Posted on 05/08/2012 10:44:06 AM PDT by Kartographer
An enormous sunspot group has taken shape on the surface of the sun, hinting that our star may soon start spouting off some powerful storms.
The huge sunspot complex, known as AR 1476, rotated into Earth's view over the weekend. It measures more than 60,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) across, researchers said. Scientists with NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory mission, a space-based telescope watching the sun, dubbed the solar structure a "monster sunspot" in a Twitter announcement.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
1476 is a big group, but there are not many others, across the face of the sun. Seems like this cycle is still pretty thin for sunspots overall.
Get ready for a lot of Earth songs.
Everyone is urged to look up the Carrington Event of 1859. Just for a laugh.
Back then, all we had were telegraphs. There is no telling what would happen from such a powerful solar storm today, with all our smart phones, onboard vehicle computers, satellites, the Internet and a rickety power grid.
Intellectual curiosity ... no prepper stuff today. Just sayin’ ...
Every household should have stored 1 gallon water per person per day for a minimum of two weeks.
Dumb question...is this the end of the current “Maunder Minimum”?
From what I’ve seen, the present sunspot cycle has been particularly short-lived and weak, and may presage an extended period of solar quiescence (i.e. - a “minimum” period, which may have already begun).
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