Guest Editorial: Synchrotron Radiation from Outer Space

Abstract

After nearly two decades Synchrotron Radiation News changes its view by 90 degrees – upwards! Usually, this magazine covers new scientific results and technological developments at Earth-based sources, having astounding dimensions of up to kilometers. However, when looking up, those dimensions – just a couple of light microseconds – change immediately to light seconds and even thousands of lightyears. Also, the particle energies (of mostly electrons) change from a couple of GeV in third generation sources on Earth to up to 1014 eV in space. The magnetic fields used to create synchrotron radiation are not measured in a few Teslas, but cover the wide range from about 10−9 to 10+8 T. Even the speed of light seems not be a barrier anymore! In outer space, synchrotron radiation is created in the surrounding of planets of the solar system, in supernovae, in pulsars, and in jets emanating from active galaxies and near black holes. The energy of the created photons ranges from radio frequencies over the visible region to hard X-rays and above. Many well-known objects, like the “standard candle” in astrophysics–the crab nebula–would be nearly invisible without synchrotron radiation.