NASA surprised with strange ribbon circling solar system

William Atkins
Friday, 16 October 2009 20:34

Science - Space

Right now NASA scientists are perplexed as to the ribbon.

Why it is here? Where did it come from?

The images from the IBEX spacecraft have produced far more questions than answers—so far, that is.

Astronomers are working on this 'mysterious ribbon at the edge of the solar system' to solve the questions that it is posing to the scientific world.

Read more about this exciting discovery in five articles published in Science Magazine under the title “Tying Up the Solar System With a Ribbon of Charged Particles.”

In one article “Width and Variation of the ENA Flux Ribbon Observed by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer,” the authors state, “The dominant feature in IBEX sky maps of heliospheric energetic neutral atom (ENA) flux is a ribbon of enhanced flux that extends over a broad range of ecliptic latitudes and longitudes."

"It is narrow (~20° average width), but long (extending over 300° in the sky) [360 degrees completes one circle] and is observed at energies from 0.2 keV to 6 keV [kiloelectron volt].”

For additional information on the ribbon structure at the edge of the solar system, read the U.S. News and World Report article “Galaxy Edge Surprises Astronomers: New observations reveal a dense ribbon structure that current models don’t explain.”