A Beautiful Planet calls Earth's atmosphere "a delicate cocoon of air that shields us from our star's radiation." Of course, the atmosphere doesn't completely block electromagnetic radiation from the Sun; without some sunlight reaching the surface, plants could not harvest the Sun's energy, and practically no life as we know it could exist. The atmosphere's ozone layer does filter out much of the harmful ultraviolet light (or "UV rays") produced by the Sun. UV rays can cause skin cancer, and catastrophic damage to the ozone layer may have contributed to Earth's most extensive mass extinction of species ever, the End-Permian extinction (also known
The Sun Is Often Out The Sun Is Often Out The Sun Is Often Out (stylized as THE SUN iS OfTEN oUT) is the debut album by Longpigs, released in 1996 on U2's record label, Mother Records. Five singles were released from the album, initially to little success. The first two - "She Said" and "Jesus Christ" - both failed to crack the UK Top 40, both stalling at No. 67. The third single - "Far" fared a little better, scraping into the Top 40, reaching No. 37 and received significant radio airplay, particularly on the national pop and rock radio station, BBC Radio 1.