Chapters and Articles

The Solar Wind

John T. Gosling, in Encyclopedia of the Solar System (Second Edition), 2007
9. Termination of the Solar Wind
Interstellar space is filled with a dilute gas of neutral and ionized particles and is
threaded by a weak magnetic field. In the absence of the solar wind, the interstellar
plasma would penetrate deep into the solar system. However, the interstellar and solar
wind plasmas cannot interpenetrate one another because of the magnetic
fields embedded in both. The result is that the solar wind creates a cavity in the
interstellar plasma.
The details of the solar wind's interaction with the interstellar plasma are still somewhat
speculative largely because, until recently, we lacked direct observations of this
interaction. Figure 12 shows what are believed to be the major elements of the
interaction. The Sun and heliosphere move at a speed of ∼23 km/s relative to
the interstellar medium. If this relative motion exceeds the fast mode speed, Cf, in the
interstellar plasma, then a bow shock must stand in the interstellar plasma upstream of
the heliosphere to initiate the slowing and deflection of the interstellar plasma around
the heliosphere. The heliopause, which is the outermost boundary of the heliosphere,
separates the interstellar and solar wind plasmas. Sunward of the heliopause is
a termination shock where the solar wind flow becomes subsonic so that it can be
turned to flow roughly parallel to the heliopause. The shape of the heliosphere is
asymmetric because of its motion relative to the interstellar gas; it is compressed in the
direction of that motion and is greatly elongated in the opposite direction. Observations
in the outer heliosphere suggest that the termination shock is constantly in motion
relative to the Sun owing to an ever-changing solar wind momentum flux; it may never
truly achieve an equilibrium position. The size and shape of the heliosphere depend on
the momentum flux carried by the solar wind, the pressure of the interstellar plasma,
and the motion of the heliosphere relative to the interstellar medium. Voyager
1 recently verified the existence of the termination shock, having crossed it in December
2004 at a heliocentric distance of 94 AU roughly in the direction of the heliosphere's
motion relative to the interstellar medium. It is currently believed that the heliopause
lies at a heliocentric distance of 115–150 AU and should be encountered by Voyager
within the next decade.