plasma
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Plasma is a state of matter made up of gas where atoms have been stripped of their electrons, creating a soup of charged particles. It matters because plasma is the most common state of matter in the universe, found in stars and many other cosmic phenomena, and understanding it is crucial for developing technologies like nuclear fusion energy.
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Plasma is a state of matter that results from one of the other three states (often, the gaseous one) having undergone an appreciable degree of ionization. It thus consists of a significant portion of charged particles (ions and/or electrons). While rarely encountered on Earth, it is estimated that 99.9% of all ordinary matter in the universe is plasma. Stars are almost pure balls of plasma, and plasma dominates the rarefied intracluster medium and intergalactic medium. Plasma can be artificially generated, for example, by heating a neutral gas or subjecting it to a strong electromagnetic field.
The presence of charged particles makes plasma electrically conductive, with the dynamics of individual particles and macroscopic plasma motion governed by collective electromagnetic fields and very sensitive to externally applied fields. The response of plasma to electromagnetic fields is used in many modern devices and technologies, such as plasma televisions or plasma etching.