Related papers: Near-lunar proton velocity distribution explained …
Significant proton fluxes were detected in the near wake region of the Moon by an ion mass spectrometer on board Chandrayaan-1. The energy of these nightside protons is slightly higher than the energy of the solar wind protons. The protons…
Due to the high absorption of solar wind plasma on the lunar dayside, a large scale wake structure is formed downstream of the Moon. However, recent in-situ observations have revealed the presence of protons in the near-lunar wake (100 km…
We report the first observation of protons in the near (100--200 km from surface) and deeper (near anti-subsolar point) lunar plasma wake when the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) and solar wind velocity ($v_{sw}$) are parallel (aligned…
The wake behind a large object (such as the moon) moving rapidly through a plasma (such as the solar wind) contains a region of depleted density, into which the plasma expands along the magnetic field, transverse to the flow. It is shown…
Observations of strong solar wind proton flux correlations with ROSAT X-ray rates along with high spectral resolution Chandra observations of X-rays from the dark Moon show that soft X-ray emission mirrors the behavior of the solar wind. In…
Proton auroras are widely observed on the dayside of Mars, identified as a significant intensity enhancement in the hydrogen Lyman alpha (121.6 nm) emission between 110 - 150 km altitudes. Solar wind protons penetrating as energetic neutral…
Observations of the Vela pulsar-wind nebula (PWN) with the Chandra X-ray Observatory have revealed a complex, variable PWN structure, including inner and outer arcs, a jet in the direction of the pulsar's proper motion, and a counter-jet in…
Parker Solar Probe (PSP) observations have revealed that most of the solar wind acceleration occurs very close to the Sun. This acceleration is partly due to the global electric potential originating from the mass disparity between…
We have recently proposed an explanation for the birth velocities of pulsars based on neutrino oscillations (hep-ph/9606428). One of the quantities, dN/dT, was evaluated in the approximation of constant chemical potential for the electrons.…
Solar system bodies that lack a significant atmosphere and significant internal magnetic fields, such as the Moon and asteroids, have been considered as passive absorbers of the solar wind. However, ion observations near the Moon by the…
In this work, more than a dozen solar energetic particle (SEP) events are identified where the source region is magnetically well-connected to at least one spacecraft at 1~au. The observed intensity-time profiles, for all available proton…
X-ray observations of kilo-parsec scale jets indicate that a synchrotron origin of the sustained non-thermal emission is likely. This requires distributed acceleration of electrons up to near PeV energies along the jet. The underlying…
Stochastic acceleration of electrons and protons by waves propagating parallel to the large scale magnetic fields of magnetized plasmas is studied with emphasis on the feasibility of accelerating particles from a thermal background to…
The high cadence plasma, electric, and magnetic field measurements by the Magnetospheric MultiScale spacecraft allow us to explore the near-Earth space plasma with an unprecedented time and spatial resolution, resolving electron-scale…
The hot and diffuse nature of the Sun's extended atmosphere allows it to persist in non-equilibrium states for long enough that wave-particle instabilities can arise and modify the evolution of the expanding solar wind. Determining which…
The evolution of a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) depends on properties of the progenitor star, supernova, and surrounding environment. As some of these quantities are difficult to measure, reproducing the observed dynamical properties and…
Characterised by a surface bound exosphere and localised crustal magnetic fields, the Moon was considered as a passive object when solar wind interacts with it. However, the neutral particle and plasma measurements around the Moon by recent…
Both the recently reported anomalous secular increase of the astronomical unit, of the order of a few cm yr^-1, and of the eccentricity of the lunar orbit e_ = (9+/-3) 10^-12 yr^-1 can be phenomenologically explained by postulating that the…
Determining the mechanism responsible for the plasma heating and particle acceleration is a fundamental problem in the study of the heliosphere. Due to efficient wave-particle interactions of ion-scale waves with charged particles, these…
We present measurements from the ESA/NASA Cluster mission that show in situ acceleration of ions to energies of 1 MeV outside the bow shock. The observed heating can be associated with the presence of electromagnetic structures with strong…