Ice age is coming back to Earth

A new ice age is on the horizon in Europe, after scientists warned of a significant weakening of the Sun's activity.

Image of the Sun captured by NASA telescope

The number of gas explosions on the Sun's surface should have peaked during its 11-year cycle of activity. But the number of explosions has dropped unexpectedly.

An astrophysicist said he had never seen such a drop in his 30-year career and there were fears temperatures could drop so low that the River Thames in Britain would freeze over.

"We would have to go back 100 years to a time when the Sun was this weak," Richard Harrison, head of astrophysics at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, told the BBC.

One of the most dramatic solar declines was in the 17th century, during a period called the Maunder Minimum, when a cold winter gripped Europe.

That cold snap caused not only the River Thames to freeze solid but also the Baltic Sea to be covered in ice.

"The event took me and many other solar scientists completely by surprise," Dr Lucie Green from University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory told the BBC.

After this period of low solar activity, scientists are wondering if things will change. "It looks like the Sun is sleeping," said Green. "There are strong signs that the Sun is behaving like it did before the Maunder Minimum."

According to Vietnam+