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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.""

1 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Expanded info by synaptic · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It is probably correlated to the orbit of Jupiter which is 11.86 earth years and the other planets to a lesser degree.

    I would presume that like our moon creates tidal forces on our oceans, the planets create tidal forces on the sun's plasma and can stretch and tug on the sun and reduce the gravitational compression that fuses the fuel.

    If one were to analyze the location of the planets at each solar maximum and minimum, you might find the events that cause the variance in solar periods.

    But that's just an idea, I could be wrong. Let me know if you figure it out. I've seriously never looked.