What I got from the article is that they didn't expect to see the rise of interstellar particles while also seeing the Sun's magnetic field--the field lines of interstellar space lining up with the Sun's field lines. A region where both sets of particles mingled I think was expected, but this region allows the particles to move between regions much easier. Near the bottom of the article: "The researchers suspect they've reached a region of the solar-interstellar boundary that nobody had predicted. In this area, the magnetic field lines of the Sun link up with those of the interstellar field. Scientists are calling this linkage a "highway" for particles to travel along. It lets solar wind particles escape more readily, causing the drop in their intensity. And it opens the door for low-energy cosmic rays to slip in to our Solar System, which is why Voyager 1 is seeing so may of them." Dan On Dec 3, 2012, at 7:59 PM, Michael Wells <eyeonyouproductions@gmail.com> wrote:
Seems like what I would have expected, not a sudden shift from our Sun's particles to those from "outside", but a neutral zone where they both seem to equally counteract each other. In perspective to stellar distances, this still could be considered a super thin line, 122 A.U. is nothing n the grand scheme of things, and that's Voyager I's total trip so far, not just the part where they thought the soloar system would end and the universe proper would begin.
Then again, I'm no scientist, so what would I know?
On Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 7:33 PM, Daniel Holmes <danielh@holmesonics.com>wrote:
It discovered a previously unknown edge of the solar system boundary. Pretty cool stuff.
http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/12/voyager-1-spots-new-region-at-the-edg...
Dan
-- Daniel Holmes, danielh@holmesonics.com "Laugh while you can, monkey boy!" -- Lord John Whorfin
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