The Sun was supposed to be entering a quiet phase, dimming into a long solar minimum. Instead, it has startled scientists by revving up, breaking predictions and unleashing some of the strongest storms in decades. A new NASA study shows that since about 2008, the Sun’s output of solar wind, magnetic fields, and energetic particles has steadily climbed, overturning expectations of a subdued star.⁠ ⁠ The data are clear. Solar-wind speed has risen by 6%, density by 26%, temperature by 29%, and thermal pressure by 45%. Energy flux is up 40%, while the strength of the interplanetary magnetic field has grown by more than 30%. These shifts mean the Sun is not drifting into a deep minimum like the Maunder or Dalton periods of centuries past, but instead is “slowly waking up,” as NASA’s Jamie Jasinski puts it.⁠ ⁠ That awakening is already evident. Solar Cycle 25 has produced the highest sunspot counts in 20 years and unleashed record numbers of X-class flares, the most powerful category. In 202...