The Heliosphere, IBEX, Voyagers 1 & 2

Energy from the Sun drives almost everything we see and do on Earth. Our Sun is a star with certain characteristics and behaviour. The influence of the Sun stretches to the 'heliopause', at which point its 'solar wind' is balanced off by incoming radiation pressure from the cosmos. The volume of space contained within this dynamically changing 'heliopause shell' is called the 'heliosphere'.

 

Video

Heliosphere

Heliophysics

Heliophysics overview

Solar system's edge redefined

The Sun and the Heliosphere in 3D

Solar System's shield may be leaking

NASA's Heliophysice Science Division

Transitional regions at the Heliosphere's outer limits

The wierd space that lies outside of our Heliosphere

Mapping the nearby space beyond the Solar System

Seeing Relativity: Mind-bending tour of the solar system

Where the Solar System meets the solar neighbourhood

Frothy magnetic-bubble sea found at Solar System's edge

New data show Heliosphere is nearly round and symmetrical

Helioviewer: NASA/ESA movie making tool hits the million mark

IBEX and Voyager spacecraft drive advances in outer Heliosphere research

A small and round heliosphere suggested by magnetohydrodynamic modelling of pick-up ions

IBEX:

IBEX: Interstellar Boundary Explorer

IBEX reveals a missing boundary at the edge of the Solar System

IBEX spcecraft sets 'gold standard' for understanding the galactic material surrounding our solar syatem

Voyagers 1 and 2:

Mission overview

Interstellar mission

Voyagers ride 'magnetic bubbles'

Sun sends more 'tsunami waves' to Voyager

NASA invites the public to fly along with Voyager

NASA denies report that Voyager left solar system

Satellite sheds new light on Solar System boundary

Voyager 1 has left the Solar System, says new study

NASA's Voyager I explores final frontier of our 'solar bubble'

NASA's Voyager hits new region at the Solar System's edge

After 37 years, Voyager 1 has fired up its trajectory thrusters

Voyager spacecraft might not have reached interstellar space

Voyager reaches interstellar space as solar wind slows to zero

What inflates the Solar Bubble? Voyagers count what's missing

Hubble provides interstellar road map for Voyagers' galactic trek

The loyal engineers steering NASA's Voyager probes across the Universe

How the most distant object ever made by humans is spending its dying days

Cosmos incognita: Voyager 1 spacecraft arrives at the cusp of interstellar space 

NASA Voyager statement about competing models to explain recent spacecraft data