plasma

How 40 years of Viking missions decoded the Universe’s most misbehaving matter

Asmae Ourkiya February 20, 2026

Space plasma in a jar by Gabriel Voitcu. Source: Imaggeo

In a couple of days, on 22 February, we will mark a major milestone in space history: 40 years since the launch of the first Swedish Viking satellite, when an Ariane rocket from Kourou in French-occupied Guiana launched on 22 February 1986! While the general public might hear the word Viking and picture longboats, heavy axes, and a level of beard maintenance that borders on the professional, space ...[Read More]

Imaggeo On Monday: Space plasma in a jar

Gabriel Voitcu February 1, 2021

Space plasma in a jar . Credit: Gabriel Voitcu (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Laboratory visualisation of solar wind interaction with Earth’s magnetic field. The Van Allen radiation belt, Earth’s magnetosphere, “bow shock” and a solar coronal hole can all be seen, and are emphasized with the ‘Planeterrella experiment‘, a vacuum chamber in the shape of a bell jar with the ‘Sun’ on the left (in the form of a large metallic sphere) and the ‘Earth& ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Light fantastic – flashing phenomena in Norway’s night sky

Sara Mynott May 19, 2014

In this week’s Imaggeo on Mondays, Bjørn Gitle Hauge – from Østfold University College – opens our eyes to the astounding aurora borealis, and the unusual phenomena seen in Norway’s night sky… Hessdalen is a former mining district in the middle of Norway with huge ores of copper and mineshafts up to a kilometre deep. The climate here is sub-Arctic, with temperatures reaching as low as -50 de ...[Read More]