“NASA Satellite Detects Alien Atoms” —Different from Chemical Composition of Our Solar System

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NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer, the centerpiece of a $169 million mission mapping the frontier of the sun’s influence, has detected atoms from interstellar space streaming by Earth, that are different from the chemical make-up of the solar system, scientists announced Tuesday. 

The IBEX satellite observed hydrogen, oxygen, neon and helium atoms that originated in interstellar space, the vacuous medium between stars in the Milky Way galaxy and found 74 oxygen atoms for every 20 neon atoms in the interstellar material, compared with 111 oxygen atoms for every 20 neon atoms inside the solar system. Most of the interstellar medium is made up of hydrogen and helium. Heavier elements, such as oxygen and neon, are spread by exploding supernovae at the end of a star’s life cycle, according to NASA.

“We’ve directly measured four separate types of atoms from interstellar space and the composition just doesn’t match up with what we see in the solar system,” said Eric Christian, IBEX mission scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “IBEX’s observations shed a whole new light on the mysterious zone where the solar system ends and interstellar space begins.”

The data hints that the region of interstellar space just outside the solar system may be deficient in oxygen compared to its abundance inside the heliosphere —a teardrop-shaped bubble blown out by the force from the solar winds that blocks most dangerous cosmic radiation from reaching Earth.

(via dailygalaxy)