IBEX First Orbit Data

As 2009 began, we are took science data with both the IBEX–Hi and IBEX–Lo sensors and collected our first swaths of our all–sky maps. The image shows a dark sky map with the first orbit‘s worth of coincidence counts from hydrogen atoms with speeds from about one hundred thousand to 36 million miles per hour! The hard (and fun) work began as we collected more orbits worth of data exposing adjacent swaths of the sky and sifted through and removed the various backgrounds to unveil the underlying image from the edge of our solar system. Credit: IBEX Team