This Odd Bubble Surrounds Our Solar System! Science Helps Explain Why

Amaze Lab

Scientists used to think the bubble of space blocking cosmic rays, or heliosphere, was shaped like a long-tailed comet. Now, researchers say it actually looks like a "deflated croissant."

Transcript

00:00 (music)

00:04 This blob may look like an organ from an alien creature,

00:07 but it's actually surrounding our solar system.

00:10 Far beyond our solar system's edge lies a bubble of space

00:14 made by the sun called the heliosphere.

00:16 It blocks cosmic rays, and for years,

00:19 scientists believed it was shaped like a long-tailed comet.

00:22 But using data from NASA missions, a research team found

00:25 it's shaped like a deflated croissant.

00:27 The 3D model showed two jets shooting out of the croissant center

00:30 caused by the solar magnetic field.

00:32 The team analyzed data from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer mission,

00:36 which studied energetic neutral atoms.

00:39 As cosmic rays travel from the sun and towards the theoretical boundary,

00:43 a solar wind's can't penetrate called heliopause.

00:46 They also examined data from NASA's Cassini and New Horizons mission

00:50 and found solar wind interacted more with material from interstellar space

00:54 the further it was from the sun.

00:56 The findings could help seek out life on other worlds

00:59 by determining if other star systems have a similar bubble.

01:03 This study was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

01:06 (upbeat music)

01:08 you

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