Die Sonne ist der Stern, der unsere Erde mit Wärme versorgt. Doch Wissenschaftler haben Anzeichen dafür gefunden, dass sich das Zentrum unseres Planetensystems für die nächsten 40 Jahre abkühlen könnte. Droht uns jetzt eine „kleine Eiszeit“?

UK Met Office: Fastest decline in solar activity since the last ice age

The past few decades have been characterized by a period of relatively high solar activity. However, the recent prolonged solar minimum and subsequent weak solar cycle 24 have led to suggestions that the grand solar maximum may be at an end. Using past variations of solar activity measured by cosmogenic isotope abundance changes, analogue forecasts for possible future solar output have been calculated. An 8% chance of a return to Maunder Minimum-like conditions within the next 40 years was estimated in 2010 (ref. 2). The decline in solar activity has continued, to the time of writing, and is faster than any other such decline in the 9,300 years covered by the cosmogenic isotope data1. If this recent rate of decline is added to the analysis, the 8% probability estimate is now raised to between 15 and 20%.