An occurrence that is scheduled to happen every 11 years, is
about to happen again as the sun gets set to enter its period of decreased
inactivity.
The sun is about to enter a period of quiet, known as a solar minimum. This cycle happens every 11 years
and is characterized of decreased activity—when sunspots fade away and produce
fewer solar flares. With this latest period of inactivity approaching,
scientists have been monitoring the sun to better understand some of the
unusual activity observed over recent years.
In a study published in May the Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society, a team of scientists from the U.S., U.K. and
Denmark analyzed 31 years’ worth of data from the Birmingham Solar Oscillations
Network (BiSON)—a group of six ground-based telescopes that provide constant
monitoring of the sun’s oscillations. In the study, Yvonne Elsworth and
colleagues studied the sound waves from the sun over the last three solar
minimums to see how they have changed during different periods of
activity. Elsworth will present the findings at the National Astronomy
Meeting at the University of Hull, U.K., on Tuesday.
“The sun is very much like a musical instrument except that
its typical notes are at a very low frequency—some 100,000 times lower than
middle C,” she said in a statement. “Studying these sound waves, using a
technique called helioseismology, enables us to find out what's going on
throughout the Sun's interior."
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