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Electric comets (Electric Universe / Thunderblog claims)

Status: Leading Edge

The claim: Comets are dry, rocky, electrically charged bodies whose jets, comas and surface features are produced by electric discharge with the Sun's environment, not by ices turning to gas in sunlight.

Why this label: Spacecraft that visited comet nuclei measured what the electric-comet model says should not be there: water ice exposed on the surface of 67P, water vapour coming from the nucleus, and a bulk density of roughly half that of water, which implies a highly porous mix of dust and ice rather than solid rock. Real plasma and electric-field effects were measured around 67P too, but they are explained within standard plasma physics and do not require discharges that power the comet's activity.

Background

The Thunderbolts Project, the main publisher of Electric Universe ideas, argues on its site and in its Thunderblog and Space News articles that comets are rocky bodies sculpted and lit by electric arcing as they move through the Sun's electric field. The mainstream 'icy dirtball' model, which goes back to Fred Whipple's 1950 paper [9], holds that a nucleus is a porous mix of dust and ices, and that sunlight warms the ices until they turn to gas and carry dust away. ESA's Rosetta mission (2014–2016) studied comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko up close for two years, and NASA's Deep Impact struck comet Tempel 1 in 2005. Those two missions provide the most direct tests.

Evidence and arguments for

  • The Thunderbolts Project's published summary of its comet model argues that sharp surface features, cometary X-rays and high-temperature minerals fit electrical erosion better than sublimation. [1]
  • Proponents point to Rosetta findings that surprised mission scientists, such as surface features that changed faster than expected and minerals that normally form at high temperature, as signs that the standard model is incomplete. [2][8]
  • Rosetta did measure electric-field waves in the plasma around 67P. This confirms that electromagnetic processes operate in the comet's environment, although the authors explain them with standard plasma instabilities. [3]

Evidence and arguments against

  • Rosetta's VIRTIS spectrometer detected patches of exposed water ice on the nucleus of 67P. [4]
  • Rosetta's ROSINA mass spectrometer sampled water vapour around 67P directly and measured its deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio, about three times the value for Earth's oceans. [5]
  • Rosetta's radio-science gravity measurements gave a bulk density of about 533 kg/m³ and a porosity of roughly 72–74%. The nucleus is a low-density, homogeneous mix of dust and ice, not solid rock. [6]
  • Deep Impact's collision with Tempel 1 revealed a surface layer of fine, weak particles and an average nucleus density of about 600 kg/m³, and the ejecta showed a large increase in organic material. [7]

Open questions & what would change the label

Some surface processes on 67P, such as how fast certain features changed and how dust moves across the surface, are still being studied within the standard model. What would change the status: a quantitative electric-comet model that predicts the measured density, ice exposures and gas production of a comet better than sublimation models do, published and tested.

Sources

  1. The Thunderbolts Project: Synopsis (section on comets; proponent summary) https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/about/syn/ proponent
  2. The Thunderbolts Project (2015): Crystal Comets (Thunderblog article) https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2015/08/20/crystal-comets/ proponent
  3. Karlsson, T. et al. (2017). Rosetta measurements of lower hybrid frequency range electric field oscillations in the plasma environment of comet 67P. Geophysical Research Letters. doi:10.1002/2016GL072419 background
  4. Filacchione, G. et al. (2016). Exposed water ice on the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature16190 critic/test
  5. Altwegg, K. et al. (2015). 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, a Jupiter family comet with a high D/H ratio. Science. doi:10.1126/science.1261952 critic/test
  6. Pätzold, M. et al. (2016). A homogeneous nucleus for comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko from its gravity field. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature16535 critic/test
  7. A'Hearn, M. F. et al. (2005). Deep Impact: Excavating Comet Tempel 1. Science. doi:10.1126/science.1118923 critic/test
  8. The Thunderbolts Project (2015): Electrical Geology of Pluto and Comet 67P (Space News article) https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2015/09/29/electrical-geology-of-pluto-and-comet-67p/ proponent
  9. Whipple, F. L. (1950). A comet model. I. The acceleration of Comet Encke. Astrophysical Journal. doi:10.1086/145272 background

Interest signal: Electric Universe content draws a steady online audience; see the shortlist research for pageview data on related topics. Sources were checked against Crossref/publisher pages on 2026-10-21. Labels describe the claim, not the people who hold it. Disclaimer.