Just a few weeks back the Sun was peppered with sunspots- dismal areas stretchingthousands of kilometersacross that come and go . This was scarce surprising give that it is presently in the middle of itssolar maximum- the most dynamic stop in the Sun ’s 11 - year cps . But in an image taken last Thursday by NASA ’s Solar Dynamics Observatory there was not a spot in sight . A day later , one solitary macula seemed to be making an appearance , and scientist are n’t quite sure why the Sun is displaying this peculiarly quiet behavior .
According to solar physicist Tony Phillips , while this reflexion is out of the ordinary , the solar upper limit we are presently experiencing is the weakest one for a hundred .
“ It ’s eldritch , but it ’s not super weird , ” Phillips toldLA Times . “ It all underlines that solar physicist really do n’t know what the heck is happening on the Sun . We just do n’t know how to predict the Sun , that is the take away message of this result . ”
macula are stimulate by extremelystrong magnetic fieldsthat do magnetic pressure to increase in an area while the surrounding atmospheric pressure decreases . This then causes a slender cliff in temperature as the hard charismatic field prevents spicy flatulency flowing from the Sun ’s home to the surface . Sunspots often come about inpairswith the magnetic orbit decant out of one and entering the other .
Sometimes the magnetic fields can becometwisted , resulting in a vast build - up of vim and massive explosions on the photosphere . These blowup are called Coronal Mass Ejections and solar flares . When sunspots are in particular active , resulting in numerous solar flare , geomagnetic storm activeness is increased and we see spectacularNorthern and Southern Lights .
As Alex Young , a heliophysicist at NASA ’s Goddard Space Flight Center , points out , it ’s difficult to get it on what can be classed as “ normal ” behaviour from the Sun give that we ’ve only been intensively studying it for the last 50 odd geezerhood ; a touch on its 4.5 billion class story .
As it stands , whether or not this quiet period will continue for an extended period of time stay unknown and highlights the unpredictable nature of our Sun .
[ ViaLA Times ]
