Scientists say current solar activity cycle is weakest in over 100 years – weather impact unknown

Its production of magnetism, activity, and winds have great implications for our planet but hey, it’s a “variable star” and as such, conditions are known to change. Unfortunately, scientists this week told reporters that the sun’s current space-weather cycle is the most anemic in over 100 years. The situation is especially disconcerting given the sun…

Astronomers have discovered five planets, including one in the habitable “Goldilocks Zone”, surrounding Tau Ceti, one of the closest and most Sun-like stars in our neighborhood (it has the same specteral classification as the Sun). Located just 12 light-years away from Earth, the planets are about 2-6 times the mass of Earth. The single planet…

A giant wave of super-hot plasma, a chunk larger than the Earth, broke away from the Sun on Friday 10/19/2012 and was captured by NASA on film (lower right section of the picture). It occurred at 4:15 AM EST. Once it started breaking away, the process only took 10 hours before it was out of…

NASA spacecraft have captured pictures of a huge filament of super-hot plasma being ejected from the Sun on August 31, 2012. The Sun is approaching a period of peak activity (in 2013) and coronal mass ejections (CME’s) such as this may become more common. NASA estimates the size of the eruption as 186,000 miles long…