Plasma

For types of matter, students are first introduced to “solid”, “liquid’ and ‘gas’.

Plasma is a fourth type of matter, and the progression, following increasing temperature, is solid –> liquid –> gas –> plasma.

The temperatures needed to convert a gas to a plasma are typically higher than 10,000 K.

Solar Wind consists of material with sufficient energy to escape the gravitational attraction of the sun.

The term “nonthermal” plasma applies to systems in which the electrons have a very high temperature but the other components do not. A fluorescent lightbulb is an example of this–you can touch the bulb because the non-electron materials are very close to room temperature.