Images: The sun is losing its spots
Here come the sunspots. NASA reports currently there is almost no sunspots on the sun--which most likely means sunspot activity has reached the solar minimum or low point of its 11-year cycle.
Since the magnetic energy from a sunspot is the source of solar flares, the chance of a solar flare, which usually causes communication outages as they near Earth, is minimal right now. But it also means that solar activity will be picking up over the next five and a half years and the threat will be increasing.
The sun as it looked on July 24.
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