Abstract
The heliosphere is defined as the region of space in which the plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun are largely separate from the local interstellar medium. The boundary of the heliosphere is called the heliopause, and a plasma structure within the heliosphere, called the termination shock, marks the surface where the supersonic solar wind becomes subsonic. Since the 1950s, scientists have speculated about the distances from the Sun of these surfaces. Several different scientific approaches were used to justify the guesses, which varied widely. After decades of flight, and by making use of gravitational assists from Jupiter and Saturn, the Voyager spacecraft crossed the termination shock and the heliopause. The distances to these surfaces were larger than generally predicted, and the overall structure of the heliosphere remains a very active area of research.
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Cummings, W.D., Lanzerotti, L.J. (2023). Size of the Solar System. In: Scientific Debates in Space Science. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41598-2_8
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