Sun Is Going Through A Less Active Phase Called ‘Solar Minimum’, But Won’t Spark Another Ice Age

Just like humans, the Sun goes also through different phases and changes. Over time, we have learned to predict those changes. And currently, it's going through a less active phase, called a solar minimum.

Though due to climate change, this solar minimum won't spark another ice age, the scientists say.

The sun undergoes regular 11-year intervals including energetic peaks of activity, followed by low points. The sun showcases more sunspots and solar flares, during the peak.

Solar scientists think that we could move to a "Grand Solar Minimum", in the coming decades.

It occurred between 1650 and 1715 the last time, during what's known as the Little Ice Age in Earth's Northern Hemisphere, "when a combination of cooling from volcanic aerosols and low solar activity produced lower surface temperatures," according to NASA's Global Climate Change blog.

The Sun goes through regular cycles of high & low activity. This cycle affects the frequency of space weather events, but it doesn't have a major effect on Earth's climate — even an extended minimum wouldn't have a significant effect on global temperature. https://t.co/t2Fw58ZBVt

— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) May 18, 2020

Still if the sun is quiet during the solar minimum, it can be active in different ways, like coronal holes that open in the sun's atmosphere and give out blazing streams of energized particles traveling through the solar system on rapid solar wind.

These streams of particles during a solar minimum can obstruct the communication and GPS we rely on from satellites.

Galactic cosmic rays, which are more highly energetic particles, can reach Earth, particularly its upper atmosphere, during a solar minimum. These are formed by explosions over our Milky Way galaxy, like supernovae.

Dean Pesnell, project scientist of the Solar Dynamics Observatory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center said,"During solar minimum, the sun's magnetic field weakens and provides less shielding from these cosmic rays, this can pose an increased threat to astronauts traveling through space."

This solar minimum ends solar cycle 24. Early predictions estimated the peak of solar cycle 25 will occur in July 2025, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe, in August 2018, to draw closer to the sun than any satellite before. It's witnessing the sun during solar minimum up close.

The probe was created to help solve significant questions about the solar wind that streams out from the sun, flinging energetic particles across the solar system. Its instruments may also give insight about why the sun's corona, the outer atmosphere of the star, is so much hotter than the actual surface. The surface is around 6,000 kelvins and the corona is 1 million kelvins.