Heliopause
The heliopause is the boundary between the heliosphere and the interstellar medium outside the solar system.
The word heliopause is a noun derived from the Greek helios meaning sun and the English word pause for the boundary created between the solar wind and interstellar gas.
heliopause--The place where the influence of the Sun's magnetic field stops
heliosphere--The entire large bubble of the Sun's influence that stretches far beyond the major planets ...
Heliopause. The region in space where the Sun's atmosphere merges with interstellar space. The position of the heliopause depends both on the strength of the solar wind and on the properties of the local interstellar medium.
Heliopause- the point at which the solar wind meets the interstellar medium or solar wind from other stars
Heliosphere- the space within the boundary of the heliopause containing the Sun and solar system ...
Heliopause -- The boundary theorized to be roughly circular or teardrop-shaped, marking the edge of the sun's influence, perhaps 100 AU from the sun.
Heliopause - The boundary of the heliosphere, where the solar wind merges into the interstellar gas ...
HELIOPAUSE
The heliopause is the boundary of the heliosphere of the Sunin which the solar wind's density decreases greatly (and its speed also declines). The location of this transition region is unknown, but must be at more than 50 AU from the Sun.
Heliopause The gradual boundary between the heliosphere and the interstellar gas outside our solar system. See the diagram with the definition of "heliosphere" below.
The heliopause is the outermost boundary of the solar wind, where the interstellar medium restricts the outward flow of the solar wind and confines it within a magnetic bubble called the heliosphere.
The nature of the heliopause remains one of the great unanswered questions in space physics. Will the Voyager spacecraft last long enough to reach it?
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In his NASA report, Bickford speculates that missions not just to Mars but Jupiter (10 micrograms of antiprotons would be sufficient to fuel a 100 ton payload on a one-year round trip to the giant planet), or fast missions to the ‘heliopause' ...
Nor does it end at the heliopause boundary, where the solar wind can no longer continue to expand outward against the interstellar wind.
The point where the solar wind's strength is no longer great enough to push back the interstellar medium is known as the heliopause, and is often considered to be the outer "border" of the solar system.
Outer space within the solar system is called interplanetary space, which passes over into interstellar space at the heliopause.
They are deflected around the heliosphere's edge (the heliopause). The pink arrow shows how neutral particles penetrate the heliopause.
Reaching the termination shock and heliopause will be major milestones for the mission because no spacecraft from Earth have been there before and the Voyagers will gather the first direct evidence of the termination shock and heliopause.
Another hop, skip, and a jump takes us to the heliopause, where the stream of particles emitted by the Sun collides with the galactic gases of interstellar space, forming a so-called "bow shock.
But the flow still expands with distance, which reduces its density and field still more, ultimately causing it to stop expanding, at a boundary termed heliopause.
The precise distance to, and shape of, the heliopause is still uncertain. Interplanetary spacecraft such as Pioneer 10 and 11 and Voyager 1 and 2 are traveling outward through the solar system and will eventually pass through the heliopause.
In the late 1990's it may encounter the heliopause - the region where the influence of the Sun's wind becomes so weak that, in a sense, you are at the edge of the solar system.
Definition: heliosphere: The space within the boundary of the heliopause containing the Sun and solar system.
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The Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, both launched in 1977, embarked on an interstellar mission, with a goal of exploring the solar wind termination shock and the heliopause beyond. Voyager 1 may pass through the shock by the year 2000.
The boundary between the solar system and interstellar space-called the heliopause-is estimated to occur near 100 AU. The comets, however, achieve the greatest distance from the sun; they have highly eccentric orbits ranging out to 50,000 AU or more.
Each of those probes is still sending data back to Earth. They are now leaving our Solar System and sending back the first information about the heliopause and beyond. Pioneer 11 also made a brief visit to the vicinity after its launch in 1979.
 See also: Solar, Solar System, Sun, Field, Earth
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