Only a short month ago I posted an article discussing our current understanding of the shape of the Heliosphere and how the Sun keeps up safe from cosmic rays. The Heliosphere is the area around the Sun that repels the majority of dangerous cosmic rays. It is actually a bubble produced by the Solar Winds emitted from our Sun. A slight aside, but it should be noted that the Solar Wind is also hazardous to human life and one of the reasons why trips to the Moon, Mars and other destinations have consider health risks associated with them. We recently believed that the shape of the Heliosphere was similar to a comet. It turns out we were wrong!

Cassini and IBEX have joined forces to provide additional data which refines our understanding of the Heliosphere. Data from the Cassini Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI) and the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) shows that the shape of the heliosphere more closely resembles a bubble. Here are two images to help illustrate the difference.

Here is our new understanding of the boundaries.

The Bowshock as we currently understand it

What we until just recently believe is shown below. You can see a tremendous change in our understanding of the shape of the Heliosphere.

Previous understanding of the Heliosphere