Fwd: Synopsis: Solar Down Time

On Oct 30, 5:55*am, (Paul Ciszek) wrote:
In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:









On 27/10/2012 02:50, Paul Ciszek wrote:
Every so often I hear about a theory that fusion is not continous in
the sun's core, that it starts and stops over periods of many years,
but the radiant output of the layer we see changes only slightly; i.e.,

If it did then you would not be able to tell from variations in surface
brightness. The time constant for a photon to diffuse out from the core
in a random walk is of the order of a million years or more.

there is a very large "time constant" involved. *Has this idea been
debunked?

There is a very large time constant involved for photons to escape, but
not for the neutrinos which are also a byproduct of nuclear reactions.

Observations of the neutrino flux from the sun suggest that it is pretty
steady and there is no obvious reason why it should not be. Although
some groups have suggested in reputable journals that there might be an
observable correlation with the sunspot cycle.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal.../330353a0.html
(pay site but abstract is free - any good library should have Nature)

I suggest you stop reading sites with nonsense on them.

It wasn't a site, it was Larry Niven, which I suppose is worse.
And the suggestion was that the periods of fusion/no fusion lasted for
centuries, with the last interruption corresponding to the Little Ice
Age. *So, of course our observations of neutrino flux are constant--
we haven't been looking for neutrinos for very long.

--
"Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS
crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in
TARP money, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in
bonuses, and paid no taxes? Yeah, me neither."

These days for the most part teachers=NEA which is not good. AEBE,
the fewer public employees the better (ie smaller government, lower
taxes.) Planned Parenthood has some less-than-savory aspects, again
not good. NPR would not be missed. PBS -might- (or might not) help
improve the quality of broadcast TV, but one could get better content
and mores choices out of rented DVDs wrt science and education.

The banks lend money to keep businesses running, and the oil companies
provide energy that makes your way of life possible. If you have a
problem with oil spills you can help that by eliminating your own use
of fossil fuels.