Britannica Sources used in this answer

How far does the heliosphere extend beyond Neptune’s orbit?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

The heliosphere extends to a boundary known as the heliopause, which is located approximately 123 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun.12

To understand the scale of this distance beyond Neptune, consider that Neptune orbits at a distance of about 30 AU from the Sun. Therefore, the heliopause extends roughly 93 AU beyond the orbit of Neptune. This boundary marks the region where the outward pressure of the solar wind is balanced by the pressure of the interstellar medium.2