One way to track the solar cycle is by counting the number of sunspots, which are dark, cooler patches on the Sun’s surface.

The sun’s outer atmosphere resembles a pufferfish.

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. These processes follow the solar cycle, an 11-year cycle of increasing and decreasing activity on ...

The Sun goes through an 11-year cycle of activity, going from the solar maximum, where it is covered in many sunspots and is more likely to have flares and coronal mass ejections, to the minimum, ...

Studying the sun In August 2018, NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe to draw closer to the sun than any satellite before. It's a unique opportunity to study " the star in our backyard," as NASA ...

We know that the sun has entered its peak phase of activity, called solar maximum. But are we still in it, or is solar maximum already behind us? Let's see what the data has to say. We have tracked ...