Solar Minimum and Solar Maximum
Solar minimums and maximums are the two extremes of the sun's 11-year activity cycle. At a maximum, the sun is peppered with sunspots, solar flares erupt, and the sun hurls billion-ton clouds of electrified gas into space. It's a good time for sky watchers who enjoy auroras, but not so good for astronauts who have to be wary of radiation storms. Power outages, satellite malfunction and communication disruptions, and GPS receiver malfunctions are just a few of the things that can happen during a solar maximum.
At a solar minimum, there are fewer sunspots and solar flares subside. Sometimes, days or weeks go by without a spot. It is a safer time to travel through space, but a less interesting time to watch polar skies.
Read more about this topic: Solar Minimum
Famous quotes containing the words solar, minimum and/or maximum:
“Our civilization has decided ... that determining the guilt or innocence of men is a thing too important to be trusted to trained men.... When it wants a library catalogued, or the solar system discovered, or any trifle of that kind, it uses up its specialists. But when it wishes anything done which is really serious, it collects twelve of the ordinary men standing round. The same thing was done, if I remember right, by the Founder of Christianity.”
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