{"id":45905,"date":"2020-04-02T10:35:51","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T14:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/?post_type=r_cas_research&#038;p=45905"},"modified":"2020-09-21T17:57:21","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T21:57:21","slug":"bu-astronomer-discovers-heliosphere-shape","status":"publish","type":"r_cas_research","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/research\/bu-astronomer-discovers-heliosphere-shape\/","title":{"rendered":"BU Astronomer Discovers Heliosphere Shape"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/cas\/files\/2020\/04\/thumbnail_MeravOpher_BUToday-424x636.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"420\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-46270\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/files\/2020\/04\/thumbnail_MeravOpher_BUToday-424x636.jpg 424w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/files\/2020\/04\/thumbnail_MeravOpher_BUToday-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/files\/2020\/04\/thumbnail_MeravOpher_BUToday-682x1024.jpg 682w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/files\/2020\/04\/thumbnail_MeravOpher_BUToday-755x1133.jpg 755w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/files\/2020\/04\/thumbnail_MeravOpher_BUToday-320x480.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/files\/2020\/04\/thumbnail_MeravOpher_BUToday-620x930.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/files\/2020\/04\/thumbnail_MeravOpher_BUToday.jpg 853w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 280px) 100vw, 280px\" \/>Professor of Astronomy\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/astronomy\/profile\/merav-opher\/\">Merav Opher<\/a><\/strong> has been studying the protective bubble around our solar system for almost two decades. Recently, she published a paper, with co-author James Drake from the University of Maryland, that purports Earth and its neighbors live in a heliosphere shaped like a croissant. This isn&#8217;t the first time she has discussed how the heliosphere resembles more of a French pastry than a sphere, either. Opher&#8217;s work at BU discusses how plasma and magnetic effects reveal themselves in astrophysical and space physics environments.<\/p>\n<p>You can read more about her research and its impact on the greater world (in the field of astronomy and the entire galaxy) at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/heliosphere-model-shape-solar-system-2312402\/\"><em>Futurity<\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jamiecartereurope\/2020\/03\/22\/we-all-live-in-a-croissant-shaped-giant-bubble-say-astronomers\/#6e37f7b31642\"><em>Forbes<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Photo Credit:<\/strong> Alexander Andrews on Unsplash (feature)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Merav Opher has defended her position on the shape of our heliosphere for years\u2014and has a new paper discussing it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":45908,"template":"","department":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/discovery\/45905"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/discovery"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/r_cas_research"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"r_cas_department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=45905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}