Forget the hype about Global warming. It’s a lie. However, this danger is real and could kill hundreds of millions.
About every 11 years, the sun goes through what’s known as ‘solar maximum’, when many bizarre dark spots appear on its surface.
It’s during this solar maximum when the most violent space weather is expected.
The researchers say predicting exactly when this peak is going to occur – and therefore when the most violent space weather hits Earth – has been challenging.
We know that solar cycles last roughly every 11 years – but this is only an average, as Dr Nandi explains.
‘Eleven years is a mean periodicity, implying this is determined by averaging the individual periods of all observed solar cycles in the modern era,’ he told MailOnline.
‘Individual cycles can vary in length from nine to 14 years.’
These ‘sunspots’ – which can cluster together and form what looks like an archipelago – are caused by massive changes in our star’s magnetic field.
They also shoot out violent explosions of energy towards Earth, causing ‘solar storms’ that can potentially damage satellites and disrupt the internet.