The results are in: Science says the Solar System's magnetic heliosphere looks like a deflated croissant
- Reference: 1596694031
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/08/06/solar_system_heliosphere/
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You’d probably get away with describing it looking like a slightly misshapen spleen or a stomach if you're not into baked goods analogies. Regardless of what you see in the image, scientists have attempted to study this odd structure for years. Initially, they reckoned it resembled a comet: spherical with a trailing tail.
The latest computer model, however, shows the shape is more lumpy and vague. NASA has dubbed it a [1]depressed pastry .
Technically known as the heliosphere, the giant blob is made up of charged particles emitted from the Sun. The nearest edge to Earth is ten billion miles away; its sheer size and the fact we live inside it makes it difficult to observe. Its job is to mostly shield our system from galactic cosmic rays, which can damage electronics and living cells. Earth is thankfully further protected by its own magnetic field and atmosphere; craft out in the obsidian void has to fend for itself.
[2]
A computer-generated model of the Solar System's protective heliosphere pouch ... Credit: Opher, et al. Click to enlarge
The only probes that have ventured to the heliosphere are NASA's Voyager 1 and 2, which have provided some information on the bottle.
Now, astronomers have refined the model of the blob by piecing together various bits of solar wind data collected from NASA’s Cassini and New Horizons probes. The US agency said Cassini carried equipment that observed particles bouncing back into the Solar System, which helped define the heliosphere’s boundary. Meanwhile, New Horizons measured so-called pick-up ions that are picked up from space and carried along by the Sun's solar winds. These pick-up ions are much hotter than the particles streaming out from the Sun.
Official: Voyager 2 is now an interstellar spacecraft [3]READ MORE
Merav Opher – lead author of a paper detailing the croissant-like model, [4]published in Nature Astronomy, and an astronomy professor at America's Boston University – said these hot pick-up ions and not-so-hot solar-stream particles mix, and this combination reveals the true outer shape, hopefully, of the heliosphere.
“There are two fluids mixed together. You have one component that is very cold and one component that is much hotter, the pick-up ions,” she said. “If you have some cold fluid and hot fluid, and you put them in space, they won’t mix – they will evolve mostly separately. What we did was separate these two components of the solar wind and model the resulting 3D shape of the heliosphere.”
Plotting the deflated croissant shape is important for future space missions as it shows where spacecraft is protected, and where it isn't.
Scientists will also be able to map its shape in more detail thanks to an upcoming mission. NASA is expected to launch the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe in 2024 that will carry various instruments to detect charged particles, pick-up ions, and more to better understand how the solar wind interacts with the interstellar medium in the Milky Way. ®
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[1] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/uncovering-our-solar-system-s-shape
[2] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/08/05/heliosphere.jpg
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2018/12/10/nasa_voyager_2_interstellar/
[4] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1036-0#author-information
[5] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Aren't we lucky!
Heliosphere, magnetic field and atmosphere, all protecting against harmful cosmic rays. This coincidence should probably be taken into account when looking for life-supporting exoplanets.
Re: Aren't we lucky!
For a planet to be inside a heliosphere it needs to be near (or preferably in orbit around) a star. So orphan planets are out of luck, but ALL of the exoplanets that we've found so far qualify.
Planets without a (or with a weak) magnetic field will slowly have their atmosphere stripped by the solar wind. So planets without a significant magnetic field either end up with little to no atmosphere (e.g. Mars) or have a deep, thick, boiling, crushing atmosphere (e.g. Venus) that will take billions of years to strip away.
So if you look for an atmosphere that's thick enough, but not too thick, and is gonna be around long enough for life to evolve then the heliosphere and magnetic field can pretty much be assumed.
I am of course discounting extremophiles, the likes of which we might just find living on Mars or in the clouds of Venus. But that's because we've not been able to find them on Mars or Venus, which are both in our own backyard. If there are extremophiles living on an exoplanet we have zero chance of finding them from here with our present (or near future) technology.
Re: Aren't we lucky!
Could it be the moon causing the odd shape?
Re: Aren't we lucky!
No dude, that yellow blob is the size of the solar system. The weird lump at the back is probably Neptune or Uranus if anything.
Re: Aren't we lucky!
So am I right to assume ..... That's no moon!
Whatever it is, it doesn't look well...
Are we to assume that the sun is in the centre of the image, where the outline is vaguely spherical?
Magnetic as motion
I assume you have already observed reverse time effects with magnetism?
You should be able to initiate a magnetic field whose effects appears to propagate backwards in time. In a similar way to anti-particles appear to be in motion going backwards in time.
Of course they're not, its a net oscillation you're observing not the particle. But if magnetic is another oscillatory motion with a phase and counter phase relative to universe resonance (actually relative to the local detector), then it can be ahead or behind the resonance oscillation and the net effect will appear to move forward or backward in time.
i.e. I'm pushing you towards the "magnetism as motion" conclusion. So you understand that heat is motion and that the magnetic field is a component of the heat motion. That chaotic heat motion is complex not chaotic.
Re: Magnetic as motion
You are MfM and I claim my £5!
Re: Magnetic as motion
I don't think we have the technology to observe things that are moving backward in time.
That would mean we would have to record the result before taking the measurement.
This is real life, not science-fiction fantasy.
The thing with croissants
Is, are they made with butter or margarine?
If the latter, it's not a croissant, ask any Frenchman.
I am guessing, since the observations so far have not been the result of a dedicated craft/study that the shape derived from the computer simulation is likely to change as more and better data becomes available.
Or is the irregular shape due to the current configuration of the planets?
Or is the irregular shape due to the current configuration of the planets?
It might be due to the butter melting.
Re: Or is the irregular shape due to the current configuration of the planets?
"It might be due to the butter melting."
Specifically, [1]lamination
[1] https://www.weekendbakery.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_9702-720x480.jpg
Re: The thing with croissants
Croissants are just chefy versions of butteries from their auld alliance pal Scotland. If we had butteries protecting us instead we would be safe from pretty much anything so long as the hot ions didnt melt them - then we'd have to eat it all in one sitting.
Re: If the latter, it's not a croissant, ask any Frenchman.
Je suis entièrement d'accord avec vous.
Re: If the latter, it's not a croissant, ask any Frenchman.
Je dirais même que la margarine n'a pas de place dans une cuisine française
Re: If the latter, it's not a croissant, ask any Frenchman.
You say that now but where were you when Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès invented it at la Ferme Impériale de la Faisanderie, Napoleon III's private farm in Vincennes near Paris?
Looks like DNA was right all along...
https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Great_Green_Arkleseizure
https://alienencyclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Great_Green_Arkleseizure
Hope I don't live to see the Great White Hanky!
Its a
Stomach....
or perhaps an alien fetus, enveloping our sun, growing by absorbing the cosmic and solar winds before joining the galactic herds.....
the Sun is just a trans-dimensional umbilical
we are a nasty case of athletes foot
"Its job is to mostly shield our system from galactic cosmic rays"
Um, I think the Sun's job is fuse hydrogen and stave off gravitational collapse for as long as possible. The fact that that generates a ginormous magnetic field around a heliosphere is just a side-effect that happens to be beneficial to us.
That being said, I have now learned that the heliosphere has a magnetic shell around it. So we have the heliospheric magnetic shell protecting us, plus our own Earth-bound magnetosphere, and yet we still are capable of measuring cosmic rays.
Does that mean that there are "weak" cosmic rays that are stopped or deflected by the heliomagnetosphere ?
A Depressed Pastry?
It just needs a sympathetic ear to listen to it. i mean we sent the Voyagers, but they just didnt have time to stop...
Excellent work
Observations drive models and these are SoA.
Congratulations to the whole team.