News: Fluffy Mystery at Edge of Solar System Solved.
Ye Old One
By SPACE.com Staff
posted: 23 December 2009
03:54 pm ET
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/091223-fluff-solar-system-nasa-voyager.html
Our solar system is passing through a cloud of interstellar material
that shouldn't be there, astronomers say. And now the decades-old
Voyager spacecraft have helped solved the mystery.
The cloud is called the "Local Fluff." It's about 30 light-years wide
and holds a wispy mix of hydrogen and helium atoms, according to a
NASA statement released today. Stars that exploded nearby, about 10
million years ago, should have crushed the Fluff or blown it away.
So what's holding the Fluff in place?
"Using data from Voyager, we have discovered a strong magnetic field
just outside the solar system," explained Merav Opher, a NASA
Heliophysics Guest Investigator from George Mason University. "This
magnetic field holds the interstellar cloud together ["The Fluff"] and
solves the long-standing puzzle of how it can exist at all."
The Fluff is much more strongly magnetized than anyone had previously
suspected," Opher said. "This magnetic field can provide the extra
pressure required to resist destruction."
Opher and colleagues detail the discovery in the Dec. 24 issue of the
journal Nature.
NASA's two Voyager probes have been racing out of the solar system for
more than 30 years. They are now beyond the orbit of Pluto and on the
verge of entering interstellar space. During the 1990s, Voyager 1
became the farthest manmade object in space.
The Voyager craft, racing in opposite directions, have revealed among
other things that the bubble around our solar system is squashed.
"The Voyagers are not actually inside the Local Fluff," Opher said.
"But they are getting close and can sense what the cloud is like as
they approach it."
The Fluff is held at bay just beyond the edge of the solar system by
the sun's magnetic field, which is inflated by solar wind into a
magnetic bubble more than 6.2 billion miles wide (10 billion km).
Called the "heliosphere," this bubble protect the inner solar system
from galactic cosmic rays and interstellar clouds. The two Voyagers
are located in the outermost layer of the heliosphere, or
"heliosheath," where the solar wind is slowed by the pressure of
interstellar gas.
Voyager 1 entered the heliosheath in December 2004. Voyager 2 followed
in August 2007. These crossings provided key data for the new study.
Other interstellar clouds might also be magnetized, Opher and
colleagues figure. And we could eventually run into some of them.
"Their strong magnetic fields could compress the heliosphere even more
than it is compressed now," according to NASA. "Additional compression
could allow more cosmic rays to reach the inner solar system, possibly
affecting terrestrial climate and the ability of astronauts to travel
safely through space."
--
Bob.
Iain
Aw, I was hoping it would be a marshmallow.
--Iain
bpuharic
>Fluffy Mystery at Edge of Solar System Solved
>By SPACE.com Staff
>
>posted: 23 December 2009
>03:54 pm ET
>http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/091223-fluff-solar-system-nasa-voyager.html
>
>Our solar system is passing through a cloud of interstellar material
>that shouldn't be there, astronomers say. And now the decades-old
>Voyager spacecraft have helped solved the mystery.
>
wonder how creationists explain this using demons and angels...
Harry K
> On Sat, 26 Dec 2009 12:28:15 GMT, Ye Old One <use...@mcsuk.net> wrote:
>
> >Fluffy Mystery at Edge of Solar System Solved
> >By SPACE.com Staff
>
> >posted: 23 December 2009
> >03:54 pm ET
>
> >Our solar system is passing through a cloud of interstellar material
> >that shouldn't be there, astronomers say. And now the decades-old
> >Voyager spacecraft have helped solved the mystery.
>
> wonder how creationists explain this using demons and angels...
ummm...the demons push out and the angels push in resulting in stasis?
Harry K
gregwrld
I thought it was going to be about
Nashie-poo's brain.
I'll think of him as Dr. Fluffy, now.
gregwrld