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Article: At Home in the Plasma Universe.
- Article from:
- The World and I
- Article date:
- September 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 News World Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The cosmos is a vast, interconnected body of invisible magnetic fields guiding electrified streams that become visible only where they converge to spin out galaxies and stars.
Looking out from planet Earth on a clear night,we usually see nothing between us and the Moon but empty space. Although we're looking through air, its invisibility makes sense to us. That is the nature of air. It is real but invisible.
On some clear nights, in arctic and antarctic regions, the sky is filled with indefinite, undulating colored sheets that move and dance. That, we are told, is the aurora. It is the visible manifestation of huge, invisible electric currents embracing ...