February 04, 2005

NASA announced on January 26 that a satellite that will make the first map of the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space has been selected as part of NASA's Small Explorer program. The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission will be launched in 2008.

IBEX is the first mission designed to map and remotely probe the edge of the Solar System. As the solar wind from the sun flows out beyond Pluto, it collides with the material between the stars, forming a shock front. IBEX contains two neutral atom imagers designed to detect particles from the termination shock at the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space.

ASTD Prof. Mike Gruntman, who pioneered the concept of heliosphere imaging in fluxes of energetic neutral atoms and has significantly contributed to the development of enabling instrumentation, is Co-Investigator of this new exciting mission.

Another news story can found here.

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