Of Late, Fewer Sunspots Than Usual

esocid writes "The sun has been laying low for the past couple of years, producing no sunspots and giving a break to satellites. Periods of inactivity are normal for the sun, but this period has gone on longer than usual. The sun usually operates on an 11-year cycle with maximum activity occurring in the middle of the cycle. The last cycle reached its peak in 2001 and is believed to be just ending now, with the next cycle just beginning and expected to reach its peak sometime around 2012. Today's sun, however, is as inactive as it was two years ago, and scientists aren't sure why. In the past, solar physicists observed that the sun once went 50 years without producing sunspots, coinciding with a little ice age on Earth that lasted from 1650 to 1700." (More below.) esocid continues: "The Hinode, a Japanese satellite mission with the US and UK as partners, has three telescopes that together show how changes on the sun's surface spread through the solar atmosphere. It orbits 431 miles (694 km) above the Earth, crossing both poles and making one lap every 95 minutes, giving Hinode an uninterrupted view of the sun for several months out of the year. Scientists are not extremely worried, but have added extra ground stations in case of interference from extra solar activity, and are ready for the Sun to resume its activity." (The Little Ice Age is fascinating, full stop.)

Comments

solar warming, that's why.

[Svet-Am]

it's obvious why -- climate change and solar warming! we need legislation to fix this problem.

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[peragrin]

Nope it's actuall the global warming laws that the sun is following. The summary stated without sunspots for 50 years the planet went through a mini ice age. The sun is just trying to help us cool the planet down a bit.

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[fm6]

Yeah, everybody knows that it's sunspots that cause climate change. Or maybe its absence of sunspots. Yeah, must be that, cause that's what we've got. It certainly isn't my SUV!

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[clam666]

The sun isn't changing. Man causes climate change, the climate change causes solar activity to change.

Now that I've proved it the solution is to create a economic cap-and-trade system that creates a secondary market for the redistribution of wealth from people that earned it(good, bad, ugly, fairly, or unfairly) to people that didn't.

Surely you know that the movements of pieces of green paper around the earth will cause a perfect eden to exist like northern California worldwide don't you?

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately, the Sun doesn't care about the Earth.

Sorry Fine. The Earth couldn't give a crap about the Sun either. And no, we're NOT sorry!

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[Lord_Frederick]

Stupid selfish Sun.

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[JustOK]

thinking its so fucking brilliant!

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[Raster Burn]

No, silly, the article is wrong. Humans were responsible for the little ice age, not the sun!

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[aztektum]

Like some sort of cosmic "spooky-action-at-a-distance"

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[CowboyNealOption]

If it doesn't care, why won't it let us go already?? Stupid gravity....

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the opposite of true. The de-coralation of our oceans is removing the danger of reefs to pirates. Therefore, there are fewer shipwrecks and more of them survive those tropical storms.

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[oni]

As if the whole world revolves around it.

(the pun didn't quite sound right when I used the word orbit)

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[N1ck0]

I bet Jupiter is just laughing at all of this right about now.

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[N1ck0]

Yeah what makes it so special...a wimpy 4.6 billion year old that sits all by its self all the time, and it doesn't even have enough mass to become a black hole when it grows up. You call your self a star...pitiful! A real star wouldn't bother with sun spots, it would have been able to wipe out a planet's magnetic field and irradiate all life by now.

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ugg no like sun. Ugg throw rock at sun.

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[stefanlasiewski]

Does the Sun think it's a Star or something?

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[Drantin]

As if the whole solar system was centered around it.

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[bubulubugoth]

The sun is dying, netcraft confirms it.

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[blueg3]

The facts have a well-known liberal bias.

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[CTalkobt]

Heh, he's right:

http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/performance?mode_u=off&errors=0&explain=0&mode_p=on&by=collector&mode_w=off&sd=0&site=www.sun.com&site1=&sample=2&submit=Examine&range=5d&maxy=0

Re:solar warming, that's why.

[Theoboley]

Jupiter has no right to laugh... With its second red spot, its cancer is spreading. Melanoma FTW! Screw you Jupiter

You mean the Sun's spot production has been ....

[Palmyst]

a little spotty?

Absolutly Right.

[aeskdar]

I can confirm that after looking at the sun I too have come to conclusion that the spots must all be hiding on the other side. (I did not see any spots or anything after)

Re:You mean the Sun's spot production has been ...

[MarcoG42]

Apparently, no spotting at all. Word is the sun is tremendously worried and was seen at CVS in the pregnancy test section.

The Sun is just Shy

[Brynath]

It Knows we spent all this money to watch it.

Now it is just hiding.

Re:I blame

[Anonymous Coward]

I blame the Mayans and their stupid calender!!

Re:Global warming my blue butt

[youngdev]

are you sure we can't blame this on bush????

Re:Global warming my blue butt

[solarlux]

Stunned by the brilliant post or the brilliant slashdot community that promoted the post to Score:4 ?

Oh, this is just fucking wonderful...

[david@ecsd.com]

Global climate change has now spread to the sun. Thanks a lot you SUV driving motherfuckers.

Jerks.

Re:You mean the Sun's spot production has been ...

[circletimessquare]

please people, please, do not go into the CVS unless the change is major enough to warrant the attention. every little class tweak is not Changelog-worthy. There are a lot of eyes reading this CVS, and we don't want to be too verbose. And as for pregnancy...

wait, what?

Re:2012?

[bigstrat2003]

2012 is the year of the next round of presidential elections. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!!

My TinFoil Prediction

[hanshotfirst]

1. Group A declares GLOBAL WARMING (and soylent green) comes from PEOPLE
2. Group B declares Nuh-uh! Not it doesn't!
3. World expends great effort in reducing human contribution, reducing warming by (a little bit)
4. Natural warming/cooling cycles shift, reducing warming by (a lot)
5. Earth cools due to natural cycle before effects of #3 really kick in.
6. Group A declares GLOBAL COOLING also came from human behavior. See! Told You So! Our efforts worked! We should do more of #3!
7. Group B says zOMG! The earth is cooling! Build more SUVs! Save the planet! Save the tropical fish from extinction!
8. The current arguments continue

FSM

[hellfire]

The great Flying Spaghetti Monster feels the "sauce" on the planet is getting a little too hot, and reached out with his noodly appendage has lowered the heat for us all. All hail his Al Dente-ness!.

That's not Jupiter...

[Nick Driver]

I bet Jupiter is just laughing at all of this right about now. ...that would be Uranus.

Re:2012

[Cro Magnon]

Well, eleven years before 2012 was 2001, and we all know what disaster happened then.

Bush got into office.