Major IBEX mission events are usually covered by a press release or status report issued by Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX and/or NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The list of press releases and web links highlights IBEX mission and science accomplishments from 2003 to the present.
IBEX on the NASA Site
For the last few decades, space scientists have generally accepted that the bubble of gas and magnetic fields generated by the sun — known as the heliosphere — moves through space, creating three distinct boundary layers that culminate in an
outermost bow shock. This shock is similar to the sonic boom created ahead of a supersonic jet. Earth itself certainly has one of these bow shocks on the sunward side of its magnetic environment, as do most other planets and many stars. A collection of
new data from NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), however, now indicate that the sun does not have a bow shock.
To better understand how to protect satellites from intense bursts of energy from the sun, scientists study the full chain of space weather events from first eruptions on the sun to how the magnetic fields around Earth compress and change shape in
response. During the April 5, 2010 solar storm, two NASA Heliophysics System Observatory missions – the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) and two spacecraft called the Two Wide–Angle Imaging Neutral–Atom Spectrometers (TWINS) — were perfectly positioned to view the storm from complementary viewpoints.
WASHINGTON – – NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) has captured the best and most complete glimpse yet of what lies beyond the solar system. The new measurements give clues about how and where our solar system formed, the forces that physically shape our solar system, and the history of other stars in the Milky Way.
Special cameras aboard the Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft have snapped the first shots of the complex space environment of Earth’s magnetic field.
WASHINGTON – – New data from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft, reveal that conditions at the edge of our solar system may be much more dynamic than previously thought. Future exploration missions will benefit in design and mission objectives from a better understanding of the changing conditions in this outer region of our solar system.
GREENBELT, Md. — NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer mission, or IBEX, successfully launched from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean at 1:47 p.m. EDT, Sunday. IBEX will be the first spacecraft to image and map dynamic interactions taking place in the outer solar system. (more(PDF))
As a young boy, the mission manager for the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) dreamed of returning to the neighborhood to impress friends with his knowledge of flight. The IBEX mission will provide Greg Frazier with just the example he needs to showcase his knowledge of what it takes to reach the stars. (more(PDF))
The mandate of NASA’s Launch Services Program is to be able to launch any vehicle, anytime, from anywhere in the world. (more(PDF))
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 is ready for launch Oct. 19. The two-year mission will begin from the Kwajalein Atoll, a part of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. (more(PDF)
"Exploration is not an option we choose, but a desire written in the human heart." President George Bush spoke those words during a speech before NASA senior leadership in 2004 to announce a new vision for space exploration. A leadership team responsible for leading this nation’s space explorations and embodying just such a desire to explore. (more(PDF))
Greenbelt, Md. — NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft, designed to image global interactions at the outer reaches of the solar system, today began its move to Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), Calif. (more(PDF))
At the edge of our solar system in December 2004, the Voyager 1 spacecraft encountered something never before experienced during its then 26-year cruise through the solar system — an invisible shock formed as the solar wind piles up against the gas in interstellar space. This boundary, called the termination shock, marks the beginning of our solar system's final frontier, a vast expanse of turbulent gas and twisting magnetic fields. (more(PDF))
San Francisco, CA. — NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft has followed its twin Voyager 1 into the solar system’s final frontier, a vast region at the edge of our solar system where the solar wind runs up against the thin gas between the stars. (more(PDF))
