The Voyager probe brought back new data and brought back new questions, why are there unclear pressures at the edge of the solar system?
NASA astronomers used data from the Voyager probe to measure active wavy particles at the edge of the solar system and found higher pressures at the distant edges of our celestial systems than we expected.
Jamie Rankin, an astrophysicist at Princeton University, said the findings suggest that some of the other factors that can cause stress have not yet been taken into account.
Perhaps, where there is an entire swarm of particles that has not yet been taken into account. Or maybe it's just a little bit more active than people. Researchers have many possibilities to explain that need to be explored in future studies.
While the new discovery itself is interesting enough, the process and manner of exploring it is also truly a fascinating aspect of scientific research.
When a plasma in the shape of the solar wind emanates from our sun, it forms a "bubble" that we call the solar layer. At a distance of 14 billion kilometers from the star, the solar wind has actually run out of strength as charged particles rapidly slow down to subsonic speeds.
The edge of the bubble is called the solar wind sheath, which is the area where the density of charged particles decreases and the magnetic field weakens.
Beyond this messy boundary is a thin shell known as the apex of the solar wind, where plasma mist is blown away by the sun's trickles and is propelled by subtle influences from our galactic neighbors as our stars move through space.
To maintain this "pause", the pressure pushed in by local interstellar space and the pressure pushed out of the helioshea must be balanced. However, knowing exactly what it looks like is not an easy task. We can make models to estimate, but no model can outperform conclusive evidence.
Luckily, we happen to have two probes passing through that part of the solar system. Take a look at the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) picture below to see how they fit together.
(Pictured from Goddard Space Flight Center/Mary Pat Heribik-Keith)
Voyager 1 is about 20 billion kilometers away and is actually located beyond the wilderness in what we think of as interstellar space. Its partner, Voyager 2, was not far behind and was at the end of the exit.
They have no way to tell us more directly about the space pressures in the region, but the recent eruption of solar activity, in a place known as the Global Merger Interaction Zone (GMIR), offers an opportunity to address this issue.
"The timing of this event is very unique because we saw Voyager 1 just after it entered local interstellar space," Rankin said.
"While this is the first event Voyager has seen, we can continue to see more data to understand how things in the Sun Sheath and interstellar space change over time."
Solar activity is actually a cry to space, sending pulses of particles roaring into the distance. The cry spread to The Sun Sheath in 2012, when Voyager 2 was watching and listening. About three months later, Voyager 1 also felt its effects.
Through observation, the researchers calculated that the pressure at the boundary was about 267 millimeter pascals, which is definitely a tiny fraction of the kind of atmospheric pressure we feel on Earth.
This may be a relatively small squeeze, but the researchers are still surprised.
"Adding up the known parts of previous studies, we found that our new pressure values are still larger than those measured so far," Rankin said.
The team was also able to calculate the speed at which sound waves flew through the medium — 314 kilometers per second. Or rather, it's a thousand times faster than sound traveling through our own atmosphere.
There was another surprise. The intensity fluctuations of the sonic channel and an apparent high-speed particle called cosmic rays tend to coincide. Each probe experienced the same thing in two different ways, which gave astrophysicists another mystery to solve.
"Trying to understand why cosmic rays vary differently inside and outside the sun sheath remains an open question," Rankin said.
Voyager probes may be a little old, but seeing it busy observing at the edge of the solar system, we're glad they haven't fully retired yet.
BY: MIKE MCRAE
FY: Infinity
If there is any infringement of the relevant content, please contact the author to delete it after the work is published
Please also obtain authorization to reprint, and pay attention to maintaining completeness and indicating source