Making an "At-Home Aurora"

[PenguinS]

I was looking around online trying to come up with a new experiment to do and came across the Aurora's. I found some interesting things out and was wondering if one could manage to shoot a large amount of electrons into an enclosed magnetic field, would it have the same effect?

[YT2095]

I think "Aura" is probably the wrong word to be using, Corona Discharge would be a bit closer, and yes, this can be influenced by a magnetic field, magnetic quenching used in some spark-gaps exploits this.

you would have to be careful of the field geometry however, it Can resonate and give off dangerous levels of RF.

think Magnetron.

[swansont]

pssst... "Aurora," not "aura."

[YT2095]

Doh!

 

eitherway though, the answer is still the same, and it`s perfectly doable, although it won`t look anywhere near as beautiful as the real thing which has many other factors and variables involved with the coloring and patterns.

 

I have seen such things in old Thermionic valves used in RF linear amps.

I don`t know how well equiped your home lab is though, so I can`t comment as to doability for You particularly.

[PenguinS]

Thanks for the help. I really appriciate it.

[Snail13579]

aurora is correct, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(astronomy)