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This box of holiday cheer is actually tubes of plasma containing suspended microparticles exposed to an electrical current to form 3D crystal structures.<\/p>\n
Called Plasma Kristall-4, this ESA\u2013Roscosmos experiment has been helping to visualise atoms on the International Space Station to provide insights on basic physical processes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A plasma is an electrically charged gas, somewhat like lightning, that rarely occurs on Earth. It is considered to be the fourth state of matter, distinct from gas, liquids and solids.<\/p>\n
Plasma for the PK-4 experiment is created with neon or argon gas in tubes that make particles electrically charged. Scientists excite the particles with electrical fields, a laser and changes in temperature to get them to move them in the plasma.<\/p>\n
These manipulations cause the proxy atoms to interact strongly, leading to organised structures \u2013 plasma crystals. The plastic particles in PK-4 bond or repulse each other just as atoms do on Earth in fluid state.<\/p>\n
By adjusting the voltage across the experiment chamber scientists can tailor their interactions, and observe each particle as if in slow motion. Using PK-4, researchers across the world can follow how an object melts, how waves spread in fluids and how currents change at the atomic level.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The experiment is installed in the European Physiology Module on the European space laboratory Columbus and was last run in November<\/a> with assistance from cosmonaut Alexander Skvorstov.<\/p>\n