Cosmic Ray Radiation Is Dangerous and Getting Worse As Sun Is Often Spotless

“The radiation environment is worsening more rapidly than previously estimated. Over the last decade, the solar wind has exhibited low densities and magnetic field strengths, representing anomalous states that have never been observed during the Space Age.”

- Nathan Schwadron, Ph.D., Physicist, Univ. of New Hampshire

March 8, 2018 Durham, New Hampshire - In mid-February 2018, solar activity was as low as 2007 levels, which was one year before that solar minimum began. That's why solar physicists now project that the Solar Cycle 24 minimum leading up to Solar Cycle 25 will begin a year from now in the spring of 2019. Some solar physicists have even placed bets about whether low energy Solar Cycle 24 will keep extending into Solar Cycles 25 to 26 ending up in a Maunder Minimum of 1645 to 1715, when our Sun was blank without sunspots most of the time and coincided with a Little Ice Age.