Word: solarity
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Aldrin first walked on the moon, President Bush now wants the U.S. to return there. His plan calls for the establishment of a permanent lunar base, which would serve as a way-station for an expedition to Mars, and eventually as a stepping stone for further exploration of the solar system...
...existence at a gathering of astronomers last year. For this week's cover, Nash finally got her wish. "Sunspot isn't properly a town," she says, but a "singularly beautiful place, high on a mountain peak, that is one of the world's most important centers of solar research." The day after her arrival, Nash looked through a telescope "longer than a football field" to view the rising sun. She glimpsed a stunning, white-hot world swept by turbulence that made it look "grainy, as if sprinkled with sand." At the same time, she saw that "gargantuan sunspots had erupted...
...story unfolded, it made for some odd conversations among staffers in the San Francisco bureau, where Nash is currently based. Office manager Olivia Stewart found herself fielding enigmatic tips about solar activity. Many came from Patrick McIntosh, a solar physicist in Boulder. As Nash tells it, "Olivia would say with mock concern that 'Pat McIntosh called again to say the sun was acting kind of strange.' Then she would burst out laughing." Last week, as the story was going to press, the sun graciously cooperated by ejecting a huge arch of gas that some astronomers pronounced the largest explosion they...
...beneficence, the sun is not too kind to those who, intentionally or not, overexpose themselves to its warming rays. While most of the harmful solar radiation is absorbed by the ozone layer, enough ultraviolet light gets through the atmosphere to endanger the unwary...
...weakens the skin's elasticity and brings on premature wrinkling and sagging. Of greater concern, it causes as many as half a million new cases of skin cancer every year. Most of these are basal or squamous cell carcinomas, which have high cure rates. But solar radiation may be a cause of melanoma, which can be fatal. Ultraviolet light apparently weakens the immune system; after a severe sunburn, some people suffer outbreaks of oral herpes or other disorders. Excessive exposure aggravates cases of chicken pox and can be especially dangerous, even fatal, to victims of lupus...