Mariner 10 radiation. The plasma experiment's goal was to study the ionized gases (plasma) of the solar wind, the temperature and density of its electrons, and how the planets affected the velocity of the plasma stream. The experiment contained two components, facing in opposite directions. The Scanning Electrostatic Analyzer was aimed toward the Sun, and could detect positive ions and electrons, which were separated by a set of three concentric hemispherical plates. The Scanning Electron Spectrometer was aimed away from the Sun, and detected only electrons, using just one hemispherical plate. The instruments could be rotated about 60 degrees to either side.
Plasma oscillation the Debye length, the oscillations are only weakly modified by the pressure term, but at small scales the pressure term dominates and the waves become dispersionless with a speed of formula_12. For such waves, however, the electron thermal speed is comparable to the phase velocity, i.e., so the plasma waves can accelerate electrons that are moving with speed nearly equal to the phase velocity of the wave. This process often leads to a form of collisionless damping, called Landau damping. Consequently, the large-"k" portion in the dispersion relation is difficult to observe and seldom of consequence. In a bounded plasma,