Electrically charged dust in microgravity is surprisingly orderly
Monday, November 5, 2018 - 12:00
in Astronomy & Space
In a lab on Earth, electrically charged dust generally lines up either along the downward pull of gravity or across it. Scientists got a surprise when examining data from a similar experiment on the International Space Station orbiting 248 miles above Earth. Rather than the dust bouncing around randomly, the dust often wiggled around in straight lines, even without gravity.