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The comments on this article are really interesting
They are filled with people saying that this is a very poorly written article about an interesting topic.
From what I can glean with my limited knowledge. This insanely high “temperature” of 30-50k, is actually how the author is trying to represent the speed of particles. However, the insanely small amount of particles means the “temperature” is almost imperceptible. I think? This is why Voyager was able to cross this barrier with no issues. As one commenter put it, an astronaut in a space suit would not be able to notice the difference.
Also, the article talks about why this phenomenon occurs, it’s the sun’s magnetic field. And inside the field, it’s like an atmosphere that is different than outside. And the winds outside move a lot faster. Even though the particles are few and far between. As the sun moves throughout space it’s magnetic field creates an effect similar to that of a ship moving through water. Also, the magnetic field itself fluctuates with the sun so it’s shape and size changes. I thought that was pretty interesting.
Also, someone commented something questioning how the Voyager, a half-a-century-old device, could accomplish this and still communicate with us. And another commenter responded that it’s actually pretty amazing. Because we are only able to communicate with it still because we have upgraded our sensors on earth and because the Voyager itself is still pointed towards earth.
The usage of temperature to describe space really throws off laypeople that aren’t used to temperature in a scientific context. Temperature is an average measure of the particles in a system. Since there aren’t many particles, space is “cold”. But it’s not. It’s not cold. If you took off a spacesuit in space and “survived” you would overheat from absorbing heat from the sun OR from your body overheating since you wouldn’t be able to shed the heat. You wouldn’t freeze. There’s hardly any particles to transfer energy between bodies.
In this case, either the particles are traveling faster than in our solar system, or there’s more of them. Even if there’s more of them, there’s still not many, it’s a vacuum. So the “temperature” just reflects the average of the particles.
It’s like being in a bowling alley. The “temperature” is the speed and collisions of the balls. But the people there aren’t ever going to be hit by a ball. So if you bring stronger people to the bowling alley and they throw the balls much harder you can “raise the temperature” without affecting a single person.
