NASA’s Cassini, Voyager Missions Suggest New Picture of Sun’s Interaction with Galaxy
https://www.nasa.gov/...assini-voyager-missions-suggest-new-picture-of-sun-s-interaction-with-galaxy
New data from NASA’s Cassini mission, combined with measurements from the two Voyager spacecraft and NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX,
suggests that our sun and planets are surrounded by a giant, rounded system of magnetic field from the sun — calling into question the alternate view
of the solar magnetic fields trailing behind the sun in the shape of a long comet tail.
The sun releases a constant outflow of magnetic solar material — called the solar wind — that fills the inner solar system, reaching far past the orbit
of Neptune. This solar wind creates a bubble, some 23 billion miles across, called the heliosphere. Our entire solar system, including the heliosphere,
moves through interstellar space. The prevalent picture of the heliosphere was one of comet-shaped structure, with a rounded head and an extended tail.
But new data covering an entire 11-year solar activity cycle show that may not be the case: the heliosphere may be rounded on both ends, making its
shape almost spherical. A paper on these results was published in Nature Astronomy on April 24, 2017.
