Electrons might be accelerated to close the velocity of sunshine once they work together with the Earth’s magnetosphere
Electrons serve many purposes in physics. They are used by some particle accelerators and support our modern world in the silicon chips that power the world’s computers. They are also common in space, where they occasionally float around in a plasma in the magnetospheres of planets. A team from the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) headed by Dr. Hayley Allison and Yuri Shprits have now found that the electrons present in the magnetosphere can be accelerated to relativistic speeds and that this could potentially be dangerous for our growing orbital infrastructure.
The team carried out their analysis using data from the Van Allen probes, two satellites that measured Earth’s Van Allen radiation belt, a region of energetically charged particles caused by the solar wind. These radiation belts are present on any planet with a magnetosphere, although Earth is the most widely studied. Although the probes were decommissioned in 2019, their data are still available for scientific studies. New machine learning techniques, including those used by the GFZ team, can now also be applied to the data from the probes.
UT video about the idea of an artificial magnetosphere.
One thing that the Van Allen probes examined was the plasma that was generated in the radiation belts. The GFZ team found that electrons only reach relativistic speeds when very low plasma levels are present. After observing this, the team developed a model using the low plasma levels observed in the data and found that such a low plasma density creates near-ideal conditions for an electron to accelerate.
In the world of electrons, plasma can act a bit like water – a dampening force that is much harder for an electron to push through. Without plasma, the magnetosphere can continue to exert a force on the electron that further accelerates it to near relativistic speeds.
The magnetic field and electrical currents in and around the earth create complex forces that have an immeasurable impact on daily life.
Photo credits: ESA / ATG medialab
This is particularly important because of the threat that such relativistic electrons can pose to satellites and other orbital infrastructures. At such high speeds, almost no shielding can stop them, and if they hit critical electronics they could potentially cripple a system. Engineers who design systems for space know the potential danger and design systems so that there is not a single point of failure, whether or not they are hit by a relativistic electron. However, knowing the likelihood of such a problem can help you improve the system design.
Right now, this is the best that scientists and engineers can hope for – explaining the consequences of relativistic electrons on their equipment. However, further studies by the GFZ team and others could lead to different forecasting or mitigation techniques. There is still a lot of data to analyze, not least thanks to non-relativistic electrons.
Learn more:
GFZ: How do electrons close to the earth reach almost the speed of light?
UT: The moon’s magnetosphere used to be twice as strong as that of the earth
ScienceDaily: How do near-Earth electrons get almost the speed of light?
Mission statement:
Model of the radiation belts surrounding the earth as well as ways for electrons to reach relativistic speeds.
Photo credit: Ingo Michaelis / Yuri Shprits, GFZ
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