Interplanetary “Day After Tomorrow?”, page 1

okay, i just found this thread now...

Originally posted by porschedrifter
Sun: More activity since 1940 than in previous 1150 years, combined

the sun goes through eleven year sunspot cycles with highs and lulls. due to better imaging and recording devices we have been able to find more and more and more sunspots. also, people have only been studying the sun scientifically (once galileo turned his telescope to the stars - he didn't invent the telescope!!) for about 300 years. and even prior to the last 100 years those scientifical studies were absolutely nothing compared to todays. so how exactly do people know what the sun was like 1150 years ago? we don't!

perhaps there is a larger cycle, one which the sun heats more rapidly for a brief moment of time. it sounds completely off, and i myself wouldn't even buy it, but you never know. but this could lead to the recent solar activities. also, as the sun ages it has to burn hotter and hotter since it is running out of hydrogen to fuse to helium.

Mercury: Unexpected polar ice discovered, along with a surprisingly strong intrinsic magnetic field … for a supposedly “dead” planet.

polar ice may not be what you're thinking of. it's liquid hydyogen and other lighter elements. also, it's only on the night side of mecury, where the temperatures are near -300 F.

mercury is considered a "dead" planet because of the following things: 1) due to its proximity to the sun all atmosphere had been blown off by solar winds; 2) due to it's proximity to the sun it was bombarded by meteors, asteroids, and comets as they headed sunward; 3) because of it's slow rotation.

but yes, it was surprising when mercury was discovered to have a magnetic field.

Venus: 2500% increase in auroral brightness, and substantive global atmospheric changes in less than 30 years

and no one really knows what is going on on venus. it's a highly volcanic world with a dense CO2 atmosphere, so we cannot study its surface conditions.

Earth: Substantial and obvious world-wide weather and geophysical changes

this also relates back to the sun. how long have people been studying the earth scientifically? only a few hundred years at most, and again only the past 100 years or so have been what matters. the earth does go through cycles of its own, that is a well-known fact. perhaps the earth is going through another stage when it's heating up. i mean, the average temperature on earth during the time of the dinosaurs was something like around 90 F, wasn't it? perhaps the earth is heading towards that again.

Mars: “Global Warming,” huge storms, disappearance of polar icecaps

mars, too, has only been studied scientifically for the past 100 years or so. it has been known for longer times though that there were dust storms on mars. they are nothing new. as for mars warming up? perhaps it's going through similar changes as earth.

Jupiter: Over 200% increase in brightness of surrounding plasma clouds

again, this is 200% increase compared to what? within the past 100 years or so? that's not much to base anything on. perhaps a few hundred years ago jupiter was this bright, and it was in a "cool" stage when humanity began studying it.

Saturn: Major decrease in equatorial jet stream velocities in only ~20 years, accompanied by surprising surge of X-rays from equator

i haven't heard or read anything about the decrease in jet stream velocities, so please do enlighten me someone. also, all of the gas giant planets release more energy than they take in. the surge could have been just that: a surge and nothing more.

Uranus: “Really big, big changes” in brightness, increased global cloud activity

last time i checked uranus was just a pale-green-blue ball in the sky with some methane clouds. are you saying there's an increase in the methane clouds, or in planet itself?

Neptune: 40% increase in atmospheric brightness

see jupiter, i would have said the same thing with different numbers.

Pluto: 300% increase in atmospheric pressure, even as Pluto recedes farther from the Sun

that is because of the following: pluto was at the close point of its orbit, when it is inside the orbit of neptune, until just a few years ago. the surface of the planet, when cool, is covered with a thin layer of methane gas with frozen methane on the actual surface. the surface takes time to heat up, much like the earth's. think of it this way... when is the hottest part of the day here on earth? not at noon, but around 3-5 o'clock. right? well pluto just started reaching around that time. i hope that makes sense...

anyway, maybe you were wondering why i made such a big deal about how long the solar system has been studied scientifically. think of it like this... the solar system is about 4.6 billion years old. humanity has been studying space scientifically for a mere few hundred years. that is not even a wink of an eye in time comparison to how old the solar system is. my point with that is that we just don't know what the sun or planets or anything was like back then, and so we really don't have much to base such observations off of.