The Quietest Sun

Orbity sends in a Boston Globe report on the unusual calm on the surface of the sun. The photos, many taken in more active solar times, are excellent — see the sequence from last year of a coronal mass ejection carrying away the tail of a comet. "The Sun is now in the quietest phase of its 11-year activity cycle, the solar minimum — in fact, it has been unusually quiet this year — with over 200 days so far with no observed sunspots. The solar wind has also dropped to its lowest levels in 50 years. Scientists are unsure of the significance of this unusual calm..." As if to be contrary, New Scientist mentions that the number of sunspots seem to be increasing.

Comments

Re:the significance of this unusual calm

[RuBLed]

Which Sun are we talking about?

It probably wants some privacy

[Centurix]

You know, so it can play WoW. Maybe it's fed up of voyeurs photographing *every* goddam coronal mass ejection, can't a ball of nuclear fusion have some time to itself?