Sun Is Moving Slower Than Thought
Source: National Geographic
Sun Is Moving Slower Than Thought
Andrew Fazekas
for National Geographic News
Published May 10, 2012
The sun is moving through the Milky Way slower than previously thought, according to new data from a NASA spacecraft.
From its orbit around Earth, the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) satellite measured the speeds of interstellar particles entering at the fringes of our solar system, 9 billion miles (14.5 billion kilometers) from the sun.
Plugging the new data into computer models, the IBEX team calculates that the sun is moving at about 52,000 miles (83,700 kilometers) an hourabout 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometers) slower than thought.
The discovery suggests that the protective boundary separating our solar system from the rest of the galaxy is missing a bow shock, a major structural component thought to control the influx of high-energy cosmic rays.
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Read more: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/05/120510-sun-slower-bow-shock-heliosphere-nasa-ibex-space-science/