Scientists just announced that our Sun is in a new cycle.
Solar activity has been relatively low over the past few years, and now that scientists have confirmed solar minimum was in December 2019, a new solar cycle is underway — meaning that we expect to see solar activity start to ramp up over the next several years.
The Sun goes through natural cycles, in which the star swings from relatively calm to stormy. At its most active — called solar maximum — the Sun is freckled with sunspots, and its magnetic poles reverse. At solar maximum, the Sun’s magnetic field, which drives solar activity, is taut and tangled. During solar minimum, sunspots are few and far between, and the Sun’s magnetic field is ordered and relaxed.
Understanding the Sun’s behavior is an important part of life in our solar system. The Sun’s violent outbursts can disturb the satellites and communications signals traveling around Earth, or one day, Artemis astronauts exploring distant worlds. Scientists study the solar cycle so we can better predict solar activity.
Surveying sunspots is the most basic of ways we study how solar activity rises and falls over time, and it’s the basis of many efforts to track the solar cycle. Around the world, observers conduct daily sunspot censuses. They draw the Sun at the same time each day, using the same tools for consistency. Together, their observations make up the international sunspot number, a complex task run by the World Data Center for the Sunspot Index and Long-term Solar Observations, at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels, which tracks sunspots and pinpoints the highs and lows of the solar cycle. Some 80 stations around the world contribute their data.
Credit: USET data/image, Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels
Other indicators besides sunspots can signal when the Sun is reaching its low. In previous cycles, scientists have noticed the strength of the Sun’s magnetic field near the poles at solar minimum hints at the intensity of the next maximum. When the poles are weak, the next peak is weak, and vice versa.
Another signal comes from outside the solar system. Cosmic rays are high-energy particle fragments, the rubble from exploded stars in distant galaxies that shoot into our solar system with astounding energy. During solar maximum, the Sun’s strong magnetic field envelops our solar system in a magnetic cocoon that is difficult for cosmic rays to infiltrate. In off-peak years, the number of cosmic rays in the solar system climbs as more and more make it past the quiet Sun. By tracking cosmic rays both in space and on the ground, scientists have yet another measure of the Sun’s cycle.
Since 1989, an international panel of experts—sponsored by NASA and NOAA—meets each decade to make their prediction for the next solar cycle. The prediction includes the sunspot number, a measure of how strong a cycle will be, and the cycle’s expected start and peak. This new solar cycle is forecast to be about the same strength as the solar cycle that just ended — both fairly weak. The new solar cycle is expected to peak in July 2025.
Learn more about the Sun’s cycle and how it affects our solar system at nasa.gov/sunearth.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
Astronomers think they have found a galaxy that existed just 300 million years after the big bang. The galaxy named HD1 is so old, it likely only exists of what are known as population iii stars, the very first stars that ever came into existence, made of mostly hydrogen, helium and a small amount of beryllium and lithium.
We have never seen any population iii stars, and according to the theories of the early universe, most of these stars would have been colossal blue giant stars that wouldn't have lived very long at all, a few million years at most before going supernova and collapsing into black holes.
One thing that really stands out about this galaxy is it's unusually powerful in ultra violet light, a common feature of massive blue giant stars, but the amount seen in this galaxy may indicate the presence of a supermassive black hole behaving as a quasar, if this is correct, it will be the earliest example of a blackhole too.
If supermassive black holes were present just 300 million years after the big bang, it may be evidence that black holes were being created much earlier than previously thought.
The next step is to turn the James Webb Telescope towards it, and while it is more focused on the Infra Red, it will be able to resolve much more detail than Hubble, and maybe begin to see if indeed, this was a Qasar just 300 million years into the Universe's existence, or if the galaxy was producing far more stars than even the most prolific starburst galaxy would do today.
Source : https://astronomy.com/news/2022/04/researchers-discover-the-most-distant-galaxy-yet
Your writing will always feel awkward to you, because you wrote it.
Your plot twists will always feel predictable, because you created them.
Your stories will always feel a bit boring to you, because you read them a million times.
They won't feel like that for your reader.
Location: In the constellation Ursa Major
Type: Flocculent spiral galaxy
Discovered by: William Herschel
NGC 2841 is a beautiful example of a flocculent spiral galaxy – a type with discontinuous, featherlike, and patchy arms. A bright cusp of starlight distinguishes the galaxy's center from the dust lanes that outline the group of almost white middle-aged stars. The far younger blue stars trace the spiral arms.
Find out more information about NGC 2841 here.
Right now, the Hubble Space Telescope is exploring #GalaxiesGalore! Find more galaxy content and spectacular new images by following along on Hubble’s Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration; Acknowledgment: M. Crockett and S. Kaviraj (Oxford University, UK), R. O'Connell (University of Virginia), B. Whitmore (STScI), and the WFC3 Scientific Oversight Committee
a friend of mine was having trouble with a character of hers, he was middle-aged but looked too young, so she came to me for help. i'm something of a middle-aged-man-fan so i whipped up this quick thing to help her out. it might be useful to somebody out there so i'll share it here too!
Pink Robin Bird
The pink robin is a small passerine bird native to southeastern Australia.
Its natural habitats are cool temperate forests of far southeastern Australia.
Like many brightly coloured robins it is sexually dimorphic.
Measuring 5.3 in in length, the robin has a small, thin, black bill, and dark brown eyes and legs.
The male has a distinctive white forehead spot and pink breast, with grey-black upperparts, wings and tail. The belly is white.
Its range is the forests of southern Victoria and neighbouring parts of South Australia and New South Wales, and Tasmania.
Pink Robin Bird
I just reblog fun facts/tipsScience, nature, geology facts etc! + art & writing tips!
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