"The new region isn’t what we expected, but we’ve come to expect the unexpected from Voyager."

Edward Stone, Voyager Project Scientist.

Seems that Voyager 1 has entered a new boundary region of the solar system that had not been predicted in most models. Exciting!

NASA - NASA Voyager 1 Encounters New Region in Deep Space

Sun-centric vs. Earth-centric solar system →

Really cool informational model/object (can’t call it a graphic since it’s moving, right?). Shows how complicated the Earth-centric solar system is, compared to the Sun-centric one… Of course, if we were to look at the Sun-centric galaxy against a Sagittarius A-centric galaxy model, it would probably be even more amusing. Still, thank you Copernicus! Truly enjoyable. [via io9]

Technology Review: The Death of Nemesis: The Sun's Distant, Dark Companion →

Apparently, it is almost certainly the case that mass extinctions occur every 26 to 27 million years (as per paleobiologists who have studied fossil records over the past 500 million years). One of the theories suggested to explain this peculiar periodicity was that the Sun has a twin, nicknamed Nemesis, that cuts through the Oort Cloud every 26-27 million years, thereby sending a flood of matter raining towards the inner solar system.

This article says the Nemesis theory is wrong. But, still, the idea is pretty cool.

Our Solar System →

Another awesome solar system animation (note: it will only be animated in Chrome or Safari) (further note: it looks absurd in Internet Explorer).

[via Kottke.org]

cubicle17:

I love things like this:

[SolarBeat is a] simple ambient musicbox, with sounds generated using the orbital frequencies of our solar system.

(via yewknee)

Awesome visualization (auralization?) of solar system.