Nasa's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) has for the first
time mapped out the structure of the solar system's tail and found that it is
shaped like a four-leaf clover.
Scientists describe the tail, called the heliotail, based on
the first three years of IBEX imagery in a paper published in the Astrophysical
Journal.
The Goddard Space Flight Center at NASA published a Video that
explains the origin of the heliotail. Solar winds are responsible for the tail
of the solar system. They carry neutrally charged particles that go beyond the
farthest planets. Eventually, it encounters interstellar gas and a magnetic
field, causing it to slow down and bend behind the solar system’s trajectory.
If you could cut a slice into the heliotail the same way you
would slice cucumber rounds, the cross section would resemble a four leaf
clover. The two side leaves contain slower-moving particles because they are
ferried by slower solar winds from the equator. The top and bottom leaves
contain faster-moving particles because they’re carried by solar winds from the
poles of the sun.
