How can plasma exist in the cold of space?
Answer Hello, I think you are confusing two different domains of plasma. You are thinking of “hot plasma” such as in the Sun’s core, wherein the temperatures can reach 10^7 K and protons, electrons are essentially all stripped from their base atoms (fully ionized) paving the way for nuclear fusion at high density. However, “cold plasma” can also exist, such as for the aurora – at temperatures around 10^2 K. In this case, the plasma is more partially ionized, rather than fully ionized. This fraction of ionization can be as low as ~ 1%. Even so, the kinetic temperatures can be quite high – but bear in mind “kinetic temperature” is a measure of the kinetic energy of the particles. IF one has a very sparsely dense gas (e.g. in the outer regions of an emission nebula), even at a very high kinetic temperature, one would not feel a thing on inserting a finger into it, if one could. (Since a “burn” is registered only if the mass of the medium is sufficient to magnify the kinetic energy to caus
