I remember reading about this cloud. I believe it was being referred to as The Photon Belt?
Terrified scientists at NASA discovered on July 14, 2010 that our system is passing through an interstellar energy cloud. This highly energized, electrified cloud of gas is disturbing and disrupting the sun. In conjunction with Earth's weakening and moving magnetic shield, the world is becoming defenseless against massive solar flares and intense radiation.
When asked how long will it take our sun to pass through this interstellar energy cloud, Dr. Dmitriev replied, "I don't know. But If I had to guess, I would say somewhere between two thousand to three thousand years."
On Christmas Eve, 2009, the startling hypothesis that our Solar System, the Sun and all its planets, are moving into a potentially dangerous and destabilizing interstellar energy cloud, was resoundingly sustained.
Originally posted by WraithXV
I remember reading about this cloud. I believe it was being referred to as The Photon Belt?
Astronomers call the cloud we're running into now the Local Interstellar Cloud or "Local Fluff" for short. It's about 30 light years wide and contains a wispy mixture of hydrogen and helium atoms at a temperature of 6000 C. The existential mystery of the Fluff has to do with its surroundings. About 10 million years ago, a cluster of supernovas exploded nearby, creating a giant bubble of million-degree gas. The Fluff is completely surrounded by this high-pressure supernova exhaust and should be crushed or dispersed by it.
The Fluff is held at bay just beyond the edge of the solar system by the sun's magnetic field, which is inflated by solar wind into a magnetic bubble more than 10 billion km wide. Called the "heliosphere," this bubble acts as a shield that helps protect the inner solar system from galactic cosmic rays and interstellar clouds. The two Voyagers are located in the outermost layer of the heliosphere, or "heliosheath," where the solar wind is slowed by the pressure of interstellar gas.
The fact that the Fluff is strongly magnetized means that other clouds in the galactic neighborhood could be, too. Eventually, the solar system will run into some of them, and their strong magnetic fields could compress the heliosphere even more than it is compressed now. Additional compression could allow more cosmic rays to reach the inner solar system, possibly affecting terrestrial climate and the ability of astronauts to travel safely through space. On the other hand, astronauts wouldn't have to travel so far because interstellar space would be closer than ever. These events would play out on time scales of tens to hundreds of thousands of years, which is how long it takes for the solar system to move from one cloud to the next.
"There could be interesting times ahead!" says Opher.
To read the original research, look in the Dec. 24, 2009, issue of Nature for Opher et al's article, "A strong, highly-tilted interstellar magnetic field near the Solar System."
Title: The Local Bubble, Local Fluff, and Heliosphere
Authors: Frisch, P. C.
Journal: Lecture Notes in Physics, vol.506, The Local Bubble and Beyond. Lyman-Spitzer Colloquium, Proceedings of the IAU Colluquium No. 166 held in Garching, Germany, 21-25 April, 1997, XXVII, 603pp. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York (ISBN 3-540-64306-0),
Member Kovenov
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posted on 12-2-2012 @ 14:44 this post
Interesting stuff. Here are two other links related to the OP. All said this is pretty fascinating stuff.
video: topic: heliosphere
www.nasa.gov...
Researcher bio/info with link to NASA article about OP
people.bu.edu...