Confusing cosmology; our sun is less magnetic than others (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, April 30, 2020, 20:58 (1668 days ago) @ David Turell
edited by David Turell, Thursday, April 30, 2020, 21:03

A new finding:

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sun-less-magnetically-active-than-similar-stars

"A census of stars similar to the sun shows that our own star is less magnetically active than others of its kind, astrophysicists report in the May 1 Science. The result could support the idea that the sun is in a “midlife crisis,” transitioning into a quieter phase of life. Or, alternatively, it could mean that the sun has capacity for much more magnetic oomph than it’s shown in the past.

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"A star’s magnetism can drive dramatic outbursts like flares and coronal mass ejections, which can cause chaos on orbiting planets (SN: 3/5/18). When these large ejections from the sun hit Earth, they can knock out satellites, shut down power grids and trigger beautiful auroras. Understanding the sun’s magnetic field is thought to be the key to predicting such outbursts.

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"Surprisingly, although the stars with no detectable rotation periods looked as magnetically calm as the sun, the stars with sunlike rotations were up to five times as active.
Either something is different about those stars, Reinhold says, or the sun may go through periods of greater variability in its brightness — and thus, magnetic activity — that scientists just haven’t seen. Perhaps “the sun did not reveal its full range of activity over the last 9,000 years,” he says. “The sun is 4.5 billion years old; 9,000 years is nothing.”

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"The new result “could be the best evidence yet that the sun is in the midst of a magnetic midlife crisis,” Metcalfe says. The hyperactive stars in Reinhold’s sample appear to be slightly younger than the sun, and so may not have gone through their magnetic transition yet. The sun and the other calmer stars could already be on the other side."

Comment: this fits my theory that God controls all levels of evolution, and since a quieter sun is safer for human civilization, He arranged for this circumstance. Here is an article that worries about it tooting up:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2242105-the-sun-is-too-quiet-which-may-mean-danger...

"Regardless, the fact that there are sun-like stars with much higher variability suggests it is possible that the sun could be in a temporarily calm phase now and its activity may ramp up in the future, says Reinhold. He says that while we can’t predict exactly when this could happen, it would lead to brighter auroras and potentially dangerous solar eruptions that could damage our electrical grids."

Comment: Since we cannot predict, we'll wait and see.