Astronomers from the Max Planck Institute in Germany compared the Sun to hundreds of similar stars and found it fluctuated up to five times weaker. Researchers say it's not clear whether the Sun has been 'going through a quiet period' for 9,000 years or is actually less bright than other similar stars. The extent to which solar activity - and thus the number of sunspots - varies can be reconstructed using a range methods, according to researchers. They say it could also be that our Sun differs from similar stars in ways that haven't yet been recognised or explained by science yet. This would mean that our star has been unusually feeble over the past 9000 years and that on very large time scales phases with much greater fluctuations are also possible, the researchers claim.

Source: Daily Mail April 30, 2020 18:01 UTC