Animation of the interstellar interaction with our <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Sun" title="Sun">Sun</a>-one of billions of stars that orbits around the galaxy. As we zoom in through the galaxy we can see our <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Heliosphere" title="Category:Heliosphere">heliosphere</a>; then if we travel along with the interstellar material, we can see how only a very rare few are directed along precisely the right path to make the 30 year, 15 billion mile journey and enter IBEX's low energy sensor and be detected.
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
2012-01-25
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010900/a010905/">Goddard Multimdia</a>