Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Space

Sun Mysteriously Goes All Quiet Just When Its Activity Should Be Highest

Sun Mysteriously Goes All Quiet Just When Its Activity Should Be Highest 3

Almost every measure of solar activity flatlined over the weekend. The event, though not unprecedented, is odd considering that our local star has just passed what is supposed to be the peak of its solar cycle, when activity is at its highest.

“It really underscores this solar cycle playing out as being pretty benign,” said Robert Rutledge, lead of the forecast office at the NOAA/National Weather Service Space Weather Prediction Center. “This has been by any measure a really pretty quiet cycle, and I think we shouldn’t expect the second half to be any different.”

Sun Mysteriously Goes All Quiet Just When Its Activity Should Be Highest 4

The sun goes through a natural 11-year variation called the solar cycle. Periods of high activity generally coincide with increased numbers of sunspots and energetic bursts such as flares and coronal mass ejections. Before it started, scientists’ predictions for this solar cycle ranged from very eventful to rather lackluster.

“Quite frankly, we’re not very good at solar cycle predictions,” said Rutledge.

Considering that this solar cycle is the weakest in more than a century, some researchers are already predicting that it could be the start of an ebb in overall activity, with several more low cycles ahead. The website spaceweather.com, which monitors the sun’s activity, also suggested that this lull could signal a double-peaked solar cycle whose valley we are currently experiencing. But Rutledge pointed out that our fundamental understanding of how the sun works is still incomplete. The sun could remain quiet or an uptick in activity, including the possibility of extreme space weather, could come at any time.

This weekend’s low activity is within the variation that the sun normally experiences and scientists don’t really know what its underlying cause might be. A particular snow storm on Earth can be attributed to moving weather fronts, said Rutledge, but we don’t have that detailed of an understanding of what drives changes on the sun. Within a week or so, solar activity should return to normal.

Source

Comments

You May Also Like

Planet Earth

In 2025, we are anticipating a significant increase in both seismic and volcanic activity. This surge has already caught the attention of many experts...

Space

The scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has reported that the recent series of powerful solar flares pose significant risks. The...

Planet Earth

The magnetic storm that erupted on the night of May 10 is acknowledged as the most potent since at least 2003, surpassing it in...

Apocalypse & Armageddon

The Earth is currently experiencing magnetic storms, triggered by intense solar flares. This elevated level of solar activity is worrisome, and the repercussions could...

Planet Earth

On the morning of May 8, a significant solar flare occurred, the first since 2014. It was evident that the solar matter ejection was...

Space

The sun can both caress and incinerate. And if in the old days people were more worried about the harvest, then in our days there...

Space

According to spaceweather.com, for most of the past week, astronomers observed a strange formation near the North Pole of the Sun, which grew for...

Planet Earth

In the past days, magnetic storms have literally gone berserk, attacking the Earth with very powerful bursts of flares and geostrikes.  On Friday, February...

Advertisement