Our Protective Shield

 

Aurora

Magnetic Bubbles

Our Solar System is a series of magnetic bubbles within bubbles – plasma within magnetic fields separated from each other by huge, flowing sheets of electric currents. It's a pattern that's repeated throughout the rest of our plasma universe.

The Sun is enclosed in a Magnetic Bubble

Sun's Magnetic BubbleAs the solar wind streams outward, pulling the Sun's magnetic field with it, it forms a huge, teardrop-shaped magnetic bubble. This bubble, the heliosphere, contains the solar wind, the entire solar magnetic field, and all the planets (many with their own magnetic fields like Earth and Jupiter).

At the outermost boundary of the heliosphere, called the heliopause, the solar wind meets the interstellar medium, a plasma that permeates our Milky Way galaxy. The Voyager 1 and 2 spacecrafts that were launched decades ago have finally approached this distant frontier. The heliosphere is thought to be around 100 times the distance from Earth to the Sun (100 AU). For comparison, Pluto is about 40 AU from the Sun.



Home Espaņol Amazing Plasmas Living with a Star Storm Alert Education Research Glossary About Us Site Map