A new report suggests that enigmatic "ribbon" of energetic particles discovered at the edge of our solar system could be only a small indication of the "vast influence of the galactic magnetic field," according to a Southwest Research Institute press release.
The discovery was made by researchers using NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX).
Researchers have tried to figure out difficult questions regarding the ribbon since first discovering it back in 2009.
The IBEX team, made up of mainly space physicist, recognized that the magnetic field wrapped around our heliosphere seems to decide "the orientation of the ribbon and the placement of energetic particles measured in it," according to the press release.
The IBEX researchers teamed with ultra-high-energy cosmic ray physicists to produce a "more complete picture" of the interactions at the solar system boundary and how they're able to reach much farther out into space between the stars.
The team of cosmic ray physics measured super-high-energy particles to analyze anisotropies, according to the release.
"The teraelectronvolt (TeV) particles measured by the team are incredible," says Dr. David McComas, IBEX principal investigator and assistant vice president of the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute, according to the release. "Each one is up to 12 orders of magnitude more energetic than, for example, a photon of visible light coming from the Sun. To illustrate this scale, consider that $1 raised 12 orders of magnitude is $1,000,000,000,000 - a trillion dollars. These are super-high-energy cosmic rays made in some of the highest energy acceleration mechanisms that exist in the galaxy, such as supernovae."
The report also confirms that high-energy particles are affected by the magnetic field as they arrive from the greater galaxy, leading to the observed anisotropy, according to the release.
Voyagers 1 and 2 reached the first outer boundary of our solar system in 2004 and 2007, respectively.
In 2012, Voyager 1 became the first man-made object to leave our solar system, meaning it went beyond the boundaries of our heliosphere.
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