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A new scientific paper attempts to shed light on a mystery at Jupiter that continues to baffle space scientists.
Among the countless surprises the NASA Juno space probe has revealed since it
entered Jupiter's orbit in 2016, perhaps none has proved more puzzling than the
discovery of multiple cyclones which appear fixed and unmoving at each of
Jupiter's poles. Nothing in the standard theoretical toolkits of atmospheric and
planetary science predicted, nor can explain, the phenomena. As described in a recent phys.org report,
”Photos of the planet's north pole show that there are eight cyclones surrounding the central cyclone directly
over the pole. All eight are in close proximity and all are nearly equidistant from the central cyclone, and are
arranged in an octagonal pattern. At this time it is not clear if the cyclones rotate around the center. There is a
similar arrangement at the southern pole, only there are just five cyclones, shaped
as a pentagon.” The report acknowledges, ”Such behavior is of course unheard of
here on Earth. Cyclones take shape, travel around for a while and then dissipate.
Such behavior has left researchers scrambling to come up with a reasonable
explanation for what they have observed. In a new paper published in the journal
Nature Astronomy, a team of scientists has used data and images from the Juno
probe to determine the winds and direction of the cyclones. As noted in
the phys.org report, the team has proposed that there is quote “...an anticyclonic
ring of winds that move in the opposite direction of the cyclones, which is what
keeps them in place. And while that may hold true, the team was unable to find
signatures of convection, which would have helped to explain how heat was
being used to fuel the cyclones. They acknowledge that much more work will
need to be done to fully explain the behavior of Jupiter’s cyclones.”
The irony of this hypothesis is evident to those familiar with the groundbreaking work of Thunderbolts
colleague Dr. Donald Scott. It was a few years ago that Dr. Scott first published his mathematical
modeling of the structure of a Birkeland Current, which could be visualized as
counter-rotating cylindrical shells. In past interviews, Dr. Scott noted that
counter-rotational patterns can be seen in the vortices at the poles of the gas
giants Jupiter and Saturn. Indeed counter-rotational wind movements
associated with Jupiter’s cyclones would not be surprising, if incoming Birkeland
currents are contributing to the phenomena. In more recent years, Dr. Scott has
closely followed Earth's wind patterns. And as he described in his April 2nd
2022 Thunderbolts video, he has found clear visual evidence that our planet's
polar wind patterns are driven from the outside, and not by any surface- or
internal earthbound processes or dynamos. This evidence suggests that the main
outside source of these polar winds is the varying strength and direction of
the Birkeland current stream of electrically charged particles.
However, the aforementioned Nature Astronomy paper looks to, quote “shallow
water models,” rather than plasma physics, to explain the Jovian cyclones. Nor is this
the first time that space scientists have looked to fluid dynamics to resolve
the anomalous appearance of fixed, geometric patterns in the upper
atmosphere of a gas giant planet. For decades, the hexagon at Saturn’s south pole
has puzzled planetary scientists. Several years ago, researchers succeeded
at producing similar forms through simple fluidic experiments, providing an
explanation that many astronomers have favored. However, more recent scientific
discoveries have definitively pointed away from the mechanical, fluidic explanation.
In 2018, scientists using images obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft observed an
unexpected, towering vortex far above the famous hexagon. A Science Alert report on the
observation stated, “There's something strange over Saturn's north pole. A
tremendous structure towering high above the clouds indicates that the planet's
peculiar hexagonal formation is much, much bigger than was initially apparent.”
One of the investigators said of the discovery, “As the polar vortex became
more and more visible, we noticed it had hexagonal edges, and realized that we
were seeing the pre-existing hexagon at much higher altitudes than previously thought.”
The problematic nature of this discovery is noted in the article which states,
”...since wind conditions change dramatically with altitude, the fact that
the hexagon shape persists so much higher than the cloud tops is a baffling conundrum.”
In other words, the persistence of the hexagonal feature hundreds of kilometers
above the clouds is a clear indication it is being driven by energy from above
and cannot be explained by simple fluid dynamics. Is it a coincidence then that hexagons
and other polygonal or octagonal forms are produced in plasma discharge?
Consider the side-by-side images on your screen. On the left are vortices of an electron
beam, etched onto a carbon witness plate. On the right are vortices of an electron
beam photographed in a fluorescent screen. The hexagonal form is a distinct feature
of a well-documented plasma phenomenon called the diocotron instability. And the phenomenon observed in the
laboratory is remarkably scalable. As explained by Dr. Anthony Peratt in Physics
of the Plasma Universe, ”The vortices of the diocotron instability are found to
occur over 12 orders of magnitude in beam current. This mechanism was first introduced to explain
auroral curtains by Hannes Alfven.” As we've noted many times, the chief
proponent of the Electric Universe, physicist and Thunderbolt science advisor Wal Thornhill made an
outrageous prediction with respect to the Saturnian hexagon.
In 2005 Thornhill analyzed the mysterious hot spot in the vortex at Saturn’s south pole. The Hot Spot puzzled
planetary scientists because, as described by the Keck Observatory, “...both the distinct boundary of a warm
polar vortex some 30 degrees latitude from the southern pole and a very hot ‘tip’ right
at the pole were completely unexpected.” Thornhill wrote of this feature, “Its compactness is due to the
electromagnetic pinch effect where it enters Saturn's atmosphere.” He then stated the Electric Universe also
predicts, experimentum crucis, that BOTH poles should be hot, not one hot and the other cold.”
In 2008 the Cassini spacecraft confirmed the astonishing prediction. Astonishing,
because the freezing cold north pole had been deprived of sunlight for more than 12 years.
Thornhill explained, “The polar hot spot and long-lived hexagonal feature result
from a continuous electric current flowing from the Sun into the pole of Saturn.”
Indeed, in stark contrast to the conventional view of the Sun as an isolated body powered by internal
thermonuclear reactions, the Electric Universe proposes that the Sun is primarily an electrical phenomenon at
the focus of a galactic glow discharge. In this view, electric currents flowing
from the Sun to planets has implications for many atmospheric phenomena including the tremendous winds,
stupendous magnetic fields, and X-ray and temperature anomalies of the gas giants,
as well as jet streams and weather patterns on Earth. For decades, Thornhill has argued that
weather systems on Earth are primarily electrical phenomena, and both on our
planet and elsewhere in the solar system, the evidence of the Sun's connection to
weather and atmospheric phenomena continues to grow. As we reported in 2014,
scientists in the UK discovered the completely unexpected ability of solar
storms to trigger dramatic lightning on Earth. And in fact, at Jupiter scientists
recently discovered a surprising influence of the Sun on tremendous heating and temperature anomalies.
As noted in the October 1st 2022 Science Alert article, a planet-sized heat wave
has been found in Jupiter's atmosphere. ”A heat wave the size of 10 Earths has been
discovered rippling through Jupiter's atmosphere. It was 130,000 kilometers
across, and a scorching 700 degrees Celsius, traveling at speeds up to 2,400
meters per second, away from the Jovian north pole. And this, scientists say, could
resolve one of the more perplexing mysteries about our Solar System's
biggest planet - why it's so much hotter than models predict.” As the article
explains, planetary scientists have long attempted to attribute this anomalous
heating to Jupiter's auroras, although the spectacular X-ray auroras themselves
are not well explained in Standard Astronomy. However, a team of researchers
discovered that when Jupiter was hit by a large solar storm, they noted a
synchronous enhancement of so-called ”auroral heating”. The Science Alert report
acknowledges, “Jupiter is not the only planet in the Solar System that is
hotter than it should be. Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus are all hundreds of degrees
hotter than solar heating can account for.” While planetary scientists increasingly
have no choice but to recognize the role of electric currents in planetary
systems, as they have for many years at both Jupiter and Saturn, they still view
the electric currents as byproducts of localized phenomena in closed systems.
However, just as Thornhill successfully predicted, the hallmarks of electric
currents flowing into the poles of Saturn, we predict that no hypothesis
based on simple fluidic dynamics will explain the fixed cyclones on Jupiter.
Rather, these dramatic phenomena are testimony to the electrical circuitry
that pervades our solar system and indeed our entire Electric Universe.
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