As the distance from the Sun, the mission “New horizons” can literally rest against the wall. The apparatus is now at a distance of about 6 billion kilometers from Earth, far beyond Pluto. Apparently, he found the sign of the farthest reach of the solar energy — wall hydrogen. It is almost identical with the measurements made by the mission Voyager 30 years ago and provides more information about the far reach of our Sun.
“We assume that there is something more, some additional source of brightness,” says the researcher Gizmodo Randy Gladstone of the southwest Institute. “If we succeed, New horizons can capture him.”
The light of the Sun sends charged particles in all directions, and they cause particles of hydrogen in the space between the planets release characteristic ultraviolet light. In the end, the energy of the Sun is weakening, creating the boundary where interstellar hydrogen accumulates at the border of the outgoing pressure caused by the energy of the solar wind.
Located on the edge of the Solar system?
Scientists have received 360-degree view of this UV emission using the tool Alice “New horizons”. But at a certain distance from the Sun to this signal is added brightness, maybe from the particles of hydrogen outside the Solar system, interacting with the far reaches of the solar wind. The work was published in Geophysical Research Letters.
The probe Voyager has discovered a similar signature thirty years ago. However, re-analysis showed. scientists Voyager overestimated the strength of the signal. After correction, however, they were similar to the results of the “New horizons”. Maybe the signal was coming from somewhere else, but the collected data to at least acknowledge his existence, whether he was born of a hydrogen wall or something else. Scientists plan to observe the signal twice a year.
New horizon is preparing to visit the Kuiper belt object 2014 MU69 30-kilometer stone, and then continue to the edge of the Solar system.
Probe “New horizons” saw the possible hydrogen wall at the end of the Solar system
Ilya Hel