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First Images of Solar System's Invisible Frontier

FiReaNGeL writes an unexpected side-effect from NASA's STEREO spacecraft has allowed scientists to see a much more well-defined picture of the boundary of our solar system. "The twin STEREO spacecraft were launched in 2006 into Earth's orbit about the sun to obtain stereo pictures of the sun's surface and to measure magnetic fields and ion fluxes associated with solar explosions. Between June and October 2007, however, the suprathermal electron sensor in the IMPACT (In-situ Measurements of Particles and CME Transients) suite of instruments on board each STEREO spacecraft detected neutral atoms originating from the same spot in the sky: the shock front and the heliosheath beyond, where the sun plunges through the interstellar medium."

5 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Acronym in an Acronym? by RManning · · Score: 5, Funny

    IMPACT (In-situ Measurements of Particles and CME Transient)

    Dear God, an acronym inside another acronym! I think the space geeks have beat us computer geeks yet again.

    1. Re:Acronym in an Acronym? by Taibhsear · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's acronyms all the way down...

  2. Images of an invisible frontier? by DigitalReverend · · Score: 5, Funny

    Would that be like recordings of silence or the smell of nothing?

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  3. Re:Hot, that's really hot! by Jerome+H · · Score: 5, Funny
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  4. nice picture... by Ogive17 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I was expecting a picture that didn't look like something I drew today at work using MS Excel and autoshapes.

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