Scientists puzzled by region outside solar system

[Judi Lynn]

Scientists puzzled by region outside solar system
By Alicia Chang
AP Science Writer / January 31, 2012

LOS ANGELES—A glimpse beyond our solar system reveals the neighborhood just outside the sun's influence is different and stranger than expected, scientists reported Tuesday.

One oddity is the amount of oxygen. There are more oxygen atoms floating freely in the solar system than in the immediate interstellar space, or the vast region between stars.

Scientists were unsure why, but they said it's possible some of the life-supporting element could be hidden in dust or ice.

"We discovered this big puzzle -- that the matter just outside of our solar system doesn't look like the material inside," said David McComas of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.

More:
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2012/01/31/space_outside_our_solar_system_looks_different/

[jberryhill]

1. It's amazing how far some folks need to go to be puzzled

I find most of space puzzling.

That includes some stuff that happens right outside my front door, and definitely at the convenience store late at night.

[Speck Tater]

2. Excess oxygen in our neighborhood? Has anybody checked our atmosphere for leaks? nt

[dimbear]

3. H P Lovecraft was always suspicious of the spaces between the stars. n/t

[jakeXT]

4. paging voyager

In a series of science papers appearing in the Astrophysics Journal on January 31, 2012, scientists report that for every 20 neon atoms in the galactic wind, there are 74 oxygen atoms. In our own solar system, however, for every 20 neon atoms there are 111 oxygen atoms. That translates to more oxygen in any given slice of the solar system than in the local interstellar space.

"Our solar system is different than the space right outside it and that suggests two possibilities," says David McComas the principal investigator for IBEX at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. "Either the solar system evolved in a separate, more oxygen-rich part of the galaxy than where we currently reside or a great deal of critical, life-giving oxygen lies trapped in interstellar dust grains or ices, unable to move freely throughout space." Either way, this affects scientific models of how our solar system – and life – formed.

...

"Sometime in the next hundred to few thousand years, the blink of an eye on the timescales of the galaxy, our heliosphere should leave the local interstellar cloud and encounter a much different galactic environment," McComas says.

In addition to providing insight into the interaction between the solar system and its environment, these new results also hold clues about the history of material in the universe. While the big bang initially created hydrogen and helium, only the supernovae explosions at the end of a giant star's life can spread the heavier elements of oxygen and neon through the galaxy. Knowing the amounts of such elements in space can help map how the galaxy has evolved and changed over time.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ibex/news/interstellar-difference.html

Still measuring it outside would help...