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The sun is totally spotless at the moment and this is what it means

The sun is missing something.
The sun is missing something. The sun is missing something.

Nasa has released a picture of a completely spotless sun, which could mean the star is heading towards a lull in its 11-year cycle.

It’s been clear of sunspots for a whole two weeks this month, which Nasa says means it’s entering into the “solar minimum” part of its cycle.

This is the clearest the sun’s been since the last solar minimum in April 2010.

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The sun’s cycle has two extreme points – solar minimum, where it’s relatively inactive and has few sunspots, and solar maximum, where sun activity and sunspots are at their most common.

Although the sun is less active during solar minimum, high-speed streams of solar material which cause the aurora here on Earth do continue.

Sunspots are cooler areas of magnetic activity on the sun’s surface almost 3,000C cooler than the surrounding area.