Timeline Sun
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The Sun circles the Milky Way every 226 million
years.
   (SFC, 6/2/99, p.A9)
If the Sun were a pumpkin one foot in diameter, Mercury would be a
tomato seed about 50 feet away; Venus would be a pea about 75 feet
away; Earth would be a pea about 100 feet away; Mars would be a
little raisin about 175 feet away; Jupiter would be an apple about
550 feet away; Saturn would be a peach about 1025 feet away; Uranus
would be a plum about 2050 feet away, Neptune would be a plum about
3225 feet away; and Pluto would be smaller than a strawberry seed
nearly a mile away.
   (SFEC, 4/30/00, Par p.9)
5-4.5
Billion   The sun is now about 5 billion years old.
A rapidly rotating gas cloud will spin off some of the material at
its equator into a disk. This explains why all planets orbit in
roughly the same plane and direction and why they all move in near
circular orbits around the Sun.
   (JST-TMC,1983, p.210)(Nat. Hist., 3/96,
p.63)(SFC, 4/22/98, p.A11)
      The early sun went through a
stormy period called the T-Tauri phase, when powerful winds and
radiation blew outward.
   (SFC, 9/27/96, p.A10)
585BCÂ Â Â Â Â Â May 25, Thales made the
first known prediction of a solar eclipse. A historically registered
eclipse occurred during the savage war between the Lydians and the
Medians. The event caused both sides to stop military action and
sign for peace. The date of the eclipse coincides with the
date in Oppolzer’s tables published in 1887.
   (SCTS, p.27)(HN, 5/25/98)
250BCÂ Â Â Â Â Â About this time
Eratosthenes ascribed the difference between the positions of the
noon sun at Alexandria and at Styrene at the summer solstice as due
to the curvature of the Earth and not due to the proximity of the
sun. He thereby calculated the radius of the Earth to be about 4,000
miles. The modern value is 3963 miles.
   (SCTS, p.6)
250BCÂ Â Â Â Â Â About this time
Aristarchus of Samos, a Greek astronomer, proposed the idea of a
sun-centered cosmology.
   (Econ, 9/24/11, p.106)
1400-1850Â Â Â This was a frigid period in Europe and
came to be called the Little Ice Age.
   (NG, 7/04, p.28)
1460-1550Â Â Â Jack Eddy, solar physicist, examined
tree ring data in the 1970s and found a dearth of solar activity
during this period.
   (NG, 7/04, p.28)
1543Â Â Â Â Â Â May 24, Nicolaus
Copernicus, astronomer, died in Poland. His book, "On the
Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs," (De Revolutionibus Orbium
Caelestium), proof of a sun-centered universe, was printed just
before he died. Although he did say that the earth rotated once a
day and did revolve around the sun once a year, he kept 2 features
of the old Aristotelian system: one involved uniform circular
motion, and the other was quintessential matter, for which such
motion was said to be natural. In 1916 the Catholic clergy placed
the book on its “Index of Prohibited Books.” In 2004 Owen Gingerich
authored "The Book Nobody Read," an examination of how the ideas of
Copernicus spread. In 2006 William T. Vollmann authored “Uncentering
the Earth: Copernicus and The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres.”
In 2008 his remains, buried in a Roman Catholic Cathedral in
Frombork, Poland, were positively identified using DNA evidence..
    (NG, 3/1990, p. 117)(HN, 5/24/98)(WSJ,
3/5/04, p.W8)(NH, 4/1/04, p.66)(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.M1)(AP, 11/20/08)
1587Â Â Â Â Â Â Jan 8, Johannes Fabricius,
astronomer who discovered sunspots, was born in Denmark.
   (HN, 1/8/99)(MC, 1/8/02)
1616Â Â Â Â Â Â Feb 24, Qualifiers of the
Holy Office concluded that a sun-centered theory was “foolish and
absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical, inasmuch as it
expressly contradicts the teachings of many passages of Holy
scriptures.”
   (SSFC, 10/31/04, p.B6)
1645-1715Â Â Â The Maunder Minimum. A 70-year period,
named after astronomer E.W. Maunder, who documented a lack of solar
activity during this time. It also marked the coldest period of the
"Little Ice Age" that gripped Europe from c1450-c1890.
   (SFC, 11/29/02, p.J6)(SFC, 12/8/03, p.A2)
1826Â Â Â Â Â Â Samuel Heinrich Schwabe,
German amateur astronomer, began a systematic program of observing
the Sun from his home in Dessau. He kept careful records of sunspots
over 17 years and in 1843 noted an 11-year cycle in their frequency.
   (Econ, 6/28/03, p.77)(NG, 7/04, p.21)
1843Â Â Â Â Â Â Heinrich Schwabe, German
amateur astronomer, published his results of a 17 year study on the
number of sun spots. His results showed that sunspot activity varied
over a period of eleven and a half years. Sunspot activity recorded
since this time indicates the period to average 11.2 years and to
vary from 7.5 to 16 years. This activity correlates to agricultural
activity and the price of wheat.
   (SCTS, p.103)
1845Â Â Â Â Â Â Apr 2, H.L. Fizeau and J.
Leon Foucault took the 1st photo of Sun.
   (MC, 4/2/02)
1851Â Â Â Â Â Â Jul 28, A total solar
eclipse was captured on a daguerreotype photograph.
   (SC, 7/28/02)
1857Â Â Â Â Â Â Mar 25, Frederick
Laggenheim took the 1st photo of a solar eclipse.
   (MC, 3/25/02)
1859Â Â Â Â Â Â Sep 1, British astronomers
Richard C. Carrington (33) and R. Hodgson (1804-1872) independently
made the 1st observation of a solar flare, aka coronal mass
ejection. A day later auroras lit up all of the British Isles.
Telegraph communication was disrupted in every technically advanced
nation.
   (ON, 4/12, p.5)(Econ, 2/25/17, p.67)(Econ.,
6/27/20, p.14)
1868Â Â Â Â Â Â Helium was detected in the
Sun’s spectrum during a total solar eclipse.
   (NH, 7/02, p.34)
1875Â Â Â Â Â Â Apr 11, Heinrich Schwabe,
discoverer of the 11-year sunspot cycle, died.
   (MC, 4/11/02)
1919Â Â Â Â Â Â May 29, A solar eclipse
occurred that was photographed by two British expeditions, one in
Africa and the other in Sobral, Brazil. Arthur Eddington, British
astronomer, confirmed Einstein’s prediction of the deflection of
light from Principe, a Portuguese island off the Atlantic coast of
Africa. In 1980 Harry Colling and Trevor Pinch published "The
Golem," an account of the expedition. The play “Rose Tattoo” by
Tennessee (Thomas Lanier) Williams was originally titled “The
Eclipse of May 29, 1919.”
   (SFC, 10/12/96,
p.E3)(www.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~suchii/Edd.on1919.html)
1930Â Â Â Â Â Â Apr 28, Astronomers at
California’s Lick Observatory recorded a solar eclipse.
   (SFC, 4/22/05, p.F3)
1947Â Â Â Â Â Â Apr 4, Scientists noted
the largest group of sunspots on record.
   (MC, 4/4/02)
1954Â Â Â Â Â Â Maurice Allais, French
economist, recorded the movement of a pendulum for 30 days during
which the moon eclipsed the sun and caused the pendulum to move a
bit faster. The “Allais effect” confounded physicists and indicated
a possible flaw in General Relativity.
   (Econ, 8/21/04, p.65)
1956Â Â Â Â Â Â The cosmic-ray neutron
intensity monitor, developed by physicist John Simpson, was used to
collect the 1st evidence indicating the existence of the
heliosphere, the region beyond the planets that is influenced by the
sun’s magnetic field.
   (SFC, 9/2/00, p.A23)
1960Â Â Â Â Â Â Jan 2, John Reynolds set
the age of solar system at 4,950,000,000 years.
   (MC, 1/2/02)
1962Â Â Â Â Â Â Feb 5, Sun, Moon, Mercury,
Venus, Mars, Jupiter & Saturn aligned within a 16 degree arc.
   (MC, 2/5/02)
1978      May 3,  Â
"Sun Day" fell on a Thursday as thousands of people extolling the
virtues of solar energy held events across the country.
   (AP, 5/3/01)
1979Â Â Â Â Â Â Aug 30, The comet SOLWIND
1 first appeared on an image, at which time it was located 5.96
solar radii from the sun. It has been commonly presumed that the
comet either hit the sun, or completely vaporized because of its
near approach.
   (http://cometography.com/lcomets/1979q1.html)
1979Â Â Â Â Â Â Martin Pomerantz
(1916-2008, American astrophysicist, built a telescope at the South
Pole and propelled the new field of helio-seismology. In 1995 the
National Science Foundation dedicated the martin A. Pomerantz
Observatory in Antarctica.
   (SSFC, 11/2/08, p.B3)
1980Â Â Â Â Â Â Feb 14, The Solar Max
satellite was launched by NASA to monitor the sun and its flares at
an orbit of some 400 miles above Earth.
   (NOHY, 3/90, p.126)(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1988Â Â Â Â Â Â Sep 30, Pictures of the
solar corona first appeared on the cover of Science Magazine. Prof.
Arthur Walker (d.2000 at 64) of Stanford Univ., used X-ray and
thin-film telescopes to capture the pictures.
   (SSFC, 5/6/01, p.A27)
1989Â Â Â Â Â Â Mar 13, In Canada a
transformer failure on one of the main power transmission lines in
the HydroQuebec system precipitated a catastrophic collapse of the
entire power grid. The string of events that produced the collapse
took only 90 seconds from start to finish. The transformer failure
was a direct consequence of ground induced currents from a solar
flare. 6 million people lost electrical power for 9 or more hours.
  Â
(www.windows.ucar.edu/spaceweather/blackout.html)(ON, 4/12, p.6)
1991Â Â Â Â Â Â Jul 11, A solar eclipse
cast a blanket of darkness stretching nine-thousand miles from
Hawaii to South America, lasting nearly seven minutes in some
places.
   (AP, 7/11/01)
2000Â Â Â Â Â Â Jul 14, A powerful flare
erupted on the sun. It was the largest solar radiation event since
Oct, 1989, and the associated coronal mass ejection was expected to
trigger geomagnetic disturbances on Earth.
   (SFC, 7/15/00, p.A2)(SFEC, 7/16/00, p.A16)
1994Â Â Â Â Â Â Nov 3, There was a total
solar eclipse in South America (4m23s).
   (www.mreclipse.com/SEphoto/SEgallery2.html)
1994Â Â Â Â Â Â Nov 5, Space probe Ulysses
completed its 1st passage behind the Sun.
   (http://directory.eoportal.org/pres_Ulysses.html)
1995Â Â Â Â Â Â Dec 2, NASA launched a
US-European observatory on a one billion-dollar mission to study the
sun. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, SOHO, later detected
rivers of charged particles flowing over the surface of the sun and
sunquakes. In 2003 a motor failure crippled a high-gain antenna.
   (SFC, 9/4/98, p.A3)(AP, 12/2/00)(BS, 6/26/03, 3A)
1999Â Â Â Â Â Â May 11, The solar wind
from the sun died away almost completely for 24 hrs and allowed the
Earth's magnetic field to stretch out to the moon.
   (SFC, 12/14/99, p.A6)
2000Â Â Â Â Â Â Jul 14, A powerful flare
erupted on the sun. It was the largest solar radiation event since
1989 and the associated coronal mass ejection was expected to
trigger geomagnetic disturbances on Earth.
   (SFC, 7/15/00, p.A2)
2001Â Â Â Â Â Â Feb 24, It was reported
that the Sun’s magnetic poles had flipped. The event occurs every 11
years during the Solar Max when the solar wind also reaches the
Earth and causes havoc on power grids, radio channels and
satellites.
   (SFC, 2/24/01, p.D8)
2001Â Â Â Â Â Â Jun 30, NASA launched its
Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) to orbit the Sun and gauge
variations in radiation temperature of up to 20 millionths of a
degree.
   (WSJ, 6/28/01, p.A16)
2001Â Â Â Â Â Â Sunspot activity will
reach a maximum in its current 11-year cycle. The last low was
reached in 1995.
   (SFC,12/10/97, p.A7)
2005Â Â Â Â Â Â Mar 6, Hans Bethe
(b.1906), German-born peace worker and Nobel Prize winning physicist
(1967), died in Ithaca, NY. In the 1930s Bethe, one of the greatest
innovative theoretical physicists of our time, unraveled the
mysterious nuclear cycles by which stars produce prodigious amounts
of energy for billions of years without burning out.
   (SFC, 3/8/05, p.B5)(Econ, 3/19/05, p.90)
2006Â Â Â Â Â Â Dec 5, A large sunspot
rounded the sun's eastern limb and with little warning it exploded.
On the "Richter scale" of solar flares, which ranks X1 as a big
event, the blast registered X9, making it one of the strongest
flares of the past 30 years.
  Â
(http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/15dec_solarflaresurprise/)
2008Â Â Â Â Â Â Feb 22, The European Space
Agency (ESA) said on Ulysses, a US-European space scout that has
been orbiting the Sun for 17 years, almost four times its expected
lifetime, is on the brink of dying.
   (AP, 2/22/08)
2009Â Â Â Â Â Â Jul 22, Millions of Asians
turned their eyes skyward as dawn suddenly turned to darkness across
the continent in the longest total solar eclipse this century will
see.
   (AP, 7/22/09)
2010Â Â Â Â Â Â Jul 11, A total solar
eclipse drew an 11,000-km (6,800-mile) arc over the Pacific,
plunging remote territories into darkness.
   (AP, 7/12/10)
2012Â Â Â Â Â Â May 20, An annular eclipse
was visible in western US states from California to Texas.
Visibility came to parts of China, Taiwan and Japan May 21 local
time. An annular eclipse occurs when the moon passes in front of the
sun, but is too far from the Earth to block it out completely,
leaving the "ring of fire" visible.
   (AFP, 5/21/12)
2014Â Â Â Â Â Â Mar 27, Astronomer’s
announced the discovery of a new member the sun’s retinue located on
the outer edge of the solar system. 2012VP113 was said to measure
450 km across.
   (Econ, 3/29/14, p.84)
2017Â Â Â Â Â Â Aug 21, In the US a total
eclipse of the sun spread across the United States for the first
time in 99 years casting a 70-mile-wide path through fourteen
states.
   (SFC, 8/22/17, p.A1)
2018Â Â Â Â Â Â Aug 12, NASA blasted off
its first-ever spaceship to explore the Sun, the $1.5 billion Parker
Solar Probe, on a strategic mission to protect the Earth by
unveiling the mysteries of dangerous solar storms. The car-sized
probe was launched aboard a massive Delta IV-Heavy rocket early
today at Cape Canaveral.
   (AFP, 8/12/18)
2019Â Â Â Â Â Â Dec 4, Scientists released
the first results from NASA's sun-skimming spacecraft, the Parker
Solar Probe. They observed bursts of energetic particles never seen
before on such a small scale as well as switchback-like reversals in
the out-flowing solar magnetic field that seem to whip up the solar
wind.
   (AP, 12/4/19)
2020Â Â Â Â Â Â Feb 9, In Florida Europe
and NASA's Solar Orbiter was launched at Cape Canaveral late today
to capture the first pictures of the sun's elusive poles.
   (SFC, 2/11/20, p.A8)
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Subject = Sun
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