NASA explores the limits of the solar system

Interstellar Probe Boudary Explorer (IBEX) of NASA, recently reported new information on the interstellar medium, which lies beyond our solar system. This information could complement those already received by Voyager 1, which travels through space for 34 years and is about to leave our solar system.

The findings of this probe show that the composition of atoms in the interstellar medium is different from the solar system. According to NASA, this means that oxygen would be much more present at any location in the solar system than in the stellar environment.

 

This conclusion led NASA to two theories: either our solar system exists in a region richer in oxygen than in the rest of the galaxy, or that oxygen is "trapped" in tight spaces and can not move in universe. "In any case, it calls into question the scientific design of our solar system and the formation of life," said Eric Christian, IBEX Scientific.

Unlike Voyager, IBEX has a limited duration mission of mapping the border between our solar system and interstellar space. NASA's Voyager account however for more information about what is beyond. Voyager, which sails at a speed of about 199 million kilometers per year, is expected to continue providing information to NASA until 2025. Nevertheless, she brought with her a recording of various important events of humanity, which should reach the nearby solar systems in a few tens of thousands of years.