May and June 2024 saw the highest sunspot numbers on the sun since 2002, but is the peak of the solar cycle here yet?
The sun follows an 11-year solar cycle of increasing and decreasing activity. Although not the first astronomer to discover the solar cycle, the solar cycle numbering and naming convention was first introduced in 1852 by Swiss astronomer Johann Rudolf Wolf. Within his new solar cycle numbering system, he set the historic 1755-1766 solar cycle 'Solar Cycle 1'. By the time of his work, the sun was already in Solar Cycle 9. As of December 2019, we are now in Solar Cycle 25.
