Space Plasma Physics Space plasma physics is concerned with plasma phenomena in outer space. This covers a wide range of topics. Beginning at the center of our solar system, the sun is a big ball of plasma. It spews out a hot diffuse plasma, the solar wind, that crashes into Earth's magnetic field and forms the magnetosphere. Eventually the solar wind butts up against the interstellar medium, a very tenuous could plasma.
Ongoing research includes satellite measurements, theoretical studies and laboratory simulations.