Is the Sun Emitting a Mystery Particle? - Radioactive Decay Rate Variation

This is stunning stuff, thanks for seeding it. When they first noticed the seasonal nature of the variation they must have thought they were going crazy.

Or, at the very least, we are seeing some new physics.

That probably sums it up right there. Physics is not a field I can claim to know too much about but I do know that it is a constantly changing field as we discover more and more on an ever increasingly frequent basis. If we ever achieve the building of a moon base or a settlement on mars then we'll probably see these discoveries accelerate even faster as observations could be made in different gravities and atmospheres. Hopefully the ion drive will make deep space probes a more common occurrence as well further accelerating the information we can gain.

good catch, JC. there was another theory (out of Russia - if memory serves) if I can find it, that showed some concern over the fluidity of time and the sun's effect on it

Excellent JC! Wow...just...wow.

So, physics now has some new questions to answer.

But as you can see, carbon dating makes one huge assumption: radioactive decay rates remain constant and always have been constant. If this new finding is proven to be correct, even if the impact is small, it will throw the science community into a spin.

If the decay rates of radioactive elements are changing, is this entirely seasonal and average out overall? Or is there an measurable acceleration in decay? This wasn't made clear in the article.

One more fly in the soup kids -

“It is now clear that the record low temperature and density were primarily caused by unusually low levels of solar radiation at the extreme-ultraviolet level,” Solomon says. Woods says the research indicates that the sun could be going through a period of relatively low activity, similar to periods in the early 19th and 20th centuries. This could mean that solar output may remain at a low level for the near future. “If it is indeed similar to certain patterns in the past, then we expect to have low solar cycles for the next 10 to 30 years,” Woods says.

Shrinking atmospheric layer linked to low levels of solar radiation

Since our cross-validations are consistent to a high degree, it would seem that it's a seasonal variation only, and averaging out over the course of multiple years. We've even calibrated radiological dating with known historical events, and other non-radiological dating methodologies, so it's unlikely to have been consistently growing nor shrinking.

But what's more intriguing is the potential effect on extra-terrestrial samples. Something like an asteroid, or Mars samples (where the distance is farther away) would theoretically test younger (by a LARGE factor), if particles from the sun are a factor.

The Earth is a mere 3-4 million miles more distant from the sun between Winter and Summer. Mars is about 30 million miles farther out. It's decay rate should actually be profoundly slower, meaning that there'd be much more "parent" in the ratio, indicating younger dates. If the 0.37 percent variation between seasons is accurate, then for Mars it would be around 100 times that (delta-radius squared) (or 37%). That's kind of on the absurd-side, since we have meteors with dates of 4.54 billion years old. UNLESS it's not a square of the radius formula, in which case it would be a particle emission source that acts unlike "light"...

It's almost definitely not the neutrinos, since we already know their incidence rate with normal matter. So it's likely some other particle type altogether.