Aurora records in royal chronicles from Korea show that during the 'Maunder Minimum' between 1645 and 1715, the sun's solar cycles became several years shorter than they are today. When you purchase ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. From Earth, the Sun appears comfortingly constant, always just ...

A large solar flare erupts from the Sun’s surface in this image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory taken on 7 March 2012. Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO Sunspots change in number depending on how much ...

In 1645, something strange happened with our sun. Galileo was one of the first astronomers to document temporary blemishes on the solar surface, called “sunspots.” But in the mid 17th century they ...

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 ...

Astronomers identified a nearby star whose sunspot cycles appear to have stopped. Studying this star might help explain the unusual period from the mid 1600s to the early 1700s when our Sun paused its ...

"Half-forgotten" sunspot drawings by Renaissance astronomer Johannes Kepler are showing us more about how the sun's cycle of activities work. "The group's findings … offer a key to resolving the ...

Using modern techniques, researchers have re-examined Johannes Kepler's half-forgotten sunspot drawings and revealed previously hidden information about the solar cycles before the grand solar minimum ...

While the the sun might appear like a still disk in the sky, our star is actually a dynamic object that goes through cycles of activity. But what exactly are solar cycles and what are they ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The number of sunspots on our Sun typically ebbs and flows in a predictable 11-year cycle, but one unusual 70-year period when sunspots were incredibly rare has mystified ...