The probe completed its 27th closest approach to the Sun this March.

During these phases, sunspots and solar eruptions are uncommon. At this time, the Sun’s magnetic field is mainly dipolar. Signs of magnetic activity at active latitudes become hard to see.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its 27th close approach to the Sun on March 11, again matching its record distance of 3.8 million miles (6.2 million kilometers) from the solar surface.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. The sun has become more and more active over the last 16 years, in a turn that surprised scientists and could affect space weather ...

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For a long stretch of time, scientists were under the impression that our star was slowly entering hibernation. Known as the "deep solar minimum," this period started in the 1980s and ended in 2008.