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The Sun's 'Quiet Period' Explained

Posted by Soulskill on from the ra-needs-naps-too dept.

Arvisp writes with this excerpt from the BBC: "Solar physicists may have discovered why the Sun recently experienced a prolonged period of weak activity. The most recent so-called 'solar minimum' occurred in December 2008. Its drawn-out nature extended the total length of the last solar cycle — the repeating cycle of the Sun's activity — to 12.6 years, making it the longest in almost 200 years. The new research suggests that the longer-than-expected period of weak activity may have been linked to changes in the way a hot soup of charged particles called plasma circulated in the Sun."

5 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Re:hot soup? by 0racle · · Score: 4, Funny

    We frequent a different Slashdot don't we?

    --
    "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
  2. Inactivity? by Anarki2004 · · Score: 4, Funny

    What's this nonsense about inactivity? The most recent java update I can find is July 7, 2010. What's that? You mean there's more than one sun?

    --
    The teachers will crack any minute, purple monkey dishwasher.
    1. Re:Inactivity? by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 4, Funny

      That big glowing ball in the sky is now called "the Oracle." Get with the times!

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
  3. Re:Solar Cooling! Man is at it again! by Yvan256 · · Score: 4, Funny

    You: We should nuke the sun from orbit!
    Moderator: The nuke won't make it into orbit, it's too hot.
    You: Let's go at night, then.
    Moderator: Oh yeah, of course!

  4. Seems normal to me. by Zeek40 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Generally after I've spent a night spewing out hot liquids and gasses, I need a day or two to sleep it off. I can imagine plasma makes for an even worse hangover.