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Solar Advisory: Massive X-Class Solar Flare Produced

As an additional testimony that the Sun is nearing a peak in its 11-year cycle, a new X-class solar flare erupted from its surface on January 27, 2012. The X class represents the most powerful instance of such an event, which usually produces vast amounts of charged particles. At this point, there is no word from N...

7 February 2012
08:27 GMT

Sun Does Not Drive Global Warming

As if any more proof was needed for any person with at least a bit of common sense. A new study again demonstrates that global warming is caused by human-made pollution, and not excess heating from the Sun. Naturally, these conclusions will not sway those who have other interests at heart. The analysis was conducted...

2 February 2012
11:46 GMT

Researcher Finds XSS Flaws in Java, Nero and Sun Websites

Security researcher Ucha Gobejishvili, also known as longrifle0x, found cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities in another series of important websites, including java.com, developers.sun.com, java.sun.com, and nero.com. The expert’s findings were submitted to XSSed, a site that provides information on XSS ...

1 February 2012
10:23 GMT

Earth's 'Missing Energy' Discovered by NASA Study

A study conducted on the planetary system's heating energy revealed an inconsistency when comparing data from satellites with measurements of how much Earth's oceans were heating. The mystery was just resolved in a new NASA investigation. The previous study was compiled by experts at the Boulder, Colorado-...

30 January 2012
08:59 GMT

Paranal Observatory Sees Lovejoy Passing By

Earlier this month, we should have witnessed the destruction of a comet, as it plunged too close to the Sun for it to be able to remain in one piece. However, the object did just that, despite all odds, and became somewhat of a celebrity in the process. This is comet Lovejoy. Astronomers at the Paranal Observatory,...

27 December 2011
05:56 GMT

Video Blasts Climate Change Skeptics

I can easily understand why many climate change skeptics look at the Sun as a potential source for the warming of the climate. Indeed, it would appear that the star is the main driver of Earth's atmospheric changes, but the data simply do not add up. Some of the most common and widely-quoted misconceptions abo...

27 December 2011
05:03 GMT

Survivor Comet Lovejoy Seen from the ISS

Comet Lovejoy, the space rock that somehow survived an encounter with the Sun and escaped with only minimal injuries, was recently imaged from aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Such occurrences are extremely rare. Expedition 29 Commander and NASA astronaut Dan Burbank was the one who managed to pick up h...

23 December 2011
09:45 GMT

Suicide Comet Pulls Through, After All

Despite overwhelming odds, comet Lovejoy somehow managed to avoid being entirely disintegrated by solar heat, after passing within 140,000 kilometers (87,000 miles) of the Sun's surface. Astronomers thought it to be a goner for sure. No other sungrazer comet has ever been observed to escape a head-on encounter...

16 December 2011
08:14 GMT

A Depressed Comet's Suicide

The ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) imaged comet Lovejoy yesterday, December 15, as the doomed space rock entered its Sun-centered field of view. The object is speeding towards its demise, with its fate sealed long ago. The comet was only discovered about two weeks ago, but even then its course i...

15 December 2011
09:29 GMT

Asteroid Collision May Have Changed Mercury's Orbit

Astronomers now propose that Mercury may have been set on its weird orbit by an asteroid impact that occurred a long time ago. The idea came to scientists after noticing that our solar system's innermost planet was not tidally-locked to the Sun. Such a state can be seen on the Moon, which always keeps the same...

12 December 2011
03:59 GMT

Space Weather Predictions Critical for the Next Few Years

Strong solar flares and coronal mass ejections can cause significant damage if they hit Earth, so experts are currently focused on developing methods of predicting space weather. This will be especially important over the next couple of years. The Sun is scheduled to reach a new period of maximum activity in its 11-...

8 December 2011
04:59 GMT

Solar Storms Can Erode the Lunar Surface

According to the conclusions of a new simulation conducted by NASA experts, it would appear that solar storms – and the coronal mass ejections (CME) they produce – are enough to literally erode the lunar surface. This primarily happens because the Moon has no protective atmospheric layers. The discovery...

6 December 2011
10:54 GMT

Comet to Impact the Sun This December

A group of experts say that a comet which was only recently discovered is well on its way to a mid-December collision with the Sun. The object is part of a class of comets called sungrazers, meaning they move very closely to the surface of the star during their pass through the inner solar system. In many instances,...

6 December 2011
08:57 GMT

Studying the Mass of Solar Neutrinos

A scientific experiment buried deep underground is currently conducting the most intense and rigorous investigation of solar neutrinos ever. The work is conducted in order to determine how these neutral elementary particles are influencing both our planet and ourselves. Neutrinos have neutral electrical charges, an...

29 November 2011
07:51 GMT

Sun Will Not Go in a Solar Minimum

In a paper published in the November 18 issue of Science, solar physicists say that there is currently no foreseeable danger of the Sun going into a deep period of inactivity, once it reaches the current cycle's maximum. This idea has been widely speculated on lately . Scientists from the Max Planck Institute f...

18 November 2011
08:46 GMT

Earth Will Not Be Destroyed by Solar Flares in 2012

Over the past couple of years, many individuals with precarious understandings of science have said that a massive solar flare will swell up from the Sun in 2012, killing everyone on Earth and destroying the planet. That is, simply put, absolutely impossible, NASA researchers explain. What is very important to know...

11 November 2011
05:34 GMT

X1.9-Class Solar Flare Erupted on November 3

Last Thursday, on November 3, the Sun released a powerful solar flare, which astronomers classified as an X1.9-class event. The X class contains the most powerful solar eruptions ever recorded. This year already saw two such events occur, which is rather unusual. The Sun is currently heading towards a new maximum, w...

7 November 2011
04:45 GMT

Anniversary: Hinode Achieved First Light 5 Years Ago

About 5 days ago, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) celebrated the launch of its Hinode solar observatory, a 5-year-old telescope that has provided solar physicists with a new understanding of the Sun and its characteristics. As evidenced by the December 6, 2006, image attached to this article, the obser...

2 November 2011
09:50 GMT

Three Exoplanets Found in Our Neighborhood

Astronomers at the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) announce the discovery of three extrasolar planets in the Sun's neighborhood. Each of these objects is orbiting a giant, dying star. Using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET), investigators recently scrutinized the stars HD 240237, BD +48 738, and HD 9...

28 October 2011
03:52 GMT

Apple Building Solar Farm in North Carolina

Officially unveiled by Steve Jobs during the WWDC 2011 keynote address, Apple’s enormous data center located in Maiden, North Carolina, is getting its own power plant. And it’s being fueled by the huge ball of burning hydrogen lighting up every day of our lives - the sun.The business section of Charlotteo...

26 October 2011
07:14 GMT

Anniversary: NASA STEREO Satellites Turn 5

One of the most successful missions NASA ever conducted, the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO), has now turned 5. Both spacecraft making up this advanced system are in good health, and continue to carry out observations of the Sun from both sides of the planet. STEREO consists of two identical spacec...

26 October 2011
02:52 GMT

GeoEye-2 Satellite Begins Integration at Lockheed Martin

Officials at Lockheed Martin announced yesterday, October 25, that they will begin integrating the GeoEye-2 satellite later this month, at its Sunnyvale, California-based facility. This spacecraft is one of the first next-generation, high-resolution Earth-imaging satellites. GeoEye-2 will be mated with its integrat...

26 October 2011
02:10 GMT

NOAA Improves Its Climate Forecasting Skills

Officials with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) say that they are now using a new, sophisticated space weather prediction model, which is bound to increase the organization's ability to improve on its current climate forecasting skills. The model could therefore be used in the c...

20 October 2011
03:10 GMT

NASA Will Build Two Instruments for ESA's Solar Orbiter

As we also informed you a few days ago, the European Space Agency (ESA) has selected two new, medium-class missions for further development. One of them is the Solar Orbiter, and NASA said yesterday, October 6, will be responsible for constructing two of its science instruments. The thing that will set this new m...

7 October 2011
02:38 GMT

Video of Comet Impacting the Sun

This amazing video sent back by the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows how a speeding comet slammed itself into the Sun. According to solar physicists, the ensuing blast that occurred on the other side of the star was not caused by the impact. The collision took place over the weekend, when a sungrazer c...

5 October 2011
05:39 GMT

A View of the Current Sunspot Group Crossing the Sun

Though it's not advisable to look at the Sun with the naked eye, astronomers say that the sunspot group currently moving across the star's surface can be seen without telescopes. Dubbed AR 1302, the object started developing last week. According to experts at NASA, this is the largest and most active su...

28 September 2011
07:50 GMT

Sun Travels Inside a Cosmic Bubble

Currently, our solar system appears to be traveling inside a localized bubble of sorts. Astronomers believe that the star and all its planets, including Earth, are changing their position in the Milky Way through a series of interconnected cavities in the interstellar medium (ISM). This medium plays a very importa...

26 September 2011
16:31 GMT

Oracle to Phase Out Sun's x86 Servers Due to Low Profit Margins

Oracle has recently let the whole world know that it has no interest in continuing with the development of Sun servers based on the x86 architecture as the company regards these as “commodity” items with low profit margins."I do not care if our commodity x86 business goes to zero. We do not make any mone...

21 September 2011
09:32 GMT

Spacecraft May Soon Have Solar Electric Propulsion

Officials at the American space agency announce that five important companies have just been selected for a new round of NASA grants. This time, the money is being awarded for studies that would lead to plans and proposals concerning the creation of a spacecraft powered by solar electric propulsion. The most impo...

14 September 2011
05:23 GMT

Dark Matter May Be Cooling the Sun from Within

Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL) astrophysicists propose in a new study that dark matter trapped at the very core of the Sun is responsible for cooling down the star's inner furnace. This idea is bound to trigger heated debates in the international scientific community. Dr Stephen West's team ...

8 September 2011
10:58 GMT

Two Solar Storms Took Place Early This Week

As the Sun is approaching the peak of its current cycle, it is producing massive solar flares increasingly often. For the third time this year, an X-class event took place on the surface of the star. Just a few hours ahead, it was preceded by an M-class storm. These instances of increased solar activity took plac...

7 September 2011
04:42 GMT

Dwarf Planet Remnants Revealed in Antarctica

Experts from the Lunar & Planetary Institute say that they may have discovered the remnants of long-destroyed world beneath the ices of Antarctica. The rocks they uncovered appear to have originated in a dwarf planet-sized object that no longer exists in the solar system.What this implies is that the space rock was d...

6 September 2011
07:56 GMT

Learning How Gravity Acts Inside Massive Celestial Bodies

There is no denying the fact that Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity is a tremendous achievement. But while verifying it is easy, answering the riddles it poses is not. Now, a research team is proposing using the Sun to clear the remaining mysteries related to gravity once and for all. ' What...

5 September 2011
18:01 GMT

Detecting Emerging Sunspots Before They Occur

A group of investigators at the Stanford University, in the United States, announces the development of a new early-warning method for detecting sunspots deep inside the Sun. The approach allows experts time to prepare for the potential effects of the ensuing solar storm.Sunspots are dangerous because they can give b...

20 August 2011
06:00 GMT

STEREO Tracks Solar Storm from Origins to Earth

Solar physicists at the American space agency say that their Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft were able to follow the path of a coronal mass ejection (CME), from origins all the way to the time when it reached our planet. In part, the creation of the dataset was enabled by the fact that inv...

19 August 2011
03:18 GMT

Sun Released Massive Flare on August 9

Solar physicists say that the Sun released its most powerful solar flare in four years yesterday, August 9. The class-X6.9 event was so intense that it briefly knocked out HF communications, but the full effects of the event will most likely not be felt on Earth. The eruption itself was not aimed at our planet, which...

10 August 2011
09:34 GMT

Alfvén Waves Discovered on the Sun

Solar physicists proposed the existence of powerful magnetic plasma waves called Alfvén waves many years ago, but thus far evidence to prove they actually form have been scarce at best. A new study now identifies the formations with a great deal of accuracy. The work represents the first time that the powerful...

28 July 2011
04:51 GMT

White Dwarfs Caught Spiraling into Each Other

Astronomers with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) announce the discovery of a pair of white dwarf stars locked in a binary system. The two objects are moving closer and closer to each other, and are expected to merge together in the future. White dwarfs are the remnants of Sun-like stars. They ar...

14 July 2011
05:55 GMT

Saturnine Storm Is Larger than Earth

A tremendous thunderstorm that formed in the atmosphere of the gas giant Saturn is wider than our entire planet, the results of a new study show. The investigation also determined why the storm formed now, when experts were expecting it later on. Called the Great White Spot, the massive storm has been imaged in e...

7 July 2011
02:53 GMT

Study Confirms Existence of Solar 'Magnetic Ropes'

Researchers at the George Mason University (GMU) have produced the evidence the international astronomical community lacked for confirming the existence of magnetic ropes. These solar processes are believed to be the progenitors of solar storms. The investigation was conducted by GMU School of Physics, Astronomy and ...

29 June 2011
07:40 GMT

Material in Solar System Planets Originated Elsewhere

According to the conclusions of two new scientific studies, it would appear that the material which makes up Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars did not originate in the protoplanetary disk around the Sun. When the star formed, not all of the gas clouds that collapsed to ignite it made it into the star. The leftover mater...

24 June 2011
03:00 GMT

Determining the Ultimate Fate of the Solar System

Astronomers are really curious about the fate in store for our solar system, and so many teams have taken many approaches to finding out what the future holds. Scientists at the University of Leicester say that studying white dwarfs is one of the best methods of knowing the Sun's future.White dwarfs can be found...

23 June 2011
08:38 GMT

Sunspots and Global Cooling Are Unrelated

Contrary to some reports currently making the rounds in the media, a reduced level of solar activity will not produce global cooling. Researchers say that the number of sunspots on the star has little to do with the mean global temperatures here on Earth.Some began peddling this idea when solar physicists recently an...

17 June 2011
09:25 GMT

Lag Found Between Solar Minimum and Solar Magnetic Effects

In a recent paper, researchers show that several months of lag exist between the time when the Sun reaches the lowest level of activity in its 11-year cycle and the time when the star's magnetic effects start manifesting themselves on Earth.This delay can sometimes span more than 8 months, investigators wri...

15 June 2011
06:00 GMT

Sun May Be Entering Less-Active Phase

Though the Sun should theoretically enter a period of increased activity called a solar maximum, experts say that the star may in fact be getting ready to become less active over the next few years. Peak solar maximum was supposed to be achieved between 2012 and 2013. The new conclusions are based on an thorough anal...

15 June 2011
03:30 GMT

STEREO Finds 122 Binary Star Systems

A pair of identical spacecraft launched back in 2006 was recently used to scan the skies in search for binary star systems. The observatories proved extremely efficient at this, identifying no less than 122 such paired stars, astronomers say. The researchers, based at the University of Central Lancashire, in the Unit...

15 June 2011
03:04 GMT

Proba-2 Witnesses Large Solar Eruption

On Tuesday, June 7, the Sun produced a large-scale solar flare, that observatories belonging to numerous space agencies were able to observe and analyze. The European Space Agency's (ESA) Proba-2 microsatellite was one of these spacecraft. Our Sun is constantly being monitored by a number of dedicated telescopes...

10 June 2011
08:08 GMT

Surf Waves Imaged in Sun's Atmosphere

A team of experts at the American space agency announce that one of their monitoring spacecraft was recently able to snap an interesting view of surf wave-like features developing in the solar atmosphere.The group explains that these features traversing the corona may hold clues as to how exactly energy is transferre...

8 June 2011
05:26 GMT

Jupiter Once Reached the Orbit of Mars

Back when the solar system was still in its infancy, and the Sun was only a shadow of what it was to become, one of our gas giant planets played an important role in determining the ultimate appearance of the system, and potentially Earth's chances of supporting life. That planet was Jupiter.For billions of year...

7 June 2011
08:11 GMT

Study Shows How Sunspots Form

In a new investigation, researchers were able to gain more insight into the processes and phenomena that eventually lead to the formation of dark spots on the Sun. These so-called sunspots were mysterious until not long ago, but now experts say they known more about them than ever. The research team that carried out ...

3 June 2011
02:41 GMT


More: next 50 >>

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