Big Star

4/9/06 –4/15/06

By C. Zaitz

I’m not talking about the band from the 70’s, I’m talking about the sun! Lately it has come to my attention that the sun is not the same sun I grew up with. That sun was round and yellow, kind of dull and regular. It featured prominently in all my drawings, sporting long yellow fins and spikes. It came up in the morning and went down at night, though in my drawings it usually was hanging right over my house and smiling. Nobody paid too much attention to it, it was just the sun.

Lately the sun has turned into a big star. It’s in the news a lot, because scientists are increasingly turning to the sun to explain changes in the earth’s climate. We’ve learned that the sun goes through cycles of activity, usually lasting eleven years. 2006 marks the lowest amount of activity or solar minimum during the current cycle, known as cycle #23. Studies have correlated sunspot activity with temperature and climate changes on the earth. When the sun is regular and boring, going through its cycles of maximum and minimum activity, everything seems to be fine. But sometimes the sun stops acting like a big star and goes quiet. The most recent example is the Maunder Minimum, which occurred from 1645 to 1715. In a 30 year period during this solar anomaly, scientists observed 50 sunspots rather than the more usual 50,000. 93 million miles away, people of earth suffered the loss. The Maunder Minimum occurred during the middle and coldest part of what we call the Little Ice Age. Much of Europe and North America suffered brutally cold winters while glaciers advanced, crushing farms and villages. There was widespread crop failures and famine, plagues and death. Art and literature of the time reflect the harsh climate; the famous painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware depicts an ice-clogged river, which rarely happens nowadays that far south. In 1776 it seems the Delaware indeed was an icy river and the painting is correct.

While scientist agree that the earth’s climate is complicated and that volcanism and ocean currents also drive aspects of climate, it’s becoming more apparent that the sun is a rising star in studies of global warming and climate changes. You can keep an eye on the sun daily at http://www.spaceweather.com. Already we are seeing more and more spots and storms on the sun. Some say that the sun had its minimum early and therefore the solar maximum may come early and hard as well. Sometime between 2010 and 2012 we may have the strongest solar activity we’ve seen in 50 years. For stargazers, it means pretty aurorae (northern lights) but for all of us it may mean loss of cell phone signals, power outages and our TV satellites knocked out of orbit. Hopefully the sun will behave itself like a big star and not go quiet as it has done in the past.

When the sun goes down, you can look for Mars and Saturn in the southwestern evening sky. Jupiter rises around 10pm but is easier to see once it is higher in the sky. Try in the wee morning hours right before sunrise. Venus will also be up in the east, as Jupiter will have migrated to the west by morning.

Until next week, my friends, enjoy the view!