Vibrations on the Sun may 'shake' the Earth

What do dropped mobile phone calls, mysterious signals in undersea communications cables, and tiny tremors on the Earth have in common? They are all caused by vibrations on the Sun, according to one team of scientists. Churning motions inside the Sun produce various kinds of waves, similar to the rise and fall of waves on the surface of the ocean. These waves have periods of several minutes to several hours. In the mid-1990s, a team of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, scientists reported seeing fluctuations in the solar wind with periods in the same range. The researchers suggested that the solar vibrations were somehow imprinting onto the solar wind to produce the regular fluctuations. Now, Thomson's team says it has evidence that these modes not only travel through space in the solar wind, but also influence natural phenomena and human technologies on Earth.