News tagged with sunspots

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The Sun's Sneaky Variability

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. ...

Sunspots revealed in striking detail by supercomputers

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Jun 18, 2009 | 3.9 / 5 (13) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a breakthrough that will help scientists unlock mysteries of the Sun and its impacts on Earth, an international team of scientists led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) ...

New Sun-Watching Instrument to Monitor Sunlight Fluctuations

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Mar 23, 2009 | 3.7 / 5 (6) | 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- During the Maunder Minimum, a period of diminished solar activity between 1645 and 1715, sunspots were rare on the face of the sun, sometimes disappearing entirely for months to years. At ...

The Sun Shows Signs of Life

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 10, 2008 | 4.4 / 5 (28) | 1

After two-plus years of few sunspots, even fewer solar flares, and a generally eerie calm, the sun is finally showing signs of life. "I think solar minimum is behind us," says sunspot forecaster David Hathaway ...