The Globular Cluster Anomalies

Blue Stragglers

Globular clusters are beautiful, dense, spherical collections of hundreds of thousands of stars orbiting our Milky Way Galaxy. In binoculars they look like cotton balls because you cannot resolve the individual stars. However, in my 10-inch aperture telescope, individual stars along the edge resolve and it is quite a breath-taking sight! Their centers just look like a solid glow. Long exposure astro-photographs or larger, more professional telescopes on earth, can resolve 10s of thousands of the stars, making them even more of a sight to behold.

But their origin is mysterious to the accepted paradigm of "nuclear fusion stellar evolution." But that is not the only major and fundamental and upsetting anomaly these objects present. They are way more enigmatic than we are led to believe, especially by space news articles.

Astronomers have long believed every star in a globular cluster formed at roughly the same time: "about 10-13 billion years ago," they say. We are told these are classic "Population II stars": so called "metal-poor," "old," and mostly cool red or orange giants. Hot, massive, blue O- and B-type stars (the hallmark of "youthful Population I stars" commonly found in the Milky Way) simply shouldn't exist there. All the massive stars should have lived fast and died young billions of years ago, according to "stellar evolution."

So imagine the surprise when, starting in the 1950s (notably Allan Sandage), astronomers began spotting bright blue stars in the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) Diagram of certain globular clusters (see pic left). These stars were dubbed "blue stragglers" because they lie to the left (hotter, bluer) and above the "main-sequence turn-off" point where "normal" cluster stars of that age are supposed to end their hydrogen-burning lives. In plain language: these stars are glowing like teenagers in a retirement home.

Mainstream astrophysics has spent decades trying to rescue the idea that all stars in a globular cluster are the "same age." The two most common proposals are:

1. Stellar collisions or close encounters, where two older, lower-mass stars smash together (or exchange mass) and form a single, more massive, hotter star that "looks young again."
2. Helium flash rejuvenation, where red giants suddenly start burning helium in their cores in a way that temporarily pushes them back toward the blue side of the H-R Diagram.

But both of these ideas have serious problems:

• Collisions sound dramatic, but globular clusters (even in their "dense" cores) are incredibly spacious compared to the size of the stars. Typical densities in the core of a rich cluster can be imagined as having two grains of sand, each representing a single star, separated by a quarter of a mile! So, actual destructive collisions would be so astronomically improbable that many researchers privately treat this explanation more as a convenient excuse rather than an actual mechanism to explain the "young star problem."
• The helium-flash idea requires very specific timing and conditions, and it still struggles to produce the sheer number of blue stragglers we observe in some clusters.

This "young star problem" isn't limited to globular clusters either. Elliptical galaxies are also supposed to be filled almost exclusively with "old, metal-poor Population II stars." Yet when astronomers look at their cores with ultraviolet telescopes, they see far more blue and ultraviolet light than billions of years of standard stellar evolution should allow. Something in these supposedly "dead" and "aged" galaxies is still acting "young and energetic."

But here's the real problem. Much of modern astrophysics is not based on observed data. Instead, it is merely inferred through a very specific theoretical lens and math. For instance, it is 100% correct to say that stellar evolution is a model, not a direct observation. We have never watched a single star go from "birth" on the zero-age "H-R main sequence" to red giant to white dwarf (or supernova) in real time. The excuse is that the timescales are millions to billions of years (i.e. too slow to observe). How convenient! What we do observe are believed, however, to be snapshots; that is, millions of stars in different parts of the H-R Diagram right now at different times in this assumed sequence. The standard interpretation says these snapshots are different evolutionary stages of the same kind of object. But that is a theoretical choice, not a direct measurement.

The spectra of stars tells us temperature, chemical composition, and perhaps even rotation, etc. But they do not come with a birth certificate that says, "Hi. I'm a star. And I am 8.3 billion years old." Much like when you find a fossil, it doesn't introduce itself with an evolutionary age. The age of stars only appears after you plug the observed parameters into an isochrone (a model track) that assumes internal nuclear fusion, hydrostatic equilibrium, and specific initial mass functions, opacity tables, equation of state, etc.

Thus, if this underlying model of stars is wrong or incomplete, every age quoted for open clusters, globulars, or solitary stars is provisional only, not fact, regardless of what the article or astronomer may tell you.

Globular Orbits

Another shocking fact about globular clusters is that they are calculated to be orbiting the galactic disk of the Milky Way. Their orbits take them through the disk (or, at least, very near it) every revolution of their orbit. The obvious question begged is: How does the Milky Way's spiral arms survive this passage, and how do the globular clusters do this without wrecking themselves? This is one of the strongest classic arguments against the standard picture, and it has never been fully silenced.

The fact are that most globular clusters, if they are as old as they are purported to be, would pass through the Milky Way's spiral arms every 100-300 million years. How could such a massive cluster pass through the disk without leaving traces? It's like running through a room full of dust without disturbing the dust! The energy that would be deposited into the Milky Way's disk shape is real. Indeed, some globulars observed show that they have "tidal tails" and supposedly "extra-tidal stars" as a result of passing through. This seems to show, at least, that they are slowly dissolving. Yet the thin disk and beautiful spiral arms are still here after 50-100 such crossings?! And the spherical shape of the globular is still intact?!

To explain how this is possible, mainstream astronomers usually propose that the clusters were more massive in the past, and they've lost 90-99% of their original stars, so the surviving core is only the dense central part that can withstand the shocks. Or they will say the disk of the Milky Way was thicker or less well-formed in the early Universe, and many destructive crossings happened before the thin disk settled.

But I would point out that a million-solar-mass object plowing through the disk dozens of times should leave more obvious scars than we see. And most astronomers agree with this, thus the need for the ad hoc explanation.

No Dark Matter Needed

Credit: Junying Chen

The final anomaly I want to mention is the biggest one of all. It is the cleanest, most under-discussed contradiction in all of astrophysics, if you ask me. In a previous article (here) I pointed out that galaxies need 5-10x more mass than we see in stars and gas in order to explain their rotation curves and velocity dispersions... thus, the invention of  the make-believe "dark matter." But here's the kicker: globular clusters have exactly the same observable ingredients (stars + gas + remnants) as galaxies, and we can resolve their individual stellar motions with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Gaia. The result? Their measured velocity dispersions match Newton gravity using only the visible stars! No missing mass is required to be added to the equations like it is with galaxies.

So, same gravity law, same kind of object (self-gravitating collection of stars), yet one needs a huge invisible component and the other doesn't. What the...?!

The standard reply? "Globulars formed early and the dark matter hadn't condensed yet," or "They're too small to retain dark-matter mini-halos." Both answers are pure "just-so" stories. There is no predictive calculation from the current cosmological model (ΛCDM; Lamda Cold Dark Matter) that says systems of only tens of thousands to millions of solar masses should be dark-matter-free while the larger systems of a hundred billion solar masses (galaxies) are swimming in it.

Plasma Solution?

I believe the underlying assumption of "nuclear fusion stellar evolution" model is fundamentally incorrect. The main reason for this is that the overwhelmingly more powerful electromagnetic force of plasma is not even in the theory! Yet the stars are all 100% plasma. I cannot emphasize enough that this is, by far, the most overlooked and under-assumed failure of modern astronomy and astrophysics. The electromagnetic force is literally 1000 trillion trillion trillion times stronger than gravity. And the ironic thing is, gravity is the only tool in the astrophysical toolbox at the moment.

So, what powers the stars? To me it seems they are not isolated islands powered only by internal nuclear fusion. Instead, they are anodic or cathodic foci in vast galactic-scale circuits, specifically, in twisting plasma filaments known as Birkeland currents (named after Kristian Birkeland, how first proposed them to explain the aurora). If you've ever watched the aurora borealis, you've seen Birkeland currents in action: glowing plasma ropes and curtains that move, braid, split, and reform on timescales of minutes. They are dynamic, not static.

Thus, in this picture, a star's position on the H-R diagram (which shows its temperature, luminosity, and color) depends partly on the electrical stress it experiences. In other words, the current density flowing through it. Increase the current density, and the star's photosphere gets driven to a higher temperature, meaning, it shifts leftward (bluer and hotter) on the H-R diagram. It could do this dramatically. Reduce the current, and it cools and reddens, shifting rightward on the H-R diagram. Thus:

• Blue Stragglers: These stars are not mysterious. They aren't stars that somehow cheated old age through a lucky collision or an odd internal arrangement. They are simply normal stars that, right now, happen to be immersed in a stronger portion of its local Birkeland current filament. The filament moves (just like auroral curtains move), or the stars drift relative to the filament over time, and their appearance may change accordingly. So, they aren't revived old stars, cheating death. They're just blue. The same would hold true for the mystery of blue stars in elliptical galaxies. No new star formation is required. They are just showing that the elliptical galaxy's filamentary currents are still active, lighting them up.
• Globular Orbits: Globular clusters are not primarily gravity-bound objects. Instead, they are electromagnetic pinches (Z-pinches) along large-scale Birkeland currents that thread the Milky Way's galactic halo. Therefore, they are durable, not fragile gravitational snowballs. They travel along the same extended Birkeland current filaments that maintain the spiral arms of the Milky Way in the first place. In plasma, when two current-carrying filaments approach each other, they either attract and merge (if currents are parallel) or repel and bounce (if anti-parallel), or they braid and exchange energy smoothly (which is what we seen in auroral curtains and laboratory plasma jets). Thus, disk crossings are not violent collisions but relatively gentle interactions within the same extended circuit. And the spiral arms of the Milky way are continuously regenerated and maintained by the ongoing galactic current, so even if a crossing did deposit some energy, the arms simply reform downstream, just as an auroral arc reforms after a plasma sheet is momentarily disturbed. That is why, even if you imagine dozens of orbits and hundreds of disk crossings over billions of years, both the globular clusters and the beautiful thin disk with its sharp spiral arms are intact and glowing. No missing mass, no ad-hoc evaporation, no destroyed spiral structure required. The galaxy is an electric circuit, and everything in it (arms, cluster, and stars) is part of the same living plasma flow.
• No Dark Matter Needed: Dark matter is only needed when you insist that gravity is the sole binding force at all scales. Once you recognize the electromagnetic force operating in cosmic plasma, the need for dark matter disappears at every scale; from the smallest globular clusters to the largest galactic superclusters. Globular clusters require no dark matter because they are electromagnetically confined plasma Z-pinches in which the observed stars are directly supported by the self-generated magnetic forces of the very Birkeland currents that power them. Gravity is a minor contributor, and the visible matter is essentially all there is.

Milky Way's Galactic Circuit

Thus, if we merely recognize plasma and its electromagnetism, these three stubborn anomalies of globular clusters resolve naturally with one consistent plasma mechanism; globulars are electromagnetic Z-pinches formed and bound by galactic Birkeland currents. Blue stragglers appear when a star experiences higher current density, driving it hotter and bluer without needing improbable collisions or internal rejuvenation; repeated plunges through the galactic disk are gentl because the cluster travels along the same current filaments that trace the spiral arms, encountering almost no destructive perpendicular shocks; and no dark matter is required because the confining force is the powerful magnetic pinch generated by the filament itself, making the visible stars alone fully account for the observed velocity dispersion. 

Three separate ad-hoc fixes in the standard model become one straightforward consequence of treating the cosmos as the electric plasma environment it observably is.

Are Ethnic Jews "God's People"?

The Question

Right now, in USA society, and really for quite some time from the past (all my life really), there has been a question that American Christians and government officials seem unable to deal with in a straightforward manner. The question, however, is really not hard to answer Biblically. And to even ask it today causes overreactions from both sides of the answer. The right wing conservatives will usually label you "antisemitic" if you even ask it. And the left wing will be offended at the Biblically-sound Christian answer to it.

The question is: Should we, as Christians, automatically support the modern nation of Israel?

The answer given by most western Christians has been a resounding, "Yes! After all, they are God's people!", and so, lobbying began to our government many years ago to persuade our leaders to support "God's people" (referring to the modern nation of Israel) because if we don't, God will curse us as a nation. This lobby was successful and still reigns today, for the government of the USA still supports the nation of Israel, sending them billions of dollars each year. And this support did not begin because it was a politically strategic thing to do (at the time). Instead, it was based on the above supposed "Christian" reasoning. But is this a good reason? Maybe there are those who now see that supporting Israel as a nation over in the Middle East (as it is surrounded by Muslim enemies) as a sound, strategic and politically good action. That's a horse of a different color. I'm more interested in the original reasoning coming from the "Christian" sector.

The original lobby is usually based on verses in the Old Testament promising the (then) nation of Israel, that God would do so; that is, curse all those that cursed them, and bless all those that bless them. And that God unequivocally, unconditionally, and irrevocably gave them the land in ancient Canaan, which is far more than they currently occupy as a modern state. The USA's financial support of the nation of Israel is also the main thing that has provoked the Muslim countries of the Middle East to hate us as a nation.

Believe it or not, unquestioning support for "the Jews" (the modern state of Israel, or the modern version of Judaism) is actually something fairly new for Christianity. The early church, instead, showed how being an ethnic Jew did not automatically garner God's blessing. Instead, beginning with John the Baptist and Jesus Himself, as well as the Apostle Paul, it was taught and fully realized that ethnicity was not the name of the game where God was concerned.

The Real Question

If you are a Christian, ask yourself this question out loud: "Where does an ethnic Jew go when he dies?" Your answer should be simple: "Well, ethnicity has nothing to do with it. If he dies as a believer in Christ, then he will be with God. If he dies as an unbeliever he will go to hell."

If the above answer is your answer, then the second question is begged: "Then what advantage is there to being an ethnic Jew?" Because it sure doesn't sound like a blessing to end up in hell just because you think you are automatically safe being "a Jew." And, if you are a Christian, and you are telling Jews that they are God's people (when they reject Jesus Christ), are you helping solidify their path to eternal damnation?! I believe so.

Have you ever thought of that before? Is God a racist? Does He promise that the blood descendants of Abraham have a special clause where salvation is concerned? No, He doesn't. In fact, as I've already mentioned, John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Apostle Paul warned against the Jews of their day trusting in their lineage as a means of salvation with God.

John the Baptist

• Matthew 3:7-10: But when he [John the Baptist] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, "You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance! Don't think to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father,' for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that doesn't produce good fruit is cut down, and cast into the fire."
• Luke 3:7-9: He [John the Baptist] said therefore to the multitudes who went out to be baptized by him, "You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore produce fruits worthy of repentance, and don't begin to say among yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father;' for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones! Even now the ax also lies at the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doesn't produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."

How is this not clear? John is warning them! What "wrath to come" was John referring to? If you know your history, 43 years from when John spoke these words, God's wrath indeed fell on the unbelieving Jews of that generation, in the form of the Roman army destroying Jerusalem, and burning the Temple to the ground in AD 70. Jesus predicted this very thing many times in His parables and especially in His now famous Olivet Discourse (mainly Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21).

John was not alone. The Lord Jesus Himself echoes the same warning. The most poignant spot where this occurs is John 8:31-59. Here are a few of the verses in that regard. Note the highlighted statements.

Jesus Christ

• John 8:31-44: Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you remain in My word, then you are truly My disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." They answered Him, "We are Abraham's offspring, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How do You say, 'You will be made free'?" Jesus answered them, "Most certainly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin. A bondservant doesn't live in the house forever. A son remains forever. If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham's offspring, yet you seek to kill Me, because My word finds no place in you. I say the things which I have seen with My Father; and you also do the things which you have seen with your father." They answered Him, "Our father is Abraham." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham didn't do this. You do the works of your father." They said to Him, "We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God." Therefore Jesus said to them, If God were your father, you would love Me, for I came out and have come from God. For I haven't come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why don't you understand My speech? Because you can't hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn't stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of lies..."
• John 14:6: Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me."

Let me pause right here because these words are harsh coming from our Savior. You cannot extrapolate what Jesus says here and apply these statements across the board to modern-day Jews by default. Specifically, Jesus spoke to the Jews of His day that wanted to kill Him. And though the Romans nailed Jesus to the cross, it was the unbelieving Jews of Jesus' day that were held accountable by God for the Messiah's death.

But the principle that can be carried over is this: God does not include you as being His just because of ancestry, even if your ancestry extends all the way to Abraham! In fact, the stout words of truth Jesus spoke shows that if you didn't believe in Him, you are children of the devil! 

Is this to say Jesus was an antisemite? Nope. Jesus was an ethnic Jew as well, a direct descendant of King David of the tribe of Judah, who, in turn was a direct descendant of Abraham. Is this a tirade against ethnic Jews then? Of course not. It is showing, however, in a very poignant way that God is not a racist. He doesn't care what color your skin is, or what sin you are caught up in. Salvation is dependent on your faith in Christ Jesus, not on your bloodline nor your works!

If God stressed bloodline as a means of salvation, what would you think of Him? How many of the modern "ethnic Jews" can trace their ancestry back to Abraham anyways? Probably a handful if any. What would it matter? None, where salvation is concerned.

And in John 14:6, Jesus makes it clear, that to be in God's family, you must have faith in Him. He is the only way. And may I point out that modern-day Judaism, by definition, rejects Jesus Christ. They specifically argue against Him as their Messiah; often in very harsh and blasphemous ways. So, ask yourself, are they still God's people even when they openly reject His Son? Ironically, the Muslims believe Jesus to be a Prophet of Allah, and believe Jesus ascended and will return in the future!

How incredibly ironic. Of course, Muslims do not believe Jesus died on the cross for our sins. So, like the rest of us, they need to hear the Gospel of Jesus to be saved.

Even Peter, agreeing with Jesus in John 14:6, and before we get to the Apostle Paul, said, "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that is given among men, by which we must be saved!" (Acts 4:12).

The Apostle Paul

Although there are many places that could be quoted, here are Paul's most poignant points in this regard:

• Romans 9:6-8: But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel that are of Israel. Neither, because they are Abraham's offspring, are they all children. But, "your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac." That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as heirs.
• Romans 2:28-29: For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.
• Galatians 3:7,29: Know therefore that those who are of faith are children of Abraham... If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring and heirs according to promise.
• Philippians 3:3-9: For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh; though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If any other man thinks that he has confidence in the flesh, I yet more; circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the assembly; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ. Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith...

Also, Paul argued that there is One Tree, Jesus Christ. And the natural branches (ethnic Jews) were all cut off, leaving a tree without branches at all! But through faith in Christ, it is possible that the natural branches (ethnic Jews) can be grafted back into their own natural Tree. And also he explains that non-Jews (Gentiles) belong naturally to wild trees. But even they, through the same faith in Christ, can be grafted into the Tree of Christ and enjoy the same salvation. (see Romans 11:16-24).

And this should be the Christian's attitude! We should love the ones calling themselves "ethnic Jews" enough to tell them the truth... that they, just like us, are not children of God, because we have all been cut off from God because of our sin. But that the only way to God is through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.

More clarification from Paul with this attitude:

• Romans 3:22-23: Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.
• Galatians 3:28: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
• Ephesians 2:11-19: Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "uncircumcision" by that which is called "circumcision" (in the flesh, made by hands), that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who made both [Jew & Gentile] one, and broke down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man of the two, making peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility through it. He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. so then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God...
• Romans 10:12: For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on Him.
• Colossians 3:11: Where there can't be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, or free person; but Christ is all, and in all.

The Proper Christian Attitude

[For this last section, refer to the picture at the beginning of this article.]

Thus, today's ethnic Jews are not God's people by default. Instead, like the rest of us, they need Christ in order to be included in God's family. In other words, preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them just like you would any other person, regardless of ethnicity, for God is no respecter of ethnicity! And take Paul's warning to heart:

"You will say then, 'Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.' True; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith. don't be conceited, but fear; for if God didn't spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you. See then the goodness and severity of God. Toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness; otherwise you also will be cut off." (Romans 11:19-22).

This is what love is all about. There is no favoritism due to ethnicity. Period.

The picture:

• The whole world is made up of two types of trees. The Wild olive tree represents the Gentile nations. The Natural olive tree represents the Jewish nation whose natural roots started with Abraham.
• When Jesus came, all the Natural branches were broken off because of sin. The Wild tree had no original connection to the Natural tree anyway. The root of the Natural tree is actually the "offspring of Abraham" (i.e. Jesus Christ), not Abraham himself. Paul says so: "Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his offspring. He doesn't say, 'To descendants', as of many, but as of one, 'To your offspring', which is Christ" (Galatians 3:16).
• After Christ, since all men are sinners, those from the Wild olive tree can be cut out of their Wild tree and grafted into Christ, through faith in Him. And the Natural branches that were all cut off, can be easily grafted back into their original tree from which they were cut.

So, should we as Christians, support the nation of Israel?

The answer can now be based on your politics. Do not let it be based on fear of being cursed by God if you don't. God is not a racist. Neither should you be. Especially if you are Christ's.

Nevertheless, at Your Word

Job Loss

For eleven years, I had worked for Texas Instruments in Johnson City, TN. I had been hired before I graduated tech school with an associate's degree in electronics engineering. And during that time, I had met the love of my life, gotten married and had three small girls. I couldn't have been happier. Then, like most storms, there was a sudden unexpected upheaval in the natural things... Siemens Industrial Automation came in, bought the company building, and hired 2/3rds of my coworkers over to their side. This left the remaining Texas Instruments employees like myself, working in Siemens' building, renting space from them, with a new in-place rule... no more TI folks could be hired over.

I found myself merely weeks away from losing my job, and a family of five to provide for. As you would guess, my first momentary reaction was a bit of panic. And it's not as though this doesn't happen all the time in America, because it does. And it's not as if I'm the only person ever in history to face down losing a job while having a family to feed, because thousands of folks were worse off then me in that regard. So, after a moment of panic, I humbled myself and realized this is nothing new for Americans to deal with. That brought a wave of momentary relief. But the cold hard fact remained... I needed a new job. I immediately called on the name of Jesus.

At the time (1990s), high-tech jobs were a rarity in Northeast Tennessee. Texas Instruments was not closing down operations entirely. Instead, we were told they were merely "moving" operations to three different locations in Texas; Temple, Austin, and Lubbock. My job was specifically being moved to Temple. I didn't want to go. Mostly, because I didn't want to leave the mountains. But also because my wife and I had close family ties here; both of us having been born and raised in the area. 

But with TI's move, and the cross-over hiring freeze on, ruling out a move to Siemens, the high-tech jobs seemed to vacate the area. During the "transition period" it was like corporate was trying to find a building to keep the business in Northeast Tennessee. Although I'm not entirely sure that was true. They didn't seem to be trying very hard. And all my friends who were electronics techs like me, moved out of the area entirely, either taking their job offers in Texas, or changing companies entirely. Either way, they were no longer employed in my area. They made sure to tell me as much: "You'll never find a job there."

TI graciously had allowed company services and infrastructure to be utilized for job hunting for its "doomed" employees. Also, planned out severance pay based on length of employment and such. Very fair; gracious even. It was hard to be mad at them. So, I prayed, asking God for a job in my area, and fully utilized TI's offer for their services in hunting for a job. I couldn't find any.

Useless Interviews

I had a job interview for Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport, TN. I had actually worked on one of their automation machines (PLCs) while employed for TI. PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) were my specialty, and I had quite a bit of programming and troubleshooting experience tucked under my belt after working in that industry for eleven years. But Eastman had a company policy of hiring that ruled out being placed in their PLC Maintenance Department right off the street. They maintained that you must be hired "at the bottom" as a "scrub" and then apply to work elsewhere in order to move up. My response: "So, you want me to throw eleven years of directly-related experience in PLCs down the drain just to work for Eastman?" A rather meek reply from my interviewer: "Well, yes, I guess so. Are you willing to do that, Mr. Kiser?" My simple reply: "Would you?" He realized how stupid the request was, and said, "I guess not. So, we won't see you for your second interview?" I said, "No," and walked out.

Now, you might be thinking, I just turned down a job! Well, I did. The reason? I wasn't that desperate. The starting pay was about a third of my pay at TI. Plus, I had even asked incredulously, "So, you're telling me that any kid graduating high-school could come in here and get the same job and apply for PLC Maintenance even though I have eleven years of directly-related experience even working on one of your machines already?!" I mean, really? And the thing is, I have to put considerable time in as a "scrub" before I would even be allowed to apply for the maintenance job. IMHO, very silly.

This wasn't the only interview I had with different companies in the area. But it was typical of them all.

But now time was of the essence. With all this time seemingly wasted on useless interviews, I was starting to have to fight my doubts of God's provision. So, I went to Him. I spent time with Him, listening. I basically said, "Give me something to go on, Lord. Give me some direction to look." It was then that I suddenly remember my Dad's story of provision.

My Dad's Witness To Me

I grew up in a house with strong faith in God. My Dad was not a worrier. He'd often been heard saying things like, "Your Mom does enough worrying for the both of us." True. As a kid, I had grown up sometimes working with my Dad to earn money during the summers. I had seen his work ethic. And it made me want to be just like him. He really didn't worry. When others fell apart, and presented seemingly impossible situations to him, the first thing he would always say was, "Well, the main thing is not to get excited." Then he would calmly seek a solution and, of course, find it. Why was he so stalwart in this regard? He had had a life-changing encounter with the living God when he was a boy.

He had grown up in Southwest Virginia in the Appalachian mountains. He had taken his dog and gone hunting. His mom had told him that if it blows up a storm while he's in the woods, to get out as fast as he could, not only because of lightning, but mainly because when a front comes in with the wind, it would break limbs out of the trees presenting a very real danger to anyone caught unawares there. Anyone who lives near a forested area can bear witness. So, while he was in the woods, a storm blew up. Struck suddenly with fear, he bolted toward the house. He fell headlong downhill in his desperation. When he came to a halt and looked up, he saw a shimmering light in front of him. He said all the fear he had went out the window. God spoke to him, in not so many words, "Do not be afraid. I will protect you. I will take care of you, your entire life." And from that day forward my Dad said he never feared anything, nor was even tempted to doubt God's provision.

To top that off, when I was in high school, a family member who worked for my Dad's company had been caught embezzling money from him. It was a large sum. Everyone advised my Dad to prosecute and throw the man in jail. Instead, Dad took a road trip to his old abandoned homestead up in Virginia, and walked up into the same woods he'd known as a kid to seek the Lord's help. While there, he walked up onto a lone dogwood tree, right in the middle of the woods, with no other dogwoods around. That was enough for him. He went home with his answer. He fired the embezzler, and forgave him.

The Dogwood Legend

Why would a dogwood tree provide the answer? You may not know the legend of the dogwood. But it is folklore of the South. The legend says the dogwood used to be as large as an oak, but that its wood was chosen to make the cross of Christ. After that, the tree withered in shame to become the small tree with twisted branches that it is today. It's blossoms took on the shape of the cross in its four petals, with notches on the ends of each petal looking like nail marks and are the color of blood. The cluster of tiny florets in the center of the blossoms look like the crown of thorns. Dad, knew this was merely legend and not Biblically accurate, but it spoke to him on the mountain. The tree he saw was about the right age to have been seeded when he was a boy and had encountered God. This made me, again, want to be just like him.

Unbeknownst To Abraham

So, I found peace. Then God showed me something else. It was sudden. It was very pronounced in my heart. If ever I've heard His precious and glorious voice, this was one incident where that may have happened. I cannot tell for sure. But he showed me Abraham, walking up the mountain to sacrifice his son Isaac. When Abraham had tied up his son, raised the knife, the angel spoke, and God provided the sacrifice Himself in the form of a ram caught in the thicket. We all know that story from Sunday School, and how it points to Christ (see Genesis 22:9-14; John 3:16; Romans 8:32; Galatians 3:6-16; Hebrews 11:17-19; James 2:21-23). But He spoke this to me: "While Abraham was traveling up one side of the mountain, unbeknownst to him, I sent a ram up the other side, out of sight. At the right moment, it was caught and revealed to Abraham. So is your job." Peace that passes understanding surrounded my soul like never before. I was filled with joy. No, I did not dance or scream or shout; not my style. But I smiled and giggled like a little kid. Peace! So, I simply said out loud, "Show me which bush to look in so I can see my job that You have already provided." I literally said those words.

At work that day, an ad caught my eye in the paper. Some new company was starting up somewhere in Erwin, Tennessee (right down the road from Texas Instruments), looking for its first employees. But they didn't want just anyone, they wanted the first part of the vetting to be by making everyone interested to take a written exam. I felt a strong pull, "This is it!" I made the necessary contacts, and was scheduled to take the exam at a certain hotel room in Johnson City. 

Testing

I arrived on time, but the sight I saw almost made my heart sink. There were dozens and dozens of people waiting in line to take the exam. I later learned there were over 200 people who took the exam! But, I pushed the fear down, and quite literally chose to believe that no matter what the outcome, God had spoken to me, and that somehow, whether through this job or another, I and my family would be provided for. I waited in line for a long time. Went into the hotel room, took the timed test, which was more like achievement tests in high school, complete with reading comprehension, writing, science, 3D-space comprehension, problem solving, mathematics, and even some physics. I felt good about the testing afterward. It didn't feel too difficult.

A few days later I was called in for an interview. The company was called NRF, Inc., which I learned later originally stood for Natural Rubber Foam. But when the company went into business, their chemical engineer had already had the process switched to using synthetic rubber, so the acronym NRF no longer made sense. And since it was along the Nolichucky River in Erwin, we later donned it the Nolichucky River Factory... lol. Or, since the plant supervisor was named Reggie, we would often end up calling it, Not Reggie's Fault. Anyways, the interview went well, I thought, and the proposed starting pay was quite a bit lower than what I was making at TI, but it wasn't "Eastman-scrub" low. My wife and I decided with a little bit of re-budgeting, we could manage. I accepted the job not even knowing what I was going to be doing. It didn't matter to me... I was going to be able to provide for my family. What a relief!

Jesus' Surprise On My First Day!

I reported for work my first day and we met with the management and my other new co-employees in the plant's meeting room. Out of the 200+ tested, they had hired five! I was thankful immediately, nearly to tears when I realized this. In the meeting they said we'd be working on potentially dangerous technologically-advanced equipment requiring focus. The product to be produced, at the moment, was absolutely tons of synthetic rubber strips that would be shipped to well-known diaper manufacturers who would utilize them in the stretchy part of their pull-up diapers. So, there were three colors; white, blue, and pink. We'd be manning the processes all the way through. We'd have to clean pipes, pumps, conveyor belts, adjust machine performance, and most of all, they said, offer suggestions on how to improve the process and make it more streamline all along the way. The liquid form of the rubber had ammonia in it, so it was potentially deadly. We would learn "lock-out, tag-out" procedures if working on machines, and take multiple courses to insure our safety.

They also revealed that there would be a number of courses we could volunteer to take, followed by a test for the ones we chose, and if we passed at a certain level, we'd receive a small raise as compensation. I decided right then and there I would sign up for every single one.

After the meeting, I was pumped now knowing what I would be doing. It had nothing to do with my degree, nor electronics, but I would learn the process, follow the rules, and I was determined to be the best employee they had ever seen. But I was wrong. God had a little surprise for me.

When the meeting adjourned, we all were to follow the supervisor out to start learning the basics of the manufacturing process and the equipment. But before I could walk out, one of the managers stopped me and asked, "Are you Greg Kiser?" I answered, "Yes, sir." He said, "Good. OK. We hired you to be the PLC maintenance man." I felt the color leave my face! I could feel the joy rising up inside of me... then he added, "So, congratulations! You get a raise the first day. Do you know anything about Allen-Bradley PLCs?" Of course, though my work had all been on Texas Instruments PLCs, I was aware of all the other major players in the PLC field. And the idiosyncrasies between them are small... a PLC is a PLC. The syntax of the programming language and the architecture of the system may be a little different, but they all work on the same principle. So, I was very confident I could easily manage. And I did.

But at this point I was stunned. I felt like Jesus was laughing at/with me! Indeed, I got a raise the first day. My wife and I were amazed! It nearly matched my pay at Texas Instruments! Our "re-budgeting" plans were no longer necessary. And eventually I surpassed that pay because, like I had planned, I signed up for every course they offered, and passed them all, with a raise each time. After six months of working there I had already exceeded my pay at Texas Instruments. I had learned to drive a fork truck, use a cutting torch, use different welders, etc. And even better than that, I was learning hands-on PLC application in the real automation world, whereas at TI I had only been involved in the manufacturing, board repair, bread-boarding, and engineering of the PLCs, and their related equipment. This skillset became a stepping stone for the next job I would do for Siemens Technical Support a few years later.

Be Encouraged - God Has Already Provided

By the time I left NRF, I was managing three shifts of the maintenance department, and had about four techs reporting to me. I was not their boss, just a manager of the works.

I praise my Lord Jesus Christ in providing for my family the way He did. My kids are all grown, married, and I have grandchildren now. But this miraculous provision in my life is something that sticks with me like it was yesterday. When He promised my Dad He would take care of him, I grabbed onto that for myself. Because what He will do for one, He will do for another. He has already provided for us in His work of salvation. Salvation is not merely about "going to heaven." It is much more than that. God had provided more than I needed.

Galatians 3:20-21 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

If you are in need of a job, please remember this story. He is no respecter of persons. The following are not direct quotes, but they are the ideas you get from the referenced Scriptures in God's Word.

You may not have a job right now, but "nevertheless, at Your word..."

• He will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19)
• Do not be anxious over what you will eat, drink, or wear. Seek His Dominion first, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:31-33)
• Yahweh is your shepherd, you shall not be in need (Psalm 23:1)
• Those who seek Yahweh will lack no good thing (Psalm 34:10)
• I have been young, and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread (Psalm 37:25)
• Yahweh gives you power to get wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18)
• God is able to make all grace abound toward you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work (2Corinthians 9:8)
• If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him. (Matthew 7:11)
• Consider the ravens; they neither sow nor reap... and yet God feeds them. You are much more value than the birds. (Luke 12:24)
• Yahweh knows the plans He has for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).
• Jesus came that you may have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10)
• If God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

Astronomy's Mass Confusion (Short Version)

The Missing Mass Problem & Dark Matter

The core challenge in modern astronomy, often called the "missing mass" problem, arose when observations showed that the visible matter in the universe--stars, gas, and dust--couldn't account for the observed gravitational effects. Early studies by Jan Oort and Fritz Zwicky in the 1930s indicated that galaxies and galaxy clusters required significantly more mass than could be seen to prevent them from flying apart. This discrepancy was dramatically confirmed by Vera Rubin and Kent Ford in the 1960s and 70s, whose detailed plots of galactic rotation curves showed that stars on the outer edges of galaxies were orbiting unexpectedly fast.

The Dark Matter Hypothesis & Its Critics

To reconcile these observations with the established laws of gravity (Newton's and Einstein's), astronomers postulated the existence of dark matter--a hypothetical, invisible substance with gravitational force but no electromagnetic interaction. This became a mathematical "fudge factor" to make the equations match the observations. The current consensus holds that approximately 96% of the universe is composed of unseen components (dark matter and dark energy), with ordinary atomic matter making up only about 4%. However, despite decades of searching, scientists have found no direct evidence for the exotic particles required by the dark matter hypothesis, leading critics to view it as an unproven, ad hoc solution.

The Alternative: Plasma Cosmology

The root of this "mass confusion" is a scientific blind spot: the reliance on a gravity-only paradigm. An alternative approach, plasma cosmology, acknowledges that over 99.9% of the universe is plasma, a highly electrically charged state of matter. The universe's large-scale structure and dynamics, including the fast-moving outer parts of galaxies, are driven not solely by gravity but by powerful electromagnetic forces like electric currents and fields. The rotational anomalies attributed to dark matter are naturally explained by plasma dynamics, offering a testable physical solution without resorting to imaginary mass.

Full article here.

Astronomy's Mass Confusion

The Plasma Blindspot

Astronomers have long struggled with a huge discrepancy. That is, the universe's visible components (i.e. stars, gas, dust, galaxies) do not provide enough gravitational pull to explain the observed motions of individual galaxies or vast clusters of galaxies. On a scale as small as the Solar System, no problem. The long-proven math of gravity's equations is sufficient, trustworthy, and accurate. But at the larger scales, the gravity-only ideal begins to fall apart. Since the force of gravity accompanies mass, then this discrepancy is perceived as a "missing mass" problem. In other words, there seems to be a lot of mass that is undetectable, yet providing gravity. At first this was thought to be objects (e.g. like planets) that don't produce their own light. 

The motions observed infer this "missing mass." This anomaly was first quantified in the 1930s and led to the hypothesis of dark matter. Today, dark matter remains an ad hoc "fudge factor" and purely a mathematical construct added to Isaac Newton's or Albert Einstein's gravity equations just so the results of the math match the observed motions. But there is still yet no direct detection of such matter despite decades of relentless search and billions of dollars worth of research grants and equipment thrown at it! It is truly still yet... "dark."

Critics of dark matter argue this kind of "scientific" (mathematical) approach piles hypothetical objects on top unproven assumptions. What assumptions? Mainly that gravity is the only force shaping our universe. But any alternative explanations or hypotheses are usually "filtered out" by the adherents to the consensus Standard Model of the Big Bang, whether actual scientists or science news writers. Some of the critics, even though they are PhD scientists and astronomers, have even been black-balled from scientific journals and/or from using the big telescopes (see particularly, Dr. Halton Arp in his books, Quasars, Redshifts, and Controversies and Seeing Red). But one particular alternate theory that is like the elephant in the living room is electromagnetic plasma dynamics (i.e. plasma cosmology). It offers a testable resolution without invoking exotic make-believe dark matter. But it does question the prevailing underlying assumptions of a gravity-only universe.

Early Hints: Redshift, Jan Oort, & the Milky Way's Disc (1930s)

Dutch astronomer, Jan Oort pioneered the issue while studying stars near the Sun. He used stellar spectra to measure the velocities of stars perpendicular to the galactic plane. What, you say?! Yeah, that sounds like a foreign language to most people. But it actually can be understood easily enough. Bear with me and you'll see.

You already know when you feed a light beam from your window through a prism you get rainbows on the wall; a spectrum of colors ranging from deep red to violet. However, this rainbow, if it is sharply focused, is crossed by many thin, dark lines known as "absorption lines." These occur because atoms in the Sun's cooler outer layers "absorb" specific wavelengths (colors) of light coming from the hotter interior. These lines directly correspond to the energy levels of electrons in particular elements. This is a really amazing thing! A gift, you might even say. Why? Well, have you ever wondered how scientists know what the Sun is made of? This is how. Each element listed in the Periodic Table of Elements leaves a unique set of absorption lines, acting like a fingerprint. Also, by contrast, if those same elements are heated up in the lab until they emit light themselves, and we pass that light through a prism, they produce bright "emission lines" at the very same wavelengths as the dark absorption lines.

So, by recognizing these absorption lines unique to  hydrogen, we know that there is hydrogen in the Sun's atmosphere absorbing some of the Sun's light before it reaches us. With this understanding, astronomers then turned their prisms (spectrometers) to starlight, and discovered the same kind of thing. The stars are not all like the Sun. There are different kinds, emitting and absorbing different elements in different quantities.

But there's a bit more. You have experienced how when a police car goes by you with siren blaring, how the sound of the siren changes from a high pitch to a low pitch, right? This effect is called the Doppler shift (named after Christian Doppler, who proposed it in 1842). Because the siren is moving relative to you, the sound wave coming from the siren is getting crunched together as it approaches, so it is a higher pitch. As it passes by, the sound wave coming from the siren is getting stretched out, so it is a lower pitch. 

The same thing can happen to light. For instance, a common absorption line of hydrogen occurs at 656.3 nanometers (don't worry about it). This line is called the "hydrogen alpha" line, or H-alpha. If we see this line, we know we are looking at hydrogen. However, if the object in space emitting this light is moving away from us at a high speed, this hydrogen line might be measured to be 660 nanometers instead (stretched). This is a longer wavelength, or a slower frequency, like the siren moving away from us. And since the redder light in the rainbow is a longer wavelength, we say the H-alpha line is "redshifted" (i.e. stretched). If the object emitting the light was coming toward us, it would be shifted toward the bluer colors. Thus it would be said to be "blue shifted" (i.e. crunched together).

Armed with this, you are now ready to understand how Jan Oort made his measurements. He measuring the Doppler shifts (redshifts) in star light spectra. This gave him the implied velocities of stars. He was particularly interested in the ones that were moving perpendicular (90°) to the Milky Way's galactic plane (i.e. its disc shape). Think of the galaxy as a pancake with a slightly thicker middle. He then calculated the mass density needed to keep those stars from escaping the Milky Way. Kind of like figuring out how thick a trampoline surface must be for you to jump as high as you just did. After doing the math, he discovered the visible matter only adds up to about half of what is needed to keep the stars from escaping. And since we don't see stars escaping he concluded the disk of the Milky Way must contain twice as much mass as we are able to see.

This local "missing mass" in the Milky Way disc became known as the Oort Limit.

Fritz Zwicky & the Coma Cluster of Galaxies (1933)

Independently, Fritz Zwicky applied what is called "the virial theorem" to the Coma Cluster of galaxies, measuring high relative velocities of its 1000+ galaxies via their redshifts.

The virial theorem was developed in 1870 by Rudolf Clausius. It is a simple but powerful idea in physics and astronomy. It says that for any group of things (like stars or galaxies) held together by gravity and not flying apart or collapsing, there's a balance between how fast everything is moving and how strong gravity is pulling. In other words, it states that when a system is stable, the total kinetic energy (energy of motion) is equal to half the gravitational potential energy, but with the opposite sign. Basically, that means if gravity is pulling everything in very strongly, then the objects in question must be moving very fast to keep the system from collapsing. If the gravity is too weak, or the objects are too fast, then the system would fly apart.

Imagine a swarm of bees. If they're buzzing fast but not escaping the swarm, something strong must be holding them close. That swarm is the Coma Cluster, and the individual bees are the galaxies.

So, Zwicky's data showed that the Coma Cluster of galaxies should be flying apart or have already flown apart eons ago, unless something exerting far more gravitational force is at work than visible mass could account for. In fact, 400x more! He proposed "Dunkle Materie" ("dark matter" in German). He proposed that these were unseen bodies too dim to detect but still yet gravitationally potent. Using Newton's laws, astronomers could compute the required mass of the new "dark matter" distribution.

Vera Rubin & Kent Ford's Rotation Curves: A Decisive Anomaly (1960s-1970s)

Advances in spectroscopy allowed Vera Rubin (the person, not the new telescope) and Kent Ford to plot precise rotation curves for galaxies, starting with the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). This graph shows orbital velocity on the y-axis, and radial distance from the galaxy's center on the x-axis. Kepler's motion laws and Newton's gravitational laws predict the velocity of the objects orbiting the center of the galaxy should decline as distance increases away from the center of the galaxy. Just like the Solar System planets; close-by Mercury zips around the Sun fast (47.9 km/s), while distant Neptune is much slower (5.4 km/s). But instead of finding this as expected, Rubin and Ford discovered the velocity curves were flat! In other words, the stars at the edge of the visible galaxy were moving at nearly the same speed as the stars near the center of the galaxy! This made no sense. Visibly, we see that most of the stars are near the center, and as you travel outward, there are fewer and fewer stars near the edge. So how could she explain this? It contradicted the well-established equations of Newton (and Einstein) and violated Kepler's laws of orbital motion. This discovery shook the very foundations of astronomy and cosmology.

This discrepancy she discovered demanded 5 to 10x more mass in extended invisible halo far beyond the apparent edge of the galaxy. She argued, it was either that, or a breakdown of Newtonian gravity and Kepler's laws at galactic scales! Astronomers chose to keep gravity and propose a missing mass.

Dark Matter: A Purely Mathematical Solution

Astronomers preserved Newton's laws by postulating this dark matter. This matter had to be non-baryonic (i.e. not made of normal atomic matter). Why? Because it wasn't emitting an type of radiation. It must be electromagnetically inert because it didn't reveal its presence in this manner. They proposed imaginary particles or objects, and the candidates multiplied:

• MACHOs (Massive Compact Halo Objects): brown dwarfs? neutron stars? black holes?
• WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles): non-baryonic exotic particles.
• Variants: Hot (HDM, e.g., neutrinos), Cold (CDM), Warm (WDM), Self-Interacting (SIDM), Fuzzy (FDM), etc.
• FAIRIE DUST (Fabricated Ad hoc Inventions Repeatedly Invoked in Efforts to Defend Untenable Scientific Theories).

OK, that last one is made up to exaggerate a point regarding the rest of the list. Thank you, Dr. Donald E. Scott, an electrical engineer from his book, The Electric Sky. But after nearly 60 years, searches yield no definitive proof. MACHOs, which are deemed to be real baryonic objects (made of atoms), account for less than 5% of the required (inferred) mass. WIMPs remain undetected and only imaginary. Princeton cosmologist Jim Peebles called this situation an embarrassment, referring to the fact that the most dominant matter in the universe are merely hypothetical and not real. 

And if you accept Big Bang cosmology, which requires a flat geometry and structured formation, things get worse! You then have to believe about 23% of the universe is dark matter, 73% dark energy (more ad hoc not covered in this article; even weirder; don't ask), leaving ordinary atomic matter at about 4% of the entire universe! Fully 96% of the universe is said to be unseen and unmeasured! This is what the gravity-only model gives you. Shocking, yes? It should be. Instead, it is touted as "scientific," and you will be labeled a kook if you doubt it. For, it is reasoned, how could the majority of all those astronomers, astrophysicists, cosmologists, and mathematicians be wrong? They're smarter than you!

But seriously folks, is gravity the only tool in the astrophysics toolbox? In modern astronomy, apparently so. But is that the only tool in the real world's toolbox? Resoundingly no! One particular tool is being grossly neglected.

Mordechai Milgrom & MOND

The reliance on invisible made-up dark matter prompted scrutiny from many scientists. MOND (Modified Newtonian Dynamics, proposed by Mordechai Milgrom in 1983, tweaks Newton's equations in order to fit the rotation curves without the use of dark matter. Though empirically successful for galaxies, his theory struggles with clusters and the rest of large-scale motions in cosmology.

An Alternative: Plasma

But what if the underlying assumptions were insufficient? In other words, what if gravity wasn't the only major force shaping the universe. A deeper critique targets the gravity-only paradigm and for a good reason. For instance, we know the universe is about 99.9% plasma; even gravity-only scientists say this. But what is plasma? Well, in this case, it's not the stuff in your blood. It was, however, named after that very thing by Irving Langmuir in 1928. But glad you asked about plasma. This might take a minute. Hang in there. You've made it this far!

Plasma is sometimes said to be the fourth state of matter. The other three you are very familiar with here on Earth. They are, of course, solid, liquid, and gas. Think of H₂O in its states, ice, water, steam, and you have a good picture. But the fourth state is plasma. There may even be a fifth one at extremely cold temperatures called the Bose-Einstein condensate. Yeah, that's another story. But here on Earth, the three states are common, and the fourth state is indeed, rare. It's not unknown, however. For example, lightning is plasma. Welding arcs are plasma. The aurorae are plasma. Even neon signs and fluorescent light tubes are lit up with plasma. Or, you might be thinking of the toy we all love to play with... the plasma globe (see pic at the top of this article). When you touch the glass, the electrical plasma filament currents find easier paths to ground from the high voltage ball in the middle of the globe to your fingers. And if you hold your fingers on it, they snake around like they are alive!

What is this stuff really? Well, first off, the Sun is entirely a plasma ball. So, if someone asks you what plasma is, you can just point to the Sun. Every star you see at night... fully plasma. I know you've always heard the stars and the Sun were "balls of gas" but this is not accurate no matter what Pumbaa says to Timon. In The Lion King, after Timon tells Pumbaa that the stars are fireflies, Pumbaa responds, "Oh, gee. I always thought they were balls of gas burning billions of miles away." But this is not true. They are not gas (third state), they are plasma (fourth state). Would you point to an ice cube and say it is water? No. So, it is not entirely accurate. There's much more.

But in fact, more than 99.9% of everything you see in space is plasma. Every time you read "gas" or "dust" in articles on astronomy, I want you to understand, this is not accurate. It is not gas. It is not dust. It is plasma. Nebulae are not "gas clouds"; they're "plasma clouds." Some are in "glow mode" and some are in "dark mode," but they are still plasma. More on that mode stuff later.

Plasma may start out as a mere gas, just like steam may start out as water. And just like ice, water, and steam have extremely different properties, so plasma as compared to gas. But as voltage is applied to a gas and increased, the atoms of the gas get excited, bump into each other harder and harder, until they can no longer hold onto their electrons. This is called "ionization." When this happens, electrical current begin to flow through the gas. When this happens, the "gas" no longer acts like a gas, but something else. If it lights up, it looks like it's alive.

Plasma has three distinct modes: dark mode (current is flowing but it doesn't glow), glow mode (current is sufficient enough to cause it to light up), and arc mode (current is so high that the plasma becomes an extremely fantastic conductor of electricity). In arc mode, things get super weird and unpredictable. That's lightning. How unpredictable is it? Plasma plays by a different set of rules that are nothing like a gas, a liquid, or a solid. So, it is definitely wrong to refer to it as simply "an ionized gas." It's no longer gas. You wouldn't refer to ice as "hard water" would you? No.

Another weird characteristic of plasma is called the pinch affect. This occurs because the current flow through the plasma creates magnetic fields that squeeze the filament of current inward. Because the magnetic field circles around the current, the plasma's own magnetism exerts an inward force, compressing the charged particles toward the center of the filament. This self-constriction increases the plasma's density and temperature, sometimes forming bright, narrow strands of arcs. In the lab and in cosmic plasmas alike, this process (sometimes called the Z-pinch) helps explain the thin, rope-like structures seen in lightning bolts, solar flares, and interstellar filaments. This pinch can become so intense, it crushes even metal together! Some lightning rods, after being hit, show this crushed characteristic. And if there happens to be more than one current filament to form in the plasma, those filaments attract one another and draw inward and can start rotate around each other. We can even see this filament twisting in space, in plasmas like the "Veil Nebula."

In this nebula, those plasma filaments twirl around each other and stretch about 110 light-years! And believe it or not, though it is extremely faint, this famous nebula stretches about 3° across the sky. That's about 6x the size of the Moon in the sky!

Plasma & Electromagnetism

Maybe you remember in your physics class, that when electrical current flows through a conductor (e.g. a wire), it produces this magnetic field. And perhaps your class made small electromagnets as an experiment. And the opposite is also true. When a conductor is passed through a magnetic field, it produces a current flow in that conductor.

Now here's the kicker, and one of the main points of this article. You cannot have a magnetic field without electricity. But modern-day astronomy does. And you can't have electricity without a magnetic field. Modern-day astronomy hardly takes electricity into account at all. But because you cannot have one without the other, this is why this force was named "electromagnetism." It was once thought they were separate forces (magnetism vs electricity), but we now know they are one and the same force. You might be saying, "Yeah, but I have a natural permanent magnet that doesn't produce electricity!" But in reality, that magnet you have was magnetized by the flow of electricity somewhere in the Earth at one time in its history. The magnet just "remembers" it.

Think of speakers and mics. Believe it or not they are the same device! In one, you force current an audio signal (electrical) through the speaker wires and this causes the diaphragm of the speaker to move back and forth because it has a magnet attached to it). This produces the sound waves you enjoy. But mics are the opposite. You speak, making sounds waves, that hit the mic's diaphragm, which is attached to a magnet surrounded by a coil of wires. The movement of the magnet through the wires, produces electric current in them. In fact, you can use a speaker as a mic, and a mic as a speaker; old intercom systems did just that. They're physically the same thing. One is just made to do its job a little better than the other. 

The same holds true for motors and generators. They are physically the same. If you put current in the wires, the motor will rotate. Or if you manually rotate it the wires will produce a current.

I said all that to say this: The amazing blind spot of astronomy is plasma's electromagnetism, which, by definition, is in all plasma. And since plasma makes up 99.9% of every thing in space, surely it plays a more than vital role in the way things work. By the way, electromagnetism is 1000 trillion trillion trillion times more powerful than gravity! That's a 1 followed by 39 zeros! It looks like this:

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

So, do you think it is possible for the electromagnetism of plasma to have any say in the way things operate in space? Well, duh, yes. But you know what? Modern-day astronomy and astrophysics do not give it even a hair of consideration, almost to the point of completely ignoring it. How did this happen? It's quite a tale, and certainly unbelievable.

Kristian Birkeland & the Aurorae

You might be told, "But space is a vacuum, and vacuums are insulators, and therefore electricity cannot flow through the vacuum of space." This is false because its first premise is false. Space is certainly not a vacuum. It is a very thin plasma.

In the early 1900s, Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland (1867-1917) proposed that the aurora borealis (the "Northern Lights") was caused by electric currents flowing from the Sun into Earth's magnetic field. His story/adventure is fantastically told in the book, The Northern Lights by Lucy Jago. Birkeland first made this link between the Sun and Earth because he noticed when sunspots were abundant and/or large on the Sun, Earth's aurorae were especially active. This was a very bold idea at the time when most scientists dismissed space as an empty vacuum. His experiments with magnetized spheres, or terrellas, recreated auroral patterns in miniature form in his lab. But his electric-space theory was widely ridiculed, mainly by Sydney Chapman, a highly respected British geophysicist and mathematician. Chapman, one of the leading authorities on Earth's upper atmosphere and magnetic phenomena, rejected Birkeland's proposal. Instead, he argued that the aurorae were produced entirely by processes within Earth's atmosphere even though Birkeland's data showed the undeniable correlation between the Sun's activity and the Earth's aurorae. But Chapman's popularity caused Birkeland's work to be marginalized and widely ridiculed for the entirety of his life. Then, fifty years after Birkeland's death, the U.S. satellite Triad, in 1967, accidentally confirmed Birkeland's hypothesis by detecting huge electric currents flowing along the direction of Earth's magnetic field. These currents were later named Birkeland currents, finally validating his once-mocked vision of an electrically connected Sun and Earth!

But did the scientists say it was an electrical current that connected them? Nope. Instead, even today, they call it "the solar wind," when it is not a wind at all! And notice, it was not "bad science" or "pseudo-science" that caused Birkeland to be ridiculed his whole life. Instead, "consensus science" was the critic.

Hannes Alfven & MHD

Hannes Alfven (1908-1995) is known as "the father of modern plasma physics," and rightly so. He was a Swedish physicist who won the 1970 Nobel Prize for his work with MHD (magnetohydrodynamics). I know! I can't pronounce it either. He was the pioneer who revealed electromagnetism as the dominant force in the cosmos. His work transformed our understanding of space, stars, and the universe. There is also a plasma phenomena that bears his name; Alfven Waves, which he discovered in 1942. In the 1940s, he invented his MHD theory that eventually won him the Nobel Prize. In the 1950s he developed cosmical electrodynamics describing plasma in space. In 1958 he explained that auroras were indeed caused by electrical currents coming from the Sun, even though they were still not confirmed or named, Birkeland currents at the time. By the 1960s he had discovered another odd characteristic of plasma called "double layers," and proposed that this should even be classified as an astronomical object. Then, the latter part of his life he spent critiquing the Big Bang, the imaginary dark matter, and cautioning against the misuse of his MHD as a full description of what plasma does in space.

But his warnings were ignored.

Alfven would roll over in his grave if he saw how MHD is still being used today. In his lifetime, he regretted its widespread misuse because it ignores key features in real plasmas. In his 1977 paper, "Electric currents in the solar atmosphere" and following lectures, he emphasized that MHD is valid only under specific and ideal conditions, but that a full description of plasma's behavior must incorporate full electrodynamics. He taught that MHD was a tool, not the whole toolbox, lest physicists miss the electric currents driving the universe.

But today, they still miss it!

You can see how Alfven's cautions and ideas have been ignored in every single article about space news. You will never hear plasma mentioned. Instead, you will only hear the words, "gravity," "gas," "dust," and "magnetic fields." Yet today's astrophysics has magnetic fields without electricity, something that is impossible in the real world. The list of abuse can be shown to include:

• Treating all cosmic plasma as a perfectly conducting fluid with "frozen-in" magnetic fields (something Alfven himself said he regretted coming up with). Alfven intended MHD to merely approximate large-scale magnetic behavior in conducting fluids, not space plasmas, which are fundamentally different!
• Applying MHD to collisionless space plasma (99.9% of the universe!) when MHD is valid only when collisions dominate, like in space plasma.
• Erasing electric fields completely, treating them as negligible, or screening them out, when MHD's electric fields were explicitly included in the full theory.
• Smoothing over plasma's double-layers, currents, particle acceleration, as being central to plasma's behavior in space, and treating it as a mere "inert gas" with "frozen-in" magnetic fields.

By being blind to the electromagnetism shaping the universe, astronomers exclude it in simulating galaxy formation, star birth, black hole jets, and cosmic filaments. They further assume infinite conductivity (another misuse of MHD), ignore electric fields (despite plasma being made of charged particles!), and treat plasma like a "neutral gas" with some kind of magnetic garnish applied for flavor.

What they are missing because of this blind spot:

• Birkeland currents are what power galactic rotation & form spiral arms, all without dark matter.
• Double layers which accelerate particles & explode in solar/stellar flares.
• Pinch instabilities, which can form stars, jets, and dense cores. No need for the physical impossibility of "collapsing gas" to form stars.
• Electric fields along B-lines, which drive aurorae and cosmic rays
• Collisionless shocks which can shape supernova remnants, and the heliospheres of stars.

The things in the above list are not exotic (like dark matter). They are observed in labs here on Earth, seen in space, and reproduced in simulations that take electromagnetism and plasma's nature into consideration.

Alfven even said, "The difference between a plasma and a gas is as great as between a conductor and an insulator."  He also said, "The use of MHD to describe cosmic plasmas must be done with great caution, because real plasmas are not continuous fluids, but collections of charged particles whose behavior can differ fundamentally from that predicted by fluid equations."

Star Formation

Consider a practical application. We are told by the current theory of stellar evolution that the interstellar medium is "gas." We are constantly being told that stars form from "gravitational collapse of molecular gas clouds." But this is impossible physically. First of all, if space is a vacuum, as they insist, then how is it that gas collapses on itself? This violates the most fundamental law of physics regarding gas. that is, Graham's Law of Effusion. This law states simply is a statement of why different gases spread out naturally at different rates; but nevertheless, they naturally spread out unless they are confined in a container. So in a vacuum, gas spreads out.

Also, if a gas is compressed as they say, by gravity, it heats up. This is the first law of thermodynamics. And as it heats up, it expands further.. spreads out more and faster. If you could somehow keep forcibly collapsing it, it will explode (think diesel)... which is a catastrophic "spreading out."

So, how can gases collapse to form stars? They can't. There are too many real physical impediments to this story. 

But what about plasma? Remember the Z-pinch thing? Rather than relying solely on imaginary gravitational collapse of a gas in a vacuum, cosmic electric currents flowing through filamentary plasma in the interstellar medium generate powerful self-constricting magnetic fields. These Z-pinches rapidly compress plasma and embedded dust into dense, hot cores along current axes which could achieve incredible fusion-high temperatures, and could easily trigger star formation. In space, observed protostellar jets, hourglass nebulae, and filamentary structures in star-forming regions align with laboratory Z-pinch dynamics, suggesting electromagnetism, not gravity, is the driving force of star birth. Many nebulae in space show this hourglass shape that most likely is a Z-pinch.

Timeline of the Missing Mass Saga

Year	Astronomer/Development	Key Observation	Response
1930s	Jan Oort	Stellar motions in Milky Way require 2x visible mass	Local disk discrepancy
1933	Fritz Zwicky	Coma Cluster velocities demand 400x visible mass	"Dark matter" coined
1960s-1970s	Rotation curves (e.g., Rubin & Ford)	Flat velocities in spirals	Massive dark halos
1983	Mordechai Milgrom	Proposes MOND	Modify gravity
Ongoing	Plasma models (Peratt et al.)	Electromagnetic forces fit data	No dark matter needed

Galaxy Rotation Considering Plasma

Now, back to the original problem of galaxy rotation and dark matter. Anthony Peratt, a plasma physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, employed three-dimensional, fully electromagnetic particle-in-cell simulations in the 1980s to model galaxy formation and dynamics within a plasma universe framework. By simulating interactions between massive, current-carrying Birkeland filaments (which are twisted plasma structures with currents up to 10¹⁸ amps!) these computations demonstrated how electromagnetic forces compress and reconfigure the plasma, forging elliptical, barred, and spiral galaxies without invoking dark matter. The pinch effect from self-generating magnetic fields not only produced observed morphologies of galaxies, synchrotron emissions, and HI distributions, but also yielded flat rotation curves, where orbital velocities remain constant with radius due to the filaments' azimuthal magnetic confinement, offering an electromagnetism-drive alternative to the gravity-only models.

Conclusion: Nothing Is Missing

Dark matter began as a fix for Newtonian discrepancies and evolved into cosmology's dominant component--all without tangible evidence. It safeguards gravity but at the cost of fabricating unobservable and exotic entities. Electromagnetic plasma dynamics, grounded in laboratory-tested physics, resolves galaxy rotation and structure formation straightforwardly. Newton's gravity works where applicable. But in plasma-dominated space, Maxwell, Lorentz, and Alfven reign. The "case of the missing matter" closes not with invisible gnomes and fairy tales, but by recognizing the right forces at play. Just plasma doing what plasma does and modern-day astronomy blind to it.

Dark matter isn't missing mass. It's the mass of evidence for electromagnetism that astronomy has chosen to ignore. Alfven didn't just predict it, he lived it. And the universe, glowing in plasma from auroras to quasars, is still trying to tell us:

It's electric.