THE NEXT ICE AGE - NOW!

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12 Jun 08 - After more than 17 years of pioneering solar science, a joint NASA and European Space Agency mission to study the sun will end on or about July 1.

"The main objective of Ulysses was to study, from every angle, the heliosphere, which is the vast bubble in space carved out by the solar wind," said Ed Smith, Ulysses project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

"Ulysses ends its career after revealing that the magnetic field emanating from the sun's poles is much weaker than previously observed.  This could mean the upcoming solar maximum period will be less intense than in recent history."

See in-depth article: (under the rather innocuous headline:
“International Mission Studying Sun to Conclude”): 
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-106
Thanks to Fred Morgan for this link