Is Our Sun Slowing Down in Its Middle Age?

[rangerrebew]

Is Our Sun Slowing Down in Its Middle Age?
By: Monica Bobra | July 21, 2017

The structure of the Sun's surface, where sunspots live, appears to have changed markedly 23 years ago. That’s when solar magnetic activity might have started slowing down, Rachel Howe (University of Birmingham, UK, and Aarhaus University, Denmark) and collaborators speculate in paper to appear in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (full text here). Such a structural change might help explain the Sun's mysteriously weak cycles in recent years.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/sun-slowing-magnetic-activity/

[kevindavis007]

I guess it means that it is time to leave this planet....



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[montanajoe]

We launched Vanguard coming on 60 years which  was really the first step in broadening our understanding of the sun but now only 60 years later some folks think the changes we've seen during that time predict the way the sun has acted for millions of years and will continue to act.

Call me skeptical.....

[Joe Wooten]

Actually, Explorer was launched before a vanguard finally made it into orbit.......

[montanajoe]

Actually, Explorer was launched before a vanguard finally made it into orbit.......

That's correct but IIRC Vanguard was the first with instrumentation that was capable of studying the sun and if memory serves the Van Allen belts were discovered by Vanguard..

[Joe Wooten]

That's correct but IIRC Vanguard was the first with instrumentation that was capable of studying the sun and if memory serves the Van Allen belts were discovered by Vanguard..

Nope. Explorer 1 is officially credited with discovering the Van Allen belts. The only instrument it had was a Geiger counter and it kept getting saturated because they had the upper range set too low. Vanguard 1 was just a 3.25 lb beeper, Vanguard 2 was a 24 lb satellite that had an optical cloud measurement device, and Vanguard 3, weighing in at 50 lbs, did send back radiation data that defined the lower edge of the Van Allen belts, but the first three Explorers and three of the Pioneer lunar attempts really sent back the most data defining the belts.

[montanajoe]

Nope. Explorer 1 is officially credited with discovering the Van Allen belts. The only instrument it had was a Geiger counter and it kept getting saturated because they had the upper range set too low. Vanguard 1 was just a 3.25 lb beeper, Vanguard 2 was a 24 lb satellite that had an optical cloud measurement device, and Vanguard 3, weighing in at 50 lbs, did send back radiation data that defined the lower edge of the Van Allen belts, but the first three Explorers and three of the Pioneer lunar attempts really sent back the most data defining the belts.

Thank you... I guess I have been wrong in my recollection for all these years.. good to get it cleared up

[SunkenCiv]

Mister Maunder, your ride is here.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

They're lining up the next great crisis behind global warming...