Same old thing as yesterday...
Seriously, wtf is going on with the Sun?
phew.
ok, so there are some, finally, like 4
upturn into the new cycle has started, bit late and slow
definitely reminiscent of the late 19th C
new prediction for the cycle amplitude is low and interesting
Belgians are still the definitive authority on the subject
need to figure this magnetic cycling thing out, getting to be annoying
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Two Earth Mass Planet found in close orbit around a red dwarf star
Gliese 581 is an M3 red dwarf, it has a mass of about a third that of the Sun, slightly lower metal content and is about the same age probably a bit older than the Sun, we think.
It is about 20 light years away.
Gliese 581 was…
I've been busily working on something new, but I'm beginning to think I've been letting the perfect be the enemy of the good-enough-for-this-stage, so I'm setting it aside for a bit, and trying to get caught up with some of the huge number of things that have been slipping. Which includes getting…
All day discussion on white dwarfs today: cooling, kinematics, destruction etc
Starts off with Lars tutoring us in the morning...
Basics:
white dwarf origins - they are degenerate burnt out cores of low-to-medium mass main seqeunce stars
key issues still not fully resolved:
what is the…
time to check in on the Sun, eh?
hey, there is a little black spot on the sun today (click to embiggen)
but it is very little.
We are now in a somewhat unusual protracted and low solar minimum - the Sun has cycled, the few small spots seen have reversed from the previous cycle - but this is…
Fascinating times to be sure. I'm reminded of the saying that the most exciting phrase in science is not "Eureka!" but "that's strange!".
Probably good for space telescopes (at least, those that aren't pointed at the Sun) to have a late and quiet cycle. I'd hate to dramatically increase the fraction of XMM time lost to background flaring, for instance (it's typically, what, 30%, during quiet sun).