One way to track the solar cycle is by counting the number of sunspots, which are dark, cooler patches on the Sun’s surface.

After a calm week, the sun erupted again. A powerful M5.1 solar flare burst from an emerging sunspot region, shaking the stillness of space weather and igniting new forecasts of heightened activity.

Climate data in a report published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate.gov website found that the sun’s solar activity, including overall brightness and sunspot ...

Scientists have pulled back the curtain on one of the most extreme solar regions seen in decades, tracking it almost nonstop ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. These processes follow the solar cycle, an 11-year cycle of increasing and decreasing activity on ...

How can astronomers observe and study the Sun’s activity in the most efficient way despite the Sun and Earth orbiting each ...

The sun's outer atmosphere has recently been likened to a pufferfish, revealing fascinating new insights into our solar system. This unique comparison stems from the first verified maps of the Alfvén ...

2025 was another busy year on the sun. But how did it compare with 2024, and what will 2026 bring for solar activity and the northern lights? When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn ...

Has the Sun’s activity increased or decreased in the last few years? This is what a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated ...

While the Sun’s solar flares strongly correlate with sunspots, observations of more than 14,000 other stars show this is not generally the case.

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: The intensity of the Sun’s activity ebbs and flows across years, but also across decades—a behavior that scientists haven’t quite figured out yet. At ...