Great Power Heavy Industry: Rise

Chapter 69 Popular Science: The Plasma State of Matter

(This chapter is not considered the main text, but just to let readers better understand the ion engine that appears later in the article. Ion engine has a very important position in this book.)
The matter around us is various and colorful. If you divide these materials, you will have no difficulty in pointing out which are solid, which are liquid, and which are gas.

Besides these three, is there any other form of matter?

Let's use water as an example: when ice is heated to a certain level, it changes from solid to liquid water; when the temperature rises again, it evaporates into gas again.

But if the temperature of the gas continues to increase, what kind of result will be obtained?

When the temperature of the gas rises above several thousand degrees, the atoms of the gas begin to throw off their electrons, so the negatively charged electrons start to roam freely, and the atoms also become positively charged ions.

The higher the temperature, the more electrons the gas atoms shed. This phenomenon is called ionization of the gas. Scientists call the ionized gas "plasma state".

In addition to high temperature, the gas can also be turned into a plasma state by irradiating the gas with powerful ultraviolet rays, X-rays, or gamma rays.

This kind of plasma state may feel very rare to you!

In fact, in the vast and boundless universe, the plasma state is the most common form of matter.

Because most of the luminous planets in the universe have very high internal temperature and pressure, the materials inside these planets are almost in a plasma state.

Solids, liquids, and gases are found only in those dim planets and scattered interstellar matter.

Even in our surroundings, we can often encounter substances in the plasma state.

It can be found in the tubes of fluorescent lamps and neon lights, and in the blinding incandescent arc.

Again, this wonderful state of plasma can also be found in the ionosphere around the Earth, in the beautiful aurora, in the flash discharges in the atmosphere and in the tails of meteors.

Of course, in addition to the above four forms of matter, there are several forms of matter in the direction of solid state, such as the "super solid state" inside the white dwarf star, and the "neutron state" existing in the central star.

A central substance the size of a lighter can weigh more than 30 billion tons, and it takes more than 96000 heavy-duty locomotives to pull it.

(End of this chapter)