The Secret Life of the Sun

00:00:03 90 million miles from us

00:02:48 We've set up inside one of RAL's giant research facilities

00:05:11 with this wonderful fleet of spacecraft.

00:07:33 Did you want some as well? Oh, yeah, we've been searching everywhere!

00:10:08 the period of greatest activity in the sun's cycle.

00:12:15 The eclipse is tomorrow morning

00:14:35 And it's now just a tiny...

00:17:09 An eclipse is a fabulous thing to experience

00:19:26 with a few little fragments circling round the outside.

00:22:01 and that plastic material blows away from the capsule

00:24:32 they're hoping to create a tiny sun

00:27:47 It's...lovely, fantastic

00:30:00 and penetrate the surface of the sun

00:32:14 and a long winter's night is about to fall.

00:34:51 To the naked eye, it's very faint.

00:37:12 And that, we think, is really cool.

00:40:06 from the full force of solar weather by the Earth's magnetic field

00:42:27 that's most vulnerable to a big solar storm.

00:44:56 So what are the different events that could happen?

00:47:05 That solar storm took out the power grid in the Swedish city of Malmo.

00:49:43 that astronomers have been observing for centuries -

00:52:13 17 years ago, a study of sunspots began here

00:54:02 the magnetic strength of sunspots

00:56:31 If this trend does continue