June 09, 2011

Dwayne C Brown Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726 dwayne c brown@nasa gov

Jia-Rui Cook Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif 818-354-0850 jccook@jpl nasa gov

RELEASE: 11-174

NASA PROBES SUGGEST MAGNETIC BUBBLES RESIDE AT SOLAR SYSTEM EDGE

WASHINGTON -- Observations from NASA's Voyager spacecraft, humanity's farthest deep space sentinels, suggest the edge of our solar system may not be smooth, but filled with a turbulent sea of magnetic bubbles

While using a new computer model to analyze Voyager data, scientists found the sun's distant magnetic field is made up of bubbles approximately 100 million miles wide The bubbles are created when magnetic field lines reorganize The new model suggests the field lines are broken up into self-contained structures disconnected from the solar magnetic field The findings are described in the June 9 edition of the Astrophysical Journal

Like Earth, our sun has a magnetic field with a north pole and a south pole The field lines are stretched outward by the solar wind or a stream of charged particles emanating from the star that interacts with material expelled from others in our corner of the Milky Way galaxy

The Voyager spacecraft, nearly 10 billion miles away from Earth, are traveling in a boundary region In that area, the solar wind and magnetic field are affected by material expelled from other stars in our corner of the Milky Way galaxy

"The sun's magnetic field extends all the way to the edge of the solar system," said astronomer Merav Opher of Boston University "Because the sun spins, its magnetic field becomes twisted and wrinkled, a bit like a ballerina's skirt Far, far away from the sun, where the Voyagers are, the folds of the skirt bunch up "

Understanding the structure of the sun's magnetic field will allow scientists to explain how galactic cosmic rays enter our solar system and help define how the star interacts with the rest of the galaxy

So far, much of the evidence for the existence of the bubbles originates from an instrument aboard the spacecraft that measures energetic particles Investigators are studying more information and hoping to find signatures of the bubbles in the Voyager magnetic field data

"We are still trying to wrap our minds around the implications of the findings," said University of Maryland physicist Jim Drake, one of Opher's colleagues

Launched in 1977, the Voyager twin spacecraft have been on a 33-year journey They are en route to reach the edge of interstellar space NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif , built the spacecraft and continues to operate them The Voyager missions are a part of the Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington

To view supporting images about the research, visit:

http://www nasa gov/sunearth

-end-

To subscribe to the list, send a message to: hqnews-subscribe@mediaservices nasa gov To remove your address from the list, send a message to: hqnews-unsubscribe@mediaservices nasa gov

The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription:

You are subscribed to the following list: [list_name]

using the following email: example@example.com

You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL:

https://aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/u/NASA_REPORTS/example/example com/

If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism

You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen:

<[program_url]/list/[list]>

If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at:

<mailto:[list_owner_email]>

The following physical address is associated with this mailing list:

[physical_address]