I don't think it's pedantic at all. In fact there's another mistake in that same sentence: the "dangerous" solar protons aren't from the solar wind, but irregul

I don't think it's pedantic at all. In fact there's another mistake in that same sentence: the "dangerous" solar protons aren't from the solar wind, but irregular events like CMEs and solar flares. The solar wind protons are too low in energy (1-10 keV) to have any penetrating ability, either in the atmosphere or in crewed spaceships. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_wind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_wind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_proton_event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_proton_event Here's a comparison of proton sources in one chart: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/nuclear-engineering/22-01-introduction-to-ionizing-radiation-fall-2006/lecture-notes/space.pdf#page=23 http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/nuclear-engineering/22-01-introdu... (disclaimer: not my field)