Astrophysicists at Princeton University have created Astrophysical shockwaves within a laboratory environment

An article in Sci-News.com has highlighted Princeton – led research that has generated an astrophysical shock wave within laboratory conditions. Dr Derek Shaeffer and Dr Will Fox, the co-authors of the research, have created the first high-energy shock waves within lab conditions, shedding light on how this little known phenomenon works.

When stars explode, also known as supernovae, the remnants of the star matter can form a nebula and a neutron star. The neutron star is formed from the crushed core of the old star. These stars can be as little as a few kilometres in diameter, but they have very large masses and depending on the mass of the star that caused the supernova, neutron stars can have varying masses. Moreover neutrons stars often spin rapidly – about 30 times per second. The density of a neutron star is enormous and a small teaspoon-full of matter from such a star would weigh billions of tonnes. As a result of their enormous density, the gravitational forces experienced on a neutron star are billions of times stronger than Earth’s (Space.com, July, 2017). In addition the detritus from a supernova forms a nebula around the neutron star which contains gases and highly charged particles. Furthermore, neutron stars can emit huge amounts of energy in the form of high energy astrophysical shock-waves, that are not fully understood. However, these shockwaves have now been generated within laboratory conditions (Sci-News, July, 2017).

Possibly one of the most observed nebula in the universe is the Crab nebula, which has been viewed closely, by Nasa’s Hubble Telescope. The images that have been gained from this nebula show its evolution and the pulses of energy that are emitted from the neutron star. These images, gathered from the Hubble Telescope, show the filaments of matter from the old star and the radiation that results from electrons moving at velocities near the speed of light. It is thought that the shockwaves from the neutron star generate ‘wisps’, within the nebula, that are moving at half the speed of light. The intensity of the dynamical energy shifts, within the Crab Nebula, make it an important source of information for the field of astrophysics. (Sci-News, July, 2017)

Within the laboratory the team of researches employed the use of a laser:

To simulate the high energy shockwaves the researches – used a laser to create high-energy plasma — a form of matter composed of atoms and charged atomic particles — that expanded into pre-existing magnetized plasma. (Sci-News, July, 2017)

This resulted in achieving a collisionless, high energy shockwave, with a high magnetosonic mach number, that expanded at more than 1000000 mph, simulating the shockwaves that occur within our universe. (Sci-News, July, 2017).

This innovation will allow scientists to more fully understand what happens within collisionless high-energy shockwaves and it will compliment data already obtained from resources such as the Hubble telescope. In this sense, it will broaden our understanding as to what effect such energy pulses have on the velocity and behaviour of particles within nebulae, such as the Crab Nebula.This researchwas published in the July 14, 2017 issue of the journal Physical Review Letters (Sci-News, July, 2017).