US Edition'The sun is slowly waking up': NASA warns that there may be more extreme space weather for decades to come
NASA's study reveals a 31% rise in the sun's magnetic field strength since 2008, indicating increased solar flares and potential impacts on Earth's technology.
- NASA published a study on September 8, 2025, revealing that solar activity unexpectedly reversed its decline starting in 2008.
- Scientists had anticipated a prolonged low-activity phase after decades of fading solar surface activity since the 1980s but were surprised by the reversal.
- The Sun completes roughly 11-year solar cycles with magnetic activity, but longer-term trends like century-scale minima remain unpredictable and not fully understood.
- Since 2008, solar wind speed rose 6%, density 26%, temperature 29%, and magnetic field strength 31%, with frequent solar flares causing events like the $500 million May 2024 storm.
- This revived solar activity suggests decades of increased space weather risks, including geomagnetic storms that threaten satellites, power grids, and communications.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Solar storms could spark BLACKOUTS after Nasa reveals the Sun is 'waking up'
Fears are rising that intense solar storms could strike Earth after Nasa warned the Sun has started to "wake up". The space agency disclosed that our star's activity levels had been winding down for two decades until around 2008. Since then, researchers have revealed that the strength of the Sun's solar winds has increased, with a ramping up of speed, temperature and density. There are fears that the charged-up activity could send waves of sever…
Something Weird Is Going on With the Sun, Scientists Find
The Sun — usually so predictable — is exhibiting some surprising behavior and that has scientists very intrigued. Astronomers had predicted that our host star was entering a period of relative quiet back in 2008, but NASA scientists have published a new study in The Astrophysical Journal Letters that found that the Sun has instead defied expectations by becoming more active, with increased sunspots and solar flares. "All signs were pointing to t…
'The sun is slowly waking up': NASA warns that there may be more extreme space weather for decades to come
A new NASA study suggests that solar activity will remain high or rise further in the coming decades, contradicting previous assumptions that the sun was quieting down — and scientists "don't completely understand" why.
New research by Nasa shows that the sun's activity is increasing again, which could have an impact on the Earth's space weather and technical systems.
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