s our fundamental assumptions about the workings of the universe, and then offers an alternative vision. Born of empirical science, this vision is startling in its common sense simplicity, and stunning in its reach and ability to make comprehensible both age-old and modern-day mysteries.

Recent discoveries in space have amazed and perplexed scientists. Current popular theories in the sciences can neither predict nor explain the phenomena we are now observing. In THUNDERBOLTS, American mythologist David Talbott and Australian physicist Wallace Thornhill, and their associates propose a new theory which can both predict and explain these phenomena.

5,000 year old rock art, the origins of world mythology, planetary history, spectacular nebular forms in deep space, and high energy electric discharges in the plasma laboratory -- all are inextricably linked by the Electric Model. In an extraordinary synthesis of the scientific disciplines THUNDERBOLTS presents us with an astonishing new perspective on ancient history and leading-edge astronomy.

“Today, nothing is more important to the future and credibility of science than liberation from the gravity-driven universe of prior theory. A mistaken supposition has not only prevented intelligent and sincere investigators from seeing what would otherwise be obvious, it has bred indifference to possibilities that could have inspired the sciences for decades."

~David Talbott and Wallace Thornhill, Thunderbolts of the Gods

“Fizzy Bubbles” or Plasma Layers?

Feb 19th 2007

Evidence continues to mount that the space surrounding Earth is rife with electrical activity. Where mainstream astronomers see “superhot gases” that “pop” and “fizz,” proponents of the Electric Universe see plasma double layers doing what they are observed to do in plasma experiments.

The European Space Agency recently observed anomalous “bubbles” that seemed to grow and pop around Earth. According to the www.Space.com report, “Astronomers found the activity up where Earth's magnetic field meets a constant stream of particles flowing out from the Sun.”

The researchers announcing the discovery spoke of “superhot gases” associated with the “bubbles.” They envisioned a “bow shock” formed as the result of the solar wind colliding with Earth’s magnetic field. The “temperature” in the gas bubbles is 18,000,000 Fahrenheit, a hundred times hotter than the temperature of the surrounding “hot gas.”

The researchers were following the only line of reasoning allowed by their training, which discusses “gases” in space in the mechanical language of wind and water behavior. Their theoretical framework excludes the possibility of any electrical interaction between the earth and the circuitry of the solar system. Astrophysicists work with a form of plasma theory called magnetohydrodynamics, which was first proposed by — and later repudiated by — Hannes Alfven, who investigated actual plasma behavior in both laboratory and space settings. He spent the latter part of his life warning astrophysicists that their assumptions were invalid in space. If the assumptions are incorrect, then the language used to describe the phenomena is wrong and misleading. While most astronomers only think of space plasma as a “gas,” plasma surrounding the earth frequently displays an electrically charged nature.

Since the 1960’s, space probes have revealed that Earth’s auroras are caused by electrical currents flowing from the Sun – a fulfillment of the prediction of plasma pioneer Christian Birkeland. The Earth’s magnetospheric “bubble” is actually a Langmuir sheath that is electrically coupled to currents flowing in the Sun's heliospheric sheath. Sheaths are composed of electrically charged double layers of plasma, in which layers of opposite charge build up very near each other with a strong electric field between them. These double layers accelerate ions to high velocities that, when interpreted as temperature, appear to be very “hot.”

Two regions of dissimilar plasma will form a Langmuir sheath between them, which may result in a “bubble” formation. Electrical theorists such as Wallace Thornhill suggest that the so-called “fizzy bubbles” are most likely sheath-bounded cells of plasma. They are more than a magnetic effect in gas: they will exhibit charge differential, ion acceleration and radiation over a wide band from radio to x-ray—all suggesting a much different line of investigation than that implied by the story of “fizzy bubbles” in space.

In this illustration: (click on "Visit Author's Website") by European Space Agency artists, we see the Earth lying within the magnetosphere, rendered in blue and surrounded by the solar wind. The white rectangle on the left identifies the area where ESA’s Cluster and China/ESA Double Star’s satellites discovered “density holes.” The brown dots represent the solar wind and ions “back-streaming against the solar wind flow,” along the interplanetary magnetic field lines (in black). Credit: ESA