Oct 15, 2008

Dwayne Brown Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726 dwayne brown@nasa gov

Nancy Neal-Jones/Bill Steigerwald Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md 301-286-0039/5017 nancy n jones@nasa gov william a steigerwald@nasa gov

MEDIA ADVISORY: M08-207

NASA TO DISCUSS MISSION TO STUDY SUN'S WEAKENING PROTECTIVE BUBBLE

GREENBELT, Md -- NASA will hold a media teleconference on Friday, Oct 17, at 1 p m EDT, to preview the Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, mission The spacecraft may confirm if the sun's protective bubble surrounding our solar system, called the heliosphere, is about to shrink and weaken IBEX also will be the first spacecraft to image and map the dynamic interactions taking place where the hot solar wind slams into the cold expanse of space

The heliosphere acts as a shield for our solar system, warding off most of the galactic cosmic rays Recent data indicate the solar wind's global pressure is the lowest seen since the beginning of the space age

IBEX is set to launch Oct 19 from the Kwajalein Atoll, a part of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean

Panelists will be: - David McComas, IBEX principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio - Nathan Schwadron, co-investigator and IBEX Science Operations Center lead at Boston University - Stephen Fuselier, co-investigator and IBEX-Lo Sensor lead at Lockheed-Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif - Eric Christian, program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington

Reporters should call 1-888-323-5257 and use the passcode "IBEX" to participate in the teleconference International media should call 1-415-228-4881 Supporting information for the briefing will be available at the start of the teleconference on the Web at:

http://www nasa gov/ibex

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