Extragalactic jets are a phenomenon on the frontier of science that astronomers can’t fully explain yet. Find out how Ken Wheeler tries to exploit this mystery to propagate his demonstrably false notions of the ether, the dielectric, light and matter.
One of the frontiers of today’s astronomy is the phenomenon of astrophysical jets. They’re unimaginably massive linear streams of high energy particles that seem to flow out of stars, black holes and even galaxies.
Physicists call the ones galaxies emit “extragalactic jets,” and they’re the largest known structures in the universe. In fact, these immense jets can be more than 100 times bigger than our entire galaxy.
Because it would take an inconceivable amount of energy to cause them, scientists have difficulty explaining the source of these jets. They’ve come up with two preliminary theories about how they might form.
Preliminary Theories About How Extragalactic Jets Form
One possible explanation has to do with the disks of gas and debris that surround black holes, neutron stars and pulsars. They’re called accretion disks, and the spin of these massive celestial objects may twist the disks’ magnetic fields in ways that somehow launch the charged particles into jets.
Another theory is based on the idea of “frame-dragging.” According to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, the presence of matter warps the fabric of space.
Astrophysicists theorize that massive, spinning objects like black holes, neutron stars and pulsars can alter (drag) observers’ frames of reference within time and space. This process may extract particle energy and momentum, unleashing the extraordinary jets.
Explanations Not Satisfactory -Yet
Readers may not be fully satisfied with these explanations. If so, they may find comfort in the fact that neither are scientists – yet.
Ken Wheeler has pounced on this exotic field of science to try to gain credence for his discredited ideas about field theory, magnets and science generally. He tells viewers he realized the jets’ true nature through an “incredibly uplifting, profound revelation” he’s had while in a magical, altered state that he calls “theurgy and synthesis,” during which he claims to access the “library of the cosmos.” We discuss the logical issues with his notions of theurgy in more detail under Retroduction – Why Ken’s Wrong.
Since scientists don’t fully understand extragalactic jets yet, the Angry Photographer tries to discredit them by setting impossible expectations of proof for their theories. Meanwhile, he seizes the opportunity to promote his unfounded notions as “better” explanations.
Seizes Opportunity to Promote Unfounded Notions
There are a couple of other reasons why the YouTuber behind Theoria Apophasis has targeted these phenomena. For one thing, he intensely resents Albert Einstein and his theories of relativity.
Some extragalactic jets contain relativistic particles travelling very close to the speed of light. Studying them reaffirms Enstein’s special relativity, one of the most successful theories in the history of science.
Extragalatic jets don’t just validate relativity, they also confirm the theory of quantum mechanics. Ken Wheeler vehemently denies the validity of this equally successful scientific theory, dismissing it with a conspiracy theory he calls “the cult of bumping particles.”
Needs to Find Ways to Discredit Scientific Explanations
So, Kentucky Ken needs to head those he calls “so-called scientists” off at the pass. It’s vitally important to him to find ways to discredit the emerging scientific explanations for extragalactic jets before genuine scientists can finalize them.
The Angry Photographer decrees without evidence that the jets “must necessitatively be ab-extra spontaneous generation of the hydrogen.” Of course, this is a logical fallacy.
Readers will remember the basic principle of the conservation of energy from high school. We can convert energy into matter and vice versa, but there’s no way for a black hole or anything else to magically generate brand new, or “ab-extra” matter.
Unfounded Notion of “Conjugate Geometry of the Universe”
Ken Wheeler tries to claim that all energy fields in the universe derive from an unfounded notion of the “conjugate geometry of the universe” he lifted from fake expert and electric universe crank, Eric Dollard. The Angry Photographer imagines this geometry as a combination of two shapes, the hyperboloid (hourglass) and the torus (donut). His diagram may help.
The hourglass shape represents his non-existent, imaginary energy field, the “dielectric.” As the magnetic field scientist and YouTuber AB science explains in detail here, there’s no such thing as a dielectric field.
According to the Theoria Apophasis host, at the narrowest point in his fanciful hourglass shape, there’s something he calls a “point of inertia.” He offers no evidence or explanation of why or how this is true, what it means, or how it works.
Imagines Extragalactic Jets Emerge from “Plane of Inertia”
Then, Ken Wheeler insists, an invisible flat surface emerges from that point called the “plane of inertia.” He imagines that extragalactic jets emerge from this plane of inertia at the centre of a galaxy or black hole.
Without explaining the process, he argues that extragalactic jets result from “the ether and the field geometry.” As we explain in more detail under Field Theory – Why Ken’s Wrong, back in 1887, Michelson and Morley proved conclusively that the ether doesn’t exist. Charles Proteus Steinmetz, who Kentucky Ken calls one of the “gods” of field theory called the ether hyposthesis a “mistake. Subsequent, formal experiments have confirmed this more than 30 times.
According to the Angry Photographer, his supposed “ab-extra matter” takes the form of hydrogen atoms. The best evidence scientists have at the moment shows that extragalactic jets don’t consist of atoms at all.
Consist of Electrons and Positrons He Claims Don’t Exist
Observations suggest that these enormous jets consist of electrons and their corresponding anti-particle, positrons. That’s a big problem for the YouTuber behind Theoria Apophasis because he maintains that electrons, positrons and all other elementary particles don’t exist.
Raising his logical fallacies to the next level of absurdity, Ken Wheeler tells his viewers that his imagined “hydrogen” in extragalactic jets is actually “ultra-high energy light.” In fact, he contends that all hydrogen atoms are high energy light and that the other chemical elements in the periodic table are compounded hydrogen.
This notion has multiple flaws. For something to qualify as matter, it has to have mass and occupy space, and light has neither of those properties.
Matter Consists of Atoms, Light Consists of Photons
Besides, light and matter consist of completely different particles. The building blocks of matter are atoms, while light’s elementary particles are photons.
Speaking of atoms, the rest of the elements aren’t compounded hydrogen. Elements aren’t compounds of anything else by definition.
In terms of chemistry, matter consists of elements, and elements combine into compounds. Elements aren’t compounds, and compounds aren’t elements, again by definition.
Fundamentally Flawed and Demonstrably False
Although the Angry Photographer calls his magical revelation “divine,” it’s fundamentally flawed and demonstrably false in myriad ways. There’s no such thing as the ether or the dielectric.
There’s no physical evidence or logical basis for his unsubstantiated hyperbolic geometry or his non-existent dielectric field. Extragalactic jets don’t emit hydrogen atoms, they emit the very subatomic particles the Theoria Apophasis host claims don’t exist.
Hydrogen isn’t ultra-high energy light, since light and matter aren’t the same thing. It’s impossible for anything in the universe to produce ab-extra matter out of nothing and nowhere.
Motivated Reasoning and Confirmation Bias
Ken Wheeler’s supposedly divine revelation is merely motivated reasoning and confirmation bias. He doesn’t want the theories of relativity or quantum mechnics to be true, so he cherry picks evidence he thinks will validate his bizarre notions about the ether instead.
Fortunately, the nonsense he spouts lacks the energy and magnitude of extragalactic jets. That makes it completely effortless to both explain and contain.
Ken’s Evidence
Galactic Emergence Natural Order
Probing the heart of extragalactic jets
A Review of Astrophysical Jets
Ken Wheeler is Wrong 