Stanford SOLAR Center-- News: June

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June 21, 2007

ASU Geophysicists Detect Molten Rock Layer Deep Below American Southwest (ASU Insight)

A sheet of molten rock roughly 10 miles thick spreads underneath much of the American Southwest, some 250 miles below Tucson. From the surface, you can't see it, smell it or feel it.
But Arizona geophysicists Daniel Toffelmier and James Tyburczy detected the molten layer with a comparatively new and overlooked technique for exploring deep within Earth that uses magnetic eruptions on the sun.

Image Credit: NASA-MSFC

June 19, 2007

Mysteries of Light (Washington Post)

For Centuries, Man Has Yearned to Understand the Power of the Sun. Now Area Scientists Are Working to Harness It.

It is a commonplace, fairly average, class-G star -- not as hot as the O- or B-class stars such as 10 Lacertra or Rigel, nor as cold as the class-M supergiant Antares. But this star can affect the navigation of homing pigeons and the precision of oil drillers. Its mystery induced the ancients to cut out human hearts in sacrifice. And its light makes the daily 93 million-mile trip to Earth in about eight minutes. Scientists across Washington are trying to simulate it, harness it and scrutinize it. Beachgoers bathe in it. By August -- or maybe this afternoon -- we'll be cursing it. And at 1:06 p.m. Thursday, its orientation in the sky officially begins summer.