And when the solar wind is stronger, it is better at shielding the earth from high-energy charged particles from outer space known as cosmic rays.
What that might be is unknown, but experiments in space have shown that cosmic rays can have some positive impacts on biological materials.
This new photogenic moment, released Thursday, comes courtesy of the European Space Agency's Planck space telescope, which detects cosmic microwave background radiation -- the light left over from the Big Bang.
Theory predicts that when cosmic rays (fast particles coming from outer space) collide with air molecules in the upper atmosphere, they should yield twice as many muon neutrinos as electron neutrinos.
It has been detecting a rise in the number of high-energy particles, or cosmic rays, coming towards it from interstellar space, while at the same time recording a decline in the intensity of energetic particles coming from behind, from our Sun.
It will examine neutrons (the electrically neutral components of atomic nuclei) that are ejected from the lunar surface after being bombarded by cosmic rays (energetic particles that constantly streak through space).
Turner says it's hard enough for scientists to understand how the supposedly empty vacuum of space can be suffused with some form of cosmic energy.
The cosmic ray particle physics detector was carried to the International Space Station on the final flight of the space shuttle Endeavour and installed under NASA direction.
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The Sun's magnetic field and solar wind - mainly in the form of electrons and protons coming out of the Sun - protects the entire Solar System by acting as a sort of shield from cosmic rays (very energetic particles and radiation from outer space).
Cosmic rays are fast moving subatomic particles and nuclei originating from space that crash into the atmosphere.
Today we turn to the cosmic awe conjured by science fiction, or the outer-space snapshots of the Hubble telescope as it calls forth our ever-deeper, ever-brighter possible selves.
The series -- about a group of space explorers given various superpowers after being hit by cosmic rays -- began a new era for Marvel Comics, signaling the start of their wave of Silver Age characters, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Hulk, Iron Man and many more.
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In 1966 Kenneth Greisen, Vadim Kuzmin and Georgiy Zatsepin showed that high-energy charged particles (cosmic rays are mostly atomic nuclei, and thus positively charged) should be slowed by collisions with the photons of the cosmic microwave background (radiation left over from the Big Bang that permeates all space).
Some of these may be the result of muons created by neutrinos from space, but most will be from muons created in the atmosphere by cosmic rays.
Researchers from the University of Sydney have done some advanced crunching of numbers regarding the effects of FTL space travel via Alcubierre drive, taking into consideration the many types of cosmic particles that would be encountered along the way.
In recent years, several space objects have taken astronomers by surprise, serving as a reminder that our cosmic neighbourhood remains a busy place.
The new map is a smart byproduct of the European Space Agency (Esa) telescope's main mission which is to survey the Cosmic Microwave Background, or CMB - a pervasive but faint glow of long-wavelength radiation that comes to us from the very edge of the observable Universe.
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As plans for deep space exploration ramp up, radiation is a big concern from high-energy galactic cosmic rays spewed by distant supernova explosions to sporadic bursts of charged particles hurled by the sun.
Using the first completed section of the NOvA neutrino detector, scientists have begun collecting data from cosmic rays-particles produced by a constant rain of atomic nuclei falling on the Earth's atmosphere from space .
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