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Concept

Maunder Minimum

A circular graphic with concentric rings in shades of orange and gray, resembling a stylized representation of the Sun, with the text "Maunder Minimum" at the top.

A period of unusually low solar activity from roughly 1645 to 1715, named after the astronomer Edward Maunder, who in the 1890s catalogued the near-absence of sunspots during those decades. It coincides with the coldest stretch of the Little Ice Age in Europe. Whether the link is causal remains debated, but the climatic effect on Alpine tree growth is visible in the rings.

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