All articles tagged with #plasma
Observations from Hawaii's 4-meter solar telescope reveal Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities in the Sun's photosphere, driving transport and mixing of plasma; a MURaM simulation corroborates that these instabilities help shuffle plasma in the Sun's surface layer.
Astrophotographer Mark Johnston captured a two-hour timelapse from his Scottsdale, Arizona backyard showing a rare coronal loop arcade—arches of hot plasma shaped by the Sun's magnetic field—extending above the solar limb, including visible coronal rain as material cools and falls along magnetic lines. The sequence, recorded on Aug. 21, 2026, was captured with a TEC160FL refractor and hydrogen-alpha solar imaging gear, delivering an edge-on view of the Sun from home.
Scientists have developed a handheld “laundry gun” that sanitizes fabrics by firing cold plasma, generating oxidizing species like ozone to kill bacteria. Tested with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the pen-sized device reduced spore colonies on fabric by over 75% and could cut the need for water and cleaning chemicals on long space missions. It’s not a full replacement for washing yet, and researchers plan larger but still handheld versions, plus filtration to manage ozone. Future work could extend plasma cleaning to spacesuits and tools during spaceflight.
Using the world’s largest solar telescope, astronomers captured the Sun’s visible surface at unprecedented resolution, revealing vortices as small as about 12 miles wide at the edges of solar granules and linking them to Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities driven by convection and magnetic fields, shedding light on the dynamic processes shaping the Sun’s photosphere.
A new high-resolution video of the sun’s surface captured by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope shows turbulent, vortex-like plasma structures, supporting Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities and offering clues about solar magnetic energy and coronal heating.
Ahead of Plasma 6.7's release next week, KDE is pushing final fixes—saving users from crashes tied to login monitor layout changes and wake-from-sleep after monitor updates—along with general regression fixes. The coverage also notes early 6.8 work (GTK2 theme/icon handling) and Frameworks 6.28 improvements, including a Meta-key trigger for KWin Overview and fixes for a local AVIF icon desktop issue; details are summarized in This Week in Plasma.
Northwestern chemists unveiled a plasma-bubble reactor coated with copper oxide that converts methane directly to methanol in a single step by applying high-voltage electricity to generate plasma, achieving roughly 97% selectivity and also yielding hydrogen and ethylene; while simpler and potentially more energy-efficient than the traditional two-step steam-reforming route, the technology still faces scaling and economic hurdles before it can compete with optimized industrial processes.
KDE Linux is moving toward its beta milestone by enabling delta updates by default, improving hardware support, and boosting performance with kernel optimizations (including the Zen kernel and low-latency tweaks) and other enhancements like rar support and a command-not-found handler, drawing on ideas from Arch-based CachyOS.
Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have built a plasma tunnel that mimics the extreme heat and pressure of reentry, reaching up to 9,000°F to test materials, heat shields, and sensors under hypersonic conditions; the facility can also reproduce Mars-like CO2 atmospheres, and scientists are exploring magnetic control of the plasma to potentially steer reentry, which could improve future spacecraft safety and maneuverability.
CachyOS's first 2026 ISO switches to Wayland by default and uses KDE Plasma Login Manager, replaces SDDM, and makes Limine the default bootloader. The release also enables Btrfs compression level 1, adds nouveau-fw for older NVIDIA GPUs to support VA-API, and includes fixes for Framework laptops with AMD Zen 5, alongside GNOME package handling improvements.
LeAnn Rimes shared on Instagram that she underwent Therapeutic Plasma Exchange (removing plasma and replacing it with fresh albumin) and a stem cell boost at a Nashville clinic while on a day off from filming 9-1-1: Nashville. She explained the process as removing harmful substances from the plasma to help the body heal, likening it to an “oil change for your body,” and noted she experienced a headache afterward. Rimes emphasized openness about health treatments and acknowledged that access to such therapies isn’t universal.
KDE Plasma's transition to a Wayland-only desktop environment is nearing completion, with significant progress made in 2025 on features like HDR support, color management, and protocol implementations, aiming for a full switch by early 2027, while also introducing various UI enhancements.
Astrophotographer Mark Johnston captured detailed footage of a solar prominence, a large plasma structure extending from the sun's surface, showcasing the dynamic magnetic environment of the sun with high-resolution imaging.
Researchers at the University of Hawai'i have discovered that the mysterious rain on the Sun, composed of superheated plasma, is influenced by shifting flows of elements like iron, silicon, and magnesium in the Sun's corona. This finding helps explain the rapid formation of coronal rain and suggests new insights into solar atmospheric dynamics and coronal heating. The study challenges previous models assuming constant elemental distribution and opens avenues for further research into solar phenomena.
Scientists have long struggled to explain the rapid formation of 'solar rain'—cool, dense plasma blobs that fall during solar flares. Recent research shows that allowing elemental abundances, especially low FIP elements like iron, to vary in models explains the quick cooling and condensation observed. This new understanding improves the accuracy of solar models, helping to better interpret solar activity and predict space weather effects.