The sun is smiling and standing on the NASA telescope

So-called coronal holes were discovered when the Skylab mission’s X-ray telescopes were sent out of Earth’s atmosphere to observe our star.

These holes are connected by the lines of the solar magnetic field: during the period of less activity of the Sun, holes are located mainly in the polar regions, while when the Sun is more active, many spots appear scattered over the entire surface. The current solar cycle shows unusually high activity, so much so that the peak, tentatively expected for 2025, will likely reach a year earlier.

An example of this activity are coronal holes now photographed by the Sdo Space Telescope, launched in 2010 and orbiting 36,000 kilometers from Earth.