Probably the least anticipated discoveries of Ulysses have been those of phenomena occurring beyond the heliosphere. Ulysses has launched the exploration of our immediate interstellar neighborhood with the first measurements of interstellar neutral He and pickup ions, including the cosmologically important ³He. Ulysses has detected interstellar dust, and examined its properties. The unique orbit of Ulysses has enabled studies of gamma-ray bursts that otherwise would not have been possible, and played a major role in discovering soft gamma repeaters, or 'magnetars'.

Gas in Local Interstellar Medium - Implications for Galactic Evolution and Cosmology