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The sun seems to be taking an unexpected nap flop now — just in time for theApril 8 full solar eclipseon Monday .
Until latterly , solar body process has been very gamy , which has raise hopes that wemay be able to see solar tempest pullulate out of our base starduring totality — the full point when the sun is whole blocked out by the moon . But this now seems improbable , grant to the late space weather forecasts .
The sun could be surprisingly quiet during the upcoming total solar eclipse. However, it should still look incredible.
However , if you may get an unobstructed horizon of our plate star fromsomewhere along the path of total , it should still look much more impressive than during most other eclipses , experts say .
The Sunday is currentlynearing solar maximum , the explosive peak of its roughly 11 - class solar cycle per second when dark sunspots litter the Sunday ’s surface and often spit out brawny solar storms . Some experts believe that this phasemay have already start , around a yearearlier than initially forecast . But we will not live for indisputable until long after it is over .
Over the last two month , solar activity has been exceptionally gamy . We have seengigantic sunspots , frequent X - course solar flares(the most brawny class of solar plosion ) andtowering plasma plume . On March 23 , Earth also experienced itsbiggest geomagnetic storm in more than six yearsafter a jumbo swarm of plasma and radiation , known as acoronal mass ejection(CME ) , smashed into the planet .
There are currently no major sunspots on the sun’s near side to Earth.
Related : April 8 solar eclipse : What sentence does totality start in every state ?
Right now , however , the sun is amazingly tranquil . There are just a couple of alive sunspot region on the sun ’s nearside to Earth , which are much smaller than those we have see in the last few workweek , according toSpaceweather.com . The predilection of these regions ' charismatic airfield also hints that there is a lowly fortune they will be spitting outsolar flaresor CMEs between now and the eclipse , according toEarthsky.com .
But just because solar storms are unlikely does n’t mean the occultation will be any less prominent . Due to the Dominicus ’s currently countermine charismatic field , the electric glow — the kayoed part of the Dominicus ’s atm , whichlooks like a ghostly halowhen viewed during a entire eclipse — will still bemuch more large thanit is during other periods of the solar bicycle .
During a hybrid solar eclipse in Australia last year, photographers managed to photograph a CME (circled) erupting from the sun.
The radiation cyclosis from the sun will make the corona wait like a " spiky porcupine " during the occultation , Scott McIntosh , a solar physicist and surrogate director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado , say Live Science in an email .
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There will also be lots of otherinteresting stuff for observer to look out forduring the eclipse , admit stars , planet and the " devil comet , " 12P / Pons - Broos , whichwill be in airless proximity to the sunduring the eclipse .
However , if you are plan to take a cheep at the sun during sum , verify to do so safely . Totality is the ONLY time it is safe to look at the sun without eye security — and you MUST be within the route of totality to do so . At all other time during the partial phase angle of the occultation , you mustwear a decent couplet of eclipse chalk , or utilize other shape of center protection , such as apinhole projectoror agood solar telescope .
