Data: 21.11.2023

Pawel Swaczyna (CBK Warsaw)

Our Interstellar Neighborhood: Observations of Interstellar Matter in the Heliosphere

Streszczenie:
The heliosphere inflated by the solar wind in the local interstellar medium shields the solar system from most interstellar charged particles. However, neutral particles, such as atoms of different species, may enter the heliosphere and are detected by space instruments. The neutral atoms that survive their journey to 1 au have been measured directly by Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) since 2008. Those ionized in the heliosphere are picked up by the solar wind and create a population of energetic ions that play the main role in the processes governing the global structure of the outer heliosphere. New Horizons, which continues its mission into the outer heliosphere after passing Pluto in 2015, provides the first observations of these pickup ions beyond 20 au from the Sun. Interstellar neutral atoms, as messengers from the local interstellar medium, bring information about the physical conditions in the medium around the heliosphere, which needs to be interpreted in the light of other astrophysical observations of our interstellar neighborhood.

Bio:
Paweł Swaczyna received his PhD in 2018 from the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences (CBK PAN). He worked at Princeton University, first as a Postdoctoral Research Associate and later as an Associate Research Scholar. In May 2023, he returned to CBK PAN thanks to the NAWA Polish Returns Program. His research focuses on the neutral component of interplanetary matter and the interaction of the solar wind with the local interstellar medium. He is a member of the science team of the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission launching in 2025.