Solar maximum... a time of sunspots, solar flares, auroras, and the occasional life-impacting solar storm. Lovely, right?
What is solar maximum?
First of all, I'm not an expert. Just saying.
The Sun goes through 11 year cycles. Like I said above, there is increased sunspot activity, and the Sun is the most active at this time.
The last solar maximum happened when I was three... so this is the first one I'll be able to experience one and actually remember it! It will happen a whole bunch of other times in my lifetime, but... hooray for firsts!
I've been browsing YouTube for cool videos of the Sun... preferably with Star Wars music in the background. But I didn't find anything. And as my computer and I aren't good enough to make our own video, I'm going to present to you two videos: one is the actual video, the other is the music you should listen to. The music makes all the difference, as you'll see in a minute.
Link number one: Sun Activity
NOTE: You have to mute the music on this link. Unless you want to listen to it; it's just not dramatic enough...
Link number two- open this in a different tab: Star Wars- Duel of the Fates
Do NOT mute this one. Go back to the other video and watch it with this music.
...Cool, right? Kinda intimating. "Witness the power of this fully operational ball of plasma!"
And just to make things better, NASA expects this to be 30% to 50% stronger than our last one. See here. Yowch. Most expect it to be at the height of solar maximum by 2012. Hm. But just look at the Sun now. It's already pretty active, and some sunspots pose a threat for solar flares.
