IBEX spacecraft's all-sky map reveals a bright ribbon of particles.
Credit: NASA
HUNTSVILLE, USA: The ribbon of particles at the edge of the Solar System "shocked" NASA researchers when it was discovered last year. Now they say it is a reflection off a strong galactic magnetic field, and holds the clues to the future of the Solar System.
In October last year, NASA's IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) spacecraft made the first all-sky maps of the heliosphere - the bubble of magnetism that springs from the Sun and surrounds our Solar System.
The result was a map bisected by a bright, winding ribbon of unknown origin. At the time, NASA researchers called it a "shocking result" and puzzled over its origin.
Unexplored territory
"We believe the ribbon is a reflection," says Jacob Heerikhuisen, a NASA Heliophysics Guest Investigator from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. "It is where solar wind particles heading out into interstellar space are reflected back into the solar system by a galactic magnetic field."
Heerikhuisen is the lead author of a paper reporting the results in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
"This is an important finding," says Arik Posner, IBEX program scientist at NASA Headquarters. "Interstellar space just beyond the edge of the solar system is mostly unexplored territory.
"Now we know, there could be a strong, well-organised magnetic field sitting right on our doorstep."
Ribbon reveals vast magnetic field
The IBEX data fit in nicely with recent results from the Voyager spacecrafts. Voyager 1 and 2 are near the edge of the solar system and they also have sensed strong magnetism nearby.
The ribbon that IBEX sees is vast and stretches almost all the way across the sky, suggesting that the magnetic field behind it must be equally vast.
Although maps of the ribbon seem to show a luminous body, the ribbon emits no light. Instead, it makes itself known via particles called 'energetic neutral atoms' - mainly garden-variety hydrogen atoms. The ribbon emits these particles, which are picked up by IBEX in Earth orbit.
What creates the magnetic fields?
It's an elementary fact of physics that there can be no magnetic fields with out electricity, yet there is no mention of this in this article that gives so much importance to the magnetic fields. The mention of charges in the protons and hydrogen atoms also fails to mention that they are most likely electrical charges. If the "solar wind" is also seen as an electric current, all three elements fit together rather nicely, don't they?
Are you sure?
I have a magnet that creates a magnetic field without the use of a power supply.