sunspots tagged posts

Scientists have developed a new way to predict the strength of the sun’s next activity cycle up to seven years before it reaches its peak.

The new method uses the number of sunspots at a newly identified “switchoff” point in the solar cycle, when the sun’s most extreme space weather suddenly comes to an end. Using this approach, researchers have made an early prediction for the strength of Solar Cycle 26.

A very early prediction shows a moderate Cycle 26 with a sunspot number of around 100–120, s...

Astronomers identified a nearby star whose sunspot cycles appear to have stopped. Studying this star might help explain the unusual period from the mid 1600s to the early 1700s when our Sun paused its sunspot cycles.

The number of sunspots on our Sun typically ebbs and flows in a predictable 11-year cycle, but one unusual 70-year period when sunspots were incredibly rare has mystified s...

NASA’s extensive fleet of spacecraft allows scientists to study the Sun extremely close-up — one of the agency’s spacecraft is even on its way to fly through the Sun’s outer atmosphere. But sometimes taking a step back can provide new insight.

In a new study, scientists looked at sunspots ...

Extensive power outages and satellite blackouts that affect air travel and the internet are some of the potential consequences of massive solar storms. These storms are believed to be caused by the release of enormous amounts of stored magnetic energy due to changes in the magnetic field of the sun’s outer atmosphere — something that until now has eluded scientists’ direct measurement. Researchers believe this recent discovery could lead to better “space weather” forecasts in the future.

“We are becoming increasingly dependent on space-based systems that are sensitive to space weather...