News flash October 2008
The first NASA spacecraft to image and map the dynamic interactions taking place where the hot solar wind slams into the cold expanse of space launched from an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket at 1:48 p.m. EDT on Oct. 19, 2008 from the Reagan Test Site on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands (South Pacific, a few degrees north of the equator). The IBEX spacecraft will conduct extremely high-altitude orbits above Earth (bringing it quite close to the Moon at times) to investigate and capture images of processes taking place at the farthest reaches of the solar system. Known as the interstellar boundary, this region marks where the solar system meets interstellar space.|
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Artist's impression of IBEX exploring the edge of our solar system. Credit: NASA GSFC. |
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