Solar System's "Nose" Found; Aimed at Constellation Scorpius: "A NASA spacecraft has uncovered the solar system's 'nose,' which points in the direction our sun is moving through the Milky Way galaxy, astronomers say.
The finding is based on newly released data from the Interstellar Boundary Explorer satellite (IBEX), an Earth-orbiting probe that has been mapping the solar system's outer frontier since 2008.
As the sun travels through the galaxy, the solar wind—actually charged particles streaming from the sun—collides with interstellar gases, forming a cocoon around the solar system called the heliosphere.
The edge of this cocoon, the heliopause, lies more than 9 billion miles (14.5 billion kilometers) from the sun."
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
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