NASA warns something unexpected happening to sun

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Hurtling asteroids, mysterious objects at the edge of space, and now missing sunspots.  What’s going on in heaven?  NASA scientists were predicting a massive solar storm, one of the most intense in decades for 2013, instead they see...nothing, nothing at all.

Sunspot numbers are well below their values from 2011, and strong solar flares have been infrequent,’ says NASA, the world’s premier space agency says.

The image below shows the Earth-facing surface of the Sun on February 28, 2013, as observed by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Above: a picture released by Nasa illustrating low solar activity

It observed just a few small sunspots on an otherwise clean face, which is usually riddled with many spots during peak solar activity.

Experts have been baffled by the apparent lack of activity – with many wondering if NASA simply got it wrong.

However, Solar physicist Dean Pesnell of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center believes he has a different explanation.

‘This is solar maximum,’ he says.

‘But it looks different from what we expected because it is double-peaked.’

‘The last two solar maxima, around 1989 and 2001, had not one but two peaks.’

Solar activity went up, dipped, then rose again, performing a mini-cycle that lasted about two years, he said.

Nasa said that “sunspot numbers are well below their values from 2011, and strong solar flares have been infrequent.”

It went on:

The image above shows the Earth-facing surface of the Sun on February 28, 2013, as observed by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. HMI observes the solar disk at 6173 Ångstroms, a wavelength designed to study surface oscillations and the magnetic field. HMI observed just a few small sunspots on an otherwise clean face, which is usually riddled with many spots during peak solar activity.However, there is no reason to panic. Nasa explains in a lengthy and interesting post that the solar cycle is very complex, and can have multiple peaks and troughs over time. It’s worth a read if you’re interested or terrified.

Meanwhile solar flares are still occurring – one forced the Mars rover Curiosity into safe mode earlier this week – and the current lull is described as a “quiet interlude” rather than a potential source of humanity’s ultimate downfall.

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