The Sun, at its peak of activity but 'prudent' - CNN

Madrid. (EFE) -. Sun is now at its maximum magnetic activity , a period in which are recorded, although this time so weaker, a greater number of sunspots that can be seen as darker areas due to its lower temperature, reaching measure one of these spots to 150,000 miles.

The Sun has a cycle of eleven years (average), along which the magnetic activity varies between a minimum and a maximum. The first to observe sunspots with a telescope was Galileo Galilei and know that their number ranges from virtually none to over a hundred, decreasing again in about seven years.

“This maximum is still quite weak,” Hector has found Socas-Navarro, Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, who has suggested that fluctuations in the business cycle can not yet predict.

There are only two groups led by Mausumi Dikpati and David Hathaway-”brave enough” to do it and do it solely based on statistical data, as Socas-Navarro. This time none hit, “and that this cycle is having a loose-half the maximum active than previously and at least partly historical because a hundred years there was so little activity during that period,” he asserted.

is that the Sun was “lethargic” mostly between 2008 and 2009, when 80% of the days not a single spot was observed. “We are focusing our efforts in knowing how fundamental physics,” said Socas-Navarro, who added that the challenge of astrophysics is to function as the weather.

The Sun has 4,650 million years and sunspots and eruptions occur “since the Sun is the Sun.” This was stated José Carlos del Toro, the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, who matched Socas-Navarro that the challenge is to predict.

eruptions are not the same as solar spots, but have to do. These are explosions in the Sun’s photosphere that occur with increased brightness, the radiative energy and the violent expulsion of electrically charged particles.

“The spots are the store that provides the energy supplies for rashes,” according to Del Toro. When there is a special time of magnetic activity and numerous eruptions over sunspots-more-eruptions occur, the particles issued 1,000 or 2,000 miles per second may eventually reach Earth (solar storms).

Earth has a natural “coat” the magnetic field or magnetosphere to protect and deflect the particles toward the poles (this deviation causes the aurora borealis). However, when these particles are highly energy could overcome this natural shield and potentially damage the communications, which the company is now heavily dependent (can get hit with satellites).

Solar storms affect Spain’s high-latitudes is not among these countries-and the most powerful one recorded in 1859-no logbooks speakers of Northern Lights in the Caribbean. These can be predicted with only two or three days in advance, it takes the particles to travel to Earth.

Del Toro and Socas-Navarro agreed that it’s true about “sensationalism” It has come to talk about the solar storm of the century, which is not viable because you can not predict. The Spanish parliament after a socialist initiative in September 2012 expressed the need to create a European education and preventive catalog and a protocol to emergency scenarios arising from technical faults.

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socialist regretted that the Government has not taken steps in this direction. Researchers have warned that what is needed is greater investment in basic research to delve into the prediction and make better equipment that can withstand the storms.