Strange Doings on the Sun - WSJ.com
The above article discusses problems with the sun.
Discuss.
|
Doesn't the article say that the sun may be returning to normal after a 70 year period of abnormality? At any rate, the way I read it, it doesn't seem to be suggesting anything is happening that is outside the range of what one might expect.
200 years is a long time. I think its time to start building a massive spaceship to fly a nuclear bomb to the sun."I would say it is the weakest in 200 years," said David Hathaway, head of the solar physics group at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala
Ahhh...nuclear bombs....the cause and solution to all life's problems.
Spaceships that look like this
http://chupitosgratis.files.wordpres...2/icarusii.jpg
What if we all just left to a new planet or made a new sun from scratch or build a teleport machine or ..... That is just fantasy. Yes, crashing Jupiter into the sun would cause it to heat up a bit, but not as much as you think. None of this is even remotely realistic.
ROFL. Jupiter is really small compare to the sun the Sun is 987 times as large as Jupiter
The Sun - how far? how big? - Windows to the Universe
I hadn't realised quite how big Jupiter is: it is nearly 1/1000th the mass of the sun. Inconceivable!
[doh. uptonryan beat me to it.]
200 years in geological and astronomical terms is practically instantaneous. One would expect much longer cycle times for the full normal range of variable behaviour to reveal itself. And it is understood that the sun is a variable star, even if the variability is comparatively minor.
I imagine if one were a solar astronomer that one would relish any opportunity to study extreme (in the context) behaviour of the sun and would naturally place emphasis on that. Other than that I'm not sure what is concerning you. Anyway, I thought you said you were an astrophysicist, so this should not be any great suprise to you.
I take it your reference to flying a nuclear bomb there is intended humourously. It's not that it could have any particular effect on the surface layers and obviously absolutely none down where the action is.
Well the Sun is only 1% less bright. So roughly 0.1% increase might do some good.
rather smacks to me of Pozzo(from Becket's waiting for godot) ordering Lucky to "THINK PIG! Think! think!
perhaps Lucky's thoughts are now apropos?
to wit:
Given the existence as uttered forth in the public works of Puncher and Wattmann of a personal God quaquaquaqua with white beard quaquaquaqua outside time without extension who from the heights of divine apathia divine athambia divine aphasia loves us dearly with some exceptions for reasons unknown but time will tell and suffers like the divine Miranda with those who for reasons unknown but time will tell are plunged in torment plunged in fire whose fire flames if that continues and who can doubt it will fire the firmament that is to say blast hell to heaven so blue still and calm so calm with a calm which even though intermittent is better than nothing but not so fast and considering what is more that as a result of the labors left unfinished crowned by the Acacacacademy of Anthropopopometry of Essy-in-Possy of Testew and Cunard it is established beyond all doubt all other doubt than that which clings to the labors of men that as a result of the labors unfinished of Testew and Cunnard it is established as hereinafter but not so fast for reasons unknown that as a result of the public works of Puncher and Wattmann it is established beyond all doubt that in view of the labors of Fartov and Belcher left unfinished for reasons unknown of Testew and Cunard left unfinished it is established what many deny that man in Possy of Testew and Cunard that man in Essy that man in short that man in brief in spite of the strides of alimentation and defecation wastes and pines wastes and pines and concurrently simultaneously what is more for reasons unknown in spite of the strides of physical culture the practice of sports such as tennis football running cycling swimming flying floating riding gliding conating camogie skating tennis of all kinds dying flying sports of all sorts autumn summer winter winter tennis of all kinds hockey of all sorts penicillin and succedanea in a word I resume flying gliding golf over nine and eighteen holes tennis of all sorts in a word for reasons unknown in Feckham Peckham Fulham Clapham namely concurrently simultaneously what is more for reasons unknown but time will tell fades away I resume Fulham Clapham in a word the dead loss per head since the death of Bishop Berkeley being to the tune of one inch four ounce per head approximately by and large more or less to the nearest decimal good measure round figures stark naked in the stockinged feet in Connemara in a word for reasons unknown no matter what matter the facts are there and considering what is more much more grave that in the light of the labors lost of Steinweg and Peterman it appears what is more much more grave that in the light the light the light of the labors lost of Steinweg and Peterman that in the plains in the mountains by the seas by the rivers running water running fire the air is the same and then the earth namely the air and then the earth in the great cold the great dark the air and the earth abode of stones in the great cold alas alas in the year of their Lord six hundred and something the air the earth the sea the earth abode of stones in the great deeps the great cold on sea on land and in the air I resume for reasons unknown in spite of the tennis the facts are there but time will tell I resume alas alas on on in short in fine on on abode of stones who can doubt it I resume but not so fast I resume the skull fading fading fading and concurrently simultaneously what is more for reasons unknown in spite of the tennis on on the beard the flames the tears the stones so blue so calm alas alas on on the skull the skull the skull the skull in Connemara in spite of the tennis the labors abandoned left unfinished graver still abode of stones in a word I resume alas alas abandoned unfinished the skull the skull in Connemara in spite of the tennis the skull alas the stones Cunard ................
When I directed that show, we added "Ah, but, he used to think so prettily once"
I saw a discussion a while ago on another forum (probably triggered by just this topic) which pointed that the time to worry would be if we detected that the sun was no longer producing neutrinos. That would tell us that fusion had stopped ("somehow"). But even then, I think it was estimated that we would have many years (centuries, maybe) to prepare for any changes and, perhaps, escape the solar system.
Seriously, the sun ain't broke!
Please do not "fix it"!
It seems that during the last 1/2 of the last century, we were enjoying the most solar activity(tsi extrapolated from sunspot activity) for the last thousand years, and perhaps for the last 2500 years.
It is often written that we are heading into another solar minimum. One prognosticator pegged the date 2031 as the beginning of the minimum.
Once there, the question obtains will the minimum be short-lived like the sporer or dalton, or long lived like the maunder.
Which brings us round to a discussion of climate, and anthropogenic atmospheric forcings.
It has been claimed that when we have solar minima, so to does the heliosphere weaken, and the heliopause contracts, leading to increased cosmic radiation, which is claimed to increase cloud cover.
The atmospheric gasses act as an insulating blanket. But, for the clouds at-least they are a double edged sword, reflecting solar energy out into space before it warms the ground, and holding the heat in when it is here.
The question obtains, if we have an increased insulating blanket from cloud cover as well as anthropogenic atmospheric loading, will the denser blanket keep us from drifting into another "little ice age" during this forecast solar minimum?
Two words, people; Dyson Sphere.
Elon Musk, where you at?
We'd need some kind of crystal, about the size of a tennis ball.
Tox Uthat - Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki
« Universe may not be expanding... | Does time dilation affect physical aging? » |