Our solar system is moving through the interstellar cloud - VIDEO Our solar system is moving through the so-called local interstellar cloud with very low density, an area the size of 30 light-years across. It is so sparsely that light year found only a small gasp of air - about one atom per three cubic centimeters of space. Earth and our Sun moves through the clouds from 40 000 to 150 000 years, and perhaps will move another 20 000 years. However, this is a moment for our orbit to 250 million years, which runs through the Milky Way.
Previous measurements of interstellar helium atoms spacecraft "Ulysses" have shown that the solar system may be out of the local cloud. However, recent data have discovered IBEX incoming atoms, which move at a slower speed, which means that the heliosphere is still inside the cloud.
In February 2012, the unit IBEX, mission cost 169 million dollars, which was to map the influence of the Sun, fixed atoms from interstellar space, flying towards the Earth, which differ in chemical composition from our solar system.
"Our solar system is different from the space that is outside that brings us to the two options, - says David McComas, principal investigator for IBEX. - Either the solar system evolved into a separate and oxygen-rich part of the galaxy in which we are currently, or most of the life-giving oxygen trapped in interstellar dust or ice pellets and can not move freely in space. "
"We directly measured four separate atoms from interstellar space, and composition just does not match with what we observe in the solar system - said Eric Christian, mission scientist IBEX. - IBEX observations shed light on the mysterious area in which the Solar System ends and interstellar space begins. "
Data hint at the fact that the region of interstellar space just outside the solar system may suffer from lack of oxygen compared to its abundance in the heliosphere - guttate bubble blown by the solar wind, which blocks most of the dangerous cosmic radiation, not letting it get to Earth.
IBEX satellite observed atoms of hydrogen, oxygen, neon and helium, which originated in interstellar space, trivial environment between the stars in the Milky Way, and found 74 oxygen atoms for every 20 neon atoms. For comparison, the solar system is found within 111 oxygen atoms for every 20 neon atoms. Most of the interstellar medium consists of hydrogen and helium. Heavy elements such as oxygen and neon distributed along with the explosion of the supernova at the end of the life cycle of stars.
"Local Bubble" is a network of cavities in the interstellar medium is likely to cut massive supernova explosions millions of years ago. The interstellar medium - a substance that exists in the space between star systems in the galaxy. This material includes a gas ion, the atomic and molecular form dust and cosmic rays. It fills interstellar space and smoothly into the surrounding intergalactic space.
The interstellar medium plays an important role in astrophysics precisely because of its role of mediator between the stellar and galactic scales, stars form in the densest regions of the interstellar medium, and matter, energy, planetary nebulae, stellar winds and supernovae fill it.
This interaction between the stars and the interstellar medium helps to determine the rate at which the galaxy is depleted gaseous terms, and thus the duration of the period of active star formation.
The image below shows how NASA astronomers see around us 1500 light years. The local interstellar cloud is shown in purple, it derives from the association of young stars Scorpius-Centaurus.
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