By Alicia Chang, AP Science Writer
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
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This undated artist rendering provided by NASA shows NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer spacecraft. NASA announced Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012 that new findings from IBEX reveal the space just outside the solar system looks different than within the solar system. Image: AP Photo/NASA
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LOS
ANGELES (AP)—A glimpse beyond our solar system reveals the neighborhood
just outside the sun's influence is different and stranger than
expected, scientists reported Tuesday.
One
oddity is the amount of oxygen. There are more oxygen atoms floating
freely in the solar system than in the immediate interstellar space, or
the vast region between stars.
Scientists were unsure why, but they said it's possible some of the life-supporting element could be hidden in dust or ice.
"We
discovered this big puzzle—that the matter just outside of our solar
system doesn't look like the material inside," said David McComas of the
Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.
The
discovery came from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer spacecraft,
which launched in 2008 to study the chaotic boundary where the solar
wind from the sun clashes with cold gases from interstellar space.
Circling
200,000 miles above Earth, the Ibex spacecraft spots particles
streaming into the solar system. A protective bubble surrounding around
the sun and planets prevents dangerous cosmic radiation from seeping
through, but neutral particles can pass freely, allowing Ibex to map
their distribution.
The
presence of less oxygen outside the solar system should not have any
bearing on the search for Earth-like planets, scientists involved in the
exoplanet hunt said.
There's
plenty of oxygen in all the stars in the galaxy and in the material out
of which stars and planets form, Geoff Marcy of University of
California, Berkeley said in an email.
While
Ibex probes the edge of the solar system from Earth orbit, NASA's
long-running, nuclear-powered twin Voyager spacecraft are at the
fringes. Launched in 1977, the spacecraft have been exploring the solar
system boundary since 2004.
Scientists
have said it'll be months or years before Voyager 1 exits the solar
system and becomes the first manmade probe to cross into interstellar
space.
Interstellar Boundary Explorer
SOURCE: The Associated Press
