NASA scientists are warning that the sun may be "waking up" from a brief period of relative inactivity, contradicting past assumptions about our home star. If true, this could mean that decades of potentially dangerous space weather are in store.
The sun follows a roughly 11-year cycle of solar activity that begins with a prolonged quiet period, known as solar minimum, and builds toward an explosive peak, known as solar maximum — when our home star frequently spits out powerful solar storms at us. This pattern is known as the "sunspot cycle," because the number of dark patches on the sun's surface rises and falls with solar activity. The sunspot cycle is, in turn, governed by a longer 22-year cycle, known as the Hale Cycle — during which the sun's magnetic field entirely flips and then reverses back again.
