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Where does IBEX orbit?
Where does IBEX orbit?
IBEX goes around Earth in an oval-shaped orbit that takes it 5/6th of the distance to the Moon's orbit, or around 200,000 miles (325,000 km) away at its farthest point. At its closest point to Earth, IBEX is about 4,000 miles (16,000 km) away. Even though this orbit is high, it is still very far form the Solar System boundary that it is measuring. The distance to the near edge of the heliosphereThe region around the Sun where the solar wind dominates over the interstellar medium. is around 9 billion miles (14 billion km) from the Earth, or about 90 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
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