NASA | IBEX Spacecraft Observes Matter from Interstellar Space (by NASAexplorer)

A great magnetic bubble surrounds the solar system as it cruises through the galaxy. The sun pumps the inside of the bubble full of solar particles that stream out to the edge until they collide with the material that fills the rest of the galaxy, at a complex boundary called the heliosheath. On the other side of the boundary, electrically charged particles from the galactic wind blow by, but rebound off the heliosheath, never to enter the solar system. Neutral particles, on the other hand, are a different story. They saunter across the boundary as if it weren’t there, continuing on another 7.5 billion miles for 30 years until they get caught by the sun’s gravity, and sling shot around the star.
There, NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer lies in wait for them. Known as IBEX for short, this spacecraft methodically measures these samples of the mysterious neighborhood beyond our home. IBEX scans the entire sky once a year, and every February, its instruments point in the correct direction to intercept incoming neutral atoms. IBEX counted those atoms in 2009 and 2010 and has now captured the best and most complete glimpse of the material that lies so far outside our own system.

The results? It’s an alien environment out there: the material in that galactic wind doesn’t look like the same stuff our solar system is made of.

More than just helping to determine the distribution of elements in the galactic wind, these new measurements give clues about how and where our solar system formed, the forces that physically shape our solar system, and even the history of other stars in the Milky Way.

In a series of science papers appearing in the Astrophysics Journal on January 31, 2012, scientists report that for every 20 neon atoms in the galactic wind, there are 74 oxygen atoms. In our own solar system, however, for every 20 neon atoms there are 111 oxygen atoms. That translates to more oxygen in any given slice of the solar system than in the local interstellar space.

This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?10906

Source: youtube.com

Scientists Discuss Space Matter (by NASAtelevision)

During a press briefing, Scientists discussed new findings by NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX spacecraft which are helping fill holes in our knowledge about the matter found between the stars in our Milky Way galaxy. IBEX, whose primary focus has been the interaction between our solar system and what lies beyond, has directly sampled multiple heavy elements within this interstellar medium, the same materials of which stars, planets — even people, are made.

Source: youtube.com

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