What is Plasma?

Hubble Sound“The Hope That Remains” by Frederik Wiedmann [BMI] via Killer Tracks [BMI] and Universal Production Music.Soundbite of Carl SaganGeorge C. Marshall Space Flight Center’sSpace Telescope: An Observatory in SpaceESA Credit2.5D Edwin Hubble Hubblecast 89 Edwin Hubble2.5D Nancy Grace Roman Hubblecast 113 Nancy Roman — The mother of HubbleFlythrough #1 FROM Hubblecast 104 Illustrating Hubble’s discoveriesFlythrough #2 FROM Hubblecast 128 30 Years of Science with the Hubble SpaceTelescope || Master VersionHorizontal version. This is for use on any YouTube or non-YouTube platform where you want to display the video horizontally. || Vertical VersionThis vertical version of the episode is for IGTV or Snapchat. The IGTV episode can be pulled into Instagram Stories and the regular Instagram feed.

Produced VideoWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available.Music credits: “The Hague Parliament” by Laurent Dury [SACEM]”; “Flicker”, “Time Shift Equilibrium”, and “Flowing Cityscape” by Ben Biblett [PRS] and Jon Cotton [PRS]; “Games Show Sphere 07 s Parker Solar Probe to touch the Sun, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018 from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.Credit: NASA || Parker Solar Probe’s eighth flyby of the Sun started on April 24, 2021 at 23.2 million miles from the Sun. It reached perihelion on April 29, 2021 at 6.5 million miles from the Sun. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben || Parker Solar Probe will use seven Venus flybys over nearly seven years to gradually shrink its orbit around the Sun, coming as close as 3.83 million miles (and 6.16 million kilometers) to the Sun, well within the orbit of Mercury and about seven times closer than any spacecraft has come before.Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben || Parker Solar Probe has now “touched the Sun”, passing through the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona for the first time in April 2021.Credit: NASA GSFC/CIL/Brian Monroe || Parker Solar Probe has now “touched the Sun”, passing through the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona for the first time in April 2021. This historic closest approach to the Sun is allowing Parker to gather data that’s helping scientists unravel some of the biggest questions about our star and its influence on the solar system. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL || Parker Solar Probe has now “touched the Sun”, passing through the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona for the first time in April 2021. This historic closest approach to the Sun is allowing Parker to gather data that’s helping scientists unravel some of the biggest questions about our star and its influence on the solar system. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL || Parker Solar Probe has now “touched the Sun”, passing through the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona for the first time in April 2021. This historic closest approach to the Sun is allowing Parker to gather data that’s helping scientists unravel some of the biggest questions about our star and its influence on the solar system. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL || The compact, solar-powered probe will house solar arrays that will retract and extend as the spacecraft swings toward or away from the Sun during several loops around the inner solar system, making sure the panels stay at proper temperatures and power levels. At its closest passes the spacecraft must survive solar intensity of about 475 times what spacecraft experience while orbiting Earth.Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL || Timelapse footage of the lift of Parker Solar Probe and mating with the STAR 48BV third stage rocket at Astrotech Space Operations on July 11, 2018.Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL || As Parker Solar Probe passed through the corona on encounter nine, the spacecraft flew by structures called coronal streamers. These structures can be seen as bright features moving upward in the upper images and angled downward in the lower row. Such a view is only possible because the spacecraft flew above and below the streamers inside the corona. Until now, streamers have only been seen from afar. They are visible from Earth during total solar eclipses. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Laboratory || During Parker Solar Probe’s eighth orbit around the Sun, the spacecraft flew through structures in the corona called streamers.This movie shows that data from the WISPR instrument on Parker Solar Probe. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Laboratory || During encounters 8 and 9, Parker Solar Probe flew through structures in the corona called streamers.This movie shows that data from the WISPR instrument on Parker Solar Probe.Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Laboratory

NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will see thousands of exploding stars called supernovae across vast stretches of time and space. Using these observations, astronomers aim to shine a light on several cosmic mysteries, providing a window onto the universe’s distant past and hazy present.Credit: NASA from Universal Production MusicWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. || NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will see thousands of exploding stars called supernovae across vast stretches of time and space. Using these observations, astronomers aim to shine a light on several cosmic mysteries, providing a window onto the universe’s distant past and hazy present.Roman’s supernova survey will help clear up clashing measurements of how fast the universe is currently expanding, and even provide a new way to probe the distribution of dark matter, which is detectable only through its gravitational effects. One of the mission’s primary science goals involves using supernovae to help pin down the nature of dark energy – the unexplained cosmic pressure that’s speeding up the expansion of the universe.Roman will use multiple methods to investigate dark energy. One involves surveying the sky for a special type of exploding star, called a type Ia supernova. Many supernovae occur when massive stars run out of fuel, rapidly collapse under their own weight, and then explode because of strong shock waves that propel out of their interiors. These supernovae occur about once every 50 years in our Milky Way galaxy. But evidence shows that type Ia supernovae originate from some binary star systems that contain at least one white dwarf – the small, hot core remnant of a Sun-like star. Type Ia supernovae are much rarer, happening roughly once every 500 years in the Milky Way.In some cases, the dwarf may siphon material from its companion. This ultimately triggers a runaway reaction that detonates the thief once it reaches a specific point where it has gained so much mass that it becomes unstable. Astronomers have also found evidence supporting another scenario, involving two white dwarfs that spiral toward each other until they merge. If their combined mass is high enough that it leads to instability, they, too, may produce a type Ia supernova.These explosions peak at a similar, known intrinsic brightness, making type Ia supernovae so-called standard candles – objects or events that emit a specific amount of light, allowing scientists to find their distance with a straightforward formula. Because of this, astronomers can determine how far away the supernovae are by simply measuring how bright they appear. Astronomers will also use Roman to study the light of these supernovae to find out how quickly they appear to be moving away from us. By comparing how fast they’re receding at different distances, scientists will trace cosmic expansion over time. This will help us understand whether and how dark energy has changed throughout the history of the universe.

1. STILL IMAGESunspot number over the past five solar cycles. Scientists use sunspots to track solar cycle progress; the dark spots are associated with solar activity, often as the origins for giant explosions — such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections — which can spew light, energy, and solar material out into space.The panel consulted monthly updates in sunspot number data from the World Data Center for the Sunspot Index and Long-term Solar Observations, at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels, which tracks sunspots and pinpoints the highs and lows of the solar cycle.Credit: SILSO data/image, Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels || Solar Cycle 25 has begun. The Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel announced solar minimum occurred in December 2019, marking the transition into a new solar cycle. In a press event, experts from the panel, NASA, and NOAA discussed the analysis and Solar Cycle 25 prediction, and how the rise to the next solar maximum and subsequent upswing in space weather will impact our lives and technology on Earth.A new solar cycle comes roughly every 11 years. Over the course of each cycle, the star transitions from relatively calm to active and stormy, and then quiet again; at its peak, the Sun’s magnetic poles flip. Now that the star has passed solar minimum, scientists expect the Sun will grow increasingly active in the months and years to come.Understanding the Sun’s behavior is an important part of life in our solar system. The Sun’s outbursts—including eruptions known as solar flares and coronal mass ejections—can disturb the satellites and communications signals traveling around Earth, or one day, Artemis astronauts exploring distant worlds. Scientists study the solar cycle so we can better predict solar activity.Click here for the NOAA press kit.Listen to the media telecon.Participants:• Lisa Upton, Co-chair, Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel; Solar Physicist, Space Systems Research Corporation• Doug Biesecker, Solar Physicist, NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center; Co-chair, Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel• Elsayed Talaat, Director, Office of Projects, Planning and Analysis; NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service • Lika Guhathakurta, Heliophysicist, Heliophysics Division, NASA Headquarters • Jake Bleacher, Chief Exploration Scientist, NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate || 2. VIDEOImages from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory highlight the appearance of the Sun at solar minimum (left, Dec. 2019) versus solar maximum (right, April 2014). These images are in the 171 wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light, which reveals the active regions on the Sun that are more common during solar maximum. Credit: NASA || 3. STILL IMAGEVisible light images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory highlight the appearance of the Sun at solar minimum (left, Dec. 2019) versus solar maximum (right, July 2014). During solar minimum, the Sun is often spotless. Sunspots are associated with solar activity, and are used to track solar cycle progress. Credit: NASA || 4. STILL IMAGEScientists use the unique magnetic orientation of sunspots to determine which cycle they belong to — the old or the new. This SILSO graph shows counts of Cycle 24 and Cycle 25 sunspots from 2018-2020. The dominance of new Cycle 25 sunspots is one indication of the transition between the two cycles. Most sunspots belonged to the last solar cycle until September 2019; the dominance of Cycle 25 sunspots occurred in November 2019.Credit: SILSO/Royal Observatory of Belgium || 5. VIDEOB-roll of NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado. The Space Weather Prediction Center, or SWPC, is the U.S. government’s official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and alerts.Credit: NOAA || 6. VIDEOSome solar eruptions create bursts of solar energetic particles. The high-energy solar radiation can impact humans and sensitive electronics aboard satellites, as shown in this conceptual animation.Credit: NASA || 7. VIDEOImages from NOAA’s GOES-16/SUVI show a coronal mass ejection on Sept. 10, 2017. || 8. VIDEOImages from NOAA’s GOES-16/SUVI show a coronal mass ejection on July 28, 2017. || 9. STILL IMAGEIllustration of NOAA’s Space Weather Follow-On. The L-1 observatory launches in 2024, just before the Solar Cycle 25 predicted peak. The spacecraft will be equipped with instruments that sample the solar wind, provide imagery of coronal mass ejections, and monitor other extreme activity from the Sun in finer detail than before. Credit: Ball Aerospace || 10. VIDEOConceptual animation of the GOES-R spacecraft. This animation depicts the spacecraft on orbit.Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, NOAA, Lockheed Martin || 11. GIFLaunch footage for NOAA’s COSMIC-2, a mission of six satellites designed to improve weather forecasts and space weather monitoring. COSMIC-2 launched in June 2019. Credit: NOAA and SpaceX || 12. VIDEOImages from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory capture transient solar activity, including solar flares, prominences, and coronal mass ejections. Solar activity shapes space weather throughout the solar system, referring to the conditions in space that change much like weather we experience on Earth.Credit: NASA || 13. VIDEOThis animation illustrates one aspect of the Sun-Earth connection: a burst of solar wind leaves the Sun and reaches Earth, where it undergoes magnetic reconnection, producing aurora.Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab || 14. VIDEOA video tracks a coronal mass ejection’s path from the Sun to Earth, using images from NASA’s STEREO satellite. Credit: NASA/SwRI/STEREO || 15. VIDEOImages from NASA low sunspot numbers are in blue (left). Various space weather impacts are listed, as they are associated with times of high and low solar activity. || 20. VIDEOArtist interpretation of flying by Earth, the sun, and heliopause. Solar wind—the constantly blowing stream of charged particles from the Sun—fills space throughout the solar system.Credit: NASA || 21. VIDEOAn artist’s interpretation of a solar eruption, including a solar flare, coronal mass ejection, and solar energetic particle event. Credit: NASA || 22. VIDEOAnimated b-roll of NASA Artemis launch and lunar approach. Space weather predictions will be critical for supporting spacecraft and astronauts in the Artemis program.Credit: NASA || 23. VIDEOAnimated b-roll of NASA Gateway/Commercial Lunar Payload Services. The first two science investigations to be conducted from the Gateway in lunar orbit will study space weather and monitor the radiation environment there.Credit: NASA

Complete transcript available.Music credit: “Intrigues and Plots” and “Repetitive Motion” by Laurent Dury [SACEM] from Universal Production Music Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. || A special type of aurora, draped east-west across the night sky like a glowing pearl necklace, is helping scientists better understand the science of auroras and their powerful drivers out in space. Known as auroral beads, these lights often show up just before large auroral displays, which are caused by electrical storms in space called substorms. Until now, scientists weren’t sure if auroral beads are somehow connected to other auroral displays as a phenomenon in space that precedes substorms, or if they are caused by disturbances closer to Earth’s atmosphere.But powerful new computer models, combined with observations from NASA’s Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms – THEMIS – mission, have provided the first direct evidence of the events in space that lead to the appearance of these beads, and demonstrated the important role they play in our local space environment. || The photograph was taken east of Saskatoon on winter solstice in 2015 with a 81% illuminated waxing gibbous Moon. It was processed with PixInsight to remove streaks caused due to an accidentally nudged tripod during exposure while attempting to retain realistic star shapes and colors. The exposure time was 2.5 seconds. Credit: Alan Duffy || Auroral beads seen from the International Space Station.Credit: NASA || Photograph of auroral beads captured from Earth. Credit: Michal Vrba from Unsplashed || Photograph of auroral beads captured in Tromsø, Norway in December 2018. Credit: Deniz from Unsplashed || Photograph of auroral beads captured from Earth. Credit: Vincent Guth from Unsplashed || Model SimulationExternal influence on geomagnetic field, shown in red (strengthened) – white (unaffected) – grey (weakened), in the equatorial plane of the magnetosphere. The formation of buoyant bubbles can be seen on the night side of Earth (left) shortly after the change in the orientation of the solar wind magnetic field at T=0.Credit: Kareem Sorathia (JHUAPL/Center for Geospace Storms) || Model SimulationBuoyancy measured in magnetospheric equator, blue to brown measuring “light” to “heavy”. Superimposed on the equator are grid lines of constant magnetic latitude and longitude.Credit: Kareem Sorathia (JHUAPL/Center for Geospace Storms)

Overview video - NASA Spacecraft Discovers New Magnetic Process in Turbulent SpaceComplete transcript available.Credit: NASA s Conceptual Image Lab

SPUTTERING How did Mars, a once wet planet, lose its early atmosphere? One possibility is through a process called s thick early atmosphere was likely lost to space, and the Sun is a potential culprit. When high-energy solar photons strike the upper Martian atmosphere they can ionize gas molecules, causing the atmosphere to erode over time. For complete transcript, click here.