Solar Minimum versus Solar Maximum | NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory

Solar Minimum versus Solar Maximum | NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory

Our Sun is a 4.5 billion-year-old yellow dwarf star—a hot glowing ball of hydrogen and helium—at the center of our solar system. It is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from Earth and it’s our solar system’s only star. The height of the Sun’s activity cycle, known as solar maximum, is a time of greatly increased solar storm activity. Sunspots, eruptions called solar flares, and coronal mass ejections are common at solar maximum.

Although the Sun is the center of our solar system and essential to our survival, it is only an average star in terms of its size. Stars up to 100 times larger have been found. Many solar systems have more than one star. By studying our Sun, scientists can better understand the workings of distant stars.

The Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way, bringing with it the planets, asteroids, comets, and other objects in our solar system. Our solar system is moving with an average velocity of 450,000 miles per hour (720,000 kilometers per hour). But even at this speed, it takes about 230 million years for the Sun to make one complete trip around the Milky Way.

Video Credit: NASA, Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS)

Duration: 20 seconds

Release Date: Dec. 6, 2023

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