According to scientists, every 11 years, the sun goes through a cycle where its magnetic poles (North and South) reverse or switch places.
The sun’s poles last flipped in 2013, so the next event is on schedule to take place this year, according to Vox.com.
Scientists say there’s no need to panic. It’s not a sign of the apocalypse. You won’t even notice it when the flip happens. But it’s not the pole reversal itself that’s the main cause for concern.
With the sun’s surface growing more active, serious anomalies can happen. While that’s great news for amateur astronomers who are set to see some amazing solar fireworks through their telescopes, it could be bad news for power grids and communication satellites circling the Earth.
There’s already intense magnetic activity now happening on the sun’s surface that marks a kind of lead-in that comes before the poles’ reversal.
“We are indeed seeing the sun more active than it’s been in probably something like 20 years,” Paul Charbonneau, a solar physicist at the University of Montreal, told Vox.
It’s during these peak periods of solar activity that the sun’s fireworks grow larger.
“When the magnetic energy content of the sun is a lot
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