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'Quiet Sun' baffling astronomers [SUN SPOTS HAVE DISAPPEARED]
BBC News ^ | 2009/04/21 05:04:15 GMT | Pallab Ghosh

Posted on 04/21/2009 10:28:59 AM PDT by KayEyeDoubleDee


Sunspots could be seen by the Soho telescope in 2001 (l), but not this year (r)

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...

(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: age; anthropogenic; capandtrade; catastrophism; climate; cooling; eeeevilsuvs; flares; gaia; globalwarming; gorebullwarming; hoax; ice; iceage; junkscience; keywordtrolls; maunderminimum; pagan; pleistocene; solar; solarflares; sunspots; suvs; youngerdryas
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To: BubbaBasher
Mine too for clusters.

But, my real interest are in galaxy's. It's weird, I'm almost drawn to these things.

Shot this one about 2 months ago, with the same camera/instrument, but no light filters were used in the optical train.

At 23 millions light years out, this is M-51, Whirlpool Galaxy.

This was a series of 26 images at 80 seconds each on the exposure. I shot this object again last weekend, and hopefully it will process out some better data.


121 posted on 04/21/2009 9:37:47 PM PDT by dragnet2 (When seconds count, the police are only minutes away)
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To: y6162

The History Channel has ceased offering programming consistent with its name and has become the We’re All Gonna Die Channel. They’ve quietly phased out the good shows, like Tales of the Gun and Wild West Tech, and replaced them with crap like “Top 10 Ways The Earth Could Die” or whatever it was called, Nostradamus specials (yes, more than one!), “Bible Code” specials (yes, more than one!), and have pushed global warming as truth in almost every show they air.

It’s utterly ridiculous. It’s getting to the point where I can’t watch History Channel or even Science Channel any longer. Lately I’ve been watching HD Theater. Lots of shows on cars and motorcycles. I’ll take it.


122 posted on 04/21/2009 11:14:47 PM PDT by Terpfen (Ain't over yet, folks. Those 2004 Senate gains are up for grabs in 2 years.)
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To: Terpfen

On our cable system, the original “history” programs were moved to another history channel. Also military history was moved to the military channel. It must be a viewing demographics thing.

As I recall, when the history channel was first aired, almost every show was about Hitler. I called it the Hitler channel.

I am giving in to my true passion now and watch the golf channel obsessively. I hope Obamachev doesn’t have a grievance against golf to avenge.


123 posted on 04/22/2009 6:23:43 AM PDT by y6162
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To: y6162

When it first aired, you’re right, the History Channel was the Hitler Channel. But now it’s the Algore Kooks & Creeps Channel. The pendulum has swung too far in the other direction.


124 posted on 04/22/2009 6:59:38 AM PDT by Terpfen (Ain't over yet, folks. Those 2004 Senate gains are up for grabs in 2 years.)
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To: patriciaruth

“Why are you apologizing to yourself?”

I wasn’t meaning to apologize to myself; I was apologizing to everyone who might have read my stupid previous post wherein I said that one could not see even the sun from 25,000 years ago. I was tired and confused trillions of miles with years.


125 posted on 04/22/2009 8:40:17 AM PDT by ROLF of the HILL COUNTRY ( The Constitution needs No interpreting, only APPLICATION!)
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To: ETL

Post 96 was meant for you!


126 posted on 04/22/2009 8:43:41 AM PDT by ROLF of the HILL COUNTRY ( The Constitution needs No interpreting, only APPLICATION!)
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To: ROLF of the HILL COUNTRY
Post 96 was meant for you
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2234448/posts?page=96#96

That's ok. :) It wasn't that important.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2234448/posts?page=99#99

127 posted on 04/22/2009 8:57:06 AM PDT by ETL (ALL the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
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To: tet68
Of course, yesterday, the British news was warning of massive solar storms that would destroy all technology.

I'm looking forward to having massive solar storms. Any glitches they cause will point out where we need to harden infrastructure against EMP. And no, I don't think solar storms will have any big effect.

128 posted on 04/22/2009 9:54:41 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money -- Thatcher)
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To: dfwgator

It’s just not the same.....


129 posted on 04/22/2009 12:41:56 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: ConservativeMind
It's hard to tell right now whether sunspot activity will remain low for a number of years - and as a Ham Radio operator I'd be pleased if it didn't.

But the article is just a front piece for the global warming cult, which is trying once again to deny and/or explain away the reality we are experiencing, that the effect of the sun on the earth's surface temperature is variable, and more of a contibutor than anything we do here.

130 posted on 04/22/2009 12:56:38 PM PDT by Clinging Bitterly (I hope he fails.)
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To: PapaBear3625
In the last peak period we had some pretty big solar storms. There was a lot of atmospheric activity resulting in some disruption of normal radio propagation and auroras visible at very low latitudes. One storm, if I recall, was suspected of causing a comm satellite outage but the evidence is inconclusive.

The hype over the phenomenon that can cause power grid failures is, I believe, overblown. But certainly periods of high activity would provide opportunities to study the issue more and take necessary precautions.

131 posted on 04/22/2009 5:04:49 PM PDT by Clinging Bitterly (I hope he fails.)
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To: ETL
This would be the case if more low-level, thick, sunlight-blocking cumulus-type clouds are being produced via galactic cosmic ray interactions with atmospheric particles (in our atmosphere). The researchers that I linked to believe the solar activity-cosmic ray-cloud formation-Earth climate connection involves the production of these types of clouds (thick, low-level sunlight-blocking clouds) And so when the Sun is magnetically active (around sunspot cycle peaks), less of these cooling clouds form, more sunlight reaches the Earth and the surface warms *naturally*.

Low clouds are generally cooling like you say. A good way to explain why is to look at an IR satellite photo. The very white parts (false color) are low IR returned to space and the dark parts are higher amounts of IR returned to space. High clouds like cirrus are very white, so low IR returned (more reflected back) and the earth warms. Low clouds like the cumulus are dark colored so higher IR sent to space, the earth cools.

A big factor is whether the low clouds stick around at night. Then they trap more heat, but still they are cooling on balance.

Another factor is what is under the clouds. If there is high albedo ice under the low clouds, then the clouds will generally be more warming than cooling. But, as is mostly the case, there is dark ground or water under the clouds so the clouds are generally cooling.

132 posted on 04/22/2009 5:44:16 PM PDT by palmer (Cooperating with Obama = helping him extend the depression and implement socialism.)
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To: ETL

Jeez, what the hell did we do to cause all this?


133 posted on 04/22/2009 5:52:37 PM PDT by Euker
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To: KayEyeDoubleDee
Liberals think sun spots have gone away because conservatives are driving SUV’s, eating white bread and white sugar, and burning fossil fuels ( the sun is jealous).

Liberals also think it has to do with George Bush, conservatives, and those ever dangerous veterans..

Al Gore says it's critical if we don't put ourselves at an economic disadvantage immediately, we're all dooooooomed.

134 posted on 04/22/2009 5:58:00 PM PDT by GOPJ (The treatment of POWs will get worse? So far, all returned have been beheaded/mutilated-Doctor Raoul)
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To: KayEyeDoubleDee; FrPR; enough_idiocy; Desdemona; rdl6989; Little Bill; IrishCatholic; Normandy; ...
 


Beam me to Planet Gore !

135 posted on 04/23/2009 5:43:24 AM PDT by steelyourfaith ("The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." -Lady Thatcher)
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To: Maelstorm
They say in this article that we have not witnessed global cooling which is not entirely true. The problem with how surface temperature readings have been collected and analyzed leaves open a huge possibility for error and misinterpretation.

Except that even with lousy [deeply flawed] surface temperature collection [with collection stations clustered near man-made hotspots], we STILL know that temperatues peaked way back in 1998, and have been declining since then.

Right now, we're in the middle of the coldest winter [and spring] in decades.

136 posted on 04/23/2009 9:17:05 AM PDT by KayEyeDoubleDee
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To: y6162
Isn’t it ironic the history channel has so many programs about how history could end.

That's because liberalism and socialism are death cults.

137 posted on 06/03/2009 12:53:55 PM PDT by MeganC (January 20, 2013)
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