> From Mauro: > >> I was just thinking about that. I think that the >> total number of expelled protons must be greater >> than the number of electrons, to effectively establish >> an overall electric current with the surroundings, >> which tries to compensate for the charge disbalance. > > ... > > If something like that is happening within the sun it seems to me that > this results in a charge imbalance. Regardless of whether the charge > imbalance is positive or negative it seems to me that the aggregate > electrostatic force could counter the weaker gravity forces. It > puzzles me that a speculated imbalance of electrostatic forces doesn't > end up counteracting the weaker gravity forces and cause our sun to > rip itself apart. Of course, for selfish reasons, I'm glad such an > Armageddon doesn't happen! In any case, it suggests to me that any > electrostatic charge imbalance that may exist within the sun must not > be significant enough to counteract the weaker gravity forces. > > Perhaps sun spots and corona discharges ARE examples of electrostatic > charge imbalances attempting to re-balance the surrounding area by > "exploding" away. Maybe electrostatic imbalances DO happen, but > fortunately for us, on a less disastrous scale as far as we earthlings > are concerned. > > Of course, there is also the distinct possibility that something else > is going on here... something that I haven't taken into account. I > suspect that's most likely the case. I don't claim to be a fizzix > exp'prt.
Me neither. I think the problem is with the "electrostatic" idea... if there are electric currents, then there isn't an electrostatic situation. There's nothing static in a system like the Sun and the Solar System. The solar wind is a subtle (only relatively slow) electrical conductor. Electrical currents are circulating between the Sun's north and South poles, are crossing through the planetary bodies, which offer relatively good conductive paths, and are also being reconnected and fed up with the whole of the surrounding space. Simply because that surrounding space is at different potentials. There's no perfectly isolated electric charge. Moreover: when you have a subtle sea of charged particles, a tenuous plasma, that is a conductive path. And charged particles will unavoidably move from points of more charge to points of less charge. When you add to that that the bodies, including the Sun itself, are translating and rotating, you have an incredibly rich and dynamic situation. Something which is really the opposite, even in a profound sense, of a static, or dead, model.
