NASA lost contact with the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), which was launched to explore the boundaries of the heliosphere in 2008.. according to Space. com, the device stopped responding to commands from the Earth after a failure that occurred in its on-board computer on February 18.

Flight controllers were unable to " "

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NASA said it has already programmed IBEX to restart on March 4 if specialists can't deal with the problem before then..

IBEX was launched 15 years ago to " The device made the first map of the heliosphere in 2009, a year after launch. Since then, he has been mapping the sky every six months.. The apparatus is best known for discovering a dense region of particles dubbed the "

The ribbon occurs when neutral hydrogen atoms carried by the solar wind interact with the Milky Way's magnetic field.. The interaction of ions with a magnetic field creates vibrations or waves in the field, and the ions form ribbon-like structures..