Bow Shock Theory For Earth's Sun
It was hypothesised that the Sun also has a bow shock as it travels through the interstellar medium. This will occur if the interstellar medium is moving supersonically towards the Sun, since the sun's solar wind is moving supersonically away from the Sun. The point where the interstellar medium becomes subsonic is the bow shock; the point where the interstellar medium and solar wind pressures balance is at the heliopause; the point where the solar wind becomes subsonic is the termination shock. According to Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell of NASA, the solar bow shock may lie at around 230 AU from the Sun. However, data in 2012 from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) and corroborated with results from the Voyagers, has found that due to refinements in the relative speed of the heliosphere and the local interstellar magnetic field strength it is believed the heliosphere is prevented from forming a bow shock in the region of our galaxy our sun is currently passing through.
Read more about this topic: Bow Shock
Famous quotes containing the words bow, shock, theory, earth and/or sun:
“Verily, the Indian has but a feeble hold on his bow now; but the curiosity of the white man is insatiable, and from the first he has been eager to witness this forest accomplishment. That elastic piece of wood with its feathered dart, so sure to be unstrung by contact with civilization, will serve for the type, the coat-of-arms of the savage. Alas for the Hunter Race! the white man has driven off their game, and substituted a cent in its place.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There are persons who, when they cease to shock us, cease to interest us.”
—F.H. (Francis Herbert)
“If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.”
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
“Ah earth you old extinguisher.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
“What is a firm hand to me, of what use to me is this astonishing power if I cannot change the order of things, if I cannot make the sun set in the east, that suffering diminish and that beings no longer die?”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)