The Entire Sky in the Emission of Neutral Hydrogen (IMAGE)

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

The Entire Sky in the Emission of Neutral Hydrogen

Caption

These two maps show the entire sky in the emission of neutral hydrogen. The energetic neutral atom (ENA) measurements by the IBEX mission (bottom image) show a ribbon feature spanning across the entire sky. A group of solar physicists led by Jacob Heerikhuisen discovered that this feature can be closely reproduced by sophisticated models (top image) after adding an unpredicted "mirror effect." The two images show modeled and observed ENAs, respectively, at comparable speeds.

Credit

Heerikhuisen et al.

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