The sun is losing its sunspots

Here come the sunspots. NASA reports currently there are almost no sunspots on the sun--which most likely means sunspot activity has reached the solar minimum or low point of its 11-year cycle.

Because the magnetic energy from a sunspot is the source of solar flares, the chance of a solar flare, which usually causes communication outages as it nears Earth, is minimal right now. But it also means that solar activity will be picking up over the next five and a half years and the threat will be increasing.

The sun as it looked on July 24.