 Hey guys, what's up? We are reading these recent publications about our heliosphere and found it pretty interesting. So we are going to provide you with the information they have accumulated in the space study, and you can let us know what you make of this, so wait to hear this. What happens when the solar wind suddenly starts to blow significantly harder? According to two recent studies, the boundaries of our entire solar system balloon outward and an analysis of particles rebounding off its edges will reveal its new shape. In late 2014, NASA spacecraft detected a substantial change in the solar wind. For the first time in nearly a decade, the solar wind pressure, a combined measure of its speed and density, had increased by approximately 50 percent and remained that way for several years thereafter. Two years later, the spacecraft detected the first sign of the aftermath. Solar wind particles from the 2014 pressure increase had reached the edge of the heliosphere, neutralized themselves and shot all the way back to Earth and they had a story to tell. In two recent articles, scientists used IBEX data along with sophisticated numerical models to understand what these rebounding atoms can tell us about the evolving shape and structure of our heliosphere, the giant bubble carved out by the solar wind. At the crux of the story are energetic neutral atoms, high energy particles produced at the very edge of our solar system. As the solar wind flows out from the Sun at supersonic speeds, it blows up a bubble known as the heliosphere. The heliosphere encases all the planets in our solar system and much of the space beyond them, separating the domain of our Sun from that of interstellar space. But the solar wind's journey from the Sun is not a smooth ride. On its way to the very edge of our heliosphere, known as the heliopause, the solar wind passes through distinct layers. The first of these is known as the termination shock. Before passing the termination shock, the solar wind expands rapidly, largely unimpeded by outside material, but at the termination shock, roughly 9.3 billion miles away from us in every direction, the solar wind slows down abruptly. Beyond this point, it continues to move outwards, but it is much hotter. Once beyond the termination shock, solar wind particles enter a special limbo zone known as the heliosheath. While the termination shock is essentially spherical, the edges of the heliosphere are thought to describe more of an arc around the Sun as it moves through space, closer to the Sun toward the front and extending long behind it, not unlike a comet with a tail. Along these boundaries, solar wind particles mix with particles from interstellar space. Collisions are inevitable. The hot, electrically charged solar wind particles bang into the slower, colder neutral atoms from interstellar space, stealing an electron and becoming neutral themselves. The energetic neutral atoms were coming from about 30 degrees south of the interstellar upwind direction, where the heliosheath was known to be closest to Earth. Simulations were carried out, these types of simulations involve a model for the physicist, which then gets turned into equations, which are in turn solved on a supercomputer. Using computer models, the team simulated an entire heliosphere, jolted it with a solar wind pressure increase, and let it run the numbers. The simulation completed a story only hinted at by the data. According to the simulation, once the solar wind hits the termination shock, it creates a pressure wave. That pressure wave continues onto the edge of the heliosphere and partially rebounds backwards, forcing particles to collide within the now much denser heliosheath environment that it just passed through. That's where the energetic neutral atoms that IBEX observed were born. The simulations provided a compelling case, IBEX was indeed observing the results of the 2014 solar wind pressure increase more than two years later. But the simulation didn't stop there. It also revealed that the 2014 solar wind pressure increase would, over time, continue to blow up the heliosphere even further. Three years after the solar wind pressure increase, the termination shock, the inner bubble within the heliosphere, should expand by seven astronomical units, or seven times the distance from Earth to the Sun. The heliopause, the outer bubble, should expand by two astronomical units, with an additional two the following year. In short, by cranking up the pressure of the solar wind, our heliosphere today is bigger than it was just a few years ago. What does this mean to the Earth? We hear you ask. Well, let us know below what you guys think of this new information from the Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX for short. Question everything guys, and thank you for watching.