'Quiet Sun' baffling astronomers

[whiteshadow]

The Sun is the dimmest it has been for nearly a century.

There are no sunspots, very few solar flares - and our nearest star is the quietest it has been for a very long time.

The observations are baffling astronomers, who are due to study new pictures of the Sun, taken from space, at the UK National Astronomy Meeting.

The Sun normally undergoes an 11-year cycle of activity. At its peak, it has a tumultuous boiling atmosphere that spits out flares and planet-sized chunks of super-hot gas. This is followed by a calmer period.

Last year, it was expected that it would have been hotting up after a quiet spell. But instead it hit a 50-year year low in solar wind pressure, a 55-year low in radio emissions, and a 100-year low in sunspot activity.

According to Prof Louise Hara of University College London, it is unclear why this is happening or when the Sun is likely to become more active again.

"There's no sign of us coming out of it yet," she told BBC News.

"At the moment, there are scientific papers coming out suggesting that we'll be going into a normal period of activity soon.

"Others are suggesting we'll be going into another minimum period - this is a big scientific debate at the moment."
Images from Soho taken in 2001 (left) and 2007 (right)
Sunspots could be seen by the Soho telescope in 2001 (l), but not this year (r)

In the mid-17th Century, a quiet spell - known as the Maunder Minimum - lasted 70 years, and led to a "mini ice-age".

This has resulted in some people suggesting that a similar cooling might offset the impact of climate change.

According to Prof Mike Lockwood of Southampton University, this view is too simplistic.

"I wish the Sun was coming to our aid but, unfortunately, the data shows that is not the case," he said.

Prof Lockwood was one of the first researchers to show that the Sun's activity has been gradually decreasing since 1985, yet overall global temperatures have continued to rise.

"If you look carefully at the observations, it's pretty clear that the underlying level of the Sun peaked at about 1985 and what we are seeing is a continuation of a downward trend (in solar activity) that's been going on for a couple of decades.

"If the Sun's dimming were to have a cooling effect, we'd have seen it by now."

'Middle ground'

Evidence from tree trunks and ice cores suggest that the Sun is calming down after an unusually high point in its activity.

Professor Lockwood believes that as well as the Sun's 11-year cycle, there is an underlying solar oscillation lasting hundreds of years.

He suggests that 1985 marked the "grand maximum" in this long-term cycle and the Maunder Minimum marked its low point.

"We are re-entering the middle ground after a period which has seen the Sun in its top 10% of activity," said Professor Lockwood.

"We would expect it to be more than a hundred years before we get down to the levels of the Maunder Minimum."

He added that the current slight dimming of the Sun is not going to reverse the rise in global temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

"What we are seeing is consistent with a global temperature rise, not that the Sun is coming to our aid."

Data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows global average temperatures have risen by about 0.7C since the beginning of the 20th Century.

And the IPCC projects that the world will continue to warm, with temperatures expected to rise between 1.8C and 4C by the end of the century.

No-one knows how the centuries-long waxing and waning of the Sun works. However, astronomers now have space telescopes studying the Sun in detail.

According to Prof Richard Harrison of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxfordshire, this current quiet period gives astronomers a unique opportunity.

"This is very exciting because as astronomers we've never seen anything like this before in our lifetimes," he said.

"We have spacecraft up there to study the Sun in phenomenal detail. With these telescopes we can study this minimum of activity in a way that we could not have done so in the past."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8008473.stm

[anthony65]

Maybe the Sun God is having a quiet think... :cool:

Aslan!

Where are you?

Come and sort out the evil ones!

Where's Reepecheep!

We need some of his courage right now!

[Ian2day]

This coincides with Akhenaten coming to power as Obama and him recently promising to block out the Sun to address global warming. I bet that none of you thought that it would be this quick though. I should say that yesterday I urged Obama that now was the time for him to pull his finger out and get on with it.

[vladmir]

Maybe the Sun God is having a quiet think... :cool:
lol, i think he might be thinking,
look at my children, worrying about this and that,
dont they know that im the boss here in my system here and i do as i please?

[lhaull]

The solar quiet before the solar storm perhaps?
Something so powerful I imagine has alot going on beneath the surface, just wait till it begins to show it.
Up to 2012 there is going to be alot going on.
My advice...
Get prepared as best you can.

[ronisron]

The sun also has what's called solar cycles, seasons of it's own. There are times of intense sunspot and solar flare activity. This usually coincides with planetary warming cycles. There are also times of reduced sunspot activity, and this coincides with planetary cooling cycles, like now on our planet.

Obama blocking out the sun? Apollo pulling it across the sky with his chariot? The PTB always make the religions and the fantastic explanations up just for our benefit. They well undertsand that the sun has it's cycles. They just don't want you to know these things, so they can sell whatever it is they're trying to.

[endlessvista]

That article is a breathtaking example of double speak and contradicitons with the obligatory "Global Warming has nothing to do with the sun" editorial slant at the end.

as I pointed out below . Poeple on this forum have been in tune with the sun's behaviour and have been recording it. Now it's mainstream so it's no longer nutcase conspiricy stuff...

http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62458

[endlessvista]

Obama blocking out the sun? Apollo pulling it across the sky with his chariot? The PTB always make the religions and the fantastic explanations up just for our benefit. They well undertsand that the sun has it's cycles. They just don't want you to know these things, so they can sell whatever it is they're trying to.

That's true. But sunspots have never completely vanished since records began 500 or so years ago. So what's happening with the sun now is pretty interesting. The sun is also magnetically dead at the moment as well. Something is up.

Especially as it is about to cross the galactic plane in the next couple of years. I think we are living in interesting times.

[motleyhoo]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8008473.stm


Interesting - solar activity has on average declined since 1985, and has been in a normal down cycle for the last 10 years. I guess that removes the Sun as the cause for parts of our world heating up 4 degrees F, and for the widespread melting of glaciers. Especially since the last 10 years, while the Sun has been in a down cycle, has seen the most rapid rise in temps (which coincides with the monumental rise in global industrial activity over that same time period). I guess that leaves obly Obama or Satan as the cause of global warming. I don't mean to sound trite, but some of us have been saying this for years. Before the industrial age, solar activity was proportional to temperature fluctuations. That hasn't been true for around 50 years now.

The good news is, with the global economic slowdown, combined with reduced solar activity, maybe we can give mother Earth a much needed vacation. She has been flogged enough, no?

[ddeisz]

Our last solar minimum was more intense than any on record. V95 solar flare responsable for Katrina was the new record high during solar minimum cycle or solar maximum cycle. The evidence suggests our galaxy is traveling through a dense area of the universe causing friction and global warming. The brainwash article is to help us remain calm before the next solar maximum.

[macmauro]

For the sceptics check this link from NASA

http://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/solicitations/summary.do?method=init&solId={542CE21B-E45F-CF2E-67A7-2372232C5045}&path=open

Partial quote:
"In 2009, we are in the midst of the minimum of solar activity that marks the end of Solar Cycle 24. As this cycle comes to an end we are recognizing, in retrospect, that the Sun has been extraordinarily quiet during this particular Solar Cycle minimum. This is evidenced in records of both solar activity and the response to it of the terrestrial space environment. For example:
Causes – Solar output
•
Lowest sustained solar radio flux since the F 10.7 proxy was created in 1947;
•
Solar wind global pressure the lowest observed since the beginning of the Space age;
•
Unusually high tilt angle of the solar dipole throughout the current solar minimum;
•
Solar wind magnetic field 36% weaker than during the minimum of Solar Cycle 23;
•
Effectively no sunspots;
•
The absence of a classical quiescent equatorial streamer belt; and
•
Cosmic rays at near record-high levels.
Consequences
•
With the exception of 1934, 2008 had more instances of 3-hr periods with Kp=0 than any other year since the creation of the index in 1932;
•
Cold contracted ionosphere and upper atmosphere; and
•
Remarkably persistent recurrent geomagnetic activity"

[snoop]

i say lets wait and see, no harm in being prepared for anything but don't expect anything

I think the ptb want to scare us somewhat:rolleyes:

[carissac]

Well, here's something to chew on:


Possible Smoking Gun - Tinkering With The Sun
http://www.data4science.net/essays.php?EssayID=755


And I'm not saying I vouch for Ted Tweitmeyer, and it doesn't mean I agree with everything to be found on the rest of his website, but if this is true.....then that really gives one pause. How much of what's going on with the sun is in fact natural? How much is being artificially manipulated?

[the nine]

Our last solar minimum was more intense than any on record. V95 solar flare responsable for Katrina was the new record high during solar minimum cycle or solar maximum cycle. The evidence suggests our galaxy is traveling through a dense area of the universe causing friction and global warming. The brainwash article is to help us remain calm before the next solar maximum.

this makes sense to me..:)

[the nine]

Well, here's something to chew on:


Possible Smoking Gun - Tinkering With The Sun
http://www.data4science.net/essays.php?EssayID=755


And I'm not saying I vouch for Ted Tweitmeyer, and it doesn't mean I agree with everything to be found on the rest of his website, but if this is true.....then that really gives one pause. How much of what's going on with the sun is in fact natural? How much is being artificially manipulated?

very very intesresting article cari'..:)
maybe they have created a time machine..it would have massive repercussions if so..they would be undefeatable, if they could relay messages backwards though time..3 days would allow for almost any scenario to be played out without risk..!:eek:

although that table/graph was beyond my comprehension!:confused:

[monkeyboy]

it maybe just the perfect time to start sungazing?

http://www.organichealthblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/sun-gazing.jpg

Safe Sungazing Practice
Sungazing is a one-time practice of your lifetime usually for a period of 9 months. You can break up the practice in three phases. 0 to 3months, 3-6months and 6- 9months. You have to walk barefoot for 45 minutes for the rest of your life. Food makes us commit the maximum pain to others and exploit others. The practice entails looking at the rising or setting sun one time per day only during the safe hours. No harm will come to your eyes during the morning and evening safe hours. The safe hours are anytime within 1-hour window after sunrise or anytime within the 1-hr window before sunset. It is scientifically proven beyond a reasonable doubt that during these times, one is free from UV and IR rays exposure, which is harmful to your eyes. To determine the timings of sunrise or sunset, you can check the local newspaper, which also lists the UV Index as 0 during these times. Both times are good for practice - it depends on individual’s convenience. Sungazing also has the added advantage of getting vitamin A and D during the 1-hour safe period window. Vitamin A is necessary for the health of the eye, the only vitamin that the eye requires. If you sun gaze, the spectacles and the associated power in the eye will go away and this will provide better eyesight without glasses. For those who cannot initially sungaze during the safe periods, sunbathing is an effective method for receiving the sun energy at a slower pace until one is able to sungaze. Best times to take sunbath is when the UV index is lower 2 or below. This usually occurs within the 2-hour window after sunrise or before sunset. Sun bathing during the day is to be avoided, except for during the winter months, when the UV index usually remains at 2 all throughout which is safe for sunbathing. Check your local newspaper to see the published results for UV Index to be sure. Also do not use sunscreen. When body gets heated up you perspire and sweat is a waste product and needs to go out of the body. When you are painted or coated with lotions and creams — they get degenerated and the chemicals enter your body. It is our malpractice -our wrong use- why we blame the sun for skin cancers.

0 - 3 Months
First day, during the safe hours, look for a maximum of 10 seconds. Second day look for 20 seconds at the rising sun adding ten seconds every succeeding day. So at the end of 10 continuous days of sun gazing you will be looking at the sun for 100 seconds i.e. 1 minute and 40 seconds. Stand on bare earth with bare foot. Eyes can blink and/or flicker. Stillness or Steadiness of the eyes is not required. Do not where any lenses or glasses while sungazing.

Why don’t you watch the sun instead of the TV? The intensity of the TV is much more than the rising or setting of the sun. If you can watch TV at close ranges for extended periods of time, you can easily watch the rising or setting sun safely. Have a belief that the sunrays or lights that you are getting into your eyes are of immense benefit and will not harm you. This will give you earlier, quicker and better results. Even without a belief component also you will get the results provided that you follow the practice, however, it will take longer time. On the other hand, you need not restrict any of your normal daily routines. There are no restrictions. You can enjoy your food while applying this practice. Hunger will disappear eventually by itself.

You may consider gazing from the same place at the same time daily. Following circadian patterns has its advantages. If you pray, you can have any prayer of your choice. No particular one is suggested and it is not a requirement. As a precaution, have your eyes examined by a doctor. This is to err on the side of caution from a scientific standpoint. Also, you should have periodic check ups. Additionally, you can buy photo sun-cards to monitor UV and IR radiation, which are priced at about $2. (when cards are kept in the sunlight). There is no need to buy an expensive $500 photosensometer. If your cheeks get heated up then stop gazing. Use common sense.

When you reach three months you will have gazed at the sun 15 minutes at a stretch. If you can watch TV for 3 hours, surely you can see the sun for that long. What is happening as you go up to 15 minutes? The sun energy or the sunrays passing through the human eye are charging the hypothalamus tract, which is the pathway behind the retina leading to the human brain. As the brain receives the power supply through this pathway, it is activated into a brainutor. One of the software programs inherent in the brain will start running and we will begin to realize the changes since we will have no mental tension or worries. Besides, we will have the self-confidence to face life problems by means of developing a positive mindset instead of a negative one. Moreover, we will become fearless since our psychosis will have disappeared so will have all the ills of the mind. This is the first phase of the method and lasts around 3 months.

Humans have good and bad qualities, which are 2 sides of the same coin. In the absence of the sunlight we develop bad qualities. When sunlight enters the brain, good qualities come into appearance replacing bad ones. Eventually, even spiritual ignorance goes away. Sometimes, you get confused from what you hear and read. You get contradictory information such as red wine is good for you and alcohol is bad for you. You are baffled with life’s problems and detest decision-making. But after 3 months of sun gazing, you develop a sense of confidence and know the answers for yourself spiritually. There is a balance of the mind, where you are in a position to judge personal answers - the correct answers. You develop powers that are already inherent in you. Bad qualities disappear, anger, greed, jealousy leave you. You become a lovable creature. Everybody likes you. You will do no wrong. If you are positive or fearless, you will not harm anybody nor pain anybody. You will become a compassionate person. This is a great contribution to world peace. A positive approach creates solutions to problems and waste in society. There will be no need for environmental engineers. We won’t throw waste, as there is no away. By 3.5 months everything changes.

Besides, mental depression will go away. Psychiatrists are observing that sadness is caused by lack of sunlight. With the practice of sungazing you will not have depression in your whole lifetime. You will achieve a perfect balance of mind. Fear of death will go away. The state of mind is such that you will welcome death. What is to happen, you will be able to let it happen. There will be no worries. Everyone has some sort of mental disorder, which is the biggest human problem, which can be removed by the proper use of sunlight.

3 - 6 Months
Next, Physical diseases will start being cured. 70 to 80% of the energy synthesized from food is taken by the brain and is used up in fueling tensions and worries. With a lack of mental tension, brain does not require the same amount of energy as before. As you proceed in sun gazing and as your tensions decrease the need for food intake will go down.

When you reach 30 minutes duration of continuously looking at sun, you will slowly be liberated from physical disease since by then all the colors of the sun will have reached the brain through the eye. Brain regulates the flow of color prana appropriately to the respective organs. All the internal organs get ample supply of the required color prana. The vital organs are dependent on certain sun color prana. Kidney red, Heart yellow, Liver green etc. Colors reach the organs and address any deficiencies. This is how color therapies work –Reiki and Pranic Healing. There is a lot of information available on color therapy. This is the process of getting liberated from physical ailments over a six-month period. After 3-4 months you can become cured of your physical ailments with autosuggestion, which is imagining and visualizing healing your ailments while gazing at the sun. Scientific methods such as the Solariums, crystals, color bottles, natural stones, gems, all utilize sun energy, which is stored in these natural stones. You can keep natural color stones in drinking water to further hasten healing.

In solariums there is usually a platform at the height of 100 feet where each of the 7 glass cabinets is constructed for each of the VIBGYOR colors. This platform revolves around the sun whole day and according to the nature of the disease diagnosed, the patient is placed in the appropriate color for healing. Similarly, glass drinking water bottles with different colors are kept in sun for 8 hours. The water gets solarized and water develops medicinal value and is used to treat different diseases.

Photosynthesis, which we misunderstand, does not in fact need chlorophyll. Only the plant kingdom needs chlorophyll. Human body can do it with a different medium. Photosynthesis is transforming the sun energy into a usable energy format. This is how Photovoltaic cells work and electricity is produced, similarly water is heated, food is cooked in solar cooker, and solar batteries run automobiles.

Eyes receive the entire spectrum of the sunlight, which is distributed to the different parts of the body by the brain on a need per basis. As a result, you are cured from all diseases. A 3rd intermediate medium is avoided. As you continue gazing at the sun, energy is no longer being used up for mental impairments or physical ailments; thus its storage level increases in your body. You are your own master within 6 months.

6 - 9 Months
In 6-months time you will start to have the original form of micro food, which is our sun. Additionally, this can avoid the toxic waste that you take into your body while you eat regular food.

7.5 months and 35 min of sun gazing is when hunger starts going down palpably. Need for food intake decreases. No one needs to eat more than his or her hunger levels. Hunger comes because of energy requirements of the body, which is a must for its existence. Food is not a necessity for the body to function, only energy is. Conventionally, you are indirectly getting the sun energy while eating food, which is a by-product of sun energy. If there is no sunlight, no food will grow.

Therefore, as you consume the original form of food, hunger goes down starting to disappear eventually. By eight months, you should see hunger almost gone. For a dull or weak student or with no belief, this time period may be 9 months or 44 minutes. After that time, hunger disappears forever. All mechanisms associated with hunger like aroma, cravings, and hunger pangs also disappear. Moreover, energy levels are at a higher level. There is a judgment (having had this experience) that the brain is well activated with the sun energy. Welldone, you have become a solar cooker.

After 9 Months
After nine months or when you reach to a 44 minutes level, you should give up sun gazing since solar science prohibits further gazing for the sake of eye care. The body will get discharged when you stop practicing, which has to be recharged. Now you have to start walking on bare foot on bare earth for 45 minutes daily for a total of 6 days. Relaxed walking only. No need to walk briskly, jog or run. Any convenient time of the day is all right, however it is preferred to do that when the earth is warmer and the sunlight is falling on your body. When you walk bare foot, an important gland in the brain’s center called the pineal gland or the third eye is activated. The big toe of the foot represents this gland. 25 years ago it was considered a useless gland. Now it has become an important gland for study and up to now, about 18,000 papers have been published about it. It has always been known as the Seat of the soul. The Pineal gland has optic nerve endings. The remaining four toes represent glands too — pituitary, hypothalamus, thalamus and amygdala. Amygdala for the last 2 years has been gaining importance in medical research. It’s a nucleus of the sun or cosmic energy and plays an important role in the photosynthesis via the sunlight reaching the brain through the eye. When you walk bare foot, your body weight stimulates all these 5 glands through your toes. This is strengthened by the earth heat/energy and the sun prana falling on the head or the crown chakra. The chakras are not in the spinal cord that is an imaginary location; they are definitely in the brain. All these create a magnetic field and the body/brain recharges with the energy of the sun entering in you. Relax. Walk 45 minutes for one year and food continues to be away from you. After one year of recharging, if you are satisfied with your progress you can give up barefoot walking. Few minutes of sun energy falling on you once in 3-4 days will be enough from then on.

But if you want the immune system to strengthen, then keep on the bare foot walking. Also if you want memory power or intelligence to increase, continue the walking practice. As you increase the sun’s heat on your feet the brain will activate more and more, which will result in the more activity of the Pineal gland. The Pineal gland has certain psychic and navigational functions. Navigational means one can fly like the birds. You can develop psychic skills of telepathy, television and have your body at different places simultaneously. Science has validated human psychic functions and medical experiments are being done to ascertain this. Different body parts and its organs get purified once you stop eating due to detoxification. The different internal organs play different mechanical parts for the purposes of space travel and flight. There is another utility value (other than food digestion) for the internal organs. All the glands have a lot of functions and can perform at optimal level via sun energy. If you are fortunate to activate the brain optimally you surely will reach enlightenment. You can read past, present, and future. This method can be safely applied to control obesity. Almost all problems get solved.

Historically, a lot of people have remained without food. Accordingly in 1922, the Imperial Medical College in London decreed that solar rays were the ideal food for humans. However, no one has mentioned what their technique was– For e.g. Yogananda in his book ‘autobiography of yogi’ interviewed many saints and mystics to find out the secret of their lack of eating food.common reply was that the sun energy entered through a secret door and reached the medulla oblongata in the brain. They did not divulge their secret. This knowledge was lost to common folk at the time.

[nineroot]

Hey all,

Interesting to see this thread here. Did anyone spot that Oracle took over Sun yesterday (stock market news).

Any relevance to this news behind the news :rolleyes:

oracle take over sun - Google Search

Orcale definition :

Dictionary: or·a·cle (ôr'ə-kəl, ŏr'-) pronunciation

1.
1. A shrine consecrated to the worship and consultation of a prophetic deity, as that of Apollo at Delphi.
2. A person, such as a priestess, through whom a deity is held to respond when consulted.
3. The response given through such a medium, often in the form of an enigmatic statement or allegory.
2.
1. A person considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinions.
2. An authoritative or wise statement or prediction.
3. A command or revelation from God.
4. In the Bible, the sanctuary of the Temple.

[vladmir]

it maybe just the perfect time to start sungazing?
http://i39.tinypic.com/2lwvl0j.gif
yep, its high time!!

[macmauro]

I really love the certitude of the official science:

http://www.universetoday.com/2006/03/14/next-solar-max-will-be-a-big-one/

Now that was published in the 14/03/06, quote:

"We’ve now reached the Sun’s solar minimum; there’s not a sunspot anywhere across the surface of our closest star."

I remember you that these quotes are from 2006

“History shows that big sunspot cycles ‘ramp up’ faster than small ones,” he says. “I expect to see the first sunspots of the next cycle appear in late 2006 or 2007" :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Just take a look at the latest report commissioned from NASA in my post in this thread #11

So the first sunspots should appear in late 2006 or 2007, but here we are in 2009 and still the sunspots are missing ; Is the sun dying? Does NASA or these "scientists" have a clue??

Quote,from same source:

"Who’s right? Time will tell. Either way, a storm is coming." ...