A study of oppositely charged magnetic field bands, moving in the sun’s northern and southern hemispheres, suggests the coming sunspot cycle – Cycle 25 – will be a particularly strong one. This result contradicts an earlier expert forecast, suggesting a weak Cycle 25. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/sunspot-cycle-25-among-strongest-on-record-says-ncar…
Tag: solar physics
SOHO’s 4,000th comet
This week, a citizen scientist spotted a never-before-seen comet in data from the sun-observing SOHO spacecraft. It was SOHO’s 4,000th comet discovery. Learn more and watch comets sweep near the sun in this video. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/sohos-4000th-comet…
Using AI to predict Earth’s future
A recent “deep learning” algorithm—despite having no innate knowledge of solar physics—could provide more accurate predictions of how the sun affects our planet than current models based on scientific understanding. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-11-ai-earth-future.html…
Solar physics with the Square Kilometre Array
Although solar physics is one of the most mature branches of astrophysics, the sun confronts researchers with a large number of outstanding fundamental problems. These problems include the determination of the structure and dynamics of the solar atmosphere, the magnetic field evolution in the chromosphere and corona, coronal heating, the physics of impulsive energy release, energetic particle acceleration and transport, the…
Will planetary low tide force regular sunspot sync-ups?
No, it’s not pseudoscience. Does a regular alignment of planets make a strong-enough tug to regulate the sun’s 11- and 22-year cycles? Read more in this story via Eos – a source for news and perspectives about Earth and space science – from the American Geophysical Union. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/planetary-low-tide-force-regular-sunspot-sync-ups…
Study corroborates the influence of planetary tidal forces on solar activity
One of the big questions in solar physics is why the sun’s activity follows a regular cycle of 11 years. Researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), an independent German research institute, now present new findings, indicating that the tidal forces of Venus, Earth and Jupiter influence the solar magnetic field, thus governing the solar cycle. The team of researchers present their…
Huge Lava Lamp-Like Blobs Spotted in 40-Year-Old Observations of the Sun
Scientists have found lava lamp-like blobs up to 500 times larger than the Earth in the solar wind, in data from a pair of spacecraft that launched in the 1970s. Read more… Source: https://gizmodo.com/huge-lava-lamp-like-blobs-spotted-in-40-year-old-observ-1833848615