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In 2009, NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission science team constructed the first-ever all-sky map of the interactions occurring at the edge of the solar system, where the sun's influence diminishes and interacts with the interstellar medium. A 2013 paper provides a new explanation for a giant ribbon of energetic neutral atoms – shown here in light green and blue - streaming in from that boundary.
In 2009, NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission science team constructed the first-ever all-sky map of the interactions occurring at the edge of the solar system, where the sun's influence diminishes and interacts with the interstellar medium. A 2013 paper provides a new explanation for a giant ribbon of energetic neutral atoms – shown here in light green and blue - streaming in from that boundary.
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization
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The vast edges of our solar system – the boundary at the edge of
our heliosphere where material streaming out from the sun interacts with
the galactic material – is essentially invisible. It emits no light and
no conventional telescope can see it. However, particles from inside
the solar system bounce off this boundary and neutral atoms from that
collision stream inward. Those particles can be observed by instruments
on NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX). Since those atoms act
as fingerprints for the boundary from which they came, IBEX can map that
boundary in a way never before done. In 2009, IBEX saw something in
that map that no one could explain: a vast ribbon dancing across this
boundary that produced many more energetic neutral atoms than the
surrounding areas.
Scientists did not know what processes at the edge of the solar system could cause this mysterious increase in neutral atoms, or why any part of the boundary should be different from any other. In the years since, scientists have devised models and theories to try to explain the ribbon and now, building on earlier interpretations scientists have added a new hypothesis to help solve this puzzle.
In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal, researchers propose a "retention theory" that for the first time explains the key observation of the unexplained ribbon's width. The paper appeared online on Feb. 4, 2013.
Indeed, since the discovery of the ribbon, over a dozen competing theories seeking to explain the phenomenon have been put forth. The new theory builds on one that was first published along with the discovery of the ribbon in 2009 and then quantitatively simulated in 2010. This theory posited that the ribbon exists in a special location where neutral hydrogen atoms from the solar wind cross the local galactic magnetic field. Neutral atoms are not affected by magnetic fields, but when their electrons get stripped away they become charged ions and begin to gyrate rapidly around magnetic field lines. This process frequently aims ions back toward the sun. So those ions that pick up electrons at the right time might explain the extra boost of neutral atoms that create the ribbon. The problems were that physical processes might break down the distribution needed for it to work and that models based on this process showed a ribbon narrower than IBEX observed.
The new theory adds a key process: That rapid rotation creates waves or vibrations in the magnetic field, and the charged ions then become physically trapped in a region by these waves, which in turn would amplify the ion density and produce the broader ribbon seen.
"Think of the ribbon as a harbor and the solar wind particles it contains as boats," says Nathan Schwadron, the first author on the paper and scientist at The University of New Hampshire, Durham. "The boats can be trapped in the harbor if the ocean waves outside it are powerful enough. This is the nature of the new ribbon model. The ribbon is a region where particles, originally from the solar wind, become trapped or retained due to intense waves and vibrations in the magnetic field."
Models done with these waves taken into account agree with the available observations, and the mathematical modeling results look remarkably like what the ribbon actually looks like, says Schwadron.
"This is a perfect example of the scientific process," says David McComas, who is the other author on the paper and the principal investigator for the IBEX mission at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. "We observe something completely new and unexpected with IBEX, develop various hypotheses to explain the observations, and then develop mathematical models to try to validate the hypotheses."
Although the retention theory may check all the boxes, the IBEX team is still far from claiming that the ribbon is fully explained. A major test for the retention theory will be watching how the ribbon changes in step with observed changes in the solar wind.
"What we are learning with IBEX is that the interaction between the sun's magnetic fields and the galactic magnetic field is much more complicated than we previously thought," says Eric Christian, the mission scientist for IBEX at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "By modifying an earlier model, this paper provides the best explanation so far for the ribbon IBEX is seeing."
If the theory is correct, points out Schwadron, it will help us understand more about how our heliosphere interacts with the rest of the universe. "The ribbon can be used to tell us how we're moving through the magnetic fields of the interstellar medium and how those magnetic fields then influence our space environment," he says.
IBEX is the latest in NASA's series of low-cost, rapidly developed Small Explorer space missions. Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX leads the IBEX mission with teams of national and international partners. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. manages the Explorers Program for the Heliophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.
For more information about the IBEX mission, go to:
Scientists did not know what processes at the edge of the solar system could cause this mysterious increase in neutral atoms, or why any part of the boundary should be different from any other. In the years since, scientists have devised models and theories to try to explain the ribbon and now, building on earlier interpretations scientists have added a new hypothesis to help solve this puzzle.
In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal, researchers propose a "retention theory" that for the first time explains the key observation of the unexplained ribbon's width. The paper appeared online on Feb. 4, 2013.
Indeed, since the discovery of the ribbon, over a dozen competing theories seeking to explain the phenomenon have been put forth. The new theory builds on one that was first published along with the discovery of the ribbon in 2009 and then quantitatively simulated in 2010. This theory posited that the ribbon exists in a special location where neutral hydrogen atoms from the solar wind cross the local galactic magnetic field. Neutral atoms are not affected by magnetic fields, but when their electrons get stripped away they become charged ions and begin to gyrate rapidly around magnetic field lines. This process frequently aims ions back toward the sun. So those ions that pick up electrons at the right time might explain the extra boost of neutral atoms that create the ribbon. The problems were that physical processes might break down the distribution needed for it to work and that models based on this process showed a ribbon narrower than IBEX observed.
The new theory adds a key process: That rapid rotation creates waves or vibrations in the magnetic field, and the charged ions then become physically trapped in a region by these waves, which in turn would amplify the ion density and produce the broader ribbon seen.
"Think of the ribbon as a harbor and the solar wind particles it contains as boats," says Nathan Schwadron, the first author on the paper and scientist at The University of New Hampshire, Durham. "The boats can be trapped in the harbor if the ocean waves outside it are powerful enough. This is the nature of the new ribbon model. The ribbon is a region where particles, originally from the solar wind, become trapped or retained due to intense waves and vibrations in the magnetic field."
Models done with these waves taken into account agree with the available observations, and the mathematical modeling results look remarkably like what the ribbon actually looks like, says Schwadron.
"This is a perfect example of the scientific process," says David McComas, who is the other author on the paper and the principal investigator for the IBEX mission at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. "We observe something completely new and unexpected with IBEX, develop various hypotheses to explain the observations, and then develop mathematical models to try to validate the hypotheses."
Although the retention theory may check all the boxes, the IBEX team is still far from claiming that the ribbon is fully explained. A major test for the retention theory will be watching how the ribbon changes in step with observed changes in the solar wind.
"What we are learning with IBEX is that the interaction between the sun's magnetic fields and the galactic magnetic field is much more complicated than we previously thought," says Eric Christian, the mission scientist for IBEX at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "By modifying an earlier model, this paper provides the best explanation so far for the ribbon IBEX is seeing."
If the theory is correct, points out Schwadron, it will help us understand more about how our heliosphere interacts with the rest of the universe. "The ribbon can be used to tell us how we're moving through the magnetic fields of the interstellar medium and how those magnetic fields then influence our space environment," he says.
IBEX is the latest in NASA's series of low-cost, rapidly developed Small Explorer space missions. Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX leads the IBEX mission with teams of national and international partners. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. manages the Explorers Program for the Heliophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.
For more information about the IBEX mission, go to:
› http://www.nasa.gov/ibex
NASA Spacecraft Reveals New Observations of Interstellar Matter
The Earth-orbiting spacecraft observed four separate types of atoms including hydrogen, oxygen, neon and helium. These interstellar atoms are the byproducts of older stars, which spread across the galaxy and fill the vast space between stars. IBEX determined the distribution of these elements outside the solar system, which are flowing charged and neutral particles that blow through the galaxy, or the so-called interstellar wind.
"IBEX is a small Explorer mission and was built with a modest investment," said Barbara Giles, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The science achievements though have been truly remarkable and are a testament to what can be accomplished when we give our nation's scientists the freedom to innovate."
In a series of science papers appearing in the Astrophysics Journal on Jan. 31, scientists report finding 74 oxygen atoms for every 20 neon atoms in the interstellar wind. In our own solar system, there are 111 oxygen atoms for every 20 neon atoms. This translates to more oxygen in any part of the solar system than in nearby interstellar space.
"Our solar system is different than the space right outside it, suggesting two possibilities," says David McComas, IBEX principal investigator, at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "Either the solar system evolved in a separate, more oxygen-rich part of the galaxy than where we currently reside, or a great deal of critical, life-giving oxygen lies trapped in interstellar dust grains or ices, unable to move freely throughout space."
The new results hold clues about the history of material in the universe. While the big bang initially created hydrogen and helium, only the supernovae explosions at the end of a star's life can spread the heavier elements of oxygen and neon through the galaxy. Knowing the amounts of elements in space may help scientists map how our galaxy evolved and changed over time.
Scientists want to understand the composition of the boundary region that separates the nearest reaches of our galaxy, called the local interstellar medium, from our heliosphere. The heliosphere acts as a protective bubble that shields our solar system from most of the dangerous galactic cosmic radiation that otherwise would enter the solar system from interstellar space.
IBEX measured the interstellar wind traveling at a slower speed than previously measured by the Ulysses spacecraft, and from a different direction. The improved measurements from IBEX show a 20 percent difference in how much pressure the interstellar wind exerts on our heliosphere.
"Measuring the pressure on our heliosphere from the material in the galaxy and from the magnetic fields out there will help determine the size and shape of our solar system as it travels through the galaxy," says Eric Christian, IBEX mission scientist, at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
The IBEX spacecraft was launched in October 2008. Its science objective is to discover the nature of the interactions between the solar wind and the interstellar medium at the edge of our solar system.
The Southwest Research Institute developed and leads the IBEX mission with a team of national and international partners. The spacecraft is one of NASA's series of low-cost, rapidly developed missions in the Small Explorers Program. Goddard manages the program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
For more information about IBEX, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ibex
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achuteguiayabaca@gmail.com
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