The Sun has been acting up, and we can finally confirm why. NASA announced that our host star is officially in the most active period of its cycle, creating stormy space weather that may last until next year.
On Tuesday, NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the international Solar Cycle Prediction Panel confirmed that the Sun is in its solar maximum, a period of increased solar activity that often affects Earth. The Sun goes through an 11-year cycle whereby its magnetic poles swap places every decade, causing it to transition from being a quiet, calm star to unleashing fiery streams of charged particles into its surrounding space.
A team of scientists at NASA and NOAA determined that the past two years are a part of the Sun’s active phase of its current solar cycle, and that the star’s solar maximum will last for another year or so before its activity starts to decline.
Judging by the Sun’s behavior over the past few months, scientists had already speculated that the star was in a period of increased activity. In May, Earth was hit by the largest geomagnetic storm in two decades after the Sun flung a slew of charged particles towards our planet. A few months later, another severe geomagnetic storm caught scientists off guard, resulting in bright, colorful aurorae in different parts of the world in August. Most recently, the Sun released another outburst of material in our direction, resulting in a severe geomagnetic storm on October 11.
The latest storm was preceded by the most powerful solar flare of the Sun’s current cycle, Cycle 25, when a region of sunspots delivered an X.90 flare. Solar flares, large eruptions of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun, are categorized by their strength, starting at B-class, which are the weakest, all the way up to the strongest, the X-class.
Solar flares typically occur near sunspots, dotted areas that appear on the Sun’s surface indicating a concentration of magnetic field lines. Scientists use sunspots to measure activity on the Sun, determining the progress of its solar cycle.
“During solar maximum, the number of sunspots, and therefore, the amount of solar activity, increases,” Jamie Favors, director of NASA’s Space Weather Program, said in a statement. “This increase in activity provides an exciting opportunity to learn about our closest star — but also causes real effects at Earth and throughout our solar system.”
Earth can be on the receiving end of the Sun’s wrath. The Sun’s increased solar activity affects space weather, which in turn messes with astronauts and satellites in space, communication and navigation systems like radio and GPS, as well as power grids on Earth, according to NASA.
NASA’s latest announcement also warned that the Sun is not done with us yet. “This announcement doesn’t mean that this is the peak of solar activity we’ll see this solar cycle,” Elsayed Talaat, director of space weather operations at NOAA, said in a statement. “While the Sun has reached the solar maximum period, the month that solar activity peaks on the Sun will not be identified for months or years.”
NOAA anticipates more solar and geomagnetic storms during the current solar maximum of Cycle 25, which might lead to more pretty aurorae, but also some disturbances to our precious tech.
Compared to other solar cycles, Cycle 25 is exceptionally active. The Sun has developed the largest number of sunspots since 2002, according to NOAA. “Solar Cycle 25 sunspot activity has slightly exceeded expectations,” Lisa Upton, co-chair of the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel and lead scientist at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, said in a statement. “However, despite seeing a few large storms, they aren’t larger than what we might expect during the maximum phase of the cycle.”
We haven’t seen the last of Cycle 25 just yet, so be warned but also enjoy the pretty colors in the skies.
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