Astronomy Tea Talk

From keV electrons in terrestrial aurorae to Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays in unidentified "Zevatrons", the cosmos shows a plutocratic proclivity to concentrate energy in a tiny minority of suprathermal particles. The mechanisms involved can be traced back to the ideas of Faraday, Fermi and Alfvén though we are learning that the details are idiosyncratic to the many environments that we have observed and that much can be learned from comparing and contrasting particle acceleration in laboratory and diverse astronomical locations. It will be argued that new mechanisms are required to account for recent observations of galactic nuclei, pulsar wind nebulae and interplanetary, interstellar and intergalactic media and some candidates will be discussed.