Scientists mimic spiraling solar wind in a lab | Science News

The Parker spiral, which has also been described as a “ballerina skirt,” is the shape that the solar wind takes on as the sun rotates, twisting the wind into a helix as seen in a NASA simulation. Scientists mimicked this spiral in plasma in the lab. This video shows a smaller Parker spiral appearing in a ball of hot, spinning plasma inside a vacuum chamber. The bright spiraling structures follow the plasma’s magnetic field. Read more: Vi