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More: next 50 >>
Following the recent discovery of the Sun being at a record low in wind, another surprise came from its observers when they claimed that more than 200 days had passed without a spot on our star. It's been more than half a century since this last happened. The previous record was registered in 1954, when th... |
4 October 2008
05:45 GMT |
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The RHESSI spacecraft provided specialists with enough accurate data based on which they were finally able to calculate far more precisely the exact roundness of our solar system's star. These measurements indicated that the Sun is not a perfectly round body, instead they revealed the small differences between t... |
3 October 2008
10:58 GMT |
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Since the distance between space's bodies is so enormous, astronomers have very hard times counting and measuring all the newly-emerging stars. That's why the H-alpha characteristic signal emitted by the new stars comes as a blessing for those who detect them by telescope. The amount of such rays emitted fr... |
2 October 2008
09:53 GMT |
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Data provided by Ulysses spacecraft indicates that the Sun's hot-particle wind is less powerful and emanates less heat than at any previously recorded date since humankind began its space race in the 1950s.During a more tranquil period of the Sun's activity, the Ulysses spacecraft has been able to measure i... |
24 September 2008
08:05 GMT |
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Astronomers still have trouble establishing once and for all the number of planets our system is comprised of. The recent conferences were of no help in this regard, as both a clear definition of the term "planet" and a reasonable delimitation line at the end of the planetary system eluded the scientists, while the c... |
23 September 2008
05:38 GMT |
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Nine years ago, scientists launched a space probe in order to collect material from a comet formed at the far edges of our solar system. Surprisingly, they found out that the comet was comprised of particles similar to those forged in the proximity of the sun. The Stardust probe had been launched from Cape Cana... |
19 September 2008
09:01 GMT |
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Last Friday marked an important addition to the suite of websites dedicated to hosting open source projects, as Sun's Project Kenai was made available, and is now ready for use. The thing is, although anyone is free to visit, in order to start a project you need an invitation – and there are plenty of them... |
16 September 2008
08:19 GMT |
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Recent simulations performed by astrophysicists demonstrate that in galaxies such as Milky Way, stars like our sun travel far from their place of origin. Back in 1633, Galileo Galilei came up with a theory that placed Earth in the orbit of the sun and that led to the Church and public opinion, under fire, threa... |
16 September 2008
05:35 GMT |
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At last, after so many millennia of browsing in the dark for facts related to our own star, we're finally getting closer to knowing the sun directly, not by making suppositions. NASA scientists are currently preparing for the task of exploring "the transition region" of the sun, basically the place where space w... |
10 September 2008
06:01 GMT |
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Nokia has confirmed that the major vulnerabilities reported by Polish security researcher Adam Gowdiak are valid. The Java Micro Edition vulnerabilities affect the very popular Nokia Series 40 phones and can result in vital phone functions being compromised.Earlier this month, Security Explorations, a Polish security... |
22 August 2008
04:11 GMT |
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Yesterday, Sun Microsystems made available a beta version of NetBeans Integrated Development Environment (IDE) 6.5. The new version of the open source development platform features IDE-wide QuickSearch, support for PHP, Groovy and Grails, imports from Eclipse and JavaScript debugging. It also adds a lot of enhancemen... |
14 August 2008
05:04 GMT |
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There is little doubt now about what causes climate change, but whether or not carbon dioxide is the sole factor responsible for global warming is another subject of debate, says Manuel Vazquez of the Canary Islands' Astrophysics Institute. Statistics indicate that the Sun could account for as much as 20 percent... |
21 July 2008
11:22 GMT |
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Samsung Electronics and Sun Microsystems announced yesterday that they had managed to develop a single-level-cell (SLC) NAND flash memory device that was to be used in Solid State Drives. The drives that will feature the new SLC memory are expected to offer much higher endurance levels, compared with any other flash ... |
18 July 2008
07:06 GMT |
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On August 1, in certain areas of Canada, Greenland, Russia and China broad daylight will suddenly turn to total darkness for a brief moment as the Moon aligns with the Earth and the Sun, casting its shadow on the surface of the planet. It will be yet another unforgettable and unique spectacle, which unfortunately onl... |
16 July 2008
07:55 GMT |
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An important step towards the creation of the first commercial nuclear fusion reactor has been taken last week as the South Korean authorities revealed that the KSTAR reactor, short for Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Reactor, conducted its first experiment by producing a sustained field of super-hot plasma. T... |
15 July 2008
07:04 GMT |
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The Sun continues its relatively long period of inactivity, although while some claim that this lengthy phase without sunspots is somehow unusual, NASA researchers argue that the sun is in fact behaving normally and this period of calm is anything but long. "The sun is now near the low point of its 11-year activity c... |
11 July 2008
10:54 GMT |
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Some of the sun-worshipers out there believe that the use of sunscreens immediately guarantees protection against the most harmful rays. An investigation carried out by the Environmental Working Group showed recently that up to 80 percent of sunscreen lotions available on the market provide little or no protection at... |
8 July 2008
09:32 GMT |
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The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory was first designed for a mission destined to study the Sun and its activity, which is what it still continues to do after nearly 13 years since it was launched into space by the European Space Agency. Who would have thought back then that SOHO would later become the biggest come... |
1 July 2008
02:47 GMT |
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Currently the Sun is going through a period of low activity, with few or no sunspots appearing on its surface. So far nobody is complaining, albeit it does seem that the low activity period has extended a bit too long and has even fooled the scientists into uncertainty regarding whether or not a new solar cycle has b... |
10 June 2008
02:43 GMT |
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On April 9, a coronal mass ejection weighing about a billion tons emerged from the surface of the Sun and, to the surprise of physicists, executed a cartwheel. At the same time, part of the mass of matter made a backflip in what now appears to be just a regular way for solar explosions to behave. "What a rare and exc... |
29 May 2008
10:34 GMT |
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With the help of the Very Large Telescope on top of the Paranal mountain, European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere astronomers have solved possibly one of the biggest mysteries related to the existence of the WOH G64 star, located in the near Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy. It appears... |
28 May 2008
10:12 GMT |
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Our galaxy contains about 1 trillion solar masses, says a recent estimation regarding the weight of the Milky Way. All previous estimates showed that the galaxy has a mass ranging between 750 billion to over 2 trillion times that of our Sun, the latter being slightly favored and probably closest to the true weight. H... |
28 May 2008
03:51 GMT |
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If you're still wondering whether or not the 'giant ball of fire' in the sky has special characteristics that enabled the appearance and evolution of life on Earth, you should probably know that the Sun is about as special as several billion other stars in the visible universe. At least that's wh... |
22 May 2008
07:41 GMT |
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The Vulcan laser, currently the most powerful in the world, was used recently to test future nuclear fusion reactor concepts. During the experiments Vulcan was able to heat matter to a temperature of 10 million degrees Celsius, hotter than the surface of the Sun which is averaging about 5,500 degrees Celsius. The rel... |
19 May 2008
09:17 GMT |
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This fall, Hewlett Packard will introduce a completely new line of products primarily targeted at young computer users. According to Ameer Karim, director of HP's future and innovations group, the new computers will be designed by teenagers and will meet youngsters' needs in terms of fashion and functionali... |
17 May 2008
05:41 GMT |
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Server manufacturer Sun Microsystems has just announced the availability of new server systems equipped with Advanced Micro Devices' quad-core Barcelona chips. The AMD-based servers are the result of a long collaboration between the two manufacturers and aim at giving a cost-effective alternative to the Intel-po... |
14 May 2008
06:46 GMT |
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The pantheon of the ancient Egyptians was rich in diverse deities. The question inevitably arises: how could this polytheist religion influence later monotheist religions?The Sun GodThe main Egyptian deity was Amon Re, the king of all gods and the Sun God. The Sun had a central position in the religion of the ancient... |
13 May 2008
10:21 GMT |
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It is most certain that Earth's clime took a severe turn towards global warming ever since the Industrial Revolution began. Greenhouse gas concentrations have been rising steadily since, but one cannot stop wondering what the Sun's part is in all this. How does the Sun itself affect the clime of our planet?... |
9 May 2008
06:46 GMT |
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Sunglasses are defined as an ophthalmologic medical article made of frames and lenses, meant to diminish the amount of sunlight; however, they do not accomplish any sort of optical correction. Their main goal is to protect the wearer against excessive sunlight. In many cases, we pay exaggerated amounts of money for t... |
8 May 2008
08:39 GMT |
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Well, sending a probe into the Sun wouldn't do much good would it, considering that the spacecraft will be totally destroyed by the dreaded heat radiating from the star? However, the Solar Probe will be the closest spacecraft ever sent to the Sun and its orbit will eventually pass through the star's outer a... |
6 May 2008
02:45 GMT |
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Server manufacturer Sun has just confirmed that it inked a buyout deal with the super-secretive CPU startup Montalvo, as previous rumors had indicated. The small company was built by the ex-Transmeta executives and pitched at delivering an all-in-one processor wonder able to tear down Intel's domination on the d... |
25 April 2008
03:35 GMT |
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This summer is all about sunny, bright primary colors - on your clothes and on your skin. In fact, two fabulous and innovative trends combine to turn the coming summer months into the "it" time for your skin - and it's all down to these two emerging beauty concepts that aim to blend the trendy with the healthy. ... |
24 April 2008
06:20 GMT |
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According to astrophysicists, the Sun is about 5 billion years old and will continue to shine for at least as much time before exploding into a supernova to destroy the whole solar system. Latest calculations reveal that the inner rocky planets, including Earth, will be destroyed long before the Sun even swells into ... |
23 April 2008
05:48 GMT |
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Scientists looking for life in space make complicated calculations of where life could exist in the Universe and on which of the many planets, satellites and other space bodies. Then they come up with snore-inducing studies about carbon compositions, water presence, ideal temperatures, and light exposures. But the pe... |
23 April 2008
05:31 GMT |
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Even the prehistoric people knew that the Sun was the driving force of life on Earth. Our star can heal and destroy, depending on how we use it. Advantages The sunlight kills microbes and confers to the skin a bright, healthy look and increased elasticity. A moderately tanned skin is more resistant to infections and... |
21 April 2008
09:35 GMT |
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Although it is one of the brightest planets in the solar system, Mercury is often referred to as the most difficult planet to spot, mostly because it orbits the Sun so closely. However, the truth is that Mercury is not that hard to locate in the night sky. People living in the northern hemisphere of the planet will h... |
19 April 2008
06:44 GMT |
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The Sun's outer layer is in a constant turbulent state, creating waves all across the solar surface, making its experience a patchwork pattern of peaks and troughs. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory has recently determined that these waves may be created in the outcome of solar flares exploding on the surfa... |
18 April 2008
10:32 GMT |
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Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu have jointly announced the availability of a new family of SPARC servers that are alleged to be able to process 128 simultaneous threads. More than that, the two companies announced important improvements in energy-consumption and space efficiency.The newly-introduced offering is comprise... |
11 April 2008
04:06 GMT |
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Chip startup Montalvo boldly raised up against Intel earlier this year in an attempt at delivering a miraculously efficient x86 processor. However, the company seems to be facing another wall in its market conquest, as its design lamentably fails in speaking the same language with the rest of the processors.The compa... |
10 April 2008
07:02 GMT |
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The Solar Dynamics Observatory is expected to become the next space device to monitor solar flares, sunspots and coronal mass ejections in order to make accurate predictions on solar weather. Recently the Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO for short, was lowered and attached to the propulsion module that will help it... |
4 April 2008
05:15 GMT |
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You know how they say you'll never find what you're actually looking for? It's true, don't try to prove otherwise because I don't think you can. Last year during late October, comet Holmes suddenly suffered an outburst, thus enhancing its brightness more than one million times in the matter o... |
4 April 2008
03:33 GMT |
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The solar wind originates from the Sun of course, everybody knows that, but not many can explain how solar wind is actually generated, at least not in an accurate manner. Yesterday, a team of researchers from the University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, led by professor Loise Harra, presente... |
3 April 2008
06:28 GMT |
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It is well known that the atmosphere of the Sun is extremely dynamic, violent and excessively hot, ejecting massive quantities of matter into the surrounding space, basically every minute. But what drives and, more important, how these processes are driven remain mostly a mystery. Current and past observations with J... |
3 April 2008
05:56 GMT |
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Most of us will probably never understand the true power of the Sun. Three thousand degrees Celsius or three million degrees do not make any difference to the average person, because one could never experience temperatures of this magnitude. And even if s/he experienced, s/he would never share his experience with any... |
3 April 2008
05:10 GMT |
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Solar tsunamis were first discovered by ESA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory during the late 1990s, when the spacecraft was launched. Solar tsunamis are in fact solar filaments which sweep across the surface of the Sun in a tsunami-like fashion, releasing great quantities of energy in very short periods of t... |
2 April 2008
09:45 GMT |
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On Earth, we are protected against radiation by the powerful magnetic field of the planet, however in space it's an entirely different ballgame. Radiation can severely damage or even destroy living cells inside the human body. Even on the space station, which receives a fair share of protection from Earth's... |
1 April 2008
07:38 GMT |
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Sun has just confirmed that it has shipped batches of its SPARC Enterprise T5120 and T5220 servers pre-installed with disk images that pose security vulnerabilities. According to the security report published by the server vendor, the worst-case scenario would allow a remote attacker to hijack the machine and gain co... |
28 March 2008
04:11 GMT |
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The Sun had a central position in the religion of the ancient Egyptians. First, it was represented as the golden scarab, Hepri, symbolizing the becoming. Then, the hieroglyph of Sun, the proper god Ra (Re), appeared, as a circle with a point in the middle. A first rank god, Ra personified the Sun as source of vital f... |
27 March 2008
10:10 GMT |
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White dwarfs are stars in their final stages of life. They are extremely brilliant, usually much smaller that the Sun - because they are basically the cores of dead stars - and cool down and reduce their brightness with the passing of time, until they turn into brown dwarfs, star so faint that they cannot be spotted ... |
26 March 2008
11:40 GMT |
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Sun's executive vice president of processor division David Yen announced its departure from the company after about 20 years spent at the server vendor. The ex-head of Sun's semiconductor unit is alleged to join networking gear manufacturer Juniper Networks.According to Sun spokespersons, Yen's positio... |
25 March 2008
07:46 GMT |
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