{"id":230507,"date":"2026-02-04T05:30:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/one-of-a-kind-plasma-tunnel-recreates-extreme-conditions-spacecraft-face-upon-reentry"},"modified":"2026-02-04T05:30:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:30:29","slug":"one-of-a-kind-plasma-tunnel-recreates-extreme-conditions-spacecraft-face-upon-reentry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/one-of-a-kind-plasma-tunnel-recreates-extreme-conditions-spacecraft-face-upon-reentry","title":{"rendered":"One-of-a-kind \u2018plasma tunnel\u2019 recreates extreme conditions spacecraft face upon reentry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r5etl8FKwrs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Picture a spacecraft returning to Earth after a long journey. The vehicle slams into the planet\u2019s atmosphere at roughly 17,000 miles per hour. A shockwave erupts. Molecules in the air are ripped apart, forming a plasma\u2014a gas made of charged particles that can reach tens of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit, many times hotter than the surface of the sun.<\/p>\n<p>The sight is spectacular to behold, but it\u2019s also dangerous, said Hisham Ali, assistant professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences.<\/p>\n<p>The Columbia disaster is a tragic example. On Feb. 1, 2003, as the space shuttle reentered Earth\u2019s atmosphere, plasma flooded into the vehicle through a defect in its shield of protective tiles. The shuttle disintegrated, and seven crewmembers, including CU Boulder alumna Kalpna Chawla, died.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Picture a spacecraft returning to Earth after a long journey. The vehicle slams into the planet\u2019s atmosphere at roughly 17,000 miles per hour. A shockwave erupts. Molecules in the air are ripped apart, forming a plasma\u2014a gas made of charged particles that can reach tens of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit, many times hotter than the [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,1514],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-particle-physics","category-space-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230507\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}