Minimum to the Max: Shifting Solar Plasma Could Account for Sun's Recent Slumber
Thursday, March 3, 2011 - 19:00
in Astronomy & Space
A few years back, the sun went into a lull, its activity tailing off like a rambunctious child settling down for a nap. The lull was no surprise; it is a normal part of the sun's roughly 11-year cycle of activity, over which the number of magnetized regions known as sunspots waxes and wanes. But the sun did not snap out of its slumber as expected. The lull persisted, lingering on to become the deepest solar minimum in about 100 years before sunspots finally started increasing in number around the end of 2008. [More]