What's going on with the sun?

As we are getting closer to solar max, we should see more sunspots on the sun. We did have some x flares and m flares thrown at us, but i am just looking back at the sun, and wow sun is spotless, sunspot AR1410 is dying down. Sun has no sunspots at all right now. Is this normal for the sun to react this way? I might be wrong but from what I know, as sun approaches solar max, we should be getting more sunspots and flares. Its weird because on Earth we are experiencing a weird weather cycle also. Maybe related? God knows.
As of today:
spaceweather.com...

This may also be relevant to it as well.

Sun emitting mystery particle

When probing the deepest reaches of the Cosmos or magnifying our understanding of the quantum world, a whole host of mysteries present themselves. This is to be expected when pushing our knowledge of the Universe to the limit.

But what if a well-known -- and apparently constant -- characteristic of matter starts behaving mysteriously?

This is exactly what has been noticed in recent years; the decay rates of radioactive elements are changing. This is especially mysterious as we are talking about elements with "constant" decay rates -- these values aren't supposed to change. School textbooks teach us this from an early age.

This is the conclusion that researchers from Stanford and Purdue University have arrived at, but the only explanation they have is even weirder than the phenomenon itself: The sun might be emitting a previously unknown particle that is meddling with the decay rates of matter. Or, at the very least, we are seeing some new physics.

The sun has been acting weird for the last couple years, at least something is going on that we aren't noticing. This is an interesting article you might like. Its interesting to speculate what this could mean, If its changing constants, perhaps we are changing as well in some way.

Sunspot number: 27
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 06 Feb 2012

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2012 total: 0 days (0%)

spaceweather.com...

Where are you getting this "no sunspots" info from?

reply to post by JibbyJedi


I am not talking about overall , but now , in present the sun is spotless.

reply to post by AzureSky


thanks really interesting article.

reply to post by storm2012

Obviously the Sun is going out.

This Solar cycle (24) is predicted to be of below average activity. It seems to be following the prediction.
solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov...

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by storm2012

 

Obviously the Sun is going out.

This Solar cycle (24) is predicted to be of below average activity. It seems to be following the prediction.
solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov...

Agh, not again!!!
Quick, somebody call Hollywood.

www.imdb.com...

reply to post by Phage


What do you mean "going out"????

reply to post by Jerisa

Not a thing.
I was kidding.

reply to post by Phage


I thought so, but damn Phage, my heart did skip a beat for a second...

Where did you read that there were no sunspots?

Because this is what I see...

The NOAA Sunspot number for 7-Feb-2012 was: 24

Most recent five days (oldest first): 85 39 43 37 27

dx.qsl.net...

Originally posted by Jerisa
reply to post by Phage

 

I thought so, but damn Phage, my heart did skip a beat for a second...

Only pay attention to PHAGE's posts when his 20 auto star minions show up. No stars on his posts means he's just kidding.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by storm2012

 

Obviously the Sun is going out.

This Solar cycle (24) is predicted to be of below average activity. It seems to be following the prediction.
solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov...

Quick question. In recorded history of the sun has there ever been "the calm before the storm"? I'm far from an expert but I take pretty good faith in most of your replies. Could it be possible that there could be a quiet build up. I mean we really don't know all that much as we have only been able to accurately predict some of the astronomical events for a short time. I know we have been star gazing since we have had eyes but I just wanted to throw that out there.

reply to post by swampcricket


there could be build up a lot of energy, that will unleash as soon as it can, just like an earthquake small tremors happen and than BOOM a big one.

reply to post by Phage


the sun is not going out, but its following a weird pattern lately, it will start up it cycle again and few days.