Solar System Is "Bullet Shaped"

National Geographic ^ | 5/10/07 | Brian Handwerk

[LibWhacker]

Our solar system flies through space in the shape of a speeding bullet, according to data from NASA's two Voyager spacecraft.

The sun and its planets are known to streak through the void of space at approximately 62,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) an hour.

The system travels within a bubble of solar wind—made of charged particles from the sun—called the heliosphere.

The edge of this bubble collides with the Milky Way galaxy's magnetic field at a distance some 200 times farther from the sun than Earth is.

A research team led by Merav Opher at Virginia's George Mason University found that, just outside the solar system, this interstellar magnetic field is inclined at a 60-degree angle relative to the plane of the Milky Way.

The solar system takes on its streamlined shape as it strikes the magnetic field at this angle, Opher explained.

"The shape of the solar system, this bullet, is really shaped by what lies ahead of us—the interstellar magnetic field," Opher said.

"The [prevailing] idea is that the environment just outside our solar system is patchy and turbulent," she added.

"There are lots of stars exploding and dying outside our solar system."

Opher and colleagues made the find using radio data from the veteran Voyager spacecraft. Though they have plied the skies since the 1970s, the craft only recently reached the solar system's edge.

Opher's team reports its findings in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science.

The study has added new wrinkles to evolving views of the interstellar magnetic field, said Randy Jokipii, an astrophysicist at the University of Arizona.

"[The study] does indeed give us a magnetic field which is quite a bit different than that obtained by previous measurements," Jokipii said.

"In the last few years we've seen almost an explosion in our understanding of what I'd call the … local interstellar medium and its interaction with the heliosphere," added Jokipii, who provided a perspective article to the Science research.

[SolidWood]

Solar System Is "Bullet Shaped"

Libs demand thougher laws against Solar System.

[rocksblues]

So now we are a speeding bullet, with no specific destination?

[goodnesswins]

Yeah....I was wondering where we were headed....

[Spktyr]

Mostly we’re orbitting the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

[P8riot]

Are we SWC, FMJ or JHP?

[GRRRRR]

I’m driving and I’m NOT stopping for directions!!!

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.

[goodnesswins]

Ah....thank you.....You (I) learn something new every day.....!!! Always learning....that’s one reason I love FR!

[goodnesswins]

Figures.

[colorado tanker]

"The [prevailing] idea is that the environment just outside our solar system is patchy and turbulent," she added. "There are lots of stars exploding and dying outside our solar system."

Tough neighborhood.

[Spktyr]

Looking at the pictures, looks like a RNL shockwave pattern.

[saganite]

Amazing those two ancient probes are still returning valuable data.

[HardStarboard]

>>>The system travels within a bubble of solar wind—made of charged particles from the sun—called the heliosphere. <<<

This is the same "solar wind" of cosmic particles from the nun that has been shown to effect cloud cover on earth" and is suspected by many scientists as a major factor in Global Warming, and Cooling!

Al Gore and his friends have yet to acknowledge these recent findings.

Hey Al, it's the solar physics stupid!

[LonePalm]

Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[Logophile]

The sun and its planets are known to streak through the void of space at approximately 62,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) an hour.

Relative to what? It is pointless to talk about speed (or velocity) unless you specify your frame of reference.

[Spktyr]

Relative to the galactic center.

[Hebrews 11:6]

What is the caliber, Kenneth?

[knarf]

But I gutta’ go NOW !!!

[samson1097]

I have a bookmark for that flash animation at work. (One of) the most fun flash animations I’ve seen. Bravo.