The following is a slightly edited excerpt of the first chapter of my PhD-thesis. The full text is available as PDF file.
The Insterstellar Interaction
The solar system is immersed in a large cloud of low density gas, the Local Interstellar Medium (LISM). The solar wind moving supersonically at speeds between 300 and 800 km/s creates a cavity in the LISM, the heliosphere. Relative to the LISM, the Sun moves at about 26 km/s. At the outer edge of the solar system, at a distance of 100 to (...)