Disconnection from the termination shock: The end of the voyager paradox

D. J. Mccomas, N. A. Schwadron

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

The most recent Voyager 1 observations show rapidly increasing galactic cosmic ray fluxes with simultaneously decreasing anomalous cosmic ray fluxes. While this has been suggested to somehow herald the imminent crossing of the heliopause, which bounds the heliosphere, we show that such observations should naturally arise from the heliosphere's global magnetic topology. For a blunt termination shock, there must be a region of magnetic flux, still inside the heliopause, but beyond the last magnetic connection point to the termination shock, with poorer access for the shock-accelerated anomalous cosmic rays and better access for the galactic cosmic rays entering the heliosphere.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number19
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume758
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 10 2012
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

Keywords

  • ISM: general
  • ISM: magnetic fields
  • Sun: heliosphere
  • cosmic rays
  • local interstellar matter

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