The Sun's magnetic midlife crisis
arXiv:2510.16241 · doi:10.1063/PT.3.3956
Abstract
The Sun is just one of a hundred billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Our front-row seat on Earth allows us to observe it in much greater detail than we can for other stars. However, those observations provide only one snapshot in the life story of stars like the Sun. To piece together the entire tale, astronomers need to study other stars that are younger and older. Their observations have revealed something unexpected that never could have come to light from studies of our Sun in isolation.
Refereed article published in Physics Today (June 2018). Author version posted for open access and relevance to the latest results