Astronomy: I don't understand this picture. What am I looking at?

Question

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/NASA/photo//071211/photos_sc/2007_12_10t201557_450x322_us_space_voyager//s:/ap/20071211/ap_on_sc/solar_system_edge;_ylt=Ap6GATofIPvOWeLgtJ5gGCFxieAA

What is the yellow thing? Is the blue thing our solar system? What is the "shell" around it? Are those the two Voyager models in the picture?

Answer 1

It is an artist's rendering of the solar system. It is unfortunate that the Yahoo! article labels it a "Reuters photo," although in fairness, NASA wasn't specific on their website either. The 2 Voyagers are shown to illustrate that they will exit the heliopause (the blue spherical region) and enter the heliosheath (the elongated larger region) at two different spots. After the Voyager 1 craft exits the heliosheath in about 10 years (the other will take about 13 years), it will be outside the boundary of what is considered our solar system. The bright yellow is probably meant to indicate the interstellar magnetic field, but it is not clear from the article. The orbits of most of the planets around the sun are shown inside the blue sphere (heliopause). Here is a larger version of that image:

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/images/v2_ts_image.jpg

Here is a link to the Voyager website:
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov

Here is a link to a movie that talks about it (in Quicktime format) that will make more sense:
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/v_inter_cable.mov

Answer 2

I'm not sure what the "yellow thing" is.

The "Blue thing" is the heliosheath, the termination shock region between the solar system and interstellar space, a vast area where the Sun's influence gives way to the other bodies in the galaxy.

The Shell is the heliopause, which is the boundary where the Sun's solar wind is stopped by the interstellar medium; where the solar wind's strength is no longer great enough to push back the stellar winds of the surrounding stars.


Yes, those are voyager 1 and 2.

Answer 3

This is an artist's rendition of what the two Voyager probes are encountering, called "termination shock."

The sun produces million-mile/hour winds called solar winds, filled with charged particles. There's also a magnetic field associated with our solar system.

The solar wind is 'protected' by the solar systems magnetic field, out to a point - the Termination Shock - where cosmic particles from our galaxy balance the solar wind our sun produces. It's like a sheet blowing in the breeze - a particular strong 'gust' from the sun pushes it out, while a strong set of cosmic particles form the galaxy can push it back.

Starting in 2004, Voyager 2 first encountered what was believed then to be the termination shock boundary. It crossed it several times, indicating that it was moving as expected. We sent Voyater 1 off is a slightly different direction, and it is now encountering the same 'barrier', but in a different spot - about a billion miles closer to the sun. So, the 'termination shock' boundery isn't a perfect sphere around our solar system, it's kind of like a big bubble that reacts to internal and external winds, changing shape day to day.

Answer 4

The inner concentric rings represent the orbits of the planets in our solar system. The round blue cloud is probably supposed to be the Oort cloud, where most of the comets reside. The elongated blue shell is the heliopause, the point at which the solar wind from our sun slows down as it hits the interstellar medium. The heliopause is generally considered to be the "edge" of our solar system. I'm not sure what the flaming thing at right is supposed to be -- maybe a huge nebula in our galaxy? (The Voyager probes are obviously not to scale.)

Answer 5

Well serchin, because we don't have the capability of going that far out in space and taking pictures of our solar system(at least not yet), I would have to say that is a painting of what an artist depiction of what scientists are talking about in the article. And it is highly exaggerated to illustrate their point. On the left is our supposed solar system, and on the right is the forces they are referring to. And I suppose the two tinny things are space probes. We have some great artists today who can paint some really fantastic outer space paintings. And most of the painting will have under them ' illustration by so and so'.

Answer 6

yes the blue represents the solar system and the yellow represents the outer side of the solar system or magnetic field of open space also known as the bow shock or termination shock if you will and yes the two spacecrafts are in fact the voyagers,

here is a link that tells about it,,

http://www.universetoday.com/2007/11/29/voyager-2-is-about-to-cross-the-termination-shock/

Answer 7

This is not an image or (photo) taken by one of the voyagers. It is simply an artists interpretation of the spherical nature of our solar system being dented by the interstellar magnetic field.

I believe the orange is to represent the solar system and the blue field represents the magnetism.

Answer 8

The Blue circle surronding the solar system is called Termination Shock, and ligter colored blue circle surrounding the Termination Shock is called the Heliosphere, and the red thing is called Bow Shock, and yes those are the Voyagers

Answer 9

Yeah, it's an artist's conception, and it's a little fast and loose with reality. My interpretation is that the blue thing is the solar system and the orange thing is the interstellar medium and galaxy.

Answer 10

you are a smart girl do you wanna marry me?