is there such a thing as stable plasma untouched by humans in a natural state?
813383
Earth's most conspicuous plasmas are lightning, the trail of a shooting star, and the ordinary electric shock you get after shuffling around on your living-room carpet in your wool socks and then touching a doorknob. Electrical discharges are jagged columns of electrons that abruptly move through the air when too many collect in one place. Lightning, for instance, happens to strike Earth's surface thousands of times per hour. The centimeter-wide air column through which a bolt of lightning travels is turned into glowing plasma in a fraction of a second, having been raised to a temperature ten times that of the Sun's surface by these flowing electrons.\n\nEvery shooting star is a tiny particle of interplanetary debris moving so fast that it burns up in the air and descends to Earth as harmless cosmic dust. Almost the same thing happens to a spacecraft that reenters our atmosphere. Since its occupants don't want to land at the near-Earth orbital speed of 18,000 miles per hour (about five miles per second), the craft must slow down and its kinetic energy must go somewhere. Shock waves along the leading edge heat the craft during reentry. The heat is rapidly whisked away by protective shields. This is why the astronauts, unlike shooting stars, do not descend to Earth as dust. For several minutes during a descent, the heat is so intense that every molecule surrounding the space capsule becomes ionized, cloaking the astronauts in a temporary plasma barrier that none of our communication signals can penetrate. This is the infamous blackout period, when the craft is aglow and Mission Control knows nothing of the astronauts' well-being. The craft continues to slow down as it plows through the atmosphere. Along the way, the temperature drops, the air gets denser, and the plasma state can no longer be sustained. The electrons go back home to their atoms, and communication is quickly restored.\n\nWhile relatively rare on Earth, plasmas comprise more than 99.99 percent of all the visible matter in the cosmos. This tally includes every glowing star and "gas" cloud. Nearly all the Hubble Space Telescope's beautiful photographs of nebulae in our galaxy depict colorful gas clouds in the form of plasma. The shape and density of some of these clouds are strongly influenced by the presence of magnetic fields from nearby sources such as pulsars. The plasma can lock a magnetic field into place and torque or otherwise shape the field to its whims.
63178
the plasma state is the ionic form of matter hence it can not travel than = to speed of light \nhence the time depends on the energy of the plasma particle and from where it has originated from sun surface and the tem. of that part
295138
Suprise answer and correct! PLASMA\nPlasma is also the most common form of matter in the universe!
231833
We have plasma centers in Fayetteville Ar. where I live and even though it's not actually donating blood the # is listed in the yellow pages under blood. I hope this helps you.
219628
Well theoretically, above absolute zero. But practically, we can't reach absolute zero, so reactions can occur at any temperature humans can reach. We achieved to reach couple nano kelvins but we still have decades to reach absolute zero, if it is possible.
1040813
Plasmas:\nPlasmas are a lot like gases, but the atoms are different because they are made up of free electrons and ions of the element. You don't find plasmas too often when you walk around. They aren't things that happen regularly on Earth. If you have ever heard of the Northern Lights or ball lightning, you might know that those are types of plasmas. It takes a very special environment to keep plasmas going. They are different and unique from the other states of matter.\n\nBose-Einstein condensates:\nThis state of matter was the only one created while you were alive. In 1995, two scientists, Cornell and Weiman, finally created this new state of matter. Two other scientists, Satyendra Bose and Albert Einstein, had predicted it in the 1920. They didn't have the equipment and facilities to make it happen in the 20s. Now we do. If plasmas are super hot and super excited atoms, the atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) are total opposites. They are super-unexcited and super-cold atoms.\n\nHope these will help. :D
637849
I do not think so. Fire can be described as a plasma, that is to say a mixture of high energy radicals neutral and ionic specicies. Freezing fire will require minimizing the kinetic energy of these species. Reduction in their kinetic energy will result in the destruction of the plasma or fire itself.\n\nHope this helps\n\n Note: To "freeze" something would require that it change its physical state to a "frozen" one, namely a solid. Frozen plasma gas, thus defies the definition of a plasma:\n\nPlasma (physical def.): a collection of charged particles (as in the atmospheres of stars or in a metal) containing about equal numbers of positive ions and electrons and exhibiting some properties of a gas but differing from a gas in being a good conductor of electricity and in being affected by a magnetic field
108338
you mean by humans? two examples: the hydrogen bomb is "uncontrolled" nuclear fusion. humans have been able to recreate fusion in a lab for a very brief time, fractions of a second.\nnuclear fusion takes place inside stars all the time, it's how they make energy.
727800
Those are states of matter (but there's also plasma).  Light isn't matter, it's a wave, like sound.
128043
Nuclear energy is not "cold", I am not sure what you meant by that.  The whole principle of how muclear energy is used to generate electrcity relies on the fact that it gives off a lot of heat.\n\nIt is also not too clean either.  The depleted nuclear waste posses a problem of where to dispose of it.  It will stay radio active for hundreds of thousands of years, so whereever you put it it needs to be out of the way and secure.  Right now, the government is planning to store the stock piles of nuclear waste deep underground under Yucca Mountain (in Nevada I think), but there is a lot of debate over this.\n\nAs for sustainable, perhaps not in the long run.  There is only so much fissionable material on Earth, it will run out eventually just like fossil fuels.  A more long term nuclear energy sourse would rely on fusion, not fission, but this has yet to be practical.
954594
Hi. Seems harmless enough. : http://www.sciencefirst.com/vw_prdct_mdl.asp?prdct_mdl_cd=15110
688444
In addition to the oxygen, water, issues previously discussed, the surface is under constant attack by radiation and high energy particles due to the lack of a sufficient atmosphere.  We would have some mutated DNA after too long on the surface.  That's not too good.
100968
There's another kind of plasma, I think you mean what they call the fourth state of matter.\nPlasma consists of a collection of free moving electrons and ions (atoms that have lost electrons). They carry electrical currents and generate magnetic fields. Plasmas are the most common form of matter. \n\nMaybe you can get good information on how a laser produces plasma in this site:\nhttp://www.plasmas.org/technology.htm
554348
goldwing doesn't know what he's taking about... Heavy water, which is distiguished by the presence of H-2, or Deuterium, is _not_ radioactive.  It is a stable isotope that does exist naturally (.015% from the table of nuclides), stable nuclei don't emit radioactive particles, radioactive particles are emitted as a means for an unstable nuclei to return to a stable form. The reason it is licensed is because heavy water can harm biogical systems, but not because of radiocativity, but rather because biological systems are quite sensitive to the solvent properties of water (which change when deuterium is substituted for natural hydrogen), given a human would have to drink pure heavy water for over two weeks before he/she became seriously ill, but it's a risk nonetheless.  Another reason that it is licensed for production is because a facility capable of seperating an isotope like H2 from natural hydrogen could potentially seperate another fissile isotope (U-235) from natural Uranium...
1050165
Okay, again, lots of answers, getting nowhere.\n\nFirst of all let me tell you I am the Chief Meteorologist of a local news/weather forum, just so you know I`m a credible source.\n\n\n--My answer--\nI was at a meteorological science convention with a few of my peers not too long ago.  This was one of the "tests" that came up.\nAs the last post said, it is RELATIVELY rare (only occurring in 6 out of 20 studies)......... but it did happen.  Electricity was successfully transferred from the plumbing system of the test bathroom, to the sensors inside the "man" in the shower.\n\n**Bottom Line**\nStay off the phone, stay off the computer, stay out of the tub........ just sit and enjoy mother nature, as she does her work.\n\n\nTake care...\nWeather_Wise911
572981
yes.\nKeep it clean -this is earth, not Uranus
626251
nuclear fusion has occured on earth - fusion bombs have been around since the 50s and controlled fusion reaction have been achieved in lots of experimental fusion power plants. the energy put in is more than the energy gotten out, so it is not a power source\n\nwhen gas is really hot, some or even all of the electrons in the atoms have enough energy to escape the attraction\nof the nucleus, so a plasma is formed that has lots of free charge flying around.\n\nthe sun is mostly plasma, there might be some unionized gas, i doubt anything could be liquid or solid