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Spacecraft Measurements Indicate Shifting Interstellar Wind

Weather on Earth might be shifting in part because of human activity, but larger context in which the Earth moves has some trends to deal with as well, according to new research published in Science and summarized by Science Now: "As Earth and the other planets orbit the sun, the solar system itself travels through space. Its slow journey is taking it though a wispy expanse of gas called the Local Interstellar Cloud. Now, astronomers have discovered signs of potential turbulence in the cloud, indicated by a shift in direction of helium atoms that flow into the solar system. If the shift is real and continues for hundreds to thousands of years—a dicey extrapolation—it could be a harbinger of more dramatic changes in our solar system, notes study co-author David McComas of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. ... To detect the wind shift, researchers drew on measurements by 11 spacecraft and satellites that have recorded directly or indirectly the flow of helium atoms into the solar system. Many kinds of atoms infiltrate the heliosphere, but helium is a particularly good tracer for all of them because it is abundant and typically survives in its uncharged, atomic state all the way to Earth’s orbit, [study co-author Priscilla] Frisch says."

7 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. Just more proof by Nidi62 · · Score: 5, Funny

    See how bad global warming is getting? We are now even screwing with the weather in space!

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    1. Re:Just more proof by sumdumass · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, we knew it was only a matter of time with all the global warming happening on the other planets too. Maybe we can plant some trees in space or something?

  2. Vogon Construction Marker by wrackspurt · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's actually a marker laid down by the Vogon construction fleet for the up coming Hyper Space Express Route.

  3. Re:WE'RE DOOMED!!! by Sable+Drakon · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm not sure about that. People survive poticial rallies all the time, the source of expanding hot gas directly behind the podium.

    --
    The Amarri pray for god, the Caldari pray for profit. the Gallente pray for peace, but the Minmatar pray their ships hol
  4. You guessed it... by jaycvollmer · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's coming from uranus.

  5. Termination shock vs. conservative shock by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Note that the quoted article says absolutely nothing about "weather on Earth". It's talking about "dramatic changes in our solar system", i.e. a distortion in the shape of the termination shock, which lies 75 to 90 AU away from the sun. That is an effective boundary between the heliosphere and the ISM, where the solar wind and the interstellar wind are equally dominant.

    Neptune orbits at 30 AU, but the "solar system" is understood to extend at least to the Oort cloud, 50000 AU distant. Earth orbits at 1 AU which is well inside the heliosphere, where the solar wind is much more important. That's why these spacecraft have to look at neutral helium atoms, which are the only interstellar wind components that can actually make it down here without being deflected by solar magnetic fields. Outside the solar system they have a rough density of about ten helium atoms per mL.

    This has much less influence on the Earth's climate than the "sunspot activity" referred to by politicians, but you can expect to hear a lot of crap soon, e.g. "Weather on Earth might be shifting in part because of human activity, but larger context in which the Earth moves has some trends to deal with as well".

  6. Re:WE'RE DOOMED!!! by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm not sure about that. People survive poticial rallies all the time, the source of expanding hot gas directly behind the podium.

    I've seen what that does to their behavior sometimes. It's not as harmless as you think.