Archiv: Interstellarer Raum / interstellares Medium / interstellar space / interstellar medium


13.11.2025 - 18:46 [ Harvard University ]

More than a planetary fender-bender: New study finds Earth collided with dense interstellar cloud, possibly affecting life on planet

(June 10, 2024)

Evidence of a long-ago collision involving the Earth was there in the form of specific radioactive isotopes deposited across the Earth and Moon. There were, however, skeptics.

But now researchers have tracked the sun’s path through the Milky Way back to a crash 2 to 3 million years ago with a dense interstellar cloud. The event was so violent it appears to have collapsed the sun’s protective bubble around the solar system and possibly even affected life on Earth.

(…)

“We don’t often discuss the impact of astrophysics on Earth because the astronomical timescales are very long, and the human species emerged on Earth just a few million years ago,” Loeb said. “But a few million years ago there was the potential for us to be passing through a very dense cloud. We didn’t work out the biological implications, but it’s clear that if you shrink the heliosphere to within the orbit of the Earth around the sun, we are not protected anymore. It could have significant implications for life on Earth.”

13.11.2025 - 16:14 [ NASA Goddard / Youtube ]

11 Years Charting Edge of Solar System

Jun 11, 2020
Far, far beyond the orbits of the planets lie the hazy outlines of the magnetic bubble in space that we call home.

This is the heliosphere, the vast bubble that is generated by the Sun’s magnetic field and envelops all the planets. The borders of this cosmic bubble are not fixed. In response to the Sun’s gasps and sighs, they shrink and stretch over the years.

Now, for the first time, scientists have used an entire solar cycle of data from NASA’s IBEX spacecraft to study how the heliosphere changes over time. Solar cycles last roughly 11 years, as the Sun swings from seasons of high to low activity, and back to high again. With IBEX’s long record, scientists were eager to examine how the Sun’s mood swings play out at the edge of the heliosphere. The results show the shifting outer heliosphere in great detail, deftly sketch the heliosphere’s shape — a matter of debate in recent years, and hint at processes behind one of its most puzzling features. These findings, along with a newly fine-tuned data set, are published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplements on June 10, 2020.

13.11.2025 - 14:00 [ Dagens.com ]

NASA confirms Voyager spacecraft has encountered a “wall of fire” at the edge of the Solar System

(November 6, 2025)

According to NASA, Voyager 1 has now encountered what researchers describe as a “wall of fire,” a zone where temperatures reach between 30,000 and 50,000 kelvin — roughly 30,000 degrees Celsius. The finding was made as part of ongoing efforts to understand the boundary separating our Solar System from interstellar space.

(…)

“An observation made by Voyager 2 confirms a surprising result from Voyager 1: the magnetic field in the region just beyond the heliopause is parallel to the magnetic field inside the heliosphere,” NASA noted. With data from both spacecraft, scientists can now confirm that this alignment is not a coincidence but a defining characteristic of the boundary region.

13.11.2025 - 13:38 [ NASA / Youtube ]

Voyager 1 Trajectory through the Solar System

628,218 views Aug 31, 2017
This visualization tracks the trajectory of the Voyager 1 spacecraft through the solar system. Launched on September 5, 1977, it was one of two spacecraft sent to visit the giant planets of the outer solar system. Voyager 1 flew by Jupiter and Saturn before being directed out of the solar system.

To fit the 40 year history of the mission into a short visualization, the pacing of time accelerates through most of the movie, starting at about 5 days per second at the beginning and speeding up to about 11 months per second after the planet flybys are past.

The termination shock and heliopause are the ‚boundaries‘ created when the plasma between the stars interacts with the plasma flowing outward from the Sun.

13.11.2025 - 13:31 [ LeRavi.org ]

NASA’s Voyager 1 set to become first human-made object to reach a full light-day distance from Earth in 2026

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 has been cruising through space for nearly 47 years, traveling a mind-boggling distance of almost 16 billion miles from Earth. This journey has already broken records—it was the first spacecraft to cross the heliopause, the boundary where the Sun’s solar wind yields to interstellar space. Now, it is on course to reach a distance known as a light-day, meaning the distance that light travels in 24 hours.

Traveling at about 38,000 miles per hour, Voyager 1’s progress may seem slow compared to light speed, but it reveals the vast scales of cosmic distance. Radio signals sent from the spacecraft take nearly 23 hours to reach Earth, which offers a glimpse into the immense challenges of communicating across these astronomical expanses.

02.03.2025 - 05:03 [ Jet Propulsion Laboratory / National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

The Voyagers Are Still Exploring 40 Years Later

(Oct. 12, 2024)

From their unique vantage points – Voyager 1 in the northern hemisphere and Voyager 2 in the southern hemisphere – the spacecraft have already detected differences and asymmetries in the solar wind termination shock, where the wind abruptly slows as it approaches the heliopause. For example, Voyager 2 crossed the termination shock at a distance of about 83.7 AU in the southern hemisphere. (One AU, or astronomical unit, is equal to 150 (million) kilometers (93 million miles), the distance between Earth and the Sun.) That’s about 10 AU closer to the Sun than where Voyager 1 crossed the shock in the north. As shown in this diagram, Voyager 1 traveled through the compressed “nose” of the termination shock and Voyager 2 is expected to travel through the flank of the termination shock.

02.03.2025 - 04:53 [ NASA / Youtube ]

Voyager 1 Trajectory through the Solar System

628,218 views Aug 31, 2017
This visualization tracks the trajectory of the Voyager 1 spacecraft through the solar system. Launched on September 5, 1977, it was one of two spacecraft sent to visit the giant planets of the outer solar system. Voyager 1 flew by Jupiter and Saturn before being directed out of the solar system.

To fit the 40 year history of the mission into a short visualization, the pacing of time accelerates through most of the movie, starting at about 5 days per second at the beginning and speeding up to about 11 months per second after the planet flybys are past.

The termination shock and heliopause are the ‚boundaries‘ created when the plasma between the stars interacts with the plasma flowing outward from the Sun.

02.03.2025 - 04:41 [ Wired.me ]

Our planet is in a space balloon, literally

(June 16, 2024)

But only two human-made objects have crossed the boundary of the solar system and entered interstellar space.

In 1977, NASA launched Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, equipped with tools to measure the magnetic fields and the particles it is directly passing through. After traveling for over three decades in space, they finally exited the outer layer of the heliosphere—heliopause in 2012 and 2018 respectively. They discovered that cosmic rays are about three times more intense outside the heliopause than deep inside the heliosphere.

14.06.2023 - 13:08 [ NASA New Horizons / Twitter ]

#OTD in 2019, @NASA‘s #NewHorizons flew by Arrokoth, the farthest object ever explored by spacecraft. Arrokoth is about about 50 AU, or 4 billion miles from the Sun. New Horizons is ~56 AU from Earth and will join Voyagers 1 & 2 in interstellar space in the 2040s.

14.06.2023 - 12:59 [ Youtube ]

5 Spacecraft Are Leaving The Solar System. What Did They See In Their Journey?

Pioneer 10: Pioneer 10 was launched in 1972 to explore the planets of the solar system. It achieved the first flyby of Mars, the first trip through the asteroid belt, and Jupiter‘s first flyby. It was the first time NASA had used nuclear energy to power its spacecraft. So, after Pioneer 10 passed Jupiter in 1973, it still had ample energy to keep going. Initially planned for 21 months, it continued to communicate with Earth for a total of 30 years.

14.06.2023 - 12:50 [ Space.com ]

What Spacecraft Will Enter Interstellar Space Next?

(January 30, 2019)

This milestone — reaching interstellar space — can be considered leaving the solar system by a certain definition. Let‘s be clear about what that entails. In 1990, the New York Times reported that Pioneer was reported to leave the solar system when it flew past Neptune‘s orbit. That‘s not what Voyager 2‘s scientists used to make their determination, however. Instead, the more recent measurements consider the crossing of the sun‘s heliopause, the theoretical boundary to its heliosphere, to be the determining factor for entering interstellar space. The heliosphere is a bubble of charged particles created by and flowing past the sun. Scientists use it to mark where interstellar space begins.

14.06.2023 - 12:47 [ ORF.at ]

Raumsonde „Pioneer 10“ 40 Jahre aus Sonnensystem heraus

Am 13. Juni 1983 durchflog „Pioneer 10“ die Umlaufbahn des Neptun und wurde so laut NASA zum ersten menschengemachten Raumschiff, das am weitestentfernten bekannten Planeten unseres Sonnensystems vorbeiflog. Neptun ist im Mittel etwa 4,5 Milliarden Kilometer von der Sonne entfernt.

Mit „Pioneer 11“ und den beiden „Voyager“-Sonden folgten später ähnliche Missionen. „Voyager 1“ überholte „Pioneer 10“ schließlich als am weitesten von der Erde entferntes menschengemachtes Objekt. Zum bisher letzten Mal schickte „Pioneer 10“ im Jänner 2003 Daten, ein Kontaktversuch im März 2006 scheiterte.

24.04.2023 - 10:52 [ International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) / Cairo University ]

The Shrinking of the Heliosphere Due to Reduced Solar Wind

(2010)

Abstract. The heliosphere is the space within which the solar wind dominates and the solar interplanetary magnetic field prevails. Its boundary is determined by the balance between stellar and solar winds. Owing to the present reduction in the solar wind pressure, one would expect that the stellar wind would push the heliosphere inward leading to its shrinkage. In this paper we calculate the extent of the heliosphere at different solar wind status.

Backward estimation of the extent of the heliosphere since 1890 is done. It is found that the heliosphere oscillated between 75 and 125 AU between 1890 –
2010. Most important is the forecast of the shrinkage and oscillations of the heliosphere and their implications on the earth. The shrinkage of the heliosphere would allow more invasions of cosmic rays to the earth and planets, increased cloud cover and a cooler Earth.

1 Introduction

The heliosphere is the cavity curved by the solar wind into the interstellar medium. Its extension is determined by the equality of the solar wind pressure and the stellar wind pressure. For this reason, we will first study past, present and future status of solar activity and then we will reflect this study into the heliosphere.

24.04.2023 - 10:51 [ Telegraph.co.uk ]

Sun‘s protective ‚bubble‘ is shrinking

(18.10.2008)

New data has revealed that the heliosphere, the protective shield of energy that surrounds our solar system, has weakened by 25 per cent over the past decade and is now at it lowest level since the space race began 50 years ago. (…)

„Around 90 per cent of the galactic cosmic radiation is deflected by our heliosphere, so the boundary protects us from this harsh galactic environment.“

The heliosphere is created by the solar wind, a combination of electrically charged particles and magnetic fields that emanate a more than a million miles an hour from the sun, meet the intergalactic gas that fills the gaps in space between solar systems.

25.10.2021 - 19:22 [ arxiv.org ]

A Unified Model for the Fan Region and the North Polar Spur: A bundle of filaments in the Local Galaxy

We present a simple, unified model that can explain two of the brightest, large-scale, diffuse, polarizedradio features in the sky, the North Polar Spur (NPS) and the Fan Region, along with several otherprominent loops. We suggest that they are long, magnetized, and parallel filamentary structures thatsurround the Local arm and/or Local Bubble, in which the Sun is embedded. We show this modelis consistent with the large number of observational studies on these regions, and is able to resolvean apparent contradiction in the literature that suggests the high latitude portion of the NPS isnearby, while lower latitude portions are more distant. Understanding the contributions of this localemission is critical to developing a complete model of the Galactic magnetic field.

25.10.2021 - 19:18 [ Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto ]

Dunlap Astronomer discovers we may be surrounded by tunnel-like structure

(Oct.14, 2021)

Dr. Jennifer West, Research Associate at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, is making a scientific case that two bright structures that are seen on opposite sides of the sky – previously considered to be separate – are actually connected and are made of rope-like filaments. This connection forms what looks like a tunnel around our solar system.

“If we were to look up in the sky,” explains West, “we would see this tunnel-like structure in just about every direction we looked – that is, if we had eyes that could see radio light.”

25.10.2021 - 19:10 [ SciTechdaily.com ]

A Vast “Magnetic Tunnel” May Surround Earth and Our Entire Solar System

(today)

An expert in magnetism in galaxies and the interstellar medium, West looks forward to the more possible discoveries connected to this research.

“Magnetic fields don’t exist in isolation,” she says. “They all must to connect to each other. So, a next step is to better understand how this local magnetic field connects both to the larger-scale galactic magnetic field, and also to the smaller scale magnetic fields of our sun and Earth.”

16.04.2020 - 03:36 [ Nature Astronomy ]

Spitzer steps aside

All Spitzer-related articles will be gathered together in an online collection.

16.04.2020 - 03:18 [ Nature Astronomy ]

An extremely energetic supernova from a very massive star in a dense medium

Here we present a new event, SN2016aps, offset from the centre of a low-mass galaxy, that radiated ≳5 × 1051 erg, necessitating a hyper-energetic supernova explosion.

30.01.2020 - 20:35 [ CNN ]

Voyager 2 shut off its instruments to save power, NASA says

Voyager 2 was only expected to last for five years, but it‘s still operating 42 years after launch.

Yet Saturday, the probe did experience a bit of a hiccup 11 billion miles from Earth, according to NASA.

02.01.2020 - 17:18 [ ORF.at ]

„Magnetische Wand“ im interstellaren Raum

(04.11.2019)

„Voyager 2“ hat die Grenze der Heliosphäre in nur einem Tag passiert, was einen scharfen Übergang zum lokalen interstellaren Medium bedeutet. „Die alte, historische Vorstellung, dass der Sonnenwind sich einfach allmählich reduziert, je weiter man in den interstellaren Raum vordringt, trifft nicht zu“, erläuterte „Voyager“-Forscher Don Gurnett von der Universität von Iowa, Ko-Autor einer der Analysen. „Wir haben mit ‚Voyager 2‘ und vorher mit ‚Voyager 1 gezeigt, dass es dort draußen eine ausgeprägte Grenze gibt.“

15.11.2019 - 17:47 [ arxiv.org ]

The large-scale ionization cones in the Galaxy

(05.10.2019)

Our time-dependent Seyfert flare models adequately explain the observations and indicate the Seyfert flare event took place T_o = 3.5 +/- 1 Myr ago.

15.11.2019 - 17:32 [ ScienceAlert.com ]

Something in The Centre of Our Galaxy Colossally Erupted 3.5 Million Years Ago

(06.10.2019)

In 2013, astrophysicist Joss Bland-Hawthorn of the University of Sydney and the ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) and colleagues estimated that the event occurred between 1 and 3 million years ago.

Now, more observations taken using the Hubble Space Telescope – and therefore a bigger dataset – have provided even more compelling evidence for the event. And the team has been able to narrow down a timeframe for both when the event occurred, as well as its duration.

15.11.2019 - 17:29 [ arxiv.org ]

Fossil imprint of a powerful flare at the Galactic Centre along the Magellanic Stream

(21.09.2013)

Thus it is likely that the Stream emission arose from a `Seyfert flare‘ that was active 1-3 Myr ago, consistent with the cosmic ray lifetime in the Fermi bubbles. Sgr A* activity today is greatly suppressed (70-80 dB) relative to the Seyfert outburst…

15.11.2019 - 17:16 [ Forbes ]

The Milky Way‘s Supermassive Black Hole Erupted Two Million Years Ago

(25.09.2013)

The key the astronomers found was actually discovered 20 years old, in the form of a strange glow that astronomers had noticed in the Magellanic Stream. The Magellanic Stream is composed of large clouds of gas – mostly hydrogen – that stretch for light years in the wake of the Milky Way‘s two companion Galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The Stream is about 2 billion years old.

„We didn‘t understand the cause. Then suddenly we realised it must be the mark, the fossil record, of a huge outburst of energy from the centre of our Galaxy,“ remarked researcher Joss Bland-Hawthorn in a press release.

04.11.2019 - 19:38 [ ScienceNews.org ]

Voyager 2 reveals the dynamic, complex nature of the solar system’s edge

Despite encountering the heliopause at different times and locations — the two spacecraft are farther from each other than each are from the sun — some things looked similar. The magnetic field looked pretty much the same on the inside and the outside of the boundary: Somehow, the sun’s magnetic field lines up nearly perfectly with the local galactic field, contrary to expectations. “We could dismiss that as coincidence in one case, but we can’t do that twice,” study coauthor Leonard Burlaga, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in the news conference.

04.11.2019 - 19:30 [ Nature ]

Energetic charged particle measurements from Voyager 2 at the heliopause and beyond

Here, we report measurements of energetic (>28 keV) charged particles on V2 from the interface region between the heliosheath, dominated by heated solar wind plasma, and the VLISM, expected to contain cold non-solar plasma and the Galactic magnetic field. The number of particles of solar origin began a gradual decrease on 7 August 2018 (118.2 au), while those of Galactic origin (Galactic cosmic rays) increased ~20% in number over a period of a few weeks. An abrupt change occurred on 5 November when V2 was located at 119 au, with a decrease in the number of particles at energies of >28 keV and a corresponding increase in the number of Galactic cosmic rays of energy E > 213 MeV. T

04.11.2019 - 19:19 [ theGuardian.com ]

Nasa‘s Voyager 2 sends back its first signal from interstellar space

The shape depends, in a complex way, on the relative strengths of the magnetic fields inside and outside of the heliosphere, and the latest measurements are suggestive of a more spherical form.

04.11.2019 - 18:51 [ ORF ]

„Magnetische Wand“ im interstellaren Raum

Nach Jahrzehnten haben sie nun die Grenze der Heliosphäre passiert und sind damit auf dem Weg zu den Sternen.

01.11.2019 - 06:23 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

Pressure Runs High at Edge of Solar System

(08.10.2019)

The scientists noted that the change in galactic cosmic rays wasn’t exactly identical at both spacecraft. At Voyager 2 inside the heliosheath, the number of cosmic rays decreased in all directions around the spacecraft. But at Voyager 1, outside the solar system, only the galactic cosmic rays that were traveling perpendicular to the magnetic field in the region decreased.

01.11.2019 - 06:17 [ Sciencealert.com ]

Voyager Mission Reveals Unexpected Pressure at The Edge of The Solar System

(10.10.2019)

There was one other surprise to come. The wave‘s passage lined up with an apparent drop in the intensity of high speed particles called cosmic rays. The fact each of the probes experienced this same thing in two different ways gives astrophysicists yet another mystery to solve.

„Trying to understand why the change in the cosmic rays is different inside and outside of the heliosheath remains an open question,“ says Rankin.

01.11.2019 - 06:03 [ EOS.org ]

What Inflates the Solar Bubble? Voyagers Count What’s Missing

(17.10.2019)

We’re all living in a bubble.

In fact, the Sun and the entire solar system exist in a bubble that separates us from interstellar space. But what keeps that bubble inflated? A recent paper found that scientists can account for only 82% of the pressure that steadies the solar bubble, or heliosphere, against pressure from galactic headwinds. The source of 18% of the pressure is still unknown.

15.10.2019 - 18:46 [ CNN ]

Interstellar comet fits right in with our solar system

At the end of August, amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov spotted a new comet while at the MARGO observatory in Crimea. The amateur astronomer used a 0.65-meter telescope he built and saw something that resembled a comet with a short tail.

Observations by NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Solar System Dynamics Group have supported that …