Cosmic head shock waves

Cosmic head shock waves

Imagine an object moving at supersonic speeds. When released into the medium, it causes the material to accumulate, shrink and heat. As a result, one of the types of the shock wave is formed - the head one. Scientists hunt for these phenomena, because they hide a lot of cosmic secrets.

Head shock waves can be found in all space. Even the most devastated areas of the universe contain protons, electrons, atoms, molecules and other substances. When planets, stars, and plasma clouds ejected from supernovae fly through the environment at high speeds, then the last shock waves are generated in the latter.

The solar wind also forms such waves in front of the earth's magnetosphere. The rapidly moving star plasma flies past the Earth, but cannot break through the magnetospheric flap. The solar wind has a magnetic field, so it creates head shock waves in front of the outer edge of our magnetosphere. The study of this type of wave will help to learn more about the secrets of the solar wind and better understand its complex effects on the Earth. Even more impressive are the spectacles created by high-speed collisions of stars with the interstellar medium. A striking example is the Kappa Cassiopeia supergiant, whose head shock wave can be seen in the Spitzer infrared detectors.

If we consider an even larger scale, an interesting view is provided by the constellation of Carina, in which the galactic cluster 1E 0657-558 lives. The photographs of the Chandra X-ray Observatory make it possible to consider the moment of a large collision of two small clusters.

Researchers carefully study these types of cluster beats to determine their velocity in the sky. The fine structure of impacts also offers a lot of valuable information about complex physical processes in the plasma of clusters and other astrophysical universe objects.

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