Electricity and Consilience. Part 4

Spiral Galaxy, NASA. Wikipedia

The relativistic model of the cosmos has a number of difficulties. Cosmologists cannot explain why spiral shapes are so common in the universe, and they have very tenuous explanations for galactic magnetic fields. More recently, inter-galactic magnetic fields have been discovered. Incredible gravitational models involving invisible black holes have had to be invented in an attempt to explain how the attractive force of gravity can result in matter being ejected in a narrow jet at relativistic speeds. "Dark matter" is believed to constitute ninety percent or more of the mass of the universe. This undetected matter must exist if the motions of stars and galaxies are to be understood according to current models, but it has never been observed. Many theories favor exotic explanations, involving new kinds of particles and dimensions based on computer simulations. It has become fashionable to come up with increasingly strange theories involving parallel universes and time travel, but very little observation supports these claims, which rely on abstract mathematical models. In an attempt to explain the universe, such theories have succeeded mainly in complicating it. There are dissenting voices in this dialogue however; in recent decades, plasma scientists have proposed some compelling models of their own that promise to put cosmology back on an interdisciplinary path.

Plasma is called the fourth state of matter, after solid, liquid and gas. More than 99% of the matter in our solar system, and the universe, is in the form of plasma. A plasma is formed when electrons are separated from atoms in a gas, leaving the atoms ionized with positively charge. The negative ions (free electrons) and positive atoms are then free to move under the influence of a magnetic field, which creates an electrical current, forming filaments that follow magnetic field lines. Filamentary patterns are observed in many areas of space. Perhaps the super-abundance of plasmas found throughout the cosmos points to a much more important role for electromagnetism in the formation and stability of the universe .