Out in space the sun remains on a record pace at 51 days without sunspots, and no expectations of any change soon. We’ll be in the
top 3 longest quiet periods by Wednesday evening (tied with 54 days from 1879) and by late next week we’ll head into the 2nd position as we surpass 63 days from 1901. The daily solar observations began in 1849, but we know from other observations between 1400 and 1830 that these periods of sunspot minimums were associated with a 400-year stretch known as the Little Ice Age. The only problem with observations from that time is that there were no telescopes and satellites with the observational power we have today. In other words, the long periods without sunspots are even more impressive now because we can pick out the smallest sunspot, ones that would have been missed 100 to 200 years ago. We won’t know if this is true for a long time, but at this point there is no reason to discount the idea that we’re heading into another Little Ice Age, or possible a major ice age. Time will tell…
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