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Solar Minimum Coming Sooner Than Expected

Posted by timothy on from the just-in-time-for-solar-tea dept.

bigjocker writes "According to this NASA story: "Something strange happened on the sun last week: all the sunspots vanished. This is a sign, say forecasters, that solar minimum is coming sooner than expected.""

3 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Relax by Vaevictis666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's noteworthy since (according to wikipedia) the last Solar Maximum was in 2001, so on an 11 year cycle, it shouldn't be due for another 2 1/2 years or so.

  2. Hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    I'll bet the Bush administration seizes on this as the cause for global warming. They'll just shout -
    "It's natural! Who woulda thunk it? Sunspots! Those crazy liberal scientists just didn't want you to enjoy ourselves with air-conditioning and driving huge cars. Now that we know whats REALLY going on and this whole mess is cleaned up we should just go back to driving our SUVs without even the slightest twinge of guilt. There's nothing we can do about it, if the sun wants to heat up the earth it must be part of Jesus's plan. Unless.... now we might sound crazy, but if we build a bunch more nuke-le-air bombs we might just be able to solve this "sun" problem. Hmmm... it IS threatening American interests..."

  3. The average never happens by kettlechips · · Score: 4, Insightful
    "Something strange happened on the sun last week: all the sunspots vanished. This is a sign, say forecasters, that solar minimum is coming sooner than expected."

    What would really be strange, is if there was no such thing as a deviation from the statistical average. Where actual single events are concerned, deviation from the average is more the rule than the exception.

    To "expect" the average to happen and to call it strange when it doesn't, is actually not very logical.