Influence of Interstellar Magnetic Field on Heliosphere

Prof. Opher, in several seminal works, showed for the first time quantitatively that the heliosphere was distorted by the interstellar magnetic field. She and her colleagues predicted that the Termination Shock will be pushed in the southern hemisphere then the northern hemisphere by the interstellar magnetic field slamming against the heliosphere. It was indeed shown by the crossing of the Voyager spacecraft in 2007.

The fundamental work that showed quantitatively the effect of the Interstellar Magnetic Field:

Opher, M., Stone, E. C., and Liewer, P. C., “Effects of a Local Interstellar Magnetic Field on Voyager 1 and 2 Observations”, The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 640, L71 (2006). 

Subsequent works:

Opher, M., Stone, E. C., and Gombosi, T. I., “The Orientation of the Local Interstellar Magnetic Field”, Science, Vol. 316, 875 (2007). 

Opher, M., F. Alouani Bibi, G. Toth, J. D. Richardson, V. V. Izmodenov, and Gombosi, T. I., “A Strong highly-tilted Interstellar Magnetic Field near the Solar System”, Nature, Vol. 462, 1036 (2009).

Observational paper that showed that indeed this was the case:

Stone et al. “An Assymetric Solar Wind Termination Shock”, Nature, Vol. 454, 71 2008