Rizzi, A. R.

Interplanetary space-A new laboratory for rarefied gas dynamics

Interplanetary space provides simultaneously the best vacuum available to man and, because of the solar wind, a tenuous and unsteady high-speed outflow of predominantly hydrogen gas from the sun, a remarkable variety of rarefied gasdynamics phenomena, to observe. A review is provided of these phenomena, and of the way in which the present level of understanding has been achieved.