Cosmic energy

“ Such aggregations of matter have never been hot and, except for density, are in composition very similar to Urantia.
8. Burned-out Suns. Some of the dark islands of space are burned-out isolated suns, all available space-energy having been emitted. The organized units of matter approximate full condensation, virtual complete consolidation; and it requires ages upon ages for such enormous masses of highly condensed matter to be recharged in the circuits of space and thus to be prepared for new cycles of universe function following a collision or some equally revivifying cosmic happening. ”

“ Today we know that the great Cosmic currents in which the whole world lives, and moves, is nothing but a vast undifferentiated sea of energy. This energy is acting always in the formless as electrical currents ”

“ The greatest mistake is made in the appraisal of the energy of cosmic rays. In most cases the ionizing action is used as a criterion, which is useless, for the most powerful cosmic rays virtually do not ionize at all and leave no trace of their passage through the instrument. I have resorted to different means and methods and have found that the energy of the cosmic radiations impinging upon the earth from all sides is stupendous, such that if all of it were converted into heat the globe quickly would be melted and volatilized. ”

“ The vast hydrogen clouds are veritable cosmic chemical laboratories, harboring all phases of evolving energy and metamorphosing matter. Great energy actions also occur in the marginal gases of the great binary stars which so frequently overlap and hence extensively commingle. But none of these tremendous and far-flung energy activities of space exerts the least influence upon the phenomena of organized life—the germ plasm of living things and beings. ”

“ Sweeping along in darkness, the force of gravity would gather around each of these bodies vast accumulations of aqueous vapor and other gases condensed from the attenuated matter of surrounding space. The planets, by their axial rotations, would again generate from these regions, newly occupied as the system drifted along through space, electrical energy of enormous quantity and potential. Earth would again hear the mighty mandate, “Let there be light,” and from her poles to her [309] equator the skies would blaze with brush-light auroras. ”

“ It shows us atoms of hydrogen or of sodium pulsating rhythmically with like oscillations in star-cloud or sun-cloud, and in London or Berlin. It exhibits to our eyes or to our scientific imagination a picture of the universe as a single whole, a picture of its evolution as a continuous process—one type of matter diffused throughout space; one gravitative attraction binding it together firmly in all parts; one multiform energy quivering through its molecules or traversing its ether, in many disguises of light, and heat, and sound, and electricity. ”

“ It may be that a theory of atoms of this sort, with a medium between them, is not after all the simplest, but we are probably not yet prepared for any more general hypothesis. Now, we have only to look to our own solar system, in order to see on a large scale an illustration of this conception, for there we have the various heavenly bodies attracting one another, with forces depending only on the distances between them, and independent of the velocities; and we have likewise a medium of some sort, in virtue of which radiant energy is conveyed from the sun to the earth. ”

“ For the time being the sun is comfortably settled in its present state, the amount of energy radiated being just balanced by the subatomic energy liberated inside it. Ultimately, however, it must move on. The moving on, or evolution, is continuous, but for convenience of explanation we shall speak of it as though it occurred in steps. Two possible motives for change can be imagined, (1) the supply of subatomic energy might fall off by exhaustion and no longer balance the radiation, and (2) the sun is slowly becoming a star of smaller mass. ”

“ The energy of light has not been destroyed, but as its energy cannot pass through the opaque body, it has been employed in agitating the particles and atoms of that body, which becomes hotter in consequence.
Thus from the principle of the conservation of energy, which is in operation not only in our planetary world, but throughout the whole of the solar and stellar space, and indeed throughout the whole universe, we arrive at the conclusion that the total quantity of energy throughout the universe is unchangeable. ”

“ The very fact that we can see the star shine is itself the fullest evidence that this is so, and evidence also that the law of gravitation there, too, is still in force, operating over these same distances, and with the same proportionate energy. ”

“ Hence the inference is irresistible that the planets must derive their primary force from an external source not solar, and this they can only do by means of their rotation in space, and the only force derivable from space of which we have any knowledge is electricity, so that the circle thus becomes complete. How now shall we explain these periodical aberrations of energy? The color of a star, as we know, is no criterion of its age or size. The color is due to atmospheric absorption of the radiant light. ”

“ In theory, then, one could move planets, stars, even whole galaxies by thought alone. But, in physical terms, the limit is easily seen. Physically, it would be theoretically possible to destroy the sun if one had enough atomic energy available, but that would require the energy of another sun—or more. ”

“ That the universe is pervaded by an invisible, intangible, but measureable something is conceded. It is assumed that the manifestations to the senses known as heat, light, magnetism, electricity, and radiant energy traverse the known part of the universe by the means of the ether. ”

“ But our sun is not merely one of countless suns, some of them of greater magnitude, but it is only a temporary depository of a limited quantity of energy, ever dissipating itself into space, calculable as to its amount and duration, and known to depend for its existence on gravitative force. We may imagine the beginning of such a luminary in the collision of great masses of matter rushing together under the influence of gravitation, and causing by their impact a conflagration capable of enduring for millions of years. ”

“ It is a curious question to ask what becomes of the radiant light from the sun that is not absorbed either by the planets of our system, or by any of the stars. We can only reply to such a question, that as far as we can judge from our present knowledge, the radiant energy that is not absorbed must be conceived to be traversing space at the rate of 188,000 miles a second. ”

“ Yet in the interior the temperature will still be at nearly the same actual intensity, something like several million degrees, and the compounds of infinite explosive energy will be stored up there as today. Like an immense dynamite magazine, the dark sun will float about in universal space without wasting much of its energy in the course of billions of years. Immutable, like a spore, it will retain its immense store of force until it is awakened by external forces into a new span of life similar to the old life. ”

“ By the constant radiation of its heat into space, a condition of its constituent particles consequent upon the gradual contraction of its mass will ultimately occur, which will result in the exhaustion of its stores of thermal energy, the extinction of its light, and the reduction of what was once a brilliant orb to the condition of a mass of cold, opaque, inert matter. ”

“ Clearly the great problems cannot all be solved by the kinetic theory of gases and the law of gravitation alone. Recent physical researches into sub-atomic energy and the structure and properties of matter, appear to point in the direction where we must next look for more light on such questions as the origin and maintenance of the sun's heat, the complex phenomena of variable stars and the progressive evolution of the myriad bodies of the stellar universe. ”

“ The entire seven superuniverses participate in the two-billion-year cycles of space respiration along with the outer regions of the master universe.
When the universes expand and contract, the material masses in pervaded space alternately move against and with the pull of Paradise gravity. The work that is done in moving the material energy mass of creation is space work but not power-energy work. ”

“ With the first movement, gravity asserts itself, for gravity exists and must exist in all parts, and must actively manifest itself whenever the perfect mutual balance of space is disturbed and a center of energy developed, and co-ordinately with the action of gravity begins that of electricity. Movements among the molecules are converted into movement of mass; centripetal motion begets condensation, this begets sensible heat and vortical movement ”

“ We can readily understand the self-repellent force of such an enormous mass of cosmical matter by considering that, in our own completed system, the repulsion of the solar electrosphere drove forth the tail of Newton’s comet, as before stated, to a distance of ninety million miles, and whirled it around a semicircle of this radius in less than four days. ”

“ If, however, we consider, as is generally believed to be the case, the sun itself to be the sole prime source of its visible energy, nothing but difficulty and vague speculation can be looked for on every hand; but by relegating the solar orb to its proper place, and taking as the starting-point the true source of all energy,—to wit, the hidden forces embodied in the vapors or gases of interstellar space,—the whole process and mode of action will logically follow, and obscurity and difficulty together disappear. ”

“ At the same time it should be borne in mind that even if the atomic disintegration and accompanying liberation of energy, which characterize radium and kindred elements, should prove to be common in different degrees to all the other elements and to form a vast and till lately unsuspected store of heat to the sun, this enormous reserve of fuel would only defer but could not avert that final catastrophe with which the solar system and indeed the whole universe is remorselessly threatened by the law of the dissipation of energy. ”

“ The case is much the same with the great bodies of the universe. Although, to superficial observation, it might seem that they could radiate their light forever, the modern generalizations of physics show that such cannot be the case. The radiation of light necessarily involves a corresponding loss of heat and with it the expenditure of some form of energy. The amount of energy within any body is necessarily limited. The supply must be exhausted unless the energy of the light sent out into infinite space is, in some way, restored to the body which expended it. ”

“ The formation of all matter is on the order of the solar system. There is at the center of every minute universe of energy a relatively stable, comparatively stationary, nuclear portion of material existence. This central unit is endowed with a threefold possibility of manifestation. Surrounding this energy center there whirl, in endless profusion but in fluctuating circuits, the energy units which are faintly comparable to the planets encircling the sun of some starry group like your own solar system. ”

“ The Paradise force organizers transmute space potency into primordial force and evolve this prematerial potential into the primary and secondary energy manifestations of physical reality. When this energy attains gravity-responding levels, the power directors and their associates of the superuniverse regime appear upon the scene and begin their never-ending manipulations designed to establish the manifold power circuits and energy channels of the universes of time and space. Thus does physical matter appear in space, and so is the stage set for the inauguration of universe organization. ”

“ This ingenious theory, in brief, is that the rotation of the sun on its axis causes a suction in the manner of a fan, at the poles, and a tangential projection, at the equator, of a disk-like stream of gaseous matter into space. The light and heat of the sun, dispersed through space, slowly but continuously act upon the compound gases with which space is universally pervaded to disassociate them into their elements. ”

“ We have found it filled with an activity that manifests itself not only in the motions of the heavenly bodies along their orbits, but which extends to their minutest parts, the molecules and atoms, whose vibrations furnish the radiant energy given off by sun and stars. Some of these activities, such as the motions of the heavenly bodies in their orbits, seem fitted to be of endless duration; while others, like the radiation of light and heat, are surely temporary, and sooner or later must come to an end and be replaced by something different. ”

“ When we once succeed in legitimizing the conception that suns and stars are evolved, not out of débris, and weak statical force, but from the primordial plenum itself, equipped with latent power in equilibrium, we can view them as they apparently are—perennial fountains of energy—incandescent lamps of eternity—drawing their supplies from the mysterious stoppage of primordial motions, with the accompanying evolution of chemical elements, and the radiation of liberated energy in torrents. ”