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)
“It is not only their own need to mother that takes some women by surprise; there is also the shock of discovering the complexity of alternative child-care arrangements that have been made to sound so simple. Those for whom the intended solution is equal parenting have found that some parents are more equal than others.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“Frankly, these days, without a theory to go with it, I can’t see a painting.”
—Tom Wolfe (b. 1931)
“It is true, there are the innocent pleasures of country life, and it is sometimes pleasant to make the earth yield her increase, and gather the fruits in their season; but the heroic spirit will not fail to dream of remoter retirements and more rugged paths. It will have its garden-plots and its parterres elsewhere than on the earth, and gather nuts and berries by the way for its subsistence, or orchard fruits with such heedlessness as berries.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“your bare feet on the floors of silence
speak in rhymed stanzas to the furniture,
solemn chests of drawers and heavy chairs
blinking in the sun you have let in!”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)