Plasma Physics

MIT instrument studies edge of sun's bubble (PhysOrg)

8 Jul 2008

The Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft have traveled beyond the edges of the bubble in space where the sun's constant outward wind of particles and radiation slams into the interstellar medium that pervades our galaxy. The first scientific reports on what the Voyagers found there appears this week in the journal Nature.

UI scientists observe Solar System breakthrough (The Daily Iowan)

8 Jul 2008

The breakthrough was a shock for UI astronomy Professor Don Gurnett and research scientist Bill Kurth. The pair worked together to see the Voyager 2 spacecraft make contact with the solar wind termination shock.

In print (Science News)

7 Jul 2008

The hammering has stopped, the whining of power tools has abated. Only the hum of electronic detectors reverberates through the cavernous, eight-story space below the Swiss-Franco border that is stuffed with 9,300 magnets and enough niobium-titanium wire to stretch to the sun and back five times.