sunspotless sun copy

credit: spaceweather.com

This is a follow-up on a previous post

Spiritual Musings on the Current Solar Minimum

about the longest solar minimum in modern history.  It seems that the solar minimum is still in full swing with 217 sunspotless days thus far (as of 10/07/09) in 2009 after 266  sunspotless days in 2008. Now scientists are beginning to wonder if the sun is changing dramatically because it’s brightness has dropped perceptibly. The sun’s magnetism is lessening and its current sheet is flattening. The solar wind has lessened as well, which allows more cosmic rays to enter our solar system. Are these things part of a natural cycle? This is not clear since instruments to measure such things as solar wind are relatively new. But the drop in solar radiance (brightness) can cause less warmth in the upper atmosphere, thereby slowing global warming and suggesting a possible Universal intervention in human affairs as I posited in my previous post. More cosmic rays however are not so benign. They can make space travel more dangerous for terrestrial life forms (i.e. humans, monkeys and dogs) sent into space and can also disable unmanned space vehicles.

Nearly as amazing as the complex activities of our star is the lack of awareness and interest on the part of the general public. The behavior of our sun and the space weather it generates almost surely impact our lives on a dramatic level. Yet these stories receive little press in the major media. My advice is to visit www.spaceweather.com regularly to get a perspective of what is going on.

On that site today, I found out that there will be an impact of  the Moon by NASA’s nuclear armed LCROSS spacecraft and its Centaur booster rocket Friday morning, Oct. 9th, at approximately 7:30 a.m. EDT. The mission purportedly is to investigate subsurface water on our satellite.  Coincidentally, I have been reading Ingo Swann’s book Penetration about his very unusual adventures remote viewing the Moon. He posits many startling things including activities on the Moon by extraterrestrial beings. If he is correct and they are still present, they will not be pleased with Friday morning’s impact, since composition of the Moon has been found to be less dense than that of the Earth and the impact might cause a reverberation on the sphere. What if the Moon’s orbit is changed? Danger!  Will Robinson, Danger! Well, meteors have been hitting the moon for millennia so maybe not.