The sun has a new spot, and it could signal the long-awaited beginning of the next solar cycle.

Solar flares rise and fall on an 11-year cycle, and last year marked what scientists thought was the solar minimum. But through the beginning of 2009, the sun stayed unusually quiet. That changed yesterday, when a major sunspot appeared on the backside of the sun, where it was captured by NASA’s STEREO instrument.

“This is the biggest event we’ve seen in a year or so,” said Michael Kaiser, research scientist with the heliophysics division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. “Does this mean we’re finished with the minimum or not? It’s hard to say. This could be it. It’s got us all excited.”

People have been counting sunspots since Galileo first observed one in the early 17th century. Through the 28 cycles that have been well-documented, stretching from 1745 to today, the average cycle length has been 11 years, but shorter and longer cycles have been observed. (The polarity of solar storms also alternates, so technically, a full cycle is 22 years.)

For unknown reasons, the current solar minimum has lasted longer than normal.

“It’s been a long solar minimum, the longest and deepest one through the last hundred years, but not out of the extreme ordinary,” Kaiser said.

Sunspot activity causes magnetic storminess around Earth and is correlated with the total amount of energy we receive from the sun. That connection caused some speculation in the media about the implications of the extended solar minimum on climate change, like yesterday’s FoxNews.com article, “Quiet Sun May Trigger Global Cooling.”

If the new solar flare is indeed a sign of the resumption of the normal cycle, it should put all that to rest.

Kaiser is sure this sunspot is part of the new cycle because it appeared at about 30 degrees of latitude. This is typical early in the solar cycle when sunspots appear closer to the poles. Toward the solar minimum they show up closer to the equator. To date, a few minor sunspots have shown up in the higher latitudes, but none with the intensity or size of the new spots.

“We have seen a few events in the new cycle, but they’ve all been pretty timid compared to this one,” Kaiser said. “In angular size, this one wasn’t spectacularly big, but it was certainly pretty bright.”

STEREO picked up the event around the backside of the sun, but it won’t come fully into view from Earth until May 8. Still, solar photographers are already pointing their telescopes at the sun, hoping to catch a glimpse of the new event.

Despite the recent rash of space-debris problems, the risk that the space shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope will have a catastrophic collision with space junk and micrometeoroids won't exceed NASA guidelines.

NASA said Thursday the new orbital debris risk for STS-125 had fallen to 1 in 221. A couple of precautionary maneuvers -- in particular coming into a lower, less crowded orbit on the 10th day of the mission and using Hubble as a shield -- reduced the spaceship's chance of getting hit with a stray paint chip or metal bolt.

New, more precise observations of the orbital debris encircling Earth also showed the amount of junk was slightly lower than had previously been calculated. The new information means the shuttle mission to the Hubble can fly without any safety reservations.

"It's an improvement," said Steve Stich, the head of the orbiter project office at Johnson Space Center.

An initial risk assessment in October calculated a 1 in 185 risk that a piece of space debris or a micrometeorite would hit the shuttle and cause a catastrophic loss of the crew and vehicle. Only the Hubble service mission STS-61 in December 1993 faced a higher calculated risk of a catastrophic hit by space junk, at 1 in 150. Risk higher than 1 in 200 requires a special waiver to fly. The absolute cut-off for a shuttle mission is 1 in 60.

The Hubble is located in a debris-ridden area that's three times riskier than the orbit the International Space Station flies in. Given the difficult environment, it seemed the final Hubble service mission would be the first in 58 shuttle launches to exceed the 1 in 200 risk threshold.

Then, in February, an American communications satellite collided with a Russian Kosmos satellite, spreading debris around the Earth and prompting fears that the risk to the Hubble service mission would would be even higher. Orbital debris specialist Mark Matney of Johnson Space Center told Nature the mission was "uncomfortably close to unacceptable levels" and that the satellite collision was "only going to add on to that."

But NASA officials have managed to re-engineer the flight plan to not just keep the risk level from rising, but to reduce it. They came up with ways to carry out the mission's important scientific mission while protecting the vulnerable areas on the spacecraft, namely the nose cap and the leading edge of the wings. And, in what has become standard procedure, the astronauts will give the Shuttle a thorough inspection on the next-to-last day of the mission before attempting to re-enter Earth's atmosphere.

Despite the good news for this mission, the overall orbital debris trend remains disturbing. The satellite collision alone increased the risk to the shuttle mission by 8 percent. The risk of a micrometeroid or orbital debris (MMOD) hit is, in fact, very real.

"MMOD is the highest risk for the shuttle program," Stich said. "That's why we take such extra special precautions."

If during inspections, the astronauts find that their shuttle has been hit, they'll have options to save themselves.

"We have a couple mitigations there. One is that we could effect a repair using a material called NOAX," Stich said, alluding to a putty-like material akin to space-strength Bondo. Astronauts would spacewalk out to the problem and patch up the craft.

In the case of a more severe hit, NASA would fly the shuttle Endeavor up to the crew. Because they won't be able to wait in the International Space Station, which would be normal protocol for a shuttle docked there, they've brought extra food and water. Stich said they'd have 18 days to retrieve the crew from a damaged vehicle.

Impacts occur regularly on shuttle flights. Wired Science obtained the Hypervelocity Impact Database, which revealed that in the 54 missions from STS-50 through STS-114, space junk and meteoroids hit shuttle windows 1,634 times necessitating 92 window replacements. In addition, the shuttle's radiator was hit 317 times, actually causing holes in the radiator's facesheet 53 times.

The Great Wall Of China was also known as the “Long Wall” and was first built and reconstructed many times between the 6th Century BC and the 16th Century. It was created to help add protection to the north border of China and keep the invaders out from causing the collapse of the dynasties in rule at the time.
When first built, the Great Wall was not made from bricks but was crafted from the earth, wood, and stones. Bricks were not used until the Ming Dynasty was in rule over China. The bricks were used in conjunction with lime, tile, and stone. The bricks were lighter and smaller making them better to use and found to be much faster when being moved from one place to the other. The bricks could also hold more weight than the earth and stone and the stone was a bit more difficult to set in place. It was built to be more than 4,000 miles long and at the highest point, had over a million soldiers guarding it. Millions of Chinese men died during the centuries it took in building of the Great Wall of China.

This is a best way to make somebody to slow down his car...

1850: Edward Bellamy is born. He's the American socialist and visionary author best known for penning the forward-looking utopian novel, Looking Backward.

Bellamy grew up in western Massachusetts, a desultory law student who knew he wanted to be a writer. He soon ditched law for journalism and worked for a couple of newspapers — the Springfield Union and New York Post — before turning to fiction.

He wrote short stories and several popular Victorian novels — The Duke of Stockbridge (1879), Dr. Heidenhoff's Process (1880) and Miss Ludington's Sister (1884) — but attained fame with the publication in 1888 of Looking Backward, the story of a young man who falls into a hypnotic sleep in 1887, only to wake up in 2000 when the world has evolved into a great socialist paradise.

Bellamy embraced a central pillar of socialism, that cooperation among humans is healthier than cutthroat competition. This conviction formed the basis of Looking Backward and emerged as its central theme. Boston in the year 2000, Bellamy's setting for the novel, is indeed a world where socialism has emerged triumphant and the world is harmonious because of it.

Bellamy predicted a revolution in retail, with something like today's warehouse clubs and big-box stores. Transactions would be handled by a card system much like a modern debit card. People could use enhanced telephone lines to listen to sermons and classical music.

The book was a hit, selling over a million copies and ranking behind only Uncle Tom's Cabin and Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ as the top best-seller of the era.

Bellamy's success led to a slew of other utopian-themed novels, although none reached Looking Backward's level of popularity. The book also spawned experiments in communal living and fed the Nationalist movement, which urged the nationalization of all industry and the elimination of class distinctions.

Socialism, of course, had different connotations in the 19th century when it rose, principally as a backlash to the brutalities of industrialization and the exploitation of the workers by the ruling class. (Were he alive today, Bellamy might note, with interest, that while the worst excesses of the industrial age are gone, the exploitation continues.)

Had Bellamy lived to the ripe old age of 150, he no doubt would have been disappointed to find capitalism running amok, and his fellow man no less greedy and self-serving than in his own time.

But he didn't live to be 150. In fact, Bellamy was still a relatively young man when he died of tuberculosis in 1898.

Source: Wikipedia, Bowling Green University

If you're one of those weird and sometimes gloomy people (like me) who get the urge to close the curtains on even the nicest of days, a new solar development will give us a new excuse to do it: It might help the environment and save us a few bucks.

Sheila Kennedy, a faculty member of MIT's School of Design, has developed new solar textiles and used them to create the first sustainable, energy yielding curtains. The curtains were developed for a green-living exhibit at the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, and the coolest thing about them is that they can produce up to 16,000 watt-hours of electricity (or about half of what's needed to power up a house every day.)

Just like regular solar cell panels, the curtains absorb sunlight in the daytime and hold it in as needed. As currently designed, the 'soft panel' curtains can cover walls or roofs, but they might be applicable in other forms. For example, the museum exhibit integrated the 'soft panels' into the design of the skylight, and is also used as a wall separator.

Think about other environmental and creatively satirical ways in which you could use these solar rugs. For example, you could take out your old couch, cover it in 'solar wear,' and put it on the roof. Is that a terribly kitschy decoration for a tired Santa, or an innovative earth-saving gadget? You be the judge.

According to the developers, this textile OPV (organic photovoltaic) system is still not as competent as the best flat, solar panel technologies out there, but will be improved in the next few years.