active sun

noun

, Astronomy.

1. the sun at a maximum of solar activity, occurring every 11 years.
2. solar activity, superimposed on an unchanging background.

Word History and Origins

Origin of active sun¹

First recorded in 1975–80

Example Sentences

“A much more active sun might have also affected Earth on geological time scales - paleoclimatology. A ‘too active’ star would definitively change the conditions for life on the planet, so living with a quite boring star is not the worst option,” Reinhold said.

From Reuters

It’s also tricky to discern the lines of correlation here; the researchers didn’t control for other factors, writing, “it is not possible to differentiate between active sun exposure habits and a healthy lifestyle.”

From Slate

“This is essentially a real record of the early active sun,” said Philipp Heck, a cosmochemist at the Field Museum in Chicago and the University of Chicago, and an author on the paper.

From New York Times

This evidence of an early active sun could have remained trapped unscathed within the crystals for billions of years and been incorporated into rocks that eventually fell to Earth for scientists to study.

From Scientific American

However, proving this “early active sun hypothesis” is challenging because it is difficult to find material that recorded what the early sun was like and that also survived billions of years unscathed.

From Scientific American