Reduced Solar Activity

The Maunder Minimum indicates that the Sun may go through periods of greatly reduced activity. There is other less direct evidence that similar reductions in activity may have occurred several times over the last few thousand years.

It is possible that there is some correlation of climate on Earth with solar activity. For example, the time of the Maunder Minimum coincided with a period of reduced temperatures that was called the little ice age in Europe. This is an issue of practical importance, since even small fluctuations in the average temperature of Earth could have large implications for life on the planet.