posted on Mar, 9 2013 @ 02:57 AM
Only because the Daily Mail writes a piece about it now, does not mean it's new information.
This information is already a couple months old. Try looking into the o called Maunder minimum which led to a mini ice age back from 1650 to about
1720.
The current number of sunspots ( Just checked on the spaceweather site ) is 59. Here#s a graph showing the actual count over the past centuries:
We should be in the range of 200-300 right now, but since we are only observing the sun for a mere fraction of its existence, we can impossibly say if
this is indeed unusual. It might just be another cycle of low activity. 1000 years more observation may prove this.
What is also interesting is the fact that the eruptions from the sun and the flares, do have a direct impact upon the expansion of earths atmosphere.
No eruptions mean the atmosphere is
shrinking