The scientists said periods of inactivity are normal for the sun, but this period has gone on longer than usual.
“It continues to be dead,” said Saku Tsuneta with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, program manager for the Hinode solar mission. “That’s a small concern, a very small concern.” . . .
The last cycle reached its peak in 2001 and is believed to be just ending now, Longcope said. The next cycle is just beginning and is expected to reach its peak sometime around 2012. Today’s sun, however, is as inactive as it was two years ago, and scientists aren’t sure why.
“It’s a dead face,” Tsuneta said of the sun’s appearance.
Let’s hope that Fallen Angels — the Larry Niven / Jerry Pournelle / Michael Flynn novel in which anthropogenic global warming is real, but turns out to have been masking the return of an ice age until CO2 emissions get cut — doesn’t turn out to be prophetic . . . .