Plasma arc under ascending hypergravity

The GRAVARC TNG team, made up of three PhD students from Masaryk University in Brno in the Czech Republic) tested the behaviour of gliding arcs of plasma in noble gases under hypergravity conditions. Seen above, the krypton plasma arcs shift lower and lower as the gravity level moves from 1g to 2g to 12g and finally 18g, acquired at 0.3 second intervals. The team's objective was to improve scientific understanding of the physical phenomena involved. Studying electric discharges at different levels of gravity is important for safety in spaceflight, for the design of ion thrusters, and for the understanding of plasma-related processes in planetary atmospheres.