\u201cWe took a mechanism we demonstrated at Earth, found a clear analog at Jupiter, and showed that the underlying physics generalizes,\u201d Savvas Raptis<\/a>, the study\u2019s first author and a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, told Gizmodo. \u201cThat suggests the physics we can measure at our own planet may govern how cosmic rays\u2014particles that constantly bombard Earth\u2014get their energy at some of the most violent objects in the universe.\u201d<\/p>\n Empty collisions <\/p>\n Compared to Earth\u2019s dense atmosphere, space is relatively empty. As a result, particles interact through electromagnetic fields via \u201ccollisionless\u201d shocks that exist everywhere, from magnetized planets to comets and supernova remnants, and in jets spinning around young stars, Raptis explained. When supersonic flows like the solar wind slam into a planet\u2019s magnetic field, the resulting collisionless shocks take the shape of a ship\u2019s bow\u2014hence the term \u201cbow shock.\u201d<\/p>\n In previous work, Raptis and colleagues discovered that these bow shocks on Earth are actually very good at accelerating particles. Naturally, the team wanted to know whether this was also true for other planets and, if so, whether it would be possible to formulate a model for extreme particle physics applicable to the greater cosmos.<\/p>\n Very shocking <\/p>\n According to Raptis, direct observations of collisionless shocks are difficult as \u201cyou need a spacecraft in exactly the right place at the right time.\u201d As for more distant objects like supernova remnants, we\u2019re only able to infer what happened through telescope data on X-ray or gamma ray radiation, he said. In that sense, the team was lucky. NASA\u2019s Juno<\/a> spacecraft featured two instruments\u2014JEDI<\/a> and JADE<\/a>\u2014capable of sending back valuable information on the speed, flow direction, and number of electrons and ions spinning around Jupiter.<\/p>\n To the team\u2019s surprise, the data didn\u2019t quite follow the \u201cstandard\u201d picture, which predicts that the most action occurs at the bow shock\u2019s boundary. Instead, particles at the foreshock kept bouncing back and forth, growing more energetic with each pass until some reached relativistic speeds.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had seen hints of this on Earth, but Jupiter made it unambiguous,\u201d Raptis said. \u201cThese transient structures upstream of shocks may be the dominant drivers of particle acceleration in far more extreme environments than our planet.\u201d<\/p>\n A cosmic extension <\/p>\n Perhaps most importantly, the team constructed a model that could be applied to similar phenomena across the universe\u2014a \u201cdaring step\u201d that would \u201cunify shock-acceleration physics across scales that differ by nearly ten orders of magnitude,\u201d Martin E. Pessah, a researcher at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark uninvolved in the work, wrote in an accompanying News & Views<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe connection rests on three pillars,\u201d Raptis explained. First, the physics of collisionless shocks\u2014whether that\u2019s around distant supernovas or Earth and Jupiter\u2014are governed by the same processes. Second, there are typically similar environmental factors. Finally, astrophysical shocks are \u201cvastly stronger\u201d than planetary shocks and are actually more capable of supporting large structures for particle-driving transients, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cExtrapolating a model is always risky,\u201d Philip Valek<\/a>, a researcher at the Southwest Research Institute who wasn\u2019t involved in the new work, told Gizmodo. Valek, who served<\/a> as JADE\u2019s instrument lead, remarked that the predictions, however, appear to \u201cagree remarkably well for protostellar jets and supernova remnants.\u201d<\/p>\n Pessah added that astronomers have yet to fully grasp the physical environments near hot Jupiter exoplanets, so it remains to be seen whether the authors\u2019 proposal could apply to these systems as well.<\/p>\n Our very big neighbor <\/p>\n Raptis is fully aware of these concerns, as he noted to Gizmodo the obvious challenges of sending spacecraft to supernova remnants. But the internal consistency of the framework \u201cgives us reason to take it seriously,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n And both Europa Clipper and Juice\u2014currently on their way to Jupiter\u2014carry relevant instruments that will cross Jupiter\u2019s bow shock at various stages of their respective missions. Raptis and colleagues fully intend to pay very close attention to the data sent back by these spacecraft.<\/p>\n All that said, the findings do say something about the value of spacecraft meant to probe our own cosmic neighborhood, Raptis said. Of course, astronomers know how not to hastily extend local observations to the greater universe, but the sheer proximity of anything in the solar system gives us a rare opportunity to directly measure important processes.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is what makes spacecraft observations so valuable: our solar system becomes a laboratory where we can see these processes unfold up close,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery mission we fly, at any planet, is an opportunity to learn something not just about our neighborhood but also about how the universe works.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our most powerful particle accelerators mimic near-light speeds of cosmic particles. But no upgrade may be capable of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":843379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8],"tags":[12976,14409,3051,159,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-843378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-jupiter","tag-planetary-science","tag-plasma-physics","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Jupiter](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/jupiter-acceleration-diagram-e1780496965960.jpg\")
The acceleration process in an illustrative form. A foreshock transient, the large turbulent structure upstream of the planetary bow shock, traps and energizes electrons. \u00a9 Ben C. Smith via Raptis et al., 2026 <\/p>\n