Physicists caught protons ‘surfing’ on shock waves
A laser experiment could help scientists understand how the subatomic particles reach high energies
![illustration of Earth and the sun, with Earth's magnetic field shown in blue, the solar wind shown in orange lines, and a bow shock as a red line where the two meet](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/082021_ec_surfing-protons_feat.jpg?fit=1030%2C580&ssl=1)
A lab experiment suggests that protons can gain energy by surfing shock waves in space, like the bow shock (red in this illustration) where the solar wind (orange lines) meets Earth’s magnetic field (blue).
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