At https://phys.org/print422864597.html … a comet that became an asteroid. Comet Blanpain was first seen and recorded in 1819 – but subsequently disappeared. In 2003 astronomers discovered a small asteroid still orbiting along the former path of the comet – which appears to be the gassed out core of the comet. The gas and dust that was left behind by the comet is still there – the Phoenicid meteor shower (from the constellation Phoenix).
At https://phys.org/print422871687.html … NASAs Kepler spacecraft has been taking images of the Pleiadies star cluster (over 3 months). Meanwhile, at http://notrickszone.com/2017/08/24/attribution-shift-scientists-increasi… … scientists increasingly link climate change to solar forcing in scientific journals. You wouldn't know that from listening or watching mainstream media.. For example, Huang et al (2017) 'the emerging causal effects from solar activity to global temperatures …' etc. 'Climate … follows solar activity fluctuations' Page (2017) (and many other articles are listed, some 20 pages of links. In the Page (2017) article high solar activity is said to have peaked in 1991 and says an increase in solar activity is the chief driver of the global temperature increase since the Little Ice Age, and somewhat later, 'unless the natural variation is known and evaluated it is simply not possible to estimate the effect of anthropogenic co2 on the climate …'. The list, and a series of short … takes up over 20 pages of text. You won't want to read them all but the basic argument is being presented that high solar activity in the last quarter of the 20th century was largely responsible for any warming there has been. The list includes Russian and Chinese studies. Normally, climate science is generated from N America, Australia and Western Europe, which is where the doom mongering began – and where the booty is most bountiful. One has to make a distinction as they are talking about sun spot activity rather than plasma via solar wind ejections (although the two are entwined the idea that plasma penetrating the ionosphere and loading energy into the atmosphere is not exactly what is being said). They are simply looking at activity on the face of the Sun. Until recently climate scientists have been able to bat away claims that it is the Sun that is primarily responsible for the climate on Earth, simply by repeating the mantra the Sun is a constant star. The fact we now know bursts of plasma and energy via CMEs erupting from the corona do actually play a role in climate is shifting the debate somewhat – and some solar scientists and sceptics go so far as to claim sun spot activity is declining and therefore global temperatures will also decline – but will they? We have experienced a quiet sun for most of the last 6 months but that has not stopped bursts of plasma overloading the atmosphere with energy that is eventually dissipated at the poles. Are we once again on a roller coaster going nowhere? One good thing about these articles is that is being acknowledged by scientists over and over again that the Medieval Warm Period was real and so was the Little Ice Age. The attempts by the dishonest clique of climate scientists to smooth the data by using dodgy tree rings is dead and buried it would seem, and for the present climate alarmism in the US, where it is most vociferous, has been neutered to a degree by a change in political impetous – in that the economy is taking the central stage rather than climate activism. A few cold winters may bring sense into the debate I suppose – but we shall have to wait and see. It seems it is going to be a long and slow process.