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NASA to Discuss Mission to Study Sun’s Weakening Protective Bubble

Written by thomas · Filed Under Aeronautics News 

October 15, 2008

thomas

 

GREENBELT, Md., Oct. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — NASA will hold a
media teleconference on Friday, Oct. 17, at 1 p.m. EDT, to preview the
Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, mission. The spacecraft may
confirm if the sun’s protective bubble surrounding our solar system, called
the heliosphere, is about to shrink and weaken. IBEX also will be the first
spacecraft to image and map the dynamic interactions taking place where the
hot solar wind slams into the cold expanse of space.

The heliosphere acts as a shield for our solar system, warding off most
of the galactic cosmic rays. Recent data indicate the solar wind’s global
pressure is the lowest seen since the beginning of the space age.

IBEX is set to launch Oct. 19 from the Kwajalein Atoll, a part of the
Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Panelists will be:

– David McComas, IBEX principal investigator at Southwest Research
Institute in San Antonio

– Nathan Schwadron, co-investigator and IBEX Science Operations Center
lead at Boston University

– Stephen Fuselier, co-investigator and IBEX-Lo Sensor lead at
Lockheed-Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif.

– Eric Christian, program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington

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