Voyagers discover solar system "squashed"
Posted: Tue, Dec 11, 2007, 8:40 AM ET (1340 GMT)
NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft have revealed that the solar system in "squashed" relative to the interstellar medium, scientists said Monday. Voyager 2 cross into a region called the heliosheath, the region where the solar wind runs up against the interstellar medium, about 1.5 billion kilometers closer to the Sun than Voyager 1, which reached the heliosheath in late 2004. Because the two spacecraft are headed away from the Sun in different directions, scientists concluded that the bubble carved into the interstellar medium by the solar wind is not perfectly spherical. Scientists got more information from this mission than Voyager 1 because Voyager 2's plasma science instrument is still working, and managed to capture data as the termination shock at the heliosheath "sloshed" back and forth, allowing the spacecraft to sample it several times.
NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft have revealed that the solar system in "squashed" relative to the interstellar medium, scientists said Monday. Voyager 2 cross into a region called the heliosheath, the region where the solar wind runs up against the interstellar medium, about 1.5 billion kilometers closer to the Sun than Voyager 1, which reached the heliosheath in late 2004. Because the two spacecraft are headed away from the Sun in different directions, scientists concluded that the bubble carved into the interstellar medium by the solar wind is not perfectly spherical. Scientists got more information from this mission than Voyager 1 because Voyager 2's plasma science instrument is still working, and managed to capture data as the termination shock at the heliosheath "sloshed" back and forth, allowing the spacecraft to sample it several times.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
SpaceX launches Starlink satellites in final launch of 2024
Posted: Sat, Jan 4 8:39 AM ET (1339 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Tuesday, January 7
New Glenn Launch Targeting No Earlier Than January 10
Blue Origin — 4:57 am ET (0957 GMT) AST SpaceMobile Announces Agreement for Long-Term Access to up to 45 MHz of Premium Lower Mid-Band Spectrum in the United States for Direct-to-Device Satellite Applications
Business Wire — 4:56 am ET (0956 GMT) Why AST SpaceMobile stomped into Ligado's spectrum mess
Light Reading — 4:56 am ET (0956 GMT) AST SpaceMobile Acquires Radio Spectrum for Cellular Satellite Service
PC Magazine — 4:56 am ET (0956 GMT) Spectrum Operator Ligado Files for Bankruptcy Amid Government Dispute
Wall Street Journal — 4:56 am ET (0956 GMT) |
