How big is IBEX?
IBEX is the size of a bus tire or a large semi truck tire. Next time you see one of these tires close up, check it out! As a comparison, the cargo bay of the space shuttle is the size of a bus. IBEX is pretty small, but it can accomplish a lot! Sorting Particles IBEX uses its sensors to sort particles coming from the Solar System’s boundary. Try your own sorting activity to see how easy or difficult this might be. Next time you are walking among a few trees that have lost their leaves, stop and pick up some of the leaves. Sort them by type of leaf if they are from different kinds of trees. Can you tell which trees the leaves came from? How far did the leaves travel to get to the spot where you picked them up off of the ground? A Solar System in the Sink Even though the stuff between the stars, the Interstellar Medium (ISM), is not plentiful, it is still plentiful enough to have an effect on material escaping from the Sun, the solar wind. Close to the Sun, the solar wind particles are m
