IBEX:
Goals: IBEX, or Interstellar Boundary Explorer, is designed to detect the edge of our solar system. Operating from Earth orbit, the spacecraft uses neutral atom images to detect particles from the termination shock at the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space.

Accomplishments: IBEX made the first all-sky maps of the heliosphere. One of the immediate results was a surprise: the maps are bisected by a bright, winding ribbon of unknown origin. The finding could change our understanding of the heliosphere.

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19 Oct 2008:  Launch Status:  In Flight Show All Dates for IBEX		16 Oct 2009:  The New Shape of Our Solar System 20 Oct 2008:  NASA Launches IBEX Mission to Outer Solar System 6 Oct 2008:  NASA Spacecraft Ready To Explore Outer Solar System More Headlines
Unlike many satellites in space that collect light, IBEX collects particles. The satellite spins as it orbits so that over the course of six months, each sensor has the opportunity to collect particles from every part of the sky. The spacecraft keeps track of the area the particles came when they entered the sensor, their mass and the amount of energy in each of them. This allows scientists to build a map (above).		Solar System Bodies: Our Solar System IBEX Multimedia Gallery NASA IBEX Page Giant Ribbon Discovered at the Edge of Our Solar System NSSDC Master Catalog: IBEX