Dr. Michio Kaku—the physicist who should have a TV show
Thursday, December 18, 2008 at 12:19PM
Updated on Thursday, December 18, 2008 at 4:42PM by
Kay B. Day, Editor
Ed. Note: Fox News featured a video of the interview with Dr. Kaku. I've posted the video and another link to an article at the end of the original column. The article explains leaks in the Earth's magnetic field and how the solar cycle can affect that.
Dr. Michio Kaku (Dr. Kaku website photo]Dr. Michio Kaku doesn’t come across as a tedious physicist—you know what I mean. Scientific experts usually affect me like an income tax audit. Kaku renders a very complicated subject interesting and understandable for those of us challenged by quantum mechanics and relativity. Kaku talked about the solar cycle on Fox News on Thursday. “We made a mistake,” he said, speaking about industry calculations about solar flares. Kaku believes the cycle will peak around 2012, possibly playing havoc with Earthling gadgets like Blackberries.
NASA agrees, predicting the next solar maximum should be a “doozy.” Some experts like Kaku project Solar Max for 2012. But 2 years ago, others predicted it will arrive sooner, in 2010 or 2011.
Two large solar prominences in extreme ultraviolet light (ionized helium at 304) roughly the same size but quite different in structure appeared on the Sun on March 18, 2003. The observation of two large prominences in one image makes this one of the most spectacular images that SOHO [Solar and Heliospheric Observatory] has captured. Prominences are large clouds of relatively cool, dense plasma suspended in the Sun's hot, tenuous corona… [SOHO/NASA image]
