PPPL's Zwicker and TCNJ Students Take Dusty Plasma Experiment on NASA's "Weightless Wonder"

From left are team DPX members Chris Conniff, Darrick Jones and Andrew Zwicker aboard NASA's 727.

Andrew Zwicker, Head of the Science Education Program at PPPL, joined students from The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) on a special zero gravity flight this month. Zwicker and the students are collaborating on the Dusty Plasma Experiment (DPX). Plasma is the fourth state of matter; dusty plasmas are prevalent throughout the universe, including in comet tails and the rings of Saturn.

Team DPX went to NASA's Microgravity University in Houston to carry out "Using Fluorescent Dust to Obtain a Three-Dimensional Analysis of a Dusty Plasma" aboard a 727 plane affectionately known as the "Weightless Wonder." The experiment studied the science of dusty plasmas in microgravity — how dust and plasma interact, and the effects of gravity on dust particles.
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