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Solar Minimum Coming Sooner Than Expected
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.""
We're all gonna die!!
everyday is another shooter.
It happens every 11 or so years. Nothing to panic
I, for one, welcome our new...
Oh hell. I can't. I just can't do it.
that should offset global warming then.
Nothing to see here; Move along.
After a bit of googling and actually reading the articles (gasp!) - here is some info that I found rather interesting:
The sun cycle is about 11 years. The length isn't fixed, it has varied between 9 and 14 years.
The next minimum was expected in late 2006, so this is coming about a year early.
Scientists don't understand the solar year, or what really causes it - so this could be a fluke or something else. So far it is just an interesting observation.
The linked article is good, but the Wiki link needs some help. Any solar physicists out there that want to contribute?
No, really, what.
I think heavy solar flares help radio wave transmissions, gives all the HAM operators a stiff pole. Does this lack of flares make signals worse? I dont see anything about the natural effects of this.
It happens every 11 or so years. Nothing to panic
It's the maid's job to clean up all those sunspots, but it takes 11 years or so to get enough windex, 'cause the sun is really big. There was a surplus this year, so she came in early.
Mystery solved.
--
AC
... it's about time to go home. Wait -- every 11 YEARS?!? It seems to get dark about every 24 hours around here, give or take a few.
Don't know why you've not heard of it. It's been well known for a long time. An example of the sort of data (and its analysis) that one might play with can be found at:
s potanalysis.html
http://www.scientificarts.com/sunspotanalysis/sun
according to www.spaceweather.com
"One week ago, the sun was utterly blank: no sunspots. Now there are several. The largest, sunspot 682, is twice as wide as Earth -- and growing. But it does not yet pose a theat for strong solar flares. Solar activity should remain low in the days ahead."
Low but not quite gone.
Also, this just means that sunspots are fewer and farther between; not gone completely.
TIME is the Aether...
Kaboom!
Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
Sun spots are a result of the sun spinning it's magnetic field into knots. Other results of this are coronal mass ejections, which can then potentially smash into the earth and present a significant hazzard to communications, satellites, and even power distribution and generation. The peak of this unpleasent activitiy is the solar maximum, while the minimum is just that.
See, I can whore karma too. And I would think a guy who has an X-ray observatory named after him would try to be a little more up on the nomenclature. It's really the least you could do.
you said that you "almost booked a trip" to see the northern lights, which implies that you didn't book that trip. I'd say that qualifies as more of a "whew" than a "shit".
my pet machine
Ya know, that'd be the basis for a great april fools joke. Write a fake paper, blaming the sun's "dimming" on man made activity couched in just enough uncertainty and jargon to make it believible to the functionally retarded, and see if one could get in distributed out into the bullshit machine to get something like an AP article, or a mention on CNN. Next step: Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin make a shitty movie.
Wait until it hits the max. I better turn my AC now, it's good to be prepared, you know.
this one doesn't go to 11?
ka-dum *tching*
Trollem mirabilem hanc subnotationis exigiutas non caperet
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.
Nah, it's just the other way around! This *proves* that sun has cycles we don't understand, and therefore global warming can't have anything to do with human activity.
Gee, some people will always blame Apple.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
You see, something's going to happen. You must leave.
What? What's going to happen?
Something wonderful.
"Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
Charged particles stream off the sun all the time anyway, the solar wind. This causes auroras all year round, it you're far enough North (or South for you Aussies). You can sometimes get CMEs when things called solar filaments collape (sort of like sun spots, but not) or when there are holes in the corona of the sun that let more solar wind squirt out.
No, therefore global warming is all the fault of one hot woman with her PMS all flared up.
I'm looking to get rich. I've got steps #2 (????) and #3 (PROFIT!) planned out, but am having trouble coming up with #1.
It's like, how much more black could the sun be? and the answer is none. None more sunspots.
It is all the fault of the republicans, John Kerry will restore the sun to its full power. He says Bush has neglected the sun and that is the reason for this. He will do a better job with sacrifices to the sun god.
Kinda like when I actually didn't know about 9-11 till two days later, because I locked myself in my basment. I had just moved in, so I didn't have TV or internet yet, so I just played some RPG computer games.
So I feel for you man, IT CAN HAPPEN!
What puzzles me about this beautiful and concise explanation is that there is no such thing as a field line: they are mere abstractions. And yet your description (which is in line what physicists generally tell us) talks as if they were material objects under tension, with elasticity and so on.
Naturally this metaphor must be justifiable by reference to the underlying electromagnetic theory, but is there any concise justification of this anywhere?
I know, some of you will say I'm barbaric for doing that, but I spent two weeks in Arizona that left me with a permanent thirst and newfound appreciation for ice.
The Independent: Reverend Spooner Arrested in Friar Tuck Incident - ISIHAC, Historical Headlines