Did you know the Sun has different seasons?
The left is 2019 and the right is 2024.
Over the course of around 11 years,
the Sun cycles through different phases.
We call this the solar cycle.
In 2019, the Sun was in a period of low activity
known as solar minimum,
when there are fewer eruptions on its surface.
Gradually over the next five years,
the Sun became more active
as it approached solar maximum.
These bright spots seen here are known as active regions.
They have intense magnetic activity
that can sometimes release bursts of energy.
To give a sense of scale,
the loops in these active regions
rise many times the size of Earth above the Sun’s surface.
But active regions are only temporary.
They pulse and fizzle out in the space of hours or months.
In the years after solar maximum,
fewer active regions will appear
and the Sun will become calm once again.