The Plasma State Plasma is known as the fourth state of matter. The other three states are solid, liquid and gas. In most cases, matter on Earth has electrons that orbit around the atoms nucleus. The negatively charged electrons are attracted to the positively charged nucleus. Remember, opposites attract! So the electrons stay in orbit around the nucleus. When temperatures get REALLY hot, the electrons can escape out of their orbit around the atoms nucleus. When the electron(s) leave, that leaves behind what scientists call a positively charged ion. This whole process is similar to a spacecraft that escapes the Earths gravitational pull. In summary, when electrons are no longer trapped in orbits around the nucleus, we have the plasma state. This is when a gas becomes a bunch of electrons which have escaped the pull of the nucleus and ions which are positively charged because they have lost one or more electrons. Most of the matter in the universe is found in the plasma state. That is because stars contain so much of the matter in the universe (stars are so hot that their matter can only exist in the plasma state).
Posted on: Tue, 13 May 2014 18:29:22 +0000
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