Alien particles have been found by NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX). The discovery, particles that come from beyond our solar system, was made 200,000 miles away from earth.

The Huffington Post reports that the IBEX found three separate types of atoms including oxygen, hydrogen and neon. These elements are essential for forming new stars, but David McComas, leader of the IBEX team, said that the material didn’t come from our sun or from the planets in our solar system.

McComas told the Huffington Post:

“It’s exciting to be able to have these first observations of alien matter – stuff that didn’t come from our sun or the planets, but came from the outside of our solar system, from other parts of the galaxy. We think these are really important measurements, because these elements are the fundamental building blocks of stars, planets, and people.”

National Geographic reports that this is the first time that alien particles have been directly observed. The discovery gives scientists a glimpse at our galactic neighborhood. Seth Redfield, an astronomer from Wesleyan University in Middletown, said:

“It’s so exciting to know where our sun is in relation to local clouds. It really puts our sun in context for the first time. Our location within our local interstellar cloud is important because the heliosphere structure changes depending on where it is inside a cloud or outside, and so it has consequences for how well it shields us from those deadly cosmic rays.”

The IBEX was launched in 2008 and is currently orbiting about 200,000 miles above the earth in the heliosphere of the Milky Way.