New Horizons provides unprecedented insights into space beyond Pluto

In addition to capturing the first-ever close-up images of Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons probe also recorded three years’ worth of invaluable data on the solar wind, or the stream of charged particles coming off the Sun.

In a new study published by The Astrophysical Journal Supplement, researchers detailed those crucial observations of the solar wind.

The study revealed, among other things, that particles in the solar wind pick up a singular burst of energy that accelerates them past their original speed. These particles could be the seeds of very dynamic particles known as anomalous cosmic rays.

Far-reaching rays

When these energetic rays journey closer to Earth, they can present a radiation threat to astronauts. Farther out in the Solar System, at lesser energies, the rays are believed to play a part in framing the perimeter where the solar wind hits interstellar space; the area of space Voyager 2 is currently traveling through.

New Horizons measured the solar wind from just beyond the orbit of Uranus until it reached Pluto.

“The instrument was only scheduled to power on for annual checkouts after the Jupiter flyby in 2007,” study author Heather Elliott, a space scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Texas, said via press release. “We came up with a plan to keep the particle instruments on during the cruise phase while the rest of the spacecraft was hibernating and started observing in 2012.”

This course of action produced three years of almost constant observations of the space in an area where only a few spacecraft have ever flown, much less taken detailed data. The data showed the outer solar system has less complex structures than space closer to Earth, as smaller particle structures are broken down or bunched together as they move out from the Sun, creating fewer and larger features.

“At this distance, the scale size of discernible structures increases, since smaller structures are worn down or merge together,” Elliott said. “It’s hard to predict if the interaction between smaller structures will create a bigger structure, or if they will flatten out completely.”

Now, with data from both the New Horizons and Voyager 2 probes, the study scientists said they have even more data about this distant area of space, which will be important for testing models of how the solar wind moves throughout the solar system.

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Image credit: NASA

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