I am led to believe outerspace begins past the,"Bow wave",created from the big-bang.,but how far away it is and it's structure are still hypothetical,but i can't find any sources to investigate this point..!!!!
Any idea's would,i'm sure.,be FASCINATING...!!!
Thankyou...,
Lawrence
2006-07-31 12:06:39 · 8 answers · asked by Lawrence B 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
I think you'd need to start wit trek before you get to shrek.
Well I don't know about you but I can touch the moon with nothing more than my mind and a magic pen but no doubt a finger would be handy to move it.
And please don't forget light slows down as it travels through the various mediums like glass in your telescope, water in your brain, text on your monitors etc...
Look ma, I can blot out the sun with my thumb...
2006-07-31 14:18:46 · answer #1 · answered by Paul Dalby 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Outer space is just a phrase with no well defined meaning. The "bow wave" you are referring to is where the solar wind pushes against the background plasma in the galaxy, within this region the traces of gas/plasma and magnetic field in space are from our sun. Outside this region the gas/plasma and magnetic field are those of the galaxy in general. So far no man made object has passed through this but the voyagers are getting close and scientists are keen to study the galactic magnetic field directly. This zone of transition between solar and galactic plasma is calle d the Heliopause.
Nothing to do with the big bang, that just refers to the time when the universe was unmeasurably small. There is no outside and the big bang certainly did not create a shock wave - it is just an expansion of space/time not a real explosion.
Nobody knows exactly how far away the Heliopause is it is but it is certainly not symmetrical, it will be far closer on the forward side where the solar system is moving through space. Typical estimates are 50-100 times further away than the sun is from us.
Just out of interesy sincity's comments a few up have some very bad numbers. The nearest star is just over 4 light years away and it is true that light travels at more than 5000 feet/second, it travels about 2000 times faster than that!
2006-07-31 13:16:55 · answer #2 · answered by m.paley 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is no formal definition of "outer space." That said, the legal definition in regard to the X-Prize competition is a height above the Earth of 100 km...or about 62 miles up. Beyond that it's just varying degrees of vacuum.
P.S. There is no "bow wave" of the big bang or, if there is one, it is at the edge of the universe. You are, I think, confusing the term with the heliopause, or the bow shock of our sun's magnetic field. It is considered by many to be the boundary of "interstellar space."
2006-07-31 12:19:00 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It begins just outside the troposphere and goes on forever, or at least man has found no end to space. Outer space is vast, if you tried to reach the closest star it would be 100 million light years away from us, and light travels over 5000 ft per sec so that's the distance light travels in one year, now that's a long way away.
2006-07-31 12:18:23 · answer #4 · answered by sincity usa 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There cannot be any clear defnition of outer space.For the people of Earth outer space is the space above /beyond Earths gravity field.
2006-07-31 17:45:34 · answer #5 · answered by leowin1948 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have to agree with m.paley and I should give him the 10 points.
additional to what he says I put a site so, you have an optical contact and better comprhension for what m.paley says.
Voyager: Living on the Edge of the Solar System
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/
2006-07-31 15:06:34 · answer #6 · answered by UncleGeorge 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
outer space begins as soon as you leave the earths ozone layer.
2006-07-31 12:11:55 · answer #7 · answered by Vel Marie 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
when you leave the earths atmosphere till ?
2006-07-31 17:47:21 · answer #8 · answered by isaac a 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋