From: Arthur Carlson <carlson@ipp.mpg.de>
Newsgroups: sci.physics.plasma
Subject: Re: Plama in space
Organization: Rechenzentrum der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Garching
References: <78nj5u$9gp$1@jupiter.cs.uml.edu>


"Nick Jensen" <nicko117@start.com.au> writes:

> Hi, I don't know much about plasma. I have heard that the temperature
> in space is close to absolute zero. I have also heard that Nebulae are made
> out of plasma. If it is that cold in space, how can the plasma still exist
> in the plasma state?

If the ions and electrons are few and far between, then it takes them
a very long time to find each other. If the formation rate, for
example, due to ultraviolet light from stars, can keep up with this
slow recombination rate, then a plasma can be maintained. In
principle, a very tenuous plasma could even exist in true
thermodynamic equilibrium at the 3 degree temperature of space due to
thermal ionization, but I doubt that that is at all important in the
real world. I am also not sure that nebulae are really that cold.
--
To study, to finish, to publish. -- Benjamin Franklin

Dr. Arthur Carlson
Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
Garching, Germany
carlson@ipp.mpg.de
http://www.ipp.mpg.de/~Arthur.Carlson/home.html

As usual, if I am caught or killed, the Institute
will disavow any knowledge of my actions.