The ‘Maunder Minimum' is the name given to the period from 1645 to 1715 when the number of sunspots – ‘storms' on the sun – became almost zero. The period is named after the solar astronomer Edward ...

Solar activity, manifested primarily through sunspots, solar flares and coronal mass ejections, has long influenced both the near-space environment and terrestrial systems. Over millennia, variations ...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: The intensity of the Sun’s activity ebbs and flows across years, but also across decades—a behavior that scientists haven’t quite figured out yet. At ...