Plasmas and the Sun
Dustin Anderson
On Earth, we typically encounter three states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. Surprisingly, however, most of the matter in the universe exists in a fourth state, known as plasma. Plasmas make up the Sun and the other stars, as well as much of the interstellar medium. Obtained from gases by the process of ionization, they exhibit strange collective behaviors not observed in other states of matter. In my talk I will introduce the basic theories of plasma motion, with the goal of explaining some interesting solar phenomena – sunspots, prominences, and coronal mass ejections – in terms of plasma processes