Mysterious Circular Radio Objects could they be Plasmoids? A new set of precision distance measurements made with an international collection of radio telescopes have greatly increased the likelihood that theorists need to revise the "standard model" that describes the fundamental nature of the Universe.

Full paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.14805.pdf

"We have found an unexpected class of astronomical objects which have not previously been reported, in the Evolutionary Map of the Universe Pilot survey, using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope. The objects appear in radio images as circular edgebrightened discs about one arcmin diameter, and do not seem to correspond to any known type of object "

Light appears to bend around large objects in space. Proponents of gravitational cosmology are quick to interpret this to fit their cherished theory of mass bending space and time. They even invoke mysterious dark matter on occasion, but it turns out there is a more simple and verifiable explanation at hand.

Ranitesh Gupta is a professor of Electrical Engineering & Technology at Lucknow university, India. He explains it in terms of refraction. See his paper here.

From the conclusion:

"It is suggested that Gravitation is only between material bodies and that the zero-rest mass photon is unaffected by gravity. The alternative novel approach to explain phenomena such as bending of light near a star and gravitational red/blue shift is based on refraction phenomenon of optics. Bending of light is due to bending of ray due to refraction within the star s atmosphere. The red/blue shift is due to optical-phenomenon of change of wavelength (frequency remaining same) due to change in velocity of light in the atmospheric medium. Other aspects such as blackhole and gravitational-lensing are also re-examined in the new perspective of refraction phenomenon. Interesting predictions are also made. In fact many of the general-relativity-tests are explained without general-relativity on the basis of refraction. The new approach could have important bearing on understanding of space-time, gravity and cosmology."

The straightforward idea that refraction causes the lensing effect attributed to General Relativity has also been proposed by Dr. Edward Dowdye, a physicist and laser optics engineer formerly with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He has derived a mathematical solution for lensing using refraction, and presented his findings at the EU 2012 conference. Paper: Gravitational Lensing in Empty Vacuum Space Does NOT Take Place

Dr. Dowdye points to the fact that observations of solar lensing are in the plasma ionized atmosphere of the Sun, as predicted by refraction, and not at varying elevations from the mass of the Sun, as predicted for gravitational lensing. He also highlights the lack of gravitational lensing observed in the stars rapidly orbiting the Milky Way's galactic center. YouTube - The Failed Attempts to Detect Macro Lensing

"Evidence of gravitational light bending at the site of Sagittarius A*, as is predicted by the light bending rule of General Relativity, is yet to be observed."
Dr. Edward Dowdye

Schoolboys the world over know that if you put a stick in water it will appear to bend as a result of refraction. We also know that the atmosphere of planets and stars is more dense than the space between them. In other words, why resort to complicated mathematics and esoteric hypotheses when simplicity will suffice? KISS (keep it simple, stupid) is the expression that springs to mind.

Standard scientific texts focus on just three states of matter solids, liquids, and gases. This is no small omission. Not only should Plasma be added to this list, but it should take first place, not least because of the fact that it constitutes 99% of the known Universe! Space travel has confirmed this fact. It is misleading to describe plasma as an ionized gas when it is in fact a state in its own right.

Given the dominance of Plasma in the universe, it seems more sensible to consider solids as cooled Plasma (Or matter with energy removed), as opposed to highly energised or heated matter. Moreover, because of the ability of Plasma to interact with electromagnetic forces, it is capable of forming far more complex structures than those seen in solids, liquids, or gases.

Plasma is for everyone as Anthony Perratt, a leading contemporary astrophysicist, is wont to say.

[T]he professional tends to interpret the pictures by using the theory he was taught while the amateur tries to use the picture to arrive at a theory. Halton Arp, Seeing Red

Within the limited confines of our own backyard, the Solar System, existing gravitational models seem to be holding-up. We have succeeded in sending probes to neighbouring planets and, despite the crashes and anomalous accelerations that have afflicted many space programs, the Huygens mission recently scored a spectacular success landing on Titan, a moon of Saturn, despite unexpected atmospheric conditions.

It should be noted, however, that g models begin to break down when we look further a field. Gravity, of course, is generally described as a property of mass. The trouble is that we have not discovered enough mass in our own galaxy, The Milky Way, to account for its fortunate tendency not to disintegrate.

The existence of mysterious Dark Matter is hypothesised to account for this shortfall in mass, but it is yet to be discovered despite extensive searches. Its existence is only inferred on the basis that g models 'must be' correct. The alternatives raise too many uncomfortable questions! Furthermore, Dark Matter is no small kludge factor it is alleged to account for about 80% of the universe, but accounts vary from one moment to the next. This has lead to further problems in relation to expansion models, and another hypothetical, Dark Energy, has been invented to overcome these. In summation, Dark Matter and Dark Energy are the blank cheques required to postpone the falsification of bankrupt theories.

Moreover, as per the work of Anthony Peratt, it can be shown that electromagnetic forces are several orders of magnitude greater than gravitational forces in certain types of plasma, and also that electromagnetic forces can have a longer range. On the largest scales, evidence that plasmas exhibit external forces on physical objects such as galaxies is the same as that which has lead standard model researchers to postulate dark matter and dark energy. Need anymore be said?

"It is an embarrassment that the dominant forms of matter in the universe remain hypothetical." Jim Peebles, Princeton Cosmologist

In 1996, in a joint venture between the US and Italy, a large spherical satellite was deployed from the US space shuttle at the end of a conducting cable (tether) over 12 miles long. The idea was to let the shuttle drag the tether across the Earth's magnetic field, producing one part of a dynamo circuit. The return current, from the shuttle to the payload, would flow via the Earth's ionosphere.

The deployment was almost complete when things went wrong. The tether suddenly broke free, and it took some smart detective work to discover the cause. The nature of the break suggested it was not caused by excessive tension, but that a strong electric current had melted the tether.

It is often said that there is no reason to believe that the universe knows about us, or that our solar system knows about the universe. In this purely mechanistic view, contradictory evidence is generally explained away as merely coincidental. Anomalies in CMB measurements seem to suggest that our solar system reacts to conditions outside it, which was not expected, but this situation is dismissed as ... coincidental.

sciencealert.com hint that new physics may be required.

Plasma Cosmology promotes a more holistic view of the universe. This is a profound differentiation, and permits many theories previously excluded in a purely mechanistic gravity-dominated universe. Bodies immersed in plasma are not isolated they are connected by circuits.

"...past 90% it [Dark Matter] begins to make observations irrelevant." Halton Arp

"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend." Novelist, Robertson Davies

These differing redshifts expose the big bang for what it is quasi-science. One of the two major foundational principles of the big bang hypothesis is that redshift is proportional to distance. That means the bigger the redshift of an object, the farther away it should be. Redshift is also supposed to be a measure of velocity. Again, the bigger the redshift, the faster the object is supposed to be moving away from us. Combined, these two foundational principles give rise to the notion of an expanding universe starting out at the big bang.

In other words, this quasar should be billions of light years farther from us than the galaxy, because its redshift is so much larger, and yet the galaxy is opaque, so the quasar must be near the surface of the dust clouds or even in front of them. This is not the first definitive falsification of the redshift = distance claim, although it is one of the best. Halton Arp has been accumulating discordant redshift evidence since the late 1960's. See also the big bang page.

Intrinsic Redshift

When we look at a spiral galaxy, in addition to matter ejected from its center, we also see quasars (quasi-stellar objects) and companion galaxies distributed along and away from the axis of rotation ... apparently coalescing from the ejected matter. Occasionally, there are 'bridges' connecting them. These bridges are plasma filaments, of course.

Halton Arp was cast out by establishment science for the blasphemy of daring to question their redshift dogma. A brilliant student of Edwin Hubble, Arp highlighted numerous redshift anomalies that challenge the redshift as a distance interpretation — the notion that the universe is expanding. See NGC 7319 above.

JWST images vindicate Arp's contention that cosmological redshift is intrinsic and not due to expansion. Arp observed that quasars further from the parent galaxy have lower redshifts and, moving away further still, he observed dwarf and prototype galaxies. In other words, galaxies are born and die in a living, connected, and cyclical universe. Contrast Arp's observations with the Big Bang model, where everything allegedly began in a miraculous creation event, yet is now seen as randomn, disconnected, and purposeless. It's a bizarre dichotomy, so much so that the distinguished biologist Rupert Sheldrake has been known to joke, "Give us one free miracle and we will take care of the rest." (His friend Terrence McKenna originally made this joke but, regardless, many a true word is spoken in jest.)

The Plasma Universe is an extremely dynamic, quasi Steady-State Universe. It may seem strange to consider Galaxies lasting billions of years as mere transient phenomena, but this is how it is. Planets, Stars and Galaxies are born and die. The universe is cyclical!

In the plasma model, super clusters, clusters and galaxies are formed from magnetically confined plasma vortex filaments. The plasma cosmology approach can easily accommodate large scale structures, and in fact predicts them. Since the plasma approach hypothesises no theoretical starting point, the amount of time necessary for large-scale structures presents no problem for the theory.

The YouTube Geointeresting Podcast, Episode 5, below, is a fascinating interview with Cleo Loi, the undergraduate who discovered 'plasma tubes' in the ionosphere circa 2016.

Her supervisor tasked her with understanding the noise of the radio telescope study of distant pulsar signals, the story goes. Cleo noticed patterns in the data, then proceeded (apparently for the first time in history) to use a parallax test available to a cluster telescope in order to determine the location (altitude) of the phenomenon. She's essentially invented the terrestrial study of the ionosphere by radio telescopes.

Cleo recounts her navigation through dismissal by her supervisors and experts in the field. Another Senior Professor is in on the interview, and seems slightly defensive. The situation serves as a reminder of Alfv n's interdisciplinary warning.