Mysterious 'Mega Speed' Electrons Discovered Outside Earth Baffle Scientists

Scientists just found mysterious electrons with mega speed outside the Earth's magnetic field.

When a particle enters earth, it is greeted by a protective region called the bow shock. The barrier usually repel these particles away from the Earth. But not all particles are repelled, some are returned towards the sun.

These particles form a region of electrons and ions called the foreshock region. Scientists have long thought that these particles get their energy from bouncing back and forth to the bow shock from the foreshock region.

But new observations provide new explanation as to why this happens. NASA scientists discovered that this foreshock region itself can speed up electrons up to speeds approaching the speed of light.

"This affects pretty much every field that deals with high-energy particles, from studies of cosmic rays to solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which have the potential to damage satellites and affect astronauts on expeditions to Mars," said Lynn Wilson, lead author of the paper on these results at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a press release.

IB Times notes that the observations were made using one of the five satellites that are currently part of NASA's Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission.

Upon observing the electrons in the foreshock region, the scientists encountered some electrons with unbelievable high speeds, much faster than the average energy of particles in the same region. They also noted that the acceleration lasted for less than a minute. The scientists were left puzzled by the electrons as there were no solar radio bursts or major collisions that occurred to trigger the acceleration.

As if such is not baffling enough, the scientist have found that these accelerated electrons were moving in all directions and not just along the path of the magnetic field lines. In short, they are not from the bow shock.

"This is a puzzling case because we're seeing energetic electrons where we don't think they should be, and no model fits them," said David Sibeck, co-author and THEMIS project scientist at NASA Goddard.

The study was published in Physical Review Letters.