LAS CRUCES, N.M., June 14 (UPI) -- Fading sunspots and weaker magnetic activity near the poles could indicate the sun could be less active soon, studies released at a meeting in New Mexico said.
The three studies indicate the sun could be heading into a dormant period, with activity during the next 11-year sunspot cycle greatly reduced or eliminated, Space.com reported.
Results of the studies were announced during the annual meeting of the solar physics division of the American Astronomical Society at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.
"The solar cycle may be going into a hiatus," Frank Hill, associate director of the National Solar Observatory's Solar Synoptic Network, said during a news conference.
The studies examined a missing jet stream in the solar interior, fading sunspots on the sun's visible surface, and changes in the corona and near the poles.
"This is highly unusual and unexpected," said Hill, lead author of one of the studies. "But the fact that three completely different views of the sun point in the same direction is a powerful indicator that the sunspot cycle may be going into hibernation."
Sunspots are temporary patches on the sun's surface caused by intense magnetic activity, sometimes erupting into solar storms that shoot charged particles into space.
Typically, a cycle takes about 5 1/2 years to move from a solar minimum, when there are few sunspots, to the solar maximum, when sunspot activity increases. The current cycle is moving to the solar maximum.
Hill said the the wind flow inside the sun for the next cycle should have appeared in 2008 or 2009, but now could be delayed until 2021 or 2022.
"If we are right, this could be the last solar maximum we'll see for a few decades," Hill said of the three studies. "That would affect everything from space exploration to Earth's climate."
