An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

A → shock wave in which the → time-scale for → cooling is much shorter than the appropriate → dynamical or → evolutionary time-scale of the system that drives the shock. Radiative shock waves are believed to play a key role in a variety of different astrophysical environments, including → magnetic cataclysmic variables, → jets from → young stellar objects, → accretion in → T Tauri stars, → colliding stellar winds, and → supernova remnants.

See also: → radiative; → shock.