One important aspect that we are completely ignorant of is the shape of the heliosphere . The name suggests a spherical shape but we are not actually sure it is. Models suggest that it might be stretched, or even crescent-shaped, instead of spherical. Researchers have now worked out where best to send a probe to understand the heliosphere.
"Without such a mission, we are like goldfish trying to understand the fishbowl from the inside," first author Dr Sarah A. Spitzer, from the University of Michigan, said in a statement .
The galactic radiation affects the shape of the heliosphere, making it directional. There's the nose side in the solar direction of motion, where the heliosphere is closest to the Sun. And there's the tail, that extends a bit like the wake of a boat. A mission proposal in 2021 considered possible direction and assumed a probe 45 degrees from the nose was optimal. This new work disagrees.
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