plasma: Quick Facts

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Oct. 14, 2026

Facts

Also Known As	plasma state

Photos and Videos

Diagram showing four physical states of matter: solid with tightly packed molecules, liquid with loosely packed molecules, gas with widely spaced molecules, and plasma with free electrons and nuclei, each labeled with descriptions and an arrow indicating increasing energy.

reaction rate as a function of plasma temperature

How scientists use lasers to learn about the universe

Understand how the polarization of the light from cosmic background radiation influenced the early development of the universe

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Topics

quark-gluon plasma plasmoid guiding centre debye length toroidal plasma plasma jet containment dusty plasma incoherent scatter radar method magnetic Reynolds number liquid solid radiation chemical bonding chemical element subatomic particle electricity chemical compound time light

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Key People

Lev Davidovich Landau

Lev Davidovich Landau

Russian physicist

Hannes Alfvén

Hannes Alfvén

Swedish physicist