightning. “We are detecting the same crackle and pop one hears when listening to an AM radio broadcast during a thunderstorm,” said Dr. Bill…


Comets Impact Cosmology

Glow discharge tube
Glow discharge tube

“Comets are important, they could be the key to the universe …maybe.” – Burt Lancaster, in the movie Local Hero. From Nature, 5, 174, December 28, 1871: “Encke’s Comet and the Supposed Resisting Medium,” by Professor W. Stanley Jevons. “The observed regular diminution of period of Encke’s comet is still, I believe, an unexplained phenomenon…


Cassini’s Homecoming

Saturn from Cassini
Saturn from Cassini

”Nothing so evokes gasps of delight as Saturn’s ring. The reason I think, is a collision of the expected and the improbable. A ringed sphere is the archetypal planet of our childhood, familiar from a thousand comic strips, coloring books, classroom poster boards, stickers, rubber stamps, birthday cards — you name it. So, when we…


Electric Weather

Water molecule
Water molecule

The following excerpts come from a report that appeared in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) magazine, SPECTRUM, for April. The report demonstrates that when science has lost its way, engineers must use their intuition to make progress. Electric Rainmaking Technology Gets Mexico’s Blessing But for now, doubters prevail north of the border.…


Electric Dust Devils

Mars dust-devils
Mars dust-devils

‘.. it may sometimes be that not to know one thing that is wrong could be more important than knowing a hundred things that are right.’ – Halton Arp, Quasars, Redshifts & Controversies The electrical character of dust devils and tornadoes is rarely mentioned. In fact, researchers only recently began to examine the electrical nature…


An Open Letter to Closed Minds

Venus and Athena
Venus and Athena

Everything astronomers can see, stretching out to distances of 10 billion light-years, emerged from an infinitesimal speck. – Martin Rees, Our Cosmic Habitat (2001). “A widely-accepted foundation stone of scientific logic involves a process of elimination, requiring all available possibilities to be considered with incorrect ideas discarded when they fail to predict experimental results. Just…


Mystery of Mars’ Polar Spirals

Mars' north pole
Mars' north pole

‘Before each revolution, all the pegs seemed square and all the holes round. In each case, it was not until it was realized that one had to discard the whole frame of reference and seek another that answers came in a flood. ..It is not our methods nor our observations that have been wrong, but…