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This artist's impression shows NASA's Cassini spacecraft exploring the magnetic environment of Saturn. Saturn's magnetosphere is depicted in gray, while the complex bow shock region — the shock wave in the solar wind that surrounds the magnetosphere — is in blue. The image is not to scale.
By Mike Wall
Space.com
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has spotted solar particles moving at incredible speeds near Saturn, giving scientists a rare up-close look at phenomena that occur during dramatic star explosions.
The particles flowed from the sun during a strong blast of solar wind, then plowed into Saturn's magnetic field shortly thereafter. This encounter, which Cassini observed in February 2007, created a shockwave that accelerated the particles to super-high energies, scientists said.
Similar shockwaves commonly form in the aftermath of massive star explosions called supernovas, ramping up nearby particles to nearly the speed of light. Researchers think supernova shockwaves are the primary source of cosmic rays, high-energy particles that pervade our Milky Way galaxy and slam into Earth's atmosphere continuously.
It can be tough to study distant supernovas and their shockwaves, so Cassini's observations provide a welcome proxy, scientists said.
"Cassini has essentially given us the capability of studying the nature of a supernova shock in situ in our own solar system, bridging the gap to distant high-energy astrophysical phenomena that are usually only studied remotely," Adam Masters, of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Sagamihara, Japan, said in a statement.
Masters is lead author of a study reporting the Cassini findings, which was published this week in the journal Nature Physics.
The Saturn shockwave may be the most powerful ever detected at the ringed planet and suggests that certain kinds of shocks can be surprisingly efficient particle accelerators, researchers said.
The $3.2 billion Cassini mission is a joint effort of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. Cassini launched in 1997 and arrived at the Saturn system in 2004, delivering a lander called Huygens to the planet's huge moon Titan in January 2005.
Cassini will continue studying the ringed planet and its many moons for several years to come; Cassini's mission has been extended through at least 2017.
Follow Space.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+.
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I wonder if it would be possible to map this shockwave region around Saturn and use to experiment with in the future by "dropping" or "launching" certain particles into the region from a probe and monitoring their effects..?
The Cassini space probe has brought so much wonderful science to the world. It's a great time to be a space nerd. When I first saw the Huygens landing on Titan I really felt like a kid again. Such awe-inspiring moments are truly fleeting in life.
Saturn is a true beauty. We are so fortunate to be living here, and living now - and to be able to see these wondrous things.
HUM, I wonder what kind of insight this could give scientists into alternate forms of propulsion?
I Hope we all live to be Very Old just so we can see what the future brings, what the next BIG breakthrough is. I think we live in the most exciting time in history, I wish I were 10 right now and could live to be 110 just so i can see what the next 100 years brings!
Also shows just how much data Cassini has produced. It took them 6 years to get this into print. To me that's really cool. Imagine what we could learn if we funded science the way we should.