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Transient Events in the Plasma Universe
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[link to www.mythopedia.info]
Space is not a vacuum punctuated by isolated bodies on perpetually stable courses, as defined by the law of gravity. Since the beginning of the Space Age, it has gradually been discovered that space consists for 99.99% of plasma and is threaded with electric filaments and magnetic fields spanning over many orders of magnitude. This new paradigm is known as plasma cosmology and was pioneered by the Swedish scientist, Hannes Alfvén (1908-1995). Plasma is a partially ionised gas regarded as the 'fourth state of matter', that responds with great sensitivity to changes in its magnetic fields and becomes visible to the human eye when it is pervaded by a sufficiently strong electrical current.
The solid rock, the oceans and the lower regions of the earth's atmosphere belong to the minute segment of the cosmos that is not in the plasma state. Yet the earth itself is bathed in an electromagnetic environment. This consists of the magnetic shell that shields the planet from the enveloping solar wind and other external features impinging on it, such as Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) and, far less frequently, cometary intruders into the inner solar system. In addition, plasma penetrates and controls a range of terrestrial phenomena, such as the aurorae, lightning, fire, tornadoes and lava flows.
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[link to www.mythopedia.info]
The most challenging types of historical information concerning the cosmos are those that were traditionally invested with sentiments of sacrality, reverence, fear, or worship, the principal ingredients of religion. Traditions - especially myths, rituals and representations - that were 'holy', 'respected' and thought to be true typically concerned phenomena that are not or rarely seen today, such as the events of the 'creation' of the world, the manifestation of deities or encounters with the numinous. Generally, what is unknown and not understood tends to be feared, tabooed and explained with imagined notions, a process known as the deux ex machina, from which even modern scientists have not entirely freed themselves.
Transient natural events thus emerge as a very potent class of 'mythogenetic' experiences. As a guideline, whatever induced our distant ancestors to produce the central themes of myth appears to have been:
(1) external to the human mind in origin,
(2) cosmic, often celestial, in nature, and
(3) attractive in character, both because it was
(3a) rare or unusual in terms of frequency and
(3b) awe-inspiring and frightening in terms of appearance.
The following is a preliminary catalogue of extraordinary, impressive and often short-lived events observed by human beings that have left traces in the historical record:
GEOMYTHOLOGY:
geological:
tribo-electricity, pyro-electricity and piezo-electricity
tsunamis and other types of inundation
methane burps
earthquakes
volcanic eruptions (magma and lava flows)
tornadoes and hurricanes
cometary impacts
landslides
falls and finds of 'thunderstones' (meteorites, tektites, fulgurites, fossils and prehistoric implements)
instant fossilisation
orbital-dynamical:
shifting of the rotational pole and axis
toppling of the earth
changes in the earth's volume
changes in the earth's distance from the sun
changes in the speed of the earth's axial rotation
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COSMOMYTHOLOGY:
atmospheric
(tropospheric, stratospheric, mesospheric, ionospheric, exospheric):
St. Elmo's fire
ball lightning
volcanic lightning
earthquake lights
ordinary lightning
upper-atmospheric lightning (megalightning), including 'sprites' and 'elves'
bolides (fireballs), meteors and meteor showers
aurorae
ion plumes
rapid shifting of the magnetic poles
flux transfer events (FTEs)
many Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) or Unidentified Atmospheric Phenomena (UAPs)
atmospheric-optical
(involving diffraction, reflection and scattering of light):
zodiacal light and Gegenschein
crepuscular rays
parhelia and paraselenae
solar and lunar haloes
sun pillars
rainbows
celestial:
transient lunar events
impacts on the moon and on planets
planetary conjunctions and eclipses
cometary passages
coronal changes, sunspots, solar prominences and flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs)
novae and supernovae
fluctuations in the zodiacal light
visibility of planetary magnetospheres
shifts in colour and brightness of stars and planets
synchrotron light
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