The sun is bright, shiny and full of surprises. A lot of activity is going on on the hot star. There have been three notable solar flares and more are expected. There has been an increase in sunspots on its surface. All this means that the sun is approaching a solar maximum.

The next solar maximum was predicted to begin in 2025. But now new research shows that the sun may reach the peak of its current cycle in 2024, a year ahead.

What is solar maximum?

The sun goes through a natural solar cycle approximately every 11 years. The cycle is marked by the increase and decrease of sunspots, visible as dark blemishes on the sun’s surface, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the US government agency responsible for the civil space programme and research.

A magnetic field is generated by the movement of charged particles in the sun’s interior. This extends beyond the surface, creating a heliosphere, a vast region of space that is influenced by the solar wind. As the sun rotates, the magnetic field lines are tangled, leading to the formation of sunspots, which are dark, cooler regions on its surface.

Also read: The sun is dying: Here’s how long it has before exhausting its fuel

The greatest number of sunspots in any given solar cycle is designated as “solar maximum”. The lowest number is “solar minimum”.

But there is more to the solar cycle than just increased sunspots. In the sun’s atmosphere or corona, bright active regions appear, which are rooted in the lower sunspots. Scientists track these regions since they are often the origin of eruptions on the sun such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections, according to NASA.

What do we know about the latest solar cycle?

The current solar cycle is the 25th since the records began in 1755 and started in 2019.

Now the cycle is nearing its peak. In April, the sun exploded with three major solar flares. There were 23 coronal mass ejections and a massive geomagnetic storm that struck Earth and raged for over two days, NASA informed. Solar physicists also found 96 sunspots on its surface.

While official predictions by NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) say that the sun will reach the peak of its activity in 2025, new research led by NASA research scientist Robert Leamon and Scott McIntosh, the deputy director at US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), suggests this might happen next year.

According to the finalised forecast, the current cycle is expected to reach its peak in 2024. The cycle, the team of researchers thinks, will reach about 185 monthly sunspots during its maximum and thus be somewhat milder than what the team originally forecasted. This peak intensity will place this cycle at about the average compared to the historical record, reports Space.com.

The cycles vary in activity. The weakest on record has produced less than 100 sunspots and the strongest nearly 300.

How will solar maximum affect the Earth?

Mathew Owens, a professor of space physics at the University of Reading, told Business Insider that increased solar activity can disrupt radio communications and the power grid and have serious health consequences for astronauts.

The increased solar activity leads to solar flares, which consist of high-energy photons like X-rays. This can increase the ionisation in the Earth’s upper atmosphere and disrupt radio communications, the professor says.

Geomagnetic storms cause disturbances to the Earth’s magnetic field and can damage the power grid distribution. Notable blackouts caused by geomagnetic storms are the 1989 blackout across the entire province of Quebec, Canada and the 2003 blackout across the eastern United States and parts of Canada, reports Space.com.

“The hazards are primarily to large-scale infrastructure. On an individual level, people on Earth are unlikely to directly see the effects of solar maximum,” he said.

Also read: What is a solar storm?

High-energy particles travel toward Earth during the solar maximum. According to Owens, the particles are radiation and “pose a major health risk to astronauts and passengers and crew on high-latitude and high-altitude aircraft. They can also damage space hardware and lead to satellite loss”.

Astronauts on the International Space Station may be asked to seek shelter and all extravehicular activities are paused, according to NASA.

But not all is unknown and scary.

According to a report on Space.com, one spectacular side-effect of increased solar activity during the solar cycle is increased opportunities to see auroras: the aurora borealis (Northern Lights) and its southern counterpart, the aurora australis. When the energetic particles from the sun slam into and interact with Earth’s upper atmosphere, dazzling light shows illuminate the sky.

Does the sun’s activity affect other planets?

During the solar cycle, when the sun’s magnetic poles flip, the effects ripple through the solar system.

Planets without a protective magnetosphere such as Venus feel the full impact. In 2006, the sun ejected a small coronal mass ejection (CME) — a release of plasma and magnetic field — which hit Venus and stripped the planet's atmosphere of vast amounts of oxygen, the Space.com report says.

With inputs from agencies

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