Huffington Post UK | By Michael Rundle

Physicists say they are closer than ever to understanding a vast mysterious ribbon of particles at the edge of the Solar System.

Nasa’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) produced the first-ever all-sky map of the edge of the Solar System back in 2009.

The effort mapped interactions between charged particles from the Sun and outer space at the solar system’s boundary, also known as the heliosphere.

he interactions are normally invisible to our eyes, but Nasa’s IBEX instrument can discern patterns made by the particles which stream in from the galaxy.

What it found in 2009 was a strange ribbon “dancing across the boundary”, Nasa said, formed by many more neutral atoms streaming in from outside than in the surrounding areas.

Many theories have been developed, but none have been proven to explain why this ribbon exists.

But now, in a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal, researchers have proposed a theory that it says is similar to boats being “trapped” in a harbour.

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the ribbon at the edge of our Solar System