European Researcher's Night 2023
What is a plasma? What creates auroras? Why do we have so many satellites in space? On 29
September 2023, our group answered these questions and many more to the general public in the context of the Night of European Researches. This science outreach event takes place every year across all Europe and aims to approach researchers and their work to the general public. The University of Murcia held it at their “Campus de la Merced” site, in the city center. More than 40 research groups and science outreach associations from our University gathered that night and talked about their research with students, families and any person passionate about science.
In our stand, the interested visitors could learn what is a plasma and the basic concepts of
electromagnetism necessary to understand its nature. We set a series of simple experiments to
illustrate our explanations: iron filings suspended in a liquid to show the magnetic field of
magnets, an ammeter to measure the induced current produced by a varying magnetic field and a plasma lamp that allowed the public to have a close up view of a plasma. In addition, we explained general aspects of our research, particularly how we study the solar wind and the magnetosphere using the data from spacecrafts. Using paper models of Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter and Magnetospheric MultiScale missions available at the sites of NASA and ESA, we described the main features of these spacecrafts and specified their main goals. Finally, we outline the objectives and main results of the projects our group is leading: Multi-Ion and OxySpace.
