Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...211.9303f&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #93.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.889
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The direction of the local interstellar magnetic field, as traced by very weak polarization of nearby stars, agrees with the direction of the Loop I magnetic field in the same region. Locally, the strongest polarizations are observed towards the upstream direction ("nose") of the heliosphere. An unexplained coincidence occurs between the hot and cold poles of the Cosmic Microwave Background Doppler Dipole Moment (CMBDDM) and the heliosphere configuration. The poles are symmetric about the heliosphere nose, and in addition the plane in the sky that divides the hot and cold hemispheres of the CMBDDM crosses the heliosphere nose. The plane dividing the hot and cold CMBDDM hemispheres is also aligned with the position angles of polarization tracing the interstellar magnetic field at the heliosphere, and of Loop I, to within the uncertainties. More specifically, optical polarization data acquired during the solar minimum of the mid-1970's indicates that the position angle of the polarization vectors of the interstellar magnetic field towards the heliosphere nose is -19 deg (14 deg uncertainties) in ecliptic coordinates, compared to the null-plane position angle of the CMBDDM of -12 deg and the Loop I position angle of -15 (20 deg uncertainties) for this region. The coincidence between polarization directions for nearby and far stars has strong implications for the direction of the interstellar magnetic field shaping the heliosphere. The CMBDDM results indicate the foreground contamination of the CMB is not fully understood.
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