Foreign Matter In Space Puts New Question Marks

Data obtained from NASA’s IBMX was revealed on 31 Jan 2012. The results obtained are an outcome of sampled analysis of materials flowing in solar system from interstellar space. Presiding the press conference, David McComas the principal investigator for IBEX at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas said that alien matter from other parts of galaxy were found in our galaxy and chemically they are different from what is found in ours.

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Like the ozone which surrounds the earth, Heliosphere, a magnetic boundary separates our solar system from the rest of Milky Way. Outside the boundary layer lies the rest of universe and inside is the Sun along with its 9 planets. The Sun keeps on increasing this humungous magnetic field by its solar winds which in turn is very good for us as this layer protects us from harmful cosmic rays.

The IBMX that launched in 2008 moves along earth’s orbit and scans the entire area. It detects the neutral atom escaping the Heliosphere and hence without practically going out of solar system IMBX is able to sample the outer galaxy. Two years of constant analyses has provided very interesting results. Eric Christian, mission scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt explained the analyses process. They measured four separate samples from outer space and saw a totally different composition. H, He, O and Ne were the tested atoms. Ne being chemically neutral and relatively abundant produced good statistics. The team compared Ne and O ratio outside and inside the Heliosphere. For every 20 Ne in galactic wind there are 74 O atoms but in our solar system there are 111 O atoms. This means that there are more Oxygen atoms in our solar system. This puts a big question mark. Why is it so. What is so special about our solar system. There are at least two possibilities," says McComas. "Either the solar system evolved in a separate, more oxygen-rich part of the galaxy than where we currently reside or a great deal of critical, life-giving oxygen lies trapped in interstellar dust grains or ices, unable to move freely throughout space and thus undetectable by IBEX."

Whatever the reason is the deep and dark galaxy is producing even darker questions every day and the answer is nowhere to be found. Meanwhile the NASA Voyager which has been travelling for last 40 years is expected to cross the Heliosphere in few years time and then we could possibly see what actually is the extent of all this.

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