Termination shock
node
The surface at which the solar wind, expanding supersonically from the Sun, is abruptly decelerated to subsonic speed against the pressure of the surrounding interstellar plasma. It is the first of the heliosphere's boundaries, not the last: beyond it lies the heliosheath, tens of AU thick, and only beyond that the heliopause. Voyager 1 crossed it on 16 December 2004 at about 94 AU. Voyager 2 crossed on 30 August 2007 at about 84 AU — ten AU closer to the Sun — and crossed it more than once, because the shock itself moves in and out as solar activity changes and it overtook the spacecraft repeatedly. The asymmetry between the two crossing distances was one of the first direct indications that the heliosphere is not a sphere. Not a place.
A node is not a place. Drawing it on a map would assert something about the world that no stored fact supports.
Read in · 1
Evidence · 2
Timeline
No dated observations are stored for this object. Atlas shows what was observed and when — it does not infer a history.
Connections · 2
- Solar windcaused_by
- Heliospherepart_of
Assembled narrative · 1
An assembled narrative is available for this object.
Observed changes · 0
No public Signals are attached to this object. Signals show what changed and when it was observed — never a direction or a rank.
Actions
/atlas?object=BOUNDARY_TERMINATION_SHOCK