All good things come to an end - we now find ourselves in the outer reaches of the solar system where our Sun is hard to distinguish from the other bright stars in the sky. But we're not done with the solar system, there's some stuff that's leftover. This week, we look at the outer reaches of the solar system and how it interacts with the rest of the universe.

<strong><a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomycast/AstroCast-071203.mp3">Episode 65: The End of Our Tour Through the Solar System (12.9MB)</a></strong><br />&nbsp;<br />

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Fraser and Pamela,

Wow. Great job on the tour. Congratulations too on funding the high school programme.

As well, we just got the History Channel 'The Universe' show here in New Zealand (and Australia) - I've been looking out for it ever since seeing the banner on your website. What an awesome show - all my favorite scientists past and present: Newton, Einstein, Lemaitre, Brian Greene, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Max Tegmark...

I watched the first episode with my oldest son (he's six so it only took a small bribe - I think he was hoping to see an alien) it's so cool seeing him start to 'get' bits and pieces and ask questions.

The show has a website, and feedback here: http://www.historychannel.com.au/feedback.aspx

I've dropped them a line mentioning Astronomy Cast and Universe Today - maybe someone important will notice.

Thanks for all your hard work.

Regards
Steve Limpus

__________________
If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it... of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which are only accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms...
Albert Einstein

Great job guys, but a question unrelated specifically to our solar system occurred to me. I hope I can phrase it well.

Fraser had asked a question that if he took a sample of space from the heliosphere area or something, what would he see. Pamela answered that most likely he'd have nothing, because of the distribution of all that stuff, etc.

My question is, is space made of anything? That fabric that defines the distance between objects, between us and the moon,our solar system and another, our galaxy and another. Is the actual fabric that these things reside in and are separated by something, anything? I know there is material that is scattered throughout, but I liken that to leaves and paper scattered on the road. I want to know what the road is made of, because I assume that before the big bang (inflation), that fabric didn't exist, so it was created.

My wife calls me a dork all the time, so no need for any of you to be shy if my question is way off. ;-)

Thanks.

-ed

There's a report on December 20 out of NASA and JPL about Voyager 2 crossing through the heliosheath (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/vo...ion_shock.html).

I thought this was very topical as you had just covered this and I was going to ask whether the solar system was fairly uniformly spherical. It was nice to read about the multiple shockwaves and understand what that meant.

My question is about the magnetic field mentioned in that report. There's an interstellar magnetic field? What's causing that? Where is it coming from? Could we have a show about magnetic fields? You could mention the aurora and the Earth's magnetic field as well as the solar magnetic field. And then stretch out further and further.

For now, I think I'll go read this page from SOHO:
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/obj...objectid=36805

Thank you for your continued great shows. I liked the tour of the solar system, but I also like when you use math and physics and stretch our brains.