IBEX Probe heads to solar system's end

by Amitjha | October 20, 2008 at 02:57 am

39 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

Search is inherent in humam tendency, and to fulfill this curosity it does all kind of thing which will answer those question, IBEX is one such mission towards intersteller space to find some answer to those question regarding the cycle of solar spot and declining flare intensity.

European union postponed ots mission, on the ground of incresing cost, but NASA seems not to purturbrd by this financial crisis.

Nasa's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (Ibex) spacecraft has been launched into Earth orbit to study the edge of our Solar System.

Ibex was launched on Sunday aboard a Pegasus rocket that was dropped from a jet flying over the Pacific Ocean.

It is the first probe to study particle interactions at the boundary where our Solar System meets interstellar space.

The two-year mission should shed light on the decline of the solar wind, which is at its lowest pressure in 50 years.

The interstellar boundary is the point in space at which the particles emitted from the Sun begin to compete with those from elsewhere in the galaxy.

This region serves as a buffer that protects the Solar System's interior from 90% of the cosmic rays heading towards it.

Recent observations have seen a reduction in the solar wind that propels particles towards the boundary. The level has dropped by 25% in the last decade, reaching a 50-year low.