Sun teams up with atmosphere, ocean to ramp up Pacific storms

When it comes to teasing out the factors affecting Earth’s climate, the Sun is a compelling character. A rare breed of enthusiasts got pretty vocal about the Sun in the past year, when the great orb stayed quiet about a year longer than expected between the end of Solar Cycle 23 and the beginning of [...]

Day 68: Pluto re-demoted, sunspots hit a new low

I saw a few great April Fool’s jokes today, but this one at NASA Watch really got the prize:
“Pluto is Now Just a Fairly Large Rock”
With perfect mock-serious delivery, blog author Keith Cowing reported it like straight news — given the growing number of solar system bodies in Pluto’s neighborhood, the beleaguered little former planet [...]