The New Solar Cycle
                                Jun 03, 2009
                                      
      The twenty-fourth recorded sunspot cycle is off to a slow start.

   "Thermonuclear fusion powers the Sun." The phrase is no longer spoken
   with any implied question, it is explicitly stated as fact by
   conventional astrophysicists from every university or research
   institute. The commonly accepted nuclear power source for the Sun is
   due to core temperatures high enough for hydrogen ions to combine into
   helium nuclei and excess energy, according to theory. The Sun then
   radiates that energy into space in the form of x-rays, as well as
   visible and extreme ultraviolet light. Heavier ionized atomic nuclei
   are also emitted, forming the solar wind.

   However, a growing number of independent scientists, engineers, and
   researchers insist that the popular theory is wrong. They say that the
   Sun is an electrical phenomenon and not strictly fed by nuclear
   fusion; it is a localized glow discharge through plasma and is fed by
   electric currents flowing through the galaxy.

   According to the electrical model of stars, the Sun acts like the
   "anode" or positively charged electrode in a circuit, while the
   "cathode" or negatively charged electrode is not an object, but is
   "virtual" and located far beyond the planetary orbits. The virtual
   cathode is known as the "heliopause": in electrical terms, it is a
   double layer separating the plasma that surrounds the Sun from the
   galactic plasma in which the Solar System is immersed.

   Sunspots are not a well understood phenomenon from the fusion stand
   point. It is known that magnetism is involved with sunspot activity,
   because gigantic loops and whorls of plasma can often be seen
   connecting two or more of them, held in place by the spiraling
   magnetic fields. Why or how that magnetism is at work on the Sun
   remains unclear in consensus opinions. Filaments and "fibrils" can be
   detected with high resolution photographic equipment in the penumbra,
   or darkened cores of sunspots. The swirling plasma spirals look more
   like electromagnetic tornadoes than anything else.

   This is one example where understanding the difference between hot gas
   (which does not contain charged particles) and plasma (which does
   contain charged particles and can be electrically active) could
   provide some illumination: sunspots are not the result of gas
   convection modified by magnetism, sunspots are electrical structures.
   For conventional theory, sunspot penumbrae remain a mystery: the
   standard solar model does not predict such structures. The electric
   model does predict them. Electric discharges often appear as long
   twisting filaments. Because they are funnels of glowing plasma they
   appear darker in their centers--convection cells would appear darker
   on their cooler edges.

   In the electrical model the sunspot cycle is most likely a result of
   fluctuations in the electrical power supply from the local arm of our
   galaxy. As the varying current density and magnetic fields of huge
   Birkeland current filaments slowly rotate past our solar system, they
   apply more or less power to the electrical circuit that lights up our
   daytime sky. Rather than a weak Sun, the lack of sunspots here at the
   beginning of Solar Cycle 24 is most likely due to a weaker current
   flow through the galaxy.

   Stephen Smith