Did you know that we live in a giant magnetic bubble created by the Sun?
This bubble is known as the heliosphere and it was discovered in the 1950s.
The heliosphere is huge –
our best guess is that the boundary lies at least 10 billion miles from Earth!
Scientist are still learning exactly what this bubble is shaped like –
but NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX mission,
has helped researchers learn something new about it.
They’ve found that this bubble has ripples!
And not only that – the ripples appear to change.
Scientists are now trying to find out why the heliosphere has this texture
and why these ripples change over time.
Scientists think these ripples could be caused by changes in the outward
pressure of the solar wind, the constant stream of particles
and magnetic fields flowing off of the Sun.
Since the Sun cycles between periods of high and low activity,
the boundary of the heliosphere,
called the heliopause, may change and oscillate over time.
According to the researchers, the ripples on the heliopause
may be caused by instabilities that evolve over the solar cycle.
Future NASA missions
will help us discover more about this mysterious bubble
we live in.