Dust clouds of Kordylevsky - are they cosmic "superbrains"?

Confirmation in 2019 of existence Kordylevsky clouds, as well as their enormous size, much larger than the size of the Earth, indicates that the Earth-Moon system contains four rather than two large bodies, and clouds dominate among them in size. The authors believe that these clouds are complex formations of plasma dust. This means that they have an unimaginably rich internal structure, consisting of regions with positive, negative and purely zero charges, in gaseous, liquid and crystalline states. And for many eons, they will have to form the ability to high intelligence.

Introduction

The existence of large stable dust clouds at the L4 and L5 Lagrange libration points of the Earth-Moon system appears to have been finally confirmed through a combination of numerical dynamic modeling and polarimetric studies. The initial preliminary observation of such clouds was reported by the Polish astronomer Kazimierz Kordylewski in 1961, after which they became known as the Kordylewski dust clouds. However, their existence has been questioned for more than three decades, mainly because of the difficulty in interpreting slight improvements in the brightness of the night sky over other possible causes. In addition, unsuccessful attempts have already been made to detect meteors in these areas (from a centimeter to a meter in size) using radar. As a result, it came to be seen as a refutation of their existence. Obviously, it is now desirable not only to repeat such radar observations, but also to use lidar measurements to search for reflections from even smaller particles in order to accurately establish their presence.

Two publications by a team of scientists led by Schliz-Balogh (in 2018 and 2019) focused on a specific dust cloud at the L5 point of the Earth-Moon system using sensitive polarimetric techniques. They found clear evidence that a cloud of submicron dust really exists there by studying the polarized scattered light in the area, which varied over time. The cloud apparently had a “dynamic” structure: that is, it contained smaller dust clouds, which, perhaps, represent the cloud as a whole as a kind of cellular structure.

Although evidence has been given to support the presence of particles with iron and silicates in the clouds, we cannot exclude, also on the basis of the evidence already available, the dominant presence in them of carbon or organic grains, which are known to be commonly found in the interplanetary zodiac cloud, in the cometary dust, as well as in the interstellar medium.

It is quite obvious that it is required to finally confirm the existence of these two clouds, and we hope that this will be done after all. It will also be important to unravel the subtle structure of clouds, including their internal dynamic properties, but this is rather difficult to do from the Earth. Such studies require special satellite and astronautical studies.

In this article, we will consider some interesting features of dust clouds, especially if they could be composed of particles containing a significant biological component.

Estimated properties of the cloud at point L5

The theoretical possibility of the existence and stability of the cloud at L5 was calculated using 3D dynamic simulations, and confirmation of the actual existence was obtained using polarimetric observations of scattered light. Assumed angular extent of scattered dust cloud $\theta$ at this point was estimated in the range of 6 – 7 degrees. From the known distance to L5 ( $r = 3.84 \times 10^9 cm$ ) and angular extent, one can determine the average cloud diameter:

$\begin{equation} D \approx \dfrac{\theta}{360} 2\pi r\cong 4.35 \times 10^8 cm \end{equation}$

This is comparable to the diameter of the Earth: $\sim 1.27 \times 10^8 cm$

Scheme of the arrangement of celestial bodies on a relative scale

For a spherical particle of radius (grain with silicate or organic content typical of bacteria, for example) the solar light scattering cross section is

$C_{sca} \cong Q_{sca} \pi a^2$

at values $Q_{sca}$ at optical wavelengths close to 1. Thus, the average mass scattering coefficient of similar grains is equal to

$\kappa_{sca} \cong \cfrac{\pi a^2 Q_{sca}}{\cfrac{4}{3}\thinspace \pi a^3 s} \approx \cfrac{3}{4as} \enspace cm^2g^{-1} \approx 2.5 \times 10^4 \enspace cm^2g^{-1}$

assuming that $a \sim 3 \times 10^{-5}cm$ , $s \sim 1 g\enspace cm^{-3}$ .

To observe noticeable polarization effects, the optical depth of scattering when passing through $4.35 \times 10^8 cm$ clouds, angular extentmust remain within unity, for example: $t_{sca} = 0.3$ . It can be converted to the mass density of bacterial dust in the cloud $\rho$ based on the expression $0.3 \cong \aleph_{sca}D\rho \cong 1.09 \times 10^{13}\rho$ which leads to the mass density:

$\rho \approx 2.75 \times 10^{-14}\thinspace g \thinspace cm^{-3}$

Based on these assumptions, the Kordylewski dust cloud at point L5 has a density that is higher than the surrounding interplanetary dust by at leastonce. The mass loss due to the effects of solar radiation, as well as the effects of the solar wind and small gravitational perturbations, which will mainly occur in the outer loop, will be replenished over time by dusty material from comets and the interplanetary medium. Thus, the total mass of the cloud is $\approx 1.17 \times 10^{12} g$ .

Assuming that a typical dust particle in a cloud is the size of a bacterial spore with a radius $a \sim 3 \times 10^{-5} cm$ and density $\sim 1 g\enspace cm^{-3}$ we obtain the average dust particle density in the size $n \approx 2.43 \thinspace cm^{-3}$ . And then the average distance between neighboring particles is equal to $\sim n^{-1/3} \sim 0.74 \thinspace cm\thinspace$ !

Being so small, it provides dust particles with the opportunity to “communicate” with each other, through electromagnetic signals. This may very well be the case, since due to the photoelectric effect they can have charges of several volts, and collisions with the surrounding gas would cause them to rotate in the radio frequency range.

Emergent properties of clouds

Spinning grains with charges, especially in the form of elongated needles (characteristic of bacilli), can become effective absorbers or transmitters of electromagnetic radiation. What is most interesting is that the total such charged dust particles in a cloud at a distance of less than a centimeter from each other is truly gigantic.

$N\approx\cfrac{\cfrac{4}{3}\pi R^3}{n}\cong 2 \times 10^{26}$

Due to the emission/absorption of electromagnetic waves in all directions within the cloud, as well as electrical connections (exchange of charges/currents) between neighboring charged particles that are only a centimeter apart, clouds may well function as a giant computer/brain capable of storing and processing digital information. In this context, they are reminiscent of the already confirmed cooperative behavior of bacteria in a wide range of terrestrial conditions.

In the human brain, there are only about cells and about synapses. According to the above formula, Kordylewski clouds may well have a total number of binary connections between its constituent oscillators in the amount $\sim \thinspace ^n C_2 \approx 10^{52}$ , which determines the superastronomical sum of its potential computing power. This estimate far exceeds the computational power available to all human brains, as well as all other intelligent life on Earth, by many orders of magnitude.

And, finally, we will refer to several interesting characteristics in the structure of dusty plasma, which can also play a certain role in the present context. The formation of cores of predominantly silicon dust and its further growth in such a plasma have already been documented in several laboratory studies. However, in the case we are considering, the process of dust generation will be incidental: the condensation of matter inside the clouds will probably occur on pre-existing interplanetary dust particles, which, as already stated here, will also have a biological component. Thus, dust clouds can be considered as a population of bacterial particles covered with a semiconductor silicon shell, which may well have the effect of strengthening the electronic bond between these particles.

The assumptions presented here may seem far-fetched, but they are well within the wide range of possible results based on the already known behavior of the dusty plasma structure.

Thus, we may be tempted to consider dust balls at Lagrange points as highly structured “intelligent” systems capable of storing and processing “information”, and also to assume that they may have many even more surprising and unexpected functions. Indeed, can’t such huge and stable formations, which supposedly existed over astronomical time scales, constantly becoming more complex over billions of years, exhibit spontaneous phenomena in themselves that can resemble those of the most complex living beings? We can say that this situation is no different from the brain-like complexity of the “cosmic web” discussed Ginzburg et al. (2019), although potentially – it is even more impressive in terms of its computational potential. Dust balls can contain a complex combination of charged dusty plasma in gaseous, liquid and crystalline states, with separate regions of positive charge and separate regions of negative charge, in shells or double layers containing superconducting filaments. So it is not worth talking about Kordylewski clouds in general, as having different values / signs of charges, or having a common charge (or zero charge), since they would have quite a lot of areas with different charges inside them. In this case, the total net charge for each cloud would be relevant only when considering the cloud from the outside: for example, in relation to the solar wind, which, as is known, is predominantly positively charged. As a side note, since silicate particles in the L5 cloud have already been reported, they tend to be positively charged, a fact first established in 1926 by G. B. Deodar.

It is often said, in an anecdotal sense, that the human brain contains more neurons than there are visible stars in the sky. But the human brain is located only in a small cranium. A stable dust complex in the form of a huge plasma ball that has lasted perhaps forever, constantly expanding and growing over countless millennia, is in principle capable of developing something resembling a much more complex nervous system than the human brain with an average lifespan. service in years. The dust cloud complex that has existed for many millions of years may well have become self-aware… with all that that implies.