| Literature DB >> 19833923 |
D J McComas1, F Allegrini, P Bochsler, M Bzowski, E R Christian, G B Crew, R DeMajistre, H Fahr, H Fichtner, P C Frisch, H O Funsten, S A Fuselier, G Gloeckler, M Gruntman, J Heerikhuisen, V Izmodenov, P Janzen, P Knappenberger, S Krimigis, H Kucharek, M Lee, G Livadiotis, S Livi, R J MacDowall, D Mitchell, E Möbius, T Moore, N V Pogorelov, D Reisenfeld, E Roelof, L Saul, N A Schwadron, P W Valek, R Vanderspek, P Wurz, G P Zank.
Abstract
The Sun moves through the local interstellar medium, continuously emitting ionized, supersonic solar wind plasma and carving out a cavity in interstellar space called the heliosphere. The recently launched Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft has completed its first all-sky maps of the interstellar interaction at the edge of the heliosphere by imaging energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) emanating from this region. We found a bright ribbon of ENA emission, unpredicted by prior models or theories, that may be ordered by the local interstellar magnetic field interacting with the heliosphere. This ribbon is superposed on globally distributed flux variations ordered by both the solar wind structure and the direction of motion through the interstellar medium. Our results indicate that the external galactic environment strongly imprints the heliosphere.Entities:
Year: 2009 PMID： 19833923 DOI： 10.1126/science.1180906
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Science ISSN： 0036-8075 Impact factor: 47.728