About Interstellar Boundary Explorer:
- NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) was launched in October 2008 to study the outer edge of the heliosphere.
- The spacecraft is designed to map the boundary where winds from the Sun interact with winds from other stars.
- The solar system’s boundary is studied by observing energetic neutral atoms or ENAs.
- ENAs are high-energy particles produced at the very edge of our solar system.
- Major discoveries of IBEX
- This spacecraft fully mapped the heliosphere within a year after its launch.
- Its most famous discovery is uncovering a dense region of particles, the ‘IBEX ribbon
What is Heliosphere?
- Heliosphere is the region where the constant flow of particles from our Sun, called the solar wind, collides with material from the rest of the galaxy.
Q1) Who is a Galaxy ?
Galaxies are sprawling systems of dust, gas, dark matter, and anywhere from a million to a trillion stars that are held together by gravity.
Source: NASA’s IBEX spacecraft back to studying edge of solar system after glitch
Last updated on Sep, 2026
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