The sun has seen its most active month for over two decades, with a monthly average of 215.5 sunspots being recorded in August.
This is the first time the average monthly sunspot number has exceeded 200 since September 2001, which was before the sun released the most powerful solar flare ever recorded, in late 2003.
Experts had predicted that August would only see half as many sunspots, indicating that the solar maximum is imminent, and it may be more active than anticipated, possibly bringing intense solar flares and coronal mass ejections.