Heliosphere Meets Interstellar Medium, in a Galactic Context

TL;DR

This paper discusses how the Sun's movement through the interstellar medium influences the heliosphere's conditions and emphasizes the importance of future interdisciplinary missions to explore these interactions within a galactic context.

Contribution

It highlights the need for next-generation missions and interdisciplinary studies to better understand the heliosphere's relationship with the local and galactic interstellar medium.

Findings

Future missions will clarify the heliosphere's interaction with the VLISM

Comparative studies across the Galaxy will reveal global shaping processes

Interdisciplinary approaches will enhance understanding of stellar astrospheres

Abstract

The physical conditions within our heliosphere are driven by the Sun's motion through an evolving interstellar environment that remains largely unexplored. The next generation of outer heliosphere and interstellar explorers will answer fundamental questions about the heliosphere's relationship with the very local interstellar medium (VLISM) by diving deeper into the Sun's interstellar surroundings. The impact of these future missions will be vastly enhanced by concurrent, interdisciplinary studies that examine the direct connections between conditions within the heliosphere, the heliosphere's immediate interstellar environment, and the larger-scale Galactic ISM. Comparisons of the heliosphere and VLISM to their analogs across the Galaxy will constrain the global processes shaping both stellar astrospheres and their sustained impact on the ISM.