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There's a "hydrogen wall" at the edge of our solar system, and NASA scientists think their New Horizons spacecraft can see it. That hydrogen wall is the outer boundary of our home system, the place where our sun's bubble of solar wind ends and where a mass of interstellar matter too small to bust through that wind builds up, pressing inward. Our host star's powerful jets of matter and energy flow outward for a long stretch after leaving the sun — far beyond the orbit of Pluto. But at a certain point, they peter out, and their ability to push back the bits of dust and other matter — the thin, mysterious stuff floating within our galaxy's walls — wanes. A visible boundary forms. On one side are the last vestiges of solar wind. And on the other side, in the direction of the Sun's movement through the galaxy, there's a buildup of interstellar matter, including hydrogen.
However, the researchers cautioned, that signal isn't a sure sign that New Horizons has seen the hydrogen wall, or that Voyager did. All three probes could have actually detected the ultraviolet light from some other source, emanating from much deeper in the galaxy, the researchers wrote.
"If the ultraviolet light drops off at some point, then New Horizons may have left the wall in its rearview mirror," the researchers explained in an accompanying statement. "But if the light never fades, then its source could be farther ahead — coming from somewhere deeper in space."
originally posted by: blackcrowe
There's a "hydrogen wall" at the edge of our solar system, and NASA scientists think their New Horizons spacecraft can see it. That hydrogen wall is the outer boundary of our home system, the place where our sun's bubble of solar wind ends and where a mass of interstellar matter too small to bust through that wind builds up, pressing inward. Our host star's powerful jets of matter and energy flow outward for a long stretch after leaving the sun — far beyond the orbit of Pluto. But at a certain point, they peter out, and their ability to push back the bits of dust and other matter — the thin, mysterious stuff floating within our galaxy's walls — wanes. A visible boundary forms. On one side are the last vestiges of solar wind. And on the other side, in the direction of the Sun's movement through the galaxy, there's a buildup of interstellar matter, including hydrogen.
New Horizon and the 2 Voyager probes seem to see this signal.
However, the researchers cautioned, that signal isn't a sure sign that New Horizons has seen the hydrogen wall, or that Voyager did. All three probes could have actually detected the ultraviolet light from some other source, emanating from much deeper in the galaxy, the researchers wrote.
From this link.
www.space.com...
A short abstract of the research letters can be found here agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com...
"If the ultraviolet light drops off at some point, then New Horizons may have left the wall in its rearview mirror," the researchers explained in an accompanying statement. "But if the light never fades, then its source could be farther ahead — coming from somewhere deeper in space."
Accompanying statement www.sciencenews.org...
originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
If there's a wall, then there's an edge. If there's an edge, then there's something beyond the edge. If there's something beyond the edge, then life as we know it will be redefined forever, a complete paradigm shift of reality. All religion will be null, and all theories of ET will be forever different.
Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar", every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.
To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
-Carl Sagan
Interesting...very interesting. Even more interesting is the fact that information from Voyager is still relevant. Are the Voyager probes still sending information back.? If so shouldn't the probe(S) be farther out than New Horizons? I thought the Voyager probes are null and void because they are too far away.
NASA's farthest-traveling probes, which launched in the late 1970s — spotted all the way back in 1992. [Images: Dust Grains from Interstellar Space]
It's a wall in a sense that there's hydrogen all the way beyond it. Interstellar hydrogen, that makes up most of interstellar space in our galaxy.
I read about this the other day. I've always found it fascinating that the solar system is protected by a sort of "shield" of solar energy. It's like the Earth's magnetosphere, just way bigger. I wonder what would happen to the planets without this kind of protection?
A new firmament to contend with! We did not even get rid of the last one that long ago. LoL Ah well, as below so above, and vice-versa i imagine.
originally posted by: oriondc
I read about this the other day. I've always found it fascinating that the solar system is protected by a sort of "shield" of solar energy. It's like the Earth's magnetosphere, just way bigger. I wonder what would happen to the planets without this kind of protection?
originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: blackcrowe
A new firmament to contend with!
We did not even get rid of the last one that long ago. LoL
Ah well, as below so above, and vice-versa i imagine.
originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: lostbook
Voyager 1 and 2 will operate until about 2020 when they will begin shutting down to conserve power. By about 2032 they will have exhausted all of their power reserves to communicate and will fall silent forever.
50+ years, not a bad run...especially considering they were only designed to last a few years.
ETA - Oh and yes, the Voyager spacecraft are the farthest man made objects away from Earth, by a LONG ways too.