nasa solar storms dimensional images space nasa

Scientists are saying that the Sun’s surface is eerily devoid of activity at the moment. It’s “Like the quiet before a storm,” says NASA. When the sun’s surface quiets down, we can expect an incredible burst of activity in the form of communications disrupting solar flares and storms. This is referred to as a maxima in an 11-year cycle of sunspots. But there is one glimmer of hope. Scientists are unsure how to predict these maxima and admit that the upcoming maxima in 2012 could be as viscious as in 1958, or as meek as in 1805. We can “expect to see the first sunspots of the next cycle appear in late 2006 or 2007—and Solar Max to be underway by 2010 or 2011,” says David Hathaway of the National Space Science & Technology Center (NSSTC).

A view of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) in three dimensions. The Sun is the orange sphere in the middle of the image, and the CME appears in false color as the white areas. This CME was launched from the Sun on June 29, 1999 and was directed toward Earth. Researchers analyzed ordinary two-dimensional images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft in a new way to yield the 3D images. (Credit: NASA, the European Space Agency, Tom Moran, Tom Bridgman)

Image of our Sun (in 2-D) was captured by SECCHI/Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope on March 20, 2007. The blue false color image show the sun’s atmospheres at a temperatures of 1 million degrees C (171 E), credit NASA

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