NTU Planeterella
Ever wanted to see the Northern or Southern lights up close? At NTU physics we have built a planeterella as part of an MSci student final year project.
The planeterella dates back to the early 1900’s and 1910’s and was developed and built by Norwegian Physicist Kristian Birkeland (featured on Norwegian 200 Krona notes). A physicist with an interesting history and made the discovery of electrical current flow between the Sun and the Earth.
This remarkable piece of equipment shows air glow from a stream of charged particles flowing towards a strong magnetic field. Working a little bit like a Van de Graff generator under vacuum, instead of sparks the electrons flow across the evacuated space and are caught by the magnet, flowing down the field line to lose their energy when they impact on the metal sphere, warming the small amount of air nearby and causing it to emit light.
This directly mimics the way the aurora work and is an excellent science engagement tool. This shows direct examples of Maxwells equations, magnetic field lines, vacuum systems, and air glow.
See the planeterella
The NTU planeterella is available for public demonstrations and often features at NTU Open Dome events, open days and school visits.
If you would like to see the planeterella, please email Dr Ian Whittaker.
Dr Ian Whittaker introduces the NTU Planeterella and explains the science behind it.
Planeterella development team
- Dr Ian Whittaker (Project supervisor)
- Ryan Toms (Technical lead)
- Ethan Elkan (MSci undergraduate student)
Find out more about our Physics courses
With our own custom-built observatory and industry-standard facilities, our practical physics courses teach you to think like a professional physicist. Get hands-on in our labs, with options to specialise your degree in areas such as medical, nuclear and astrophysics.