Did you know that about every eleven years the sun’s magnetic poles switch places? The sun actually has a cycle of waxing and waning activity, and on it’s way to solar maximum, or the part of it’s cycle where sunspot activity is at it’s peak, the north and south magnetic poles flip.
In 2001 it was predicted that the next flip would occur in 2012, so our sun is overdue for, er, flipping out. Watch the video below for more information on this interesting phenomenon.
The Sun’s Magnetic Field is About to Flip
To sum up the video, scientists have been tracking the sun’s polar magnetic fields since 1976, and have witnessed three polar flips during that time. The heliosphere, or sun’s magnetic influence, extends billions of miles beyond Pluto. The ‘current sheet’ is an extremely low electrical current generated by the sun’s magnetic field, and is 10,000 kilometers thick by billions of kilometers wide. As the poles begin to shift, they move to zero magnetic polarity, re-emerging as the opposite polarity. During the sun’s polar shifts the current sheet becomes very wavy, spiraling out waves from the sun at it’s center. This activity induces cosmic storms and affects cosmic rays.
Scientists believe that Earth switches it’s magnetic poles as well, but since this phenomenon is believed to occur on Earth only once in every five thousand years, there’s no way to tell when our planet is due for the next reversal.
For more information on our sun and Earth reversing their magnetic polarity, visit the sources below. And never forget: Truth is often stranger than fiction.
Source: NASA – The Sun’s Magnetic Field is About to Flip (2013), NASA – The Sun Does a Flip (2001)