The solar activity cycle, including the number of sunspots and solar flares, is known to be 11 years. However, a research team at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) in Germany has found that this period of solar activity depends on the planets of the solar system, including the Earth.
It is not unusual in itself that the period of self-activation is constant in stars such as the sun. However, nothing has been revealed so far as to why the solar cycle is 11 years. To clarify the mystery, the HZDR team compared the observations of solar activity over the past 1,000 years with the positions of planets in the solar system. As a result, it can be seen that the position of the planet has a great influence on the solar cycle.
The planetary position and solar activity showed a surprisingly high degree of agreement. Explain that the two phenomena show perfect parallels over 90 periods according to the 11-year solar period. Just as the tidal force created by the moon’s gravity affects the tidal ebb and flow on Earth, the tidal force generated from the planet’s position determines the solar activity and makes it work like a clock.
When they first saw the theory of linking the planet and the solar cycle, the research team was skeptical about the justification. However, looking at the Rayleigh-Taylor instability computer simulation, where the fluid motion becomes unstable when other dense fluids come into contact, it is said that what would happen if the solar plasma was affected by a small tidal force.
The solar period is caused by periodic changes in the solar magnetic field by the rotation of the sun and the complex motion of the plasma. The motion of the solar plasma is very sensitive to even small forces through Rayleigh Taylor instability. The team’s model shows whether the changes in the tidal force of the planets acting on the sun are synchronized with the solar cycle, and the results were surprising.
It is said that the time set for Venus, Earth, and Jupiter is the key tidal force from the solar system planets have a great influence on the Sun. This period is consistent with the fact that the solar activity period is 11 years. It is also said that the planetary tidal force may have influenced not only the solar cycle, but also large changes in solar activity, such as the Maunder Minimum, where the number of sunspots decreased significantly over the 17th to 18th centuries.
The findings could lead to accurate models of solar activity cycles, which in the future could lead scientists to better quantify space environment weather and improve weather forecasts on Earth. In order to investigate fundamental problems with solar activity, the research team is said to be preparing an experiment with liquid metals. Related information can be found here .