Strands of magnetically confined plasma can be seen throughout the cosmos.

A rotating vortex of solar plasma was the topic of a recent press release. Does that phenomenon relate to other energetic vortices? Previous Picture of the Day articles describe many cases of ionized clouds in space that are inexplicable if conventional theories are consulted. How do both incidents relate to one another and to others?

In an Electric Universe, every body in the Solar System, along with every star and galaxy, is charged with electricity and exists within a plasma environment. Spacecraft sent to other planets, as well as satellites orbiting Earth, see aurorae, lightning bolts, tornadoes, and jets of material. Volcanoes on Earth “spit lightning” out of their craters. Dust storms on Mars are fed by gigantic funnels that rise for thousands of meters. Comets, Saturn’s rings, fountains of charged particles erupting from Jupiter’s moon Io, and many other examples of electrical activity are found farther out in our local neighborhood.

When plasma moves through a dusty gas, it ionizes the material, initiating an electric current. More than a century ago, Michael Faraday proved that when electricity flows through any substance a magnetic field will form. One aspect of magnetic fields in plasma is that they will generate “plasma ropes”: the field surrounds plasma, confining it into coherent strands known as Birkeland currents.............