Steve’s Virtual Planet

S.V.P. Star News - Solar Maximum minimizes

Our Sun continues to brighten our days and that is a really good thing. It has a characteristic cycle of activity that repeats every 11 years. But it gets a little “moody” now and then, not quite behaving as normal. NASA had a recent article on the mysterious state of the current solar cycle. It looks like soar cycle 24 has lost some of its punch. Earlier this year, there was another take on the Solar Cycle from the BBC, Is our Sun falling silent?

Our sun has been getting a bit of press this year, but most recently on July 18 when there were no sun spots at all. And that even happened three years ago. So, scientist are a little baffled but very curious about all this. And thanks to a wonderful fleet of satellites like SOHO and STEREO constantly monitoring our neighbor star, we get a continuous 24/7 news feed about our favorite star.

If you want the whole scoop on the story, you go to the source, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory web site. And don’t forget your daily Solar activity report from SpaceWeather.com.