The Cassini spacecraft, which orbits Saturn to study its structure and components, encountered a strong solar wind explosion in which it identified particles with enormous acceleration energy, similar to that which takes place around the explosions of the supernovae.
Shock waves or arcs are very common phenomena in the Universe and can be formed, for example, from a stellar explosion that throws debris outwards. They also occur when the flow of particles that come from the Sun collides with the magnetic field of a planet. Depending on the force of the impact and under a certain orientation in the magnetic field, these particles can be accelerated and reach speeds close to that of light. In fact, these collisions are the main source of cosmic rays, high-energy particles that permeate our galaxy.
Space telescopes have made observations on these shock arcs, but these are made at great distances, so that parameters such as the orientation of the local magnetic field cannot be accurately estimated. Observations such as those made by Cassini will provide a lot of information that will help scientists to deepen their understanding of this phenomenon.
