Happy Wednesday!

watch the full NASA YouTube video: X

The Sun is stirring from its latest slumber.

As sunspots and flares bubble from the Sun’s surface, representatives from NASA, NOAA, and the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel announced that the Sun has reached its solar maximum period.

The solar cycle is a natural cycle the Sun goes through as it transitions between low and high magnetic activity and back again. Roughly every 11 years, at the height of the solar cycle, the Sun’s magnetic poles flip (on Earth, that’d be like the North and South poles swapping places every decade), and the Sun goes from calm to an active and stormy state.

During this most active part of the cycle (solar maximum), the Sun shows many more sunspots and often unleashes immense explosions of light, energy, and solar radiation, creating "space weather" which affects satellites and astronauts in space, as well as communications systems and power grids down here on Earth.

NASA and NOAA track sunspots to determine and predict the progress of the solar cycle - and ultimately solar activity. Sunspots are cooler regions on the Sun caused by a concentration of magnetic field lines. They're the visible component of active regions, areas of intense and complex magnetic fields on the Sun and the source of solar eruptions.

“During solar maximum, the number of sunspots, and therefore the amount of solar activity, increases,” says Jamie Favors of the NASA Space Weather Program. “This increase in activity provides an exciting opportunity to learn about our closest star, but also causes real effects at Earth and throughout our solar system.”

Solar activity has led to increased auroral activity and impacts on satellites and electronic infrastructure this year. During 2024, barrages of huge solar flares and coronal mass ejections launched clouds of charged particles toward Earth, creating the strongest geomagnetic storms we've experienced in decades, and possibly the strongest auroras visible in the past 500 years.

This is a great time to watch the Sun (via the internet or a properly filtered telescope only - never view the Sun without certified safe solar filters made for your instrument) and catch some auroras. Even here at Ad Astra headquarters in Kansas (which almost never sees an aurora), we've been able to enjoy a few nighttime light shows this year!

(Click for better quality)

Full page under cut

New member of the Evil Sun Squad!

PHOENIX! Named after a BlackHole of the same name!

A version of Sun that merged his Ai with Eclipse to steal the Newton Star after finding out Moon put his Killcode in him

Personality wise they are a mix of both Sun and Eclipses personalities, they can appear as innocent at first, but after getting to know them you’ll find they can be rather sadistic and VERY Sassy, not easy to get along with first try, so try to make a good first impression, their not very forgiving to those who’ve wronged them

@hikkokoro @thatweirdocryptid @tricerapor12

ALSO! QUICK ART CHALLENGE I WANTED TO DO WITH YOU GUYS!

Try redrawing this in your art :3

It was Aurora Borealis all over Friday night, thanks to the severe geomagnetic storms caused by the sun's really active phase (solar maximum). Here are some of my shots from our backyard. First time to see the aurora this further down south.

Notes:

Aurora Borealis, May 10-11, 2024

Devon, UK

Nikon D5600

Tokina 11-16mm

I used incandescent white balance to kick out the ugly glow from light pollution and also to prioritize the cooler colours.

A bit of a timelapse below:

The solar maximum gave the midwest a chance to see the aurora borealis. Unfortunately, even with long exposure on my camera, I wasn't able to capture anything.