At the Edge of the Heliosphere

This is it. Back by overwhelming demand, it is time to dip our toes into the heliosphere. There are too many things to learn so we have to pace ourselves. Most of what we have to learn sounds like dialogue from a Star Trek episode...specifically, Deep Space 9...yikes! (I have never actually seen Deep Space 9, so I apologize if that offends anyone, namely, John, my only reader that I am aware of (thanks John!) and I also apologize if it is actually an awesome show, but it always looked slightly dorkier than The Next Generation, which is what I used to watch after school. THAT show was good).

Let's start with some key words and phrases for tonight (we will slowly expand this list over the next few days/weeks/years, so don't be surprised if you don't know what a heliosphere is by the end of this post (or ever, for that matter...I am still slightly doubtful that my brain can comprehend such a thing).

To begin, a vague definition of the heliosphere: A bubble which surrounds our solar system, which is generated by the sun itself.

Holy crap, this is going to blow your mind. I bet you thought you knew what the sun was right? You are wrong. I was wrong, at least. The sun is the star at the center of our solar system. According to Wikipedia, which is going to be the source of many of my Sometimes Facts, I'm warning you right now, the Sun accounts for 99.86% of the mass in our solar system. And you know what it is made out of? Gas! About 73.5% hydrogen and 24.8% helium, with the remainder made up by a variety of elements. How is it possible for something that is about 25% helium to account for 99.86% of the mass in our solar system? I mean, helium floats; it's lighter than air. They put it in balloons. Sure.

Do you know how it's possible? The sun is HUGE, about 1,300,000 times the volume of the earth. This video explains it all (at least it's a good start):