The background: The solar wind of charged particles continuously travels at supersonic speeds away from the Sun in all directions, inflating a giant bubble in interstellar space called the heliosphere, i.e. the region of space dominated by the Sun's influence in which the Earth and other planets reside. As the solar wind travels outward, it sweeps up newly formed "pickup ions," which arise from the ionization of neutral particles drifting in from interstellar space. IBEX measures energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) traveling at speeds of roughly half a million to two and a half million miles per hour. These ENAs are produced from the solar wind and pick-up ions in the boundary region between the heliosphere and the local interstellar medium. IBEX has used two novel ENA cameras to image and map the heliosphere's global interaction. ENAs propagate in from all parts of the boundary and, by detecting their directions of arrival, IBEX builds up maps of this invisible region over a broad range of energies every six months.

While the Voyager spacecraft are providing pioneering point measurements of interactions in the interstellar boundary region at two locations, IBEX measurements demonstrate the importance of global observations: The bright narrow ribbon snakes through the sky just between the Voyager spacecraft, where it remained completely undetected until now. More time is needed to fully understand the IBEX data; however, because the ribbon appears to be ordered by the direction of the local interstellar magnetic field outside the heliosphere, IBEX observations suggest that the interstellar environment has far more influence on the structure of the heliosphere than anyone previously believed. A closer look at segments of the ribbon shows fine structures, which suggests that ion densities may be significantly enhanced in highly localized regions at the interstellar boundary.

You can find Daniel Fischers Cosmic Mirror here.