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termination shock.

Noun
Sci-FiSettingTechnical
MEANING

A shock front where an expanding stellar wind slows abruptly from supersonic to subsonic flow as it encounters pressure from its surroundings.

Use it for

a boundary within a star’s wind-shaped environment; a probe encountering abruptly changed plasma flow; a shock distinguished from the outer heliopause

Words that belong together

  • the solar termination shock
  • cross a termination shock

On the page

The probe crossed the solar termination shock before reaching the heliopause.
The model placed the termination shock inside the broader stellar-wind boundary.

Related words

stellar-wind slowdown shockheliospheric shockheliopause (contrast)
Word forms
Base
termination shock

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Science-fiction vocabulary

Usage notes

Primary category: sci-fi. Forms: Singular termination shock; plural termination shocks. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.

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