IBEX: Exploring The Edge Of Our Solar System

  • Released Saturday, June 14, 2008
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IBEX is a new NASA mission that will study the interaction between the solar wind and the material beyond our Solar System called the interstellar medium. The solar wind flowing out of the sun inflates a bubble that we call the heliosphere. IBEX's job is to study those boundaries and understand how they really work and tell us how the heliosphere is able to do the important job of protecting us here on Earth as well as astronauts in space from the dangerous galactic cosmic rays.

To learn more about IBEX, go to www.nasa.gov/ibex.

Jump into the secrets of our Solar System and discover more about how the heliosphere protects life on Earth and explorers in space. The short videos on this page will answer different questions about the IBEX mission and will help you learn more about the edge of our Solar System.

For complete transcript, click here.

There are several boundaries at the edge of our solar system. The IBEX mission will study these boundaries to help us understand how they protect life on Earth and astronauts in space from the galactic cosmic rays coming from interstellar space. In this video you will find out what the boundaries of our solar system are.

For complete transcript, click here.

This video explains the way IBEX will create a global map of the boundaries of our solar system. The two Voyager spacecraft launched in the 1970s gave data for two points on the map, but by using energetic neutral atoms, IBEX images the entire global structure of these interstellar boundaries .

For complete transcript, click here.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Saturday, June 14, 2008.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:55 PM EDT.

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