‏ܔܓܜ Science Hour with James McCanney ܜܔܓ‏: James McCanney - Science Hour - Nov 24 2011

Saturday, November 26, 2011

James McCanney - Science Hour - Nov 24 2011 - Thanksgiving Show

November 26, 2011 posting ... my weekly radio show from thanksgiving night is now posted on the weekly radio show archive sub-page (scroll down for the link to that sub-page) and do not forget to listen to past archived shows that go back a decade or more ... all commercial free ... listen as i give my annual thanksgiving homily ... jim mccanney

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about James McCanney

Professor James McCanney has taught the following mathematics courses at the University level in addition to Physics, Computer Science and Astronomy; Abstract Algebra, Linear Algebra, Matrix Algebra, Probability and Statistics, Statistics for Computing, Mathematical Logic, Theory of Numbers, Calculus I, II and III, Engineering Math I and II, Advanced Topics in Geometry and Topology. He has worked about half of his lengthy career in private industry. Much of this was accomplished in multi-lingual settings, having worked in the USA, Latin America and with high-level Russian scientists. He has presented his research at international conferences and is a regular presenter at American Geophysical Union meetings. He has also lectured at Los Alamos National Laboratories, the Air-Space/America International Air show and International Electric Propulsion conferences. Understanding his background is important in placing his new book into perspective. The theoretical work you will encounter here is one of the best kept secrets in the Astronomy world. It was developed in the late 1970's while the author was on the faculty of the Physics and Mathematics Departments of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. My work was in theoretical Celestial Mechanics and Plasma Physics (for the layman, these are the the studies of planetary motion and electrified gases in outer space). Initial papers were published in astrophysics journals while later papers were quietly returned without referee comments. The work showed among other things that comets were not dirty snow balls sublimating (vaporizing) in the solar environment, but were a complex plasma discharge interaction involving an asteroidal comet nucleus with the "solar capacitor", the capacitor being the result of a differential flow in the solar wind of high energy particles leaving the sun. The balance of charge in the solar system and a myriad of of other previously unknown effects were predicted by the theory, including the existence of an electron sheet arriving from the sun at a cometary nucleus and resulting x-rays. Only recently have these been verified by observation. The new comet theory also explained that the tail matter was not moving away from the comet nucleus, but was being drawn in by electrical forces millions of times more powerful than gravity or solar wind forces alone. Essentially a comet was now seen as a huge "cosmic vacuum cleaner". Comets were being captured into the solar system by the existing planets and the comet "tail drag" helped to circularize their orbits. Many commonly stated beliefs regarding the nature of the solar system were being dispelled with more subtle explanations. The theoretical implications were devastating to commonly held beliefs. Comets were not dirty snow balls, the solar system did not form all at one time 4.5 billion years ago and dozens of other theories developed to allow new data to comply with these "axioms of Astronomy" might not be correct also. At any rate, an entire rethinking of astronomical theory was required.

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