Lyman‐α Absorption from Heliotail ENAs Available to Purchase

The energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) that the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) is currently studying are messengers from the termination shock and beyond. Ultraviolet spectra from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) provide another way to study these ENAs, which are capable of producing detectable absorption signatures in HST Lyman‐α spectra of nearby stars. This broad, shallow absorption is only observed within 20° of the downwind direction. Only the lengthy downwind lines of sight through the long heliotail build up enough column density of ENAs to yield detectable absorption. The absorption therefore represents the first real observational detection of the heliotail. We try to connect ENA fluxes observed by IBEX with the Lyman‐α absorption observed by HST. In the downwind direction, IBEX observes ENA fluxes that increase towards lower energies, at least to 0.2 keV, but consistency with the HST measurements seems to require that the ENA fluxes at least flatten if not decrease below 0.2 keV. The “ribbon” of ENAs detected by IBEX is not detected in Lyman‐α absorption, which may be a problem for any explanation of the ribbon that proposes a source beyond our heliosphere.