Are X-rays produced in cycles?

The solar cycle is not just to do with sunspots. For example, the number of solar flares, prominences , and coronal mass ejections also follows the sunspot cycle. You can see the solar cycle by looking at the changes in the corona

Here are 12 X-ray pictures of the Sun. The first picture (left) was taken in 1991, just after the last maximum of solar activity cycle. The last picture was taken in 1995, at solar minimum.

Now that you know how the face of the Sun changes during its activity cycle, can you guess roughly when the images shown below were taken? Click here to see whether you were right.

Click here to get back to the sunspots page.