Our Solar System: A Photo Tour of the Planets

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The Heliosphere

NASA

At last we arrive at the very edge of the solar system where the heliosphere lies, a teardrop-shaped region of space containing electrically charged particles given off by the sun. Many astronomers think that the limit of the heliosphere, known as the heliopause, lies about 9 billion miles (15 billion kilometers) from the sun. And that completes our tour of the solar system. Welcome to interstellar space!

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Tom Chao
Tom Chao
Tom Chao has contributed to SPACE.com as a producer and writer since 2000. As a writer and editor, he has worked for the Voyager Company, Time Inc. New Media, HarperCollins and Worth Publishers. He has a bachelor’s degree in Cinema Production from the University of Southern California, and a master’s degree from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Tom on Google+.