IOWA CITY, Iowa — A University of Iowa researcher is part of an international team that has identified a never-before-seen plasma wave high above Jupiter’s north pole.
The wave, called the Alfvén-Langmuir mode, was detected by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016. Scientists say the discovery represents a plasma environment unlike any other observed in the solar system.
Plasma is often called the fourth state of matter. It forms when atoms are so energized that they break apart into a mix of electrons and ions that flows like a fluid, but also responds to magnetic fields…