Sun unleashes biggest flare since 2017. Is our star waking up?
The sun may be coming out of its slumber at long last. On Friday May 29th 2020, our star fired off its strongest flare since October 2017, an eruption spotted by NASA’s sun-watching Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).
Solar flares are bursts of radiation that originate from sunspots, temporary dark and relatively cool patches on the solar surface that boast very strong magnetic fields. Scientists classify strong flares into three categories: C, M and X. Each class is 10 times more powerful than the one beneath it; M flares are 10 times stronger than C flares, but 10 times weaker than X-class events.
The flare was an M-class eruption, so it was no monster. (And it wasn’t aimed at Earth, so there’s no chance of supercharged auroras from a potential associated coronal mass ejection of solar plasma.) But the outburst could still be a sign that the sun is ramping up to a more active phase of its 11-year activity cycle, NASA officials said. If that’s the case, the most recent such cycle, known as Solar Cycle 24, may already have come to an end.
Scientists peg the start of new cycles at “solar minimum,” the time when the sun sports the fewest sunspots and the least activity.
“However, it takes at least six months of solar observations and sunspot-counting after a minimum to know when it’s occurred,” NASA officials wrote today in an update announcing SDO’s flare detection.
“Because that minimum is defined by the lowest number of sunspots in a cycle, scientists need to see the numbers consistently rising before they can determine when exactly they were at the bottom,” the officials added. “That means solar minimum is an instance only recognizable in hindsight: It could take six to 12 months after the fact to confirm when minimum has actually passed.”
So, stay tuned! More observations should tell us if we’re already in Solar Cycle 25.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.Â
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Andy Rowlands
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The Space Weather website shows the number of sunspots daily, and we’ve just come the end of a 30-day period of no sunspots, and so far this year, we’ve had 122 days with no sunspots. The Oulu neutron monitor in Finland is showing very high neutron counts, almost as high as during the 2009 solar minimum. According to them, sunspots apearing now, as one did yesterday, have a reversed polarity from cycle 24 spots, meaning they are the first markers of cycle 25. Therefore I wouldn’t say the Sun has started to wake up, it seems to be sound asleep.
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Robert Beatty
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Interesting comment Andy,
I hope this change does not also preempt a pole reversal here on Earth.
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Matt
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Earth’s pole reversals are not nice. Following my compass and steering my boat into a cliff that was never there before really bugs me.
Watching birds and sea creatures migrating the wrong way at the changing of seasons is a little unnerving.
In fact, a speculative article on the potential ramifications of a pole reversal on earth would blur the line between science fiction and reality. Does a reversal take one year to occur or one thousand years and would it be so terrifying we all release more methane? (CO2 and water)
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Andy Rowlands
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Thanks Robert. As I understand it, pole reversals happen about every 700,000 years, and the last one was about 700,000 years ago. The Earth’s magnetic field has been weakening since about 2010, which could indicate we are due for a reversal sometime in the not too distant future, but whether it happens in our lifetimes can only be speculation.
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Matt
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Would the Earth’s magnetic field increase again with an increase in solar activity? And what do those “oh my God particles” and lesser manifestations do to Earths internal workings? Hmmmmm
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JDHuffman
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Andy, don’t get too wrapped up in nonsense reported “700,000 years ago”.
Always ask to see the photos/videos….
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CD Marshall
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Does anyone know why I can’t find any real data on TSI since 2015? All the ones I’ve looked at conveniently end at 2015.
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