Quote:
Originally Posted by sjastro
Yes in the form of synchroton radiation. But there lies the weakness in the Peratt's galaxy forming model through Birkeland currents.
Synchroton radiation extends into the radio wave spectrum. Therefore galaxies formed through this mechanism should be able to emit radio waves.
Radio wave emissions however are an exclusive property of elliptical galaxies.
Regards
Steven
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That's not correct in the way it's worded but I know what you mean here. The degree to which the very powerful, nuclear region, radio wave emissions occur are mostly seen in elliptical galaxies, as the centres of these galaxies are, in many cases, highly active areas. However, we also have quite a few spirals which show very similar activity....Seyfert Galaxies, for instance (but most of these are not radio loud, unlike the ellipticals).
However, you are right about the weakness of Perrat's thesis. If the galaxies were the result of galactic scale Birkeland currents and strong confining magnetic fields, there'd be synchrotron radiation everywhere. Every galaxy would be radio bright and their centres would be quasar like. There's no evidence for this at all. Then you have the implications of all this radiation and its impact on life bearing planets. Not only that, all that radiation would, in fact, prevent the formation of stars, as it would heat the gas and dust to such a degree that the clouds of dust and gas would find it very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve their Jeans mass and undergo collapse. The magnetic fields themselves would act to prevent it, especially fields as strong as proposed by Perrat and Scott.