Posted: 07/13/2015 3:30 pm EDT Updated: 07/13/2015 3:59 pm EDT
Might want to start stockpiling those down jackets: The Sun
could nod off by 2030, triggering what scientists are describing
as a “mini ice age.” Professor Vlentina Zharkova of Northumbira
University presented the frigid findings at the National Astronomy
Meeting in Llandudno, Wales. Modern technology has made us able to
predict solar cycles with much greater accuracy, and Zharkova’s
model predicts that solar activity will drop by more than half
between 2030 and 2040. Solar activity was thought to be caused
by a turbine-system of moving fluid within the sun. In search of
a more accurate system of prediction, Professor Zharkova and her
team discovered fluctuating magnetic waves in two layers of the
Sun. By studying the data of the dual waves, she says, predictions
are far more precise. “Combining both waves together and comparing
to real data for the current solar cycle, we found that our
predictions showed an accuracy of 97 percent,” said Zharkova,
whose findings were published by the Royal Astronomic Society.
Using this method, she and her team discovered that there will
be far less solar activity in Sun cycles 25 and 26, leading to
a prolonged period of solar dormancy. “In cycle 26, the two
waves exactly mirror each other -- peaking at the same time
but in opposite hemispheres of the Sun. Their interaction will
be disruptive, or they will nearly cancel each other. We predict
that this will lead to the properties of a ‘Maunder minimum’,”
said Zharkova. The Maunder Minimum is the title given to periods
of time when sunspots are rare. It last occurred between 1645
and 1715, when roughly 50 sunspots were recorded, as opposed to
the standard 40,000. That time was marked by brutal, river-
freezing temperatures in Europe and North America.
-- Matt Berical
Wade says, "It would most certainly stir primal instincts among
the Darkies to vacate White homelands in the Northern latitudes!"
- 2ice.jpg (13.75 KiB) Viewed 2552 times
- cold.jpg (40.5 KiB) Viewed 2552 times
- donya.jpg (42.92 KiB) Viewed 2552 times