spacetoday.net: NASA spacecraft detects atoms of interstellar matter

Posted: Thu, Feb 2, 2012, 7:49 AM ET (1249 GMT)
IBEX illustration (SwRI)

A NASA spacecraft has detected atoms from the interstellar medium, finding a lower concentration of oxygen than previously expected. The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft, launched in 2008 into a highly elliptical Earth orbit, has detected neutral atoms of hydrogen, helium, oxygen, and neon from the interstellar medium that are not blocked by the Sun's magnetic field. IBEX detected 74 oxygen atoms for every 20 neon atoms, compared to 111 oxygen atoms for ever 20 neon atoms in our own solar system. Scientists said this indicates that either the solar system formed in a more oxygen-rich region of the galaxy, or that oxygen is somehow preferentially trapped in the ice and dust from which the solar system formed.