First maps of the sun’s outer boundary may help predict solar storms

The sun’s outer atmosphere resembles a pufferfish.

That’s what scientists have gleaned from the first verified maps of the shifting boundary between the sun and the rest of the solar system. “The structure is basically this kind of corrugated, spiky shape,” says heliophysicist Sam Badman. As the sun gets more active, the boundary gets larger and spikier, Badman and colleagues report in the Dec. 20 Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Maps of this boundary, known as the Alfvén critical surface, could help scientists better predict how solar activity affects satellites, human and animal health and atmospheric phenomena such as auroras.

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