STOCK MARKET CRASH... HOW ABOUT A SOLAR ACTIVITY CRASH!

Written by: Bob Metcalfe

I really liked this article when I came across it on the NASA website earlier today. They likened the lowest solar activity in almost 70 years to the stock market crash. Just when you thought we hit bottom, we keep going lower (or less active in the sun activity case.)

According to experts, 2008 was a "bear" for sun activity. Of the 366 days of the year, 266 had no observable sunspots, a 73% dull year. The last time a year had less: 1913.

Sunspots occur in cycles, with highest activity occurring roughly every 11 years or so, followed by a minimum, and then back up again. A sunspot is a focused area of intense magnetic activity on the surface of the sun, that is usually followed by a solar flare or coronal mass ejection, both of which are highly energetic releases from the sun surface. Less of these means less output from the sun's surface.

Now I'm a meteorologist, not an astronomer or astro-physicist, so I'll let the experts tell you the rest of the story. But this is definitely an interesting read. Just remember this: the sun is the largest source of energy for our planet, so if it is reducing it's output, how does that affect us?

The rest of the article can be found by clicking here.