Gurnett, D. A., W. S. Kurth, E. C. Stone, A. C. Cummings, B. Heikkila, N. Lal, S. M. Krimigis, R. B. Decker, N. F. Ness, and L. F. Burlaga, A Foreshock Model for Interstellar Shocks of Solar Origin: Voyager 1 and 2 Observations, AJ, 161, 11 (2021) (ADS)
(click on the image for a larger version)
Date: 2020 December 07
A first entry in the category of "Interstellar In-Situ" toons, this describes and maybe explains bursts of relativistic (5-100 MeV) electrons detected by the Voyager spacecraft on several occasions outside the heliopause. These amazing spacecraft are now in the local insterstellar medium, where a 1956 cartoon had speculated the existence of a disordered field of about 10-5 G. Voyager finds field to be about 5 times larger (0.5 nT) at the time of their star event, 2014 day 110 (ISM2014-04-14?). The electrons appear to be of cosmic-ray origin, ie not solar, but the shock structure depicted originates from the Sun via flares, CMEs, and ICMEs.
The cosmic rays have great dynamical significance in the interstellar medium in general, for example in terms of pressure. This plasma is not like the ones near Earth; it is all tail and almost no animal at all!