Aurora in a Bottle

Abstract

One of the most spectacular shows that nature offers at northern latitudes is what is known as northern lights or Aurora Borealis. The Aurora Borealis is caused by energetic particles of the solar wind, which get trapped in Earth's magnetosphere. To simulate this phenomenon on a table top scale, we ignited a plasma jet and introduced the fast traveling plasma into a chamber, where the pressure can be lowered. A magnetized ball representing Earth was placed in the middle of the chamber. Fig. 1 shows what happens when the plasma jet reaches the ball: the plasma wraps around the ball.