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Voyager 2 Shows Solar System Is "Dented"
Selikoff writes "NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft has found that our solar system is not round but is 'dented' by the local interstellar magnetic field, space experts said on Monday. The data were gathered by the craft on its 30-year journey when it crossed into a region called the 'termination shock.' The data showed that the southern hemisphere of the solar system's heliosphere is being pushed in. Voyager 2 is the second spacecraft to enter this region of the solar system, behind Voyager 1, which reached the northern region of the heliosheath in December 2004."
Actually think it's awesome that even twenty YEARS after it's launch, voyager 2 is STILL doing useful science. Another thing that astounds me is how the engineers managed to ensure that even after all these years in the hostile environment of space, this machine is still perfectly functional.
This is how the loudness war is killing music.
Its not the solar system that is dented but its far reaches where the solar wind suddenly slows down that is 'dented'. Figure a magnetic field or a sphere that is effected by its environment and causes it to lose its shape... The area where the solar wind slows down changes in shape due to interstellar influences... gasses, magnetic fields, etc... From a few articles I read on this the other day Voyager 2 passed through the terminal shock numerous times so far and will again in 2008 because it is constantly changing shape. Although I may be wrong, and I have been up all night sick and decided to go into work at 4 am... I dunno what the hell is wrong with me lol.
-- Josh
"Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me!" - Pete Conrad
Well the Sun has an innate shape. It is mostly a sphere, flattened a little bit by rotation. Other factors such as magnetic fields will play a part.
The solar wind is really the outer part of the sun, so in one sense we are embedded in the sun, and it flows around our planet. It has long been expected that the solar wind would meet the interstellar medium at some sort of bow shock on the upstream side with a tail of sorts on the downstream side.
This article suggests that magnetic fields which exist between stars also affect the shape of the boundary between the solar wind and whatever is outside it. Instruments on the Voyager spacecraft tell us which medium it is in at any point in time.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Obviously, the reason the solar system is dented is because God dropped it.
The density is very low. The body of the spacecraft might get hit by individual molecules which have that temperature, but what are a few thousand molecules going to do to it?
http://michaelsmith.id.au
If I ever do the transhuman thing and get turned into software, The Oort cloud is where I would want to be for serious durability.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Probably simple physics ... remember, the density of the gas in space is very low (almost non existant); this implies that there are very few particles hitting the craft at that temperature. Meaning that the craft only needs to have roughly 10000 times the density of space to operate at a "normal" temperature. Given the craft is made out of solid things like metal, that shouldn't be too hard...
It is human defined in a sense, however the humans in question aren't arbitrarily picking a point, they are basing the definition on a measurable physical property, ie the area where the Sun's magnetic field has a (dominating) effect.
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See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliosphere
Basically the suns solar winds push back interstellar matter. This can have a shape.
AFAICT, they have one data point on the surface of the 'sphere'. Using that one data point they decide that the sphere isn't spherical. If they had a hundred Voyagers all leaving the solar system in different directions at the same time, I would be more convinced.
Hmm? Is there anything known to us humans, that isn't human-defined?
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
Could someone remind me how to orientate myself in the universe?
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As an analogy, it's like smoking. You're breathing particles at up to 6000 degrees C, but it doesn't do (much) damage.
I wrote my first program at the age of six, and I still can't work out how this website works.
My hat is off to you. You, sir, are a master of irony.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
This is the common method of viewing what termination shock is on earth: go to a sink and turn it on, as you will see in the basin, when the water hits, its ejected out on all sides. On the outskirts of the basin, where the water is forced by gravity back down, the water will become regular, non-moving, etc. This is the interstellar medium, the ambient pressure from outside our solar system is pushing against the solar wind (the water thats rushing away from its impact location) creating a location thats called termination shock. This location, as you can clearly see, is moving, always fluctuating. It changes its shape in response to the outside pressure (which here on earth, is caused by gravity wanting to pull the water down in the basin). You can probably easily see how a object could pass this boundary several times, especially when you realize that our solar system is much, much bigger then this example. A dented shock boundary could occur when, for whatever reason, the rushing water is being pushed back sooner. Perhaps there is more pressure on that side, or, in the case of space, you have some magnetic influences acting against the solar wind. Granted there could be other reasons, but the smart minds of today say its probably magnetic influences.
This article says it's 84 AU out, which is a little more than 11.6 light-hours.