Direct Observations of Interstellar Neutral Atoms with IMAGE

Dr. David G. Simpson
Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

As the Solar System moves through interstellar space, neutral atoms in the local interstellar medium forms a "wind" of neutral atoms streaming past the Sun and planets. At certain times of the year, the geometry of the Earth's orbit is such that these interstellar neutral atoms should be observable by the IMAGE spacecraft's Low-Energy Neutral Atom (LENA) instrument. Such a signal was indeed seen in the LENA data earlier this year, coming from a direction that closely matches the predicted the direction of the interstellar neutral atom wind. In this talk, I will discuss the nature of these interstellar neutral atoms and their orbits around the Sun, why they are observable with the LENA instrument, and the directions of current and future work.