Heliosphere
A Heliosphere is a bubble-like region of space dominated by one or more stars.
- It is an astrographic feature.
- It extends beyond the orbit of the outermost planet of a system.
- It extents far past the Kuiper Belt region, if the system has one, but generally terminates before the Oort Cloud.
- It is also known as the Hill Sphere.
Description
Plasma "blown" out from the star, known as the solar wind, creates and maintains a bubble or cavity against the outside pressure of the interstellar medium, the hydrogen and helium gas that permeates the Galaxy.
- Some call this hypothetical region the Hill Sphere.
- Its outer boundary is known as the heliopause
The termination shock is the boundary marking one of the outer limits of the star's influence. It is the region where the bubble of solar wind particles begin to press into the interstellar medium and slow down, so that they are traveling slower than the speed of sound relative to the star.
Solar Sails & Light Ships
The solar wind is extremely important to vessels employing Solar Sails.
Background
The Heliosphere represents the symbolic domain of an astrographic hex as designated by the IISS.
Image Repository
An overview of the Terra system, representative of the structure of a star system.
References
- Marc Miller. T5 Core Rules (Far Future Enterprises, 2013), 400, 709-721.