We reside in the heliosphere… meaning basically: Stuff is emanating from the sun towards the universe (interstellar medium), and stuff is coming towards the sun from the universe, and where these things collide forms a (theoretical?) bubble around the sun (and our galaxy), and most of the stuff inside the bubble (heliosphere) is sun stuff (except some uncharged particles can get in), and most of the stuff outside the bubble is universe stuff. The rotation of the sun’s magnetic field and its influence on plasma in the interplanetary field creates the heliospheric current sheet, which at least looks amazing though it’s slightly beyond my means of grasping at this moment.
Closer to home there are the Van Allen radiation belts a torus of charged particles around Earth, held in place (and distorted) by Earth’s magnetic field. In 2012 NASA will launch Radiation Belt Storm Probes to look more closely at the phenomena. These are related to the aurora borealis and australis, which also make for good looking.
addendum: and on that note, we now know what causes those lights: read