Will the Sun's magnetic field reverse? Understand the solar cycle

At the risk of falling into pleonasm, we can say that things are hot on the Sun at the moment. Information from the GOES geostationary satellite has reported constant occurrences of powerful solar flares that cause frequent radio blackouts on Earth. One of them, released in December, was considered by NASA to be the strongest in the last six years.

However, all this activity It is part of an 11-year cycle in which the poles of our star are reversed. This is because solar activity waxes and wanes during this period, known as the Schwabe cycle, named after the German astronomer who discovered this periodicity by counting the number of sunspots observed between 1826 and 1843.

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