Interstellar Boundary Explorer Lithograph

This is a lithograph that outlines the major mission highlights of the Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, mission, a Small Explorer Earth-orbiting spacecraft that is designed to map the distant boundary between the solar wind from our Sun and the interstellar medium, the material between the stars. Short educational activities are included on the back of the lithograph. Learners will use a ball to represent the Earth to investigate the concepts of size and scale in relation to the IBEX mission: the size of the Moon compared to Earth, the distance from the Earth to the Moon on the same scale, the distance to the farthest point in IBEX's orbit, and the distance to the Sun and the edge of the heliosphere, also on the same scale.