THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
207-780-4249      www.usm.maine.edu/planet
70 Falmouth Street     Portland, Maine 04103
43.6667° N                   70.2667° W
Founded January 1970
Julian date:  2457722.16
              " Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.
The important thing is not to stop questioning."
                 -Albert Einstein



*THE DAILY ASTRONOMERTuesday, November 29, 2016*
*The Sun Lives*


Consider today's headline to be a gentle reminder that the Sun not only
lives, but continues to produce prodigious amounts of energy deep in its
roiling Dantean core.   In fact, during the brief period of time you spent
reading the first sentence, the Sun converted more than 3 billion tons of
hydrogen into helium and, in the process, transmuted some of the initial
matter into energy.    This newly minted energy has just now started the
arduous 100,000 year migration from the core to the photosphere, where it
will escape into unbounded space.

The Sun lives

despite the recent dire pronouncements promulgated by the press that the
"Sun is dead."    This statement refers to the Sun's unexpected "quiescent
period" as observed by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.    The Sun is
known to progress through a 22-year solar cycle during which the sunspot
activity ebbs and flows with an almost pendulum-like regularity.        The
Sun is currently in solar cycle 24, which began in 2008.  Were the Sun to
abide dutifully to its sunspot cycle, it would be at its next minimum
around 2021.     However, the Sun has lapsed into a stupor and this year
has experienced 25 'spotless days," more than any year since 2010.

The Sun's deviation from its expected behavior has occasioned anxiety in
many solar astronomers.     This variance attests to our limited
understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the formation and duration
of sunspots.   Sunspots are believed to be caused by gases extracted and
cooled by magnetic fields.  These cooler regions would appear red if viewed
in isolation, but in contrast to the much brighter areas around them, look
quite dark.      Increased solar activity produces more of these spots, so
astronomers can measure the activity cycle by spot counting.

Even though the 22-year solar cycle seems well established, it is based
only on about four centuries of observations: 0.000008% of the Sun's age.
 Deviations from this cycle are to be expected as solar scientists strive
to demystify the process that governs it.   As more data becomes available,
the solar cycle might be redefined and its duration re-calculated.      As
for now, solar physicists cannot know if the Sun is starting a new
prolonged minimum, or if this is just a brief interruption in the regular
solar cycle.



​
*The Solar Record.    A record of the Sun's sunspot number since the 17th
century.   We observe the deep Maunder Minimum (1645-1715) and then various
peaks as valleys through the subsequent centuries, sometimes interrupted by
other minima, most notably the Dalton Minimum (1790-1830).      Image:
SOHO.com *

The notion of a protracted minimum frightens some climate scientists who
worry that such a minimum would induce a cooling period on our planet.
This concern stems from the correlation between the Maunder Minimum and
"Europe's Little Ice Age," which occurs around the same period.
 Whether or not this correlation is actually a causation or just
coincidental remains a contested issue.

It is because of all this uncertainty that we're now seeing that dire
headline "The Sun is Dead."   And, you know, we could do without such
headlines!

Now, astronomers have assured us all that the Sun's autumnal descent toward
its solstical nadir results from the same planetary tilt and revolutionary
motion that will ultimately re-elevate it back to its lofty position.
 Nevertheless, the assailing hiemal helm winds of our tempestuous winter
awakens in us hinterland dwellers  a deep-seeded disquiet stemming from the
primal days when our remote ancestors cast a wary eye on that empyreal orb.
    The fiery sphere which bestowed its life-sustaining warmth on the world
was mysterious and thus its beneficent fires were thought to be
exhaustible.*    The Sun that shone high and bright in the summer might
well have descended into eternal oblivion in the winter, cosigning the
helpless mortals to everlasting cold and darkness.   Although modern
science has admittedly allayed these concerns,  we retain vestiges of this
ancient terror when ice arrests the flowing waters and snow shrouds absorb
nature's subtle harmonies.     And, on those days, we remind ourselves
that, though either unseen or lingering low behind cloud banks,   the Sun
lives....

and nothing could make us happier.




*As it turns out, the Sun is exhaustible, but will still persist for
billions of years.



© 2016  Edward Gleason