A "WALL" is Found At The EDGE Of Our Solar System

in the past century we've learned

incredible amounts about our solar

system but what do you think lies at the

very edge darkness the portal to another

dimension maybe at what point does our

solar system merge into the other parts

of the universe unaffected by the Sun at

the center now after decades of sending

probes into space we're finally

beginning to get some answers

first of all let's talk about the

structure of our solar system the inner

part of our solar system is fairly well

understood because well our planet lies

within it there's the Sun at the center

a planet that orbits it's billions of

asteroids and comets that are held in

its gravity and masses of gas and dust

that swirl around close to the Sun our

four rocky planets Mercury Venus Earth

and Mars

beyond the Mars is actually room for

another planet and a material present

that could have formed into one if it

wasn't for the massive gas giant Jupiter

that comes next

following Jupiter of course comes Saturn

another gas planet and then choose

smaller colder gas planets Uranus in

Neptune beyond Neptune things are more

disorganized with a lower gravitational

pull from the Sun billions of clumps of

rock and ice are in orbits but never

themselves formed into planets

the belt of comets further out than

Neptune is called the Kuiper belt in the

enormous bubble of materials around the

solar system is known as the Oort cloud

now at the center of the solar system

around which everything else orbits the

Sun exerts its influence to the furthest

reaches with both its gravity and the

particles that emits these charged

particles far out into space from the

Sun in all directions creating a sphere

around it called the heliosphere this

reaches out about eleven billion miles

were the distance equivalent to 100

times the distance from the Sun to the

earth the further these particles go the

less energy they have and at the edge of

the solar system the energy of uncharged

hydrogen atoms in interstellar space

push back against those emitted by the

Sun and this boundary is known as the

hey Leo Paz it's believed that here

there is a buildup of hydrogen atoms

from interstellar space and this

invisible wall scatters incoming

ultraviolet lights and with the vast

distances involved there have only been

two spacecrafts that have passed through

the heliopause Voyager 1 in 2012 and

void

- in 2018 it was from these spacecrafts

that we first got proof that the edge of

the solar system existed where it was

and even if it expands and contracts but

more recent probes have taught us a lot

more the new Horizons spacecraft which

recently conducted a flyby past Pluto

and the Kuiper belt used as Alice UV

spectrometer to take readings of the

heliosphere between 2007 and 2017 it

detected an ultraviolet glow on the

boundary where the solar particles hit

the hydrogen atoms beyond and this is

called the lyman-alpha line this glow

can actually be seen across the entire

solar system but it's more intense at

the edge of the solar system did

anywhere else however the theory and

understanding behind this phenomenon is

not completely understood yet so New

Horizons will continue to collect data

twice a year as a journeys deeper into

space eventually it won't itself cross

the boundary possibly within 15 years

and with the new technology aboard it

can help us to uncover more information

about this mysterious region and as it

is so far out it seems like a missed

opportunity to send a probe to explore

the outer edge without first visiting

other unexplored areas within the solar

system the Voyager probes only reached

an edge because they continue flying

after the mission completed and New

Horizons is only just expected to remain

operational by the time it reaches it

since the discovery of the border there

are now calls for a specialized robotic

probe to make the trip if the proposal

is accepted it should be able to reach

the edge six times faster than the

voyagers did and could reach his target

in less than ten years traveling to a

distance of 90 billion miles from the

Sun it will be able to automatically

explore the region and then send back

the data to answer some of the biggest

questions that remain unanswered about

the solar system now every time a new

probe is sent out to explore the solar

system something else has discovered

that piques the interest of researchers

even further

the mysterious boundary between our

sun's influence and interstellar space

really is still unknown but the new

horizons and future pros will really get

us a lot closer to a better

understanding thanks for watching

everyone we'll see you next time