After the successful launch of NASA’s IBEX mission, scientists eagerly await to receive the first images captured at the edge of our Solar System. The IBEX – Interstellar Boundary Explorer – spacecraft has the mission to further explore the invisible shock formed as the solar wind piles up against the gas in the interstellar space, which Voyager 1 reported in 2004.

IBEX principal investigator David J. McComas, from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, explained the importance of studying the region beyond the termination shock at the edges of our Solar System: “This region is critical because it shields out the vast majority of the deadly cosmic rays that would otherwise permeate the space around the Earth and other planets.”

The spacecraft has a long way to go before reaching these protective boundaries, as its orbit will take it approximately 200,000 miles from Earth. Within the next six months, IBEX is expected to return observations on the entire sky, as well as reveal the global structure of the heliosheath, which is the region of the heliosphere beyond the termination shock.

The mission is expected to last for 24 months after turn on, but NASA specialists believe the mission could just as well be extended, especially considering the unprecedented data they expect to receive from this region.

As Dr. McComas pointed out, “we’re going to be surprised” of what IBEX will find there. “Ultimately, by making the first images of the interstellar boundaries neighboring our solar system, IBEX will provide a first step toward exploring the galactic frontier.”

The spacecraft is expected to begin its mission after a 45-day orbit raising and checkout period. IBEX will use the hits from the high-speed atoms radiating out of the region to obtain images that it will later send back to Earth.