La Eliopausa
 

Beyond the planetary zone lies the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt, and then a zone of strengthened magnetic field known as the Heliosheath.  This boundary encases the entire solar system like an immense, invisible egg.

Scientists think that this boundary occurs when the solar wind, a momentous outpouring of charged particles blown away from the Sun, meets interstellar gases at the edge of the Sun's magnetic influence.  The solar wind is pushed back here, creating a bow-shock.  The exact location of this magnetic field edge is unknown, and probably varies anyway.  It seems as though the Voyager spacecraft may be passing into this area, and the effect it has on them will teach scientists much about the Heliopause boundary.  Preliminary findings also support a quite different claim made in my forthcoming book, "The Dark Star".  As we shall see, the Heliopause may play a crucial role in the understanding of the nature, and appearance, of the Dark Star itself.

Back in 2003 it became apparent that Voyager 1 was entering an area of space where strange effects were being registered by the aging spacecraft.  This area is thought to be the Termination Shock. 

"The termination shock is where the solar wind, a thin stream of electrically charged gas blowing continuously outward from the Sun, is slowed by pressure from gas between the stars. At the termination shock, the solar wind slows abruptly from its average speed of 300 to 700 km per second and becomes denser and hotter." (2)

It is now thought that the craft is at last moving through the Heliosheath area beyond that, at a distance of 8.7 billion miles.  It is moving through an area of denser particles, and Voyager has detected a stronger magnetic field carried by the solar wind in this region:

"The strongest evidence that Voyager 1 has passed through the termination shock into the slower, denser wind beyond is its measurement of an increase in the strength of the magnetic field carried by the solar wind and the inferred decrease in its speed. Physically, this must happen whenever the solar wind slows down, as it does at the termination shock... In December 2004, Voyager 1 observed the magnetic field strength increasing by a factor of two and a half, as expected when the solar wind slows down. The magnetic field has remained at these high levels from December until now. An increase in the magnetic field intensity of about 1.7 times was seen at the time of the event announced in 2003." (2)
 

The magnetic field of the Solar System is over twice as strong in the vicinity of the Termination Shock, and other more complex effects have been inferred from the data detected by the remarkable Voyager 1 spacecraft:

"Voyager 1 also observed an increase in the number of high-speed electrically charged electrons and ions and a burst of plasma wave noise before the shock. This would be expected if Voyager 1 passed the termination shock. The shock naturally accelerates electrically charged particles that bounce back and forth between the fast and slow winds on opposite sides of the shock, and these particles can generate plasma waves." (3)

Scientists studying the phenomena at this region of space have concluded that there is a complexity here that was not previously considered.  There are some remarkable changes to the magnetic field as the Solar Wind collides with vast expanses of interstellar gases. So what kind of effects might be observed if something more substantial were to come into contact with the Heliopause from beyond the Heliosheath?

The first hints about the power of these effects came from a remarkable image taken by the he Hubble Space Telescope back in February 1995, shown right. There is a visible bow shock about half a light-year across which is created as the wind from the star L.L. Orionis collides with the Orion Nebula flow.

Now, I have written on many occasions about the elongated path of the Dark Star, a theoretical sub-brown dwarf which approaches the planetary solar system during its perihelion passage.

This entity is more massive than Jupiter, and has a strong magnetic field of its own, surpassing that of the Jovian gas giant.  In my forthcoming book, I discuss various scenarios about how this celestial entity might become visible from Earth, despite maintaining a vast distance from us.  One of those possibilities is that the Dark Star encounters the regions of space that Voyager 1 is now passing through. Voyager 1 is detecting great magnetic upheaval here. 

It seems reasonable to propose that the addition of a sub-brown dwarf into such an area, complete with its own massive magnetic field, would create vastly more complex effects.  I'm not sure whether those effects would be strong enough to create an area of luminosity in the magnetic field, like a mind-numbingly colossal aurora effect.  I'm not sure whether the Dark Star itself would be affected by the Heliopause area enough to become super-charged, causing it to emit flares of light.  I'm not sure whether these theoretical effects, even if they occur, would be strong enough to be seen from Earth.

But when you look at that Hubble image from L.L. Orionis, it makes you pause for thought, doesn't it?  Perhaps this is indeed the mechanism whereby the ancients were able to observe the Dark Star.

Voyager 2 has reached the edge of the heliopause unexpectedly early, leading scientists to believe that the heliopause itself is distorted.  It appears to be dented in the southern celestial hemisphere by an unknown magnetic field.  You can read about it at the end of my Voyager page.