The sun's magnetic field will be reversing in the next four or five months, a process that "will have ripple effects throughout the solar system" according to NASA.
The magnetic field will reportedly reverse by the end of this year, and the sun's north pole has already changed its sign from negative to positive according to Todd Hoeksema, a physicist at Stanford University.
"It looks like we're no more than three to four months away from a complete field reversal," said Hoeksema, the director of Stanford University's Wilcox Solar Observatory, said in a press statement. "This change will have ripple effects throughout the solar system."
The sun's south pole will also change its sign soon and the reversal of magnetic fields will "signal the midpoint of Solar Cycle 24" according to Hoeksema.
Solar Cycle's occur once every 11 years and happens natural according to SPACE.com. During the solar cycle, the number of sunspots increases, which is called Solar Maximum, and decreases, which is called Solar Minimum.
"The sun's polar magnetic fields weaken, go to zero, and then emerge again with the opposite polarity. This is a regular part of the solar cycle," says Stanford solar physicist Phil Scherrer.
The sun is currently at its Solar Maximum phase according to NASA. Most experts had predicted the peak of Solar Max to take place earlier than usual in its cycle, sometime at the beginning of 2013, but they now believe we're going through a double peak, which will take place likely in December or early 2014.
The current cycle started in 2008.
"The sun's north pole has already changed sign, while the south pole is racing to catch up," Scherrer said. "Soon, however, both poles will be reversed, and the second half of solar max will be underway."
The shift can reportedly change weather patterns but also provides extra protection from dangerous cosmic rays. These "high-energy particles" fly through the universe and the speed of light and can harm satellites and astronauts in space according to Scherrer.
Astronomers monitor the sun's poles to check if any changes have occurred and their latest data did in fact show the flipping of the sun's magnetic field will take place around December.
Scherrer also said the current solar maximum is the weakest in 100 years according to SPACE.com.
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