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NASA has confirmed that we have officially introduced a new solar cycle


Away from the worries of the planet, our sun is having a quiet year. A closer look at its activity confirms that solar enthusiasts have been skeptical for some time - our closest star has entered a new cycle.

NASA has confirmed that we have officially introduced a new solar cycle


Ever since we began seriously tracking the sun's dark spots, humans have seen a pattern of silence and mood that repeats itself every 11 years.

Since the first observations were recorded’ in the mid-18th century, 24 of them have taken place. And, according to a panel of experts from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the number 25 started in December 2019.

You can't be blamed’ for not watching the shift. There was no light, no cosmic trumpets. Just an appearance of a low temperature shadow called the sunspot at high latitudes.

"We have a detailed record of the small spores that mark the beginning and the beginning of a new cycle," says Frederick Cleat, director of the World Data Center Sunspot Index and Long-Term Solar Observations.

"These are the low heralds of the future giant solar fireworks. Only by detecting the general trend in several months can we determine the tipping point between the two cycles."

In practice, changes in the Sun's behavior make it impossible to identify a new beginning until it has passed. Last year's confirmation of stabilizing solar activity data over the last eight months was as boring as the sun's approach for the next decade.

Despite centuries of careful recording of these 11-year cycles, we still do not have a mechanism to fully work behind these cycles. It is common in stars from time to time. When you explore the universe, there are a lot of plastics that seem to flare up and darken from time to time so that you can almost make your watch.

The best we can determine for our own solar patterns has to do with changes in magnetic fields, driven by complex currents flowing within the depths of the plasma within it.

In fact, it is the part we need to estimate that pushes and pulls these currents in such a fluctuating way, but there is a temptation that connects it to the planets in a similar interval.

"When we exit the solar minimum and complete the maximum of cycle 25, it is important to remember that solar activity never stops. It changes as the pendulum changes," wrote NASA's solar scientist Lika Guhathakurta says.

Although the cycle of heights and arches lasts for more than 11 years, it is more accurately a reflection of the larger 22-year cycle, which is explained’ by the complete reversal of the Sun's polarity. The poles change every 11 years, returning to place at the end of the next loop.

Monitoring these transitions can help us better predict space weather, which applies to large-scale charged plasma and radiation that can be dispersed into space, especially from solar energy.

It will be about five years before we can say that we are in the more aggressive phase of the sun. That doesn't mean we don't have to pay attention anymore.

It remains to be seen’ whether the Solar Cycle 25 will be on display, although it is unlikely to explode. No. 24 was relatively quiet, but mostly stronger than usual in previous cycles.

"Just because it's less than the average solar cycle," says Doug Biesecker, co-chair of the panel at NOAA's Space Weather Forecast Center in Colorado and a solar physicist.

"The effect of the sun on our daily lives is real and still is."

It also pays to be realistic about what the effect is, especially if you don't have a spacesuit with a space engineer managing high-speed protons and X-rays or a group of fragile satellites.

Here on the surface, adapted to kilometers of atmosphere, solar cycles are barely noticeable. If you're lucky, you may find the aurora activity lighter during the solar maximum. Most of the time we don't have to worry as much about destroying the life of solar flares as we know.

One thing is for sure: any connection between disappointing events and the swampy mood of the sun, rather than 2020, is the best metaphor. Still, no one can help but sometimes wonder what the stars are thinking.


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