News tagged with solar minimum

A lightning strike in Africa helps take the pulse of the sun

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 11, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (11) | 2

Sunspots, which rotate around the sun's surface, tell us a great deal about our own planet. Scientists rely on them, for instance, to measure the sun's rotation or to prepare long-range forecasts of the Earth's ...

The Sun's Sneaky Variability

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 28, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (11) | 5

Every 11 years, the sun undergoes a furious upheaval. Dark sunspots burst forth from beneath the sun's surface. Explosions as powerful as a billion atomic bombs spark intense flares of high-energy radiation. ...

EVE: Measuring the Sun's hidden variability

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Sep 22, 2009 | 4.1 / 5 (7) | 0

Every 11 years, the sun undergoes a furious upheaval. Dark sunspots burst forth from beneath the sun's surface. Explosions as powerful as a billion atomic bombs spark intense flares of high-energy radiation. ...

Are Sunspots Disappearing?

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Sep 03, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (23) | 15

The sun is in the pits of the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century. Weeks and sometimes whole months go by without even a single tiny sunspot. The quiet has dragged out for more than two years, prompting ...

Groups See Sun Darken

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Jul 30, 2009 | 4 / 5 (1) | 0

Two MIT Alumni Association groups led by MIT professors were rewarded with clear skies - just barely - for the total eclipse of the sun on July 22, possibly the most-watched eclipse in history. The eclipse ...

New Solar Cycle Prediction

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Jun 01, 2009 | 3.9 / 5 (19) | 16

(PhysOrg.com) -- An international panel of experts led by NOAA and sponsored by NASA has released a new prediction for the next solar cycle. Solar Cycle 24 will peak, they say, in May 2013 with a below-average ...

How Low Can It Go? Sun Plunges into the Quietest Solar Minimum in a Century

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Apr 01, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (18) | 17

(PhysOrg.com) -- The sunspot cycle is behaving a little like the stock market. Just when you think it has hit bottom, it goes even lower.

Spotless Sun: Blankest Year of the Space Age

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 01, 2008 | 4.5 / 5 (23) | 2

Astronomers who count sunspots have announced that 2008 is now the "blankest year" of the Space Age.

What's Wrong with the Sun? (Nothing)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Jul 11, 2008 | 3.8 / 5 (43) | 20

Stop the presses! The sun is behaving normally. So says NASA solar physicist David Hathaway. "There have been some reports lately that Solar Minimum is lasting longer than it should. That's not true. The ongoing ...