The year 2013 was supposed to be the year of the solar maximum, but the sun has grown strangely quiet. The calm before the solar storm? NASA warns ‘something unexpected is happening on the Sun’
March 9, 2013 – SPACE - ‘Something unexpected’ is happening on the Sun, NASA has warned. This year was supposed to be the year of ‘solar maximum,’ the peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle. But as the pictures (below) reveals, solar activity is relatively low. ‘Sunspot numbers are well below their values from 2011, and strong solar flares have been infrequent,’ the space agency says. The image below shows the Earth-facing surface of the Sun on February 28, 2013, as observed by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. It observed just a few small sunspots on an otherwise clean face, which is usually riddled with many spots during peak solar activity. Experts have been baffled by the apparent lack of activity – with many wondering if NASA simply got it wrong. However, solar physicist Dean Pesnell of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center believes he has a different explanation. ‘This is solar maximum,’ he says. “But it looks different from what we expected because it is double-peaked. The last two solar maxima, around 1989 and 2001, had not one but two peaks.’ Solar activity went up, dipped, then rose again, performing a mini-cycle that lasted about two years, he said. –Daily Mail
Last edited by Carol on Sat May 18, 2013 12:54 pm; edited 2 times in total
_________________ What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night, the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. With deepest respect ~ Aloha & Mahalo, Carol
Something ominous is always right around the corner -- and while we're preparing and bracing for one thing -- we get blindsided by something completely unexpected. The Ancient Egyptian Deity kept talking about the sun in a creepy and ominous manner. I won't be suprised if nothing happens -- or if all hell breaks loose. I'll just keep modeling solar system governance -- in a very low-key manner -- no matter what happens -- or doesn't happen. The Shadow probably doesn't even know what's going to happen...
The calm before the solar storm? NASA warns ‘something unexpected is happening on the Sun’
