#interstellar medium

The Bumpy Heliopause

The Heliopause marks the boundary of our Solar System, it's the place where the impact of our Sun's solar winds pushing outwards, no longer hold sway, and rather interstellar medium does.

It's often thought of as an oval area, a bow shock bubble, that protects the Earth and the Solar System from all the charged particles whizzing around, but a team of scientists have discovered not only does it grow and shrink, but it's bumpy, and they are not entirely certain why.

The two Voyager probes have already made it past this point, now travelling in that interstellar medium and returning data back to Earth about what they are finding. Interestingly, both recorded different sizes for the Heliopause, an early hint at the size not being set. Voyager 1 passed through in 2012 at a distance of 122, however several years later IBEX (NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer) recorded the Heliopause in the same direction had moved to 131.

IBEX sits in Earth orbit and monitors charged particles that hit the heliopause but rather than being thrown outwards, managed to make their way inwards, a kind of solar radar system, and is able to constantly monitor where the heliopause lies in any direction.

Using this data a team of astronomers were able to create a 3D image of the Heliopause, discovering not only that it changes size, but that it's surface isn't oval, but instead bumpy.

more Cell To Singularity space expansion

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The inner solar system 2 is mysteriously spinning slowly; Physics Brax t louse?

Over the years, scientists have explored many possible explanations for why the inner solar system is spinning slower than expected. However, the old mystery remained unsolved for decades. image from google But this new study by Caltech (California Institute of Technology) researchers may help explain why the inner solar system isn’t spinning that fast. This mystery can be explained by the…

From NASA Image Of The Day; April 17, 2018:

Sounding Rocket Launches CHESS Mission to Study the Matter Between Stars

The Colorado High-resolution Echelle Stellar Spectrograph, or CHESS 4, was successfully launched on a NASA Black Brant IX sounding rocket at 12:47 p.m. EDT, April 16 (4:47 a.m. local, April 17) from the Kwajalein Atoll in The Republic of the Marshall Islands.

The CHESS 4 mission will study the interstellar me­dium, the matter between stars. The mission focuses on translucent clouds of gas, that provide the fundamental building blocks for stars and planets. These clouds have very low densities and the only way to study them is to measure how a cloud is affected by a star -- and its associated outpouring of stellar material, the stellar wind -- moving through it.

The payload systems reported a nominal flight, proceeding as expected. The payload is to be recovered, making it the second NASA astronomical mission with water recovery. Hampered by high winds since the targeted launch day of April 13, the CHESS 4 left the pad with only 13 minutes left on the last day of the launch window.

The CHESS 4 instrument was developed by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The mission was preceded by the launch of the Penn State Water Recovery X-ray (WRX) rocket experiment on April 4. The successful launch of both missions brings to an end this year’s Kwajalein campaign.

In the vast, quiet expanse of space just beyond our solar system, something is amiss. For decades, astronomers have observed a strange anomaly in the thin clouds of gas and dust that drift between the stars. The local interstellar medium, as it is known, contains a puzzling overabundance of ionized helium. Helium atoms, usually stable, have been stripped of their electrons, leaving them with a…