IBEX Maps Heliopause

NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft has made it possible for scientists to construct the first comprehensive sky map of our solar system and its location in the Milky Way galaxy.

The IBEX spacecraft was launched in October 2008. Its science objective was to discover the nature of the interactions between the solar wind and the interstellar medium at the edge of our solar system.

The sky map was produced with data that two detectors on the spacecraft collected during six months of observations. The detectors measured and counted particles scientists refer to as energetic neutral atoms.

The energetic neutral atoms are created in an area of our solar system known as the interstellar boundary region. This region is where charged particles from the sun, called the solar wind, flow outward far beyond the orbits of the planets and collide with material between stars. The energetic neutral atoms travel inward toward the sun from interstellar space at velocities ranging from 100,000 mph to more than 2.4 million mph. This interstellar boundary emits no light that can be collected by conventional telescopes.

The energetic neutral atoms are created in an area of our solar system known as the interstellar boundary region. This region is where charged particles from the sun, called the solar wind, flow outward far beyond the orbits of the planets and collide with material between stars. The energetic neutral atoms travel inward toward the sun from interstellar space at velocities ranging from 100,000 mph to more than 2.4 million mph. This interstellar boundary emits no light that can be collected by conventional telescopes.

The new map reveals the region that separates the nearest reaches of our galaxy, called the local interstellar medium, from our heliosphere -- a protective bubble that shields and protects our solar system from most of the dangerous cosmic radiation traveling through space.

"For the first time, we're sticking our heads out of the sun's atmosphere and beginning to really understand our place in the galaxy," said David J. McComas, IBEX principal investigator and assistant vice president of the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "The IBEX results are truly remarkable, with a narrow ribbon of bright details or emissions not resembling any of the current theoretical models of this region."

NASA released the sky map image Oct. 15 in conjunction with publication of the findings in the journal Science. The IBEX data were complemented and extended by information collected using an imaging instrument sensor on NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Cassini has been observing Saturn, its moons and rings since the spacecraft entered the planet's orbit in 2004.


Music is Aspergia by Torley Wong, here is a link to the license-
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/

Here is a link to why he placed his music in the Open Source Audio collection-
http://www.archive.org/details/Torley_Wong_-_The_Final_Selection

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• NASA
• Torley Wong
• heliosphere

[BobForehead]

Speaking of heliopause, anyone heard from Voyager lately?

[BruceRFID]

They are still on the job, expected to work until at least 2025. The atomic power supplies are decaying about 5 watts/yr.. Voyager 1 hit the termination shock at 94 A.U., Voyager 2 at 84 A.U., so the solar system is squished.

What I want to know is why are the IR beacons being kept on the down-low. I once found computer code for their "annealing", but have yet to see any data. Hummm...

[TheOddCollector]

oh it says at the end. forgive me for being so rash

[TheOddCollector]

What is the music?

[BobForehead]

prolly 'cause they don't want dingy laymen like me tracking the Pioneer anomaly or some such... actually, have you looked around the backsides of that group? Can't remember their name, it's a private group JPL folks put together to take over tracking and telemetry after NASA gave up.

[sarahsimagination]

thank you :)

[jimmyclerk]

Thanks for posting.