Sun news stories on Newser

'Ring of Fire' Eclipse Wows

Mary Papenfuss — Mon, 21 May 2012 05:23:38 CDT

The rare "ring of fire" annular solar eclipse did not disappoint. Millions of watchers from Tokyo to San Francisco and Albuquerque stood transfixed before homemade pinhole boxes, telescope projections, live action on computers—or peered at the sky with special cardboard glasses as the moon moved into position to turn...

NYC Awestruck by 'Manhattan-henge'

Mary Papenfuss — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 05:17:00 CDT

Centuries from now historians will speculate about the ruins of a once-great city whose buildings lined up perfectly for a semi-annual celestial occurrence. But for now, New Yorkers merely stand, agog for once, awestruck by "Manhattan-henge." It's the twice-annual happening when skyscrapers are lined up just right to reveal the...

Next for NASA: Visiting the Sun

Kate Schwartz — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 07:12:00 CDT

NASA's plans for this decade are pretty hot. Literally. The agency plans to launch an unmanned spacecraft before 2018 that will enter the Sun's atmosphere. Though the nearest it will get is about four million miles from the Sun's surface, that's still closer than the US has ever gotten, and...

NASA Releases Explosive Sun Shots

Mary Papenfuss — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 06:00:00 CDT

NASA has released astounding new photos and videos of the sun for the first time revealing high definition, close-up views of the solar surface and exploding flares. The images were captured by the space telescope of the Solar Dynamics Observatory, and are providing historic new insight into sun mechanics, notes...

Climate Change Reverses 8 Millennia of Arctic Cooling

Harry Kimball — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:09:44 CDT

Summer temperatures in the Arctic have climbed 2.2°F since 1900 despite an 8,000-year cooling trend, the Guardian reports. For the past few thousand years, the orbit of the Earth and the changing tilt of its axis has put the Arctic 630,000 miles further from the sun than...

Space Station Panels Unfurled, Despite Threat of 'Stiction'

Harry Kimball — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:45:35 CDT

Astronauts on the International Space Station successfully unfurled the last of the craft’s solar panels today, despite the chronic problem of “stiction,” ABC reports. Stiction is, predictably, the engineering term for things sticking together. When panels have had trouble opening in the past, spacemen have resorted to everything from rattling...

Dozens Report Giant 'UFO'

Peter Fearon — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:45:00 CST

Dozens of people in several small north central Texas towns claim they saw a bizarre UFO, reports AP. Townsfolk in the Bible Belt farming communities of Erath County—including a pilot and a police officer— sighted the huge object last week, with some claiming that US fighter planes were tailing...

Hunt's On for Burma's Hero Bloggers

Peter Fearon — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 09:14:53 CDT

Burmese bloggers whose accounts and photos of the Saffron Revolution and the brutal crackdown by the military dictatorship riveted the world last week are now being hunted by authorities, reports the Times of London. With the Internet shut down and the streets swarming with troops, the bloggers have gone underground.