Our solar system is passing through a cloud of interstellar material that shouldn't be there, astronomers say. And now the decades-old Voyager spacecraft have helped solved the mystery.
The cloud is called the "Local Fluff." It's about 30 light-years wide and holds a wispy mix of hydrogen and helium atoms, according to a NASA statement released today. Stars that exploded nearby, about 10 million years ago, should have crushed the Fluff or blown it away.
So what's holding the Fluff in place?
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Some of the most important astronomical discoveries in history were made unexpectedly, and the cosmic mysteries that puzzle scientists today are likely to be made equally as serendipitously, one astronomer says.
Kenneth Lang, an astronomer at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., recounts the importance of accidental astronomical discoveries in an essay in the Jan. 1 issue of the journal Science, beginning with the start of astronomy as we know it.
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