Solar Minimum Archives - Lynn Hayes astrology readings and writings

The Sun is definitely waking up

After a prolonged “solar minimum,” with record long periods without sunspots, the Sun has become extremely active again. These periods of solar maximum alternating with solar minimum are a normal part of solar activity but the last solar minimum was particularly long: 12.4 years rather than the usual 11 years.

A positive effect of the delay in the return of sunspot activity is that the maximum period will not coincide with December 2012 as previously feared. This was one of the explanations for the fearmongering surrounding the […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2019-05-11T07:35:27-04:00August 3rd, 2010|Astronomy|Comments Off

The Sun is waking up

Recent solar flare

Solar scientists met last week to discuss the higher levels of solar activity that are likely as we move out of the Solar Minimum of the past few years. The head of NASA’s Heliophysics Division says “our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar storms.”

Spaceweather reports an M2-class flare on June 12th that hurled a billion-ton coronal mass ejection into space, and a new sunspot has emerged with a series of its own eruptions. Solar flares have […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2018-06-11T12:14:04-04:00June 13th, 2010|Astronomy|1 Comment

Low solar activity linked to cool UK winter

Last year’s cold winter sparked a huge resurgence into the global warming debate. If the earth is warming, why did we have a cold winter?

We’ve been in a “Solar Minimum” since about 2006, a long period with virtually no solar activity. I’ve been writing about this for quite some time in these pages as you’ll see from these links. Much of the hysteria over 2012 stems from the fact that we were due for a Solar Maximum period in 2012 which could create chaos in communication […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2010-04-15T08:04:52-04:00April 15th, 2010|Astronomy|Comments Off

New Sunspot Cycle, Finally

Sunspot number 1035 is growing rapidly – according to Spaceweather it is now seven times wider than the Earth. We have been in a Solar Minimum since 2006, and during this period the Sun has been much more quiet than in most Solar Minimums (or is that Minima?) – in fact, the deepest Solar Minimum in the 100 years that scientists have been recording solar activity.

At any rate, it does appear that solar activity has been increasing since September of this year. One article reports that “[a]n unmistakable and persistent upward trend has emerged since September 2009 in […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2009-12-16T15:21:09-05:00December 16th, 2009|Astronomy|Comments Off

“Cosmic rays have hit a space age high”

No, it’s not science fiction!!

According to NASA, galactic cosmic rays have intensified 19% over the past 50 years. Scientists believe that the cause of this increase is the solar minimum which began in 2007 and is still occurring.

The sun’s magnetic field is our first line of defense against these highly-charged, energetic […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2020-11-03T14:06:06-05:00October 6th, 2009|Astronomy|Comments Off

Are we heading into another “little ice age?”

Maybe the solar warming skeptics are on to something. As you probably know, we are in a very deep solar minimum, with over 700 days with absolutely no sunspot activity since 2004. In fact, some scientists are beginning to speculate that sunspots may be gone for good:

“Sunspot magnetic fields are dropping by about 50 gauss per year,” says Penn. “If we extrapolate this trend into the future, sunspots could completely vanish around the year 2015.”

This disappearing act is possible because sunspots are made of magnetism. The “firmament” of a sunspot is not matter but rather a strong magnetic field that appears […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2019-05-11T07:34:49-04:00September 13th, 2009|Astronomy|Comments Off

We are in Deep Solar Minimum

Thanks to Astrococktail for this link to a NASA article on the Solar Minimum, the expected period of low sunspot activity. The Solar Minimum came right on schedule back in 2006, as I reported in this earlier article. But this Solar Minimum is setting all kinds of records.

In 2008 the Sun was completely blank of sunspots 73% of the time, the lowest activity since 1913. As of March 31, according to the NASA article, the Sun has been free of sunspots 87% of the time in 2009. This is a particularly deep solar minimum that follows a 50-year period […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2018-07-15T10:12:35-04:00April 6th, 2009|Astronomy|Comments Off

Jupiter/Saturn, sunspot cycles, and 2012

Thanks to John and Susan Townley for finding this article about the research of the late Rhodes Fairbridge of the effects of Jupiter on our earthly climate. It has been known for some time that Jupiter has an effect on sunspots which correlate to changes in our climate, but no one really understood why. It turns out the answer may be in the relationship between Jupiter and Saturn.

At times, the sun is at the solar system’s centre of gravity. Most often, this is not the case– the orbit of the planets will align planets to one side or […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2018-07-16T12:08:06-04:00November 15th, 2007|Science|0 Comments

Solar Minimum Has Arrived

Beginning in February of this year, the Sun has been completely blank with no sunspots. NASA solar physicist David Hathaway says “Solar minimum has arrived.” In 2004, he predicted that solar minimum, a period of low sunspot activity, would arrive in late 2006 and it appears it has come a bit early.

Sunspots are “great islands of magnetism”–force fields that are cooler than the rest of the Sun. They contract and expand and change as they move across the surface of the Sun. Some scientists believe […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2019-08-26T15:17:15-04:00April 4th, 2006|Astronomy|Comments Off