Consequences of a Change in the Galactic Environment of the Sun
The interaction of the heliosphere with interstellar clouds has attracted interest since the late 1920's, both with a view to explaining apparent quasi-periodic climate "catastrophes" as well as periodic mass extinctions. Until recently, however, models describing the solar wind - loc...
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ftdatacite:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9901279 2023-05-15T13:43:48+02:00 Consequences of a Change in the Galactic Environment of the Sun Zank, Gary P. Frisch, Priscilla C. 1999 https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9901279 https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9901279 unknown arXiv https://dx.doi.org/10.1086/307320 Assumed arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license to distribute this article for submissions made before January 2004 http://arxiv.org/licenses/assumed-1991-2003/ Astrophysics astro-ph FOS Physical sciences article-journal Article ScholarlyArticle Text 1999 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9901279 https://doi.org/10.1086/307320 2022-04-01T17:19:22Z The interaction of the heliosphere with interstellar clouds has attracted interest since the late 1920's, both with a view to explaining apparent quasi-periodic climate "catastrophes" as well as periodic mass extinctions. Until recently, however, models describing the solar wind - local interstellar medium (LISM) interaction self-consistently had not been developed. Here, we describe the results of a two-dimensional (2D) simulation of the interaction between the heliosphere and an interstellar cloud with the same properties as currently, except that the neutral H density is increased from the present value of n(H) ~ 0.2 cm^-3 to 10 cm^-3. The mutual interaction of interstellar neutral hydrogen and plasma is included. The heliospheric cavity is reduced considerably in size (approximately 10 - 14 AU to the termination shock in the upstream direction) and is highly dynamical. The interplanetary environment at the orbit of the Earth changes markedly, with the density of interstellar H increasing to ~2 cm^-3. The termination shock itself experiences periods where it disappears, reforms and disappears again. Considerable mixing of the shocked solar wind and LISM occurs due to Rayleigh-Taylor-like instabilities at the nose, driven by ion-neutral friction. Implications for two anomalously high concentrations of 10Be found in Antarctic ice cores 33 kya and 60 kya, and the absence of prior similar events, are discussed in terms of density enhancements in the surrounding interstellar cloud. The calculation presented here supports past speculation that the galactic environment of the Sun moderates the interplanetary environment at the orbit of the Earth, and possibly also the terrestrial climate. : 23 pages, 2 color plates (jpg), 3 figures (eps) Text Antarc* Antarctic DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Antarctic Kya ENVELOPE(8.308,8.308,63.772,63.772) |
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DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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topic |
Astrophysics astro-ph FOS Physical sciences |
spellingShingle |
Astrophysics astro-ph FOS Physical sciences Zank, Gary P. Frisch, Priscilla C. Consequences of a Change in the Galactic Environment of the Sun |
topic_facet |
Astrophysics astro-ph FOS Physical sciences |
description |
The interaction of the heliosphere with interstellar clouds has attracted interest since the late 1920's, both with a view to explaining apparent quasi-periodic climate "catastrophes" as well as periodic mass extinctions. Until recently, however, models describing the solar wind - local interstellar medium (LISM) interaction self-consistently had not been developed. Here, we describe the results of a two-dimensional (2D) simulation of the interaction between the heliosphere and an interstellar cloud with the same properties as currently, except that the neutral H density is increased from the present value of n(H) ~ 0.2 cm^-3 to 10 cm^-3. The mutual interaction of interstellar neutral hydrogen and plasma is included. The heliospheric cavity is reduced considerably in size (approximately 10 - 14 AU to the termination shock in the upstream direction) and is highly dynamical. The interplanetary environment at the orbit of the Earth changes markedly, with the density of interstellar H increasing to ~2 cm^-3. The termination shock itself experiences periods where it disappears, reforms and disappears again. Considerable mixing of the shocked solar wind and LISM occurs due to Rayleigh-Taylor-like instabilities at the nose, driven by ion-neutral friction. Implications for two anomalously high concentrations of 10Be found in Antarctic ice cores 33 kya and 60 kya, and the absence of prior similar events, are discussed in terms of density enhancements in the surrounding interstellar cloud. The calculation presented here supports past speculation that the galactic environment of the Sun moderates the interplanetary environment at the orbit of the Earth, and possibly also the terrestrial climate. : 23 pages, 2 color plates (jpg), 3 figures (eps) |
format |
Text |
author |
Zank, Gary P. Frisch, Priscilla C. |
author_facet |
Zank, Gary P. Frisch, Priscilla C. |
author_sort |
Zank, Gary P. |
title |
Consequences of a Change in the Galactic Environment of the Sun |
title_short |
Consequences of a Change in the Galactic Environment of the Sun |
title_full |
Consequences of a Change in the Galactic Environment of the Sun |
title_fullStr |
Consequences of a Change in the Galactic Environment of the Sun |
title_full_unstemmed |
Consequences of a Change in the Galactic Environment of the Sun |
title_sort |
consequences of a change in the galactic environment of the sun |
publisher |
arXiv |
publishDate |
1999 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9901279 https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9901279 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(8.308,8.308,63.772,63.772) |
geographic |
Antarctic Kya |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Kya |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.1086/307320 |
op_rights |
Assumed arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license to distribute this article for submissions made before January 2004 http://arxiv.org/licenses/assumed-1991-2003/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9901279 https://doi.org/10.1086/307320 |
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1766193495191584768 |