Starburst research has advanced our understanding of the physics behind electrogravitics and other propellentless field propulsion technologies which makes possible the design of advanced aerospace propulsion technologies that could radically change our future means of travel. Imagine flying from New York to Sydney, Australia in 15 minutes or traveling to Mars in 5 days. These should no longer be considered wishful dreams, but realities of the present that are awaiting our implementation. To move forward, to make these dreams a reality, we must free ourselves from the outdated physics theories and paradigms of the past for which such technologies are an impossibility. The Starburst Foundation is helping to pave the way to this future through its development of subquantum kinetics, the first unified field theory to predict a coupling between electric and gravitational fields. Starburst researcher Paul LaViolette has shown that subquantum kinetics provides the basis for understanding the electrogravitic propulsion experiments of Thomas Townsend Brown, Jean-Claude Lafforgue, Eugene Podkletnov, John Searl and others. Some of these technologies, such as those of Brown and Lafforgue, provide thrust to power ratios ranging from 10,000 to 300,000 times that of the Space Shuttle's main engine. By providing a theoretical underpinning for the phenomenon of electrogravitic and electric field propulsion, subquantum kinetics lays the foundation for engineering the air and space vehicles of our future.
Townsend Brown's Project Winterhaven Report to the Navy (1.2 Mb)
Townsend Brown's work on Project Montgolier in France (1955 - 1956)
In 1985, shortly after learning about the work of T. T. Brown, LaViolette stumbled upon a formerly classified 1956 think tank report entitled Electrogravitics Systems. This incredible document, which he obtained from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, detailed the existence of a vast R&D program in the 1950's participated in by most of the major aerospace companies that was geared toward the practical application of this field propulsion technology for aerospace flight. Through his subsequent publications he brought to the attention of the public and scientific community the eye opening revelations contained in this report. In 1990 he participated in NASA's Space Exploration Outreach Project to inform NASA administrators about the existence of electrogravitic technology and of past aerospace industry involvement, as disclosed in this 1956 report. He proposed that NASA should seriously consider this energy-efficient means for space travel as a feasible alternative to rocket technology. Two years later, following an impromptu public disclosure of classified information by two black project engineers, LaViolette was able to successfully reverse engineered the propulsion system of the highly classified B-2 Advanced Technology Bomber. In a 1993 science and technology conference paper, he showed that the B-2 utlized as its propulsion system the electrokinetic technology that Townsend Brown had displayed in his early 50's flying disc experiments and whose application to aviation was detailed in U.S. patent No. 3,022,430 filed in 1956.
In 1992 Dr. LaViolette directly contacted NASA's National Aero-Space Plane Project and attempted to interest them in using electrokinetics technology in their program, but without success; see letter from Charles Morris. The following year he again sent a packet of material to the Aero-Space Plane Project, specifically pointing out in his letter that one of the advantages of use of this technology is that it would be able to reduce frictional heating of the wing leading edge during reentry; see second letter to Charles Morris. Again, he was unable to raise any interest even though he had acknowledged that they had a problem with frictional heating of the spacecraft hull. Ten years later in 2003, the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster occurred. The cause of the mishap was excessive heating of the wing leading edge due to dislodgment of a heat resistant tile. Had NASA implemented electrokinetics technology at the time LaViolette had alerted them, this disaster would have been avoided. LaViolette submitted to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board a white paper informing the board about this technology and his previous efforts to inform NASA about it. As a response, he received back just a form letter thanking him for his input.
Dr. LaViolette has shown how the subquantum kinetics field potential concept is able to explain why an assymetrical capacitor will develop a propulsive force towards its larger electrode when energized with a high voltage potential. Standard field theory acknowledges that the electric forces on such a capacitor will be unbalanced, but leads to the belief that these will merely produce stress within the capacitor without any propulsive force. In subquantum kinetics, these field potentials are anchored in the space surrounding the capacitor (in the surrounding ether) and as a result the capacitor is free to move in response to the resulting imbalance of forces. This explains the thrust seen in Brown's assymetrical capacitors tested by Townsend Brown as well as those tested by Jean-Claude Lafforgue. Tests of the Lafforgue asymmetrical capacitor have been carried out by Jean-Luc Naudin; see his website. These technologies routinely violate Newton's third law.
Pioneer's encounter with Jupiter - Artist's rendition. Source: NASA
***********************************
Contact: The Starburst Foundation
plaviolette@starburstfound.org
Further information on this topic is found in the paper:
Paul A. LaViolette, Ph.D, "The Pioneer maser signal anomaly: Possible confirmation of spontaneous photon blueshifting."
Physics Essays 18(2) (2005): 150-163. In print as of January 2007.
Preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0603191
Journal download: https://www.physicsessays.com
In 1979, while still a doctoral student at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, Paul LaViolette made a prediction, which like Einstein's prediction of the bending of starlight may one day be destined to shake the world. At that time, he was developing a unified field theory called subquantum kinetics.(1-3) Unlike string theory, which has never made any testable predictions, LaViolette's subquantum kinetics theory has made a number of apriori predictions, ten of which have thus far been confirmed.(4) One in particular challenges the most fundamental of physical laws, the law of energy conservation. Subquantum kinetics predicts that a photon's energy should not remain constant but rather should change with time, that photons traveling through interstellar space or trapped within stars or planets should continually increase in energy, although at a very slow rate. For example, his theory predicts that a photon traveling through our solar system should increase its energy at a rate of somewhat greater than one part in 1018 per second.
A year later in 1980 LaViolette devised an experiment to test for the effect. This involved transmitting a maser (microwave laser) signal back and forth between a pair of spacecraft, one located near the Earth and the other located near Jupiter. The entire round-trip signal path would be sufficiently long to produce a detectable blueshift which could be checked to see if his theory was correct. A description of his experiment later appeared in a paper that was published in 1985 in a special issue of the International Journal of General Systems.(1)
JPL scientist John Anderson, who had been routinely monitoring spacecraft maser signal tracking data to look for evidence of gravity waves, later began to notice that a blueshifting effect may be present in the Pioneer 10 data. In 1992 his team began a formal statistical study to investigate the matter further, and in September 1998 they publicly announced that they had found a persistent unexplained blueshift in the maser signal data being transponded back from the Pioneer spacecraft. Anderson's paper was published a month later in the journal Physical Review Letters.(5)
Paul LaViolette at Portland State University after graduation in 1983.
This "unexplained" phenomenon has come to be known as the "Pioneer effect" or as the "Pioneer anomaly." Hence the NASA JPL findings were a direct confirmation of the effect that LaViolette had sought. As LaViolette notes in his paper which appeared recently in the journal Physics Essays,(6) the frequency blueshift observed in Pioneer spacecraft maser signal data was within two standard deviations of the amount he had predicted as early as 1980.
The JPL group attributed this blueshift to an anomalous force accelerating the spacecraft toward the Sun. In his Physics Essays paper, LaViolette points out that their anomalous force interpretation is problematic since, if a force of the magnitude they proposed were present, it would also necessarily be pushing the planets towards the Sun and cause their orbital periods to accelerate. But the planetary orbital periods are known to very high precision, and astronomical data shows that no such orbital acceleration effect is present, a point also acknowledged in Anderson's paper.
Imagine a photon's energy to be like money that you put in a bank. According to subquantum kinetics, if you come back in a billion years, the photon will have earned 10% interest. That is, you will find the photon to be 10% more energetic. This excess energy is a violation of the law of energy conservation, the First Law of Thermodynamics, which requires that the photon should have the same energy no matter how many billions of years your photon money is left in the bank. While the rate of energy change that LaViolette proposes is far too small to measure in the laboratory, if present it would be extremely significant for astrophysics. Essentially, it would require that astrophysicists scrap all their existing theories on stellar evolution and stellar energy production. Although the energy excess produced by any given photon each second would be incredibly small, when the cumulative effect of trillions upon trillions of photons inside a planet or star are added up, the amount of energy becomes quite sizable. LaViolette coined the term "genic energy" to refer to this spontaneously created energy which he says should be continually produced within all celestial bodies and which can account for most if not all of the energy radiated by planets and red dwarf stars.
An early test of the genic energy prediction he conducted in 1979 determined whether planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune might be producing energy in their interiors. The answer was affirmative. Infrared telescope measurements made by various spacecraft showed that indeed the planets radiated substantial amounts of heat from their interiors. As a further test, in 1979 LaViolette plotted the mass-luminosity coordinates for each of these planets along the mass-luminosity trend line for red dwarf stars. They conformed to this relation just as his theory predicted. This conformance is unexplained by standard theories, leaving the genic energy concept to be the only viable explanation. In fact, it was by performing a model fit to this planetary-stellar M-L data that LaViolette was able to derive a numerical value expected for the rate of photon blueshifting in interplanetary space.
Routinely the U.S. Patent Office rejects patents on so called free-energy devices that claim to generate energy without burning any kind of fuel by citing violation of the First Law of Thermodynamics. Even though the inventor in many cases provides signed affidavits of witnesses claiming to have tested the device, many inventions which might provide us with an alternative to burning hydrocarbon fuels end up in society's trash bin. By substantiating LaViolette's earlier work, JPL's findings cast doubt on the absolute validity of this law. With global warming well upon us, it is time the physics community gives serious consideration to LaViolette's prediction.
 |
Time line indicating date of LaViolette's prediction and date of its verification by the JPL team.
References
1) Paul A. LaViolette, "An introduction to subquantum kinetics." Parts I, II, and III. International Journal of General Systems 11 (1985):281-345.
2) Paul A. LaViolette, Subquantum Kinetics: A Systems Approach to Physics and Cosmology (Niskayuna, NY: Starlane Publications, 1994, 2003); https://starburstfound.org/LaVioletteBooks/Book-SQK.html.
3) Paul A. LaViolette, Genesis of the Cosmos: The Ancient Science of Continuous Creation (Rochester, VT: Bear & Co., 1995, 2003); https://etheric.com/LaVioletteBooks/Book-BBB.htm;
https://www.curledup.com/gencosmo.htm.
4) See list at: https://starburstfound.org/predictions-part-2/.
5) John D. Anderson, et al., Physical Review Letters 81 (1998): 2858-2863; Eprint https://arXiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9808081.
6) Paul A. LaViolette, "The Pioneer maser signal anomaly: Possible confirmation of spontaneous photon blueshifting." Physics Essays 18(2) (2005): 150-163.
.
On September 22nd scientists at CERN announced that they had clocked the speed of neutrinos over a 732 kilometer distance and found that surprisingly they travel at 0.0025% faster than the speed of light. So whereas light and electromagnetic waves of all frequencies are measured to travel about 300,000 kilometers per second, these neutrinos were found to travel at 300,006 kilometers per second, arriving at their destination about 60 nanoseconds sooner than expected.
See the following news sources:
https://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-cern-faster-than-light-particle.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/22/science-light-idUSL5E7KM4CW20110922
https://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Einstein+wrong+relatively+speaking/5453485/story.html
.
These results call in question the validity of the special theory of relativity which holds that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. Since relativity is a mainstay in the standard physics paradigm, a pillar on which the framework of contemporary physics theory has been constructed, these results threaten its collapse and with it the construct of relativistic cosmology.
However, Carlo Contaldi questions the conclusions of the CERN-OPERA experiment in his preprint: https://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/1109.6160. He suggests that the researchers did not take into account various relativistic factors which could alter the timing of the GPS synchronized atomic clocks at each site and of the atomic clock that was moved from CERN to the Italian destination 732 km away to check their timing. He notes that effects such as the Sagnac effect due to the Earth's rotation, unaccounted for variations in gravity potential along the route taken by the calibration clock, relativistic effects to the calibration clock during acceleration and subsequent deceleration in the course of its transport, in total could have accounted for the 60 nanosecond time discrepancy that was observed. We will have to wait and see what response their paper receives.
Regardless of whether or not neutrinos really do break the speed of light barrier, past experiments have shown that high voltage electric field shocks, variously termed Coulomb waves, Tesla waves, or scalar waves, do break the speed of light barrier. These experiments support the subquantum kinetics physics methodology (SQK) which teaches that certain types of waves can travel faster than the speed of light. Namely, it predicts that such longitudinal waves should travel at superluminal speeds since the shock that forms the wave's leading edge propels the wave's ether substrate forward in the direction of travel. So now the wave velocity becomes v' = c + vether , where vether = the forward velocity of the wave's local ether matrix. In particular, Nikola Tesla in the early part of the twentieth century Tesla had measured superluminal speeds of c × π/2 (or 1.57 c for the longitudinal waves he radiated around the world from his magnifying transmitter monopolar antenna towers.
In the past some have theorized that neutrinos may be longitudinal waves similar to Tesla's waves. In particular, like Tesla waves, they can pass freely through matter with little attenuation. Nevertheless, there is one important difference. Unlike Tesla waves, neutrinos are particles with spin and mass, although their mass is extremely small. But this makes the challenge for Einstein's theory even more upsetting. For, according to Einstein's theory and laboratory observation, as a particle approaches increasingly close to the speed of light, its mass increases exponentially, an effect termed relativistic mass dilation. Also in accordance with the law E = mc2, a particle's energy should also increase exponentially. Consequently, according to this formula not only should each neutrino have attained infinite mass and energy long ago in its acceleration history, but at superluminal velocities it should no longer exist in the physical world.
There are two ways out of this mess. Either the CERN-OPERA experiment reached the wrong conclusion because factors affecting the timing of its atomic clocks were not taken account of, or if the conclusions are found to be correct, the neutrinos could have attained their superluminal speeds by surfing on an ether wind produced by the CERN accelerator beam. This is further discussed below, but first let us review the history of superluminal measurements. As mentioned above, this is not the first time that the c speed barrier has been broken. There have been many demonstrations of energy waves traveling faster than the speed of light, although superluminal energy wave propagation is not nearly as shocking and destructive to physics as is superluminal particle propagation. Below is a list of researchers who have shown definite evidence of superluminal wave propagation, but whose work unfortunately has received little or no media coverage.
.
A Brief History of Superluminal Wave Experiments
1) In 1988 researcher Alexi Guy Obolensky, working together with Prof. Panos Pappas, transmitted electric pulse shock waves at superluminal speed. They published the results of their experiment in Electricity and Wireless World,December 1988, pp. 1162 - 1165.
page 1162, page 1163, page 1164, page 1165
The above page links are provided on Dr. Pappas' website. Some of the images are marked with corrections that Dr. Pappas has made to correct mistakes made in the original published manuscript which was mistakenly not sent to A. G. Obolensky for his final review.
2) Also in 1988, Eric Dollard demonstrated an experiment in which he sent longitudinal waves through a coaxial cable at 1.26 c. He discusses this in the following video: https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-721789270445596549#. See especially the part 14 minutes into the video.
3) In 2005 - 2006 Alexi Guy Obolensky and myself transmitted high voltage Coulomb shock wave pulses across his laboratory at a speed averaging 1.26 c. At 3.07 meters distance the pulse arrived 1.7 nanoseconds faster than luminal speed. Our threshold resolution for distinguishing time delays was 125 picoseconds. The rise time of our shock front was about 0.8 nanoseconds. The speed declined inversely with increasing distance from the emitting electrode in accordance with the predictions of subquantum kinetics. At a distance of 83 cm from the electrode the speed was clocked as high as 2.1 c with speeds as high as 8 c being projected at 65 cm distance! Graphs of the data are published in my book Secrets of Antigravity Propulsion, p. 177 -185. Other than this reporting, Obolensky and myself have not yet taken the time to write up the results for publication in a technical journal due to current demands on our time. Nevertheless, as described in Verification Number 11, our experiment confirmed a key a priori prediction of subquantum kinetics.
4) Also around this time, Eugene Podkletnov and Modanese performed experiments with the Podkletnov gravity impulse beam generator in which they succeeded in sending gravity shock impulses over a distance of 1211 meters at a speed of 64 c. They report their findings in a paper entitled "Study of Light Interaction with Gravity Impulses and Measurements of the Speed of Gravity Impulses" which is appearing this year (2011) in an edited book of papers. E. Podkletnov has disclosed to me in personal communication that they have succeeded in measuring speeds of several thousand c in a higher power impulse beam generator.
5) Dr. Panos Pappas has recently continued experiments on superluminal pulse propagation in his own laboratory in Athens, Greece. He reports the results of his work on his papimi.gr website.
In addition to the above there are various reports of superluminal signal propagation over very short distances such as the papers by Ishii and Giakos (1991) and Enders and Nimtz (1993).
.
Surfing the Beam
In subquantum kinetics, a superluminal wave gets its superluminal speed because it rides on an ether wind; recall v' = c + vether . So, the same may apply to neutrino particle propagation. In the process of producing its neutrino beam, the CERN accelerator may also be producing a columnated ether wind traveling in the same direction as the neutrinos and, as a result, the neutrino velocity might become boosted by the added ether velocity, vether. This calls to mind the columnated ether wind beam produced by Eugene Podkletnov's beam generator.
A Celestial Explosion Warning Signal?
The question that arises is whether natural neutrino outbursts produced by stellar explosions and galactic core explosions would similarly have superluminal velocities. Or would their velocities fall off as 1/r due to the natural outward dissipation of the ether wind. If neutrinos do preserve an undiminished superluminal velocity even in natural explosions, this could be a valuable warning for the arrival of a harmful gamma ray burst or galactic superwave. For example, if a neutrino burst were to arrive from the Galactic center approximately 23,000 light years away and were to have a velocity 0.0025% higher than c, as in the CERN experiment, then it would be arriving 7 months ahead of the initial gamma ray pulse and could give us some time to prepare.
One principal area of research that the Starburst Foundation is involved with is the investigation of Galactic superwaves, intense cosmic ray particle barrages that travel to us from the center of our Galaxy and that can last for periods of up to several thousand years. Astronomical and geological evidence indicates that the last major superwave impacted our solar system around 12,000 to 16,000 years ago and produced abrupt changes of the Earth's climate. It is estimated that approximately one or two superwaves strong enough to trigger an ice age are presently on their way to us from their birth place 23,000 light years away. There is a finite chance that one such event could arrive within the next few decades.
Less intense superwaves, which recur with considerable frequency, could also pose a threat. There is evidence that the Galactic Center has erupted as many as ten times in the past two millennia, the most recent event occurring about 700 years ago. While these low intensity events could have passed unnoticed in earlier centuries, today they could be extremely hazardous. The electromagnetic radiation pulse accompanying such a superwave would be far more intense than any gamma ray pulse we have experienced in modern times. It could knock out electrical power grids and communication networks on a global scale and possibly even inadvertently trigger nuclear missile launchings. Consequently, study of this phenomenon deserves a very high priority.
Starburst researcher Dr. Paul LaViolette began alerting the scientific community to the existence of superwaves in 1983 through his published papers and scientific conference presentations (see paper archive). He also raised the public awareness about the superwave phenomenon through his book Earth Under Fire as well as through various magazine articles.
Many aspects of Dr. LaViolette's superwave theory have since been verified by various observations; see the following list of predictions and their subsequent verification.
Further information
PAUL A. LaVIOLETTE, PH.D, is author of Secrets of Antigravity Propulsion, Subquantum Kinetics, Earth Under Fire, Genesis of the Cosmos, Decoding the Message of the Pulsars, Galactic Superwaves and their Impact on the Earth, and is editor of A Systems View of Man. He has also published many original papers in physics, astronomy, climatology, systems theory, and psychology. He received his BA in physics from Johns Hopkins, his MBA from the University of Chicago, and PhD from Portland State University. He is currently president and director of the Starburst Foundation.
He has served as a solar energy consultant for the Greek government and also consulted a Fortune 500 company on ways of stimulating innovation. Research he conducted at Harvard School of Public Health led him to invent an improved pulsation dampener for air sampling pumps. Related work led him to develop an improved life-support rebreather apparatus for protection against hazardous environments and for which he received two patents. Dr. LaViolette is the first to predict that high intensity volleys of cosmic ray particles travel directly to our planet from distant sources in our Galaxy, a phenomenon now confirmed by scientific data. He is also the first to discover high concentrations of cosmic dust in Ice Age polar ice, indicating the occurrence of a global cosmic catastrophe in ancient times.
Based on this work, he made predictions about the entry of interstellar dust into the solar system ten years before its confirmation in 1993 by data from the Ulysses spacecraft and by radar observations from New Zealand.
He also originated the glacier wave flood theory that not only provides a reasonable scientific explanation for widespread continental floods, but also presents a credible explanation for the sudden freezing of the arctic mammoths and demise of the Pleistocene mammals. Also he developed a novel theory that links geomagnetic flips to the past occurrence of immense solar flare storm outbursts.He is the developer of subquantum kinetics, a novel approach to microphysics that not only accounts for electric, magnetic, gravitational, and nuclear forces in a unified manner, but also resolves many long-standing problems in physics such as the field singularity problem, the wave-particle dualism, and the field source problem, to mention a few.
Moreover based on the predictions of this theory, he developed an alternative cosmology that effectively replaces the big bang theory. In fact, in 1986, he was the first to cast doubt on the big bang theory by showing that it makes a far poorer fit to existing astronomical data when compared to this new non-expanding universe cosmology.
The subquantum kinetics cosmology also led him to make successful predictions about galaxy evolution that were later verified with the Hubble Space Telescope.Dr. LaViolette is credited with the discovery of the planetary-stellar mass-luminosity relation which demonstrates that the Sun, planets, stars, and supernova explosions are powered by spontaneous energy creation through photon blueshifting. With this relation, he successfully predicted the mass-luminosity ratio of the first brown dwarf to be discovered.More recently, his maser signal blueshifting prediction has found confirmation following publication of the discovery of a blueshift in the Pioneer 10 spacecraft tracking data.
A list of Paul LaViolette's published predictions and their subsequent verification pertaining to his superwave theory and his subquantum kinetics theory.
Letters of support about his research findings.
A list of Paul LaViolette's publications.
Upcoming lectures and radio interviews.
January 5, 1988
Steve: When did you first get the idea for the Starburst Foundation?
Paul LaViolette: The Starburst Foundation is a scientific research institute I founded in January of 1984. Its main purpose is to investigate the Galactic superwave phenomenon.
Steve: What are Galactic superwaves, and why do they affect us?
Paul: Galactic superwaves are intense volleys of cosmic rays emitted from the center of our Galaxy. We live in a spiral galaxy, the Milky Way. Our Sun is one of many stars circling around this spiral's hub, the Galactic Center. Astronomers have found that, at this center, there is an unusually massive celestial body that from time to time can explosively emit tremendous amounts of energy. These recurrent explosions (or outbursts) throw out intense barrages of cosmic rays accompanied by electromagnetic radiation such as gamma rays, X-rays, light waves and radio waves. This radiation blizzard, called a "Galactic superwave," travels radially outward eventually reaching the outer part of our Galaxy where we reside.
Superwaves can arrive very unexpectedly. You can't see them coming because they travel towards us at the speed of light. Upon reaching our Solar System a superwave could cause a variety of effects. It could inject cosmic dust into the planetary environs, thereby altering the Earth's climate. Also the electromagnetic wave radiation it carried might at times have the character of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) similar to that generated by the aerial detonation of a nuclear device. It could create radio and television interference and might knock out satellite telephone conversations by permanently damaging satellite equipment. High-voltage surges picked up on telephone wires and power lines could damage electrical equipment including home electrical and telephone appliances that happened to be plugged into these networks. There could also be dangers to airplanes which happened to be flying during such an episode.
Also there is the possibility that a superwave "EMP" signal might be misconstrued as an aerial nuclear explosion. If military personnel didn't realize that the effects were being produced by an astronomical phenomenon, they might think their country was being attacked and issue orders to launch their missiles. With communication systems knocked out, no one would be able to notify them that their country was not under attack.
Then there may be cause to be concerned about the superwave cosmic rays themselves. If the initial outburst were sufficiently intense, this particle radiation could constitute a substantial health hazard.
The Earth's polar ice sheets preserve a record of past superwave episodes. This can be seen by analyzing the levels of beryllium-10 along the length of the polar ice core record. This beryllium isotope is a good indicator of superwave intensity since it is produced in the Earth's atmosphere through cosmic ray bombardment. The polar record shows several peaks of cosmic ray activity, the most recent of which occurred about 12 - 16 thousand years ago. Additional evidence indicating that our Solar System may periodically be impacted by a forceful cosmic ray wind comes from my discovery that ice age polar ice on some occasions contains very high concentrations of cosmic dust, several orders of magnitude greater than are found in snow or ice from the present interglacial. Prior to this discovery, I had predicted that passing superwaves would have propelled dust into the Solar System and that these dust incursions may have been a principal cause of the recurring sequence of ice ages. This is historically a key discovery because it is the first time that anyone had measured cosmic dust levels for the ice age period.
History has shown that the most significant scientific breakthroughs were not deduced from the existing theoretical framework, but rather arose as marked departures from conventional thinking. Generally such new views challenged long-cherished assumptions espoused by the established paradigm and were therefore actively resisted by the old guard.
The peer review process, which normally is relied on to determine which ideas out of the many should become funded, is often subject to this bias. As a result, new ideas that could potentially produce scientific breakthroughs are generally refused funding. Thus most work carried out in today's research institutions tends to be traditional, rather than innovative.
The Starburst Foundation was formed to circumvent this problem. It serves as a vehicle through which donors may fund high-quality leading-edge research that otherwise would have great difficulty finding financial support. By greasing the wheels of change, the Starburst Foundation helps to create new concepts and tools nec-essary to mankind's survival in the new age that is now upon us.
One principal area of Starburst research is concerned with the investigation of Galactic superwaves, intense cosmic ray particle barrages that travel to us from the center of our Galaxy and that can last for periods of up to several thousand years. Astronomical and geological evidence indicates that the last major superwave impacted our solar system around 12,000 to 16,000 years ago and produced abrupt changes of the Earth’s climate. The land mammal extinction episode that occurred during this interval was the worst since the extinction of the dinosaurs. There is a finite chance that one such event could arrive within the next few decades.
Another main area of Starburst research is concerned with the development of subquantum kinetics, a novel microphysics paradigm that incorporates concepts developed in the fields of system theory and nonequilibrium thermodynamics. One of its distinctive features is that it begins at the subquantum level for its point of departure. In choosing an adequate model to represent subquantum process, subquantum kinetics turns to the macroscopic natural world, to our understanding of how certain reaction-diffusion systems spontaneously evolve well-ordered wave patterns.
Galactic core outbursts are the most energetic phenomenon taking place in the universe. During the early 60's astronomers began to realize that the massive object that forms the core of a spiral or giant elliptical galaxy periodically becomes active spewing out a fierce barrage of cosmic rays with a total energy output equal to hundreds of thousands of supernova explosions(1, 2). The cosmic ray electron component of such an outburst is always accompanied by synchroton emission which consists of electromagnetic radiation ranging from radio wave frequencies on up to X ray and gamma ray frequencies. A survey has shown that roughly 15% - 20% of all spiral galaxies are currently seen in their active core explosion phase during which they exhibit Seyfert-like characteristics. One example is Seyfert galaxy NGC 1566 (Figure 1). In some galaxies these active emissions have been observed to equal the energy from billions of supernova explosions. The galaxies undergoing these more intense outbursts are sometimes designated as quasars. Their core emission being so strong as to greatly exceed the stellar emission from the galaxy's disc, causing the galaxy to have a star-like or quasi-stellar appearance. One example is the spiral galaxy PG 0052+251 (Figure 2) whose active, quasar-like core is radiating 7 times as much energy as comes from all of the galaxy's stars.
During the 70's astronomers realized that the core of our own Galaxy (the Milky Way) has also had a history of recurrent outbursts, that at periodic intervals it enters an active phase in which its rate of cosmic ray emission rises many orders of magnitude.(3) Sometimes designated as Sagittarius A*, the core is estimated to be about 4 million times as massive as our sun; see Figures 3 and 4. But some of the larger more mature galaxies can have core bodies that range up to billions of times the mass of our Sun. Conventional astronomy refers to these as "black holes," visualizing all of the galactic core's mass to be concentrated at a single dimensionless geometrical point. However, evidence suggests that galactic core mass does not exist in the form of a point singularity, but as a very dense supermassive star having a density similar to a neutron star or hyperon star. In the cosmology of subquantum kinetics, these non-singularity core masses are termed mother stars (see link for more information).
Figure 3. Infrared image of the Galactic center radio-emitting source Sagittarius A* seen at a wavelength of 8.7 microns (red spot marked as GC). Taken with the Hale Telescope. (Courtesy of Stolovy, Hayward, and Herter)
Paul LaViolette, who is currently president and chief researcher of the Starburst Foundation, was the first to demonstrate that cosmic rays radiated from the active core of an exploding galaxy can penetrate far outside the galaxy's nucleus to bombard solar systems like our own residing in its peripheral spiral arm disk. He coined the word "galactic superwave" to refer to such a cosmic barrage. Galactic superwaves are a recent discovery. Until recently, astronomers believed galactic cores erupted very infrequently, every 10 to 100 million years.(1) They also believed that interstellar magnetic fields in the Galactic nucleus would trap the emitted particles in spiral orbits causing them to reach the Earth very slowly.(4) For these reasons, most astronomers did not believe that core explosions in the Milky Way posed any immediate threat to the Earth.
Hypothetical rendition of a Galactic core outburst (from the video Earth Under Fire, courtesy of Gaiam)
However, in 1983 LaViolette presented evidence to the scientific community indicating that:(5 - 7)
• Galactic core explosions actually occur about every 13,000 - 26,000 years for major outbursts and more frequently for lesser events.
• The emitted cosmic rays escape from the core virtually unimpeded. As they travel radially outward through the Galaxy, they form a spherical shell that advances at very close to the speed of light.
Astronomical discoveries subsequently confirmed aspects of this superwave hypothesis; see Verified Prediction No. 2. For example, in 1985, astronomers discovered that Cygnus X-3, an energetic celestial source of cosmic rays, which is about the same distance from Earth as the Galactic Center (25,000 light years), showers the Earth with particles traveling at close to the speed of light, moving along essentially straight paths.(8) Later, scientists found the Earth is impacted, at sporadic intervals, with cosmic rays emitted from the X-ray pulsar Hercules X-1 (about 12,000 light years distant).(9, 10) The intervening interstellar medium has so little effect on these particles, that their pulsation period of 1.2357 seconds, is constant to within 300 microseconds.
Disclaimer: The synopsis of the superwave theory presented here should not be regarded as a complete presentation of this theory for the purpose of scientific debate on the internet.
Those interested in a rigorous presentation of the theory and its supporting evidence should consult the update of Paul LaViolette's Ph.D. dissertation (available in CDROM format) and his various papers some of which are available for download at this website. His book Earth Under Fire is also a good resource but is written for a general audience and is not intended as the primary reference to rely on for scientific debate.
Galactic Core Explosions - prevailing concept (1980): At the time of this prediction, astronomers believed that the cores of galaxies, including our own, become active ("explode") about every 10 to 100 million years and stay active for about a million years. Since our own Galactic core presently appears quiescent, they believed it would likely remain inactive for many tens of millions of years. Although, in 1977, astronomer Jan Oort cited evidence that our Galactic core has been active within the past 10,000 years.
Subsequent concurrence (1998): In 1988, Dr. Abshier, a UCLA alumnus and also a Starburst Foundation volunteer, visited astronomer Mark Morris in his office to explain to him Dr. LaViolette's Galactic explosion hypothesis. Morris dismissed the idea as having no merit. However, Morris apparently changed his opinion after further observation of the Galactic center because ten years later he was quoted in the November 1998 issue of Discover magazine as saying that the center of our Galaxy explodes about every 10,000 years with these events each lasting 100 years or so.
Cosmic Ray Propagation from active cores - prevailing concept (1980 - 1983): At the time of this prediction, astronomers believed that interstellar magnetic fields entrap cosmic rays released from Galactic core outbursts and slow their outward progress so that they reach the Earth after millions of years in the form of a constant low intensity background radiation. They believed that most of the cosmic rays from a core explosion propagated outward perpendicular to the galaxy's rotational plane in the direction of its poles where the magnetic field alignment was believed to be parallel to their direction of travel and to offer the least resistance.
Verification (1985): Astrophysicists discovered that X-ray pulsars continuously shower the Earth with high-energy cosmic ray particles that have traveled over 25,000 light-years at nearly the speed of light, following straight-line trajectories unaffected by interstellar magnetic fields.
Verification (1997): Astrophysicists detected a strong gamma ray pulse arriving from a galaxy billions of light years away having a redshift of 3.4 (see Prediction No. 13 below). Mainstream media, such as Sky & Telescope magazine, suggested that this gamma ray pulse may be accompanied by a volley of high energy cosmic ray particles travelling at very close to the speed of light along a rectilinear trajectory and that the gamma ray pulse is produced by the radial outward movement of this volley. In effect, they were restating the same Galactic superwave idea that LaViolette had proposed 14 years earlier in the face of stiff resistance from mainstream astronomers.
Verification (2000): Radio astronomers announce at the January 2000 American Astronomical Society meeting that the synchrotron radio emission radiated from the Galactic center (Sgr A*) is circularly polarized. Dr. LaViolette, who was present at the meeting, suggested that the observed circular polarization indicated that cosmic ray electrons were travelling radially away from the Galactic center along straight-line trajectories; see press release. Scientists present at the meeting concurred.
Verification (2014 - 2015): Using NASA's NuSTAR space telescope and ESA's XMM-Newton space telescope, X ray astronomers observe an ionized iron wind moving radially outward in all directions from the active core of galaxy PDS 456 and expanding outward at 30% of the speed of light.
Cosmic Ray Bombardment of the Earth - prevailing concept (1980 - 83): At the time of this prediction, astronomers believed that the background cosmic ray flux has remained constant for millions of years, that intense cosmic ray bombardments occur very infrequently, perhaps every 30 million years, primarily as a result of nearby supernova explosions.
Verification (1987): Glaciologists discovered beryllium-10 isotope peaks in ice age polar ice. These indicated that the cosmic ray flux on the Earth became very high on several occasions during the last ice age, confirming Dr. LaViolette's theory that Galactic superwaves have repeatedly passed through our solar system in geologically recent times.
Cosmic Debris Around Solar System - prevailing concept (1980 - 83): At the time of this prediction, astronomers believed that the solar system resided in a relatively dust free region of space.
Verification (1984): The IRAS satellite team published infrared observations showing that the solar system is surrounded by nearby "cirrus" dust cloud wisps.
Verification (1988): Astronomer H. Aumann's observations suggested that the solar system is surrounded by a dust envelope 500 times denser than previously thought.
Verification (1992 - 95): Telescope observations revealed the presence of the Kuiper belt, a dense population of cometary bodies encircling the solar system, beginning just beyond the orbit of Neptune and extending outward past the heliopause sheath.
Verification (1999): Observations of the influx of interstellar dust particles using the Ulysses spacecraft lead Markus Landgraf and his team of European Space Agency astronomers to conclude that the solar system is surrounded by a ring of orbiting dust that begins just outside the orbit of Saturn.
Cosmic Dust Influx - prevailing concept (1979): At the time of this prediction, astronomers believed that the rate at which cosmic dust particles have been entering the solar system and the Earth's atmosphere has remained constant for millions of years. They believed that the solar system lies in a relatively clean interstellar space environment and hence that there is no need to expect the occurrence of recent cosmic dust incursions.
Verification (1981 - 82): LaViolette was the first to measure the extraterrestrial material content of prehistoric polar ice. Using the neutron activation analysis technique, he found high levels of iridium and nickel in 6 out of the 8 polar ice dust samples (35k to 73k yrs BP), an indication that they contain high levels of cosmic dust. This showed that Galactic superwaves may have affected our solar system in the recent past. In addition, he discovered gold in one 50,000 year old sample, making this the first time gold had been discovered in polar ice.
Verification (1984): The IRAS satellite team reported observations that the zodiacal dust cloud is tilted 3 degrees relative to the ecliptic with ascending and descending ecliptic nodes at 87° and 267°, but failed to draw a conclusion from this finding. LaViolette realized that the nodes are aligned with the Galactic-center-anticenter direction in support of his earlier prediction that interstellar dust has recently entered the solar system from the Galactic center direction. 1987: He published a paper in Earth, Moon, and Planets journal explaining that the orientation of the zodiacal dust cloud nodes indicates that this zodiacal dust recently entered from the direction of the Galactic center.
Verification (April 1993): NASA's Ulysses spacecraft team published observations indicating that interstellar dust is currently entering the solar system from the Galactic center direction (from the direction the interstellar wind blows towards us) and hence that most of the dust outside the asteroid belt is of interstellar origin. Their findings were predicted by LaViolette's 1983 and 1987 publications. One Ulysses team member had received Dr. LaViolette's publications in 1985, but LaViolette's work was not cited.
Verification (1995): Cosmochemists publish observations showing that Helium-3 concentrations in ocean sediments, an indicator of extraterrestrial dust influx, changed by over 3 fold on a 100,000 year cycle between 250,000 and 450,000 years ago.
Verification (1996): The AMOR radar in New Zealand detected a strong flux of interstellar meteoroid particles, measuring 15 to 40 microns in size, entering the solar system from the Galactic center direction.
Verification (2000 - 2005): LaViolette demonstrates that the acid layers found in 15,850 year old Antarctic polar ice vary in magnitude with an eleven year solar cycle period thereby indicating an extraterrestrial origin for this material. This finding is supported by the discovery mentioned below (2003) that interstellar dust influx varies in accordance with solar cycle phase. The finding that this gas influx event heralded a series of warming trends that ended the ice age, implicates cosmic dust and solar activation as the causal agents responsible for terminating glacial cycles.
Verification (2003): Using data obtained from the Ulysses spacecraft, a group of European Space Agency astronomers led by Markus Landgraf discover that the rate of interstellar dust influx increased three fold from 1997 to 2000 with the approach to solar maximum. They theorize a correlation between solar cycle phase and interstellar dust influx rate, with the influx rate being highest at the time of solar maximum. Such a correlation could explain why the Sun could become locked into an active, dust accreting mode during times of superwave passage.
Verification (2004): Glaciologists find that the concentrations of iridium and platinum in submicron sized "meteoritic smoke" particles present in polar ice are two to three times higher during the last ice age.
Verification (2007): A group of scientists, the Younger Dryas Boundary (YDB) group, reports high levels of extraterrestrial indicators (Ir, Ni, cosmic spherules, microtektites, 3He, fullerenes at the 12,950 yrs b2k Alleröd/Younger Dryas boundary layer that overlies extinct megafauna and Clovis artifacts.
Tin in Cosmic Dust - prevailing concept (1981): At the time of this discovery, cosmochemists did not believe that extraterrestrial material could have anomalously high concentrations of heavy metals such as tin, antimony, gold and silver. Abundances higher than those typically found in meteorites were looked on with skepticism and evidence that one's samples had been contaminated.
Verification (Jan. 1984): The tin in the 49 kyrs BP dust sample was found to contain an isotopic anomaly indicating that it was definitely of extraterrestrial origin; see Prediction No. 7.
Indirect support (1989): Cosmochemist F. Rietmeijer published a paper describing the discovery of tin oxide grains inside interplanetary dust particles, with tin abundances much higher than typically found in chondritic meteorites. This helps to substantiate LaViolette's 1983 claim that the solar system contains a dust source enriched in tin which is the source of the tin-rich dust found in polar ice.
Verification (May 2007): A group of cosmochemists report finding high levels of tin (25 - 28%) and copper (1 - 11%) along with ET material indicators platinum and nickel in magnetic separates retrieved from the 12,950 yrs b2k Alleröd/Younger Dryas boundary layer and from Clovis sites. They conclude that the grains bearing these volatile metals are of extraterrestrial origin.
Verification (2014): A group of geologists find particles with high levels of tin averaging 48% by weight in conjunction with high levels of nickel in GISP2 Greenland ice core dust samples that date from the 6th century AD. They conclude that the particles are extraterrestrial and that the dust influx associated with this event caused a significant climatic perturbation for a one to two year period.
Verification (2015): LaViolette carries out energy dispersive X ray analysis at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The 49 kyrs BP dust sample was found to contain tin at an abundance of 49% and lead at an abundance of 8.4%. The average ratio of lead to tin in the sample was found to match closely to the interstellar lead-tin ratio and to deviate widely from the meteoritic lead-tin ratio. This established that the tin-rich particles in this dust had an interstellar origin. Interestingly, both metallic lead and tin are superconducting in interstellar space and this property could explain how they came to be concentrated to such high abundances. Also scanning electron microscope images of the dust particles showed that many of the tin-rich particles were porous aggregates and that one contained hundreds of thousands of nanosphere inclusions, both characteristics indicating the cosmic nature of the particles.
Tin Isotopic Anomaly - state of the art (1981): At the time of this prediction, astronomers speculated that tin found in extraterrestrial material could have isotope ratios different from those of terrestrial tin. But up until that time no tin isotopic anomalies had been reported.
Verification (Jan. 1984): Geochemists at Curtin University (Australia) in collaboration with LaViolette used a mass spectrometry technique to determine the isotopic ratios of an unirradiated portion of the tin-rich dust sample. They found significant isotopic anomalies in four isotopes thereby confirming LaViolette's prediction that the tin dust is of extraterrestrial origin. This marked the first time that tin isotopic anomalies had been discovered.
