Thankfully, our sun's sunspot activity occurs along an approximate 11-year cycle, giving us some indication of when to expect this solar weather.

That, in turn, will trigger the expansion of the outer envelope (atmosphere), and the sun morphs into a red giant. Once the sun enters that "bloating" phase, it will engulf the nearest worlds.

When the Sun runs out of hydrogen fuel and expands into a red giant, it will eventually encompass the innermost planets of the solar system, out to about Earth’s orbit.

Here’s how it works. An artist's visualization of some of the spots on red giant XX Trianguli. (Image credit: Viktor Varga & Ádám Radványi (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest)) ...

Giant 'senior citizen' sunspot on 3rd trip around the sun could break a century-old record Behold, 'The Beast': Gigantic animal-like plasma plume 13 times wider than Earth hovers over the sun ...

These best-yet images of the nearby star R Doradus show giant plasma bubbles 75 times bigger than our sun rising and sinking on its surface. (Image credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/W. Vlemmings et al ...