Cooler Sun

A mini ice age could freeze Earth over the next 30 years as the Sun is expected to be "unusually cool" (7% cooler) and dimmer by 2050, say scientists of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego in the US.

"less radiation by midcentury, giving Earth a chance to warm a bit more slowly

The Sun might emit

but not halt the trend of human-induced climate change", say the scientists who reviewed 20 years of satellite observations of nearby Sun-like stars to estimate the strength of the next

"grand minimum".

"grand minimum", a periodic event during which the Sun's magnetism diminishes, sunspots form infrequently

The cooldown would be the result of this

and less ultraviolet radiation makes it to the surface of Earth. Scientists believe that the event is triggered at irregular intervals by random fluctuations related to the Sun's magnetic field.