# Plasma · Concept

> Gas hot or charged enough that its atoms have come apart into ions and electrons.

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts/CPT0DECW07YBYFA/plasma  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Concepts](https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts)Plasma

Concept · physics · in 6 mysteries

# Plasma

Gas hot or charged enough that its atoms have come apart into ions and electrons.

[Ball lightning](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/ball-lightning)[Hessdalen lights](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/hessdalen-lights)[Marfa lights](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/marfa-lights)

The fourth state of matter: a gas whose atoms have lost electrons, so that it conducts, glows and answers to magnetic fields. Lightning is plasma; so is the Sun. Plasma is invoked for the Hessdalen lights, ball lightning and some unexplained aerial reports, and the test in each case is whether the proposed plasma could exist for as long as the light was seen.

## Where it comes up

**[Ball lightning](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/ball-lightning)**

[Microwaves generated at the stroke tip are trapped in a self-made plasma bubble.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/ball-lightning/answers/ANS0D40AA4C22YQ/microwaves-generated-at-the-stroke-tip-are-trapped-in-a-self)[Particle simulations reproduce a stable radiation-filled plasma bubble.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/ball-lightning/evidence/EVD0D40AAC61G20/particle-simulations-reproduce-a-stable-radiation-filled)

**[Hessdalen lights](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/hessdalen-lights)**

[Dusty plasmas formed from ionised air and dust in the valley.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/hessdalen-lights/answers/ANS0D0NDTT23NT7/dusty-plasmas-formed-from-ionised-air-and-dust-in-the-valley)[Photometry gave up to 100 kW and a light profile unlike a plasma.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/hessdalen-lights/evidence/EVD0D0NDSK06PB1/photometry-gave-up-to-100-kw-and-a-light-profile-unlike-a)

**[Marfa lights](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/marfa-lights)**

An electrical plasma, akin to ball lightning, with a geological source.

[An electrical plasma with a geological source](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/marfa-lights/answers/ANS0DCKMXRQCM1R/an-electrical-plasma-with-a-geological-source)

**[America's missing scientists, 2021–2026](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/missing-scientists)**

The reported roles range from planetary science at JPL, plasma physics at MIT and astrophysics at Caltech to pharmaceutical chemistry at Novartis, administrative and custodial work at nuclear sites, Air Force…

[Their reported jobs span a dozen employers and fields with no programme in common](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/missing-scientists/evidence/EVD0DCQRJTQBW31/their-reported-jobs-span-a-dozen-employers-and-fields-with)[Most of the people on the list had no reported UFO or exotic-propulsion work at all](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/missing-scientists/evidence/EVD0DCQR5HD40W3/most-of-the-people-on-the-list-had-no-reported-ufo-or-exotic)

**[Fast radio bursts and the origin of the one-off bursts](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/fast-radio-bursts)**

The first was reported in 2007 by Duncan Lorimer and colleagues, who found it in archival pulsar-survey data from the Parkes telescope: a single 30 Jy burst near the Small Magellanic Cloud, whose low frequencies…

**[White Shaman Mural](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/white-shaman-mural)**

Marvin Rowe's laboratory at Texas A&M developed a way to burn off only the organic carbon in rock paint with an oxygen plasma, dating a Pecos River painting for the first time in 1990 .

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). Plasma [Concept CPT0DECW07YBYFA]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/CPT0DECW07YBYFA
```

Key

**CPT** 0DECW07YBYFA

Record

Concept

Field

Physics

Related

[Ball lightning](https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts/CPT0DECW07S9ZXB/ball-lightning)

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[Ball lightning](https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts/CPT0DECW07S9ZXB/ball-lightning)

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