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  Space Toothbrush & The Boundless Solar SystemSep 07, 2012 7:55 AM PDT | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:More art materials experimentation today. May not have killed a brush; and I ended up using a bottle of Elmers "Wood Glue MAX" rather than a caulking gun, anyway, because apparently everything that goes in a caulking gun is toxic, and I'm trying to cut back. May have some conclusive result with that one that I can show you buy tomorrow.
 
Meanwhile, in space, some news happened!
 
- At the International Space Station, astronauts on a long spacewalk finally got a replacement "electrical switching unit" into place by jury-rigging an emergency cleaning solution--a gummed-up bolt socket was preventing the unit from fitting in place--out of a toothbrush attached to the end of a pole. And THAT'S why you should always remember to take your toothbrush with you when you go on a trip.
 
- At the edge of our solar system, Voyager 1...still has not found the edge of the solar system. Eight years ago there was excitement when it entered the "heliosheath," which is the area in the outer solar system where the solar wind "begins to slow due to pushback from interstellar plasma." Two years ago, it entered a region where the solar wind "dropped to zero"; this was a bit of a surprise, but scientists thought maybe it was due to hit the edge of the solar system at any time. And one year ago, it entered an unexpected "frothy" zone in the Sun's magnetic field--but scientists still thought at any time it would hit the edge of the solar system. Well, now, almost 17 light-hours (18.2 billion kilometers) from Earth, it *still* hasn't entered the area of interstellar medium that science says should exist outside the influence of our star. So scientists have had to revise their ideas of where the edge is, and a new paper says that the boundary may be another four billion kilometers (seven years of Voyager 1 travel time) farther out. So our idea of the size of the solar system is getting bigger all the time!
 
 
 
 
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