Where do single electrons and ions acquire such high energies?
Excellent question. We guess magnetic and electric fields may be involved, and have learned a great deal in that direction, but the exact processes (probably more than one) remain to be nailed down. Acceleration takes place in solar flares and CMEs (see Sun) but, like a clever conjuring trick, although it happens right in front of our eyes, we still don’t get it. Powerful shocks–abrupt discontinuities piled up in front of rapidly moving gas–can also do it, and at least one interesting event of this sort was observed in the Earth’s magnetosphere. The most powerful shocks occur in the envelope of gas expanding from the site of supernovas, and it is widely believed that such shocks (which carry a great amount of energy) are the source of most cosmic ray particles. All those are good reasons to study the acceleration of particles in the aurora and radiation belts. The energies are more moderate, but the processes occur in a region of space which instrumented satellites can probe. As we s
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