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EXOTIC MATTER. “Beside the commonly known states of matter - the solid, liquid and gaseous phase - there exist more exotic states. One is the plasma state. This is a gas that does not consist only out of neutral particles, but also to a large fraction out of ions and electrons. On earth plasmas can be found in lightning discharges as well as in the ionosphere. They have technological applications in plasma displays and experimental fusion reactors. Since stars also consist of plasma, most of the visible universe is in this state of matter.” https://lnkd.in/dVhpP9H View in LinkedIn

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THE MAGNETOSPHERE OF VENUS. “The the solar wind magnetic field lines are "folded" around Venus, so the plasma flow is directed around the planet. Depending on the balance between internal pressure (exerted by ionospheric plasma) and external pressure (exerted by solar wind plasma), the positions of ionopause and magnetopause vary in altitude.” https://lnkd.in/dVhpP9H View in LinkedIn

“THE CoRoT-7b super-Earth. The atmosphere is made of rocky vapours with a very low pressure (P ⩽ 1.5 Pa), no cloud can be sustained, and no thermalisation of the planet is expected. The dayside is very hot (2474 ± 71 K at the sub-stellar point) while the nightside is very cold (50–75 K). The sub-stellar point is as hot as the tungsten filament of an incandescent bulb, resulting in the melting and distillation of silicate rocks and the formation of a lava ocean.” https://lnkd.in/dDkzNen View in LinkedIn

STRANGER THAN FICTION. “If the SQM hypothesis is correct, then all observed pulsars may actually be SSs but not neutron stars, due to the contamination process by strange nuggets in the universe. SSs can exist in various forms, such as bare SSs or SSs with a normal baryonic crust.” (SQM = Strange-quark matter). (SS = strange stars). https://lnkd.in/daa6d3s View in LinkedIn

STRANGE MATTER. “The existence of strange planets is based on a long-standing theory. It has long been proposed that SQM may be the final ground state of hadronic matter. Ordinary nuclei, made up of up and down quarks, may dissolve their boundaries and transit to an SQM phase (consisting of up, down, and strange quarks) if the nuclei experience high-enough pressure. Strange matter in bulk is stable. Even small chunks of strange matter with baryon number lower than 10(7), called "strangelets," can be stable due to surface tension.” (SQM = Strange-quark matter). https://lnkd.in/daa6d3s View in LinkedIn

IDEAS GRAVEYARD. “The mortuary of make‐believe planets contains numerous tombstones, and many astronomers lugged these planets to their private graves.” https://lnkd.in/dm_27tt View in LinkedIn

EXTREME WINDOW. “Modern astrophysics is a window into incredible cosmic events, pushing into densities, speeds, temperatures, and field strengths far beyond the human "normal".” https://lnkd.in/d9j5xur View in LinkedIn

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