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  • 2 days ago
The Sun is approaching its solar maximum, the apex of its 11-year solar cycle. As it approaches that, as we’ve already seen over the last couple of years, we can expect more and greater activity from our solar system’s center. But that’s the thing, this solar-cycle might be far more intense than anyone expected.

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00:00The Sun is approaching its solar maximum, the apex of its 11-year solar cycle.
00:08As it approaches that, as we've seen over the last couple of years,
00:11we can expect more and greater activity from our solar system center.
00:15But that's the thing, this solar cycle might be far more intense than anyone expected.
00:20Just last year, a coronal mass ejection from the Sun came into contact with our planet.
00:24While the resulting auroras were especially beautiful,
00:27it also increased the air density in the upper atmosphere.
00:30This caused issues with a SpaceX Starlink launch,
00:33causing them to lose some 38 of the 49 satellites they attempted to put into orbit.
00:37Experts say that the last solar cycle was a relatively weak one,
00:40perhaps throwing off predictions for this current cycle.
00:43In fact, this graphic from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
00:47shows the predicted solar activity as a gray curve.
00:50Meanwhile, the actual activity is graphed in dots,
00:52revealing an increasing level of activity from the Sun.
00:55And we're still years away from the solar maximum in 2025.
00:59So what's going to happen when the Sun reaches its apex?
01:01Well, we'll just have to wait and see.
01:04We'll see.
01:05We'll see.
01:06We'll see.
01:07We'll see.
01:08.
01:09.

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