• 2008 September 23. NASA RELEASE: 08-241. Ulysses Reveals Global Solar Wind Plasma Output At 50-Year Low. Excerpt: WASHINGTON -- Data from the Ulysses spacecraft, a joint NASA-European Space Agency mission, show the sun has reduced its output of solar wind to the lowest levels since accurate readings became available. The sun's current state could reduce the natural shielding that envelops our solar system.
  "The sun's million mile-per-hour solar wind inflates a protective bubble, or heliosphere, around the solar system...." said Dave McComas, Ulysses' solar wind instrument principal investigator.... "Ulysses data indicate the solar wind's global pressure is the lowest we have seen since the beginning of the space age."
  ...Galactic cosmic rays carry with them radiation from other parts of our galaxy," said Ed Smith, NASA's Ulysses project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "With the solar wind at an all-time low, there is an excellent chance the heliosphere will diminish in size and strength. If that occurs, more galactic cosmic rays will make it into the inner part of our solar system."
  Galactic cosmic rays are of great interest to NASA. Cosmic rays are linked to engineering decisions for unmanned interplanetary spacecraft and exposure limits for astronauts traveling beyond low-Earth orbit....
• 2008 January 25. NASA PODCAST: WHERE DID THE SUN'S MAGNETIC FIELD COME FROM? The sun contains the most powerful magnetic field of any body in our solar system. In this 12 minute podcast, NASA scientist, Sten Odenwald, discusses a major question in solar physics: "Where does the Sun's magnetic field come from?"

See also: updates for PASS Vol 11, Astronomy of the Americas