The Sun's Unchanging Size Baffles Scientists

The surface of the sun undergoes violent changes on a daily basis, but a group of astronomers has found that the size of our nearest star has been perplexingly constant in recent years.

The puzzling results also contradicted other measurements of the sun taken from the ground, raising further questions on what could be causing the discrepancies.

"What this really means is that, if we believe the ground measurements, then what we're seeing is long-term fluctuations in the Earth's atmosphere," Kuhn said. "The sun is influencing the atmosphere of the Earth in very significant ways."

Continued at link.


I can't help but find this interesting in the effect that still were learning things about the sun. Sometimes I wonder myself when everything we think we knew, is proved to be wrong or proved to be another way.

Anyway, I can't help but wonder just how much the sun affects on our earth that we don't fully understand at this time.

The Sun is key to

2012/Nibiru

Quote me, but not like that is an original thought

/:/::://:////:///////::::::

Double post

Sorry

[edit on 14-5-2010 by HighDefinitionFilms]

Oh and it is electric

Not Nuclear.


/:/:::////:/:/:::::/:://///

Originally posted by HighDefinitionFilms



Oh and it is electric

Not Nuclear.


/:/:::////:/:/:::::/:://///

Quit spamming

quote me

Nice info, the day the scientists actually canVerify their Theories I would look at it as a 'New discovery', so far, most of what we are told seems to turn out wrong...

Book of Enoch claims the Sun and the Moon is of the same Size . LOL. I know they speak metaphoricly, but what if Not ? ! LOL ..

Anyone here heard that the first astronaughts in space couldnt find the Sun, but could see other stars much farther away with eas ? .. Ive just heard this around the Net, and wonder if any of you have any info on it..

[edit on 14/5/2010 by ChemBreather]

reply to post by ChemBreather

Maybe because they were on the night side of Earth at the time?

reply to post by Crossfate


We know very little behind the concepts of things of the Universe, life, nature, electricity, and the human body.

I find people prude who think they actually understand the theory behind what we exist in..

Forgive my signs of intelligence.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by ChemBreather

 

Maybe because they were on the night side of Earth at the time?

Could be Phage, I just sayd I heard it around the Net, never thought much about it realy, I felt like adding it as we were talking about the Size of the Sun, it Could be something too it you knw !

reply to post by ChemBreather

I'm curious about the part of the article in the OP regarding the difference in observations from Earth's surface and from space. The original press release says nothing about it and I can't find any other references to it.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by ChemBreather

 

I'm curious about the part of the article in the OP regarding the difference in observations from Earth's surface and from space. The original press release says nothing about it and I can't find any other references to it.

Yea I see your question Phage..
The article sais that the Size from earth is difrent from space,so I'd think that would be atmospheric disturbences or magnification effects accuring as the light reaches the strato/atmosphere, but I see no link in the Article about what you are refering to, Phage....

Originally posted by HighDefinitionFilms


The Sun is key to

2012/Nibiru

Quote me, but not like that is an original thought

/:/::://:////:///////::::::

You can say that again.

Ok... who was the genius that stared a double post ? Wake up please. :shk:

I was told the Sun shrank and grow all the time, like a lot. Sort of like a breathing motion.

I guess I can forget about that. I think it is very cool that they finally got stepped on their arrogance. That it is for something so close to home leaves me wondering how much we think we know is wrong.

I'm actually a little upset because all those beautiful theories are always told as if they have it all figured out.

Nice discovery tho.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by ChemBreather

 

I'm curious about the part of the article in the OP regarding the difference in observations from Earth's surface and from space. The original press release says nothing about it and I can't find any other references to it.

Well at least the press release makes some sense.

That article in the OP sounds like total nonsense, hopefully it's just bad writing.

"The sun is remarkably constant," lead researcher Jeff Kuhn, the associate director of the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, told SPACE.com. "We're measuring that the diameter changes by less than a kilometer (0.62 miles).

"This constancy is baffling, given the violence of the changes we see every day on the sun's surface and the fluctuations that take place over an 11-year solar cycle," Kuhn said.

The puzzling results also contradicted other measurements of the sun taken from the ground, raising further questions on what could be causing the discrepancies.

"What this really means is that, if we believe the ground measurements, then what we're seeing is long-term fluctuations in the Earth's atmosphere," Kuhn said. "The sun is influencing the atmosphere of the Earth in very significant ways."

Kuhn's work is one of several worldwide efforts to understand the influence of the sun on Earth's climate.

"We can't predict the climate on Earth until we understand these changes on the sun," Kuhn said.

Paraphrasing, the sun is constant (or more constant than expected) "then what we're seeing is long-term fluctuations in the Earth's atmosphere," Kuhn said. "The sun is influencing the atmosphere of the Earth in very significant ways"

How the heck does he draw that conclusion from that information? Something must be taken out of context or edited out, I fail to see how a relatively constant measurements of the sun over 12 years correlates to "long term fluctuations in the Earth's atmosphere" whatever long term means, I normally think of a lot longer than 12 years as long term regarding fluctuations in the Earth. And how do we know that atmospheric fluctiuations are caused by the sun and not something else like, for example, volcanic activity. That's probably one of the worst explained science articles I've ever read.

reply to post by Arbitrageur

I asked Dr. Kuhn about the statement. His reply:

There are many ground measurements, not all consistent, but many show "apparent" solar diameter changes. These are from astrolab, eclipse timing and mercury transit measurements. Once we get above the atmosphere (from MDI) we don't see any such variation in the diameter (with much higher sensitivity). The only sensible conclusion is that the Earth's atmosphere creates a modulation that we see as a solar diameter change from the ground.

Not exactly what I was hoping for. But his answer to me is different from what is said in the article. There are observations from the surface which show that when viewed through the atmosphere the apparent diameter of the Sun fluctuates. This indicates that it is the atmosphere causing the fluctuation through optical effects. I've looked around a bit and have found a few studies of the phenomenon. Yes, the Sun affects the atmosphere (of course). The question is do fluctuations in Solar activity (which are known to be quite slight overall) affect the atmosphere and to what degree. Using the apparent diameter of the Sun doesn't seem to indicate so, at least no correlation is found with the Solar cycle.

Observations of the solar radius show contradictory results when we try to correlate changes in the diameter with the solar cycle. Our series is not correlated with the solar cycle but it shows a period of 13.4 ± 2.2 yr

www3.interscience.wiley.com...

We find that the variations of the average radius are not significantly correlated with the solar cycle over the last three decades. We also compare the heliolatitude dependence of these radius measurements with recent results obtained at the Pic du Midi Observatory in France.

adsabs.harvard.edu...

[edit on 5/14/2010 by Phage]