Electric Discharge Machining on a Planetary Scale

A Radical Hypothesis Behind Red Sky

When readers eventually reach the later chapters of Red Sky, they will encounter scenes depicting vast planetary transformations caused by catastrophic plasma discharges — entire canyons etched, mountain ranges scarred, and planetary surfaces reshaped in mere hours. To some, these may seem like the most speculative, perhaps even fantastical, elements of the story. And yet, this concept is not purely an invention of fiction; it is deeply rooted in a scientific model known as the Electric Universe (EU), which proposes that Electric Discharge Machining (EDM) — a real industrial process — might scale up to explain many features observed across planets, moons, and comets throughout the solar system.

What Is Electric Discharge Machining?

In industry, EDM uses controlled electrical arcs to remove precise amounts of material from metals, creating intricate parts for aerospace, automotive, and medical applications. A high-voltage electric spark jumps across a gap between an electrode and the material, melting or vaporizing tiny regions and leaving clean, precise cavities.

The Electric Universe community proposes that similar processes may have occurred — and perhaps still occur — in space on a vastly grander scale: entire planetary surfaces shaped by cosmic-scale electric arcs between charged bodies moving through a plasma-filled solar system.

The Grand Canyon: An EDM Signature?

One of the most provocative examples often cited by EU proponents is the Grand Canyon itself. Rather than taking millions of years to be slowly carved by the Colorado River, they suggest that the Canyon may have been formed rapidly during an ancient electrical discharge event.

Support for this idea includes:

• Lack of sufficient downstream sediment — If 1300 cubic kilometers of rock were eroded by the Colorado River, where did all that debris go? The absence of a corresponding delta remains an unsolved puzzle even for standard geology.

• Lichtenberg patterns — From space, the Grand Canyon bears a resemblance to dendritic burn patterns created by high-voltage electric discharges.

• Terraced walls and scalloped rims — Consistent with EDM behavior, where rotating plasma filaments carve out material in layers.

Craters: Impact or Discharge?

EU advocates argue that many planetary craters—whether on the Moon, Mars, Mercury, or even comets—display features difficult to explain by conventional impact or volcanic models:

• Flat crater floors

• Central peaks and even central craters

• Hexagonal and “bullseye” patterns

These features, EU proponents say, closely resemble laboratory EDM experiments where high-energy plasma arcs create circular cavities with central protrusions or depressions. The rotating nature of plasma filaments (known as Birkeland currents) produces distinctive terracing seen on lunar craters like Tycho and Aristarchus.

Comets as Electric Objects

Perhaps nowhere does the Electric Universe model differ more dramatically from mainstream astrophysics than in its view of comets. Rather than “dirty snowballs” evaporating under solar heat, comets are seen as electrically charged bodies interacting with the Sun’s plasma environment:

• Jets emerging from the unlit side of comets like Wild 2

• Surface features resembling machined pits, cliffs, and spires rather than sublimation scars

• Unexpected X-ray emissions caused by electric currents, not collisions or heating alone

Venus and Ongoing Electrical Activity

Even modern missions have uncovered surprising signs of electrical discharge on Venus. The Venus Express spacecraft detected “whistler” waves — low-frequency electromagnetic bursts typically associated with lightning — in an atmosphere where conventional wisdom had long denied lightning could exist.

These findings, predicted decades earlier by EU theorists, suggest that electric phenomena may still be at work on a planetary scale today.

The Scientific Divide

It must be acknowledged that these ideas remain firmly outside the mainstream scientific consensus. While EU proponents see growing evidence from missions like Stardust, Giotto, Venus Express, Cassini, and Chandra, most planetary scientists consider these interpretations to be, at best, unproven, and at worst, pseudoscientific. As one AI-generated summary phrased it (with barely concealed condescension):

“The Electric Universe theory and its application of EDM are not widely accepted within the mainstream scientific community.”

Indeed, many conventional scientists actively discourage even considering EU hypotheses, arguing that gravity, impacts, volcanism, and plate tectonics suffice to explain the features we observe. EU theorists counter that laboratory plasma experiments — and the nearly ubiquitous presence of plasma in space — suggest otherwise.

Why Include EDM in Red Sky?

Because Red Sky is, at its core, a story about what happens when the unthinkable becomes undeniable. The Electric Universe’s version of planetary history provides both a speculative scientific framework and a dramatic narrative backdrop for the celestial catastrophe that drives the novel’s climax.

This isn’t an attempt to “prove” the Electric Universe model. Rather, it’s an invitation to readers to engage with a bold, alternative view of cosmic history — one that merges plasma physics, ancient myths of gods throwing thunderbolts, and observations from modern spacecraft into a unified, though controversial, vision of how planetary surfaces may have been carved and scarred.