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Giant Ribbon Discovered At Edge of Solar System

beadwindow writes "NASA's IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) spacecraft has made the first all-sky maps of the heliosphere and the results have taken researchers by surprise. The maps are bisected by a bright, winding ribbon of unknown origin: 'This is a shocking new result,' says IBEX principal investigator Dave McComas of the Southwest Research Institute. 'We had no idea this ribbon existed — or what has created it. Our previous ideas about the outer heliosphere are going to have to be revised.' Another NASA scientist notes, '"This ribbon winds between the two Voyager spacecraft and was not observed by either of them.'"

30 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. Tag this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    startrekgenerations

    1. Re:Tag this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Negative. Tag this nexus!

    2. Re:Tag this by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 4, Funny

      Babylon 5 nerd here, it's obviously The Worm.

      --
      A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
    3. Re:Tag this by dotancohen · · Score: 4, Funny

      First MS Office. Then Open Office. Now the whole damn solar system!

      Ribbons be damned!

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
  2. Ribbon? by clone53421 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bill Gates thought that he was being innovative. Who'd have guessed that God came up with it first?

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
    1. Re:Ribbon? by Darkness404 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wait... If both statements are true. Bill Gates must be God! It would explain some of the weird things in DNA that don't seem to do anything but it doesn't work when you take them away....

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    2. Re:Ribbon? by superslacker87 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Bill Gates must be God?

      We are witnessing the birth of a new dogma: the Holy Quaternity.

      You're late to the party, Bro.

      Catholics have been doing that with Mary for centuries now.

      --
      I run Ubuntu skinned to look like a Mac on a PC. Go figure.
    3. Re:Ribbon? by chemisus · · Score: 3, Funny

      Wait... If both statements are true. Bill Gates must be God! It would explain some of the weird things in DNA that don't seem to do anything but it doesn't work when you take them away....

      It would also explain the cases where it doesnt work when you leave them in.

  3. Widespread Reach by cosm · · Score: 5, Funny

    The universe patched to 1.2, introducing Ribbon controls, because they collapse and expand in a visually appealing fashion. This helps the overlords better manage their multi-dimension MDI.

    --
    'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
  4. Bah, hack scientists by skornenicholas · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We already KNEW about this, it is called the Great Galactic Barrier
    http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Galactic_barrier
    It's just the little one for each solar system, and these guys get federal grant money!

  5. be careful by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's good we discovered this early on. If we were already launching interstellar ships, there's a very real danger that at least one crew member's latent ESP abilities would start to run amok after their ship tried entering the ribbon. And, even worse, it'd probably be one of the ship captain's oldest friends.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  6. galactic magnetic field by wizardforce · · Score: 3, Insightful

    FTA:

    One important clue: The ribbon runs perpendicular to the direction of the galactic magnetic field just outside the heliosphere,

    It looks like the ribbon is a side effect of the interaction between the galactic magnetic field and the heliosphere. It's possible that the interaction between the two causes particles to either collect in that region or direct those particles from that region toward Earth.

    --
    Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
    1. Re:galactic magnetic field by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I disagree. The probability of the ribbon running perpindicular to the galactic magnetic field is pretty low if it's a coincidence and it's not implausible that there are interactions between the heliosphere and the magnetic field (given that the heliosphere is set by plasma interactions and all, especially). So to infer that the galactic magnetic field plays a role is perfectly reasonable.

      Perhaps you mean that it isn't *proof* that the galactic magnetic field is responsible? (Which is true. Granted, there is no proof in science, just sometimes strong evidence. Which this isn't, either.)

    2. Re:galactic magnetic field by KillerBob · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The thing being... we have a 2D view of a 3D object. From our perspective it runs perpendicular to the axis of the magnetic field. But without a second observation point that's far enough away from the original observation point, we can't actually know that it actually *is* perpendicular to the axis, or whether it's an optical illusion and really going off at some oddball angle.

      Just playing devil's advocate here. It certainly does look as though it's related to the galactic magnetic field, and I liked the suggestion of another poster, that it's basically just the galactic equivalent of Aurora Borealis. But at this point, we just can't *know* that it's related to the magnetic field at all. We could be seeing that giant floating ribbon from Star Trek: Generations.

      And my first thought was to the 1992 video game, Star Control II... the documentation that came with that game said that access to hyperspace was impossible within large gravity wells (such as those around stars), and that there was a visible shimmer when you got to the region of space where the transition between dimensions was possible... :)

      --
      If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
    3. Re:galactic magnetic field by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The thing being... we have a 2D view of a 3D object. From our perspective it runs perpendicular to the axis of the magnetic field. But without a second observation point that's far enough away from the original observation point, we can't actually know that it actually *is* perpendicular to the axis, or whether it's an optical illusion and really going off at some oddball angle.

      Again, sure. But we got what we got. And, once again, what's being suggested isn't that we know that these two things are connected. Merely that it'd be a heckuva coincidence if they weren't. If I hear a scream and rush around the corner to see someone unconscious on the sidewalk, I'm going to assume that the two are connected until I get further information suggesting otherwise. Certainly as I try to figure out what happened, that's my starting position. And similarly, the good folks working on this ribbon mystery are going to start by looking for ways of connecting the ribbon to the galactic magnetic field. They might be wrong. That might get them nowhere. But you start where the initial set of clues lead you and work from there.

      So, once again: no one is saying that we know that the two are connected. It's just a reasonably strong hint in the initial stages of investigating a new phenomenon.

  7. Final Fantasy by White+Flame · · Score: 5, Funny

    At last, we now know why the solar system is immune to status effects.

  8. The Hindmost is pleased. by Megatog615 · · Score: 3, Funny

    And so begins Louis, Nessus, Teela, and Speaker's journey...

  9. A ribbon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    What, can't a solar system look cute for photo day?

  10. Looking for the Right Thing by lousyd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This "ribbon" escaped detection by two former Voyager spacecraft, and is only now being detected by some new spacecraft that happened to be looking for something different. This "ribbon" is a ribbon by some specific property.

    It's amazing, to me, how what we see is influenced to a great extent by what we're looking for. The manifold possibilities the universe presents to us!

    --
    If aspiration is a virtue, achievement cannot be a vice.
    1. Re:Looking for the Right Thing by hazem · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I think they are only talking about the location of the Voyager spacecraft as a reference, I don't think there's any suggestion that they would have been expected to detect a large scale effect like this

      Plus, I suspect the Voyager craft were not equipped to detect this particular phenomena. However, if they were colliding with a lot more particles than expected, or got caught in a flow of particles, over a long period of time, that might impact their trajectories.

      I've read that the courses Pioneer craft have changed in slow and unexplainable ways. I can't find if the Voyager craft have experienced the same thing. But maybe this phenomena could be part of the explanation.

      I just love how we keep finding new things that challenge what we knew before.

  11. Re:Long-delayed echoes by nacturation · · Score: 3, Informative

    Long delayed echoes (LDEs) are radio echoes which return to the sender several seconds after a radio transmission has occurred.

    Unless someone has discovered faster than light communications, probably not.

    --
    Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
  12. Re:Cosmic caring by cthulu_mt · · Score: 3, Funny

    Some of us are aware of breast all year long.

    --
    Virginia is for lovers. EVE is for griefers.
  13. All hail by Bysshe · · Score: 5, Funny

    All hail his noodly appendage.

    --
    Read what I mean, not what I wrote.
    1. Re:All hail by AniVisual · · Score: 3, Funny

      Why is this modded funny? This is more evidence that Pastafarianism is the One True Religion. While the theorists scramble to explain the FSM's Right Arm, us believers get angry at the blindness of the other humans. What sacrilege to explain away all the evidence smack before your face with mumbo jumbo and treat our religion as a joke!

  14. The Note by DynaSoar · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Please wear this ribbon on your planetary system in order to help us raise awareness. Awareness is such a precious commodity in galaxies of all colors, shapes and sizes, that we feel it only proper to honor the awareness that is within us all by taking this opportunity to mark those systems with nascent awarenesses with a ribbon. Hopefully by comparing our pre-aware planetary systems we can come to appreciate our own awareness and the source of that awareness, whatever form you may believe that it takes. Remember, it takes a spiral arm to raise a planetary system. Thank you again for raising awareness with this ribbon."

    --
    "I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
  15. Gift by BlueBoxSW.com · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It just means that life, the universe, and everything is a gift.

  16. Re:Easy... by grcumb · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, it's a warning beacon advising more civilized species of interstellar travelers to keep away from from a star system inhabited by homo sapiens sapiens.

    Actually, it's a banner. When we finally decipher it, we'll read, "Do Not Feed The Monkeys."

    Well, actually, ".syeknoM ehT deeF toN oD" If you know what I mean.

    --
    Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  17. Northern Lights (sort of)? by DJRumpy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Would these possibly be some sort of 'northern lights' phenomena? If the earth's magnetic field generates a phenomena at a planetary scale, why not a solar system generating a similar field that interacts with galactic particles?

  18. Re:Long-delayed echoes by gyrogeerloose · · Score: 3, Informative

    Could this be the cause of the Long-delayed echoes?

    No, LDEs are are due to radio signals being trapped in an ionospheric/magnetospheric ionization duct. These are one to two kilometer diameter "tubes" of of low electron density that are aligned with the earth's magnetic field lines and extend from the F-region of the ionosphere in one hemisphere to the F-region in the opposite hemisphere. Radio signals originating in one hemisphere travel along one of these ducts and then are reflected off the top side of the ionosphere in the other hemisphere. They then travel back along the duct to the place of origin, resulting in the long-delayed echo.

    There's a pretty good article (from which I lifted most of this information) on this phenomenon in the November 2009 issue of QST magazine.

    KJ6BSO

    --
    This ain't rocket surgery.
  19. Re:Prediction by dotancohen · · Score: 4, Informative

    We can pretty much rule out the biblical Judeo god (christianity, islam and judaism) because theres a LOT of claims about reality that contradict science (7 day creation, 6000 years old, giant wierd flood, space made of water, etc).

    Actually, when you read the Old Testament in the original Hebrew most of those contradictions disappear. They mostly came about in translations by trying to reuse existing Greek (then English) words (like water) for different concepts in the original. Ever heard about Moses' horns? Same phenomenon: inappropriate translation.

    --
    It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.