The sun is ending 2024 with a burst of activity, sending out three powerful X-class flares on December 29th. These flares are part of the ongoing maximum of the sun's current activity cycle, driven by its immense magnetic field. Scientists are still working to understand the triggers behind these powerful solar events.
The sun is bidding farewell to 2024 with a bang—or rather several bangs. Our star produced three powerful flares on December 29. In addition, two bubbles of material it sent speeding out across space mayare categorized by their peak brightness in x-ray wavelengths, with X-class flares being the fiercest flashes. Our star’s December 29 activity included three such flares, which occurred at 2:18 A.M., 11:14 P.M. and 11:31 P.M. EST, according to a NASA statement.
The outbursts represent continuing tumult amid what scientists have identified as the maximum of the sun’s current activity cycle, which also. “Our sun is a giant magnet, and so most of the things that happen on the sun are guided by the magnetism,” says Maria Kazachenko, a heliophysicist at the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Solar Observatory.. Scientists measure the sun’s activity by counting the dark sunspots that mar its surface. Each sunspot is home to a smaller magnetic field—although sunspots themselves are often the size of Earth. Sudden changes in the configuration of a sunspot’s magnetic field, called a magnetic reconnection, can release a huge amount of energy, causing a solar flare. But scientists are still trying to understand what events can trigger magnetic reconnections. “The major problem with these flares is that we cannot really stick a thermometer or a magnetometer inside of the solar flare,” Kazachenko says. “So it’s very hard to understand what’s going on.” And magnetic reconnection in one sunspot can trigger the phenomenon in another sunspot—even across a large distance—in what scientists call a sympathetic eruption. “We frequently see flares occurring in groups,” Kazachenko say
SUN SOLAR FLARE SPACE WEATHER MAGNETIC RECONNECTION ACTIVITY CYCLE
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