Global Warming Partly Sun's Fault
	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 of the climate change effects the planet is currently experiencing. In fact, it is widely believed that along with volcanic ... [read more >>]
	21 July 2008, 11:22GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Samsung and Sun to Improve Server-grade SSDs
	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 memory device currently available on the market. According to the two manufactures, the new 8GB SLC device provi ... [read more >>]
	18 July 2008, 07:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

August Will Start with a Total Solar Eclipse
	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 only a handful of people will be able to witness. Partial eclipses will be available nonetheless in the Northeastern regions of ... [read more >>]
	16 July 2008, 07:55GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

One Step Closer to Bringing the Sun on Earth
	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. The KSTAR reactor is part of a series of pilot devices expected to demonstrate that nuclear fusion reactions can be sustained ... [read more >>]
	15 July 2008, 07:04GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

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

80 Percent of All Sunscreens Are Good Only under the Moonlight
	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 all and worse, they could even contain dangerous chemicals. If Neutrogena, Coppertone or Banana Boat rings any bells for you ... [read more >>]
	08 July 2008, 09:32GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

SOHO Scores 1,500th Found Comet
	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 comet discoverer in all history? On June 25, SOHO set a new world record by discovering its 1,500th comet. The disc ... [read more >>]
	01 July 2008, 02:47GMT | (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

Coronal Mass Ejection on the Sun Does the Cartwheel
	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 exciting observation. It is showing us the secret inner workings of a process called 'magnetic reconnection' cent ... [read more >>]
	29 May 2008, 10:34GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Mystery behind WOH G64 Giant Star Solved
	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 that the estimates regarding the star's mass have been greatly overestimated, the new observations showing that the sta ... [read more >>]
	28 May 2008, 10:12GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Milky Way Was Weighed Again
	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. However, a team of astronomers using a new method to calculate the mass of the Milky Way showed that in fact the galaxy is jus ... [read more >>]
	28 May 2008, 03:51GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Nothing Special About the Sun
	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 what ANU astronomers say following a comprehensive comparison of the Sun with other stars, fueling even more the idea that the ... [read more >>]
	22 May 2008, 07:41GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Nuclear Fusion Laser Heats Matter to 10 Million Celsius
	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 released energy was concentrated on a spot measuring only a few thousandths of a meter for a couple of fractions of a second. ... [read more >>]
	19 May 2008, 09:17GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Hewlett-Packard to Unveil Teenager-Friendly Computer Line
	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 functionality. "We've used this teen council to help us with everything from the design of the products, the user ... [read more >>]
	17 May 2008, 05:41GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Sun Adds AMD Chips to Its Quad-Core Server Offering
	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-powered counterparts. According to Sun, the three new servers in the Fire family come with hardware configurations ... [read more >>]
	14 May 2008, 06:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Egyptian Gods and Christianity
	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 God The 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 Egyptians. First, it was represented as the golden scarab Hepri, symbolizing the coming into bein ... [read more >>]
	13 May 2008, 10:21GMT | (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

About Sunglasses
	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 the name of the brand that made the sunglasses. As a rule, though, cheap or very cheap sunglasses are of lower q ... [read more >>]
	08 May 2008, 08:39GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Let's Send a Probe into the Sun, They Say
	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 atmosphere, stretching as much as 8 to 10 solar radii away from the center of the Sun. This means it will come at least eight times ... [read more >>]
	06 May 2008, 02:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Confirmed: Sun Buys out Intel's CPU Rival
	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 desktop and mobile markets. "Montalvo's assets will be integrated into Sun's Microelectronics busi ... [read more >>]
	25 April 2008, 03:35GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Words You'll Learn To Love: Yellow Mineral Make-Up
	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. Without further ado, this summer's big (makeup) bang is the yellow mineral makeup. Of course, when y ... [read more >>]
	24 April 2008, 06:20GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Solar System Stable for the Next 40 Million Years
	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 a red giant star. To be more precise, uncertainties in the orbits of the planets ensure that the solar system will ... [read more >>]
	23 April 2008, 05:48GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Astronaut Confirms It: Aliens Do Exist and They May Be Monitoring Us
	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 people found in the first line in all space expeditions seem pretty sure: aliens do exist and that's as certain as anythin ... [read more >>]
	23 April 2008, 05:31GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Sun Can Be Good for Your Health
	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 sun burning than an untanned one. Many skin diseases (dermatitis) can be kept in check ... [read more >>]
	21 April 2008, 09:35GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Elusive Mercury
	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 have a great opportunity of viewing Mercury on the following days. Its orbital trajectory takes it in the same g ... [read more >>]
	19 April 2008, 06:44GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Weird Solar Oscillations Triggered by Solar Flares
	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 surface, fact which could provide an opportunity to study some of the most mysterious phenomenons occurring on the Sun, ... [read more >>]
	18 April 2008, 10:32GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Sun And Fujitsu Bring New SPARC Servers With 128 Threads
	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 comprised of the CMT Sparc Enterprise T5140 and T5240 servers, built around Sun's Niagara processors, that sports ... [read more >>]
	11 April 2008, 04:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Montalvo's Miracle Chip Fails the x86 Test
	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 company was reported late last month to be in talks with Fujitsu about a manufacturing contract. It seems that the m ... [read more >>]
	10 April 2008, 07:02GMT | (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

Astronomer Looks for Planet, Finds Comet
	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 of a few days. In the following weeks, Holmes came to be the biggest object in the solar system, exceeding even the diame ... [read more >>]
	04 April 2008, 03:33GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Astronomers Find the Source of Solar Wind
	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, presented their new findings related to the solar wind at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting, ... [read more >>]
	03 April 2008, 06:28GMT | (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

Tsunamis on the Sun Travel Faster than Thought
	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 time. They come at irregular time intervals and are able to cover the whole surface of the Sun in just a few minutes. One ... [read more >>]
	02 April 2008, 09:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Manned Mission to Mars Grounded. Radiation Risk too High
	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 magnetic field, astronauts feel the damaging effect of radiation, such as white flashes of light in their eyes, caused by high-en ... [read more >>]
	01 April 2008, 07:38GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Sun Microsystems Ships Pre-Hacked SPARC Servers
	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 control over the server. Despite the fact that the security alert is dated February 12, security vendors only reve ... [read more >>]
	28 March 2008, 04:11GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Mysteries of the Egyptian Sun
	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 force, but also as a star implying light as reality and symbol. He was the supreme judge of the Universe. Worshiped in Egy ... [read more >>]
	27 March 2008, 10:10GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

WET Collaboration Begins Observations
	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 even with professional telescopes. Our Sun will become a white dwarf some day, in about 4 billion years or so, says Judi Prov ... [read more >>]
	26 March 2008, 11:40GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Sun's Executive VP Jumps into Juniper Networks' Bandwagon
	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 position will be temporarily filled by veteran Sun engineering manager Mike Splain, who has been recently appointed as ... [read more >>]
	25 March 2008, 07:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Sun Gets Pentagon's Money for Laser-Based Chip Interconnects
	Chip manufacturer Sun Microsystems has just received a $44 million contract from the Pentagon to research on viable light replacements for the standard copper interconnects between chips. According to the chip manufacturer, the Sun researchers have found a method to reconnect the chips in such a manner that would allow them to communicate with each other at significantly higher speeds, which would open the gates for newer and ... [read more >>]
	24 March 2008, 12:18GMT | (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

Try to Spot Sirius This Week
	It is the brightest star on the night sky, however if one is to go outside on a clear night it wouldn't appear very different from the other bright stars located in the vicinity of our solar system, thus people often have difficulties locating it. This week you once again have the opportunity to go outside and become amateur astronomer, even if for only a couple of minutes. The Moon's increased brightness will increase the contr ... [read more >>]
	15 March 2008, 05:58GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Stellarator Type Nuclear Fusion Reactor Beginning to Take Shape
	The first phase of the build of the world's largest nuclear fusion reactor experiment, Wendelstein 7-X, has been completed with the installation of the first two half-modules, thus achieving 20 percent of the assembly of the inner core. All essential components of the reactor are ready for assembly, but even so, the project is scheduled for completion in no less than six years or so. The designated location for the Wendelstein 7- ... [read more >>]
	14 March 2008, 07:01GMT | (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

Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 Looks to the Sun
	The beginning of 2008 is without a doubt synonymous with Microsoft's interoperability drive. And the Redmond company seems to be committed to continually investing in this newly found direction, making yet another step toward the interoperability altering together with Sun. On March 10, the two companies inaugurated the Sun/Microsoft Interoperability Center on the Redmond campus. At the same time with the opening of the center dedicat ... [read more >>]
	11 March 2008, 04:35GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Mystery of Sun's Corona Deepens Even Further
	While being the most massive object in the solar system, the Sun may also hide one of the biggest mysteries in the solar system. The Sun is an average-sized main sequence star about 5 billion years old, currently in its mid-life, with a surface temperature approximated at about 6,000 degrees Celsius. Much of the light coming from the Sun is actually not emitted by the surface, but by the Corona, its outer gaseous layer dominated by powerfu ... [read more >>]
	07 March 2008, 09:42GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Universe Empty? No, Filled With Neutrinos
	The universe is certainly not empty, that's a fact, but its not very dense either. Today, the visible universe consists mostly of empty space, void, while ordinary matter accounts for only 4 percent of the total mass. So where is the rest of 95 percent of the universe's mass? In dark energy and dark matter, according to some physical theories. Further still, the void doesn't seem to be so empty after all, but filled with[ADM ... [read more >>]
	06 March 2008, 03:03GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Death of a Star
	Take a good look at the picture of this nebula, this is how our solar system will look like in about 5 billion years or so. NGC 2371's glowing bubble of gas surrounding a white dwarf is a planetary nebula probably resulted in the explosion of an average star, relatively similar to the Sun. All that is left of the original central body is the core of the red giant after the ejection of the outer layers. The white dwarf remnant burns wi ... [read more >>]
	04 March 2008, 10:45GMT | (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

Why are Seasons Associated With Constellations?
	How would we know when the winter comes, if it weren't for the seasons on Earth? One might say, well if there aren't any seasons, why would we even want to know such information? Let's say its kind of a mental exercise. The best way of finding out what season the Earth is in is by tracking the motion of the stars on the night sky, more precisely the position of our planet on the orbit around the Sun. Ancient civili ... [read more >>]
	01 March 2008, 06:40GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia