Title: Plasma Globes for Compact Antennas, Illumination, and Holiday Ornaments (Video)
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Ralph Gibson, a long-time member of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, works at his desk in Wilder Hall. Gibson is known for having one of the most eclectic and interesting offices on campus. (Photo by Joshua Renaud ’17)
[more]FACULTY CONTACT: Hans Mueller
[more]Space observatories are finding more and more stars that lose some of their atmosphere in the form of a stellar wind (like our Sun’s solar wind) which interacts with the ever-present interstellar gas in such a way that bow shocks and other interaction features light up. The project focuses on simulating this stellar wind / dense interstellar gas interaction in 3D, synthesizing observables numerically, and then comparing them to the observations to explore the physics of the interaction.
[more]The focus of this project is the solar wind, a steady plasma stream of solar atmosphere lost by the Sun and blowing past the planets. Spacecraft have measured the solar wind for many decades. All but one spacecraft observe in the ecliptic plane (Earth’s orbital plane).
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