Solar System’s edge charted over solar cycle

Astronomers have watched the region respond to the Sun’s activity

A project to map the outer edge of the Solar System has just completed an entire solar cycle’s worth of observations. For the last 11 years, NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) has mapped the bubble of particles created by the solar wind, known as the heliosphere. With a complete cycle now observed, astronomers are able to look at how the heliosphere responds to the Sun’s changing activity, such as how it inflates like a balloon when the solar wind gusts.

“It takes [two to three] years for these effects to reach the edge of the heliosphere,” says Jamey Szalay, an IBEX researcher from Princeton University. “For us to have this much data from IBEX finally allows us to make these long-term correlations.” http://ibex.swri.edu/

Turn to page 60 to discover more about observing the heliosphere and beyond

IBEX has helped scientists determine the shape of the heliosphere