Our Sun goes through an 11 - year Hz of natural process , producing a sight of solar flares that “ blotch ” the surface with sunspots to petty action and a spotless aerofoil . Forover two weeks , observatories have n’t seen a single spot , possibly indicating we have touch the fateful solar lower limit of this cycle . However , we wo n’t bonk if this is the true minimum yet as the note value is calculated statistically based on the norm over a 12 - calendar month stop . Hopefully , we will affirm if it is so in about six months ' time .
Sunspots are ( relatively ) cool region of the solar surface that appear as glum splodge . They are shaped by magnetized action , which researchers believe occurs one - third of the way into the center of the Sun , although this is yet to be confirmed .
“ The Sun ’s activity cycle is something that ’s well studied , but not yet well understood . We had a wholesunspot - less monthin February , too , and this really was n’t the end of the man ( or of the Sun , for that matter ) . In fact , it ’s a approach pattern that we ’ve add up to expect from our menage star , ” Dr David Williams , an instrument operations scientist for the ESA Solar Orbiter mission , told IFLScience .
researcher previously forecast a mid-2019 to late-2020 closing for the cycle . So far , the Sun has been spotless for 92 of 156 twenty-four hour period this year . In March 2018 , there were 26 days in which no macula appeared . At the time , some researchers suggest we had reach a solar lower limit then , which would have made for quite a short and unusual cycle .
“ The solar bicycle that ’s finishing around now has attracted a lot of attending because its maximum was a mess weaker than the former seven were ( going back to 1935 ) , and the minimum before it lasted longer than common , ” Dr Williams bring . “ This point of prison term covers the Space Age , the fourth dimension when we ’ve been the most curious as a civilization about what danger rest out there in space . But the cycle would have been quite distinctive for 1880 to 1935 , for lesson . ”
Gathering data on the solar cycle and sunspots is critical for our globose infrastructures . Sunspots are consort with solar flares and solar storms , and these waves of electrically charge particles can cease up hitting our planet and detrimental electronics .
Researchers hope to use one of the cat’s-paw on boardESA ’s Solar Orbiterto examine these mystifying stratum by study the propagation of soundwaves within the Sun . By the meter it launches in February of next year , we may be in a brand - newfangled solar cycle . The cycles are measure from minimum to minimum . The Sun is currently in its 24th cycle since the extensive recording of macula began in 1755 .
[ H / T : Spaceweather ]
