 | | A typical sunspot compared to the size of the earth. Sunspots have all but vanished in recent years |
|
Dr.
Kenneth Tapping is worried about the sun. Solar activity comes in regular
cycles, but the latest one is refusing to start. Sunspots have all but vanished,
and activity is suspiciously quiet. The last time this happened was 400 years
ago -- and it signaled a solar event known as a "Maunder Minimum," along with
the start of what we now call the "Little Ice Age." Tapping, a solar researcher
and project director for Canada's National Research Council, says it may be
happening again.
Overseeing a giant radio telescope he calls a "stethoscope for
the sun," Tapping says, if the pattern doesn't change quickly, the earth is in
for some very chilly weather. During the Little Ice Age, global temperatures
dropped sharply. New York Harbor froze hard enough to allow people to walk from
Manhattan to Staten Island, and in Britain, people reported sighting eskimos
paddling canoes off the coast. Glaciers in Norway grew up to 100 meters a year,
destroying farms and villages. But will it happen again?
)