Solar system a bit squashed, not nicely round


	Solar system a bit squashed, not nicely round

invictus

7-2-2008 8:50 PM

747 views

tags:

space, solar system, heliosphere, voyager, science

invictus says:

"Imagine a balloon is being blown up by the solar wind. You might imagine that if you took a balloon, which is mainly spherical, and pushed it against the wall, it would be blunted on one side," said Edward Stone of the California Institute of Technology, one of the scientists involved in the research.

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7-3-2008 5:09 AM

aerynvala

I am stupidly excited by this news, and the information we'll be able to get from it.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/ea49cc67-e3b6-473b-938a-3240845756b9/88DB4D80-E329-490B-ACD9-E1CEF0B212C4/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080702/sc_nm/space_solarsystem_dc_1" href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080702/sc_nm/space_solarsystem_dc_1" style="font-size: 11px;">news.yahoo.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080702/sc_nm/space_solarsystem_dc_1">The solar system may not be a nice 
round shape, but rather a bit squashed and oblong, according to 
data from the Voyager 2 spacecraft <SPAN id="lw_1215041885_0" class="yshortcuts">exploring the solar system</SPAN>'s 
<SPAN id="lw_1215041885_1" class="yshortcuts">outer limits</SPAN>, scientists said on Wednesday.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080702/sc_nm/space_solarsystem_dc_1"><div align="center"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/news.yahoo.com/img/5E9743FC-EF95-4135-A07C-5C9D3803D996" alt="Earth's solar system is seen in a 2004 illustration distributed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Handout/Reuters)" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080702/sc_nm/space_solarsystem_dc_1"><P>
 Launched in 1977, the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 unmanned 
probes are now studying the edges of the heliosphere, the huge 
magnetic "bubble" around our solar system created by the solar 
wind as it runs up against the thin gas in interstellar space.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080702/sc_nm/space_solarsystem_dc_1"><P>
 Voyager 2 in August 2007 crossed this boundary 7.8 billion 
miles from the sun.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080702/sc_nm/space_solarsystem_dc_1"><P>
 Voyager 1 had crossed the boundary in December 2004 about 
10 billion miles away from Voyager 1 and almost a billion miles 
farther from the sun.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080702/sc_nm/space_solarsystem_dc_1"><P>
 Scientists think this indicates that the bubble carved into 
interstellar space by the heliosphere, which extends well past 
the distant orbit of Pluto, is not perfectly round, and the 
solar system is shaped a bit like an oblong.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/88DB4D80-E329-490B-ACD9-E1CEF0B212C4/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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