The sun has ‘reached solar minimum’ and its surface is ominously calm
by Jasper Hamill
This solar slowdown often causes temporary cooling in Earth’s atmosphere.
Climate change deniers often hail this cooling as evidence that the heating of our world is about to go into reverse.
Sadly, this is very unlikely to be true because the sun follows an 11-year cycle, meaning it will simply spring back to life in the coming years.
However, once activity ramps up, the sun will be rocked by an increased number of gigantic ‘monster’ explosions, Nasa warned last week.
Eruptions from the face of our star are called ‘prominences’ and cause vast amounts of superhot gas to shoot into space, often forming beautiful loops on the solar surface.
During the solar minimum, the number of flares and sunspots is dramatically reduced.
When the sun leaps back from its minimum after roughly 11 years, we’re likely to see more and more ferocious explosions on the sun.