Sir William Crookes
1832 – 1919
In the mid 1800‘s James Clerk Maxwell produced 20 equations which codified the work of most of these researchers. Maxwell’s equations later provided a basis for understanding electrical events in space.
Kristian Birkeland proposed that space is not empty, but is a sea of charged particles. His experiments pointed the way to explanations for solar activity, auroras on Earth, Jupiter and Saturn, and other electrical activity in the solar system.
Irving Langmuir coined the word ‘plasma’ to describe ionized gas. The life-like behavior of charged particles reminded him of the qualities of blood plasma.
Hannes Alfvén established a revolutionary model for the role of plasma and electricity in the cosmos. It is now acknowledged that magnetic fields pervade the Universe, and it was Alfvén who noted that these fields cannot exist without electric currents. According to the evidence from satellites and space-based telescopes, 99.9% of the visible Universe appears to be made up of plasma.
In 1752 Benjamin Franklin tied an iron key to a silk kite string and proved that lightning was electrical in nature. Franklin believed that the skies were full of electricity.
Benjamin Franklin
1705 – 1790


Michael Faraday
1791 – 1867
James Clerk Maxwell
1831 – 1879

Kristian Birkeland
1867 – 1917

Nicola Tesla produced artificial lightning with discharges of millions of volts. His experiments led to a greater understanding of electric discharge events in space.
Nikola Tesla
1856 – 1943

Irving Langmuir
1881 – 1957

Michael Faraday was 24 years old when he coined the phrase ‘Radiant Matter’ – to describe what he believed was the Fourth State of matter.
Sir William Crookes was one of the first to truly experiment with this Fourth State of Matter. He placed rubies in a vacuum tube filled with a rarified gas. There was an anode at one end, a cathode at the other. He introduced sufficient voltage to ignite the ‘Radiant Matter’. The rubies started glowing red. Crookes talked about radiant matter and phosphorescence. The radiant matter is now called plasma.
Benjamin Franklin (1705-1790)
Charles-Augustin Coulomb (1736-1806)
Luigi Galvani (1737-1798)
Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Volta (1745-1827)
André-Marie Ampère (1775-1836)
Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1851)
Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855)
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859)
Georg Simon Ohm (1789-1854)
Jean Baptist Biot (1774-1862)
Félix Savart (1791-1841)
Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
Wilhelm Eduard Weber (1804-1891)
Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (1824-1887)
Joseph Henry (1797-1878)
James Watt (1736-1819)
James Prescott Joule (1818-1889)
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)
Sir William Crookes (1832-1919)
Oliver Heaviside (1850-1925)
Hendrik Lorentz (1853-1928)
Kristian Birkeland (1867-1917)
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)
Irving Langmuir (1881-1957)
Hannes Alfvén (1908-1995)
Wal Thornhill
Dr. Don Scott
electricity in space
Many well known and respected scientists have contributed to the idea of electricity playing a major part in the heavens. These are just a few names from a very long list.


Hannes Alfvén
1908 – 1995
Wal Thornhill
Wal Thornhill is currently one of the leading proponents of the Electric Sun Model. Building on the ideas and work of some of the most illustrious explorers in the history of the sciences, Thornhill has devoted his life to developing and refining a cosmology for the hypothesis called The Electric Universe - of which The Electric Sun Model is a part.



Dr. Don Scott
Dr. Don Scott has a long history of further refining the Electric Sun Model in terms of on-the-ground empirical electrical theory and plasma electrodynamics. (More to come...)

electric sun pioneers
Wal Thornhill