Solar Cycle Miracle
Posted on | November 9, 2009 | No Comments
The sun on the way its evolution as a star shows the dynamic properties, both in the outer layer (photosphere, chromosphere, corona) and the inner lining. One of the wonders of evolution behavior is the phenomenon of solar activity cycle 11 years.
Iteration cycle is a common event in nature. Afternoon changed the night, due to the earth’s rotation on its axis. Successive seasons due to the slope of the earth’s rotation axis to the plane of its orbit around the sun (the earth’s equator at an angle of 23.5 degrees to the Ecliptic). And the sun was also a cycle of activity.
Various period solar cycle have been identified, both within the tens or hundreds of years. One of the easily observed is the 11-year activity cycle. This phenomenon has even been known to observers of the sun since the 17th century, considering the method used is simple, namely counting the number of spots on a regular basis every day.
Galileo Galilei is the one who made a major breakthrough in the history of astronomical observation. After finishing a homemade telescope in 1610, one of the celestial bodies is subject to the sun. He was amazed because the sun’s surface decorated with black spots and groups randomly. When observed from day to day was the number of dots in a group changed, so did the number of spots as a whole.
Unfortunately, Galileo did not observe every day in a long time. So he is not the inventor of one of the great mysteries that are part of the evolution of the Sun, the appearance of the spots follow a certain pattern or cycle. Whether by chance, in the period 1645 – 1715, very little appearance of spots. Span of the sun in a state of ‘inactive’ is referred to as the Minimum Mauder. This is also a possible cause solar activity cycle phenomenon is not known before the year 1715.
One thing that interested, the minimum solar activity that was causing the temperature of the entire face of the earth is very cold throughout the year. River at low latitude areas that usually do not freeze even be frozen, and snow cover in different parts of the world. Not excessive when the time called the Little Ice Age. There is evidence of this ice age never happened far in the past. Will the Earth experienced an ice age back in the days to come? Understanding the behavior of solar cycle is expected to answer this riddle.
Solar Cycle
Systematic observations of the sun began to do in Zurich Observatory in 1749, or more than a century after Galileo’s observations. During the decades of the observatory is a pioneer in observing the Sun. Of persistence and toil for decades, finally revealed the appearance of the spots follow a cycle with a period of approximately 11 years.
Although the phenomenon is already known to hundreds of years ago, behavior or properties of solar activity cycle is still 11 years of relevant research topics conducted by researchers at the moment. Whether in an effort to understand the physics of the sun and the Koran for the environmental effects of the solar system. In particular, the influence of the activity on the Earth’s environment, the more popular called space weather (space weather).
A century later, namely in 1849, other observatories (Royal Greenwich Observatory, UK) began observations of the Sun on a regular basis. Thus, the data from both observatories are complementary. There are times when an observatory is not possible to observe because of weather conditions or the telescope in the treatment.
11-year cycle of solar activity is a miracle of nature. How is the process of generation of 11-year cycle, up to now is still a research topic of interest to the experts. From various studies that have been conducted, it was revealed that the generation of cycles associated with the internal processes of the sun. Occur in a layer below the layer called the photosphere convective.
Konvektif layer has a thickness of approximately 30 of the radius of the sun. However, this layer has an important role in the process of spreading the energy generated by the core of the sun before it is emitted out of the photosphere. In between the core and coating layer konvektif there radiatif.
The only theory that can explain the phenomenon of 11-year cycle exactly is the theory of “Dinamo Sun” (Solar Dynamo). An expert in this field, Prof. Hirokazu Yoshimura from the Department of Astronomy, University of Tokyo, has conducted an intensive study of solar dynamo processes through 3D simulation using a computer. Once tight secrecy of research is being conducted, the laboratory where he worked constantly closed. One of the staff-LAPAN Watukosek sun, Maspul Aini Kambry, may be the only Indonesian people who often discussed in his laboratory when he took a doctoral degree.
Through the cooperation of research, they succeeded in proving the existence of 55-year cycle (55 years grand cycle) based on solar dynamo simulation results, confirmed through analysis using the data of observation spots from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The discovery set forth in the doctoral thesis M.A. Kambry, had exposed one of the leading Japanese newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, when presented in a symposium astronomy (tenmon Gakkai) in Japan, 13 years ago.
[image: NASA]
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