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Century old milestone broken: spotless month for the Sun

Our old Sun has broken a milestone that has not happened for almost a hundred years, as an entire month has passed without a single sun spot being noted. This is relevant because many climatologists believe there is a tight connection between solar magnetic activity which is responsable for the sun spots and climate on […]

Mihai Andrei
September 10, 2008 @ 5:30 am

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Our old Sun has broken a milestone that has not happened for almost a hundred years, as an entire month has passed without a single sun spot being noted. This is relevant because many climatologists believe there is a tight connection between solar magnetic activity which is responsable for the sun spots and climate on earth.

Acording to the UCLA observatory from Mount Wilson, more than thirty days have passed without a single sun spot. Data concerning this type of solar activity has been gathered for more than 200 years, and the last time such an event has been recorded was 95 years ago.

When the sun is active, a solar activity of 100 or more sun spots is not that uncommon. Every 11 years, solar activity slows down, nearing zero, but it usually rises again pretty fast, as a new cycle begins.

The fact remains that this period lasted 42 days, and it’s the first time it lasted for more than a month since 1913. It’s not still fully certain what effect this type of solar behaviour will have, or even if it will have a significant effect at all, but most scientists believe there will be some implications, despite the fact that they don’t agree on them, as the relationship between the sun and our climate is much more complex and harder to understand.

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