Has Magnetic Activity of Sun Started Slowing Down?

The Sun in our solar system has already reached halfway through its life. Researchers said that it might witness a slowdown in its magnetic activity. It could lead to various permanent changes in the sunspots and auroras. Researchers also added that the figure of Sun has changed and it might stay it that way.

The shape of the Sun’s surface where sunspots reside appears to have modifications 23 years ago. Rachel Howe (University of Birmingham, UK and Aarhaus University, Denmark) and collaborators theorized in a paper which will appear in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Such modifications might help to explain Sun’s strange weak cycles in recent years.

The Sun’s interior beats as rhythmically as a human heart. The heart beats at a single frequency but the Sun reverberates at multiple different frequencies. Pressure changes inside Sun develop such reverberations. It is of such lower frequency that human ear cannot listen.

By: Bhavna Sharma

Content: www.skyandtelescope.com