(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/NASA/JPL)
The Sun reportedly has a mysterious heartbeat, and the alignment of the three planets—Venus, Earth, and Jupiter—may be involved.
Sun's Solar Heartbeat
The Sun's heartbeat is a complicated, multi-rhythmic phenomenon that beats differently based on distinct periodicities. A large number of these solar heartbeats are unknown. However, a new study suggests that the gravitational interaction between the Sun and three other planets -- Venus, Earth, and Jupiter, partially explains it.
Led by German physicist Frank Stefani of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf lab, the research team behind the latest study concluded that the contentious planetary idea is too nicely in sync with the Schwabe cycle—the 11-year activity cycle of the Sun— to be ignored. They have discovered that the Sun is primarily internally propelled. However, there may be some external effects.
"You can think of it like a gigantic dynamo," Stefani said. "While this solar dynamo generates an approximately 11-year activity cycle in its own right, we think the planets' influence then intervenes in the workings of this dynamo, repeatedly giving it a little push and thus forcing the unusually stable 11.07-year rhythm on the Sun."
The Sun experiences a spectacular series of modifications due to variations in its activity levels approximately every 11 years. The last activity is seen at the solar minimum. Then, during the following few years, it increases progressively. Until the peak, known as solar maximum, this appears as an increase in sunspots, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections.
The Sun's poles switch polarity at solar maximum, and activity then decreases over a few years to the ensuing solar minimum before increasing once more to a subsequent maximum and pole reversal. The Schwabe cycle repeats itself approximately every 11 years, though the duration of each round varies slightly.
Venus, Earth, and Jupiter form a line and momentarily increase their gravitational attraction on the Sun in one direction once every 11.07 years, around the time of solar minimum. It's not strong enough to affect the solar interior, but it might be useful in guiding the solar cycles and bringing the internal dynamo into synchrony with regular cycles.
After some time of investigation, Stefani and his colleagues believe they have discovered new evidence supporting this theory: massive vortical waves in the Sun known as Rossby waves. These waves are similar to the Rossby waves that propel the Earth's atmospheric pressure system and were only recently detected for the first time.
Stefani said they found an "underlying physical mechanism." They now know the energy needed to synchronize the dynamo and learned that the energy can be transferred to the Sun via the Rossby waves. Venus, Earth, and Jupiter's alignment corresponds with solar cycles, and any two of the three planets can align with enough gravitational pull to cause Rossby waves. Also, these alignments line up with Rieger cycles.
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The Solar Cycle
The "solar cycle" describes the Sun's activity cycle, alternating between minimum and maximum sunspot formation. During the cycle, sunspots are missing, increase over time, and then drop, resulting in a pattern of activity on the Sun.
Heinrich Schwabe, a German amateur astronomer, discovered the Sun's activity cycle. Based on his observations of the Sun between 1826 and 1843, Schwabe concluded that the Sun rotates once every 27 days on its axis. He also proved that there is a roughly 11-year cycle of increase and reduction in Sun activity. This theory was computed based on the incidence of sunspots-dark patches brought on by magnetic disturbances. Sunspots are cold spots on the Sun's surface that resemble dark blemishes. They develop due to magnetic field lines piercing the photosphere, or the Sun's surface layer, from below.
It takes an average of four years for sunspot numbers to increase from the minimum phase, during which they may disappear for many weeks, to the maximum phase, during which up to 20 groups may be visible at once. Over the next seven years, there will be a drop from the maximum to the minimum.
Additionally, Schwabe discovered that the Sun's activity impacts Earth. The Earth's magnetic field varies due to the solar cycle. Numerous sunspots, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections occur during the solar maximum.
These occurrences release energetic particles into the solar wind that alter our weather and interfere with power, navigation, and communication systems. Some parts of the United States recently reported radio blackouts after a strong solar storm this week.
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