The Interstellar Boundary Explorer is the first spacecraft designed to collect data across the entire sky about the heliosphere and its boundary. Scientists have used this data to make the first maps of our heliosphere boundary. Our heliosphere boundary does not emit light that we can detect, which means it would be impossible to image using conventional telescopes. Instead of collecting light, like other telescopes do, IBEX collects particles coming from the boundary so that we can learn about the processes occurring there.