www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/36764/title/Lowdown -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 9/24/2008
Last Visited: 9/25/2008
Along with solar physicists, including Ed Smith of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., McComas also detailed the findings during a telephone press briefing on September 23
...
The pressure of the solar wind and the strength of the magnetic field in the current solar minimum "are at an all-time low, at least since the space age began four sunspot cycles ago," says Smith.
...
If the doldrums continue, the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, already at the outskirts of the solar system, could reach the solar system's very edge a year or two sooner than current estimates of 2010 to 2020, notes Smith.That's because the heliosphere boundary is also the solar system boundary.However, Smith adds, "the pressure is expected to increase again as solar activity picks up, and cause the boundaries to move outward again."