Plasma Near the Termination Shock and in the Heliosheath
- Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)
Voyager 2 (V2) crossed the termination shock in August 2007 and is now making the first plasma measurements of the heliosheath. We describe the plasma data near the termination shock and in the heliosheath. The shock was quasi-perpendicular with a shock speed of about 100 km/s. The solar wind speed decreased before the shock crossing, from 400 to 300 km/s. Most of the solar wind flow energy did not go into the thermal plasma; the average proton temperature in the heliosheath was 10{sup 5} K, well below the predicted temperature of 10{sup 6} K. Most the the flow energy seems to go into the pickup ions. The heliosheath is highly variable, with plasma flow speeds of 100-170 km/s. The crossing of the shock by Voyager 2 at 84 AU compared to the 94 AU distance observed by Voyager 1 (V1) shows that the heliosphere is asymmetric, since only about 2-3 AU of this difference can be ascribed to solar wind pressure changes.
- OSTI ID:
- 21152415
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1039, Issue 1; Conference: 7. annual international astrophysics conference, Kauai, HI (United States), 7-13 Mar 2008; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2982482; (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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