Quiet Sun bombards earth with fierce solar streams

September 21st, 2009 SYDNEY - Researchers have discovered an unusual kind of meteorite in the Western Australian desert and have uncovered where in the solar system it came from, a new finding suggests. Meteorites are the only surviving physical record of the formation of our solar system and by analysing them researchers can glean valuable information about the conditions that existed when the early solar system was being formed.

September 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A group of European astronomers said Wednesday that they had found the first known rocky planet outside the solar system. The find by European Southern Observatory scientists in Garching, Germany, is an important step forward in answering the question of whether humans are alone in the universe, because it is the first of the more than 300 known exoplanets - as planets outside the solar system are known - that is not large and gaseous.

September 16th, 2009 Found: Firm place to stand outside solar systemWASHINGTON — Astronomers have finally found a place outside our solar system where there's a firm place to stand — if only it weren't so broiling hot. As scientists search the skies for life elsewhere, they have found more than 300 planets outside our solar system.

September 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Atmospheric scientists from the UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) have discovered a previously unknown basic mode of energy transfer from the solar wind to the Earth's magnetosphere, a finding that could improve the safety and reliability of spacecraft that operate in the upper atmosphere. "It's like something else is heating the atmosphere besides the sun.

August 28th, 2009 SYDNEY - The Tidbinbilla Deep Space Communication Complex outside Canberra, Australia, has sent out more than 25,000 messages to Gliese 581d, the nearest Earth-like planet outside our solar system, which might host life. According to a report carried out in www.news.com.au, the messages have come from 195 countries including some from places such as the Vatican city, Antarctica and Kosovo.

July 31st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has found that comets contained vast oceans of liquid water in their interiors during the first million years of their formation, which may have fuelled life on Earth. According to Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe and his colleagues at the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology, the watery environment of early comets, together with the vast quantity of organics already discovered in comets, would have provided ideal conditions for primitive bacteria to grow and multiply.

July 21st, 2009 MUMBAI - Did you know animals and birds often prepare for sleep or behave confusedly during total solar eclipse? Well, here are some other little known facts about solar eclipse. - The longest recorded duration for a total solar eclipse is 7.5 minutes.

July 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have analyzed Beryllium-10, a radioactive isotope, found from the NGRIP ice core, Greenland, which reflects solar activity over the past 600 years. Beryllium-10, a radioactive isotope, is produced in cosmic ray showers.

June 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of astronomers has suggested that a sluggish, jet stream-like flow deep inside the sun could be to blame for the delay in increased solar activity. The team was team led by Frank Hill of the National Solar Observatory in Tucson, Arizona, US.

June 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Estimates indicate that solar activity will peak in 2013, but it would be the lowest peak recorded since the 1920s. The sun was expected to hit a low in 2008 as part of its normal 11-year cycle of activity.

June 11th, 2009 London, June 11 (ANI: A new analysis of craters of the Moon has suggested that the shattered remnants of a dwarf planet may have bombarded the inner planets in the early solar system. According to a report in New Scientist, several large impact scars on the moon appear to be around 3.9 billion years old, suggesting that the Earth and other objects of the inner solar system were heavily pounded at that time.

June 2nd, 2009 LONDON - A new research has suggested that the Earth is moving away from the Sun because tidal interaction is making them both literally push each other away. Thanks to radar beams pinging off various solar-system bodies and to tracking of interplanetary spacecraft, the sun-Earth distance has been pegged with remarkable accuracy.

April 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has determined that a widely discussed "atmospheric engineering" scheme intended to combat global warming could have unanticipated consequences in reducing the effectiveness of certain kinds of solar power around the Earth. In the study, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Daniel M.

April 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Twin NASA spacecraft have provided scientists with their first view of the speed, trajectory, and three-dimensional shape of powerful explosions from the sun known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. This new capability will dramatically enhance scientists' ability to predict if and how these solar tsunamis could affect Earth.

March 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has suggested that the concept of delaying global warming by adding particles into the upper atmosphere to cool the climate could unintentionally reduce peak electricity generated by large solar power plants by as much as one-fifth. The study was conducted by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).