The sunspots have been observed first by the ancient Chinese astronomers and confirmed by Galileo in 1610, with a telescope. A periodicity in 11 year cycles was observed. But the number of spots in the last years was very low and different. “It is the weakest cycle the sun has been it for all the space age, for 50 years”, said the physicist Doug Biesecker of the Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. In the first year of the last sun’s cycle 266 days were without a single sunspot. Compared to an average of 120 solar spots a day – a maximum in the previous cycle – this is very different and for now astronomers don’t understand why. A possible answer will be probably after 3 or 4 years. But as a consequence of the phenomenon, if sunspot numbers continue to stay low, the Earth’s climate will be affected.
