After a long hibernation, the Sun starts to awaken: the spy is a group of spots that have appeared in its northern hemisphere. It was photographed by the solar physicist Mauro Messerotti, of the Trieste Observatory of the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) and of the University of Trieste. Its appearance, he tells ANSA Messerotti, "indicates that the reorganization of the solar magnetic field is underway and already produces some magnetic flux tubes of the new cycle of activity, giving rise to some sporadic group of spots".
These sunspots have in fact the signature of the new cycle because they appeared at a high latitude and have the magnetic field inverted with respect to the spots of the old cycle, which also appear at low latitudes. These are not the first spots of the new cycle of solar activity observed so far, but this does not mean "that the new cycle has started because we are still in the minimum phase. It means instead - continues the expert - that the new cycle is being organized. ".
The Sun is therefore heading towards awakening, but, for Messerotti, "it could still take several months". The solar cycles, which last an average of 11 years, are marked precisely between the periods of maximum activity of the Sun, in which the number of sunspots increases, and the periods of minimum activity, whose number of spots decreases.