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Post by Mistress Rell on Jul 6, 2008 8:34:31 GMT -5
WASHINGTON - When viewed from the rest of the galaxy, the edge of our solar system appears slightly dented as if a giant hand is pushing one edge of it inward, far-travelling NASA probes reveal. Information from Earth's first space probes to hit the thick edge of the solar system - called the heliosheath where the solar wind slows abruptly - paint a picture that is not the simple circle that astronomers long thought, according to several studies published Thursday in the journal Nature. Surprised astronomers said they will have to change their models for what the solar system looks like. In 1977, NASA launched two space probes on missions beyond the solar system. Voyager 1 went north and Voyager 2 went south. What startled astronomers is that when the two of them hit the heliosheath they did so at different distances from the sun. Voyager 2 hit the southern edge of the solar system 1.6 billion kilometres closer to the sun than Voyager 1 did to the north. Voyager 2 hit the edge at 12.5 billion kilometres from the sun. "We used to assume that it's all symmetric and simple," said Leonard Burlaga, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "It's literally like a hand pushing." Full Article
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