Our Increasingly Active Sun.

Our Sun is becoming a busy place. Only two years ago, the Sun was emerging from a solar minimum so quiet that month s would go by without even a single sunspot . In contrast, already this year and well ahead of schedule, our Sun is unusually active , already nearing solar activity levels seen a decade ago during the last solar maximum . Our increasingly active Sun was captured two weeks ago sporting numerous interesting features. The image was recorded in a single color of light called Hydrogen Alpha , color-inverted, and false colored. Spicules carpet much of the Sun's face. The brightening towards the Sun's edges is caused by increased absorption of relatively cool solar gas and called limb darkening . Just outside the Sun's disk , several scintillating prominences protrude , while prominences on the Sun's face are known as filaments and show as light streaks. Magnetically tangled active regions are both dark and light and contain cool sunspots . As our Sun's magnetic field winds toward solar maximum over the next few years, whether the Sun's high activity will continue to increase is unknown.