Is the Sun About to Split?

* WARNING - NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN WITHOUT USING A PROPER CERTIFIED FILTER * Evidence seems to be mounting that the Sun is undergoing a major trauma which may result in what's known as a Solar Bifurcation Event of SBE. Solar activity has been on the increase over the last few days, creating a large region of plaque around the equatorial region of the Sun. Scientists initially tried to brush off the plaque growth, citing periods in the Sun's history, where such apparent surface decay had been recorded but subsequently appeared to rinse away to nothing. However, the prolongued solar minimum that has just been experienced seems to have produced a series of events which have joined together to create a ring of weakness around our nearest star. Huge plasma explosions, many times larger than the largest CME's (Coronal Mass Eruptions) that had previously been detected by the Solar Outgassing Detection Spacecraft (SODS), have now been witnessed and imaged by amateurs using back garden solar telescopes (BGSTs). The above image was taken from my back garden (UK) on 1 April 2011 at 01:39 UTC. I used a smaller version of the detectors used on SODS, which is known as little-SODS. It shows many plaque regions on the solar chromosphere ("sphere of shine") as well as huge plasma eruptions emanating from Sun's equatorial region. Should this activity continue in the following days, it's quite likely that the Sun will bifurcate into what's known as a double star. The double star is unlikely to be stable enough to survive as two separate Suns due to gravity and magnets, and this may well be followed by a Solar Coalescing Event (SCE) which will mark the rejoining of Solar-alpha to Solar-beta and hopefully a new era of solar stability for planet Earth. This is believed to have happened before. The last recorded SBE was believed to be in 1859 and gave rise to a huge geomagnetic storm known as the Huge Geomagnetic Storm or HGS. One positive side of the current SBE will be the likely onset of bright auroral displays visible from as far south as the Isle of Wight in the UK. These events are likely to be quite dramatic resulting in a multitude of colours criss-crossing the sky. The normal aurorae seen close to the north and south magnetic poles are predominantly red and green due to the excitation of Oxygen in our atmosphere. When a highly energetic display is in progress, blue can also occur, caused by the excitation of Nitrogen. A SBE driven aurora may be multi-coloured due to the excitation of more exotic materials such as nylon and pewter. Earth-based observers should urged to keep an eye out for auroral displays over the next few nights. However, all observations of the Sun should now be halted because it's really dangerous. Pete Lawrence, April 1, 2011