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by antognini 1582 days ago
> The proper name for such a cloud is "plasma". Many astronomers are allergic to this word, probably because the maths for plasma fluid dynamics is all just way too hard

I'm an astronomer (or at least used to be) and I don't know any astronomers who are allergic to the word "plasma". MHD simulations are hard, but when it's necessary to do them, astronomers do them. I'm not exactly sure what the point of this comment is. Are you saying that astronomers are not handling the physics of jet-ISM interactions properly?

1 comments

It is very rare to encounter the word "plasma", at all, in any astro article, and vanishingly rare to encounter any mention of any plasma fluid dynamics phenomenon, as such, except in solar physics. Usually we read "hot gas". There has been some progress: x-radiation is not militantly insisted to be blackbody radiation from stuff at absurdly high temperatures, anymore.

MHD is the trivial, sanitized subset of plasma fluid dynamics that rarely occurs in nature, and is hard enough to maintain even artificially. But MHD maths are easier.

I am saying that astronomers seem, from any remove, to try hard to avoid discussing things that seem to require treatment with PFD. Polar jets are embarrassing because they cannot be ignored. So, how they work is just never mentioned in the popular press.