Watch Out! The Sun Is Starting to Act Up More Than Usual

Amaze Lab

The Sun is approaching its solar maximum, set to reach the apex of that 11-year cycle next summer. There’s just one issue, experts say it’s acting up way more than anyone expected, but what does that mean?

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00:00the sun is approaching its solar maximum set to reach the apex of that 11-year cycle next summer

00:09there's just one issue experts say it's acting up way more than anyone expected so what does that

00:14mean well the solar maximum occurs when the sun's magnetism grows ultimately culminating in a

00:19flipping of its magnetic poles throughout this process that activity pulls energy from the sun's

00:23interior which causes cool areas to appear on its surface in the form of sunspots the more spots the

00:29more activity in those areas where the sun's x-class flares derive the strongest ones it can produce

00:35and boy has it been productive lately an x-class flare can cause beautiful auroras on our planet

00:40if earth is in its way but it can also cause radio disruptions blackouts even energy grid damage as

00:46well and since january of this year alone these geomagnetic storms have resulted in radio blackouts

00:51in four continents experts are also concerned about the astronauts in space with andrew gerard of the

00:57center for solar terrestrial research telling business insider if there's a coronal mass ejection

01:01and if that material gets to the earth it's going to make the densities of earth's upper atmosphere

01:06higher and that's going to create more drag and more drag is going to bring down spacecraft

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