Solar Wind

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We are running out of solar wind!

Ok, that is not true at all. But there is less of it now then there was a little while ago, but because we still know basically nothing about our sun (due to various botched attempts at actually sending a probe over there -- something we have never done), we really have no idea why this is happening.

Much like our atmosphere here on Earth, the solar wind protects the solar system from the deadly radiation that saturates deep space. It does this by hurling ions in every direction, at 1 million miles per hour, all the time. Scientists believe the solar wind stops about 90% of the radiation from reaching the planets housed within the termination shock, which is basically the area inside the solar wind.

The trouble is these winds have fallen to their weakest levels in 50 years. In the past 10 years, the wind's intensity weakened by about 25%.

We dont really know exactly how this affects life on earth, why it is happening, if it will reverse course or keep getting weaker... basically we dont know anything about it at all. Food for thought, but something to keep on the back burner.

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