Strange Things Going On With Our Star

https://youtu.be/qx6iTTG8xqk


nemesis maturity
 

Published on Sep 8, 2018


Many of us take the sun for granted, giving it little thought until it scorches our skin or gets in our eyes. But our star is a fascinating and complex object, a gigantic fusion reactor that gives us life. When we look up at the sun from Earth, it seems calm and unchanging. The truth is quite different. The sun is changing. Even small changes in solar activity can impact Earth's climate in significant and surprisingly complex ways, researchers say. https://www.space.com/19280-solar-act... In addition to these abrupt changes in activity, the sun also has long term, more regular pattern of change. This pattern is called the sunspot cycle and a single cycle lasts for about 11 years, although it can be as short as 8 or as long as 14 and it can vary dramatically in intensity. During one cycle, the number of sunspots, a good indicator of solar activity, goes from low to high and back down to low. Solar minimum represents a time when sunspot numbers are relatively low, and solar maximum represents a period when sunspot numbers are relatively high. During this cycle, the location of the sunspots also changes. They are at middle latitudes during solar maximum, and move closer to the equator as the sun approaches solar minimum. At solar minimum, there are sometimes no sunspots to observe. At solar maximum there can be many at the same time. The number of sunspots is important because sunspots are the visual markers of where powerful magnetic fields have emerged from the sun's interior. These magnetic fields power solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which can affect Earth and other objects in the solar system. As the sunspots increase, so does the frequency and severity of flares and CMEs. The sun's 11-year cycle is a symptom of a longer, 22-year-cycle called the solar cycle, or Hale Cycle, which affects the sun's magnetic fields. Every 11 years, the sun's poles flip--north becomes south and south becomes north, so every 22 years, the poles return to the position where they started the cycle. The flip is due to the complex movement of magnetic fields inside the sun that are constantly stretching, twisting, and crossing as solar material bubbles up from the sun's core. But the exact pattern of movements is not yet mapped out. Because the sunspot cycle follows a similar pattern regardless of the orientation of the poles, it only takes half as long as the solar cycle. The two cycles are different, but the 11-year sunspot cycle is often referred to as the solar cycle, which can be a little confusing. Solar Cycle 24 should reach its minimum around 2020 although predictions about the sun are still uncertain. The slower than expected progress of this sunspot cycle has led some to speculate that the next sunspot cycle might be very minimal, with few sunspots even at solar maximum. It is still far too early to know, but we may be on the verge of a 'deep solar minimum', which is a period of low activity. The sun last behaved this way eleven years ago (2008-2009) - leading scientists to believe there's a solar change on the cards. It will be 2019 before we reach the peak minimum, but that we're already seeing strange things going on with our star. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Music credit: YouTube Audio Library 1) Starnger Danger - Francis Preve 2) Heartbeat of the Hood - Doug Maxwell/Media Right Productions