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The boundary separating the corona from the solar wind is called the Alfvén surface. At a distance of more than a few solar radii from the Sun, the solar wind reaches speeds of 250–750 km/s and is supersonic, [ 4 ] meaning it moves faster than the speed of fast magnetosonic waves .
The heliopause is the theoretical boundary where the Sun's solar wind is stopped by the interstellar medium; where the solar wind's strength is no longer great enough to push back the stellar winds of the surrounding stars. This is the boundary where the interstellar medium and solar wind pressures balance.
The stellar corona extends far beyond the solar surface, or photosphere, and is considered the outer boundary of the star. It marks the transition to the solar wind which moves through the planetary system. This limit is defined by the distance at which disturbances in the solar wind cannot propagate back to the solar surface.
The magnetopause is where the pressure from the solar wind and the planet's magnetic field are equal. The position of the Sun would be far to the left in this image. The magnetopause is the abrupt boundary between a magnetosphere and the surrounding plasma. For planetary science, the magnetopause is the boundary between the planet's magnetic ...
The Solar System is constantly flooded by the Sun's charged particles, the solar wind, forming the heliosphere. Around 75–90 astronomical units from the Sun, [g] the solar wind is halted, resulting in the heliopause. This is the boundary of the Solar System to interstellar space.
The solar wind and its associated magnetic field have blown a bubble in interstellar space called the heliosphere. IMAP will study the heliosphere boundary where the solar wind collides with material from the rest of the galaxy. Using Energetic Neutral Atoms (ENAs), IMAP will image this interaction region from the inner Solar System.
Heliospheric current sheet. The heliospheric current sheet, or interplanetary current sheet, is a surface separating regions of the heliosphere where the interplanetary magnetic field points toward and away from the Sun. [1] A small electrical current with a current density of about 10 −10 A /m 2 flows within this surface, forming a current ...
It extends from the thermopause (also known as the "exobase") at the top of the thermosphere to a poorly defined boundary with the solar wind and interplanetary medium. The altitude of the exobase varies from about 500 kilometres (310 mi; 1,600,000 ft) to about 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) in times of higher incoming solar radiation. [24]