Cosmic Rays Reach Modern Era High

Within the "Space Age" (since the 1950s) this year marks the greatest intensity of cosmic rays reaching planet Earth. Not coincidentally, this year is also the lowest solar minimum of the period. Basically more solar activity means more solar wind which enhances the heliosphere, the Sun's magnetic field that helps protect us.

It's a double-edged sword; at one end of the scale we get more cosmic rays, which means greater levels of mutation (cosmic rays are responsible for roughly 50% of random genetic damage), and at the other end we get an increase in solar flares, which can cause us harm when aimed in our direction.

If we could choose, we'd like the sun to be average, always.

Global Warming: Is it just the Sun?

My opinion: some scientists think it is, most think it isn't, but all are just educated guesses... which means it could just be the Sun, and this means that the Sun could conceivably do something unpredictable (by us today) in 2012...

In what could be the simplest explanation for one component of global warming, a new study shows the Sun's radiation has increased by .05 percent per decade since the late 1970s.

The increase would only be significant to Earth's climate if it has been going on for a century or more, said study leader Richard Willson, a Columbia University researcher also affiliated with NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

The Sun's increasing output has only been monitored with precision since satellite technology allowed necessary observations. Willson is not sure if the trend extends further back in time, but other studies suggest it does.

"This trend is important because, if sustained over many decades, it could cause significant climate change," Willson said.

In a NASA-funded study recently published in Geophysical Research Letters, Willson and his colleagues speculate on the possible history of the trend based on data collected in the pre-satellite era.

"Solar activity has apparently been going upward for a century or more," Willson told SPACE.com today.