Giuseppe Arrò

When water boils in a kettle, waves of steam ripple through the kitchen. A similar process happens in space, in plasma — gas so hot that electrons are stripped from atoms. Around black holes and neutron stars, this plasma isn't just hot: its particles zip around at nearly the speed of light.

Space is full of invisible sprinters — particles racing nearly at the speed of light. They are caught in the solar wind, near neutron stars, and even in the intergalactic void between galaxies. But what accelerates them where there are no shock waves or magnetic reconnections?