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Local Interstellar Neutral Hydrogen sampled in-situ by IBEX

Authors :
Saul, Lukas
Wurz, Peter
Rodriguez, Diego
Scheer, Jürgen
Möbius, Eberhard
Schwadron, Nathan
Kucharek, Harald
Leonard, Trevor
Bzowski, Maciej
Fuselier, Stephen
Crew, Geoff
McComas, Dave
Source :
Lukas Saul et al. 2012 ApJS 198 14
Publication Year :
2012

Abstract

Hydrogen gas is the dominant component of the local interstellar medium. However, due to ionization and interaction with the heliosphere, direct sampling of neutral hydrogen in the inner heliosphere is more difficult than sampling the local interstellar neutral helium, which penetrates deep into the heliosphere. In this paper we report on the first detailed analysis of the direct sampling of neutral hydrogen from the local interstellar medium. We confirm that the arrival direction of hydrogen is offset from that of the local Helium component. We further report the discovery of a variation of the penetrating Hydrogen over the first two years of IBEX observations. Observations are consistent with hydrogen experiencing an effective ratio of outward solar radiation pressure to inward gravitational force greater than unity ({\mu}>1); the temporal change observed in the local interstellar hydrogen flux can be explained with solar variability.

Details

Database :
arXiv
Journal :
Lukas Saul et al. 2012 ApJS 198 14
Publication Type :
Report
Accession number :
edsarx.1202.0485
Document Type :
Working Paper
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/198/2/14