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Sensational Shock

the post:

Voyager mission reveals unexpected pressure at the edge of the solar system.


my comment:

Using terms like pressure and shock are only for entertainment value.

excerpt: ===

The Sun periodically flares up and releases enormous bursts of particles, like in coronal mass ejections. As a series of these events travel out into space, they can merge into a giant front, creating a wave of plasma pushed by magnetic fields.
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my comment:
The persistent problem continues: plasma is a stream of charged particles and when moving generate the observed magnetic field.
The charged plasma is moving toward the heliosphere because of electromagnetic fields not because they are being reluctantly pushed in that direction.

from online ===
The average density of the Solar Wind is 4.0 atoms per cubic centimeter. The Solar Wind is constantly being blown off from the Sun at speeds of about 400-500 km per second.
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from another reference: ===
The intensity of cosmic rays of energy 1 Gev/ nucleon or greater is about 1/(cm^2sec).
The energy density corresponding to this is thus about 1 ev/cm^3. This can be compared to the energy density of stellar light of 0.3 eV/cm^3.
This distribution is approximately independent of energy, at least over the dominant energy range of 10 MeV/nucleon through several GeV/nucleon. About 90% of nuclear cosmic rays are protons, about 9% He nuclei, and 1% heavier nuclei.

===
my comment:
The nucleons carry more kinetic energy. Protons are tiny masses but they move fast so the energy density remains what I suspect is low.

===

The talk of pressure, shock and sound always suggests there are more atoms in interstellar space than there really is.

Changes in the measured kinetic energy of incoming particles, from the Sun or interstellar space are treated as a pressure.
If the authors could avoid the distracting sensational terms one might learn what is really being observed.

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