October 6, 2008--IBEX, set to explore the very edge of our solar system, takes flight in an artist's impression.

The NASA spacecraft launches October 19 on a mission to map and image the interstellar boundary.

Though space is mind-bogglingly vast, our solar system has a distinct, if invisible, frontier.

IBEX will explore the turbulent boundary where the solar system's protective heliosphere--a bubble filled by warm particles of solar wind--meets the cold void of space and its dangerous cosmic rays.