ScienceCasts: Amateur Scientists Discover Galactic Bubbles

Amateur scientists have made a effervescent discovery: The Milky Way Galaxy is bubbling like a glass of champagne.

Giant Stinson Beach Bubbles

Bubble-smith Sterling Johnson at Stinson Beach, San Francisco

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Hubble Scopes Out Cosmic Bubbles

With its high powered eyes directed toward dwarf irregular galaxy Holmberg II, the space telescope viewed the remnants of a supernova explosion whose shock waves created glowing bubble-like gas features.

Bubbles Help Fight Fake Wines

A French firm has a new weapon in the fight against counterfeit luxury products, a bubble tag that's impossible to duplicate. It's increasingly being used by France's winemakers who say the say the increased popularity of the grape in Asia has led to a rise in counterfeit bottles on the market. Joanna Partridge reports.

NASA Voyager Craft Discover Magnetic 'Bubbles' At Solar System's Edge

Catharine Smith

NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft have made a baffling discovery along their journey to the outer limits of the solar system.

Scientists studying the Voyager data noticed what may be giant magnetic bubbles located in the heliosphere, the region of our solar system that separates us from the violent solar winds of interstellar space.

The bubbles, scientists believe, form when the sun's magnetic field becomes warped at the edge of our solar system.

"The sun's magnetic field extends all the way to the edge of the solar system," astronomer Merav Opher of Boston University said in a statement released Thursday. "Because the sun spins, its magnetic field becomes twisted and wrinkled, a bit like a ballerina's skirt. Far, far away from the sun, where the Voyagers are, the folds of the skirt bunch up."

What will these bubbles tell us about the way our sun's magnetic field interacts with interstellar rays entering our solar system? According to CNET, Voyager project scientist Ed Stone told CBS News that this layer of bubbles "might affect how cosmic rays from outside can actually get inside the heliosphere. They have to sort of manage to get across all these bubbles."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory launched the Voyager craft 33 years ago on a mission bound for interstellar space.

Take a look at NASA's renderings of the heliosphere, comparing the old model (before the bubbles were discovered) and the new model that includes the bubbles. Then, watch NASA's video for more information about this remarkable discovery.

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WATCH: [via NASA]