Solar maximum news, features and articles

With the solar cycle set to peak earlier than predicted, the sun's corona should look its spectacular spiky best for April 8's total solar eclipse.

A powerful explosion from the sun briefly opened up an enormous valley on the solar surface that was more than twice as wide as the contiguous U.S. and seven times longer than Earth.

NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center has released a "revised prediction" for the current solar cycle, which states that the upcoming solar maximum will arrive sooner and be more explosive than they initially forecast — as Live Science previously reported.

By analyzing how birds migrated across the U.S. over a 23-year period, researchers have shown that solar weather events can seriously disrupt the navigation of the wandering avians.

High radiocarbon levels in the rings of subfossil tree stumps suggest that an incomprehensibly powerful solar storm, known as a "Miyake event," smashed into our planet more than 14 millennia ago.

Past research suggests that some whale species are more likely to get lost and accidentally beach themselves during periods of increased solar activity, such as the upcoming solar maximum.

The disappearance of the gas giant's clouds is tied to the sun's 11-year cycle.

Two coronal mass ejections have combined into an enormous cloud of magnetized plasma that is forecast to hit Earth on Tuesday and potentially trigger a weak geomagnetic storm.

Photographers hoping to capture stunning "night-shining" clouds have been left frustrated this year. The fast-approaching solar maximum may be to blame.