What does the solar system look like? - The croissant shape of the Solar System
Our solar system is the
only one we know hosts life as we know it, but it is just one of the billions of star systems in the
universe. It consists of one star, which we call the Sun, eight planets, a few billion asteroids,
and a few more billion comets.
But this is not the end of it. Spread in the solar system, there’s a lot of gas and dust
here and there. Some recent studies tried to plot the contents of the Solar System
to determine its shape. And they found that, if seen from the outside, the solar system may look
like a deflated croissant. How is that possible?
Come find out! Explore the wonders of our Solar System and all its incredible
features. Join me as we discover the secrets of our Solar System's shape.
========== March 13, 1989. 6 million people
are left with no electricity. It happened in Québec. During the 9-hour blackout that followed
millions of citizens found themselves with no light or heat, wondering what was going on.
Here’s what happened. A massive solar storm
pummeled the Earth with a huge electromagnetic pulse, resulting in the Great Quebec Blackout.
The storm was so powerful, it took out power grids in Canada and the Northeastern United
States. Affected areas included New York City, Boston, Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa.
The storm was caused by a giant cloud of highly charged particles released by the Sun,
known as a coronal mass ejection. These particles, which travel at up to 6,000 km/s,
can interact with the Earth’s magnetic field and disrupt power grids. This is what happened in
1989, resulting in power outages throughout hundreds of thousands of square kilometers.
To ensure such a blackout doesn’t happen again, power grid operators developed better protection
systems, such as solar shields, early warning systems, and surge, protectors. Despite this,
the Great Quebec Blackout of 1989 is remembered as an example of how the Earth’s power grids can be
vulnerable to extreme solar activity. ========
From the roiling clouds of gas and dust that circle the Sun,
to the geomagnetic storms that sparkle across our atmosphere, it's easy to see that the Sun and its
components are pretty wild and unpredictable. The solar wind is one of the most interesting
phenomena. This is a constant stream of particles that flies outward from the Sun's hot surface,
and it is responsible for a lot of the strange and wonderful things that happen in our part
of the Galaxy. The solar wind affects our atmosphere, our planet's magnetic field,
and even the very formation of our planets! The Earth's magnetic field is key to life as
we know it. Without it, the solar wind would batter the surface of our planet,
breaking down the molecules in our atmosphere and making it impossible for us to survive. Thanks to
our magnetic field, we are shielded from the worst of the Sun's energy.
Solar storms are an even more wild and more intense phenomenon. These storms are eruptions
of energy from the Sun that can cause radiation storms, solar flares, and even interfere with our
electronics. Solar storms can have a major impact on our planet, including disrupting communication
and electrical systems and even endangering lives. The Solar System is a fascinating and sometimes
dangerous place to explore, and the Sun and its components are constantly throwing surprises our
way. From the solar wind to solar storms, it's important to keep an eye on our neighboring star
and everything that it can do.
========= When it comes to the
shape of the Solar System, most people think it looks like a flat circle. But, little do they know
about the real shape of the Solar System - it was an oval! This discovery was made back in the late
1800s when scientists first used their optical telescopes to gaze at the vastness of space.
Astronomers were surprised to see that the Solar System doesn't look like a perfect circle as
depicted in textbooks and illustrations. Instead, it has an oval shape, with the eight planets
spinning around the Sun in an elliptical pattern. The shape of the Solar System has been a source
of humor and fascination since it was discovered. Some joke that it looks like an egg that has been
slightly cracked open, while others likened the planets to its yolks orbiting around the Sun.
And indeed it’s true,
our Solar system is elliptical, but this is only for what concerns the planets and
asteroids! When we take into account the gas of the solar system, we realize it is
shaped like a deflated croissant! This is thanks to the heliosphere,
a bubble in space that is made of charged particles and is held together by the solar wind,
spreading out from the Sun. This bubble encompasses all the planets, asteroids,
comets, and more that exist in the Solar System. The heliosphere acts like a shield, preventing
high-energy particles from interstellar space from entering our Solar System and causing damage.
This protection is critical to the survival of all the matter within the Solar System,
as some of the particles entering our Solar System are strong enough to even crack through hard rock.
Inside this bubble, the shape and size of the heliosphere vary over time, fluctuating due to
the ever-changing environment in space.
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============ Here’s how
astronomers found out the solar system looks like a croissant.
First of all,
they needed observational data about the heliosphere. Unfortunately, these are very few.
Voyager’s data
The Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977, reached the edge of the solar system only
a few years ago. Throughout its journey, it has been collecting data and in-situ edge-of-the-solar
system data points.
IBEX’s data
Another mission, known as IBEX, the Interstellar Boundary Explorer, studied cosmic rays speeding
towards the Earth from the distant reaches of the galaxy, as well as another type of particle,
the energetic neutral atom (ENA), which originates in the solar system.
The mission aimed to map the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space and
to understand more about the behavior and composition of the matter that makes up
the interstellar medium. IBEX carried two main instruments to help it study the interstellar
environment - the ENA Camera and the High Energy Telescope. The ENA Camera studied
the energetic neutral atoms and the High Energy Telescope used energy spectroscopy to map the
interstellar environment of the Solar System. IBEX made some incredible discoveries during
the mission, such as the observation of a ribbon of ENA emission at the boundaries of the Solar
System, and the map of the interstellar medium from its instruments. It also greatly expanded
our knowledge of the Solar System's interaction with interstellar space and taught us much more
about how our galaxy works. The mission was a great success and has contributed massively to
our understanding of interstellar space.
Cassini’s data Also, Cassini, active between 2004 and 2017,
had instruments that helped study these particles. It has detected several types of particles around
the solar system, such as protons, electrons, oxygen, and carbon. These particles are
at different temperatures, densities, and energy levels, depending on their location.
Cassini has also revealed that different particles emit different amounts of light,
giving information on the composition and activity of the solar system.
Moreover, it has helped us to better understand the chemical and physical
properties of these particles as well as their role in forming the solar system.
This incredible tool has also shown how the magnetospheres of planets and moons interact
with the solar wind, giving us insight into the mechanisms of these interactions.
New Horizons’ data
Additionally, NASA’s New Horizons mission has provided measurements of pick-up ions,
particles that are ionized out in space and are picked up and move along with the solar wind.
Because of their distinct origins from the solar wind particles streaming out
from the Sun, pick-up ions are much hotter than other solar wind particles.
When it came to turning data
into prediction models, the scientists considered the cold and hot particles as two fluids mixed.
According to astrophysicists at NASA, when you have two such fluids and put them in space,
they won’t mix, but they will most likely evolve separately. So what they did was to separate these
two components of the solar wind, and model the resulting 3D shape of the heliosphere.
(to the videomaker: show image) https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/figrue4a.jpg
As we can read on NASA’s website, “Considering the solar wind’s components
separately, combined with earlier works using the solar magnetic field as a dominant force
in shaping the heliosphere, created a deflated croissant shape, with two jets curling away from
the central bulbous part of the heliosphere, and notably lacking the long tail predicted by many
scientists.”
Whatever the heliosphere’s true shape, an upcoming NASA mission will be a boon for
unraveling these questions: the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, or IMAP.
IMAP, slated for launch in 2024, will map the particles streaming back to Earth from the
boundaries of the heliosphere. IMAP will build on the techniques and discoveries of the IBEX
mission to shed new light on the nature of the heliosphere, interstellar space, and how galactic
cosmic rays make their way into our solar system. Moreover, this mission will help us to learn more
about how the Milky Way functions and how its various components interact and influence each
other. This mission will provide us with a better insight into the structure, composition, and
dynamics of our local interstellar environment. It will surely be an important step towards
understanding the processes that have shaped the Solar System and the Milky Way. It promises to be
an exciting journey of discovery. =======
The croissant shape of the Solar System reminds us that the nature of the universe
is mysterious and ever-changing. Even today, we keep on discovering new planets, stars,
and galaxies that make the Solar System even more intricate and difficult to comprehend.
So, next time you look up to the night sky, think about the beautiful place you
got to live in: you are probably the chocolate in this tasty croissant!
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