The Sun occasionally enters an extended period of minimum sunspot activity. Is another minimum period coming soon?
Dancing in the Sun
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has been observing the Sun for five years. This is what year five looked like.
Oh God, Oh God, We’re All Gonna Die
Recently there’s been a flurry of articles about an increase in solar activity, including rumors that Edward Snowden had revealed the NSA knows of a solar flare “killshot” set to cause a global famine that will kill millions. The rumor has since been traced back to a satirical website, but that didn’t prevent the story from being repeated across the internet. The story has flared up again in the past few days on new that NASA has reported the Sun has emitted a coronal mass ejection (CME) in the direction of Earth.
You Could Have Died!
Growing up I was a bit of a risk taker. Along with a few of my friends, I occasionally did things that (while very cool) were in retrospect notoriously dangerous. Occasionally my Mom found out about these activities, which worried her to no end. As she put it, “You could have died!” This is absolutely true. Some of the stunts we pulled could have ended in serious injury or death. It is also true that my friends and I survived childhood largely unscathed. The reason I bring this up is because recently there has been a flurry of stories about solar activity in 2012, and the headlines are much the same “You could have died!”
Cycle of Stars
The Sun’s magnetic field varies over time, which means the activity of the Sun varies. The earliest observation of this cycle was seen in sunspots. We can observe similar activity in other stars by observing what are known as their H-K cycles.