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Attack of the Killer Electrons

Posted by Soulskill on from the blame-the-esa-for-the-title dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "At the peak of a magnetic storm, the number of highly energetic 'killer electrons' strong enough to damage electronics and human tissue can increase by a factor of more than ten times, posing a danger to spacecraft, satellites, and astronauts. Killer electrons can penetrate satellite shielding, so if electrical discharges take place in vital components, a satellite can be damaged or even rendered inoperable. For many years, the mechanism by which killer electrons are produced has remained poorly understood, in spite of physicists' attempts at solving this puzzle. Now the ESA reports that data shows the increase in the creation of a substantial number of killer electrons is due to a two-step process. First, the initial acceleration is due to the strong shock-related magnetic field compression. Immediately after the impact of the interplanetary shock wave, Earth's magnetic field lines began wobbling at ultra low frequencies. In turn, these ULF waves effectively accelerate the seed electrons (provided by the first step) to become killer electrons. 'These new findings help us to improve the models predicting the radiation environment in which satellites and astronauts operate. With solar activity now ramping up, we expect more of these shocks to impact our magnetosphere over the months and years to come,' says Philippe Escoubet, ESA's Cluster mission manager."

11 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Oh yeah? by trurl7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Were you also implying that everything down there is on the subatomic scale?

  2. All of My Electrons are Certified Organic by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Killer electrons. Geez, Just because ESA has to write to the level of a broad, uneducated audience, doesn't mean that Slashdot is that audience. Please write to the level of your audience.

    How about X-Rays, Roentgen Rays, Ionizing radiation, Accelerated electrons, etc.

    --
    Bruce Perens.
    1. Re:All of My Electrons are Certified Organic by pclminion · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Uh, "killer electrons" is the accepted scientific name for this phenomenon. Physicists sometimes use weird names for things. Deal with it.

    2. Re:All of My Electrons are Certified Organic by pclminion · · Score: 4, Informative

      You mean like Strange matter? I honestly think they just aren't creative sometimes and just say "It's weird stuff, we can't think of a name for it, we're wasting time...let's just call it strange matter."

      The term "strange matter" has a lot more history behind it than you make it sound. The origin of the term "strange" was in connection with mesons observed in cosmic ray data which, given our then-current understanding of QCD, had unusually long ("strange") lifetimes. Eventually it was discovered that the long-lifetime mesons contained quarks which had not been seen before. The quark was thus named the "strange" quark because it was one of the keys to understanding the strange mesons. Now, imagine a non-negligible assembly of matter consisting of mesons and baryons with strange quarks. This matter is called strange matter.

      Yes, the term "strange" was originally used because it was a "WTF?" kind of moment, but that happened a long time ago. Strange matter is perfectly well-understood.

    3. Re:All of My Electrons are Certified Organic by Chris+Burke · · Score: 4, Funny

      Okay that all sounds pretty reasonable, but explain the What In The Name of Jeebus Is That Nebula, or the I Couldn't Even Begin To Explain What's Going On Here Quasar.

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      The enemies of Democracy are
    4. Re:All of My Electrons are Certified Organic by idontgno · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's been a few (~ 3) years since I last worked with space weather types, but the technical term they tended to use for the phenomenon was "relativistic electron". That phrase gets the idea across that the electrons are bad because they're haulin' ass at significant fractions of lightspeed.

      Natural relativistic electron flux measurements and predictions are some of the most important forecast products of military space weather, just because astronauts and other "high fliers" could suffer health effects (like, die) from it. And also because the military has lots of sensitive orbital assets that can be ordered to shut down and harden themselves if their ground controllers can get enough advance warning.

      All of that said, I think that "killer electrons" is a good PR name for the phenomenon. Not even the hardest science is immune to the siren call of public relations, especially if funding and awards can be on the line.

      Sad.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
  3. Killer Electrons by GMThomas · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe if they wouldn't be so negative all the time, they wouldn't want to kill anyone.

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    You are now manually breathing.
  4. I'm not worried! by martin-boundary · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm not worried! The positrons will save us!

  5. Title humor by owlstead · · Score: 3, Funny

    In case someone does not get the joke embedded in the title:
    http://www.badmovies.org/movies/killtomato/killtomato-song.wav

    Attaaaaaaack of the killer electrons!

  6. Obvious by sycodon · · Score: 3, Funny

    For many years, the mechanism by which killer electrons are produced has remained poorly understood

    Isn't it obvious? Climate Change of course.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  7. Re:Faraday cage? by John+Hasler · · Score: 3, Informative

    > And how can electrons kill without current?

    You can call them "high-energy beta particles" if it makes you more comfortable.

    --
    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.