Feeling the heat: Solar System set to enter hot galactic zone in maybe just a century

Quite interesting astronomical news today. Latest research suggests that the energetic neutral atoms' (ENA) Ribbon discovered last year interacting with the Heliosphere is at just a few hundred astronomical units (AUs), which is defined as the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun (roughly 8 light minutes or 150 million kilometers).

It seems that our Solar System will be entering that highly energetic area in the next century or so, with unclear implications. In principle it's something "normal" in the orbit of the Sun in the Milky Way but on the other hand it is something new for our experience and may also mean increased radiation.

More information at Science Daily.

Ref. S. Grzedzielski et al. A Possible Generation Mechanism For Theibexribbon From Outside The Heliosphere. The Astrophysical Journal, 2010. Pay per view.

Astronomical news

From Science Daily.

Jupiter and Saturn have an helium-hydrogen metallic liquid alloy in their cores. It seems this discovery arises new mysteries because if helium is fixated that way inside the giant planets it cannot be part of the explanation for their release of energy, greater than what they take from the Sun.

Milky Way's dark matter is being finally mapped - even if not yet really understood either. Scientists have found lumps and streams of the intriguing substance lurking out there just in the neighbourhood of the Solar System. Dark matter is in any case a long way from being well understood.

A dark matter density map