If solar scientists aren't already eager to observe the sun as it reaches solar maximum in 2024, a newly discovered gamma-ray puzzle will intensify that desire.
While examining 14 years worth of data from NASA's Fermi space telescope, a team of researchers discovered that during the last solar maximum in 2013 and 2014, the polar regions of the sun blasted out high-energy gamma-ray radiation that was as much as 10 times higher than expected.
