Plasma physics experiments in space - English subtitles.

Michael

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The actual video is only about 5 minutes long and it repeats itself. The first half includes the Russian commentary as well as the English subtitles, and the 'replay' omits the sound entirely.

The three most interesting observations are the formation of 'crystal like' features in the dusty plasma which are apparently related to repulsion from the charge of the dust grains. The second interesting observation is the formation of "galaxy like" structures in a "free fall" scenario where gravity is obviously a minor influence at best case. The most interesting feature (and the one observation that I really didn't expect to see) was the formation of a "void" region inside the bucket which the dust particles seemed to flow around. I can only surmise that the empty region has some type of 'crust' around it that is held together by EM fields, or something like/akin to surface tension. The first two observations didn't surprise me, but the last one blew my mind. :)

Weird.
 
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Michael

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Interesting... I can't help wondering if this may have applications to fusion plasma confinement, if not on Earth, perhaps in microgravity, e.g. fusion plants beaming microwave power to the surface.

Perhaps so. The crystallization observation as well as the galaxy formation features didn't surprise me, but the observation of a "void", and the dust movement around that void blew my mind. I'm still processing that observation to try to make some logical sense of it.
 
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Michael

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I'm still struggling to understand the formation of that 'void', and the particle flow patterns around that void. How does even that happen, and why would the void persist in the middle of a particle flow process? That's just bizarre IMO.

The crystallization features, and certainly the galaxy formation observations and similarities make total sense to me. I expected to see galaxy formation features, and the charged particle crystallization process seems logical to me, but I'm really struggling to understand how and why that void formed and what keeps it empty while particles inside the bucket flow around it. I'm still trying to make sense of that observation.
 
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timewerx

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The second interesting observation is the formation of "galaxy like" structures in a "free fall" scenario where gravity is obviously a minor influence at best case.

I was working with a high voltage capacitor many years ago with an exposed charged plate.

I was putting small rocks on top of it to observe what it does to it. in one occassion, the small rock floated on top of the plate by electrostatic repulsion and then the rock flew away in a spiral. The path it took resembled a Fibonacci curve and Galactic spiral arms look like one too!

There's no magnets nearby. The strongest electromagnetic field present is the the Earth's natural magnetic field and from the motion of the electrically charged rock itself.
 
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