{"id":333294,"date":"2025-12-20T03:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T17:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?guid=72cf87f838164b285f291a04a2e9ea36"},"modified":"2025-12-20T03:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T17:43:10","slug":"water-droplet-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=333294","title":{"rendered":"Water Droplet Science"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\" class=\"hds-media hds-module wp-block-image\">\n<div class=\"margin-left-auto margin-right-auto nasa-block-align-inline\">\n<div class=\"hds-media-wrapper margin-left-auto margin-right-auto\">\n<figure class=\"hds-media-inner hds-cover-wrapper hds-media-ratio-cover \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/science-of-opportunity-stacked-water-dropslarge.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/science-of-opportunity-stacked-water-dropslarge.jpg?w=1920\" class=\"attachment-2048x2048 size-2048x2048\" alt=\"White streaks of motion swirl and swoop all over the image. At the middle of the image is a Teflon knitting needle.\" style=\"transform: scale(1.2); transform-origin: 50% 50%; object-position: 50% 50%; object-fit: cover;\" block_context=\"nasa-block\" loading=\"eager\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/science-of-opportunity-stacked-water-dropslarge.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/science-of-opportunity-stacked-water-dropslarge.jpg?resize=300,169 300w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/science-of-opportunity-stacked-water-dropslarge.jpg?resize=768,432 768w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/science-of-opportunity-stacked-water-dropslarge.jpg?resize=1024,576 1024w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/science-of-opportunity-stacked-water-dropslarge.jpg?resize=1536,864 1536w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/science-of-opportunity-stacked-water-dropslarge.jpg?resize=400,225 400w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/science-of-opportunity-stacked-water-dropslarge.jpg?resize=600,338 600w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/science-of-opportunity-stacked-water-dropslarge.jpg?resize=900,506 900w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/science-of-opportunity-stacked-water-dropslarge.jpg?resize=1200,675 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><figcaption class=\"hds-caption padding-y-2\">\n<div class=\"hds-credits\">NASA\/Don Pettit<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>NASA astronaut <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/pQPosDg1OUU?si=qSiuUhTjI0PkqLfb\" rel=\"noopener\">Don Pettit<\/a> demonstrates electrostatic forces using charged water droplets and a knitting needle made of Teflon. This series of overlapping frames from Feb. 19, 2025, displays the unique attraction-repulsion properties of Teflon and charged droplets, similar to how charged particles from the Sun behave when they come in contact with Earth\u2019s magnetic field. Highly energetic particles from space that collide with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere create the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/sun\/auroras\/\" rel=\"noopener\">aurora borealis<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/missions\/station\/iss-research\/nasa-astronaut-don-pettits-science-of-opportunity-on-space-station\/\">Explore more of what Pettit has coined \u201cscience of opportunity.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Image credit: NASA\/Don Pettit<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASA astronaut Don Pettit demonstrates electrostatic forces using charged water droplets and a knitting needle made of Teflon. This series of overlapping frames from Feb. 19, 2025, displays the unique attraction-repulsion properties of Teflon and charged droplets, similar to how charged particles from the Sun behave when they come in contact with Earth\u2019s magnetic field. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-333294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=333294"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333329,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333294\/revisions\/333329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=333294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=333294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=333294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}