The Universe's Favorite State

Plasma is rare in your daily life but dominant in the cosmos. Roughly 99 percent of the visible universe is plasma. Every star, including the Sun, is a giant ball of plasma sustained by nuclear fusion at its core. The solar wind that bathes Earth is plasma. The glowing nebulae where new stars are born are plasma. Even the aurora borealis is plasma, created when charged particles from the Sun slam into atmospheric gases and ionize them. On a cosmic scale, the solid ground under your feet is the real oddity.