Heliosphere work makes it on to the cover of BBC Science Focus.
NASA’s newly launched IMAP mission is set to tell us more about the boundary between our Solar System and interstellar space than ever before…
https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/hunt-exotic-particles-beyond-solar-system-heliosphere-imap
Professor of Merav Opher becomes a Fellow of Guggenheim Foundation’s 100th Class of 2025
Professor of Merav Opher becomes a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. Received December 2024
Professor of Astronomy Merav Opher has been elected as a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), an international scientific association that seeks to promote discovery in Earth and space science for the benefit of humanity.
https://www.bu.edu/cas/astronomer-merav-opher-named-agu-fellow/
Work That Disrupts. In 2015, the astrophysicist Merav Opher challenged a long-held idea about the shape of the heliosphere. As a fellow at Radcliffe, Opher continued her “disruptive” research, leading to another revelation about the heliosphere that made international news.
https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/radcliffe-25/disruption-moment
Paper published in Nature:
A possible direct exposure of the Earth to the cold dense interstellar medium 2–3 Myr ago
Cold, dense clouds in the interstellar medium of our Galaxy are 4–5 orders of magnitude denser than their diffuse counterparts. Our Solar System has most likely encountered at least one of these dense clouds during its lifetime. However, evidence for such an encounter has not been studied in detail yet.
New study finds Earth collided with dense interstellar cloud, possibly affecting life on planet.
Call it the Milky Way mystery. Evidence of a long-ago collision involving the Earth was there in the form of specific radioactive isotopes deposited across the Earth and Moon. There were, however, skeptics.
Full Story Here
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2024
NewScientist – Cosmic cloud exposed Earth to interstellar space 3 million years ago.
The protective bubble around the sun retreated dramatically after colliding with a freezing interstellar cloud, leaving much of the solar system exposed to radiation that may have shaped our evolution, a study suggests.
Between 2 million and 3 million years ago, the solar system encountered turbulence on a galactic scale, colliding with a dense interstellar cloud that may have altered both the climate and evolution on Earth.
Full Story Here
www.newscientist.com/article/2434831
Solar system’s heliosphere may be croissant-shaped – study.
By Celia Jean and Aaron Reich for The Jerusalem Post. Published: August 9, 2020.
These findings could have major implications on the search for habitable planets outside the solar system.
Héliosphère – Aux frontières de notre cocon cosmique
By Benoît Rey for Science & Vie, March 2022
Voyager spacecraft detects ‘persistent hum’ past solar system
By Globe Correspondent, updated May 17, 2021
Illustration above (NASA/JPL-CALTECH) depicts one of NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft. Both Voyagers have entered interstellar space, or the space outside our Sun’s heliosphere.
Héliosphère – Aux frontières de notre cocon cosmique
By Benoît Rey for Science & Vie, March 2022
Voyager spacecraft detects ‘persistent hum’ past solar system
By Globe Correspondent, updated May 17, 2021
Illustration above (NASA/JPL-CALTECH) depicts one of NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft. Both Voyagers have entered interstellar space, or the space outside our Sun’s heliosphere.
Visualizing the Heliosphere, Our Solar System’s Protective Bubble
By, February 21, 202o. BU astrophysicist Merav Opher will lead a new NASA DRIVE (Diversity, Realize, Integrate, Venture, Educate) Science Center aimed at developing a predictive model of the heliosphere. Photo by Cydney Scott.