Popular Science "Uh, the Sun Kinda Broke
It’s doing something really weird, and scientists have no idea why.
BY DARREN ORFPUBLISHED: FEB 10, 2023
the sun and the sunset skyelement of the sun image furnished by nasa
ekapol//Getty Images
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a northern prominence on the sun that culminated in a “polar vortex.â€
This never-before-seen activity is the latest example of the sun reaching its solar maximum, and also the unsolved mysteries that surround its function.
The sun is likely to reach its solar maximum in 2024 when it will also reverse its polarity and wind back down to its solar minimum
From Earth, the sun just looks like a continuous ball of hot, but its activity actually varies wildly during an 11-year period called the “solar cycle.†The cycle begins at solar minimum, when things like sunspots and flares are rare, and ramps up to solar maximum. That’s when it gets real interesting.
Solar maximum, as its name suggests, is when the sun is at its most active, and also when its polarity flips. In December 2019, the sun reached its solar minimum and has been steadily ramping up to its maximum (likely due sometime in 2024). Now a strange, never-before-seen “polar whirlwind†provides the latest example of the sun’s journey toward maximum feistiness."
It’s doing something really weird, and scientists have no idea why.
BY DARREN ORFPUBLISHED: FEB 10, 2023
the sun and the sunset skyelement of the sun image furnished by nasa
ekapol//Getty Images
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a northern prominence on the sun that culminated in a “polar vortex.â€
This never-before-seen activity is the latest example of the sun reaching its solar maximum, and also the unsolved mysteries that surround its function.
The sun is likely to reach its solar maximum in 2024 when it will also reverse its polarity and wind back down to its solar minimum
From Earth, the sun just looks like a continuous ball of hot, but its activity actually varies wildly during an 11-year period called the “solar cycle.†The cycle begins at solar minimum, when things like sunspots and flares are rare, and ramps up to solar maximum. That’s when it gets real interesting.
Solar maximum, as its name suggests, is when the sun is at its most active, and also when its polarity flips. In December 2019, the sun reached its solar minimum and has been steadily ramping up to its maximum (likely due sometime in 2024). Now a strange, never-before-seen “polar whirlwind†provides the latest example of the sun’s journey toward maximum feistiness."
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