NASA Takes First High-Resolution Measurements of Interplanetary Shock

NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission has obtained unprecedented high-time resolution multipoint particle and field measurements of an interplanetary shock event.

Interplanetary Shocks

• Interplanetary shocks are a type of collisionless shock — events where particles transfer energy through electromagnetic fields instead of directly bouncing into one another. These shocks are a phenomenon found throughout the Universe, including in supernovae, black holes and distant stars.
• Interplanetary shocks start at the Sun, which continually releases streams of charged particles called the solar wind.
• The solar wind typically comes in two types: slow and fast. When a fast stream of solar wind overtakes a slower stream, ....