Sun's Dead Face Nothing Out of the Ordinary, Researchers Say
	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 cycle. We call this 'Solar Minimum.' It is the period of quiet that separates one Solar Max from another," ... [read more >>]
	11 July 2008, 10:54GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Sunspots Continue to Stay Hidden
	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 begun or the old one is still influencing the Sun. However, such long periods of inactivity may in fact be completely normal f ... [read more >>]
	10 June 2008, 02:43GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Solar Activity and Climate on Earth
	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? "For the last 20 to 30 years we believe greenhouse gases have been the dominant influence on recent climate change" ... [read more >>]
	09 May 2008, 06:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

SDO Build Milestone Complete
	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 move through space. "It's like lowering a telephone booth over a person. The mechanical people made ... [read more >>]
	04 April 2008, 05:15GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Magnetic Sun
	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 JAXA's Hinode Solar Observatory revealed that the source of these solar flares is the massive magnetic fields t ... [read more >>]
	03 April 2008, 05:56GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Hotter is Better for Solar Flares
	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 anybody afterwards. Solar flares are extremely hot, exceeding temperatures of several tens of millions of degrees Celsius; howev ... [read more >>]
	03 April 2008, 05:10GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Weird Sunspots Appear on the Sun's Surface
	The 24th Solar Cycle is believed to have begun a few weeks ago with the appearance of the first sunspot on the surface of the Sun, however the solar activity was relatively calm until now. This week, European Space Agency's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory detected a group of three sunspots which have appeared recently and seem to evolve at a rapid speed. Additional measurements with SOHO revealed something even more interesting in ... [read more >>]
	27 March 2008, 08:11GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Hinode: Nearly Two Years of Science
	JAXA launched the Hinode solar space observatory in September 2006 and is equipped with several instruments such as the solar optical telescope, an X-ray telescope and an EUV imaging spectrometer with which it can conduct investigations on the Sun's atmosphere but also on its interior, in order to establish the origin of the magnetic field, the unusual high temperature experienced in the corona and the phenomenons which determine the ... [read more >>]
	20 March 2008, 10:15GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Don't Blame Global Warming on the Sun
	There have been some voices lately blaming global warming on the increased solar activity, however this claim is mostly based on pure speculation rather than scientific analysis, says a recent study verifying the role of the Sun in the current climatic changes which take place all over the world. Computer simulations become completely irrelevant in the case of the warming effect of Earth, and historical data takes over, showing that human ... [read more >>]
	13 March 2008, 12:12GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Spring is Here! So is Aurora Borealis
	What better evidence for the coming of spring than the appearance of the aurora borealis, or most commonly known as the northern lights? Well, at least astrologically speaking, in the context of ever wobbling clime. For some unknown reason, it seems that the aurora borealis phenomenon takes place only during the spring time, or in the weeks around the vernal equinox. One thing is for certain though, aurora borealis is determi ... [read more >>]
	05 March 2008, 03:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

NASA to Improve Space Weather Forecast
	Following the steps of their fellow colleagues form the European Space Agency, NASA also has in plan to implement a program to predict the space weather determined by the activity of the closest star to Earth - the Sun. Lying just over 150 million kilometer from Earth, the Sun, with a diameter about 100 times that of our planet, provides us with one of the most important ingredients to the appearance and evolution of life: light. ... [read more >>]
	04 March 2008, 07:04GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The 24th Solar Cycle Officially Began
	On December 11 last year, the SOHO spacecraft observed a small magnetic knot on the surface of the Sun. However, no visible sunspots have been detected lately, spots that are usually associated with the beginning of a new solar cycle. Although the sunspots were missing, scientists rushed to predict that the 24th solar cycle will shortly begin. No sooner said and done, as The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announc ... [read more >>]
	07 January 2008, 02:35GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Fast Rotating Star Also Has Sunspots
	This is the first time when astronomers are able to view sun spots and mass ejection due to solar activity, on a star outside the solar system. Having a spin speed rotation about 66 times that of our Sun, the star named 'Speedy Mic' is located about ten million times farther from Earth, than our own star. Similar to ours, it has a mass of about 90 percent of that of the Sun, and it is in its early stages of life, which makes it ... [read more >>]
	19 December 2007, 10:48GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia