The interstellar wake of the solar wind.
Abstract
The present work examines theoretically the cooling of the subsonic solar wind by the interstellar hydrogen gas entering the solar system. It is assumed that the interstellar hydrogen gas is distributed uniformly in the space where the solar wind is subsonic, and the solar-wind wake is represented by an idealized column flow of plasma in which the flow velocity is constant and the temperature varies along, not across, the wake. The results are therefore to be taken only in their order of magnitude. In the hot region near the shock sphere the electrons are cooled mainly through electron ionization while the protons cool through charge exchange. In the cooler regions far away from the shock, the protons are still cooled by charge exchange and the electron is cooled by collisions with protons. As the temperature of the solar wind decreases, the magnetic field becomes relatively more important. When the spin axis of the sun is parallel to the direction of the incident interstellar gas flow, the lines of force are in spiral form and the tension causes the plasma to be concentrated along the center of the wake.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- November 1974
- DOI:
- 10.1086/153235
- Bibcode:
- 1974ApJ...194..187Y
- Keywords:
-
- Gas Cooling;
- Interplanetary Magnetic Fields;
- Interstellar Space;
- Solar Wind;
- Wakes;
- Hydrogen;
- Interstellar Gas;
- Interstellar Magnetic Fields;
- Magnetic Effects;
- Magnetic Field Configurations;
- Plasma Dynamics;
- Shock Wave Propagation;
- Subsonic Flow;
- Solar Physics