It
has been predicted that magnetic field lines outside the primary
influence of the sun would be in the form of channels connecting to
other stars with little or no evidence to speculate with. It makes
for neat graphics but little else. Now we are getting the real thing
and I am sure that Mother Nature has a warehouse full of surprises
waiting for us.
The
serious news here is that we are getting new information and that it
is best to simply absorb it. After all, this is a first exploratory
bore hole in a strange country.
The
persistence of magnetic fields is good news in terms of future
exploration with MFEVs when they come on line in thirty or so years.
MFEVs are magnetic field exclusion vessels which I described in an
article I published several years ago when the science made them
feasible.
This
is beginning to get interesting again.
SPACE: THE ELECTRIC
UNIVERSE - VOYAGER 1 ENTERS NEW REGION OF SPACE, ENCOUNTERS "MAGNETIC
HIGHWAY," NASA CLAIMS!
5:55 AM ANDRE
HEATH
December 04, 2012 -
SPACE - NASA announced Monday that after 35 years of
exploration, its Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new,
unanticipated region of space near the edge of the solar
system--a "magnetic highway" where charged particles take
the "exit ramp" to interstellar space.
The region connects
the sun's magnetic field lines to interstellar magnetic field
lines, allowing "lower-energy charged particles that
originate from inside our heliosphere... to zoom out, and
higher-energy particles from outside to stream in," according to
a written statement issued by NASA partner Johns Hopkins Applied
Physics Lab. The heliosphere is the "immense magnetic
bubble containing our solar system, solar wind, and the entire solar
magnetic field," according to NASA.
Scientists say they believe this is the final region Voyager 1 has to cross before reaching interstellar space.
Voyager 1's instruments showed a five-fold increase in high-energy charged particles, accompanied by a 1,000-fold drop in low-energy particles, NASA officials said. These data would be consistent with Voyager 1's exit from the heliosphere, but Voyager 1's magnetic-field reading instrument indicates otherwise.
It shows an East-West magnetic field orientation, indicative of the sun's influence. The magnetic field in interstellar space, influenced by winds from explosions of supernovae, is thought to have a roughly North-South orientation, according to NASA astrophysicist Leonard Burlaga.
Voyager 1 may remain
within the heliopause for another two to three years, but it's hard
to anticipate how long it will be until the probe leaves the solar
system, NASA scientists said. The heliopause is where the
interstellar medium and solar wind pressures balance, the outer
boundary of the solar system. Launched in 1977 to explore the
outer solar system, Voyager 1 and and its twin, Voyager 2, are the
longest-serving spacecraft. Voyager 1 is currently 122 AU from
Earth, and Voyager 2 is about 100 AU away. One AU, or astronomical
unit, is equivalent to the distance from Earth to the sun. -
Huffington Post.
Dec. 4, 2012:
Eleven billion miles from Earth, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has
entered a "magnetic highway" that connects our solar system
to interstellar space. This could be one of Voyager 1's last steps on
its long journey to the stars.
"Although Voyager
1 still is inside the sun's environment, we now can taste what it's
like on the outside because the particles are zipping in and out on
this magnetic highway," said Edward Stone, Voyager project
scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.
"We believe this is the last leg of our journey to interstellar
space. Our best guess is it's likely just a few months to a couple
years away. The new region isn't what we expected, but we've come to
expect the unexpected from Voyager."
The new results were
described on Dec. 3rd at the American Geophysical Union meeting in
San Francisco.
The "magnetic
highway" is a place in the far reaches of the solar system where
the sun's magnetic field connects to the magnetic field of
interstellar space. This connection allows charged particles
from inside the heliosphere (the magnetic bubble that surrounds the
sun) to zoom out; and it allows charged particles from outside to
stream in. When Voyager 1 is in the magnetic highway, onboard
particle sensors can directly sample material from beyond our solar
system.
Since December 2004,
when Voyager 1 crossed a point in space called the termination shock,
the spacecraft has been exploring the heliosphere's outer layer or
"heliosheath." In recent years, the speed of the
solar wind around Voyager 1 has slowed to zero, and the intensity of
the magnetic field has increased.
According to data from
two onboard instruments that measure charged particles, Voyager
1 first entered the magnetic highway on July 28, 2012. The region
ebbed away and flowed toward Voyager 1 several times. The spacecraft
entered the region again Aug. 25 and the environment has been stable
since.
Spacecraft data
revealed the magnetic field became stronger each time Voyager entered
the highway region; however, the direction of the magnetic field
lines did not change, as researchers would expect if Voyager 1 had
truly entered interstellar space.
"We are in a
magnetic region unlike any we've been in before -- about 10 times
more intense than before the termination shock -- but the magnetic
field data show no indication we're in interstellar space," said
Leonard Burlaga, a Voyager magnetometer team member based at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Voyager 1's exit from
the solar system is, apparently, yet to come. But the magnetic
highway is giving it a taste of what lies ahead.
Stay tuned to
Science@NASA for updates from the edge of the solar system.
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