The Sun: An Essential Key in Food Chains

From polar bears to crocodiles to even humans, all organisms need the sun to survive. Though the sun may be on the bottom of the food chain, every organism relies on the sun's energy and resources to prosper.
Many people think that plants and fungi are on the bottom of the food chain. Yet as organisms, they must have someway to consume energy. This is done through photosynthesis. The plants absorb energy through sunlight and make it into glucose. So say in a desert food chain, a coyote eats a roadrunner, who eats a snake, who eats a mouse, who eats a cactus, who absorbs sunlight. So, if the sun is blocked out, the cactus that the mouse should have eaten does not grow so the mouse starves to death. The same happens to the snake, roadtunner, and coyote. And right there is whole region wiped out due to the absense of the sun. So, the sun is important to everyone. Even us humans. We eat animals that eat plants that use sunlight. So we, as omnivores, would starve from the lack of plants and animals if the sun should cease to serve it's purpose. In conclution, for a sucessful ecosystem, the sun is a valuble factor.

Valuble info from: http://http://digital-desert.com/wildlife/food-chains/

New Horizons Is On Its Way

As humans discover and seek out the last regions unexplored in our solar system, Pluto became the last world to be unvisited. Space crafts have explored every other planet. Now Pluto is the object left, and NASA has already sent a craft there. That craft is New Horizons, which will pass by Pluto in 2015. It is the size of a grand piano, and is certainly on its way.
Launched on January 16, 2006, its mission is to land and explore Pluto and then to go on out to the edge of the solar system and explore the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt is much bigger than our asteroid belt. It is home to many dwarf planets including Pluto, Makemake, Haumea, and many more.
Glen Fountain, the project manger, says that "You've got to remember that it takes nine-and-half years to even get to where we want to take the mission. So we need a highly reliable system. So, we have built into the electronics nearly two of everything. We are redundant. We have two guidance control processors, computers. We have two command and data handling processors. We have two solid-state recorders. Even if there is a failure, you can switch from one to the other."
So, as said in the quote, since New Horizons is going to take so long to reach Pluto, it is using the highest technology to get there. Well, until 2015, lets wish New Horizons a sucessful jouney.

http://http//www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/glen_fountain_transcript.html
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_993.html