Deep Quiet on the Sun

Source - Space Weather News for April 30, 2015: http://spaceweather.com

DEEP QUIET: Everyone knows that high solar activity has a profound effect on the space around Earth.  Less well known is that *low* solar activity can be equally transformative. This week, the sun is plunging into a quiet state with almost no sunspots and a vanishing chance of flares. Find out what this means on today's edition of http://spaceweather.com

OTHER STORIES: we are following on http://spaceweather.com today: (1) A 10,000 km-long plume of sulfurous gas from Chile's Calbuco volcano is now crossing the Atlantic Ocean en route to Africa; and (2) On April 28th, microbes sent to the edge of space to test their response to cosmic radiation crash-landed in the California desert--and it did not go well for the microbes.