Science News

A new study reports that the top of the gigantic conveyor belt of plasma moving inside the sun has been running at record-high speeds for the past five years.

“I believe this could explain the unusually deep solar minimum weve been experiencing,” said David Hathaway, a solar physicist at NASA and co-author of a new study describing the findings, in a NASA statement.

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When a shock wave from a solar storm hits the Earths protective magnetic bubble, it creates highly energetic particles dubbed “killer electrons” that can be dangerous to satellites.

Killer electrons this is what the scientists call them are highly energetic charged particles that are trapped in the Earths outer radiation belt, which extends from about 7,500 miles to 40,000 miles (12,000 km to 64,000 km) above our planet.

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Europes most powerful solar power plant is set to start operations in Italy later this year, the US company building the installation on an area as large as 120 football pitches said on Thursday.

The current biggest plant in Europe, located in Spain, produces 60 megawatts and the second biggest, in Germany, 50 megawatts, SunEdison said.

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A dark object may be lurking near our solar system, occasionally kicking comets in our direction.

Why do scientists think something could be hidden beyond the edge of our solar system? Originally, Nemesis was suggested as a way to explain a cycle of mass extinctions on Earth.

Nicknamed “Nemesis” or “The Death Star,” this undetected object could be a red or brown dwarf star, or an even darker presence several times the mass of Jupiter.

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The United States could source 10 percent of its electricity from solar power by 2030, a report said Tuesday, winning support from a US lawmaker who wants to boost the number of US solar panels.

Sanders praised the report, which said the United States could get 10 percent of its electricity from solar power by 2030, up from just 0.

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The United States could source 10 percent of its electricity from solar power by 2030, a report said Tuesday, winning support from a US lawmaker who wants to boost the number of US solar panels.

Sanders praised the report, which said the United States could get 10 percent of its electricity from solar power by 2030, up from just 0.

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The protective magnetic field shrouding the early Earth was likely only half as strong as it is today, a new study suggests.

Earths magnetic field is generated by the turbulent, convective motions of the planets molten core. The field extends around the Earth for quite some distance into space until it meets the suns incoming solar wind (the stream of charged solar particles constantly flowing away from the sun).

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Cityscapes of glass-clad buildings gleaming in the sun make Anna Dyson think about wasted energy.

A prototype gets a real-world tryout after the opening this week of an eco-friendly research building in Syracuse. Researchers at CASE - a collaborative research group involving Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy and the international architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill - call it a step toward exploiting the huge but largely untapped “green” resource of building exteriors.

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Sustainable Energy Technologies Ltd, a solar equipment maker that recently relocated to Toronto from Calgary, may soon land its first large-scale orders in its new home province, the worlds newest “go-to” region for solar power.

Inverters are key components of power systems that turn the suns rays into electricity as they convert the direct current output generated by the solar panels into the alternating current that the power grid runs on.

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Comets have a reputation of being outer solar system natives that were long thought to be made up of pristine remnants of the building blocks of our suns planets and moons.

The particle under study, dubbed “Coki,” was picked up from Comet Wild 2 (pronounced “Vilt 2″) by NASAs Stardust mission.

But new analysis of a tiny piece of one comet shows that some of its material actually formed in the inner solar system - just like that of meteorites - before it was kicked outward and incorporated into the comet.

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