The sun seems to be taking a nap: Spaceweather.com – July.16.14

WHERE DID ALL THE SUNSPOTS GO? This week, solar activity has sharply declined. There are only two numbered sunpots on the Earth-facing side of the sun, and each is so small you might have trouble finding them. Click to enlarge this July 17th image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory and see if you can locate AR2113 and AR2114:

In case you couldn’t find them, here they are.

Long-time readers absorbing this image might be reminded of 2008-2009, years when the sun plunged into the deepest solar minimum in a century. The resemblance, however, is only superficial. Researchers believe that, underneath the visible surface of the sun, the solar dynamo is still churning out knots of magnetism that will soon bob to the surface to make sunspots. Solar Max is not finished.

For the moment, though, it seems to have paused. Solar activity is very low, and NOAA forecasters put the daily odds of an X-class flare no more than 1%. Updates on Twitter @spaceweatherman.

Keep an eye on the sun via the HobbySpace  Sun & Space Weather page.