<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/8279e359-cd92-4a12-8efe-5e759e2495de/4BB5A490-A5D7-481B-920E-9C73782BA5B0/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/30sep_blankyear.htm?list878321" href="http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/30sep_blankyear.htm?list878321" style="font-size: 11px;">science.nasa.gov</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/30sep_blankyear.htm?list878321"><P><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><STRONG>Sept. 30, 2008:</STRONG> Astronomers who count sunspots have announced that 2008 is now the "blankest year" of the Space Age.</FONT></P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/30sep_blankyear.htm?list878321"><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">As of Sept. 27, 2008, the sun had been blank, <EM>i.e.</EM>, had no visible sunspots, on 200 days of the year. To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go back to 1954, three years before the launch of Sputnik, when the sun was blank 241 times.</FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/30sep_blankyear.htm?list878321"><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">"Sunspot counts are at a 50-year low," says solar physicist David Hathaway of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. "We're experiencing a deep minimum of the solar cycle." </FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/30sep_blankyear.htm?list878321"><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">A spotless day looks like this:</FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/30sep_blankyear.htm?list878321"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/science.nasa.gov/img/BBACE5C1-78C0-4D34-A914-7151683A436B" alt="A SOHO image of the sun taken Sept. 27, 2008." /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/30sep_blankyear.htm?list878321"><P><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">And it is a <EM>very</EM> quiet time. If solar activity continues as low as it has been, 2008 could rack up a whopping 290 spotless days by the end of December, making it a century-level year in terms of spotlessness.</FONT></P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/4BB5A490-A5D7-481B-920E-9C73782BA5B0/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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