O I –
If ions that are gyrating around the magnetic field in this trapped region encounter neutral LISM atoms, they can steal electrons from the neutral atoms. Because the solar wind particles are now neutral, again, and are not affected by magnetic fields, they travel in a straight line in the direction they were going when they became neutral. Many of these particles happen to travel inward to our region of the Solar System and can be detected by the IBEX spacecraft as it orbits Earth.
Because so many ions are confined in the trapped region, so many more neutral atoms come from this region, and it looks like a brighter swath in the IBEX maps. This region corresponds to the IBEX Ribbon and runs perpendicular to the interstellar magnetic field. Imagine the Ribbon source, then, as a thick band of trapped ions, like a life preserver around a person in a pool.
http://www.ibex.swri.edu/
Because so many ions are confined in the trapped region, so many more neutral atoms come from this region, and it looks like a brighter swath in the IBEX maps. This region corresponds to the IBEX Ribbon and runs perpendicular to the interstellar magnetic field. Imagine the Ribbon source, then, as a thick band of trapped ions, like a life preserver around a person in a pool.
http://www.ibex.swri.edu/
