The solar wind fuels the aurora borealis and aurora australis, also known as the northern and southern lights. The solar wind consists of plasma that is released at supersonic speed from the Sun’s upper atmosphere and escapes the Sun’s gravity. As the energetic particles approach Earth, some can become entrained by the planet’s magnetic field. When they slam into the atmosphere, mesmerizing plasma dynamics ensue, most commonly observable at high latitudes.
One can simulate the solar wind’s deflection around Earth in a tabletop lab experiment; all that’s needed are a plasma source that can launch plasma packets at supersonic velocities, a dielectric sphere swathed in a magnetic field, and an enclosure that can maintain a partial vacuum. Mounir Laroussi and colleagues at Old Dominion University’s Applied Plasma Technology Laboratory have carried out such experiments using a plasma pencil, a device they developed that can emit supersonic low-temperature plasma bullets. The...
