Nature's particle accelerator

[HysteryDiagnosis]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100413202850.htm

A lightning researcher at the University of Bath has discovered that during thunderstorms, giant natural particle accelerators can form 40 km above the surface of the Earth. On Wednesday 14th April Dr. Martin Fullekrug will present his new work at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting (NAM 2010) in Glasgow. The image shows a transient airglow or 'sprite' above a thunderstorm in France in September 2009. (Credit: Serge Soula / Oscar van der Velde)



Dr Fullekrug comments: "It's intriguing to see that nature creates particle accelerators just a few miles above our heads. Once these new missions study them in more detail from space we should get a far better idea of how they actually work. They provide a fascinating example of the interaction between the Earth and the wider Universe."

[leftstreet]

1. I welcome our new Natural Particle Accelerator Overlords

Interesting link!

Thanks for posting

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. It gets better as you go....

http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/00current.htm

The temperature of gases in the cluster core has been measured at 100 million Kelvin. Researchers think that electrons accelerated by shockwaves traveling through the cluster gas generate the intense X-rays. The shockwaves are said to be created when two galaxy clusters "collide and merge."

By referring to material with a temperature of 100 million Kelvin as "hot gas," ESA scientists are highlighting their complete ignorance of plasma and its behavior. No atom can remain intact at such temperatures: electrons are stripped from the nuclei and powerful electric fields develop. The gaseous matter becomes plasma, capable of conducting electricity and forming double layers.

Nobel laureate Hannes Alfvén maintained that double layers are a unique celestial object, and that intense X-ray and gamma ray sources could be due to double layers "shorting out" and exploding. Double layers can accelerate charged particles up to enormous energies in a variety of frequencies, forming "plasma beams." If the charge density becomes excessive, they explode, drawing electricity from the entire circuit and discharging more energy than was contained in the double layer.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Giant particle accelerator discovered in the sky

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080125224810.htm



Giant Particle Accelerator Discovered In The Sky
ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2008) — ESA’s orbiting gamma-ray observatory, Integral, has made the first unambiguous discovery of highly energetic X-rays coming from a galaxy cluster. The find has shown the cluster to be a giant particle accelerator.