July 13, 2009
Today I went to the Basic Plasma Science Facility which performs frontier-level research of the plasma state of matter. It is a misconception that the space in between the Sun and the planets is a vacuum devoid of matter. However space is actually not empty, for the big, hot Sun constantly emits plasma, a superheated state of matter which moves out in all directions at very high speeds to fill the solar system. Going even further, the whole universe actually is full of stars. This means the stars will be constantly creating plasma just like our Sun. Basically plasma is by far the most common form of matter since it makes up ninety-nine percent of the visible universe and perhaps most of that which is no visible.
On earth, people live their lives with the original and ordinary three states of matter. Because we are unfamiliar with the fourth matter, plasma, scientists have been creating plasma at University of Los Angeles to study its properties and characteristics. The Large Plasma Device (LaPD) is an experimental device at UCLA designed for general purpose research on plasma. Research on the fundamental properties of plasmas aids our understanding of applications ranging from fusion energy to space science. If humans can fully understand and utilize properties of plasma in space, then it may be possible in the future to travel faster or further later.
http://www.chem4kids.com/files/matter_plasma.html
http://www.plasmas.org/what-are-plasmas.htm
http://plasmascience.net/tpu/plasma_space.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Plasma_Device
http://www.cpeo.org/techtree/ttdescript/lasinfl.htm