Electric Discharges to Dust Covered Surface Show Similarity to Features of Planetary Bodies Author: z dahlen parker Contributors; tbolts.info Forum Participants Presentation assistant: Mr.Weiss , Karlsruhe, Germany Thanks go out to Jan Weiss for placing this poster at ICOPs08

An enigmatic feature on Mercury shares many features with the images below. If their simaliraties are allowed as evidence of the mechanism responsible for formation then electric discharge should be considered in all its potential.

 

CRT Experiment, single-spark formed Lichtenberg feature.

Electrostatic Discharge patterns in a thin layer of dust on a CRT are similar in many ways to some enigmatic features seen on certain moons and planets. This simple experiment may help explain those planetary surface features. Without a testable explanation, any understanding of solar system history is questionable. Spidery markings, seen for example on Mercury and the Moon, are among the most puzzling of planetary features. These spidery channels are rounded depressions radiating from a central depression or crater. However, a closer look reveals a resemblance to laboratory electric discharge patterns. Electrical discharge patterns take many forms. Most have been shown to be scalable from the laboratory to the cosmic scale. The radials have been seen in experiments to be the result of surficial leader-strokes of an electric discharge, which may with higher currents form other features such as crater chains. We propose that there is an electrical cause for many surface features seen throughout the solar system. The approach taken here is an empirical investigation of plasma discharge effects on various surfaces that provide a parallel to planetary surfaces . Experiments with electrostatic discharge to a dust covered CRT produced the following features which match planetary markings in great detail. An investigation of plasma discharge effects upon mock planetary surface materials may provide new insights into the history of the solar system and the importance of plasma discharge phenomena in astrophysics and planetary science.

Another angle    Relative size Center feature was from multiple discharges. Note the 5:00 radial that reaches from an adjacent feature (upper-left) toward the centeral one.

The pattern of excavated material is uniform and does not overlap other spiders. This may be the result of limited- charge-scavanging from only the areas which have available charge along the balanced-tendrils of the coronal aspect of the electrical interaction.

From CRT experiment with electric discharge. These features have Lichtenberg characteristics. (lightening like) Prockter Crater (aka. Pantheon Fossae) on Mercury shows two levels of activity. Most rays probably form in an early phase The Crater and deeply cut trench are the final stage.

Image at below: Surface of acrylic insulator used in terawatt pulsed-power generator reveals the consequence of dielectric breakdown between surface and sub-surface charged potentials. Lichtenberg characteristics are common. (Lightening-like) Surface Discharge Image credit: Physics of the Plasma Universe, A.L. Peratt

Trench-like depression are a common feature on most celestial bodies. They are similar in many ways so, this require that the same mechanism be applied to all. Since these from Mercury are radial features then many conventional geologic explanations cannot be applied. They would not occur in radial fashion. The presence of finely divided debris surrounding the crater, rather than large chunks of material supports an electric discharge mechanism more than a cause from impact.

 

.	Note the feature at lower center. There are only three discharge features to highlight for this evaluation. They all have Lichtenberg characteristics.

 

At center are several features in deeper material, one to two millimeters. Even these low energy discharges still produce comparable patterns as the CRT surface Discharges to a blunt probe, my finger.

Had a stronger discharge and deeper material been used A central crater would have been formed. Probably like the one seen below, if other experimental results be any indication for expectations.

As the two covers of a book house the story within, these two images are telling of the diverse capability of an electric discharge at making features that are seen around the solar system on solid bodies. In the smallest of detail these can be matched with features in full size. You may think I am deviating a bit from spider features until I tell you that the same discharge that made a feature on the left also made a feature on the right as two CRT screen were passed in close proximity. Three passes are represented. The similarities are further emphasized by the planetary images below from Mercury and Mars.

Note the interior fingers in the features of these two images.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/ Carnegie Institution of Washington

Considering that the images above reveal the effects at each side of an electric arc, we might wonder about the similarities with these images from Mercury and Mars. Electric discharges leave unmistakable patterns and scalability of an arc in a plasma gives good reason to propose an electrical cause based on this evidence and much more from an Electric Universe perspective. If experiments are allowed to guide our thinking, then these CRT experiments are telling us something about an active process in our solar system which can still be viewed and evaluated scientifically on comets, Moons and elsewhere.

Mars Image Planetary Image credits. Nasa, JPL, MOC, HiRISE, MDIS, Special thanks to: tbolts.info participants StefanR, Solar, Arcus, Seasmith, Starbiter, MGmirkin, Redeye and maybe you. Acknowledgements: Wal Thornhill, www.holoscience.com Kronia group www.tbolts.info ALP