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The Sun is now in the process of showing us its real power!
The long awaited sunspot cycle 25 is now producing many massive sunspot groups and many solar flares and (CME) Coronal Mass Ejections; from the upper atmosphere of our nearest star!
We know that the Sun produces high and low activity every 11 years on average, but the real solar cycle may be much longer than that.
Here is some additional information on just what a solar cycle is and what we need to know:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle
Study the link above, as it contains much information on the history and development of our basic understanding of the Sun and what we might expect with the current Solar Cycle 25!
Sunspots are cooler regions on the solar surface known as the photosphere. These magnetic “holes” in the Sun are surrounded by very powerful magnetic fields in the plasma state which exists in the photosphere.
When these complex magnetic fields twist and bend, they can “snap” and send our various types of energy packets. The most familiar one is the classic solar flare. The flare is a white light event which sends out powerful energy which can reach the Earth in as little as 8 minutes or so.
Other solar events are the coronal mass ejections, which send powerful energy into and above the solar corona. These events can reach the Earth is a time period of some 10 to 15 hours.
All of this powerful energy from the Sun is not a good thing when it strikes the polar regions of Earth or gets embedded deep into the Earth’s magnetic fields too!
Here is more detailed information on solar flares:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_flare
Here is more detailed information on Coronal Mass Ejections:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronal_mass_ejection
Over the past few weeks of the New Year, 2023, solar cycle 25 has been on the increase with some 9 major sunspot groups on the visible disk of the Sun.
Here is the image of the Sun on January 16th 2023:
https://spaceweather.com/images2023/16jan23/hmi1898.gif
Notice sunspot group, AR 3190, the main core of this sunspot is 4 times the diameter of the entire Earth:
https://spaceweather.com/images2023/16jan23/hmi1898.gif
What can we expect from the remainder of Solar Cycle 25 in the next year or two, as the peak of this cycle may occur earlier and with more activity than was predicted in earlier forecasts.
Details on Solar Cycle 25:
For those of you with telescopes and high resolution camera systems, here are some tips on observing the Sun in a safe manner:
https://skyandtelescope.org/2024-total-solar-eclipse/how-to-look-at-the-sun/
For those of you that want to view solar eclipses, we have some details on both the October 14th 2023 annular solar eclipse and the BIG event, the total solar eclipse of April 8th 2024. These are two major events that you should not miss and prepare for, NOW!
https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/october-14-2023
https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/april-8-2024
There is much to learn about the Sun and the effects that come from solar activity and the
damage it can do to our power grid and digital world which we live in today!
Clear skies!
To print your own monthly star chart, click here.
To view satellites/dates/times of passage, click here.
