{
    "id": 31383,
    "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/31383/",
    "page_type": "Hyperwall Visual",
    "title": "Water Droplet Science with Astronaut Don Pettit on the ISS",
    "description": "NASA astronaut Don Pettit demonstrates electrostatic forces using charged water droplets and a knitting needle made of Teflon.",
    "release_date": "2026-04-01T12:00:00-04:00",
    "update_date": "2026-04-10T17:53:09.371692-04:00",
    "main_image": {
        "id": 1202902,
        "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a030000/a031300/a031383/pettit-electrostatic-displays-00094.png",
        "filename": "pettit-electrostatic-displays-00094.png",
        "media_type": "Image",
        "alt_text": "NASA astronaut Don Pettit demonstrates electrostatic forces using charged water droplets and a knitting needle made of Teflon.",
        "width": 1920,
        "height": 1080,
        "pixels": 2073600
    },
    "main_video": {
        "id": 1202900,
        "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a030000/a031300/a031383/pettit-electrostatic-displays-1080pa.mp4",
        "filename": "pettit-electrostatic-displays-1080pa.mp4",
        "media_type": "Movie",
        "alt_text": "NASA astronaut Don Pettit demonstrates electrostatic forces using charged water droplets and a knitting needle made of Teflon.",
        "width": 1920,
        "height": 1080,
        "pixels": 2073600
    },
    "main_credits": {},
    "progress": "Complete",
    "media_groups": [
        {
            "id": 380006,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/31383/#media_group_380006",
            "widget": "Video player",
            "title": "",
            "caption": "NASA astronaut Don Pettit demonstrates electrostatic forces using charged water droplets and a knitting needle made of Teflon.",
            "description": "",
            "items": [
                {
                    "id": 519895,
                    "type": "media",
                    "extra_data": null,
                    "title": null,
                    "caption": "",
                    "instance": {
                        "id": 1202900,
                        "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a030000/a031300/a031383/pettit-electrostatic-displays-1080pa.mp4",
                        "filename": "pettit-electrostatic-displays-1080pa.mp4",
                        "media_type": "Movie",
                        "alt_text": "NASA astronaut Don Pettit demonstrates electrostatic forces using charged water droplets and a knitting needle made of Teflon.",
                        "width": 1920,
                        "height": 1080,
                        "pixels": 2073600
                    }
                },
                {
                    "id": 519896,
                    "type": "media",
                    "extra_data": null,
                    "title": null,
                    "caption": "",
                    "instance": {
                        "id": 1202901,
                        "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a030000/a031300/a031383/pettit-electrostatic-displays-4ka.mp4",
                        "filename": "pettit-electrostatic-displays-4ka.mp4",
                        "media_type": "Movie",
                        "alt_text": "NASA astronaut Don Pettit demonstrates electrostatic forces using charged water droplets and a knitting needle made of Teflon.",
                        "width": 3840,
                        "height": 2160,
                        "pixels": 8294400
                    }
                },
                {
                    "id": 519897,
                    "type": "media",
                    "extra_data": null,
                    "title": null,
                    "caption": "",
                    "instance": {
                        "id": 1202902,
                        "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a030000/a031300/a031383/pettit-electrostatic-displays-00094.png",
                        "filename": "pettit-electrostatic-displays-00094.png",
                        "media_type": "Image",
                        "alt_text": "NASA astronaut Don Pettit demonstrates electrostatic forces using charged water droplets and a knitting needle made of Teflon.",
                        "width": 1920,
                        "height": 1080,
                        "pixels": 2073600
                    }
                },
                {
                    "id": 520473,
                    "type": "media",
                    "extra_data": null,
                    "title": null,
                    "caption": "",
                    "instance": {
                        "id": 1203201,
                        "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a030000/a031300/a031383/pettit-electrostatic-displays-1080pa.mp4.webm",
                        "filename": "pettit-electrostatic-displays-1080pa.mp4.webm",
                        "media_type": "Movie",
                        "alt_text": "NASA astronaut Don Pettit demonstrates electrostatic forces using charged water droplets and a knitting needle made of Teflon.",
                        "width": 1920,
                        "height": 1080,
                        "pixels": 2073600
                    }
                },
                {
                    "id": 520474,
                    "type": "media",
                    "extra_data": null,
                    "title": null,
                    "caption": "",
                    "instance": {
                        "id": 1203202,
                        "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a030000/a031300/a031383/pettit-electrostatic-displays-4ka-mp4.hwshow",
                        "filename": "pettit-electrostatic-displays-4ka-mp4.hwshow",
                        "media_type": "HyperwallShow",
                        "alt_text": "NASA astronaut Don Pettit demonstrates electrostatic forces using charged water droplets and a knitting needle made of Teflon.",
                        "width": 0,
                        "height": 0,
                        "pixels": null
                    }
                }
            ],
            "extra_data": {}
        },
        {
            "id": 380007,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/31383/#media_group_380007",
            "widget": "Basic text",
            "title": "",
            "caption": "",
            "description": "NASA astronaut Don Pettit demonstrates electrostatic forces using charged water droplets and a knitting needle made of Teflon. This series of overlapping frames from Feb. 19, 2025, displays the unique attraction-repulsion properties of Teflon and charged droplets, similar to how charged particles from the Sun behave when they come in contact with Earth’s magnetic field. Highly energetic particles from space that collide with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere create the aurora borealis.\r\n\r\nKnitting needles made of different materials arrived aboard station as personal crew items. Pettit electrically charged the needles by rubbing each one with paper. Then, he released charged water from a Teflon syringe and observed the water droplets orbit the knitting needle, demonstrating electrostatic orbits in microgravity. The study was later repeated in a simulation that included atmospheric drag, and the 3D motion accurately matched the orbits seen in the space station demonstration. These observations could be analogous to the behavior of charged particles in Earth’s magnetic field and prove useful in designing future spacecraft systems.\r\n\r\nFor more information visit\r\n    [https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/water-droplet-science/](https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/water-droplet-science/)\r\n\t\t[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHrBhgwq__Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHrBhgwq__Q)\r\n\t\t[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQPosDg1OUU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQPosDg1OUU)",
            "items": [],
            "extra_data": {}
        }
    ],
    "studio": "hw",
    "funding_sources": [],
    "credits": [
        {
            "role": "Animator",
            "people": [
                {
                    "name": "Amy Moran",
                    "employer": "Global Science and Technology, Inc."
                }
            ]
        }
    ],
    "missions": [],
    "series": [],
    "tapes": [],
    "papers": [],
    "datasets": [],
    "nasa_science_categories": [
        "Earth"
    ],
    "keywords": [
        "Biological & Physical Sciences",
        "ISS",
        "Microgravity",
        "Physics"
    ],
    "recommended_pages": [],
    "related": [],
    "sources": [
        {
            "id": 1,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/1/",
            "page_type": "Visualization",
            "title": "Tidal Streams in Massive X-ray Binary Systems",
            "description": "A tiny neutron star orbits incessantly around a massive star with a diameter a million times larger than its own.  The high luminosity of the massive star drives a strong wind from its surface.  The neutron star crashes through this wind at over 300 kilometers per second.  The gravity and X-ray luminosity of the neutron star act to disrupt the wind, producing an extended wake of dense gas trailing behind the neutron star.  In this simulation, the tidal distortion of the primary star and the resultant tidal stream is shown.  The numerical simulations depicted here were computed using the Cray X-MP 48 at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. || ",
            "release_date": "1990-07-10T12:00:00-04:00",
            "update_date": "2015-06-01T16:59:52-04:00",
            "main_image": {
                "id": 551359,
                "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a000000/a000001/a000001_pre.jpg",
                "filename": "a000001_pre.jpg",
                "media_type": "Image",
                "alt_text": "A simulation of the tidal distortion of a neutron star orbiting a massive star",
                "width": 320,
                "height": 238,
                "pixels": 76160
            }
        }
    ],
    "products": [],
    "newer_versions": [],
    "older_versions": [],
    "alternate_versions": []
}