Is the Sunspot Cycle About to Stop? Among the 320 solar
physicists who have gathered for a conference in Las Cruces, New
Mexico, word is buzzing about a claim that the 11-year solar-
activity cycle, which some of them have spent their lives
studying, may be on the verge of a drastic change. In a press
conference Tuesday morning (June 14th) they predicted that the
current solar Cycle 24, which began about three years ago, will
produce only half as many spots as the previous one. And, said
Frank Hill of the National Solar Observatory, Cycle 25 "may not
actually happen." Cycle 24 is predicted to peak in 2013. Cycle
25 would normally be expected to peak around 2024. Sunspots have
fascinated astronomers and the public ever since Galileo and
others discovered them in 1613. They proved to come and go in an
11-year cycle, and they later proved to be only the most visible
indicator of the Sun's overall magnetic activity. This activity
includes powerful solar flares and coronal mass ejections that
bombard Earth and its