A TEAM of astronomers led by Boston University has revealed that the heliosphere is shaped like a croissant.
For those who aren’t aware, the heliosphere is a huge area that extends more than twice as far as Pluto around the Sun.
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Forbes reported that NASA has announced a new $12million, five-year grant to help scientists continue their groundbreaking research into how the sun influences and shapes the solar system.
The money will be split between nine new heliospheric research institutes at universities around the United States.
Because there is so little knowledge about the heliosphere, it is considered cutting-edge research.
Astronomers do know a few things, though, like the fact that a continual storm of hot and charged particles from the Sun exists inside the heliosphere.
It’s also known that the heliosphere creates a magnetic force field that deflects charged particles from entering the solar system and destroys DNA or mutates it to produce us.
The croissant hypothesis is shaped by the SHIELD model, which was constructed by 40 astronomers directed by Merav Opher.
Opher is the SHIELD DRIVE Science Center’s lead scientist and a professor of astronomy at Boston University.
“More and more we’re understanding the importance of the heliosphere for life on Earth, for how the climate was on Earth, as well,” said Opher, per Forbes.
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“But right now, what we understand from the heliosphere, there is a source of energy that is missing—and we don’t know what it is. It means that something inside the heliosphere is producing energy.”
The new NASA-funded research will assist the SHIELD team in creating a “digital twin” of the heliosphere.
By doing this, the team will be able to aid future exploration of the solar system and aid the search for extraterrestrial life in the Milky Way, among other things.
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