Investigating the Complex Heliosheath of our Heliospheric Shield
- 1Boston University, Center for Space Physics, Astronomy, Boston, United States of America (kmarc@bu.edu)
- 2Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
The solar wind travels supersonically in the solar system until it reaches the termination shock, where it
is slowed down due to the interplay between the interstellar medium (ISM) and heliosphere. The region
of slowed down solar wind is referred to as the heliosheath, where a great number of mysteries remain
unsolved. Within the SHIELD NASA Drive Center, investigating the physical processes within the
heliosheath and their consequences is a fundamental goal in understanding both the shape of the
heliosphere and also how it protects the solar system from harmful galactic cosmic rays. Here, we
highlight some of the findings of SHIELD: (1) a Rayleigh-Taylor like instability develops in the
heliosheath due to charge exchange, which in turn allows for mixing between the solar wind and ISM
plasma yielding a short, “croissant-like” heliotail; (2) via magnetohydrodynamic modeling, we can
capture this mixing region, which has potential implications for particle acceleration; (3) current
energetic neutral atom (ENA) observations appear to be insufficient for distinguishing the true shape of
the heliotail, but future ENA-focused missions, such as IMAP, will have the capability to determine the
shape of the heliotail; (4) ENA observations of the heliotail and Lyman-alpha observations may also be
able to reveal the properties of the interstellar magnetic field
How to cite: Kornbleuth, M., Opher, M., Powell, E., Onubogu, C., Ma, X., and Richardson, J.: Investigating the Complex Heliosheath of our Heliospheric Shield, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-2490, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-2490, 2024.
