New View Of The Heliosphere: Cassini Helps Redraw Shape Of Solar System

Images from the Ion and Neutral Camera (INCA), part of the Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument on NASA's Cassini spacecraft, suggest that the heliosphere may not have the comet-like shape predicted by existing models. The instrument imaged a population of hot particles that resides just beyond the boundary of where the solar wind collides with the interstellar medium, forming a termination shock. (Credit: JHU Applied Physics Laboratory)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Oct. 18, 2009) — In a paper published Oct. 15 in Science, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) present a new view of the region of the sun’s influence, or heliosphere, and the forces that shape it. Images from one of the Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument’s sensors, the Ion and Neutral Camera (MIMI/INCA), on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft suggest that the heliosphere may not have the comet-like shape predicted by existing models.

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